The Cincinnati Bengals mostly had the long-term outlook in mind with the 2022 NFL draft.
Coming off a Super Bowl appearance, the Bengals hit the secondary twice over the first two rounds with Dax Hill and Cam Taylor-Britt.
Britt was only pressed into action after a season-ending injury to Chidobe Awuzie and Hill plays sparingly in emergency situations.
As such, the draft class doesn’t exactly chart highly on productivity compared to the majority of the league’s draft classes this year.
Over at ESPN, Aaron Schatz and Alex Vigderman teamed up to measure the productivity of each rookie class while assembling the ratings. The Bengals finished 30th:
“First-round safety Dax Hill mostly took a redshirt year, with only two games in which he played more than six defensive snaps. Second-round cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt was the nickelback for the second half of the season but does not do well in SIS charting, with 8.5 yards allowed per target. Fourth-rounder Cordell Volson went right into the lineup at left guard and has started for the entire season but ranks just 58th out of 64 qualifying guards in pass rush win rate.”
There is one big exception, as mentioned — fourth-rounder Cordell Volson was the starter from Day 1 at left guard and has been a bit of a revelation for the team, a guy who might just be a long-term starter. Third-rounder Zach Carter is starting to come into his own as a rotational pass-rusher, too.
If the Bengals get two solid secondary starters, an offensive line starter and solid rotational contributors in time from the 2022 draft class, they’ll hardly care the class wasn’t ranking near the top in immediate productivity.
