Welcome to the Jungle Jordan Battle

[CJD]

(04-29-2023, 12:34 AM)Synric Wrote: Yea I dont hate the prospect but I dont see the pathway to the field for him on his rookie contract unless its due to injury. 

I give this pick a D+

So far I would grade the rounds B+, A-, D+. Honestly the Bengals usually draft better than this but they are taking depth and picking really late.

I wouldn't go that low. We have one player who we expect to be a solid starter at safety, but I don't think anyone seriously thinks Nick Scott is un-upgrade-able. If the Bengals truly feel like Battle could be Vonn Bell 2.0 by his 2nd or maybe 3rd year, that's worth the pick, imo. 

I liked the DE and CB picks in rounds 1 and 2 because, even though neither one will be a starter, DE4 and CB4 get a ton of snaps year in and year out. Last year, our DE3 and DE 4, Cam Sample and Joseph Ossai, had 412 and 334 snaps, respectively, on defense. And adding more of a rotation should increase those numbers and lower Hubbard's and Trey's numbers too, which will be beneficial for everyone.

Our CB4, by snap count, was technically Chidobe Awuzie due to injury and he had 471 snaps. CTB was the CB4 at the beginning of the season and he went on to have 591 snaps in 2022.
Even CB5 had 171 defensive snaps. and CB6 had 50 snaps. So there's snaps to go around in the corner room and that's before you even talk about Apple, our biggest snap contributor at CB, no longer being on the team.

Safety 3 though...Daxton Hill had 131 defensive snaps.

Granted, no safety was injured, so that matters. But there are not very many "3 safety looks" in this defense anymore. Maybe Battle's addition brings those back? But even then, is Battle playing over Anderson? I'm not sure. Safety 4 last year got 25 defensive snaps...

And, perhaps most importantly, Murphy is expected to eventually replace Hendrickson (free agent in 2025, but his cap hit in 2024 is 17.5M at age 30 so...maybe a cut/trade candidate if Murphy exceeds expectations) and Turner is expected to eventually replace Awuzie (free agent in 2024).

Our top 3 safeties are signed through at least the 2026 off season.

It's nice to plan for the future, but this was super duper planning for the future haha.