Cincinnati's Center Depth Faces New Question

Last week, the Cincinnati Bengals made the move to move on from center Matt Lee after waiving the third-year player who was originally picked up by Cincinnati in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

This move continues to cast a shadow over the Bengals' center position in general, as 33-year-old center Ted Karras is entering the final year of his contract with the AFC North side.

Karras is headed into his fifth season with the Bengals and finished last season with a 63.1 overall PFF grade, ranking 22nd out of 40 eligible centers.

Cincinnati Must Find A Way To Add Depth To The Center Spot

On Dan Hoard’s “Bengals Booth Podcast,” offensive line coach Scott Peters spoke about finding a backup center along with current stand-in Jacob Bayer.

“You're always looking for the next guy to come in. Now, we have Jacob Bayer here. Jacob spent some time in the practice squad last year, and we have a lot of positive feelings about him, and we are going to go see what he can do," Peters said.

Bayer was an undrafted free agent who hailed from Arkansas State. He was a former All-Sun Belt Second Team selection

"That's A Competition That We're Looking Forward To Seeing"

“But he's gonna have to compete with somebody. Whether that's done in free agency or in the draft, yeah, we'll have the people to compete, and I think that's a competition that we're looking forward to seeing," Peters noted.

This leaves the Bengals in an interesting position as the NFL draft looms. Does the organization possibly splash on a long-term center as free agency rolls on, or do they look towards the draft?

According to ESPN, the best center prospect available is former Florida Gator Jake Slaugher, who is rated as the 80th-best overall prospect in the draft. Sam Hecht from Kansas State, and Logan Jones from Iowa are the other two possible center prospects listed inside the top-100.

“There's some high-end players in this draft. I think, there are some pretty unique talents in this draft,” quoted Peters. “I would say that the volume of talent is probably not as high this year, not to say there aren't really good players in the draft, but I think the class is smaller from the standpoint of volume. I think that might have something to do with the COVID year. And some of the guys were playing longer.”

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