2017 NFL Draft: Cincinnati Bengals Final 7-Round Mock Draft
By Kenn Korb
Round 3, Pick 9: Jake Butt, TE – Michigan
The Bengals have one of the league’s most dynamic starters at tight end right now in Tyler Eifert. It can be kind of hard to rely on having him in the lineup, however, and that has led to major problems for his team during his career.
In four seasons, he’s missed 27 games, never making it through a full 16-game season even once yet. Injuries just seem to be a problem he may never get past, and the backup plan to him has never really been all that inspiring.
To start his career, he was paired with Jermaine Gresham from 2013-14. Gresham has athletic talents, but has never put it all together to be more than just another guy running routes. Since then, he’s been backed up by Tyler Kroft and C.J. Uzomah, each of whom is even more limited in what they can offer at the position. Picking a tight end in this draft could help immensely with those issues.
There should be a litany of good players at that spot to delve through, and useful contributors could be found in practically every round. Of them, the best value for what this team could use could be sitting right here in the third round in Jake Butt.
Butt would give Andy Dalton help on multiple fronts. When Eifert is healthy, he’ll be able to let the team work in two-TE sets more comfortably, acting as a dependable middle-of-the-field option on passing downs who can attack the areas cleared out by the threat of Eifert exploding for a deep gain. When Eifert inevitably misses time, Butt may not bring his dynamism, but he can still work as a strong safety blanket to keep the chains moving.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned with Jones before, an injury will be an issue for immediate impact from him; he tore his ACL in the Orange Bowl, and the recovery from that could lead to little usage in 2017.
The draft isn’t only about one season, however. These players will spend multiple seasons under contract with the team that selects them, so even if his 2017 impact isn’t much, he will have plenty of time to make plenty of positive contributions over the next few years. In the meantime, the Bengals could feel fine sticking with Uzomah and Kroft to back up Eifert, who the team will probably always have to cross their fingers for on the injury front regardless of what else they do.
I wouldn’t feel that great about grabbing two players who may miss their first seasons within a team’s top three selections, but getting one (and again, especially considering the total number of picks available for them in this draft as a whole) feels like a worthwhile short-term sacrifice to make.
Alternative Selection: Ethan Pocic, OL – LSU
In terms of the alternate selections, if Jones were selected that would mean the Bengals still have multiple offensive line spots to address. It would be good to grab multiple in the draft — including at least one in the first couple days — so grabbing one here seems like a decent fallback option.
The gist of what I said about Dawkins with the second round pick applies to Pocic. Though Dawkins is projected moreso as an outside player and Pocic inside, each has the ability to handle multiple spots. Pocic actually takes it to another level, spending time at each lineman position during his time in college.
Even if he does end up being focused towards the interior in the NFL, it isn’t like the Bengals couldn’t use an upgrade there as well. Zeitler’s spot is up for grabs of course, but the other two spots aren’t exactly helmed by stalwarts. Clint Boling has been a passably average guard for years but better options can be found. Russell Bodine managed a decent year at center in 2016.
Picking up Pocic could either be an instant choice to take Zeitler’s spot, or be a good long-term fallback should Bodine or Boling take a step back. Bodine is also set to be a free agent after this year, so he could be drafted as his upcoming replacement too.