{"id":859766,"date":"2026-04-07T22:31:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/859766\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T22:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:31:33","slug":"cincinnati-bengals-reportedly-visiting-with-prospects-on-both-sides-of-the-trenches-ahead-of-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/859766\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Bengals Reportedly Visiting With Prospects on Both Sides of the Trenches Ahead of 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bengals are visiting with players throughout these next two weeks, leading up to the NFL Draft, and two more got revealed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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Both are in the trenches, including a local talent in Cincinnati defensive tackle Jalen Hunt.\u00a0Ryan Fowler reported<\/a>\u00a0the contact.<\/p>\n

“Cincinnati DL Jay Hunt has visits scheduled with the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals this week. Explosive presence in the middle for the Bearcats had four sacks & 6.5 TFLs last fall. Former Michigan State transfer,” Fowler posted on X.<\/p>\n

Sports\u00a0Illustrated’s\u00a0Justin Melo<\/a>\u00a0sat down with Florida offensive tackle Austin Barber, and he noted a Zoom meeting with the Bengals.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve\u00a0had a ton of Zoom meetings,”\u00a0Barber said to Melo<\/a>.\u00a0“Some of the recent ones include the Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks, Carolina Panthers, and New Orleans Saints, to name a few.<\/p>\n

“I\u00a0had formal and informal interviews at the NFL Combine. I met with\u00a0a bunch of\u00a0teams at the Senior Bowl.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0pretty much\u00a0met with every team in the NFL.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0about to take some pre-draft\u00a0’30’\u00a0visits with the Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans, and the Arizona Cardinals.”<\/p>\n

Big Board Values\"Mar<\/p>\n

Mar 1, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Florida offensive lineman Austin Barber (OL02) during the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

A look at either side of the trenches, starting with Hunt. Cincinnati likely\u00a0won’t\u00a0draft Hunt, who\u00a0is not ranked\u00a0on the Mock Draft\u00a0Database’s\u00a0consensus big board, but Barber is a different story.<\/p>\n

Hunt is an undrafted free agent candidate, while Barber is ranked 125th overall and 14th among offensive tackles. He could land with Cincinnati in the fourth round or fall to them in the sixth.<\/p>\n

Both need to hit the leadership anf football-love markers Duke Tobin is looking for from his players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number one trait, you have to love football,”\u00a0The Bengals executive said in February.\u00a0“You have to be playing football because you enjoy the game. If\u00a0you’re\u00a0playing football just because of what it brings you,\u00a0it’s\u00a0normally not gonna be a long-term thing for you. You have to be playing football because you love doing it. And so we really wanna know, does the guy love football? If it\u00a0didn’t\u00a0bring the things that NFL football brings, which are great, but if it\u00a0didn’t\u00a0bring those things, would he still be playing?”<\/p>\n

Sign Up For Our DAILY Newsletter for More Free Coverage of the Cincinnati Bengals Delivered to You Directly<\/a><\/p>\n

For more on the Bengals,\u00a0subscribe to our YouTube Channel and be sure to check us out on your favorite audio platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Amazon. Make sure you\u00a0bookmark BengalsTalk.com\u00a0for the latest Bengals news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!\u00a0We’re\u00a0a one-stop shop for all things Cincinnati Bengals! Join the\u00a063,000+ Bengals fans who subscribe to us on YouTube.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bengals are visiting with players throughout these next two weeks, leading up to the NFL Draft, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-859766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnatibengals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116365801217317376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859766","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=859766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}