Bengals at 9: Which top defender could slip to Bengals?

This is the fifth in a weekly series previewing players the Bengals will discuss with the No. 9 overall pick leading up to the first round of the NFL Draft on April 27. Many options exist, but a closer look at each subset will reveal who could be the best fit for Cincinnati.

• March 27: WRs Corey Davis, Mike Williams
• April 3: TE O.J. Howard
• April 10:  RB Leonard Fournette
• April 17: DE Derek Barnett

As mock drafts and suffocating amounts of Internet were spilled out over the last few months regarding the selections in the top 10 of this draft, one common consensus played out throughout.

The first hour on April 27 looks to be all about the defensive stars.

Teams may have them ordered differently and some may even have a few further down the board, but a clear top tier of defensive players figure to fill the picks prior to the Bengals going on the clock at No. 9.

The wild card in projecting who ends up in stripes could be if any one of these six falls back due to trading up for quarterbacks, surprise offensive picks or one of those draft day wildcards like a Twitter video surfaces minutes before the first pick of a top projected tackle smoking marijuana out of a gas mask. 

• Myles Garrett, defensive end, Texas A&M: Consensus best player in the draft. Should go first overall to Cleveland unless they go QB.
• Jamal Adams, safety, LSU: Top all-around talent who can dominate around the line of scrimmage, play nickel corner and range deep. A premier, top-five talent.
• Malik Hooker, safety, Ohio State: Comparisons drawn to Ed Reed with his ability to ballhawk in the secondary.
• Solomon Thomas, defensive lineman, Stanford: Many project him second overall. A versatile beast who can move inside and out on the line.
• Jonathan Allen, defensive lineman, Alabama: Dominated for the Tide up front with 22.5 sacks and 30.5 tackles for loss the last two seasons alone. Finished seventh in Heisman voting.
• Marshon Lattimore, cornerback, Ohio State: Thought by many as top corner in a draft packed with talent. Elite athleticism with agility, quickness and awareness.

The question for the Bengals this week becomes, who is most likely to slide into their lap?

“Based on ability, all these guys are near locks to be in the top seven-eight picks,” said Dane Brugler, senior draft analyst of CBSSports.com. “But factor in durability and injury some teams might want to pass.”

Factoring injury shines the light on half of this group. The first would be Allen, who battle recurring shoulder injuries. He tore his rotator cuff in 2014, requiring off-season surgery. He re-injured the shoulder the next year and again had surgery on the other shoulder previous to last season. Mild arthritis in his shoulder come as part of the package. Of course, so do his back-to-back double-digit sack seasons while playing with those shoulders. Placing him alongside Geno Atkins in a nickel defense could create a dangerous addition to the Bengals’ pass rush, specifically on third downs.

The next injury concern comes with Hooker, who recently had surgery to replace a torn labrum on his left hip and another dealing with a sports hernia.

“He's a one-year starter at Ohio State,” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said. “He's coming off two surgeries after the season, and you've got to worry about his durability.”

The last injury concern would come with Lattimore, who battled chronic hamstring injuries since his high school days at Glenville High School. He required surgery on the left hamstring in 2014 and missed time the next year with a right hamstring issue. And just as he hoped to subdue those concerns during the draft process he had to cut his combine short when reportedly tightened up again.

Those are minor dings on the otherwise shiniest prospects in this draft through the eyes of many evaluators.

Outside of injury concern, the element which drives every draft could shake the draft board: Quarterbacks. It’s about the only position you can totally rule out when prognosticating who the Bengals would select, but have the greatest affect. Buzz surrounds teams to dealing to grab North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, or the Tar Heels product going first overall to the Browns. DeShaun Watson of Clemson could take his propensity to play well in the brightest lights to where they shine brightest in New York. Or maybe one of the other hot names pushes up the board and forces a team to reach in front of the Bills (10th) and Cardinals (9th) chasing their guy.

It’s a concept Marvin Lewis pointed to even as this prospect began for him in the week after the 2016 season ended on The Enquirer’s Beyond the Stripes.

“(Picking ninth) brings almost every top prospect into play, other than maybe a quarterback for us,” Lewis said. “So in your mind, you hope a lot of quarterbacks go off the board so it leaves you another position player you are more likely to take regardless of what he plays when it’s our turn to step up and pick.”

Quarterbacks make teams do crazy, unexpected things and crazy, unexpected would be an ideal way for the first hour to play out Thursday.