CINCINNATI — The 2025 NFL Draft did not produce a defensive tackle draft pick for the Bengals over the weekend. Cincinnati did add two DTs in undrafted free agency, but Zac Taylor said they just didn't see the board fall the right way to boost one of the team's biggest roster needs right now.
Notre Dame DL Howard Cross III (229th overall on the consensus big board) and Arkansas DT Eric Gregory (329th overall) signed with Cincinnati after the draft.
"I think that's something you're always looking at," Taylor said about the trenches after the draft. "At different points in the draft, hit us in other spots. And so again, undrafted free agency still coming, we'll work hard to add some guys to the mix there. We feel good about the four guys we have in the room right now. We feel good about how you can utilize some of the defensive ends in the known passing situations as well.
"People don't necessarily always say that's the interior pass rush, but it can be for us, and we've certainly got a vision for a lot of the guys we have there since before free agency, before the draft, and now post-free agency, post-draft. So we feel good about all that and we'll continue to try to add to the mix there, as these hours pass here coming up."
Gregory and Cross could wow and eventually make an impact at some point, but it would be disingenuous to expect them to be major factors in 2025.
Cincinnati looks like it is banking on B.J. Hill, TJ Slaton, Kris Jenkins, and McKinnley Jackson to raise the lowly 2024 bar for Bengals defensive tackle play.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/bengals/ as 'Feel Good' - Zac Taylor Addresses Defensive Tackle Position Health Following No Selections in 2025 NFL Draft.