Every Bengals first-round draft pick since 2000

2010 NFL Draft: Jermaine Gresham, TE (Oklahoma)

With the 21st pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Bengals drafted Jermaine Gresham, a tight end out of Oklahoma. He played for the Bengals for five seasons and put up pretty good numbers each year and made the Pro Bowl in 2011 and 2012.

Gresham finished his Bengals career with 280 receptions for 2,722 yards and 24 touchdowns. After his rookie contract was up, Gresham signed with the Cardinals where he played for the final four years of his career. His final year in the league was in 2018.

There was some drama with Gresham concerning injuries as some of the coaches seemed to believe that the tight end could have powered through those injuries. That being said, the Bengals have had much worse picks than Gresham.

2011 NFL Draft: A.J. Green, WR (Georgia)

With the fourth overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, the Bengals selected A.J. Green out of Georgia. What happened next was a nine-year career where Green finished second in all-time Bengals receiving yards.

Green was hot as soon as he stepped onto the field for the Bengals, tallying over 1,000 yards as a rookie and recording at least 1,000 receiving yards in his first five seasons. In 2016, he missed six games and still finished just a bit below the 1,000-yard mark, proving how dominant he truly was.

Injuries started to settle in more with Green and he missed nearly half of the 2018 season and all of the 2019 season. As all former Bengals seem to do, Green signed with the Cardinals in the 2021 offseason and spent two years there before retiring from the NFL. He finished his Bengals career with 9,430 yards and 65 touchdowns.