One play shows what Bengals prioritized at NFL draft
In every one of his pre-draft visits with a defensive prospect, Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo showed the exact same moment from the Bengals' 19-16 playoff win over the Tennessee Titans.
On first and 10 with 2:43 left in a tie game, the Titans handed the ball to Allpro running back Derrick Henry. With the way the Titans designed the run, Henry had a one-on-one matchup in space with Bengals cornerback Chidobe Awuzie.
If Henry broke the tackle, he would have had a 20-plus yard gain. But Awuzie perfectly read what was happening in front of him. The Titans picked up only three yards, and the Bengals scored the decisive field goal with 20 seconds remaining.
This was the play that epitomizes everything the Bengals defense is about and everything they were looking for in the 2022 NFL draft.
According to NFL Next Gen Stats' athleticism grading scale, the Bengals prioritized athletic traits more than 27 of the other 31 NFL teams.
Safety Dax Hill and cornerback Cam Taylor-britt, both ran a 4.38 40-yard dash at the combine. Defensive tackle Zach Carter had the third-fastest 40yard dash time of any defensive tackle on the board for the Bengals at pick 95. Safety Tycen Anderson ran a 4.36 40yard dash.
“I just think that in today's NFL, we're going to play a bunch of great receivers,” Anarumo said. “The guys in our division — there's speed everywhere, especially in the back end. Those guys are going to get out of position, some just by the nature of their jobs, and if they can't get back into the play, they're going to struggle. So these guys do have to make that up in recovery speed. And that's what we're looking for.”
For the Bengals, these players' intangibles can be just as important of a piece of the puzzle.
Hill was one of the leaders on one of the best defenses in college football. Taylor-britt was a team captain, a threetime Nebraska Scholar-athlete Honor Roll award recipient, and he was a part of multiple leadership councils at Nebraska.
Carter was one of 14 players named to the 2021 SEC Football Community Service Team. Anderson was a three-time captain at Toledo, and he's pursuing a Master's degree in leadership.
In 2020, the Bengals drafted former college captains Joe Burrow, Logan Wilson, Akeem Davis-gaither, Khalid Kareem and Markus Bailey. Tee Higgins also was on track to be a captain at Clemson had he returned for another college season.
Before the 2022 draft, Bengals coach Zac Taylor described drafting former captains as a blueprint that worked for them in the past, and they followed it this weekend.
“We value smart players, and we feel like on our defense, we have the talent to compete for championships and the overall football intelligence,” Taylor said. “It's a very smart group from top-to-bottom.”