Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Bengals Can Finally Fix Major Weakness on Defense in 2026 NFL Draft

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals are still looking for juice at the edge position. Will they find it in the NFL draft? Let's discuss some of the best targets for the Bengals in this year's 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 Lockdown Bengals podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. I'm with James Rapine, your other host of Lockdown Bengals and Joe Goodbush.

Starting point is 00:00:35 Barry who just put out the Bengals draft sheet that I've been working on with him for years, mostly Joe's work at this point, with a cast of helping hands out there that we will shout out, of course, Neil Engelberger, Mike Santagano, we got Max Descano on tight as we got Parker Blake helping on offensive line this year. But we're going to focus this week on defensive positions that we think the Bengals could be targeting in this draft class. And We're going to start with one that to me, guys, feels more like a when, not if. I think the Bengals are really interested in adding more help on the edge where they sign Boye Mafet, yes, but I still think despite the investments they've made there, they'll be very

Starting point is 00:01:21 interested in adding. And it's a deep and skilled edge rushing class, especially at the top in the first couple of days of the draft. And 100% in play at pick number 10, Joe. So let's start there on day one. We'll get to day two, day three for targets by day of the draft. And the first episode we'll do in this series. We'll have you all week with defensive end, linebacker, corner, safety, defensive tackle,

Starting point is 00:01:47 all the defensive positions in this draft class. We did tight end with Max Descano last week, the last episode last week. So six positions, a deep dive for you. Joe, let's start in the first round. Some very clear candidates for pick number 10 for the Bengals. How do they stack up for you? Yeah, and if someone asks about Arvo Reese, we did him on the linebacker show. You could mention them here.

Starting point is 00:02:07 I think the upside is as a pass rusher. And if he was there for the Bengals, I'd love to see how they use them, but we don't expect it. Right. So of the more reasonable, hopefully it's just two guys we're talking about at 10 and not three, right? Hopefully it's David Bailey and Rubin Bain, and it's not Caldrick Fall. There's a chance. I think the Bengals don't reach that often despite our draft fears. And Caldrick Falke is just out of the range of where they would typically reach in round one.

Starting point is 00:02:32 So let's talk about David Bailey and Ruben Bain for that spot. I think both are worthy of it. I think in a non-traditional way, David Bailey is because he's a little bit older of a prospect. He's not the hulking, 6-foot-6, 275-pounder that you typically see going to top five at defensive end. But he's such a good pass rusher. His production profile is extremely good.

Starting point is 00:02:55 You know, we use the draft sheet, right? And we have a correlation factor. I don't know if you've seen this yet, Jake, if you go to the defensive end page, go all the way to the right. How strong is this data in correlating to a good NFL player? David Bailey hits the 100th percentile. He should be a good NFL player based on what he has done in college. So I would be excited if he got there somehow.

Starting point is 00:03:14 But then, of course, Ruben Bain is going to be the conversation of arm length and how much does it matter and do the upside traits that he has. Does it outweigh the length that he doesn't have? It's a debate probably for the teams in the top five. but if both were there, if we're looking at a David Bailey who brings that juice. And in a lot of ways, you could say, oh, well, this could be not Trey Hendrickson's replacement,

Starting point is 00:03:43 but a guy that's going to give you the juice and not necessarily hold up against the run as much as the Bengals historically have liked. And guess what? That's what Trey did for multiple years here in Cincinnati, but he racked up sacks and pressures and was a big part of their defense. Do you think they would have David Bailey ranked ahead of Ruben Bain?

Starting point is 00:04:00 how do you have these guys ranked in how much of the completeness or potential completeness of Rubin Bain but lack of arm length? How does that stack up against David Bailey and the pass rush juice but not as good against the run? Yeah, so neither guy is fully complete. And I will say that because Bailey's not good against the run right now. And in fact, he doesn't have really good run data at all. He's being carried completely by his pass rush data that is really good.

Starting point is 00:04:28 and his pass rush win rate, true pass that win rate. It's all great, right? It's fantastic. But he is being compared a little bit to Trey Hendrickson. He doesn't wear gloves, right? He is a guy, again, how I described him, really good pass rush or not great against the run.

Starting point is 00:04:41 He's smaller than Trey in terms of weight, but he's a lot longer than Trey is. Actually, Bain and Trey Hendrickson have the same exact wingspan, whereas Bailey's 86-inch wingspan and nearly 34-inch arms, very long for being 6-3, and he uses that to his advantage, keeping guys at bay. Elite get-off, he's going to win with his get-off a bunch, and because of that, he's got more in his toolbox than most guys because he can spin back inside.

Starting point is 00:05:07 He can hit you with the ghost move. He is winning off of his get-off. I think he's got more power in his hands than most people think. He's got some of the biggest hands in this class, and he converts his speed into power. If he can't beat you around the corner, he will step back inside and try to run through you, which sets up a lot of his other moves, his spin, and his ghost move works because of that long arm, you know, isn't there. it to him, you take it away, he at the corner. I'd say his weakness, actually, as a pass rusher is turning the corner, and at times he is not as agile turning as he should be. You look on the other side, Romello height is way more agile as a pass rusher, much smaller,

Starting point is 00:05:41 though. He's more like a Sam linebacker type. But Rubin Bain, so the short arms, does it affect him, number one. It does at times. He does get hung up at times with bigger offensive tackles. But he is so good with his hands. He is so strong. He is so powerful. He is so intense that he forces a phone booth fight more than David Bailey. Like I said, Bailey keeps that separation, keeps you on a perimeter with his length and speed. Bain takes it to you. And when he does, he is in, he's at it the advantage. He places his hands so well with so much power, with so much force that he lifts guys. He moves their hands out of there. There's a, I can't remember the name of the tackle for Old Miss, very long guy, 35 inch arms. The guy couldn't touch

Starting point is 00:06:24 him. He couldn't get his hands even in tight enough because Bain was just inside of his chest the whole time and just walking him backwards. Bain plays with such intensity. He is so good against the run. Maybe the best run defenders are quite a few guys that are really good. Zion Young and Keldrick Fault. But Bain's up there. And he can kick inside. He can play defensive tackle. He can rush from left and right. You have more versatility with Bain. But it's just will that arm blank affect him? We haven't seen a guy like this go in the first round because we don't see defensive ends. reach the pinnacle at this size. He's a unique player. Typically, lose weight, play lineback, or gain weight, play defensive tackle when you have arm length like this? Where do you think the Bengals see these guys?

Starting point is 00:07:06 Because to me, I think I'm on record with this. I see Ruben Bain as a clear step ahead of David Bailey because of the completeness of his game. And I don't think he's a significantly worse pass rusher. I think he's right there as a pass rusher. And I think he's bendier than Bailey. Doesn't have the burst. necessarily have the speed. We didn't get to see him do any testing. I would guess his 10-yard

Starting point is 00:07:29 split would not be where Bayleys would be, probably same for the 20 and the 40 in the full 40-yard dash. But the technical ability, I think, with Bain, the strength that he plays with, the intensity that he plays with, and I think he's more agile. Where do you think the Bengals stack these guys? Real quick, neither one has the bend that Joe has. And we saw that on social. It went viral. So I just want to put that out there before we go. games for the, you know, you're always telling me how slow am, but at least you're giving me the bend here. You're slow, but you can bear it to feel like that's being a little sarcastic in that tone.

Starting point is 00:08:01 But, yeah, it's worth mentioning, though. I may have made Bain sound like a true, like, just only power guy. He is very agile and Bendy. Like, it's impressive. He carries a lot of weight in the lower half of his body, gives him a great center of gravity, balances off the charts, probably one of the bendiest guys and a power rusher, gives him a really good combo. A couple of things to Bengals.

Starting point is 00:08:23 care about in the draft. Number one, they've drafted a bunch of guys who did not test. If they do test, they want them to be elite athletes, you know, based on recent trends, right? We don't get that with Bain. We do have elite testing for what we got out of David Bailey. So, you know, split that how you want to. The big thing for me is that Bailey is going to be a 23-year-old rookie while Bain is still 21 right now.

Starting point is 00:08:44 And the Bengals, typically in the first round, first round, like those younger players. You'd have to go back to William Jackson last time they drafted a 23-plus non-quarterback. because Joe Burrow was 23 plus. So they like the young guys. I could see them saying Bain would fit us better, being more complete player, can play against the run on early downs, can kick inside, can give you that versatility. I wouldn't be shocked if they were one of the teams that had in Meyer.

Starting point is 00:09:10 Yeah. Yeah, it wouldn't be shocking. I agree. I think most fans have it that way. I also think the NFL probably does have it the other way. Like if you told me Bailey went second or third, I wouldn't be stunned. I'd be pretty surprised if Bain went in the top three.

Starting point is 00:09:28 I agree. I think Bain's got a chance to be there. Sorry, Jake. I think the ceiling for Bain is seven and then to 12. I think that's where he's going to get picked. Another factor here is that it's such a deep class. There's so many guys late first round that we're not necessarily going to talk about

Starting point is 00:09:47 for the Bengals in a ton of death because we expect them to be gone before the Bengel's second round pick. But even at the Bengel second round pick, second round pick and even their third round pick, there are going to be some very interesting edge prospects here. And that could weigh into the calculus a little bit as well. But we'll continue the conversation with day two targets on the edge for the Bengals coming up next. It's tax time. But for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. Trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers,

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Starting point is 00:12:04 All right, Joe. Let's continue the conversation. And let's say day one rolls around and they listen to me and they take Jeremiah Love or they take Caleb Downs or they take one of these corners, whatever the case is, right? Or they surprise everyone in taking offensive linemen. Maybe not everyone, but they go that route. And Edge is still obviously a major.

Starting point is 00:12:26 need. Who could they target at 41? Let's start with that that 41. Are there going to be guys there that could come in, give them some juice and contribute right away? Yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if we saw 10, 12 edge rushers go between maybe like 25 and 50. Maybe it extends all the end of round two. There's going to be a lot. It's the strength of the class more than likely is this edge spot and probably right around where the Bengals picked. They're in the heart of it. So how many guys will be left. Will Akeem Messador still be there? Probably not. He's getting some first round buzz. He's a 25-year-old from Miami, so maybe we don't spend a lot of time there. Even Peter Shriger's last mock didn't have Keldrick Falk in the first round. So like with Bengals be like,

Starting point is 00:13:09 hey, that's perfect for us at 41. Didn't, didn't Lance Zerline also have Keldrick out of the first? And then he later that week said that Caldrick Falk might go earlier than he thought, which he didn't have him in the first round. So that doesn't necessarily mean he's getting picked 10th, guys that a lot of the replies I saw when I retreated said, but yeah, sorry, Joe. 41 sounds good. Yeah, at 41, I'm in on Falk, just so we're clear on that. Mesodore, too. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:34 Oh, yeah. Messador is a different conversation because he's older, but Falk is a young guy who maybe the best guy against the run, but there are other players. The one that scores really high for us in the draft. She's ninth overall is T.J. Parker out of Clemson. And my first exposure to him was when I was watching Peter Woods, right? because at one point we're talking Peter Woods at Pick 10. And I'm like, yeah, this is the star.

Starting point is 00:13:56 I can see how the offense is trying to block Peter Woods. And then I go, well, who's this guy winning on the edge? They better adjust really quickly because Parker is a young, long, explosive pass rusher that wins with the long arm. I'm going to sound like Miles Murphy, but his actually lands. His actually lands with frequency. He can actually tackle really well, play the run really well. He's one of the better run defenders in this class as well. I like T.J. Parker, and especially for talking pick 41, he's got high upside and should be able to step in right away for you and do pretty much everything. And I think he can do the three, four outside linebacker stuff. He's fluid enough for that. I think he, difference for Miles Murphy, because a lot of people are going to quickly do that, right? We scout the helmets all the time is that while Miles won with the long arm and didn't really have anything else, Parker works off of it so well and works his way back inside so well.

Starting point is 00:14:50 and tackles outside of his frame. He really dives for these quarterbacks or in running backs, tripping these guys up from outside of his tackle radius. I think there's, for him to be as underrated as he is, I think it stems from questions about his love for football or his intensity because he is kind of a one-speed intensity guy. There's also the whole, the Clemson defense fell off a cliff entirely last year. It's not like he has no production.

Starting point is 00:15:17 This is different from Miles Murphy in terms of the production. Like you go back to his second to last year in school, but which true software, right? He's a true junior coming out. Yeah. So true sophomore at Clemson, he had 10 sacks. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:28 So it's not like there's no production in his background. It's just Clemson had this year in 2025 where it's hurting T.J. Parker's draft stock significantly. It's going to hurt Peter Woods draft stock significantly. And we have these questions in the community about the love for football. I think for both guys to some degree. Like how much are they really in this thing and their teams checking up on how much they, will care about this sport in the professional league because I think largely what happened at Clemson last year. And right or wrong, that's going to impact T.J. Parker, does he get to the second round?

Starting point is 00:16:01 I think that would still be a pretty big tumble for him. Both he and Mesidor clearly consensus, I think, late first, but maybe early second. Like maybe they go in the first couple picks of the second round kind of thing. Like T. Higgins, right, where you have a player that's expected to go in the first pick in the second round. Who are some of the other guys at 41, Joe, that you like, and specifically, like, think the Bengals might like for pass rushing? Or if you think that's the direction they're going to go, that feels like their priority this year, right? Which is why we're so focused on that particular skill set. But who stands out there?

Starting point is 00:16:36 So we've got Cassius Howl. I'll run down the list and then go through the differences of them. Cassius Howell, Texas A&M, you may have seen him, you know, from when your Shemar days, he looked like the better pass rusher. And he was, but he's small. He's more like an outside linebacker Sam type. So we'll see. I mean, like Ruben Bain historically small, Cash's Howl is even smaller,

Starting point is 00:16:56 wingspan three inches shorter than Rubin Bain. So that's the thing. Zion Young out of Missouri, a lot of people like him as a power, big defensive end. That's typically the Bengals size or a Bengals like that size. He's lethargic off the line. He's a butt kicker in the run game. He doesn't,

Starting point is 00:17:10 he needs an invitation to get out of his stance in the past game. And I just don't, I'm not interested in that as a past rusher. But maybe the Bengals would be, I wouldn't give him high marks if they made that. Guy I really like is R. Mason Thomas out of Oklahoma. Again, a small guy is 241 pounds, but he gets all of his power out of that small frame. Again, maybe he's an outside linebacker 3-4 type and can get up to 250. I thought he would test a little bit better.

Starting point is 00:17:33 He's a good blend of testing and production. And his film, to me, was very, very good. He's got a lot in his toolbox as well. And hard player. I mean, true pass, hard-nose player, true-pass-russ situations, 32.8% pass-rush win rate the last two years. that's high level. That's elite winning. Malachi Lawrence is a guy that I would be shocked if sneaks into the end of the first round out of UCF. A lot of people really like him. He's the longer of this group of the finesse edge rushers. High motor never stops. His moves need to land a little

Starting point is 00:18:05 bit better, but he doesn't stop trying them. It's one move after the next, after the next, until something lands or he can win with athleticism length or just straight up hustle. So there's still some meat on the bone there for him to develop. He'll be a 23-year-old rookie, though, so a little bit older than the rest of these guys. But a 9.95 RAS, and I just wrote how often the motor just shows up for him. And the guy that's probably the best score that could be there is Gabe Acis out of Illinois. And I think we've talked about him a few times, Jake, whenever we've gotten together and talked about maybe second round potential targets.

Starting point is 00:18:38 They played a three-four defense, so he's an outside linebacker, edge guy there. Played the run a lot. They were very run-focused. When it was time to pass rush, he was a power pass rusher that I was shocked at the way he tested at 959 RAS. He looked athletic, but I didn't think he looked that explosive, that athletic. He did 30 bench reps as well. The Bengals probably loved that. But he could probably fit into their defense right away would also give you early down usability,

Starting point is 00:19:07 what be one of your better pass rush. But he did not score well against the run from PFF. But his production numbers, because he played at a very young age, He's in the 99.7 percentile for market share production, which is what we use. He's one of the most productive guys we've ever seen. Of these guys, 41, let's just say it's pass rush or nothing, who are you taken? Obviously, Parker and Mesedore. Let's say they're gone.

Starting point is 00:19:32 Yeah, let's just say they're gone because they probably will be. If I want the all-around guy, I want Gabe-A because I thought he was better against the run than what PFF did. Lawrence is more of the toolsy. I really like the way he plays. He could probably be the Joseph O'Sai right away and give you that high effort, player hustle can run into a lot of plays just by, you know,

Starting point is 00:19:53 playing with a hot motor. But I think Gabe Acos has the potential to be a true, every down, good starter. Reminded me of like a Greg Ellis from the Cowboys. I'm going too far back. Young listeners aren't listening to that. But an eight sack,

Starting point is 00:20:06 45 pressure a year kind of guy. I thought you were going to say juice with Hal, regardless. We have plenty to get to all. day three where the Bengals, they got to find some gems. Got to find some gems on day three and round three as well. We'll continue the conversation coming up next. Today's show is brought to by Fandle and the NBA playoffs are in full swing with the playing

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Starting point is 00:21:15 Let's talk round three because there's a cliff. The cliff is probably right after the Bengal third round pick. It might be before the Bengal third round pick. There are a couple of guys worth talking about that I think could still be difference makers. And I think that if you get past a Bengal third round pick, you're probably scraping the barrel. I mean, I think this is a good edge class, but I think it ends pretty quick. These guys are going to get scooped up. The league values them at a very very.

Starting point is 00:21:43 high level. So once you get to a certain point in the draft, they're all going to be picked. But in the third round, there's a chance that there's still some guys that can make a difference. Joe, who's at the top of that list for you? Yeah, I would assume that all the previous guys we've talked about are gone. And there's some others. There's Joshua Joseph is from Tennessee. And there's some guys we're not going to talk about, right? There are guys that are going to get drafted and potentially we may have to come back to the drawing board after the Bengals take one of them. But of the guys I really like, Derek Moore is the next one out of Michigan. And Derek Moore really shocked me at the senior bowl as a guy that just was physically more imposing than anyone

Starting point is 00:22:18 that tried to block him, especially in the 11-on-11s when they tried to put a tight end on them, just absolutely throwing guys around. And just super strong. And this is a guy they took off the field a lot in rundowns. And just at the senior ball, I'm like, why were they taking him off the field? It didn't make any sense. This guy is a monster. He's a terrorizer there in run defense.

Starting point is 00:22:37 And I looked up his data and stuff. And it's like, yeah, he doesn't really show anything against the run. wonder why. He didn't end up testing. So we don't have that. And that's important for past rushers. You want to know what these guys, you know, what their burst looks like, what their explosion, what their speed looks like. It's all got very good predictive data. He'll be 20, he is 23 now. So he'll be a 23 year old rookie, 6-4-255. His true pass set. So they put him out there in obvious passing situation. True pass set rush win rate the last two years. 35.5%. We're talking David Bailey. We're talking our Mason Thomas, Derek Moore. These are three of the top

Starting point is 00:23:14 pass rushers in this entire draft. This guy wins with power. And to me, it looked like a good athlete. Shock did he didn't test. So it's kind of a shame we didn't get that to solidify it because he probably could have gotten to the second round conversation. Good for us. Keep him in the third. I think he could help you out. The next guy is denied Dennis Sutton from Penn State. Looks like Carlos Dunlap to me in a lot of ways. Although he's only 256 at his pro day. I think he played. I wrote down he's got to be 270 plus. By the way, he moves and looks on tape, 6-5, long arms, kind of a one-speed player. Dunlap looked like this at times looked like he was just, you know, steady going around the corner, like, man, how did he even get around there? And Deni Dennis Sutton

Starting point is 00:23:54 ran a 6903 cone at that size, which is very impressive. 22% true pass, fresh win rate, RAS of a 996, very athletic. You watch my tape, though, and there's some inconsistencies. he plays the run well, doesn't have the intensity, can never really dial it up to a 10. Same way Dunlap couldn't either, right? So, like a lot of these comparisons to me reminded me of him. But he's a young guy that I was attracted to Zane Durant as a defensive tackle as I'm watching the two of them. But I do think he can help you and give you something else. He kicks inside and plays defensive tackle also at that big size where I think he can win against guards because the agility is not an issue.

Starting point is 00:24:34 He's got a great spin move against guards. Absolutely kills him. Pick 72, Dennis Sutton, turn it in. I mean, if he's there, if I get 82 and a half sacks like Carlos Dunlap. And I know that's not what you're saying. I would take that. Yeah, for sure. But it sounds like he's someone that on more for the same way,

Starting point is 00:24:53 where if you haven't addressed the edge spot, you can grab one of those guys and they can be in a rotation right away. Yeah, I agree. I think both these guys could help you in some way and have potential to be more than that. And there's a couple of fourth rounder and Jay Sean Barron. we talked about in the linebacker episode. He's kind of a linebacker edge. You can pass rush with him.

Starting point is 00:25:11 You can keep him on base downs as a linebacker, Sam linebacker. And then if we're going to say they didn't take one in the third round. At that point, I don't know if there's going to be a Carl Lawson in the fourth for you. Be nice. If there was, we'll take him if he's there.

Starting point is 00:25:22 I don't know who it is yet. But let's see if someone falls to that fourth round spot. If not, give me Michael Helbman in the sixth or seventh round out of central Michigan. 64-268, 32 and a half-inch arms, 9.9-9 RAS, 32 or 33% true pass set win rate absolutely kills people central Michigan Mack school so he's not going against the greatest competition but he looked like he was above everybody else got to get some action on the team when's the last Mac pick the Bengals had Joe you know this out the top of your head hmm I was going to say Mason Shrek but there

Starting point is 00:25:56 had to be somebody else no Toledo oh Tyson Anderson yeah there you go Joe any other guys was there another Toledo guy after that No. Not for them because Quinn and Mitchell was after who we talked. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we did. Part of the 90-90 group on our spreadsheet, Jake, we're, you know, we don't, we didn't

Starting point is 00:26:16 get to talk about this because the spreadsheet wasn't ready when we did the cornerback episode. But there's only a couple of guys that hit the 1990 this year. And that's Chris Johnson, Jermad McCoy, 85, 85 Chandler Rivers. That's a third round corner pick. Anyone else stand out, Joe, on day three. Good, good shout on the corner. So when we get to the corners,

Starting point is 00:26:38 reflecting back on this moment and just transpose it into the corner. It's a good tease. No, it's a good tease. I like it. And anyone else on day three that you think is worth a flyer because one of the things that's interesting to me

Starting point is 00:26:52 is like looking at guys that are ranked higher by consensus than we end up in the sheet. So Keirond Crawford from Auburn is one of these guys. Dame Bergler has him as a second third round. I know he has a lot of fans. we have him much lower. Is there anyone else like that that you think, like, if they fall, this is a guy that Bengals might like,

Starting point is 00:27:14 or a guy you think the Bengals might like who we don't like as much because of certain data points we use that the rest of the league is higher on? Yeah, and that's why I mentioned Joshua Joseph's earlier. Who's a tough evaluation for me? Because I couldn't figure out what he's going to be good at, but he's good at everything. He's kind of Joseph Osir, like, where he can give you the edge linebacker and drop,

Starting point is 00:27:36 the coverage is solid against the run, can pass rush, but I'm not sure he's ever going to be like a DM one or two. And most of these guys probably won't. I don't know if from a low height will ever be a DN2 either. He's probably a DN3, Cliff Averall type edge rusher that can just come off the edge and do what he's do that only. And then going down further down the list, you mentioned Kieran Crawford. When you watch Keldrick Falk, he steals your attention so much because Crawford is the one getting off the line fastest. He's the one that looks like he can bend the edge. He's the one. It's like almost they are going to hold the pocket on the one side and let Crawford do the rushing. And like we saw that with Trey Hendrickson. Usually the teams know who their best pass rusher is.

Starting point is 00:28:15 And I think they treated Auburn treated Crawford like he was as well. I think Cady and Curry out of Ohio State is interesting. He can help and make a roster at least be a DN4 for you, if not more. I'm still interested if Harold Perkins can ever be anything as a pass rusher and develop and be. He doesn't have the size of one. So I understood why LSU kept playing him at linebacker. but that first year was pretty special. And he should have been a future top 15 pick, never got the chance to really be that Michael Parsons that everyone thought he was going to develop into.

Starting point is 00:28:45 And the last one I'll mention is Trey Moore out of Texas. Sam linebacker, edge rusher, he was a defensive end in the first couple years and then a linebacker this past year. Some of that D&Tape is pretty nice. How, just quickly, how realistic is it that the Bengals target one of these smaller end guys that could be this hybrid?

Starting point is 00:29:04 play that hybrid role and drop some and maybe not hold the edge up as much as they've targeted in the past. Fair question. I get this a lot on Twitter because the Bengals typically draft the big end, right? And they say, well, they're not going to take this small guy. Last year, Jalen Walker was one of these guys. And he was on their final grouping of players they would have taken at 17. He wasn't there, obviously. A couple of years ago, after Miles Murphy, you know, the next player I was told was on their board was Nolan Smith. So would they have drafted these guys? Yes, they would have if they if a different scenario played out. There's been others that I can think of that. They were they liked. It just didn't work out that way. And yes, you have to actually make the

Starting point is 00:29:45 pick. So choosing Miles Murphy over Nolan Smith says you may like the bigger guy. I get it. But I do think there is a need for it. I do think they're aware of it. They really haven't cared about length in other positions at corner, especially in free agents. A lot of corners they've signed. Hilton was super small. Chinovia Wuzzi had no length. Despite being 6-2-plus, Drake or Patrick had terrible length. Dark West DeNard, a terrible length. And Trey Hendrickson, one of the stubbier past rushers to ever have as many

Starting point is 00:30:13 sex as he did. So, you know, they should be okay with it. But, you know, what they do on draft days sometimes is a mystery. Yeah, I wonder if some of the thresholds, and in part of it's the receivers they've drafted, some of these things, like some of the thresholds that we think they have, they don't necessarily have. And it's just kind of coincidence. and it's really got me messed up with like,

Starting point is 00:30:33 ah, maybe that, you know, I asked Duke about age and whether it's on the podium or not. He's like, age is an analytic. 24 is young. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:30:41 you know, like 24 is young. So it's just that's tough. I used to track all the threshold stuff because it looked like there were repeating friends. And then I talked to somebody and they said, yeah, we don't do that.

Starting point is 00:30:55 And I was like, okay, I'm not trying. I think they have preferences. We've talked about this. Everyone does. Every team. does.

Starting point is 00:31:01 You have preferences. First size. When you don't hold it, when you don't do it consistently, it's not a threshold. You have preferences that are not something that they hold hard and fast to. And we'll see.

Starting point is 00:31:11 Maybe this is a year where they go astray from preferring the younger players in the first round that they do like when guys are productive younger and productive longer in college. But that doesn't mean that they're aware of like breakout age, a wide receiver, or how that looks as an analytic.

Starting point is 00:31:28 But this year, a lot of guys in that 240 to 255 range that previously we wouldn't expect the Bengals to draft we talked about some of them but even David Bailey is 21 right and so like he's not a huge guy malachad Lawrence 253 cash is howl 253 mace maize and thomas 241 jaysham barram who's again more of the sam kind of hybrid linebacker 240 will the bengals pick one of those guys i don't know what we'll find out but i do think that like they really want to get one of these guys They really want to add something at this position. And that's why we led with it this week here,

Starting point is 00:32:06 as we're talking about targets for the Bengals by each day of the draft. Joe on the defensive side of the ball. But that's going to do it for this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening. Hootay and have a good one. Imagine having Bain and the dark night on the same team.

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