INDIANAPOLIS _ Charles Davis, football's most versatile voice this side of a Joe Burrow faux snap count, shook off his headsets Friday during a break in his Sirius NFL Radio show with Solomon Wilcots here at the NFL Scouting Combine.

"Every kid who sits down here says how happy they are to be here and how being at the combine is a dream come true," says Davis, the 1987 undrafted Cowboys running back who didn't make it out of camp. "That's because they grew up watching stuff like the combine and pro days."

Back then, in the last pre-streaming century, the NFL discouraged media from attending a combine shrouded in the 1950s Iron Curtain secrecy.

Sportswriters were thrown out of more hotel lobbies than solicitors. Now the league gives them credentials to go with food and drink. The first time Davis did a combine drill came at the combine. Now prospects practice them every day from the moment their season ends. Just like their media scripts supplied by their omnipresent agents populating Indy's bars, restaurants and coffee shops.

The Combine Kids are kids like Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord, who not only came of age when the NFL Network's coverage blew up a decade ago, but are weaned on such NFL personalities as the Bengals' celebrities of the Zooming '20s.

McCord not only shares Burrow's bio as an Ohio State transfer now beloved elsewhere (he'll never have to buy a beer in Central New York just like Burrow anywhere near the bayou), but also his offseason guru, former Bengals quarterback Jordan Palmer. He also tries to emulate Burrow's game and took a raft of advice from him after they had a throwing session together.

"A lot of Burrow tape," says McCord as he eases into the middle seat between Davis and Wilcots. "He's not the most athletic guy on the field, but he extends plays in the biggest moments. Like in the AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs. Super efficient (in the pocket)."

McCord is enjoying the banter and is easy and relaxed later up there on the podium as he expounds.

"The biggest plays in the biggest games … a lot of them are off-schedule plays," McCord says. "If the reads aren't there and you can get out and extend plays and make DBs cover for six, seven seconds down the field, the success rate of an explosive goes through the roof."

McCord tops his list of favorite quarterbacks with Burrow, followed by C.J. Stroud ("probably because I was with him at Ohio State"), and then a tie with Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. All guys he saw on this podium.

"Growing up, you're watching things like the NFL combine, pro days. 'Man, I can't wait to be in that position,'" McCord says. "Now to be here, it's very surreal. I remember when I first landed here on Tuesday seeing Lucas Oil Stadium and all the combine stuff. I was like, 'Wow, I'm really here.' Probably the coolest thing about it, just kind of seeing one of those lifelong dreams come true."

The Combine Kids don't just watch Burrow. Missouri's Luther Burden III, the draft's highest-rated receiver, rips off an answer when asked whose NFL tape he watches.

"I like to watch CeeDee Lamb, I like to watch Amon-Ra St. Brown, I like to watch Jameson Williams, Ja’Marr Chase, Malik Nabers," Burden says. "l like how (Chase is) always attacking the ball, making contested catches. I like his release game. How he plays inside and out."

Take Oregon wide receiver Tez Johnson and his tape-watching of Bengals All-Pro wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase. The Combine Kids see everything, not just the routes.

"He's the best. The Triple Crown. What more can you say?" says Johnson, a potential second-day pick. "Hall-of-Famer. Kids love him. He's great in the community."

When it comes to Chase and his running mate Tee Higgins, it doesn't matter where the Combine Kids are in the receiver rankings. They're watching. It just so happens that Beaux Collins, Notre Dame's big play man on the field and in the classroom who may go on the last day of draft weekend, met Higgins in high school when he went Clemson's camp.

Higgins was so nice and encouraging to him, he's followed him ever since. Plus, the 6-3ish Collins admires the style of the 6-4 Higgins.

"It was my junior year of high school and he was there watching and he thought a lot of me. I appreciated talking with him," Collins says. "I'd say I have a similar body type to him. But his body control when the ball is in the air and the ability to finish plays is what I admire the most."

Since Collins is watching Higgins, he's also watching Chase.

"I just like his dog mentality. He feels like he's unstoppable at all times," Collins said. "Great route running. His ability to finish on the ball is his biggest thing."

BEUX GOLDEN

Collins played offense, but he did deal with Notre Dame's old defensive coordinator. Al Golden, the Bengals new defensive coordinator, gave Collins some sound NFL advice before he left.

"I talked it over with Al. The one thing he left me with was the ability to play special teams," Collins says. "A guy like myself, not a first- or second-round pick, being able to get with the special teams is going to be a big deal.

"(Golden is) a very approachable guy. A defensive coach is a hard guy to approach at a majority of schools, but he was willing to coach everybody and anybody on the team."

MORE GREAT SCOTT

New Bengals offensive line coach Scott Peters got another endorsement here this week from the club's family tree. Former Steelers right tackle and current Steelers radio analyst Max Starks, son of Bengals legend Ross Browner, has known Peters for a dozen years and joined his martial arts gym in Arizona after he retired.

Starks loves the concept of Peters' strike system with an O-lineman's hands that he developed through MMA fighting.

"For any offensive line, he's going to be an asset," says Starks, jumping off the Pittsburgh radio show he does during the combine with reporters Gerry Dulac and Dale Lolley. "His strike system when he first came out with it about 10-12 years ago was a novel concept to pair martial arts with offensive line play because it's about body positioning, maneuvering, and that arm-lock system.

"We've always been trying to figure out how to incorporate an MMA style of mindset with offensive line play because it's an upright grappling style that needed to be done and he's the best modern adapter to that."

Starks thinks Peters' strike system is effective because it puts linemen in a proactive system rather than reactive.

"The offensive line is given an assignment based on what they need to accomplish within a pass play," Starks says. "It gets everybody going based off alignments and angles trying to attack and force the defense to react.

DR. DARRIN

As he has for many of his NFL-leading 23 years as the Bengals special teams coordinator, assistant head coach Darrin Simmons holds court at the combine. Maybe he's getting mellower, but he's praising his group for a solid year after they topped the Pro Football Focus special teams rankings.

He does say he's unhappy with the play of the field-goal unit and the punt return team and indicated kicker Evan McPherson needs better snaps from Cal Adomitis and holds from Ryan Rehkow.

But he also doesn't let McPherson off the hook when he followed up a $16.5 million extension with a career-low 72 field-goal percentage that included four straight misses from beyond 50 yards.

"I still have a high degree of confidence in him," Simmons says. "But Evan is at a critical time in his career. It's great for him that he's signed this new contract, but I think with that comes a lot of responsibility. I need him to feel that. I need him to know that. A lot of guys are counting on him. But he's got to count on other guys too. He's got to count on the snap and the hold where it needs to be. I have a high degree of confidence that he'll get back to where he was and we'll be good to go."

Simmons thinks the more time McPherson, Adomitis and Rehkow practice together, the problem is going to be fixed. But, clearly, he's getting impatient with the overtime miss from 53 against Baltimore in early October still sticking in the craw.

Simmons thinks it is simply a matter of trust in the operation because there have been hesitations from McPherson during his steps to the ball. Usually, Simmons likes to bring in training camp competition, but it doesn't sound like it here for a variety of reasons.

"I think competition is good, but I also want him to get as many reps as he can possibly get with Cal and Ryan," Simmons says. "It's certainly something to think about, but I don't want to affect our confidence. Sometimes that shows a lack of confidence."

Of which, he says, McPherson still has plenty.

"I don't think that ever really got affected. He's very good at compartmentalizing his emotions and feelings and I think that just makes him unique," Simmons says. And I think we have to make his job a little easier."

After McPherson missed the last five games with a pulled muscle, Simmons also plans to do some research about the impact of his kickoffs on wear and tear. McPherson has dealt with soft tissue issues in three of his four seasons.

DRAFTNICKS ABOUND

Greg Cosell, the brilliant, inexhaustible football analyst for NFL Films, is eyeing prospects as they're on the media podiums. He takes a look at potential first-rounder Matthew Golden, a wide receiver from Texas. He's already seen these guys oodles of times on tape, but …

"I just want to see them in person. I've seen them play so much," says Cosell as he nods approval at Golden. "I love this guy's tape. He's not at this level, but, stylistically, he plays like Ja'Marr Chase. He's not Ja'Marr Chase. Just in style. I couldn't say that on the radio because they'd go nuts: "Cosell says Golden Is Another Ja'Marr Chase."

Cosell is not saying that. What he is saying is that the Bengals need a tackle who can rush the passer and help All-Pro sacker Trey Hendrickson on the right edge. He likes the two tackles the Bengals picked high last year in Kris Jenkins Jr. and McKinnley Jackson, and he thinks Jackson can be the nose tackle.

"That's what he was at Texas A&M. He's a big, stout kid. I liked McKinnley Jackson," Cosell says. "I think he can be a normal down-and-distance one technique player … But they need another pass rusher to help Hendrickson."

Cosell says you don't have to get him at No. 17, either. He looks at South Carolina tackle T.J. Sanders and says he could be had later. Some mocks have him in the second round.

"He'd be a really good sub D-Tackle," Cosell says. "Not ready to play every snap yet right now, but enough to help the Bengals."

Cosell hopes 2023 first-round pick Myles Murphy gets more snaps on the left edge after getting only 353 there last year.

"In this era of football, you have to play young players," Cosell says. "Murphy has traits. I saw that. Traits that need to be cultivated and developed."

Jim Miller, NFL Radio's talkmaster with front office guru Pat Kirwan on the must-listen daily "Moving the Chains," is bullish on the Bengals and thinks new defensive coordinator Al Golden just has to make "some tweaks," and Burrow is going to give them a shot to win it all.

Miller says the Bengals defense was it its best with big, immovable DJ Reader at nose and says there will be guys in the later rounds available such as 332-pound Alfred Collins of Texas and 350-pound Deone Walker of Kentucky.

STORY TIME

Agent-watching is always a big part of combine week. It's also pretty easy because this is the location of one of the NFL Players Association's annual meetings. The Bengals, of course, are in the middle of it all with three of the league's more high-profile negotiations in the quest for extensions for Chase and Hendrickson and a new deal for Higgins as free agency looms in 10 days.

Veteran agent Rocky Arceneaux, repping Chase and Higgins, can be seen at an Indy steak house this week where media and agents mingle. Whether he has mingled with Bengals management here is not known, but Arceneaux offers a crisp hello and smiles a tad when reminded that this very scribe followed him and another one of his clients around this combine 31 years ago.

It was 1994, and San Diego State running back Marshall Faulk came into Indy ranked as the No. 1 player and the Bengals had the No. 1 pick. You can get a Lyft to another watering hole and get a pretty good story about that draft from an old scout.

Faulk came in No. 1 at that combine, but this was before Ohio State defensive tackle Dan "Big Daddy," Wilkinson tore up the workouts with hellacious numbers. The late great Bill Tobin, the former Bengals scout who was running the Colts back then, had the second pick, and he coveted Faulk. Enough, apparently, that there could have been some talk Tobin would have traded up to get him. Maybe. Could have. Tobin liked him a lot.

Who knows? Each team got the guy they wanted with Wilkinson going No. 1 to the Bengals and Faulk to the Colts. Tobin and Bengals president Mike Brown had such respect for each other that Tobin would later come to work with Brown at the Bengals. That would have been quite a trade conversation between two proud, honest warriors of the game.

Maybe. Who knows? Know this. There are always a lot of stories at the combine. Like the prospects, you have to figure out which ones are true.