sparky151

Lamar has been injury prone the last few years. Mahomes is heavily protected by the officials. Their line, especially the tackles are allowed to hold or move early to a greater extent than other team's lines are. Remember Collinsworth referring to Jawaan Taylor as the slot receiver because of how far off the line he was when he took his stance? Yeah, guards were definitely winners this free agency period. Some pretty crazy overpays. My view is that was a byproduct of a shortage of good O-linemen combined with a big jump in cap space. So teams spent it quickly in chunks to protect their QBs.

Whoops, you're right, I thought that was a picture of Kijana. Turning down the trade offer from the Saints and then taking Akili was indeed a terrible decision.

If we could get Quinyon Mitchell at 18, he'd be a good pick. It would strengthen our CB group considerably. Currently we have below average CB1 and 2s while our above average CB3 is going into the final year of his contract. Mitchell would be an example of a big value add.

A lot of people suspect Sweat is an alcoholic, based on his BAC combined with pretty good performance on the tests the cops gave him. They read it as he's a highly functional problem drinker. Getting to his .105 at his weight required a lot of drinks and if he was inexperienced, he would have been swaying and slurring his speech more. Moonpie Wilson, hadn't thought about him in a long time. I think the Bengals have had some DBs from the CFL in camp before.

First, I'd try to go into the draft with no gaping holes in the starting lineup. The Bengals currently have 1 at NT with Reader gone and Tupou not under contract. But even if Reader had re-signed, we'd still have a question mark at the position. So I'd have added a mid-priced proven veteran run stopper. Ashawn Robinson would have been my preference as he's strong and hard to move and signed with the Panthers for 8 mil per. But other than NT, the Bengals did a good job of covering our bases, with the additions of Moss, Gesicki, Stone, Bell, and Rankins. I'd imagine we re-sign Max Scharping, Markus Bailey, and Josh Tupou before the draft as they don't seem to have interest from other teams. Then it's on to the draft. Our goal would be to come away with the collection of players that improve the team the most. It's not necessarily BPA but rather MVA, most value added. Our biggest short term need is at NT but there aren't any NTs in this draft class who would be worth pick 18. I don't mind trading up for specific players who would improve the team a lot. I'd also be open to trading down for fair value depending on what our new player options would look like. Do the evaluations, then be true to your board. Don't get desperate, in fact take advantage of desperate teams. If we'd traded the Murphy pick from last year when 3 teams were desperately trying to trade up for Will Levis, we could have had Dawand Jones, Darnell Washington, and pick 38 this year. That would be nice to have the RT position resolved plus an early second rounder this draft. Keep positional value in mind. The Bengals are set at QB, so that gives us a leg up in drafting on at least a quarter of the league.

Eh, it was a gamble that didn't pan out. But the decision wasn't that bad, he just got hurt right away. It's like the people saying Panthers blew it paying so much to trade up for Bryce Young. Trading up wasn't the problem, it was taking Young over Stroud where they went wrong.

We're getting a 4th place schedule. We definitely should make the playoffs unless injury hits us harder than other teams. The NFL is a passing league. Stopping other team's passing games is more important than stopping their running game. It's hard to run the ball down the field and defenses can stunt and run blitz or add another defender to the box against opponents determined to run the ball. It's also harder to overcome penalties by running. No doubt it would be easier to stop Henry, Chubb, and Harris/Warren with a strong NT. But even if we have to play a rookie there, we'll be ok. Just getting Nick Scott off the field goes a long way.

Eh, Baltimore seems to fall on their face in the playoffs, even when they win the AFCN. Winning a Super Bowl means beating the Chiefs to get there. That's why I'm not necessarily locked in on a RT. Bowers or Q Mitchell would add a lot of value in 2024.

Those are Goodberry's rankings based on various factors. Not where he expects them to fall in the actual draft.

Some draft rankings. Check out the RAS scores for the NTs.

Bengals don't need to move up to get a good player. I wouldn't be surprised if Pittsburgh jumped us for a tackle. Or they may want JPJ. AD Mitchell probably won't make it past pick 28 if Buffalo stays put. A lot of speculation though that they made trade up for Brian Thomas. If that happens, Mitchell may go to KC at 32.

Er, which player are you referring to?

sparky 151 - Amarius Mims - 110

We'll certainly take at least 1 WR in this draft and most likely a LB or two. I'm assuming that Bailey and Bachie re-sign before the draft on cheap 1 year deals. If a rookie can beat them out, we'd have him for 4 years. We also need to re-sign Tupou and Scharping.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/top-receiver-deals-definitely-arent-what-they-seem-to-be Tee and his agent should read that. He's already being overpaid on the tag.

And only 24 of his 712 snaps last year were in the A gap (with 13 of those in 1 game). He had 60 snaps in a B gap and the rest were over or outside a tackle. That's why PFF rates him as an Edge player. We're well stocked there. Signing him wouldn't help us at NT.

I agree it doesn't look likely that Tee will be extended. But extending Karras for a year or two seems entirely possible, whether it's done before or after the 2024 season. Depending on who we get in this draft, Trent Brown might also be a candidate for extension. Maybe even Hill, though brining in Rankins most likely precludes that. Opportunity cost. If we don't take a RT at 18, the pool will have shrunk considerably by 49. Trent Brown has averaged 10 starts per year over the last 5 years. So it's a gamble that he'll be able to start every game. He did play in 17 games with 16 starts in 2022. But he only started 8 games last year. NT is our biggest current need. But there aren't any first round talents at the position in this class. So we can draft elsewhere. 3T isn't a high priority need with Rankins and Hill onboard. We can pick from Sweat, Jenkins, Boyd, Taylor, Jackson, etc in round 3 and later. If we want a decent long term RT prospect who could safely be thrown into the fire in 2024, then we need to take him at 18 or perhaps trade up from 49. I'm opposed to trading up in this draft, there are decent prospects all through day 1 and 2, so we should just add talent at positions where they will improve the roster.

Barton is expected to be an interior player, most likely at center. Karras is going into the final year of his contract. Trey Hill hasn't shown anything in 3 years and Max Scharping is currently still a free agent. So drafting a center at some point seems likely. But I doubt it's the first round and if we did take one, I'd think Jackson Powers-Jackson is more likely. This is a pretty good draft class for centers and we could always just extend Karras for a year or two, so it's not a high priority compared to RT.

It still seems like a poor use of resources to take a backup 3T at 18. I don't have anything against Murphy or Newton as prospects but they would be playing behind Hill and probably Rankins in 2024 and 2025. That's half their rookie contract. Certainly we can rotate them and taking one of them would let us move on from Hill after 2024. But it's still a luxury pick when we don't have a starting NT and RT would be a gaping wound if Trent Brown gets injured, as he does most years.

Campbell is way past his prime. He's very tall and was was a very good player in his day. He's also a former NFL Man of the Year. But he doesn't move well these days. Not sure he's better than Josh Tupou at this point.

That's a terrible mock for the Bengals.

And rumor is the Bucs and Winfield are close to a deal.

There were several run stopping DTs on the market. I'd have signed A-Shawn Robinson. He ended up going to the Panthers for about 8 mil per year for 2 years. That's if the Bengals were determined to let Reader walk. DJ signed with Detroit for less than the Bengals are paying Rankins.

It's pretty obvious why Latham didn't perform the usual athletics tests at the combine or his pro day. He's not athletic at all and thinks it's better to be suspected than proven to be slow. It would be a huge mistake for the Bengals to take Latham. He might work for a team like the Chargers who want to establish a running game but he's not a good pass blocker and would endanger Burrow's life and health. Hard pass.

Most of them should be team captains. Those are usually the top players on their college teams, ie the pro prospects. There will be some early entry guys who weren't captains plus specialists. But of our 10 picks, I wouldn't be surprised if 7 or more were one of their college team's captains.