Cincy Jungle
Many fans were none too pleased that the Bengals waited until Round 3 to address their need at offensive guard. But ever since they selected Dylan Fairchild out of Georgia, the team has expressed full confidence in him as their starting left guard. In the team’s first preseason game, we saw why.
While the Bengals played their starters in the first preseason game, the Eagles did not. We can certainly learn a lot about players like Fairchild from what we saw in Philadelphia, but keep in mind that he was usually blocking fellow rookie Ty Robinson. While the 4th rounder out of Nebraska is talented, Jordan Davis he is not.
Fairchild is the left guard, so from the defense’s perspective, like in all of these clips, he is just to the right of the center.
Even with the chip blocks from Orlando Brown and Cam Grandy, it’s tough for a guard to reach a 5 technique.
In this clip, Fairchild is on the move. He gets all the way outside of the defender and swings his butt in the hole. This is a really impressive reach block that opened up a big seam for Chase Brown.
One of Fairchild’s best attributes is his strength. He benches 440 and squats 570, and it shows on the field.
In this clip, he gets a little help from Brown, but Fairchild continues to drive the defensive tackle down the field even after Brown comes off the block.
Fairchild positions himself to make the block with a great first step. His right arm is initially outside on the defensive tackle’s shoulder, but he resets it inside to improve his leverage.
Fairchild is going to be an asset in the run game.
Fairchild’s strength is also evident in pass protection.
Over the past few years, the Bengals have had trouble finding guards who can anchor and hold their ground in pass protection.
In this clip, the defensive tackle gets a little push, but Fairchild is able to stop this initial assault and maintain the integrity of the pocket.
This is going to be huge for Joe Burrow and the passing game.
Fairchild was a state champion wrestler at Georgia’s highest level.
There are two things offensive line coaches love about wrestlers: their hands and their balance. The latter is on full display on this play.
The defensive tackle initially pressures Fairchild to the outside, then throws a haymaker at his inside shoulder, throwing him off balance. Despite being on one foot momentarily, Fairchild is able to regroup and anchor to ward off the pass-rusher’s inside move.
Every offensive lineman finds themself in bad body position at some point. Fairchild’s ability to overcome this situation will serve him well as he overcomes the ups and downs of his rookie NFL season.
One of the tougher aspects of offensive line play is adjusting to movement on the defensive front.
In this clip, Fairchild shows great feet stepping down to pick up the inside rush by #93. When...
