For Team Sewell

[Whatever]

(05-03-2021, 12:54 AM)Murdock2420 Wrote: Still feels like they did punt on several till next year though.

We have a sort of LT... and a one year rental RT. 

I get that Jonah might still develop but at this point we have to really be considering the possibility that he is made of glass and will be broken every year like Eifert.

At RT, Reiff is here this year and if he plays at a high level, the bidding war begins. Maybe we re-sign him but that's at best a 50/50 chance. 

The only guy we got for tackle is a project that had much lower competition level then Sewell, comes with his own medical red flags (missed two seasons) and is far from a sure thing.

We have a very real possibility that the 2022 OL has zero tackles. I'd be okay with a step down from Chase at X for a season, knowing that we had a tackle on the team that was going to hold down one of the two spots long term. 

That is and will always be my issue with this draft. Now, maybe Jonah proves me wrong and magically gets off the IR and plays at a high level, and Reiff at age 32 coming off a foot injury locks down RT and re-signs and bam... problem is solved. If those two things happen then the Chase pick is fine but that is huge gamble to take when you literally had the guaranteed solution available.

And the biggest thing is this, the Bengals shouldn't be drafting like 2021 is a playoff year. Taylor is still here, Lou is still here, this team is probably a 7 win team. Which is half a game enough to ruin my bet. If you know you are going to rebuild and be down, get the tackle, groom him and get him ready, then hit the 2022 draft with the need of a X and not the need on the line still.

I get why people are concerned with Jonah, but I am personally not.  He came in with a shoulder issue that he played through at Alabama that they decided to get fixed.  Last year, he got rolled up on from behind while engaged with a defender, which sucks, but happens.  When it shook out, he was hurt nowhere near as badly as it looked.  If he was having similar injuries over and over that were ending his season, I would worry, but they're unrelated.

Reiff has never missed more than 3 games in a season.  I'm not terribly concerned about him staying healthy.

If we're talking injury history, it's also fair to point out that Sewell missed 6 games with injury as a freshman.  If Sewell gets rolled up on the way Jonah did last year, he's going to miss time, too.

Jmo, but I didn't see Sewell as a guaranteed fix.  He has tremendous upside and I wouldn't have quibbled if he was the pick, but I think he's more boom/bust than a lot of others do.  He's a guy that I can see Jonathan Ogden as his ceiling, but DJ Fluker as his floor.  Some work ethic concerns were raised and he is a guy that has always been far more naturally gifted than the guy across from him.  I have to question what happens now that he's going to playing guys he can't just handle with natural talent.  Will he double down and put in the work or will he have his confidence shattered when he has his welcome to the NFL moment?  

I don't think the Bengals were in a position to punt on this year.  You don't want to waste a year of Burrow's rookie deal and you don't want to be forced to give Zac another year because you wrote the year off to rebuilding if he isn't the guy.  Honestly looking at it, while there are a couple of holes, the starting lineup looks pretty solid and could compete for a playoff spot if they can avoid injuries in some of their thinner position groups(WR, LB).