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<\/p>\nNew Cincinnati Bengals guard Dylan Fairchild received high praise from the coaching staff.<\/p>\n
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The\u00a0Cincinnati Bengals\u00a0addressed their left guard position with the No. 81 overall pick in the 2025\u00a0NFL Draft, selecting\u00a0Georgia Bulldogs\u00a0guard Dylan Fairchild. Fairchild is 6-foot-5, 318 pounds, but it’s his mentality that the coaching staff loves so much.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe toughness and the nastiness is all over the tape,\u201d offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher recently said of Fairchild. \u201cAnd then you go meet the kid, look him in the eye, hear him respond to questions, and hear him talk about what\u2019s important to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt oozes out of him. That\u2019s who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fairchild was a two-time National Champion at Georgia, but the gridiron isn’t the only place he’s seen success. Fairchild went undefeated in high school as a wrestler. That background was on display when he met with Pitcher and offensive line coach Scott Peters last month. Peters himself is a former Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion and got to get hands-on time with Fairchild.<\/p>\n
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“We just met and watched the film and went over different types of install, and then Coach Peters and I did a little demonstration where we just basically put hands on each other,\u201d Fairchild said. \u201cThat\u2019s where I really felt a connection. I could just feel in my hands and his hands. You could just feel that wrestler mindset, that Jiu-Jitsu mindset kind of connect right there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offensive guard has been an issue for the Bengals over the past few seasons, and with the struggles of Cordell Volson last season, it seems as though Fairchild is likely to own it.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeft guard is absolutely his to win,\u201d Pitcher said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to demand it out of him early. We\u2019re not waiting. He\u2019s going to show up, the demands are going to be clear, and we\u2019re going to ask him to go do it right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fairchild doesn’t just have the physical tools, the coaching staff believes he has the right mindset to be successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the mental part of playing the position, you start to dig into a little bit more as you watch the tape, and you probe, and you question, and you poke holes,\u201d said Pitcher. \u201c\u2018Why did you do this? Why was your response that on this specific play?\u2019 You try to listen for things that clue you into the fact that this guy understands football.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe understands what was being asked of him, and he\u2019s going to be able to grow in that role. He\u2019s a young player. He\u2019s going to make mistakes. There are mistakes on his tape, but all of those things are correctable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to work like hell with him. We think we got a really good player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Cincinnati Bengals guard Dylan Fairchild received high praise from the coaching staff. The\u00a0Cincinnati Bengals\u00a0addressed their left guard position with the No. 81 overall pick in the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"\n