“I think we’re in a spot that we haven’t been before,” Joe Burrow said to the press on the very first day of the minicamp. He kept the Bengals in the fight last season with an impressive performance. Over the final 10 games, he threw for 2,728 yards and 18 touchdowns. Reliable? Check. Efficient? Check. But despite these remarkable numbers, Burrow was sacked 48 times, only three short of his career-high 51 sacks in the 2021 season. So, unlucky? Check… And it once again raises serious doubts about the offensive line’s ability to protect their quarterback when it matters most.

That’s where Scott Peters enters the picture. Not just that, he’s brought in this year to revamp the Bengals’ offensive line. Peters isn’t your typical football coach. He’s a two-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, UFC championship trainer, and former Arizona boxing commissioner. He brings a fight-first mentality built on technique, leverage, and discipline, exactly the kind of edge a QB like Burrow and his team need.

Orlando Brown Jr. has already seen that difference firsthand. He opened up about it during an interview on Sports with Strawberry Ice on YouTube. When asked about Peter’s MMA background, Brown didn’t hold back. “He’s got an extremely unique way of implementing a lot of his unique techniques,” he said. “Whether that be the way he says it, the language that he uses, the way he teaches it. In terms of specifics to using your scap when punching. He’s got a very, very unique and super, super crafty style of coaching in those areas, man.” That kind of praise doesn’t come unless players are feeling real results.

Brown went on to describe how Peters’ techniques are showing up in practice, even leading to controlled sparring sessions between teammates. “We are doing hand-to-hand combat stuff against each other,” he said. “It’s me and Mims over there practically wrestling and fitting our hands. And it’s been awesome though.” That’s not just a metaphor—it’s live-action prep, embedded into the daily grind. The message is clear: if you want to win the line of scrimmage, you better be ready to fight for it.

And that mentality shows up beyond drills. It’s shaping how the team builds its roster. The Bengals made some key offseason hires. But one new name catching early attention is rookie guard Dylan Fairchild. A third-round pick out of Georgia, Fairchild brings size, strength, and just enough rawness to make him a perfect project under Peters’ watch for protecting Joe Burrow. Which only makes one wonder… If without proper protection JB had defenses on their back, then imagine with protection how lethal Cincy might look. And that’s why the Who Dey is not imagining anymore, they are taking in one by one.

Bengals’ coach finds Joe Burrow’s match in rookie Dylan Fairchild

For the Bengals, picking him 81st overall was a long-term investment in a lineman with both power and polish. He started 24 games over two seasons at Georgia, earned Second-Team All-American honors, and now, Cincinnati believes they’ve landed a future fixture. When asked in an interview about his responsibility of protecting quarterback Joe Burrow, Dylan Fairchild didn’t hold back. “Oh, it’s an honor…it’s an honor,” he said. “It’s something I’m going to live and die by every single day. It’s the biggest honor of my life, and I’m just super excited to do it. I’m going to live by the sword, and die by the sword, and give it my all every single day to do so.”

And clearly, that mindset isn’t just talk. Fairchild brings that same intensity off the field, too, especially when it comes to combat sports. Recently, a clip surfaced of him wrestling with UFC middleweight Sean Strickland, and what happened next had fans—and teammates—doing double-takes. Fairchild, wearing #63, pulled off an ankle pick that looked straight out of a wrestling clinic. The clip was captioned, “A 300+ pound man shouldn’t be able to hit an ankle pick like that… When you’re done with the NFL… UFC??” The Bengals’ official account couldn’t resist chiming in with a smirking emoji and the line, “We drafted this guy.” It wasn’t just a viral moment—it was a peek into the kind of athlete Fairchild truly is.

Turns out, Fairchild has been battling on the mat long before he ever stepped onto an NFL field. In high school, he was a Class 7A state wrestling finalist, a two-time heavyweight champ, and finished his senior season undefeated at 22-0. So, when he squared off with Sean Strickland and nailed that ankle pick, it was muscle memory. Now, with Joe Burrow leading and a fighter’s mindset fueling the locker room, Fairchild fits right into a Bengals team that is preparing and evolving. This isn’t the same Cincinnati…and that’s exactly the point.