With Super Bowl LVI still a week away, there’s still plenty of time for mock drafts. In this Cincinnati Bengals mock draft, the team actually doesn’t address the offensive line, at least not in the first two rounds.
In this scenario, I had the stripes focusing on other needs and that’d only happen if the team spent money in free agency on offensive linemen, which will hopefully happen. We saw how much of a difference it made this season and while some fans roll their eyes at the thought of Bengals ownership spending money in free agency, it happened before so let’s hope it happens again.
Let’s dive right into the three-round mock draft, shall we? I put this together using The Draft Network’s mock draft simulator.
Round 1: Pick 31 – Devonte Wyatt, IDL (Georgia)
As mentioned above, I went into this mock expecting the team to add key offensive linemen in free agency. Hopefully they do just that because there weren’t any offensive linemen still on the board worth taking in the first round.
Instead, Cincinnati goes with a player on the defensive front, adding Georgia’s Devonte Wyatt to their improved defense.
Wyatt finished his National Championship season with 39 tackles (seven for loss), 2.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, and one defended pass. He was a big part of what made that Bulldog defense so scary and the Bengals would be lucky to have him on board.
The Draft Network notes that Wyatt can line up pretty much anywhere along the line of scrimmage and that makes him such an appealing prospect. If the Bengals end up losing Larry Ogunjobi in free agency, Wyatt would be a terrific replacement upfront on the defensive side of the ball.