2021 Training Camp and Pre-season News and Chatter

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[Stripes]

Jonah - showing up big

Chase - making contested catches

Mixon - 70 yard TD on family day

Burrow - alive

I'm feeling okay about the offense all things considered. Bring on preseason game 1.

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https://theathletic.com/2752811/2021/08/04/bengals-training-camp-why-zac-taylor-gave-joe-burrow-the-day-off-and-assessing-the-qbs-comfort-level/

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One year ago, it was hard not to marvel at how quickly Joe Burrow entered the NFL without OTAs, in-person meetings or any on-field experience on this level and started roasting the defense for touchdowns.

He entered the opener against the Chargers with zero NFL game snaps taken and by the end led an epic two-minute drill that had the game-winning touchdown taken away by a pass interference penalty against A.J. Green.

By midseason as a rookie, he had a limited supporting cast ranked second in the NFL in points per drive over a month period.

Then, after a devastating knee injury suffered in Washington and thoughts of missing time, it’s rarely been a question in recent months as he crushed his rehab to be fully cleared by the start of camp and all systems go toward the opener.

At every turn since entering the league as the national champion, Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 pick, Burrow left reasonable expectations in the dust.

Was it unfair to think he would show up the first week of camp with his ACL near 100 percent and immediately look in midseason form, totally comfortable with his pocket presence and again start roasting a defense that’s exponentially improved over last season?

I mean, why not? We just come to expect it. Watching him work, it’s easy to take the quarterback for granted. It’s Joe Burrow, of course he will.

But the last week has not been easy. It has been ugly at times with a side of frustration. Even teammates can see him working through the adjustment.

“He’s kind of a little iffy on his knee, but it is kind of hard to tell,” Tyler Boyd said. “In my opinion, I feel like he’s ready to go. I also feel he don’t want to do too much.”

And on Wednesday, head coach Zac Taylor gave Burrow the day off.

How much of the decision stems from a need to mentally and physically back away from a string of rough practices and how much should all this raise an antenna of concern of where Burrow’s at with the opener against Minnesota 39 days away?

Well, there’s important nuance and context to sift through to make sense of it all.

Let’s start with the day off.

Taylor admitted prior to camp he would splice a few off days for Burrow in the mix as he keeps an eye on his rehab. With a team off day scheduled for Thursday, resting the quarterback Wednesday allows for 48 hours of rest. His eyes can turn toward a three-day burst of practice set for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It doesn’t mean Burrow was thrilled with watching Wednesday, but it’s all part of tracking to the opener against Minnesota.

“He wants the reps,” Taylor said. “He wants to be in there with the guys continuing to gain chemistry with these receivers so it’s not something he wants to do, but he’s not the head coach so he doesn’t get to make that decision.”

Taylor gave similar breaks to defensive tackle D.J. Reader (quad) and center Trey Hopkins (ACL), who are cleared but still working back off major injuries with expectations of starting the opener.

Next came the nature of Wednesday’s practice. The session was heavy on goal-line and run game, including some live snaps. If there were a moment to back off the quarterback, it would be a day mostly about running the football and judging the trenches.

“There wasn’t an exact plan in place on how every guy was going to look so we just want to adjust,” Taylor said. “Today with the short-yardage and goal-line emphasis … it’s a good time to give a quarterback off … Just balancing what the emphasis in practice is and keeping those guys fresh off of surgery and ready to go for next week.”

Taylor wouldn’t broach the mental aspect of giving a break to Burrow, who has been going hard since being cleared at the conditioning test on July 24. But the benefits of backing away from a string of football that’s looked considerably out of character makes plenty of sense.

As for why that has been an issue with figuring out the reason for days like the 5-for-12 performance with an interception Tuesday and similar stats with another pick Monday, it does go beyond a quarterback who doesn’t quite look comfortable.

“I think it’s the whole unit right now,” Taylor said. “We’re just getting a feel for each other. You’d like to be throwing touchdowns on every play right now, but we got some progress to be made. But there’s no cause for panic or any reason for that.”

A major reason for no panic is the nature of the first week of camp. The focus has been on the installation of the offense. That leaves the quarterback with little wiggle room to get to whatever play he’d like and move the ball that way.

You become more limited in finding answers to beat the defense, an obvious strength of the second-year quarterback. The installation portion of the program is essentially over. Moving forward, there will be more normal football, working on sustaining drives in a true replica of game situations. That makes a difference both for quarterback and play caller.

“It’s all scripted,” Taylor said of the recent practices. “(Tuesday) you saw a 14-play, 12-personnel script so there was no 11 personnel in there. I think they are going to benefit from some moving the ball and changing up the personnels and doing some different things instead of just focusing on the periods we’ve done.”

That still doesn’t explain away the consistent struggles of the passing game, which included drops from Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, no real deep connections to speak of, as well as a collection of off-target balls from Burrow.

A significant slice of the credit should belong to a defense that has shown much better than most expected. There just has not been a ton of separation for Burrow, Brandon Allen or any of the quarterbacks to exploit.

Yes, there has been periodic pressure in Burrow’s face, but considering knowing he won’t actually take a hit, it’s hard to put that into the formula too much.

There’s just a lot of adjusting that’s happening on the fly for all of us to watch and judge in real-time.

So, what should you learn and where is the concern? Well, we learned contrary to popular belief, Burrow is human. He’s not an adversity-overcoming robot capable of crushing convention at every snap.

It’s proving to be a process, one that offensive coordinator Brian Callahan pointed out before training camp began you could see taking the entire five weeks to feel totally comfortable in the pocket. Taylor and the staff have that long game in mind. It’s why they gave Burrow off Wednesday and aim toward a refresh starting Friday.

It will be imperative to see progress made and no more practices look like the ones witnessed this past Friday, Monday and Tuesday.

After the certainty of Burrow becoming almost a non-storyline as he cruised through the summer looking fantastic, throwing with extra velocity and impressing his teammates with his presence, the progress belongs back under the microscope if wondering what to expect when he takes the field against the Vikings.

Yet, if in July there was one aspect of this team you would place a bet on being just fine, it would be the combination of Burrow-Chase-Higgins-Boyd. That’s still a solid bet to make in August.

Taylor’s still making it with the idea of what it will look like in September.

“I know what the offense is going to be capable of, especially in the passing game,” he said. “That’s why I like what I’m seeing from this team because I know what we’re going to be and we’ve got plenty of time to get there. That’s what helps me sleep at night because I know it’s coming. I know what the perception is as people watch, but we’re going to get there and it’s going to be fun to watch.”

 

 

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By the way, this is a scheduled off-day from practice for the team. Back at in pads on Friday. 

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So...there has been a dearth of 1 v 1 footage on line but Lap and Hoard spent a good bit of time here with some...

 

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[HoosierCat]

So espn+ had all the best writers make a “bold prediction” for camp yesterday. For the curious, Baby’s prediction was…not all that bold.

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Cincinnati Bengals

Rookie Jackson Carman will start in Week 1.

Yes, the second-round pick is buried on the depth chart after the first spell of training camp. When the team concluded offseason workouts, however, Carman was slotted as the starting right guard. There are roughly six weeks between now and the season opener against the Vikings. That is enough time to send Carman the message that he has to work for his starting spot. -- Ben Baby

My bold prediction:

If the offensive line doesn’t improve, Pollack will chew a steel bar into bits and use his tongue and heat of his anger to forge the scrap into bullets which he will then spit from his mouth like a machine gun so that all the o-linemen have to dance like cartoon characters.

[HoosierCat]

Also today on espn+, they talk six preseason trades that should happen. One involves the Bengals.

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Bengals add a reliable linebacker who wanted to be traded

Cincinnati Bengals get: LB Jordan Hicks

Arizona Cardinals get: 2022 sixth-round pick

Hicks has already been granted permission to seek a trade after agreeing to a reworked contract earlier this offseason that pays him a base salary of $2 million with $1 million more available via per-game roster bonuses (46-man and 53-man). He finds himself on the outside looking in of the Cardinals' starting defense after the organization has used first-round picks in back-to-back years (Zaven Collins in 2021, Isaiah Simmons in 2020).

For Cincinnati, the addition of Hicks would allow the team to beef up an area that is one of its biggest needs right now. The Bengals have invested some recent draft capital into the position (Germaine Pratt, Logan Wilsonand Akeem Davis-Gaither), but a veteran presence would help augment the group during a season in which improved results are needed for the franchise. While Hicks' game favors his run-stuffing aptitude over playing in space as a coverage player, he's an experienced and reliable player who would bring leadership to the middle of the defense.

Um, ok, I guess. Don’t really see the point tho.

[HoosierCat]

And finally in today’s espn+ content dump, who won the offseason?

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15. Cincinnati Bengals

Womp womp. Not us.

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Big additions: WR Ja'Marr Chase, OT Jackson Carman, ED Trey Hendrickson, CB Mike Hilton, CB Chidobe Awuzie, OT Riley Reiff, DT Larry Ogunjobi, S Ricardo Allen, DT Josh Tupou (2020 opt-out)

Key losses: CB William Jackson III, ED Carl Lawson, DT Geno Atkins, WR A.J. Green, CB Mackensie Alexander, RB Giovani Bernard, LB Josh Bynes

The good news is that the Bengals made some intriguing offseason additions. The bad news is that those signings were mostly offset by several significant subtractions.

Jackson is arguably a top-10 NFL corner and will be replaced by Awuzie. That's only slightly offset by the potential upgrade from Alexander to Hilton in the slot. Hendrickson, Ogunjobi and Tupou are in up front as replacements for Lawson and Atkins, which sounds like a downgrade, but Atkins is now 33 and was limited because of injuries to 116 snaps last season. Chase, the fifth-overall pick of April's draft, was the prize addition of the offseason and should be a big upgrade on the age-33 Green.

With former franchise stars Atkins, Green and Bernard out the door, the Bengals got younger during the offseason but didn't get much better, at least in the short term.

I don’t think “didn’t get much better” necessarily follows here. If Chase isn’t an upgrade on Green then we drafted another first round bust, and I don’t think that’s the case. Certainly no reason to think so at this point. Atkins, as the writer notes a couple sentence earlier, wasn’t doing much more than warming the bench. If Ogunjobi can get on the field reliably that’s probably an improvement, though right now that’s a frustrating question mark. I didn’t like the Bernard move but the no. 2 RB slot is unlikely to be a season-breaker.

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15th is at least not 32nd...

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