2021 Training Camp and Pre-season News and Chatter

[ShulaSteakhouse]

2 hours ago, membengal said:

 

Seems to fit the scouting report.  Run defender, disrupter, space eater, limited speed/agility.   Wonder if he'll make the rotation/roster.  Has a good shot I guess.  

Tyler Shelvin Film Study

[membengal]

He's definitely making the roster. 

[Stripes]

I'm pleased that D. Smith is coming along even with the growing pains. I hope that doesn't inspire Duke et al to close the door on one more free agent tackle. A 4th round rookie should not be the plan or even the backup plan. Let him grow properly and bring in another. Someone out there is worth signing.

[HoosierCat]

 

[membengal]

 

[HoosierCat]

My predictions for the first game:

Burrow’s leg falls off.

During the first quarter, Frank Pollack spontaneously combusts on the sideline.

Entire team gets COVID.

Asteroid strike vaporizes PBS.

Jesus returns wearing a Steelers jersey.

 

[AMPHAR]

Yikes predictions!

I'm encouraged by TC reports.  I think Bengals are moving upward. 

Joe will cure his yips and its off to the races.

 

 

[HoosierCat]

That average is way too low. That’s like per quarter, if not per drive…

 

[COB]

That chart is in-game drinking, and Mike makes it affordable to go to PBS and hammer down a few.  Other dumb-ass owners just want to rip you off.  Mike feels our pain.  

[AMPHAR]

When the team sucks and you are still making an effort to go out and watch the team....you have a drinking problem.

 

[TJJackson]

OH FARK

https://twitter.com/GeoffHobsonCin/status/1424776337420660736

' First Bengals depth chart has Jordan at RG and D’Ante Smith backing up LG '

[HoosierCat]

Training camp depth charts aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

[TJJackson]

dear god, I hope so

[membengal]

That might be, Hoosier, but also, fuck this. 

[membengal]

It's mother fucking bullshit and I am pissed off. 

[Wraith]

It isn't like Mike Jordan has had issues at RG that caused an injury or anything.....

This all being said, the kid apparently has worked very hard in the offseason ad it is cool that that hard work is paying off.

Also, this was the issue with taking Jackson Carman in the second.  It is cool that you valued this kid higher than the rest of the industry but in doing so you run the risk of opening yourself up for criticism if it doesn't work out and rightly so....

[membengal]

Don't care how hard Michael Jordan has worked. Good for him. What's he want, a cookie? He's SUPPOSED to have worked hard. Maybe, even before his first camp. And certainly before his second fucking camp. So, yippee, THIS TIME he's put in the work - the third time around? Pardon me for not caring or believing it.

Simply, you CANNOT leave 2020 season, with the 2021 FA and then 2021 draft if you are the Bengals and then come back and the first depth chart in training camp put Michal motherfucking Jordan at FIRST on the depth chart, and at RIGHT GUARD no less. It's insane.  I am white hot with rage. 

[HoosierCat]

1 hour ago, TJJackson said:

dear god, I hope so

For heavens sake, it still lists Adenji and Hubert, both out for the year with injuries, as second- and fourth-stringers. It doesn’t mean anything.

[Stripes]

If that depth chart is reflected against Tampa I am going to be angry. For now I will pretend it doesn't exist.

Michael Jordan shouldn't make the team at all, let alone be in contention to start.

[HoosierCat]

1 hour ago, Wraith said:

It isn't like Mike Jordan has had issues at RG that caused an injury or anything.....

This all being said, the kid apparently has worked very hard in the offseason ad it is cool that that hard work is paying off.

Also, this was the issue with taking Jackson Carman in the second.  It is cool that you valued this kid higher than the rest of the industry but in doing so you run the risk of opening yourself up for criticism if it doesn't work out and rightly so....

Im trying and failing to come up with another scenario for then right now at RG that works better.

You have three options, Jordan, XSF and Carman.

Xavier has been in the league since 2014. You know what you have there. If they were rolling Burrow out there Saturday, I think he’d be starting, but they aren’t.

Carman has had like a week’s worth of practice, half of it in shorts. What he needs more than anything else is reps and as a third stringer in preaseason he gets plenty of those. If he looks good and comes along, which is reasonable to expect as he’ll be in initially against lower round picks, scrubs and udfas, then you kick him up to the next group and see where he’s at.

So that leave Jordan. He’s been busting ass all offseason? Great. Show me. Here’s your chance.

Bring on the weekend.

[Passepartout]

Well hope that Jordan will get to do that. And it pays off for him.

[membengal]

 

[TJJackson]

mem: can you post the substance of the 10 risers and fallers article from the athletic?

[membengal]

Bengals stock report: 10 risers (Chidobe Awuzie!) and fallers (Ja'Marr Chase?) through 10 practices – The Athletic

Quote

 

CINCINNATI — With 10 practices down and the first preseason game on the horizon, it’s time to take stock of what we’ve seen as the 2021 Bengals start to take shape.

Obviously, we spend every waking hour dissecting the daily evolution of Joe Burrow’s rehab, so we will take him out of the equation and focus on the rest of the roster.

This list of risers and fallers doesn’t necessarily mean somebody will jump to making the team or fall from starter to the streets. This is strictly about the players who helped or hurt themselves relative to their initial standing over the first 10 practices.

Here’s my list.

Risers
CB Chidobe Awuzie: One of the clear stars of camp. Every time we’ve discussed the trouble in the Bengals’ passing game, Awuzie’s name has come up. The same is the case when watching the coverage. He’s been the definition of sticky, outside of a few deep balls in which Ja’Marr Chase got behind him, but those ended up incomplete. He’s batting down passes and blanketing all the Bengals’ top wideouts. He has drawn praise from around the team, even if he’s not looking for it.

“That’s my No. 1 goal is to earn respect, especially from my teammates first off and going forward across the league,” Awuzie said when asked about people noticing how well he’s playing. “It’s definitely my goal to earn respect from them, so I guess you’d have to ask them for that. I’m just trying to do my best every day, learn from the guys and keep things lively.”

Awuzie blew up back-to-back quick-game attempts, including a receiver screen to Chase for his latest act on Sunday. He certainly made an impression on the man whose days he’s ruining.

“Chido is playing awesome,” Burrow said.

There was a question coming into this year as to whether the Bengals were signing up for the guy who struggled much of last year coming off an injury on a discombobulated defense or the player who spent the first three years as one of the more solid cover corners in the league. Thus far, he looks like the latter. He’s thriving in the small-market footlights, which is a nice change of pace for the high-profile second-round pick in high-profile Dallas. This change of scenery fits him nicely.

LB Logan Wilson: At least once a day, I look down at my notes and see “55TFL.” That’s a tackle for loss by Logan Wilson. He’s hitting the gaps in the run game noticeably faster this year. He has been given the green dot for coach communication, and that confidence in him physically and mentally is spilling over to his playing style. He came in with the reputation as a skilled cover ‘backer and that still remains, but his lines of attack and anticipation in the run game has shown up through 10 practices.

“How Logan is going about things right now, he’s really taking it upon himself to play a big role in that Mike position,” Vonn Bell said. “How poised he is right now, and he’s going to keep on growing to the game and to himself, so I’m very happy about how his progression is going.”

S Vonn Bell: So let’s talk about Bell. Honestly, he didn’t have much rising to do. He’s already a starting safety and a leader on this club. But Bell clearly took his rough games in coverage to heart this offseason and looks refreshed in that aspect of his game. He’s getting his hands on passes, stepping into lanes and making plays on the ball. He’s doing it with an attitude that is fueling the defensive surge that has dominated the conversation thus far. Second year in the system and second year in a new place can bring out the next level in players. We might be seeing it in Bell, which is a scary thought for defenses as he plays next to Jessie Bates.

OL D’Ante Smith: There are a few ways to judge risers and fallers in training camp. You can use the eye test for your own evaluation, but the truest test for rising and falling is the reps test. Who gets the reps. Who gets the opportunity to show what he can do. Smith is getting the reps. The fourth-round project out of East Carolina is shockingly getting them at guard and getting them over second-round pick Jackson Carman at the moment. He has impressed the coaches.

“He takes the coaching from a week ago, he takes the coaching from a day ago, and he uses that to become a better player each day, and you reward that,” coach Zac Taylor said.

The Bengals want to give him a shot at guard despite all signs pointing to his NFL future being at tackle. Maybe it works. All we know right now is they are giving him a shot, and that speaks louder than any opinion any of us could have of him.

RB Chris Evans: Most of the time with running backs, you can’t derive a true evaluation until they log snaps in preseason games. That’s less the case with Evans, who continues to back up what we’ve come to know about him: He’s fantastic at catching the ball out of the backfield. He made one of the slickest plays of camp last week, beating double coverage in a red-zone drill to catch a touchdown from Brandon Allen, and on Saturday, he did a nice job turning a swing pass into a 21-yard gain. He’s so smooth catching the ball, you love to see what he does when they go live on Saturday. Tough to get a real grip on his pass protection, but if he can show well in that regard, that might be enough to carve out a small third-down role in the rotation.

Fallers
WR Ja’Marr Chase: This is not to sound the alarm or relitigate Penei Sewell all over again. Not in the least. We’re merely reporting what we’ve seen thus far. It’s about tempering initial expectations. A thought existed that Chase could walk on to the Paul Brown Stadium practice fields and dominate from the first snap. His skill set is that unique. You see flashes of that early, but you also see somebody tentatively getting used to a new offense, new league and not playing football since January 2020. He has endured a string of drops, on short and long passes, with another coming Sunday. He has not shown as much separation as you’d hope, and the contested balls haven’t gone his way much, either. This is absolutely not to say he won’t start picking that up with more reps over the next month. He’s working after practice every day and, by all accounts, taking it seriously, and his skills and history are too impressive to think he won’t find a groove once he starts playing off instincts instead of constantly having to think about what he’s doing every play. Most of this is all part of being a rookie receiver and improving as you go. But after 10 practices, Chase is clearly still fighting the rookie learning curve.

Asked about that curve Wednesday, Taylor had this to say:

“For Ja’Marr, you get a chance to see him in one-on-ones really work, and that was great to see yesterday, saw him make some great plays in one-on-ones,” he said. “Our DBs are really challenging us on the outside. There are some new routes we’re incorporating with him that are going to be huge for us during the season. Part of it is to sustain a drive, some of the DBs start backing off and makes things a little bit easier. Credit to our DBs, they’re showing up and pressing on every snap right now. That usually works to benefit the receiver as the drive extends and guys get a little more worn down and play a little softer. It’s great. I’d rather start with man and these guys have to work their technique and understand route details. I’d rather start that way than the opposite, where everything is easy and you have free access.”

OL Fred Johnson: A favorite saying this time of year is, “You can’t make the club in the tub.” That thought process applies to Johnson. Alas, he will make the club, due to Hakeem Adeniji (pectoral) being in the tub for the season and the lack of any attempt to upgrade the tackle depth with a veteran in recent months. That said, Johnson is still a young player and one you want to see turn the corner to provide more assurance should something happen to Jonah Williams or Riley Reiff, who have both played well. A Bengals tenure that has always included a lingering injury here or there has him sidelined again. It also allows other options (Isaiah Prince, Smith) to get opportunities to make a positive impression. And the aforementioned two are making one on the coaches. Johnson should be fine, though he’s still more than a week away, and will make this team. There’s a good chance he remains the swing tackle. But this latest injury doesn’t help the tension level with the depth on the offensive line.

TE Mason Schreck: Feels like we’ve seen an opportunity crop up for the former seventh-round pick time and time again, whether it was last year when C.J. Uzomah went down or previous camps with battles wide open at the back of the tight end group. Here we are again with a wide-open opportunity, and again we’ve not seen much impact. In fact, part of Schreck falling is because Thaddeus Moss has made his fair share of plays and comes with the underlying Burrow connection that will help him. Schreck has had a few drops, an injury that kept him out of a practice and a half, and that’s about the only time he has really been notable. If he’s going to make this team, that needs to change in a hurry.

K Austin Seibert: This comes through no fault of his own. Seibert has actually kicked pretty well. He has missed only a few of his opportunities, a couple in the 40s and then a 60-yarder at the practice in the stadium. But Evan McPherson has been lights-out. When a player is drafted with a pedigree like McPherson, shows up and makes every kick, that’s a tough hill for Seibert to climb. Seibert put himself in good position to land a job elsewhere if he can kick with the consistency he has shown in practice, but as long as McPherson keeps doing anything in the vicinity of what he has done thus far, Seibert won’t be here.

DT Renell Wren: Hate to see injuries play such a prominent role in a story. But for Wren, they’ve been his story through two years, and unfortunately for him, it has put a ton of pressure on him to make a major impression this camp/preseason or else end up on the practice squad. He hasn’t done that. Despite so many different defenders making plays in camp, we’ve hardly called Wren’s name at all. When you have Josh Tupou and Tyler Shelvin showing up in flashes in the same competition behind D.J. Reader, well, that’s creating a challenging climb. The games await, but so far Wren hasn’t been able to provide the punch up the gut the Bengals had hoped to see.

 

 

[COB]

9 hours ago, HoosierCat said:

Training camp depth charts aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

Jordan vs the paper the depth chart is printed on:  Stalemate.