The Cincinnati Bengals go all sorts of ways in mock drafts, which is fair more so this year than most others.

Sitting at No. 10, it would be easy to see the Bengals taking the best player on their board when it comes to defenders. But at the same time, they also figure to at least keep an open mind about possible trades, given the major gains to be made by a move down.

What would be surprising, though, is if the Bengals traded down, but also got super risky with the pick they end up making.

The Bengals manage to do just that during a new mock draft from Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com, where they strike a trade down to No. 16 with the New York Jets. The Bengals cough up a fourth-rounder in the exchange, but add the No. 44 overall pick while moving down the six spots.

“Yet Stewart flashed enough through his injury-laden rookie year to make the Bengals believe they've got a remarkably gifted big man who can consistently get to the quarterback. And, in Faulk, you'd have a guy who is legit NFL size (6-6, 280 pounds), has high grades as a physical AFC Northish run-stopper, and can play up and down the line. That's what he did for Auburn last year, and some argue moving him off the edge more is why he didn't match his seven sophomore sacks of 2024.”

The concern here is Faulk wasn’t all that productive in college. It’s the same red flag that popped up about Shemar Stewart last year. Then, he had the contract standoff and multiple injury issues and never really got going.

So, a 50-50 mock draft. Getting the 44th pick to go with their 41st after a small trade back would be a nice win for a team with lots of needs to fill. Taking the same roll of the dice on a red flag as last year…maybe not so much.

A little surprising to see from the Bengals’ official website, but it does nothing if not drive the conversation in interesting directions, right?

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals mock draft from team’s website gets weird