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April 28, 2025 13 mins
Kelsey Conway from Cincinnati.com joined us to discuss what the Bengals did and didn't do during the 2025 NFL Draft. 

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The radio show in Cincinnati, according to the readers at
CityBeat Magazine, the Mullwager Show on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Never not going to be funny. Twenty two minutes after four.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is Mowager. Thank
you for listening today. Brenneman and Jones on baseball coming
up in just about thirty minutes. More of your phone
calls are ahead as well. But first, Kelsey Conway of
The Inquirer joins us Cincinnati dot com. She joined us

(00:29):
on Wednesday. We talked about her three round mock draft,
in which she successfully mocked Dylan Fairchild to the Bengals
in round three. So here to take a victory lap
and more?

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Is Kelsey? How's it going?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
I most certainly, I'm going to take my victory lap?
But hey, what is this? I hear the fourth most
listened to radio station. I disagree?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, another publication, CityBeat Magazine. They pulled their readers as
to the best radio show in Cincinnati. We finished fourth.
We finished fourth in Since I don't it's been three weeks.
We still haven't figured out if that's good or not.
You have no reaction to that.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Oh, I was about to talk while you were about
to talk. I think you're the best radio show. And
I'm not just saying that because on SO I was
shocked to hear that, and I couldn't stop laughing because
I thought it was like a joke of some kind.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
No City Beat readers said we were the fourth best
radio show in Cincinnati. Now we're not sure totally what
to do with this because they named Dan Horde third
best TV sportscaster and he hasn't been a TV sportscaster
in twenty years.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Okay, Well, between those two things, between this being the
fourth ranked radio show and Dan Horde being third on
any list, I beg you differ on both of those things.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Are we are in agreement on that one? Should I
be focusing on the players the Bengals took or the
positions they didn't address?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
You know, I find myself asking that question too, And
I think it's natural after the draft to focus more
on who they did draft as opposed to what they
didn't do. But I think in this case, because they
covered so many needs in the draft, I think you
should focus on what they did do. I know there's

(02:23):
a lot of talk about what they didn't do at dtackle,
what they didn't do at safety. But that's what I
kept going back to before the draft, is the Angles
weren't in a position necessarily to take the best player
available at every round. You can even argue did they
take the best player available in round one? They weren't
like some other teams that could just you know, load

(02:45):
up at another position that they're already stacked at. Because
it's true that they could take the best player available.
I think what the Bengals did was they covered a
lot of needs and that's why I think the reaction
has kind of it hasn't been an overwhelming excitement, but
they checked a lot of boxes that they needed to
and they still have more to check.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
But did they need to linebackers?

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yes, because I think that for the last two years
they have completely neglected that position. And that I've thought is,
you know, one of the things that they could have
done better in the last two years and instead of
I know, you can't take care of every position every year,
but I think that they turned like a blind eye

(03:29):
to the linebacker spot and they didn't expect Germaine Pratt
to regress like like he did. Nobody was expecting that,
so I see where they're coming from that standpoint, But
I just think whether it be like the later rounds,
they really haven't drafted that position in years, and that's
what you get. You end up having to double up
because I think Al Golden came in and you know,

(03:50):
he's a linebacker's coach at heart. I think he came
in and was like, Yeah, this needs to be fixed
asap because his defense, that's a really big part of
the front seven, a different difference than lou and the
linebacker spot's way more important. And I think that we
didn't talk about how big of a need it was.
But I think that they view if they can maybe

(04:10):
fix the linebacker, then they won't have as much to
worry about safety. Will that worked out, we don't know,
but I think that we really weren't talking about how
bad that linebacker room was last year.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Very very fair.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I look at Demetrius Knight and for all of his
qualities and there are in abundance, both intangible and tangible,
I can't help but think that they either a could
have traded down and still gotten him, or B waited
to address linebacker until a little bit later on and
gotten a player who was comparable.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Tell me why I'm wrong.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
You're fair on the trade back for him. I don't know.
It's hard to say if he would have been there
in the third round, but I think that they looked
at as they had a third round great on Dylan
fairtrial the whole time, and so I think that they thought, well,
we know he's going to be there in the third round,

(05:02):
let's take the linebacker because we don't know who liked him.
And I will tell you I was when they drafted
a linebacker on the second round. I was one of
the people like, wait, what they took a linebacker in
round two? Because I wanted them to take a dtackle
or another edge, like just go go bananas on the
defensive line and finally fix it once and for all.

(05:22):
But I will say I reached out to a couple
of sources around the league who have studied the defensive
side of the ball the prospects, and everyone said that
they liked Night. So I think that they got a
really good player. You can argue you should have been
in round two. That's up for debate. But I talked

(05:43):
to three different people who all had watched his tape,
and they said he was a really good player.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Is Dylan Fairchild going to start Week one?

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yes, it's funny. I was asking Pitcher Dan Pitcher, the
Bengals offensive coordinator, about the battle at right guard now,
and I didn't even put in, you know who could
battle at left guard with fair Child? Like I just
automatically made him a starter in my head. So when

(06:13):
I was asking about all the players who could be
battling on the other side of the ball, I like
left a press conference and I was like, I think
I just named him a starter without even realizing that
he's starter. But he's one to beat the.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
Starter, all right? Very good? That excites me. Is there
anything else he has?

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Like an awful camp?

Speaker 4 (06:34):
Right?

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Sure? But they drafted him to start.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
But leading up to it, all you heard was about
all the competition they had at guard, And so I
think there are some folks who wondered, like, well, is
he just going to be added to that mix? Are
they going to bring him around slowly? Is it going
to require an injury for him to be Like I
want him to start. I would imagine they want him
to as well, but they are crowded there.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
No, I think that move was more I remember talking
to Zach Taylor owners meeting about the guard spot and
he was basically eluding, let's get through the draft and
then I'll be able to give you a better answer
about where we're doing. And for Dan Pitcher and Zach
Taylor that night to say he is going to be
in the mix to start right away, like they don't

(07:16):
do that that often with players, so they feel really
good about him. With him, you know, basically he's going
to have to lose the job, let's just say that.
But I think where they're talking about competition, it's going
to be more at right guard and what they do
with Cody Ford. If they make him the starter or
Lucas Patrick does, then Cody Ford become the swing tackle.

(07:36):
I think right guard is where the competition is going
to be, and that's where the like the real training
camp battle is going to be.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
At the Shamar Stewart pick, everybody focuses on one and
a half sacks and it's understandable why there were thirty
nine pressures. There are great physical traits. Are the Bengals
telling us that sacks are overrated by age rafting a
guy who had one a have sax and be not
paying the league's current reigning sack champion.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Well, Trey Hendrickson.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
I had to work in a Trey Hendrickson question. That
was my way of doing it.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
That's a whole different situation. But I will tell you
about Schamar. I was out on him being a pick
for the Bengals because of the production. I was one
of the ones that was like, no, they can't do
this again. They don't have time for a project. I
think it came down to this with him. I think

(08:35):
it came down to who was available at the time.
So I think had Walter Nolan been there instead of
going to Arizona to pick before, I think they would
have had a really long debate about to take Schamar
or Walter Nolan. I think Nolan coming off the board

(08:56):
to pick before. I think like their cluster was like dwindling.
And who besides Shamar Stewart was in their cluster we
won't ever know, but I think that it was about
they weren't they probably it seems like they weren't really
interested in any of the other edge rushers like Mike

(09:18):
Green or the Boston College edge rusher, and they weren't
as Araku. They weren't It didn't seem like they wanted
to take a safety at pick seventeen. So I think
for them it was about they really liked him, and

(09:38):
from what I gather in obviously the production it has
it has to be better. And I've asked a lot
of people like why if he's got all of these
crazy traits, like why hasn't it come together? And I
haven't been able to get a clear cut answer, which
is interesting. But from what I have gathered is he's

(10:00):
way better against the run than we're giving him credit for.
So when you changed the perspective of okay, he might
fill more of a Sam Hubbard type role for them,
where he can, you know, be really good in the run,
he can bounce inside. I think that takes the he
needs to have ten sacts for this to be a

(10:20):
success off of his plate. But I do think, you know,
if this guy doesn't have four to five sacks every year,
it won't be looked at as a good pick. But
I will say, like I think it was about for them,
he was part of their grouping that they were comfortable taking,
and some people came off the board before they probably
expected that, And I think it was about about we

(10:42):
really like this guy, and we think that seventeen is
acceptable for him. And I will say, like I read
so many mock drafts and there wasn't one where he
wasn't in the first round, So I think that it's
not like it's a bad kick at the took that
someone who had a third ground, third round grade, you

(11:03):
know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Sure, yeah, And I understand that I like TODs Brooks
mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
I liked that pick a lot too. I think I
think it'll be interesting to see how he is able
to come on like halfway through the season. I think
he compliments Chase Brown really well, and Chase Brown showed
that he can be when when on the field of

(11:28):
super dynamic back. But I love that they added a
complimentary piece to him. And I wrote in my wrap
up piece, I actually thought the pick that made a
lot of sense to me was the Barrett Carter pick
and the fourth round linebacker on Day three because if
you look at it, and we don't really talk about

(11:49):
it that often, Logan Wilson's injury history has definitely been
something you know that's crippled this defense. He struggled to
stay on the field at times, and I think this guy.
From everything you read about him is he's a Green
dot linebacker and I think that he's gonna end up
playing a lot more than we're probably talking about right now.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Awesome stuff as always, and we thank you. We'll talk
to you soon.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Thank you so much, Thanks so much for having me on.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
You're the best.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Kelsey Conway, the Cincinnati Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com does
a terrific job. And you could also obviously also follow
her on Twitter at Kelsey L.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Conway.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
All right, we're late twenty five from five o'clock, we're
going to talk to some other people. I want to
spend a few minutes talking remembering Walt Chockey. We'll do that,
which discussion about him, I think reveals what I think is.
We've talked about like glaring omissions today. One of the

(12:52):
most glaring holes in all the sports. Maybe that's a
bit overstating it, but I promise I'll I'll do my
best to make that make sense. Headlines as well on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
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