2021 Training Camp and Pre-season News and Chatter

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[HoosierCat]

 

[AMPHAR]

3 hours ago, HoosierCat said:

That’s some fukking bullshite right there (the no deal, not the franchise tag part). NOW I’m pissed.

 Not making a prediction but reports like this have surfaced many O’ times with an extension to follow in a week or so.  

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[Stripes]

“Pocket Rocket” is an extremely unfortunate choice of words, Hobson.

[COB]

Teven Jenkins is struggling to even get on the practice field in Chicago, nagging back injury he had from college.  We seem to have dodged a bullet on that one.  At least Carman is on his feet, learning.  

[HoosierCat]

Looks like Bateman is done for the preseason at least in Baltimore. But it sounds like he will easily be back well before we play them week seven.

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12 minutes ago, HoosierCat said:

Looks like Bateman is done for the preseason at least in Baltimore. But it sounds like he will easily be back well before we play them week seven.

Maybe. Groin injuries can really REALLY linger. 

[TJJackson]

45 minutes ago, COB said:

Teven Jenkins is struggling to even get on the practice field in Chicago, nagging back injury he had from college.  We seem to have dodged a bullet on that one.  At least Carman is on his feet, learning.  

still would have preferred Cosmi, tho he's struggling with the WFT also

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https://theathletic.com/2762930/2021/08/10/how-the-bengals-put-joe-burrow-back-on-the-field-so-quickly-inside-a-remarkable-rehab-process/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983

Excellent from Dehner here:

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CINCINNATI – When the Bengals’ team conditioning test arrived on July 24, director of rehab Nick Cosgray went through his normal routine for the beginning of training camp.

But, for him and the Bengals training staff, this wasn’t just another day.

They passed a milestone with Joe Burrow fully cleared for the open of camp, arguably the most high-profile, scrutinized rehab in their decades-long tenure at the club. They saw Trey Hopkins pass the test, fully cleared, just seven months since the starting center tore his ACL in the second half of the final game of the season.

Days later, when the first camp practice officially took place, Burrow and Hopkins both touched the ball on the first snap.

By the time the drenched towels of conditioning-test sweat returned to laundry bins inside the stadium, safeties coach Robert Livingston called Cosgray.

“He said, ‘Nick, today was your Super Bowl,’” Cosgray said, who also saw 325-pound defensive tackle D.J. Reader pass the test coming off a quad injury. “And you know what, yeah, it kind of is. When those guys are able to get back out there and you see them and you see them succeed and do well it is kind of like the Super Bowl.”

The vast majority of Bengals fans don’t know Cosgray, head trainer Paul Sparling and assistants Dan Willen, Roberto Cardona and Michael Houk or strength and conditioning coach Joey Boese. They blend as anonymous blurry faces behind the portrait mode of your favorite players.

For some players, however, they are the most important faces at Paul Brown Stadium.

Hopkins, the 6-foot-3, 316-pound center stood in front of reporters with a smile stretching ear to ear on that first day of camp. The second sentence out of his mouth mentioned Cosgray.

“Especially Nick,” Hopkins began. “Me and Nick everyday just really grinding and having that goal in mind that I want to be back. Nick let me know it’s going to be tough, I’m going to push you when necessary, we got to be smart about things, we got to be smart about everything. And guys, I feel great. I can’t say thank you enough to Nick and all the guys.”

Those words are meaningful, not just as a polite recognition of those who helped through a rough time, but another trophy in the mantle of building trust between player and rehab staff that is essential to the entire operation.

Hopkins had the surgery done by Bengals team doctor Marc Galloway, stayed in Cincinnati and did all his rehab with Cosgray and the team trainers.

Players don’t always stay in-house. Many agents have preferred doctors and everyone knows the list of experts for certain ailments. When a player returns from an ACL tear in this short amount of time under the direction of the team, everyone wins. Hopkins’ rehab becomes teach tape for overcoming injury.

A perfect recipe like this one with Hopkins is cooked with one primary ingredient.

“Attaining the trust of the athlete: That’s critical,” Sparling said. “If you don’t have the trust of the athlete you are better off sending them someplace else, to be quite honest. It takes time to develop that trust.”

Time didn’t exist with their star quarterback.

The face of the franchise had his surgery done in December in Los Angeles and could have basked even longer in the Southern California sun while going through the formative stages of the rehab. Instead, the Ohio kid beckoned back to Cincinnati.

Suddenly, a player who almost never went through the training room during his rookie year was plopped into the lap of this staff with the eyes of every person in the organization – and around the NFL – upon them.

Sure, Burrow worked in conjunction with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the surgeon to the sports stars in L.A., but this was now in the hands of Cosgray and the Bengals staff.

None of the basics changed in how they handled his ACL rehab compared to all the others that have come through over the years. Sparling, now in his 43rd season, has been a part of nearly every one.

But make no mistake, this one was different.

“Well, if anybody said there wasn’t pressure they’d be frickin’ lying,” Sparling said. “You got a lot of people counting on you.”

Every detail and decision earns extra scrutiny and conversation. There were extra conversations necessary that didn’t come up with someone like Hopkins or C.J. Uzomah rehabbing his Achilles.

“Some of the requests that come along when you are dealing with a guy: ‘Can we film this part of his rehab? Can we do this? People are interested, people want to know.’ Sometimes for guys like us, myself, Joe, we don’t care,” Cosgray said. “I don’t care that the people want to know how Joe is doing. I understand that side of it but to me, Joe and I know how he is doing and he’s making progress and I don’t care that everybody needs to know how he is doing.”

Even one slow-motion Twitter video of Burrow walking into the building earned the thoughts of Internet MD. The eyes and ears of opinion and perception do add to the stress of going through this with a player of Burrow’s status. As much as the Bengals tried to keep things insular, it’s tough to do.

Case in point: even as Burrow blew expectations away going through the offseason rehab and spring practices, he’s been forced to rehab the mental side of getting used to the pocket and being around a pass rush with his knee all over again in front of everyone in camp, as Burrow described himself Saturday. It’s not always been pretty and often frustrating – words that can be said about the beginning of nearly every stage of rehab.

“Somebody just came in and said one of our players did an interview today and said something about Joe, ‘Holy crap, it’s all over that he’s not comfortable,’” Cosgray said. “C’mon, who’s not comfortable coming back from nine months and an injury like he had? Nobody is comfortable yet. It’s a process. You get comfortable by doing it … What are we looking at now that’s saying he’s not still exceeding expectations? The guy is back out there on the field after a really significant injury at prior to nine months, he’s running around, he’s cutting, he’s throwing deep balls, shorts balls. He’s an NFL quarterback at less than nine months after a significant injury. Everybody probably wants him to be completing every single pass but I think he is where needs to be at this stage in the game. We have how many weeks before the season starts? To me, I watch him out there and I think he is doing extremely well.”

Cosgray admits he sees these players differently than most. Not only does he view it through the context of hundreds of rehabs during his time with the Bengals, but as someone with a full understanding of the mental and physical evolution of each process.

“That’s obviously someone that doesn’t get enough credit for what he’s done for this organization throughout the years,” Giovani Bernard said last year. Bernard tore his ACL on Nov. 21, 2016, (Burrow was Nov. 22) and returned for the beginning of camp, building a bond with Cosgray in the process. “He’s obviously a guy I trust a lot in what he tells me to do.”

There’s that word again: trust.

“The players have a lot of faith in him,” said coach Zac Taylor, who admits he also puts a ton of faith in Cosgray as the connection to the process for him over the offseason, as he doesn’t want to bombard the player with constant questions about the knee. “You can tell those guys that go through the process that come out, maybe they didn’t know him as well coming into it, and then when they end the process, they are like, ‘Man, he’s a rock star.”’

Sparling insists they have an incredible staff and they can drive success stories like this one, but the trainers don’t deserve the credit for these quick returns. They merely set the guardrails. The player must do the work. Part of what made the difference for Hopkins and Burrow was powering through the toughest times trusting the direction and people who set the parameters.

That includes knowing when to keep it light. Knowing when to push. Knowing when to tell the player to get away from the stadium for a week. All of those elements were part of these rehabs.

For Hopkins, feeding off the progress of Burrow made a difference.

“Joe was a little bit farther ahead than I was,” Hopkins said, “but it was good to look into the future those couple of weeks and be like, ‘OK, this is where I should be at. This is what he’s doing. This is what I should be able to do in a couple of weeks.’”

Burrow’s focus left an impression on everyone that came in contact with him. So, when it was posed to Burrow at the start of camp if he was grateful to be back, that didn’t quite connect.

“I don’t know if grateful is the right word,” he said. “A lot of hard work went into that. Grateful to me seems like there was a lot out of my control. And I worked really hard to get here. I had great people around me that worked really hard to get here. There’s a lot of hard work from a lot of different people that helped me. So I am grateful for the help that I had. But I also put in the work.”

A fact those closest to his rehab knew all too well.

“Joe was a pro, my God, he makes it so damn easy,” Sparling said. “I told him, ‘You are going to make us all look good.’ Trey is the same way. When you are working with pros like that, it takes out some of the uncertainty and challenges. We didn’t have to deal with challenges with either one of those guys once they got here because they just went after it.”

Once Burrow, Hopkins, Reader – and a few days later injured defensive tackle Renell Wren – passed their physicals, a new collection of players and relationships cycled to Cosgray and the rehab staff. Larry Ogunjobi showed up with a hamstring and returned on Monday. Cam Sample worked through his. In camp, Cosgray is in at 5 a.m. every day, knowing he won’t be leaving until after 9 p.m.

Every day is long and filled with new relationships to build and trust to develop.

That’s part of why July 24 was the Super Bowl. The entire team saw Burrow on the turf in Washington last season. They saw Hopkins take on what the center called the “gut-punch” and “short straw” in the final minutes of the regular season. What happened with their remarkable returns speaks louder than words any player can say. Even though the players can still say plenty.

“I got a lot closer with Nick,” Hopkins said. “This wasn’t even my first injury working with him. Nick rehabbed me through my tibia fracture my rookie year. But just being here, being older I think and being a rookie and being hurt really sucks because you don’t even know where you’re at. Being a little bit older and being able to talk about things and life experiences, and learn about him, where’s he’s at with him and his family. That was a really cool experience.”

Not all long rehabs develop into friendships. Some players don’t feel the need to be extroverted during those long months of working back. But, in this case for Hopkins and Burrow, it helped.

“He’s hilarious, very sarcastic, which is my kind of person. I love sarcasm,” Hopkins said of Burrow, then turning to the tone of every day at the stadium. “I love the jokes. It just makes the day better. When you laugh with somebody while you’re working, while you’re going through the dog days … you don’t really feel good. Your knee is achy. It’s tight but you can crack jokes. Laughter makes everything a little bit better, makes it a little bit easier.”

Not that Cosgray, Sparling or anyone on the training staff is looking for anybody to sing praises about their experiences. They signed up to be the guy behind the guy. Fitting then, watching in the background creates some of the proudest moments of their year.

“We work in a thankless business, right?” Cosgray said. “People expect you to do your job. Guy is supposed to rehab, they are supposed to be back on the field and people expect that to happen. But it is pretty cool for me and for I think our entire staff, you put so much time and effort and you get to know these guys on a very personal level. You become friends with them. You want to see your friends do well.”

In rehab and friendships, the worrying and monitoring never ends. Even after the Super Bowl. Especially when one of those friends wears No. 9.

“They do everything you ask them to do and they are doing it well and then it’s like we worked hard and did everything the right way, but you still are kind of holding your breath a little bit,” Cosgray said. “Obviously, I have the utmost confidence that everybody we put back on the field is ready to go. They wouldn’t be back out there if you weren’t, but you are still sitting here with your fingers crossed a little bit just saying, ‘Hey, everybody stay away from him.’”