INDIANAPOLIS _ Darrin Simmons, the Bengals assistant head coach and the NFL's longest-tenured special teams coordinator, had just got done talking about the impact and difficulty of landing large, agile, and productive defensive linemen Thursday here at the NFL scouting combine before he excused himself and crossed the hotel lobby to congratulate former Bengals running backs coach Jemal Singleton on winning the Super Bowl a few weeks ago with the Eagles.

Just a coincidence, but it's no secret the league is trying to replicate Philly's dominance up front. Coaches and draftnicks alike think the Bengals not only have a shot at grabbing a difference-maker on the edge or in the interior during the first round at No. 17, but also during the second at No. 49.

"It's definitely a deeper class," said new Bengals defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery. "In years past, after the top two or three guys, it dropped off drastically. This year is fairly deep in the interior and on the edge."

If anyone knows what a first-round D-Lineman looks like it is Montgomery: The Packers trusted him with four of them during the nine seasons he coached their front. In his last two seasons they opted for edge Lukas Van Ness in 2023 and tackle Devonte Wyatt in 2022 after tapping Pro Bowl edge Rashan Gary in 2019 and three-time Pro Bowl tackle Kenny Clark in 2016.

If you believe the mockers, his next is going to be Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen, which would make him the first defensive tackle the Bengals have chosen in the first round since Dan Wilkinson 31 years ago, when Montgomery was 15 years old and yet to be recruited out of Mesquite, Nev., by Iowa coaching legend Hayden Fry.

The 6-4, 296-pound Nolen rose up the draft board with quickness and pop and without knowing that everyone in the country has him going to the Bengals at 17.

"I don't try to get into all that," Nolen said at this week's media availability. "Just keep it the main thing."

The main thing for Nolen appears to be not being scripted.

"Be yourself. Don't worry about being a robot. Just be yourself," Nolen said of the advice he's fielded. Later he stuck to the script. "I'm a real person. I feel like a lot of people come here to be a robot. That's just not me. I'm going to keep it real at all times."

He also rages with confidence.

"I feel like I do everything. It's hard to find someone who looks like me and do the things I do," Nolen said. "Aaron Donald was a smaller player in the league. I look up to him. I try to do the same things he did."

They come in all shapes and sizes at 17.

If it's the DJ Reader-type nose tackle you want, just look at The Game with Ohio State's 334-pound Tyleik Williams and Michigan's 340-pound Kenneth Grant. There are light edgers like the 245-pound James Pearce Jr. of Tennessee and big ones like 285-pound Shemar Stewart of Texas A&M. Or three techniques like Nolen and 6-5, 320-pound Derrick Harmon of Oregon.

But a light edger such as Pearce?

Analyst Steve Palazzolo of The 33^rd Team points to, who else, the Eagles, and 2023 first-rounder Nolan Smith.

"He plays with incredible power and he came out at 239 pounds a couple of years ago," Palazzolo says. "I think Pearce has enough power to play, but it's lighter than you would expect on the edge."

Maybe that's why Palazzolo says Pearce has dropped out of the top five and into the late first round in some mocks. And it sounds like 245 pounds isn't going to cut it on the AFC North edge. Just look what the Packers had in the NFC North on the edge under Montgomery. Van Ness is 6-5, 272, and Gary is 6-5, 277.

Maybe Pearce's slide stopped with Thursday's 4.47-second 40-yard dash. But maybe not if they look at arms, barely 32 inches long.

"We'll have some positions that guys probably can play … 240 is getting light. I mean, you're talking linebacker," Montgomery said. "For us, on the edge, you want to be a little bit bigger than 240. It doesn't mean that you can't play it, especially if you play nasty, tough, and physical. You can get away with those things."

New defensive coordinator Al Golden won't roll out any physical prerequisites when it comes to ruling out prospects. But they realize they'll have to settle on some imperfections in measurables and production.

"We will have to decide what we are willing to accept and not have in a guy," said Duke Tobin, the Bengals director of player personnel. "But there are a lot of guys. They are very different. They all have really great strengths. Their strengths that they do have are excellent. We will have to decide what we are willing to accept not having in that player."

Take Stewart, the chiseled edge from Texas A&M. Perfect body type, but he had only 4.5 sacks in three seasons. This week on the podium he defended his production.

"I wasn't a sack-chasing warrior. I just wanted to become the best player for my team," Stewart said. "And sometimes the stats don't show that. Definitely trying to get more comfortable and get after the quarterback, trying to run through the tackle instead of maybe trying to reach out, lunging for a tackle.

"Teams were not going to sit and pass the ball against us. We had a stacked D-line. Everybody knew better than just to sit and pass the ball against us."

But Stewart may be a tough sell for an NFL coach like Montgomery. He didn't break 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash (4.59) Thursday, yet he did vertically jump 40 inches.

Montgomery relies a lot on tape, and he may be counting those 4.5 sacks instead of the 4.5 40. Montgomery's teammate at Iowa, the 5-8, 206-pound safety Bob Sanders, left quite an impression as a two-time All Pro and Super Bowl champ with the Colts.

"You want bigger, faster, stronger. But if the film doesn't match it? To me, the biggest evaluation is, what does the film look like?" Montgomery said. "Is the kid a productive player in college? And does he make plays in college? Does he play hard? To me at the end of the day, film overrides all of that.

"You can have a guy that looks like he belongs on the street, but is a hell of a football player. I played with a guy like Bob Sanders. Undersized. He was the defensive MVP in the NFL, because he was a football player, not because he was 6-7 300. And you don't want to get a ton of small guys. But I want a football player that knows how to play the game."

Grant didn't work at the combine, but his ample physical skills are expected to crush his pro day in Ann Arbor in a performance Palazzolo believes can make him a top-15 player. Another dilemma because the draftnicks say he has inconsistent tape, so we'll see what Montgomery thinks of that.

Palazzolo believes Grant and the other nose tackle who can anchor the middle, Ohio State's Williams, would be a boon for Bengals sophomore three technique Kris Jenkins Jr.

"Kris Jenkins has the potential of being a better player with a nose tackle to play off," Palazzolo said. "Another guy is Deone Walker (Kentucky.) He's inconsistent. He's 360 pounds and sometimes he plays like he's 360 and sometimes he doesn't. But he'd be a fit maybe in the second. There's a lot of depth on the defensive line. Taking one in the first and second would be a good move."

And the Bengals already have a first-rounder for Montgomery to develop in 2023's Myles Murphy, the Clemson edge they took with the 28th pick who has three career sacks, none last year to go with four quarterback hits in 353 snaps.

The Eagles took Nolan Smith two spots after Murphy and he had 6.5 sacks and 11 QB hits, but he also played nearly 200 more snaps than Murphy. The Bengals feel if Murphy gets on the field more consistently, he'll be able to finish off his pass rushes.

"Myles was elite coming out," said Montgomery, who watched him. "I love his size and I loved his ability. He's a great one to be able to get my hands on and develop.

"One of the most under-coached things in the game of football is being able to finish on the quarterback. Why? Because you can never touch the guy in practice, so you never get the opportunity. You can practice tackling and all that. But to finish on a quarterback is something you have to work on every single day of practice. Every time you work rush you've got to work on finishing to the quarterback. And so I think that's something that can be coached.

"Everything we do, from a pass-rush standpoint, we'll work on finishing on a quarterback. Now, it won't be a live quarterback, but we'll work some things to help get that done, because we'll never get to touch Joe Burrow in a practice ever, right? If you do, you'll probably get fired."

Montgomery isn't delivering pink slips yet. When it comes to veteran and prospect evaluations, he's intent on studying tape and production.

The Bob Sanders Test.

"At the end of the day, it's right technique and fundamentals, toughness and play style," Montgomery said. "It doesn't take talent to do any one of those three things."