Bengals seeking advice for rebuilding the offensive line

Bengals’ management knows they need to rebuild the o-line around Joe Burrow. But they are also limited in terms of scouts and personnel.

According to Bengals insider Ace Boogie, the front office will turn to former players, like Willie Anderson and perhaps Andrew Whitworth, and even former o-line coach Paul Alexander to get their takes on players they’re looking at.

The first interesting insight Boogie shared was that the Bengals rely heavily on internships to find front office talent: “I’ve heard that it’s a pretty tight-knit group in terms of the scouting and just the front office in general. ... They definitely keep a staff that they’ve kinda grown from interns from what I hear. So, there’s a lot of interns that have worked with the Bengals over the years, and they kind of get promoted.”

He also mentioned that they utilize Pro Football Focus’ services to obtain information on prospects.

For the most part, though, he said, it is the scouts and Duke Tobin involved in the evaluation process. “They do talk to the coaches in terms of getting their input on what kind of guys they’re looking for,” he added.

Then the conversation got interesting. Boogie revealed how much the Bengals rely on the loyalty and free advice of former players and coaches:

“I think they’ve always kind of respected certain minds when it comes to certain things. They’ve reached out to former players. I’m not going to say that they will specifically do that. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they reached out to Andrew Whitworth. I wouldn’t be surprised if they asked Willie Anderson some of his opinions or guys that they know are close to some of these prospects. ... I think that Paul Alexander will probably be a guy that they’ll lean on in terms of how they feel about it.”

It is somewhat amazing to think that Alexander, who hasn’t coached for the team since 2018, would be asked to provide his opinion. The Bengals, of course, relied heavily on Alexander to help with scouting during his long tenure with the team.

You can watch more about the Bengals’ offseason plans in our interview with Boogie below:

You can also listen on iTunes or using the player below: