Two other mock drafts have the Bengals going TE in Round 1

The tight end position is a hot topic around the Cincinnati Bengals heading into the 2023 NFL draft.

In fact, it seems to be the position most commonly mocked by those first-round Bengals. And given that the team’s top three names on the depth chart head into free agency this summer — Hayden Hurst, Drew Sample and Mitchell Wilcox — it makes sense.

Two other dummy drafts have the Bengals chasing the No. 28 position, starting with NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah, who makes the team go with Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer:

“With Hayden Hurst heading to free agency, Mayer can get right into the lineup and win contested catches for the Bengals.”

The other mock, courtesy of The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr., sees the Bengals following that position but heading to Oregon State’s Luke Musgrave:

“This has been a silent wish for some time and acquiring a faster vertical threat last year showed Hurst using it versus CJ Uzomah the previous year. You could make a strong case for waiting until later in the draft to address the position when you consider the history of where true impactful tight ends have come from. But also consider the history of Bengals coming in early for Jermaine Gresham, Tyler Eifert and Drew Sample over the years, as well as doubling down with a third and fifth in 2015 (Tyler Kroft, Uzomah).

Dehner’s note about the “quiet desire” for a major director in the position is a big deal. And he seems more noteworthy this year than most because Tyler Boyd still has a year on his current contract — there may be a desire to make the third receiving option a chunky tight end instead of a wide receiver.

This is thinking a little further ahead, but it’s also what the Bengals did in the first two rounds of last year’s draft with the secondary.

As these teases show and things suggest, Bengals fans need to get used to hearing Meyer and Musgrave enter the conversation.