Kyler Murray might be the enigma of the NFL Draft but he might also be a big solve to the problems the Cincinnati Bengals have had for the last few seasons. A new mock draft has new head coach Zac Taylor getting the best quarterback in college football falling into his lap. The real question is whether or not the franchise really is ready to move on from Andy Dalton. It's a safe bet that most Bengals fans would certainly be happy to see the former Sooners' signal-caller land in Cincy with the 11th pick in the draft.
End of the Andy Dalton era?
The CBS Sports mock draft lays out why they think the Cincinnati Bengals are going to take Kyler Murray with their first-round pick, despite there being plenty of other positions the team needs to upgrade quickly: "Let's get this party STARTED! Andy Dalton is over 30 now, so he's not going to magically become an All-Pro and he has zero dead money left on his contract. Drafting Murray and pairing him with Zac Taylor takes the stodgy old boring Bengals and makes them COOL and potentially an immediate threat to the AFC North."
Not only is Dalton over the age of 30, but he's now also a quarterback that has had some injury problems.
A Bengals season that was started down the drain began circling faster when Dalton went down. Even before his injury, his play had started to decline. As a whole, Dalton finished the 2018 season with over 2,500 yards and a nice 21-to-11 touchdown to interception ratio.
The dirty little secret is that Dalton's TD to interception numbers were trending downwards after a strong start. In his final three games, he had four touchdowns and three interceptions. That's more normal with his career numbers outside of some very good years. Andy Dalton is not the kind of Bengals quarterback that is irreplaceable and at least one mock draft thinks Kyler Murray is the man to do it.
Cincinnati Bengals rebuild could start with a bang
After three straight losing seasons, Zac Taylor has been brought in to make sure that the team doesn't have to tear down to rebuild. There is talent on the roster, despite what former Bengals have to say on social media. If Kyler Murray can even come close to being the dynamic player he was at Oklahoma, the team could turn things around quickly.
There are other positions of need that could be solved through the draft, but Murray is a generational player who the NFL thought was going to play baseball. If the Cincinnati Bengals can get assurances that he is devoted to football, and he falls to 11th in the draft, it would seem like a no-brainer for Zac Taylor's first-ever pick as a head coach.