Speaker 1: Hi, gain everybody. I'm Dan Horne. Thanks for downloading the
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth podcast, the That's All Line Need to Know
Speaker 1: audition as we go inside the Bengals draft room to
Speaker 1: review this year's class with Director of Scouting Mike Potts.
Speaker 1: Plus five fun questions with first round draft pick a
Speaker 1: Marius Mims and Dax Hill reacts to moving from safety
Speaker 1: to Corner. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you
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Speaker 1: Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.
Speaker 1: Now here's a quick reminder that you can have the
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Speaker 1: It's the greatest thing since Premier League relegation and promotion.
Speaker 1: I know there are some people that listen to this
Speaker 1: podcast in the UK and some of you may know
Speaker 1: that my favorite soccer club is Leicester City. Well, last
Speaker 1: year the Foxes finished in the bottom three of the
Speaker 1: Premier League standings, meaning they got relegated to the second
Speaker 1: tier of English soccer. The bottom three finishers go down
Speaker 1: a level and the top three from the so called
Speaker 1: English Football League Championship move up. Well, I'm happy to
Speaker 1: report that Leicester City is going back up. They clinched
Speaker 1: the top two finish and a return to the Premier
Speaker 1: League last week. So to my fellow members of the
Speaker 1: Greater Cincinnati Leicester City Supporters Club, I look forward to
Speaker 1: being reunited next season watching matches together at Rhinehouse. Now
Speaker 1: let's get to football, more specifically American football. After being
Speaker 1: selected in the first round by the Bengals on Thursday,
Speaker 1: A Marius Mams came to Cincinnati for an introductory news
Speaker 1: conference the next day. As I stood there talking to
Speaker 1: him with fellow reporters, I had this thought, how could
Speaker 1: a pass rusher possibly get by this guy? You've seen
Speaker 1: his height and weight six' eight three forty, but somehow
Speaker 1: that doesn't do his enormity justice. Consider this, His wingspan
Speaker 1: is eighty six and three quarter inches, So when a
Speaker 1: Marius stretches out his arms, it's the equivalent of Kareem
Speaker 1: Abdul Jabbar seven feet two inches. He's a genetic freak
Speaker 1: in every way. Mims did a series of one on
Speaker 1: one TV interviews on Friday, so when I sat down
Speaker 1: with him, I thought we would have a little fun time.
Speaker 1: For five questions with the eighteenth pick in the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four NFL Draft, Marius Mims. I'll actually make it
Speaker 1: six questions because the first question, how did that sound?
Speaker 1: The eighteenth pick of the twenty twenty four NFL Draft?
Speaker 2: This sounds great, honestly, like I said, especially going through
Speaker 2: the same as Cincinnati Bengals. Man, you know, I'm just
Speaker 2: blessed and I'm very thankful for them picking me at eighteen. Man,
Speaker 2: that's how much to be thankful for? All?
Speaker 1: Right? Question number one? I talked to a draft guru
Speaker 1: at the NFL Scouting Combine who said the following, Marius
Speaker 1: Mims was built in a lab to be an offensive tackle.
Speaker 1: Were you always a giant in comparison to the other kids?
Speaker 1: And do you remember the first time somebody said, ah,
Speaker 1: you're going to be an offensive lineman someday?
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember, you know, being tallering there like all
Speaker 2: my class basic stuff, playing regressional league. But the first
Speaker 2: time somebody told me that you're going to be an
Speaker 2: office tackle. Was going into my sophomore high school when
Speaker 2: I switched my position from defensive land to office tackle.
Speaker 1: So and you embraced it, you, sir, it was.
Speaker 3: It took me a little while at this, but I
Speaker 3: was like, Okay, they can do it all right.
Speaker 1: Question number two, According to everything I read, you did
Speaker 1: not allow a sack at Georgia. Is that the case?
Speaker 1: And do you remember the last sack you gave up?
Speaker 1: At any level? Have you given one up?
Speaker 2: I want to say in high school, I gave one
Speaker 2: up Washington County. I want to say. I remember my
Speaker 2: junior year. It was like, I'm blocking the guy for
Speaker 2: a long time. I thought the ball was going. I'm
Speaker 2: turning around. I'm blocking to do it again. My quarterbacks
Speaker 2: still right here, can't He's out of my vengs. I
Speaker 2: think he's running. So I started blocking. Do I'm going
Speaker 2: to run on the field and he's still there and
Speaker 2: I'll see him on the ground. I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 2: And my coach was like, mel Compin, It's gonna be okay.
Speaker 2: I'm like, naug have the sack, Like I need to
Speaker 2: go regroup.
Speaker 1: So three years at Georgia, going back to your junior
Speaker 1: year of high school, it's been five years since you've
Speaker 1: surrendered a sack.
Speaker 2: I guess so, yes, sir.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll give you one every five years. That sounds
Speaker 1: good at Cincinnati. Question number three, we have all seen
Speaker 1: the movie The blind Side where the Michael Orr character
Speaker 1: completely blocks a player right off the field. What's your
Speaker 1: best story along those lines of, you know, blocking a
Speaker 1: guy twenty yards downfield, pancaking a cup bull of guys
Speaker 1: with your.
Speaker 2: Best I'll definitely say Tennessee game. Me and Tate we
Speaker 2: had a twist pick up against Tennessee and we like,
Speaker 2: I like Ali the guy in the ear. He came
Speaker 2: in like chokes lamb almost and it was like, you
Speaker 2: definitely gotta watch that. It was definitely, it was definitely
Speaker 2: a good play. It was great.
Speaker 1: This year's Tennessee.
Speaker 2: Gaines, sir, Is there this year's Tennessee game?
Speaker 1: You Ali opa guy?
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, yes there. It was great. First I feel
Speaker 2: bad for him, but it was great all right.
Speaker 1: First time I've ever heard the alley oop is a
Speaker 1: football term. I look forward to checking it out. Question four.
Speaker 1: You were part of two national championship teams at Georgia.
Speaker 1: Describe what it's like when the confetti is falling and
Speaker 1: then you know that you've captured a national championship ring
Speaker 1: just a lot.
Speaker 2: You know, you're thinking about a lot, honestly, think about
Speaker 2: like all the hard work, guys, you've done, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, All the times you got cussed out
Speaker 2: by coach, all the hard practices.
Speaker 3: You've been throom.
Speaker 2: You literally it's just it's just all history and it's
Speaker 2: like it was all worth it. And like I said,
Speaker 2: those both the years, you know, just just very blessed
Speaker 2: going to a great university like Georgia. You know, went
Speaker 2: in two years in a row, and it's just I said,
Speaker 2: it's awesome feeling cause everything come back and get your
Speaker 2: full circle. You're like, I did all this, but it's
Speaker 2: it was for a great cause.
Speaker 1: Had the rings on display somewhere? Do you actually break
Speaker 1: them out?
Speaker 3: I had them last night at my draft party.
Speaker 2: But my mom has to say and my dad has
Speaker 2: I said, I let them keep them.
Speaker 1: Nice, alright. Fifth and final question for Marius Mems. Tell
Speaker 1: us something about you that very few people know.
Speaker 3: I love to hunt.
Speaker 2: I love hunt hogs, deer hunt and I duck hunt
Speaker 2: and then I fish a lot too, so I fish
Speaker 2: for bass, I go, I go DC fishing sometimes. But
Speaker 2: like I said, I'm very outdoors. So if anybody wants
Speaker 2: to go fishing, you know, or hunt, please let me know.
Speaker 2: I've been Cincinnati in two weeks.
Speaker 1: You are going to hear from somebody hogs duck and
Speaker 1: what deer hogs? Duck and deer hogs was the first
Speaker 1: thing I love. I love hogger and especially with the
Speaker 1: thermal scope ars. So, like I said, I'm being Cincinnati
Speaker 1: in two weeks, y'all feel free to hear me up
Speaker 1: if y'all know any spots I want to go. I
Speaker 1: suspect you're going to be hearing from plenty of Bengals
Speaker 1: fans along those lines. All right, you're off the hot seat.
Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, look forward to SEENI in action.
Speaker 3: So I appreciate you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: So you heard the man. If you are an avid
Speaker 1: hunter or fisher and live in the Cincinnati area, al
Speaker 1: Marius is looking for a good guide. Before I get
Speaker 1: to my conversation with the Bengals scouting director, here's a
Speaker 1: reminder that the Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you
Speaker 1: by pay Corps, Proud to be the Bengals Official HR
Speaker 1: software provider. By Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet designed
Speaker 1: to elevate your home, business and community to a new level,
Speaker 1: and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans.
Speaker 1: Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.
Speaker 1: Now time for an in depth look at this year's
Speaker 1: draft class with Mike Potts. Mike. When the Bengals around
Speaker 1: the clock in the first round with the eighteenth overall pick,
Speaker 1: all of the top cornerbacks in the draft are still
Speaker 1: on the board. Another highly regarded offensive lineman, Troy fot
Speaker 1: Utana was still their wide receiver Brian Thomas out of
Speaker 1: LSU is still there. What tipped the scales in favor
Speaker 1: of a Marius Mims?
Speaker 4: A Marius is a guy that we've been scouting for
Speaker 4: a few years now and have really high regard for.
Speaker 3: I think at the premium position that he plays.
Speaker 4: Of offensive tackle and just his size, length, talent level,
Speaker 4: we felt that it was too good to pass up.
Speaker 4: We end up ranking our whole board between positions one
Speaker 4: through eighteen, and he was the highest guy up there
Speaker 4: on our board, and we feel really good about it.
Speaker 4: We feel like with the players that we have on
Speaker 4: offense and defense, if we can protect our quarterback, which
Speaker 4: Amrius will help to do, we think we're going to
Speaker 4: be right there playing in the important games that really
Speaker 4: matter late in the season.
Speaker 3: And I think that's part of what it really came
Speaker 3: down to at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: He has tremendous upside as much as any of the
Speaker 1: tackles taken in this draft, including Joe Alto is the
Speaker 1: first one taken did the current roster in the fact
Speaker 1: that he doesn't have to start right away allow you
Speaker 1: to take a chance on an inexperienced player only eight
Speaker 1: college starts with the thought that you might be getting
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl talent.
Speaker 4: Yes, Signing Trent Brown in free agency was huge for
Speaker 4: us because he's a quality starting tackle in the league
Speaker 4: who's played both right and left tackles. So we can
Speaker 4: bring Amrius along at whatever pace is appropriate for us.
Speaker 4: Whether he's ready to start year one or whether he's
Speaker 4: ready to start year two, that's that's up to a
Speaker 4: Marius and our coaches and their development plan there. But
Speaker 4: we are very fortunate to put him into the position
Speaker 4: that he's in. He did he did play a good
Speaker 4: amount in college outside of those those eight starts, he
Speaker 4: was in a rotation there, So there's there's tape to
Speaker 4: look at, and it's the good news is it's high
Speaker 4: quality tape, uh for for the most part, outside of
Speaker 4: some of the games when he was a little bit
Speaker 4: less than one hundred percent with the ankle this year.
Speaker 4: So we feel really good about the evaluation that we
Speaker 4: have from him in the limit at SAM size, and
Speaker 4: we feel really good about the situation that we're putting
Speaker 4: him into with two veteran starting caliber tackles that he
Speaker 4: can learn from and come along at the pace that's appropriate.
Speaker 1: It's been classified that instead of going for the double,
Speaker 1: the Bengals wet for a home run. In other words,
Speaker 1: there might have been a slightly safer pick available on
Speaker 1: the board. This is the guy that has the most upside.
Speaker 1: Is that a fair characterization of what you did.
Speaker 4: I'd say yes and no. We don't necessarily feel like
Speaker 4: he's a risky pick. Every player that is up there
Speaker 4: in the draft, no matter how highly rated or low
Speaker 4: that they're rated, they all have risks. There's deficiencies and
Speaker 4: negatives and holes that you can pick in in every
Speaker 4: single prospect that was on every team's draft board.
Speaker 3: So his is a lack of play experience, but we.
Speaker 4: Don't necessarily see him as a risky swing for the
Speaker 4: fence's type of pick or a possible strikeout, because again,
Speaker 4: when you watch his tate, he's a highly talented player.
Speaker 4: It's not like he's a guy just with rare traits
Speaker 4: but super inconsistent on his tape and you're just saying, Oh,
Speaker 4: if he could put it all together, then maybe we
Speaker 4: would have something. His tape is really good. It just
Speaker 4: happens to be in a limited sample size, So maybe
Speaker 4: he has a little bit higher floor than what has
Speaker 4: some of the reports out there have been.
Speaker 1: We're visiting with director of scouting Mike Potts. I'm sure
Speaker 1: some people listening to this are familiar with a guy
Speaker 1: named Kent Lee Platt who invented our as relative athletic score.
Speaker 1: He's been critical of the Bengals in the past for
Speaker 1: not drafting athletic or elite athletic offensive lineman. The two
Speaker 1: offensive linemen you drafted this year, Mims and your seventh
Speaker 1: rounder Matt Lee, both had elite athletic grades. Were you
Speaker 1: looking to target more athletic offensive lineman.
Speaker 3: We're always looking for the best of everything.
Speaker 4: We want really good athletes who are also strong, instinctive, physical,
Speaker 4: have really good power in their lower body and through
Speaker 4: their hips to move people off of their spot in
Speaker 4: the run game, Guys with length. So there's a lot
Speaker 4: that goes into it, and we're looking for the best
Speaker 4: in all areas. Athleticism is certainly one of them that
Speaker 4: we look to upgrade for sure, and those two guys,
Speaker 4: like you mentioned that, we took our very good athletes,
Speaker 4: but they also are good in a number of other
Speaker 4: areas as well, like I mentioned, with the physicality, the
Speaker 4: instincts that they have, the technique that they play with.
Speaker 4: So it's you know, not one area that you can
Speaker 4: just hone in on and say, hey, we want the
Speaker 4: guy with the high testing numbers in terms of athleticism,
Speaker 4: because the tape has to match up and they have
Speaker 4: to be a good player in other areas.
Speaker 3: They can't just be a good athlete.
Speaker 1: An obvious area of need on the roster. With defensive tackle,
Speaker 1: you use two top one hundred picks on the interior
Speaker 1: defensive line Chris Jenkins in the second round, McKinley Jackson
Speaker 1: in the third. Both team captains, both very productive college players.
Speaker 1: What did you like most at Jenkins and Jackson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we really like both of those guys.
Speaker 4: That's a position that we wanted to address. They're a
Speaker 4: defensive tackle. We got two guys maybe a little bit
Speaker 4: different styles. Chris Jenkins is more of that true defensive tackle,
Speaker 4: can get upfield and rush as a three technique, but
Speaker 4: also in the way they utilized him at Michigan. He
Speaker 4: can play stout, he can two gap, he can play
Speaker 4: the run. He's got really long arms, and again, like
Speaker 4: I mentioned, an explosive athlete with more upside, maybe even
Speaker 4: than he's already shown to this point as a pass rusher.
Speaker 4: So we're really happy about Chris. We're really happy that
Speaker 4: we got him there in the second round. And then McKinley,
Speaker 4: like you mentioned, is maybe more of a true nose tackle,
Speaker 4: you know, three hundred and thirty pound range nose tackle
Speaker 4: with also really long arms, and he's a physical, violent
Speaker 4: player who can stop the run. He's instinctive. He also
Speaker 4: has upside as a pass rusher as well. So two
Speaker 4: different body types, two different skill sets, but we think
Speaker 4: both of those guys are really going to help us
Speaker 4: in both the run game and pass game, and upgrade
Speaker 4: our interior defensive line.
Speaker 1: The pick in between those two guys was wide receiver
Speaker 1: Jermaine Burton, who started his college career at Georgia and
Speaker 1: finished it at Alabama. An unbelievably explosive athlete broad jump
Speaker 1: of more than eleven feet thirty eight and a half
Speaker 1: inch vertical. Strictly in terms of talent, How good is
Speaker 1: Jermaine Burton?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jermaine's a phenomenal talent. We had strong conviction amongst
Speaker 4: our scouting staff, our ownership, and coaching staff on this player,
Speaker 4: and I've been tracking him for a number of years now.
Speaker 4: Back in twenty twenty, I remember during the COVID year
Speaker 4: when we as scouts could only go and sit in
Speaker 4: the stands at games. I remember seeing him at Georgia
Speaker 4: against Mississippi State and he went for eight catches I
Speaker 4: think one hundred and ninety seven yards and two touchdowns
Speaker 4: in that game. So that was kind of my first
Speaker 4: impression of Jermaine and then have been tracking him ever
Speaker 4: since over the past four years of his college career,
Speaker 4: both at Georgia and Alabama. He's a guy that we
Speaker 4: brought in and interviewed at the Combine, I got a
Speaker 4: chance to look him in the eye and you really
Speaker 4: get a feel for what makes him tick and his
Speaker 4: personal character. And then we also brought him in later
Speaker 4: in the process on one of our thirty visits, so
Speaker 4: got to spend a full day with him and again
Speaker 4: gain that confidence and who he is and what he's
Speaker 4: all about. And at the end of the day, we
Speaker 4: think he's a guy that can really help us as
Speaker 4: an explosive.
Speaker 3: Weapon in the past game.
Speaker 4: And like the competitive nature that he plays with and
Speaker 4: the ability to play potentially outside and inside for us
Speaker 4: and add another explosive element to our offense.
Speaker 1: So you kind of addressed my next question already about
Speaker 1: getting to the bottom of some of the maturity questions
Speaker 1: involving Jermaine Burton. I take it from your visit at
Speaker 1: the Combine and his visit to Cincinnati for one of
Speaker 1: those Top thirty visits that you essentially determined this is
Speaker 1: not a bad guy. It's a guy who has occasionally
Speaker 1: had trouble controlling his emotions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would not say a bad guy at all.
Speaker 4: Yeah, with the emotional stuff that we also view some
Speaker 4: of that as a positive terms of his competitiveness and
Speaker 4: the fire that he plays with on the field.
Speaker 3: But yeah, you're right.
Speaker 4: We went through the whole process on him and did
Speaker 4: all of our homework, talked to as many people as
Speaker 4: we could, and then at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: the best thing we have going for us is, like
Speaker 4: I mentioned, our whole staff, you know, from multiple different
Speaker 4: departments and everybody that evaluated him and was part of
Speaker 4: the process of doing work on Jermaine. We're all on
Speaker 4: board with adding the player, and we're rooting for him
Speaker 4: and we're going to do our best to put the
Speaker 4: support in place here in Cincinnati for him to be
Speaker 4: as successful as possible as a Bengal.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing a lot of the people listening saw the
Speaker 1: video that was posted of Zach Taylor in the draft
Speaker 1: room after the selection of Jermaine Burton pounding the table
Speaker 1: with excitement. Was he especially high on Jermaine? Was that
Speaker 1: somewhat unusual to see Zach do that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jermaine, I'm sorry, Zach was really excited after that pick.
Speaker 4: I think Zach is excited after a lot of our picks.
Speaker 4: Maybe that one just got caught on TV and was
Speaker 4: more widely publicized, But I think Zach is great in
Speaker 4: our process in general. I wouldn't just point to one
Speaker 4: specific player. I mean, you could ask him his personal opinion.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't want to speak for him, but he's great
Speaker 4: in our overall scouting process, just in terms of really
Speaker 4: watching the film, really taking the time to meet with
Speaker 4: all of these guys on the visits on zoom, in
Speaker 4: our interviews, and he's great to work with. So when
Speaker 4: he has that level of excitement for a player, it
Speaker 4: really means something.
Speaker 1: We're visiting the director of scouting, Mike Potts. Let's move
Speaker 1: to Day three, Round four. Your first pick was tight
Speaker 1: end Eric All. He's a local kid from Cincinnati, went
Speaker 1: to Fairfield High School, started his college career at Michigan.
Speaker 1: He was a captain there, then finished up at Iowa.
Speaker 1: I was speaking to Dj Turner, his former Michigan teammate,
Speaker 1: who said that Eric All would have been a first
Speaker 1: round pick if not for the back and knee injuries
Speaker 1: that he had in his college career. Is Dj Turner
Speaker 1: accurate or is that a former college teammate saying nice
Speaker 1: things about his guy.
Speaker 4: He's very talented. I don't know if he would have
Speaker 4: been a first round picker or not. We had very
Speaker 4: high grades on him. We think he's got starting caliber
Speaker 4: ability in his body in terms of his physical talent.
Speaker 4: Everybody knows he's coming off the injury right now, so
Speaker 4: we'll do our best to get that rehab and bring
Speaker 4: him along at the appropriate pace in terms of when
Speaker 4: he may be ready and you know, make sure he's
Speaker 4: full strength once he can get out there and make
Speaker 4: an impact for us. So whether that is, you know,
Speaker 4: coming right out of the gate as a rookie, or
Speaker 4: that's into the future, we'll have to determine that at
Speaker 4: a later date. But yes, he's a very talented guy
Speaker 4: that we were again very high on from a scouting
Speaker 4: perspective throughout the evaluation process and with the medical concern
Speaker 4: that some teams maybe have, it's a little bit difficult
Speaker 4: to put that exact evaluation or pinpoint where on the
Speaker 4: board you actually pull him off in terms of draft
Speaker 4: round and at the end of the day, we felt
Speaker 4: fortunate that he was still there for us the fourth
Speaker 4: round and think he can be a real impact player
Speaker 4: for us into the future.
Speaker 1: He took another tight end two rounds later, Tanner McLaughlin
Speaker 1: out of Arizona. Why did you double down on the
Speaker 1: tight end position in rounds four and six.
Speaker 4: Tenner's a guy we would have considered even earlier than that.
Speaker 4: So I think the short answer to your question is
Speaker 4: he was the best player available. We think he's a
Speaker 4: real dynamic guy in the past game, still has some
Speaker 4: more upside in his body as a as a blocker.
Speaker 4: He is physical, he is willing, but he's he's really
Speaker 4: explosive in the past game, really good hands. Don't think
Speaker 4: he had any drops on the year this year, and
Speaker 4: you know, run after catch, stuff, separation in the past
Speaker 4: game as a route runner are all are all very
Speaker 4: very good traits that he has in his game. So
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, I think we ended
Speaker 4: up adding a lot of depth to our tight end position.
Speaker 4: You know, it's a spot that we didn't have a
Speaker 4: ton of numbers at in that room going into the draft.
Speaker 4: But to add both of these guys, both Eric and Tanner,
Speaker 4: to that tight end room, I think that's a strength
Speaker 4: on our roster right now.
Speaker 1: Tanner was on college rosters for six years. He's twenty
Speaker 1: five years old. How heavily do you consider age in
Speaker 1: the draft?
Speaker 4: Age is definitely a factor the you know, sometimes it
Speaker 4: can be a good thing in terms of the age,
Speaker 4: the guy may be more ready to come in and.
Speaker 3: Play right away, maybe more mature.
Speaker 4: He may be further along in his personal life off
Speaker 4: the field and have everything squared away that way.
Speaker 3: So it's not.
Speaker 4: Always a negative the age, you know, maybe in terms
Speaker 4: of if everything's even on the maturity level of the
Speaker 4: character all that stuff, sometimes you could lean to a
Speaker 4: younger guy.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. I can't speak for the other teams.
Speaker 4: Maybe the age is part of a reason that he
Speaker 4: fell a little bit lower, But we feel fortunate to
Speaker 4: get Tanner there in the sixth round because we think
Speaker 4: his talent was higher than that.
Speaker 1: In the fifth round, he took a corner back, Josh
Speaker 1: Newton out of TCU. After the draft, Zach Taylor told
Speaker 1: reporters that Dax Hill is going to be moving to
Speaker 1: corner back. Did that impact how you dealt with drafting
Speaker 1: a cornerback this year?
Speaker 3: We wanted to address corner either way.
Speaker 4: We've had discussions about Dak's you know, going over the
Speaker 4: past couple of months, and we want to get our
Speaker 4: best players out there. With dj Ivy coming off of
Speaker 4: the injury that that he's coming off of, we felt
Speaker 4: like corner was a position that we could address and
Speaker 4: had a young guy in that room. We obviously really
Speaker 4: liked Dax Hill, We really liked dj Ivy, We really
Speaker 4: really like all of the corners that we have in
Speaker 4: that room. We just felt like it was a spot
Speaker 4: where we could add one more guy that had a
Speaker 4: clear path to make the team. And Josh Newton is
Speaker 4: a guy that we also had high grades on amongst
Speaker 4: our scouting staff, our coaching staff, and.
Speaker 3: Really had a high regard for.
Speaker 4: Again, another guy that that we felt could have went
Speaker 4: higher than than he actually did on draft Day and
Speaker 4: feel fortunate to get him there in the fifth round.
Speaker 4: We like his his versatility, physicality, instincts. You know, he's
Speaker 4: a really really productive player there at TCU who had
Speaker 4: a high profile in the scouting community, and you know,
Speaker 4: we're excited to get him out here and see what
Speaker 4: he can do forty pass breakup seven interceptions in his
Speaker 4: college career.
Speaker 1: His defensive coordinator called him the ultimate competitor. I'm really
Speaker 1: intrigued by Josh Newton the more I see and read
Speaker 1: about him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we are too, We're very intrigued. He's a name
Speaker 4: that just kept coming up as we were discussing and
Speaker 4: going through the corner position just in terms, like you said,
Speaker 4: his production, his intangibles, his instincts.
Speaker 3: He tested well as well.
Speaker 4: You know, ran a four to four seven. He's a
Speaker 4: very high character guy, clean medically. So there's not a
Speaker 4: lot to not like about Josh Newton in his game,
Speaker 4: and you know, we're really excited about adding that competition
Speaker 4: to our corner room. Whether that was perceived as a
Speaker 4: high need or a low need publicly, I'm not sure,
Speaker 4: but that's a position that we wanted to address and
Speaker 4: I'm glad that it shook out there where we were
Speaker 4: able to fire him where we did.
Speaker 1: I think I saw four or five to one at
Speaker 1: the combine, so he ran a four to four to seven.
Speaker 4: In later testing, I believe we had two times on him.
Speaker 4: You know that they run two times at the combine.
Speaker 4: I think it was a four four seven and a
Speaker 4: four to five to one were the two times that
Speaker 4: we had in our system. The way we usually do
Speaker 4: it is we have our scouts doing handheld times down
Speaker 4: there on the field. We also get handheld times from
Speaker 4: the combine, and then there's electronic.
Speaker 3: Times on that.
Speaker 4: So we have a formula that we use in terms
Speaker 4: of throwing out the outliers and then averaging the rest
Speaker 4: of the numbers. So it's never a huge discrepancy from
Speaker 4: the numbers that may be reported, but it may be
Speaker 4: off a couple hundreds here and there.
Speaker 1: All right, final three picks and edge rusher Cedric Johnson
Speaker 1: out of All Miss, safety Dejon Anthony, his teammate at
Speaker 1: All Miss, and center Matt Lee out of Miami after
Speaker 1: starting his college career at UCF. Tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about each of those guys, Cedric Johnson, Dejon Anthony,
Speaker 1: and Matt Lee.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the two Ole Miss teammates, Cedric Johnson and Dejon Anthony.
Speaker 4: We were really glad to get all three of those
Speaker 4: guys that we got. But starting with the Old Miss guy,
Speaker 4: Cedric Johnson is a guy that we've been looking at.
Speaker 3: For a few years.
Speaker 4: Really explosive, fast, powerful pass rusher who can play the
Speaker 4: run as well.
Speaker 3: He was another guy, you know, I don't.
Speaker 4: Mean to be repetitive, but he was the top guy
Speaker 4: on our board there when we got him in the
Speaker 4: sixth round. We really like our defensive end room in
Speaker 4: our edge spot that we have on the roster. It's
Speaker 4: probably one of the deeper spots that we have. But again,
Speaker 4: you take a guy, you build out that depth, and
Speaker 4: you never know how the competition will play out in
Speaker 4: training camp. You never know into the season how injuries
Speaker 4: could play out. So I think you can't go wrong
Speaker 4: with taking a high caliber guy who's the best player
Speaker 4: on the board. And he's another guy who's who's a
Speaker 4: great character, very smart, you know, loves football, great work, habits,
Speaker 4: clean medically, all of those things that you like in
Speaker 4: terms of taking a clean prospect. He checks a lot
Speaker 4: of boxes, did a good job down there at the
Speaker 4: Senior Bowl when we scouted him down there as well,
Speaker 4: So we feel glad that we were able to get Cedric.
Speaker 4: And then his teammate, Dejon was a guy that we
Speaker 4: brought in on a thirty visit. Very energetic, passionate player,
Speaker 4: very competitive, He's got versatility. He's played some safety this
Speaker 4: year and also corner throughout his career. You know, he
Speaker 4: had a winding path to get there at all, miss
Speaker 4: starting his career out at two other schools. But we
Speaker 4: really like his makeup, his competitiveness, his passion for the
Speaker 4: game of football. After we spent a full day with
Speaker 4: him on that visit, We interviewed him down at the
Speaker 4: East West Shrine game as well during the All Star
Speaker 4: scouting process. So he's a valuable guy with versatility and
Speaker 4: the demeanor and personality to potentially contribute for us on
Speaker 4: special teams units as well to help Daron out. So
Speaker 4: again for a seventh round pick, we think we think
Speaker 4: he checks a lot of boxes and is to be
Speaker 4: a guy who competes to to really make this roster
Speaker 4: and have a have an impact for us on game
Speaker 4: day potentially.
Speaker 3: And then Matt Lee it was our last pick.
Speaker 4: He's another guy that we had a lot of love
Speaker 4: for throughout the scouting process. We also interviewed him down
Speaker 4: there at the East West Shrine game as well. Like
Speaker 4: I said with Dejon Anthony, he's a very athletic center,
Speaker 4: very instinctive physical player. Really like his character, makeup and
Speaker 4: the passion that he plays with. Sources there at Miami
Speaker 4: rave about this guy's character and makeup, and you know,
Speaker 4: we think he has he has really hot potential at
Speaker 4: that center position. He's kind of about all the right
Speaker 4: stuff and a really good player there on tape at Miami.
Speaker 4: So we're excited to get him him into into the
Speaker 4: system and you know, get working with our coaches and
Speaker 4: see where he can be.
Speaker 1: It seems to me like most of these guys came
Speaker 1: in for top thirty visits, and maybe in the past
Speaker 1: that could be wrong about this, but it kind of
Speaker 1: felt like more of those visits would go to guys
Speaker 1: that you didn't know much about. They weren't combine invites,
Speaker 1: maybe more quote unquote long shots. Have you changed your
Speaker 1: approach so that those top thirty visits are largely for
Speaker 1: guys that you are you know, have high on your
Speaker 1: board and are strongly considering drafting.
Speaker 4: Have necessarily changed our approach wholesale, so to say, we
Speaker 4: evaluated on a year to year basis, and this year,
Speaker 4: just the way the board fell, we felt very strongly
Speaker 4: about some of the some of the top guys at
Speaker 4: a number of different positions and really wanted to do
Speaker 4: our homework on them. We always bring in non combined
Speaker 4: guys to make sure we get the medical on them,
Speaker 4: and you know, in terms of if they're not at
Speaker 4: the combine, we don't have that full medical work up.
Speaker 4: You want to have that confidence in that piece of
Speaker 4: the evaluation to draft them.
Speaker 3: We did.
Speaker 4: We still did bring in a good number of non
Speaker 4: combined guys, a good number of potential later round targets.
Speaker 3: Dejon Anthony.
Speaker 4: We didn't know if he would be there in the
Speaker 4: later rounds or not, but we knew going into the
Speaker 4: process that he's a guy that could fit in a
Speaker 4: lot of different areas for us and a guy that
Speaker 4: we had targeted.
Speaker 3: And wanted to do the full work up on them.
Speaker 4: Now, a lot of times we bring guys in and
Speaker 4: they have the opposite impression. Potentially they could be a
Speaker 4: guy that you end up crossing off of your list
Speaker 4: due to your exposure on the visit because you don't
Speaker 4: like their football intelligence, their character, their medical assessment, at
Speaker 4: whatever the case is. So I wouldn't say there's an
Speaker 4: exact rhyme or reason to looking at exactly who we
Speaker 4: bring in and oh, these are the top guys that
Speaker 4: were really targeting. The guys don't actually become a target
Speaker 4: until we've worked through our whole meetings in April, and
Speaker 4: then you're leading up to the week before the draft.
Speaker 4: That's when they actually become a target. Earlier in the
Speaker 4: process with the visits, there are just potential targets that
Speaker 4: could work themselves up the board or down the board.
Speaker 3: According to how that visit goes.
Speaker 1: How close were you to trading out at any point?
Speaker 3: We were very close. A number of times.
Speaker 4: It felt like there was probably one hundred or so calls.
Speaker 4: I don't know how many exactly there were, but we're
Speaker 4: constantly working the phone lines, you know, text calls, and
Speaker 4: there's constant conversation. We had plenty of plenty of conversations
Speaker 4: about moving up and moving back. But at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, we felt fortunate that there was enough
Speaker 4: players there that we felt good about, and we were
Speaker 4: able to stay patient in each of our ten picks
Speaker 4: and get a guy that we felt really good about
Speaker 4: without having to fall down a level of player.
Speaker 1: It's been publicly reported that the Falcons reached out with
Speaker 1: the possible idea of moving up to number eighteen, and
Speaker 1: we're considering giving you their first round pick in next
Speaker 1: year's draft. However, had that deal come to fruition, you
Speaker 1: would have had to drop back into the middle of
Speaker 1: the second round before taking a pick. This year. That
Speaker 1: it didn't come to pass because the guy they were
Speaker 1: interested in got drafted a few picks before the Bengals,
Speaker 1: But in any case, would that have been hard to
Speaker 1: do to have gone all the way back into the
Speaker 1: middle of the second round, even though would have meant
Speaker 1: getting a first round or next year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw that that was publicly reported. I mean, obviously,
Speaker 4: all those trade discussions are confidential. We wouldn't want to
Speaker 4: put any any team's you know, private discussions out there publicly.
Speaker 4: I did see that that specific one was reported that
Speaker 4: Atlanta was looking to come up to target some specific players.
Speaker 4: It's there's always a conversation on how far you're willing
Speaker 4: to move back. Do you have enough players that you
Speaker 4: feel comfortable with the trade compensation being worth maybe moving
Speaker 4: back and moving off of players that you have targeted
Speaker 4: in that given round. You know, there's a number of
Speaker 4: times that we had opportunities to move back, but we
Speaker 4: didn't want to move off of the players that we
Speaker 4: had targeted in those rounds, so we chose not to.
Speaker 4: Like I said, there's tons of calls constantly going on.
Speaker 4: I'm actually surprised with how many discussions we had that
Speaker 4: we didn't end up moving or trading at all. I
Speaker 4: feel like every year we at least have a couple
Speaker 4: you know, one, one, two, three trades or so, and
Speaker 4: this year it just didn't work. Out that, But it
Speaker 4: wasn't for lack of effort or trying, both on our
Speaker 4: part and other team's parts reaching out to us.
Speaker 3: That's just the way it shook out this year.
Speaker 1: Why do you start working on the class at twenty five?
Speaker 4: Probably h take most of the rest of this week
Speaker 4: to exhale, you know, rehash this. This draft class always
Speaker 4: great talking with guys like you and and you know,
Speaker 4: going going back through it, it's there. There's a little bit
Speaker 4: more information that you can go through now as a
Speaker 4: posted before the draft when there's there's a less that
Speaker 4: you can put out there publicly. But yeah, I would
Speaker 4: say probably in the next week or two, we'll get
Speaker 4: the page flip, so to speak, onto next year's draft,
Speaker 4: and you know, towards the end of the month.
Speaker 3: For sure will be full force working on twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, Mike, thank you.
Speaker 3: Thanks a lot, Dan, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Before we wrap things up, let's check in with a
Speaker 1: former first round draft pick, Dax Hill. On Saturday, Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor made it official when he told reporters that Dax
Speaker 1: is moving from safety to cornerback. He'll be giving the
Speaker 1: chance to compete for a starting spot on the outside.
Speaker 1: In Hill's final year at Michigan, roughly seventy two percent
Speaker 1: of his snaps came at cornerback, so this isn't totally new.
Speaker 1: Dax answered some questions about the switch on Monday.
Speaker 5: I love covering. That's something I always done pretty well
Speaker 5: in college, So I'm kind of just glad that I'm
Speaker 5: back in that same, similar role and I'm really just
Speaker 5: looking forward to competing.
Speaker 3: How that initial conversation would go.
Speaker 5: With Coally really, I mean he kind of just told
Speaker 5: me straightforward he's going to be moving me and really
Speaker 5: just having a good chance to compete with, you know,
Speaker 5: some guys on the squad, So I'm excited for it.
Speaker 1: What's the biggest challenge that's from moving from safety to.
Speaker 5: Course really just the technique. But for the most part,
Speaker 5: it's kind of similar. I mean, you're covering I mean's
Speaker 5: I mean, you're covering different type of bodies, but at
Speaker 5: the same time, I mean it's covering you know, quality people,
Speaker 5: football players, so uh, you know, it's it's different, but
Speaker 5: I mean it's gonna be some learning there, but I
Speaker 5: feel like that's something, you know, my skill set I'm
Speaker 5: able to do.
Speaker 3: Are you okay with the movie.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm gonna have to, you know,
Speaker 5: so I have no choice. But that's something I've done before.
Speaker 5: So I'm pretty comfortable and confident in myself to.
Speaker 3: Keep it positive at it.
Speaker 1: It seems like you're you know, you've got to smile,
Speaker 1: you're happy, good attitude to our house. Important to keep.
Speaker 3: It good attitude.
Speaker 5: Making this change, I mean, it's just gonna make it
Speaker 5: easier for myself. I mean I could take it one
Speaker 5: or two ways, and I'm gonna just you know, take
Speaker 5: the you know, the best way to look at it.
Speaker 3: And I just sees it.
Speaker 5: As an opportunity for me and my you know, my family,
Speaker 5: and you know, there's I feel like I have a
Speaker 5: high ceiling, you know, for myself whether whatever position it is,
Speaker 5: I'm confident in myself. So, uh, I really don't have
Speaker 5: a bad at Who's wards it.
Speaker 1: Dax has good size, tremendous speed, and he's tough. There's
Speaker 1: little doubt he can be an excellent NFL player. It's
Speaker 1: all about finding the right spot that's going to do it.
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Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Hord and thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast.