Zac Taylor took over as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals in 2019. Since then, he's overseen four second-round picks. The Bengals have either knocked their second-round picks out of the park or really fallen flat on their faces since Taylor took over. There really hasn't been anything in between.
With that said, let's dive into every second-round pick made by Cincinnati since Taylor took over as the head coach and rank them from worst to first.
4. Jackson Carman
It felt like a reach at the time and it turns out, Jackson Carman probably shouldn't have been the 46th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. The Bengals were trying to compensate for passing on an o-lineman in the first round by reaching on one in the second round and so far, it hasn't worked out well for them.
Despite playing left tackle at Clemson, the Bengals made it clear from day one that they were going to move Carman inside to guard. That's a tough transition for anyone to make, but it's especially difficult for a rookie to make the change flawlessly and, as expected, Carman struggled.
The Clemson product appeared in 462 total snaps as a rookie with most of them taking place at right guard. He graded out at 56.3 by PFF in limited production.
In year two, Carman was all but handed the starting left guard on a silver platter entering training camp and ended up losing out to rookie fourth-rounder Cordell Volson. Carman was relegated to a backup role throughout the season and by Week 3, he was a healthy scratch until the end of the regular season when starters were injured and the team needed more depth. He played just four regular-season snaps and none of them came on the o-line.
Carman got to play left tackle when Jonah Williams was injured in the playoffs and did okay, though he graded out poorly as a run-blocker. With Orlando Brown Jr. in Cincinnati and playing left tackle, Carman will either be competing for the starting right tackle job or he'll be a backup once again. This was a disappointing pick for sure.