With two games left to play in the NFL’s regular season, the 1-13 Bengals have a 72.1 percent chance of locking up the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. LSU quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow and Heisman finalist Chase Young are considered to be the top prospects in the class of 2020, and many draft analysts expect the Bengals to take a new franchise quarterback with their first pick, as Andy Dalton will be entering his age 33 season.
ESPN draft expert Todd McShay projected Burrow to be the No. 1 pick in his first mock draft, but he told Dan Patrick this week that if he were running the Bengals, he wouldn’t be able to pass on Young. According to McShay, drafting Young is the safest choice, as no quarterback in the 2020 class is a safe bet.
“I’m going to give you the honest answer. I would take Chase Young, and it’s almost never that I would say that. You look at the last two years for example, I think there are what, eight quarterbacks that were taken in the first round? I think [there’s[ two of them that you feel really great about that are going to be really good starters in the league for a long, long time.
Chase Young, it would be one of the biggest shocks of my scouting career, 20 years, if he didn’t turn out to be a very, very high-end player. And the quarterbacks, at best… they’re like 40-60, in terms of how they turn out. Now I know how important they are, but the second most important position in scouting, in evaluating, is finding the guy that can get after the quarterback. And if I know I can have somebody who is as good, if not better, than the Bosas in Chase Young, I would have to go in that direction.”
