Bengals Beat: Samaje Perine Knows What Drew Him Back, TJ ‘The Truck’ Slaton Wants To Help Bengals ‘Knock People Back’

CINCINNATI — The Bengals introduced two pieces of their free agent signing period Thursday that could play huge roles in their plans for 2025.

One literally, the other figurative but both 6-4, 331-pound TJ Slaton and 5-10, 236-pound Samaje Perine are additions that should improve the Bengals in two key areas.

The Bengals are trying to become a bigger, stronger team in 2025 and both players can help them in two key areas.

First, with the 27-year-old Slaton, the five-year veteran brings a massive presence to the middle of the Bengals defensive front as a true nose tackle who will take up double teams and help stop the run.

“I feel like it’s going to be great,” said Slaton, who signed a two-year, $15.1 million deal in Cincinnati after spending his first four seasons in Green Bay. “We’re playing that same similar front, but at the end of the day defense is defense so you got to go out there, you got to be aggressive, you got to knock people back.”

De’Vondre Campbell, the linebacker and former teammate of Slaton at Green Bay, nicknamed him “The Truck” in the middle of the Packers defensive line. Slaton took a natural liking to the moniker.

“It’s just like the truck might get a flat tire,” Slaton said. “All you got to do is change the tire, put the truck back on the road. It like ain’t nothing going to go wrong because you got the truck.”

What kind of truck?

“A Brinks truck,” Slaton smiled. “The truck with the money in it. That’s the truck. Hopefully it’s out there somewhere. Go find it.”

While Bengals fans remember the 25-22 overtime loss to Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in the 2021 season, Slaton recalls the joint practice sessions in Aug. 2023 against the Bengals and the fights that broke out before the preseason game between the two teams.

“The competitiveness, the attitude, the ‘we are not going to be pushed around,'” Slaton said of the Bengals, who were practicing at that point without the injured Joe Burrow. “So I got that energy from those group of guys when I was here, so that was good to know that you have a team who’s willing to either fight in a joint practice just to prove that we are not just going to lay over, just let people beat us.”

What the Bengals have in the middle of the defensive line is a player who can take on two blockers and stop the run, something the Bengals have struggled to do in the last two seasons, when their run defense took a tumble to bottom half of the NFL, and something of particular import in their division that features the Ravens, Steelers and Browns.

This should help the likes of Kris Jenkins Jr. and BJ Hill win their 1-on-1 battles and get pressure on the pocket and get to the quarterback. Again, it’s a domino effect. When you don’t disrupt the middle, quarterbacks have the ability to step up or move around in the pocket to avoid the likes of Trey Hendrickson or Joseph Ossai.

At first, it would figure that Slaton is going to be on the field a lot with Hill.

“I’m looking forward to getting out there with him,” Slaton told me. “I watched film on him and I know he’s a great player with his athletic system and his strength, so I think we’ll be good.”

There’ll be a familiar face in Cincinnati helping Slaton as Jerry Montgomery, Slaton’s DL coach with the Packers from 2021-23, will be with the Bengals this season as defensive line coach.

“I honestly believe that the way I’m going to be coached and the vision for me is to feel like it’s a great fit,” Slaton said.

Slaton can do many things in the trenches but there’s one thing he’ll be called on to prioritize – stop the run.

“Everybody around the league knows that’s me and that’s the number one capability, but for myself is to become an all around player who can do it all,” Slaton said. “But at the end of the day I’m here to take on the job at hand and I’m pretty sure that’s the stop the run first.”

Then there’s the other side of the ball. There has been no visible or announced movement in the extensions of Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins this week, nor has there been any addition of a desperately needed starting guard through free agency. Two major areas of concern, given the team’s apparently lack of urgency in resolving either in a timely fashion.

But there have been less dramatic moves that could have significant impact on the efficiency of the offense. Earlier in the week, the team announced a three-year deal for tight end Mike Gesicki, a one-year deal for guard Cody Ford, who might just wind up starting at right guard and Jaxson Kirkland, who could be in the mix to challenge Cordell Volson at left guard.

And then on Thursday, the Bengals confirmed a two-year, $3.6 million deal for third-down back Samaje Perine. The Oklahoma product left after the 2022 season, after three productive years in Cincinnati, including establishing himself as one of the more reliable pass-protecting backs in football. With Zack Moss a major question mark heading into 2025 with a neck injury, Perine steps immediately into that role and gives Joe Burrow a back he immediately trusts.

As for Perine, Burrow and Zac Taylor were the biggest reasons he returned to Cincinnati after one-year excursions in Denver with head coach Sean Payton and Kansas City with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.

“I’ve always wanted to come back,” Perine said. “I love it here, playing for Zac, playing with Burrow. For me, it’s a great place to be.”

In Denver and KC, Perine had a chance to work in a pair of offenses directed by highly accomplished coaches.

“I think a combination of both and just I’ve always, outside looking in, I’ve always seen and admired Coach Payton and I just wanted to get a firsthand experience of what that was like. It was interesting. It’s definitely interesting. I’ll leave it at that.”

With Kansas City, he played with a team that came within one game of becoming the first to win three straight Super Bowls. He’s now played on a pair of teams that reached the ultimate game without coming away with the win.

“It’s a great experience, by the way. He’s a great guy, great coach,” Perine said of Reid. “I just wanted to see what that was about and when a coach who’s had as much success as he’s had, when he calls you and says that he loves the way you play and he wants you to play for him, it’s kind of hard to pass that up.

“So I just wanted to go and see what that was like and have an opportunity to play for him.”

How is Cincinnati Perine 2.0 better today than he was from 2020-22?

“I feel like, for the most part, just becoming a more proficient blocker. I wasn’t a bad blocker, necessarily, third down back-wise. But doing that predominantly for the past two years, I’ve been able to tweak some things and get better at that.”

The biggest lesson of playing in the KC offense that Perine can bring is always giving your star quarterback the chance to extend a play.

“Offensively, just never giving up on a play,” Perine said. “I feel like that offense thrives, the Chiefs offense, that is. They thrive when Pat is outside of the pocket, and I heard a few interviews from Burrow last year that that was part of the game that he wanted to work on and that he’s been working on.

“So I feel like just being in tune and kind of ‘knowing-ish’ what a quarterback is thinking when they break the pocket, that was a big thing going into KC’s offense. And I feel like I learned, I learned a lot, not necessarily like X’s and O’s, but just being able to be on the same page and knowing that even though the quarterback has broken the pocket, he’s still looking downfield, and to just never, never give up on a play, even if you’re backside, they can always make something happen. And with Burrow having an arm that he does, he can definitely make a lot of those plays.”

With Perine and Slaton, the Bengals are adding two players that bring not only talent but experience playing in very successful programs last season.

Perine has gotten to the big game twice in the past four seasons, losing both times. While winning a ring with the Bengals would be the ultimate prize, the running back believes the reason he’s still playing is simply his passion for the game.

“To be honest with you, like, obviously, everyone wants to win a Super Bowl,” Perine told me. “A Super Bowl would be great to add to my football career, but I don’t think it’s a driving factor for me.

“I just think that just going out every day and just having fun. I still love the game. I still have fun on a day to day grind. So I think that’s really what it is, just to see how far I can go (and) personally to continue to push myself to play at a high level. I feel like that above anything is the motivating factor for me.”