Cincinnati Bengals Likely to Invest Heavily in Linemen During Critical 2024 NFL Draft

While the overall strength of the roster appears fairly strong, the organization can’t afford to lift their foot off the accelerator or they will lose ground to the rest of the AFC North.  While the team is officially in the mindset of drafting the most talented player available when their name is called with the 18th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, there are certainly some priority positions that the team will be taking notes on.

The best place to start for Cincinnati is on the line of scrimmage after they have struggled to build up on the offensive and defensive lines for the past several years.  Even after head coach Zac Taylor completely overhauled the groups over his tenure (seven of the nine starters last season were brought in during his tenure), both units were completely mismatched.  The offensive line was guilty of giving up far too much pressure to oppositional pass rushes and the defensive line simply couldn’t hold their ground against the rushing attack last season.

The team should have been focused on these two groups regardless but the loss of offensive tackle Jonah Williams and defensive tackle D.J. Reader have highlighted that need.  Even though they were replaced by Trent Brown and Sheldon Rankins respectively, those are two bargain options and the team will almost guaranteeably attack those positions within the first three rounds of the upcoming draft.

With regards to the first round, my number one projection remains the University of Alabama offensive tackle J.C. Latham.  Latham has tremendous size at 6’6″ and 360 pounds while his greatest skill set is pass protection.  That is a perfect fit for Cincinnati with their obsession with giant offensive tackles and pass-focused attack.

The struggle on the defensive side is that there is only one defensive tackle that would be capable of stepping in on day one and competing for the nose tackle position and that is University of Texas defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat.  Sweat is a monster of a man at 6’4″ and 362 pounds that would be perfect for clogging the entire middle of the line of scrimmage.  The big problem is that Sweat is expected to go either late first-round or early second-round and the team will likely need to trade up from their second-round pick to land the Longhorn Goliath.

If Cincinnati is focused during the upcoming draft, they should be able to reload on talent and remain a Super Bowl contender going into the 2024 season.