2020 Mock Draft has the Cincinnati Bengals selecting a quarterback

It’s still August 2019 and the Cincinnati Bengals have yet to play a football game. However, it is never too early for a mock draft, and one has the Bengals taking a quarterback early in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Go easy Andy Dalton fans. Some early 2020 NFL Draft projections have the Cincinnati Bengals selecting a quarterback early next spring. That’s right, according to Draft Wire, the Bengals would be selecting third overall and drafting Tua Tagovailoa from Alabama.

Now to be clear, the draft position of the teams in the piece were based on current Super Bowl odds. Basically, the Bengals would have to go completely upside down to be selecting so early. Might happen, might not.

But after an evening of preseason football where we saw players like Baker Mayfield and the debut of Kyler Murray, youth is becoming the theme of the position. In New York, Daniel Jones was perfect in his debut, literally, adding to a debate already raging about how much longer Eli Manning will be able to hold on to his starting gig.

Don’t forget, Eli has bagged a couple of Super Bowls. Bengals fans should sense a theme here.

Hey, if Dalton can resurrect the ship, then head coach Zac Taylor won’t have a tough decision to make. Maybe Taylor is the spark plug Dalton and the Bengals need to pull out of the doldrums that is NFL football in Cincinnati.

Might happen, might not.

But if we have seen one thing that started last season, it’s the kind of quarterback play inspired by wide open offenses. The problem with Dalton is he may not fit the part. In Kansas City, Cleveland, New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and now in Arizona, QB play is all the rage. It’s uptempo and undeniable in what the end results can be.

Is that a sense felt in Cincinnati? Bengals fans are smart. They know the record, they watch what is happening in their own division. It’s a generational shift that eventually catches everyone.

So, if things don’t go well in 2019, don’t fret. The quarterback class of 2020 has not just potential, but the kind of players that might lift football out of the cellar in Cincinnati.