All options look to be on the table for the Bengals as they possess the 10th pick in April's draft.
Whether it's using the pick for a trade on the board or outside the draft, or on a player coming off their big board, defense looks to be the main ingredient. "We need an increase in talent on that side of the ball, and there's no question about it," said Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin last month.
And if it's going to be up front, where the pundits say, defensive line coach and run game coordinator Jerry Montgomery knows what's at the top of his list.
"At the end of the day, we need to be able to affect the quarterback with interior guys on a consistent basis," Montgomery says. "We just have to get better. From that standpoint, I thought we really started to come on after the bye."
Montgomery is enthused with how his tackles and ends played in the final eight games of the season following the bye, a stretch the defense came up with the league's third most turnovers and tied for the sixth most sacks while giving up fewer than 18 points per game.
"It begins with technique and fundamentals. They began to figure it out," Montgomery says. "I think from the bye week on, those guys were so locked into those things that it slowed the game down for them. We've just got to keep bringing everybody along."
Yet, for Montgomery, the need to improve the push is underlined in Sunday night's Super Bowl, where Seattle's interior paved the way for six sacks of Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.
"You saw where that game was won," Montgomery says of the Seahawks' inside push. "It helps the edge. Edges can be a little higher than normal."
He certainly saw it on the other side, too, where the Patriots cleaned house. In 2024, Montgomery coached the New England defensive line in his only season in Foxboro. When the Patriots hired head coach Mike Vrabel, he left only tackle Christian Barmore and edge Anfernee Jennings for Super Sunday's D-line. And Barmore played just 123 snaps in 2024. 3-14 became 14-3 with a big assist from the D-Line.
When the game ended with the Seattle defense's historic championship game stand carrying the day and season, the NFL standings rolled back to 0-0, and the hunt for 2026 rosters officially began.
After a dozen years in the NFL, Montgomery proves it doesn't matter how long you've been around player acquisitions. It's never too late for an assistant coach to scout an all-star game, which is how he ended up in his first all-star game since playing in the 2002 Hula Bowl.
Despite his double-digit years in the league and family of five waiting for him to embrace the offseason, Montgomery jumped at the chance to spend a week in Frisco, Texas, at last month's East-West All-Star Game.
"It's easy to get some evaluations done, and it saves you some time on the back end," Montgomery says. "When you work with these kids in person, you know what you're getting. I think that's better than any type of interview you can do.
"To be able to watch these kids practice, watch how they learn, see how they respond to coaching. See who loves football, see who doesn't love football. That answers a lot of questions so there aren't issues down the road. So you don't know something that you should have known."
The East-West game was filled primarily with last-day-of-the-draft players, but that's OK. The Bengals drafted Geno Atkins, the NFL's most productive defensive tackle of the previous decade with 75.5 sacks, in the 2010 fourth round.
"Can't guess. You better know what you're getting," Montgomery says. "He has to have the right makeup, right mentality, and football has to be important for him."
Montgomery had one of those Seattle tackles, Jarran Reed, for a season in Green Bay three years ago. Reed, 33, just finished his 10th season as "an older guy but still has a consistent push."
Now the Bengals are looking for a 23-year-old Reed, a second-round pick, by the way, in 2016. Montgomery is confident he can sense the intangibles after spending a week practicing with a prospect.
It's not that much different when he was playing in the Hula Bowl out of Iowa, although he's not so sure how Montgomery the coach would see Montgomery the prospect. He didn't get drafted and had a cup of coffee in the '02 Saints preseason.
"I know this. I had fun. Playing in Maui in the Hula Bowl, that was a fun game to participate in," Montgomery says. "And I played in the game. I didn't shut it down after a couple of practices."
Some did in Frisco, and Montgomery took extensive notes.
"It just leaves question marks," Montgomery says. "Why? Are you afraid of competition? Are you afraid to put that film out there? Aren't you here to help yourself? If you talk about all these things, and it's time to put up or shut up, and then all you do is shut up, you just question it.
"To me, the guys that really helped themselves are the guys that stayed the whole week. They did an outstanding job. And not that the guys that didn't play in the game didn't help themselves. But, you could take it either way, right?"
Right. For Montgomery, the only way is to be on the field to find out. He only wishes the Senior Bowl called, too.
"I think it's important to know exactly what you're getting when they show up after you draft them, or after you sign them, or you talk about finding the diamond in the rough from an undrafted rookie free agent and stuff like that," says Montgomery, who knows it takes all kinds. "Those are the guys that really build your roster. That back end."
The Super Bowl is done. The 2026 season has commenced with guys like Montgomery in the field.
