One thing you learn in business school is never do business
with a widow or an idiot son. The
Cincinnati Bengals have so many law violators that they must use the no-huddle
offense because a felon can not be within 20 feet of another felon. Their draft choices over the last 15 seasons
have been a joke. As proof, I need only
to bring up the name of Akili Smith the supposed quarterback drafted with the 3rd
pick in the 1999 draft.
By Bill Smith
As the 1998
college season opened, Smith was at best a non-drafted free agent. But Smith, the former backup, had one good
year at Oregon
and that convinced the Bengals he was the one.
Some scouts including me felt that you never should draft a QB high that
had only one season starting at college.
He proved those of us that doubted his ability right. In 4 years, he had a quarterback rating of
52.8. If you never complete a pass but
avoid interceptions you end up with a quarterback rating 39.58!
Now, having
had several calls from the NFL office about drafting players that have a clean
record, they did finally give up on Chris “I never saw a law I wouldn't break”
Henry. But then they went to the draft
and picked 4 players that have questionable pasts out of their 10 choices.
The third
round pick, DT Pat Sims, struggled at Auburn
for the first two seasons of his college career. In 2 years he had a total of 16 tackles. He quit the team in 2005 in part because he
had been demoted to 3rd string and in part due to the death of his
sister. He broke out in 2007 and was the
MVP of the bowl game.
In 2007, DT
Jason Shirley, the Bengals 5th round pick, had 8 tackles because was
arrested for DUI and a hit and run accident.
He was suspended from the Fresno
State team. Two days after he was reinstated, he was
dismissed from the team for driving on a suspended license and an expired
registration. Great pick.
The first
of 2 7th round picks, LB Angelo Craig was suspended for a game in
his senior season at Cincinnati
for “an unspecified violation of team rules.”
The Bengals are just what Craig needs to go from violating team rules to
bigger and better violations of the law.
Way to go!
Their other
7th round pick is a head case.
If Mario Urrutia WR Louisville doesn't get enough touches early in the
game, he sulks and will easy drop passes.
Hiring
quality talent scouts must be against the religion of team management. Maybe the Browns are spending so much money
on physiologists for family members and players alike that they can't afford
scouts.
Commissioner
Goodell, PLEASE give the fans of Cincinnati
a break. They build a new stadium for
this poor excuse for a team that can't keep enough players out of the Hamilton
County Jail to field a team. MLB finally
did something about Marge “Hitler wasn't so bad” Schott and forced her to sell
the team. (See you should never do
business with a widow!) Based on this
draft, it doesn't look like 2008 will be much different. No wonder Chad Johnson wants out. Can you blame him?
Bill Smith is a
former coach of several semi-pro teams and has scouted talent. He is a senior writer for
http://BrutusReport.com. He has also
published several novels on http://ebooks-library.com/index.cfm and
edits http://fryingpanpolitics.blog.com