Bengals Draft Depot

My ideal draft for the Bengals this year would involve trading down. There's so many good prospects in this draft I'd love it if the Bengals had 8 or 9 picks by the end of the 4th round. I believe teams with this many picks will be set up to have great depth for a bargain for the next 5 years atleast.

My dream scenario for the Bengals would be if Dez Bryant fell to them and say Tampa Bay who needs a WR in the biggest way wanted to move up to get him and would be willing to trade their 42nd pick to go along with the 35th to move up to 21. And then package their 4th round pick with a 5th and 7th to move up into the early 3rd to a team like Chicago that doesn't have that many picks in this draft. 2nd and 3rd round picks are like gold in this year's draft as teams will be getting 1st round talent at 2nd and 3rd round prices. If the Bengals were able to pull these 2 trades off, which wouldn't be impossible, they would own the 35th,42nd,54th,75th,84th, and 96th pick. That's 6 picks in the first 100, two 2nd rounders and two 3rd rounders. This could set this team up with great depth for a long time and make the Bengals one of those teams that's in the playoffs every year.

Here's how I would spend those picks with 10 days to go until the draft. ( I'll probably do 2 more of these hypotheticals before the draft)

35th- Golden Tate,WR,Notre Dame: Tate would be an excellent player to put into the slot that could also move to the outside if there's injury. Chad,Bryant,and Tate would be an excellent trio of WR's plus Tate is a great kick returner.

42nd- Nate Allen,FS,South Florida: I actually like Allen more than Mays and so do alot of GM's. Allen is a do it all Safety that can cover deep and intermediate routes. Also he can come up and play the run.

54th- LaMarr Houston,DT,Texas: Houston can actually play any spot on the line and that kind of versatility makes him extremely valuable. His game tape is terrific and the tape doesn't lie. He's always in the backfield and would give the Bengals that interior pass rush that's been missing. There's no way I could let the entire 2nd round go by without taking atleast one lineman, as my belief is draft early and often on either line.

75th- Jon Asomoah,OG,Illinois: he may be gone and if so John Jerry would be the pick. But walterfootball has him going after this spot and they're usually close, plus Guards tend to slide a little bit. Asomoah is the best interior lineman behind Iupati and Pouncey. He'd be an immediate upgrade for the LG position and the Bengals O line would be extremely deep and the starting 5 would be one of the best, if not the best, in the NFL.

84th- Anthony McCoy,TE,USC: Rumor is his stock is slipping with teams and that's fine by me. It's perceived that he can't get seperation, but I've watched a ton of tape on him and he gets fine seperation. He's got good size and speed and has great hands. His blocking is above average and probably the best of TE's that can catch. He can get downfield and go up and get the ball. I think he'd be an excellent addition and most likely the immediate starter. People have this guy underrated and quite a few mocks have him lasting this long, most in fact.

96th- Montario Hardesty,RB,Tennessee: with most of the needs met already the Bengals can take one of the best available and provide insurance for Benson. Hardesty is a big powerful runner and would be a good fit with the Bengals pound the rock mentality. Plus Benson's contract is up and if he wants too much money let him walk or franchise him and trade him. The good teams have back up plans and put them to action instead of shelling out huge contracts, especially with RB's whose NFL life expectancy is minimal.

With their 4th round comp pick I'd take Myron Lewis to play nickel corner and he provides versatility to be able to move to Safety if needed. This would be an excellent draft for the Bengals for 4 rounds. With their remaining pick an OLB would be ideal, but if someone falls they should jump on him as Jeanty is in house for another year and OLB is not a pressing need right now. Or if there's a kicker they like, use the pick on him as with those 7 picks prior it'd be hard for another player to make the 53 man roster and i'm definitely not sold on Rayner.