Thomas Howard out for the year

[cincygrad]

BTW -- When you think about all of the great linebackers during that time at USC, we ended up with Rivers and Rey.... Who-Dey!

 

[Tubbs1518]

I don't think it would have mattered had we picked Matthews or any of the others. We take LBers that were good on other teams and ruin them. Rivers and Rey would have been Pro Bowl players else where. I'm sure of that.

 

[Servo]

BTW -- When you think about all of the great linebackers during that time at USC, we ended up with Rivers and Rey.... Who-Dey!

The problem is that the Bengals pretty much seem to rely on the ESPN big board to make their picks (which is an improvement over the bat shit crazy picks they used to make). SO at the time RIvers (according to Mel Kiper) was far superior to say a Jerrod Mayo and totally worth the #9 pick. Likewise Maulaluga was (according to the experts) a far superior propect than either Cushing or Mathews. I've liked the past few drafts...but Maulaluga embodies why we need actual scouts...he's just not a very good football player. I'm sure the guys that know what they're talking about could see the guy would be a trainwreck (not in an interesting way) in the middle...and passed on him (regardless of the fact that he was #1 on ESPN's 'big board when their pick came up).

 

[cincygrad]

The problem is that the Bengals pretty much seem to rely on the ESPN big board to make their picks (which is an improvement over the bat shit crazy picks they used to make). SO at the time RIvers (according to Mel Kiper) was far superior to say a Jerrod Mayo and totally worth the #9 pick. Likewise Maulaluga was (according to the experts) a far superior propect than either Cushing or Mathews. I've liked the past few drafts...but Maulaluga embodies why we need actual scouts...he's just not a very good football player. I'm sure the guys that know what they're talking about could see the guy would be a trainwreck (not in an interesting way) in the middle...and passed on him (regardless of the fact that he was #1 on ESPN's 'big board when their pick came up).

That 2008 draft was a complete train wreck. We weren't the only team that got burned that year. I remember everyone thinking that Rivers was the safest pick in the top 10. So I don't really blame them for that pick.

While I don't think Rivers and Rey would be all-pros elsewhere, they probably would be much better. We haven't developed a single good linebacker in 10 years.