Renell Wren Landed in the Perfect Spot

Bengals fourth round pick Renell Wren could have the most upside in Cincinnati’s entire draft class.

The Bengals selected Arizona State defensive tackle Renell Wren in the fourth round of the 2019 draft. Given the defensive line room he is walking into, Wren is primed to prosper in Cincinnati.

As you can see in snippets of the video below from the Scouting the NFL Draft YouTube channel, Wren’s initial burst off the ball is already fantastic. That alone should earn him some kind of spot in the defensive line rotation right away.

The biggest knock on Wren is that he does not really know how to rush the passer yet. He only played one here as a starter in college.

Rushing the passer is an absolute must in the modern NFL. Every player along any defensive front seven will eventually be asked to get after the quarterback at some point.

Enter Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap. In addition to doing everything right off the field, the veteran pass rushing duo has a combined 143.5 career sacks. Even last year while the defensive unit as a whole was atrocious, the pair still combined for 18 sacks.

For an incoming rookie like Wren who has a pass rushing deficiency, but freakish raw ability, there is no better place to have landed than Cincinnati.

Having spent nearly all of his time in college on the interior line, Atkins is probably a better best case scenario apples to apples comparison for Wren than Dunlap. Still, the former Sun Devil couldn’t have asked for a better pair pass of rushers to watch and learn from.

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