So another year is in the books with this year's draft. Whats your grades and positives/negatives from the 2017 Bengals Draft.

Another strong draft. I wasn't completely sold on the Ross pick at #9, but in combination with our later picks I think this more than made sense. If we don't fix the OL, then just load up on guys for Andy to throw to. Ross/Eifert in the short game should really be a force. Boyd, LaFell, AJ.... Andy has some serious firepower to play with.

I'll keep it on the field in terms of Mixon, it's obviously a great pick and a 'steal' in terms of ability. I think he might go on to be our starter as the season goes on. I hope for a redemption story off the field also.

Willis and Lawson are absolute steals for their draft position. Malone makes a stacked offence even more so. Elliot I think was a really shrewd pick as kicker, he is experienced with bad weather kicking and was very reliable in college. Intelligent pick.

The main disappointment is obviously O-Line. I don't think we have a shot at playoff success without a functioning O-Line. I also have not been a fan of our continued lack of focus on the linebackers. I know we have Burfict, but have always felt a strong linebacking corps would take our D to the next level. We didn't really have great options for O-Line in this draft, but we definitely did at LB.

All in all, I think the Bengals should be exciting to watch. I see us putting up a lot of points, but also being a fairly mistake heavy team (no OLine = turnovers). Maybe playoffs, but fun to watch.

(04-29-2017, 08:00 PM)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: The main disappointment is obviously O-Line. I don't think we have a shot at playoff success without a functioning O-Line.

Championships are won at both the offensive and defensive front lines. If that doesn't get done everything behind them is going to have a very hard time succeeding. 

(04-29-2017, 08:13 PM)GodFather Wrote: Championships are won at both the offensive and defensive front lines. If that doesn't get done everything behind them is going to have a very hard time succeeding. 

I will continue to say it every time someone brings it up. You can scheme offensive line play. Every year the patriots grab guys off the street and make it work. What we can't do is line up in shotgun and expect to sling it 30 times. We need a running game and we need play action off te running game.

(04-29-2017, 08:00 PM)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: Another strong draft. I wasn't completely sold on the Ross pick at #9, but in combination with our later picks I think this more than made sense. If we don't fix the OL, then just load up on guys for Andy to throw to. Ross/Eifert in the short game should really be a force. Boyd, LaFell, AJ.... Andy has some serious firepower to play with.

I'll keep it on the field in terms of Mixon, it's obviously a great pick and a 'steal' in terms of ability. I think he might go on to be our starter as the season goes on. I hope for a redemption story off the field also.

Willis and Lawson are absolute steals for their draft position. Malone makes a stacked offence even more so. Elliot I think was a really shrewd pick as kicker, he is experienced with bad weather kicking and was very reliable in college. Intelligent pick.

The main disappointment is obviously O-Line. I don't think we have a shot at playoff success without a functioning O-Line. I also have not been a fan of our continued lack of focus on the linebackers. I know we have Burfict, but have always felt a strong linebacking corps would take our D to the next level. We didn't really have great options for O-Line in this draft, but we definitely did at LB.

All in all, I think the Bengals should be exciting to watch. I see us putting up a lot of points, but also being a fairly mistake heavy team (no OLine = turnovers). Maybe playoffs, but fun to watch.

(04-29-2017, 08:13 PM)GodFather Wrote: Championships are won at both the offensive and defensive front lines. If that doesn't get done everything behind them is going to have a very hard time succeeding. 

I couldn't agree more I'm concerned Dalton won't have the time to get the ball to our receivers. Ross is a deep threat we needed just need Dalton to have the time to get him the ball. Could use him for some screen plays which once again you need o line to block for him. Plus Mixon will need some holes opened for him although he seems like he can adjust and make plays happen. One thing I'd like to see is Bernard and Mixon in a shotgun formation with Dalton. Two backs capable of coming out of the backfield to receive and make plays happen.

Gave it a B. Love the first 4 picks (Lawson in the 4th will prove to be a great pick in a few years) but thought they could've gotten better fits/value the last 3 rounds. Would've liked to see an offensive lineman in the 4th and thought they took Elliott a round too early. Overall, pretty solid draft though.

This year's draft was simply weak along the offensive line. I'm a little disappointed they waited so long to draft a tight end given that Eifert doesn't seem to remain healthy through the season.

I think that cornerback from Houston's going to be lightning in a bottle. The two defensive ends are much improvement. The Cincinnati Bengals offense from a skill position viewpoint has much improved.

I don't know how the defenses are going to scheme to cover Ross, AJ Green, Malone, Mixon and Eifert.

They finally drafted a kicker I just hope it's the right one.

-Really like Ross as a player, but concerned about his medical, even more so at #9 overall.
-Mixon is the last thing the Bengals needed to bring into the city/team.
-Willis looks like a good pick, but will probably need a year to fill out that 255lb to a more respectable 4-3 DE weight.
-Lawson's injuries give him pause, but could be good.
-Malone should be a good 4th rounder.
-Glasgow is an uninspiring pick for me. Don't like it.
-Eliott (who I am probably always going to call Scrappy Doo) doesn't do it for me either.
-Dielman sounds like one of the few people around who could actually make this OL weaker.
-Evans is intriguing.
-Wilson, I need to see what they plan on using him as in order to judge.
-Schreck seems like a UDFA.


Not a terrible draft, not a great draft. I voted C+, because I refuse to accept a world where A- or if you're going on a 10 scale, a 7 is "meh". This draft relies an awful lot on ignoring injury histories and off-field issues in order to be a good one, but could indeed be good. So... C+. Considered making it a flat C or C- because the Bengals didn't fix the OL at all, and didn't get an insurance plan for when (not if) Eifert goes down.

I think we have to give the first 4 rounds an A+

Well added the best talent available to our arsenal of offensive weapons.

Ross, Mixon, and Malone should amp up our ability to score from any spot in the field. No doubt. That's true of all 3, including Malone but especially Ross & Mixon.

We also got two DEs/OLBs who were rated Second Round picks in the 3rd and 4th Rounds. And Glasgow is a stud.

We needed to upgrade our pass rush and D line, and we did that.

Jordan Evan in the 6th will help alot in certain packages, too.

Brandon Wilson is going to help our depth in the secondary and STs. Together with Malone, Mixon, and Ross as returners, it's going to be hard for Erickson to keep his spot.

The jury is going to be out on JJ Dielman but I don't see it as a bad pick. Dude can play C, G, & T.

Same for Elliot, but he was rated the best K by alot of people over Zane G. Have to see how he fares against Bullock.

Schrek could prove to be a useful guy to have in Red Zone or short yardage as a blocker and pass target, but he won't be stretching any field.

Overall, I give us an A for this draft. I hope my rationale supports that grade.

Some off the cuff observations:

The first two picks were "swing for the fences" picks.  They aggressively sought dudes who may just hit it out of the park in any game, any play.  I want to like that strategy for this team in this moment, but feel that I would have approached this draft more like the Chiefs/Cowboys GMs typically do.  Having either Whit or Zeitler still on the team would have made me feel a lot better about it.

The three picks on the d-line are not the typical oversized, athletic sack giraffes that this team tends to go after.  They seem kind of "clunky" with their feet, but are gifted with their hands.  I think that those picks will pay off big time and will complement guys like Dunlap/Burfict who can chase down and clean up a play once someone causes pressure.

More speed at skill positions and the kicker later in the draft, I'm not sure how I feel those picks.  I feel that it was more "swinging for the fences" where they didn't really need to.

The center that they drafted seems to be in the vein of Og/Fisher with relatively short arms and not a ton of strength, but great feet.  It looks doubtful that he'll be starting any time soon.

All in all, I have mixed feelings on this draft due to the state of the roster.  Last season was tanked by trench play.  With a stacked o-line, I would have LOVED this haul I think.  Can a team really make their line look better by loading up on the skill positions?  We're about to find out.  I think that I would feel a lot better about the immense talents that have been accumulated this draft season if it weren't for the disparity of quality among certain position groups that exists on this roster.  

Anyhow, in Duke I trust.  The man knows what he's doing and does a good job of keeping the roster deep over a long period of time. 

B+ A lot of good players and thought they did great on the third day but I don't see anyone that great to be honest and very disappointed by that. Also can't help but feel they could have added more with a AJ Macaron Trade. 

Im the 1 guy that gave it a D. I hate the first pick. day 2 was my favorite day. Day 3 I feel we just flat out blew it. We had more picks than anyone and still sat on them. We had all the ammo to be more active and didnt. I know this draft class was bad for O line but you still have to find a way to get one or two good ones. No reason not to with all the picks we had. We did nothing to address our problem at Center and Tackle. Yes we got Dielman but weak and short arms wont make him a OT and he only played a handful of games at C. I know everyone wants to give CEd and Fisher a chance but we all have an idea how thats going to turn out. Then What?. We blew a chance to finally have a dominating LB core. Minter and Burfict will be FA's. We had several chances to pickup a good TE for when Eifert is hurt again or we let him walk at the end of the season. Im not as upset about the TE's we do have a couple and Uzi shows some promise. Our CB situation I think is worse than many want to admit. Pac Man will be suspended. This was a deep DB class to prepare. Nobody knows how WJ3 will be, Kirk is average and Dennard so far has been a disappointment which leaves us with Shaw and the kid we picked up who's name i can never remember.

Again I know the Oline class was bad but there was still good players in this draft. Its nice to have play makers, and deep threats but its all pointless with Dalton on his back. So for failing to address the OL that has been the weakness I give this draft a D. 12 picks should have got it done.

Nothing against Ross, but I did not like WR in the first.

I don't think Mixon is that big of a risk because his problems were years ago. I think he could be the steal of the draft.

Later picks we got a lot of incredible athletes. Don't know if they will be great football players, but they can really run and jump.

Dislike our 1 pure luxury pick. Wanted Howard.
Day 2 was great.
Day 3 started off nice and then, well i don't know what happened because i finally fell asleep after Day 2.
But, after reading about Day 3.......I don't like much of it at all.

We'll see how it goes but i'm not expecting much from our brand new toys on offense this year. I think this line is going to get manhandled and destroyed.

C plus

I gave it a B+.

I look at it this way - when I watched the Bengals last year, what drove me nuts?

1. O-line play. The reason I give this draft a B+ instead of an A is because we didn't really get any help. That being said, there really wasn't much help at the spots we had.

2. Pass Rush. Where was the edge speed? Well, problem solved. Lawson and Willis will help immediately on 3rd downs.

3. Speed at WR. Outside of AJ, we didn't have it last year. Boyd was a good slot guy, LaFell is a crafty vet. Ross and Malone are legit deep threats that should stretch defenses and open up the underneath.

4. Kicker. I'm happy with the Elliot pick. A few draft sites/mags and him as the #1 kicker.

5. Running game. Hill just didn't seem to have it last year. If Mixon is as good as advertised, we are in great shape.

We fixed 4 out of 5. Should be a good draft class.

I think Ross, Mixon, & Willis are really good players, I just think Oline & LB or even Saftey were positions of greater need. It seemed as they drafted for contracts that end after this year rather draft with current needs. I also thought they pretty much sat on their hands instead of packing 11 picks there just are not roster spots for. I would have preferred quality over quantity.

Is Ross the next Chad Johnson? Maybe, but you had Allen, Hooker, & Foster still on the board.

They could have packaged some of this picks & traded up in the second & got Cam Robinson or Forest Lamp.... or in the 3rd for Elflin or Freeney any of those guys would start on this bad Oline. Mixon could be the next LeVeon Bell, & Willis could be a Dunlap type talent, I just thought there were other positions that needed addressed.

After letting 26 Million or so walk in FA on the line. The Bengals are surely going make Oline a priority right? Wrong..... They go DE again, WR, DT, & even kicker before they took the kid from Utah in their 7th pick in round 5. This is why I gave them a C grade.

(04-29-2017, 09:43 PM)J24 Wrote: B+ A lot of good players and thought they did great on the third day but I don't see anyone that great to be honest and very disappointed by that. Also can't help but feel they could have added more with a AJ Macaron Trade. 

With no significant Oline improvement, it is imperative that they keep Macaron.

(04-29-2017, 08:00 PM)TheCincinnatiKid Wrote: Another strong draft. I wasn't completely sold on the Ross pick at #9, but in combination with our later picks I think this more than made sense. If we don't fix the OL, then just load up on guys for Andy to throw to. Ross/Eifert in the short game should really be a force. Boyd, LaFell, AJ.... Andy has some serious firepower to play with.

I'll keep it on the field in terms of Mixon, it's obviously a great pick and a 'steal' in terms of ability. I think he might go on to be our starter as the season goes on. I hope for a redemption story off the field also.

Willis and Lawson are absolute steals for their draft position. Malone makes a stacked offence even more so. Elliot I think was a really shrewd pick as kicker, he is experienced with bad weather kicking and was very reliable in college. Intelligent pick.

The main disappointment is obviously O-Line. I don't think we have a shot at playoff success without a functioning O-Line. I also have not been a fan of our continued lack of focus on the linebackers. I know we have Burfict, but have always felt a strong linebacking corps would take our D to the next level. We didn't really have great options for O-Line in this draft, but we definitely did at LB.

All in all, I think the Bengals should be exciting to watch. I see us putting up a lot of points, but also being a fairly mistake heavy team (no OLine = turnovers). Maybe playoffs, but fun to watch.

In the past, our o-line has been good because of scheme, not so much raw talent and brute force.

Remember, when this o-line was playing it's best, Bodine was still the starting center and Andre Smith and Boling were starting as well. That's 60 percent of the o-line with minimal talent. Obviously, this year we'll have even less talent, but you catch my drift.

Seems these offensive skill laden drafts have worked well for us in the past, like when we drafted T.J., Chad, and Rudi, Dalton and Green, and Eifert and Bernard.

And unfortunately, this was a very weak o-line draft. The only player I would have wanted is Forrest Lamp. Cam Robinson looks like a poor man's Andre Smith, and Ryan Ramcyzk seems like a technique guy at a position that requires a lot if strength (see: Ogbuehi).

All in all, I say good draft. B+, because rating a commodity you can't yet know anything about as an "A" seems kind of silly to me.

My draft grades for the 2017 NFL draft

#9  John Ross  WR  (B-)
Ross has insane speed and will be a high ceiling talent if he can remain healthy. That is a huge if given his past history and his size. I am rooting for the guy to be a game changer but I feel like at pick 9 and with what the board looked like that this was a huge gamble. I hope it pays off.



#48  Joe Mixon  RB  (B+)
This was the guy they were most likely targeting at pick 41. The Bengals traded back and still got their guy. I felt like the Bengals took it a bit easy on the Vikings in the trade as the Vikings got the better end of the swap. With that said, football wise they got 2 first round talents in the their first 2 picks. If Mixon, minds himself properly (which is another huge if), the Bengals did very well here.


#73  Jordan Willis  DE  (A+)
Best talent on the board in my opinion and at a position of need. Could have easily went in the late 1st round or early 2nd. Just strictly on value this is an A+.


#116  Carl Lawson  DE/OLB  (B)
Right about the range one would expect him to be picked. I know he has had some injuries ACL and hip but was mostly healthy last season. I think he can develop into a good rotational player but I don’t know how well he will translate in terms of being an above average rusher of the passer given his technique, bend, and shorter arms .
With all that said, I would have like to seen the Bengals trade up and taken Dorian Johnson with this pick.


#128  Josh Malone  WR  (A-)
I like this pick a lot given the fact is was obtained via a trade down and they likely got who that wanted anyway. This kid can stretch the field and is a larger target. Insurance for the Ross pick in some ways.


#138  Ryan Glasgow  DT  (F)
Not a fan of this pick for several reasons. The first one is I don’t see him as being talented enough to garner this high of a selection. He is a 6th round pick to me. Secondly, the list of players that were better values, prospects and better for team needs was long. Jake Butt and Jordan Leggett were available, Kazee and King were available, OT’s Holden and Roderick Johnson were available. Asiata was available.
Thirdly, he isn’t as talented as Qualls or Jones at the same position in my opinion.

#153  Jake Elliott  K  ©
I am glad the Bengals added some kicking competition but I think it was a round too early or at minimum a pick too early. Holden, Roderick Johnson, and Asiata were all still on the board in a draft that the Bengals had yet to address their biggest need of offensive line.



#177  J.J. Dielman  OC  (F)
Um, projected to be a udfa or at best a 7th rounder with Toth and Orlosky both on the board if they actually wanted to draft a center. I do not understand this pick. Seems to be a poor man’s Bodine.

#193  Jordan Evans  LB  (A)
Best pick they made in the later rounds. A coverage linebacker that could possibly be a help against TEs is something the Bengals really need.

#207  Brandon Wilson  CB/HB/ST  (B)
Interesting prospect with superb speed and explosion. Will likely be a practice squad guy until the Bengals figure out where is best to develop him.


#251  Mason Schreck  TE  (D)
Chad Kelly seemed too obvious here as the Bengals may have trouble finding
keeping 11 picks on the roster. Stash him on IR and move on. Other players available OT Aviante Collins and Collin Buchanon, S David Jones, LB Devonte Fields and Connor Harris among others.

The back end of the draft could have looked like this.
#138 Jake Butt TE Michigan
#153 Will Holden OT Vanderbilt/Roderick Johnson OT FSU
#177 Jake Elliott K Memphis
#193 Jordan Evans LB Oklahoma
#207 Jon Toth C Kentucky
#251 Chad Kelly QB Ole Miss


This draft has a chance to be a really boom draft if Ross and Mixon work out. I fear the lack of addressing the offensive line may cause this draft to overall not be a difference maker for next season as much as most feel like it can be.

Draft grade overall is C in my opinion. The Bengals added some dynamic play makers but did not address the offensive line and some of the picks in the 4th-7th round that I feel were missed opportunities for value.

(04-29-2017, 10:58 PM)Hammerstripes Wrote: I gave it a B+.

I look at it this way - when I watched the Bengals last year, what drove me nuts?

1. O-line play. The reason I give this draft a B+ instead of an A is because we didn't really get any help. That being said, there really wasn't much help at the spots we had.

2. Pass Rush. Where was the edge speed? Well, problem solved. Lawson and Willis will help immediately on 3rd downs.

3. Speed at WR. Outside of AJ, we didn't have it last year. Boyd was a good slot guy, LaFell is a crafty vet. Ross and Malone are legit deep threats that should stretch defenses and open up the underneath.

4. Kicker. I'm happy with the Elliot pick. A few draft sites/mags and him as the #1 kicker.

5. Running game. Hill just didn't seem to have it last year. If Mixon is as good as advertised, we are in great shape.

We fixed 4 out of 5. Should be a good draft class.

I'll agree with most of the points here. Nice post.

Some of the things that drove me the most nuts last year were the lack of pass rush. They hopefully addressed that. And addressed losses on the d line.

The running game was stagnant. They addressed that.

WRs that had trouble separating. Addressed.

With some of the departures and draft picks I think our team speed undoubtedly improved.

I figured we draft a kicker. That seemed early but whatevs.

I was hoping for better competition at the center position. Even if dielman makes the team it's doubtful he's ready to challenge blodine


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