All has a nice blend of explosion after the catch to go with his rep as a terrific and fearless blocker. In the 6-4, 249-pound Fant, they’ve got a guy who may not be as identified with the pass game as Gesicki or as dominant as All in the run game, but he’s a solid two-way pro player known to be good in the room.
Here’s a guy who has also had two 60-catch seasons for Denver while the Broncos were a-top 13 rushing team.
“Great kid. Great personality. I enjoyed talking to him on his visit,” Radicevic said. “He’ll be well used in our offensive scheme. He’s really got athleticism, and he’ll stick his head in there as a blocker.”
The Bengals really like Fant’s toughness when it comes to breaking tackles and his ability to churn out yards after catch. According to Pro Football Reference, 51% of his 3,305 career yards have come after the catch. All’s skillset helped Taylor use more multiple tight-end sets last year, and the arrival of Fant should keep that going as Taylor looks for a balance between three wide receivers (11 personnel) and multiple tight ends (12 and 13).
As one club insider mused Thursday, what are defenses going to do if Taylor deploys Gesicki and Fant with All-Pro wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and two-time 1,000-yard wide receiver Tee Higgins?
“Great size, great explosiveness, really good hands, tough to bring down,” Taylor said. “I think 11 personnel is probably a pretty broad term for us right now. Because of how you view Gesicki and how defenses view him. There are times we have two tight ends on the field. That’s really 11 personnel. We have a lot of different ways we can deploy our tight ends and different combinations that try to generate different defenses and then try to attack however they decide to play us.
“Mike can get a lot of matchups that he can really take advantage of, and whether that’s another personnel or that’s 12 personnel. Eleven for us is a much broader term because rolling two tight ends out there doesn’t always mean that we’re going to get base defense.”
Fant, drafted by Denver with the 20th pick in the 2019 draft before going to Seattle as part of the Russell Wilson trade, was recently a surprise cut after Seattle drafted Elijah Arroyo in the second round.
“This is a very star-studded offense and I’ll play my role where ever it may be,” Fant said. “I keep trying every year to become a more all-around tight end. Keep getting better in multiple areas. Be more explosive stretching the seam. Things of that nature. Especially in the run game and make strides in that.”
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