Bengals Booth Podcast: More, More, More

pick in the second round. Plus who knows a quarterback better than one of his offensive linemen. I'll talk to LSU guard Damian Lewis and find out what Burrow is like in the huddle, and you'll want to hear his prediction for the Bengals future if they select his college quarterback. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Prime Sport, the official fan, travel and hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals.

And here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing. It's the greatest thing since Josh Lewen's Throwback League podcast. With the cancelation of March Madness and the suspension of most pro sports leagues, there's still a place to listen to ball games Josh Lewin's Throwback

League podcast. Josh actually started this about a month ago, and it's a March Madness style tournament featuring forty eight of the best Major League baseball teams from the last twenty five years. A computer program spits out the results and then Josh broadcasts a chunk of the game. A new game comes out every Monday. Each podcast is about forty five minutes long, and the attention to detail is phenomenal. If you would like to learn and more, just go

to the Throwback League dot com. Now let's get to football. Every year before the draft, I wind up buying a few draft guides, and my favorite in recent years has been Dane Bruglers. He's currently the NFL Draft guru for The Athletic and I recently sat down with him at the NFL Scouting Combine to discuss Joe Burrow, the Bengals track record in the draft, and how he became a draft expert. Is Joe Burrow number one overall a no brainer in your opinion, absolutely coming off one of the

best seasons we've ever seen for a quarterback. When you list the traits that you look for at the quarterback position, it starts with mental processing, leadership, accuracy, the composure, pocket awareness. He checks all those boxes. And you know, we can talk about how he does not have the greatest arm. We can talk about his nine inch hands or whatever. That's that's fine, and that's that matters, but they just

don't don't overthink this. Um. Yes, he had did it in one season, but I think the context is required when you talk about him transferring into LSU, a brand new program, brand new system, learning the coaches, learning the teammates. We started to see this at the end of his junior season him he was the MVP at the Festival the last four games of his junior year. We started to see this. Now, no one expected this, um, but you know, I think we saw him working towards this

and when he became more comfortable within that program. Obviously the adding Joe Brady and you know, some wrinkles of the passing games surely helped. But Joe talked about yesterday here at the combine how just giving him more freedom at the line of scrimmage was the biggest difference with with Joe Brady coming in and between his junior year and senior year. He is incredibly confident and that shows on the field. Off the field, Uh, they do not need to overthink this. He is in the one pick.

How does his LSU offense from last year transfer to the NFL. Well, I think the fact that they let him do a lot of things that the line of scrimmage. You see that he does look to the sideline and all that, but he's making those pre snapper reads based off of what he's seeing. He's reading the safety. He understands where to go with the football, and it's the thing I was most impressed with. When you watch this film.

He's under constant pressure, but no matter what, he's calm composed there and he always knows where his out He knows where his outlets are because he's just so comfortable within that system. And so I think he always knows what the defense is trying to do, where his receivers are going to be, and where he can find his open receivers. And that's something that's going to translate from that LSU offense to the pros no matter where he goes,

no matter what system they want to run. That confidence, that composure, I think is something that he really developed at LSU and that's going to show in the NFL. I saw you wrote recently, are projecting immediate NFL starter with Pro Bowls Gills. That's setting the bar very high. It is. But when you draft a player number one overall or consider him number one overall, um, that's what

you're expecting, you know, and especially for a red shirt senior. UM, this isn't you know, last year we saw a guy like Dwayne Haskins, who um, you know for the Redskins, went first round, didn't play until the end of the season. He was a red shirt sophomore and he came out, so he should have been a junior. UM. Really last year in college, Joe Burrow, even though he doesn't have that experience in terms of on the field, only two years of starting experience. He's a red shirt senior, an

older guy. He's ready for this. Um, this isn't something where it's going to be a learning curve. He's gonna come in from day one. He's gonna work his tail off. You know he Drew Brees is kind of his guy. That's that's his mentor, that's that's who he learned, uh, you know, kind of watched throughout over the years, and that's I think the work ethic that Drew Brees approaches the game with. That's that's the way Joe Burrow does

as well. And so I don't I don't think there's any question he is going to be the start for whoever drafts him in twenty twenty. And you know they're gonna be some bumps along the way with any rookie quarterback, but he absolutely has Pro Bowl potential. We're talking to Dane Broglar, draft analyst for the Athletic. Let's move to the thirty third overall pick, first pick in the second round. I am predicting that the Bengals are going to trade

down to get more picks in the second round. But if they don't give us a few names that you think might be there that would be a good fit in Cincinnati, well, I think that's you get your quarterback. On offense. I think they could go not I mean not one of two ways, but two options that really make a lot of sense to me. Receiver to help

out your help out your quarterback. I think you can say three ways receiver to help out your quarterback, offensive line to help out your quarterback, and then finding your quarterback. On defense, especially at linebacker. It'll be interesting to see which linebackers end up going in the first round. You know, we know Isaiah Simmons will be a top ten pick. I think Patrick Queen is going to be a top

twenty pick. Is he's just too good to fall. But you know, guy like Kenneth Murray from Oklahoma, a guy like Zach Bond from Wisconsin. Could one of those two guys fall to the thirty third pick. If that's if they do, then I think that would be really intriguing. Two guys that play with a lot of speed. They very diverse with what they offer. Um, Zach Bond being more of a pass rusher in college, who's going to be more of an off ball guy in the NFL.

But you know we've seen him, you know, watching his film, you see him carry wide receivers deep. He'll he'll stay hip to hip with a running back on the wheel route. Um. You know he looks just fine when moving in reverse. Kenneth Murray, Um, he's a little late to sort things at times, but the place be the competitive toughness off the charts. Um, he's a really fun player to watch. If they do go on offense wide receiver, it's really interesting because you know, we know this is has the

potential to be a historic class. And it's not just you know, first round, but it's the second round, the third round, and so on and so on. We're going to see some guys at the receiver position be drafted later than they should just because teams are going to say, in the first round, yeah, you know, we really like uh, you know, Labiscos Chanald or t Higgins, but we need a tackle and if we don't get a tackle now,

we're not gonna get them later. So we're gonna go ahead and take Josh Jones from Houston here or Austin Jackson from USC And we still feel great about our wide receiver options in the second, third, even the fourth, fifth round, and so I think they're going to be some interesting wide receiver options. They're at thirty three. They're gonna make the Bengals think, you know, could they go

with a Justin Jefferson, reunite him with Joe Burrow? Could one of those two guys that just mentioned Higgins or Chennault still be on the board for them. Jalen Rager from TCU another one. They're going to have some options at receiver if that's a direction they want to go. And then on the offensive line, um, you know, they we know they need depth. You know, all thirty two

teams need depth on the offensive line. So I think they could go tackle, they could guard on the interior, and you know that that would certainly help, you know, their young quarterback. They're you know, kind of getting two first round picks with Jonah Williams coming back from last year hopefully healthy, So boosting an offensive line certainly makes sense. You gave some linebacker names that are likely or possibly

could go in the first round. Does it get pretty thin after that at that position, because obviously that's a weakness for Cincinnati a little bit. I mean, I think we're there are a few options on Day two that I like a lot. Malie Harrison from Ohio State is one of those former high school quarterback who he wanted to play offense in high school or in college. He wanted to play receiver. They moved a linebacker, and I

think that that was kind of the smart thing. He's a big guy, he's a tremendous run defender, but he's also athletic enough, and I think he'll show that here at the combine that you know, it's just more of a comfort level in terms of coverage. He has the athleticisan would do it. He just needs to get comfortable with his reads and moving in reverse and that type of thing. So I think MALIEK. Harrison in the second

round makes sense. When you get to the third round, A Keen Davis Gaither from app State is a name to know. He's he's kind of the the third round version of Isaiah Simmons. You know, he's that, he's long, he's a lean athlete. You can do a lot of things with him with how you line them up off the ball. You can play him deeper, you can play him as a blitzer off the edge. Just a really

versatile chess piece. And so this linebacker class, I think we're gonna see three, maybe four guys going to first round, and then maybe three four guys on Day two, second, third round, so it does thin out a little bit. A couple more questions for draft expert Dane Brugler. From two thousand and nine to twenty fourteen, the Bengals drafted

extremely well. They had a run of six straight good drafts, and then since twenty fifteen not so much, partly because their first round pick seems to get injured every year and missus Allah or part of the rookie year. As you evaluate the Bengals draft over the years, is there anything in particular that stands out bad luck? And you know it's some of that injury stuff you can't really I mean, Jonah Williams was you know, not someone that

had an injury history at Alabama. I mean he was a reliable starter and just you know, same thing with Billy Price. You know, how do you how do you predict that stuff? And obviously Billy Price, Um, you know, he his injury stuff started here at the combine unfortunately with his bench price when he partially towards peck Um and then getting that that's been a little bit of

a surprise seeing him struggle as much as he had. Um, you know, coming from a bigger program like Ohio State, starting fifty plus games for the buck Eyes, Um, you know, he seemed you know, there's he's kind of the reminder that there's no such thing as a sure thing when it comes to the draft, going to the NFL level, when you're facing bigger, faster guys, it's just there is a little bit of unknown there. And for a guy like Billy Price like that, that's been part of the

learning curve for him. Um. But I am eager to see Joe Williams back on the field. UM, see what he can do. I think he was. Um. You know, whether he ends up being a tackle or guard long term, he is a guy that's going to be as long as he stays healthy. I mean, he has the talent to be a starter in this league for a long time. Hopefully he is just able to stay healthy. I've enjoyed your guides for years. How did you become a draft guru? How did this become so interesting to you? Well, I'm

I'm an Ohio guy. I grew up in Northeast Ohio, and when the Browns came back in ninety nine, I was what probably thirteen years old. I just I became enamored with the process, you know, what made a good college player into a good NFL prospect. And that was the year with rookie Williams and Edrin James and Donovan McNabb and Tim Couch and just working through these guys, I was just I was so enamored with the process,

and so it turned into a hobby. And then I decided, you know what, there's nothing I want to do the rest of my life but just study these guys and figured it out and I love it. And I was able to if you want to go to if you want to be a doctor, you go to medical school. If you want to be a lawyer, you go to law school. If you want to be a scout, you know what do you do? There's no direct path, and so I just kind of forged my own way doing my my draft guide that was able to open some

doors for me. UM. I went to Mount Union College UM and in Northeast Ohio, and my senior year I worked for the football team and we had a pretty good player named Pierre Garzon, and we had a lot of scouts come through Alliance UM checking them out, and so it was up to me working for the team to show these scouts around, take them to practice UM and that really started my networking UM getting to know those guys. They were able to mentor me. They're still

mentors to this day. Um. I thankfully they opened doors for me to to kind of learn the business and everything. And um, it's been really fun being on the media. I never thought I'd be on the media side of things, but I've enjoyed it because I get to you know, I don't work for one team. I kind of work for you know, every team because I get to, you know, scout all these guys and you know, trying to figure out where they fit best, and you know, their their

their future. And I'm not going to get everyone right. I'm not delusional to think that, you know, I'm going to nail all these guys, but um, you know, I think I feel good about my batting average. And my draft guide has been something that has really been kind of the backbone of my work, and it's I dare anybody to find a more thorough draft guide out there, because I put it a lot of work into it. And it's not just the analysis and with you know,

strengths weaknesses. It's it's the background and you know, what kind of family does he come from? Um? You know that to me, that's the best part of this is the journey that you know, because there's three hundred and thirty seven guys here at the combine. Not there aren't two of these guys that had the same journey, you know it from elementary school to high school to college.

There's something going on in their lives, whether it's adversity or maybe they you know, we're a basketball player that I became a football player. Whatever it is, it's it's just it helps shape who they are and it helps tell you where they're going and protect their future. And so I really try to put all that into the draft guide. And you know, it's my goal is to

paint a picture. If you know nothing about the player, after reading my my write ups and my reports and my draft guide, um you know who he is and you have a pretty good feel for the player that he is. That first draft that you mentioned was also the Achille Smith draft. That one hurts. Yeah. I didn't mention him on purpose. I mentioned everyone in the top five except for him. That was by design. That's a painful memory. Your guide is awesome. Appreciate the time. Thanks

very much, and so thank you. Dane published a three round mock draft for the Athletic on March fourth. He obviously had the Bengals taking Joe Burrow number one overall, then had them selecting Baylor wide receiver Denzel Mims with the first pick in the second round and Auburn offensive tackle Prince Tegawan Nogo at the top of the third. Now, let's get to the latest Bengals news. The team announced on Friday that it has released offensive lineman Cordy Glenn.

No surprise there. The Bengals reportedly tried to trade him but found no takers. Releasing Cordy freeze up nine point five million dollars that can be used in free agency. As of this recording, The free agent negotiating period begins on Monday, and then teams can start signing players on Wednesday. The deadline for franchise tagging players is also on Monday, and the Bengals are expected to use the tag to

retain aj Green. They would then have until July fifteenth to work out a long term extension with the wide receiver, who turns thirty two at the end of July. The deadline for players to vote on the new collective bargaining agreement is Saturday at eleven fifty nine pm. If the players approved the proposal, it would mean labor piece between

players and owners through the year twenty thirty. Before we get to our next guest, here's a quick reminder that you can take your Bengals pride to the next level in twenty twenty with an official Bengals fan package from Prime Sport. Like Joe Burrow, offensive lineman Damian Lewis spent the last two years at LSU. He was a JUCO All American at Northwest Mississippi Community College before heading to Baton Route, and this past season he was the starting

right guard for the undefeated national champs. Lewis was one of sixteen LSU players invited to the scouting combine and I spoke to him about his quarterback Describe Joe Burrow in the huddle for me, Joe real funny, you know, guy who like real calm out deb but he funny how you know, He'll get us going and we're doing something that we don't need to be. He'll joke around to everybody. Hood up, we don't got to go, but

we did a lot of temple. He's just a guy who just keep the energy going, just gonna get people going. If it hadn't to work, you know, he'll click it out and said let's go to work. The sixty touchdown passes speak for themselves, but how important was his leadership and the intangibles and leading you guys to a perfect season. It always started with the leaders you know, we watched him.

He get us going and started in two and eighteen when he came we transferred together and it really just started up Jo know that what he came here to do, and just winning championships and ball game and the exactly what he did. I felt like he was locked in from day one and he was ready to go. A lot of people have wondered why he jumped so much in terms of his play from his junior year to his senior year. Obviously there is a different scheme with

coach Brady coming in. If I wish there anything other than that, in your opinion, Joe always been a great player. You can't take that from you know, some stuff make people stand out more, But I feel like that Joe I always had where to take for the you know, just be a one of the great quarterback, elite quarterback. So I feel like they're coming in the all season he worked. He was working real hard all the old days and long night that he put in. It's just

like all the stuff he took in. He was hearing the media and said, I don't beyond I'm thinking he would care about the media, like listen to the media that much. But he just did what he had to do for his family and nor that way it state for him. So he just went out there with the chip on his show old and knowing what we had to do, and we told each other that we want to win a national in an SEC championship, and then exactly what we did. We went't coming here to lose.

Seeing the footage from the Central Florida game in the bowl game the previous year where he gets drilled and then pops right up, the man seems to get better after that. What did that moment say? They were really started. They're right there when he got hit, took that big hit everybody and he jumped right back up. Everybody on that sideline look up and said, that's our quarterback. They're

toughness and up and they had great over there. Joe jumped right back up and he went right back to work and the next play throw the what for the yoord tasdown? For the yoord tasdown? And everybody like, there's

a quarterback we want to follow behind. They got he gonna lead us to the National and he gonna lead us to the SEC Championship, and the exactly what he did when fifteen, they know, so he goes number one overall, whether the Cincinnati thing goes getting they getting a hard working guy who love his job, who love to compete, who's gonna have fun. Danzi really enjoins it. Help to

the net, help them to the super Bowl. If the Bengals select Burrow, Let's hope that Damian Lewis is like Nostradamis in predicting that Burrow will lead the Bengals to the super Bowl. That's going to do it for This episode of The Bengals Booth Podcast brought to you by Prime Sport, the official fan, travel and hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans

find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.