FanPost

Build through the draft but don't value offensive linemen? You're gonna have a bad time

There are five starting offensive linemen of 22 position players, about 23% of the starting football team.

In the last 30 drafts, in the first three rounds, the Bengals have had 107 draft picks.

These are the offensive linemen they chose with those picks (14 of 107, or 13% of the "high" draft picks):

Brian Blados, Willie Anderson, Levi Jones, Andre Smith, Freddie Childress, Andrew Whitworth, Melvin Tuten, Ken Blackman, Kevin Zeitler, Eric Steinbach, Bob Dahl, Mike Goff, Dave Rimington, Rod Payne

There's a corollary, which is: Overvalue Linebackers? You're gonna have a bad time.

These are the linebackers selected by the the Bengals in those 107 draft picks (20 of 107, or 19%, the most often selected position by the Bengals in rounds 1 thru 3 - it's not even close -- in the last three decades):

David Pollack, Ricky Hunley, Emanuel King, Joe Kelly, James Francis, Alfred Williams, Takeo Spikes, Brian Simmons, Keith Rivers, Carl Zander, Odell Thurman, Rey Maualuga, Kevin Walker, Bernard Clark, Steve Shine, Steve Foley, Caleb Miller, Landon Johnson, Dontay Moch

Next highest prioritized position by the Bengals after Linebacker? Wide Receiver, with 14 selections (same as the number of picks devoted to the entire offensive line)

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cincy Jungle's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan, which is as important as the views of Cincy Jungle's writers or editors.