Last week during our weekly podcast Matt Williamson of Scouts Inc. and ESPN. Before he joined both he was a scout at the college level and for the Cleveland Browns. And last week he took a few minutes to sit down and talk with Jason Garrison, Joe Goodberry, and everyone else who was there.
Jason Garrison: Right now we are joined by Matt Williamson from Scouts Inc. to talk a little bit about the Bengals. Hey Matt, how are you?
Matt Williamson: Hey, I'm great how are you guys doing?
Garrison: Pretty good, thanks for joining us today.
Joe Goodberry: Alright Matt, thanks for joining us. Make sure everyone follows him on Twitter (@WilliamsonNFL). How are you doing Matt?
Williamson: I'm doing fantastic. I'm sitting here in my Pittsburgh home in the basement chatting with you guys getting ready for a big game.
Goodberry: Oh no, we're all in our Bengals homes.
Williamson: That's what I figured. I figured I'd bring it up break the ice.
Goodberry: The other day we talked about Scouts Inc. They came out with their list of players for the season and they ranked Andrew Whitworth at No. 33, which probably surprised a lot of people outside of the Bengals fan base. What do guys see with Andrew Whitworth and to rank him so high? Do you do that specifically or does someone else do the offensive line? Can you talk a little about what you do at Scouts Inc.?
Williamson: Well, that project was entirely on my own. They just asked me, "Hey Matt, can you give us the top-50 players in the NFL right now?" ESPN.com is running a big special on the midseason, a big midseason production. We're doing all-star teams and all sorts of things like that. And the compliment is that they want me to list the top-50 players in the league and I also had a list that complimented that of up-and-comers, guys who are in their first couple of years in the league that are really coming on strong. They could eventually end up in that top-50 and Carlos Dunalp was in that group too. So, I think there are a lot of guys to get excited about. A.J. Green got mentioned. With Whitworth, I think, when the season started, I thought Jake Long and Joe Thomas were the premier left tackles in the league. And Long has had a really rough year, a lot of it is due to injury. Thomas started sort of slow, but he's come on pretty strong. Right now the only left tackle I think I take over Whitworth is Thomas and there's just a lot to like about him. He's a great leader. He's a big-bodied guy. You know sometimes at left tackle you'll find a guy like, D'Brickashaw Ferguson types who are big tight end looking types that are finesse players. He's not that at all. The Bengals love to run left and he's a masher in the run game and certainly not a liability at all in protection.
Goodberry: Yeah, we love Whitworth here. It's just anytime you need a guy to step up, it's Andrew Whitworth, whether it's bringing Chad back to the huddle like last year in the Pittsburgh game, yelling at him to get off the field, or bringing the guys together during the lockout. He's definitely that kind of guy off the field and on the field.
Williamson: And I think that goes unnoticed sometimes. That is such a young core on offense, in particular you quarterback is a rookies, your star receiver is a rookie. Cedric Benson isn't know as the leader type, that somebody who has to be in charge of those type of things. And it seems like it's fallen onto Whitworth's shoulders and he's handled it extremely well.
Goodberry: You brought up the rookies and that's what's carrying the team right now with Andy Dalton and A.J. Green. And the other day compared Andy Dalton's limitations, especially in arm strength to Matt Ryan. Could you talk about what you thought of Andy Dalton coming out of TCU and if he's surpassed your expectations already? I want to know from a scout's point, what do you see in Andy Dalton?
Williamson: I wasn't big on him coming out of TCU. And the only reason I didn't like is because I didn't think he threw the ball well enough. I thought his arm was a major limitation to him and frankly he's thrown the ball better in the pros than he has at TCU in my opinion. And that happens sometimes. I mean Drew Brees' arm got better. Tom Brady's arm got better. I don't think he's ever going to be a premier arm passer though. He's never going to be a Cutler, Rogers, or Roethlisberger, those types of guy. My first thing, my immediate concern with him and it was something that I mentioned when he got drafted was I don't know how well he fits in this area of the country. I was a scout for the Browns. I'm in Pittsburgh, I understand the AFC North extremely well. It's certainly advantageous to have a Roethlisberger or Flacco arm if everything does go to script. You have a great year, you get to host some playoff games, the AFC Championship game is in Cincinnati, you need to be able to throw the deep out in bad conditions. I'm not going to say he can't do it. I certainly have some worries about it though. So we shall see and he hasn't been to prove it one way or another. He hasn't faced bad weather situations, but that's my worry. That being said, he's exceeded my expectations with arm strength. I think he has thrown the ball better. His timing, his anticipation, his feel for things are off the charts right now. I mean it's fantastic; his accuracy, he's hitting people in stride, he's throwing to the right receiver, the timings very, very strong. I mean they made this offense very Andy Dalton friendly, 1-2-3, get it out, boom. I think he goes through his reads well, but they're not asking him to do a lot. I mean of course, he's a rookie. That's what you do with rookie quarterbacks. That's why coaches get paid big money. And they do take a few shots down field a game, usually to Green off and on play-action. And I think it's a winning formula. MY worry is what's your ceiling. To say at best, he could become a Matt Ryan, that's certainly not a knock on the kid. I mean Matt Ryan is a very good quarterback and he can orchestrate a very good team. But Matt Ryan plays in a dome and his division rivals are New Orleans and Carolina, fair-weathered teams. So those are my concerns in the end, but clearly he's way ahead of the curve.
Goodberry: You brought up how Jay Gruden is controlling him and making it easy with Dalton. Well it’s the opposeite With Cam Newton they’re letting him ball out and play to the most of his abilities. If you had to vote for the rookie of the year, who are you voting for at this point? A lot of people are on the stats and running ability of newton while clearly Dalton is the better passer, within the system and he has the better record. Who are you going with and what do you think of A.J. Green’s chances?
Williamson: Actually I have a weekly column about every Wednesday. It’s a rookie report and I rank the top-ten rookies in the league. And I’ve had Von Miller at number one pretty much the entire year up until last week when I finally put Newton over him and I’m kind of regretting that. I think von miller is the premier rookie of the league right now and I think he’s the fav. For defensive rookie of the year right now on the offensive side of the ball I would vote for Newton. I think I have A.J. Green third or fourth on my list and Dalton right behind him at five. Obviously all of these guys are very impressive and it’s a really good rokkie crop to be honest with you. You start looking at Julio Jones DeMarco Murray and Tyson Smith and there’sa lot of prominent rookies playing very well just these past couple weeks too. Christian Ponder is number ten on my list and he’s been a success at quarterback too, but I think Newton is the most surprising story of the year. He’s really blown me away. When I talked about Dalton in terms of his ceiling, Newton has no ceiling at all, he could be the best player in the league by far, there’s no body else like him. He makes more poor decisios than Dalton and his team doesn’t have as good of a record but he desn’t have the supporting cast.
To listen to the rest of the interview and podcast go here.
