Bengals have solid second day
With their second-round selection (No. 54 overall) they took Florida defensive end Carlos Dunlap who would have been a first-rounder if not for a DUI in early December which caused him to be suspended for the SEC Championship Game against eventual national champion Alabama.
Dunlap (6-6, 277) has excellent size for a DE and he gives Cincinnati some insurance due to the uncertainty surrounding Antwan Odom (coming off a ruptured Achilles tendon) and Robert Geathers (recent injury problems in his career, although he did stay healthy throughout 2009). The Bengals took DE Michael Johnson in the third round last year and he had a solid rookie season. The team also has hybrid DE/DT Jonathan Fanene who is coming off a career year, and former third-round pick Frostee Rucker. There is a good chance the latter won't be around if Odom is able to come back healthy, which is no sure thing when a player is coming off an Achilles injury.
And this is more like what we expect out of the Bengals anyway: Taking a high-ceiling guy with character concerns that slips in the draft. (Just partially joking.) Hopefully Dunlap just made one poor decision and isn't a bad guy. But just in case, the team should make sure him and 2009 second-round pick Rey Maualuga don't hang out too much.
The Bengals had two picks in the third round and with the No. 84 selection they landed Texas wide receiver Jordan Shipley. He will reunite with his former college teammate Quan Cosby and is a very similar player who is productive catches passes and as a return man on special teams. Shipley wasn't a steal at that point in the draft - that's basically where he was projected to go. But the Bengals need depth at WR (starters Chad Ochocinco and Antonio Bryant are 32 and 29, respectively) and it was a solid pick.
The pick I really loved was getting Wake Forest cornerback Brandon Ghee with the No. 96 pick, which was a compensatory selection. Ghee has good size (6-0, 192) and speed (4.45 in the 40) and was projected to be a second-round pick. For the Bengals to land him at the end of the third round was quite a steal. He was clearly the best cornerback left on the board and Cincinnati needs depth at the position. The starters are extremely solid with Johnathan Joseph and Leon Hall, but the team needs a true No. 3 corner to emerge. David Jones and Morgan Trent split time last year as the top corner off the bench, but Ghee might win that job this season.
