Bengals Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin Likes the Offensive Line Depth in 2021 NFL Draft

Interesting comments by the Bengals Director of Player Personnel

All Bengals Staff | Apr 5, 2021

CINCINNATI — The Ja'Marr Chase versus Penei Sewell debate continues with less than four weeks until the 2021 NFL Draft.

Bengals fans continue to debate about which player the team should take with the fifth overall pick.

The "Team Chase" supporters believe Cincinnati can address their offensive line issues on days two and three of the draft.

While Bengals Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin may disagree with Chase being ahead of Sewell, he does think there are a plethora of quality offensive linemen in this draft class.

"I think it's pretty good if you take the right guys. There's a lot of guys out there that have different traits," Tobin told Dan Hoard on the Bengals Booth Podcast. "We'll take guys that have the traits that we want in our group. I do think it's a deep draft. They'll be guys available in the second round, third round that we have starter grades on and maybe they'll last longer than that too. It's a position that we're gonna focus on, we'll evaluate it at every pick we make to see if the best guy for us is an offensive lineman."

It sounds like Tobin is confident that the Bengals can improve their offensive line in the draft. That's good news for those concerned about their biggest weakness. However, it doesn't mean Cincinnati is going to take Chase at No. 5. If they feel like Sewell is a better prospect, then they'll take him—even if it's a deep class of linemen.

Tobin also discussed the wide receiver class, which he admits is a bit more shallow than it was a year ago when they took Tee Higgins 33rd overall.

"Probably not the depth that last year's had, but that was a rare draft," Tobin said. "But there are good receivers. Again, with the receiver group, there's a lot of different style guys, even more so than the offensive line group where there's a lot of different style guys. At receiver you got guys that play inside, guys that play outside, you got guys that have special teams value... you gotta pick exactly what you're looking for. Obviously when you're looking at the top of the draft you want the guy that can do everything, but then as the draft goes on that's where the depth really comes in."

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The "Team Chase" people may be celebrating after Tobin's comments, but these are facts about the 2021 NFL Draft. This class of offensive linemen is deeper than the group of wide receivers.

That doesn't mean the Bengals will have Chase ahead of Sewell. They may love the idea of taking Sewell and doubling down by drafting another offensive lineman in the second round.

Cincinnati has plenty of options and now that trading down is unlikely, the focus on Chase and Sewell seems to be growing by the second.

For more context, listen to Hoard's entire conversation with Tobin below.