MOBILE, Ala. _ The Bengals are looking for defense this offseason, so during this week's Senior Bowl practices we went looking for the biggest, fastest guys we could find.
It just happens two of them were wearing University of Kentucky helmets from just down I-75 from Paycor Stadium in Lexington, which means no one knows them better than a former Bengal.
Ray "Rock," Oliver, UK's senior associate athletic director and a strength coach for the Marvin-Chad-Carson Bengals, has known cornerback Max Hairston and defensive tackle Deone Walker since they were 17.
He thinks Hairston is a carbon copy of Leon Hall, a Bengals superstar Oliver saw drafted and become the best nickel in the league. He thinks Walker is a game-wrecker-in-waiting in the NFL interior because of stunning big-man athleticism.
"They've played a lot of football," Oliver said. "I don't care what anybody says. If you're a good player in the Southeast Conference, you're going to play for a long time in the NFL."
For the Bengals, defensive tackle would appear to be the need bigger than cornerback, but director of player personnel Duke Tobin indicated in this week's state of the club that all three levels on defense are in play.
Hairston had two big days at the Senior Bowl before he got nicked and won't play Saturday (2:30 p.m.-NFL Network) for the American team. Same with Walker, who also made a big impression without being as disruptive.
After watching Walker, American head coach Ray "Bubba," Ventrone, who is the Browns special teams coordinator in his NFL life, couldn't resist setting up one of his end-of-practice one-on-ones. He matched the 6-7, 340-pound Walker against the 6-3, 310-pound Jacksonville State guard Clay Webb and got a great scrum.
"He's a monster," Ventrone said of Walker. "It was a good rep. "He and I just talked about finishing his rush. That's what he wanted to get in practice, and we'll look at the tape."
Walker wrecked a practice, never mind a game, when he barged through a bag drill and put a coach on his back.
"I'm just glad he's OK," Walker said. "I don't want to get sued."
Yet he is trying to build a case. It may not be as polished as the one Hairston is building for the second round, but if Walker isn't gone by the third round it's probably just a matter of time for an athlete that big to go.
"I just want to show coaches and scouts that I can get back to being the person I was my sophomore year, if not better," Walker said. "I had a shaky junior year (in 2024). It wasn't bad, but it wasn't up to my standard."
Walker said he fought through back problems as his numbers slid from 7.5 sacks, 13 tackles for a loss, and 43 quarterback pressures, to 1.5, 22, five. But he seems healthy now and he feels like his game has improved because Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White's 3-4 scheme put him everywhere.
Walker has been counseled to play lower and work on his conditioning, but Oliver has no doubt he'll be a factor in the league.
"Really good kid. I wanted to put him in the minute he showed up on his recruiting trip," Oliver said. "It seems like he's been playing that long for us. And he hardly ever came off the field. The thing is, he's going to be more athletic than the guard. He's going to be more athletic than the center. Those are the guys he's going to be over and they're going to be in trouble."
Ventrone sounds like he's going to be bringing good reports back to Cleveland on Hairston.
"Max is a really good player. Good speed. Quickness," Ventrone said. "And he's been a really good kid off the field in the meeting room. Very engaging. Positive kid. I've enjoyed coaching Max."
Oliver could have told you that. At 6-1, 186 pounds, Hairston may be able to leap into the league right away at nickel as he builds his body and his game. He led the SEC in interceptions as a sophomore in 2023 and he had six in 32 games, three of the pick-six variety. And he threw his body around for a Mike Hiltonish 89 tackles, 2.5 tackles for a loss, and a sack.
Oliver says not to be fooled by the slim frame.
"He's maybe the best body fat guy I've ever been around," Oliver said. "It's all muscle. He's carrying no loose change. I think he's going to run very fast and he's quick, really athletic, and really, really smart. I'm telling you. Leon."
He's a little too young to know who Hall is. But when Hairston talks about emulating Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II, it sounds like Hall.
"He's so calm. He has composure, but he's always in press," Hairston said. "That's the thing I want to do. I don't want to let the receivers beat me up, and to control the rest."
NEXT SENIOR BENGAL?
Maybe it was a coincidence, but when Duke Tobin talked about the kinds of players he wants to use to build the roster, they were 2023 Senior Bowl graduates. Chase Brown and Andrei Iosivas. Late-round picks who have gone from finding niches to expanding roles.
Brown, a running back from Illinois, bolted into his own this past season with a string of 100-yard scrimmage games that gave the Bengals offense an even spicier look. Only an ankle injury in the last hour of the season cost him a 1,000-yard rushing season.
The season-ending neck injury to running back Zack Moss opened the door.
"Chase ended up with a much bigger workload when Zack went down and to Chase's credit he showed he could handle it," Tobin said. "It's not ideal for to carry that load, but he showed he can handle it and be a No. 1 running back and a guy teams are concerned with."
Tobin said he doesn't yet know what Moss' status is for this season, but either way the Bengals are probably looking for young backfield depth. If the Bengals follow the 2023 Mobile script, maybe a guy like Delaware running back Marcus Yarns could be on the radar as a combination of the smallish home-run back Brown and the small-school Iosivas as a third-day pick.
The Senior Bowl has always been the great equalizer for the small schools and this one is no different.
The 5-11, 185-pound Yarns ripped off 6.4 yards per his 365 college carries with 23 rushing touchdowns and 11 touchdown catches. He's got blazing speed that impressed even Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe this week and there are those who think he'd be a nice rotational back in a zone scheme.
"He's a really cool player because he runs bigger than his size," said Jim Nagy, the Senior Bowl director. "He's only about a buck 85. Not a really big guy, but he's got really good contact balance. He's great in the pass game.
"They did a lot with him at Delaware. They detached him, let him run routes out of the slot, he can track the ball down the field. So he's a real three-down back. Youngstown State had a back, Jaleel McLaughlin, and I almost invited him a few years ago. I wish I did because he's had a good career for the Denver Broncos and Yarns is similar."
McLaughlin, a 2023 undrafted free agent, averages 4.8 yards per his 189 career carries to go with 55 catches and four for touchdowns.
Yarns scored a touchdown in Thursday's one-on-one drills when he was matched up in the pass game against estimable South Carolina linebacker Demetrius Knight II. Knight, a 245-pounder who has starred down here, couldn't fend off Yarns as Yarns got behind him. Yarns won the war of hands and leverage, and his ability to muscle his way behind Knight and then catch the loft from Milroe was impressive.
Alabama to Delaware through South Carolina
"That's what this is all about," Yarns said. "Trying to be the best against the best. I think I've shown that here."
Terry Bradway, a long-time NFL executive now a part-time consultant with the Panthers, confirmed it.
"You had a good week," Bradway told him Thursday after the last practice.
The big thing Yarns wanted to show is that he could pick up the playbook quickly because at Delaware the Blue Hens don't huddle before each play. The offense gets hand signals from the sidelines before the snap. But this week he did just fine working out of a huddle.
"Had to be the first time in two, three years I've been in a huddle," Yarns said.
SLANTS AND SCREENS
Even though tight end Erick All Jr. is going to miss the 2025 season as he undergoes extensive ACL rehab, Tobin says he's optimistic All is going to be ready to go in 2026.
Which would seem to make a tight end a possibility in the draft, since All and Drew Sample are their only ones under contract. Clearly, they'll make a run at re-signing Mike Gesicki after his 62-catch season.
Since All is their best combo catching and blocking, do they draft a guy like that? Or could they be lured by a receiving tight end, record-breaking Bowling Green tight end Harold Fannin Jr., as he ran through Senior Bowl secondaries this week?
Fannin set 10 FBS records last season, ranging from single-season receiving yards by a tight end (1,555) to single-season catches by a tight end (117) to the Pro Football Focus Era mark for broken tackles by a tight end (34). At 6-4, 230, it is said Fannin doesn't have the size to be both a blocker and pass catcher.
But wouldn't Bengals tight ends coach James Casey love what Fannin said about that Thursday?
"It's more in the heart when you play tight end. You kind of just have to do it," said Fannin, who likes the game of the Ravens' Isaiah Likely.
This week Fannin returned to the building where he had 17 catches for 213 yards in a bowl game last month. So, Nagy wasn't all that shocked when a draftnick compared Fannin's movement skills to Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist Antonio Gates.
"You hate to compare anybody to a Hall-of-Famer, but I can see it," Nagy said …
Bubba Ventrone had some kind words for division special teams rival Darrin Simmons of the Bengals.
"It always seems like he has the same guys. Continuity," Ventrone says. "They're a very technically sound football team in the kicking game." …
Speaking of second-round cornerbacks, Keiwan Ratliff, Bengals 2004, was on the sidelines this week as Florida State's pro liaison. Ratliff is a Florida product and had that job in Gainesville for a few years, but he didn't like the direction of the program a few years ago and made the move across state …
Milroe, from the same Texas town as Andy Dalton (Katy, Texas) had to admit that before Monday he had never met anyone from Delaware: "No sir. I'm from the south. I'm from Texas. I love meeting new people. It's cool." …
Tobin can't say enough about Iosivas, the sixth-round wide receiver from Princeton who has 10 touchdowns among his 51 catches in two seasons. And he thinks there's a lot more there.
"Like Chase Brown. Match his skill set with a role, use him, develop him and he becomes a regular contributor. That's what we're looking for in our whole team," Tobin said. "Let's bring these guys on and find roles for their skill set and we've done that with a number of guys on offense and we feel good where that is. I feel good about Yoshi and I think he hasn't scratched the ceiling of what he can be. We'll see how he continues to improve." …
Keep an eye on the draft's linebackers. Tobin said it's a spot they're looking at now because "We're looking at all three levels of the defense … "we've had guys produce there for us down through the years."
But not one drafted in five years.
Two of the last three backers they drafted they saw at the 2020 Senior Bowl, Logan Wilson and Akeem Davis-Gaither. This week guys like South Carolina's Knight (maybe second round) and Notre Dame's Jack Kiser (maybe last day) are getting some play. Kiser, who played for new Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden at Notre Dame, had some run stops Wednesday and an interception Thursday …
