Bengals Camp Football
Bengals Camp Football
For all the praise the Cincinnati Bengals defensive line has been getting this training camp, Jonathan Allen grades the unit’s performance so far as a “B.”
The Bengals’ new veteran defensive tackle said he likes what he’s seen but nothing has truly been accomplished yet.
Cincinnati will have a better idea what it really looks like — at least to an extent — Aug. 13 in the preseason opener against Detroit. The team held its first stadium practice in front of fans Friday, Aug. 7, to prepare for that first game. One month later, the real tests begin with the regular-season opener against Tampa Bay.
“I think we’ve done a lot of good things, a lot of things that we can improve on, but at the end of the day, we’re just stacking days,” Allen said. “None of this really matters until we do it in the game day. I’m not a big fan on the word potential because potential is just another word for someone who hasn’t done anything yet. So as a group, we haven’t done anything and it’s our job to go out there this year and prove it. So, we’re just taking it day by day and we’re just putting our head down and working.”
Allen, a first-round draft pick by Washington in 2017, signed a two-year deal with the Bengals as a free agent in March and was joined shortly after by Dexter Lawrence, acquired by trade from the Giants.
Both were important pieces to an overhaul of the defense, which also added defensive end Boye Mafe, safeties Bryan Cook and Kyle Dugger and cornerback Ja’Sir Taylor — the latter two to create competition and improve depth.
Coming to a team that had struggled so mightily on defense the past few years, Allen had to take a leap of faith in what the organization was building, but it’s been even better than he expected.
“I mean, I had no idea that we were going to sign Dexter Lawrence, but I love the pieces we had in place,” Allen said. “I think we had a lot of great young guys and I truly love this defensive coaching staff. And when you have a guy like Joe Burrow, it makes the decision pretty easy for me.”
The Bengals now go three-deep in the interior defensive line with two new starters pushing everyone back in the depth chart, including BJ Hill and TJ Slaton, and the edge rotation looks decent with rookie Cashius Howell flashing in camp.
Lawrence has been disruptive, and Allen especially has enjoyed playing next to him.
“It’s been awesome,” Allen said. “I think the biggest thing is we have a room full of unselfish guys who are genuinely working towards the same goal. And whenever you have that, it’s always going to be easy for guys to pick up the pace and kind of play well early on. So, D-line is one of those positions that already is kind of easier to get the gel flowing a little bit sooner than other positions. So it’s been going really well so far.”
Mafe, coming from Seattle’s Super Bowl team last year, described how the Bengals do things as “interesting” but said he likes the way they work. He called it “smart.”
Allen liked that description and added there is a serious approach from the players. It’s easy to see how driven everyone is to be successful, especially knowing how good the team could be if the defense just does its part like the offense already has shown it could with a lot of the same players over the years.
“Of course you always want to win, but guys are also going out there to prove themselves and establish themselves, and I feel like every year you have to do that,” Allen said. “But I’ve been in the league and Dex has been in the league. Hey, Boye just won a Super Bowl. We understand that opportunities don’t always come year in and year out. So, when you do have an opportunity to do something great, you got to take advantage of it.
“And I don’t think the season is the time to start focusing on that. I think everything you do from this point, up until what we want to get to, you got to make it the goal. So, I think you’ve seen a lot of seriousness and that’s good.”