Written by Dave Biddle | 06 April 2010

Entering the offseason, I wanted the Bengals to re-sign Tank Johnson, Bobbie Williams and Roy Williams, and find a big-time wide receiver on the free agent market or via trade.

Check, check, check and check.

The biggest splash by far was the signing of WR Antonio Bryant in March, but the final piece of the four-part offseason was the inking of Bobbie Williams and the Bengals got that done on Monday. This allows the team to keep their starting offensive line in tact, although 2009 first-round draft pick Andre Smith is expected to supplant the tandem of Dennis Roland and Anthony Collins at right tackle.

The return of Williams, 33, is big for several reasons. First and foremost, he is rock solid at right guard and has shown no signs of slowing down. The Bengals signed him to a two-year deal and I think he has two good years left in him.

And the rest of the line is extremely young and needs his leadership.

Left tackle Andrew Whitworth is 28, left guard Nate Livings is 28, center Kyle Cook is 26 and Smith is 23. The latter is fortunate that he will have someone like Williams lining up next to him to help him with the line calls and the other pre-snap mental adjustments.

Now we can just brace ourselves for the draft and hope the Bengals push the right buttons. It's a deep draft and they're in a very good position with six picks in the first four rounds, thanks to the third-and-fourth-round compensatory picks that they picked up recently.

If the Bengals want to be successful on April 22-24, they need to stick with the "best player available" strategy, at least in the early part of the draft. See who falls in your lap at pick No. 21 and pull the trigger. There is always someone that slips way further than they should (Randy Moss, anyone?) and maybe it will be Dez Bryant this year. Probably not, but we can dream. The point is the Bengals need to be ready for someone they think will go in the top 10 picks, or top 15 picks, to fall right in their lap. It happens every year. There are also a host of defensive players that the Bengals could land in the first round.

In the second round, I bet they will go tight end, but I hope it's someone that actually deserves the spot. Florida's Aaron Hernandez is undersized for a TE at 6-foot-3, but he catches everything and could be a good value there.

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