Erick All Jr., the Bengals tight end with the steel-trap mindset and matching trap blocks of steel, is explaining how he kept it together last season with no football.
It's a short story. A Cincinnati Kids story.
"I'm not very social," All says. "The only people I hang out with are pretty much some of the guys I've known since kindergarten and family members."
He talks to those guys every day. Keonta Sowell. Darion Brown. Still best friends. Hangs with them on weekends. All three fathers coached them on the Little Blue Pee Wee team in Hamilton, from four years old to middle school. A few doors down from Paycor Stadium and 20 years away that now seem to be back on the doorstep.
"Houston gets after it," says All of his three-year-old son. "As soon as I get home, he wants to tackle me and play football.
It seems physicality runs in the family.
"With the word physical in the dictionary is a picture of Erick All," said Bengals head coach Zac Taylor this week after one of the OTAs. "Trying to put his face through somebody's soul."
Taylor's playbook found a soulmate in All's versatility for nine brief games during All's rookie year of 2024, before his right knee buckled with a torn ACL. The damage from a previous ACL tear the year before in his final college game was so severe that they needed a year to rebuild the new tear with strength and stability.
All worked 41% of the plays before he got hurt in 2024, hugely impactful snaps because his skill set allowed Taylor to break out his offense in new and different ways.
(This is why when, upon his return this week, Ja'Marr Chase saw All head out to the practice field, and he said almost to himself, "Good to have him back.")
In All's career-high 40 snaps, the Bengals bulled for 141yards rushing as they put up 34 points in Carolina. Ten days later he played 35 more in a Joe Burrow aerial show that posted 442 total yards. Taylor's ability to mix three-receiver sets with two tight ends featuring All's ferocious blocking and timely YAC had teams guessing run or pass, and now has the pundits wondering what might be in 2026.
A season he has so far willed into reality.
"He loves football. He kind of keeps himself going. He sleeps, breathes football. He loves working out. That's what he says when he wakes up. 'I want to go work out. I want to get bigger,' " Keonta Sowell says.
"I never saw him depressed (last year) or sad. 'I can't wait to be back. I can't wait to get back and hit somebody.' He's trying to make a statement this year."
The statement has no room for wondering what happens if the knee buckles again. His buddies don't ever remember him musing about being able to ever play again. The only thing on his mind is what body he's going to buckle.
"He'd say, 'I can't wait to get back out there and trap somebody," Darion Brown says. "He's mentally tough. He's a different breed."