CINCINNATI — As training camp debuts go, Wednesday was nothing out of the ordinary, and that’s not a bad thing for Joe Burrow and the Bengals.
After the last five years of managing various health issues with the franchise quarterback and contracts with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, they could use a business-like start to camp without any on-field complications.
Of course, there is the absence of Trey Hendrickson and Shemar Stewart over contract wrangling with Bengals management. But once the footballs were tossed on the field Wednesday, it was all about the football.
“I think that’s just in here,” Zac Taylor said of the focus on just football. “It’s a lot of conversation. It’s an easy topic to hit for you all (in the media). It’s newsworthy, certainly. The guys that have been in the locker room, they just want to go take care of business. It does not come up for us. I understand in these settings its going to come up. But for us, it doesn’t come up.”
As for the product on the field Wednesday, the offense worked on short-yardage and the short passing game and the timing was off. The defense, especially the corners, were flying around to the ball, which is a good sign, even if it’s just Day 1.
“Good to be back. Got a lot to work on, for sure, but it was good to be back,” Burrow said. Then Burrow was asked how he felt the day went from his perspective.
“Poorly,” he said.
Why?
“Usually how it goes for the first day we just, we got a lot to clean up, but that we got a lot of time,” Burrow explained. “Usually everybody’s on their own working you know, during OTAs we’re not really going against each other like that. So just, you know, offense is all about timing, rhythm, working together to become a cohesive unit, and so that’s not going to be the case on the first day.”
Zac Taylor changed the practice from afternoon to morning and the early, early reviews are positive.
“Very pro-morning practice,” Burrow said.
As for Taylor, he’s just happy camp is finally underway, with sights set now on Sept. 7 in Cleveland.
“Just the energy. The whole fans being at practice,” Taylor said. “There comes a point when I’m ready to get the fans out of there and just focus on our stuff. You don’t need to be reminded about why we do it. We do it to win the Super Bowl. First and foremost for ourselves because we put in a lot of work and we want to experience that. But when you get to see the fans face-to-face and see the joy a kid has when he’s at practice and he sees a player walk by, it’s an excellent reminder of all the things you’re really doing this for. You’re doing it for our community, you’re doing this for our fan base.
“You’re doing it for an organization that we believe in and we love in. The impact it has on the daily lives of everyone in this community. When the Bengals win or lose. We understand that. We believe in it and we are right there side by side with them. That’s the part of training camp I really do… you feel the energy from the fan base. Because once the season goes, we isolate ourselves pretty well. You feel it on game day, but during the week we’re in the building at practice or by ourselves. So training camp is a good time to really get face-to-face with the fans and feel their energy.”
Taylor said he’s not afraid to try out new things in camp if the opportunity arises and he senses it won’t disrupt other portions of installation.
“There’s no hesitation. It’s two-fold for us. You want to continue to do the things we think we’re excellent at and make people prove they can stop it. But at the same time, you have to evolve what you’re doing because we feel people are going to spend a lot of time studying us in the offseason to make sure they can hit the ground running if they play us early in the season,” Taylor said. “So, it’s on us to continue to do the things we have a lot of belief in that we think we do better than everybody else. But at the same time you have to be able to evolve the scheme to stay one step ahead and keep teams guessing a little bit so our players have the best chance to maximize their potential.”
Other highlights from Day 1:
* Burrow was sent scrambling several times on pass plays, including a safety blitz from Geno Stone “Geno does a good job of hiding it.”
* Chase Brown received plenty of targets in the short yardage game and even saw work on the second unit with Jake Browning.
* Cody Ford was the first team RG while Dylan Fairchild served as the first team LG.
* Demetrius Knight Jr. took first team reps at LB next to Logan Wilson
* Defensive ends were Myles Murphy and Joseph Ossai
* DJ Turner got first team reps at corner with Dax Hill ramping up
* Josh Newton got first team reps at slot corner.
* Zac Taylor spent time going over play sheets with new backup QB Desmond Ridder, who took third team reps and looked sharp with his passes on target.
