The Cincinnati Bengals waited surprisingly long to take an interior offensive lineman in this year’s NFL Draft, but they still got a good one on Day 3.
With their final selection, the 237th overall pick, the Bengals took Miami Hurricanes center Matt Lee.
The 6-foot-4, 301-pound native of Florida began his college career at UCF, where he spent four seasons before making his way to the ACC. In the 2023 season, Lee started 12 games at center and earned a 79.0 Pro Football Focus grade. In 434 pass-blocking snaps, he allowed just three hurries, one hit, and no sacks.
Going into the draft, Lee was widely viewed as a Day 3 pick.
- Pro Football Focus had him ranked 310th overall.
- ESPN had him ranked 185th.
- CBS Sports ranked Lee 212th.
- Sporting News also had him ranked 212th.
- The Consensus Big Board, which factors in all the rankings across the internet, had Lee ranked 228th overall, right in line with where the Bengals took him.
- NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein gave Lee a 5.83 grade, which is in the ‘Average Backup Or Special-Teamer’ tier, and a Round 6-7 projection. Here is Zierlein’s scouting report of Lee.
Lee’s lack of mass and NFL size will be a stumbling block from a perception standpoint, but the tape doesn’t lie when it comes to his talent in pass protection. Lee is a technician with good play strength whose anchor supersedes the number on the scale. He keeps his head on a swivel and was rarely beaten in 2023. He’s not much of a knee-bender, so drive blocking attempts will stall out, creating lane closures inside. Lee is an average athlete with above-average core strength and protection technique, and he might be able to overcome concerns about his size once he makes it into a camp.
Looking ahead, Lee will be competing with Trey Hill to be the Bengals’ No. 2 center behind Ted Karras, who is entering the final year of his contract and is 31 years old. The hope is Lee can be the team’s center of the future, but if nothing else, he’ll ideally be a better backup than Hill, who has never really shown anything in the NFL.
Be sure to check out Joe Goodberry’s breakdown of Lee.
Matt Lee was the last OL available crossing the 70/70 production and athleticism threshold – extremely predictive of NFL success.
This is the best value pick we have ever graded for the Bengals.
Absolutely awesome. https://t.co/3lMkGS5I64
— Gridiron Grading (@GridironGrading) April 27, 2024
