If Denver did not agree to our trade, who do you think we would have taken at #20?

[RuthlessBurgher]

For what it's worth, this is by no means the first time that we have traded ahead of Cincy to take someone they wanted.

Last year, Cincy had back-to-back picks in the 3rd round at #77 and #78, and we were sitting right behind them at #79 (the pick we got from Oakland in the Martavis Bryant trade).

I heard that our plan originally was to take Mason Rudolph with the pick #60 in round 2, but after making that trade with Oakland, our front office determined that WR was now a more immediate need, so we opted for Rudolph's college teammate James Washington there instead.

As Rudolph continued to slide down toward the middle of round 3 (Cincy was reportedly interested in him with one of their two picks there), we traded ahead of their two picks up to #76 to take Mason Rudolph for ourselves.

.....

Also, Cincy did not trade in front of us to take William Jackson. They were scheduled to pick at #24 in 2016 and we were scheduled to pick at #25 that year. I think our front office did not feel the need to try to trade up ahead of them because I'm guessing we assumed that they would have greater needs there than taking yet another first round CB so soon after taking CB Darqueze Dennard in the 1st round in 2014 and CB Dre Kirkpatrick in the 1st round in 2012.

[Iron City Inc.]

Thought the Bengals draft was poor this year. Tackle is a good player but at 11 I thought was high. They are pushing themselves well behind the pack. Tough few years ahead for Bengal fans.

[hawaiiansteel]

Thought the Bengals draft was poor this year. Tackle is a good player but at 11 I thought was high. They are pushing themselves well behind the pack. Tough few years ahead for Bengal fans.

what a shame...

[Disco1981]

I truly don't know. The Steelers seem to set up their board with different criteria than any of the "experts" and in a way that even those with great insight into the FO don't get. The most recent example was the first round selection of Edmunds last year. Who had that name on their list?

We've been saying it on this board for years now (the first time I remember the discussion was during the 2016 draft) that the team wants to meet with these guys and values character above all else. I have no idea who they ranked as the high character guy who they would have selected between guys like Murphy, Ya-Sin, Sweat, Fant etc. The one thing I do know is that fans, who just know these guys from watching games and reading up on them pre-draft, have no idea where the team's mindset is at.

Funny side note, most opinions are based on the mocks of the top analysts. Then, when a pick goes away from the norm - either chosen much earlier or later than they said a player should be, we determine that it was either a horrible reach or a steal. Why? Because none of the guys who make lists said that pick should have been made there. So, now the Raiders pick a guy at 4 who none of the experts had within the top 15. What an awful pick, right? But, who made the pick? A guy who just last season was considered the number one expert college/draft guru. Had Mayock still been in studio instead of making the pick, I'll bet half of the mocks you saw would have had Ferrell at 4 and nobody would have batted an eyelash when the pick was made.

Great post