Bengals Beat: Dax Hill, Nick Scott Out To Prove Secondary In Safe Hands ‘We’ve Got Plenty of Trust For One Another’

CINCINNATI — With change comes uncertainty. This much is true about the back end of the Bengals defense. But Nick Scott and Dax Hill both believe the defense will be stable and effective with both of them patrolling the middle.

When Jessie Bates III signed his four-year, $64 million deal with Atlanta and Vonn Bell left for three years and $22.5 million in Carolina, the Bengals were left with a puzzle to solve at the safety position.

Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo admitted prior to free agency that he dreaded losing both of his veteran players at the safety spot, where communication and coordination is so essential to the position.

“It would be huge,” Anarumo said on March 1. “You’d lose leadership too. Vonn and Jessie, they do a lot of things that people don’t see. They organize meetings on their own. So, yeah, I’d rather not think about that dark day.”

But the Bengals had the vision to draft Dax Hill in 2022 out of Michigan, a multi-layered defensive back who can roam and tackle. Anarumo indoctrinated him to the way the Bengals want their secondary to operate last season and now Anarumo in a position where he feels comfortable letting Hill take over.

The darkness turned into a sunrise when the Bengals were able to sign Nick Scott away from the Los Angeles Rams and bring him in to team with Hill. After nursing a shoulder injury back to full health, Scott took the field this summer and worked on his chemistry with Hill.

Hill and Scott played just one series together in the preseason, the first Atlanta drive of the second preseason game. But with all of the time they spent together in practice combined with all the meetings, the two are feeling like they’re coming together well.

“I’m just excited in general,” Scott told me. “I mean this time of year first game of the season we all have been praying for this day. You know try and get back in the football. Me and Dax we’re going to be fired up, start that journey together. Work to have a tight relationship as safeties back there. So I’m just getting looking forward to starting that connection because it is different. What you start playing in the game and whatnot. You just gel different. So I’m excited to see what that’s gonna be. I know it’s going to be fun. But I’m excited to see how we kind of play off each other.”

Zac Taylor has seen the same growth and comfort grow between the two, even though they’ve played just one preseason series together.

“I think every rep has helped those guys, just over the course of camp, they got a ton of them,” Taylor said. “Both stayed on the field quite a bit, which was good to see. And so you got you got all the work you wanted those guys to get. Now you just get a chance to do it again.”

In getting to know each other, there comes a bond and trust.

“Just preparation in the communication we have with one another,” Scott said. “I mean, that’s all you can really ask for. We’ve been spending some time on our off time together and everything like that when we can. So we have a pretty strong relationship, and then once you get into football, it’s just a matter of trust. And we got plenty of trust for one another right now.”

“I mean, we got a good gist of it,” Hill said of the two understanding the defensive concepts together. “I feel like it’s just gonna grow from there, week one and throughout the season. So kind of had that feeling, whenever we were thrown out there that second preseason game. So I felt like that was pretty good for us leading into this game.”

One of the most promising aspects of Scott and Hill working together is the interchangeable aspect of their skill sets. Both are capable of playing deep and both can play closer up in the box to help with the run, though Scott is likely to get more of the assignments covering the No. 1 pass-catching tight end.

“I never know what position I’ll be put in,” Hill said. “So, it’s just figuring out what the game plan is and then taking it day by day. So really, just every day is important and so I really want to take each day as a learning as a learning tool and go from that.”

Starting Sunday in Cleveland, we’ll see just how strong that bond is.

• Captain Claws:

Bengals players Monday morning elected their six captains and Zac Taylor again voiced his approval with how they were chosen and the players on the list. There was not a special teams captain this season, per se. There were three chosen on the offense (Joe Burrow, Joe Mixon, Ted Karras) and three on the defense (DJ Reader, Sam Hubbard, Mike Hilton). Good choices says the head coach.

“We let our players vote on it, and they do a good job of that over the years,” Taylor said. “Obviously there are new faces here and those guys have to learn as they go, but overall I think we have enough returning guys that understand what we’re looking for, and I haven’t disagreed with any of the captains we’ve had so they’ve done a good job with that.”

What’s the biggest role they play?

“They’re the voice of the locker room, and that doesn’t mean that guys who aren’t captains can’t have that voice as well, but they’re the guys I will turn to — we don’t do it every week — but than I’ll turn to and we’ll have discussions, things that are on my mind about practice or the opponent we’ve got, or things I want to get done in the locker room.

“So, an extra voice I guess you could say. They do have a little bit of obligation to speak up when something needs to be said. But again, there’s so many other people in the locker room that don’t necessarily have the captain on their shirt that represent what that should be, and they do a great job of articulating thoughts they have to me and not shying away from that.”

Joe Burrow is clearly one of the most powerful leaders the Bengals have in the building. Taylor echoed the comments last week of offensive coordinator Brian Callahan that Burrow doesn’t have to say a lot to say a lot.

“I’ve always I guess you feel it more this last week, because he’s been on the field more than last week,” Taylor said. “But it’s something you always feel from him. That’s I think that’s what makes him great as he’s not afraid to take the guys aside after a rep and give them even more coaching on exactly what he thinks because ultimately, that’s what matters.

“I’m not the one out there on the field doing it. Cally’s not. Troy Walters isn’t. It’s what the quarterback and the receivers, that chemistry that they had together. And so for him to take that ownership is critical. I think it’s why we’ve had the success we’ve had with him at the helm. Because he’s not afraid to let those guys know how he wants it done.”

• Chido Ready, Ossai day-to-day:

Taylor confirmed Monday that Bengals starting right cornerback Chido Awuzie will return to his starting role and play a game for the first time since tearing his ACL last Halloween on the same field he’ll be playing on Sunday. Awuzie didn’t play in any preseason games but was cleared for full 11-on-11 work midway through camp and ramped up his work by the end of August. Meanwhile, Joseph Ossai, who sprained his right ankle in Washington on Aug. 26, was back in uniform on the practice field on Monday, though only on the rehab field. The good news for the Bengals is that Taylor indicated he’s day-to-day, not week-to-week so that’s a sign perhaps that Ossai might be able to avoid the injured reserve list to start the season.