The NFL Draft starts in seven hours, give or take a few seconds based on the accuracy of the SB Nation and official NFL Draft clock. As the clock ticks down and anticipation builds, the Bengals massive scouting department is assuredly arguing vehemently as the draft board cements into place. As you and I, we, the fans prepare for this year's edition of wild speculation and sometimes unfounded player projections and prognostication, here are some fun things that we can look at.
- Charting the Bengals' activity with this year's draftees. Who have the coaches and "scouts" seen? Who have they been rumored to like?
- Here's the Cincy Jungle 2010 mock draft, which has consumed countless hours of hard work from community member FriarBob and his crew of willing participants. Thanks, Bob, for all the work! Feel free to post your own or your favorite mock drafts in the comment section to drive conversation.
- Take a look at unlikely draft position targets that shouldn't shock you - at least not after you've read this!
- Revisit recent drafts and get a feel for the Bengals war room, (HT: ephram) even if recent trends have diverged from overall Bengal draft history, particularly in the second round.
- Other cool links: IF you have ESPN insider, you can check out Football Outsiders' Draft War Room rankings(I'll show you the Bengals'), in which the Bengals come in at 29/32. See the explanation below. In case you've forgotten which players the Bengals have drafted lately, Joe Reedy has a great summary of M-Lew's drafts that includes how each draft pick fared. Also from FO, for you statheads, check out their scientific method of comparing collegiate success to NFL productivity.
"For each team's picks from 2000 to 2007, Footballl Outsiders calculated the Games Started Above Average (GSAA), a weird-science metric that compares the number of starts a player had during his first five seasons to the starts of a baseline player of similar draft value. But we also factored in the draft history, expertise of decision-makers and overall efficiency of every operation to get our 1-32 ranking."
29. Cincinnati Bengals
Team president Mike Brown oversees the league's leanest scouting operation, while coach Marvin Lewis occasionally weighs in. Their record includes quality corners (Leon Hall, '07, RD1) and linebackers (Rey Maualuga, '09, RD2). If only Cincy's picks spent more time with the team than with the cops.
GSAA: Minus-1.15