Retool the defense and prep for IOL departures mock

[*ochocincos*]

(10-22-2024, 11:53 AM)Hammerstripes Wrote: Love the picks, but it's getting pretty obvious that we are playing our way out of Graham.

I would also say that a CB is something we will have to address in FA or fairly early in the draft.  Hilton is getting older and Dax is coming off an ACL.  We can never have too many of those.

We'll see.
I could see Graham potentially being available around 8-10.
Getting to low teens might be a stretch.

10th pick last year was the Vikings at 7-10.
15th pick last year was the Colts at 9-8.

Bengals still need 4 wins just to get to 7-10.
I'd say with the remaining schedule, that's definitely achievable.
Raiders, Titans, Browns *should* be wins.
The rest of the schedule may be toss-ups or not favored, so getting to 9-8 may not happen.
Getting to 10 wins (which is what I think is required for playoffs) would require 7-3.

Personally, I am not overly in favor of adding yet another fresh-out-of-college CB to a stable of dudes all on rookie contracts other than Hilton (who I would be surprised to get re-signed at 31 years old next March).
Bengals have Hill, CTB, Turner, Newton, and Ivey all on rookie contracts. They invested early draft picks in Hill, Turner, and CTB just over the past few years.
Now if Stone ends up actually panning out for the Bengals by season's end, we could remove that need and maybe put a CB in Rd 2 (or CB in Rd 1 and 3T in Rd 2), but one good game from Stone doesn't make up for 6 games of poor play. I'm not sold yet on Stone.

As of right now, assuming the Bengals actually end up picking 10-20, there looks to be more projected DL in that range than DBs.
Only Will Johnson (CB) and Malaki Starks (FS) projected Top 20 for DBs.
Bengals are currently slated to pick 13th if the season ended today. At the time I posted the mock, they were picking Top 10.