Zac Carter

[Whatever]

(10-04-2024, 11:18 AM)ochocincos Wrote: The first thought that comes to my mind is Carter was a 3rd round pick whereas Davis was an UDFA.
They probably didn't want to bounce Carter off just yet because they thought he had good potential.
Just like how they kept Carman and D'Ante Smith around for so long.

If you promote Davis, you gotta make room for him.
They could have tried promoting him instead of adding Lawrence Guy, but Guy is a proven NFL vet that they needed badly as a stopgap.
Given the 3rd year is the big year for most young players, I can see Bengals not wanting to give up on him quite yet unless there was a work ethic or off-field problem.

DT has a long development curve.  Justin Madubuike basically did nothing for two years and became elite in year 4.  You can't just spend high draft picks there and give up after a year or two, rinse, repeat.  Really, that's the case with any trench pick.  Trey only had 6.5 sacks his first three years.  That's how we got him at such a bargain.  Nobody was sure if his 13.5 sack campaign in his contract year was a mirage.

If you're looking for prospects who have quicker impacts, you need to look at RB, WR, TE, LB, and DB.  Not trenches.