The Making Of Bengals Championship Leaders In Offseason Practices and OTAs

CINCINNATI – Leadership in the NFL isn’t defined by the number of veteran players on a roster. And as the Bengals know by now, leadership isn’t the loudest voice in the room.

Leadership in the NFL is a quality that reveals itself through deeds and dedication, and the determination to set a standard for others to follow. Leadership has less to do with age and experience and more to do with commitment to and belief in a process.

While Zac Taylor has often credited players like Mike Hilton, Trey Hendrickson, Vonn Bell, Riley Reiff and Quinton Spain for coming in and providing an clear example of what veterans from other successful programs do to succeed at the NFL level, he’s made it more and more clear that he’s interested in drafting players who can come in and make an impact right away.

“Do they like ball? Do they like everything about it?” Taylor has repeated over and over again in his own midwestern style.

This more than anything else has come to define the success of Taylor’s teaching in the last 10 months, where his growth and comfort as an NFL head coach have improved at a supersonic rate.

He’s surrounded himself with a staff that has fully empowered younger players. Coaches and coordinators like Darrin Simmons, Lou Anarumo, Marion Hobby, Brian Callahan, Frank Pollack and Troy Walters have delivered the message to every player entering the system that they shouldn’t expect to just be wallflowers when they enter the meeting rooms.

And now, Taylor and director of player personnel Duke Tobin have undertaken the mission of seeding the organization with young leaders through the draft.

Think about what’s been added since 2018. In addition to Burrow, the Bengals have cultivated homegrown players like Sam Hubbard, Logan Wilson, Jessie Bates, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.

This started, in earnest, with the franchise quarterback. As soon as he was selected first overall in 2020, Joe Burrow took ownership of everything on offense. Now, all good quarterbacks do this to a certain extent. But Burrow didn’t just pick everything up, he delivered the message of expectation and performance at his own level.

And with players like Tyler Boyd, Joe Mixon and C.J. Uzomah fully embracing his new attitude, the transformation began. Boyd and Mixon have been essential to Burrow’s success in this regard.

Uzomah’s gone but now Chase and Higgins are mixed in with a remade offensive line filled with Super Bowl-winning vets in Ted Karras and Alex Cappa and a stud right tackle in La’el Collins and a highly skilled tight end in Hayden Hurst. Culture is the most overused word to characterize successful teams in sports, overused for a reason because it’s true.

This is what the Bengals have skillfully and quietly created in the Taylor/Tobin era.

There’s a reason NFL teams look for captains or high-profile college players who handled success well. Players like these can usually come in and have an immediate impact. The Bengals believe they have several of those from the 2022 Draft.

Dax Hill, Tycen Anderson and Cam Taylor-Britt have been added to the secondary and could all make an impact this season, both with their play and – believe it or not – their leadership.

“It can happen in different ways,” Taylor told me. “It can happen through the confidence they have in themselves because they’ve studied, and they are up to speed. They know they’re confident in what they’re being asked to do. And so that confidence can shine through to other players where at that moment that young player does say something everybody else is going to trust him and believe in him because they’ve seen the work they put in and so leadership comes from a lot of different forms.”

How does Taylor see successful leadership?

“It’s not all just vocal encouragement and talking out loud,” Taylor said. “A lot of times it’s your actions. I’ve been a lot around with a lot of great veteran leaders that maybe don’t say a lot but all the other guys put their eyes on them all the time to see how they conduct themselves in meetings and weight room and on the field. And when they’re doing everything right, the moment that they do speak, speaks volumes, you know, sometimes more than just the constant chatter.

“So, I think that we have a lot of young players that are very capable of that, that I’ve seen a lot of confidence in themselves. I’ll give you one example: Tycen Anderson. In a special teams meeting one of the first couple days was put in position where he was extremely confident with what he was saying and was right. Darrin likes to put a lot of pressure on those guys and ‘are you confident or are you second guessing yourself?’ And he stood out that way. It’s one example. But I think there’s been several examples from a lot of young players standing out that way.”

Taylor has been asked often what’s his message to his team following the run to Super Bowl LVI. A coach’s job, especially in times where culture is being created like offseason practices and OTAs, is to make sure he sends a message that will connect with players. Some of it is typical coach-speak but a lot of it is determining how committed his players are to carrying out the mission.

“Just to not take things for granted (and) just because we had a successful 2021, that everything’s going to carry over and so you don’t have to spend time talking on things that you spend time talking the last three years and last year specifically,” Taylor said Tuesday. “And so from a coaching side, that’s starting over and making sure we’re re-teaching everything. There might be a term that we used over and over with Ja’Marr or another young player that we take for granted that they knew and maybe was we never properly explained it and now they get to hear it Day 1, taught again.

“Like, ‘Oh, that’s what that is. I heard that a thousand times last year and now that’s why we use that code word. So, there’s a lot of things I think we’re dealing with players that pops up. Even the veterans — ‘Man, I didn’t realize we used that word over and over and this is going to help me understand it better next time because now I understand the genesis of where it comes from.’ Those are the types of things we really focus on in the spring.”

Joe Burrow has already made it clear that he is going to be more demanding of himself and his offensive teammates not to make the mistakes that caused them to sputter early in the season and early in games in 2021. Some might consider this urgency. Others might think it’s just raising the bar.

“Hard for me to say,” Taylor said. “Last offseason was so different because we really didn’t get the full deal that we’re getting even more so this year. We’ve had more meeting time before we hit the field.

“You do feel a team that’s very confident in what we’re asking them to do, and that’s key. Also trying to keep it fresh it with them to where they’re learning new stuff and challenging. But I’m not there yet with focusing on how we’re going to start the season. Joe obviously has his standards that he wants to follow. I do think in general, starting the season fast, starting games fast, is critical for us. It will be a big part of how we communicate moving forward.”

OTA TAKEAWAYS:

• Tyler Shelvin Nursing Left Wrist Injury.

Taylor confirmed a procedure on the second-year nose tackle’s left wrist that will keep him out of practices for the remainder of OTAs. Taylor doesn’t consider too serious and the hope is he’ll be back on the field for training camp at the end of July.

• Talk, Talk, Talk

Communication has been the biggest point of emphasis for the Bengals in the offseason practices that continued with OTAs this week.

“I thought (the) tempo was good,” Taylor said. “(Monday) there was a lot of excitement. Some of the things we do we put a lot of emphasis on our walkthroughs vs. offense vs. defense 11-on-11 as you guys saw at the beginning of practice. Just stressing that it’s a lot of above the neck work, it’s communication, it’s urgency, and I think our guys are getting better at that every single day. You really see it from the vets, the guys that have spent a lot of time in this league operating at a high level right out of the gate, which is really encouraging to see. It’s good for those young players to see too what it is supposed to look like so they’ll be up to speed sooner rather than later.”

• Dax Hill Makes An Good Impression

The rookie out of Michigan has been heralded as a defensive back who could play all over the secondary, and the offseason practices have done nothing to diminish that optimism.

“I’ve been really impressed with him,” Taylor said. “I think the part that’s maybe the most impressive is I always see him having these sidebar conversations with some of those veterans whether it be Vonn (Bell) or Mike (Hilton) or Chido (Awuzie) or some of those guys. It’s after a rep, it’s after drill whether it’s him asking questions or whether them helping him get up to speed that’s what you want to see from the rookies is not feel like there’s that wall between them and the vets communication wise, not to be intimidated.

“That just speaks to the character of the veterans that we have on the team and that defense specifically – they want to help these young guys and bring them along as fast as possible. We know that we need everybody to help us, and I’ve just been really encouraged about that part just from the veterans helping these young guys get up to speed quickly.”

• Free or Strong?

Hill could wind up playing a number of roles as a hybrid safety, so defining strong or free at this point could be premature but something the Bengals are evaluating.

“Maybe technique-wise they get to spend the time doing all the stuff, but they’re in those meetings, they hear it all,” Taylor said. “They’re forced to make those communications. A lot of times at safety you get put in those spots that the linebackers play, and the nickels play. They get that work one way or another. It may not be the position they’re labeled at, but they get that work just the way that we utilize those guys.

“There’s a lot of crossover. I think the bottom line they do a lot of lot of the same jobs. There are differences, but for the most part those guys at some point have to do very similar things as one another.”

• Striving for Perfection:

Nothing’s ever perfect but the idea in practice and meetings is to come as close as possible so that good habits are formed, something Taylor has noticed.

“They want to be perfect,” Taylor said. “These guys have a very high standard for themselves and it’s upsetting when something doesn’t quite go their way, and that’s what you want to see as a coach, that frustration and the fuel to get it right on the next rep. That’s where we want to be right now. That’s the step we need to be taking, is strive for perfection on every play. And if it’s not that way, then it’s below the standard.

• For Kicks:

Evan McPherson was a perfect 3-for-3 at the end of practice Tuesday, connecting from 28, 32 and 35 yards with his regular crew of long snapper Clark Harris and holder Kevin Huber. McPherson missed wide right from 39 with long snapper Cal Adomitis and holder Drue Chrisman but connected from 42 and 45 to close out practice. This is a rotational pattern that is likely to continue through OTAs and into training camp.

• Jackson Carman Continues to Look Promising with First Team OL:

“He’s had really good urgency,” Taylor said. “I think he’s doing a good job of taking it in from some of the vets around him – Jonah and Ted. Again, it’s a little bit hard to evaluate the offensive linemen right now there’s no contact. On air, they’ve done a really good job of taking drill work and the meeting work to the field. Jackson’s been one of the guys who’s done a nice job with that.”

• Coach Ted Karras?

Taylor might someday be in a position to hire one of his players. He’s been impressed with center Ted Karras and his on-field leadership.
“Ted is going to be a coach someday,” Taylor said. “That’s what I see from him. He’s not only a really good football player who’s won a lot of championships and knows what it takes. But he maintains a very high standard for himself and others and that’s really exciting.”

• No predictions on Jessie Bates:

Taylor wasn’t about to make any predictions about Jessie Bates signing his franchise tag by the deadline of July 15.

“I’m not going to make any predictions with those guys,” Taylor said. “It’s all strictly voluntary right now. We laid out the offseason how we thought was best for this year. So, we are not having a mandatory minicamp. I think we are getting great work and have had tremendous participation from our guys. We will just keep getting our work and when the other guys join us, they will join us.

“We love Jessie. The business part is the business part. We have to continue to look forward and get our work done and I think the guys have handled that really well.”