Tobin and Company Ruining another Decade of football

What we witnessed yesterday and last Sunday, is an abject failure and a total embarrassment by the Cincinnati Bengals. Most importantly, it is the result of a poorly assembled football team. Just a few years ago, the Bengals were representing the AFC in the Super Bowl, followed by a loss in the AFC Championship game to the Kansas City Chiefs. Since then, the Bengals have yet to experience playoff football, followed by injuries to Joe Burrow that have sidelined him for an extended periods of time.

The biggest question is, where does the blame lie?

The answer is much easier than you would think. The easy answer is Mike Brown because he is an easy target of fans hate. While Brown should not be absolved of all blame, defacto General Manager, Duke Tobin, is the one who should be targeted with the majority of the blame. Tobin has been with the Cincinnati Bengals since 1999, when he was named the Bengals’ Director of Player Personnel. Tobin is basically a member of the Brown family, as his father Bill, was a Bengals scout and that relationship runs deep. Despite the horrible seasons Duke Tobin has overseen during his tenure, his job with the Bengals franchise is seemingly safe.

Marvin Lewis helped turn the Bengals franchise around and took them from the Bungles to the Bengals. Lewis brought a new era into existence and set the Bengals up for the Joe Burrow era. All good things must come to an end and that was the case with Lewis. After numerous AFC North titles and playoff births,  the Bengals couldn’t make the leap to the next level. In comes Zac Taylor as coach. His first season was a disaster, going 2-14 and securing the first overall pick. In comes, franchise quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner, Joe Burrow. The Burrow era has been a total roller coaster ride. The ups, downs and what ifs, are what has filled the Taylor tenure.

Even with one of the top quarterbacks in the entire league, the Bengals are seemingly rocketing back into another lost decade. Let’s take a dive into why the Bengals are in the the shape they’re in since the drafting of Burrow and why the light at the end of the tunnel is incredibly dim.

FREE AGENTS: 

Eli Apple, CB
Hayden Hurst, TE
Alex Cappa, OG
Ted Karras, C

Another draft that turned out to be a failure for Duke. The first two picks were players, Dax Hill and Cam Taylor-Britt, who have contributed for this team. Fourth round pick, Cordell Volson was a starter during his tenure. In looking at this draft, it is safe to say that not one player was a home run hit. Three of the six picks have contributed but none of them are players to build your future around. Free agency saw the Bengals bring in Eli Apple, Hayden Hurst, Alex Cappa and Ted Karras. All were players who contributed during their time in Bengals stripes. Karras is still a starter on this Bengals team.

FREE AGENTS: 

T.J. Slaton, DT
Samaje Perine, RB
Oren Burks, LB
Lucas Patrick, G/C

You can’t say much about the draft class this year because the jury is most certainly still out. As it stands right now, five of the six picks have started a game this season. First round pick Shemar Stewart, was incredibly unproven in college but Tobin and the staff decided to draft on intangibles. If he fails to be a contributor, this will be another failure that can be attributed to Tobin. Free agency this past off-season, was not real kind to the Bengals. Aside from the return of Samaje Perine, the free agent additions have not been the best.

For a team to succeed, it is crucial to hit on your draft picks. When you have a franchise quarterback on a rookie contract, you can supplement the talent via free agency, which is what Tobin was able to do. That ultimately led to the Bengals making it to the Super Bowl. Once the franchise quarterback receives a contract extension, you have to hit on your draft picks. That is what has been the huge fly in the ointment for the Cincinnati Bengals. Out of the 47 total draft picks in the Joe Burrow era, eight can be classified as truly successful, major contributors for the Bengals. When you have multiple drafts, where only one or two players are any good, that is a recipe for disaster. With Tobin whiffing on the majority of the draft picks in this decade, the Bengals are experiencing the pain that’s associated with that. Free agency can only get you so far but when your draft picks are not contributing, it makes it more difficult to succeed.

This season features an offense that is lethal while the defense could go down as the worst in the history of the league. The offense was built through the draft, by hitting home runs with a few picks and coupled with solid free agent acquisitions. The defense, well, can be attributed to horrific drafting and lazy free agent additions. The draft has been what has killed the Bengals the last few years and with the defense as bad as it is, it could take up to four offseasons to fix it. By that time, you can safely say the Bengals wasted the prime years of Burrow, Chase and Higgins. The construction of this team, mainly the defense has been one of the worst jobs that you will ever see and it falls solely on Tobin. With Joe Burrow as your quarterback, there is no excuse to not execute and hit on your draft picks. You can go back and redraft almost every year and you will take a different pick the majority of the time. That is a damning indictment on Tobin and how successful he is as Director of Player Personnel.

Chris Asbrock and Impact Sports Cincinnati can be followed on Twitter  Follow @iamchrisasbrock and Follow @ISCincy