The teams that make out the best in draft-day trades are the teams that move down and are still able to draft the same player they would have drafted if they had stayed in place. That’s what the Vikings did early in the first round when they moved from No. 3 to No. 4 and still got Matt Kalil, and that’s what the Bengals say they did late in the first round.
The Bengals moved down from No. 21 to No. 27 in a trade with the Patriots, and according to Bengals.com, when they drafted at No. 27 they took the player they were going to take at No. 21 anyway, Wisconsin guard Kevin Zeitler.
In trading down from 21 to 27, the Bengals got the Patriots’ third-round pick, No. 93 overall. With that pick they drafted Clemson defensive tackle Brandon Thompson.
The Bengals, who also had an extra first-round pick from the Carson Palmer trade and an extra fifth-round pick from the Chad Ochocinco trade, unquestionably drafted very well last year. It appears that they drafted very well this year, too.