First-round pick Levi Jones visits the Bengals locker room Sunday. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        Before the draft, Bengals scouts, executives and coaches talked about picking the best player available. And if Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington hadn't gone to Detroit with the third pick, the Bengals were considering him in the first round because — all together now — he was the best player available.

        But the Bengals addressed a specific need with each of their six picks. Their first three players — left tackle Levi Jones, safety Lamont Johnson and tight end Matt Schobel — all are expected to play regularly and could start.

        “This year we tried to put them where they get a chance to play sooner, easier,” Bengals president Mike Brown said.

        Good move.

FANS SOUND OFF

NFL experts ripped the Bengals' first pick (Story). So did Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty (Column). Enquirer columnist Tim Sullivan called it a sensible pick. (Column). More than 150 fans responded to our invitation to sound off. See what they had to say.

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        The club resisted adding depth at its deepest positions — linebacker, running back, wide receiver — and concentrated on finding the best players at positions of greatest need.

        Last year, they took running back Rudi Johnson in the fourth round and linebacker Riall Johnson in the sixth.

        There were no such questionable calls this year, and the Bengals' draft ended up earning a solid B grade with the potential to climb even higher.

        Once the local and national media recovered from the shock of Jones at No.10, the pick made a lot of sense.

        The Bengals were fortunate to get 16 starts from left tackle Richmond Webb, a 12-year veteran. Behind him is John Jackson, a 14-year NFL veteran. Besides his physical talent, Jones is a good student who takes instruction well, and he will learn a great deal from Webb and Jackson.

        The Bengals took heat from the national sports media for “reaching” for Jones, a player the Mel Kipers of the world say will be an outstanding player. The Bengals should have traded down, they said, and drafted Jones lower and received an additional pick.

        They tried. But right behind them, at Nos.14 and 15, the Giants and Titans wanted Jones. So did the Ravens at No. 24.

        The Bengals' selections in the second and third rounds were just as good, if not better.

        Thompson, the Washington State safety, was second in the nation with 10 interceptions last season. He's the ball-hawking defensive back the Bengals were supposed to get with cornerback Phillip Buchanon (Raiders) in the first round. Johnson is big and fast and has the potential to run down balls in football's center field.

        There are some questions whether Thompson's neck has completely healed from a sprain that caused him to miss the 2000 season. But the Bengals' medical staff determined he was fine after a 93-tackle 2001 season.

        In the third round, the Bengals traded up six slots to get Carolina's pick to take tight end Matt Schobel from Texas Christian. Detroit, which had the pick after the Bengals, was on the phone with Schobel when his girlfriend told him the Bengals had just drafted him.

        “There were some curse words,” Schobel said of the Lions' reaction.

        Kiper, who said Jones was a first-round reach, rated Schobel a third-round steal. Schobel could be the antidote to a weak position that accounted for just 29 receptions in 2001.

        The Bengals took the highest-rated kicker available in the fourth round, Purdue's Travis Dorsch, who should replace Neil Rackers as the Bengals kicker. Dorsch was 19-for-20 on field goal attempts inside the 50-yard line, but he missed five of 25 extra points.

        The Bengals gave up their fifth-round pick to get Schobel, and in the sixth round they took another safety, three-year starter Marquand Manuel from Florida. He was projected as a third- or fourth-round pick.

        North Carolina defensive end Joey Evans Jr. — often overshadowed by by first-round pick teammates Julius Peppers and Ryan Sims — was the Bengals' seventh-round pick. He could add youth and fresh legs at defensive end, where Vaughn Booker and his big salary could be expendable.

        The best move was not drafting Harrington, a potential star quarterback who nonetheless wouldn't have helped the Bengals much in 2002. They're better off giving incumbent starter Jon Kitna a second year with a gifted but young group of wide receivers in a second season in coordinator Bob Bratkowski's offense.

        But hanging over the Bengals' draft is a nagging feeling that they could have had all these talented rookies AND Drew Bledsoe.

        Bledsoe, a superstar quarterback, went from New England to Buffalo Sunday in exchange for the Bills' first-round draft pick next year.

        All it would have cost the Bengals was some persistence, creativity in the front office to fit Bledsoe's salary under the cap and their first pick in 2003 — which, if they had pulled the trigger, probably would have been all the way down in the 20s any way.

Good draft can help Bengals right away New kicker should give Rackers the boot What do you think of the Bengals' picks With Bledsoe on Bills, Bengals need backup QB Bengals foes reload in draft Draft Notebook: Jones gets first lesson Surprise, Bengals take tackle Experts rip Bengals pick DAUGHERTY: Bengals spoil the party again SULLIVAN: Bengals' timing might be right Jones combines brains and brawn Nose for ball Thompson's key strength Trade yields TE Schobel 6th: Marquand Manuel 7th: Joey Evans Draft picks by team Draft picks by number First round goes to linemen Harrington surprised by Detroit

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