Talk With No. 1

A combine trip is a good reminder that Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase are no longer kids and are the idols of the kids. Take LSU slot receiver Aaron Anderson, a 5-8, 188-pound speedster who may go in the fifth round or so.

Anderson mimics the players who have his size and play his position, such as Tyreek Hill, Calvin Austin and Jaylen Waddle. But his “role models,” are Chase and the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, fellow New Orleans products who stayed home to star in Baton Rouge.

“They’re why I wanted to go to LSU and play wide receiver and also compete to be in their shoes and come out as a top receiver,” Anderson said Friday.

Anderson, who came out of Edna Karr High School in New Orleans as the state’s No. 1 player, has been able to strike up a relationship with Chase, and his role model has been generous with advice.

“I talk to him a lot. We just talked to each other recently. He told me always be myself,” Anderson said. “Know who you are when nobody is around, when nobody is looking. He told me we’re from New Orleans. It’s a lot of people always preparing for our downfall. Just go out there and let them know what we really can do.”

Measuring Up

Defensive coordinator Al Golden, getting ready to watch the cornerbacks run the 40-yard dash Friday, approached Trey LaBounty in the Bengals suite at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“What do you have?” Golden asked cheerily. “Any tidbits that you can give me?”

Handing out tidbits is exactly why the Bengals hired LaBounty as their scouting research analyst last spring. He can help in one of this week’s pressing debates, the supposedly short arms of Bengals’ first targets on the defensive line. Rueben Bain Jr., the University of Miami’s gifted pass rusher, would have the shortest arms of any edge picked in the first round in 20 years at 30 7/8 inches. Texas A&M edge rusher Cashius Howell came in even shorter at 30 1/4 inches.

Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods beat them at 31 ¼, but the average is supposed to be 33 inches.

LaBounty crunches the numbers and makes the projections, but Golden isn’t revealing if certain physical requirements need to be met to even be considered.

“Not that I would give out for public consumption,” Golden said earlier this week. “Every defense has trigger points. What jobs are we asking X, Y and Z to do and what body type and traits correspond to that. I think part of that is identifying those things and being really clear.

“There’s a lot of talent, and that’s not as important as the one you get. Can the one you get or the two that you get or the three that you get do the jobs that you are asking and can they improve us?”

Woods looks up to Bengals edge Myles Murphy, a Clemson defensive lineman they took in the first round three years ago.

“Me and Myles talk through social media,” Woods said this week. “He was a great mentor for me, coming out. Myles is a man of very few words, but just watching him and how he went about his business when he was at Clemson, especially when I was a recruit, was very inspiring and I really appreciate him for that.”