Brian Callahan Discusses Ideal Running Back Prospect Traits For Bengals

Cincinnati could select the position with any of its picks this year.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Publish date:
Apr 22, 2023 10:04 AM EDT

In this story:

CINCINNATI — James Rapien and Jake Liscow welcomed Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan onto the Locked On Bengals podcast this week. They dove into a bunch of topics, including the team's ideal traits in a running back prospect.

That position is very much on the table throughout the whole draft as Joe Mixon's future remains cloudy.

"To me, it's always gonna be a three-prong approach to running back," Callahan said. "You got to be able to pass protect. It's hard to evaluate that in college. You just hope that there's enough reps where it shows that they're at the very least willing to because there's definitely guys that are not willing. And that shows up pretty quickly on tape. If they're not. So you have to find that and yet it's hard to evaluate that because there just isn't a lot of it.

"College offenses don't always require that out of their back so it's not their fault. They just don't have the reps that you can really evaluate and say this guy can or can't do it. ... We spent a lot of time, we do all these Zoom meetings and bring these guys in, of drilling down on their ability to pick up the concepts and protection. You know, sometimes that takes time."

Callahan noted Trayveon Williams as an example of a running back that took a little time to get the pass-blocking concepts down.

The staff knows it'll be hard to find a player that can fill all three key traits outside the top rounds: protection, pass-catching, and running.

"There's some interesting players," Callahan said. "Some that fit any one of those categories some that fit both, it's rare to find a guy that fits all three of those really well sometimes, that's a developmental part of it. But I'd say it's good talent at running back towards the top of the draft and then as you get deeper it's going to be, what's your favorite flavor? What fits your team the best, and some don't fit us, and that's just going to be how it's going to work for us, but there's some interesting guys."

It'll all play out in Kansas City next weekend. Check out Callahan's full thoughts around the 17 minute mark

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