Dehner's Deep Dive Behind the Scenes Look at the Bengals Draft

[membengal]

https://theathletic.com/2570351/2021/05/06/its-not-supposed-to-be-easy-behind-the-scenes-of-the-bengals-complicated-scrutinized-nfl-draft-path/?source=emp_shared_article

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In the dog days of the Bengals dissecting options for the fifth overall pick, offensive coordinator Brian Callahan had finished going through tape of the offensive line prospects and flipped over to Ja’Marr Chase.

This was the intersection of every draft debate for fans and pundits surrounding the Bengals’ options between Penei Sewell, Kyle Pitts and Chase. Before Callahan decided how he felt about the question that shaped Bengals’ conversation over the last four months, he felt the need to refer back to one of the biggest wins he’d ever been a part of while on staff with Denver in 2015.

The Broncos and Patriots were duking it out for home-field advantage that season — along with the Bengals — and Denver hosted Tom Brady in a light snow on a Sunday night just after Thanksgiving.

“I went back and watched the game from start to finish,” Callahan said.

Peyton Manning was hurt, so Brock Osweiler started at quarterback. Down four with just over two minutes left, Denver gets the ball and Osweiler throws a bomb down the sideline to Demaryius Thomas who skies for a spectacular 36-yard reception. On the next play, Emmanuel Sanders smokes the corner off the line and hauls in a 39-yard go ball. A couple of plays later, Andre Caldwell caught the go-ahead back-shoulder fade in a game the Broncos won in overtime and gained the top seed on way to winning the Super Bowl.

The big-picture analysis of that night stood out and related directly to this decision.

“In the most critical moment, our best players had one-on-one matchups and they won them for huge plays in high-leverage situations,” Callahan said.

It set off a realization of offenses he studied — watching Manning’s intelligence, accuracy and quick processing dominate the league in the same way the Bengals hope Joe Burrow can.

“I want the best offensive line we can get,” Callahan said. “But we had an even less exciting offensive line in 2015. I look at Peyton Manning’s offensive line in 2009 when the Colts set a million records and went to the Super Bowl. He was throwing to Pierre Garcon, Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark. Handing it to Joe Addai. I can’t name a lineman on the team besides Jeff Saturday. He had guys that won. Quickly and decisively.”

For Callahan, this served as a breakthrough moment. The problem was he was one of more than a dozen Bengals staffers who entered the draft conversations with breakthrough moments of their own. Some went in different directions, complicating the final opinion on this franchise-altering decision.

The decision set off the first domino of a puzzle that carved a Bengals draft that fell in a way they love but took more than a couple of creative, controversial choices to make it happen.

This is the story of the conversations that shaped the Bengals draft path from the scouts, directors and coaches at the center of it, and the months of gathering inside intel that led to an 11-man class filled with hope, polarization, relentlessness and beef.

But it all started with one ranking of three names that didn’t get nailed down until days before the draft. A call head coach Zac Taylor dubbed one of the hardest he’s been part of in a draft.

“I felt really comfortable with (Chase) pretty early in the process but we still needed to talk through the process of receiver, O-line, tight end,” Taylor said. “We still needed to make sure everyone’s voice was heard. I thought it was a good draft room. Everyone gave their two cents. You talk through it and reach who we are going to pick. It’s not supposed to be easy and everyone agrees on Chase and no one is the devil’s advocate. We had that.”

Taylor decided to hop on extra Zooms in the days leading up to draft with some of the top players expected to come off the board on Thursday. Not because he necessarily needed to do more digging in a process, but because he wanted to curate a clear image of the Bengals’ stance.

“So if people were calling around trying to ask if I talked to Kyle Pitts and more guys I was trying to make sure I had,” Taylor said. “Because I knew teams would be asking all these guys who I talked to and I wanted them to say Cincinnati. I wanted there to be a lot of options on the table for us at five.”

The weekend prior to the draft, Taylor and his son, Brooks, drove up to visit Taylor’s brother, Press, who just moved to coach with the Colts in Indianapolis. Taylor was keeping the secret of which way the team was going to go from his kids but knew Brooks had basically figured it out while texting his dad hundreds of mock drafts over the last few months. Taylor proudly laughs admitting his son held out when Press started needling him for information.

Despite any attempts at creating confusion, there was no running from the obvious option.

Bengals director of college scouting Mike Potts first caught the 2019 LSU offense and what would be the team’s next two first-round picks when the Tigers played at Vanderbilt that September. Not only was Burrow’s star on the rise, but Chase ascended that day breaking tackles, taking the top off the defense and finishing with 10 receptions for 229 yards and four touchdowns.

“Last year was the best wide receiver class I can ever remember, I have been doing this 10 years now,” Potts said. “But I left that Vanderbilt game thinking to myself and talking to other scouts that were there, there’s a ton of really good receivers in the country, but the best one is right here at LSU and he can’t even enter this year’s draft.”

The conversation this year became how many years back you’d have to go to find a receiver rated this well coming out.

“You look at the two aliens in A.J. Green and Julio Jones as guys who come to mind,” said Christian Sarkisian, Bengals area scout. “I’d say those are probably the two guys. He’s better than any of the guys last year … I guess an argument could be made about Amari (Cooper). That’s 2015.”

Part of what put Chase over the top came on March 22 with director of player personnel Duke Tobin in attendance. The LSU receiver put up a combination of freaky pro day numbers only replicated a receiver by Seattle’s DK Metcalf since 2000.

“It meant a ton,” Potts said, as the staff searched for opinions on how Chase handled his opt-out year. “I’ve got a couple coaches down there that I trust that said, if you had any hesitation on us telling you how much this guy loves football and how much drive he has to him he obviously answered those questions and gave you the proof there with how well he did at the pro day. He blew it up.”

Those texts came into Potts while he was one state over at the Florida pro day along with Taylor and special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons.

They were almost simultaneously witnessing Pitts showing off one of most absurd displays of athleticism imaginable as he ripped off a 4.46 40-yard dash and 39-inch vertical leap at 246 pounds.

“Unreal,” Potts said of Pitts. “We don’t like to throw around the word ‘rare’ too often because I feel that needs to be reserved for unique, high-end players. But he’s about as unique as it gets.”

The looks exchanged between those in attendance made it clear. The Bengals had their hands full with this one.

“The hard part is any of those top, premier guys would have been great fits and you could make arguments for any one of them,” said Steven Radicevic, Bengals director of pro personnel. “It makes it difficult. You hate passing on a guy that is an elite player. You always kind of wonder.”

Inevitably, the Bengals were saved by the Falcons from ever having to say they passed on Pitts. The Florida tight end had his supporters in the Bengals draft room. As did Sewell, for all the reasons as obvious as Burrow’s scar and why the Lions selected him with the seventh pick.

When it came down to decision time, the team had to look at the totality of a draft with several quality offensive linemen expected to be available. But the ideal fit for the team that didn’t get enough out of Green’s position in 2020 and could potentially replace his largely ineffective 104 targets last year with production expected of Chase, particularly over the top where Burrow struggled dramatically, helped clinch it.

“We think Ja’Marr can transcend our offense,” Potts said.

The benefit of taking a position group as valuable as receiver from very good to elite is it changes the dynamic of the entire team. A defense that ranks as average and an offensive line that ranks as average with league-best passing attack is how many modern-day title contenders are calibrated.

“In my opinion, it’s the best receiver room in the league,” Sarkisian said. “But I don’t think you can make an argument against it being a top three in the league right now.”

And a lot to count on. While not the primary part of the equation, the Burrow factor was real here in creating the highest probability of success. A quarterback who created a relationship spawning that type of success at LSU helps predict work ethic and quickly getting the most out of that immense talent.

“I don’t think Ja’Marr is going to want to let Joe down,” Potts said.

You end up back at Callahan’s breakthrough moment. Playmakers can change the dynamic of big games in high-leverage situations. You don’t need a cast of first-round picks up front to allow them to do so, partially because receivers who win fast paired with a quarterback already among the quickest decision-makers in the league can do almost as much to offset pressure as adding Sewell.

“I think what you see around the league is that it’s hard to hold the ball,” Callahan said. “That’s every team across the league. There’s nobody that sits back and drops back and hangs onto the ball for a long time, because those guys on the other side are freak shows … and when you get a chance to get guys who can win on the outside — and we feel really good about the guys we have that can go win matchups and catch balls — it helps when they win fast. You can dictate a little bit of a coverage structure, too, and you have some big plays and some explosiveness. Now all of a sudden you get soft boxes for the run game, and all these things fit together.”

What fit together more than thinking about second-round linemen or the puzzle of the roster was the Bengals adding a game-changer to a team desperately needing more of them.

“Everybody was happy with the result and understands what this guy is going to do for us,” Taylor said. “We take Ja’Marr Chase because you think he’s going to be one of the all-time great receivers here over the next 10-15 years. You don’t want to be influenced by, ‘Is there a lineman there in the second round?’ if you think this guy is as good as we think he is. We just need to get him on the football team. This year, consequently, just happened we knew there would be a good group of linemen there in the second round we knew we could get. If you knew this player would turn out to be A.J. Green, what would make you pass on him? If you look back on his career and say he’s going to have the same impact and career that A.J. Green had, what makes you say let’s pass on him and go get this other guy because there’s not a lineman you like in the second round — knowing what you know about A.J. Green. To me, that weighs into it a little bit, this is the impact we think this guy is going to have on us.”

A few basic truths emerged inside the first meetings about attacking the offensive line problem back in January. The free-agent class would be thin, the draft would not and the Bengals needed to be more equipped inside to handle the powerful AFC North defensive lines, in particular.

That’s where even back then Jackson Carman entered the conversation.

“We put in the same amount of work on Jackson Carman as we did on Joe Burrow, in terms of talking to as many people as we can and really having a lot of big group conversations about it,” Sarkisian said.

At 6-foot-5, 317 pounds, Carman fit the big, powerful body the Bengals prefer when dealing with the likes of Cam Heyward, Brandon Williams and other interior game-wreckers in the division. His flexibility as the guard of today and a potential tackle of tomorrow made sense, his athleticism made him feel like the ideal fit for offensive line coach Frank Pollack’s wide-zone scheme.

But the real move up the draft board went beyond the tape.

Taylor spoke with Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, as nearly every coach must do considering the wealth of talent in the South Carolina powerhouse. Except, this marked the second year in a row they would be talking about specific targets. A rave review paid off last year, in standing up for Tigers wideout Tee Higgins, who made a massive impact as a rookie in Cincinnati.

A similar refrain followed surrounding Carman this time around.

“If this guy comes back (to school), he’s a top-15 pick,” Taylor recalled what he was told about Carman. “He’s a first-round talent, day-one ready. He’s going to walk in ready to play. I don’t say that about every player I have but saying that about the two players you have — or are about to have.”

The questions about Carman as a Bengals fit were twofold: Could you expect him to play guard immediately having not played it all in his life and what about the back injury he sustained last year and had a minor procedure on it in January?

The first part of the question felt natural given his size, bend and athleticism. He more naturally looks like a guard despite playing tackle during his career. The second part of the question, once confident in the success of the procedure, actually became a plus rather than a minus.

“He was playing through it that second half of the year, at least the last five games,” Potts said. “That gives us confidence that there’s more there than he even showed on tape and his tape was extremely impressive, in our opinions. There was every reason in the world that he could have used this injury to opt out like a lot of guys did. If you have a question about this guy’s toughness, drive and the love he has for football … this guy easily could have tapped out and got the back procedure midseason and went and trained for the draft. He fought through it with his teammates.”

Just as the Bengals picked Burrow’s brain for background on Chase, they tapped similar resources vetting Carman.

“I asked Tee Higgins, would you want Jackson Carman as a teammate?” Taylor said. “He said, ‘Hell yeah.’ There is no hesitation. Tee is about what we are about. Sometimes they may say, ‘Hell yeah,’ but delay it for five seconds. Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn’t that way at all. It was a quick, no-thought whatsoever.”

With Carman square in the targeted mix, Tobin and Mike Brown sought to work the phones in order to find more draft capital to open up their third day of the draft. Twelve offensive linemen were selected from Landon Dickerson at 37 overall, one pick before the original Bengals second-round selection, and No. 70, one after their third-round pick. That’s a lineman going more than every three picks.

A collection of options were on the table for the Bengals, but not as many some might have thought.

“A lot was made publicly about the depth of certain positions,” Potts said. “When you really dial in on guys medically and character-wise, there’s a lot of stuff that isn’t out there that probably would ding guys on certain teams’ draft boards and move them down or even up in certain cases.”

The Bengals thought moving back in the second round would be the ideal spot to grab Carman at a premium value. After a back-and-forth with the Patriots, they eventually agreed when two fourth-round picks were put on the table by New England.

“The trade went from a possibility and something we felt good about to a no-brainer,” Potts said.

The move was obvious because back in January, this was tabbed as the exact sort of move necessary to fix this team for the long haul.

“Talking to Mike (Potts) and Duke, the biggest concerns were building up the line of scrimmages and we have to be as creative about it as possible,” Radicevic said. “Getting the extra picks was huge in the fourth round.”

As Potts ticked through four defensive linemen selected in this draft, he couldn’t help but catch himself.

“I hate to sound like a broken record,” he said. “It is a physical division where we need these big bodies.”

The Bengals came off a year where they were pulling those bodies off the street seemingly every week to play on the defensive line. It buried them. At times starting four players who weren’t on the team when camp began.

“We didn’t want to go through that again,” Taylor said, sounding like a coach who learned an NFL life lesson in 2020.

Everyone on the Bengals personnel staff knew this objective would be a primary focus of the second half of the draft. But beyond finding big bodies capable of fighting back against the bullies of the AFC North, one character trait pushed up the priority list over most others: relentlessness.

A year after arguments over effort caused a schism with Carlos Dunlap, they set out to acquire an army of rushers who play and practice with limitless energy like Sam Hubbard.

“I think it was something that we recognized that we were lacking, was just guys who every down they want to affect the play,” Sarkisian said. “I would say that’s the common thread. It’s something that all three of them across the board have. They all fall into the same category as a Sam Hubbard, as a Trey Hendrickson. Guys who just absolutely play with their hair on fire.”

Texas’ Joseph Ossai (third round), Tulane’s Cam Sample (fourth round), LSU’s Tyler Shelvin (fourth round) and Kansas State’s Wyatt Hubert (seventh round) all came with unique scouting stories and reasons for the team to believe they could be the next gem.

On Ossai: “The kid has game-wrecker traits,” ” Sarkisian said. “You watch the Oklahoma State game. He had a game-winning sack against Teven Jenkins, where (Jenkins) just got embarrassed. You watch the game, and there’s some critics out there about that game, but I thought he had a phenomenal game against Oklahoma State … the kid just shows up every game, and it’s in opportune times.”

Ossai finished with 12 tackles and three sacks, including the walk-off against Jenkins against Oklahoma State.

On Sample: “He has ridiculous, ridiculous upside. And his character, everything about him, the arrow is sky-high,” Sarkisian said.

On Shelvin: “He’s a guy that is hard to move,” Potts said. “Can take on double teams and even triple teams … I know we have D.J. (Reader), who is an excellent nose tackle, but you can’t have too many guys that are big and physical in there on the interior. Thought he could come in and have a real impact on our defensive line and I’m glad we got him where we did. It’s not that we had to take Tyler Shelvin because he’s the next guy on the list. He does some unique things.”

On Hubert: “We really had to stay true to our board,” Potts said. “He just stuck out like a sore thumb. He was clearly our highest-graded player still there in the seventh. The tape is better than the measurables, some of the explosive testing he put up at the pro day. Not the longest guy in the world. Christian put me on to him early in the season. He fell in love with his tape. He said this guy is a real guy and you need to crosscheck him. I love this guy as well. Another guy we are talking about with extreme urgency and physicality.”

Suddenly, a position group grasping for anyone to play last year returns Reader, adds Larry Ogunjobi, Hendrickson and four defensive linemen they all view with potential to contribute immediately. Will they all do it? No. But depth and options now flow even into potential practice squad spots.

“We definitely added some beef,” Radicevic said. “That part of it was huge. Defensive end, the way it shook out, we had those guys rated so high they were too good to pass up.”

As with any draft class, there’s optimism around all the picks. They think D’Ante Smith will thrive playing 25 pounds heavier than he did during his last full season in 2019 and develop into a starter down the line at tackle.

Radicevic said he received multiple texts from friends across the league when they selected Georgia center Trey Hill in the sixth round that he was their top-rated center. A meniscus injury hurt his testing numbers, but the tape and intel sounded different.

“When I talk to people I trust on Georgia’s staff, they raved about how good of a basketball player he is and how much bounce he has and he can dunk with ease at 330 pounds,” Potts said. “He’s smart, high-character guy, tough, long, versatility to play all three spots. We were really excited to get him in the sixth round. His tape is better than the sixth round, I feel strongly about that.”

With running back Chris Evans, Taylor and Callahan got a good glimpse of his personality at the Senior Bowl where no other coaching staffs attended due to the limit of 10 attendees per team. So, Taylor got to know a guy they watched tear up the one-on-one sessions against safeties and linebackers.

“The players go through these interviews, they are just meeting with scout, scout, scout,” Taylor said. “I am sitting there with my hat on and a non-descript polo, they just assume I’m some scout. Which was great. Because I just sit there and interview these kids … but they have no clue who I am.”

Personnel executive Bill Tobin, who owns a great relationship with Jim Harbaugh from his days as general manager of the Colts, and scout Andrew Johnson were able to answer questions as to why Evans didn’t play much for the Wolverines. His skill in pass protection and catching out of the backfield clear a potential path to success behind Joe Mixon.

Toss in the aggressive play for a needed new kicker in Evan McPherson thanks to the extra picks and the Bengals feel like they were able to creatively take a major step for the deficiencies of the roster while catapulting another into an elite ecosphere.

It may not turn out that way, it rarely does. And the pick of Carman and passing on Sewell will continue to bring some criticism until the offense proves better for it.

In three days, the Bengals become the latest case study in building around a young quarterback.

“There’s a lot to get excited about,” Sarkisian said.

It wasn’t always easy. It wasn’t always clear cut and results are still to be determined, but it could be just what this franchise needed.

“There’s a lot of different ways to win,” Callahan said. “It’s just another perspective.”

 

 

[Wraith]

Great story.  Loved reading it.

[COB]

Awesome insight into Carman.  Thrilled to read that about him.

[redsbengalsbucks]

Great read

[membengal]

3 hours ago, COB said:

Awesome insight into Carman.  Thrilled to read that about him.

Def feel more upbeat about things involving his selection after reading that.