Day 3!

[Luvnit2]

(04-26-2025, 06:54 PM)Joelist Wrote: Something to consider is lately the difference between analysts draft boards and the draft boards of the teams has gotten larger. You saw it this year in that the analyst boards had offensive linemen ranked too low almost universally by at least a round. A lot of teams (not just us) went OL higher than analyst boards would say. LB also showed up more than the analysts forecasted. Makes one wonder why the difference?

To our draft.

I still don't like our first round pick - that type of player profile busts at a very high rate. So...

1) Shemar Stewart - Don't like this pick for the reason I stated above. First rounders need to be safer bets.

2) Demetrius Knight - I've warmed to this pick as unlike Stewart he has real production, turns out he can play three downs and while older it's not as bad as originally thought. I'm cool.

3) Dylan Fairchild - Outright good pick. Starter level needs a bit of polish and addresses a hole.

4) Barrett Carter - Another good pick as this is another starter quality who need some work on technique. All three defensive picks are FAST .

5) Jalen Rivers - Cool pick. Not a starter yet but has that upside. Between him and Fairchild this is the first draft I can remember we paid legitimate attention to the Guard room.

6) Tahj Brooks - I had him mocked to us to be honest (I also had Fairchild and Knight mocked to us) . Brooks is a big powerful downhill back with that extra pop in his step so he can get chunk gains if he gets loose. Perfect complement to Brown.

I can't call this a super draft because of Stewart but I am willing to give it a B / B- right now.

Impossible to grade a draft well immediately. Grades are thrown out based on the pundits draft boards, as you said lots of margin for major error with 1st round picks, the supposed easiest round to judge.

Bengals drafted one guy had mocked to us in round 6 and I did a lot of mocks. Every fan should play with mocks, it is not easy and I learned you need to think ahead to you rnext pick which inn our case was minimum 32 places. It may appear team reaches when reality like Knight, he is. not there with our pick #81 in round 3, decision is him or someone else.

Bengals obviously got their top person on their board in round 1, it was not mine, but I see a floor of he is a better version of Hubgard byyear 2.  He is a run stopper already and a lot more athletic than Sam so I think he becomes very disruptive.

As I say every year, let's revisit in 3 years and then after the fact, we can see if Bengals had a poor, average or great draft.