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Bengals Booth Podcast: Back Home Again In Indiana · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth podcast. The back Home again in Indiana. Addition,
0:15
Speaker 1: as we head to Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine
0:19
Speaker 1: this week, the Bengals were permitted to meet with forty
0:22
Speaker 1: five different players for exactly eighteen minutes. So what are
0:27
Speaker 1: those meetings like? The team's director of college scouting, Mike Potts,
0:31
Speaker 1: takes us inside the room. Have you ever tried a
0:35
Speaker 1: mock draft simulator where your computer makes picks for the
0:38
Speaker 1: other thirty one teams and then when it's your turn,
0:41
Speaker 1: you see who's left and pick for the Bengals. I
0:44
Speaker 1: enjoy doing three round mock drafts for Cincinnati and thought
0:48
Speaker 1: it would be fun at the combine to have some
0:50
Speaker 1: of the top draft gurus do that. Dane Brugler from
0:54
Speaker 1: the Athletic is up first, but before we get to that,
0:58
Speaker 1: I'll talk to a very special guest, Hall of Fame
1:01
Speaker 1: wide receiver James Lofton, who tells us why he's happy
1:05
Speaker 1: to see Ken Riley joining him in Canton. The Bengals
1:09
Speaker 1: Booth Podcast is brought to you by Alta Fiber future
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1:21
Speaker 1: Elevate your connection with Alta Fiber. Now here's a quick
1:25
Speaker 1: reminder that you can have the latest edition of this
1:27
Speaker 1: podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by
1:31
Speaker 1: subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing
1:35
Speaker 1: since beer rankings. I'm not talking about ranking your favorite
1:41
Speaker 1: beer brands or favorite beer styles. I'm talking about ranking
1:45
Speaker 1: your favorite beer drinking occasions, like a tailgating beer, or
1:50
Speaker 1: a beach beer, or a just finished mowing a lawn beer.
1:55
Speaker 1: I bring up the topic because I recently got stuck
1:58
Speaker 1: in the Charlotte airport for several hours, and the delayed
2:01
Speaker 1: flight beer might be number one on my list. There's
2:05
Speaker 1: something about shared misery and a frosty beer that turns
2:10
Speaker 1: anybody and everybody from grumpy to friendly. So here's a
2:15
Speaker 1: toast to the delayed flight beer. When your departure is late,
2:20
Speaker 1: it tastes great. Now, let's get to football. On Saturday,
2:25
Speaker 1: August fifth, Ken Riley will join Anthony Munio's as the
2:29
Speaker 1: second player who spent most of his career in Cincinnati
2:33
Speaker 1: to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I recently
2:36
Speaker 1: had the opportunity to visit with Hall of Fame wide
2:39
Speaker 1: receiver James Lofton. We discussed the Ratler and much more. James,
2:46
Speaker 1: you indorsed Ken Riley's case to join you in the
2:49
Speaker 1: Pro Football Hall of Fame before he got voted in.
2:52
Speaker 1: What was your reaction to the Ratler getting selected this year?
2:56
Speaker 1: I was excited, you know, just but you go, man.
3:01
Speaker 1: I wish he could be around to enjoy it, because
3:04
Speaker 1: he really did earn it, and it just seems like
3:09
Speaker 1: for some reason, once he got passed over the first,
3:12
Speaker 1: second or third times, then people just he became an afterthought.
3:16
Speaker 1: But as a player on the field, he was somebody
3:19
Speaker 1: to contend with. He really was. You faced him when
3:23
Speaker 1: you were a youngster, and he was toward the tail
3:25
Speaker 1: end of his NFL career, but he was still getting
3:29
Speaker 1: it done at the very end. But we had two
3:32
Speaker 1: kind of head to head meetings, one in Green Bay,
3:35
Speaker 1: and I remember, because of the highlights, I always see
3:38
Speaker 1: this highlight. I caught a pass maybe from about the
3:40
Speaker 1: eleven yard line, a little fade route. He was stumbling,
3:44
Speaker 1: and being the young player that I was, I kind
3:46
Speaker 1: of turned and spiked the ball in his direction, you know,
3:49
Speaker 1: and and spiked it hard, then putting my hands up
3:52
Speaker 1: and ran back down to our sideline and took high
3:55
Speaker 1: fives from all the players. And then fast forward and
3:58
Speaker 1: it's the nineteen eighty three season and it's week nine
4:02
Speaker 1: and I am leading the NFL in yards. After eight games,
4:06
Speaker 1: I have eight hundred yards. So in my mind, I'm going, man,
4:09
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have fifteen hundred and sixteen hundred yards this season.
4:12
Speaker 1: At the end of the game, when you picked up
4:14
Speaker 1: the newspaper we had newspapers in those days, my stat
4:17
Speaker 1: line was zero for zero, but there should have been
4:20
Speaker 1: an asterisk there. I had two offensive passing affairs calls
4:24
Speaker 1: against me pushing off on Ken trying to get to
4:26
Speaker 1: the ball. He was all over me that day, so
4:29
Speaker 1: he didn't forget that spike at all. We are visiting
4:32
Speaker 1: with Hall of Famer James Lofton, another former Bengal AJ
4:36
Speaker 1: Green recently announced his retirements. Injuries likely derailed his chance
4:41
Speaker 1: of going to the Hall of Fame someday. But what
4:43
Speaker 1: did you think of aj in his prime and his
4:46
Speaker 1: career as a whole. It's funny when you watch the game,
4:51
Speaker 1: you watch players. You watch their mannerisms, the way they play,
4:54
Speaker 1: the way they moved. And he was a guy who
4:57
Speaker 1: was built like I was and I and I always
5:00
Speaker 1: looked at him and said, man, that's that's kind of
5:02
Speaker 1: what I would look like in today's game, and obviously
5:05
Speaker 1: today's game referencing when he played, you know, ten years ago.
5:09
Speaker 1: But I looked at him and I just love the
5:11
Speaker 1: way he played. He was beautiful to watch. And yeah,
5:16
Speaker 1: it's difficult for him just when you start to look
5:19
Speaker 1: at the numbers that guys are going to consistently put up,
5:24
Speaker 1: and the injuries got the injury bug got him the
5:26
Speaker 1: last couple of years, which was unfortunate because he was
5:29
Speaker 1: really one terrific player. The Bengals obviously have a great
5:33
Speaker 1: trial of wide receivers right now in Jamar, Chase te
5:36
Speaker 1: Higgins and Tyler Boyd. Do you think that's the best
5:39
Speaker 1: group in the NFL. It's interesting. I think that they
5:43
Speaker 1: are really up there. And as I was watching the
5:46
Speaker 1: AFC Championship game, I remember when Tyler Boyd took over
5:50
Speaker 1: from A. J. Green as the number one receiver and
5:54
Speaker 1: now he slid down to that number three receiver. But
5:57
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it, and I'm thinking about football, and
5:59
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about what makes a team and what holds
6:02
Speaker 1: it together. Well, glue holds it together. And on the
6:05
Speaker 1: defensive side, it said Nickel. Defensive back that comes in,
6:08
Speaker 1: who can stop the third receiver? And the third receiver
6:11
Speaker 1: is the glue that holds the offense together. Yeah, you've
6:13
Speaker 1: got a good run game, you've got good starting receivers,
6:16
Speaker 1: a good tight end, but who can cover that third guy?
6:19
Speaker 1: And normally people could not cover Tyler Board. I think
6:22
Speaker 1: he had fifty eight receptions, seven hundred and sixty two yards,
6:26
Speaker 1: five touchdowns last year. And when he got hurt, I said, oh,
6:30
Speaker 1: the Bengals are I said this to myself, I said,
6:32
Speaker 1: the Bengals are in a little bit of trouble now.
6:35
Speaker 1: And as it turned out, they really were because they
6:38
Speaker 1: didn't have that third guy to go to and that
6:40
Speaker 1: allowed coverage to shift and really slow down Jamar Chase.
6:45
Speaker 1: They almost got back to the Super Bowl despite that,
6:49
Speaker 1: after coming within a couple of minutes of winning the
6:51
Speaker 1: Super Bowl the year before. How did this past season
6:54
Speaker 1: impact your view of the Bengals and how close they
6:57
Speaker 1: are going forward. I'm just I'm looking at the AFC North,
7:02
Speaker 1: and they are what the AFC West was supposed to be.
7:05
Speaker 1: Everybody talked about the Bengals and not the Bengals, but
7:10
Speaker 1: they're talked about the Broncos. And you talked about the
7:12
Speaker 1: Chargers and the Raiders and you said, Kansas, See, they're
7:14
Speaker 1: all gonna have winning records. Well, they didn't all have
7:17
Speaker 1: winning records. The team that almost the division that almost
7:20
Speaker 1: did have winning records from top to bottom was the
7:22
Speaker 1: AFC North with Cleveland finishing at seven and ten, but
7:26
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh nine and eight, the Ravens ten and seven, and
7:29
Speaker 1: then the Bengals on top. And I don't know if
7:33
Speaker 1: somebody can jump up from that division and move make
7:37
Speaker 1: the move. Deshaun Watson, is he gonna be the ju
7:40
Speaker 1: Saum Watson that we saw early in his career in Houston?
7:43
Speaker 1: And as Lamar Jackson gonna be the MVP type guy
7:47
Speaker 1: that he was early on in his career. Right now,
7:50
Speaker 1: if you're looking at it and you're saying that this
7:52
Speaker 1: is a quarterback driven league, Joe Burrow is at the
7:56
Speaker 1: top of the class in that division. Well, you mentioned
8:00
Speaker 1: two of the great ones in the AFC. Let's take
8:02
Speaker 1: a closer look at the entire conference. You've got Patrick Mahomes,
8:06
Speaker 1: You've got Josh Allen, You've got Trevor Lawrence, and obviously
8:10
Speaker 1: the guys you mentioned in the north. Where does Burrow
8:13
Speaker 1: rank on the list? And what do you like in
8:15
Speaker 1: respect about Joe? Well, you know I made my list,
8:19
Speaker 1: and you know you throw Josh Allen in there, two,
8:22
Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence, Mahomes, justin Herbert Deshaun Watson Jackson, and then
8:28
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow and each Sunday, each Sunday. These guys can
8:33
Speaker 1: win games for you. Not that you win games with
8:35
Speaker 1: them or you think that you need better they are
8:39
Speaker 1: They are the guys that win games. And so now
8:42
Speaker 1: of the supporting cast, and do you do the little
8:45
Speaker 1: things during the course of the game. Do you protect
8:47
Speaker 1: the passer well enough? Do you have a good edge rusher?
8:50
Speaker 1: Can you run a game? Compliment this quarterback? So, Joe Burrow,
8:55
Speaker 1: if you're stacking guys, you have to put Patrick Mahomes
8:59
Speaker 1: there first, because he's won the Super Bowls in that group. Next,
9:03
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a wedding when you throw the
9:05
Speaker 1: guarter belt. It's a mad scramble. Number two, Joe Burrows
9:12
Speaker 1: hed better dive on it because I mean, you could
9:15
Speaker 1: have an argument with anybody at a bar in one
9:20
Speaker 1: of those cities and they would put their guy in
9:22
Speaker 1: number two. They would be foolish to put their guy
9:25
Speaker 1: above Patrick Mahomes, but to put their guy in number two,
9:28
Speaker 1: they would have a legitimate claim for that. And so
9:31
Speaker 1: I think it's that close with those guys. But when
9:34
Speaker 1: you look at clothes, you look at production, and production wise,
9:38
Speaker 1: it's Joe Burrow because he's been to the Super Bowl,
9:40
Speaker 1: He's played in AFC Championship Game two years in a row,
9:43
Speaker 1: so he is kind of a clear number two. But
9:47
Speaker 1: really just depends on who's buying. We are chatting with
9:51
Speaker 1: the great James lofton, does Joe remind you of anybody
9:54
Speaker 1: who played with or against? I know you got the
9:58
Speaker 1: comparison with the Joe Tanna because of the demeanor, and
10:04
Speaker 1: Joe Montana was like that. I was with him at
10:07
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl at an event on Radio Row and
10:11
Speaker 1: I just remember him being the guy that I felt like,
10:15
Speaker 1: if I wasn't playing in Green Bay, I want to
10:17
Speaker 1: be playing with Joe Montana. And I think a lot
10:20
Speaker 1: of players around the league, if they weren't playing where
10:22
Speaker 1: they were currently playing, they won't be playing with Joe Burrow.
10:26
Speaker 1: So this is the first offseason where the Bengals can
10:29
Speaker 1: try to extend Joe's contract, and obviously they will try
10:32
Speaker 1: to do that. He's probably going to be making fifty
10:34
Speaker 1: million dollars a year or something like that. What did
10:37
Speaker 1: you just say, fifty million dollars or something like that?
10:42
Speaker 1: How does that sound? Sounds pretty good? Right? It does
10:45
Speaker 1: sound crazy, but it's happened. I remember when it was
10:49
Speaker 1: seventy five cents to go to the movies. So assuming
10:52
Speaker 1: they get this done and they keep guys like Higgins
10:56
Speaker 1: and Chase with a salary cap ley, you know, I
11:01
Speaker 1: don't I don't know if if you can do quarterback
11:04
Speaker 1: friendly deals like Tom Brady did with New England, you know,
11:09
Speaker 1: he still got paid a lot of money, but he
11:12
Speaker 1: wasn't always the highest paid guy. He wasn't always making
11:16
Speaker 1: what he deserved for what he was doing for his team.
11:19
Speaker 1: So it's not my money. So what a quarterback? I
11:24
Speaker 1: can't believe I'm about to say this, take a discount
11:27
Speaker 1: and only take forty million a year as opposed to
11:29
Speaker 1: fifty million a year. And would that really make a
11:31
Speaker 1: big difference? Because I think with all the revenue sources
11:35
Speaker 1: that the NFL has, the salaries are I guess they
11:39
Speaker 1: really are justified. Whatever Joe makes is going to be
11:43
Speaker 1: justified in Cincinnati, I can tell you that. So the
11:46
Speaker 1: Bengals offensive and defensive coordinators got head coaching interviews this
11:50
Speaker 1: past off season. They did not get selected. So the
11:54
Speaker 1: Bengals will go into next year with Zach Taylor in
11:56
Speaker 1: his fifth season and all of his coordinators with him
11:59
Speaker 1: for that entire time. Lu and a Rumo on defense,
12:02
Speaker 1: Brian Callahan on offense, Darren Simmons as the special team's coordinator.
12:06
Speaker 1: How advantageous do you think that is? Well, it is
12:11
Speaker 1: advantageous because you don't have any new learning, But then
12:15
Speaker 1: on the other end, it's also disadvantageous because you don't
12:18
Speaker 1: have any new learning. You're not bringing a new spice
12:23
Speaker 1: into the building. Because everybody who's competing against you in
12:26
Speaker 1: your own division, they're getting to know you a little
12:28
Speaker 1: bit better, You're getting to know them a little bit better.
12:31
Speaker 1: And then it really does boil down to the personnel.
12:34
Speaker 1: And you mentioned about the quarterback getting the contract extension,
12:39
Speaker 1: who does that chop off? That was really good, But
12:43
Speaker 1: now you've got to bring in somebody and teach them
12:45
Speaker 1: what this guy already knew. So having new the same
12:49
Speaker 1: coordinators helps in that fashion. So, but coordinators are important.
12:54
Speaker 1: Head coaches are important, and I love coaches who have
12:58
Speaker 1: smart gambles. So during the course of a game going
13:02
Speaker 1: forward on third down, you know, having a third down
13:05
Speaker 1: where you got third and one, throw that ball deep
13:07
Speaker 1: because you know you can pick it up on fourth
13:08
Speaker 1: down or you have confidence to do that. And you
13:10
Speaker 1: played to the strength of your players. What do they
13:12
Speaker 1: do well? Don't ask guys to do things that they
13:15
Speaker 1: don't do real well. And I think that the Bengals
13:18
Speaker 1: have done that when I watched them play. They don't
13:21
Speaker 1: ask guys to do things that they aren't capable of
13:23
Speaker 1: doing exceptionally well. Final question for James Lofton. We've crossed
13:27
Speaker 1: paths a few times over the years when you've been
13:29
Speaker 1: broadcasting Bengals games. The last one you did was in
13:33
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty season, shortly after Joe Burrow got hurt. Yeah,
13:38
Speaker 1: were you stunned that they were in the super Bowl
13:41
Speaker 1: the next year? You know what? And you go back
13:44
Speaker 1: to about week twelve and the Bengal I can't remember
13:48
Speaker 1: who the Bengals had lost too, but it was a
13:51
Speaker 1: loss and it might have been the Chargers. I don't
13:55
Speaker 1: know if that sounds if that's correct, but there was
13:58
Speaker 1: somebody that they lost to. That last quarter of the
14:01
Speaker 1: season is up, they're kind of done, and then they
14:03
Speaker 1: won the next four or five to close out the season.
14:07
Speaker 1: So it depends on getting hot at the right time.
14:11
Speaker 1: And we're always talking about playing your best football in
14:14
Speaker 1: December and January, and the Bengals have done that the
14:17
Speaker 1: last two years. And that really does boil down to
14:19
Speaker 1: coaching and the coach having that confidence in his players
14:23
Speaker 1: that pushes them enough during training camp a little bit
14:26
Speaker 1: during this course of the season, knows when to back off,
14:30
Speaker 1: understands the bye weeks, understands the Thursday night games and
14:33
Speaker 1: all of that, and makes it not that it's just
14:36
Speaker 1: player friendly, but it's also coach friendly because you want
14:39
Speaker 1: your coaches to be energized at the later part of
14:42
Speaker 1: the season. So that's what I think Zach Taylor has
14:44
Speaker 1: done exceptionally well. James, this has been great and on
14:48
Speaker 1: behalf of Bengals fans, thank you for publicly endorsing Ken
14:52
Speaker 1: Riley's Hall of Fame case before he got in. I
14:55
Speaker 1: think the impact of legends like yourself and others who
14:59
Speaker 1: spoke up and trying to make the case the cannon
15:02
Speaker 1: is sixty five interceptions deserve to be in Canton made
15:06
Speaker 1: a big difference. So thank you very much. Well, I
15:09
Speaker 1: just got to tag the Ken Riley's story with this,
15:11
Speaker 1: so we had the two head to head matchups. And
15:14
Speaker 1: then he takes a coaching job with the Green Bay
15:16
Speaker 1: Packers and he lives five houses away from me, just
15:19
Speaker 1: to torment me even more. I couldn't get open to
15:21
Speaker 1: even when he was coaching for the Packers. Well, that
15:27
Speaker 1: bust is going to look great in Canton, and thank
15:29
Speaker 1: you for the impact that you had in making it happen.
15:32
Speaker 1: So again, thank you for your time. Greatly appreciate it,
15:35
Speaker 1: and I hope our paths crossed in a broadcast booth
15:37
Speaker 1: sometime soon. Great scene you get Dan. The Bengals Booth
15:41
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Speaker 1: them recruit, pay, engage, and retain employees. Learn more at
16:09
Speaker 1: paycorps dot com. The NFL Scouting Combine has been going
16:13
Speaker 1: on this week in Indianapolis, and while the drills are televised,
16:17
Speaker 1: one thing we don't get to see are the meetings
16:20
Speaker 1: that the teams hold with the players. What exactly are
16:24
Speaker 1: those meetings like To find out, I caught up with
16:27
Speaker 1: the Bengals director of college scouting Mike Potts. Mike, how
16:33
Speaker 1: valuable is the combine and what do you value the
16:36
Speaker 1: most while you're here? It's really valuable overall. I think
16:41
Speaker 1: the medical is probably the thing that is the most
16:44
Speaker 1: valuable at the end of the day for us. Just
16:46
Speaker 1: having three hundreds some players all in the same place,
16:49
Speaker 1: with all these doctors from around the league getting in
16:53
Speaker 1: depth scans and everything that they all that information that
16:56
Speaker 1: they need, that's probably, at the end of the day,
16:58
Speaker 1: the most valuable thing that we get out of it.
17:00
Speaker 1: But then also the workouts in the interviews are obviously,
17:03
Speaker 1: um incredibly important as well. So it's it's just it's
17:07
Speaker 1: just really really great. We've been scouting these guys all
17:10
Speaker 1: year and um, it's it's great to have them all
17:13
Speaker 1: in the same location for a week and you get
17:15
Speaker 1: to sit down and look them in the eye and
17:18
Speaker 1: talk to him face to face and see him work
17:20
Speaker 1: work out there on the field. So I love it
17:22
Speaker 1: every year. I look forward to it every year. Um
17:25
Speaker 1: coming to Indie and UM, it's just a it's just
17:27
Speaker 1: a great event. I would love to be a fly
17:30
Speaker 1: on the wall for the one on one interviews, or
17:32
Speaker 1: not one on one because you have several people in
17:34
Speaker 1: the room, but the interviews that you do with the prospects,
17:38
Speaker 1: how many do you do while you're here? And how
17:40
Speaker 1: long are they? So there's forty five interviews that we
17:43
Speaker 1: get this year. They were spread out throughout Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
17:46
Speaker 1: Thursday this week. UM. Some some years that it may
17:50
Speaker 1: be spread over five days or so, but they're eighteen
17:52
Speaker 1: minutes long each. We get to we get to pick
17:56
Speaker 1: the forty five guys that we want we want to
17:58
Speaker 1: interview and they can be anywhere from starting at eight
18:01
Speaker 1: am and then they can end as late as eleven
18:03
Speaker 1: pm at night. So there's there's some long days, but
18:08
Speaker 1: it's it's Uh, you know, probably my favorite part of
18:11
Speaker 1: it just you're you're talking to staff members from all
18:15
Speaker 1: these colleges, all of their coaches and getting information in
18:18
Speaker 1: their opinion on the player. But it's but it's nice
18:21
Speaker 1: to then bring that full circle and meet the player
18:24
Speaker 1: face to face. So it's a great process. We go
18:26
Speaker 1: through it. Um, I have set questions that I ask everybody,
18:30
Speaker 1: and then there's also specific questions tailored to that individual,
18:34
Speaker 1: and then we let our position coach go through some
18:36
Speaker 1: tape with them and and everybody in the room is
18:39
Speaker 1: kind of free to shoot out questions at you know,
18:41
Speaker 1: towards the end of it, if there's specific things that
18:44
Speaker 1: pop up. So it's, uh, it's an awesome, awesome process,
18:47
Speaker 1: and it's it's great for for some of the people
18:49
Speaker 1: that aren't familiar with the player to really have a
18:52
Speaker 1: strong baseline and introduction to some of these players. Is
18:55
Speaker 1: that typically the first time you have ever talked to
18:58
Speaker 1: the player, it typically is at some of the small schools.
19:01
Speaker 1: They may bring if they only have one prospect or
19:05
Speaker 1: one or two, they may bring them in to meet
19:07
Speaker 1: with you. If you go on a scouting visit to
19:10
Speaker 1: say a Division two school or something like that, and
19:13
Speaker 1: then there's a handful of schools that they'll introduce you
19:15
Speaker 1: to the player very briefly, but I would say probably
19:18
Speaker 1: a good ninety percent of the time it's the first
19:21
Speaker 1: real interaction with that player, and then that'll continue throughout
19:24
Speaker 1: the spring. Obviously going to their pro days, you'll get
19:28
Speaker 1: more face to face interaction with them, and then we
19:30
Speaker 1: may well we get thirty guys that we can bring
19:32
Speaker 1: in for visits to Cincinnati, so we'll get some more
19:35
Speaker 1: face to face interaction, but that typically most of the
19:38
Speaker 1: time is the first time that you're talking to them
19:41
Speaker 1: face to face. We're visiting with the Bengals director of
19:44
Speaker 1: college Scouting, Mike Potts. Eighteen minutes isn't very long. Do
19:47
Speaker 1: you have to stick to a tight script to try
19:50
Speaker 1: to get as much accomplished as you can in those
19:53
Speaker 1: eighteen minutes we do. We try to take advantage of
19:56
Speaker 1: every second that we have, so some of it is scripted,
19:59
Speaker 1: but there we try to make it a balance to
20:02
Speaker 1: where it's not too scripted and it's it's somewhat casual
20:06
Speaker 1: and conversational to where in that eighteen minutes you're not
20:09
Speaker 1: going to find out everything, but you want to get
20:12
Speaker 1: a feel for who they are as a person, get
20:14
Speaker 1: a feel for their general personality, you know, just just
20:18
Speaker 1: so you can go off of your scouting instincts and
20:20
Speaker 1: compare them to guys that you've interviewed in the past.
20:23
Speaker 1: And like I said, we ask a lot of the
20:24
Speaker 1: guys the same questions, so we can compare even the
20:27
Speaker 1: forty five guys that we interview this year, we can
20:29
Speaker 1: compare some of the ways that they answer those same questions.
20:33
Speaker 1: But yes, we try to make it as efficient as possible,
20:35
Speaker 1: and we're constantly tweaking it every year if there's one
20:38
Speaker 1: question we want to take out and a new question
20:40
Speaker 1: we want to add. But like you said, it's you
20:43
Speaker 1: can never get one hundred percent conviction on a guy
20:46
Speaker 1: in eighteen minutes, But we try to do the best
20:47
Speaker 1: that we possibly can. Are they taped? They We used
20:52
Speaker 1: to do that, but we chose not to go with
20:54
Speaker 1: that now. Like I said, it goes along with wanting
20:57
Speaker 1: to get a true feel or the person. And you know,
21:01
Speaker 1: just how it is with anybody. If a camera's in
21:04
Speaker 1: your face, you're probably not going to act exactly how
21:07
Speaker 1: how you would be in a casual setting. You know,
21:09
Speaker 1: you and I just sitting here having a conversation. So
21:12
Speaker 1: we had done that at times in the past, but
21:15
Speaker 1: we've kind of went away from that and we have
21:17
Speaker 1: we've chosen not to record it, but we do. We
21:20
Speaker 1: do take notes on everything. You know, all of our
21:22
Speaker 1: scouts in the room or are taking different notes and
21:24
Speaker 1: and we'll grade guys A through F in terms of
21:28
Speaker 1: you know, what we what we thought of them in
21:30
Speaker 1: the interview process. So it's it's, uh, you know, there's
21:35
Speaker 1: it's documented in a certain way, but we don't. We
21:37
Speaker 1: chose not to video or audio record it. If you
21:41
Speaker 1: have a quote unquote red flag on a guy, something
21:45
Speaker 1: that's happened in their past, an incidents, something that happened
21:48
Speaker 1: on their team, whatever that might be, is this a
21:50
Speaker 1: major opportunity to get to the bottom of it? Is
21:52
Speaker 1: that kind of when you address it? It is because
21:56
Speaker 1: everybody has different opinions on the players. So I may
22:00
Speaker 1: go into a school, one of our other scouts may
22:02
Speaker 1: go into a school. You may get ten different sources,
22:05
Speaker 1: ten different staff members that have an opinion on a guy.
22:07
Speaker 1: Maybe five or six are negative and maybe the other
22:09
Speaker 1: four or five are positive on the guy. And then
22:13
Speaker 1: when you get a chance, give this player a chance
22:16
Speaker 1: to tell his side of the story. Then maybe maybe
22:20
Speaker 1: there's some discrepancies there between different opinions that other people
22:25
Speaker 1: thought of the of the story. Sometimes maybe there's there's
22:28
Speaker 1: things that players will own up to that they did
22:31
Speaker 1: negatively that maybe some people on their staff didn't even
22:33
Speaker 1: know about. So there it kind of works both ways
22:36
Speaker 1: in that regard. So I do these fun facts interviews
22:39
Speaker 1: during the course of the season. I always end with
22:41
Speaker 1: the same question, if you could meet anybody in history,
22:44
Speaker 1: who would that person be? And it leads to some
22:46
Speaker 1: fun content. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's not. But do
22:50
Speaker 1: you have a question that you found over the years?
22:54
Speaker 1: You know, I often get a lot of interesting responses
22:57
Speaker 1: that help me understand these players. Oh man, there's there's
23:01
Speaker 1: so many different questions. I don't know if I could
23:03
Speaker 1: boil it down just to to one. UM. I always
23:08
Speaker 1: like asking them what their what their drive is, what
23:10
Speaker 1: their motivation is. Um It kind of gives us a
23:13
Speaker 1: feel for how much they love football along with you know,
23:18
Speaker 1: sometimes you you you ask about their family, you ask
23:21
Speaker 1: about football questions we put the tape on. I just
23:24
Speaker 1: love seeing a combination of that and certain moments in
23:27
Speaker 1: the interview when the guy really lights up and you
23:29
Speaker 1: can really see his passion, and then some guys are
23:31
Speaker 1: just less, less emotional, you know, lower lower energy, and
23:36
Speaker 1: more monotone throughout. So I think that not that we
23:39
Speaker 1: would eliminate a guy that that was that way, but
23:41
Speaker 1: I think I think it does tell you a lot
23:43
Speaker 1: about it. I wish I could boil it down to
23:45
Speaker 1: one specific question, but if I had to pick one,
23:48
Speaker 1: it's just kind of what their drive is. We're talking
23:50
Speaker 1: to the Bengals director of college scouting, Mike Potts. In
23:53
Speaker 1: racing years, you drafted a lot of captains. You talked
23:56
Speaker 1: about the love of the game, guys that enjoy the grind.
24:00
Speaker 1: Has it been by design that you've drafted so many
24:04
Speaker 1: captains and guys that seem to fit that description or
24:07
Speaker 1: is that just the way it's worked out. I think
24:09
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of both. We're not going out
24:12
Speaker 1: looking specifically for captains, but the type of guys were
24:15
Speaker 1: looking for typically end up being captains, So it kind
24:18
Speaker 1: of works hand in hand that way in terms of
24:21
Speaker 1: we end up with the captain at the end of
24:23
Speaker 1: our process because the guys that we're looking for, they're
24:26
Speaker 1: displaying those traits at their college and then in turn
24:29
Speaker 1: being you know that they earned the respect of their
24:31
Speaker 1: their coaches and their teammates, and then they're voted to
24:34
Speaker 1: be captains at their school. So we're not specifically looking
24:37
Speaker 1: for captains, because sometimes there are cases where guys are
24:40
Speaker 1: undeserved to be a captain at their college. They just
24:43
Speaker 1: get voted, you know, because they're the best player, or
24:45
Speaker 1: maybe they're the starting quarterback and the coaches want them
24:49
Speaker 1: to be a leader and a quote unquote captain. M
24:51
Speaker 1: But it's but they're not necessarily a great leader, and
24:54
Speaker 1: they maybe didn't necessarily earn that captaincy. So it it's
25:00
Speaker 1: not something that we seek out, but a lot of
25:02
Speaker 1: times it ends up happening once we go through our process.
25:05
Speaker 1: So back in twenty twenty, when you met with Joe Burrow,
25:08
Speaker 1: somebody who was in the room that day said to
25:11
Speaker 1: me later, it was the most impressive combine interview that
25:14
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. What stood out to you about that
25:17
Speaker 1: initial meeting with Joe? Yeah, I would agree he was
25:21
Speaker 1: very impressive. I had done a lot of work on
25:25
Speaker 1: scouting him throughout the previous couple of years to that,
25:29
Speaker 1: so I think I had a good feel for what
25:31
Speaker 1: that was going to be like. But you never know
25:33
Speaker 1: until you meet the guy for the first time and
25:35
Speaker 1: look him in the eye. So it may have been
25:36
Speaker 1: a little bit more informative for the other people in
25:39
Speaker 1: the room. But he struck you exactly the way that
25:43
Speaker 1: his staff members at LSU and people we talked to
25:45
Speaker 1: it Ohio State, people we talked to even prior to that.
25:48
Speaker 1: The way everybody raved about him and described him, it
25:51
Speaker 1: aligned with what we saw when we met him in person.
25:54
Speaker 1: So it's always good when those two line up. Like
25:56
Speaker 1: I said previously, sometimes it doesn't always align. There's different
26:00
Speaker 1: opinions on guys and you meet a guy and you're like,
26:02
Speaker 1: this guy's completely different than what he was described by
26:05
Speaker 1: some people. But with Joe, it all lined up, and
26:08
Speaker 1: you know, everything that I think we've seen in Cincinnati
26:10
Speaker 1: in terms of his leadership, his drive, his intelligence, um
26:15
Speaker 1: really everything that he brings to the table, and everything
26:18
Speaker 1: that he's been for us in Cincinnati. UM, I think
26:21
Speaker 1: I think you could see some of those traits. Even
26:24
Speaker 1: though it's only an eighteen minute an interview. You you
26:26
Speaker 1: got a glimpse of that U in meeting him here
26:29
Speaker 1: in Indy. When you put on the tape. Is it
26:32
Speaker 1: their tape? Is it Bengals tape? What are you asking
26:35
Speaker 1: them to look at we put on their tape. We
26:38
Speaker 1: want them to talk ball, We want them to tell
26:42
Speaker 1: us what they know football wise. It's it's stuff that
26:44
Speaker 1: they've been doing the last three to five years with
26:47
Speaker 1: most of most of these guys, and they should be
26:50
Speaker 1: really familiar with the terminology. Tell us what you're doing
26:53
Speaker 1: on this play? Hey, coach me up here, if I'm
26:56
Speaker 1: if I'm the right guard on this play, coach me
26:58
Speaker 1: up in your scheme? M what are they asking you
27:01
Speaker 1: to do? So it's it's it's all their tape. It
27:03
Speaker 1: could be from any point throughout their career, freshman all
27:06
Speaker 1: the way up to to senior year. And there's it's
27:10
Speaker 1: we're restricted for time, so sometimes we may only get
27:13
Speaker 1: to five to ten clips. But then it kind of
27:17
Speaker 1: gives us a direction to go later in the process
27:20
Speaker 1: in terms of if we meet them at their pro
27:22
Speaker 1: day and we can sit down for an hour and
27:24
Speaker 1: watch tape with them, or we do a zoom interview
27:27
Speaker 1: with him, or we bring them into our facility, it
27:29
Speaker 1: kind of is able to point us in the right
27:31
Speaker 1: direction for the questions that we still need to answer
27:34
Speaker 1: in terms of our football intelligence. A couple more questions
27:37
Speaker 1: for Mike Potch. You've been with a Bengal since twenty fifteen,
27:40
Speaker 1: I believe working very closely with Duke Tobin. What do
27:43
Speaker 1: you admire and respect about Duke. Duke's great to work for.
27:49
Speaker 1: He doesn't micromanage us whatsoever. I think he's very even
27:55
Speaker 1: keeled in his personality. I think he's a you know,
27:59
Speaker 1: a guy who is just looking to do what's best
28:02
Speaker 1: for the organization. And I really respect that about him.
28:06
Speaker 1: Love working underneath of him. Um. He's taught me a lot,
28:09
Speaker 1: you know, just about scouting, about the whole process, you know,
28:13
Speaker 1: from from the salary cap thought side of things, some
28:16
Speaker 1: of the analytics things that we do, you know, pro
28:19
Speaker 1: and college scouting. And he's he's given me a great
28:22
Speaker 1: opportunity here to put a ton on my plate. You know,
28:25
Speaker 1: my my job duties may be more focus mainly on
28:30
Speaker 1: college scouting, but that may only be seventy percent of
28:34
Speaker 1: what I do. There's a lot of other things that
28:36
Speaker 1: he's given me to put on my plate and that
28:38
Speaker 1: helps me get better, um, and develop more experience in
28:41
Speaker 1: different areas to you know, be able to add more
28:44
Speaker 1: value to the organization. So I really really love the
28:47
Speaker 1: way he has everything is set up here. And again
28:49
Speaker 1: he's he's a great guy to work under. The draft
28:52
Speaker 1: is a very imprecise science, but the Bengals have been
28:56
Speaker 1: on at least I think a bit of a role
28:58
Speaker 1: of late. What do you think that you and the
29:01
Speaker 1: entire Cincinnati staff have done well bringing in the right
29:04
Speaker 1: people character wise, And there's different phases to it. You
29:10
Speaker 1: talked about the interviews, you know, we we've talked about
29:13
Speaker 1: scouting and talking to people at their colleges, you know,
29:16
Speaker 1: in their in their life growing up before college, their
29:19
Speaker 1: family background. So you just have to put it all together,
29:22
Speaker 1: you have to. We have a we have a lot
29:23
Speaker 1: of hard workers on our staff that really embrace the process,
29:26
Speaker 1: are really detail oriented and thorough in everything that they
29:30
Speaker 1: do from an evaluation standpoint. And then really at the
29:33
Speaker 1: end of the day, I think it's not overthinking it.
29:35
Speaker 1: We're looking for good players. Everybody's looking for good players.
29:38
Speaker 1: But sometimes you may overvalue a certain a certain trait
29:44
Speaker 1: whatever whatever it could be speed, it could be size,
29:46
Speaker 1: you know, it could be intelligence. I think at the
29:49
Speaker 1: end of the day, we're looking for the guys that
29:51
Speaker 1: that can bring the most well rounded um games to
29:55
Speaker 1: Cincinnati in all aspects, it's not you know, it's easier
29:58
Speaker 1: said than done, especially picking late in the drafts as
30:02
Speaker 1: we have been here the past couple of years. It's
30:04
Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna make it a little bit more difficult,
30:06
Speaker 1: and it's gonna make our process that much more important.
30:08
Speaker 1: But um, at the end of the day, and I
30:11
Speaker 1: don't think it's it's rocket science. It's it's uh, we're
30:14
Speaker 1: evaluating football players and uh, and we're not going to
30:17
Speaker 1: overthink it. But but I do think we've done a
30:19
Speaker 1: good job, and I at the same time, I think
30:21
Speaker 1: I still think there is room for improvement, to continue
30:24
Speaker 1: to get better with with our processes and continue to
30:27
Speaker 1: just to just bring in the right type of players
30:29
Speaker 1: that we want. Again as people and as football players,
30:32
Speaker 1: these are busy, long days. You are running on coffee
30:35
Speaker 1: and adrenaline. I appreciate you taking some bud time with
30:38
Speaker 1: me and best of luck when the draft approaches. Thanks
30:41
Speaker 1: a lot, Dan, I appreciate it. The Bengals Booth podcast
30:44
Speaker 1: is brought to you by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals.
30:47
Speaker 1: They're free to play with tickets and signed merchandise up
30:50
Speaker 1: for grabs. Find both inside the Bengals app. As I've
30:55
Speaker 1: mentioned before on this podcast, I am a big fan
30:58
Speaker 1: of mock draft simulate. If you're not familiar with what
31:01
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, you can find good ones for free
31:04
Speaker 1: at Pro Football Focus dot com and Pro Football Network
31:08
Speaker 1: dot com. The Mock Draft simulator allows you to play
31:12
Speaker 1: Bengals GM for as many rounds of the draft as
31:15
Speaker 1: you want. The simulator begins making picks in order, and
31:19
Speaker 1: then when it's your turn, you can decide whether you
31:22
Speaker 1: want to wheel and deal or go ahead and make
31:24
Speaker 1: the Bengals pick. I've been doing three round mock drafts
31:28
Speaker 1: for several years and it's a great way to learn
31:30
Speaker 1: some of the players that are likely to be available
31:32
Speaker 1: to the Bengals. So this week at the combine, I
31:36
Speaker 1: came up with a fun idea. I asked several NFL
31:40
Speaker 1: draft experts to join me in front of my laptop
31:43
Speaker 1: and make the Bengals first three picks by using the
31:47
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus mock Draft simulator. Up first, Dane Bruegler,
31:53
Speaker 1: who covers the draft for the Athletic All Right, we
31:57
Speaker 1: fired up the PF mock draft simulator with my favorite
32:01
Speaker 1: draft guru, Dane Brugler from The Athletic. Always great to
32:04
Speaker 1: catch up with Dane at the combine. We're not gonna
32:07
Speaker 1: be allowed to make any trades. We don't know how
32:09
Speaker 1: accurate this is going to be based on your board,
32:11
Speaker 1: but in any case, I'm going to hit start and
32:14
Speaker 1: when the Bengals pop up at number twenty eight, we'll
32:16
Speaker 1: look at the options available, we'll see which guy's just
32:19
Speaker 1: got picked, and we'll see what you would do. So
32:21
Speaker 1: here we go. All right, the picks are flying off
32:25
Speaker 1: the board. This goes very very quickly. We are at
32:28
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, twenty eight. Dalton kin Kaid, who has
32:33
Speaker 1: frequently been mocked to the Bengals, just went at twenty
32:36
Speaker 1: seven to the Buffalo Bills. I'll show you a few
32:39
Speaker 1: of the previous picks. Yea Mozzi Smith at the board
32:42
Speaker 1: of twenty six of the Cowboys. That's interesting, Zay Flowers
32:44
Speaker 1: at twenty three of the Vikings. Now we're going over
32:47
Speaker 1: to the guys still available side right, So we have
32:51
Speaker 1: Collijah Cans. This is the best available Cordin at PFF.
32:54
Speaker 1: So we've got Collige Kanci, Dante Banks, drinks way too early.
32:58
Speaker 1: Fron Jack Carter Nolan's myth who had such a big
33:02
Speaker 1: workout last night at the Combine. Okay, Anton Harrison, that's
33:05
Speaker 1: a good name to keep on the radar. Luke Musgrave
33:08
Speaker 1: who they might name rename the combine after him when
33:11
Speaker 1: he's done with it. You had him going to the
33:13
Speaker 1: Bengals in your most present mock. I did, and and
33:15
Speaker 1: you know, I think that got mixed reaction from Bengals fans.
33:18
Speaker 1: But uh, he's a weapon, He's he's a really athletic player,
33:22
Speaker 1: so I think he should at least be in that conversation.
33:25
Speaker 1: H B Gigi Larry. I think that makes uh if
33:28
Speaker 1: if we're talking about best player, he's someone that you know,
33:31
Speaker 1: you always try to get strength on the edges, even
33:34
Speaker 1: if it's not your number one need. So I like that. Um,
33:39
Speaker 1: you know, I keep going back to the top and
33:43
Speaker 1: there's a corner there, Deontay Banks, who if they were
33:47
Speaker 1: to go in that direction, Uh if if they wanted
33:51
Speaker 1: to look at a cornerback at that point, I think
33:53
Speaker 1: Deontay Banks would be a really good value. This is
33:56
Speaker 1: a player that throwing the Ohio State tape and watching,
33:59
Speaker 1: you know, cover Mervin Harrison. That was a fun battle
34:01
Speaker 1: to watch between those two big athletic He covers well
34:06
Speaker 1: to the top of routes if as long as he
34:08
Speaker 1: trusts his technique. He is an NFL starter and a
34:13
Speaker 1: guy that I think you feel comfortable leaving on an
34:15
Speaker 1: island in the NFL. So, Jonte Banks, that's awfully appealing there,
34:19
Speaker 1: twenty eight. I think that might be the direction I
34:21
Speaker 1: would go all right with the twenty eighth pick in
34:23
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty three NFL Draft. The Athletics draft guru
34:28
Speaker 1: Dame Bruegler has selected Maryland cornerback Tante Banks. So here
34:33
Speaker 1: are some things to know about Maryland cornerback Deonte Banks.
34:37
Speaker 1: He's six feet tall, one hundred ninety seven pounds and
34:40
Speaker 1: ran a four three five forty at the combine to
34:44
Speaker 1: rank third fastest among the cornerbacks. His forty two inch
34:48
Speaker 1: vertical leap was number one in their most recent mock drafts.
34:53
Speaker 1: ESPN's Mel Kiper and the NFL Networks Daniel Jeremiah both
34:57
Speaker 1: had Banks going twenty third to the Kings. Now time
35:02
Speaker 1: to move on to the Bengals second pick, number sixty overall.
35:07
Speaker 1: Now the draft simulator will zip to the Bengals pick
35:10
Speaker 1: in the second round. Okay, we'll take a look at
35:14
Speaker 1: some of the most recent selections. Jamie Robinson him off
35:18
Speaker 1: to the Bills safety from Florida State. Matthew berg Ern
35:21
Speaker 1: tackle guard for the Cowboys at fifty eight, which that
35:24
Speaker 1: would have been a nice pick for the Bengals. Josh
35:26
Speaker 1: Down to the Giants, Steve of Vila to the Jags,
35:30
Speaker 1: Big Dwan Jones from Ohio State. Your second round pick
35:33
Speaker 1: in your most meat recent draft to the right. Yeah,
35:37
Speaker 1: so okay, let's look go ahead and look at the
35:39
Speaker 1: best available at this point. Then Andre Carter is still there,
35:42
Speaker 1: not surprising. Nathaniel Dell still a little early for him.
35:46
Speaker 1: Dan Henley, he's on his way up. I like that.
35:50
Speaker 1: Oh at a barre from Northwestern who unbelievable combine before.
35:55
Speaker 1: I've never seen a human being two eighty pounds or
35:59
Speaker 1: more run as four or five forty until last night,
36:02
Speaker 1: so I thought to be the fastest ever by a
36:04
Speaker 1: guy to at the combiner. Unbelievable. Um. Now the question is, okay,
36:10
Speaker 1: how do you Because he was great at the Singer Bowl,
36:12
Speaker 1: great here at the combine because it was the positional
36:15
Speaker 1: stuff was great too. So how do you apply that
36:17
Speaker 1: now to the evaluation? How how does his grade change? How?
36:20
Speaker 1: You know, how do you see it on tape? So
36:22
Speaker 1: that's what teams are kind of scrambling to figure out.
36:23
Speaker 1: I mean, you love it for the kid. It's good
36:25
Speaker 1: for him. He's gonna go much higher than we thought
36:27
Speaker 1: in December. But uh, you know what point do you
36:30
Speaker 1: take him? Um? Okay, Luke Whippler from Ohio states a
36:33
Speaker 1: little early for him. Carl Brooks from Blowing Green and
36:37
Speaker 1: Nick Herbig interesting kind of a hybrid rusher. Sam Laporta
36:41
Speaker 1: from Iowa I like quite a bit. Um the Iowa
36:43
Speaker 1: tight end. Just a rock solid player. I'll tell you what.
36:47
Speaker 1: At a barre. Uh, you know he gives you a
36:50
Speaker 1: little versatility, can be that three technique? Can you know,
36:53
Speaker 1: can rush off the edge. Um, he's got a different
36:57
Speaker 1: body type because he's a little shorter, but he's got
36:59
Speaker 1: their four inch arms. So let's go without a bari here.
37:03
Speaker 1: Strengthen the defensive line both inside outside. You've got someone
37:06
Speaker 1: that you can mold. And you know, you look at
37:08
Speaker 1: the Bengals draft last year with a guy like you know,
37:11
Speaker 1: Dax's Hill in the first round. You know who you
37:13
Speaker 1: pick for the future at a barre is a guy
37:16
Speaker 1: that's going to help you right away, but also a
37:18
Speaker 1: pick for the future on that defensive line. Now some
37:21
Speaker 1: more details on Northwestern defensive lineman at a Tommy Wah
37:26
Speaker 1: at a barre he's six two, two hundred eighty two
37:30
Speaker 1: pounds and ran a four four nine forty with a
37:34
Speaker 1: thirty seven and a half inch vertical. The previous record
37:37
Speaker 1: for the fastest forty time at the Combine by a
37:40
Speaker 1: player two hundred eighty plus pounds was four to six
37:43
Speaker 1: to eight by somebody named Aaron Donald. Again at a barre,
37:48
Speaker 1: ran a four four nine. His stats weren't off the
37:52
Speaker 1: charts at Northwestern, with five sacks last year and four
37:55
Speaker 1: and a half the year before. Pro Football Focus has
37:58
Speaker 1: him ranked forty fifth. It's top one hundred board and
38:01
Speaker 1: that came out before the Combine. Now time for the
38:05
Speaker 1: Bengals next pick number ninety two. Overall, we are just
38:10
Speaker 1: about at Cincinnati at pick number ninety two. Alight, first,
38:15
Speaker 1: we'll see the guys that went just before the Bengals. Okay,
38:19
Speaker 1: so Devin eh Chain to the Bills, I don't you know,
38:22
Speaker 1: and maybe they could have taken a running back. You know,
38:24
Speaker 1: we'll see how that plays out. Tucker Craft, one of
38:26
Speaker 1: my favorite players in the draft. Southdkota stayed at ninety
38:29
Speaker 1: to the Cowboy, that's a tremendous value there. Um Tank
38:33
Speaker 1: Dell Houston receiver, the Giants, Sydney Brown, Illinois safety, decent value.
38:38
Speaker 1: There's what was the last time or the less tackle
38:42
Speaker 1: drafted here? Let's see what's a because the tackle class
38:46
Speaker 1: really thins out on day two. And you know, we're
38:49
Speaker 1: seeing this here, you're scrolling not a lot of tackles
38:51
Speaker 1: off the board. Um, okay, Tyler Steen at sixty sixty,
38:55
Speaker 1: that's and that's possible. It might be an example of
38:58
Speaker 1: because tackle there's so few tackles. Uh, you know, once
39:01
Speaker 1: you get to day two, So a guy like Tyler
39:03
Speaker 1: Steen maybe gets pushed up a little bit. I think
39:05
Speaker 1: it's pretty pretty rich for him. But you gotta do
39:07
Speaker 1: what you gotta do. So that that's interesting that how
39:10
Speaker 1: the Bengals are sitting here with what's available. Should I
39:13
Speaker 1: filter the remaining guys and look at tackles? Would you
39:15
Speaker 1: like me to take a shot at that? All right?
39:18
Speaker 1: So we are hitting that little tackle button here, all right?
39:23
Speaker 1: So at this point, Blake Freeland, Luke Haggaroof I like
39:29
Speaker 1: Bradon Daniels. Brandon Daniel is a good player. UM, I
39:33
Speaker 1: think this is right around the range where you start
39:35
Speaker 1: thinking about Bradon Daniels. Carter Warren maybe as well, But
39:40
Speaker 1: the rest of these tackles are not guys that you're
39:43
Speaker 1: getting excited about here in the third round. UM, I
39:46
Speaker 1: did see a tight end that caught my eye there,
39:49
Speaker 1: and if you were to be available at this point,
39:51
Speaker 1: I don't know how you're passing UM talking about Sam
39:54
Speaker 1: Laporta from Iowa, who, in my opinion is and this
39:58
Speaker 1: is a really deep tight in class. And that might
40:01
Speaker 1: be the reason why you don't draft a tight end
40:03
Speaker 1: in the first round, because you feel good about who's
40:06
Speaker 1: gonna be there for your second, third, fourth round, and
40:09
Speaker 1: case in point right here, late third round, Sam Laporta
40:12
Speaker 1: is here. Luke's schoonmaker I think is a third round player.
40:15
Speaker 1: He's still available, but Sam Laporta, I'm not passing up
40:19
Speaker 1: this value. Give me Laporta, who you know. You talk
40:21
Speaker 1: to scouts and they'll say he's maybe not quite as
40:25
Speaker 1: athletic as a Noah Fan or t J. Hawkinson, but
40:28
Speaker 1: he's got the grit of George Kittle talking about those
40:31
Speaker 1: Iowa tight ends, so Sam Laporta pick ninety two, loving
40:35
Speaker 1: that value there. The Bengals reportedly met with Sam Laporta
40:40
Speaker 1: at the combine. Iowa listed him at six four, two
40:44
Speaker 1: hundred forty nine pounds, and he had a very productive
40:47
Speaker 1: career with the Hawkeyes, finishing with one hundred and fifty
40:49
Speaker 1: three catches for nearly eighteen hundred yards. Among Iowa tight
40:54
Speaker 1: ends all time, Laporta ranks first in catches and second
40:58
Speaker 1: in yards, and he was a team captain last year.
41:02
Speaker 1: After you do a mock draft on the Pro Football
41:04
Speaker 1: Focus simulator, PF gives you a grade. Let's find out
41:09
Speaker 1: how Dane Brogler did. Here's how PF has graded your
41:14
Speaker 1: picks A in round one, B plus in round two
41:19
Speaker 1: as in round three. For an A overall grade, you're
41:23
Speaker 1: the highest highest anyone's graded so far. I'll take that.
41:28
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't you know, the grade means little,
41:29
Speaker 1: But if that's the three players the Bengals come back
41:33
Speaker 1: with picking later in each round, I think you got
41:36
Speaker 1: to feel great about that. You got guys that can
41:38
Speaker 1: help right away but also building for the future. So
41:42
Speaker 1: I like that. Haul a lot for Cincinnati. This was fun.
41:45
Speaker 1: I always appreciate your time. Keep up the great work.
41:47
Speaker 1: Can't wait to see the Bible. All right, thank you,
41:50
Speaker 1: I said the Bible, I meant the Beast. That's the
41:53
Speaker 1: name of Dane's annual draft guide, which is the most
41:56
Speaker 1: comprehensive of any more three round mock drafts using the
42:01
Speaker 1: PF simulator in the weeks to come. On this podcast
42:04
Speaker 1: with Charles Davis from the NFL Network, Pete Prisco from CBS,
42:09
Speaker 1: and Austin Gale from The Ringer. That's going to do
42:13
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Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find us I'm Dan Horde. Thanks for
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Speaker 1: listening to the Bengals Booth podcast