The madness has subsided and most teams have had their first look at their newly acquired draft picks in rookie mini-camps. There was a lot of excitement at the 2009 draft. Time to look back on the highlights and review how Marvin Lewis and company faired tweaking their roster for what might be this coaching staff’s make-or-break season.
I have taken another step towards insanity. Instead of spending an entire day glued to the radio to listen to the proceedings at the sports world’s most glorified press conference, I decided to travel to New York City to take in the event live. Between the energy of the crowd to having an earpiece that could be tuned in to the audio of the ESPN or NFL network coverage, the 2009 draft was quite an experience.
Detroit started it off selecting the front-runner from the beginning Matthew Stafford. Mark Sanchez never seemed to draw serious attention for this pick, but in the end I still maintain that he’s the better prospect. Stafford boasts elite physical skills, but Sanchez has more potential in terms of leadership and ability to deliver in the clutch. Nonetheless, the Lions stuck to their guns. Best case scenario they drafted Drew Bledsoe. Worst case, they’re stuck with a rocket-armed QB that is going to get sacked many many times. The Rams also went by the script filling an O-line hole instead of making waves with a Sanchez selection.
There were ooo’s and ahhh’s at Radio City Music Hall as Kansas City made the first big reach deciding to draft need over talent. Tyson Jackson by most accounts was the top prospect capable of playing 3-4 DE and that was good enough for GM Soctt Pioli and the Chiefs. Yes, having big bodies up front that can occupy opposing blockers is crucial to a 3-4 defense, but much like the center and guard positions on the offensive side of the ball, the top half of the first round isn’t the place to find defensive ends who will be required to mostly anchor more than attack.
The next big splash came just two picks later as the home town Jets traded all the way up to the five slot to grab the Great Sanchito. Of the healthy portion of Jets fans in the crowd, some were pulling their hair out in disgust but overall the reaction was raw excitement. A lot of people are still skeptical, but the Joe Namath comparisons have already started. We’ll see. I think the Jets got the right guy.
OT picks by Cincy and Jacksonville bookended another classic Al Davis selection as the Raiders nabbed the combine’s fastest prospect. Analysts often slotted Darius Heyward-Bey in the 18 to 21 range, but projections usually came with the disclaimer that Bey was a reach in the late teens because of the lack of polish to go with his greasy fast speed. After Oakland successfully sent mock drafts everywhere to the garbage, Michael Crabtree was a no-brainer for San Fran to round out the top 10. The rest of round 1 had plenty of excitement that included a handful of trades and a lot of intriguing moves.
Opportunity Knocks:
The first round was good, but how about that second round? It was amazing how rich the 2009 draft class was in late round 1, early round 2 caliber players. The plateau of talent spilled generously into round 3 and kept things pretty interesting for a significant portion of day 2. The best part, Cincinnati fans, was this draft class played right into the Bengals’ wheelhouse. Year after year they have been conservative with their resources. They are patient and they let the draft come to them. The approach has let them down in recent years with the Bengals always seeming one step behind, narrowly missing out on high value players or that perfect prospect for their system. However, the early consensus seems to be that 2009 was different.
My reaction to the Bengals draft was a roller coaster of emotions. At number six overall, they went with the ultra-talented behemoth from Alabama, Andre Smith. Most mock drafts had them zeroed in on Smith and heading into the day, I had a feeling that’s the direction they’d go. A Michael Crabtree pick / Chad Ochocinco trade combo would have been slick, but with two legitimate top ten OT’s on the board they couldn’t ignore their top need. When they made the pick I was almost indifferent. Eugene Monroe would have been safer, but I acknowledge Smith has a better skill set for what the team needs. I’ve become quite a bit more skeptical these days when Bengals’ coaches claim they’ve “done their homework” on a player’s character flaws, but in watching the post-pick press conference, it was at least reassuring to hear how confident Marvin Lewis and line coach Paul Alexander were that they made a good choice. Source after source have cited how everyone who has coached or worked with Smith feel his character is not an issue. Will maturity issues scuttle his career? I think his new agent put it best with the comment that Smith is a good kid that is best off in a structured environment. It’s almost enough to make you feel pretty good about the pick. Then again, recent news of Smith once again switching representation and then changing his mind and then changing it again is a startling reminder that we’re not out of the woods yet with this kid. Big money and big distractions are all over the place in the NFL. It will be sink or swim for the new number 71. Whichever way he goes might just be the way the franchise goes the next five years or so.
Round two came around quick and before I knew it the Bengals were up. The five-minute clock counted down and my mind was swirling thinking about all the possibilities. The list of first-round talent still available was pretty impressive. Darius Butler (CB Connecticut), Everette Brown (DE Florida State), Connor Barwin (DE UC), Rey Maualuga (LB USC), Max Unger (C Oregon), Eben Britton (OT Arizona), William Beatty (OT Connecticut); any one of them would have been a pretty solid pick. As the NFL official walked to the podium, I paced up and down the aisle of the now largely thinned out row of seats where I was sitting. I didn’t actually realize whom I wanted them to pick until they announced Maualuga and I started jumping up and down and I fist bumped the guy I’d never met sitting behind me (he happened to be a Bengals fan from Cincinnati. What are the chances of that?). Marvin Lewis was glowing when he came out to talk about the pick, but don’t think there wasn’t a healthy debate in that war room over what direction they should go. I sat there and watched the clock tick down inside three seconds before the choice was made. My enthusiasm for the pick has since cooled into cautious optimism (does he translate to the NFL? Will that hamstring hold up?), but I think it was the right move. Some people would have preferred to see them go with a top caliber center like Unger or a pass rusher like Brown or Barwin. Yes, center is a huge question mark going into next season but Cincinnati coaches had Unger for a whole week at the Senior Bowl. If they fell in love with him or at least felt he was a serious upgrade over what they already have, I’m pretty sure they would have taken him. Right or wrong, they seem to be comfortable going into training camp with Kyle Cook as the starter. As far as the DE’s, both are a little undersized. They might wind up as productive pro-players eventually, but they most likely are situational players until they either bulk up or complete the always-dicey DE to LB conversion. Regardless, MLB is a greater need than anyone is giving credit. Dhani Jones has over-achieved for two years, he’s 31 years old, and has spent the last two off-seasons knocking heads with brutes all across the world. I think it’s reasonable to believe his level of play is going to decline in the next one to two seasons. They might be able to plug Brandon Johnson or Keith Rivers into his spot, but now they have Maualuga who is already comfortable in the middle. They are also training him on the strong side and I feel better about that transition than if they were moving Barwin to linebacker. Bengals writer, Geoff Hobson, is already anointing Maualuga as one of the top three LBs on the team that is a shoe-in to start, but I think Mr. Rashad Jeanty probably has a beef with that sentiment. In his rookie season, I see Maualuga as a very capable backup at both spots that can be used to bring in fresh legs and provide the defense with a spark. Getting pushed around in the ground game? Bring in the 250 pound man-wrecker to stir things up a bit. Until his instincts improve he won’t always hit his target, but he’ll hit people.
In a way, getting Michael Johnson in the third round vindicated the Maualuga pick. They selected Mauluga to round out the linebacking corps with some spice and provide added support to an already improving rush defense and were still able to pick up a new toy in round 3 for defending against the pass. Very few pass rushers in the league make a big splash early in their careers, so whoever they drafted was going to need development. Instead of forcing the need, they waited a round and had one of the draft’s best athletes fall into their laps. Right out of the box, Johnson has the size to play defensive end and the athleticism to play outside linebacker. Most analysts feel he underachieved at the college level given his substantial talent, but the third round is a great spot to pick him up. If he is what I think he is, he’s going to give defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer the flexibility to do some pretty exciting things. Zimmer just has figure out how to get it out of him.
With the ever-valuable third round compensatory pick Cincy decision makers went with Missouri TE Chase Coffman. Coffman could be a pretty solid find if he’s able overcome the foot injury. His potential is high enough to justify spending the pick to bring him in to compete with Matt Sherry and Ben Utecht. In the wake of losing their best third down playmaker trying to squeeze some more receiving production out of the tight end is essential.
In round 4 they finally went center. Johnathan Luigs doesn’t appear to be starter material yet, but typically if you’re hoping to find immediate starters in the fourth round you’re in pretty bad shape. The coaches seem like they have their man in Kyle Cook. We’ll see if the kid has what it takes.
The highlights of the rest of Cincinnati’s 2009 draft class included a local punter, a fullback, and a RB with a troubled past. Bearcat fans tired of seeing Kyle Larson shank punts were no doubt excited about the fifth round pickup of college football’s best punter, Kevin Huber (Cincinnati). Fui Vakapuna in the sixth gives them some much-needed new blood at fullback and RB Bernard Scott is another player with the potential of coming in and being a third down contributor. Will the demons of Scott’s past come back to haunt him? You almost have to admire Marvin Lewis for continually stepping to the plate to take these guys with multiple arrests in their backgrounds who he thinks can help his team when he knows he’s just going to get killed in the media. I hope he doesn’t once again wind up with egg on his face and another draft choice flushed down the tubes.
Overall, this draft class could be a big one for the Bengals. In most cases their patience paid off. They were able to make a lot of solid decisions to sure up the roster. The only problem is now we have to wait at least four months before we start to get an idea of just how well they did.
