As the Cincinnati Bengals drunkenly stumble their way towards the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft, the debate as to what Cincinnati should do with their top draft pick rages on.
The two viable options for the rebuilding Bengals are Ohio State pass rusher Chase Young or a quarterback. Taking Tua Tagavailoa’s recent season-ending hip injury into account, LSU’s Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert of Oregon look to be the top options at quarterback. In other words, there are legitimate quarterback options for the Bengals to choose from in 2020.
The Bengals are far from being a lock for the No. 1 pick in the draft, but for the sake of argument, let’s say that they end up with the worst record in the league and drafting first. Should they go with the sure thing, the defensive game-changer, the monster off the edge in Chase Young? Or should they roll the dice on someone like Joe Burrow in the hope that he becomes a franchise passer in the NFL?
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To set the scene somewhat, the Bengals have a desperate need at quarterback. Regardless of what side of the argument you find yourself on, most Bengals fans will agree that a new starter behind center is needed. The Andy Dalton era looks to be coming to a painful end, while Ryan Finley has been thoroughly unimpressive since entering the starting lineup.
As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t have a starting quarterback and you’re drafting high, you take a quarterback. If that pick doesn’t pan out and you find yourself drafting high again, you take another quarterback (à la Kyler Murray). And you keep doing it until you find the franchise quarterback that changes the fortunes of your entire organization. The quarterback position is that important.
Even if you assume that Chase Young is the best player in the draft and he turns out to be an elite talent at pass rusher, the quarterback is still the right selection. Chase Young doesn’t turn this franchise around. Chase Young doesn’t kickstart a new era for the Bengals. Chase Young won’t lead this team to a Super Bowl. A franchise quarterback can accomplish every one of those feats. This isn’t to say that pass rushers don’t have an enormous impact on the outcome of games. But the impact of an elite pass rusher pales in comparison to the monumental change that can be brought to an NFL franchise by bringing in a top-tier starting quarterback.
The Bengals cannot be forgiven if they pass on a quarterback in this year’s class who goes on to be an elite pro. In my eyes, they can be forgiven for selecting a quarterback who doesn’t pan out. It would be a tough pill to swallow, but I would applaud the team for taking a shot at finding a franchise quarterback.
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In 2017, the Browns found themselves in a very similar situation to the 2020 Bengals. Cleveland went with the 2017 version of Chase Young, Myles Garrett. Garrett has been a great player in the league, but I wonder if Browns fans might rather have Deshaun Watson or Pat Mahomes on their team.
That same year, the Bears botched the second pick by selecting Mitchell Trubisky. While this selection has proven to be made in error, they went with the player they believed to be the top quarterback in the class. Sure, Burrow could be Trubisky and Young could be Garrett, but the upside of a franchise quarterback is just too much to neglect. Hopefully, the Bengals can end up with their version of Watson or Mahomes, because the reward of this is easily worth the risk of ending up with someone like Trubisky.
There’s no ‘next year’ to draft a quarterback. Next year’s quarterback class is perpetually seen as being better than the current crop of passers. Firstly and most importantly, we have no idea when the Bengals will find themselves drafting this high again. Hopefully, they won’t find themselves as well-positioned to pull the trigger on a top quarterback prospect in years to come. Secondly, it’s far too early to emphatically declare that the 2021 class of quarterbacks is undoubtedly more talented than the 2020 group. Who knows how the 2021 class will be viewed once they play another season of football.
For struggling teams, the draft is not about adding the most talented player to your team, as crazy as that may sound. The draft, and in particular the Bengals’ 2020 draft, is about this: how do you take the biggest step towards competing in the league? The answer: you take the quarterback. Good teams with talented quarterbacks can go down the BPA (best player available) route, but struggling, quarterback-less franchises simply don’t have this luxury.
If Chase Young is the most talented player in the draft and he goes to Cincinnati, he can break the single-season sack record and it still won’t be enough for the Bengals to make a playoff run. If, however, the Bengals hit on a quarterback, this can offset so many of the issues with how poorly this organization is run. A star quarterback is perhaps the only acquisition that can accidentally turn these Bengals into contenders.
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