It comes as a surprise to me that among all of the turmoil over the past decade Bengals fans have blamed primarily Mike Brown and Marvin Lewis for the lack of success. Winning during the season relies on a mixture of a solid free agency period, excellent drafting and play-calling / execution. It is fair to say that the Bengals have never won free agency and do not sign the splashy players. Terrell Owens is the biggest splash we made and that was an interesting experiment at best. It is sad to me that the trade down to acquire Cordy Glenn seemed like a genius move and innovative for this front office.
As far as draft day is considered the Bengals have been hit or miss. The obvious hits have been Joe Mixon, Tyler Boyd, Tyler Eifert, Gio Bernard and Sam Hubbard to name just a few. The misses have been primarily at LB, OL, CB and safety. A further analysis will be done later on this post.
It is rumored that Duke Tobin controlled the draft war room as early as 2013 according to Marvin Lewis. So let’s start with 2013 and the Tobin shadow regime and see how his FA and draft has held up. I know that Marvin and the Brown Family had input into selections but on it’s merit lets assume that Tobin acts as the real GM of the organization.
Overall record (2013-2019) = 54-59-2 (46.9%)
Over a 7 year period Duke Tobin as the shadow GM has won less than half of all games. Three of those losses were playoff games which he is 0-3 in and cannot get past the Wild Card game. Bottom line, the team has underperformed and is average to below average.
Now let’s look at Duke’s drafts over this same period (H=hit, M=miss):
2013: Tyler Eifert (H), Gio Bernard (H), Margus Hunt (M), Shawn Williams (H), Sean Porter (M), Tanner Hawkinson (M), Rex Burkhead (H), Cobi Hamilton (M), Reid Fragel (M), TJ Johnson (M) Total= 4 H, 6M
2014: Darqueze Dennard (H), Jeremy Hill (H), Will Clarke (M), Russell Bodine (M), AJ McCarron (M), Marquis Flowers (M), James Wright (M), Lavelle Westbrooks (M) Total = 2 H, 6 M
2015: Cedric Ogbuehi (M), Jake Fisher (M), Tyler Kroft (H), Paul Dawson (M), Josh Shaw (M), Marcus Hardison (M), CJ Uzomah (M), Derron Smith (M), Mario Alford (M) Total = 1 H, 8 M
2016: William Jackson II (H), Tyler Boyd (H), Nick Vigil (H), Andrew Billings (M), Christian Westerman (M), Cody Core (M), Clayton Fejedelem (H) Total = 4 H, 3 M
2017: John Ross (M), Joe Mixon (H), Jordan Willis (M), Carl Lawson (H), Josh Malone (M), Ryan Glasgow (M), Jake Elliott (M), JJ Dielman (M), Jordan Evans (M), Brandon Wilson (M), Mason Schreck (M) Total = 2 H, 9 M
2018: Billy Price (M), Jessie Bates III (H), Sam Hubbard (H), Malik Jefferson (M), Mark Walton (M), Devontae Harris (M), Andrew Brown (M), Darius Phillips (H), Logan Woodside (M), Rod Taylor (M), Auden Tate (H) Total = 4 H, 7 M
It is too early (and it is not fair) to look at the 2019 draft class yet. Overall Duke’s picks went 17 Hits and 39 Misses. 30.3% of the draft picks have worked out for the Cincinnati Bengals. 50% of the first round picks have hit but Duke is impressive in the second round with 80% of a success rate. How does this compare to highly competitive teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers, KC Chiefs, NE Patriots and other professional organizations? I think even Dan Snyder would have fired his GM if he went 30.3% in the draft.
So what is the plan Duke? You have tried to play coy this past week about drafting Joe Burrow but if you do not then Mike Brown is going to be hung from Fountain Square. You have stated that you think the OL looks like it is headed in the right direction and you just needed to add depth….I can’t imagine anyone agrees with that. Are you going to build properly around Burrow and fix the OL and LB situation? How short of a leash does Zac Taylor have if you even get to make HC decisions?
Don’t you think it may be time to find a new Director of Player Personnel……shadow GM……ehhh guy that calls the shots? No one will ever understand why Brown won’t make the title of General Manager for Duke or anyone else. The bottom line is that Duke has not been getting it done over the past 7 years and with the whole New Dey and new QB coming in don’t we owe it to Bengals fan to put our best foot forward?