The Bengals took QB Joe Burrow with the #1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Burrow had just had one of the greatest seasons in college football history after transferring from Ohio state to LSU. It was a no brainer. It is also one of the only times the Bengals have made a good decision in the draft and it was only because it was no real decision at all. Let’s go back…
Pre-Season 3: Eagles vs Cincinnati Bengals
Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia, PA
Friday, August 28 at 8pm on CBS
1992 – David Klingler, 6th overall
In their defense, the 1992 draft is one of the worst all time for QBs. Ironically, 6th round pick Jeff Blake probably had the best career of the lot. He was taken by the Jets, waived, then picked up by the Bengals and quickly became the starter over Klingler in 1994 because Klingler was terrible. His Bengals career would end after 4 seasons, 24 starts, 21 INTs, and just 4 wins. I wish I could say they had better options, but YIKES that was a bad draft.
1993 – John Copeland, 5th overall
Copeland was an All-American coming out of Alabama which is usually a good place to start when evaluating talent. However, three picks later the Saints selected Willie Roaf. Copeland was forgettable over his 8 years in the league, but Roaf made 11 Pro Bowls and 9 All-Pro teams in his 13 year Hall of Fame career. Considering fellow Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz had just retired, you’d think the Bengals would have done their young QB a favor and protected him. It will not be the last time this oversight happens.
1994 – Dan Wilkinson, 1st overall
“Big Daddy” looked like a slam dunk prospect out of Ohio State. He was good, but never great and the Bengals did not resign him once his 4 year rookie contract ended. Marshall Faulk went 2nd overall. Would Faulk have been a Hall of Famer for the Bengals? Probably not. Would he have been had they selected Willie Roaf the year before? Well, that’s a different story.
1995 – Ki-Jana Carter, 1st overall
Look, maybe it isn’t fair to crush the Bengals for taking a RB #1 overall at the time especially when Carter immediately tore his ACL, missed his rookie year, and never looked the same again, but Hall of Fame OT Tony Boselli went #2. How many times will the Bengals pass on a future Hall of Fame lineman? It gets worse. Cincy also passed on Steve McNair, Warren Sapp, Ty Law, and Derrick Brooks btw.
1999 – Akili Smith, 3rd overall
Considered one of the worst picks of all time, Smith was bad in Cincinnati but he never really had a chance either. The Bengals didn’t have any talent at this point and needed the kind of infusion that Smith was not. If only they could have had a bunch of draft picks to really rebuild the whole thing. Oh wait! This was the year that Mike Ditka and the Saints gave up the farm for Ricky Williams. Apparently, they offered the Bengals #12 and the rest of their 1999 picks (3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th rounders), plus a 1st in 2000, a 1st in 2001, and a 2nd in 2002.1 Since the Saints ended up getting Ricky, we know that these picks would have been #2 in 2000, #23 in 2001, #44 in 2002.
2000 – Peter Warrick, 4th overall
Warrick was simply never very good. This was not a great draft at the top but Corey Simon and Brian Urlacher did go in the Top 10. The funny thing is that Warrick probably would have dropped way lower considering his shoplifting arrest while he played for Florida State.2 That didn’t bother the Bengals though.
2001 – Justin Smith, 4th overall
Smith ended up making 5 consecutive Pro Bowls, 3 All-Pro teams, and even finished 3rd for DPOY one season. So why is he a Bengals draft bust? All those accolades happened for the 49ers later in his career. He was fine for the Bengals, but when you see that LaDainian Tomlinson and Richard Seymour went next, it is especially disappointing.
2002 – Levi Jones, 10th overall
Well, good on the Bengals for finally taking a tackle in the 1st round. However, Dwight Freeney was picked next and Ed Reed went a few picks later.
2004 – Chris Perry, 26th overall
I know it’s late in the 1st round, but Perry didn’t rush for his first NFL TD until 2008.
2010 – Jermaine Gresham, 21st overall
Gresham was not a bad player (though he did ruin several of my fantasy football teams), but this is more of a who didn’t the Bengals pick this season. That would be Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant, and Mr. Tight End himself, Rob Gronkowski.
2013 – Tyler Eifert, 21st overall
Stop drafting first round TEs Bengals. Maybe Eifert would have been good had he not been hurt damn near every season of his career, but Cincy also passed on Desmond Trufant, DeAndre Hopkins, Travis Frederick, Zach Ertz, and Darius Slay.
2014-2016 – Darqueze Dennard, Cedric Ogbuehi, and William Jackson III
All 3 were picked 21-24 and I have never heard of any of them. I have heard of Demarcus Lawrence and Chris Jones though who are not Bengals legends.
2017 – John Ross, 9th overall
This may go down as the worst of all the picks. John Ross was fast and broke the NFL Combine 40 yard dash record. He was not a good WR though. That’s not why it’s so bad. To say that Andy Dalton was entrenched at QB is to devalue the word. He was never a great QB. Of course, no one but Andy Reid really knew that Patrick Mahomes was going to be maybe the best ever, but he was taken with the following pick. YIKES!
2018 – Billy Price, 21st overall
The Bengals needed a center and wanted future All Pro Frank Ragnow. Unfortunately, he went to Detroit at #21. The Bengals panicked and took Price next. Had they been thinking ahead for the QB they would need, maybe they would have selected Lamar Jackson who went a few picks later.
2021 – Ja’Marr Chase, 5th overall
Chase is maybe the best WR in football and a likely Hall of Famer at this point playing with his college QB Burrow. However, it was very clear then that Burrow needed protection. Instead of selecting can’t miss tackle and fellow future Hall of Famer Penei Sewell, they picked Chase. Burrow is still looking for protection from his line. Was this a bad pick? No way. Would the Bengals have been a better team overall with Sewell? It’s hard to deny that considering how Burrow seems to have stalled out in his development. He’s still great, but it’s hard to throw when you are constantly on the run or on your back. The Bengals had one of the best OTs ever retire in 1992 and have now gone 35 years passing up opportunities to replace him.
- How The Cincinnati Bengals Turned Down The Best Trade Offer of All Time ↩︎
- I had only ever heard that he was arrested with Laveranues Coles, but I didn’t realize that they had actually purchased the items they were accused of stealing. The legal issue came in because the clerk gave them a 95% discount on the items which is considered grand theft. An officer saw the transaction and arrested them. ↩︎
Photo: All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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