NFL Draft analyst ranked Bengals' Day 3 draft pick as a top 25 player prior to last season

Plenty of optimism exists regarding the Cincinnati Bengals' 2024 NFL Draft class.  

Cincinnati came away with a couple national champions, freak athletes, and players who fill several of their long-term needs.

And for those who follow the draft all year long, the value of some Bengals selections look even better.

The Athletic's Dane Brugler revisited his top 50 prospects from before the 2023 college football season. Four of his top 50 ended up being drafted by the Bengals. It all began with the team's first-round pick.

Offensive tackle Amarius Mims was Brugler's fifth-ranked player entering 2023. He ended up dropping to 19th after injuries hampered the junior's last year at Georgia, which matched where the Bengals selected him at 18th overall.

Defensive tackles Kris Jenkins and McKinnley Jackson also made the cut. Jenkins was rated 39th prior to the season and rose to 36th after Michigan's national title run, while Jackson went from 36th to 237th. Jenkins was Cincinnati's second-round pick, and Jackson was the team's second pick in the third round.

Ranked higher than both of them was cornerback Josh Newton, who claimed the 24th spot in Brugler's original list. Newton fell 154th in Brugler's final rankings, but there were immense expectations for the TCU senior to establish himself as a top player. It just didn't happen that season.

"Newton was a prospect who had plenty of buzz among NFL scouts last summer, and my healthy preseason ranking was a bet on him taking another jump as a senior. Unfortunately, he didn’t live up to those expectations." - The Athletic's Dane Brugler 

The Bengals ended up taking Newton in the fifth round, much later than the aforementioned three players. 

A rough 2023 season for Newton may've tanked his draft stock from where it was this time last year, but it did help the Bengals land him much later than if he were in last year's draft class. Cincinnati also surely knew of Newton prior to this year as he was a sixth-year senior. The Bengals, like most of the NFL, scout known seniors before getting to underclassmen who declare. 

The tape Brugler watched to place Newton 24th in his rankings is the same tape the Bengals have already seen as well. 

Newton outplaying his actualized draft status is far from a given, but it's clear that he wasn't always viewed as a Day 3 prospect. The Bengals will now work on getting much more out of him going forward.