Receiving high grade, and making the grade is two different things.

 

Which those players have been making the grade too...

I think it is deeper than that. Rivers started some for the Giants this year and I still don't believe what we had at LB was better than Rivers.

 

What about Manny Lawson, George Iloka, Robert Sands, Roddrick Muckelroy, Corey Lynch, Angelo Craig, Marvin White, Chinedum Ndukwe, Tony Dye, Jerome Miles, Dontay Moch, Taylor Mays, Vincent Ray, JK Schaffer, and Dan Skuta?

 

What have any of those guys done for the Bengals?

 

It seems like most of the guys you listed were mid to late round picks. Then the few high pick guys were guys other teams had drafted such as Lawson and Mays. So your theory may be a little right because the scouts are not doing a good job indentifying good players in the late rounds for those positions like they have in the other positions.

Hard to say because a few of the biggest names at LB careers ended from no fault of the Bengals. Pollack career ending injury, Rivers injury was never the same, and Odel Thurman drug problem. I disliked Rey rey for at least the first half of the season, but the 2nd half or maybe last 4th he actually played much better and seemed to lose weight and gain speed by the end. I still think we need another answer at starter but I wouldn't mind him for depth.

Odell was the only decent LB drafted under Lewis. Pollack was drafted to play DE. Marvin Lewis has drafted very poorly when it comes to the LB position. There was a reason that Rey wasn't drafted in the 1st round, unfortunately the Bengals didn't get the memo.

Mauluga SUCKED against the Texans in the playoff game. Regardless of how he "looked" during part of the season, the Texans exposed him and it played a huge part in that game.

Odell was the only decent LB drafted under Lewis. Pollack was drafted to play DE. Marvin Lewis has drafted very poorly when it comes to the LB position. There was a reason that Rey wasn't drafted in the 1st round, unfortunately the Bengals didn't get the memo.

 

And from everything I gather about Thurman the Bengals should have had a good idea he was a character risk. In other words, I don't give them credit for being able to pick talent at LB when it comes to Thurman because there was little question Thurman was a stud, it was the off the field issues.

We did get a pretty good linebacker this year the rookie free agent #55.

And from everything I gather about Thurman the Bengals should have had a good idea he was a character risk. In other words, I don't give them credit for being able to pick talent at LB when it comes to Thurman because there was little question Thurman was a stud, it was the off the field issues.

Very true, I talked with Pollack their 2nd season after practice one day and even though both played together at Georgia I could tell immediatley he was not an Odell fan, this was before Odell got in trouble. David Pollack and others already knew about him and they distanced themselves from him right away.

 

As far as the post about Burfict, he wasn't drafted, he was a college free agent, we are talking about their drafting of LB's I think.

Burfict is the same deal as Thurman, everyone knew he was a talent but he had on and off field issues. I do give the Bengals credit for taking a chance on Burfict but again that doesn't mean they are able to pick LB talent.