Well, Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl again. Santonio Holmes won the MVP, which makes me happy as we are fellow Buckeyes from the same years. After the Super Bowl, I always get excited for the Draft (no, I don't care about the Pro Bowl). This year, however, I started gearing up for the Draft in about the first week of January. I don't know where the new focus came from, but I have been checking big boards/ espn.com/ watching a lot of College Football Live to get a glimpse about who will go where. I of course am a Bengals fan, so I've been looking to see who they would draft. I really think that OT is the best bet, despite what many people on bengals.com have been suggesting (RB, WR, DE). I can understand taking a DE if some of the OTs are off the board, but it simply won't help, as the O-Line was putrid last year. Stacy Andrews is worthless, overpaid, and very injured, thus I feel he won't be back. Levi Jones is best suited as a backup, as his age is starting to show. Anthony Collins and Nate Livings played well in fill-in spots, but they're untested.
So, after looking through this, I'm hoping and feeling confident that Cincy will draft either Andre Smith from Alabama or Eugene Monroe (as Baylor's guy looks to be taken in the first 5). I'm also hopeful that they will take the best Center available in round 2 (38th overall). These two picks would greatly help a garbage O-line in a division with some nasty defenses. Carson needs to be protected to stay healthy and be the elite QB he was in 2005. The other major issue with the Bengals is that they HAVE to resign T.J. He's the anchor of that offense, and although Chad says TJ will be back, I'm afraid he doesn't want to come back. Hopefully, Mike Brown will give TJ as much money as he wants to stay. It's worth it.
Overall, I'm really ready for draft day, but I'm also interested to see what Cincinnati will do with all of their own Free Agents and some other really big name guys out there. (Sign Haynesworth, he's awesome).
