PLAYER OF THE DAY
S Jordan Battle
It turned out to be unlucky Day 13 for quarterback Joe Burrow's streak of practices in his torrid training camp without an interception against the defense in team drills.
"Insane. Insane," said Battle of The Streak after he finally got him on Tuesday for the first time in camp. "He's been putting the ball outside. Putting the ball on the back shoulder. He's making it hard for the corners to judge whether it's going back shoulder or over the top. He's working our corners very well. That's getting them better. That helps them in the game because they're seeing nothing like that in the game.
"That's what I said. When you get those opportunities, you've got to catch it. Got to catch it."
Battle caught it just inside the red zone in a Move-the-Ball Drill that Burrow has owned this camp. Not this one. Not when Battle read Burrow's eyes scanning the middle for wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley coming out the back side. These eyes took Battle there out of the box.
"First, I had a match, but that match was a little too low. The route was a little too low. I was too low," Battle said. " The linebackers can help lift it for us. Most of the time we just key off the quarterback. I read the route being too low. The ball was right there. You have to capitalize. You don't get a lot of them."
Not off Burrow in this training camp, that's for sure. Not until the 6-1, 215-pound Battle came up with the kind of play that shows why they value him and didn't pick off a safety in free agency or the draft.
"Things are starting to click for him," said safeties coach Jordan Kovacs. "He's doing a really good job. He's a guy that we're going to count on to be a leader. He knows all the positions on the back end. He helps guys. He's a great communicator.
"He's an all-around good player. He has the size. He's physical. He's tough. He's just getting better and better."
Kovacs has been here since Battle was drafted in the third round in 2023, after the Bengals were immediately sold on his football IQ during a memorable 18-minute interview at the NFL scouting combine. He had been in and out of the lineup with Vonn Bell in his first two seasons, and now that Bell's not here and new defensive coordinator Al Golden is, there's a new chapter.
"I think he flashed his rookie year. You knew he had some talent then," Kovacs said. "You want to talk about energy, enthusiasm. He loves being out there and he's fun to be around."
Not if you play offense. Battle's Miami swag has been on full display when the defense makes a play, and that has elicited responses from a diverse range of characters, starting with the salty wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase and diplomatic captain Orlando Brown Jr.
"Just being loud, being happy," Battle said. "Just trying to get guys to match our energy. You see Uno (Chase) talking more. OB getting loud. Making sure being competitive at a high level."
Battle, a coach's son, figured that Fred Battle, his brother Jaylen, and his mother Theresa, knew of his pick of Burrow in a matter of moments.
"It's probably already in the group chat," Jordan Battle said right after practice.
Fred Battle, a former overseas pro basketball player and long-time Miami-area high school basketball coach who coached Jordan for about eight years on the AAU basketball team he ran, isn't expected to get sentimental about it.
"He'll probably say, 'You need to get more,'" his son predicted.
Although Jordan says Fred can be more negative than positive, he wasn't when he spoke to Bengals.com a few weeks after the 2023 draft:
"If I had 15 Jordan Battles, I wouldn't lose a game because they do it just the way you want them to do it and when you told him to do it he would try to be the best he could be doing it. He's always had that."