The tight end position is a hot topic around the Cincinnati Bengals ahead of the 2023 NFL draft.
In fact, it seems to be the most commonly mocked position to those Bengals in the first round. And given that the team’s top three names on the depth chart head to free agency this summer — Hayden Hurst, Drew Sample and Mitchell Wilcox — it makes some sense.
Two more mock drafts have the Bengals going after the position at No. 28, starting with Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com, who has the team going with Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer:
“With Hayden Hurst heading for free agency, Mayer can step right into the lineup and win contested catches for the Bengals.”
The other mock, courtesy of The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr., has the Bengals going with that position but steering toward Oregon State’s Luke Musgrave:
“That’s been a quiet desire for some time and the acquisition of a faster, vertical threat last year showed in the usage of Hurst as opposed to C.J. Uzomah the year prior. You could make a strong argument for waiting until later in the draft to address the position when considering the history of where the true impact tight ends have come from. But also consider the history of the Bengals going in early for Jermaine Gresham, Tyler Eifert and Drew Sample over the years, as well as doubling up with a third and fifth in 2015 (Tyler Kroft, Uzomah).”
Dehner’s note about the “quiet desire” for a major playmaker at the position is a big deal. And it does feel more noteworthy this year than most because slot wideout Tyler Boyd has one year left on his current deal — there may be a desire after that to make the third receiving option a big-bodied tight end instead of a receiver.
That’s thinking a little far ahead, but it’s what the Bengals did in the first two rounds of last year’s draft with the secondary, too.
As these mocks show and things suggest, Bengals fans need to get used to hearing Mayer and Musgrave come up in the conversation.
