Logan Wilson’s linebackers room has been re-made with last weekend’s draft and like the true pro that he is, he reached out to the two rookies as soon as head coach Zac Taylor texted him the phone numbers for second-rounder Demetrius Knight Jr. and fourth-rounder Barrett Carter.
“The right thing to do is welcome the young rookie to your team,” Wilson said during a break in Monday’s offseason workouts. “Let them know you’re happy they’re part of the team to help us move forward as a unit. If I was in their shoes, I would want a leader of the team to reach out to me as well.”
Right tackle Amarius Mims and his size 15s aren’t exactly in the same shoes since he was drafted only last year.
But Mims also got on the horn quickly Friday night because the Bengals drafted his Georgia linemate Dylan Fairchild in the third round, and he already had the number in his phone. He couldn’t have been any quicker than the man himself.
“I remember exactly how long Zac talked to me, so when they drafted him, I timed it,” Mims said. “I got him right away.”
It’s assumed Mims greeted Fairchild by calling him “Pickle,” the nickname he inexplicably gave him when they were freshmen in Athens.
“Brock Bowers came in and he just got a haircut, and they screwed up his hair and pushed back his hairline,” Mims said. “I said, ‘You look like a Stanley,’ and it stuck. He’s under “Stanley,” in my phone.
“We were freshmen, and we didn’t know anything. We were boneheads. I said I’ve got to come up with something for Dylan. I just said something looking at him. ‘Pickle D.’ I don’t know why. It just came off the top of the dome. People laughed and ‘Pickle’ stuck.”
Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. says “Pickle,” Fairchild can play. He not only has watched the tape, he went to dinner with Fairchild and Knight, as well as center Ted Karras Saturday night. He dined with first-round pick Shemar Stewart the night before, too.
“I love those first three guys,” Brown said. “I think they’re what we’re all about as a team.”