Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - 2025 Draft Board | What "The Sheet" says the Cincinnati Bengals should do in the 2025 NFL Draft to address their needs

Starting point is 00:00:00 Our annual draft spreadsheet is complete. And with that releasing to the public, let's discuss the players of Bengals should be looking at for all of their needs in the 2025 NFL draft. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liscoe, joined today by. Joe Goodberry, and today we dive into the annual draft spreadsheet that Joe is the godfather of at this point,

Starting point is 00:00:44 started as a project that he and I worked on, what, 2017, 2018, and have been completing every year since then with improvements coming along the way. We'll shout out the other major contributors to that project here in just a minute. But lockdown Bengals, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. can find us on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast. Appreciate all the everydayers out there if you're looking to become an everydayer, especially here in draft season. You can hit that subscribe button to make sure you don't miss an episode. We appreciate everyone out there that makes locked on Bengals their first list,

Starting point is 00:01:20 and especially if you've been doing it as long as this podcast has existed going back to 2016. Joe, let's get into the spreadsheet. We'll explain what goes into this thing every year. We've got more players ranked than ever. nearly a thousand players in a draft spreadsheet this year that we'll see 250-some-odd players drafted a fraction of the players that we've got in this sheet. But a huge project that is about to go out to the public, depending on when folks are listening to this, this can be a companion podcast to go along with the sheet that you'll see on Joe

Starting point is 00:01:57 Goodberry's timeline at Joe Goodberry. I'll retweet it, of course, as well, at Jake Lisco. But let's start with what the sheet is, Joe, and you can shout out, all of the contributors this year because I know there are a lot of folks that have put a lot of work in. Yeah, it's a team effort at this point. And I started doing draft rankings and doing draft content and draft work in 2010. So it's been a long time now. It's been 15 years of draft work.

Starting point is 00:02:20 And then my first spreadsheet was 2012 where I'm like, all right, people want to see this go more in depth other than the top 50 or 100 players or whatever I was doing at the time. And I said, okay, based on film and I used to watch all these guys in depth and watch as much as we could. And at the time, it was highlights and cutups on YouTube. And I would score them. And I'd score them individually based on their talent only. And it would spit it out. And there was a lot of, I had a lot of success with that with some guys. But I missed on a ton of players that later as I got older and saw more data and saw more

Starting point is 00:02:52 more evidence that, hey, this stuff can be predictive, whether it's athleticism or production data. And then PFF got involved in the game in 2016 or so for college information. So I was like, okay, if this can help improve my process and help cut out some of the players I liked and say, listen, the data says this guy's got a small chance to succeed. It could be a Tyler Booker this year, right? Everyone loves Tyler Booker on tape or at least likes Tyler Booker on tape. They understand his limitations. And you can be comfortable with those limitations because the tape is very convincing.

Starting point is 00:03:23 You're watching a guy play football and I'm projecting him to play football. It's very convincing stuff. But then you see, oh, he's in a bucket of players that rarely be. become better than average starters in the NFL. So now, how do you let that affect a guy's ranking or a score? And that's what we try to achieve. You'll listen to podcast. If you're like me right now, you're cramming in draft podcasts, right? Listeners are probably doing this pretty consistently. Listen to everyone across the internet. And you'll get tons of film evaluations and opinions on players. Rarely do they marry that with the data. And the data is very important. Teams,

Starting point is 00:03:57 every team is using the data to help decide who is a good prospect or maybe someone outside. the box that they weren't thinking of before, highlighting guys or striking guys down, putting them on subboards, whatever it may be. Every team is using it to an extent, some more than others. But the process here is to marry those two. And so that's what the draft spreadsheet does. And it's been, we started this, the first year you and I did, it was 2019 for the lockdown Bengals podcast.

Starting point is 00:04:23 We started growing it together and figuring it out together. And it was in its early stages. And we've changed the formulas and added players. And now I think we've reached a thousand players. thanks to guys like Neil Engelberger, if I can take a minute to shout him out. He is doing the heavy lifting. But then we have scorers and graders that take their time and watch the tape like Max Tuscano, Bengals Sands, Mike Santageta, draft guy Jared and myself.

Starting point is 00:04:48 And then a bunch of other guys that are filling in information and making it look pretty, collecting data and just making the sheet consumable for you guys. And I'm very proud of it. It's a big undertaking, something we communicate on for a long time. And at the end, it's like, all right, we're finished. Enjoy. The aesthetic upgrades from the first year we did this thing to now. I mean, we were okay back in 2019.

Starting point is 00:05:11 And I have my dates all jumbled there. So thanks for clarifying the timeline as I was trying to introduce it with dates that were very unclear in my head. But the aesthetics of this sheet have come a long way. It's still a spreadsheet. Don't get me wrong. But it's much prettier now than it used to be. And that's thanks to the efforts of all involved. And like you said, the point here is you can go anywhere and listen to what Dame Bruegler thinks about guys on tape or what Field Yates thinks about guys on tape when he's talking with Mel Kuyper or what your favorite draft analyst thinks on tape.

Starting point is 00:05:45 Those are all written up. Lance Zerlind's top whatever, however many players he's graded are on NFL.com. That's all awesome work. We use all of that stuff. That goes in to the consensus board that we track, right? And so we've got all that stuff in here. Mike Redder, name the draft expert that you like, who we've had on these shows in the past, whether it's Joe and I, whether it's James and I.

Starting point is 00:06:08 And so that's part of the process. But while you have those on one hand, you also have people on the other hand that are like, okay, here's our analytics board. And it's only data. And the belief that we've always had is that you have to use all the information available to you, which even using all the information we have available to. to us is missing medicals, is missing character specifics. And those are things that are data to teams that we do not have access to

Starting point is 00:06:37 when you're talking about subboards or where you have guys moved around the board for these different reasons where you'd be comfortable drafting a player. That's data to teams that we don't have. But what we do have is an array of film scores from those film graders you talked about, largely you, Mike Santagana, draft guy Jared, and then of course Max Descano contributing for tight ends this year. And you can check out his project. Remember the tight ends where he's taking it upon himself to really dig into the tight end topic as a position very deeply.

Starting point is 00:07:12 You'll see that his grade for Harold Bannon is dramatically different from what you might expect when you go dig into the tight end tab because he doesn't believe that Harold Bannon is a tight end. He thinks he thinks he's essentially Kyle Eustra. But the point of this is that we have all this data that overtime has told us these are the things that contribute to the success of players in the NFL. And no matter how much you like a guy on tape, and let's continue to use the Tyler Booker example, guys that have that level of athleticism are rarely successful. And so what we try to do, and I remember we originally were calling this like the risk assessment draft or something along those lines. Because what we were trying to do is we're trying to say, okay, this is a player that's clearly a first-round player on tape, but for reasons beyond tape, that we have quantifiable in terms of his athleticism in the case of Tyler Booker, in terms of his PFF data in the case of Tyler Booker, these are reasons that you need to be buyer beware. or for a player like, I don't know, let's take Luke Kandra or Kondra, 23-year-old.

Starting point is 00:08:25 We also have, in the past, adjusted certain things for age. And so the whole point of this process is we're going to, over the course of this episode, dive into what the sheet says the Bengals should be doing for their top needs. In a class that if you listened to us two months ago, we would have said this is a weak guard class. And then you figure out all the tackles that can play. play guard in the NFL, that will play guard in the NFL. And all of a sudden, the guard depth looks pretty dang good. And that's where we're going to start as we dive into some of the

Starting point is 00:08:56 players the Bengals can target at positions that are at this point severe, severe needs after what they did in free agency. We'll start with what the sheet says about guards coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by LinkedIn. And LinkedIn knows that as a small business owner, your work doesn't end when the clock hits five. Your business is always on your mind, which means when it's time to hire, you need a partner that works just as hard as you do. That's where LinkedIn jobs comes in because when you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in. And I would extend that to the Bengals and our draft sheet that we're talking about today when you need somebody to do the extra work for you, just refer to the draft sheet in the Lockdown or in the Cincinnati

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Starting point is 00:10:16 That's LinkedIn.com slash locked on NFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Joe, as we dive into the sheet, there are obvious fits for the Cincinnati Bengals at offensive guard. You get some first round options. You get some second round options. You get some hopefully third round options. But I'll let you take it away here, talk about what your takeaways were as you put the sheet together. What stands out to you as the best plan for the Cincinnati Bengals at Guard?

Starting point is 00:10:48 Yeah, if we're just talking about guard and we'll get to other positions here. I started like what you said out before we went to break. Maybe not a great guard class until the weigh-ins happened and the measurements happened for the tackles. And it's like, okay, a lot of these tackles are going to play guard and they're going to kick the inside the guard. And that is just, that's, to me, the Bengals like to do that, right? That's not a problem for them.

Starting point is 00:11:13 They want to move these guys inside. They want to have that flexibility or develop them. and in a couple of years, kick them back out. Or they just, I think they like the size. They like the length a little bit more. They like the athleticism a little bit more. Those guys tend to play tackle in college and we'll kick into guard. So our scoring process spits it out and it loves Will Campbell and Armand Membo.

Starting point is 00:11:32 We don't expect either of those guys to be available for us. But right behind them is Calvin Banks Jr. from Texas, the left tackle, who was 20 years old on tape. He's 21.1. On draft day, super young, started all three years, five-star recruit, played in huge games. and I think he looks like a guard. So one of the thing is when you're watching tackles and you're saying, can they play guard?

Starting point is 00:11:52 A little bit of difference between, in my opinion, between like a Josh Connerley and a Calvin Banks is who plays with the leverage, who is comfortable in tight spaces, who is comfortable wrestling and digging guys out, especially defensive tackles and moving them at the point of attack. And Calvin Banks runs head first and slams into these defensive tackles. There are 330 pounds. Kenneth Grant put on the Michigan tape. And the data supports it.

Starting point is 00:12:16 And the data says Kelvin Banks is a very, very good player. He gets an 84.3 grade. He's in our top 15 in this class. And if he's there at 17 for the Bengals, I think he's one of the best case scenarios they can land on in the first round. But after that, I think we do have a gap. And the spreadsheet agrees as well, even though it likes Gray's Zabel a ton. It likes Wyatt Millam a ton, who's currently 81st on the consensus,

Starting point is 00:12:39 is probably supposed to go in the third round. It likes Jared Wilson a ton, despite him being a center. I think he can play guard at 6-3-3-10. So the size there shouldn't limit him, but he's a third-round pick. All of those guys I just named have first-round grades. But it also fringe first-round grades for Josh Connerley, Tate Ratlidge. And I think Connerley can play guard just not in the way that I think of like a power guard. Like Calvin Banks, to me, could be a pro-bowl or all-pro-level guard.

Starting point is 00:13:08 I think Connerley is more of a Clint bowling technician-level guard. That's a good athlete. and then you'll eventually kick him out to left tackle. But it gives a fringe first round grade to Connerley. Tate Ratlitch, who one of the most commonly mocked players to the Bengals, same thing. Fringe first round. If he's there at 49, take them. I know that some of these mock drafts have him available in the third round.

Starting point is 00:13:28 I think they're absolutely nuts. I don't think that's going to happen at all. And then the last one there of the elite guys at the top is Arianta Ursary from Minnesota, who is a big dude, 6-6-3-31. The problem with the evaluation of switching a tackle to guys, is also, does the guy bend with his knees or does he bend at his waist? And for Ursary, he is a waistbender. So I wonder how the smaller, more powerful defensive tackles would probably work him a little bit and get underneath him and out leverage him. And I gave Ursula the

Starting point is 00:13:59 lowest score on film than all these other guys I listed. So if you're wondering about Donovan Jackson, Jonah Savinea, all of these guys scored well enough to be starters in the NFL. After that, it gets a little slim, whether that's Charles Grant, Ozzie Trapil, or Luke Kandra. Guys that are probably third rounders, I think mostly. Candra later, so we'll see where he fits in. He's probably the lowest scoring guard or lowest consensus rated guard that scores high enough to potentially be a starter in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:14:29 Yeah, Jalen Rivers reported 30 visit for the Bengals this week as well, coming in a little bit lower, although the film grades are probably fringe startable. He comes in a little bit lower because of some of the data there. What stands out to me the most about these guys is of the fits that I like the best for the Bengals, Kelvin Banks in the first round or Tate Ratledge in the second round, those guys both are excellent pass blockers on top of everything else that you would hope for in a guard profile if you're spending a premium pick on that kind of player. The reason you would do it on Banks is because maybe you believe he can play tackle too. That's where the Bengals would have to be talked in to Kelvin Banks is can this guy go on the Andrew Whitworth plan? Can't he eventually be a good tackle in the NFL?

Starting point is 00:15:17 Whereas St. Ratlidge in the second round, you're totally fine taking a high-end guard prospect in the second round. And both of those guys tested, like, very good athletes for guard. Like, there's, you go look at the RAS column on the draft spreadsheet, on the guard page, a whole lot of green, a whole lot of really high-end athletes for the guard position. But Ratledge and Banks both stand out in particular for their pass blocking, prowess. So, too, does Wyatt Millam, although there's a bit of a different feel to that for me,

Starting point is 00:15:52 for some reason. I have a hard time putting my finger on exactly why that is. Maybe it's just a senior bowl and Millam having a tough time early in the Senior Bowl, holding his ground and anchoring where you think about the traits you need for guard. You're talking about size and ability to play in a phone booth, but you're also talking about anchoring against these 350 pound, sometimes Dexter Lawrence or 315 pounds slippery guys like Chris Jones that you're going to have to deal with on the interior of an offensive line. And that's why, to me, the guys that have the clean pass walking profile are the ones that stand out the most.

Starting point is 00:16:28 And Jonas Savanaia is another one of those that has a strong pass blocking profile if you're looking a little bit later. Do you think that if they wait until the third round, they've waited too long based on everything that we've seen here, or if it is Wyatt Millam, and that's the plan. And the Bengals haven't had any contact that we've recorded with Wyatt Millam. Another feat feature of the draft spreadsheet here is that we're tracking all the contact the Bengals have had with these players. Millam is not one of the players they've had contact with.

Starting point is 00:16:57 But if that's a plan in the third round, and that's all you're getting, do you think that's too late? Or, you know, maybe you can get Jonas Savatanaia in the third round. Maybe. I think that's pretty wishful thinking, although the simulator sometimes would have you believe otherwise. What are your thoughts on on how things would go if they ended up waiting until the end of day two? Yeah, I don't know how many of these guys will be remaining. You know, it's always a bit of a sticker shock I feel right before the draft when this is finalized

Starting point is 00:17:27 because these guys make grade really high. And then I go, oh, no, I wanted this guy in the third round. I wanted Tate Ratledge in the third round. I wanted Charles Grant in the third round. He's a 90 percentile true pass set blocker. I want that. And then there's like reports. Oh, no, he's going top 50. He's going top. Everyone's going top 50 right now. There will be someone there. Hopefully it's a good player, right? Hopefully it's not just Miles Frazier and Miles Frazier is fine. Hopefully it's not just Marcus M. Bo. Like if we talk about guys who did not pass the test on our spreadsheet, and we brought up already Tyler Booker, but Tyler Booker has to go in the top 50, right? So that's going to knock another guy down. But there are quite a few that didn't pass the bar, Anthony Belton,

Starting point is 00:18:07 Garrett Dillinger, Miles Frazier, Marcus and Bo. I don't want it to be one of those guys. I don't want to take another low-end bet on a guard just because they like him and he can squeeze ketchup out of a bottle well enough for them or whatever the handshake test is. That was Paul Alexander, if you don't remember.

Starting point is 00:18:25 If you're a young and it was one of the reasons why they drafted Jake Fisher maybe. I can't remember which one was, but it was hilarious. Anyway, we have, and I go back to 2021, We had a lot of offensive linemen graded really well. This reminds me of that class where Sam Cosmy is screaming at you. Creed Humphrey's screaming at you. Trey Smith forever was screaming at us.

Starting point is 00:18:45 Quinn Miners scored super high for us. All of them had first rounder. They were all top 18 for us. I just looked at this, Jake. Creed Humphrey was top 18. Quinn Miners was top 18. Sam Cosmy was top 18 on our sheet. They went with Jackson, Carmen, who we had a fifth round basically grade on in round two.

Starting point is 00:19:01 Don't do that, and you'll be fine. Like, of the guys available, if it is one of the guys, guys that scores high, I have confidence that that guy can turn into a decent level starter. Just don't go off the map and you'll be fine. Yeah, there's a couple of things that we're asking for the Bengals to do and we're talking about guard. One of the stay on the map, as you're saying, like don't go off reservation and do something crazy.

Starting point is 00:19:21 And two is don't get to a point where you're desperate and that forces you to go off reservation. And I'm reminded, and this isn't anything about what McKinley Jackson did last year, but of the way that they ended up forcing those third round picks last year where we thought forever it was going to be Jalen McMillan. It ended up being Jermaine Burton, which was incredibly shocking at the time. But the likelihood of them taking a nose tackle last year was 100 in a bad nose tackle class. And so doing it in the third round was a round earlier than we would have liked. But if you get to that point where you have a dire need and it's a third round and you haven't taken a guy, you're going to take a guy. And hopefully the guy that's left is good.

Starting point is 00:20:03 all the more reason to make that move a little bit earlier. Let's continue with some of the other positions that we're expecting the Bengals to target in the draft and see what the sheet has to say to finish the show coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by FanDuel and the NBA playoffs are here. FanDuel is then giving new customers an incredible way to get in on all the NBA action. Right now when you place your first $5 bet with FanDuel, you'll get $250 in bonus bets if your bet wins. Fandle makes betting so easy whether it's picking your favorite team or diving into player props, whether it's the NBA and you're looking at three-pointers or steals or assist

Starting point is 00:20:48 props or you're looking at NFL draft props with the Bengals draft pick right around the corner. If you feel very strongly about what they're doing in the first round, you can go get in on the odds for the Bengals to draft a specific position in the first round with Fandul. Plus, even after games have started, you can combine live prop bets into same game parlays for a chance to win big. Don't miss out. You get $250 in bonus bets if that first $5 bet wins at fandul.com to claim your $250 in bonus bets today. Joe, let's talk about some of the other positions that we expect the Bengals to address this year. let's go to the defensive side of the ball where there is a high likelihood or at least a solid

Starting point is 00:21:40 chance that we should expect to see a whole lot of draft picks spent an edge rusher, certainly on the menu, a linebacker, certainly on the menu, a safety likely on the menu, an interior defensive lineman, almost certainly on the menu. That's a lot of positions that you're hoping to see the Bengals address at some point or another in this draft, and that doesn't mention. the wild cards of potentially going after a corner, potentially going after running back. But this class has been touted for its depth on the edge and on the defensive line in general. You go look at Dame Bruegler's grades, for example, in the Beast. And you'll see more players in the top 100 on the defensive line than any other spot.

Starting point is 00:22:24 The draft sheet, however, doesn't necessarily see it that way. It does not. And you're going to see guys that fall below. the threshold. And we can start with defensive end and talk about like Shamar Stewart and Michael Williams. And you got to understand why I think at this point everyone talks about production, even if you're listening

Starting point is 00:22:42 to film analysis or whatever you're watching or listening to. The production's bad for those guys. You need some level of sacks, pressures, tackles for loss, pass rush, win rate, all of these things. It applies to the defensive tackles too.

Starting point is 00:22:58 Or guys that you'll see in the top 100, Dane Brugler, I believe, has Omar Norman. lot from Tennessee really high. He doesn't score well for us. Why? Because the guys played 200 snaps per year and five years in his college career. At most, 280 snaps. What does that mean he's going to be in the NFL?

Starting point is 00:23:13 Typically, players are going to be exactly what they are in college in the NFL. They may get enhanced a little bit. They make it the microscope on them a little bit. Positive and negative. Their weaknesses will be attacked by the other team. Their strengths will be utilized by a good coaching staff. But at the same time, if Norman Lott is. playing 250 snaps a year. Where can you take that guy? Fourth round, fifth round, they're telling

Starting point is 00:23:37 me he can go second, third, I'm not, I'm out on that. And I think the draft spreadsheet does a good job of saying that. It's also going to knock nose tackles and say, you shouldn't take a nose tackle until day three. Why? Because it's hard to project where the good nose tackles come from. The Bengals drafted Tyler Shelvin and T.J. Slayton was drafted two rounds later. Well, T.J. was the better nose tackle and that stuff happens all the time. But this is pretty common at nose tackle for these guys to come out of the fifth, six, seventh round and undrafted because they need to be big body space eaters that aren't going to have a ton of production.

Starting point is 00:24:11 So the spreadsheet's going to say that. But what I, biggest takeaway for me is I take the DN class, even with taking out Shamar Stewart, Michael Williams, and saying, let's just not target those guys at 17. It's super deep. We're talking rounds two, three, probably four. there's a couple guys in each round there that are going to score really high for us. Defensive tackle is almost the opposite. It's been touted as a really good defensive tackle class.

Starting point is 00:24:35 But what do the Bengals actually need? They need pass rush and they need a defensive tackle number one if they're going to do it. That means you've only got a couple guys. You only really have Derek Harmon, Walter Nolan, and our spreadsheet says, hey, keep an eye on T.J. Sanders. But other than that, that's it. If you want a DT number one, those are your three guys that's to happen at 17 or 49 if you're lucky that Sanders is still there at 49, and he's projected at the consensus right now,

Starting point is 00:25:01 58th overall. And then after that, you may get a swing on a Dionne Walker. Where's he going to get drafted, the third, fourth round? And you may get a swing on some rotational pieces like Darius Alexander or a Tonka Hemingway or a Jordan Birch, Simeon Barrow, maybe it's Ty Robinson, who I've talked about a bunch, maybe it's in ESPibles, but half those guys fall below the threshold of becoming a good starter. So I think the D-T tackle class was a little bit overrated because most of them are going in the first round. Kenneth Grant, even Tileak Williams, is probably back end of the first round to the early second round.

Starting point is 00:25:32 I think teams are going to love Tiley Williams, but the D.N. class is strong throughout. It's interesting that you mentioned the nose tackle bit where this year we see that they're two really strong nose tackle prospects in Kenneth Grant and Tileak Williams, and then you look at the guys that the Bengals have met with and none of them are nose tackles, even C.J. West, where they had a presence at the Indiana Pro Day,

Starting point is 00:25:51 probably seeing more as a nose tackle than a versatile interior defensive lineman. And I think C.J. West is a really exciting prospect. If you don't get a defensive tackle in the first three rounds and you have a chance to draft C.J. West in the fourth round, I guess it's probably the latest you would go, Consensus 107 for C.J. West, so that's probably hoping a little bit that he will still be available to you in the fourth round.

Starting point is 00:26:13 I would think that would be a really good draft pick. And the guys of Bengals have instead paid their attention to are guys that are more penetrated. three type of defensive tackles. And that is your T.J. Sanders, your Walter Nolan, your Ty Robinson, Darius Alexander, Todd Hamilton from Ohio State on a local visit. Or Ty Hamilton in the fifth round, you could do worse. How much of a difference maker are you getting at that point?

Starting point is 00:26:40 I'm not really sure. But if you're looking for that DT1 type, you're right, that's a first round prospect. Or T.J. Sanders. Spend a second talking about T.J. Sanders profile here, because to me, and we talked about this before we started recording, if this is a draft where it's Kelvin Banks in round one, T.J. Sanders in round two, one of the more exciting prospects that the Bengals could hypothetically draft at Pick 49.

Starting point is 00:27:06 Yeah, and T.J. Sanders was highlighted by the spreadsheet, right? I didn't have a film grade on him. It spit him out and said, hey, all the production and testing data, his data score, as we can see on the sheet, is the highest of all these defensive tackles at a 92. And I said, whoa, okay, let me go look at this guy. He's supposed to be a second round pick. Maybe we're not talking about T.J. Sanders enough.

Starting point is 00:27:25 And I gave him a solid second round, a premium second round guy I would target in the second round of 78 on film. I thought he was for nearly 6-4-297. And I think he weighed at 305, who we mentioned before we started recording at his pro day. So that's good size. I think he looks like a plus athlete. I didn't think he was an elite athlete tested nearly in the 94th percentile. I thought good athlete, not great. But a guy who won consistently as a pass rusher.

Starting point is 00:27:51 and a run defender. I thought he was stout against the run. I thought he was disruptive upfield. I thought he could two gap just fine. Like to me, I'm watching him. I'm like, this looks like a good starting level player.

Starting point is 00:28:02 But the production data puts him in the 97th percentile. And the PFF data puts them in the 85th percentile based on our formula. So you're saying everything is above average to elite levels. It spits them out as, hey, this is a guy we're too low on. And we've had this before. We've had third round defensive tackles get. Top 12 grades for us, Justin Matabike, Milton Williams. It highlights them, and sometimes on tape I love those guys.

Starting point is 00:28:30 Like Milton Williams, I loved on tape. Made up BK, I was more like T.J. Sanders. I'm like, it looks like a good player. Not sure he's great, but it looks like a good player. I'd be happy with him in the second round or so. Well, they turned into really, really good players. And because sometimes the data says, if a guy was productive in college, he's going to be productive in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:28:47 And that's what it's telling us about Sanders. And because of it, I'm in. Checking boxes, right? productive, athletic, and looks good on tape. Maybe not like a world beater on tape, but whatever he's doing on tape and the SEC is working. The other couple players I wanted to shout out here before we quickly get to safety and linebacker,

Starting point is 00:29:04 Ashton Jaloti, Jalati, one day pronounced his name right, who stands out as a massive gap between consensus and the sheets rankings. And Antoine Powell, Ireland, out of Virginia Tech, a little bit older at 23 on draft day, but a guy that stands out again with a roughly early second round grade when things are said and done,

Starting point is 00:29:27 but is expected to be drafted on day three. Can I go quick on both? We can talk about them another day this week. How's that? As we'll have a chance to get back to. A lot of fun to talk about those two. We both come back to the edge position because I think that's one that the Bengals could target anywhere between rounds,

Starting point is 00:29:45 one and five, depending on how things shake out. A position that you're either targeting, early or late, on the other hand, I think is linebacker. Very top heavy here. Jahad Campbell with the shoulder question, knee question that was pointed out in the beast that you've talked about as well. And Carson Swessinger from UCLA, the two guys that you can target early. And then some guys, Teddy Buchanan and Cody Simon in particular standing out as potential late round targets that could be much better than their draft status, according to the data that we've gotten this sheet. I would also point out, and the sheet does as well,

Starting point is 00:30:19 Danny Stutzman, who's got a consensus 102 in Smale, Mondin Jr. 113 consensus, both of those guys, if you're looking for later targets. Interesting. And the one guy the Bengals spent a 30 visit on that we're aware of, Nick Martin, Nicholas Martin, out of Oklahoma State, coming out like a solid player, according to all the data that we have. And that's a guy that you would be targeting probably in the sixth route. As far as safety goes, I think a lot more depth here that we will have to get into

Starting point is 00:30:48 between Nickham and Worry coming out way high. Hunter Woller, a guy that we're going to need to talk about as a guy that really stands out, the biggest gap between consensus and where the sheet lands on him since we've been doing this thing. Kevin Winston with the injury history there, Malachi Starks, still looking like a good prospect, but really anchored a little bit by the athletic testing, even though we did this year alter the formula to count for athleticism a little bit less at safety because we have evidence that athleticism counts a little bit less at safety. But the sheet liking those guys, and then you see a little bit of a falloff before you get the guys like Andrew McCuba,

Starting point is 00:31:25 Xavier Watts, who doesn't come out like a second round prospect on the sheet. What are the highlights there you want to hit on before we get out of here, Joe? Yeah, so linebacker is very, very weird. You do have a first round guy, you have a second round guy. And then I do not know. And I like the linebacker class. But you're right, like Cody Simon and Teddy Buchan and guys that are fifth,

Starting point is 00:31:42 six round guys scoring very, very high. And I went back and watched. I'm like, okay, let's, and I'm in on both. Both are athletic. Both are consistently making noise against the run. Both are stout tacklers and seem very, very smart. And I'm like, okay, why are they rated? So I think we were struggling to rate linebackers as a whole.

Starting point is 00:32:00 I went back and looked at drafting. And not just us, I mean, the NFL, I went back and looked at who's been drafted at linebacker. And these guys are happy starters, good quality starters. We've Bengals have had two, Logan Wilson, Germain Pratt, third round, fourth round, fifth round. And then role players, Smael Mondin is a tremendous pass coverage linebacker. He's going to go in the fourth round or so.

Starting point is 00:32:21 Like, he's a plug and play nickel linebacker, but he just might only be that. So there's a ton of these guys here that if they go in the right spot, they can end up being very good players. And I don't know which one Bengals are going to target. But Jack Kaiser falls underneath. Someone we talked about it probably, probably too much. Falls underneath the threshold. Maybe he still is a fifth, sixth, seventh round guy the way he originally was.

Starting point is 00:32:41 And then at safety, we're going to keep. talking about the same six or so players because that's it. And then it's going to fall off. But there are a bunch of guys I think couldn't be starter level players. Yonis Sanker down to R.J. Mickens and Jalen Reed and they're right at the cutoff point, right at the line. But do we want to wait that long? And the Bengals have drafted guys like that with Dejan Anthony and Tyson Anderson. You know, at what point there do you say, you know, we've got two young guys we like. We're not going to stretch this into the fourth round and beyond. I wonder if that's another one where it's early.

Starting point is 00:33:13 or late, like linebacker, where they're going to try to get one of those two maybe early, if they can, if they can get Kevin Winston, for example, or then they come back and they go JJ Roberts late or at linebacker. If they can get Jahad Campbell or Carson's Westinger early, maybe they're in on those guys, but then if they can't, well, you got Nicholas Martin or maybe Barrett Carter later, although Barrett Carter is a guy that might go earlier based on consensus than the sheet would have him, a guy that the Bengals did meet with. at the combine where they're doing homework here on some guys, but it doesn't look like they're necessarily prioritizing early linebacker. If you're just judging off their visits versus safety, where they've spent more time with some of those guys that are expected to be drafted early. And certainly a ton of time on the defensive line between edge,

Starting point is 00:34:02 interior defensive line, a ton of time they've spent with offensive guard prospects, especially those that have experience at tackle. And so we'll have all of those things to talk about. We'll have to talk about running back a little bit, Joe, as we're going through this week, as we have a couple more days where it'll be Joe and I here on lockdown Bengals, and we'll have plenty to talk about as we're gearing up for the draft and trying to identify what players do we think the Bengals should be targeting in the first round?

Starting point is 00:34:29 Where can we make a case for these are the guys that Bengals should be honing in on? And I always like playing the Tuzer Adventure game, trying to come up with a number of scenarios, stack them up against each other, figure out the pros and cons and figure out which scenario of which players and which rounds feels the best. So that'll be coming your way the rest of this week here on Lockdown Bengals. We're of course keeping our eye on any further top 30 or 30 visits as well as the Bengals might have some last minute visits that indicate who they're thinking about in the 2025 NFL

Starting point is 00:35:03 draft. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, Ho day. And have a good book. Thank you.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - 2025 Draft Board | What "The Sheet" says the Cincinnati Bengals should do in the 2025 NFL Draft to address their needs

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