03-20-2024, 10:58 AM
I love Sweat in the 2nd. It's the pick I make every time I do a mock draft when he's available. He fills the biggest glaring weakness on this team; a good run stopping NT.
Bowers, however, I doubt occurs for a variety of reasons.
1. He likely isn't there. Most evaluations consider there to be 5 to 6 "blue chip" talents in this draft class and Bowers is one of them. Him making it to 18 would be quite shocking, even with the depressed value of the position.
2. I just don't think the Bengals particularly value the TE position. We've been getting by with 1 year deals at TE for the last 3 years + Drew Sample. Joe targets the open player rather than over targetting a certain player, so the idea of a TE being a safety valve doesn't really apply to him too much. They had many opportunities to upgrade the TE position in last year's draft and simply chose not to. I'd be surprised if they changed course and did so here.
3. We simply have much bigger needs than TE. Bowers would be a luxury pick when we literally don't have a NT, nor do we have a starting RT past 2024. The Bengals' recent history has been to draft an heir in the first round that can sit and learn for a year behind a player on an expiring deal. Dax Hill was drafted with the intention of replacing Jessie Bates. Myles Murphy was drafted with the intention of eventually replacing either Hubbard or Hendrickson. I think it's likely they do the same with a RT behind Trent Brown. Especially considering Brown, in his 8 years of starting (not counting his rookie year), he only played a full season 3 times, with his average games played per season sitting at 11.9 games per season. Hopefully, he stays healthy, but we can't rely on it, especially with the only player behind him being Jackson Carman, who is a truly failed experiment at RT. 5 games is a lot of time that we could potentially have a terrible RT. In both 2021 and 2022, we were undone by our lack of depth on the Oline. In the 2023 AFC championship game, our starting Oline was Jackson Carman, Cordell Volson, Ted Karras, Max Scharping, Hakeem Adeniji. It's honestly amazing that we stayed within 3 points with that line. Having a capable back up for RT that can step in and be a quality starter if and when Brown gets injured could mean the difference between being the #1 seed and being a wild card team in 2024, and it could mean the difference between getting to the Super Bowl and failing in Kansas City again.
I love the idea of having a dynamic weapon like Bowers in this offense. I just think there are too many barriers in its way to becoming a reality.
Bowers, however, I doubt occurs for a variety of reasons.
1. He likely isn't there. Most evaluations consider there to be 5 to 6 "blue chip" talents in this draft class and Bowers is one of them. Him making it to 18 would be quite shocking, even with the depressed value of the position.
2. I just don't think the Bengals particularly value the TE position. We've been getting by with 1 year deals at TE for the last 3 years + Drew Sample. Joe targets the open player rather than over targetting a certain player, so the idea of a TE being a safety valve doesn't really apply to him too much. They had many opportunities to upgrade the TE position in last year's draft and simply chose not to. I'd be surprised if they changed course and did so here.
3. We simply have much bigger needs than TE. Bowers would be a luxury pick when we literally don't have a NT, nor do we have a starting RT past 2024. The Bengals' recent history has been to draft an heir in the first round that can sit and learn for a year behind a player on an expiring deal. Dax Hill was drafted with the intention of replacing Jessie Bates. Myles Murphy was drafted with the intention of eventually replacing either Hubbard or Hendrickson. I think it's likely they do the same with a RT behind Trent Brown. Especially considering Brown, in his 8 years of starting (not counting his rookie year), he only played a full season 3 times, with his average games played per season sitting at 11.9 games per season. Hopefully, he stays healthy, but we can't rely on it, especially with the only player behind him being Jackson Carman, who is a truly failed experiment at RT. 5 games is a lot of time that we could potentially have a terrible RT. In both 2021 and 2022, we were undone by our lack of depth on the Oline. In the 2023 AFC championship game, our starting Oline was Jackson Carman, Cordell Volson, Ted Karras, Max Scharping, Hakeem Adeniji. It's honestly amazing that we stayed within 3 points with that line. Having a capable back up for RT that can step in and be a quality starter if and when Brown gets injured could mean the difference between being the #1 seed and being a wild card team in 2024, and it could mean the difference between getting to the Super Bowl and failing in Kansas City again.
I love the idea of having a dynamic weapon like Bowers in this offense. I just think there are too many barriers in its way to becoming a reality.
![[Image: oN5QAdY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/oN5QAdY.png)
