Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Bengals Sign Kyle Dugger: What it Means for Defense & NFL Draft Impact

Starting point is 00:00:00 A surprise early April edition for the Cincinnati Bengals. Kyle Dugger joins the Bengals on a one-year deal. 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 a mini episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. He's James Rapine. I'm Jake Liscoe. And today we're talking to you about the Bengals' latest edition, Safety Kyle

Starting point is 00:00:36 Dugger most recently played for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Of course, before that was with the New England Patriots. We talked about him as a potential waiver claim, I believe, for the Cincinnati Bengals last off season before the Pittsburgh Steelers made the trade for Dugger when it was clear that Dugger's time had run out in New England. And now he is a Cincinnati Bengal. James Rappeen will be talking today about the potential impact on the Bengals draft plans and how Dugger fits with the Bengals.

Starting point is 00:01:06 And as we were recording yesterday, James, you were sure that there would be news today. And boy, did it turn out that you were right. The Bengals also signed Jaseer Taylor, by the way, Slot Corner, who will probably be a fringe roster player, special teams kind of player. We're going to focus here on Kyle Dugger. Yeah, focus on a guy that, let's be honest, we talked about a lot last year. Hey, can you bring in Kyle Dugger and get Gino Stone the heck out of town? It took a year. but it's the better late than never edition.

Starting point is 00:01:37 No, look, I'm never very rarely. And we actually just went over a lot of the signings this time of year that they've done in the past. Very rarely am I going to be against any of them against the veteran depth, the proven depth, the guy that is better than your starting safety last year. And I do think that that's the case. I think Kyle Dugger is better than Gino Stone. I think he's more versatile. He can play that free safety spot.

Starting point is 00:02:00 He's played in big games. obviously was drafted by the Patriots, goes to Pittsburgh last year, has the pick six against the Bengals, forced the fumble that cost the Bengals, the playoffs in 2024 when Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase were lighting up the NFL and had they beat the New England Patriots Week 1, well, then they get to the playoffs that didn't happen.

Starting point is 00:02:25 Tanner Hudson fumbled. That was a Kyle Dugger play. So adding a player like that, that is experienced, That isn't coming in to take a starting job, and he's not. But he can help the young linebackers and play in the box some. He can play that free safety spot. He can give you some versatility, some proven versatility. And the other element here, just when it comes to Kyle Dugger,

Starting point is 00:02:49 last year their third safety was who? My guy, Tyson Anderson. They didn't trust him to play on defense. Whether I agree with it or not, they did not. Their actions show that because Gino Stone was so bad and they didn't even consider putting Tyson in on defense. I asked on and off record. No one was seriously considering that.

Starting point is 00:03:07 And so whether they were right or wrong, that's the case. A guy like Kyle Dugger, they won't be leery of playing if they need to, especially if there's an injury to Jordan Bato or Brian Cook. I see the fit is more of a specialized role for Dugger, too. He did play free safety, right? A lot for Pittsburgh last year, I think specifically after the trade. a lot of his snaps for Pittsburgh were deep, deep safety. He played most of his snaps generally last year for Pittsburgh.

Starting point is 00:03:37 He hardly played for New England because he got benched before he got traded. But you go back to the beginning of his career in New England before they started playing him more as a traditional safety with box and deep responsibilities. He was essentially a box and overhang defender. He was a slot and box player. And we've talked about some guys in this draft class a little bit, you'll hear us talk about. Kyle Lewis this way when we get into our deep dives on positions in this draft. And Nikki Minwary plays this role. Jalen Petrie plays this role for the Houston Texans.

Starting point is 00:04:09 That's what Kyle Dugger did early in his career when he was a pretty exciting player for the New England Patriots, where he was a guy that we talked about as a draft target in 2020 for the Cincinnati Bengals before the Patriots picked him in the early part of the second round because he came out. He's like 220. and he's got pretty good movement ability at 220. That's a pretty similar build to Kyle Lewis and or Kyle, Kyle Lewis. Yeah, Kyle Lewis, no.

Starting point is 00:04:35 Lewis, yep. They're both Kyle Lewis. Yeah, Kyle Lewis, you're talking about the Pittsburgh. Yeah, he's really the hybrid. Yeah, he's really the hybrid. Yeah, Kyle Lewis. Yep. Both of these guys can play a box and slot roll for you with some deep safety, in Dugger's case, some deep safety early in his career.

Starting point is 00:04:52 But like, if the Bengals are bringing Dugger in specifically to be a, Trey Flowers role that people like to reminisce about where he's going to take on tight ends and man cover situations. He's going to be able to play a kind of hybrid linebacker for you. I really like that role for him and that gives you a clear path to the field for Dugger right away, even if Jordan Battle and Brian Cook are on the field for you. And what if the Bengals also draft Caleb Downs? Is there still a role for Kyle Dugger in that world? And I think that's where we go next, James, is how does adding Kyle Dugger at this point in the process,

Starting point is 00:05:26 pack the Bengals draft plans, whether it is Caleb Downs or a Kyle, Kyle Lewis type of slot box defender that might have been in play on day two. We'll discuss coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandul. Fandall is America's number one sports book and the tournament. Well, it's wrapping up. And regardless of who you think is going to cut down the nets, Fandual is the place to go. You can get up to $300 in bonus bets every day, all a tournament long for the next few days. Of course, you can mix it up however you want. Game picks, future, same game parlay, so much more.

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Starting point is 00:06:32 All right, Jake, how does this, these signings in Duggers, obviously more prominent, more proven, but do they affect the Bengals draft plans? And the draft is 21 days away. We are three weeks away, three weeks in like four and a half hours, five hours, probably five hours away from really getting an idea of who's going to be on the board when the Bengals are on the clock. There's eight minutes in between each pick this year. So it's going to be a bit earlier than we're used to,

Starting point is 00:07:00 especially with the Bengals picking 10th overall. And it's interesting because I think there are a lot of people that look at this and see two additions to the secondary and say, you know what, the Bengals are probably just in on edge. And they're thinking David Bailey is going to be there or they're going to be able to get a guy like Ruben Bain. And if it's Caleb Downs or Ruben Bain, they're going to go with Bain.

Starting point is 00:07:22 And that might be the case. but what I don't think is that the Bengals are going to say, you know what, we got this guy, Kyle Dugger on a one year, 1.5 to $2 million deal, whatever it is. We're not going to draft Caleb Downs,

Starting point is 00:07:38 even though he's the top player on our board. I think that there's very little to no chance that that's the case. But maybe the Bengals have Caleb Downs 14th on their board right now. And they're like, we don't want to have to reach for that. that nickel slash safety because it is a need for us. And instead, we can go with this Kyle Dugger guy who alleviates that need and allows us to go with BPA

Starting point is 00:08:06 because we have other needs, not just on defense, but other needs on our roster. Yeah, I think it potentially opens up some flexibility for them. But where is the impact on the draft exactly? Is it more on the Kyle Lewis type of player? Do they feel like they have that guy on the roster now?

Starting point is 00:08:21 Do they feel like they need redundancy there? Do they feel like they want that slot box defender, that Nick Eamonwary type of role? Not that we've necessarily talked that way about a lot of guys in this draft class. There will be some safeties that we talk about that way in this draft class. That's probably the best role for them in the NFL. So far, it's probably Kyle Lewis is one that comes to mind the most for me. But there are some slot corners that are kind of in that mold as well. Is there an impact on Caleb Downs instead?

Starting point is 00:08:50 I think there is some impact. I don't know that it's directly, you know, we don't think Caleb Downs is going to be the best player, so we sign Kyle Dugger. I don't think it's that simple. I don't think it's as easy as saying, like, we actually don't like Caleb Downs, and we don't think he's going to be available,

Starting point is 00:09:06 so we're going to sign a guy instead. I think it's, the result is that I think it's probably less likely that Caleb Downs is a pick because they maybe are more comfortable, not if he is lower on the, their board, like you said, not picking him because they feel like he fits a need better than a player that maybe they like a little bit better at a position that they don't perceive as

Starting point is 00:09:29 a significant immediate need. But this is a one-year deal. This should be a pretty cheap deal. Either way, this won't qualify for the compensatory formula in case you're wondering for Kyle Dugger for a few reasons, but you don't have to worry about that impact. So when it's a very likely, relatively small deal for probably a specific role for Kyle Dugger shouldn't have a significant impact at the top of the draft might have some impact as you get a little bit deeper into the draft. Maybe in terms of the pressing need they might feel to fill a role if they do indeed have a specific role in mind for Dugger. Like I think they probably do. Yeah, I think whether or not it does is one thing, right? And there's going to be

Starting point is 00:10:16 more time past today to kind of react and process it. There's no scenario. were really anybody they sign that's still available. And I like literally any free agent should impact the 10th pick. Right. Like it just it just should. I think we both agree there. And so I think the Bengals do like Caleb Downs from what I've gathered. I think they believe he's a really good prospect.

Starting point is 00:10:41 But they may look at it and say, honestly, I say guys that every day, they may know that there's only a 10% chance he actually makes it to us. The Giants love them. They get now you never know, right? Like what they know and how they're reacting. They may look at it and say we really don't like when we're forecasting this the middle rounds trying to address that hybrid linebacker safety spot and do we really want to take Kyle Lewis at 41. We don't think he's going to be there at 72, whatever it is. Or it may be as simple as, hey, experienced guy that helps us. We want experience in the secondary. And And it's that simple. And that's it.

Starting point is 00:11:23 And so I, it's probably the, the answer is probably a mixture of everything. But I would be surprised, like I said, if they're like, oh, we're out on Caleb Downs now. That might mean they're, they're so in on the, the sunny styles, David Bailey type of guy. I keep mentioning Bailey because I would love it, right? Ruben Bain Jr. Like those guys. Roman McCoy, the corners. And that's so now we can full disclosure.

Starting point is 00:11:50 this part. So if you're watching this or listening to this a few hours into Thursday evening, probably seven-ish, eight, well, let's go eight. Eight Eastern time, our other episode is going to drop. We recorded that on Wednesday, and it's on Jermad McCoy, a lot of it, and in Caleb Downs and the likelihood of that person being, that player being the pick at 10, this does fit a lot of what we said on Wednesday. And so maybe that forecast is sort of correct.

Starting point is 00:12:22 They're like, man, if McCoy is there or Delane or whoever, we want to be able to be in a position where we can take him and not be worried about that nickel spot or the hybrid safety spot. Yeah, it's definitely possible. Yeah, the full disclosure is that this news happened after we recorded that episode. So we did not mention Kyle Dugger's name in that episode where maybe he would have come up in passing or in some way as we were having. those conversations about the most likely pick because i do think it's like slightly less likely that caleb downs is a pick now not because of anything to do with caleb downs necessarily but because this could make them feel like possibilities have opened up at various points in the draft whether it's the first round second round third round fourth round wherever it is that's what we're

Starting point is 00:13:05 talking about here but bottom line is i really like this addition i don't remember if i said that earlier in the show i really think that he can fill a very specific role for you at a high level if they do use him in that hybrid box slot role to deal with tight ends. He has great size for that. He's been good at that in the past. 30 years old should still have some ability left in him and should still be able to make an impact for you in that role. And at worst, like you said, James, this is a quality depth piece. And we generally don't see the Bengals make a whole lot of moves like this for quality depth pieces. We'd love to see this kind of move on the offensive line. For example, for a swing tackle. Not that that guy's necessarily out there, the way Kyle Dugger was just out there for them to make that

Starting point is 00:13:45 move but like this is the kind of move that we we asked the bengals to make relatively often and and i like that they made that move for dougar on thursday yeah for sure i again you go back to the veteran element of it and i'm very rarely am i going to be against this it might not work out yeah maybe there's like this in the past that have been like minimal impact kind of thing but it's like yeah we like that you're trying we like the death bad for sure and what if you're he ends up mattering. He could. Like, it's realistic that he could end up mattering at some point. And I do think that Al Golden and Jordan Kovacs, who's the Bengal safety's coach for those

Starting point is 00:14:26 wondering, he's probably like, yeah, we're comfortable with playing Kyle Dugger. We're comfortable putting in there. Mike Hodges, if you need him to play that hybrid linebacker role a little bit, well, that's okay, right? Instead of, I don't know, bringing back Marcus Bailey or whatever it is, let's bring this guy in and Kyle Dugger who can do a little bit of that, but can also. also play free safety if you really need them to. Yeah. We're up there for this mini episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast.

Starting point is 00:14:51 Make sure you check out the likelihood of certain Bengals draft picks at pick number 10. We talked about the most likely candidates for that pick as well. That's our full episode today. Until next time, thanks for listening. Hoor Day and have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Bengals Sign Kyle Dugger: What it Means for Defense & NFL Draft Impact

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