It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day looking ahead to the twenty twenty four NFL Draft. Let's discuss what we hope the Bengals will do, what we hope they won't do, what we hope they've learned from recent years. You are Locked On Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake. Let's go.
He's your host, James Rapine. Today we are joined by Jogo Berry as we discuss and get into some things we hope about this Bengals draft in twenty twenty four. This episode of Lockdown Bengals has with every episode of Lockdown Bengals available on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcasts on the Lockdown PoCA network, covering your team every day. Please do subscribe if you're new one.
It helps you get the content easier too. It helps us, and we appreciate your support, especially all you every days and all of you out there who make us here. First listening, guys, Let's talk about some nightmare,
some dreams, some hopes, some fears and some lessons learned. And the reason that this is particularly pertinent today is with the Bengals getting together for their off season program, a lot of discussion going on both on this podcast, on yesterday's episode and on social media and an analysis circles everywhere about Dax Hill. And it's not just Dax Hill, but there's a broader conversation that we can kind of center around Dax Hill, and it's not all about him
and what the Bengals plan was there. But when we talk about hopes and fears and lessons learned, I think that is a starting point because there's a few things that we can take away from that selection where there's a big projection for Dax Hill and say, Okay, what do we hope they've taken away from that pick? But Joe, you've also tweeted about hopes and dreams and nightmares. What are the like the top things that you're hoping the Bengals take
away from that Dax Hill pick and apply this year. Yeah, So the Daks thing in particular, I think there's a lot of lessons to be learned there. I think the overarching thing, if it was a book, it would start by let's have a plan throughout the organization from the top down, right, You hear about organizational vision from not just the personnel people, the guys that are doing the evaluating and the scouting, but to the coaching staff.
In Dax's case in particular, he was always a slot box defender. Right at Michigan, they wanted to take a guy to replace Jesse Bates, knowing they'd lose him in a year as their deep free safety, and they
forced him into that role. Right, So, if you know he's this, if the scouting staff knows he's this, but yet the I guess I'm of management with the with the Baits situation, and then the coaching staff maybe doesn't understand how to use that or how to get him there because, let's face, he already had Mike Hilton, so you're not going to put him
in the slot anyway. But in year two to say, okay, now you are free safety with very little experience, I mean, he's had less experience there than Jordan battle right coming out of Alabama last year, and more snaps at free safety taking his first step on an NFL field, if you include college snaps, it just didn't make a lot of sense to force him there and say, all right, your free safety now, oh you weren't very good. Now we're going to bury you on the depth chart and keep
it moving and I get cutting your losses as quick as possible. There is some something there. But at the same time, having a plan for what the guy does in college and what he can do for you and executing that and having that from the scouting to the people making the picks to the coaches needs to be one of the things they focus on. I think one of it was we could go to the Jackson Carmen pick. Who was Is he a tackle? Is he a guard? You know what I mean? Is
he even worth this pick? From the scouting staff to the front office management? Right? But having a plan, and I think there's a few guys in this class where we need to be put a little red flag on, like, hey, if you are moving this player's position and want to do something else with them, maybe we should lower the grade just a little bit for that little bit of unknown. Yeah, I think Dax, there's a
couple of things. One, if the scouting staff did view him as the future Jesse Bates, then the coaches needed to be on board with putting him back at a deep safety even after Jesse Bates comes back, and he didn't play there at all. After Bates came back, he played there and during camp and then it didn't happen. And so you're right, they have to
be on the same page. I think back to a Luanna Roumo quote during Dax's rookie are like, yeah, hopefulay when he's ready, these young defensive backs, and it was going on and on, and I do wonder, like, all right, well, we're people above him saying, hey, can you get the first rounder on the field. Sub And he talked about not wanting to play young guys a ton because they make mistakes. Well, Tax needed to make mistakes if he was going to switch positions and and it
work out. And so yeah, when you apply it to this year's especially early, right, the first rounder for Dax this year, I would say it's the first four picks. You want to have a plan for these guys, whether it's Fatanu, whether it's Malachai Corley, whether it's some of these guys that aren't obvious, Oh, this is where you put him and they're going to play that position. Because Daxhil's talented, and we're not going to know what he is unless there's injury. We're not gonna know what he is.
Guys, probably after three seasons, not even two after three, which is kind of wild, And that's scary because you have to pick up his fifth year option after this season. So if he's buried behind Mike Hilton, even if he ends up playing some boundary corner, which to me is also a worst case scenario, So you're gonna move him again to another position if
it's boundary that he has never played. So okay, So in my opinion, if you want to salvage him, it's as a strong safety, box slot defender, right you kind of just Tyron Matthew, Kyle Hamilton, Buddha Baker. The guy who was very similar, who had a similar arc to his career, Jimmy Ward from about like twenty fifteen, I want to say,
struggled between corner in slot and is he a safety? I was looking at a snap breakdown earlier on PFF and it wasn't until Robert Salad got there and said, Okay, you're a basically a box slot safety, and those guys are hybrid players in today's NFL. You can do that with these guys where you're not really sure. Like if people said Tyron Matthews a safety, that's fine, but he also was a slot corner for a lot of his
career in the NFL and made a lot of plays there. Kyle Hamilton, same draft, if the Ravens would have drafted Kyle Hamilton and the reason he fell probably ten spots later than he should have. Remember, Jake, we had him super high on our draft spreadsheet is because he ran slow. And team said, well, he's not a corner now and that's what he played at Notre Dame, so we're gonna have to move him to safety. The
raven said, screw that, this is what he's good at. We're gonna play him where he's good at, and we're going to make him a box slot defender. And imagine if Hamilton was still there for the Bengals and the Bengals said, yeah, we can't let him do that. We're going to play him as a free safety to replace Jesse Bates.'re playing him at a different safety position to instead of playing slot corner. They'd be ruining an
All Pro Pro Bowl player right now just as well. So it's more about the plan than it is the player and the execution of getting them in position to be their best. Yeah, it's about the plan and being in lockstep between the people making the pick, the front office and the coaching staff. That's something that Duke Tobin and Zach Taylor sold us on and when they hire Zach Taylor. Go back to those episodes show way back in the day.
One of the things that Zach talked about and Duke talked about was how much they saw the game the same way. And I wonder how true that is with some of the draft picks. I wonder if they really have been on the same page. The two biggest examples of this seem to be Jackson Carmen and Dax Hill, where you really wonder what the plan was for those guys coming in, But well, I was gonna throw him in. He was
changing positions. I think that's a slightly different thing. Maybe they were on the same page there, they knew they were drafting a guy who's gonna have to change positions. But that's another issue here, is like why are we drafting guys that need this crazy projection and how does that apply when we look at this year's draft, where there are some guys like Troy Fetanu, for example, who might have to change position. I think that they had a
I think they were on the same page with Daks. Dax was eleventh on their board. I don't think Zach I remember the night of the draft. I think he was all about drafting dacks same moving them in the free safety though right now that's the plan is If that is the plan, then Lou
has to be willing to play him some. But Jesse played ninety nine percent of the snaps like that's that's what's really hard, and then you can't pull him the moment he has bumps that Jesse took when they stunk in twenty eighteen and no one remembers as a rookie and in his first year back there, even though he did play that free safety spot at wake for so, I think that's that's part of it, too, is being on the same page, because they might have had the plant been in lockstep plan wise from a
free safety standpoint, But the moment there was Jesse, Bates and Von Bell, it was like, okay, yeah, you're you're going to play three different spots at least a little bit as a rookie and you're really not going to see the field outside of special teams. Well, lose part of being on the same page. It's not just Zach and Duke. It's Zach and Duke and his top assistants and having everybody on the same page to execute that plan right. And what I'm saying is is he may say that on draft
night and then it change in September when it matters and it can't. That's the big difference executing the plan. The one other thing here is this isn't all the coaching staff's fault. I'll just say that again. If Dax Hill was able to execute what they asked him to do last year when he had the opportunity, and maybe it wasn't the best fit for him, but if he was able to do what they asked them to do, then we wouldn't
be having this conversation at all. So it's not just the coaches. But I think it's clear that our primary issue here is with getting your premium picks into position to succeed, using them to their strengths and having a plan. And that will apply this year, and we'll apply to some specific players this year. We'll talk about that in some more detail here coming up next spoiler
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Greig is usually a fan of water cooler talk, but it's draft season and that's all anyone wants to talk about. The Athletic has loads of articles about this year's draft, but Greg doesn't have the athletic. So now he's filling up his water bottle in the bathroom sink, which, to remind you, is the sink people use after they use the bathroom. Get the athletic and get the info you need to speak draft fluently. So, Joe James,
let's take that conversation. Let's apply it to some players this year. I mentioned Troy Patana as probably the big biggest example I can think of in the first round as a guy who would need to have a very specific plan, and we've gotten back and forth on that plan. When we look at this draft, there are a few things I think that we're all hoping for. One, have a plan, like we just discussed. Two instant impact.
I think that we're all sick of waiting since the Jamar Chase Draft for the first round player to come in here and make an instant impact and contribute in year one. It's also the last time they picked early in the draft,
so maybe that's a complication for this front office. What are some of the other hopes, Joe, that you're holding out for here is we talked about some of the early picks for the Bengals in this year's draft, So I hope they take advantage of the trenches in the first two rounds, the opportunity to draft those players. Those impact players typically happen in rounds one, round
two, right, So getting the first defensive tackle would be awesome. The history there looks pretty fun of those guys turning into good players, whether that's Byron Murphy or Johnny Newton at eighteen. But also getting an offensive tackle at eighteen would be something I don't think they've been in position to really do too often. Yeah, the Jackson Carman year, we always point to that as you could have spent that pick better, but it was on interior offensive line
mostly. Getting a first round tackle typically with those guys who are hitting most of the marks, they're going in the top ten. And because this class is so strong, I really hope they are presented with an opportunity to get one of the guys I really like. Now, Troy Fatana is not one of the guys I really hope is one of the options at eighteen because of some of the risks there, because of some of the you're gonna have to
move them move him. Some team see him as a guard I do as well, So if he plays left guard, if they are willing to move the eighteenth pick to guard, that could be an upgrade, immediate upgrade on the offensive line. But at the same time, then you're going to say, in the future, I think the Bengals would all, right, let's move him to right tackle. And then now we've moved to his position twice and he's already at an advanced age twenty five year old, let's move a
second time to be our right tackle. So that puts up a red flag for me in a lot of ways, and other than the film, and I've done breakdowns of his game, but I think position and fit there scares me just a little bit. I think the Byron Murphy thing is another one we can talk about as a guy that hey, on tape, he's playing a lot of no's at Texas. Let's be honest, he's not that in
the NFL. But the Bengals don't have a nose. So could we see this situation where the Bengals like, you know what, take Murphy, that's how we'll get him on the field right away, and that we're eight weeks in and they're wondering why he's getting killed by double teams and it's like Yeah, well, you gotta let him rush the pass or get him out to the three tech and four I and get him out there and let him do
his thing. I could see that being a scenario. But I think of Miles Murphy last year a little bit, and they kind of did the right thing in promoting his development because we knew he would only played right defensive end at Clemson, so they made sure they activated him, they made sure he played, They made sure he played a lot of left defensive end, even though he didn't look as comfortable there in his rookie season and Joseph Saide was
inactive and things like that. So they put forced forth the effort rather than what they did with that. So they put the effort to say, hey, we're gonna sprinkle you into the snaps, so we know we're probably gonna need you in a couple of years. Let's make sure Miles Murphy gets that. So I could see that being a situation with Byron Murphy too, where he's playing nose, but yet in nickel, we're gonna let you play where you're probably gonna make your money in the NFL. Yeah, I hope that
there is the plan there, and that's why. I think they'll double dip at defensive tackle, and even if they take one like Byron Murphy, they'll take hopefully a nose at some point late, just to have someone there that can take some of those snaps. Not that I don't want Byron Murphy on the field, but you want him to get as many snaps at what he's going to ultimately be. I think there are some hopefully our listeners know it by now, but Byron Murphy isn't replacing DJ Reader. It is not that
that cut and dry. Neither is Johnny Newton. Neither is probably any guy that you're thinking of on day two either, unless you're thinking of Debentre Sweat, which isn't happening with the Bengals. I do want to ask you. I asked Dane about Amarus Mimsey yesterday and I you know this, Joe, I've text you about him. I'm in love lust. Whatever you want to say with the idea of having a Marius mim someone who has such a high ceiling, how concerned are you about him? Because I get the lack of
playing time or lack of experience. At the same time, it's not like he's coming off of an ACL or these super serious injuries. I don't think he's anywhere near the prospects Cedric of Waey he was, even though Bengals fans think back to him, I think it would be a heck of a pick at eighteen. Yeah, I don't think the I think the injury part is overblown. He's had an ankle issue and then got rolled up on again and it kind of doubled down and extended his some of his durability issues. And
they had two draftable tackles. One went in the first round. One was what a fifth rounder last year at Georgia, So it's understandable why he didn't play right away. But at the same time, I see the upside. I'd be like, if he went back or had another year at Georgia and was healthy, played the whole year, and played the weight we see in the small set of snaps we do get, he'd be a top ten bi
easy and maybe even top five. If you were doing two early twenty twenty five mock drafts and he was in that class, he'd be a top six pick. And I think you're at that opportunity to get someone there at eighteen is completely worth it and worth the gamble. Now the gamble is and what are the red flags there? Is that the limited snap set eight hundred and three snaps in his career, four hundred and two of them in past blocking, which means that was a fifty to fifty rate at Georgia, which means
you know he was protected and it's true. The true pass sets are about twenty five percent of his total snaps. Bengals are usually running in the forty five to forty eight range of true pass sets, meaning they're not protecting their offensive line. I think believe Orlander Brown was at three hundred and six true passe sets last year. Amarius Mims was around forty. They're talking about if
he had to play, if Trent Brown went down. That is a huge amount of pressure you're putting on this guy who does not have the experience doing it. So when people say, yeah, his film looks good, it looks good in an offense that's not going to resemble the Bengals. So it's very hard to say what he's going to look like. When the other guy's like jac Latham, right, like forty true pass sets like that, I
can see him fitting completely into the Bengals offense. I can see Tali Fuonga, even though he I think you've fit a wide zone team more that power running, climbing to the second level. I think you can do a lot more with him run blocking, and you can expand what your offensive line can do. So I have those guys before I have Mims. But the upside
is definitely worth it. If you nail it, everyone's going to call you a genius and you're bold, You're It's worth it to take that risk because now you've got a probably the freakiest best athlete at right tackle in the NFL. It's one of those players, like we've talked about in this episode, where they need to have a plan. They need to have. It's a different kind of plan, like he's going to play right tackle, that's not really a question here, but you need to have a plan to acclimatize him
to what the Bengals want to do on offense. You need to have a plan to play to his strengths in the run game and in the past game. And that's something that we've talked that we think the Bengals want to do. We want we we think they want to be a little bit less straight
drop back. We saw a little bit of that with Jake Browning. We saw an emphasis on play action and RPO stuff last year in the offseason around starting around not quite this time of year, but right after this when media was able to see any sort of reps from the team in practice for the
first time. So maybe that's part of it too, is if you draft a guy like Amarusmins, you have a plan for your offense as well, if this is going to be a centerpiece for you in terms of development and in terms of scheme fit for a younger player who they had the top visit with that the top thirty visits, Zach Taylor still conted a top thirty, so I'm still conted to top thirty. They had the top thirty visit with Amerius Mims. He played in big college football playoff games, you played for
a big program. These are a lot of things the Bengals like to use their first round pick on, and you can see that again with Amarus Mims. But to your point, Joe, that true passet projection is something that Bengal have to figure out, and I think that's hard for all college offensive linemen at this point with the way college defenses are playing. But let's wrap
up the conversation with some things we're hoping the Bengals will avoid. And I want to bring up a point about how long they've gone without drafting a defensive tackle and kind of tie that into the Dax conversation as well as far as lessons learned and do the Bengals react to that this year or not. We'll finish the show there coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Yahoo Finance. When it comes to your financial future, you can think you've
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com. Let's wrap up the conversation, hopefully not to negatively. Here some things that we hope the Bengals have learned and where I was going with this James Yesterday after our show, I mentioned Bengals probably aren't going to draft a first round safety for thirty years, like they haven't drafted a first round defensive tackle for thirty years. Do we think that there's actually a reason to believe the Bengals will change their first round pattern of not drafting a defensive tax since
Dan Wilkinson in the nineties. Is there a reaction to the way their run defense played last year, to the loss of DJ Vader, to the need for depth? There is that a lesson we think they've learned that maybe they should be open to top end defensive tackle talent in the first shoft Well, yeah, I think they're go ahead. I thought you said Mae. No, I didn't know which way Jake was going with it. It was pretty
open end to go ahead, Joe. I was going to say, well, they drafted Mouths Murphy last year after not taking a defensive end since what Justin Smith or if you want to consider David Pollock. Right, So they've done it, and that's right after taking a safety for the first time in thirty years, as you mentioned, Jake. So yeah, there's a precedent
there for them to break that a little bit and go defensive tackle. Yeah, I think they're open to it. I think that the reality is is that there's probably one, maybe two that they're seriously considering at eighteen versus five offensive tackles, and so is defensive tackle higher on their board than corner? Sure, but where does that defensive tackle? And Byron Murphy fall does he
make it to eighteen? That's it. I think they're open to it for sure, and it's just a matter of the board following the right way and then them taking them. But I still don't think that they're taking Johnny Newton. I would be surprised at this point, if they take Newton at eighteen, not that they couldn't take him, Maybe they take him at twenty five if they trade down. I just I'm not sure they would take him at eighteen. And is that something that ties into some of our fears and some
of our things that Bengals should avoid this year? Why is the league so low on Johnny Newton? Why wouldn't the Bengals pick Johnny Newton? Why have the Bengals drafted Geno Atkins, this all decade player who played at a Hall of Fame level and never gone back to that archetype? What gives there? Is that something that we should be afraid of or hope they changed this year? Joe, Yeah, that is one of my fears actually, that they
don't address the trenches until it's too late. And they've spent a lot, a lot of trench picks in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth rounds right and they have nothing to show for it other than Korda Bolson right now. And I think that's I mean, you're taking low risk picks or low chance of hitting right when you're spending picks in day three. These trench guys go earlier typically unless you're draft on a nose tackle. Nose tackle is different. That can be a Day three pick. I have got no issue with
it. Tyler Shelvin is what it is. But it's fourth round pick. That's fine. I think they have tried to recreate the geno Atkins and just in don't tap Eco fourth round pick as well, right, but they've done it in the wrong ways. The Ryan Glasgow picks, the Andrew Billings picks. Who actually is a really good nose tackle right now, maybe they should have found a way to keep him and a whole onto that a little bit
longer. But Zach Carter things like that. When you spend these picks in at best third round, your chances of hitting there are not very high. And this goes for offensive offensive line too, whether it's Akiema dna Ge or Trey Hill or Deontay Smith or who remembers Rod Taylor, these picks are oh chance of hitting. Spend them early. So my fear is, hey, it didn't work out. We took a corner, and then my next fear won't get to it is going to be what they can do in round two.
We took a wide receiver in round two and forced that pick because we wanted to force these needs and get guys that could play right now and then now we'll hit the trenches. And they've done this before, so I hope this isn't the year. This is the year that they correct and hopefully the board lines up. I'm not saying just take any trench player. Hopefully it lines up that you can address both in the first two or three rounds.
Just want to list really quick the trench players they've used those Day three picks on in the last I don't know, five years. So we got Renel Red, who I'm surprised he didn't bring up in the fourth round trying to find the defensive tackle. There you got KLi Kareem, who I think was a pretty successful fifth round pick, and he came it Energy in twenty twenty, came a d Energy started for you and played a lot of meaningful games.
But nobody's hanging their hat on that pick. Those are the best case scenarios though, right for fifth round, and they've dubbed better with edge than with defensive tackle. To be clear, Cam sample a Day three pick, but that draft also featured Tyler Shelvin, Deontay Smith, Trey, Trey Hill and Wire Hubert who had to have a medical retirement, and don't hold that against him. Then you come back and is Zach Carter, Cordell Volson,
Jeff Gunter and none of those guys are huge success stories. So just just to put some names and picks to the conversation you were having there, Joe, Sorry, James, go ahead with your point. No, no need to apologize. You need to apologize to Cordell Volson because this backs up the point. If you start as many games as he started, he's already a success. He is for the expectations in the fourth round. And Joe said,
he's a success story. I'm talking about you one of you group Cordell with those other guys, and well, he's just one of the picks. He's actually one of their day three trench picks. He was the most successful. That's great, but he's just one of the guys that they picked. That's why. But if that's the best case scenario, correct, he's a home run at that spot. If you would have told me that they were getting this two years ago and they drafted him, I would have taken it
all day long. But there's obvious questions about him in his long term future. It's not like you're for sure saying, oh, he's going to sign an extension and be their left guard for the next eight years. And so that's the point that I think Joe's trying to make, is if you wait on the trenches, especially this year where offensive tackle, it's really hard to
have this many offensive tackles, and it's realistic to think one's there. And I think that's what they are hoping, is there or it worth case, and it'd be a great worst case. I think if you take Byron Murphy at eighteen, if it's something like that, you're sitting pretty if all of those guys are gone, then it could get worriesome, and so that I think that is a reasonable fear. I just want to say, it's so
funny to me that there's this perception of Cordel Wolson. Then you compare it to the perception of Russell Boating, who came in and started his entire career in Cincinnati's a fourth run into your offensive lineman was hated the entire time time. But when I but I'm a but, I'm a I'm a Quarto Wolson hater, even though I try to be pretty neutral on Vulson. I just
was listening them there as one of the recent Day three picks. But it's funny to me the disparity and the perception of Bulson versus Bodine given the similarities in their draft position and what they were asked to do for the Bengals and
the limited competition they faced when they arrived in Cincinnati. I do know, let's mistake again, right, Yeah, there's another lesson you're challenging, courtA Wilson, if you, if you, if the opportunity arises, because where there is later in this draft is on the interior offensive yes, point. Yeah. The fear is is that they ignore interior offensive line until round six.
That would be the fear right is not getting because at worst I want to leave with a Ted Kerris, Quordo Volson, Alex Kappa backup who can back up all three spots. And I think they could do that in the mid rounds of this draft. You can get your tackle. Really talked to Dan yesterday. He does think that there are some solid defensive tackles on Day two. I think we all agree with that. And so if you could get your offensive tackle round one, land the right defensive tackle round two or
three, and you could double down later in the draft. I think that's one of the more ideal scenarios for sure. If they miss on an offensive tackle in the first round, do we hope they go back to offensive tackle in the second round? What do we think there? Like, let's talk about a hope there. In one final scenario for the show, they can't get one of their favorite six tackles at eighteen, they picked the defensive tackle instead. Are we just punting on letters on non a letter receive run offensive
tackle at that point? No, I think there are a couple options. You need to be fortunate, you need to get lucky, I think. But I think Roger Rosengarten is a good enough prospect to draft at forty nine. He's young, he's been productive, he's got the athleticism, he's got the size. These guys typically, I like if he goes top forty, let's say like thirty eight, I'd be like, yeah, that makes look at his prospect profile. He hits everything to be a Brian O'Neil if you
will, for the Vikings. Right. So, there are a couple guys that can be there is Blake Fisher. I wouldn't touch him until the third round. You got to get fortunate, and I think, like Kingsley, Sue Mattea is going to be gone. I think Jordan Morgan's gonna be gone. And even so, Morgan's probably a guard anyway. So it gets risky for sure if you have to go Byron Murphy at eighteen, because the run
happens just before you. I think I just saw Peter Schrager's mock. It pretty much had a run right up to where the Bengals picked, and the only guy there was Mims, who, summer speculating, is a little bit lower on board. So maybe the Bengals stay fine, we'll take Byron Murphy here, which is what Peter Schreger had them doing. Makes a ton of
sense, I would hope. So here's a dream. I would hope they get really aggressive in round two, get up, be one of those teams that get into the top forty and get the one of the tackles that still remains. And I don't even care if Roger rosenbaren there, because I do think he could potentially be a starter. Yeah, that makes sense, It really does, because the drop off is so significant, and then if there
is a run. And you don't feel comfortable with Blake Fisher at forty nine, what if he goes fifty eight just because the team's like, hey, he's not going to be around the next round. And now you're looking up and it's this historical at least early on offensive tackle class and you don't get one. It's one thing to not get a tight end in a tight end class that's really deep like last year. It's a whole another to not be
able to get the offensive tackle. And that's why I think, deep down, if you gave them truth serum, unless someone crazy fell that we don't expect to fall offensive tackles the way they're hoping to go at eighteen. Yeah, we've been saying for a while now we think that's probably plan A and talking about getting aggressive in round two. I'm all about trading up in round
two if there's somebody that falls that you don't expect to fall. And part of the reason I'm saying that is because of mel Kiper and Field Gates's alternating draft on ESPN with Johnny Newton in the second round, and to go with that reporting from Jeremy Werner, who is covering the ALNI Pro. He works for the Aluni Inquire. Johnny Newton isn't going to do any testing. He's going to do his positional bills drills, but he's not going to test.
And that falling into the second round scenario is real. If teams care about that, and some do, could be on the table, and if it does happen, I think all three of us agree that the Bengal should be very aggressive in moving up to get him. All right, let's do this scenario a little more. And we've talked about it before. But forty nine and ninety seven to move up to you call Brian Callahan and say, hey,
thirty eight, we'll give you forty nine and ninety seven. You doing that for Johnny Newton there, Okay, just making sure I give up eighty. I give up forty nine and eighty if if that's what required, you got the extra thirunde. We're gonna play hardball here. I'm calling him about ninety seven. It must us know that, I say, okay, eighty, Yes, Newton's gonna end up a top fifteen player on our board. Even that's with assuming he's only a seven point five aries athletic testing. Because
he's not gonna test. That puts him in top fifteen, which I wouldn't have been surprised if if he was healthy, if that foot was healthy, and he could have tested if he was a ninetieth plus percentile athlete, and would have been a top ten player on our board. So yes, I move up and I get him because I think he's a future Pro Bowl defensive tackle. He was doing some freaky stuff playing through that foot injury at Illinois, which is pretty mind boggling to think about. That's going to do it
though. For this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. The next time you hear from us, we'll be reviewing a Bengals big board that you will have seen us put together, potentially on Cincinnati Bengals Talk. And until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Who day and have a good one. Hey Prime members, You can listen to this Lockdown podcast a free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today