Quotes from:
Zac Taylor
Head Coach
Initial comments ...
"Demetrius Knight Jr. — really fired up about him. You know, (Bengals Defensive Coordinator) Al (Golden) 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. 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."
How does his age being 25 factor into taking him, and how will it impact things going forward?
"I believe he's got a lot of football years left in him."
You don't see 25 as too old at this point?
"Obviously (not). Not to talk down to you."
What style of linebacker is he?
"I think he's got tremendous vision — Al can speak more to that (as that's) his area of expertise, but he's got a great nose for the ball. Again, he's a tremendous communicator. They've got a lot of defenders on that (Gamecocks) defense, and those guys point right at him as a leader on that team and someone who's just helped everybody along the way become a better football player (and) become a better person. I feel my excitement for Demetrius, and I'm fired up he's here."
What does it say about him about becoming a captain in a place where he showed up for such a short period of time? That's hard to do ...
"That's part of the scouting information we've got from the scouts, from coaches we talked to, from players. He walked in day one and acted like he'd been there for years. Guys immediately looked at him (as a leader) and we're excited about that."
With the pick of Shemar Stewart yesterday and Knight Jr. today, both have been written about as being very physical. Was that a quality you were definitely looking for with these first two picks to improve the defense?
"We want football players. The things we're using to describe these guys, they're football players. They have great character, so they're going to walk in our locker room on Day 1 and the athletic intangibles have a chance to help us immediately. I just think we're really improving our defense right now, particularly the front seven, and we're real excited to see that happen."
How important was it to address the linebacker position with a guy you think can play right away?
"We want to make sure it's the right guy, not just any guy. 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)."
And compete as a three-down linebacker, too?
"I love everything about this guy."
Al Golden
Defensive Coordinator
What stands out about Demetrius Knight Jr. when you watch him?
"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. Again, just like yesterday'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."
What makes him the leader that he is?
"The recommendations we've gotten, you can argue, are as good as anything that we've gotten on anybody. They were just tremendous in a short period of time, whether it's strength staff or coaches. And, of course, our guys upstairs — the personnel (department) — did an unbelievable job of communicating to a number of sources. To be the leader of that defense in a short period of time with as many alphas as they had is impressive."
In general, were you looking for an immediate contributor on the back end of this defense?
"I was waiting for this pick for 17 picks just now. We were waiting for Demetrius, and we're grateful to have him."
How important is it to have a guy like last night (Shemar Stewart) and then another like tonight, who sounds like another piece on the chess board you can move around?
"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."
Given you experience coaching linebackers, is that your favorite position to evaluate in the draft?
"That's a good question. (Linebackers coach) Mike (Hodges) does an unbelievable job, and we had great alignment on this group. But I do take a lot of pride in it. I take a lot of pride — last time I was here — in that group, how they performed, and the roles they carved out, because it's really important for linebackers. You could be an early-down starter, you could be a third-down starter, you could be an early-down and special teams guy, you could be a four-down and special teams guy. But you have to have multiple roles. You have to have two of the three roles to be an impactful player, and we want to make sure we have a lot of those guys on this team."
You talk about how well he complements Logan Wilson. How much has your prior coaching of Logan paid off in terms of your understanding the type of guy you needed to complement him?
"Obviously, I have a great deal of respect for Logan and the career that he's had. We talked long a couple weeks ago, just about having a reset — reset your goals, having a sense of what you want to get done, having energy, having passion, enjoying the journey. He's in a little bit different place than when I was here last with him. We talked long and hard about what we need to get done in the short term, and obviously what his long term goals are."
You talked a lot about versatility last night with Shemar, and you talk again about versatility today. Is it fair to say that's one of the primary things you like at both levels of the defense? And why is that?
"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. 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."
How is he at slicing through blocks and getting into the backfield to make some plays?
"There are some things we can't wait to work with him on in terms of his box reads, and we say getting off the spot, just developing a quicker trigger, and feeling really good about that, and understanding the stimulus response of a linebacker. So, we'll work on that. But again, if you have the length, the reach, the balance, and the explosiveness that he has, we can teach him how to tighten his hands up with his block construction, and how to separate, and shed, and do all those things a little bit better, especially when it becomes his vocation."
What did he play prior to linebacker?
"He was a quarterback. His background — it's not just in the last 18 months everybody started liking Demetrius. We went all the way back to Georgia Tech, and how much they loved him as a person, his leadership, his work ethic. 'He's one of your guys. He's one of the guys you would like.' I was impressed with that."
How much of this pick was being able to get the most out of Logan Wilson and maximize what he can do?
"Critical, critical. Because you have to cover Logan up once and a while too and let him run, because that's what he does great. He's tremendous. He still has tremendous lateral agility, he can get off the spot really well now, and he can do a lot of things. Those guys coupled with Oren (Burks), they give you a lot more flexibility than we had just 20 minutes ago, to be quite honest with you."
Just reading some quick scouting report stuff, it sounds like stopping the run is his strength. Would you agree with that?
"I would, but I wouldn't sell him short on that. Again, he's got great range. He's getting better at the pass game. What his skill-set showed me was that he's got loose hips. He's got the ability to cover and do those types of things, and we'll use him in all those capacities."
Does his history of playing quarterback help at all with playing linebacker?
"There have been some guys that have done that and made that progression. For instance, I'll give you an example, he can understand just what it means to be high/low in a certain zone coverage, and hopefully that understanding would make sure he takes away the deeper one first, and breaks on the shallow — that kind of thing. Just the way a quarterback thinks — working high to low, inside/out. I think there is some merit to that, but I'm just really, really fired up about this player."
Zac Taylor mentioned this was like waiting around for Logan Wilson to fall a few years ago. Did it feel that same way to you?
"It was stressful, it was stressful. It could have gone a number of positions. You guys know the positions we're looking at. It could have gone another way at another position. But in terms of this position (linebacker), that was the guy (we wanted) when we woke up this morning, and I'm glad he's here."
When you met with Shemar today, did you just talk ball, or more getting to know each other?
"More personal. (Defensive line coach) Jerry (Montgomery) did a little more, introducing him to how to get going on the playbook, and things of that nature. (It's) a whirlwind for Shemar. But telling him how excited we are about him, to have this journey with him coming up, to identify things we want to improve with him, what things he wants to improve upon, and talking about being a pro, how to be engaged, and how this is your job now day in and day out — he's excited about it, and we're really fired up to have him."
In 2020, the Bengals drafted three linebackers with great intangibles. Are things like great communication ability, etc., a must for you when selecting linebackers this year?
"Critical. Critical. Leadership — again, when you judge safeties and linebackers, you turn off the volume on the TV set because you can see how demonstrative they are pre-snap. You'll know whether or not they have command of that defense, whether they're making the call and getting them lined up just by their pre-snap behavior, how demonstrative he is, how animated they are. All of that to a degree talks about his football knowledge and his command of the defense, so that's one (thing).
"No. 2, captains are important. Obviously, it's hard to lead the Bengals where we want to go if you can't lead your unit. Having guys that are captains (is vital). And then versatility is important. I've said this before. And I don't mean just vertical depth, but having horizontal depth too, being able to play different spots, including special teams, is really important. Those three elements make up what we're looking for."
In trying to learn more about your defense and its staples, it feels like the linebacker position goes in waves of what's trendy. A couple years ago it was the hybrid, fast linebacker. In your defense, specifically, what are the most important traits for that position?
"They're different. I think if you're asking me to start all over, I would start with Logan as a stack linebacker, but it's always great to have someone that's a combo backer next to him, a guy that can go on and off the ball. That just gives you so much flexibility and versatility. Like I just talked about, the more jobs you can do, (the better). If we're running a 4-3 against the (Baltimore) Ravens here in our division, we'll need three on the field — a Sam, a Mike and a Will. Can guys learn multiple positions? Do they have value on third down? Is it always off the ball? No, it doesn't have to be off the ball. You can be a guy who can move around in an odd package and rush. You could be a guy who's a spy. Certainly (Knight) is fast enough to do that and long enough to do that, so those are all the things that we're looking for, and once you get all the pieces, you put it together. We've been holding back, to be honest with you, to fortify some of the things that we want to do, and it should be clear to the staff where we're at and what we need to get done."
Is this a guy you envision being able to come in and call a defense?
"Eventually; I think that will be our challenge. We've had this discussion upstairs. We're not drafting anybody right now — yesterday or tonight — to not play considerably (and) not to make an impact. Obviously, the quicker he can make the transition with the nomenclature and understanding the system and then feeling enough to call it, (the better). And we'll challenge him to do that right off the bat this spring. But you can't just have one guy that does that. You need multiple guys that can do that. I know Oren (Burks) can, I know Logan can, and now we've added another piece."
As you think of your defensive mission, how important was it to fill a hole with the uncertainty regarding Germaine Pratt's future?
"Yeah, critical. (It's) really critical that we have depth there and have some guys that can come in and compete for some starting roles with the guys that are here already, and have competition. I know everybody feels like they're getting better right now. I feel like we've gotten critically better in the last 24 hours with the two guys we've brought in. And in changing the dynamic of their rooms, they can move us forward, which is important."
