This is a little bit overdue, but I went back earlier in the summer and watched all of the Bengals 2020 draft picks. I was a little slow writing it up, but I finally managed to sum up my takes on each pick.
First round: Joe Burrow, QB LSU
The 2019 season through the 2020 offseason was a surreal experience as a Bengals fan. It started with the cliff looming of the end of the Andy Dalton era. They had a new young coaching regime. Dalton’s career was past its peak and it was nearly unanimously agreed upon that both player and team needed a new direction. A change in 2020 was going to happen. Then the season started and all of the permutations shuffled endlessly through our heads (or maybe this is just my crazy mind we’re scrolling through here)...
Tua or Herbert. Herbert or Tua.
Tua obviously.
Is Herbert any good?
It’s Tua or bust.
are they bad enough to get a top QB pick?
Are they good enough to get one win?
Can they win one but not too many?
Did the Dolphins win? Did the Redskins win? Did the Jets win? Did the Giants win?-week1, week 2, week 3...
Uh oh Tagovailo got hurt.. they are going to get stuck with Herbert.
Tagovailoa is back!
Now he’s hurt again... bad this time.
Oh no, this Burrow guy is coming out of nowhere. He’s exactly the sort of flash in the pan the Bengals usually get duped into taking.
The Bengals made a miracle comeback against the Dolphins.. and still lost to secure the number one pick!
Burrow’s magical run has blossomed into the greatest season in college football history and one of the top stories in sports.
Burrow has the right personality with Ohio ties and everyone is all in on him as a franchise QB prospect.. Maybe he’s the right guy after all.
Uh oh, the Bengals are coaching Herbert in the senior bowl. Are they going to do something stupid?
The media is trying to goade Burrow into going rogue on the Bengals. He seems like he’s not taking the bait...
And on and on and on until Somehow, it all worked out. It feels right. Like for once, the universe is on our side and a renaissance is about to happen. It was a winding road but eventually we found the treasure at the end of the rainbow: a spring full of unbridled pre draft and post draft optimistic talk about Joe Burrow the budding franchise star and the the bright future Bengals. Soak it all in while it lasts because it almost never does. The ‘88 Bengals dream season didn’t. Cincincimnati’s ‘92 final four run and the Kenyon Martin run didn’t. In my lifetime Only the 1990 Reds managed to see it through to total bliss, and aside from that, this might be the second greatest moment of my sports fandom with the chance to move up one slot if Burrow’s career is what we think it could be.. or drop down lower if he busts.
But let’s set Aside speculation on the range of outcomes for how his talents will or won’t translate into career success to confront a much bigger potential foe to our sports happpiness. Not a lot of people are talking about it but Joe Burrow’s first and biggest obstacle to overcome might be a more formidable force than a rookie has faced in a long time:
The Curse of Bengals Rookie First Round Draft Picks!!!
It has lurked in the shadows for years terrorizing the franchise over and over again. Think about it. When’s the last time the Bengals Have had a rookie first rounder making anything close to resembling a positive contribution to the team? Here are the gory details:
Jonah Williams 16 games missed - injury
Billy Price 6 games missed - injury
John Ross 13 games missed - injury
William Jackson 16 games missed - injury
Cedric ogbuehi 11 games missed - injury
Darqueze Dennard - he only technically missed 2 games but he logged less than five defensive snaps in 10 games.
Tyler Eiffert only 1 missed game in year one!!.. but given what happened to him after that I’ll include him as an honorary victim of the curse.
Dre Kirkpatrick 10 games missed - injury
Kevin zeitler 0 games missed and 16 glorious starts at right guard!!!!
There’s your lucky winner folks. I was in a hospital holding my newborn daughter the last time the Bengals draftEd a player in the first round that Didn’t stink or have crappy luck at the beginning of their career. She just turned eight years old. Here’s to hoping Burrow can break the curse. Somebody wrap that boy in bubble wrap!
Second round: Tee Higgins, WR Clemson
As a draft fan, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of hoping for a particular player leading up to a pick and having your team pick the guy you want. I was angling for a talented new weapon to pair with Burrow and I wasn’t disappointed. I liked Denzel Mims a little better due to his speed and higher ceiling, but Higgins was definitely number two on my wish list heading into day 2.
Draft analysts are fairly polarized on Higgins with well-respected names on both sides of the fence. The doubters see Higgins as a contested catch receiver who has limitations beating coverage and wasn’t a good value at pick 33 where the Bengals likely had multiple suitors to trade down. The believers point to his yards per catch numbers and think he has enough athleticism to at least develop into a WR2 if not more.
Here’s how I break it down. His lack of high end short area quickness and acceleration give me pause when considering whether he can elevate into the elite WR tier. But just because he doesn’t have explosive speed doesn’t mean he’s slow and unathletic. His frame makes him look slow but he has long speed. Watching him play I refuse to believe that he can’t beat secondaries deep. Beyond that the discussion shifts to whether he can get open on short to intermediate routs. Open? Yes. Will he be potent? That’s a little trickier. His long physical frame and rout running skills will make up for his inability to burst off the snap to put defenders on their heels. He will be able to get open but unless he has a decent runway, his run after catch ability will likely be limited. He will need coaches and teammates to ascend to the next level. I will concede he’s probably never going to be a trump card that even double teams struggle to contain but in the right hands he can be a pro bowl receiver.
The play that best boils it all down for me is the end around in the national championship game. If Clemson would have given Higgins the ball on a short pass , the defense would have swarmed and the probability of much more than a five or six yard gain most likely would have been pretty low. Instead the Clemson coaches called the right play at the right time running right with an RB the defense had to respect and then pitching to Higgins running left. Against an LSU defense with multiple to p 60 picks higgins takes the ball, sprints across the field, and beats pursuit to the sideline. You see that deceptive speed causing Grant Delpit to take a bad angle then Higgins turns up field and none of the linebackers can catch up. Finally standout CB Kristian Fulton cuts him off 30 yards downfield and throws a shoulder into Higgins with a full head of steam. Higgins not only absorbs the contact but Fulton more or less bounces off and crumbles to the ground and Higgins, barely looking like he even hit a speed bump, keeps trucking down the sideline into the end zone for a 45 yard touchdown gallop.
Size, speed and power wrapped up in one nice package.
Am I excited if he’s the centerpiece of the offense? No, that’s not Higgins. Do I think he can make impact plays if Green and Boyd can stay on the field distracting defenses and develop into a potent wr2 if they snag someone like J’marr Chase next year to come in and eventually take over the WR1 role? Dingdingdingdingdingding!
Round 3: Logan Wilson, LB Wyoming
A lot of draft analysts are high on this pick. I think Wilson could be decent but I’m hesitant to endorse him as a sure-fire long time contributor to the defense.
He has plenty of size at 240 lbs. to hold up as a middle linebacker and based on his 10 career interceptions and background as a former DB he can contribute in coverage.
My question is how his athleticism will measure up on an NFL field. As a three-year captain that racked up hundreds of tackles at Wyoming and was honored as a finalist for top college linebacker last year, he certainly boasts the pedigree. Watching his games I just didn’t see a guy that jumped off the page as much as I was expecting for such a highly decorated player going against lower end college football competition. Can he get sideline to sideline quick enough? Is he fast enough to patrol the middle of the field effectively in an NFL pass defense? From what I saw I’m nervous.
His straight line speed is there. Ask him to come downhill to attack and he’ll scrape through the trash to get to the ball and make a play. His ability to read and defend short passing plays will be a major plus for a defense that is routinely skewered by the screen game. If the play stretches wide, it’s his lateral movement that might cause problems.
Round 4 Akeem Davis-Gaither LB Appalachian State
It didn’t take long watching Davis-Gaither play for me to be all in on this pick. He’s got greasy fast speed and he knows how to use it. He identifies quickly and engages immediately often beating blockers to their spot. They turn to put their hands on him and he’s already on his way to the ball carrier.
What’s the catch? Well, he’s 220 lbs. will he hold up? Watching him slip around blockers that have him in their sights and then dart back to the action with silky smooth cuts that would make a wide receiver jealous.. I say yes. Now, according to camp reports he’s taking on guards head on and delivering bone jarring jolts. If he has the strength to keep blockers honest to go with the speed and agility to go around them.. watch out.
At 6’2” he has the frame to add weight. In a league that is sacrificing size for speed at most positions I’m really excited about this pick.. maybe we even have a candidate to be anointed as my favorite Bengal after A.J. Green and William Jackson sadly don’t get contract extensions and Geno Atkins eventually calls it quits.
This third to fourth round sequence looks like a classic right players wrong order situation to me. Swap Davis -Gaither into the third and take Wilson in the fourth and it makes a lot more sense. Then again, the fourth round has been magical for Cincy in years past. Maybe it was just meant to be.
Fifth round: Khalid Kareem, DE Notre Dame
I don’t have a ton to say about Kareem. He made enough plays in the games I watched that I like having him on the roster but not enough to where I think they have a sure-fire replacement in the fold for Dunlap. Can he develop to where the flashes he shows are consistent? I have my doubts. More likely his ceiling is as a solid backup, but for a fifth rounder that’s not necessarily anything to turn your nose up at.
Sixth Round: Hakeem Adeniji, OT Kansas
Going into the draft I was hoping they’d prioritize offensive line a little higher than this. Their suspect O-line is one of the few things dampening the year one Joe Burrow optimism among league analysts. , but now I’m cautiously starting to buy in that they know what they’re doing and their eye sore offensive line is going to surprise some people. They assembled their staff so late in the hiring cycle last year everything was thrown together in a bit of a rush as the draft/scouting/free agency seasons were kicking into high gear. For a team that relies on its coaches heavily to scout for the draft, it’s not surprising things were rough around the edges. Throw in losing two OT’s in the preseason and having the guards that they were counting on to start cycle in and out with minor injuries early in the year and all of a sudden you have toxic sludge paving the way up front. Yet, half way through the year, they got their feet back under them and all of a sudden they went from feeble to feisty in a hurry.
Now they’ve had a full offseason to mold their roster and hone their scheme. While most people look at it and see a scrap heap of a line full of players that are either unproven or proven to be bad, the team seems confident they can sculpt a unit that performs better than the sum of its parts. Against my better judgment, I’m starting to buy in. Although better guard and RT talent would help me sleep better at night, prioritizing a weapon for Burrow and a youthful injection into the middle of the defense might be the right move at this point of the roster rebuild.
That brings us to Adeniji. If they were going to wait until the sixth round for a lineman, I’m fairly sure this is about as good as you could have hoped for. The thing that jumps out with Adeniji is his frame and power. His legs are like tree trunks. He’s good at getting push and driving off the snap. What’s the typical natural flaw for a big powerful anchor? Speed and mobility. Adeniji isn’t a lost cause on this front by any means. He can slide and move alright, but I did see him struggle a little when rushers would go hard around the edge. He survived most of it but how well can he develop facing bigger stronger competition? Overall, I think he’ll eventually start a significant amount of games for the Bengals. He’ll get a shot at OT, but I think he’ll end up at guard.
Round 7: Markus Bailey, LB Purdue
In the seventh round here they’re rolling the dice to see if a player with great traits and a significant injury history can bounce back to regain his athleticism. If you watch a highlight reel of Bailey you can really see what they’re chasing, but in the 2019 footage I watched of him he looked a little rigid like he wasn’t all the way back (and that was before the latest injury). For now, he showed enough to make the roster. We’ll see if he can hang around special teams for a couple years and work his way up the ladder
