Friday, January 27, 2012

The Bengals Bright Future

With all of the young talent on the Cincinnati Bengals and the fact that they robbed the Oakland Raiders of two high draft picks for Carson Palmer, the Bengals are set up to make a Super Bowl run in the near future. I don't think fans of the Bengals ever thought this day would be a possibility under the ownership of Mike Brown. 63

Cincinnati hit it out of the park in last year's draft landing AJ Green and Andy Dalton in the first two rounds. Steve Mariucci called them the best rookie Quarterback/Wide Receiver combination in the history of the NFL. I don't know if I would go that far, but they definitely look like they have bright futures at two of the most important positions on the field. With those two and Jermaine Gresham just finishing his second year, the passing game looks like it will be solid for years to come. 91

The defense also had a top ten finish for the second time in the last three years under Mike Zimmer. Zimmer will be back and so will most of the key pieces from this defense. Injuries hit and they kind of fell apart towards the end of the year and in the playoffs. There are some holes to fill, but the core is there for this unit as well. 69

Looking ahead to the off-season this team is in a position to do some big things. They have two first round picks and the team is so far under the cap that Mike Brown may have to spend some money in free agency this year to get the team's salary up to the required floor by 2013. With all of the young talent, Cincinnati may actually be a place that free agents want to come and play. 78

As of right now the biggest needs for the Bengals are Guard, Cornerback, Runningback, and a second Wide Receiver. Hopefully some of these needs can be met in free agency, especially at Guard where it looks like the team may need two new starters for next season. At Cornerback we won't know how big the need is until they see how Leon Hall is progressing and if Jones and Clements are brought back.

With five picks in the first three rounds of the draft a lot of holes can be filled and depth added to this roster. In today's NFL teams with explosive offenses are the teams that are consistently in the playoffs. Adding a player like Kendall Wright of Baylor would give this team that third elite skill player and he has the speed to take the top off of defenses. This would be a perfect compliment to Green and keep him from seeing so many double teams. Defenses can't focus both of their Safeties on Wright and Green and leave Gresham matched up against a Linebacker.

With a top half of the league defense and an explosive offense the ingredients would be there to make a Super Bowl run. Obviously no one knows how the draft will fall and free agency comes first so the needs for the draft will not be known. One thing that is known is it hasn't been this exciting to be a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals in over twenty years.

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