Bengals Beat: DT Kris ‘The Mutant’ Jenkins Taken in 2nd Round, WR Jermaine Burton Taken at 80, McKinnley Jackson at 97

CINCINNATI — Kris Jenkins was so unique in Michigan’s weight room that former conditioning coach Ben Herbert called him “The Mutant”.

“Our strength coach gave it to me because I just went above and beyond in the weight room,” Jenkins said Friday night. “And I did some things that people looking at me wouldn’t expect me to do. That mentality is how I carry myself, how I push through adversity, injury, anything. It’s a mutant mentality.”

Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said he sees Jenkins as a three-down tackle eventually on the Bengals interior line.

“I just like everything about his game,” Anarumo said. “He’s a tough, tough run defender. He’s got great football instincts. As Zac already mentioned, he brings leadership. He’s been a captain, I think second-team All-American, just a tough guy overall and plays the game the right way.”

“We see him as a three-down player. He’s already shown that in college at a high level. Right now he’ll be slotted in to rotate in with the other guys, and we’re very excited to have him.”

For head coach Zac Taylor, you can never get enough three-down defensive linemen.

“It’s ideal. You want to have a vision or a role for a player and how they fit with us,” Taylor said. “We felt like Kris really fits in with the guys that we have in the building, and we’re excited to get him.”

“Kris Jenkins, defensive tackle from Michigan — a guy we’re really excited about. Another guy we met with at the Combine, a guy we brought in on a 30 visit. And it’s really funny, on my 30 visit one of the notes I made to myself was that I didn’t have much to talk to him about, because I didn’t have a lot of questions about him.

“He’s a polished guy, captain at Michigan, checks every box. There wasn’t a lot you had to dig into him with, so we just had a nice, friendly conversation, but there wasn’t a lot of questions I needed to get answered because we had the information we need, and we were happy he was there at 49.”

Jermaine Burton (third round, 80 overall):

Then there the player that could be the steal of the first two days.

Jermaine Burton is a wide receiver who averaged 20.5 yards per catch in 2023 from Alabama. He has the kind of speed that can – as the scouts like to say – take the top off the defense.

How will Burton fit alongside Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins?

“He’ll fit great. He’s explosive,” Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. “That’s really our job now, is how do we mix and match those skill sets, but what he brings to the table with regard to the threat that he’s going to pose to the defense, how are they going to have to respect all three of those players and the explosiveness they bring. We’ll figure that part out, but he’ll take care of the hard part which is separating from defenders and catching the football.”

As for the field storming incident in 2022 when Tennessee beat Alabama and Burton was seen striking a female fan in the face, Zac Taylor said it was addressed in the interview process.

“Yeah, it went straight (forward). It was something that we talked about with him just to hear what he had to say about it,” Taylor said. “Again, we did our research on all these guys that we’ve talked to and made sure we’re aware of every incident they’ve been a part of. There’s certainly maturity things that come with some of these guys coming out of these colleges, and that’s one of the things he’ll continue to grow with.

“We felt good. We picked him. We felt good about our interactions with these guys.”

McKinnley Jackson (third round, 97 overall):

The Bengals got their pure run-stopping defensive tackle at 97 overall. McKinnley Jackson out of Texas A&M is

“He’s played a little bit of everything, but he’s really a two-down nose, is kind of what he is,” Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said. “But he has played across the board, but his home is closer to the ball — shade, nose, zero nose — those type of things.”

“I think really with both these picks, they’ve allowed a lot of flexibility in those rooms — receiver room, D-tackle room,” Taylor said of Jenkins and Jackson. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can play football. Even outside of the guys that we talk about as starters necessarily, now we’ve got an opportunity to find roles for a lot of different people and we feel like we’ve got a lot of talent in both those rooms, which is exciting.”