Marvin Lewis talks offseason moves and draft

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis addressed the media on Tuesday discussing the upcoming NFL Draft.

As teams get ready to head down to Dallas, Texas for this years NFL Draft, Cincinnati Bengals head coach addressed the media one last time before the team makes their first pick. Fans and teams both are excited to get the draft underway and see what their team’s roster will look like moving forward. With all of the hype leading into the draft over the last couple of months, with all of the mock drafts by analysts and us as fans, it will be fun to see what the Bengals actually do when they are on the clock.

It has been an eventful offseason so far for the Bengals considering their conservative nature in years past. Trading for left tackle Cordy Glenn out of Buffalo and moving back nine spots in the first round was the first sign of “aggressive” maneuvering by Cincinnati. The Bengals also made some key signings like Buffalo inside linebacker Preston Brown, right tackle Bobby Hart, defensive tackle Chris Baker, and re-signing tight end Tyler Eifert to an incentive-based deal.

When talking about their offseason moves, head coach Marvin Lewis stated that these moves kept things wide open for the franchise going into the draft. Free agent signings aren’t the only new names in the building as the Bengals have brought in quite a few new coaches to help get them back to the playoffs in 2018. Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin joins the club after spending the last four years with the Detroit Lions, offensive line coach Frank Pollack joins after spending time building lines for the Dallas Cowboys, and a few other positional coaches were brought in as well.

Lewis wants his coaches to have input on this draft on guys they think would be best fits for the roster. With this many new coaches, there brings a lot of insight and experiences which can help the Bengals moving forward. New coaches will bring some new mentality to the defense especially.

While Lewis stated that he wanted his coaches to have input on the draft and hear from them what they think, he made it clear that some coaches have more say than others. This was an interesting statement from Lewis which followed with a question later in the press conference about wanting more say in the personnel. Lewis got mad at the question and said he never voiced to anyone or inferred that he wanted more say. He quickly replied with a next question and called it a bad question.

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It seems that Lewis is confident the Bengals will take the best player available in round one with the 21st overall pick whether that be offensive line or not. With multiple deep position groups, there could be some major slides in this draft and even where the Bengals pick in round two. Only two more days till we find out what they are really thinking when they make their pick. The biggest thing we learned is not to ask Lewis about wanting more say in the personnel. If you would like to watch the full press conference it can be seen on the Bengals facebook page.