Will bad draft luck end for Bengals?

[Gunzlingr]

April 20, 2003 Print it


CINCINNATI -- No team has had more chances to fix its roster through the draft than the Cincinnati Bengals.

No team has failed more miserably.

For the third time in the last 12 years, the Bengals have the first overall pick in the draft -- more No. 1 choices than any other club over that span. Remarkably, they also have the NFL's worst record over that time, capped by last season's 2-14 mark.

Cincinnati has paid millions of dollars in signing bonuses and received minuscule returns as one first-rounder after another failed to pan out: David Klingler, Dan Wilkinson, Ki-Jana Carter, Akili Smith.

So the Bengals are keenly aware that they can either add to their legacy or break with it next weekend, when they have the first overall pick in Marvin Lewis' first draft as a head coach.

Will they choose a quarterback? Will they trade down?

Will it matter?

"They just seem to have bad luck," said Gil Brandt, an NFL draft consultant and former Cowboys personnel director.

There's more to it than bad karma.

more (http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/articles/20030420/469698.html)

[Devin]

Honestly Yeah.

I think Lewis is gonna do it this year he is gonna start the Bungles in the right direction. In fact I think a playoff team in two seasons. They will take Palmer, and if He is still on the board that big Center (name escapes me at the moment) in the second.

I think they go 6-10 this year, do well in free agency/draft next year and go 9-7 the following year.

[Dozerdog]

I hear they are in negotiations already with Palmer's agent.

[TigerJ]

Two things make me think that Carson Palmer might be a bust in the NFL. First, the Bengals seem to have settled on him as their pick. Second, we're being told Mike Brown likes him. Has there ever been a more certain kiss of death for a #1 draft prospect than that?