2021 NFL Draft

[ShulaSteakhouse]

Yikes.  What a disaster Houston is right now.  No 1st or 2nd round picks this year, they use their 3rd rounder on a QB, despite having 3 veterans already, even though their franchise QB may be headed to prison.

 

[HoosierCat]

They say it takes three years to grade a draft, so here we are again, back in April 2021 and a draft whose talent level was heavily impacted by covid, and which for Bengals fans featured The Big Debate: Chase or Sewell?

Good times, good times. So, how'd they do?

Round 1/pick 5: WR Ja'Marr Chase. Yeah, that one worked out okay, didn't it? A+ here.

2/14: OT Jackson Carman. Insert sad trombone sound here. Complete bust. F

3/5: DE Joseph Ossai. Ossai has shown flashes but is constantly hurt. Not sure how many more chances he's going to get. Gentleman's C I guess.

4/6: DE Cam Sample. Turned out to be a great find in the fourth round. Solid rotational contributor in the d-line. B+

4/17: DT Tyler Shelvin. Covid had stripped the DT class and the Bengals took a shot on the big guy, but it didn't pan out. Last seen getting released by Tennessee last September. Will give this one a D just because it was a longshot from the start.

4/34: OT D'Ante Smith. Career backup/teams guy. Maybe a C?

5/5: K Evan McPherson. And it's good! That's an easy A.

6/6: C Trey Hill. Teams guy mainly. But it's round 6, what do you expect? B? C? I dunno. At least he contributes.

6/18: RB Chris Evans. He's made some plays, but we've seen so little of him and he keeps getting buried behind new arrivals like Chase Brown. Again no idea really what grade to give, maybe an incomplete.

7/7: DE Wyatt Hubert. Tore a pec and missed his whole rookie season, retired the next year, unretired the year after that and tried to make a comeback with KC, now apparently a medical sales rep per linkedin. Grade: who cares.

Overall: three years later, this feels like a B-/C+ draft. Chase is a golden god, but they faceplanted in round 2, 3 is looking iffy, and they went 1/3 on three fourths. Might bump it up to a solid B since they did get some value after, particularly McPherson, and as noted above the talent pool was shallow due to covid.

[AMPHAR]

Its an A.   McPherson and Chase are among the top 5 in their positions, I guess.   Each have provided historic moments already.   This alone, IMO, would be hard to grade lower than an A.

Then several depth pieces that will be entering 4th season and a few will still earn spots.   

 

[ArmyBengal]

I keep forgetting Chris Evans is on this team.

Sad, because he always seems to be solid to above average during the preseason and then is AWOL during the regular season.
I've just gotten use to forgetting who he is.

Grade the draft?
Yeah, I'm with a higher side of this as well.
Make it a B+ for me.  Chase is a superstar and having a kicker banging from 50+ and expecting him to hit is massive.
I would like for some more depth out of a class, but that's not really that bad.
Hell, as much as I don't like Carman, he had a monster game against the Bills in the divisional playoffs.
Too bad we haven't gotten much more.

[ArmyBengal]

No matter how many times I look at the draft and free agency, I come away with 3 certainties.

However they want to approach it, they need a RT, DT and TE.
I want those three positions in whatever order they so desire.

I also won't care if they give up draft capital to get the guy they want earlier.
Although, a trade down would never shock me from this team.