PFF mock draft has Bengals landing big-time Notre Dame prospect

The Cincinnati Bengals have started 1-3.

It’s not necessarily the record that has fans troubled but the way in which those four games have gone. The offense has stalled far too often, and the defensive strength of this team in the run game has been lost.

As we know from the late 2010s, when teams aren’t good, they get high draft picks. Whether or not they can turn those into quality talent is a completely different story, as the team whiffed on players like John Ross III and Billy Price.

Cincinnati, on its current trajectory, could be bad enough to get a top-10 pick and may even end in the top five. Right now, Pro Football Focus has the Bengals drafting 7th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Where do they go? None other than the offensive line.

PFF has the Bengals taken Notre Dame offensive lineman Joe Alt. If their order comes to fruition, Alt would be the second offensive lineman off the board.

“The Bengals’ offense is a mess through Week 4. They could lose wide receiver Tee Higgins in the offseason, which would play into a need for offensive weapons. But until that becomes more clear (for a Brock Bowers draft selection), we’ll beef up their offensive line with Joe Alt. He’s having one of the best seasons of any offensive lineman in 2023, earning an 85.2 overall grade with just three pressures and no sacks allowed,” PFF’s Trevor Sikkema writes.

The Bengals will have ample positional groups they could target with a pick of this caliber, or they could opt to trade it as well. Nonetheless, the hope will be that they do better throughout the last 13 weeks and manage a spot in the playoffs regardless of this difficult start.

How would you feel about Joe Alt being a Bengal?