Paul Dehner Jr. on what Bengals coaches had to say on the combine, free agency, and the draft

The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Athletic writer was nice enough to join me this past weekend to discuss the Bengals.

I was able to connect with Paul Dehner Jr. of The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Athletic on Sunday after the Joe Burrow Foundation event downtown. We had a short conversation about the Cincinnati Bengals and what he sees for them this coming offseason in free agency and in the draft.

First, I asked him what his biggest takeaway from the combine was. It wasn’t a player or a particular workout. It was what the Bengals coaches had to say in interviews.

“Mostly Bengals coaches, because I think we talked to about all of them,” he said. “That was much more of the takeaway up there. Everything they had to say. You have a team that’s kind of plotting a very interesting and unique path right now. There’s a lot of insight into where they’re looking to go. There is talk about veteran safety suddenly being in the mix. Talk about some of the dynamic play they’re looking for from the receiver position. There are a lot of different options for where they could go. I think they’re trying to figure it out as they go.”

The Bengals are heading into an offseason in which several key players, including DJ Reader and Jonah Williams, are hitting free agency. They placed the franchise tag on Tee Higgins, and there are several key spots the Bengals need to focus on when free agency opens next week.

Dehner said he thinks the Bengals will spend in the trenches, but the safety position has also been discussed lately.

“I think they know where their priorities are,” he said. “They’re the ones that everybody knows. Defensive tackle, they know they have to get more. They know they need a right tackle. They know they need all these to figure out and make sure they’re solid. The wild card to me is the safety position. Will they keep Dax there? Will they try to bring in a veteran? What direction do they go there? But I think you start in those spots.”

“I think it’s going to be where they’re not afraid to invest in the trenches,” he continued. “Will they go to the top of the market? I don’t know. They surprised last year with Orlando Brown. People didn’t see that move coming, but they really excelled in the mid-tier, so I think that’s kind of the interesting thing to watch. Will they address those issues with one big splash, four small splashes, and how will the market fall? Nobody can say for sure, and last year was the perfect example of that.”

The Bengals have spent big on the offensive line in free agency over the last few seasons, bringing in veteran interior linemen Alex Cappa and Ted Karras, as well as Brown Jr. to play left tackle. While they did pay Reader back before the 2020 season, they haven’t done much at the defensive tackle position since, either in the draft or in free agency.

Dehner believes defensive tackle is the most important position to address this offseason as well.

“I think the number one priority is defensive tackle,” he said. “I would say that needs to be addressed before anything else. That [defensive tackle] needs multiple people. It needs a high investment level, whether we’re talking draft assets, whether we’re talking free agents, more numbers, and dynamic play in there. [Last year] That wasn’t good enough. They know they need more bodies. You got to set up Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard and Myles Murphy with a push pocket, and they just didn’t get enough of that. And that contributed to some of the stuff on the back end. The way they got run on, you just got to be more dynamic on the inside. So I think that’s the number one priority spot, so that probably puts defense in front.”

The full interview can be seen below at the end of the Joe Burrow Foundation video on the Orange and Black Insider. I’d also like to thank Paul for the time.