Bengals' NFL Draft Fate Sealed Following Sunday's Loss to Ravens

The Bengals finished 4-11-1 on the season

CINCINNATI — The Bengals lost to the Ravens 38-3 on Sunday afternoon at Paul Brown Stadium. It was one of the worst losses of the Zac Taylor era. 

"It was a challenge. We were missing a fair amount of guys. That’s no fun. I don’t question the effort," Taylor said after the game. "I haven’t seen the tape yet obviously, but there wasn’t anything that stood out from that standpoint. We ran into a really good football team that can run it as well any team in the league. They had enough long runs there that really broke our backs in some situations. We do expect to be better, but it was a tough matchup right now."

Baltimore outscored Cincinnati 65-6 in two games this season. 

The silver lining is the Bengals finished with a top-5 selection in the NFL Draft for a second-straight season. 

Cincinnati will pick fifth in the 2021 NFL Draft, which will be held in Cleveland. 

The Bengals could've picked as high as third or as low as 10th. Their loss to the Ravens, combined with losses by the Texans and Falcons helped secure the fifth spot. 

They won a potential tiebreaker with the Eagles based on strength of schedule.

The Jaguars will pick first, followed by the Jets, Dolphins and Falcons.

There's plenty of time to breakdown who the Bengals can and will draft in the first round, but it doesn't take a football genius to understand that picking fifth is much better than tenth. 

The Bengals' coaching staff is going to look much different next year and this team has to do everything it can to build around star quarterback Joe Burrow. 

Securing the fifth overall pick was the first step. They were able to do that on Sunday. 

A silver lining to what was otherwise a rough day for the Bengals. 

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