Carman At Guard- Consulted Willie Anderson

[BFritz21]

This article from The USA Today doesn't go into specifics, but it says that we want to start Carman inside at guard:

Quote:The Cincinnati Bengals want a big immediate impact from second-round pick Jackson Carman.

So much so, they aren’t hiding the fact they want him to start at guard right away.

Director of college scouting Mike Potts just said as much in an interview with Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:

“He’s an AFC North physical, powerful offensive lineman who is very athletic. The way this division is set up, this is a physical line of scrimmage division. He’s got a lot of things going for him. He’s a tackle with guard flexibility. He’s extremely intelligent. People say, ‘You’ve never seen him play guard.’ But with all the research we did on him, we know he’s smart enough to do it.”
A fun nugget in that writeup? The Bengals sought out the opinion of Bengals legend Willie Anderson while weighing whether to make Carman the pick.

The Bengals actually traded back in the second round, picking up two extra fourth-round picks, before calling Carman’s name. They wanted him earlier and thought he would last, which he did.

This was always going to be the fate of a line pick by the Bengals this year with Jonah Williams and Riley Reiff manning the edges. Depending on how long the latter plays at a quality level, Carman might never have to kick outside.

And Carman, by the way, is a hometown kid who had an amazing reaction to going back home.

I love it because it means we're putting our best players on the field and having the best team possible. We started Whitworth at guard because of injuries and that turned out working out pretty well. When we kicked him back out to his natural left tackle position, he still was a star, so I don't fear that this will hinder Carman in any way and I'm excited that we're putting the best possible combination out there.

I'm starting to think that this team could surprise a lot of people!