Casey is known to splice together miles of video, loving the tedium of cutups rather than delegating it. So with All returning this season off his torn ACL and Casey their specialist on two-tight end sets, there could be some new loops.
Casey doesn't want to get into all that. He appreciates the fans' thirst, but he calls it "propriety information." But if you want to know the mindset he's bringing, go back to that rookie training camp in Houston during a fully-padded goal-line period where Casey thought he was killing it, going all-out, and finishing, and overall making a big impression.
Until the head man, Kubiak, approached and said, "James, I know you think you're playing hard and doing everything you can, but it's not good enough. You're going to have to do better to make this team."
Casey calls it the best advice he ever got, and he's tried to be that with his own players.
"I'm so appreciative of that. He could have just not said anything, right?" Casey says. "The next play, I'm playing more aggressive. I'm playing harder, finishing more. I'm being tougher. I'm being more physical, and because he told me that, that's the advice I try to always give people.
"Blocking is a mindset. It's a mentality. You have to have a certain attitude to finish, to be aggressive. Sometimes, you think you're playing hard, but you can play harder."
Since Taylor installed his offense in 2019, no team has fewer running attempts than the Bengals, and Casey doesn't look for the philosophy to change.
"We've got Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins. If we don't throw the ball, we're dumb coaches," Casey says. "But, obviously, you have to be able to run the ball. To close out games. The weather. The opponent. It's something we emphasize. And we have to do it better than last year because the record wasn't good enough."
And, clearly, Casey takes pride in it, and says their formidable ability to pass gives them some advantages in the run game.
"One benefit that we do have is Burrow is such a good quarterback that defenses respect that, and maybe give us some lighter boxes sometimes," Casey says. "When you see our run game on game day, it may not be under center with the fullback all the time like some other teams.
"Some of our run schemes may be a little bit different than some other teams in the league, because we're trying to capitalize on what the defense is seeing all the time, and take advantage of where we have the advantages."
A triple major at Rice after spending a few years on the mound as a White Sox draft pick toiling in the minors, Casey may have lived more than 41 years. But he's still learning about pretty much everything. The father of two teen-age boys, he's currently listening to Jonathan Haidt's _The Anxious Generation,_ a book discussing what has been called an epidemic of teen mental illness.
"I want to help my kids. I want to help my players," says Casey, the ultimate team player with another title.