{"id":821039,"date":"2026-03-19T11:41:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821039\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:41:33","slug":"history-points-to-bengals-targeting-round-1-cb-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821039\/","title":{"rendered":"History points to Bengals targeting Round 1 CB again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 19, 2026, 5:30 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> are moving closer and closer to taking a cornerback in the first round of the 2026 NFL draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/cincinnati-bengals\/327\" data-autotag=\"6d3e484d-5133-4c06-a871-967f8646390b\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Bengals<\/a> fans will groan, of course, given the years and years of that happening in Cincinnati in modern times.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">But the evidence is right there. The team added a safety fix in free agency with Bryan Cook. They addressed the fading pass-rush with Boye Mafe. And Jonathan Allen arrives to help out the interior pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">As The Athletic\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7126470\/2026\/03\/18\/bengals-mock-draft-post-free-agency\/?unlocked_article_code=1.UFA.Ik61.sbNfm0sXOx-t&amp;source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&amp;smid=url-share-ta\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paul Dehner Jr.<\/a> pointed out, the current roster construction sure feels familiar:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cThree times in a six-year period last decade, they took a cornerback with multiple starters established (2012 Dre Kirkpatrick, 2014 Darqueze Dennard, 2016 William Jackson III) and there is essentially no depth at outside corner right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:4|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Bengals have Dax Hill and DJ Turner penciled in as boundary corners. They have nobody of note behind them on the depth chart and no starting slot\/third corner to speak of right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In fact, the lack of a starting slot corner could push the Bengals into taking Caleb Downs, technically a safety, and playing him in the slot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Boundary corners are on the table, too, and could be best-player-available when the Bengals get to the podium.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Speaking of best-player-available, the Bengals probably feel like they\u2019re in a good enough position to do something like offensive tackle, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">But when it comes to feel?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">There\u2019s a little deja vu going on with the Bengals and cornerback ahead of this draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 19, 2026, 5:30 a.m. ET The Cincinnati Bengals are moving closer and closer to taking a cornerback&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[95878,228,227,256,2296,7,6,13078,95905,95882,107118,104162,95913,99867,95909,95896,95888,95906,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-821039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-accessfree","tag-bengals","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflbengals","tag-sstsnbengals","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagboye-mafe","tag-tagbryan-cook","tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","tag-tagdaxton-hill","tag-tagdj-turner-ii","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116255661066218398","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}