By most accounts, the Cincinnati Bengals have a nice crop of young talent to build around for the future.
But over at Pro Football Focus, the Bengals don’t make an appearance at all in a top 25 players under 25 list, which is obviously championed by players such as Patrick Mahomes and Saquon Barkley. The list says a player’s resume, consistency and grades in the PFF systems played a part.
But it is interesting to think about some of the Bengals who didn’t make the list. Joe Mixon is only 22 years old and ran for 1,168 yards and eight scores last year, catching another 43 passes.
Then there is Tyler Boyd, who put up 1,028 yards and seven scores in his breakout season.
And on the other side of the ball, an injury that ruined last season must have hurt Carl Lawson’s chances despite his 8.5 sacks as a rookie. Jessie Bates presumably doesn’t have enough NFL experience to make such a list yet.
At the least, it is a fun exercise to see where these players stand from a national perspective. And given the trajectories of some of these guys, they could end up making such a list in the near future.
