Springfield vs. Dublin Coffman
Were you spotted tailgating?
Carlisle vs. North College Hill
Chick Ludwig covers the Cincinnati Bengals. He also writes about his other passions: college football, basketball and golf.Home > Blogs > Chick Ludwig At Large > Archives > 2008 > November > 13 > Entry
2005 draft: Crime of the century
EAGLES DEFENSIVE END
TRENT COLE (XENIA H.S.
AND UC) SHOULD’VE BEEN
DRAFTED BY THE BENGALS
CLUB’S DRAFT MISTAKES HAVE LED
TO 18 YEARS OF FLAT-OUT MISERY
It’s incredible.
It’s so incredible that it’s unbelievable.
It’s so unbelievable that it’s incomprehensible.
Trent Cole was right underneath the Cincinnati Bengals’ nose, playing his college football at the University of Cincinnati, three measly miles away from Paul Brown Stadium.
And they let him get away.
In the crime of the century, the Bengals selected Georgia outside linebacker/defensive end David Pollack, Georgia middle linebacker Odell Thurman, West Virginia wide receiver Chris Henry and Central Michigan center Eric Ghiaciuc with the Nos. 17, 48, 83 and 119 picks in Rounds 1-4 in the 2005 NFL Draft.
Trent Cole
Cole went to the Philadelphia Eagles with the 10th pick in the FIFTH ROUND (No. 146 overall).
Pollack and Thurman are out of football; Henry is a waste; and Ghiaciuc becomes an unrestricted free agent who won’t be invited back after the 2008 season.
Cole, the 6-foot-3, 270-pound monster who prepped at Xenia High School just east of Dayton, Ohio, has TWENTY NINE AND A HALF QUARTERBACK SACKS in his four-career NFL career. Yes, 29.5 sacks.
“Fine player,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said about Cole. “I’ve seen him since he left UC. He was a player that we had a lot of affection for prior to the draft and obviously we didn’t get an opportunity to draft him and they (the Eagles) did and he’s turned out to be the player that I think everybody in this building thought he would be. He’s a great kid. Really enjoyed the time we spent with him prior to the draft.”
WRONG!!!!
The Bengals HAD THE OPPORTUNITY to draft Cole, and refused. They whiffed FOUR TIMES.
My friend, Geoff Mosher, who covers the Eagles for The News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware, tells me that Cole “is struggling this season” because his sacks are down from 12.5 in 2007 to 4.0 in 2008 “mainly because he sees constant double teams. But that’s allowed others, like Darren Howard (6.0 sacks) and Juqua Parker (5.0 sacks), to take advantage of 1-on-1 situations.”
Henry, Ghiaciuc and seventh-rounder Jonathan Fanene are the only players remaining on the roster from the 2005 disaster.
Fifth-round OT Adam Kieft and sixth-round WR Tab Perry are also gone.
And you wonder why the Bengals are the Bungles.
Who-Dey, Who-Dey, Who-Dey think gonna draft dem Bengals?
Mike Brown and his brother, Pete Brown. That’s who.
Pete Brown, who heads up the scouting department as the Bengals Senior Vice President — Player Personnel, needs to get his rear end out of the office, turn off his TV and go to some college football games … LIVE AND IN PERSON.
He needs to spend a buck for a bus token that will take him 3 miles north to UC.
Like I said in an earlier blog entry, the Bengals are better off drafting blindfolded, throwing darts at their draft board.
Bottom line: The club’s scouting department is a train wreck, wrapped in a fallout shelter tucked inside a great abyss.
THE FOLLOWING VIDEOS ARE DEDICATED TO MIKE AND PETE BROWN, KATIE AND TROY BLACKBURN, DUKE TOBIN AND JIM LIPPINCOTT, PAUL H. BROWN AND GREG SEAMAN, BILL TOBIN AND JOHN COOPER, AND PAUL E. BROWN, WHO IS ROLLING OVER IN HIS GRAVE:
Permalink | Comments (16) | Post your comment | Categories: Bengals
Comments
By LizardKingLives
November 13, 2008 9:15 AM | Link to this
Stop the ranting on how a team messes up their draft picks…it is pathetic.Not to mention your talking about 1 guy that probably would not have made that much difference on the team built on a tradition of losing.You may be right that the bengals do poorly at draft time, but pleae stop your whining it is pathetic.Choose another team to root for…heck choose another sport to root for…it is fans like you that the bengals don’t need.By LizardKingLives
November 13, 2008 9:19 AM | Link to this
Stop the ranting on how a team messes up their draft picks…it is pathetic.Not to mention your talking about 1 guy that probably would not have made that much difference on the team built on a tradition of losing.You may be right that the bengals do poorly at draft time, but pleae stop your whining it is pathetic.Choose another team to root for…heck choose another sport to root for…it is fans like you that the bengals don’t need.By Robert Young
November 13, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this
Finally someone in the media is calling out Pete Brown! Chick if you could can you explain why this guy always gets a free pass? I was told by another media member that his title is just that and he really has no input but why should he get a free pass?By Mike-Cinci
November 13, 2008 11:28 AM | Link to this
The Bengals front office is the worst in football though Al Davis in Oakland is making a run at over taking them for incompetence. The team’s scouting is a disaster. They have had one winning season in 18 years. It is an absolute disgrace. It will never get better until Mike brown hires a real football guy to be his GM/Personnel manager and lets him hire a scouting staff. The current operation is clueless and because they are clueless nothing will change. Being a fan of the Bengals is like hoping a rock grows wings. It’s hopeless.By SD
November 13, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this
Come on Chick, Do Bengals need more scouts? I my opinion yes. Do they draft poorly? Probably not a hard argument to make. But seriously, it’s rediculous to think that the any team should have known that some 5th rounder from UC would be a star. D-end is one of the most highly coveted positons in the league. If the Eagles thought he would have been able to make the kind of contribution he has, they would have snatched him up in the 2nd round. The Eagles got lucky that’s all. The same way the Bengals got lucky with Ndukwe. Or would you say that all the other 31 teams dropped the ball on him at multiple times? And to consider Pollack a mistake is a cheap shot that doesn’t make any sense at all. He broke his neck. I suppose a GM or more scouts would have been able look into their crystal ball and see this.By Brian
November 13, 2008 11:59 AM | Link to this
Chick, as a recovering Bengals fan, former season ticket holder, and longtime NFL draftnik, I agree with most of what you’re saying. I can’t, however, fault them on drafting Pollack, because his career ended on a fluke. But the volume of their misses and resulting lack of quality depth means they can’t weather a fluke without falling into a tailspin. Kudos for calling out the Bengals’ hierarchy though! Maybe a chink in Mike Brown’s pig-headed stubbornness can be exposed by taking the fight to his immediate subordinates. Mike clearly has no capacity for shame, but maybe they do.By Guru
November 13, 2008 3:46 PM | Link to this
Hey Chick Can you report as to whether there is any truth in what is being said that the Bengals players had to pay for their own team Pictures, and the re-use of personal “athletic” equipment is going on again??By Derrick
November 13, 2008 4:04 PM | Link to this
Okay Lizard, I know you are really Pete Brown. Stop the kidding. Your (duplicate)post was very funny,but let’s quit with all the jokes. I doubt anyone in the Bengal organization will admit they are a “scout” for fear of unending ridicule.By whodeybrew
November 13, 2008 4:31 PM | Link to this
It’s not just scouting but extremely poor coaching also. Not only do the Bengals not spend on true scouts but they refuse to get true coaches. It’s one big happy family with Mike Brown and Marvin Lewis with his boy hood friends in 2 Hayes brothers. Add Paul Alexander for not getting a set O-Line before the preseason games and Bratkowski who is very un-creative calling plays. Charles Johnson wouldn’t be running the ball as good for the Bengals as he is doing for the Titans, Eddie Royal would be catching passes here as he’s doing for Denver. There’s not enough room here to continue the list of rookies doing good around the NFL that wouldn’t be doing good as a Bengal. Not only is Trent Cole good but the Eagles also got a good Bearcat TE in Brent Celek… but good for those players that they aren’t Bengals because they would be unknown to this league. I wish Carson Palmer played for a real team that cared about winning.By NFLstats
November 13, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this
If the Bengals whiffed four times in not drafting Trent, so did the other 31 teams too! Trent was taken ~1/3 of the way in round 5. Relax Chick - I’ll talk to the bengals organization and get your parking spot returned, or whatever has got you on edge.By blindeye
November 13, 2008 9:39 PM | Link to this
Good blog article Chick. I can hear Little Anthony singing Going Out of My Head when it comes to the Bengals drafting players. I think we can skip over the arguments about drafting Cole in later rounds. The key point is that if Cincy would be gathering talent and building a team the correct way then you could see them be in the position to reach out to add a player like Cole in the mid rounds. Another key is that Cole is a contributer on the Philly team and not trying to carry the defense like Cincy trys to do with it’s players. Injuries to players aside, Cincy does a very poor job of evaluating and drafting players that are keepers. In fact none of the players mean anything to the Browns. If you’re box office like Carson, Chad, and TJ then they are interested because of ticket sales. Other than that they can cut you faster than you can say Willie Anderson.By Ft. Myers Foursome
November 13, 2008 10:17 PM | Link to this
I wonder what Mike Brown’s thoughts are on knowing he’ll be rembered as the worst General Manager and Owner in the history of the NFL?By Darrell Masters
November 13, 2008 10:57 PM | Link to this
Chick, could you ask Carson, Chad, TJ, or any player this: What kind of legacy do you hope to create for future Bengal players. And what level would that be?By John
November 13, 2008 11:12 PM | Link to this
Who do we think we are? MB is the only person reaching his goal every time the stadium seats are filled on game day. The rest of us just think the Bengals are to be contenders, and thus we keep filling the stadium and thus fulfilling MB’s game day goal. MB and family are drafting the ones they want to draft and we are always thinking they really care about winning football games. Dave Shula would still be here, if only the stadium seats would have been filled on game day.By Greg
November 15, 2008 5:58 PM | Link to this
Ft. Myers, obviously Mike Brown does not care one way or another how he’ll be remembered. I think it would be fitting this year for “A Christmas Carol” to be adapted from the viewpoint of the diehard fans of the Bengals, with Mr. Brown as Scrooge. Unfortunately, there not yet a more human ending to this story, so no one would want to watch it. Too depressing.By Ft. Myers Foursome
November 16, 2008 12:55 AM | Link to this
Mike Brown being remembered at the worst Owner/General Manager in the history of the NFL is only half of it. He’ll also be remembered as running one of the most profitable small market teams in the NFL. Perhaps, like Microsoft’s Bill Gates, he’ll return some of his money to the fans in the form of Scouts and a real General Manager.