It’s never a positive thing when a player begins to slide during the NFL’s pre-draft process. The draft is the fulfillment of life long dreams for these kids, and as human beings, we want to see as many people attain their goals as possible. HOWEVER, draft slides are an unfortunate reality of this enterprise, and astute teams do attain value when players fall from exalted perches (think the Eric Steinbach fall or perhaps more immediately clarifying, Chad Johnson’s fall after his poor workout in 2001). In my inaugural piece for Bengals Wire I pegged Brandon Aiyuk for the Bengals’ third-round pick, but included this qualifier:
“I don’t know if I expect a fall of this magnitude from Aiyuk come the 24th, but if he does slide and the Bengals haven’t taken a WR in the second round, you’d have to think that he’d be a strong consideration at 65.
According to Matt Miller from the Bleacher Report, a fall of that magnitude could be more possible than originally expected. Miller had this to say about Aiyuk in his most recent Scouting Notebook.
“Brandon Aiyuk’s draft stock could be falling in comparison with where most media evaluators have him. One NFL head coach asked me this week if Aiyuk could be had in Round 3. Another lead scout, when asked where they expected Aiyuk to be drafted, also replied with a “late 2, early 3” grade.”
If the league concurs with that assessment and Aiyuk is available at the top of the third round, the Bengals might be primed to add to the talent of their receiver room without having to expend either of their top two picks in the 2020 draft, a boon for a team that could stand to add an offensive lineman or a versatile player like Zack Baun at pick No. 33.
