Bengals Booth Podcast: Brick By Brick

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the greatest thing since brown sugar on oatmeal. I've been on an oatmeal for breakfast kick lately, usually topped with bananas, blueberries, sliced almonds and some brown sugar, And it occurs to me that I don't use brown sugar for anything else. My wife tells me it's a common ingredient in baking, so maybe I've been enjoying it without knowing it. But for me, brown sugar is like a Lugie in baseball,

a left handed, one out guy. Baseball curbed the use of Lugi's when it adopted the three batter minimum for leaf pitchers a few years ago. But as long as there's oatmeal, there's a place in my heart and gut for brown sugar. Now, let's get to this week's guests. If you watch NFL Network, you're familiar with Add Kin Kabwala, who does an outstanding job of covering the league in general and the four teams in the AFC North in particular.

I caught up with add this week to discuss the Bengals offseason moves and why she describes last year's Super Bowl team as infectiously fun. Add what do you think of the Bengals offseason moves in free agency, particularly the addition of the three offensive line tremendous? Tremendous because we knew that no matter what Zach Taylor said about giving

his offensive line credit, and it is valid. Of course, you have two thousand yard receivers, You've got a third receiver who almost has a thousand yards, You've got a thousand yard rusher. Yes, the offensive line was doing a job, but clearly that was the upgrade that was necessary, and to get three starters in there and to not change

the way that you do business. Remember, the Bengals are one of the few teams that doesn't like to guarantee money beyond the first year of a deal, and they didn't have to to get three great players who are going to step in, who are going to start, who have all of the leadership attributes that you want, who have long hist is of being great teammates, which is, you know, Dan has an incredibly important piece of what the magic of this pass Bengals team was was having

that chemistry, I mean tremendous all around. What am I says to say that's negative? Nothing negative required. Did you view improving the offensive line, fixing the offensive line, whatever term you want to use, as kind of a litmus test for the Bengals to show that they were committed

to do whatever it takes. I think that we saw a year ago that they were I think we've seen over the past few years the way that they have approached free agency, the successes that they've had in free agency, and their willingness to pay in free agency have all indicated that this is a team that recognizes you can't keep doing business the same exact way that you always have to some degree beyond the way that you write contracts. And then I think that the success of last year

was so intoxicating, so infectious. You saw the way that city was so galvanized by the way that this team played. How do you not want more of that? And you recognize you can't sit on your laurels and think you're going to repeat. That's just not the way the National Football League works. That's with the way that anything works. So it wasn't surprising to me at all that the Bengals and Duke Tobin went out there and were indeed aggressive. What was maybe a little surprising is how successful they

were without having to be grossly splashy. You know, there was no obsequious moves here. It was just sort of like a methodical approach to go and get what you want in a very very reasonable way. We're chatting with a dd King Kawala from the NFL Network. You just used the term infectious, and you tweeted after the Super Bowl that this team was infectiously fun. What was it about this team that made you feel that way. I think it was the energy. I think a lot of

it is the youth, quite frankly, you know, and it's funny. Dan. I'll just say that this is conversation I had with Zach Taylor just last week at the Cincinnati Pro Day, that these guys are kind of too young to get big heads, you know, Jamar Chase, t Higgins. They're out there and then having a good time. They're not worried about being divas at this moment. I do think that both Jamar Chase and t Higgins are very very strong, good young men with good support systems, and I don't

foresee big heads coming in the future. So let me at least say that. But I've done this for a long time now, more than a dozen years. I have covered the National Football League. I've been around incredibly successful teams. I've been around not so successful teams. I've been around teams that really enjoyed each other. And the thing about this Bengals team was you genuinely felt that they enjoyed coming to work, and they enjoyed coming to work with

each other. And as somebody who's spent the last twelve years loving going to work, I get it. You see it right in, you know, when someone is not going through the motions, when someone is not simply connected collecting a paycheck, but someone likes being around their colleagues. And

that's exactly what that was. So I think the energy, the youthfulness, there's always something special when there are no expectations, and I think that's the big question, you know, And we saw this with the Cleveland Browns two years ago.

The Cleveland Browns in a COVID year, with a new head coach in Kevin Stefanski, a new offense, a new defense, everything, there really weren't many expectations for them, despite the talent on their roster, simply because of how the previous year had gone and because you know, they were the Cleveland Browns. And so there's a freeness to the way that you approach every week when nobody expects much of you. And then we saw what happened last year with the Browns

when much was indeed expected. So now let's see what happens with the Bengals when clearly a lot is expected, and how do you follow up the season like last year in a playoff run like last year without expectation. It's interesting that you said that because I say to people all the time that rooting for a highly successful team is great under any circumstances, but when it's a total surprise, there's nothing better. That's the best it gets

as a sports fan. When you expect your team to be here and it winds up being way up there, right, that's as good as it gets. And that's what it is, because it's a it's a magical new experience. When you ask about being infectious, I think there is a piece. You know, you look at guys like Tyler Boyd and Jesse Bates and Joe Mixon who put in the time and they've been there and they have I hate to call it suffered, but suffered. You know, they've been through

these terrible losses. They've been the laughing stock, they've been kind of the easy win on other teams schedule, and so for them, there's a great appreciation to every moment that's magical and special as opposed to taking it for granted. And when you're in a team that wins all the time, when you're in a team that expects to be in the super Bowl every year, then maybe it's just not the same. I'd like to find out, But well, you can get back to me. Maybe you can let me

know on that one, no question about it. We're chatting with a D D King Kabwala from the NFL Network. How much do you tribute that Bengals spirit, the desire

to go to work every day to Joe Burrow? Oh my gosh, I think I'm reminded of standing in the tunnel the bowels of the stadiums in Kansas City, in the bowls of the stadium in Kansas City, right after the AFC title game, and you know, verybody had been smoking cigars, and Brian Callahan, the offensive coordinator, walks out, and just what a tremendous guy he and I just ended up standing there talking for a good fifteen twenty

minutes before he got on the bus. And Joe Barrow walked out at one moment and he just looked at me and he said, he is the cause of everything, and it's not just the way he plays, it's his approach. This is what they said about Tom Brady for years. When your best player is your hardest worker, is your most committed, focused guy, that's only a good thing for a locker room. And so I think that Joe Burrow

is the player that makes everybody better. I think Joe Barrow not only in the way that he approaches his job, but what he's able to do on the field. He gets the best out of everyone. He is that smart, he is that driven. He does indeed have that chip on his shoulder, and I mean it's everything. I think

it's everything. And it's interesting too, Dan, because right now in the city of Pittsburgh, you have Mike Tomlin kind of saying, even in this day and age, I think I can win without a top flight, upper tier quarterback. I think that I can win with a dominant defense and a great run game and a quarterback who does enough.

But then you've got a whole rest of the league, which we've seen in this crazy free agency and this whole quarterback carousel, you have a lot of people saying, no, you're not going to win unless you have that elite, upper tier quarterback. And that's why we see all these teams kind of mortgaging their futures, let's call it, and trading away all these draft picks to go get that top flight guy. And so it'll be interesting to see

how that plays out. And what's the truth. You know, we heard Eric da Costa the Ravens GM just at the Combine a few weeks ago. Daniel were there. Eric DaCosta said, I don't think that you're going to see another team like the Ravens in two thousand, when you won on the backs of a dominant defense and an okay quarterback, no offense. Trent Dilfer. Trent Dilfer's got the ring. He doesn't care what anybody says. I don't think you comended that I said that, but I mean, let's be honest.

Trent Dilfer is not you know anyway, I'm gonna just zip it before I have been that. Anybody moving on. Well, Mike Tomlin did go eight and eight with Duck Hodges as his primary quarterback a couple of years ago, so I guess he can win. The question is can you win it all? I suspect the Steelers will be in the mix to at least possibly break five hundred with Mitchell Trubisky as their quarterback. But I'm not sure many people think that they're going to bring back a seven

super Bowl ring. But you never know. With the Steelers, that's the thing. And it's such an interesting question, Dan, I have this. I have a friend in Cleveland, Ken Carmen, who has has me on his radio show very regularly, and about a year ago I posited this to him and to his listeners. Do you want would you rather that your team is in it every single year that by the time you get to week seventeen, weeks eighteen,

your team is still alive? Or would you sacrifice a few horrible, awful, irrelevant years just to get to that promised land? You know? Are you the Eagles and you win a super Bowl and then you're kind of irrelevant for a period of time. Or you're the Bengals and you've suffered and you've suffered, but you get to go to the super Bowl and then who knows what happens

the Steelers. Let's that Duck Hodges year or two and nineteen Ben Roethlisberger gets hurt Week two, it's Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges, Dug Duck Hodges, who couldn't make a single roster in the spring. When a thousand players are on the NFL rosters, Duck Hodges almost gets them into the playoffs. It goes down to the last week of the season. And that's what Mike Tomlin teams are. Mike Tomlin teams haven't won a playoff game and I don't know, five six years, they haven't been back to the Super

Bowl in ten a dozen years. You know, they haven't been an elite team in the sense of being playing in February in a long time. But they're always a part of the conversation in December. Is that what you want? Do you want a team that always competes? Or are you okay if your team is really crappy for a few years, but hey, you got to go to the super Bowl. I guess it would be the length of the crappy period. If it's two or three years of crappy football for the chance to win a Super Bowl,

I think probably most people would take that. Who do you think's winning the off season in the AFC North? This is so funny because I you know, the older you get, the more you kind of rely on these cliches so you get cynical and so like I love in the spring this say, it's football in shorts. Like, don't ask me who looks good at OTAs, Please don't ask me who looks good at Rickey Minicamp. It's football in shorts. So similarly, who's winning the off season is?

I mean, it's like a paper champion. I love that the Bengals really had only one major area of need and they addressed it, and they addressed it so well. I still sort of have a question about Jesse Bates. I'd like to see you speaking to members of the Bengals organization. Nobody seems to think that it is a non negotiable deal breaker if Jesse Bates has to play on the tag. At least what I've been told is that they have heard nothing from Bates or his camp

that he wouldn't play on the tag. But I think it would be nice to lock him up. I think everybody always feels good to feel that there's a commitment to them, and you just get more out of somebody in that way. So I'd like to see that piece of business done. The Browns, Oh boy, let's come back to the Browns. The Steelers. I really like this quarterback pickup. We knew that the Steelers weren't going to trade a ton of draft picks. We knew they weren't going to

be in some crazy sweepstakes right now. The Steelers do need a starting strong safety. They would like to lock up Fitzpatrick. They're in the process of that. The Steelers needed to upgrade their offensive line. They did. You'd still like to see who else the Steelers could bring in at receiver perhaps, but it's a well built roster, you know, and it's a little bit older on defense, especially up front. So that's a situation where I expect these players to

play a certain way. But again, what happens at the age of thirty four, I don't know. So Okay, that's the Steelers. I think so far, it's been a good offseason. Let's see what they do in the draft, especially since the Steelers generally that's where they like to build their team. The Ravens well, the Ravens are healthy. The port Ravens last year, we're missing twenty starters and key contributors. I

think that that's all really good. The Ravens still need another pass rusher, and the Browns well, Deshaun Watson is a is a very very very loaded topic, and if we just take it from an availability standpoint, we don't know what Deshaun Watson's availability will be, and so that

clearly impacts what he is able to give them. So, having run through all of that at this current moment, knowing that this is just a paper certificate and doesn't necessarily mean anything, I would say the Bengals won the offseason. A couple more questions for dit King Kabwall and I'll let you go. You attended you sees Pro day last week? They had eight players at the combine, they had six invited to the Senior Bowl. What or who stood out to you from being at that pro day? Okay, so

everybody was so nice, including the head coach. It was just this pleasure to be around a group that again, it's the same thing to the Bengals a little bit wide eyed. You know, they had never had a Pro day like this. I don't think they never had. They haven't even had a pro day. You would know better

than me. Did they have one every year? But I'm going to say that more NFL personnel attended last week's Pro Day than all of the other ones combined that I've ever been to well, I really really really loved Desmond Ritter's demeanor. I loved how take charge he was. I loved his confidence. I loved how when a receiver dropped a ball, he immediately ran to the receiver and patted him on the back and said that's okay. It

again recalls a story that Zach Taylor told me. Zach Taylor was the Bearcat's offensive coordinator who ultimately worked out Desmond Ritter and kind of got him his first offer, got him the one of two Division one offers that he had. And what Zach told me is that that year he worked out probably about twelve to fifteen quarterbacks all over the country. Every single one of them had a quarterback coach who ran the workout. But Desmond Ritter

was sort of a very late workout, you know. As you know, he got the offer a while during the Kentucky Derby, so it was a late workout. It was sort of last minute. It was almost like Taylor was doing it as a favor to somebody else on the staff who said, maybe you should check him out, and

so he said, okay, okay, I'll do it. At six am and Desmond Ritter had no quarterbacks coach, and Desmond Ritter gathered a group of his teammates and friends, convinced these seventeen year old kids to show up on a field at six am, and then he ran them through the entire workout. And Zach told me that he was

the only quarterback that did that. And when you're looking for all those intangibles, you're looking for those leadership traits, you're looking for the guy who's going to be kind of the face of your outfit, that's everything that you want. I thought that he was quite frankly, a little bit stiff when he had a straight drop back. If you look at the way he holds the ball, it just

doesn't seem as relaxed in his hand. And I thought that he looked better when he was actually in motion when he was having to I don't want to even call it scramble, but maybe roll out a little bit or roll right and then throw a left. That almost looked a little bit more natural. So I think that

that's interesting. I talked to quite a few coaches that day who are much smarter than me of figuring out footwork and mechanics and things like that, and several felt that, you know, his inaccuracy is a little bit confusing because there's nothing very obviously wrong. There's nothing in his footwork that screams, hey, this is a glitch we can fix. And then several said it's really not a big deal

and they think it's something they can work with. So again, I think it's sort of unless you're a Joe Burrow, you're often beauty is in the eye of the beholder. He told me. Desmond told me that he is expecting to be a first round pick and if he is not, he would be really disappointed. And so we'll see what comes of that. And then of course, I you know, I loved the corners, love the safety, just good kids, good kids all around, and even the running back room forward,

very quiet but nice, nice young man. Were you charmed by Sauce Gardner like the rest of us, it was. I was a little disappointed that he didn't work out, but he just was very, very friendly. We talked about the suit that he wore to the combine, and I said that I live by the idea that you dressed for the job you want, not the one that you have. And I also really really live by look good, feel good, feel good, playing good. And so we communed over that. Yeah,

very great young man. And you know he got to go to dinner twice that night. He went out with the Saint Sam the Giants the night before at least, so crafty move. Yeah, serious, very crafty move. And it was the last time you got two people to buy you dinner in the same night. And that has never happened yet, but I remain hopeful. Maybe the next time I'm in town day I can do that. We'll tell Duke Tobin to take you out. I'll take you for the appetizers. He can buy you to dinner a deity.

This is and awesome and we appreciate your time. Thank you, thanks so much, Dan, I appreciate it. Okay, Duke Tobin, you heard it from Adity. She's getting the appetizers and you are buying dinner. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play fantasy football game. This past season, Ultimate Bengals awarded a weekly winner during the course of the year with tickets, autograph merchandise, and money can't buy experiences all up for grabs. Find Ultimate

Bengals in the App Store and Google Play. Now we turn our attention to the draft. The NFL Network will provide live coverage of the draft from Las Vegas on April twenty eighth, twenty ninth, and thirtieth, and this week I spoke to draft analyst lanzerline Ranch. You'd done a couple of mock drafts in early February. You had the Bengals selecting Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum. In early March, Tulsa

offensive liman Tyler Smith. Now that the Bengals have signed three offensive linemen in free agency, are you still thinking offensive line? No. I do think that the Bengals could could take a look at the offensive line for more competition at the you know, potentially draft for more depth. You know, a guy who can play center guard, maybe a guy like Luke Gayticky out of Central Michigan. But no, it's not an immediate need for the team right now, so I don't expect them to use, you know, one

of their first couple picks on offensive line. I think they've done a pretty good job, definitely a serviceable job. I mean they're better along the interior. Jackson Carman needs to play well. You want to have you know, Jonah needs a good season, of course, but I do think it is intriguing the concept of Jonah Williams potentially sliding inside the center at some point and having another tackle out there. But that's not something that I think is

going to be a priority this year. I want to get back to Tyler Linderbaum because right now the Bengals have Ted Carriss scheduled to play center, but he's obviously played both guard spots in the past. If Tyler Linderbaum, we're still there at number thirty one, and I know most draft experts, yourself included, I think he's a much better player than that in terms of where he slots in this draft class. Would that be a no brainer If he's still there, No, And I'll tell you why.

I think number one, he is a very specific type of center. He's a zone scheme center. I think when you look at the Cincinnati Bengals right now, you're just in the Super Bowl. So what the Bengals are going to be looking at is what are moves that we can make to get us over the hump? Now? How do we how do we win a Super Bowl? Not just compete? Now you're at a different level. How do we win a Super Bowl? And I think the way you have to approach at is taking a look at

all the competition you're likely to face. And the starts with a very challenging AFC inside your own division. To Shaun Watson is now there, that's going to be a challenge. The Ravens are going to be healthier this year. They should have a better running game because their running backs are going to be back. And then you look at what's going on in the AFC West. I mean that place is completely loaded over there in the West. Just

quarterbacks golore in the a f C West. So I think when you look at you know five we take all the a FC West four teams. You take a look at the the Cleveland Browns, there's another quarterback and then I mentioned Ravens. That's more running back related. But but you are going to get a healthy Lamar Jackson back. What I'm telling you is you've got to compete against quarterbacks who can throw the football. And so the concern you have now is making sure that you're loaded up

on the back end. And I think that's why I think cornerback would be difficult to pass up on or even an interior rush or a guy that could either start right away or come off the bench, and a guy who has some juice up the field, a rush passers, so getting the quarterback or keeping the quarterback from from from completing passes because you've got tight coverage, that should be I would imagine the focus when you look at the Bengals. That's that's that's the next step for Cincinnati

is is tightening up. But the good thing is you just don't have a ton of holes on the roster. I mean, there's areas of concern to fill, but it's not massive, massive holes. So I think that what Cincinnati can do is go in there with a very clear head and not be panicky about a particular position. Let's assume the Bengals stay at number thirty one and you

mentioned cornerback as a possibility. Who are some guys that you think are, if not likely, have a decent chance of still being available at thirty one at the cornerback position that you would be interested in. I think it starts with Andrew Booth, if he would be there, you know, I mean, I don't know if he'll be there at thirty one, but if so, Andrew Booth, a cornerback out of Clemson. To me, I think he's the twenty two

twenty three ranked player in this year's draft class. So I think Andrew Booth is a guy that would fit the mold. Another guy at that particular spot, and maybe you want to you may want to trade back also as another option. But Kyer Elam could be the thirty thirty first pick. I think Kyrie Elam has a chance

to get into the first round. I think he's teetering on the brink of first and second round, which is, you know, a classic case of a guy who might be considered at thirty one and then beyond that, you know guys that fit I think would include Kyler Gordon out of Washington, who has a lot of upside but could but could really play the role of cornerback four and learn from the guys who are in front of him, and learn from the coaching staff over Washington. He's got

some tremendous traits. Did not run as fast as Indianapolis as I expected, but he's a very, very explosive athlete. You've got a guy in the middle rounds like Zion McCullum, who tested great out of Sam Houston, m Cam Taylor Britt if you're okay with a little bit a physical press corner, who is Maybe he's not a he's not a short corner. I think he's about five to eleven. But he does have some there are some some highs

and lows to his game. But I think when you start getting it past the first group of cornerbacks, it gets a little dice here. As I look at the list now, I see some I see guys that I consider Josh Williams from Fayetteville, Vincent and Gray from Michigan. These are guys who are more developmental. They have traits, They have the potential to become pretty good cornerbacks down the road. But I think it's going to take a

little more time. So you know, depending on how you view this, do you want to get help immediately or you're looking for building that core down the road for two and three years. I think that really will have It will be a determining factor in terms of how they approach the cornerback position. Very specifically for talking NFL network draft analysts lands Zerline, you can follow them on Twitter at lands Zerline z I E R L E I N How about defensive lineman that could be there

at thirty one, particularly interior defensive lineman. Well, the interior line spot is a little You've got some depth, but it's not high end depth this year. So when you start talking about defensive tackles, and I know that's a I know that's a big lead. I'm pulling up my all my d tackles here because I only have four hundred and twenty players to sit through that I've written up already. But yeah, that's it. Only only four hundred, only four hundred and twenty as as I've called my

defensive tackles. But I think what Cincinnati needs now, that's a position that I can say, I think you want some immediate help. I love DJ Reader, love love, love what he brings to the table, but I think you need a complimentary piece next to him. Some guys you could take a look at. I don't think Devantae Wyatt is going to be on the board. Logan Hall from University of Houston. As a player, he views himself as

a defensive end. Obviously you don't have a defensive in spot open, but he played defensive tackle at the University of Houston, so you could look at him, I think Travis Jones. If you want a guy that is a big time run stuff or to stick next to Reader. I mean, no one's running on the Bengals if you've got Travis Jones and H and DJ Reader in the same and that's Travis Jow'd be a little rich for

my blood at thirty one. But I could see trading back a few spots and grabbing him early in the second round because he's just a really, really talented player. Once you get past those players. This is what concerns me is that I'm not as big a de Marvin Leale fan out of Texas A and M. I think

he's more of a third round player. Perry and Winfrey out of Oklahoma had a really good senior ball and that's all anyone's talking about, and he tested great, but the game tape is really up and down and inconsistent. But I do think in terms of, you know, looking at him after the first round of Perry and Winfrey could make some sense for what Cincinnati likes to do defensively, and then I think you started looking at fourth round

guys like Matthew Butler, who is an upfield rusher. I think he's got a lot of talent, but he's not somebody you'd look at in the first or second round. So I think the problem with the defensive tackle draft is that I see death from rounds three to rounds five, and I see guys who have upside and the chance to become good players, but you're not going to get the immediate help more than likely from those positions, and you're not going to have guys that I would consider

to be top fifty players. So I think that's the concern when you talk defensive tackle, and I think every team, they're general managers and the evaluators have to go into the draft and really, let's just call it abcd F like at school, you have to go in with a grade on every position group, so you know, all right, who do we need to be a little more Who can we be a little bit more wide open in terms of our draft approach with because they're so deep,

the position so deep, and cornerback would would be a little bit deeper. But then a position like defensive tackle, if there are guys you really really like, but the next group, the tier two and tier three you feel like or you have them graded as fourth and fifth and sixth round guys. Then you have to make a

priority of grabbing defensive tackle earlier. And I think for the Bengals, potentially grabbing defensive tackle earlier could be the key, you know, one of the one of the ways that you're gonna have to do that if you want us

to move up in the draft. And I think going from thirty one up into the twenties could help secure who knows, I mean, maybe Jordan Davis will last that long to defensive tackle out of Georgia because he's not really a pass rusher, but he is a dominant run defender, and you can always go to your sub rush packages.

So you know, how you how you see the player, the defensive lineman, the interior defensive lineman, how you've seen him fitting you on the first two downs and then on the rushdown is going to be really critical in terms of how the Bengals prioritized defensive tackle. The Bengals have had a ton of success in the draft over the last couple of years. Obviously, Joe Burrow, T Higgins, Logan Wilson a couple of years ago, Jamar Chase, Evan McPherson worked out great in the fifth round last year.

In general terms, what do you think of when I say Bengals and their draft track record. I think it's been you know, I think it's been okay. I think I think people I think people are too hard on the Bengals in general. You know, I hear comments made about, oh, Marvin Lewis, Oh the Bengals, Oh Andy Dalton. The fact is Andy Dalton had success in Cincinnati. Marvin Lewis had success. It wasn't the success Bengals fans. You know, it didn't get over that hump. But the Bengals have been way

more competitive than people sometimes give them credit for. And I'm not sure why that narrative exists. I think from a standpoint of when you look at how the Bengals have drafted, and I tend to look at pockets of years, I like to look at it over five years, because really, once you get past five years, the players from that cycle many times are already gone or they've become core players, so they've either gone in one direction or the other.

And when you talk about the players that you just mentioned, like Logan Wilson, I was a huge fan of Logan and Wilson's coming out of Wyoming. Stape was fantastic. His instincts were great. And what you did is you had a guy that maybe others would pass on because they said, well, it's a small school guy. We don't know if he's a great at all of a sudden. You know, the good football you saw on tape is the good football you see on Sundays. It's it's the same thing. It

didn't change Jamar Chase. I was a big believer in taking Chase over a tackle because the fact was Chase had the ability to change games and there wasn't a tackle who could change a game for you. Last year. You can make do along the offensive line. Now not for very long. And obviously it was a huge priority, and you know, you might be able to argue that if the offensive line was better, the Cincinnati Bengals would have won the Super Bowl, which wouldn't have been there

without Jamar Chase. So that's the point. So this year they have gone about addressing it. But I think the Bengals from a draft standpoint, there have been some some hit or miss selections, obviously, and there have been some guys who who have failed, especially in the two thousands and into the early two tens. But I think over the last five years the Bengals have done a nice job of adding not just good football player, but core football players, guys that you will build around for years

to come. Along with Joe Burrow, Joe Mixon as core, Jamar Chase is a core. Logan Wilson is a chord. Look how Sam Hubbard's done. I mean, Hubbard's done terrific. Adding Hendrickson was obviously a great stroke from a free agency standpoint, and Jesse Bates another good football player. The Bengals are adding good football players, and I think that's the real kid guys who love football. That's what you're seeing right now in Cincinnati. Final question for NFL Network

draft analyst Land Zerline. Your father is a former University of Cincinnati assistant coach. Right now, the University of Cincinnati has eight guys that could get drafted, eight guys that were invited to the NFL scouting combine six were invited to the Senior Bowl. What do you think of this draft class, particularly a Mad Sauce Gardener and Desmond Ritter. Yeah,

I think it's a great class. Just had a GM text me the other day that he loved you know, Alec Pierce thought he was just a really underrated wide receiver prospect. I think Curtis Brooks is a little underrated frankly along the anterior. But he's your size. But despite his size, he's two hundred and eighty seven pounds, but

he is a whirlwind of disruption along the interior. When you look at what Cincinnati has done, you know, Desmond Ritter feels like a safe quarterback, really understands the game. Has done a nice job of building himself up and becoming a very astute and mechanically sound quarterback over the years. Sauce Gardner came out of nowhere. I shouldn't say out of nowhere. He was a very thin, skinny guy when

he came in. They did a great job of helping to build him up, and I know Kobe Bryant was a big part of that, of helping to get him to buy into what he needed to buy into. And so you see, Kobe Bryant to me, is going to be one of the better zone corners in this draft. Sauce Gardner has the swagger that you'd like out of corners who are going to forget if they made a mistake. But he also has the speed and explosiveness and length

to make plays on a football. One of my favorite players in this draft is Brian Cook, the safety who I think just has the body type and the demeanor of an NFL Safety's physical He's a business only type of guy, where he is going to come up and really handle business, no matter whether you're ask him to cover, whether you ask him to come up and hit and

support the run. And then you know, as you go back a little bit, Sanders and Beavers, of course, we're very talented college players who I think have some growth potential. From Sanders from a physical growth standpoint, Beavers from a plane, I think he can get better as a player when he's put into a little different position. So, you know, it's amazing that Cincinnati has come this far where you

have eight draft from prospects. But it also really speaks to the fact that drome Ford I didn't even mention. I mean, there's just so many. Yeah, Josh Wile I wrote him up. I thought he might come out, and he went back to school, which I was glad to see. So I think when you look at what Cincinnati's doing right now and then you see this many draft prospects and you see where they came from, which was the

final four for college football. I mean it just goes to show you you want to get to that level of college football, you gotta get and developed guys who can end up being pro players. That's typically how it's gonna work. Our guest has been Lanzerline four hundred and twenty written profiles of the prospects in this year's draft. You can find them on NFL dot com. I always check them out. It's great stuff. Appreciate your time today and keep up the good work. Okay, thanks, Land, says Dad.

Larry was the offensive line coach at you See for four years under Rick Menter, during a stretch where the coaching staff included Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh, and Rex Ryan among others. That's going to do it for this episode of The Bengals Booth podcast, presented by Ultimate Bengals. Download Ultimate Bengals ahead of the twenty twenty two season. It's free to play next level fantasy football with awesome Bengals prizes. Get it now on the App Store and Google Play.

And if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast. And if you have a minute, give it a rating, or share a comment that helps more Bengals fan us find us. I'm Dan Horde. Thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast.