Carlos Hyde's Ohio State career needs no glossing over. Everybody here knows there's a reason the man earned the nickname "El Guapo."
With the 54th pick in the second round of the NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans selected Washington's Bishop Sankey. It was the latest the first running back in the draft had been selected.
That put the Bengals on the clock, and the Bengals shocked sizable portion of their fanbase when they selected LSU's powerback Jeremy Hill over Ohio State's Carlos Hyde.
Why did they pass on a beast from OSU with connections to the city of Cincinnati? From Kevin Goheen at FoxSports.com:
The Bengals believe Hill better fits their needs and their offense than Hyde. The two backs are comparable in physical size -- Hill is listed at 6-feet-1, 233 pounds, while Hyde is 6-0, 230 -- and both have been productive in their college offenses. If there is one thing that stood out to the Cincinnati coaches, it's that Hill played in a pro-style offense at LSU while Hyde was in a spread offense..
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"Don't get me wrong, Carlos Hyde is a heck of a football player and somebody is going to get a very, very good football player here very shortly, in my opinion, but this was the best fit for the Bengals today," said offensive coordinator Hue Jackson.
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"The way he played in his offense with LSU, in the pro-style offense they had and what they asked him to do, he stepped up going against the tough SEC, running downhill, the stuff that we like to do," said running backs coach Kyle Caskey. "When it came to pass protection he actually stepped in there. He was coached to do that and he looked really tough. Not that the other guys didn't. He just really stepped above that when it came to being a complete player and the type of runner that we're looking for as well and playing against the competition he played against."
Carlos Hyde would end up being selected two picks later, by the San Francisco 49ers.
If I'm Carlos Hyde, I'd much rather play for the 49ers than the Cincinnati Bengals. I think the track record of the two franchises speaks for itself.
