8 hours ago, BlackJesus said:

My first 3 round mock (March 16). To me this would be ideal ...

Why would a RB in round 3 be ideal?

3 hours ago, I_C_Deadpeople said:

Why would a RB in round 3 be ideal?

To me, he's the second best RB in the draft after Love, he can be the "Thunder" (6'1, 223 lbs, 4.3 speed) to Chase Brown's lightning, and I'm not sure the Bengals will pay the asking price to extend Brown (12+ mill a year?).

I think he could play week 1 if needed and contribute, which is the best you can hope for with a third rounder.

Rodriguez would be a great addition to the LB corps. But there's no guarantee he'll be available at 41 or later so we can't count on it. We need to replace Carter at least in the lineup before the draft.

5 minutes ago, sparky151 said:

Rodriguez would be a great addition to the LB corps. But there's no guarantee he'll be available at 41 or later so we can't count on it. We need to replace Carter at least in the lineup before the draft.

Absolutely .

I thought Carter to short at 6'0 to handle

coverages.

He also had 18 missed tackles .

Upgrade is a neccesity......

3 hours ago, Griever said:

Should we make a 'our whole draft room is a sleeper' joke? Better not...

Here is a new Consensus Top 100 from The Athletic (hopefully it formats nicely):

Consensus NFL Draft board

Rankings as of March 16, 2026

 Page 1 of 2 

Table with 6 columns and 100 rows. Currently displaying rows 1 to 50. (column headers with buttons are sortable)

Rank	Player	Position	School	Last	Change
1	Arvell Reese	LB	Ohio State	2	1
2	Fernando Mendoza	QB	Indiana	1	-1
3	Jeremiyah Love	RB	Notre Dame	3	0
4	David Bailey	EDGE	Texas Tech	5	1
5	Caleb Downs	S	Ohio State	4	-1
6	Sonny Styles	LB	Ohio State	7	1
7	Mansoor Delane	CB	LSU	12	5
8	Carnell Tate	WR	Ohio State	8	0
9	Rueben Bain Jr.	EDGE	Miami	6	-3
10	Francis Mauigoa	OT	Miami	9	-1
11	Makai Lemon	WR	USC	13	2
12	Spencer Fano	OT	Utah	10	-2
13	Jordyn Tyson	WR	Arizona State	11	-2
14	Kenyon Sadiq	TE	Oregon	16	2
15	Vega Ioane	IOL	Penn State	23	8
16	Jermod McCoy	CB	Tennessee	15	-1
17	Monroe Freeling	OT	Georgia	29	12
18	Keldric Faulk	EDGE	Auburn	14	-4
19	Akheem Mesidor	EDGE	Miami	26	7
20	Denzel Boston	WR	Washington	20	0
21	Avieon Terrell	CB	Clemson	18	-3
22	Omar Cooper Jr.	WR	Indiana	42	20
23	Kadyn Proctor	OT	Alabama	19	-4
24	Dillon Thieneman	S	Oregon	33	9
25	Emmanuel McNeil-Warren	S	Toledo	37	12
26	Caleb Lomu	T	Utah	25	-1
27	Kayden McDonald	DT	Ohio State	24	-3
28	KC Concepcion	WR	Texas A&M	30	2
29	Peter Woods	DT	Clemson	17	-12
30	Caleb Banks	DT	Florida	22	-8
31	Colton Hood	CB	Tennessee	34	3
32	Cashius Howell	EDGE	Texas A&M	21	-11
33	Zion Young	EDGE	Missouri	39	6
34	T.J. Parker	EDGE	Clemson	31	-3
35	Max Iheanachor	T	Arizona State	46	11
36	CJ Allen	LB	Georgia	28	-8
37	Anthony Hill Jr.	LB	Texas	43	6
38	Ty Simpson	QB	Alabama	27	-11
39	Blake Miller	OT	Clemson	48	9
40	R Mason Thomas	EDGE	Oklahoma	35	-5
41	Brandon Cisse	CB	South Carolina	32	-9
42	Chris Johnson	CB	San Diego State	40	-2
43	Germie Bernard	WR	Alabama	47	4
44	Jadarian Price	RB	Notre Dame	60	16
45	Chase Bisontis	IOL	Texas A&M	61	16
46	Lee Hunter	DT	Texas Tech	36	-10
47	Jacob Rodriguez	LB	Texas Tech	82	35
48	Keionte Scott	S	Miami	51	3
49	Chris Brazzell II	WR	Tennessee	54	5
50	Christen Miller	DT	Georgia	38	-12

Consensus NFL Draft board

Rankings as of March 16, 2026

 Page 2 of 2 

Table with 6 columns and 100 rows. Currently displaying rows 51 to 100. (column headers with buttons are sortable)

Rank	Player	Position	School	Last	Change
51	Gabe Jacas	EDGE	Illinois	59	8
52	D'Angelo Ponds	CB	Indiana	52	0
53	Antonio Williams	CB	Clemson	67	14
54	Malachi Fields	WR	Notre Dame	70	16
55	Jake Golday	LB	Cincinnati	44	-11
56	Emmanuel Pregnon	IOL	Oregon	45	-11
57	Zachariah Branch	WR	Georgia	56	-1
58	Eli Stowers	TE	Vanderbilt	49	-9
59	Derrick Moore	EDGE	Michigan	58	-1
60	Malachi Lawrence	EDGE	UCF	NR	NR
61	Max Klare	TE	Ohio State	50	-11
62	Josiah Trotter	LB	Missouri	69	7
63	Chris Bell	WR	Louisville	41	-22
64	A.J. Haulcy	S	LSU	55	-9
65	Gennings Dunker	G/OT	Iowa	63	-2
66	Davison Igbinosun	CB	Ohio State	62	-4
67	Connor Lew	C	Auburn	66	-1
68	Keith Abney II	CB	Arizona State	57	-11
69	Kyle Louis	LB	Pittsburgh	73	4
70	Ted Hurst	WR	Georgia State	96	26
71	Keyron Crawford	EDGE	Auburn	87	16
72	Keylan Rutledge	IOL	Georgia Tech	NR	NR
73	Bud Clark	S	TCU	NR	NR
74	Elijah Sarratt	WR	Indiana	64	-10
75	Treydan Stukes	S	Arizona	NR	NR
76	Zakee Wheatley	S	Penn State	80	4
77	Caleb Tiernan	OT	Northwestern	53	-24
78	Michael Trigg	TE	Baylor	93	15
79	Malik Muhammad	CB	Texas	92	13
80	Domonique Orange	DT	Iowa State	75	-5
81	Zxavian Harris	DT	Ole Miss	NR	NR
82	Jalon Kilgore	S	South Carolina	NR	NR
83	Skyler Bell	WR	Connecticut	NR	NR
84	Jaishawn Barham	EDGE	Michigan	NR	NR
85	De'Zhaun Stribling	WR	Ole Miss	NR	NR
86	Dani Dennis-Sutton	EDGE	Penn State	71	-15
87	Joshua Josephs	EDGE	Tennessee	81	-6
88	Chandler Rivers	CB	Duke	91	3
89	Romello Height	EDGE	Texas Tech	68	-21
90	Sam Hecht	IOL	Kansas State	97	7
91	Gracen Halton	DT	Oklahoma	99	8
92	Genesis Smith	S	Arizona	100	8
93	Garrett Nussmeier	QB	LSU	90	-3
94	LT Overton	EDGE	Alabama	65	-29
95	Logan Jones	IOL	Iowa	NR	NR
96	Austin Barber	OT	Florida	NR	NR
97	Mike Washington Jr.	RB	Arkansas	NR	NR
98	Kage Casey	OT	Boise State	NR	NR
99	Drew Shelton	OT	Penn State	NR	NR
100	Sam Roush	TE	Stanford	NR

"The Bengals can take the best defensive player available here. Downs has versatility, and his Big Ten pedigree will be well received by Cincinnati's decision-makers."

There is always one team picking in front of the Bengals that go a long way in determining which player Cincinnati ends up with. The year before last it was Seattle at #16 taking Byron Murphy; last year it was Arizona at 16 taking Walter Nolen ahead of the Bengals pick. Those were teams picking just in front of the Bengals. This year the team may be the Giants even though they pick at #5 while the Bengals pick at #10. I'm convinced that Harbaugh will choose either Downs or Styles, as he values LB (Roquan Smith) and safety (Kyle Hamilton) more than most teams do. He seems to be in love with both of those players.

I know there will be 4 picks after that before you reach Cincinnati's slots, but I don't think any of those teams take whichever of Downs/Styles that Harbaugh. doesn't take. Cleveland at #6 will surely go offense - either OT or Tate. Washington (#7) loaded up on defense in free agency, so now it's time to give Daniels some help (OL or Tate). The Saints #8 always select premium positions when they have a top 10 pick. The Chiefs have glaring needs at premium positions like OL/WR/EDGE/CB.

So maybe that leaves the Bengals to take whichever one of Downs/Styles that the Giants don't take.

I hope you are right!

I have seen a few sites now that are mocking Monroe Freeling to the Clowns at 6 given the essentially have no LT. Fano and Mauigoa are RT's and/or guards.

2 hours ago, I_C_Deadpeople said:

I have seen a few sites now that are mocking Monroe Freeling to the Clowns at 6 given the essentially have no LT. Fano and Mauigoa are RT's and/or guards.

I'd be surprised if Freeling goes in the top 10. Fano is a much better player who has past experience at LT.

3 hours ago, sparky151 said:

I'd be surprised if Freeling goes in the top 10. Fano is a much better player who has past experience at LT.

Still think one of them might end up BPA at 10.

Can the Bengals do the obvious thing even though it doesn't fit their plan? They have a $9M out in Brown's extension. Wouldn't let that stop me, it's a small price to pay as insurance for a $250M QB they depend on being Superman every week in order to win. Worst case the rookie OT is a bust and Brown plays out his contract anyway. Maybe we get a true franchise LT instead.

"All-in" means trying to get better in every way possible & planning for any foreseeable problems. Risk <3% of the cap in dead money a year from now to lock up both bookend tackles on rookie deals for the next 2 years, before they're faced with tagging &/or extending Mims. They'd almost certainly save money by risking a tiny fraction of what they're required to spend anyway.

Even from the stingiest bean-counter's perspective I sometimes can't make any sense of their bullshit. From up here in the cheap seats it looks more like avoidance than a real strategy. What's the least amount of hope we can offer the fans and still sell out the stadium 8 times a year( the one which most of us paid - or are still paying - for, anyway).

🤷‍♂️

Mock draft from The Athletic. Reese/Bailey/Styles/Downs/Bain were already off the board before pick #10 in this mock.

10. Cincinnati Bengals: Jermod McCoy, CB, Tennessee

With Downs, Bain Jr. and Styles all plucked, the Bengals investigated trading out but couldn’t find takers. It would have been ideal to move back, pick up another Day 2 pick and likely still snag McCoy, but the Bengals have never been shy to stick to their evaluation and take their best player at a premium position. McCoy’s ball-hawking ability separates him in the Bengals’ eyes and fills a thin position around DJ Turner and Dax Hill. All of this comes under the assumption that he tests well at his pro day and looks fully recovered from his January 2025 ACL tear. — Paul Dehner Jr.

That would be a very Tobinesque move. If they have to take a CB at 10, take Delane. McCoy not running at the combine is a pretty big red flag.

Good teams avoid risk in round 1 and make sure they get good players. They take flyers later in the draft. Tobin likes to draft for "potential" as if every rookie isn't just potential. His bets don't seem to pay off very regularly. Burrow and Chase were top 5 picks and who's his biggest hit besides them of the last 10 years?

Higgins or Bates? They're a couple of very good players found in the 2nd round. They can offset John Ross.

Oh but IF HE IS good to go…what a player!

—Geoff Hobson

4 hours ago, sparky151 said:

That would be a very Tobinesque move. If they have to take a CB at 10, take Delane. McCoy not running at the combine is a pretty big red flag.

Good teams avoid risk in round 1 and make sure they get good players. They take flyers later in the draft. Tobin likes to draft for "potential" as if every rookie isn't just potential. His bets don't seem to pay off very regularly. Burrow and Chase were top 5 picks and who's his biggest hit besides them of the last 10 years?

Higgins or Bates? They're a couple of very good players found in the 2nd round. They can offset John Ross.

He’s running at his pro day on the 31st, so what’s the issue? Fact of the matter is, he’s a better all around football player than Delane so it actually makes sense.

46 minutes ago, Le Tigre said:

Oh but IF HE IS good to go…what a player!

—Geoff Hobson

You don’t know the first thing about any of them so I don’t know why you feel the need to spout off 🤷‍♂️

46 minutes ago, Le Tigre said:

Oh but IF HE IS good to go…what a player!

—Geoff Hobson

All-Potential Team 2029

2 minutes ago, spicoli said:

He’s running at his pro day on the 31st, so what’s the issue? Fact of the matter is, he’s a better player all around football player than Delane so it actually makes sense.

Only issue is it's not the 31st yet so until he actually goes out and does it.. there will be questions.

If a corner is BPA that's less than ideal but I hope they pull the trigger anyway. Only issue there is the lack of any pass rush. Mafe may solve some of that but if a QB can step up in the pocket that will make his life difficult, along with the back 7.

11 minutes ago, spicoli said:

You don’t know the first thing about any of them so I don’t know why you feel the need to spout off 🤷‍♂️

Just joshing. This is the prime time of the year to go on and on over young men who were just “names” a year ago. It will be the same next year at this time