Bengals Booth Podcast: Crushin' It

Hi, get everybody.

I'm Dan Hoard and thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth Podcast the and I'll be crushing it. Addition, as we take an in depth look at the three players selected by the Bengals on day two of the draft, Chris Jenkins, Jermaine Burton and McKinley Jackson. Coming up, you'll hear from that trio as well as Bengals coaches. Then I'll discuss the picks with my broadcast partner Dave Lappom and look

He was a priory position, but again, we weren't just gonna take anybody, and we were very fortunate the way it fell. We had high marks on Chris and so thank goodness he was there. But he was a priory position for us, but at the same time, we weren't just gonna take anybody, and he was one that we specifically targeted, and so we were we were happy he was at forty nine.

Jenkins lacks ideal size, He's six to two hundred and ninety nine pounds, but he's an excellent athlete who earned the nickname the Mutant from his strength coach at Michigan.

Our same coach, Coach Hurd, gave it to me because I just went above and beyond in the weight room and I did some things that you know, people looking at me wouldn't expect me to do, and he said, my mentality, you know, how I carry myself, how I pushed through adversity, injury, anything, is a mutant mentality. And that's where he gave the name to me my sophomore year and it stuck ever since.

The Mutant is the son of a four time Pro Bowler. His dad, Chris Senior, spent ten years in the NFL with the Panthers in Jets. In the next round, the Bengals picks were announced by former Pro Bowl receiver TJ. Hushman Zada, and it seemed like fate when TJ announced the Bengals first third round pick.

So this pick means this pick means something to me as I've been training this kid for a long time and now he's gonna be drafted by the Bingles. So with the eightieth pig in a twenty twenty four NFL draft, the Cincinnati Bingals select Jermaine Burdon wide receiver Alabama.

Burton spent his first two college seasons at Georgia before finishing with two years at Alabama. He's six feet tall, a solid one hundred ninety six pounds, and ran a four four five forty at the combine in his college career, he averaged eighteen yards to catch. Here's offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher on how Burton will fit with Jamar Chase and t Higgins.

He'll fig great. I mean, he's explosive, and so that's really our job now as to how do we mix and match those skill sets. But what he brings to the table with regard to the threat he's gonna post to the defense, how they're gonna have to respect all three of those players in the explosiveness they bring. We'll figure that part out, but he'll take care of the hard part, which is separating from defense and catching the football.

As for that Hushman's out of connection. Burton says that it's crazy that DJ announced his pick and that he's going to his former team.

You know, it's honestly amazing, you know, having TJ train me, you know throughout these past few years of you know, even going into college. You know, working with him is you know, is honestly great. It's just just to know his history and his background with the game of football, that his knowledge on it, and you know, to see the way he thinks and you know the way he put puts it into the drills and you know, the way he talks to you and his terminology. You know,

With their second pick in the third round, number ninety seven overall, the Bengals doubled down on defensive tackle and chose McKinley Jackson out of Texas A and M who addresses the void left by the departure of DJ Reader.

He's a guy we've talked a lot about, you know. He he fits a good spot for us. You know, three hundred and thirty pound nose guard. There's not a lot of those in the draft. He's a guy that we had rated highly and he was sitting right there for us in the third rounds was the right spot to take him. I don't think you ever go wrong adding to your defensive line. You know, as a head coach, as an offensive play caller that faces faces these guys every every week and you have to prepare for him.

Jackson was a two time captain at A and M and says he'll be a fit on the Bengals defense.

You know, I played football. I no matter what the system it is. You know our cent I get the better word. I want to get to play book and you know brings the championship.

The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by pay Corps, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof Fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now time for analysis of Day two and I'll look ahead to the final four rounds of the draft with my broadcast

You know, this kid is six two and a half, about three hundred pounds, runs five forty He's got good arm length to thirty four inches, wingspans almost eighty inches.

You know, it's and the thing, the.

Thing that's been impressive to me, and with the liberalization of the rules and earthing and athletics, starts with the feed ends.

With your hands. All of these guys.

The the the Bengals are drafted in the interior of the defensive line, of the offensive line.

Big strong, massive hands, and that that hand strength is a big deal.

I mean, if he gets you in the position, now you're allowed to get your hands within the framework of the body clamp on them. Those big strong muckers that these guys have and control people. And uh, he he really does does a nice job with his with his hands. There's no question he's got excellent functional football strength. In my estimation, powerful athletic. You know, he's more of a three technique. He slided out to a five technique occasionally. Uh,

You know, he's not knocked off his feet.

He can stack and ship people pretty darn well good pursued angles to the football. Uh, he's a he's an excellent football player.

You know.

He, like you say, grew up.

Around the game with his dad playing at the at the at the high level that that his dad played at.

And uh, you know, he's he's definitely.

Uh, he's he's got you know, quickness, can get around the blockers need be so he can change that up.

He can bull rush you.

I mean, he's got a mirriad of ways to pressure the quarterback too. He is more of a three technique kind of guy, though he's not the nose tackle kind of guy. And the Bengals did address that, you know, later on in the in the draft, but he was on the board at that spot. He was obviously the best guy on their board, and they stayed true to their board, and they go and they get you know, a guy that is very, very consistent in his effort.

There's no doubt about that. He's a solid NFL prospect.

But I do think he plays the run better than the past at this point in time. But that's what's asked of him at Michigan, you know, that's.

Basically the way they have their defensive lineman play in their front seven play.

So I think he can be you know, developed, I think pretty quickly and effectively. Is a little bit better pass rusher than he show up to college.

He's not a gigantic man like Amarius Mims that we met earlier today. Chris Jenkins is about six three, weighed in at two hundred and ninety nine pounds, But the old Michigan strength coach who followed Jim Harbaugh out to the Chargers nicknamed him the Mutant when he was a sophomore in college for his performances in the weight room and his attitude, you know, when times were tough. So sometimes you don't have to be three hundred and twenty pounds to impose your will on the defensive line.

Yeah.

Absolutely, And he's you know you can probably you didn't get a little bit bigger as he matures, you know, I mean he's uh, he's got that like Randy White was the manster part man park monster. That's what I think Jenkins aspires.

To be, you know.

And and honestly, the Bengals the way they are, you know, addressing things with the offensive line is the land of the Giants, and they're trying to compete with that title with with what they're trying to do on the interior. And uh, it's Are all these guys gonna be starters?

No, not necessarily. Will they be in a rotation?

Hell yeah, I'll be in a rotation in some way, shape or form. Eight guys all made all eight Brookies last year. They all made the football team. They all had a role initially expanded upon those roles. And the three guys that they have drafted in uh in the first two rounds, uh in this in this draft, in the national and first.

Three rounds, I should say that for the first four.

Guys they drafted, I think we'll all make the football team and have a significant role. So that's their last eleven draft picks. You know, it's they've they've done a damn good job. And honestly, the way the National Football League is today, when you're paying your quarterback pick dollars and you're gonna pay multiple receivers potentially big dollars.

You have to put the bat on the ball.

You have to have rookies that can contribute, because you know they're under rookie contracts, and that's.

The way you can control that that salary cap. So the draft becomes more and more important. And you know, I think it's very easy.

To have a great draft like they did in twenty twenty when they had the first pick in every round.

There's no doubt about that.

And honestly, I think the closer you get to the end of the round, like when they went to the Super Bowl, I think that is a good spot to be too, because you can always pick up the guys that slid. Oh man, this guy's still here. Oh my god, we didn't expect he'd be here before he slides.

The second round. Let's clean this up. You do that every round.

I think you can set yourself off for a decent draft. I mean, Kansas City's made a living on it. But if you're in the middle of the round, now it's like, oh, do we contribute to the slide of this player or should we end the slide or do we have somebody you know a little bit better on our draft board.

It does. It's so not a need. We don't want to go there. I mean, I think the middle of the round can be.

Almost one of the more difficult spots to pick, and I think they're doing a hell of a job of kicking quality flares.

At that point.

Let's jump to the third round and actually go to their second third round pick, since they doubled down at the defensive tackle position and selected McKinley Jackson number ninety seven overall. According to Dame Brugler of The Athletic, he had a sixth or seventh round grade, so maybe the Bengals took him a little bit higher than some of the experts expected. But this is more of a DJ

Yeah, I mean he is. He's a zero technique of one technique compilation of of the mock drafts.

That I saw.

I had him as the third rounder. You know it was I don't know. I mean, everybody has has has differences of opinion. That's what makes the draft so beautiful because it's totally non scientific. But the Bengals obviously had him rated decently on their board into the third round because I thought, wow, it might go exactly as I had hoped. You know, you start out with an offensive tackle and then you a receiver is pick, a defensive

They had defensive tackle.

In this In this case, I mean, Kenley Jackson rated higher than the remaining quarterback and our cornerbacks on their big board, and uh, you know it's like he's a he's basically a zero technique in the yard front. I mean, he's the he's the nose tackle they're looking for. And for a guy you know that's gonna play that.

He's six one and a half. You know, he's he's got decent, decent height, He's got long arms. Though, man, he's a he's a burly dude. Man, he's put together. But at three hundred and.

Twenty six pounds, he's almost got.

A thirty four inch you know length to his arms.

He's got a ten inch and in a wingspan of over eighty inches. So they're doing a tremendous job of of You know, a guy with with that type of that type of body is one of those dudes that entire shoes without bending over. You know, he's he's he's gonna be able to control you with those long arms and those strong hands. He's an impressive athlete for his size. You know, there's no question. I mean, he has quick feeding. He plays low. When he doesn't, he's gonna have issues,

There's no question about that.

He's got strength, he's got athleticism. You know, he'll he does have like he'll he'll he'll snatch you and swim a little bit. You know, he's he's a he's a brute strength kind of guy. You know, he's a and it's not like he can't play a defense where it's a penetration into gaps. He's got the versatility to do that, I will, playing both in a one gap and the two gap kind of scenario. So he gives Lure in

You know that can be corrected very easily.

So he's I think, I think he's you know, he looks maybe he's a little bit tight in his hips. That might be the only you know, knock that you can you can throw out there with him. But again, I think they gave up eighty two plays of twenty yards or more.

And if you have trouble stopping.

The run and give up big plays in the running game, you're going to get crushed in the passing game.

And some of it was getting beaten physically.

A lot of it was you know, metal mistakes hit and raw gaps and breaking down and coverages and that sort of thing. But what you want to do is rectify any of the problems that you have from a physical standpoint. And you lose DJ reader, you got to do something, man. You've got to get some people that you can rotate in there to plug up that running game, particularly in this division. And it was amazing to me to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers almost duplicate every position Bengals took.

They took one. It was unbelievable.

Bengals take an offensive lineman, they take one. Bengals take an interior defensive limon, they take one. You know, Bengals take a wide receiver. They seemed to me it was amazing. So Baltimore, I think did their solid job. Cleveland didn't have a whole lot of a lot of hooks in the.

Initial stages, but in this division you'd have to be able to be pig physical and run the ball with some a modicum of consistency and stop the run with a bigger mod consistency.

So in between the two defensive tackles selected, there was a wide receiver. Jermaine Burton started his college career Georgia, spent two years there, finished it at Alabama, spent two years there and averaged eighteen yards per catch, playing four seasons in the SEC. The word explosive jumps out when you watch the tape of Jermaine Burton.

Jermaine Burton is a dog.

I mean there's no other, no better way, and I mean that in a good way of four years starter.

He said in Georgia for a couple then he goes to Alabama. I mean, this.

Guy is you know, he he averaged a career high twenty and a half catch yards per catch last year, number one in the SEC.

We're talking SEC.

We're talking Georgia, We're talking Alabama. He plays with definitely a swagger. He plays with a toughness who worked the middle of the field and and and be physical in that area of it.

He can get vertical in a hurry. He's got speed and he's a quality route runner. You can you know, with that speed, he can sink his hips and get in and out of cuts.

He's got an extremely low drop rate, it's the most the lowest in this class of wide receivers. And you know he had some off the field issues. I think part of that was due to his competitive nature. Uh to be I guess about it. But that's a matter of maturity, a matter of growing up a little bit. And I think that it's not like they feel like he's you know, he robbed a bank or he's got an.

Alcoholic drug problem or whatever. And this locker room is is solid. I mean, it's it's got a lot of uh, a lot of high quality guys in it.

And I'm sure they feel like the wide receiver room and the coach of the wide receiver room is a former player himself, and they feel like they can probably help this guy in that maturation process a little bit. And again we talk about hands. His hands were oversized, his frame for his body type, and the statshers out of that football pretty down done, effectively plays through contact, and the dude's fielders. There's no doubt about it. Like

He's the best. He's got the most.

Talent that's left on the board put up you know, significant nun numbers against the best players in college football, in the conference that college football has to offer.

So I like to pick man. I'm excited to see high he blossoms.

And the Bengals definitely vetted his character. They took one of their visits that they're allowed to have with players at the Combine and used it on him. Then they used one of their thirty you know, visits in Cincinnati that they're allowed to have on him. So they took a couple of opportunities to talk to him to get to the bottom of some of these things that happened,

Know, competitive nature of losing the temper, you know, confrontation with the band, I mean, those are things that do you want it to be something that happens with any.

Kind of regularity?

Now, I mean, do you think possibly he may have learned something, you know, maybe maybe uh you know, in Alabama can can help him get some counseling, Maybe the Bengals can help get some consoling and control his temp a little bit. But part of that is what makes him such a good football player.

Man. The dude is competitive. He is a d a W G. Dog.

Well, he spent the last few years training in the off season under t J. Hushman Zada another guy who could be described as a dog in his playing days. And you know, if he's got TJ's stamp of approval, I'm okay with that.

I hear that.

And you know, here's a guy that you know, four four five, you know, in his arms thirty one inches, I mean his wingspans almost seventy five inches, uh, you know, and and a little over six feet hundred ninety six pounds. I mean, he's uh, he's done. He's done a lot of a lot of trains sty they drafted. They drafted guys with measurables and a lot of traits that in in uh, you know, everybody's estimation could lend itself to

All right, let's quickly look ahead to Day three. The Bengals have six picks left. They've got a fourth, a fifth to sixth round picks, and two seventh round picks. I think a couple of those picks will probably be used on cornerbacks. Yep, that's cornerbacks, not quarterbacks. I wouldn't be surprised if a pick is used on a punter to complete with compete with Brad Robbins. Maybe somebody who had experience as a kick returner in college. Since you've got the new kick return rules in the NFL, I'm

You know, I agree with you, Dan, I mean, you have to address the corners, and in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh round you're looking at twenty six draftable players, you know. I mean there are forty one draftable corners overall, and over half of them are going to be in Day three of the draft. So that's why, you know, it's like there was a run on corners. You know, let's let's double down at the at the interior defensive tackle position. That's an area that we need to address.

So it's a deep draft.

I mean, there's not you know, in my mind there it's been talking to people around the league. There's not a big difference in pick seventy to pick one hundred and fifty with a lot of people. I mean, there are a lot of teams around the league have similar grades. It's not like there's a huge disparity of a major drop off you know.

From from an eighty pick.

Scenario in this in this draft, so you know that that goes well. I do think some of the position groups that the Bengals will address and double down on there there's death in those rounds and and uh, you know, tej Christian zad is a great example. He's a seventh round pick. Look at how his career turned out.

Excellent call on interior offensive lineman. I think there will definitely be at least one of those guys selected as well. It's after midnight. You've been talking for a long time tonight. I appreciate you spending a few minutes with us, and I will see you tomorrow.

Yes, sir Dan, get a good night's sleep.

I know when my hit my head hits the pillow, and ain't gonna take long to.

I'll have another edition of this podcast following day three, and then on Monday, I'll get the front office perspective as I'll be joined by the Bengals Director of College Scouting, Mike Potts. That's going to do it for this episode. Brought to you by pay Core, Proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best

Of the Bengals.

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