The NIL Problem Cincinnati's Looking at in the Draft Room: Why Older College Stars Might Not Be the Answer for the Bengals' Next Era

Listen, I've been watching football for a long time, and I've seen a lot of things change. I've seen rules come and go, I've seen strategy evolve, and I've seen dynasties built and torn down. But what we're talking about now with NIL money and how it's affecting the draft pool, that's something that hits different for a team like Cincinnati. That's something that matters to Bengals fans right now more than ever because of where this franchise is sitting in 2024 and beyond.

You want to know why? Because the Cincinnati Bengals are in that window. They've got Joe Burrow, they've got Ja'Marr Chase, they've got the foundation of something special, and they need to hit on draft picks to build around those guys while they're still young and hungry and under contract. They need players with upside, players with growth in front of them, players who can develop into stars over four, five, six years. When Eric DeCosta from Baltimore says that NIL deals are keeping guys in college longer and that's creating a problem because these dudes are coming into the draft older with less upside, man, that's exactly the kind of thing that could hurt the Bengals more than a lot of people realize.

Think about what's happening out there in the college football world. You've got these young men who can now make serious money while they're still in school. I'm talking real money, the kind of money that used to only come after you proved yourself in the NFL. A kid can get an NIL deal for two hundred grand, three hundred grand, maybe more, and that kid might think to himself, "Why do I need to risk my body another year to prove I'm ready for the NFL?" But here's where it gets twisted around. Some of these kids think, "Hey, if I stay one more year, I can make another half million in NIL deals, maybe improve my draft stock, and then cash in even bigger in the NFL." So they stay in school longer. That's the math they're doing.

Now, I understand the temptation. I really do. These young men have worked their whole lives to get to college, and now there's money on the table. But here's the thing about football that people sometimes forget when they're looking at spreadsheets and contract numbers: the game doesn't care about your age the same way it cares about your readiness and your ceiling. A twenty-two-year-old receiver with elite feet and hands who's only played two full seasons of college ball might have more potential in the NFL than a twenty-four-year-old receiver who's squeezed every bit of development he can get in college. One guy might be entering his prime right when the league needs him to. The other guy might already be starting to see that athletic clock tick down.

For Cincinnati, this matters because the Bengals have historically built their recent success on finding players who had room to grow. Look back at the last five years of this franchise. Ja'Marr Chase coming out, he was dominant but he still had development ahead of him. The team believed in him as a prospect with upside. That's different than bringing in a guy who's already maxed out what he can do in college and now he's just maintaining. The Bengals need to find guys who can improve once they hit the NFL, who can get stronger, faster, more intelligent about reading defenses. They need upside.

When you're picking in the second round, in the third round, in rounds four and five, that upside is everything. That's the difference between drafting a guy who might become a Pro Bowler and drafting a guy who becomes a solid starter. The Bengals have done well in recent drafts because they've found that sweet spot where they identify players who had something left to prove, something left to develop. If the pool of talent gets older across the board, if more and more of these guys have been in college longer, it changes the calculus.

Let's think about specific needs too. The Bengals defense has been a weak point for this franchise. They need young, athletic defensive linemen who can develop. They need linebackers with high ceilings. They need defensive backs who can grow into their roles over three, four, five years. These are positions where you can't just look for finished products because finished products at those positions get expensive and might not fit what you're trying to build. You need hungry, developing talent. You need guys who are at the very beginning of their athletic journeys, not guys who've already spent four or five years in college getting ready.

The salary cap also factors in here, and this is important. When you draft younger, you know you're getting developmental years out of your draft picks. You know that guy you took in the third round in 2025 is probably not going to be ready to hit the open market and command top dollar until 2030 or 2031. That gives you time to work with him, develop him, figure out if he's really going to be a player at this level. But if you're drafting guys who are already older, they're closer to free agency, closer to walking away. You get less time with them before they're asking for real money. The Bengals are trying to build something sustainable here, something that lasts beyond just the next two or three years. They need the time to develop guys.

I've been thinking about some of the great Bengals drafts, and you know what stands out? When they found young talent and developed it. That's what made the chemistry work between Burrow and Chase. That's what's made some of their other recent picks stick. You need time to build those relationships, to get young players acclimated to the system, to see them grow from year one to year five. If everyone's coming in older, everyone's on a shorter clock.

Here's another thing that doesn't get talked about enough. When a player stays in college longer to milk those NIL deals, they're making a calculation that's about their pockets right now, not about their long-term career arc. I'm not being judgmental about that. Money is money, and these young men deserve to get paid for their talent and likeness. But it does mean the players coming into the draft in 2025 and 2026 and beyond are going to be a slightly older, slightly more worn population on average. And that's what DeCosta is saying bothers him, and it should bother Bengals fans too.

The NFL is a young man's game. It's built for guys in their athletic prime, and athletic prime usually peaks in the mid-twenties, sometimes even earlier. You want your draft picks to have their whole prime ahead of them. You want to draft a guy at twenty-one who can dominate at twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven. You don't want to draft a guy at twenty-four who's already been in the system for four years and might not have that same explosive growth.

For Bengals fans, this means you should be paying attention to how Cincinnati attacks the draft the next couple of years. Are they adjusting their strategy to account for older players in the pool? Are they being more selective about character and work ethic because they won't have as many years to mold guys? Are they leaning more into trades to acquire younger players from other teams who still have upside left? These are the questions that separate good front offices from great ones in this new landscape.

The window is open for Cincinnati right now. It might not stay open forever. The team can't afford to settle for players who don't have upside, who don't have growth potential, who are already rounding the corner on their athletic careers. They need every draft pick to be a potential building block for the next five to ten years. When the talent pool skews older, when more guys are coming in having already spent four, five, even six years developing in college, the Bengals' job gets harder. They're gonna have to be sharper, smarter, more selective than ever. For fans, it means keeping an eye on how the front office handles this challenge, because it could be the difference between building a dynasty and just having a nice run.