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Bengals Booth Podcast: Something To Talk About · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hike and everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth podcast. The Let's give them something to
0:11
Speaker 1: talk about. Addition, as we discuss the verbal diarrhea being
0:17
Speaker 1: spewed from coast to coast about the Bengals in the
0:20
Speaker 1: possible number one pick in April's draft Joe Burrow And yes,
0:25
Speaker 1: I said verbal diarrhea. A Dan Horde rant is coming up,
0:31
Speaker 1: and with the NFL Scouting Combine a little more than
0:34
Speaker 1: a week away, I'll pick the brain of the Bengals
0:36
Speaker 1: Director of College Scouting Mike Potts. The Combined, by the way,
0:41
Speaker 1: will be the bengals first opportunity to sit in a
0:43
Speaker 1: room and have an extended conversation with Joe Burrow and
0:47
Speaker 1: many of the top prospects in this year's draft. All
0:51
Speaker 1: of that is straight ahead, but first, here's a quick
0:53
Speaker 1: reminder that you can have the latest edition of this
0:56
Speaker 1: podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or compute by
1:00
Speaker 1: subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean.
1:06
Speaker 1: It's the greatest thing since blowpops. So I got home
1:12
Speaker 1: from work last night and sitting at my desk was
1:15
Speaker 1: a grape blowpop courtesy of my thirteen year old son.
1:20
Speaker 1: You remember the Blowpop. It's two treats in one, a
1:24
Speaker 1: hard candy shell with a chewy bubble gum center. It's
1:28
Speaker 1: the Charms Candy Company's best selling product of all time,
1:32
Speaker 1: and I can see why they've been making kids and
1:35
Speaker 1: dentists very happy for more than half a century. Now,
1:40
Speaker 1: let's get to football. By now, I'm guessing you've heard
1:44
Speaker 1: or read story suggesting that Joe Burrow does not want
1:48
Speaker 1: to play for the Bengals, or that the Heisman Trophy
1:51
Speaker 1: winner shouldn't want to play for the Bengals. Let's start
1:55
Speaker 1: with the first part, the notion that the LSU quarterback
1:58
Speaker 1: does not want to play in Cincinnati. I've listened to
2:02
Speaker 1: three recent interviews featuring Joe Burrow. He was on the
2:06
Speaker 1: part in My Take podcast in December, the day after
2:10
Speaker 1: winning the Heisman, and he did two national radio shows
2:14
Speaker 1: during Super Bowl week, the Dan Patrick Show and The
2:17
Speaker 1: Rich Eisen Show. I recommend listening to all three interviews,
2:22
Speaker 1: especially the part of My Take interview from December sixteenth,
2:26
Speaker 1: where Joe shares some great stories about his two years
2:28
Speaker 1: at LSU. It's at the very end of a long
2:31
Speaker 1: podcast In all three interviews, Burrow speaks enthusiastically about potentially
2:38
Speaker 1: being the number one overall pick in this year's draft.
2:43
Speaker 1: The only possible thing that could raise any doubts about
2:47
Speaker 1: his desire to play for the Bengals happened on The
2:49
Speaker 1: Dan Patrick Show on January thirty first, when Patrick asked
2:54
Speaker 1: if being the number one pick or going to the
2:58
Speaker 1: right team is most porton. Burrow answered as follows a
3:04
Speaker 1: combination of both. You want to go number one, but
3:07
Speaker 1: you also want to go to a great organization that's
3:10
Speaker 1: committed to winning, committed to winning Super Bowls. Because he
3:15
Speaker 1: didn't specifically say I want to go number one and
3:18
Speaker 1: be the guy that turns things around in Cincinnati, members
3:22
Speaker 1: of the media have their story and they are running
3:24
Speaker 1: wild with it, and their logic usually goes as follows.
3:29
Speaker 1: Carson Palmer quit the Bengals and since retiring, has questioned
3:34
Speaker 1: their commitment to winning. Joe Burrow is training for the
3:37
Speaker 1: draft under Carson's brother, Jordan Palmer. A plus B equals clickbait.
3:46
Speaker 1: Never Mind that a few weeks ago, Burrow said the
3:48
Speaker 1: following to Bloomberg News quote, whoever wants to pay me
3:53
Speaker 1: the money to play the game of football. I'll play
3:55
Speaker 1: for him. It doesn't matter to me or that. In Midjauary,
4:00
Speaker 1: his dad, Jimmy Burrow said in a radio interview quote,
4:05
Speaker 1: if the Bengals do draft him, he's going to be happy.
4:08
Speaker 1: He'll look at it as a challenge, but he'll be
4:11
Speaker 1: confident that eventually they can win a lot of games
4:14
Speaker 1: there in Cincinnati. Now, I don't know about you, but
4:18
Speaker 1: I trust Joe's dad more than I trust Mike Florio
4:23
Speaker 1: from Pro Football Talk. Still, that didn't stop PFT from
4:27
Speaker 1: using the following headline on February eighth. Does Joe Burrow
4:31
Speaker 1: hope the Bengals don't draft him? They follow that headline
4:35
Speaker 1: with six hundred and thirty four words on the subject
4:38
Speaker 1: when they could have gone with four. We have no idea.
4:44
Speaker 1: Media outlets have a lot of time and space to
4:46
Speaker 1: fill between now and the draft, and they're always looking
4:49
Speaker 1: for stories with sizzle. Thankfully, there's a chance that this
4:54
Speaker 1: one will die soon. It's standard operating procedure for the
4:59
Speaker 1: top draft prospects to hold a news conference at the
5:02
Speaker 1: NFL Scouting Combine, which gets under way a week from Sunday.
5:07
Speaker 1: Here's hoping Joe Burrow buries this story much like he
5:11
Speaker 1: buried Oklahoma in the National semifinal game when he threw
5:15
Speaker 1: seven touchdown passes in the first half. Now, let's get
5:19
Speaker 1: to the second notion that media outlets are hammering that
5:22
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow shouldn't want to play for the Bengals. Listen,
5:26
Speaker 1: I get it. The team hasn't won a playoff game
5:29
Speaker 1: since January of nineteen ninety one, and they've certainly made
5:33
Speaker 1: their share of mistakes since their five year playoff streak
5:36
Speaker 1: ended in two fifteen. But it wasn't that long ago
5:41
Speaker 1: that the Bengals were being widely praised for their astute
5:44
Speaker 1: roster building. It took me all of about a five
5:47
Speaker 1: minute Google search to find the following four stories. NFL
5:52
Speaker 1: dot Com August of two twelve. Cincinnati Bengals suddenly resemble
5:57
Speaker 1: a model franchise since an Eddie Enquirer October of two
6:02
Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen, the Bengals became the beacon of consistency
6:07
Speaker 1: and a role model for roster construction. CBS Sports, also
6:12
Speaker 1: October of two thousand and fifteen. Agents take how the
6:17
Speaker 1: Bengals turned into one of the NFL's model franchises. Yahoo
6:22
Speaker 1: Sports June of two thousand and sixteen, Bengals might have
6:27
Speaker 1: the deepest roster in the NFL. I'm sure I could
6:32
Speaker 1: have found a dozen more stories from that time period
6:35
Speaker 1: that basically say the same thing. So what's happened since? Well,
6:40
Speaker 1: the Bengals had a bad draft in two thousand and fifteen.
6:43
Speaker 1: Cedric o'boyhey and Jake Fisher didn't work out, making the
6:47
Speaker 1: departure of Andrew Whitworth especially damaging. Then in the next
6:51
Speaker 1: four drafts they had brutal luck were their first round
6:55
Speaker 1: picks as will Jackson, John Ross, Billy Price, and Jonah
6:59
Speaker 1: William missed much or all of their rookie seasons. And
7:04
Speaker 1: while the Bengals historically have not gone after high priced
7:07
Speaker 1: free agents, they basically did that two years ago when
7:10
Speaker 1: they picked up Cordy Glenn. Technically it was a trade,
7:14
Speaker 1: but Cordy had three years left on one of the
7:17
Speaker 1: priciest offensive line deals in the NFL. When the Bengals
7:21
Speaker 1: acquired him. This year, he spent nearly two months in
7:25
Speaker 1: concussion protocol. Now, I've been broadcasting the games for nine years.
7:30
Speaker 1: In that timeframe, the Bengals are one of only ten
7:33
Speaker 1: teams to make the playoffs. Five times their winning percentage,
7:38
Speaker 1: despite going two and fourteen this year, still ranks thirteenth
7:42
Speaker 1: best in the NFL. None of that is good enough.
7:46
Speaker 1: The goal is to win the Super Bowl, and with
7:49
Speaker 1: the first pick in this year's draft, the Bengals are
7:52
Speaker 1: in a position to acquire the type of player that
7:55
Speaker 1: can ultimately help them get there. All right, let's get
8:00
Speaker 1: to this week's guest. Mike Potts is the Bengals director
8:04
Speaker 1: of college scouting. He joined the team in twenty fifteen
8:08
Speaker 1: after spending four years working in the scouting department for
8:11
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Falcons. With the combine coming up shortly followed
8:15
Speaker 1: by on Caps Pro Days, I thought it would be
8:18
Speaker 1: a great time to pick his brain about the process
8:21
Speaker 1: of putting together this year's draft class. Mike, the NFL
8:25
Speaker 1: Scouting Combine begins in a little more than a week.
8:28
Speaker 1: Because halving the number one overall pick raise the stakes
8:31
Speaker 1: or change anything about the combine from your perspective, I mean,
8:35
Speaker 1: I think it makes it a lot more important obviously
8:37
Speaker 1: for us, because you don't want to be picking at
8:39
Speaker 1: that spot every year. Hopefully we're never picking there again.
8:43
Speaker 1: It's obviously a rough season that you have to go through.
8:45
Speaker 1: To get to that point. But that's the spot that
8:47
Speaker 1: we're in, and to answer your question, it is important.
8:50
Speaker 1: You know, you can obviously narrow it down to fewer
8:53
Speaker 1: guys as opposed to if you're picking, you know, at
8:56
Speaker 1: the latter half of the first round, there's a lot
8:58
Speaker 1: more guys that you have to have rank and see
9:00
Speaker 1: how the board falls, So it is easier to narrow
9:03
Speaker 1: it down to a smaller number of guys. But it's
9:07
Speaker 1: it's obviously a pick where you're gonna want a difference
9:11
Speaker 1: making guy that can that can change the franchise for you.
9:13
Speaker 1: So so it's obviously a very important selection for us,
9:16
Speaker 1: and we're gonna do all the homework that we need
9:18
Speaker 1: to do to make sure we make the right choice.
9:20
Speaker 1: You mentioned having guy's ranked last year. For example, when
9:23
Speaker 1: you're taking the eleventh choice, you can list guys one
9:27
Speaker 1: through eleven, and then when it's your pick, maybe number
9:29
Speaker 1: four is still there, maybe number six is still there,
9:32
Speaker 1: whatever that helps you make your choice at number eleven.
9:35
Speaker 1: You've got number one this year, but you've also got
9:37
Speaker 1: number thirty three, So will you do a one through
9:39
Speaker 1: thirty three in preparation for that second pick? We will,
9:43
Speaker 1: and even further. You know, well, we're as of right now,
9:46
Speaker 1: we're picking at sixty five at the top of the
9:48
Speaker 1: third round, and then we'll see exactly what our number
9:50
Speaker 1: is going to be at the top of the fourth round,
9:52
Speaker 1: because there'll be some compensatory selections there that end end
9:55
Speaker 1: up getting released here over the next several weeks as
9:58
Speaker 1: far as um you know, at the end of the
10:00
Speaker 1: third round, so that'll push us back a little bit
10:03
Speaker 1: from that traditional it would be the ninety seventh spot.
10:05
Speaker 1: We may be at one hundred or something like that,
10:08
Speaker 1: but we'll probably stack the board up to at least
10:11
Speaker 1: our our fourth round pick, and then there's there's a
10:14
Speaker 1: lot of moving parts from there, you know, depending on
10:16
Speaker 1: what you take at one or thirty three, or if
10:19
Speaker 1: you move around, if you trade up, if you trade back,
10:21
Speaker 1: you may address certain positions and then we'll readdress or
10:24
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, we'll reorder the board there from there as
10:27
Speaker 1: far as by position, and you know, we may value
10:30
Speaker 1: a certain position over another one according to what we
10:34
Speaker 1: did on day one of the draft. We're speaking to
10:36
Speaker 1: the Bengals director of college Scouting, Mike Potts. From your perspective,
10:39
Speaker 1: what is the most valuable part of the combine. I
10:44
Speaker 1: think it's the medicals for sure, you know, to get
10:48
Speaker 1: that many three hundred and some players all in the
10:51
Speaker 1: same spot, and Indianapolis is a phenomenal location for it.
10:55
Speaker 1: The logistics and you know, everything that they have ironed
10:58
Speaker 1: out from for doing it there for a long time
11:01
Speaker 1: is uh, you know, they really do a great job
11:04
Speaker 1: with it. And that's that's the majority of the information
11:06
Speaker 1: we get is the medical. That's the that's the most
11:10
Speaker 1: important thing, I would say. And then and then from
11:12
Speaker 1: there the interviews, dialing in on on who these players
11:15
Speaker 1: are as people. You know, we talked through their coaches,
11:17
Speaker 1: we talk to their support staff when we go through
11:20
Speaker 1: these schools as scouts on visits. But it's uh, you know,
11:24
Speaker 1: it means a lot more looking at the player in
11:26
Speaker 1: the eye and hearing it from them, so that that
11:30
Speaker 1: part of it is is big. And then all obviously
11:32
Speaker 1: the athletic testing is a huge part of it. But
11:35
Speaker 1: if I had to, if I had to say, one
11:36
Speaker 1: was the you know, the most beneficial thing that we
11:38
Speaker 1: get out of it will be the medical. It's a
11:41
Speaker 1: good follow up to my next question because the staff
11:43
Speaker 1: got to coach some of the top prospects at the
11:46
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl, including quarterback Justin Herbert, but Joe Burrow to
11:50
Speaker 1: a tone of Violela, Chase Young, and some of the
11:53
Speaker 1: other top candidates for the draft. We're not in mobile.
11:56
Speaker 1: Will this be your first opportunity or the team's first opportunity.
11:59
Speaker 1: It's in a room and visit with those guys. It
12:02
Speaker 1: will be. Yeah. You know, sometimes as a scout, when
12:05
Speaker 1: you go through to a smaller school, they'll bring that player,
12:07
Speaker 1: they may only have one prospect, and they'll bring that
12:09
Speaker 1: player in to talk to you face to face during
12:12
Speaker 1: the fall. But it's not that way. You know, when
12:14
Speaker 1: when you're at a big SEC, a SEC big ten
12:16
Speaker 1: type of school, you know they have you know, sometimes
12:19
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty prospects that that could end up having
12:22
Speaker 1: a chance of getting drafted. So you know, that's that's
12:24
Speaker 1: not the way it works. So so yeah, this combine
12:27
Speaker 1: is the first time we will get a chance to
12:29
Speaker 1: talk to the guys that we haven't already interviewed at
12:31
Speaker 1: the at the All Star Games in January. The interview
12:34
Speaker 1: process at the combine is intriguing to be because it's
12:37
Speaker 1: like fifteen minutes of speed dating. Explain how that works, yeah,
12:41
Speaker 1: and it's it's actually it was changed this year to
12:46
Speaker 1: we used to get sixty interviews. Now we only get
12:48
Speaker 1: forty five, and they lengthen them from fifteen minutes to
12:51
Speaker 1: eighteen minutes now. Um, So that that was part of
12:55
Speaker 1: the logistical adjustments they had to make with moving the
12:58
Speaker 1: workouts from during the day to now at nighttime and
13:01
Speaker 1: prime time on TV. UM. So that uh, you know
13:06
Speaker 1: that that throws those a little bit of a wrench
13:08
Speaker 1: in our schedule, but um, but you know, we'll adjust,
13:11
Speaker 1: and it is it is nice to have an additional
13:13
Speaker 1: three minutes with these guys, you know, maybe some extra
13:15
Speaker 1: tape that we can throw on to ask them a
13:17
Speaker 1: specific question about, you know, whatever the play may have
13:20
Speaker 1: been on such and such game. Um. You know, in
13:23
Speaker 1: the third quarter, you know, you can really dial in
13:25
Speaker 1: on some of those details. You can get a good
13:27
Speaker 1: feel for their personality, their intelligence. Um, you know, even
13:32
Speaker 1: even some of their leaderships, leadership and charisma will shine
13:35
Speaker 1: through in that setting. So it's really beneficial. I know
13:38
Speaker 1: it's only in this case eighteen minutes fifteen minutes in
13:40
Speaker 1: the past, but you do with with interviewing those guys
13:43
Speaker 1: back to back to back, you can make comparisons and
13:46
Speaker 1: and it's uh, it's really beneficial for us. I think
13:49
Speaker 1: I think you get more out of it than you
13:50
Speaker 1: would think, you know, just just thinking about it going
13:53
Speaker 1: in with um, you know, having never been in one
13:56
Speaker 1: of those, uh, one of those interviews, I think you
13:59
Speaker 1: do get a good out of it. But then there'll
14:01
Speaker 1: be other guys that we want to bring into the
14:03
Speaker 1: facility on a on a visit into into Cincinnati to
14:07
Speaker 1: our facility to do more work on in those interviews.
14:11
Speaker 1: Do you have a standard list of questions that you
14:13
Speaker 1: basically ask everybody or is it highly tailored to each player?
14:18
Speaker 1: A little bit of both. There there's some basic questions
14:20
Speaker 1: that we like to get out of the way in
14:21
Speaker 1: the beginning, you know, get the guy talk and get
14:23
Speaker 1: them comfortable, UM, and then we'll we'll dive into um
14:27
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, the early portion of the
14:31
Speaker 1: interview will be more so their personality intelligence, just basic
14:35
Speaker 1: questions like that. UM. Some of them are repeats and
14:38
Speaker 1: some of them are are a little more tailored to
14:40
Speaker 1: the guy. And then when we when we have him go,
14:44
Speaker 1: you know, look at the tape with the position coach,
14:46
Speaker 1: it'll be more specifically tailored to that guy, and and uh,
14:49
Speaker 1: you know how he learns. You know, they'll they'll tell
14:52
Speaker 1: us about their offense or defense and just talking through
14:54
Speaker 1: x's nose. And a lot of times the players are
14:57
Speaker 1: a lot more they're a lot more comfortable in that
14:59
Speaker 1: setting talking about football. Then they then they maybe are
15:02
Speaker 1: things off the field. So it's a it's a good process.
15:05
Speaker 1: We're talking to the Bengals Director of college Scouting Mike Potts.
15:08
Speaker 1: After the Combine, the scouts and the coaches will go
15:12
Speaker 1: to pro days from coast to coast. You'll get to
15:14
Speaker 1: see players that were not invited to the Combine. But
15:17
Speaker 1: is there anything else about the pro days specifically that
15:20
Speaker 1: you find valuable? I think, um so. So I'll sit
15:23
Speaker 1: down with with all of our position coaches and all
15:26
Speaker 1: of our scouts at the Combine. A lot of what
15:28
Speaker 1: we do is based on guys that maybe didn't work
15:32
Speaker 1: out of the Combine for a medical reason or whatever
15:35
Speaker 1: the case may be. And so that would be a
15:37
Speaker 1: guy that you know, some of our coaches or scouts
15:39
Speaker 1: haven't seen in person, so we'll schedule it that way.
15:43
Speaker 1: Um So, it may be a guy that we're seeing
15:45
Speaker 1: work out. You know up close and personal for the
15:47
Speaker 1: first time. So that's that's one big benefit we get.
15:50
Speaker 1: And then you know, if it's a you know, I
15:52
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't go in every school in the country
15:55
Speaker 1: this year as a scout. So if it's a school
15:57
Speaker 1: that maybe I didn't hit during the fall, and you know,
16:00
Speaker 1: likewise with with some of our other scouts and coaches,
16:02
Speaker 1: they may have a connection on the coaching staff or
16:05
Speaker 1: support staff at one of those schools, so you can
16:07
Speaker 1: follow up and do more homework on the prospect's personality
16:10
Speaker 1: and things like that, and you know, it's just it's
16:11
Speaker 1: just more of you know, to further further the amount
16:16
Speaker 1: of amount of information we get on the guys as
16:19
Speaker 1: both players and people. Your territory during the season includes
16:23
Speaker 1: the SEC. So roughly, how many times do you think
16:26
Speaker 1: you saw Joe Burrow into a Tundavilela over the last
16:30
Speaker 1: couple of years, Oh, I'd have to, I'd have to
16:32
Speaker 1: count it up. I've seen them both multiple times at
16:36
Speaker 1: in both a game setting and in practice. I would
16:39
Speaker 1: say over the past two years, I probably had five
16:42
Speaker 1: or six live exposures at least to both of those guys.
16:46
Speaker 1: Like I said, in multiple different settings. So that's I mean,
16:49
Speaker 1: I'm I'm big on that as as a scout. I
16:52
Speaker 1: think in order to have conviction and really really feel like, hey,
16:55
Speaker 1: this is the guy that we need to take, you
16:57
Speaker 1: need to see him in person. You need to seem
17:00
Speaker 1: at a game, especially the quarterback position that you mentioned.
17:03
Speaker 1: With those two guys, you want to see how their
17:05
Speaker 1: teammates respond to them on the sideline, you know, you
17:07
Speaker 1: want to see how they interact with everybody. You want
17:09
Speaker 1: to see how they respond to adversity, you know, taking
17:12
Speaker 1: a big hit or throwing an interception, whatever it may be.
17:15
Speaker 1: And those are things that you can't pick up as
17:17
Speaker 1: far as as far as just just watching the film.
17:20
Speaker 1: You were a college quarterback and went to training camp
17:22
Speaker 1: with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Zach Taylor was a highly successful
17:26
Speaker 1: college quarterback. Duke Tobin was a college quarterback. Mike Brown
17:29
Speaker 1: was a college quarterback years ago. In a draft where
17:33
Speaker 1: you are in a position to take the first choice
17:36
Speaker 1: of any quarterback in this draft, if that's the way
17:39
Speaker 1: you elect to go, is it advantageous to have so
17:41
Speaker 1: many quarterbacks in the building. Absolutely, you know, different guys
17:45
Speaker 1: have different experiences and being in the huddle and you know,
17:49
Speaker 1: changing protections at the line of scrimmage, reading coverages, having
17:52
Speaker 1: been in that position is invaluable in my opinion. And
17:57
Speaker 1: to have guys that have done it at different levels,
18:00
Speaker 1: you know, at different levels of college football, at different
18:02
Speaker 1: levels of professional football. Um, you know, the more, the
18:06
Speaker 1: more perspectives, the better in my opinion. Um, you know,
18:10
Speaker 1: and we'll get together, you know, scouts, coaches, you know,
18:13
Speaker 1: whether you play the position or not, everybody you'll get
18:15
Speaker 1: together and and have opinions on this thing. And and
18:18
Speaker 1: you know, we'll work our way through it, and we'll
18:20
Speaker 1: and we'll make the best selection for the Bengals. Where
18:23
Speaker 1: do you think this draft is deep? Oh? Man, it's
18:27
Speaker 1: it's a good draft. I would say off the top
18:29
Speaker 1: of my head. Both lines of scrimmage are very strong.
18:31
Speaker 1: The receiver class has been as has been widely publicized,
18:35
Speaker 1: is UH is a very strong group. So those are
18:38
Speaker 1: the two that that stand out off the top of
18:39
Speaker 1: my head. Um. You know you mentioned some of these quarterbacks.
18:42
Speaker 1: There's there's UH there's some good quarterbacks. And then you know,
18:45
Speaker 1: at the top of the draft end and you know
18:47
Speaker 1: that you could potentially get in the second, third, fourth
18:49
Speaker 1: round as well. Um, so, I think we're really excited
18:51
Speaker 1: about about a lot of different positions. I couldn't just
18:55
Speaker 1: sit here and say, you know, there's one position that
18:57
Speaker 1: it's really deep at um you know, glaring way way
19:00
Speaker 1: above the rest. We are meeting at two in the afternoon.
19:03
Speaker 1: You had a meeting with the staff earlier today. What
19:06
Speaker 1: are the types of things that you guys are meeting
19:08
Speaker 1: and discussing right now? So this week we've been meeting
19:11
Speaker 1: about the unrestrictive free agents, as far as our game plan, putting,
19:16
Speaker 1: putting together target lists, as far as who we want
19:19
Speaker 1: to attack in the in the free agent market on
19:21
Speaker 1: the pro personnel side of things. So we've been doing
19:24
Speaker 1: that this week, organizing everything, you know, getting the ownership,
19:29
Speaker 1: the scouts and the coaches altogether and everybody on the
19:32
Speaker 1: same page as far as as far as getting the
19:35
Speaker 1: plan together. And I think that's went really smoothly. Everybody's
19:37
Speaker 1: everybody's had some you know, really really good discussions and
19:42
Speaker 1: it's been really productive. So we've been meeting on that
19:44
Speaker 1: this week, and then next week what we're gonna do
19:47
Speaker 1: is go through all the underclassmen. I think there was
19:49
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty one of them that came out
19:50
Speaker 1: early for the draft this year. So we'll be meeting
19:53
Speaker 1: on all those guys next week. We already have grades
19:55
Speaker 1: on all those guys, and we've been watching them all fall.
19:57
Speaker 1: It's just we like to wait and and wait till
20:01
Speaker 1: they officially declare for the draft before we before we
20:04
Speaker 1: actually study and talk about their character and their medical
20:07
Speaker 1: and what, you know, how we see them as a
20:08
Speaker 1: player and and everything. We'd like to wait until they
20:11
Speaker 1: actually come out for the draft and or officially in
20:14
Speaker 1: the twenty and twenty draft before you know, we you know,
20:18
Speaker 1: we meet on the seniors in December. We couldn't meet
20:20
Speaker 1: on some of the juniors that we think are going
20:21
Speaker 1: to come out, but they then you end up it
20:24
Speaker 1: ends up being inefficient if you if you end up
20:26
Speaker 1: talking and using time on guys that don't actually end
20:28
Speaker 1: up declaring early for the draft. So that's what we'll
20:31
Speaker 1: be working on over the over the next couple weeks,
20:33
Speaker 1: and that'll take us right into the combine. We're talking
20:35
Speaker 1: to the Bengals director of college scouting, Mike Potts. The
20:37
Speaker 1: first day of the draft is April twenty third. When
20:40
Speaker 1: will your draft board take shape? Well, well, we'll have
20:44
Speaker 1: these Like I said, we'll have these meetings next week.
20:46
Speaker 1: That'll that'll put the juniors and the seniors altogether for
20:49
Speaker 1: our initial draft board going into the Combine. We'll go
20:52
Speaker 1: through the Combine in the pro day process, make some
20:54
Speaker 1: tweaks here and there, and then we have our final meetings.
20:57
Speaker 1: It's uh, you know, the first two or three weeks
21:00
Speaker 1: roughly of of April is when we'll do that. So
21:03
Speaker 1: it'll be it'll be pretty much set the I would
21:06
Speaker 1: say a week or so before the draft, it'll be
21:08
Speaker 1: pretty much set. And then we're always, you know, all
21:10
Speaker 1: the way up until the day before the draft, we're
21:12
Speaker 1: making last minute tweaks, um. But you know, it'll be
21:15
Speaker 1: set position by position, how we see those guys ranked.
21:19
Speaker 1: And then we have to combine all those positions together
21:21
Speaker 1: and like you said, rank them one to thirty three,
21:23
Speaker 1: rank them one to sixty five, you know, and so forth. Uh.
21:27
Speaker 1: You know, because if if so and so goes, then
21:29
Speaker 1: you know, this is our plan. If if this guy goes,
21:32
Speaker 1: who's who is uh, you know, our our top ranked
21:35
Speaker 1: guy three selections before our our pick, then you know
21:38
Speaker 1: we move on to this guy. You know, so, um,
21:41
Speaker 1: we just have to be ready for for every scenario.
21:44
Speaker 1: And um, like I mentioned earlier, we have to be
21:46
Speaker 1: ready for trades. If there's a guy that we have
21:48
Speaker 1: ranked in our top ten and you know we're at
21:50
Speaker 1: pick twenty five and he's still there, we have to
21:52
Speaker 1: be prepared to have a plan of attack to to uh,
21:55
Speaker 1: you know, see what it would take to acquire a
21:57
Speaker 1: player like that. It's almost like you have two top
22:00
Speaker 1: ten picks this year because you get Jonah Williams back,
22:02
Speaker 1: the first offensive lineman taking in last year's draft, who
22:05
Speaker 1: unfortunately did not play. How does Jonah compare to the
22:09
Speaker 1: top offensive tackles in this draft? Oh, he's He's right
22:12
Speaker 1: up there. Jonah was a guy I think we uh,
22:16
Speaker 1: we all were very high on. Um. You know that
22:19
Speaker 1: I'd have to go through player by player to compare
22:22
Speaker 1: him one by one, but you know he would he
22:24
Speaker 1: would be right at the at the top. You know,
22:26
Speaker 1: equal two are better than the majority of the of
22:28
Speaker 1: the guys in this draft. Um, in my opinion, UM,
22:32
Speaker 1: you know, everybody you know that that's my opinion. You know,
22:35
Speaker 1: every scouter coach may have a slightly different opinion, but
22:38
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think too many people would say
22:39
Speaker 1: he'd be, he'd be far off from from what's available
22:42
Speaker 1: in this draft. So obviously it was really unfortunate that
22:44
Speaker 1: he couldn't play at all his rookie year. But like
22:46
Speaker 1: you said, it is a it is gonna be nice
22:49
Speaker 1: having him back for the twenty twenty season. People have
22:53
Speaker 1: stories to write and talk shows to fill. It's a
22:56
Speaker 1: lot of chatter between now in April twenty third and
22:59
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow name has come up in a wide variety
23:02
Speaker 1: of places. Are you listening to all of this Joe
23:07
Speaker 1: Burrow talk? No, I don't think you can. You can
23:10
Speaker 1: listen to it. There's got to be, you know, headlines,
23:13
Speaker 1: and there's gonna be headlines regardless of what the situation is.
23:17
Speaker 1: I think. I think from our perspective, we're just worried
23:19
Speaker 1: about what's going on in this building. You know, We're
23:21
Speaker 1: we're watching the watching the film. We're calling these players
23:25
Speaker 1: coaches on the phone, and and getting gathering more and
23:27
Speaker 1: more information as we go throughout the process. And like
23:30
Speaker 1: you said, for for the first time in a week
23:33
Speaker 1: and a half or so, at the combine, we'll have
23:34
Speaker 1: the first time to sit down and look look these
23:37
Speaker 1: guys in the eye and talk to on face to face,
23:39
Speaker 1: so you know that that stuff is out our control.
23:43
Speaker 1: Who's gonna who's gonna make the headlines and who's gonna
23:45
Speaker 1: create stories, whether they have credibility or they don't have credibility. Um,
23:49
Speaker 1: so I think we would be you know, it would
23:51
Speaker 1: be taking us away from what's really the most important
23:54
Speaker 1: thing at hand for us. It would be taking us
23:57
Speaker 1: away from that if we were spending too much time
23:58
Speaker 1: worrying about what's what's in the news. So you get
24:01
Speaker 1: to talk to forty five guys at the combine for
24:04
Speaker 1: eighteen minutes apiece? Do you have that list of forty five?
24:07
Speaker 1: We do. We actually had to submit that on Tuesday
24:10
Speaker 1: of this week, so we have we submit that to
24:13
Speaker 1: the Combine and through the league and we have those
24:15
Speaker 1: forty five guys set and we will, like I said,
24:18
Speaker 1: will be a lot of them will be will end
24:20
Speaker 1: up being an underclassman just because we we coach a
24:22
Speaker 1: lot of these guys at the Senior Bowl. So we
24:24
Speaker 1: do have that leg up advantage on on some teams.
24:27
Speaker 1: As far as the exposure that we got to a
24:29
Speaker 1: lot of the seniors at the at the down down
24:31
Speaker 1: in Mobile. So that is uh, that is something that
24:34
Speaker 1: we're going to use to our advantage and use the
24:36
Speaker 1: information that we gathered for that week down at the
24:38
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl. And there still will be seniors that we
24:40
Speaker 1: that we do formal interviews with the combine, but I
24:43
Speaker 1: think this gives us a chance to to really focus
24:45
Speaker 1: on on some of the underclassmen that we don't you know,
24:48
Speaker 1: have as much face to face exposure with At this
24:51
Speaker 1: point in the process. It's a really busy time for
24:53
Speaker 1: you and the other guys on the staff. I know
24:55
Speaker 1: you're gonna be spending a lot of time on the
24:57
Speaker 1: road coming up sell best of Lockin. We look forward
25:00
Speaker 1: to April twenty third, twenty fourth, and twenty fifth. Absolutely, Dann,
25:03
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. That's going to do it for
25:06
Speaker 1: this episode of the podcast. If you haven't done so already,
25:09
Speaker 1: don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and
25:12
Speaker 1: if you have a minute, please give it a rating
25:14
Speaker 1: or share a comment. Five star ratings help more Bengals
25:18
Speaker 1: fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for
25:22
Speaker 1: listening to The Bengals Booth podcast.