By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PALM BEACH, Fla. - Marvin Lewis looks at the Bengals' roster and sees too few draft picks from 1996 through 2002.

Just 13 Bengals choices remain on the roster from those seven drafts, when the team selected a total of 52 players. That ratio reduces to a substandard 1 in 4.

A little more than three weeks away from his second draft as Bengals coach, Lewis has had to fill roster and lineup holes with free agents. Lewis added three probable starters this year in free agency after bringing in five veteran free agent starters in 2003.

All nine of his 2003 draft picks are on the team, including four players - quarterback Carson Palmer, left guard Eric Steinbach, fullback Jeremi Johnson and cornerback Dennis Weathersby - who easily could start.

Lewis and the Bengals received good news Monday when they learned that the league had awarded them a second pick in the third round, No. 96 overall, as compensation for quality free agents lost in 2003.

"It really gives us an opportunity to improve the football team," Lewis said Tuesday at the NFL's annual meeting.

"(The pick is) a guy who adds depth and should be an eventual starter."

The additional pick is likely to yield another solid defensive or offensive lineman, wide receiver, linebacker or cornerback, Lewis said.

In his first season, Lewis led the Bengals to just their second non-losing record in the past 13 years. Going after immediate help in free agency is a common method to rebuild a losing team.

"It takes time for the drafted talent to eventually become a core part of the team," said Scott Pioli, New England's vice president of player personnel and builder of two of the last three Super Bowl winners. "In the meantime, you have to fill in with free agents."

Lewis is looking for more members of his first Bengals draft class to earn playing time. Palmer has been named the starter, and Weathersby, defensive linemen Langston Moore and Elton Patterson and linebacker Khalid Abdullah are players Lewis wants to see on the field more.

"We've preserved our football team in that situation," said Lewis, in reaction to questions about pulling a $16 million offer to free agent defensive tackle Warren Sapp.

"We've based decisions on playing Langston, Dennis and Elton because we feel like they can be productive football players. We've had them for a year. ... Now it's just time to let them go."

Said Pioli, "If you think enough of them to draft them, you've got to give them an opportunity."

The Bengals' 13 remaining picks from the last seven pre-Lewis drafts are significantly fewer than the total for most teams in that span, especially winning ones. Baltimore, where Lewis was defensive coordinator and worked with personnel executive Pioli in the mid-1990s, has 23 draft picks left on its roster from the same period. Twelve are starters and eight are Pro Bowlers.

Of the Bengals' 13, seven are starters. Three have made a Pro Bowl team.

Responsibility for unproductive drafts should be spread throughout the organization.

"We've got to do a better job of not only picking the right guy but coaching him up," Lewis said. "You can't just blame who was picked or who picked him, you've got to blame the coaches. Once the guy is chosen, it becomes the responsibility of me, as the coach, to get the most out of the guy."

There are no draft picks left from 1999, including No. 3 overall pick and one-time franchise quarterback Akili Smith.

The 2001 draft, former coach Dick LeBeau's first, remains the most productive in the past 10. It yielded starters Justin Smith at right defensive end, Chad Johnson at wide receiver and Rudi Johnson at tailback.

Lewis does not draft players to be backups. He said he sees a special characteristic in each pick that could make him a starter. He will draft players to make immediate contributions on special teams while they develop into position players.

"There is an organizational philosophy in place that sometimes takes on the personality of the head coach," said Pioli, who was announced Tuesday as The Sporting News' executive of the year.

"Marvin is a very smart guy, and he has been through situations where he was with teams (the Ravens) that had to build from the ground up."

The few, the proud, the draft picks

The Bengals have just 13 players on their roster who were drafted by the team from 1996 through 2002:

Year	Player	Pos.	Round	Overall
96	Willie Anderson	OT	1	10
97	Corey Dillon	RB	2	43
98	Brian Simmons	LB	1	17
00	Peter Warrick	WR	1	4
00	Brad St. Louis	LS	7	210
01	Justin Smith	DE	1	4
01	Chad Johnson	WR	2	36
01	Rudi Johnson	RB	4	100
01	Victor Leyva	OL	5	135
01	T.J. Houshmandzadeh	WR	7	204
02	Levi Jones	OT	1	10
02	Matt Schobel	TE	3	67
02	Marquand Manuel	S	6	181

---

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

Return to Bengals front page...