Recent Bengals draft picks that simply haven't panned out

Drew Sample

A year before a solid draft by the Bengals in 2020, the team spent a second-round pick on Drew Sample in the 2019 NFL Draft. It was a puzzling decision then and it's still a bit of a head-scratcher years later.

Sample is clearly a polished blocking tight end but he's not a pass-catching threat by any means. He has just 458 yards receiving and one touchdown since joining the team in 2019 and the majority of that work came in 2020 when C.J. Uzomah missed most of the season.

The Bengals offense doesn't really need an explosive tight end out there catching passes but taking Sample in the second round feels like a wasted pick.

Billy Price

In 2018, the Bengals spent their first-round pick on Ohio State's Billy Price with the hopes that he'd be their starting center of the future. What followed was a disappointing campaign from Price in the middle of the o-line that led to him getting traded prior to the 2021 season.

While Price was not a good player for the Bengals and was definitely a bust, at least he helped land the team B.J. Hill, who went on to help this team make the Super Bowl and re-signed with them in the 2022 offseason. Price wasn't worth a first-round pick but he helped bring Hill to Cincinnati so at least there's that.