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The Cincinnati Bengals are continuing to look at many of the wide receivers in this year's NFL Draft.
One name flying under the radar is Arizona State's Devin Lucien, who is set to meet with the Bengals next week, according to NFL Draft Diamonds.
Arizona State wide out Devin Lucien has a visit with the #Bengals on the 19th and 20th of this month
— NFL Draft Diamonds (@DraftDiamonds) April 8, 2016
NFLDraftScout.com has Lucien ranked as the 740th-best prospect in this draft while NFL.com doesn't have any ranking on him.
A big reason why is Lucien wasn't on anyone's radar entering the 2015 season, and it was hard for him to garner attention at a sub-.500 team. But that doesn't diminish what Lucien did during his career at Arizona State, catching 124 passes for 1,827 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.
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A graduate transfer out of UCLA who signed with ASU for his final season, Lucien was a stud last year as he caught 66 passes for 1,074 yards and eight scores. Watching his highlights, Lucien shows some great ball skills and ability to win the jump-ball battles like we've become accustomed to seeing from Marvin Jones before he left.
Check out my highlights from my career @ UCLA & ASU. #PressPlay. https://t.co/vHsW3Xr5Ll pic.twitter.com/Dpgxci6bZq
— Devin Lucien (@D_Lucien15) April 4, 2016
While many seem to have slept on Lucien, the guys at Pro Football Focus did a great scouting report of him. Here's an excerpt of it:
What he does best:
Biggest concern:
- Lucien may have the best hands in the draft. He dropped just five passes over the past two seasons, despite QB play that made most receptions a challenge. Even "accurate" passes were all over the place from a ball-location standpoint, forcing Lucien to make impressive catches on relatively routine receptions.
Pro style comparison:
- Questionable top end speed: he doesn't run away from players when he has position on them, and at times doesn't separate as it looks like he should on the play.
Stefon Diggs, Minnesota Vikings. Like Lucien, Diggs is a player that didn't do anything spectacularly, but showed that simply being good at everything would still work at the NFL level if you had a competent quarterback. Diggs dropped just two passes as a rookie and flashed plenty of production before slowing down late in the season.
Bottom line:
He may not be good enough to rival the top players at receiver in this draft, but Devin Lucien is a productive, talented player who deserves far more hype than he is currently receiving. He may have the best hands in the draft, and is good enough at everything else to be able to contribute at the NFL level and be productive. Fixing his quarterback situation alone should dramatically improve his impact.
At this point, it's hard to say when Lucien will be drafted since he wasn't invited to the NFL Scouting Combine. He definitely looks like someone the Bengals should at least consider late on Day 2 or sometime on Day 3. Personally, I haven't seen any receiver in this draft class play much better than Lucien in his senior season, so a team may be getting a steal by drafting him.
If that's the case, hopefully it's the Bengals.