Bengals OT Prospects at 6 Dimming?

The chances that the Cincinnati Bengals would have to reach for an offensive tackle with the sixth overall pick in the April draft appear to be rising. As a fan of B.J. Raji, I’m all in favor of taking him at six, but again, I’m less concerned about precisely who the Bengals take than I am about them reaching to fill a need and passing up better players in the process. The bottom line is that the Bengals have needs everywhere, and no matter who they select, they’ll be upgrading at some position.

Mike Mayock favors Brian Orapko over Raji at six, which works just fine for me. I simply have a tough time seeing the Bengals pour another $50 million into DE when they’re already spending $60 million there on Robert Geathers and Antwan Odom. But if that means they shift Geathers back to the kind of pure pass-rushing role in which he garnered 10.5 sacks in 2006, taking Orapko could definitely upgrade Cincy’s ability to get to the QB even though Orapko himself isn’t seen as a big-time sack artist.

John Thornton, also a Raji fan, nonetheless argues against him at six since it would mean sitting either Pat Sims or Domata Peko, and “[i]s BJ better than either Pat or Peko?” Like John, I don’t know the answer, either, but I do know this: at the Senior Bowl, Jacksonville’s coaching staff was scheming against Raji from the first snap. When was the last time anyone heard of an opposing coaching staff having to scheme against any Bengals tackle? I like both Sims and Peko — in fact I defended Peko’s big-bucks extension last offseason — but I don’t think they’re keeping any offensive coordinators around the league up at night.

One interesting leaf to add to the tea is the Bengals’ reported interest in Ducks OT Fenuki Tupou. I’m sure it’s just a case of interviewing as many tackle prospects as they can, but it also underlines just how murky things are becoming for the OT position at the top of round one.