Bengals Draft: Grading the fourth-round selection of Cordell Volson

The Cincinnati Bengals‘ draft continued on Saturday and in the fourth round, the stripes spent the 136th overall pick on Cordell Volson, an offensive tackle out of North Dakota State.

While Volson played tackle during his time with the Bison, he’ll be kicked inside to guard with the Bengals. Frank Pollack already confirmed that this would be the case and it means that the left guard position has some more competition for the starting job.

Prior to the Volson selection, the guard position consisted of Jackson Carman (last year’s second-round pick), Hakeem Adeniji, and potentially last year’s fourth-rounder D’Ante Smith as well. Needless to say, the Bengals needed depth at guard and Volson gives them just that.

Bengals Draft: What grade does Cordell Volson pick deserve?

Fans weren’t exactly thrilled with this selection, as many felt as though it was a reach. I’ll admit that I was bummed to see Cincinnati pass on Darian Kinnard out of Kentucky to go with Volson here (Kinnard fell to the Chiefs early in the fifth round, which is amazing value for them) but clearly, they felt as though Volson was the right man for their offensive line.

There’s only one starting job on the new-look offensive line that is vacant and that’s at left guard. It felt like Carman’s job to lose but with the disheartening news surrounding him, it was a wise move for the Bengals to draft an offensive lineman who might be able to slide into that starting job if need be.

Volson played left and right tackle at North Dakota State and offers plenty of versatility to the Bengals even if they plan to play him at guard. The pick might have seemed like a reach and there looked to be better players on the board but the position feels an area of need for sure.

I’ll give the selection of Cordell Volson a C. What grade are you giving the pick?