The Cincinnati Bengals feel like a team about to invest heavily in the trenches in the 2024 NFL draft.
While the attention understandably focuses on the offensive side of the football, the loss of DJ Reader in free agency still weighs heavily over the defense.
That’s something The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman addresses by going with a non-Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton name in the opening round of his latest mock draft with Texas’ Byron Murphy:
The 6-0 1/2, 297-pound Murphy didn’t receive as much hype as his much larger Texas linemate T’Vondre Sweat, the Big 12 defensive player of the year, but opposing coaches say Murphy gave them more headaches. Murphy had 8.5 TFLs and five sacks in 2023, then showed off his freaky athleticism at the combine, running a 4.87 40 with a 33-inch vertical jump.
Feldman’s mock includes comments from anonymous coaches that are certainly worth a read for fans unfamiliar with Murphy. For what it’s worth, though, he’s been going in the top 10 in other mock drafts.
Either way, the interior of the defensive line is something that could easily take priority over the offensive line in Round 1, the thinking being that Trent Brown is a nice stopgap solution and that a Round 2 or later offensive tackle could be a quality developmental project.
