Bengals sound like they were plotting first-round trade, surprise

One of the NFL draft scenarios the Cincinnati Bengals apparently had outlined as a possibility?

Drafting Cashius Howell by any means necessary.

The Bengals wound up with Howell at No. 41 in the second round. Those Bengals have hinted they might have had a first-round grade on Howell.

As we get farther away from the draft, more on this continues to come up in conversations, too.

Some within the Bengals have even hinted that Howell might have been in play at No. 10 overall if the board had fallen a certain way.

"To get him there is huge," Bengals scout Tyler Ramsey told Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. "We were already discussing him in the first round if we were able to move back, and maybe even if we got picked over at No. 10. That's the kind of player we see him."

Disclaimer: Teams always do this after the draft with their picks. They love the guy they got, would’ve taken him higher, that sort of thing.

Still, it’s interesting to think, for better or worse, that they had Howell as a possibility at No. 10. Some of his drawbacks, like the short arms, caused every team in the first round to pass on him, after all.

Ramsey doesn’t sound worried about those drawbacks, though, per Hobson:

"He's got so much speed, and he plays with such a violent edge. There's not the prototype body, but it doesn't affect him much. He's a very physical guy and he has such an arsenal of pass rush moves for a guy coming out of college, you know the floor is low for him. He's going to be disruptive, create pressure, and play extremely hard."

The Bengals traded out of No. 10 because they wanted an impact player right away and found it with Dexter Lawrence. It’s clear they were really high on Howell, though, and he would have at least been a serious plan if they had kept the pick and traded back.