How the Bengals altered their process to — perhaps — finally fix the OL drafting problem

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CINCINNATI — Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher doesn’t go on many pro day visits. He traveled to Ohio State and Georgia this year with new offensive line coach Scott Peters alongside him every step of the way.

They arrived in Athens, Georgia, with a target on UGA guard Dylan Fairchild and his teammate, Tate Ratledge.

When Peters started working with Fairchild, and both locked arms, something special happened.

“That’s really where it felt like a connection,” Fairchild said.

Fairchild, a country-strong, 315-pounder from rural Georgia, started wrestling when he was 6 years old. It defined his transition to football and his becoming a two-year starter at left guard for the Bulldogs. Then there’s Peters, in his first season with Cincinnati, with a background in jujutsu and no stranger to the weight room, himself looking to test Fairchild’s technical skill and power.

“I could feel my hands and his hands,” Fairchild said, of a meeting that sounded more like a magical first date than a pro day visit. “You could feel that wrestler mindset, that jujutsu mindset kind of connect right there.”

In that moment, the Bengals’ latest attempt at fixing a decades-long problem of offensive line drafting was born.

The Bengals’ personnel staff targeted Fairchild and the ideal spot to land him, which included passing in Round 2 on his more highly rated teammate, Ratledge, in favor of Demetrius Knight Jr., a favorite of new defensive coordinator Al Golden and the coaching staff designed to bring maturity, communication and stability to the linebacker spot next to Logan Wilson.

That pick was met with surprise, with expectations that Ratledge would be almost impossible to pass on. He appeared to be a layup at the spot. That’s not to say there wasn’t interest in him internally, but there was a special connection between coach, system and player that turned the third round into another nervous sweat hoping he could land in Cincinnati.

When he did, everyone knew what would come next. Pitcher made it abundantly clear.

“Left guard is absolutely his to win,” Pitcher said. “I think he’s a player who can compete right away. He’s immediately thrown right in the mix at left guard, and he’s a player with a lot of upside yet to realize. We’re going to demand it out of him early. We’re not waiting. He’s going to show up, the demands are going to be clear, and we’re going to ask him to go do it right now.”

Everything about this shifts from the Bengals’ past failures. First, the hiring of Peters with his technical martial arts background allows these types of connections and style matches to blossom. That’s how you find gems and successful fits in the middle rounds. The Bengals have only taken two offensive linemen in the second round since Kevin Zeitler in 2012 (Jake Fisher and Jackson Carman), and Fairchild became the first offensive lineman selected by the Bengals in the third round since Mike Goff in 1998.

Cincinnati moved on from offensive line coach Frank Pollack, an old-school former offensive lineman, in favor of Peters this offseason, understanding the hole in their draft and development strategy. They needed to fix it. Peters is trying to fix it the best way he’s trained to know how: with his hands.

“Scott, (he’s a) tremendous technician (with) a lot of energy for that element of his job,” Pitcher said. “The hand-to-hand combat, giving guys tools to win in that phase, that’s who he is. It just seeps out of him, so when you see him interact with these young players, they really gravitate to that. You see their eyes light up when he starts talking about how he’s going to be able to develop them. That’s what makes us go. That doesn’t mean that’s the only thing that makes us go, but that’s what makes us go first and foremost.”

They have not signed any drafted offensive linemen to a second contract since Clint Boling in 2011. They have drafted 20 offensive linemen since. In their mind, what could make them go forward with different results lived in moments like Fairchild and Peters locking up in Athens.

Take a player with a strength they covet and a system that fits, and clear the path immediately for that player to start games. He’s even been compared by Dane Brugler to Wyatt Teller, another former wrestler and mid-round pick who developed in Cleveland. Who played a large role in that development? Then Browns assistant line coach Peters.

Fairchild has ranked first among guards in pass block grade by PFF since 2023. Plopping down in the most pass-heavy scheme in the NFL is certainly a match. As is protecting Joe Burrow.

“It’s the biggest honor of my life and I’m excited to do it,” Fairchild said.

Cody Ford, Lucas Patrick and Cordell Volson will also be a part of the competition at the guard spots, but Friday’s tone left no doubts of how they’d prefer for this to end.

The Bengals were not aggressive in attacking the guard position in free agency. Only landing Patrick for one year at $2 million showed their understated approach to fixing a position that jettisoned both starters from last year out of their spots. They needed to find this fix in the draft and would rely on a new offensive coach to help make it happen.

.@GeorgiaFootball‘s Tate Ratledge (98), Dylan Fairchild (96), and Jared Wilson (96) earned the three highest NGS athleticism scores among interior offensive linemen in this year’s class.

All three were drafted on Day 2 by the @Lions, @Bengals, and @Patriots respectively. pic.twitter.com/avMLEZxhDy

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) April 26, 2025

Will it work? Can Fairchild finally produce a hit? Or will he end up in the Cincinnati guard graveyard next to Michael Jordan, Jackson Carman, Rod Taylor, Christian Westerman, J.J. Dielman and a host of others that have rotated through over the last decade?

Time will tell. But the Bengals didn’t just keep trying the same old strategy. Find a coach with a different style. Find a player that fits it. Give the coach that player.

Leaning into a different brand of offensive line coach and player challenges the same old ways in hopes of finding different results.

The Bengals are undeniably banking on it. And in this case, it could produce something special.

“I felt the connection as soon as we met,” Fairchild said. “My wrestling background, his jujutsu background, I think it’s going to be a match made in heaven.”

(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

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