Happy combine week! To get in the spirit, we’re kicking off our first beat writer mock draft. We told our NFL beat writers to make their first-round picks based on what they think the team they cover will do come April 23 — and we allowed trades, though only one occurred during this go-round. We’ve also included analysis from The Athletic’s college football staff to provide some more insight on the players chosen. We’ll have another beat writer mock later in the process, and that one will contain analysis from our draft guru Dane Brugler, whose mock drafts and prospect positional rankings you can check out here.



Let’s kick it off. The Bengals are on the clock…



1. Cincinnati Bengals: Joe Burrow, QB, LSU



The onslaught of ridiculous theories and trade proposals will continue unabated for the next two months, but the Bengals aren’t trading this pick. And they aren’t writing down any name other than...