Actually we were competitive in the early '70s (made the playoffs, which is something this franchise hasn't done for a... while) and again in the early '80s.
My quibbles with the analogy are (1) we were just a couple of years removed from being very successful (two AFL titles and three straight appearances in the AFL title game), and (2) instead of constantly being just good enough to get a crappy draft pick, we were actually bad enough to get a franchise-changing player.