Bengals Beat: Why Dylan Fairchild Is Set To Be Cincinnati’s Next Rock On The Offensive Line ‘The Toughness And The Nastiness Is All Over The Tape’

CINCINNATI — The Bengals believe they have landed on their next starting left guard.

And after listening to Dylan Fairchild – and those who closely watched his tape at Georgia – it’s pretty easy to see why.

Fairchild, taken by the Bengals with their third-round pick (81st overall) Friday, was a two-year starter at left guard for the powerhouse Georgia Bulldogs, the same school that produced starting right tackle Amarius Mims.

The Bengals have taken steps to be bigger and tougher on their interior line this offseason. Fairchild is in line to compete for the starting left guard spot while Lucas Patrick was signed to a one-year prove-it deal and will battle for the right guard position, taking the place of Alex Cappa.

The Bengals believe they could have something special in Fairchild, a 6-foot-5, 315-pound behemoth who happens to be an accomplished wrestler.

What do the Bengals think about his mentally — his toughness and his nastiness?

“The toughness and the nastiness is all over the tape,” Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher told me. “And then you go meet the kid and you look him in the eye and hear him respond to questions, and you hear him talk about what’s important to him. It oozes out of him. That’s who he is. It’s central to who he is. With the mental part of playing the position, you start to dig into a little bit more as you watch the tape, and you probe, and you question, and you poke holes. ‘Why did you do this? Why was your response that on this specific play?’

“You try to listen for things that clue you into the fact that this guy understands football. He understands what was being asked of him, and he’s going to be able to grow in that role. And we believe those things are all true. He’s a young player. He’s going to make mistakes. There are mistakes on his tape, but all of those things are correctable. We’re going to work like hell with him. We think we got a really good player.”

The Bengals believe that Fairchild, nicknamed “Pickle” by his former and current teammate Amarius Mims at Georgia, will mesh perfectly with new offensive line coach Scott Peters, an expert in Jiujitsu.

“Oh yeah, I know he’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu donn, and as soon as we met throughout this process, I just felt the connection as soon as we met, and again, my wrestling background, his jiu-jitsu background, I think it’s going to be a match made in heaven, and just super happy,” Fairchild said. “Just the wrestler’s mindset. I think me and coach have a similar mindset with just relentless attack no matter what. I’m just super excited to be with him, and get started on this whole thing.”

Fairchild started at left guard for 24 games at Georgia but also played some at right guard, so there is position versatility in his background.

How would Fairchild describe the responsibility of trying to protect Joe Burrow?

“Oh, it’s an honor — it’s an honor. It’s something I’m going to live and die by every single day,” Fairchild said. “It’s the biggest honor of my life, and I’m just super excited to do it. I’m going to live by the sword, and die by the sword, and give it my all every single day to do so.”

The Bengals throw the ball and drop Joe Burrow back more than any other team in the NFL, something that doesn’t faze him.

“I think that fits my play style well,” he said. “Something I want to improve on is that run blocking, but being a pass-heavy team fits my play style, so I think this is going to be a great match.”

Cincinnati’s second-round pick raised a few more eyebrows. They selected 24-year-old linebacker Demetrius Fairchild Jr., a converted quarterback to help new defensive coordinator Al Golden’s efforts to reshape the defense.

“Al and I were just talking walking down, and it felt a lot like waiting for Logan (Wilson) a few years ago in just letting all those picks tick off. He’s a tremendous fit for us. He’s someone we have an extremely high opinion of, and we’re thankful he was there when we picked,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “He walks in the door (as) a mature leader. So many people that we’ve talked to — this is one of their favorite people that they’ve been around. Just the leadership qualities and the football intangibles, the football makeup, the talent that he’s got. He’s going to walk in the door and fight for a way to contribute immediately, and I’m fired up to watch that happen.”

Knight, who turns 25 on July 21, is married and has two children after spending four years at Georgia Tech, a red-shirt senior year at Charlotte and a “Super Senior” year at South Carolina last year, where he earned MVP honors of the defense.

“The first thing that jumps out is his character and his make-up — his ability to become a captain in a short time playing. He was the MVP of one of the best defenses in the country,” Golden said. “Again, just like (Thursday’s) piece is really, really hard to find — a combo D-end, if you will, a guy who can play inside or outside — this guy is hard to find. They just don’t make them this long. He’s played at 240 to 245, he’s got enough length to go to the edge when you want to go to a five-down look, or play some outside backer for you. So, that’s a pivotal piece for us. His Pro Day was excellent. He’s just a competitor. Loved his movement in space. A sudden blitzer. He can spy a quarterback on third down. Gifted in coverage. Again, you’re talking about just shy of 6-2, 33-inch arms, 240 pounds, and just love where he is as a player right now.”

The Bengals love his leadership, versatility and his vision from the perspective of a former quarterback.

“I know when quarterbacks are coming to the line,” Knight told me. “I know what they’re looking at when they come to the line. I know they’re looking for safeties, if we’re going to show our rotation or if we’re going to try and hold it. I know what it can look like from man-to-man standpoint or coverage standpoint. Give quarterbacks a different look at snap and post-snap to give him different reads and falling right into our hands. So, giving him different looks as I come to the line. I’m looking at safety, communicating to our defense — just doing things to mess with their mind.”

How will Golden use him with Logan Wilson?

“Those two are huge, and I know the guys upstairs are excited, because there are a lot of good players, there are a lot of good linebackers, but none of them can complement what Logan (Wilson) does well. If we do go to a bear front, or some kind of under front, we want Logan off the ball, and Demetrius is long enough to go on or off the ball. He can spy on third down, he can move around. He just gives you a lot of versatility, and if you couple that with what we did last night with Shemar, we don’t need to sub all the time on early downs. That was important to all of us on defense, and we feel like we’ve accomplished that early in the draft.”

“We want to make sure it’s the right guy, not just any guy,” Taylor added. “This is one we feel like can come in and compete to contribute. We’re not assigning anybody’s job right now, but we think he has the makeup (to do that). I love everything about this guy.”

If you’re looking for a reason the Bengals would go with a linebacker who will be 25 in Week 1, consider Golden is looking for a linebacker who has seen a lot and can pick up a lot of responsibilities quickly.

“I think it’s important because you can get hamstrung and very predictable if you have to sub every time you want to go to a different look. And it was important to us to be able to go in and out of looks with the same personnel on the field, and to do that you have to have two very distinct chess pieces, and we feel like we’ve accomplished both of those,” Golden said. “And to be quite honest, there aren’t many of them. There aren’t many defensive ends that can kick in and play inside, and be rugged enough like Sam (Hubbard) used to be at 265 to 270, and there’s not a lot of these guys that can go on the line, and battle for you, and do some of those things.

“We feel like we got a combo linebacker in Demetrius. We feel like we got a clean character kid. He’s healthy, and hasn’t been playing linebacker all too long. So, from that standpoint, although he’s 25, he is ascending. I feel like we got him at the right spot in his career, and I’m not concerned at all about the age. What we have is a guy who’s got his priorities right, and he’s going to be ready to come in and fight for a job.”