Draft season is upon us ladies and gentlemen! With the NFL Draft less than a month away, I thought it would be a good time to drop a full 7 round mock; with trades! But this year, I wanted to do it a bit differently. Instead of your basic 7 round mock where you scroll through pages of picks and find your team’s selections with relatively no commentary, I decided to break the mock-up and do an article on each individual team’s haul! Giving you a breakdown of what each team brought in and how I think it could help. So without further adieu, let’s kick things off!
With the 5th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals select…
- Penei Sewell, OT, Oregon(1st round)
- Jayson Oweh, DE, Penn St(2nd round)
- Quinn Meinerz, OL, Wisconsin-Whitewater(3rd round)
- Cameron McGrone, LB, Michigan(4th round)
- Tre’ McKitty, TE, Georgia(5th round)
- Devin Taylor, CB, Virginia Tech(6th round)
- Josh Imatorbhebhe, WR, Illinois(6th round)
- Joe Black, OL, Wisconsin(7th round)
Rumor has it that the Bengals may pivot and take Ja’Marr Chase to pair with his former teammate Joe Burrow, but I believe that is a huge mistake. Don’t get me wrong, I love Chase! But they NEED to protect their franchise QB first and foremost. Boyd+Higgins with Mixon in the backfield is plenty of firepower for now.
With that said, the Bengals select Penei Sewell who I believe is the best OT in the draft. This kid is a big, athletic freak that can anchor their offensive line for the next decade. They can flip their tackles around as needed, but Sewell is the guy that can protect Burrow’s blindside for nearly his entire career. You CAN’T pass that up. The Bengals also landed a solid interior lineman in Meinerz to help bolster this line. From there, they snagged a very athletic TE in Tre’ McKitty out of Georgia and a WR with a ton of upside in Josh Imatorbhebhe who put up a huge pro day!
In the 2nd round, the Bengals land Jayson Oweh; a freakishly talented DE. This kid has been talked about going in the 1st round but with less than ideal production, he slips to the Bengals in the early second for a huge steal! They also bolster their linebacker core with Cameron McGrone who is high on many people’s rankings.
Overall, the Bengals don’t make that “splash” play that will have everyone losing their mind. But what they do is improve their team a great deal. Their offensive line will be set for Burrow and be much better in the run game while adding talent and depth to the defensive side of the ball. If the goal is to improve your team through the draft, the Bengals did that very well here!
