Our drafting has sucked lately

[Whatever]

(01-31-2024, 05:03 PM)ochocincos Wrote: You don't think a single NT in the draft class could start right away?
Why do you think that?


Or do you just think none would be at Reader's level, which is upper-tier?

I don't think the Bengals NEED to have a guy at Reader's level as a replacement immediately.
We probably will have to accept there will be some downgrade at NT for anyone else they bring in.
But overall, a 2-down run-stuffing DT who is solid and contribute 400-500 defensive snaps shouldn't be overly difficult to find.
Maybe I've just never quite understood the difficulty of NT though, but to me, there's a reason most run-stuffing NTs don't command much $$.

Why would you think there is one?  It's not a good NT class.  There's no NT with a 1st round grade at all.  The highest graded one is Sweat, who's flirting with falling out of the Top 50 entirely(though he is showing better today).  If there was a NT that experts thought could immediately be a quality starter, they'd have a 1st round grade.

NT has a huge learning curve, anyways.  Not only are you going through the jump from college to NFL competition, but unlike most other DL, you face constant double teams.

You can draft a guy and throw him out there as a starter, but it doesn't mean he's that caliber of player, at least not yet.  If you're in a rebuild, that's fine.  If you're gunning for a SB, it's not.  It doesn't make sense when there's a number of proven NT's in FA.