Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Cincinnati Bengals 2026 NFL Draft Deep Dive: Defensive Tackle Options Ranked

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals added Jonathan Allen to their defensive tackle room, but if things fall the right way, could they be tempted in this year's draft? Let's break it down. 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. I'm your host, Jake. Let's go along with your host, James Rapine, joined again today by Joe Goodberry,

Starting point is 00:00:34 who does excellent work every year for the draft. You can find his videos on the first log logistics YouTube channel. Bengals on the brand. You can find his content on Twitter as well, where you'll find the NFL draft sheet with full rankings for nearly a thousand players, many of which have full profiles, including film grades, analytics grades, and all of the data you could possibly want about these guys.

Starting point is 00:01:01 Great supplemental content for the NFL draft every year. This week we've been talking about targets for the Cincinnati Bengals by position by round. And today, as we get to defensive tackle, we're going to be talking about mostly hoping things fall in a certain way that leads to the Bengals scooping up a guy in what is a thing class. This is once again a defensive tackle class. This has happened a few times in recent years. Last time it happened, the Bengals picked two in Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jackson. And it's another year where defensive tackle doesn't really have a great deal. of depth. And that may be the trend

Starting point is 00:01:36 at the position we're going to start with. Are there any guys that make sense at 10? Probably not. So if the Bengals were to trade back in the first round or maybe a guy falls to them in the second round, that's probably the first group of players that we're talking about as potential Bengals targets, right, Joe? And we have a very different set of players, varying skill sets in that first group of defensive tackles.

Starting point is 00:02:00 Yeah, that's right. At one point here we were talking defensive tackle at pick 10, or at least keep an eye on Peter Woods of Clemson. We had to take notice of Caleb Banks from Florida after the pro day when you get a guy that big testing and running at least that well. But I never materialized. Both guys have their own issues. Both look like they're probably, I mean, foot injuries continue for banks.

Starting point is 00:02:21 We don't know where he'll be drafted at all. It could be 41. I wouldn't be shocked if it was third round, to be honest, because of his age production and just inconsistent ability to stay on the field. I mean, that'd be a home run swing if you get to that point. But yeah, is there anyone there? I think it's largely very descriptive of the position around the NFL. Everyone needs a defensive tackle.

Starting point is 00:02:40 It was once considered a non-premium position, now gets paid like a premium position. Because, in my opinion, the scarcity of it. It's been too many draft classes in a row, Jake. We do this every year. There's not enough of them. I'm glad you hit that point. And that's what makes these guys get paid more. It's how Jonathan Allen at his age is still getting paid because you just can't find these guys.

Starting point is 00:02:59 And when you have them, you don't let them go. That's why BJ Hill is still a call. quality starter, right? It's hard to replace them, and they don't typically make a year one impact. So you're going to get these guys in round two, three, four, and hope for the best. Something I've talked about, too, is, like you said, they're so hard to find. I think outside a quarterback, probably the hardest position right now to find in the NFL. I really think that's true about defensive tackle. That's probably leading to some of these pay changes and that you're talking about as well. And it's really tough to find those guys.

Starting point is 00:03:31 it's very hard to find them. As far as, and that's something the Bengals have obviously coveted. They went a couple years ago. They get Sheldon Rankins because they want some juice. It didn't work out. Last year, we know they were in on multiple defensive tackles early. It didn't work out. They're hoping Jonathan Allen works out and helps in that way.

Starting point is 00:03:51 I mean, even this year, Jonathan Franklin Myers was the guy that they were trying to get in free agency. Yeah. And I don't know if they ever realistically had a shot. It felt like the Titans was a. It's always going to be the destination given what they did and the trade they made before. But regardless, the Bengals want that interior juice. And what I think is interesting, Joe, when I look at this, is Peter Woods, is Peter Woods fine. Caleb Banks has his flaw.

Starting point is 00:04:18 I think if Caleb Banks didn't have this latest foot injury, I wonder how realistic it would be for him to be in consideration at 10. That's not the case. So we don't need to necessarily discuss it. but we know they liked Kenneth Grant and Walter Nolan in last year's draft. And I want to focus on Kenneth Grant a little bit because it's not someone that we discussed a ton, I think, for pick 17. We thought that he's more of a nose. He's not going to give them the juice.

Starting point is 00:04:47 And I think about that. And then I think about Caden McDonald. And I wonder, is he potentially in consideration, not just trade down? Would he get some first round 10th pick? like, oh, we don't like McCoy because of the knee. There's a medical red flag there. And there's this guy that we did. His arms are a little short or we don't really want to go with the running back.

Starting point is 00:05:11 We want the defensive tackle that's going to matter. Like, is there any world where they really, really like Caden McDonald and would consider him as early as 10? So I try to think of a in case of emergency, break glass, who's that pick, right? And I do think Caden McDonald could be one of those guys. and he's a rare nose tackle prospect. He's 20 years old on tape when you're watching him. He looks like the most physically dominant player in the trenches for Ohio State, right? And they've got some guys that are going to go in the first round year.

Starting point is 00:05:40 A lot of guys we've talked about. And when you see a guy like that dominate consistently at a young age at that size, it's good for nose tackles. Noes tackles, like we do the draft sheet every year. They score low every year because they're not going to get the tackles. They're tying up the double team. So linebacker get the. it's a tackle. They're not going to get the pass rush production, right? They're not going to

Starting point is 00:06:00 test like elite athletes typically, because they're not, you know, relative to their size. But it McDonald scores really well for us, and that's without testing. But he looks like one of those guys you should consider. If you're looking for a true nose tackle, could he be DJ reader? That's what it looks like to me. It looks like it came to McDonald. And you're right. I would, I think I like McDonald more than I like Kenneth Grant last year. I had higher grade on tape for McDonald than Grant. So if the Bengals see it the same way, is he a trade back? Is it the 10 pick?

Starting point is 00:06:31 I was listening to a Cowboys podcast recently, and they had a key messador as their potential break glass in case of emergency pick, right? The guy you really like and you know, no one's there, we're going to take him.

Starting point is 00:06:40 Could Caden McDonnell be that if you trade back to 12, 13, 17, 5,000, buy into 17. Yeah, I think that's when you get in the range, and that's probably when we bring up Peter Woods again in that scenario. I think the break glass in case of emergency,

Starting point is 00:06:53 emergency, what emergency are you talking about? that leads to Cade and McDonald being behind that door. You know what I'm saying? Like are there. I hope he's ahead of messador. So there I'll throw that one out there. But like,

Starting point is 00:07:05 defensive picks from the first nine maybe. But even then couldn't like Vega Yawani be the break, what's behind that glass or one of these tech? Because like if there's eight defensive players, that is that Maui Noah is still there or like, you know, one of these offensive linemen. Sure, Jeremiah,

Starting point is 00:07:22 obviously, but I'm assuming he's gone. I know, I know. You know me. I can bring him up. He's gone for sure. So like, I got to think that there'd be other guys before in that case of emergency.

Starting point is 00:07:34 Even if you really like Caden McDonald's tape, especially as a run defender, like DJ Reeder also had past Russian juice. He didn't really in college though. And neither did Caden McDonald. He kind of found it in the NFL. He found ways to affect the pocket in the NFL. Did DJ Reeder? Caden McDonald would have to do that too if he's going to be worth something approaching the top 10 pick. Keldrick Falk or Caden McDonald?

Starting point is 00:07:56 Pass. No, no. I'm not drafting anyone. Not drafting anyone. We'll go to the second round. You got four finger pick. Joe, go. Go.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Because I would take McDonald's. And I'm not like the McDonald guy, but. So betting on youth size and athleticism and good run defense that Keldrick Falk has is not a bad bet. I know a lot of people are scared with the Shamar thing. And I know this isn't the defensive end, you know, episode. But I might lean Keldrick Falk because of the upside. he could potentially have where McDonald at his best, he's easy to see

Starting point is 00:08:31 what his upside is, but if it's DJ Reader, is that worth the first round pick? You kind of almost have to be Dexter Lawrence to be worth it as a nose tackle. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you need to be your lower end needs to be DJ. DJ Reader isn't a pro bowler. Like, I know we love him. Like, I know like Bengals fans

Starting point is 00:08:47 love him, but like we got to be able to rate him properly here. It's not like he's wrongly, I think, not a pro-blerler. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. He's still not. And so, in a time when it's Easy to make a Pro Bowl. Not for nose tackles. Fair.

Starting point is 00:09:03 Or linebackers. He hasn't made it as a quarterback either, Jake. All right? He's got his good of a shot there. DJ Reader should have played pitcher and gone. He did. He did play pitcher. I'm saying he should have stuck with it.

Starting point is 00:09:17 Maybe it had a better chance to be an All-Star than a nose tackle in the NFL. Better chance of making the Pro Bowl quarterback. Let's discuss the traits for people. Peter Woods for Caleb Banks, for some other guys that if they make it to the Bengals pick in the second round, are they strongly in consideration? That seems to be one of the sweet spots. There might be a guy in the third round. There might be a guy or two on day three as well. So we'll talk about what some of the Bengals targets bring to the table if the Bengals were to draft them coming up next. Today's show is brought to by Rocket Money. If you've ever opened your bank account and thought, where did all my money go? Well, you're not alone. keeping track of all the subscriptions, free agency spending like the Bengals and bills, it can get overwhelming. But Rocket Money is going to help you. And I use Rocket Money, and it's really nice. It helps you take control of your finances in one place, tracks all of your subscriptions,

Starting point is 00:10:16 lets you know, hey, you have this automatic withdrawal coming, whether it's your mortgage or your rent or a big bill that is an annual subscription that you forget about. It will let you know all of those things. It's a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel unwanted subscriptions. Monitor your spending helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join RocketMoney.com slash locked on. That's RocketMoney.com slash locked on rocketmoney.com slash locked on. All right, Joe, let's continue the conversation here. The traits element of it. There's a reason I mentioned Caleb Banks. I mentioned Caleb to Jake almost all of February.

Starting point is 00:11:01 until we found out about his foot because I just thought that the Bengals would look at that and be like, this is the big physical, athletic freak that we need on our interior that we've been hoping for. And the only reason he's here is because he didn't produce the way that is needed to go top one, two, three, whatever. Now that he's hurt, how do you think they're going to balance him, assuming he clears medicals enough for him to be on their board versus a guy like Peter Woods, who's obviously younger, you hope ascending despite the down year at Clemson, but guys that could certainly be in the mix at Pick 41.

Starting point is 00:11:40 Yeah, Banks, when I watched him, I was absolutely blown away. I did not know he could move laterally or even just really explosive upfield the way he could at that size. And that is how you find the Chris Jones. That's how you find the rare guys that where you're like, man, there's one of those in every draft. I would love to get him. But yeah, the injuries have been a thing.

Starting point is 00:12:03 The inconsistency has been a thing. His flashes, if you just graded on the flashes, you would say this guy's a top 10 pick. If there was no injury, if there was no, you know, extremely high rate of mistackles. If there was no extreme lulls in his tape where you're watching like, do something, Caleb, oh, there it is, I blinked.

Starting point is 00:12:20 And he's in the backfield making a tackle or missing the tackle. Because he does get back there a ton. It just goes a stretch of 20 plays. And you're wondering why, if you are that, Like, it's the craziest flashes. If you can do that, why are the rest of your plays D level plays? It shouldn't be A plus to D, A plus to D. There's got to be a consistency there.

Starting point is 00:12:40 It's probably because he hasn't had the snaps. He's had multiple injuries. It's 20-24 tape, some of those games, bananas. Peter Woods is the opposite, though, because he's two years younger. He was 20 on tape when you watch him this year. You give him a little bit of grace when guys are 20 in receiving the bulk of the attention from opposing offense. You go back to his freshman film and his pass-rush win rate.

Starting point is 00:12:58 elite level. And then offense was like, yep, not letting that happen. We can't let them kill a third of our true past set situations. So it dropped by about 7% and then 7% again his junior year because he got more and more attention. And Clemson didn't really unleash any of their guys. They said, all right, we're kind of going to scheme everything open. We'll slide everyone one way and blitz from the other way. We'll set pick plays to let a linebacker through or let T.J. Parker wrap around and come through. it was just all trying to just free up a rusher, which is great for team defense because they were okay. But at the same time, you got a guy that can win, find ways to let him win and unleash him more often.

Starting point is 00:13:37 They were very read and react. And if you understand that, you like his tape. I think Mike Santagana has a real good score on him in our spreadsheet on tape. And it's because he's like, yeah, doing what he's doing. He's doing exactly what he's supposed to. And that's what the Bengals play too. So I would understand why they would be high on him. But the production is going to be an issue because he didn't have it.

Starting point is 00:13:55 We can assume he would have had it. Hard to make that assumption. I'd rather see it on tape. He's got great age. He is small. And then he didn't test as good as I hope at a guy that age. And with the production he had at 18 and 19, the win rates, I thought he was going to be a freak athlete.

Starting point is 00:14:11 He was just saying, okay, above average athlete. He was also on the freaks list. And so the Bruce Feldman College Freaks list where, like, I think it was for a squat or power, like some lifts, power clean, one of these lists that Bruce Feldman finds out what they're pushing and how much weight it is and all these things, how many reps are doing. And he was on that list.

Starting point is 00:14:31 But I wonder talking about the read and react, how that changes for the Bengals this year. Because when you listen to Jerry Montgomery, he was just on the Bengals booth podcast with Dan Horde. Talk to the two defensive line coaches, defensive line coach and talked to Scott Peters, offensive line coach. And Montgomery talked about the potential to do more things with a guy like Jonathan Allen on the interior and the ability to scheme up your pass rush a little bit differently because they really think Jonathan Allen can still do it as a pass rusher. So excited to see that, just talking about Jonathan Allen specifically, but as it pertains

Starting point is 00:15:07 to a potential defensive tackle target or a guy like Peter Woods, where Peter Woods is there at 41 in many scenarios, even with other guys on the board, that's probably a pretty darn good pick because of what he did as a younger player, because of what is still there as a potential. And when we talk about athletic testing, sometimes for these young people, younger guys, they actually improve as athletes in their first couple of years in the NFL when they get, and not the Clemson doesn't have a good strength program, but like when they get into the NFL strength program, the NFL offseason regimes and, uh, training programs. You can see that next step in athleticism sometimes.

Starting point is 00:15:40 Tyler Boyd is, is a guy that we think about in this way. Not that he was ever a great athlete, but he was certainly an adequate athlete and didn't test like one. And there are many cases like this where guys improve his athletes. So Peter Woods in the second round, sign me up, no doubt about it. Caleb Banks in the second round, probably a pretty reasonable pick there. Katie McDonald in the second round, certainly. Don't think there's any chance he makes it to 41.

Starting point is 00:16:06 Who else stands out as a potential pick at 41, Joe, if anyone? And as we're recording this, there was news this week that the Bengals had Lee Hunter in for a top 30 visit. Maybe there are some others since we recorded this that the Bengals have had some of these defensive tackles in. Is there anyone who stands out to you in the second round that you would have. expect to be there in the second. Yeah, I would say Kristen Miller, potentially from Georgia, there is some buzz that he could go in the back half of round one. He's 48th on the consensus, but that would be the range of expectation that he's there. And he, to me, he's the Chris Jenkins of this class where I had a tough time with him on film. I can see he's a good player, but I also

Starting point is 00:16:43 have a tough time with a lot of Georgia guys. This is going to be the case. They play their defense, and no one really gets too many opportunities to splash. Different than Clemson. where it's like you have eight guys on Georgia and everyone's going to get one shot and then they're going to rotate it back through on who's the win the guy's going to win on that play. Krista Miller played nose tackle, very good against run, very sound, very technically sound, strong, throws guys down, holds guys up until he has to, you know, discard them and make a play on the running back. He is bigger than Jenkins, though.

Starting point is 00:17:13 He's nearly 6, 4, 321, which I didn't know. I thought he was going to test at like a 305. I think he was originally listed. And I was like, oh, yeah, it's like a Jenkins doesn't look overly athletic. But I think he's a nose with plus. You don't get to see him rush the passer too often. So I think it could be there. I think there's more upside to him.

Starting point is 00:17:31 If a team says he's a nose tackle that can potentially rush the passer and be a little bit more than that, I would agree. He didn't test those or not 100% sure. But I could see the Bengals being convinced by someone. Wouldn't be shocked if nose tackle is still an area where they want to get better. It didn't seem like they ever trusted or loved McKinley Jackson and once we got the new coaching staff here. So is that somebody, and you mentioned Lee Hunter,

Starting point is 00:17:56 Lee Hunter could be that one. I think he could be in the third round. He's 45th on the consensus, so maybe I'm wrong on that. But Lee Hunter, to me, reminds you of kind of Travis Jones from the Ravens, where he's got the big size, but what Lee Hunter does, and Lee Hunter's fun to watch on tape,

Starting point is 00:18:10 because he laterally beats you very quickly at the snap. Good snap timing from a nose tackle, not something you ever hear about, right? So he gets in the gap instantly, and then they're trying to move them. They can't move him. He plays too high, though. So he doesn't really do well head up, read React type.

Starting point is 00:18:26 But similar to mentioned Dionne Walker last year, how he was so tall that it was hard for him to really hold his ground. Lee Hunter struggles with that as well, not as tall as Dionne Walker was 6-6, I believe. But when you watch him getting to the backfield and penetrate, he's a penetrating nose tackle. You get like one of those a year. And again, the guy I remember is Travis Jones was the same way.

Starting point is 00:18:48 So I like him. Again, we didn't get the testing. we don't know how athletic he actually is. And can he hold up against the run? Kind of a weird mixed player, but that they're bringing him in. I would at least be curious because he made a lot of plays. We're going to continue the conversation,

Starting point is 00:19:02 plenty of other defensive tackles to get to in a position that I agree with Jake is really, really hard to find in finding a diamond in the rough, aka Gino Atkins 2.0. Well, that's the dream. I'm not sure it's ever going to happen, but you never know. We'll continue the conversation coming up next.

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Starting point is 00:20:15 Rougiette, performance medicine for Matt. Let's talk day three. Let's talk round three. there's really just like one guy in the third round. And probably maybe there's a couple. Joe, you tell me. But where I wanted to also add to this is discussing the likelihood. Maybe we get there at the end of the show.

Starting point is 00:20:42 Maybe we get through the third round guys, the day three guys. There's a couple guys that maybe stand out. But where I felt like, yeah, really good chance they go get an edge rush, a really good chance to go get a lineback, a really good chance to go get a corner. can only get so many guys with their real draft fix this year. Maybe defensive tackle is one if it falls right. That's why we talked about it that way. Maybe it's not.

Starting point is 00:21:04 But third round, Joe, is there anyone that's really exciting to you that says, like, yeah, we're going to go this way in the third round. And we're going to prioritize defensive tackle because of the way it's falling. Yeah, let's say they still do want a nostackle. Dominique Orange, big citrus is what they call them, which I think would be funny for the Bengals. But he is a athletic nostackle, very agile for his size, gets in the backfield, defeats blocks pretty well.

Starting point is 00:21:28 Bit tight, not a great tackle radius. I do think he's going to be a startable nose tackle, though. And this guy's going in third round, that's where I'd like to take him. I like him more than I did McKinley Jackson. I believe I had a 76 on tape with him. Dominique Gore just a little bit higher. And he, I believe, had a foot issue as well. So will he go in the third?

Starting point is 00:21:48 Some had him as a second rounder at one point. There were people that thought he could get into the back half of round one when the process started. He never got there, obviously. The two guys, though, for me, I know who you're talking about, Grayson Hulton, Oklahoma. I've been enamored with him the whole time. You were looking for a Gino Atkins. You're going to get a similar-sized guy there that has the athletic ability can penetrate.

Starting point is 00:22:08 Oklahoma, though, speaking of getting your opportunities, they basically gave him a slashing role, which was just kind of go against the green, set picks and stunts, really just if we can get the protection to go right, have you go left. It created a lot of chaos, and they got a lot of good looks from it. Arn Mason Thomas was a beneficiary of a lot of that where three guys were stunting left or slashing left and he's getting a one-on-one with so much space he can go two ways against the tackle. So when you see Grayson Hulton, you go, well, I want to know what else he can do other than that. And you really don't get too much of it. But at the Senior Bowl, when I first saw him and fell at that point. So Senior Bowl week, I was like, yeah, this guy is good.

Starting point is 00:22:50 He's explosive. He's a pain in the butt to block. He is strong. he's lifting these guys in one-on-one reps in seven-on-sevon-sevon-11. I like Grayson-Hult. Then I watch state and go, oh, Oklahoma just didn't let him do this too often. So I think there's still a lot there. Bracenthalton, to me, if he goes in round two, won't be shocked at all.

Starting point is 00:23:08 The other one that could go round two, and maybe he's going to be the highest guy, like the big surprise, first surprise, would be Caleb Proctor out of Southeast Louisiana State. His game versus LSU is going to carry his entire draft stock. He has one particular game. And also small school, right, southeast Louisiana. Plays LSU dominates, absolutely kills them. It is one of the best performances of the draft season.

Starting point is 00:23:33 Watch that one just for fun. You want to have a drink and watch on a Friday night and just hang out and be like, let's watch a big dude wreck a game from a way, much smaller school against guys that are recruited 10 times over he was. That's the one, Caleb Proctor. And I wouldn't be shocked. Someone brought up GPS timing and stuff. So the Rams used that a lot.

Starting point is 00:23:51 Caleb Proctor is the GPS guy this year where people that have access to it data to that data talking about us get off his explosion ankle flexion you have you seen the videos where they're triangulate ankle flexion and we're getting crazy times in 2026 if he goes in round two it's because of that stuff in that game yeah it's uh those are the interesting ones and how how the bangles will evaluate you know the small school guy and and do they take into consideration and all those analytics, they will say yes, of course. But I'm excited to get to probably the most famous Bengals potential day three pick ever. And I don't even know how realistic it is that they take him.

Starting point is 00:24:34 But Landon Robinson is someone certainly that where does he fall? Where should he fall? Do they have to take him by pick 110? Will he somehow be there in round six? I think a lot of people would laugh at that idea that are listening, even though it may be realistic. and then Kevin Duran is one thing, but Zane Duran is another guy, certainly, that could be on their board in round four. Yeah, let's start with Landon Robinson.

Starting point is 00:24:59 He wasn't invited to the combine. And everyone knew who he was before that. I had a lot of people. When I start my process, people like to offer players to go watch some of their favorites, right, at the time, it's January. They're like, hey, watch Landon Robinson of Navy. I'm like, really? You know, this has got to be the people's champ, right?

Starting point is 00:25:16 And he was. He is that he's 511, 2991. He's a meatball, but he is athletic, extremely athletic and tough to block. And uses that leverage, uses his expected high motor to just constantly outwork you and keep going. And he doesn't come off the field. And it's getting late in the game. And the old line's tired. And Landon Robinson is not.

Starting point is 00:25:38 And that's a guy that's going to play. So when he doesn't get invited to the combine, you go, that's not a good sign. I think we get one guy probably going like the fourth round who doesn't get invited. to the combine. Everyone else is fifth, sixth, seventh, and undrafted. It is, they do a good job of scouting and understanding where these guys are projected to go in the NFL. So when he didn't get invited, I've got a couple other of my favorites in this class that didn't. It's like he got to cool your jets on it when that happens. That's an old man's term, actually. They'll cool your jets. I'm sure your father has said that to each one of you. But Landon Robinson's probably a fifth, sixth, seventh round guy.

Starting point is 00:26:14 I would love to have them. But again, 511 is weird. We talk about Ruben Bain. Can we collect all of the short guys, games probably wouldn't care about that, getting, uh, let me get Rubin Bain, let me get Pons. Oh, I'll still dunk on you. It doesn't matter. The vertical. It's just a, my friend. It's just a natural leverage advantage, just like Gino, Atkins had.

Starting point is 00:26:33 And especially on the interior of the defensive line, we talk about guys playing tall. We talked about that in this episode. When you get a guy this 5-11, you can't really, well, I mean, I guess if you're playing tall, you're probably getting tossed for 5-11 playing tall, but you're not playing tall because you're short. Yeah. Can I talk about Zane Durant then? Because he is.

Starting point is 00:26:50 I want to throw out one more note on Landon Robinson. The Bengals did get an up close look at him at the Shrine Bowl where Jerry Montgomery was coaching. Right? Jerry Montgomery is at the Shrine Bowl? He was. And they also brought him in for a 30 visit. And they also have one other meeting. I want to say was coach was at the pro day or virtual meeting.

Starting point is 00:27:10 I can't remember the report now. He followed me on Twitter right after the Shrine Bowl. So he wants to be. That's all I know about Landa Robinson. Bring him home. Let's do it. But Zayn and talked to him follows me too. So he's definitely.

Starting point is 00:27:22 No flex here. I'm taking it back. Delete the last 10 seconds. Please for me, Jake. Thank you. Yeah, that's right.

Starting point is 00:27:27 No flex. You don't need to flex because you're 6-1, big guy. I'll still dunk on. Oh, don't take a couple of it. You said I was slow earlier. This is another episode.

Starting point is 00:27:36 Slow, Joe. Zane Durant out of Penn State. I went into this trying to look at Deni Dennis Sutton. And I couldn't stop watching Zane Duran, which is typically a good sign. in my process. Those guys who have stood out to me in years,

Starting point is 00:27:51 rest in peace, Matt Lee didn't actually die, but he's not on the roster anymore. Matt Lee, when I was trying to watch Braden Fitz, I was like, look at Matt Lee. But this is Zane Durant this year. He was the winner. He was the guy that continued to take care of business athletically with hands, with intensity. When they were stunting him, when they were telling them to go outside, keeping contain, whatever he was asked to do, he did it at a high level with very good speed. I could see it. I could see you as an athlete. I was waiting from the test.

Starting point is 00:28:20 Tested well. Everything looks good for me on Zane Durant. Scores pretty high for us. As if you want to take him in round two, I would not care at all. I would say, yep, he's worthy of it. The tape's good. Data's good. Testing's good. Go ahead. But he's projected to be there in the fourth round. That's your Gino Wackens. How does Gino Wackens end up in the fourth round? Sometimes they're still there because they're small and maybe because he had sickle cell as well. But this isn't the case with Zane Durant, just to be clear. And I think if he's in the fourth round slam dunk, a plus type thing.

Starting point is 00:28:50 Is there anyone, Joe, that you think moves a needle enough for the Bengals to actually pull the trigger there? I mean, obviously, Zane Durant,

Starting point is 00:28:56 Land and Robinson, we talked about those guys. Interestingly, I think fifth, sixth on both of those guys for Dane Bruegler in the Beast this year. So if that's reflective

Starting point is 00:29:05 of how the NFL feels about them, NFL might be a little bit lower. Grayson Hulton also for Dane is a fourth round guy, so a little bit lower. And again, if that's reflective of the league, yeah, I mean,

Starting point is 00:29:15 we're pretty excited. We'll take those. values. But as I said earlier, like, is this a position where we think the Bengals are really prioritizing it to the point where they're going to take one of these guys in a slim class? This is something the Bengals have done where they like to pick from the weakness of the class and even go so far as to double dip there. Is there anyone else on day three that you think is maybe making the Bengals go that direction? Yeah. So say it's not replacing Chris Jenkins. And they're like, you know, he was a second round pick. He's going in the year three. We don't need

Starting point is 00:29:45 one of these penetrator types, and they still think Chris Jenkins could do that. Remember, they gave him all the nickel defensive tackle snaps last year. Which clearly is Jonathan Allen rules this year. Right. But let's say you want Jenkins to continue on the roster. The guy that has to be on the bubble more than Jenkins has to be McKinley Jackson. So maybe it is a nose tackle pick. That's why I want to highlight Zavian Harris out of Ole Miss, just absolutely huge. He's six foot seven and six eights, three hundred and thirty-something pounds. He's ginormous. And plays like it. He throws guys around. He looks like the biggest man on the football field, not just in size, but the way he plays. And then I want to say two other guys at the end here,

Starting point is 00:30:24 Jordan Vanderberg, not exactly a nose tackle type, but a run defender and a three, four defense, more of like a five tech type, even though he's over 310 pounds, lots of plays in the backfield. He penetrates and gets in the back field, lots of tackles for a loss. He tested like a 10 RAS, I want to say out of Georgia Tech. He's supposed to be like a six, seventh. He was potentially and undrafted until he tested like a freak. The other one is that the Bengals sent coaches to NC State, who had a bunch of guys, Justin Joe Lee at tight end, Devin Marshall, like corner.

Starting point is 00:30:54 There was another corner, I believe, but the defensive tackle, nose tackle for them. Brandon Cleveland, who's only 21 years old. He's on tape, he's pretty good. He's only 307, though. So it was big for NC State. I think he's going to need a few more pounds on him, but he definitely played nose for them.

Starting point is 00:31:08 It looks like he could do it at NFL level. Then the ultimate question is whether they choose to use a pick, on defensive tackle and whether that value is so good that they like that guy better than these positions that we've talked about this week that we think there's more depth there. And that's what we'll be watching

Starting point is 00:31:28 when we get to the NFL draft. We've got one more position for you here as we talk about positions for each day of the draft on the defensive side of the ball for the Cincinnati Bengals here in the 2026 NFL draft. Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Today.

Starting point is 00:31:44 Have a good. The Banks is always open.

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