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Although I love football, I have never understood the whole mock draft phenomenon. I mean, I get it, but I am not sure why people put so much time and effort into them. Think about it this way. When have you seen a mock draft that matched the picks exactly? Well, never.

When you are wrong about the third pick because you thought Seattle needed a quarterback when they thought they needed a receiver, then you have just ruined your whole mock draft and your hours upon hours of thinking about who will fit in which puzzle. Still as the draft approaches this weekend, we all look at them. I do, too. I will admit it. I look, and I see who from my favorite college team may be making it into the top three rounds. Then I check out the NFL teams I like to see what they need.

This year, I have my eye on the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals this year have the twenty-fourth pick in the draft. Gil Brandt, of NFL.com, believes the Bengals front office will pick Marcedes Lewis, the tight end from UCLA. I cannot say that I agree with Brandt here, but then I was wrong about what they did last year, too.

Actually most people go against what Brandt is suggesting. The Bengals need defense. Their defense is terrible. I hate to have to admit it. They had some bright spots this year. Odell Thurman, in his rookie season out of the University of Georgia, put up amazing numbers and showed that he is a future defensive star. Deltha O'Neal made so many interceptions that I stopped counting. But the defense as a whole was terrible. They cost Cincinnati more than one game.

The problem is that the offense is very strong. Led by quarterback Carson Palmer, the Bengals offense has a number of weapons from Rudi Johnson to Chad Johnson. They would score, and then they would end up right back on the field. Only the other team had scored in the interim.

This problem meant that the offense had to work hard to continue scoring on possession after possession. We had to score or risk a loss. That type of play cannot continue for long. Your offensive players end up exhausted and risk injury because your defense cannot keep them off the field for long. The Bengals ultimately did run into this problem. They lost quarterback Carson Palmer at the end of the season to a knee injury. While the injury was not from being tired, perhaps Palmer could have been a bit sharper had he not played so many down in the previous few games.

The loss of Palmer ultimately led to the Bengals falling apart in their first playoff experience in 15 years, and they went home without a playoff victory and with hopes of next year.

And that brings us to this year and the NFL draft. I hope that the Bengals will bring in good defensive players. To do that would mean adding to the roster of really great players who make up the team. One of the best things about Marvin Lewis as the coach of the Bengals is that he has brought in so many solid players. The Bengals roster was for a decade considered a joke. Now they have players who can compete well in the NFL. Adding some defensive muscle to that roster would be a big boost to making the team a perennial playoff contender.

Still it is tough to know what coaches are thinking. That is in part because coaches know what else lies on the horizon for the team. They can take into account every possible move they may make. They know the intimate details of contracts, negotiations, and trades, and they do not share that information with everyone. That means that mock drafts ultimately come with incomplete information. No one can predict what coaches will do, but the process of guessing is part of the fun of being a football fan. As soon as a team makes a pick, then the analysis will begin. Everyone will be critiquing and talking over the pick so that many people make up their minds immediately about a draft choice.

By Julia Mercer