Cincinnati Bengals full 2018 NFL mock draft
By John Buhler
Third Round
While the Cincinnati Bengals still have Andy Dalton at quarterback, they don’t have a suitable backup anymore now that A.J. McCarron has been granted his free agency after a grievance hearing. It might be a reach here at No. 77, but Kyle Lauletta of the Richmond Spiders has a chance to be the next Jimmy Garoppolo of FCS football.
Lauletta shined at the Senior Bowl down in Mobile. He feels like a certain third-round pick at this point. Lauletta is 6-foot-3, 226 pounds. Cincinnati doesn’t need to address the quarterback position immediately, but Lauletta would be a high-end project for the Bengals to work on in the next few years.
The Bengals love to bring pressure off the edge. We should expect new defensive coordinator Teryl Austin to echo in the same vein as former defensive coordinator Paul Guenther in that regard. At pick No. 100, there may not be a better bang for the buck pass-rushing candidate that Lorenzo Carter out of Georgia.
Carter leaves Athens after four years with 166 total tackles (83 solo, 83 assists), 21.5 for a loss of yardage, 14.0 quarterback sacks, six forced fumbles and six fumble recoveries. He is a physical specimen at 6-foot-6, 250 pounds. Though not a superstar at sacking the quarterback, he could be of great value to the Bengals at No. 100 than his former Georgia teammate Leonard Floyd was to the Chicago Bears at No. 9 two years ago.