There are a few thoughts to be drawn about Day One for the Bengals. The first one is that they have no serious desire to improve the personal character of the guys on their roster. Not that Andre Smith and Rey Maualuga are felon-fodder, but they’re far from the squeaky-clean category that many clubs are valuing higher in the NFL’s personal-conduct era.

The more important thought is that this team is making a serious push for the NFL’s elite draft class — they certainly get this writer’s vote as the Day One front-runner.

Take away Smith’s bizarre and excuse-ridden premature departure from the Combine, and Maualuga’s freshman folly of punching out a kid at a Halloween party, and we have arguably the two best players from the 2008 college season teaming together in Cincinnati. The Smith pick wasn’t too surprising given his talent level and the Bengals’ clear need for O-line help, but the fact that Maualuga dropped all the way to the sixth pick of Round Two registers as one of the biggest surprises of Day One. The Bengals were wise to pounce.

Dhani Jones doesn’t have much left in the tank, and Maualuga ensures that the Bengals have a stellar young LB corps in place. Keith Rivers was off to a brilliant rookie season before breaking his jaw on the infamous Hines Ward block, and it will be mutually beneficial for him and Maualuga to reunite after being two of the critical cogs on USC’s star-studded defense of 2007.