DL worth Top 15 selection?

[*ochocincos*]

(11-04-2020, 02:57 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Almost think that has to be the goal of the first 2 rounds, with 1 of the 2 HAVING to be an OL. Then you can go BPA or address other needs.

I think Jonah is fine to keep around (though if you can get a better LT say in FA, 100% move Williams to a different spot on the line) and that's the only current OL I would be willing to commit to being a starter in 2021. Gotta go big in draft/FA/trade this coming offseason.

You can probably manage to put together a good OL with Hopkins as a starter, but you will need significant upgrades at both G spots for that to happen. I think he's okay as a weak link starter, but if you're counting on him to be your 2nd or 3rd (or possibly even 4th) best OL, you're in serious trouble. The Reds actually ran into this problem over the previous few years. An abundance of guys who are JUST good enough to be a tolerable starter, but if you have more than one or two of those guys, all of a sudden you look around and it's just a team full of fringe starters... which is a bad team.


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As for the actual players in the draft, I haven't looked into it a ton yet so I don't know all those guys, but I have to imagine that the Bengals will pick too late for Sewell or Chase. The win over the Titans put them at 2.5, and they still play DC and the Giants (and possibly can add the Cowboys to that list of likely wins). 4.5 or 5.5 wins probably knocks them to the 8th-12th pick range.

The Bengals won't have enough cap space to "go big" in FA unless they let their big-name internal FAs walk.
I think you're discounting Spain, and you're undervaluing Jonah Williams, who has had less than half a season of starts but is already the team's best OL. And Williams is better than any OL in this draft class other than Sewell IMO. There are a couple LTs hitting FA worth pursuing if the team wanted, but we know how much they like Hart.

My gut tells me they stick with Williams, Hart, Hopkins, and two of Spain, XSF, and Jordan as the planned starters for next year.
I think they use most of their available cap on attempting to re-sign their own guys unless those guys don't want to be back.

Some people don't want to admit it, but I actually think DL and LB are worse than the OL right now. The offense is still putting up points but the defense isn't stopping people. They can't stop the run and they can't rush the passer. If the defense can improve, it should mean Burrow has to throw less, and thus also indirectly helps keep him upright.