Bengals select Orlando Brown Jr. in Bleacher Report “draft do-over”
The Cincinnati Bengals haven’t done a very good job of drafting offensive linemen in recent years. One of the more recent examples of this was in 2018 when the team struck out with their first-round selection of Billy Price when they could have had Orlando Brown Jr.
In Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report’s “draft do-over”, he gave teams another chance to hit the reset button and try again in one of their drafts over the past decade. For Cincinnati, he had them passing on Price and going with Brown instead.
Davenport wrote:
"They missed badly on offensive tackle Cedric Ogbuehi in 2015. A few years later, the team wasted the same pick (No. 21 overall) on Ohio State’s Billy Price, who has been a liability at both guard and center.It’s that later draft we’re pulling Cincy’s do-over from—and it’s yet another player being pilfered from the Chiefs.The Chiefs didn’t draft tackle Orlando Brown Jr.—he was acquired in a trade with the Baltimore Ravens. But since Baltimore took Brown in the third round in 2018, he has been a mauler in the run game and capable in pass protection. He also has extensive experience playing both tackle spots.As it turns out, Brown’s disastrous showing at the 2018 combine was much ado about nothing."
Orlando Brown Jr. joins the Bengals in a “draft do-over”
As Davenport mentioned, Brown had a rough showing at the combine during his draft year and that led to him slipping to the third round where division-rival Baltimore eventually scooped him up.
Brown went on to play right tackle during his first two years in Baltimore and then moved to left tackle in 2020 when Ronnie Stanley was forced to miss time. Brown had wanted to play left tackle all along so when it became clear that he wouldn’t get his wish in Baltimore, the Ravens shipped him off to Kansas City for an extra first-round pick in last year’s draft.
Brown helped the Chiefs rebuild an offensive line that looked putrid in the Super Bowl loss to the Buccaneers, serving as their left tackle in all but one regular-season game. He’s now shown that he can be a solid option on both the left side of the line and the right side of the line and the Bengals sure could have used that.
The good news is that Cincinnati has put in work to improve their o-line for the 2022 season and hopefully beyond. Had they had a mediocre o-line this past season, they probably are the reigning Super Bowl champions right now but hey, maybe this needed to happen to ensure that they can stay competitve for the next decade.
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What do you think, Bengals fans? If you could hit the reset button and draft someone the Bengals ended up passing on, who would it be?