The Cincinnati Bengals once again appear to be in the top-five teams in the NFL, and are desperately trying to get over the hump before the agents for Joe Burrow, Tee Higgins, and Ja’Marr Chase come calling for the massive contracts they’ve earned. It makes sense, then, that they spent their premium draft picks on the defensive side of the ball, where the Bengals need zero help. They didn’t do much in the way of luxury picks on offense, instead content to sit tight with Samaje Perine leaving, Joe Mixon doing his best Ja Morant impression (or is Ja doing a Joe Mixon impression?) and getting Irv Smith to fill the “vastly overhyped tight end” role on the Bengals offense. With that in mind, the Bengals took three players at fantasy football-eligible positions, but you can’t expect that much out of them this season, or can you? Let’s take a look at the fantasy football prospects of their three offensive weapons taken in April’s draft.
FULL 2023 CINCINNATI BENGALS DRAFT RESULTS
| Rnd. | Pick No. | Player | Pos. | College |
| 1 | 28 | Myles Murphy | DE | Clemson |
| 2 | 60 | D. J. Turner | CB | Michigan |
| 3 | 95 | Jordan Battle | S | Alabama |
| 4 | 131 | Charlie Jones | WR | Purdue |
| 5 | 163 | Chase Brown | RB | Illinois |
| 6 | 206 | Andrei Iosivas | WR | Princeton |
| 6 | 217 | Brad Robbins | P | Michigan |
| 7 | 246 | D. J. Ivey | CB | Miami (FL) |
Round 4, Pick 131 Overall: Charlie Jones, Wide Receiver, Purdue (5’11” 175 pounds)
TALENT
If Charlie Jones was 6’3” and 210+ pounds, then he would have gone in the first few rounds of drafts. Mostly, because he would have been Cedric Tillman. But, as it stands, he’s just an average sized guy who doesn’t do a great job of getting separation, so he relies on his above-average contested catch skills to make his hay. Jones had a decent 40-yard dash (4.43) but it doesn’t show on tape. He has a frenetic pace at the line of scrimmage, but his footwork there is ultimately just eye wash as he does a good job of setting up defenders, but can’t cash it in with a secondary move.
2023 OPPORTUNITY
I don’t have much else to say here except listing the wide receiver depth chart ahead of him, and explaining that his upside is Darius Slayton: Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd, Joe Mixon, and Irv Smith are all priorities over him on any given play in the offense.
2023 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
To put it short: he’s a little too small and a little too unpolished to get me at all excited about him in his rookie year, especially given his draft capital (rookie wide receivers finish top-36 less than 2% of the time) and the depth chart in front of him. You can safely ignore Charlie Jones this season.
TALENT
2023 OPPORTUNITY
2023 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
Round 5, Pick 163 Overall: Chase Brown, Running Back, Illinois (5’9” 212 pounds)
TALENT
Brown is a volume back with a ton of tread off his tires. He had 44 touches… in one game… last season. That’s out of control. Still, he’s good, and much like Tank Bigsby, he feels like a jack of all trades and a master of none in his time at Illinois. Let’s start with his running: it’s nice, I like it! In more detail: he is a tough and decisive runner with a preternatural ability to maximize his blocking. As for his hands: they’re also nice. He has the ability to catch away from his body and to turn up field immediately. But still, those touches, give me a massive cause for concern, especially considering he will get guys like Michael Pierce (345 pounds) and Keeanu Benton (315 pounds) falling all over him multiple times per year. With that much tread on his tires, I worry about what more tread from those guys will do to his long-term prospects.
2023 OPPORTUNITY
For some completely insane and unknown reason, the Cincinnati Bengals continue to stand by Joe Mixon, despite the fact that his rap sheet is starting to be longer than his YPC outside of his one massive blowup game per year. Should Mixon continue to stay on the roster, then I’m not entirely sure what the rookie will have in the way of opportunity to produce for fantasy football purposes. But, if the Bengals finally do the right thing (and at this point, it seems as though it will take Joe Mixon getting convicted of smuggling nuclear secrets to make him not be on the Cincy roster in 2023), then Brown will have a ton of opportunity to produce. Chris Evans isn’t anything but a change of pace back, and Trayveon Williams is the very definition of roster filler at running back. So, should anything happen to Joe Mixon, Chase Brown is ready to get the 21 opportunities per game that Mixon has averaged over the last five seasons.
2023 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
Again, this all depends on Joe Mixon. Should Mixon stick around, then there isn’t much for Chase Brown to do. Mixon gets such a dominant touch volume that Perine getting over 40% of the snaps in games down the stretch and in the playoffs was an apparent cause for concern. With Mixon around, Chase Brown has zero opportunity. But, if the Bengals move on from Mixon, then Chase Brown has literally all the opportunity to get over 15 touches per game, and if you can get a back getting over 15 touches per game, then that’s an easy RB2.
TALENT
2023 OPPORTUNITY
or 
2023 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
or 
Round 6, Pick 206 Overall: Andre Iosivas, Wide Receiver, Princeton (6’3” 205 pounds)
TALENT
Iosivas has a lot of the speed and agility measurables as Charlie Jones, but he’s 20 pounds and four inches taller than Jones. That right there gives me pause as to why Jones went two rounds before Iosivas. That’s probably because his athleticism can only take him so far. He is completely indistinguishable from so many different day-three wide receivers that I’ve watched over the half-decade or so that I’ve watched every rookie. Iosivas had some productive games at Princeton, but that’s mostly because the guys he played with and against in the Ivy League all wore salmon 5” inseam shorts, polos, and sockless boat shoes on the football field (got em). Was he better than the guys in the Ivy League? Yes. Is he going to make it into a serious rotation spot on the Bengals? Absolutely not.
2023 OPPORTUNITY
I am going to repeat myself from Charlie Jones:
“Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd, Joe Mixon, and Irv Smith are all priorities over him on any given play in the offense.”
2023 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
I have zero interest in trying to get excited about Andre Iosivas.
