Reviewing the Cincinnati Bengals' NFL Draft Strategy

The Cincinnati Bengals are in excellent shape heading into this year's NFL draft, which means this should be an interesting, talented group of rookies they bring in with their nine picks.

With few holes in their starting lineup, they have the ability to find some genuine diamonds in the rough and get a bit creative with their picks. This freedom will certainly affect the strategy they employ heading into the week's big event.

It seems to be fashionable, nowadays, for teams to pick (or claim they pick) primarily based on best player available.

However, no team is going to select a player who is talented but a terrible fit in that particular system. It must be a balance between need and talent and about accurately identifying those players who have a desirable combination of the two.

In the first round, the Bengals are in an extremely good position to bring in two high-impact players. Picks Nos. 17 and 21 are prime spots, and it's going to be hard for the Bengals to make bad choices. They can easily meet immediate needs (offensive line, wide receiver, cornerback) here while still getting two prospects who are likely high on their board.

The Bengals need to take care not to reverse the considerable momentum they built in 2011. While draft missteps are common every year for every team, this needs to be another smart slate of picks for Cincinnati if it is to fully prove that the years of draft issues are behind it.

There's nothing more exciting for a young team like the Bengals to pile on more young talent. Round after round, they have nothing but ways to make their roster that much stronger. It's refreshing for a team to know they're already quite good before drafting a single player, and the Bengals will likely approach this draft with confidence as a result.

Clearly, they can't just throw picks around at whim and take flier after flier. It's not as though the fact they're so strong already will allow them to be more cavalier with their picks—draft picks, after all, are like golden tickets.

But the Bengals have a lot less pressure than they did last year, or than other teams do in 2012, to find "that guy" who will fix the franchise. Now, the guys they need to find are ones who will make an already strong team stronger and who are perfect fits for the systems they run on both sides of the ball.

As a result, expect the Bengals to meet needs with talented players early and then settle into taking the best player available from their own draft board. It's a more relaxed draft year for Cincinnati, though it's no less important than it was last year. But now they can work on amassing talent rather than needing to find someone who can be a quick-fix.

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