The Bengals have reportedly checked out Oregon State's quarterback Sean Canfield, Central Michigan's Dan LeFevour and will checkout Holy Cross' Dominic Randolph during Tuesday's Local Prospect Day. The idea of them drafting a quarterback isn't completely unfounded. Mike Brown spoke on the issue during the NFL Owners Meeting in late March. Will he draft a quarterback?
“Not to replace Carson (Palmer), no. But what comes behind him is an annual issue. We have two guys who were with us last year and I thought they did well enough. I’m not going to say no, never on that one on making some change behind him.”
We've also chatted about finding a good quarterback behind Palmer because of the unfortunate reality that Palmer has missed action due to injury.
J.T. O'Sullivan and Jordan Palmer are the team's backup quarterbacks, both signed through 2010. However, it should be noted that the team's interest in checking out quarterbacks could be simply due-diligence in that if there's something better than what's on the roster, they could pull the trigger in later rounds if they feel comfortable with that. Is it a desperate need to draft a quarterback? Not really. Just helps build the team's depth.
But they're not finished checking out prospects either.
According to Aaron Wilson, the Bengals were one of four teams that Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka worked out for. Furthermore, Bengals quarterback coach Ken Zampese attended Kafka's Pro Day earlier in the offseason.
Kakfa is a rising draft prospect who excelled in the East-West Shrine game, delivering the game winning touchdown pass in the final second as he passed for 150 yards and was named the Offensive Most Valuable Player.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pounder improved his 40-yard dash to 4.81 seconds at his Pro Day workout after running a 4.91 at the NFL scouting combine where he also registered a 32-inch vertical leap and a 9-2 broad jump.
Last season, Kafka passed for a career-high 3,430 yards, 16 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He completed 64.8 percent of his passes.
For his career, he passed for 4,265 yards and 19 touchdowns.