Cincinnati Bengals Zero-Snap Spotlight: Alex Redmond

Continuing to analyze the Cincinnati Bengals roster with the Zero-Snap Spotlight series, looking at offensive lineman Alex Redmond.

The Zero-Snap Spotlight series continues as training camps are underway, looking deeply into the Cincinnati Bengals roster and looking at players who all have one thing in common. Each player that we’ve looked at has yet to play a snap in the NFL, despite having been in the league.

So far, we’ve taken a deep dive into the following players: Andrew Billings, Marcus Hardison, David Dean, Ryan Brown, Tra Carson, Alonzo Russell, Jake Kumerow, Chris Brown, Jeff Driskel, Tony McRae, William Jackson III, and Christian Westerman.

To continue this series, I delve into another young offensive lineman, Alex Redmond.

The Bengals came into this offseason with tons of issues on their offensive line, and those only got worse as the offseason toiled forward.

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The group gave up 41 sacks in 2016. Their two best linemen from that group, Andrew Whitworth and Kevin Zeitler, left for large contracts elsewhere. In their wake, the group was left with a couple average starters on the interior (Russell Bodine, Clint Boling), a couple highly-drafted but quite underwhelming tackles (Cedric Ogbuehi, Jake Fisher), a few aging veterans (Andre Smith, Eric Winston) and a handful of little-used unknowns.

Among the latter group is Redmond. He was a bit of a mixed bag in college. In his first two years at UCLA, he played well enough to find himself as an All-Conference/All-Pac-12 honorable mention at guard. His fluidity, instincts, and anticipation gave him the ability to overcome some on-field weaknesses and be a productive interior lineman.

Those weaknesses are clear, however, and not all can be overcome purely through his strengths. Ironically, strength is one of those problems. His frame was a consistent issue noted in draft profiles, and it was pretty obvious to draftniks he would need more muscle to have a chance against NFL-caliber defensive linemen.

His on-field intelligence is something which seems to be a notable point in his favor, but he did end up missing UCLA’s bowl game in his final college season due to academic ineligibility. That could point to two different overriding reasons, neither of which portends well for him. It could mean that either his overall intelligence is somewhat lacking, or it means his grades faltered essentially due to a degree of laziness. If it is the former, he may have trouble handling the complexities of NFL-level schemes (among other things). If it’s the latter, he may lack the internal motivation necessary to grow and improve upon all areas of his game.

A decent chunk of that is based in speculation of course, so neither should be assumed out of hand. It should be noted that if laziness played some part, so much time of college players’ lives revolves singularly around their sport; despite assumptions and statements regarding them otherwise, the schooling part of college is essentially secondary for them.

There are numerous players who each year have this same issue attached to them, yet it never becomes a problem in the pros; seeing as it becomes their sole job once they leave college — and the stuff that doesn’t make a tangible difference to their career (i.e.: their schoolwork, which doesn’t connect all that much to their football lives) is taken out of the equation — that makes some sense.

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The Bengals apparently must have felt the supposed intelligent/laziness issues weren’t an issue, though, and the fact that he was able to hang around the team a full year already should bode well for the hopes that he can improve his power and become a useful interior lineman. Earlier in the offseason he may have even had a shot for a starting nod at Zeitler’s old spot, but the addition and position switch of Andre Smith has likely erased that.

Smith could play poorly enough or get hurt and reopen that door, but based on Cincinnati’s history, the former aspect would need to be particularly egregious to bring that about. Redmond also is likely still behind other interior players like Christian Westerman.

If he can stick around through training camp, 2018 would probably be his true shot at grabbing a starting role. That isn’t guaranteed at all however, and despite the offensive line being a clear weakness there would seem to be plenty of competition for spots on this season’s roster.

The starting group as of now would be Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher at the tackles, Clint Boling and Smith as the guards, and Russell Bodine at center. Behind them, Redmond is grouped with a slew of others who could fit into numerous roles.

With Smith at guard, Eric Winston is the only tackle with experience left in tow; UDFA Landon Lechler is also around, but the team may decide that moving Smith back out to tackle if injuries hit is the better move. T.J. Johnson is in his fourth year and should compete with fifth-round selection J.J. Dielman for the backup spot at center. Redmond will be competing for the other backup interior spots with Westerman, Trey Hopkins, and a group of rookies (Cameron Lee, Kent Perkins, Dustin Stanton).

Teams tend to keep around 8-9 offensive linemen on their 53 man roster, so the spots are limited. Accounting for the starters, Winston, and either Johnson or Dielman, that leaves 2-3 spots to suss out. Hopkins would have the most experience of the guys left and can do some work at other positions, so he’d be the first pick of those remaining; that leaves 1-2 spots.

Are Redmond’s strengths better than what Westerman or any of these rookies can bring? I doubt it. Westerman definitely projects as better in all areas, and Redmond’s key weakness (strength) is a bigger overall problem than what the group of rooks brings to the table with their own.

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If it were up to me, I’d lean towards Westerman and one of those rookies should the team keep nine linemen, and just Westerman if they only keep eight. Teams regularly have differing opinions and more information on the players they employ though, so it wouldn’t be all that surprising if the Bengals decide Redmond is the correct choice for them.

If they do, we’ll still likely be waiting for 2018 to have a chance to see if it was actually the right one.