This week, a tweet thread from @willie_lutz lit up Bengals social media on X:
“THIS is the issue with the @Bengals
THEY. CANNOT. DRAFT.
You can’t say they’re ‘cheap’… they’ve gone out & signed plenty of FAs
But the issue is the inability to identify & draft talent
They have the least amount of scouts in the entire NFL which is why they’re in the position they’re in & why you see so many misses in these draft classes.”
That thread struck a nerve — and for good reason. Beneath the blistering tone lies a critique many Bengals fans have whispered (or shouted) for years: the franchise’s failure to uncover and develop draft talent may be the root of their long-term struggles.
1. Free agents ≠ sustainable success
It’s easy to point at the Bengals’ free agency moves and accuse them of being “cheap.” After all, they have shelled out to bring in veterans when needed. But signing middle-of-the-roster free agents is fundamentally different from building through the draft. Veterans can fill immediate holes; they are often short-term bandaids. But over time, the backbone of a championship team is built in the draft, through cost-controlled players who can develop, grow, and (ideally) blossom into difference-makers.
That means even if the Bengals weren’t penny-pinching, that alone doesn’t fix the structural problem — if that problem is poor drafting.
2. Quantity matters: Too few scouts, too little coverage
One of the sharpest lines in the thread is this: the Bengals have “the least amount of scouts in the entire NFL.” That’s not just a minor disadvantage — it’s a glaring structural weakness.
Scouts are the front lines. They wander college fields, watch tape in dingy rooms, talk to coaches, pore over game film, and uncover sleepers that no one else sees. If a franchise is under-resourced in scouting, its talent pipeline becomes narrow and vulnerable to blind spots. You don’t see as many “diamond-in-the-rough” finds. You lean more on names everyone already knows. You miss out on refinement.
When your scouting coverage is thin, your draft board gets so much noisier.
3. Draft misses aren’t just flukes — they become part of a pattern
Over the last decade, the Bengals have had more than their share of “busts,” underwhelming picks, and players who never quite panned out. When that happens intermittently, you can chalk it up to injuries or bad luck. But when you see it year after year — especially from non-first-round spots — it suggests systemic issues.
And those systemic issues appear to be what @willie_lutz is pointing at:
- Poor evaluation — picking guys who look good on paper but don’t translate to the NFL level
- Lack of development follow-through — taking a chance on someone without a clear coaching/development path
- Overreliance on safety picks or familiar names — conservatism replacing vision
- Underinvesting in supporting infrastructure — scouts, analytics, operations
When all those combine, you’re left with a draft haul that is underwhelming, inconsistent, and often fails to replenish the roster meaningfully.
4. The feedback loop is brutal
The problem compounds. Because the Bengals can’t reliably generate impact talent via the draft, they feel pressure to sign more free agents to plug holes. That robs cap space, limits flexibility, and creates a short-term mindset. Meanwhile, missed draft picks waste draft capital and leave you less equipped to build a deep, sustainable roster.
So you end up with a roster that is reactive rather than proactive — always trying to play catch-up, which the Bengals have done for most of the Joe Burrow era.
5. What would it look like to fix this?
If the franchise wanted to prove that the criticisms are unfair, here’s what they’d need to do:
- Hire more scouts (especially in underexposed regions)
- Boost analytics and data support, so those scouts aren’t flying blind
- Refine evaluation criteria, emphasizing traits, upside, and football character rather than just college production
- Create deliberate development paths, with continuity in coaching and role projection
- Be patient, allowing mid-round and late-round picks time and room to grow
If those steps are followed, we’d expect to see fewer swing-and-miss picks, more late-round steals, and a deeper, more reliable roster built from within.
6. Final word
The @willie_lutz thread is scathing, and in tone, maybe too caustic for some. But the core argument is worth taking seriously: when your drafts routinely disappoint, you undermine everything else.
The Bengals don’t need to stop signing free agents. They just need to draft better. And until that tide turns — particularly in scouting and evaluation — the “we’re building” narrative will always have a hollow sound.
And this is ultimately why the Joe Burrow days are being wasted.
