**2006: The Long-Haul Draft**
The Bengals began the weekend drafting their first first-round cornerback ever when they plucked South Carolina's Johnathan Joseph with the 24th pick. Despite closing in on a long-term deal with left tackle Levi Jones, they took LSU left tackle Andrew Whitworth in the second round because of his versatility. In the third and fourth rounds, the Bengals stayed on the defensive line, first with USC defensive end Frostee Rucker, and then with Michigan State nose tackle Domata Peko.
Joseph and Michigan cornerback Leon Hall, taken with the first pick in 2007, teamed to be co-MVPs of the 2009 Bengals who swept the AFC North. Whitworth, with 168 games, played the third most games by a Bengals tackle behind only Ring of Honor members Anthony Munoz and Willie Anderson while going to three Pro Bowls at left tackle. Peko, with 171, played more games on the Bengals defensive front than anybody but Ring of Honor member Tim Krumrie while anchoring four top-ten defenses.
Rucker played the first 53 of his 157 NFL games in Cincinnati, the fewest number of games played by the players picked in those first four rounds. But don't forget Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks, taken a couple of months later in the third round of the 2006 supplemental draft. After 145 games, Brooks was the first to retire after the 2017 season.
Then Rucker retired after 2018, but Joseph, Whitworth, and Peko made it into the 2020s. Peko and Joseph retired after 2020, making it rather fitting that the last game played by a member of that long-haul '06 Bengals draft class was the Rams' Whitworth playing against the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI after the 2021 season.
**2011: Generational Re-Boot Forms A Connection**
Nine years before the Bengals went QB-WR 1-2 in the draft to start a generational re-boot in the challenging confines of COVID, the Bengals went WR-QB 1 to re-make an era that began in a lockout.
Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson couldn't talk to their new offensive coordinator, Jay Gruden, because of the lockout. But Palmer had made it clear he wanted to be traded and it was thought that Johnson, the Bengals all-time leading receiver, would also be moving on.
With both still on the roster, the Bengals took Georgia wide receiver A.J. Green with the fourth pick. Then Gruden held his breath. He was crossing his fingers that the guy he thought most NFL ready among the crop of quarterbacks that they'd have a shot to get, TCU's Andy Dalton, would be there at No. 35 at the top of the second round.
It was a long wait when Jake Locker-Blaine Gabbert-Christian Ponder went 8-10-12. It turned out Gruden couldn't talk or work with his new combo until the day the lockout ended, also the day they traded Chad Johnson to New England for a fifth-round pick on July 29.
The Bengals may have had an excruciating wait for Dalton, but he and Green wasted no time turning the pundits on their heads. While Green became the first receiver in history to go to seven Pro Bowls in his first seven seasons, Dalton became the first rookie quarterback in NFL history to win nine games and go the playoffs while throwing 20 touchdown passes on the way to leading the Bengals to a club-best five straight postseasons.