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If you go back and look at mocks from late 23, Latu was going a lot higher than he is now. But as the top half of the drift got littered with more QBs and OTs he was one of the guys who fell. Same with Kool-Aid, he was the first or second corner off the board for a long time, now he’s bottom of the first.

I just gave Trent Brown a hard look, so now he’s injured for a couple weeks. Offensive tackle in the first round please!

With Trent Brown being injury prone and older, my expectations is that he will not last the entire 2024 season. And he's gone after 2024. Expect the best, but plan for the worst So the plan should be for the OT - hopefully specifically a RIGHT tackle - they absolutely need to draft at 18 or 49 will be the starter at ORT by the end of 2024 at the latest and of course, that player would then (optimally) be handed the starter spot at ORT in 2025, with the 1 year rental Trent Brown moving on As such, I dont want this new OT working at OG, and most especially not at OLG If all goes well, this player will be the backup (swing tackle) at both OLT and ORT, and the jumbo OL as well I can see them drafting up to three OL this year. In addition to the glaring need at ORT, they need a better backup C than No Knees Hill. Second, the Smith and Carman experiments are over and done with, as far as I am concerned. Third, we need depth and heirs apparent to Karras and Cappa I wont destroy appliances or set any local stadiums on fire if the first pick is a pass rushing DT, but if that is the case, 49 then becomes a pick that M U S T be an ORT

Here's another anomaly of position as well. Offensive Guard. Not really a position the Bengals look to take in the higher rounds and don't want to pay them either. But WHAT IF, they take an OT in the first round, that can start off at OG his first season, like Whitworth did at LG? If Fuaga was there at #18, I would fully expect him to be the pick and have him competing with Volson for the starting LG spot. If whatshisname only stays for a single season at RT, then Fuaga transitions there the following year. But MAYBE, Fuaga turns out to be an All Pro LG, they leave him there and address RT in next year's draft. Maybe he doesn't beat our Volson and sits behind the new RT, getting only a small amount of reps. So many variables to consider. Trent Brown. Sorry, forgot his name. Not going back to edit.

That's kind of my thought with all this though. Who really knows and whatever your thoughts are, the Bengals probably see it differently. I personally like Latu a lot. He's 6'4, 260, has elite athleticism and has been a top producer for the past two seasons. Do I like him so much that in back to back seasons we take DE in the first round? NO, but that's me. There is certainly the case of, can you really have enough pass rushers? A lot of 6'2 DE's in this draft too. Seems smallish and not what the Bengals typically look for.

The way the talking heads were talking last night Latu is the best defender, period. That came out of no where but multiple guys were echoing it so there's some smoke there. As far as mocks go that's a major upset because Turner has been the first DE to go for a LONG time. Then someone added on they think Verse is the higher rated DE over Turner. Is any of this true? Who knows? But it would be kinda weird to only have 1 DL taken in the first 17 picks.

Here's another thought to ponder. Even if (that's a no) the Bengals and I happened to rank players exactly the same, just because I wouldn't take the 6th rated OT over the 3rd rated WR (or name your position) doesn't mean the Bengals won't as well. Maybe they value one position more than another (I think they do) or maybe this year they place a higher priority on need versus value. I think those things change from one season to the next to a degree.

This is why, JUST ONCE, I would like to be a fly on the wall of the Bengals draft room. I would love to have information on how and where they ranked guys. I said before, just because I think player X is the 5th best at his position, the Bengals probably see him differently. That difference is why we will or won't see player X get drafted. For example, I saw many outlets widely believe Myles Murphy was a top 10 talent last year heading into the draft. He was rated near the top of the DE class and many times #1. In looking at the 5 DE's that went in the first round last year, I would have rated him #1 as well. No chance he falls to the Bengals, sitting all the way down at #28. Then it happened, 27 teams, three of them that took a DE, passed on Murphy. WHY? To my point, being the fly on the wall would help, but I think it's simply that the Bengals rated him far higher than those teams that even took a DE and when he fell, it was a no brainer for them, even though many saw a TE or OT being taken there.

I went to take a look, because I was just curious, at which of the OT's thought to go in the 1st and 2nd round had the best athletic scores. It reminded me of a Goodberry video (I think) stating that a Bengals issue in drafting OT's is that they haven't drafted guys who scored well athletically. I looked and the average Bengals OT RAS score is 6.34. Anyway, as expected, you find Joe Alt as the #1 OT from an athletic perspective at a massive 9.93. The rest kind of surprised me, but I cannot say with any certainty I know what the variations between high and low are. Tyler Guyton 9.73 Patrick Paul 9.67 Taliese Fuaga 9.63 Troy Fautanu 9.62 Amarius Mims 9.59 Olumuyiwa Fashanu 9.58 Kingsley Suamataia 9.40 Jordan Morgan 9.25 JC Latham (Did not test) What does all that mean and how does it translate? Your guess is as good as mine, but there will probably be a talented OT available in the 2nd round.

Yeah, I was trying to game that out yesterday during some downtime at work. Just looking at various mocks and rankings, it seems like we can expect all of the following to be gone before the Bengals pick. QB: (4) Williams, McCarthy, Maye, Daniels WR: (3) Harrison Jr., Nabers, Odunze OT: (2) Alt, Fashanu TE: (1) Bowers DE: (1) Turner CB: (2) Arnold, Mitchell That’s 13 spots, so the question is, who are the four other guys that go before we get to 18? Latu and/or Verse? Three DEs have gone in the top 17 picks in both of the last two drafts, and both these guys are legit first-round prospects. Fuaga, Latham and Fautanu? Pete Schrager’s mock Tuesday at nfl.com had the nightmare scenario for Bengals fans, with Fuaga, Latham and Fautanu going 14, 15 and 16. Murphy/Newton? I can see both there at 18, but to echo Amphar, do all the teams in front of the Bengals pass on the top DT prospect in favor of the No. 4 or 5 OT prospect? Cooper DeJean? He’s gotten dinged in the rankings due to injury but some analysts like him more than Mitchell, so maybe he (or Mitchell) are still there. Thomas (or insert WR you like better here)? Even worse than OT you are down to the No. 4 WR by pick 14, so I can see whoever that guy is still there at 18. And then there are the interior OL guys like Powers-Johnson. They still pop up above 18 here and there. I have no answers, only guesses, and no one cares about those. All I know is that picks 14-17 are going to be nailbiters.

Holy shit, I heard that the other night. Not sure why YouTube saw fit to throw that into my recommended listening. Maybe they really do know me better than most !! Fun would be making a playlist of music from that era and slipping that one in the middle without warning !!

Whatever the difference is between what they should and will do is going to be predicated on what happens between picks 1-17 obviously. So while I sit here today and think they should take an OT at #18 and get them a season of working and learning, there are things that play into that. It has been mentioned before and I agree that I don't see them taking a lower ranked OT if all the others have been taken. However, what we think is the 4th or 5th best OT, probably will look different in the Bengals war room. Maybe they have Mims ranked 3rd best OT and he's there, which means they probably pull the trigger, regardless of if I think he's the 6th best OT. So if all the Bengals ranked OT's are gone, I don't see them reaching and I think there's at least a decent chance of that happening when looking at the needs of the teams picking ahead of us. The Giants, Chargers, Saints, Titans, Jets could all go o-line picking ahead of us. If that happens, which way do they go? If all those QB's and OT's go off the board, that's probably going to push a player down to them they were not expecting. Heck that seems to happen every year and the past two point to that with both Dax Hill and Myles Murphy being there when the Bengals pick. Again, I think OT and DT make sense, but won't say any of them NEED to be the pick at #18. I recently brought up WR and the more I think about what might happen, the more it makes sense to me for all the reasons I already gave. The biggest of those would be getting another true #1 they could lock into a rookie deal for the next 5 years. That's exactly what the WR room is going to need after Chase gets paid, so I wouldn't be shocked or upset in the least. I think there will be both OT's and DT's that could come in and get snaps this season, while needing a year to learn the system, get bigger, stronger, heal, or whatever that will be available in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. There will be WR's available later as well, so that can really throw things up in the air at #18 as well. Can't wait to see... ONE WEEK FROM TODAY !!!

Bengals have selected 67 players in the first round all time. Any decent stats person will tell that is a far cry from a decent sample size to make predictive conclusions. WR - 9 times (3 all time great Bengals) J'mar, AJ, Curtis OT - 8 times (2 all time greats) Munoz, and Willie DT/NT - 4 times ( just solid players) DE - 11 ( a lot of solid players) DB - 8 (surprisingly some solid players) J. Joe, Hall, Darly Williams, C/G - 5 times Zietler and blah. Blair Bush was good for a couple years. Remington played a while but was never up to hype LB - 9 times (ugly list, Takeo Spikes and Brian Simmons save the group) QB - 6 time (ugly except Burrow and I guess Palmer. RB - 4 times (ugly) TE - 3 times (ugly) save Eifert's one awesome year Downtown Eddie Brown and Tim McGee - 2nd tier probably made a couple pro bowls.

First round DT has always been a hard sell in the FO, and the last time they said yes they got the Big Daddy drama. They're going to a wide receiver, aren't they? You can just feel it coming, like the ripple in the atmosphere ahead of the meteor...

Did anyone else see Newton’s pro day attendance ?? A lot of scouts and coaches on hand for that one. Well, except the Bengals sent no one…

Tanking was the answer when Burrow went down. I will admit that there was some enjoyment in seeing them win some games, but this is the price.

Bearcats DL Jowon Briggs has a fan in Mike Brown. https://www.bengals.com/news/the-owner-the-prospect-and-jowon-briggs-lists-that-fuel-his-dreams

What’s frustrating is that the picture I’m starting to see (and hopefully my vision is far from 20/20 in this instance) is one where the Bengals are going to miss out on a top OT prospect that they badly need because they won a meaningless game against Cleveland’s scrubs in week 18 last season, so they are picking four slots lower than they would have with a loss. I can’t blame them, I get it, no one wants to lose and tanking to end the season would have presented its own issues. But still, this sucks.

Interesting

So I did a quick three rounder on pff with the rule that I had to take BPA, regardless of position. The result: 18. CB Cooper DeJean (8) 49. WR Troy Franklin (29) 80. LB Junior Colson (71) 97. DE Javon Solomon (91) The number after each name is where they were ranked on pff's big board. Surprisingly, I don't hate it. DeJean and Franklin are both fantastic talents and absolute steals at 18 and 29, respectively. Colson is a three-down LB with elite coverage skills. Yeah, yeah, I know we have Wilson and Pratt and they both looked like shit last year. Solmon would need time to bulk up a bit but he's a situational sack machine and the way our DE room always seems to get hit with injuries we can't have too many pass rushers. Notably, restricting myself to taking to top player regardless of position didn't require passing on any needs. There were never any OTs to be had without making major reaches (best in the first would have been Mims). Only time there was a DT available was the first (both Murphy and Newton). Mostly it was edge rushers, LBs and safeties that seemed to cluster around Cincy's picks. IF this bears any resemblance to the real thing I would think there would be some opportunities to trade around.

NFL network is doing cross promotions with ESPN on draft coverage. Last night they had the guru Mel Kiper on. Showed some of his old draft day clips. It just doesn't see like draft coverage until you here Mel's voice. Draft day was so much better to watch when it was up in New York. I don't mind Thursday but its such a kiss ass event right now. Too many "super fans" that love every single pick.

This interminable wait for this draft is infuriating. They’ve moved the draft way too late, it used to be earlier in the spring. There are teenagers on my lawn.

Good but loooong look at value.

I'd arbitrarily guess the probability of each position being the first round pick: OT > DT > [TE***] > CB > WR > DE > IOL > other ***only if Bowers is there I don't consider all of those true "needs", but the Bengals have shown a willingness to draft certain position groups highly regardless of need. And I am usually fine with that.