The Cincinnati Bengals were always going to be linked to Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy ahead of the NFL draft. 

McCoy was always going to come up in rumors due to his medical history, too. 

As of right now, the big rumor comes from Tony Pauline of Essentially Sports, who wrote the following about McCoy: “I’m told that red flags were raised after teams deemed McCoy’s knee to be a degenerative condition. But, of course, medical opinions differ team by team since there is no central body to govern a physical.”

Meaning, while it varies by team, McCoy could be completely off the board for some teams, or red-flagged in a way that dings his placement on their board by half a round or more. 

The question from a Bengals perspective is simple: How did they view the medicals around McCoy? 

Hard to say. The Bengals have an obvious need at cornerback. Dax Hill and DJ Turner are the likely starters on the boundary, but they haven’t found a slot starter. 

If, for example, Mansoor Delane has been selected before No. 10, would the Bengals look at McCoy? Or would the medicals and how the rest of the board played out cause them to look at a trade back? 

Unless the Bengals outright draft McCoy, we’ll never likely get a full reveal on how they felt here. But from an outsider’s perspective, it’s hard to imagine them taking a risk on a boom-or-bust prospect at this stage of the Joe Burrow era when they need to turn their bad drafting track record of the last few years around in a big way. 

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals draft target’s red flag adds mystery to top 10 outlook