04-16-2022, 09:47 PM
I think last year's draft is a pretty good indication of how Zac drafts. The 5th pick in the 2nd round isn't that far off from the 31st first in the 1st round. Same with the other rounds as well.
Zac had his eyes on a player in the 2nd round in 2021 that he knew was too early at 38, so he traded down, accumulated picks and still got his man. Then, he seemed to draft every faller from the previous round. Ossai was supposed to be a 2nd rounder, Smith was supposed to be a day 2 pick, Sample was a value pick, Hill had some early day 3 buzz etc.
I expect the Bengals to hard target one player in the opening frame and, if they think he'll last in a trade down, they will but they'll generally draft players that "should have been" drafted the previous round. You saw the same thing with Tee Higgins ADG, Adeniji, Bailey and Logan Wilson in 2020.
2019 was the only draft where they made significant reaches (Sample, Finley and Jordan) and I think they either learned their lesson from that year or they simply did not have enough time to fully construct their board because they had to wait until after the Super Bowl for Zac to officially be hired.
Zac had his eyes on a player in the 2nd round in 2021 that he knew was too early at 38, so he traded down, accumulated picks and still got his man. Then, he seemed to draft every faller from the previous round. Ossai was supposed to be a 2nd rounder, Smith was supposed to be a day 2 pick, Sample was a value pick, Hill had some early day 3 buzz etc.
I expect the Bengals to hard target one player in the opening frame and, if they think he'll last in a trade down, they will but they'll generally draft players that "should have been" drafted the previous round. You saw the same thing with Tee Higgins ADG, Adeniji, Bailey and Logan Wilson in 2020.
2019 was the only draft where they made significant reaches (Sample, Finley and Jordan) and I think they either learned their lesson from that year or they simply did not have enough time to fully construct their board because they had to wait until after the Super Bowl for Zac to officially be hired.
![[Image: oN5QAdY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/oN5QAdY.png)
