Emptying the notebook from the NFL Draft, where the Bengals feel like they had a productive weekend adding six players who they targeted for months.<\/p>\n
The first three rounds were uncommonly impactful in recent club history with two potential Opening Day starters and a rotational regular. The sense is the trio of players they grabbed on Saturday’s last day of the draft were ranked much higher on their draft board than where they were selected<\/p>\n
FIRST ROUND: Texas A&M EDGE Shemar Stewart<\/a><\/p>\n Stewart’s performances in the first two Senior Bowl practices were so dominant, he left Mobile, Ala., early as a top-10 pick. No surprise to Christian Sarkisian, the Bengals’ scout in charge of Texas who has been watching not only Stewart for years, but his dominant defensive line.<\/p>\n Fully aware of the legacy of the late Aggies defensive line guru Terry Price, Sarkisian sees the 6-5, 275-pound Stewart in the same mold as Price projects and AFC North monsters Myles Garrett and Justin Madubuike.<\/p>\n “The Texas A&M defensive line is one of the most unique position groups in college football,” Sarkisian says. “Every year with Terry Price, he was getting two, three, four players drafted every year. Shemar’s traits are in the same class with Myles Garrett. “<\/p>\n Mike Potts, the Bengals director of college scouting, believes Stewart’s production is going to flourish under the direction of defensive coordinator Al Golden<\/a> and defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery.<\/a> He’ll certainly get more chances to rush in the NFL.<\/p>\n “Nobody saw more quick passing games than A&M. Everybody was afraid of their defensive line, and they all schemed to stop this guy as a priority,” Sarkisian says. “All those guys had a lot of production. He was the guy who led them in pressures.”<\/p>\n They see Stewart as a big weapon in matching the AFC North competition. Sarkisian points to plays Stewart made in the running game.<\/p>\n “Go back to the South Carolina game. He blows up a read option in the backfield. One of the most violent plays I saw all fall,” he says. “Go back to Arkansas with all the read option stuff they do when you see him make great chase-down plays. He looks like a safety at times running in pursuit.”<\/p>\n SECOND ROUND: South Carolina LB Demetrius Knight Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n Potts made sure he sent new linebackers coach Mike Hodges<\/a> to the pro days at South Carolina and Clemson, home to a pair of linebackers they identified early that they’d like to have. Both checked all the boxes of size, speed, physicality and leadership.<\/p>\n The 6-2, 235-pound Knight was particularly intriguing as a transplanted quarterback who had been to three schools in six years while getting married and starting a family. The Bengals interviewed him at the Senior Bowl and the NFL scouting combine and could immediately see why he was such a hit in only one year at South Carolina.<\/p>\n “The toughness, the physicality, and a guy with his size and that type of athleticism, those are traits for our tough division that we play in,” says senior personnel executive Trey Brown. “A big, fast linebacker that made plays on a high-level defense. We felt we’ve got a player with three-down value in our league and an excellent fit for the AFC North.”<\/p>\n Knight turns 25 by the time the Bengals open training camp, but the age doesn’t bother them at all.<\/p>\n “You don’t usually say this about older guys in terms of the upside,” Potts says, “but I think he has more upside than most guys due to limited time on task and reps , and experience at the linebacker position. He’ll get better.”<\/p>\n When the Bengals re-shuffled the board for the second round, Knight was near the top.<\/p>\n “You like the player, you like the roster fit, you like the person. You have a vision for him,” Potts says. “You get to the point, why are we overanalyzing this?”<\/p>\n THIRD ROUND: Georgia LG Dylan Fairchild<\/a><\/p>\n Potts asked offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher<\/a> and offensive line coach Scott Peters<\/a> to accompany him to the Georgia pro day a month before the trip. That was right after they walked out of the formal interviews at the NFL scouting combine with the Bulldogs’ three interior offensive linemen.<\/p>\n They were roundly impressed with Fairchild, the left guard, as well as right guard Tate Ratledge and center Jared Wilson. Plus, Potts wanted Peters to get a look at tackle Xavier Truss, and there was a bevy of skill players worthy of one of the nation’s top programs that he felt Pitcher would want to see.<\/p>\n “We spent good time with the offensive linemen the night before and the next day sitting and watching film,” Potts says. “He was a guy we targeted, and we felt there was good value there in the third round. An impressive guy. An ascending player. They tell you the strongest guy in the program.”<\/p>\n Trey Brown thinks the Bengals feel Fairchild fits best what the Bengals do.<\/p>\n “We spent a lot of time with him. We wanted to make sure we came out of the draft with him,” Brown says. “You look at the guards, and they’re all different. But he’s the best fit for us. He fits our scheme. When you watch Fairchild, his tape fits exactly what we want to do. We put a lot on our guys. They have to have the physical traits to stand up to the test. Dylan Fairchild has that ability in his body.”<\/p>\n A rugged guy who can hold up in the Bengals’ pass-first offense.<\/p>\n “When you talk about that combination of strength, power, and athleticism, he’s got very good lateral quickness. He did a very good job mirroring top-level defenders in the SEC,” Brown says.<\/p>\n There’s also a sense Fairchild has a huge upside. He battled a calf injury much of the season, and the Bulldogs wanted him back for another year. When he may not have got out of the first round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emptying the notebook from the NFL Draft, where the Bengals feel like they had a productive weekend adding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[80,2778,443,1769,1165,7,1843,2773,81,898,6,15,1496,2297],"class_list":{"0":"post-7306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-2025-nfl-draft","9":"tag-barrett-carter","10":"tag-centerpiece","11":"tag-demetrius-knight-jr","12":"tag-dylan-fairchild","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-hobson","15":"tag-jalen-rivers","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latest-stories","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-nfl-draft","20":"tag-shemar-stewart","21":"tag-tahj-brooks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114416328874581004","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}