Joe Reedy writes that there's eight names that he's hearing from various people that are considered for the first round, while also stating the team's draft board is complete. Most of them we've talked about a lot, so there's no real surprises here. So let's see.
The Big Three - Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe and Andre Smith. Check.
Outside Linebacker that create devastating duo - Aaron Curry. Check.
Player that could make the Bengals one of the best defensive tackle rotations in the history of the NFL (overstating it a little bit?) - B.J. Raji. Check.
Wide Receiver that no one thinks they should go after - Michael Crabtree. Check. Let me clarify the point here. It's not that we don't want to go after Crabtree specifically. It's that we really don't want to go with a wide receiver at all.
Running back that we're not sure are first round needs - Beanie Wells and Knowshon Moreno. Again, these guys are tremendous. However, we're still arguing that these guys are irrelevant if the Bengals offensive line sports the league's 30th best yards-per-rush average in back-to-back years. In other words, these guys might not survive.
The noticeable missing are Michael Oher and Jeremy Maclin. At one point, it was a toss-up between Smith and Oher. Now that most people have calmed down from the whole character-issue, Smith has gained traction as likely the third tackle selected in the draft. Maclin omission was a surprise in that the Bengals courted him a bit longer than we felt comfortable with.
It's a good list. We just hope that it doesn't go beyond the top two, offensive tackle or Aaron Curry.