After defensive draft, Bengals turn OL over to Pollack

When walking off the press conference podium on Thursday night glowing from the pick of first-round center Billy Price, offensive coordinator Bill Lazor joked the plan was to be back down there with offensive line coach Frank Pollack again Friday night.

As the finishing touches were put on 11 Bengals picks, deep into a frenzied Saturday evening, Pollack would never be seen again by the media as this offseason focused on fixing the line suddenly stopped in its tracks in the first round.

Six of the next seven choices came on the increasingly crowded defensive side of the ball.

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There was no potential tackle of the future. Nobody to compete at guard. No versatile swing piece to develop with Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher in contract years and still yet to prove they can hack it as full-time starters in this league.

The Bengals board didn’t fall that way and they weren’t going to pass on defensive players rated far higher for offensive line guys.

“You can’t create one,” Marvin Lewis said of offensive linemen. “It showed you the void of how many there were. There were very few.”

The Bengals are one of many teams in this league that have seen back-to-back weak tackle classes diminish replacements. But this stands out because of this being the primary thrust of this team’s offseason.

So, at the end of four months of fixing the trenches, the first move made turns out to be the most important: You’re on, Mr. Pollack. He begins the development process on the field Monday.

Lewis says they knew it ultimately had to be this way.

“Unless you had two or three first-round picks (you aren't) going to come in here and fix an offensive line for an NFL season anyway,” he said. “When you say things like that – that’s unrealistic unless you have three first-round picks to go pick three first-round linemen who are going to come in here and be better than anybody you got. It’s up to those guys in the building. This is not a one-person thing. We had another good coach. We have another very good coach and we are excited about that. It’s us, the players, it’s our coaching, it’s what we do. That all fixes what we have to get done and be better at.”

Pollack will be charged with showing he can pull the talent out of Fisher that made him a second-round pick in 2015. He’ll need to prove he can groom late-2017 risers Christian Westerman or Alex Redmond or another into a quality starter at right guard. These are two players who couldn’t get active for two years before creating a swell of momentum for themselves the final two weeks of the season.

He’ll also need help from Cordy Glenn, proving the ankle injury that kept him out of 16 games the last two years will be a thing of the past and the irregular heartbeat that ended Fisher’s 2017 after nine games won’t resurface.

All this while molding a rookie center and new combinations up and down the line into a brand new system he’s installing.

Otherwise, the right side of the offensive line, in particular, will look a lot like last year’s offensive line. And the one thing everyone can agree on is nobody wants the offensive line to look like last year’s version.

Would a pick of a tackle in the third round or guard in the fourth have changed the challenging dynamic of this reconstruction? Not really. But it would have offered another layer of insurance and protection.

Lazor looks at a roster with players who played guard for them last year between Trey Hopkins, T.J. Johnson, Clint Boling, Westerman and Redmond with confidence. That’s part of why guard didn’t move up the priority list this weekend.

“We have four guards who have played, count T.J. Johnson (now predominantly center), have five guys who played in games last year,” the offensive coordinator said. “I would be absolutely shocked if we didn’t get good guard play somewhere out of those five.”

Lewis said the plan was always to address the defense in the middle rounds. They viewed that as a power center of these three days. Only running back Mark Walton (fourth round) slipped in between six defenders. There wasn’t a spot in their eyes to address a tackle position until taking Ole Miss’ Rod Taylor in the final picks of the draft.

“We had (tackle options) at different levels,” Lazor said. “You have to fill a whole team. If your guy doesn’t line up with the one you are picking, where you had him rated, you understand them taking a different position instead.”

That’s part of why they make a move for Bobby Hart, the 23-year-old they inked to a cheap, one-year deal from the Giants. They could use him, taking advantage as a change-of-scenery player who was cast away due to poor play and new management looking to change the culture.

In reality, he’s not an answer yet, just another project on Pollack’s plate.

The Bengals believed they needed a new voice and vision in the room. They have it. By all early returns, the response has been great to his enthusiastic style.

Selecting only one offensive lineman in their primary eight put more emphasis on Pollack's message and the growth of existing personnel for the 2018 campaign.

The acquisitions of Glenn and Price were aggressive and focused. They deserved to be applauded. Stopping there applies pressure to those who were a part of the failure last season.

With the drumbeat of the “win-now” message reverberating through the front offices of Paul Brown Stadium, in nobody’s room does it bang louder than Pollack’s.

“When a position coach changes there is always uncertainty, people learning each other, it’s a very natural time to say. 'hey we need to be better than where we were as an offense'” Lazor said. “We need to be better than we were as an offensive line. Some of the answer is guys who are still here. So, it’s up to you.”