Emptying the notebook from the NFL Draft, where the Bengals feel like they had a productive weekend adding six players who they targeted for months.

The first three rounds were uncommonly impactful in recent club history with two potential Opening Day starters and a rotational regular. The sense is the trio of players they grabbed on Saturday's last day of the draft were ranked much higher on their draft board than where they were selected

FIRST ROUND: Texas A&M EDGE Shemar Stewart

Stewart's performances in the first two Senior Bowl practices were so dominant, he left Mobile, Ala., early as a top-10 pick. No surprise to Christian Sarkisian, the Bengals' scout in charge of Texas who has been watching not only Stewart for years, but his dominant defensive line.

Fully aware of the legacy of the late Aggies defensive line guru Terry Price, Sarkisian sees the 6-5, 275-pound Stewart in the same mold as Price projects and AFC North monsters Myles Garrett and Justin Madubuike.

"The Texas A&M defensive line is one of the most unique position groups in college football," Sarkisian says. "Every year with Terry Price, he was getting two, three, four players drafted every year. Shemar's traits are in the same class with Myles Garrett. "

Mike Potts, the Bengals director of college scouting, believes Stewart's production is going to flourish under the direction of defensive coordinator Al Golden and defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery. He'll certainly get more chances to rush in the NFL.

"Nobody saw more quick passing games than A&M. Everybody was afraid of their defensive line, and they all schemed to stop this guy as a priority," Sarkisian says. "All those guys had a lot of production. He was the guy who led them in pressures."

They see Stewart as a big weapon in matching the AFC North competition. Sarkisian points to plays Stewart made in the running game.

"Go back to the South Carolina game. He blows up a read option in the backfield. One of the most violent plays I saw all fall," he says. "Go back to Arkansas with all the read option stuff they do when you see him make great chase-down plays. He looks like a safety at times running in pursuit."

SECOND ROUND: South Carolina LB Demetrius Knight Jr.

Potts made sure he sent new linebackers coach Mike Hodges to the pro days at South Carolina and Clemson, home to a pair of linebackers they identified early that they'd like to have. Both checked all the boxes of size, speed, physicality and leadership.

The 6-2, 235-pound Knight was particularly intriguing as a transplanted quarterback who had been to three schools in six years while getting married and starting a family. The Bengals interviewed him at the Senior Bowl and the NFL scouting combine and could immediately see why he was such a hit in only one year at South Carolina.

"The toughness, the physicality, and a guy with his size and that type of athleticism, those are traits for our tough division that we play in," says senior personnel executive Trey Brown. "A big, fast linebacker that made plays on a high-level defense. We felt we've got a player with three-down value in our league and an excellent fit for the AFC North."

Knight turns 25 by the time the Bengals open training camp, but the age doesn't bother them at all.

"You don't usually say this about older guys in terms of the upside," Potts says, "but I think he has more upside than most guys due to limited time on task and reps , and experience at the linebacker position. He'll get better."

When the Bengals re-shuffled the board for the second round, Knight was near the top.

"You like the player, you like the roster fit, you like the person. You have a vision for him," Potts says. "You get to the point, why are we overanalyzing this?"

THIRD ROUND: Georgia LG Dylan Fairchild

Potts asked offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher and offensive line coach Scott Peters to accompany him to the Georgia pro day a month before the trip. That was right after they walked out of the formal interviews at the NFL scouting combine with the Bulldogs' three interior offensive linemen.

They were roundly impressed with Fairchild, the left guard, as well as right guard Tate Ratledge and center Jared Wilson. Plus, Potts wanted Peters to get a look at tackle Xavier Truss, and there was a bevy of skill players worthy of one of the nation's top programs that he felt Pitcher would want to see.

"We spent good time with the offensive linemen the night before and the next day sitting and watching film," Potts says. "He was a guy we targeted, and we felt there was good value there in the third round. An impressive guy. An ascending player. They tell you the strongest guy in the program."

Trey Brown thinks the Bengals feel Fairchild fits best what the Bengals do.

"We spent a lot of time with him. We wanted to make sure we came out of the draft with him," Brown says. "You look at the guards, and they're all different. But he's the best fit for us. He fits our scheme. When you watch Fairchild, his tape fits exactly what we want to do. We put a lot on our guys. They have to have the physical traits to stand up to the test. Dylan Fairchild has that ability in his body."

A rugged guy who can hold up in the Bengals' pass-first offense.

"When you talk about that combination of strength, power, and athleticism, he's got very good lateral quickness. He did a very good job mirroring top-level defenders in the SEC," Brown says.

There's also a sense Fairchild has a huge upside. He battled a calf injury much of the season, and the Bulldogs wanted him back for another year. When he may not have got out of the first round.

FOURTH ROUND: Clemson LB Barrett Carter

Potts has been scouting Clemson for years (he was on Tee Higgins early and often), and he was even stunned by how much the people at the school think the world of Carter off the field. The word down there is they think he's an eventual NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year guy.

"We had him for a formal interview at the combine, and the guy just checks every box. Character is 100 percent," Potts says.

Carter is enough of a hit on the field that they would have gladly taken him a round earlier.

"Very good three-down value. He's highly athletic," Trey Brown says. "Excellent cover skills. One of the few linebackers in the league who was asked to do a lot in coverage in that Clemson defense and he was excellent at that. He can run sideline-to-sideline and has very good upside."

FIFTH ROUND: Miami OL Jalen Rivers

At this point, Potts knows the character thing is starting to sound like they may be exaggerating with overpraise. But he insists this is an impeccably scrubbed class when it comes to the intangibles: "You want players who have both talent and character, and we think all these guys have both."

Like the massive 6-6, 319-pound Rivers, who comes from a Jacksonville, Fla. home where both parents have served in the U.S. Navy.

"He's a buttoned-up, polished kid," Potts says. "The coaches and staff at Miami could not speak higher of him. The favorite of many people there."

They got good exposure to Rivers at the Senior Bowl, and he came out of Mobile a Bengals target. Director of pro scouting Steven Radicevic saw him at the Miami pro day in between signing veteran free agents, and they brought Rivers to Cincinnati for a pre-draft visit.

"We knew he was a potential target pretty early on and that he could factor for us, so we decided to bring him in," Potts says.

Like the rest of the NFL, the Bengals covet offensive linemen who can swing between guard and tackle. Remember how Cody Ford saved them last season. And it's a big reason Rivers emerged at the top of their board as the fifth round unfolded.

"Versatility was the last box he needed to check. He had already checked that box as much as anybody you could imagine during his season," Potts says. "Nearly every single game he moved from guard to tackle mid-game, and moved back and forth. It wasn't like he started there at tackle for three games and six at guard. Almost every single game he played both positions. Versatility is no question."

He also looks to be another young, natural pass protector for Joe Burrow. It sounds like Peters is going to start out Rivers competing at tackle before moving him to guard.

"He's a guy with super long arms," Potts says of measurements hovering at 35 inches. "He's really patient and instinctive. Really aware. You see the football intelligence and instincts on his tape."

Rivers has told them he needs to get better in the run game, but Potts says, "It's not like he's light years from improvement. He's got every trait in his body … I don't know if he's going to end up starting as a rookie or later in his career, but he's a valuable piece in terms of his ability, his makeup, and his versatility."

You can probably count Rivers as another guy who if they got him on Friday night instead of Saturday, they would have been pleased.

SIXTH ROUND: Texas Tech RB Tahj Brooks

Sarkisian recalls they gave incumbent Chase Brown a starter's grade two years ago and got him in the fifth. He pegs Brooks as a developmental starter, so they probably would have been happy with him in the fourth.

This is another guy Sarkisian has been following in Texas for a few years, and is hugely impressed with his production compared to the rest of the class:

"He's got the third most carries in the class. Fifth most explosive runs in the class, second most efficient runs in the class. Best short shuttle in the class," he says.

At 5-10, 225-230 pounds, Brooks is a guy who has studied big backs like Marshawn Lynch, Josh Jacobs, and the guy he'll be next to in the room, Samaje Perine. They see him as another guy who uniquely fits into what they do offensively. Last season, Brooks took just three runs from under center. The overwhelming majority came out of the shotgun. Sarkisian notes from 2023 to 2024, Brooks improved his pass protection enough to be called "violent."

"Last spring," Sarkisian says, "after morning lifts he would go work out with the Texas Tech track coach."

If he sounds like a captain, he was. His relative, Chris Houston, played in the league for several years and was a 2007 second-round pick of the Falcons.

"He's been around it. He understands it," Sarkisian says.

They've got an even better feel for him because running backs coach Justin Hill tried to recruit Brooks to Tulsa.

And you've got to love a face-of-the-program guy who is on any list with the late, great Bengal Cedric Benson. Benson leads the all-time Big 12 rushing list, where Brooks is now fourth.

SLANTS AND SCREENS

Andrew Johnson, who canvases the East and pockets of the Midwest, didn't have a guy pop out of his region this year, but he did plenty of cross-checking, and he'll most likely have fingerprints on the college free agent list that's released at next weekend's rookie minicamp.

"When you have a good team, you can afford to fill some spots, and we got guys who can play right away," Johnson says …

This draft also turned out to be a positive referendum on last year's two Friday night picks at defensive tackle, second-rounder Kris Jenkins Jr., and third-rounder McKinnley Jackson. Virtually every mock draft around the globe had them linked to a defensive tackle in the first round and later.

In addition to re-signing B.J. Hill and acquiring one of the league's top run-stopping nose tackles in Green Bay's T.J. Slaton Jr. to team with Jenkins and Jackson, there's a sense Golden has plans to sprinkle edgers such as Stewart, Joseph Ossai and Myles Murphy inside on passing downs.

"A lot of our defensive ends in the room have a lot of versatility," Potts says. "There are definitely some different things we can do with those guys." …