Worst spot in the draft?

[CJD]

#18 is the saddest draft position, yes.

But it is also an indication of how good this team is.

With a back up or injured QB for 12 of the 17 games this year, the hardest strength of schedule of the entire NFL and in the toughest division in post merge NFL history (all 4 teams with a winning record. Last time this occurred was 1935), the Bengals still managed a winning record and, honestly, should have made the playoffs if not for 1 or 2 bad miscues.

We are entering the off season with the 6th most cap space in the NFL, at about 70 million (estimated). The only teams with more cap space than us are the Commanders, Titans, Texans, Colts and Patriots. All teams with either a rookie contract star QB (Texans, perhaps the Colts), or no QB at all (Commanders, Titans, Patriots).

You have to go all the way down to 17th before you get to another legitimate contender for the Super Bowl (Bears, Lions, Raiders, Cardinals, Bucs, Rams, Panthers, Vikings, Giants, Falcons, Chiefs).

We have some big free agents to sign, but with that much cap space, we should be able to retain Higgins on the franchise tag, and potentially keep Reader, Awuzie and Williams as well, if we so choose.

It would go against what the Bengals typically do, but we could also do something new and sign a big free agent on the DL as well. Leonard Williams, Chris Jones, Christian Wilkins, Brian Burns, Josh Allen, Justin Madubuike, Danielle Hunter, Bryce Huff, Chase Young, Johnathan Greenard, Jadaveon Clowney, Za'Darius Smith, Josh Uche, Denico Autry, and Teair Tart would all be upgrades to this team.