Bengals round out defensive-heavy draft with Jeffrey Gunter in 7th round

With their final selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, the Cincinnati Bengals took Coastal Carolina’s Jeffrey Gunter in the seventh round (252nd overall). This means that the stripes spent all but one of their six draft picks on defensive players.

Gunter played outside linebacker for the Chanticleers and didn’t have much of an issue getting after quarterbacks in the Sun Belt Conference, finishing with 5.5 sacks in 2021. Gunter also racked up 36 tackles with 8.5 of those coming for loss.

As Charlie Goldsmith noted in the tweet below, Gunter will probably be used as “more of a stand up edge rusher”.

The Draft Network listed Gunter’s ideal role as someone who plays on a lot of run plays and also noted:

"In the run game, Gunter mostly aligns outside of the offensive tackle and does a good job setting the edge to help force outside runs back inside toward the field. As a pass rusher, Gunter’s move is converting speed to power to collapse the pocket. In the NFL, Gunter should start his career off predominantly as a run-down defender while he continues to develop his pass rush repertoire in the NFL."

Bengals draft Jeffrey Gunter in 7th round

Despite all of the noise we heard about the Bengals potentially wanting to add help at wide receiver or maybe improve at tight end, the stripes fixated on making their defense stronger. Defense wins championships after all.

Gunter is an intriguing seventh-round pick who should be able to find the field for the Bengals. He was a key contributor for the Chanticleers during their high-profile seasons and despite playing outside linebacker for Coastal Carolina, will likely line up at defensive end for Cincinnati, at least according to Zac Taylor.

That’s it for the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2022 NFL Draft. Jeffrey Gunter is the sixth and final pick for them this year.

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What are your thoughts on this selection?