Bengals Board Mock Draft Challenge: April

[Whatever]

(04-12-2024, 05:17 AM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Wow I would love this. First four picks in the trenches and then a monster TE with rare size. We could come away with just the first 5 and I would be happy. But we do get 10 and even though we have a talented roster I think all 10 could make the team. Tee is getting an extension.

18. Jackson Powers Johnson can be the best C in the league in a few years. He will be a bully in the middle, this is the AFC North we need a tone setter, and giving Burrow a clean pocket means lots of winning. Karras is a free agent next year. I'd claim open competition. But would like to see what Brown, Karras, JPJ, Cappa, Brown could do as a starting unit. Oregon is a C factory, JPJ is the latest and greatest model coming out.


49. Johnny Newton falls because of foot surgery? Every year somebody who was supposed to go in the 1st slides. I guess he may have a pro day here soon to try to prove he is healthy. Hopefully he doesn't rush back if he isn't ready, which might let us get lucky.

80. Blake Fisher just turned 21. He is another of the youngest OL prospects in this draft. I think he could start, but more time to develop behind Brown is a luxury we might get to have. Notre Dame is an OL factory.

97. Michael Hall Jr has special athletic talent at DT. We might end up with the best DT room in the NFL if he and Newton can hit the ground running as rookies.

115. Theo Johnson hopefully gets a year to learn behind Gesicki and Hudson. Which to me is ideal because TE seems like one of the harder positions for young players to adapt in the NFL. But I did strike out on WR in this draft so he could get some action if we are using a bunch of multi TE sets. Insane measurables nearly identical to Jimmy Graham.

149. Ray Davis seems like a gift here in the 5th. At least according to NFL.com who has him ranked as their 6th best RB. Leading 3 different college teams in rushing 2 being in the SEC. That's impressive to me.

194. Joe Milton III is Joe insurance. I think there is some value to taking advantage of that rule and having a 3rd emergency QB on game day who doesn't have to be active. If Browning has any trade value, maybe a QB goes down in camp, we could also capitalize if we add another capable QB. He also resembles the potential 3 others starting QBs in the AFC North and could provide quality practice reps.

214. Qwa,'tez Stiggers bolsters our CB depth with a unique player. First draft pick who didn't go to college? CFL rookie of the year. I think Dax is our 3rd CB. Pair that with a deep CB class and I have no problem waiting on CB.

224. JD Bertrand is a guy I don't know much about. Team captain. We need to rebuild the LB depth. If we can get productive solid players from successful big time programs in the in the 7th.. We should do it. These late round picks seem like a perfect spot to fix our depth.

237. Steele Chambers is another guy I don't know much about. Seems like the real evaluators are all over the place on the LBs. He is the 7th ranked LB on NFL.com. JD Bertrand isn't even on the list. Maybe that means we have some LBs we really like fall.

Rumor going round is JPJ has some kind of degenerative medical condition, so he's a big time risk at a non-premium position and not a great value at 18.  

Newton is currently damaged goods and still not recovered from his surgery, which is causing him to slide.  He's a 1st round talent, so I get the gamble on a vacuum, but with medical concerns with JPJ, it kind of turns this draft into an extremely high risk one.  

Hall...I mean, with Rankins, Hill, Carter, and the addition of Newton, we're loaded at 3 tech.  I don't even see him getting snaps and it's hard for me to sign off on a third round pick that likely won't even dress on gamedays as a rookie.

Even if you're convinced Higgins will show up before the start of the season and return to '21/'22 form without the benefits of a TC and you're also convinced that out of an UDFA(Irwin) and a pair of Day 3 picks(Jones and Yoshi) that you've hit on a quality starting WR, we still only have 5 roster worthy WR's on an 11 base team that carries 6-7.  You really have to take at least one somewhere, if not two.