Bengals draft pick stunned team executive with amazing interview
The consensus didn't expect the Cincinnati Bengals to target a safety early in last week's NFL Draft, but sure enough, the club came away with one in the first three rounds. Alabama's Jordan Battle was a multi-year starter and team captain in Nick Saban's secondary, and those credentials were well earned. After meeting with Battle […]
The consensus didn't expect the Cincinnati Bengals to target a safety early in last week's NFL Draft, but sure enough, the club came away with one in the first three rounds. Alabama's Jordan Battle was a multi-year starter and team captain in Nick Saban's secondary, and those credentials were well earned.
After meeting with Battle before the draft, Bengals coaches and personnel members all came away with the same evaluation of his character and mentality. Director of college scouting Mike Potts went into further detail of his interview with Battle weeks before drafting him 95th overall in the latest episode of Hear That Podcast Growlin'.
"It was one of the one of the best interviews I've been a part of," Potts said of the team's encounter with Battle before the draft. "We usually put on maybe eight or 10 clips of tape with the guys and talk through it. We had to cut the tape portion of the interview off after about three plays. It was unbelievable the way he was talking through every minor detail of all 22 people that were on the field of every play."
Cincinnati's prioritization of high-character players usually stems from a common denominator. Do they love football? If so, the tape usually displays that. In Battle's case, his passion for the game translates to his play, and his picture perfect memory and mind for the game.
"It was like he had a cheat sheet or an answer key to the plays that were going to be shown to him, and he aced the rest of the interview as well," Potts said. "So we ended up just pivoting and having a casual conversation with him."
Imagine taking a team by surprise so much they just scratched the film study and just wanted to chat. That's how it went down for Battle, who aced his pre-draft interview in a way you don't hear about often.
"We know he's a phenomenal character, but I didn't think it was possible to elevate him in our eyes in terms of the person that we were getting. But he did that in that interview setting."
Battle ultimately graded out as a second-round player for the Bengals and was in the conversation of being the 60th overall pick. Potts and Co. went with cornerback DJ Turner II, another second-round talent in their eyes who played a bigger position of need, and waited to see if Battle fell to them in the third round.
And he did fall all the way to the 92nd pick. The only logical reasoning being he didn't test like an elite athlete, and it was a relatively weak safety class. The Bengals even traded down three more spots to see if he would still be there, and they were right. 95 picks was a long enough wait to get an A+ character fit into the building.
The path for Battle to get onto the field may be tough, but if he's everything Potts and the Bengals say he is as a player and person, it'll be worth the wait. Expect Battle to contribute heavily on special teams this season if nothing else.
