A Tale of Two Ohio Cities: Part One—Cincinnati Bengals Drafting

The final 34 seconds of the penultimate game of the 2008 season for the Browns and Bengals ticked off as Ryan Fitzpatrick took a knee for the second time in a row and the Bengals claimed a 14-0 victory, raising their record to 3-11-1 over the 4-11 Browns.

The “Battle of Ohio” went to the visitors, who now lead the series, 36-35. By all rights, it should have been a tie with the defenseless Bengals against the offenseless Browns (or vice versa). The teams continued apace in Week 17, as the Browns again failed to score and the Bengals slipped by the hapless Kansas City Chiefs, 16-6, to escape the AFC North cellar, finishing at 4-11-1 over the 4-12-0 Browns.

The 2008 season capped a dismal first decade back in the NFL for the storied Browns franchise that has distinguished itself with a 54-106-0 record (.338), not including their one playoff appearance (loss) in 2002 after a squeaker of a 9-7 season that earned a postseason appearance in a down AFC that year.

The similarities between the two franchises, both founded by the legendary Paul Brown, don't end with the 36-35 split. In the past decade, the Bengals have come close to matching the Browns in futility, posting a .391 winning percentage with a record of 62-97-1 including a single playoff loss in 2005. The Browns lead in winning seasons since 1999, 2-1.

Compare the “new” Browns in their first 10 years with the opening decade of the Bengals (1968-77)—the Bengals went 73-66-1 (.525) with two division titles, six winning seasons, and three playoff appearances (0-3).

Or the Browns own beginnings. Not counting their first four years in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), where the Browns went 47-4-3 (1946-49) and won four titles, the Browns first decade in the NFL produced an 88-30-2 regular season record (.742), eight post-season appearances and three NFL championships.

Ahhh...that was then, this is now. But wait, how about two of the newer franchises, the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, both entering the NFL in 1995, just four seasons before this edition of the Browns? Carolina is 72-89-0 (.447) and the Jaguars have a winning record of 82-79-0 (.509). So much for being the new kid on the block.

So what's the point? Simply that the experience of the original Browns, the post-merger Bengals, and the '90s Jaguars and Panthers shows that it can be done, whether it's the '50s, '70s, or '90s.

The question that bears answering is why can't either the Browns or Bengals get it done today? This is like a multi-part essay question on a particularly difficult graduate exam. Get it right and you have a successful NFL franchise. Get it wrong and you're fielding a Browns or Bengals team.

The answers (and there are more than one or two) to this are found in looking at each organization and its component parts: ownership, management, coaching and player personnel.

A sports franchise is basically a hierarchical organization with the ownership responsible for choosing the management and coaching and the management and coaching choosing the players. Ultimately, it's the players who produce on the field with coaching directly responsible for building the team and deciding which players in which combinations are on the field at any given time.

Mix in team chemistry, strategy and tactics, and luck (both good and bad), and the results are reasonably predictable, based on the quality of management and coaching. The inescapable conclusion is that the ownership, management, and coaching of both franchises is inferior to that of other teams in the league—the results prove it.

Unfortunately, having a high draft position next April isn't going to cure the problems that either the Browns or Bengals have—there are too many to fix, with two or three rookie players, and both front offices having proven themselves incapable of taking advantage of draft position in the past decade.

In fairness, though, the return of Phil Savage to the Browns (before his abrupt and involuntary departure this week) appears to have made a difference with players like Braylon Edwards, Kellen Winslow, Derek Anderson, Ryan Pontbriand, Joshua Cribbs, and Joe Thomas making the Pro Bowl (even some only as alternates).

Still, only Jamir Miller represented the Browns from 1999 to 2007. Joe Thomas, Brady Quinn, Eric Wright, and Brandon McDonald were a windfall in the 2007 draft, albeit at the cost of no top-three choices in 2008. This, fortunately, is an improvement from the 1999-2002 group of Tim Couch, Courtney Brown, Gerard Warren, and William Green. Only Warren, now on his third team with the Raiders, is still in the league.

The Bengals didn't exactly distinguish themselves in the earlier drafts of 1999 and 2000. Consider: Akili Smith and Peter Warrick; but six of the last seven No. 1 picks are starters (when not injured).

Only the 2005 draft, with the loss of David Pollack and Odell Thurman, has been a real bust. Even 2001 No. 1 Justin Smith starts for the 49ers and nine of the 12 first-, second-, and third-round picks from 2005 to 2008 are still on the Bengals roster. Notable Pro Bowl selections have been draftees Carson Palmer, Chad "Whatever-your-name-is," T.J.Houshmandzadeh, Willie Anderson, and Rudi Johnson.

It seems that perhaps the draft, which is a bit of a crap shoot anyway, isn't the only answer, at least not based on the performance of the past few years. We could get into a “look who you passed up to take this bum” discussion, but every team has its share of "what might have been" moments.

Sure, the Bengals are playing their top draftees, but is the quality there? A 4-11-1 record argues otherwise.

Complicating the picture is of course the nearly two dozen players on IR. Arguably, the Bengals were one of the hardest hit teams in 2008, losing key starters on both offense and defense.

How much of the Bengals lack of success in 2008 is attributable to player personnel quality and how much to injury is subjective at best. Yet, this is a key to the 2009 draft. How many of the Bengals problems will be solved by healing? Who knows? But it surely will be less than the optimistic projections we're now hearing from management.

The Bengals 4-3-1 finish to an otherwise forgettable season, where the team ranked last in offense for the first time in 41 years, is yet another Bengals late-season teaser. When we look at the numbers, however, team scoring didn't improve, averaging just 12.5 points per game in the second half and the defense was just slightly better, giving up 18.4 points per game, compared to the 12.8 and 22.8 totals for the year.

The defensive average was helped by the last two games against equally inept opponents (Cleveland and Kansas City) averaging just 14.5 and 18.8 points per game, respectively. In the previous six games, the Bengals gave up an average of 23.5 points per game.

This takes some of the luster off the Bengals 12th-place ranking in terms of yards per game (325.5). In fact, the difference between the Bengals and the 26th ranking team, the Browns, was just 31 yards per game.

Conclusion: the Bengals need help just about everywhere. But where is the most pressing need? And is the draft or free agency the best way to meet that need?

How to approach the draft, does ownership make a difference? The answer is: definitely.

No Bengals message board is complete without its share of Mike Brown haters. In 1998, Brown said. “Maybe times have changed and I haven't changed with them..."

A decade later, we cannot but agree. It seems that the organizational genius of his father, Paul, simply didn't get passed along. The Bengals are run as a family business with all the top jobs held by the Browns.

What Mike Brown doesn't realize is that being your own general manager simply doesn't work. In my view, the Bengals most pressing needs are up front, on both offense and defense.

Unfortunately, a first order of priority is to get back to even by replacing two players the Bengals let get away, Justin Smith and Willie Anderson. Smith turned in a solid season for the 49ers with 7.0 sacks, a career-high (tie) 50 solo tackles, and an interception, ranking as one of the top defensive ends in the league.

Even at 33, Anderson had a good season on an offensive line that produced the fourth best rushing offense in the league. With Andrews facing ACL surgery and both he and Ghiaciuc free agents, the offensive line looks like the most crucial need followed by the DL:

Top Picks (Offense)		Top Picks (Defense)
OT - Michael Oher (Ole Miss)		DE - Michael Johnson (Georgia Tech)
C   - Alex Mack (Cal)		DT - George Selvie (South Florida)
OT - Andre Smith (Alabama)		DT - Fili Moala (USC)
OT - Max Unger (Oregon)		DE - Tyson Jackson (LSU)
OT - Phil Loadholt (Oklahoma)		DT - Senderrick Marks (Auburn)

All team sports seem to start with strength in the middle: Pitcher, C, SS, 2B, CF in baseball; C and PG in basketball; and C, QB, RB, DT, MLB in football.

The Bengals need to strengthen their middle—will they? The draft is only one part of what ought to be three strong priorities. Equal attention must be paid to free agency and also to rehabilitation and strengthening of the team overall. How the current players react this off season is critical.

Can Marvin Lewis convince the veterans to devote enough effort before training camp? Can the Bengals do it as a team? Will Mike Brown re-sign the needed players due to become free agents and acquire a few to make the team better? Will the Bengals draft to improve?

Underlying these questions is a key: Discipline, a quality that's been sadly lacking in the organization for the last decade. Who (if anyone) will lead the Bengals out of mediocrity?