Drafthistory.com

Every mid to late April, diehard fans' eyes fill of hope and promise that their team will find the next diamond in the rough or the next sure thing, however a wise man once said "if something is too good to be true,then it probably is." Which brings us to the demise of a once promising and exciting franchise; the Cincinnati Bengals.

Over the last six years, with little effort the Cincinnati Bengals have sabotaged their own efforts to win by taking the life blood and only proven resource to provide talent and depth from themselves via the NFL draft. This is easily shown as we journey back through time and look at the success rate of the rest of the National Football League and other teams' success rate of drafting and coaching players to succeed in a sport they will most likely only play for an average of 3 to 5 years.

In 1997 the Bengals drafted the "dumbest" player in the draft, and that's no joke. Each year, NFL teams put prospective players through a variety of physical, emotional, andeducational tests called the NFL Combine. At the Combine an IQ test is given to each of theinvited players to judge their given intelligence. Reinard Wilson who was regarded as an exceptional defensive end from Florida State University, with good speed off the edge, and an inability to be blocked by skill position players (The Sporting News) scored the lowest of all 300 athletes given the test with a score of 4 out of a possible 50 on the Wonderlic IQ test. Nevertheless, Cincinnati gambled on this player and has yet to see their gamble pay off.

In 1998, Cincinnati had two chances to draft the most dominating wide receiver since Jerry Rice, in Randy Moss, however they drafted two outstanding linebackers in Takeo Spikes and Brian Simmons. Spikes has since left the team via "greener grass" in Buffalo, and Simmons will haveto step into Spikes' weakside linebacker spot. In the second round of that year, they draftedArtrell Hawkins as a cornerback, with great risk tagged to him because of his small size and inadequate speed, while passing on the Bucs' Rob Kelly and Samari Rolle of the Titans. Samari Rolle has enjoyed several pro bowl caliber years, while the Bengals have failed to send a single defensive back to the pro bowl since Eric Thomas of the late 80's and early 90's.

How could we forget the draft of 1999 that sent the Bengals the new millenium version of Andre Ware in Akili Smith. The amazing thing about Smith is, that while he truly has only had one real stint at being the Cincinnati Bengals starting Quarterback, he was selected in place of 10 other players offered by the since departed Mike Ditka and his infamous "dread wearing single player draft of Ricky Williams." Cincinnati passed up on the 13th overall pick (which could have been Jevon Kearse) and 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th round picks in 1999, as well as the 1st and 2nd in 2000, a 1st in 2001 and a 2nd in 2002. It's incredible to think that one single player that has only started 17 games and has finished two seasons on injured reserve since 1999, was greater than ten other men which included, Chris Samuels, Darren Howard, Ken Lucas, and the list goes on and on. While the word is still out as to how effective the once great Peter Warrick will be, it is safe to say that he has yet to be the "overall 4th best player" in the 2000 draft. In a surprising turn of events, there remains hope in "Stripe-town". The 2001 and 2002 drafts yielded very good starters in Levi Jones, Justin Smith and Chad Johnson, accompanied by the hiring of new head coach Marvin Lewis, there may yet be another "stay of execution" given to the Brown family.

In closing let's look at the draft this way for a moment. NFL Europe can only provide players that were not elite enough to secure roster spots on their own merit, and provide tired players unable to play two seasons in a single year since their season starts in late March and early April. The National Football League doesn't recruit players out of high school like the NBA, and major league baseball. Given little opportunity to provide depth and talent with "free-agency," a salary cap, and continual expansion, seven rounds hardly are enough to compensate; so why not make the most of it Cincinnati....

In 2003, trade down, get your plethora of picks, draft the best available in each round at each position to draft all of your needs and depth, suffer through one more season of John Kitna as your starting quarting back, and in 2004 do what you have to do to draft Eli Manning to resurrect the franchise.

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Send comments and contributions to: Chris Malumphy at cmalumphy@earthlink.net.