Thursday's first round of the 2023 NFL draft is approaching, and it will be interesting to see which player the Cincinnati Bengals select with the 28th overall pick if they don't make a trade.
The Enquirer's Kelsey Conway has Mississippi State cornerback Emmanuel Forbes going to Cincinnati at No. 28.
NFL.com's Bucky Brooks has the Bengals taking Oklahoma offensive tackle Anton Harrison. Mock drafts from Eric Edholm and NBC Sports' Chris Simms have Cincinnati selecting Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
The latest mock draft from NFL.com's Daniel Jeremiah predicts Wisconsin defensive tackle Keeanu Benton as the Bengals' first-round pick.
What to know about Benton:
Benton is looking to become Wisconsin's first first-round pick since 2017.
The Badgers haven't had a first-round NFL draft pick since the Pittsburgh Steelers selected linebacker T.J. Watt 30th overall, and the New Orleans Saints took offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk 32nd in 2017.
Star running back Jonathan Taylor fell to the second round in the 2020 draft, when the Colts selected him 41st overall.
The Bengals' last (and only) first-rounder from Wisconsin was Kevin Zeitler in 2012.
Cincinnati selected 27th overall in the 2012 draft when the Bengals took offensive lineman Kevin Zeitler out of Wisconsin. Zeitler is the only Badger the Bengals have drafted in the first round. Zeitler played for the Bengals from 2012 until he left for the Cleveland Browns via free agency after the 2016 season. In 2021, he signed a three-year, $22 million deal with the Baltimore Ravens.
In high school, Benton was a star football player and wrestler.
At Janesville Craig High School in Wisconsin, Benton earned all-state honors in football and qualified twice for the Wisconsin state wrestling meet, finishing as Division 1 runner-up at 285 pounds as a junior with a 48-2 record.
Among the most famous alumni of Janesville Craig is Paul Ryan, a Miami University graduate who served as the 54th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019 and was Mitt Romney's vice presidential nominee in the 2012 election that the pair lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Benton came on strong at the end of his senior season at Wisconsin.
Of his 10 tackles for loss in 12 regular-season games last season, seven of them came in the Badgers' final four games (against Maryland, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota). And 2.5 of his 4.5 sacks last season came in those four games.
NFL.com analyst Lance Zierlein projects Benton as a second-rounder.
"Benton is a powerful interior defensive lineman with size and persistence," Zierlein wrote in Benton's draft prospect profile. "He lacks a wide base and sturdy anchor, so he’ll need to improve his pad level to prevent double teams from moving him around too easily. He's solid and has flashed starting potential, but he needs to become a more consistently impactful force in the middle to make noise as an NFL starter."
LOVE SPORTS? [ Subscribe now for unlimited access to Cincinnati.com ]
Source link
