Paul Dehner Jr.

pdehnerjr@enquirer.com

If ranking the top NFL tight ends and looking for insight, an ideal place to start would be the locker of Bengals linebacker Emmanuel Lamur.

Take your pick, the first-year starter has tracked a Pro Bowl ballot. New England's Rob Gronkowksi leads all tight ends in yards. Carolina's Greg Olsen tops the list in targets. Indianapolis' Dwayne Allen ranks tied for fourth with seven touchdowns. Tennessee's Delanie Walker ranks fifth in yards. If not for injury, Baltimore's Dennis Pitta would rank among them as well.

All took turns confounding Lamur and the Bengals defense. Those five alone combined for an average of six receptions for 70 yards with a total of three touchdowns. Toss in nine receptions for 149 yards by the Colts' Coby Fleener and Patriots' Tim Wright and the destructive trend glares.

Now, in walks 6-foot-7, 265 pound Jimmy Graham, the biggest, baddest of the bunch.

"He's like a dinosaur," Lamur said.

His numbers can make a defensive coordinator extinct. Graham leads all tight ends in receptions (56) and tops the Saints in receiving yards (594) and touchdowns (7). Over the last three weeks he's caught 22 passes for 218 yards and four scores.

He posts up defensive backs, blazes by linebackers and leaps over everybody. For the Bengals, Graham's a matchup nightmare in what's been their most vulnerable portion of the passing game.

"He's got special length," Marvin Lewis said. "He's got great hand-eye catch coordination. He does a nice job of basically rebounding the ball. He's really good at that, being able to use his body, and keep his body between the defender and the football."

Players like Graham are why the Bengals invested in Lamur. At 6-foot-4, 240 pounds and the speed to run with receiving tight ends his physical tools can eliminate mismatches.

No, size and speed don't present the problem, even with the length of Graham. Throughout a season laced with tight ends running open, most problems stem from the neck up. Growing pains are an anticipated part of the process for a first-year starter, but Sunday represents his biggest test in the pass game.

"He's learning each and every week," defensive coordinator Paul Guenther said. "He's learning some of the routes he'll get and some of the blocking schemes he'll get from tight ends and whether he's flanked out or in-line. It's a good education for him."

With a player of Graham's credentials all the responsibility won't fall on Lamur. He spots up out wide, in the slot and attached to line. Depending on his spot on the line as well as the Saints position on the field, who is given the task of chasing him down changes.

Terence Newman, Adam Jones, Dre Kirkpatrick or safety George Iloka could draw the assignment on the edges. It could be Leon Hall if Graham shifts into the slot.

If Hall should look across at Graham and his eight-inch height advantage, he'll start running down his options.

"Try to call timeout first so Paulie can switch it up," he said with a laugh. "But if I can't get the timeout in, he's a big body so if you get up on him a lot of the time it would be jump ball type of situation where he can reach up for the ball and you can't reach your short arms in there. You have to play a little differently, I can't say exactly how, but you have to be smart."

Graham can be at his most dangerous in the red zone. From there, dropping a corner or even safety on him becomes a mismatch in the running game.

"You need a guy with big length to go do that, but obviously Jimmy Graham is 250-some pounds he's got the strength that's going to win that 50-pound mismatch as well, particularly the tighter it gets to the goal line," Lewis said. "The further away from the goal line, the better off you are. The tighter it is to the goal line, it comes back into his favor again."

Really, there are no favorable matchups when it comes to Graham. All will have to be aware of his presence and avoid communication breakdowns like those which allowed Gronkowski to go wild for 100 yards and a touchdown.

Much of the responsibility falls on Lamur and even years of education can't change the reality of what he needs to do in order to keep the matchup from burying the Bengals. Sometimes, there are no real secrets.

"He's got to cover him," Guenther said. "Point blank. What do you want me to tell you?"