Bold Predictions for the Cincinnati Bengals’ 2020 Draft

Every year the NFL Draft is filled with surprises. Here, I make six bold predictions for how the Bengals’ draft will unfold.

There should be no uncertainty about the Cincinnati Bengals’ first overall pick. Joe Burrow is bound to be selected first in the upcoming NFL Draft. Once the second round is reached, the path for Cincinnati becomes less predictable.

It can be hard to predict what surprises are coming in the draft. I took a shot at predicting six things that will surprise Bengals fans about the upcoming draft.

A player projected to go Top 20 will fall to Pick #33

The 33rd pick in the NFL Draft is a valuable one. Being the first pick of the second round, there are always at least one or two players available who no one expected to be. The draft is crazier than any mock draft you’ll find online, and things never shake out the way people expect.

Take the 2019 Draft as an example. Players like Jawaan Taylor and Drew Lock were projected to go in the top 20 picks of just about any mock draft you could find. Yet at the end of the first round, both players had yet to be selected.

This can work to the Bengals’ advantage in a number of ways. They could find themselves with a slam dunk pick at the top of the second round and add a very valuable piece to their newly renovated roster. They could also use the pick as a bargaining chip with teams that highly covet whatever player fell, this could potentially get them another Day 2 pick.

So who could fall? That’s a little harder to predict. No one currently expects a player like Henry Ruggs III to fall out of the first round, but with a loaded class at wide receiver the speedster from Alabama could be a name to watch out for. There are four or five offensive tackles projected to go in the top 20 this year, one of them could fall out of the first round similar to the previously mentioned Jawaan Taylor.

The loaded wide receiver and offensive tackle groups could also have the opposite effect on the results of the draft and there could be a run on those positions in the first round. If that were to happen, prospects like Javon Kinlaw, Kristian Fulton, or C.J. Henderson could be surprise names to fall to the second round.

The possibilities for the 33rd pick are exciting. Expect the unexpected for who might be available when the Bengals are on the clock.