01-15-2022, 05:43 PM
(01-11-2022, 03:13 PM)ochocincos Wrote: According to https://www.nfl.com/news/2022-nfl-draft-order-2021-nfl-regular-season, the Bengals' needs to address via FA/draft this offseason are:
S
OL
LB
I definitely agree with safety if they don't re-sign Bates. If they don't, safety is a position I'd expect them to address within the first two days of the draft, as I doubt they'll pay good money for another veteran safety.
OL is obviously a "duh." They have one big impending FA in Spain to worry about, plus Reiff is likely going to opt out of his contract. That potentially puts a big need at two OL positions. Even if Reiff re-signs, he hasn't played a full season in years and is 33 years old, so the Bengals need a long-term guy to take over (eventually). Add in the fact that Hopkins hasn't been great this year (although better since the bye) and RG being overall mediocre-at-best between Adeniji and Carman, and there's clearly room to add some better OL.
LB is one that kind of surprised me at first, but upon thinking about it, it probably makes sense.
Pratt is set to hit FA after next season, and frankly he isn't where we need him to be anyway.
Maybe Markus Bailey takes over that spot at some point, but trying to upgrade LB in either the draft or FA definitely seems logical.
Do you agree with these being the biggest needs? If not, what position(s) would you put instead?
DT/NT would be way higher on my list. Ogunjobi, Hill, and Tupou are all FAs and Shelvin looks terrible. Maybe Daniels has another year left in him. Reader us awesome vs the run. But we need some interior pass rush. Not a great draft for DTs either this year.
