The biggest — literally — addition to the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad recently is a player that team personnel would have drafted this year, if the board had fallen that way.
Rookie defensive lineman Justin Rogers was one of four outside players the Bengals signed to the practice squad after final cuts and the waiver wire.
Rogers, a 6’3″, 335-pound first-year player out of Auburn, is a guy Bengals personnel were seemingly surprised to see available after leaguewide cuts, based on comments made to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:
SCOUT’s TAKE: We had him in here on a visit and got to know him. Big nose tackle. Strong and powerful. Plays stout in the run game. He’s a guy we liked in the draft. We don’t have a lot of those big nose tackle body types. He can take up blocks. He’s got some size and length and he can collapse the pocket. Like the Cowboys, we thought he was draftable.
Rogers might be a guy they develop over the long-term to play a bigger role. Right now, he slots outside the active roster and behind the likes of Jay Tufele.
But with rookie McKinnley Jackson dealing with an injury and fellow rookie Kris Jenkins Jr. developing on the fly in the rotation, it only makes sense the team kept tabs on Rogers.
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