Preseason is almost over! The Bengals staff took some swings throughout draft weekend. Some will hit. Some won’t. Time to hash through what i think of each pick and their chances of contributing in the years to come. Let’s start with round 1.
Oh what might have been: round 1
The Brock Bowers dream lasted to pick 13! It wasn’t real close. 13 was probably the outer fringes of where they could have started thinking about moving up if they really wanted a specific player, but they have always opted more for patience. It would have been tricky if it ended up being two or three picks away, but we were only mildly taunted.
Overall, round 1 played out about as good as Cincy fans could have hoped for. Six QB’s flew off the board almost instantly morphing their 18th overall pick into a top 12 pick.
A small piece of me held out hope of Fuaga slipping a little but it wasn’t too realistic. There was a lot of talk of DL as an option and the run right before they picked might seem disappointing from a curiosity standpoint, but for me it was relief more than anything. Edge seemed like a bad fit for their roster LAST year i can’t imagine if they had done it again already. DT is a sore need, but i wasn’t that high on Byron Murphy this early. Instead they found a way to mash up their short term needs and their long term needs in one ginormous 340 lb. package to set on Joe Burrow’s doorstep with a beautiful red bow on it.
QRound 1: 18th Overall
Amarius Mims OT Georgia 6’7 340 lbs
I don’t think i’m going to say anything here that a hundred people haven’t already said. He’s gigantic. He’s built well. His movement skills are above average for his size. His game tape looks like a first round prospect. He hasn’t played a ton and he has missed some time due to injury. If he had 10 more games on his resume and didn’t have ankle surgery last year he goes 10 picks higher. JC Latham is a similar size with more than 30 games played and he went 7th overall to the Titans. But he doesn’t move quite as well as Mims and has some catching up to do preparing his body for NFL play. I think the Bengals had to make this move here.
They had a rare opportunity to draft the top corner in the class with a few different legit CB1 prospects available (Quinyon Mitchell seems like an @$$ kicker. Nate Wiggins is light but ultra talented).
Jer’Zhan Newton got a lot of buzz amongst Bengals pundits as a penetrating DT with advanced pass rush moves, but i had him as more of a early day 2 option and most of the league apparently agreed.
It was early for WR factoring in need and talent available. I had most of the remaining picks as late round 1 or round 2 types (Except Devontez Walker!!.. but he lasted until the middle of the fourth round so i’m just going to have to agree to disagree and wait and see on him).
They needed to finally inject some high end talent into the offensive line. They should have found a way to do it two years ago. They were due, and i think they found a great fit.
Graham Barton (Duke) and Troy Fautanu (Washington) are the two other OL guys i would have considered here. Barton is just a tough strong dude that gives everyone hell that he goes up against. I actually had him rated a little higher than Mims even. I think he fits a little more of what the Bengals need RIGHT now. He’s capable at tackle but you can picture him slotting in anywhere with five position versatility. The Bengals need a swing tackle right now and future RT, but they also don’t have a great option for a backup guard or center. Barton would have been a five-birds -with-one-stone kind of pick but he’s 310 lbs. with just under 33” arms. I get them opting instead for the 340 pounder with 36” arms to potentially take the reigns as their anchor to build the line around for the next decade.
Fautanu i had rated a little lower than Mims. He doesn’t have quite as much potential as Mims and doesn’t have as much versatility as Barton.
Overall, i like what they did here. I feel better about the tackle depth short term and long term than i have since … they had Andrew Whitworth? They found the right free agent to bridge the gap between tomorrow and whenever Mims is ready. They found a prospect that they can groom, but also throw into the fire in a pinch. They had a lot of options and i think they landed in the right spot.
Nonsense Football Announcer Quote of the week:
Watching game cut ups you catch announcer small talk out of context and it always makes me laugh…
A: “This is nutty!”
B: “It seems very unsafe but..”
A: “HAA hahahah Right!
B: “You got these guys running no shoes on. You see the young lady out in the front just boing people out of the way to go get her DUCK!”
That’s all for me. Next up, Bengals draft day 2 breakdown.
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