Back In Town! Reds Stuff and Bengals Draft!

HELLOOOOOO Cintucky! I am freshly back from Jamaica and don't have a worry in the world. Except that place I go from 8am-5pm 5 days a week. While I was on my honeymoon spending 7 straight days with the same woman (don't worry, now that we are married she has no reason to try to impress me anymore and probably won't read another post ever again) I had plenty of time to think about sports and day-dream about what it would be like for the Bengals to win the Super Bowl or the Reds to win the World Series or Dayton to make the NCAA tournament.

It was rather funny actually. Last Tuesday, after 4 days of being disconnected with the world, I jokingly said, "I bet the Reds are riding a 5 game losing streak right about now." I turned on ESPN later that day (begrudgingly for Marisa) and the Red's highlights (I think it was the Dodgers at that point) come up. Low and behold I find out the Reds snapped a 5 game losing streak that day. Glad to see that when I leave the country, they really try to out do themselves and now have lost 8 out of 11.

Aaron Harang is searching for only his 2nd win in his last 20 appearances tonight vs Houston and through 5 innings has only given up 1 run. It seems there are only 3 players who decided to show up offensively this year: Joey Votto, Scott Rolen, & Ryan Hannigan. Going into tonight's game Hannigan was batting .462 and has 2 hits and 3 RBI tonight. Keep ridin the man while he's hot. The good news is, the Reds are only 4 games back.

Moving onto that other team we love around here, there seems to be some sort of NFL draft that I missed while I was gone. Don't worry, they do have ESPN in Jamaica (although not ESPN2 and the effing draft switched to ESPN2 midway through) so I was able to see the Browns take their next utter failure of a QB in Colt McCoy in the 3rd round and act like they wanted him all along, and I was able to see the Bengals take their typical guys with question marks who should have been picked higher but fell because of stupid things they've done. If Carlos Dunlap ends up being the next Jevon Kearse, then the pick will be hailed as brilliant. If Dunlap ends up being the next Odell Thurman, then you know how that will be hailed.

Lets take a look at the Bengals draft picks:

Round 1: Pick #21 Overall
TE Jermaine Gresham - Oklahoma
Gresham missed basically all of last year with an ACL injury but I clearly remember him from the 2008 season and I desperately wanted him at that point. 2 years later the Bengals TE situation was still the worst in the NFL and they finally decided to do something about it. Carson Palmer must have been happier than a pig in mud with this pick. Gresham will be huge over the middle and hopefully does not look up to Daniel Coats as a mentor and surgically replace his hands with bricks. This pick probably says something about Chase Coffman and his chances of making it on the field. Gresham isn't known as a blocker either, but is bigger than Coffman and should be able to pick it up quicker (it can't be THAT hard can it?). Gresham is a solid pick here. Lets hope his knees are good to go for 10 years.

Round 2: Pick #54 Overall
DE Carlos Dunlap - Florida
Dunlap was mentioned as a player with top 5 talent and physical attributes but with a questionable work ethic and drive. He was also arrested for a DUI last year and missed a game at Florida. The man is a beast though - 6'6" 278 lbs - and I have faith that Mike Zimmer will be able to get the most out of Dunlap. This puts a serious squeeze at the DE position with incumbents (and HIGHLY paid) Robert Gaethers and Antwan Odom plus promising second year man Michael "Giraffe Neck" Johnson and solid backups Jonathan Fanene and Frostee Rucker.

Round 3: Pick #84 Overall
WR Jordan Shipley - Texas
No doubt, UC receiver Mardy Gilyard was hoping the Bengals would take him at this spot. I guess the Bengals were just looking for someone a little bigger and a little more like TJ Housmanzadeh (without the bad attitude) who will cover the middle. After all, every team wants a Wes Welker these days. Once again, Carson Palmer must have been ecstatic with this pick. Yet another piece of offense brought in this offseason to help Palmer. You can't fault the Bengals for at least trying to improve their offense and surround Palmer with weapons.


Round 3: Pick #96 Overall
CB Brandon Ghee - Wake Forest
Ghee ran a 4.35 40 dash and is 6'0". That's a pretty good starting point for any CB. I hope this pick doesn't mean that the Bengals won't be resigning either Leon Hall or Johnathan Joseph. Ghee should be able to step in right away as the nickel corner with second year man Morgan "damnit Oakland" Trent fighting with David Jones for the 4th spot.

The rest of the picks...

Round 4: Pick #120 Overall
DT Geno Atkins - Georgia

Round 4: Pick #131 Overall
LB Roddrick Muckelroy - Texas

Round 5: Pick #152 Overall
OL Otis Hudson - Eastern Illinois

Round 6: Pick #191 Overall
WR Dezmon Briscoe - Kansas

Round 7: Pick #228 Overall
C Reggie Stephens - Iowa St

Overall, I would say it was a pretty solid draft for the Bengals, making it two straight years of passing grades! That is pretty impressive for Mr. Mike Brown. Maybe he is starting to actually care about this city in his old age.

I can't wait to add all this year's draft picks to my master excel file.

Greg "In Jamaica they don't have problems, only situations" R.