Last week, Dexter Lawrence supplied the headline of the most expensive offseason re-write job in Bengals annals. On Friday night, the Bengals draft room supplied the exclamation point with their top two draft picks also devoted to the 46-day defensive overhaul approaching $300 million.
Any resemblance to the defense that gave up 86 points in back-to-back Paycor Stadium games last season is now, officially, purely coincidental.
"As athletic as we've ever been in my five years," said cornerbacks coach Charles Burks, beaming with what he calls a starting caliber player they pulled out of a third round that Washington's Tacario Davis engulfed with the biggest wingspan of any cornerback in the draft.
"The defense has some dynamic players. It's a young nucleus in the front seven, and I know for a fact my guys in the secondary can see that and sense that, and it's pretty exciting."
Friday's User Name at Paycor Stadium was "Defense,' and the password was "Different." It began the night before when they broke from the draft room after the first round wondering if Texas A&M edge rusher Cashius Howell would somehow survive at the top of their draft board for 24 hours.
That was different because never had they sat through an entire day without using a pick. When they finally did use it at No. 41 Friday, they exercised it on Howell, a different breed of pass rusher on their roster at 6-2, 252 pounds.
Nothing like the 6-4, 265-pound Super Bowl bookends of Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson, or even the 6-5, 270-pound average of last year's starters Myles Murphy and Shemar Stewart.
Different. Like Howell, the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year.
"I feel like he was the most explosive rusher from a twitch standpoint," said Bengals defensive line coach and run game coordinator Jerry Montgomery after putting the club's second straight first pick on the edge.
"He can bend at a high level. He's got great power. He can set edges in the run. He's got the move of an elite rush talent. He's got traits that he can get off the ball, bend at the top of the rush, and damn near touch the ground with his knees."
Defensive coordinator Al Golden mulled the biggest difference now and the final 1:23 of last season when they let Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders go 40 yards to get the winning points.
"The first that would come to mind is just waves of rushers," Golden said. "I think this time last year we were drafting starters everywhere, and now we're drafting guys that can be mentored and integrated, and not just day one 'have to be the guy' at every position.
"All these guys are going to have significant impact on our team, but it goes back to what I said earlier, we're going to be able to play in waves with that front eight. We have 10 guys right now that we feel can go in the game and impact it."
Four have come in the last month. Lawrence, most famously, and Howell, most quickly, with a 10-yard burst of 1.58 seconds in his 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine. Things are just as suddenly different for Montgomery.
"Definitely different," Montgomery said. "Some really good run guys, and we've got depth in guys we feel can attack the quarterback inside and outside. We've got an elite player in Dex who can push the pocket. We've got Myles who has grown and developed. I expect a big jump from Shemar. He didn't play a lot of football last year. We've got Jonathan Allen who affects the quarterback at a high rate.
"You put these guys in there, you keep them fresh and get after the quarterback. Then you've got Cashius, a little bit different off the edge than we've had. Explosive. Twitchy."
This is how dialed in they were on Howell. When the ninth pick of the second round reached them, only one of their prospects out of a handful with a grade good enough to take at No. 41 was gone. Tennessee cornerback Colton Hood. The Bengals had room to trade back, but they weren't letting Howell get away.
"Fine with me," said Burks, even though he knew he had to get a cornerback who could play before the weekend ended. "The guy rushes the passer, and you love that."
Even though South Carolina cornerback Brandon Cisse would be gone at No. 52 to Green Bay, Burks would get Davis at 72. But he had them a lot closer ranked than that, nearly on top of each other. So did the scouts.
("Why? Because he's 6-3, 6-4, runs a 4.4 and has ball skills.") Since he arrived a few hours after the Super Bowl in 2022, Burks has now had four cornerbacks drafted in the first three rounds.
But none looked like this. Davis is like Howell. An 80-inch wingspan for a cover cornerback? Different.
"The happiest guy in the building right now is Coach Burks, without question," Golden said. "He really enjoyed this young man and felt a passion for him, which is great when a coach is aligned with upstairs. It makes it easier for all of us."
Mike Potts, the assistant general who accompanied Golden into the interview room to talk about Howell, and Trey Brown, the assistant GM who came in with him for Davis, talked about that fortuitous draft board. Lawrence had taken the first-round pick, but it was as if it paid them back in unique traits.
"There aren't many guys really at that position, when you talk about being able to change directions, being able to line up and play physical at the line of scrimmage, but also then match the routes vertically. There aren't a lot of guys just athletically that can do that," Brown said of Davis.
Davis won't have to start. He can, Burks says. "We got an NFL starter." But for now, he'll learn from starters Dax Hill and DJ Turner II. Same with Howell. He can be eased in. But not all that easy.
"We saw that on tape and also saw it with all the workouts that (Davis) had. He was a guy that really, every step of the way, you're like, 'Wow, look at him there. Wow, he did another thing.' When you stack the guys from top to bottom, he really is one of the top guys we felt that fit us."
Potts had the same thoughts about Howell and the gifts that put him in Hall of Fame company. His 11.5 sacks last year were the most at A&M since Myles Garrett during a year Howell became the first A&M defender since Von Miller 16 years before to have multiple three-sack games.
"His arsenal of rush tools and moves that he has ... I don't want to speak for anybody else, but I thought they were second to none in this draft class," Potts said.
It was a little bit like the second round in 2020, when the Bengals had the first pick in the third round and wondered how the heck Wyoming linebacker Logan Wilson was going to get to them.
"He was far and away the highest guy that we had. I couldn't believe he kept falling to us to be honest with you," Golden said. "Dynamic pass rusher (with) great production ... not average production. Great production."
Different.
So was this. Someone heard on TV that Davis was "a Pete Carroll cornerback." After all, his comp is Riq Woolen, drafted by Seattle in the fifth round at the end of Carroll's Seattle hitch.
"Well," Burks said. "He's a Charles Burks corner now."
Just like the Bengals defense is different now.
