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Last year's bengals draft looks to be superb. Our FO went on record saying the DTs went earlier tahn expected, and they had to move their taking of a DT up a round. This was after they heavily scouted 3rd round WRs.

http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/C ... b3db56eadd

The Bengals took
1) Jermaine Gresham, TE of the futue
2) Carlos Dunlap, DE w 9.5 sacks
3) Jordan Shipley, 600 yards rookie year
4) Geno Atkins, rush DT with 3 sacks


I'm pretty sure (from the quotes post draft) the FO wanted WR in the 3rd, and DT in the 4th. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, and we wouldn't have been able to have the 2nd round pick, but imagine how well we would be set up had we had this draft...the one closer to what I think the FO wanted. (Also shows why need based drafting will bite you some, since they had to move up a full round their DT purchase).

With this draft, we'd have needs only at LB, OL, RB basically. Or if we still took spoon in the 1st, needs at TE, OL, RB.

How does adding Shipley help our weakness at No. 2 WR?

And as you said, we didn't have a 2nd round pick, so we wouldn't have been in a position to "solve" our issues at DE.

Shipley doesn't solve the issue at 2 WR, but it completely fills the slot position (and with a guy who can play outside some) and prevents the FO from taking a slot receiver this year.

So, the team might be in the market for an outside receiver if they thought neither Shipley nor Douglas could be effective outside, but we wouldn't be looking at Jernigan, Young, etc.

I posted this not so much because it was an excellent draft...because I think a few guys had those, but because I think it was close (excluding the 2nd round) to what the FO was planning.

You're right that we'd still need a true 2, but we'd have solid options at each other WR position.

It was good draft based on first year production of the individual players; the team went, what, 4-12? Not really successful.

Dunlap surprised everyone, Gresham and Shiply had two massively overpaid targets drawing attention off of them, and 3 sacks from a DT is certainly nice, but not game-breaking.

We'll see where folks are at in a few years; if more (Jerry, Weatherspoon, Douglas) of the last two years' classes develop like Moore and DeCoud have done recently, I think we'll be in very good shape.