NFL Draft: Cincinnati Bengals locking in on second-round prospects

Apr. 23—Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor said he has no doubt the organization made the right call in trading their No. 10 overall draft pick to the New York Giants for nose tackle Dexter Lawrence.

A top-10 selection isn't easy to part with, but the Bengals know exactly what they get in Lawrence, and that's not always the case with even an elite draft prospect.

The Bengals might have gotten a foundational piece to build around for years to come with that first-round pick but Taylor believes Lawrence is a known commodity that can help the team win now. And that key addition to the defense sets Cincinnati up well for the rest of the draft.

The NFL Draft begins Thursday night with the first round, continues with the second and third rounds Friday evening and concludes with Rounds 4-7 on Saturday afternoon.

"With any first-round pick, there's always going to be questions," Taylor said. "You think you know the value, but until they're integrated in an NFL locker room and go play against other NFL players, there's a little bit of an unknown there. (Lawrence) is a known quantity for us, and I know he's going to be an immediate presence that lifts our team up and causes concern for other teams. I don't have any questions about that, and so it's pretty clear for me that that's the right decision."

Defensive coordinator Al Golden said it's hard to compare a draft prospect to a veteran anyway, but Lawrence's elite skill set isn't something you expect to find in a player just coming out of college and certainly not as refined.

The Bengals likely weren't completely sold on the players that would have been available to them at No. 10 regardless of position, but now the Giants have two top-10 picks. Asked whether Cincinnati's draft position in the second round limits the possibility of moving back into the first round, Taylor said he wasn't going to try to guess on that one.

There are good players that will be available and fit the Bengals' needs on Days 2 and 3, though.

"I hate to speak position by position, but we go through all the exercises that Duke (Tobin) puts us through, and you're going to find players that help you, and it's impossible to predict what position that's going to be because if you say it's going to be this position, usually that one dries up because you want it," Taylor said. "I just think we're open to a lot of different possibilities there. ..."

Since making the trade official Sunday, the Bengals draft prep has changed from the norm.

Coaches, executives and the scouting department have been taking a deeper dive already into who might be available in the second round. That doesn't mean they rule out the possibility of trading up, but it does seem unlikely.