Since Carson Palmer is Carson Palmer, and Carson Palmer is total treasure to Bengals fans, Palmer becomes just one of two players that remain from the team's 2003 Draft. Two. The other? Backup guard/tackle, Scott Kooistra. Guys like Dennis Weathersby, Khalid Abullah, Elton Patterson and Langston Moore never amounted to much, other than sparse playing time in some cases, and Eric Steinbach was shown the door after witnessing two contract extensions for Willie Anderson and Levi Jones (how are those working out?).
Two. Just two. Eric Steinbach was awesome while he was here, and Jeremi Johnson was one of the best fullbacks in the league. Kelley Washington had the greatest dance numbers of all time, but never climbed the depth charts above third (then Chris Henry got here). Some in the class made contributions, others were known by simply examining the roster. Of all those players, only two remain.
Only three remain of the 11-player draft in 2004. I'm comfortable enough saying that Chris Perry just isn't working out, that Robert Geathers had that one good season, makes plays here and there, and Stacy Andrews took over three seasons to even get on the field.
Of Lewis' first 20 draft picks, five remain. Five. I don't know how that works out across the league; I just know we have five players left. Of those five players, only three start regularly (Palmer, Geathers and Andrews). Because of injury, only one will start this Sunday. One. If you're building your team with the NFL draft, you have to do better than five remaining players, three regular starters and one starter for Sunday.
Because I'd feel guilty, I got the idea for the post by reading Dave's post regarding Jeremi Johnson's release.