While ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. and the Sporting News gave Cincinnati high marks for the 2013 NFL draft using an arbitrary grading system, Elliot Harrison with the NFL Network grades Cincinnati as one of three big winners, along with the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks. Harrison loves Cincinnati's top three selections, writing:
This is clearly a football team on the rise. The Bengals, who already had Jermaine Gresham on the roster, can now play two tight ends with a vengeance following the addition of first-round pick Tyler Eifert. Then the Bengals came back in the second round and grabbed a heckuva complement to BenJarvus Green-Ellis in Giovani Bernard, who averaged 6.7 yards per carry on 184 rushes last season at North Carolina. Fellow second-round pick Margus Hunt, meanwhile, will be worked into the rotation on the defensive line with Carlos Dunlap, Geno Atkins and Michael Johnson ... as well as 2012 draftees Brandon Thompson and Devon Still.
One more note on Eifert: Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly told me that Eifert has worked hard to develop his in-line blocking. That should only help a Bengals team that finished 18th in rushing last season.
Instead of naming teams "losers", Harrison writes that he's most "worried" about the Dallas Cowboys and Oakland Raiders.