Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast. The come On, Let's Sweat babebe addition, as Dave Laplam joins me to review the first week of the training camp, grind and react to some of the most interesting comments from players and coaches, plus my five Questions with the Rookies. Series continues as we get
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dot Com. Now let's get to football. I'll be discussing training camp with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham on a regular basis, but rather than simply sharing our observations, I thought it might be fun to add some of the most interesting things we've heard coming out of the locker room. All right, lap, We're going to do something a little
bit different. As we discussed the first several days of training camp, I've compiled some of my favorite comments from players and coaches that we are going to drop in as we discuss some of the big stories so far. So let's start with the biggest story of all, and that is Joe Burrow as he returns from risk surgery. They gave him day three off, but they certainly haven't babied him On the first couple of days, he threw to all levels of the field. His passes had zip.
I think everybody agreed that he looked pretty darn good. Here are t Higgins and andre Yosi Vash describing Joe's throws.
He threw me a ball so deep today. I was like, man, man, he looked good. Man, he looked good and excited for him. He looks like, you know, did Joe?
We went, Joe. They'll see in the Super Bowl.
Run is a burrow overthrow a good thing at this point, just seeing him married out like that.
Yeah, Yeah, that's what I like.
Man.
I was, I had to get my legs back. Man, I'm gonna put that one on me. He put it out there where I can go get it, and I just sure I couldn't get there.
But man, it's nice to see. Every ball was very catchable. He was launching that thing down the field.
You've seen it a couple of times, so I think that you know that that period after Ota is really just chilled and rehabbed, and he came back fiery for sure.
All right.
Lap Joe says his passes are basically going where he wants them to. Sometimes they don't spin quite the way he wants them to, at least not yet, but overall he's very happy. How would you describe the Joe Burrow that you've watched so far?
I describe him as the ball's come out coming out of his hand exceptionally well, and it's coming out accurately. I do agree with him. I think he's putting the ball exactly where he wants to. I think he's putting the ball uh there with power and velocity. I do think the workouts that he that he had where he's put on ten or fifteen pounds of muscle, has definitely shown in not only his physical stature and maybe ability to absorb kind intact and all that sort of thing,
but in a strowing arm. I think I think he's just he's stronger, and I think he's I think he's ready for a big season. I do agree with Tea. I mean, I think his deep ball is deeper and and he's he's added some added some length to that deep ball for sure. And I do agree with t that wide receivers now are getting their football legs back because he can run sprints all day, but getting in and out of cuts and doing football things are are a little bit different, and tracking deep balls, you know,
takes a little bit of time as well. It doesn't just happen overnight. But I'm I'm encouraged by what I see with Joe and his receivers. And I mean Jamar hasn't even hit the field yet, and Tea has been you know, on and off the football field, and then Joe himself has been off the football field. So it's a small sample size. There's miles to go before everybody rests, but the initial stages of the journey looked pretty good.
While most of the world is focused on Burrow for obvious reasons, I know you paid a lot of attention to first round draft pick of Marius Mims. He's wearing the number seventy one. He told me he chose it because that was Willie Anderson's number when he played for the Bengals, the most dominant right tackle in team history. Here's Big Willie on what he saw the first time he watched a Marius Mims.
The tall, big guy with great feet, basketball player, feats strong ass hands. I mean he put his hands on you can either stop or you go backwards, which is always a good thing. At tackle. But the most impressive thing I like about him is his athletic ability to be that big. You can see his legs, its athletic legs. It's impressive to watch.
Here's my take on a Marius Mims. He was the eighteenth pick in the draft. Six quarterbacks went in the top twelve. There were eight offensive tackles taken in the first round. In a normal year, Marius Mims looks like a top ten, maybe even top five pick. To me, do you agree totally?
I mean, his size and movement skills are almost beyond words. Can't find right words to describe it. It is ra It is so unique. I mean, his his skill set is off the charts. He has he has traits that could lead to greatness for a number of years. I mean this, this guy is so special physically, it's remarkable. And we've talked about this many times before. In any athletic endeavor, it starts with your feet and ends with your hands. And like Willie says, he's he's got like
dancers feet. He called it basketball feet. I mean he is he is so light on his feet, but not light to the point where he can't get that foot in the ground and anchor on you right now, he's just gifted. And then when he when he that's that's to start the process. And then to finish it. You have to have strong hands, and he will finish you with those big old myths. Man. When he clamps on you, you're done. It's it's like he's got you. He's you're as prisoner. Man.
You see things when you watch offensive line drills that I would never possibly see. Is there anything in particular with him that you just say wow? That is on you?
Yeah.
For a guy his size Dan, you know, six eight plus or whatever, for him to be able to bend correctly, you know, bended his knees, not bended his waist to get that body down and get the pad level down is pretty spectacular, you know. And yeah, and has change the direction again. He did get Sam beat him inside. And it's not like, you know, every single time he's not going to get beaten inside.
It will happen.
But boy, can he change direction and get inside as well as just about anybody. And and the other thing about him, those are all the physical things. The other thing about him, he's a sponge man. He's he's right on with his eyes are locked in on his coaches. He's asking questions to the veterans, And when I asked
the veterans, what kind of questions? Really good questions? Man, It's obvious that he's been studying and he's asking, you know, advanced questions, advanced plays, some questions, not you know, questions like what that's a dumb ass question, you know, not that type of thing.
So he's getting rapped with the first team at tackle because Trent Brown is on the non football injury list. He's been working out on the reheab field every day. What's your concern level there, if there's any concern at all.
I don't. I don't think there's a huge amount of concern missing. What he's missing isn't isn't pivotal. He's going into his tenth year. He's the only guy in the roster, by the way, that is going into his tenth year. Everybody else is a single digit player on this football team. Is a young football team that's got a lot of talent. Duke Tobin and his folks are put together another very very good roster. There's no question, but he knows what he needs to do. It's early and I don't have
any huge concern right now. Worst case scenario for him, he's an insurance policy. I mean, if Mims comes on and plays really well and they decide to start him the last tackle to start his first game as rookie, as the legendary Anthony Munoz. If Mims is that good and he can start at the tackle position in the NFL his first, you know, regular season game as a rookie, you got a heck of an insurance policy there. And you know, and Trent Brown can still play at a
high level. So I think they're in a pretty good, pretty good situation. They're at that right tackle position.
After the third practice of camp, I tweeted out that my most impressive players so far, admittedly in a tiny sample size, has been wide receiver Andre Yosi Vash. He's been spending a lot of time in the slot. He's been making catches all over the field. Here's Jake Browning comparing Yosi Vosh's year two jump to t Higgins.
I see a guy that's going to do a second year, and it's a really hard worker. And so I wasn't here for Tea's first year or second, But I don't know, a lot of people have said like his whatever development from year one to year two is really big, and so you know, I wasn't here for that, but I would say it's something that where you have a guy that played in IVY League kind of gets thrown in there good amount, probably more than you would have anticipated.
Plays well as battling, but then he gets a whole offseason to go train like a pro, and you know, he's not worrying about his forty time, he's worrying about releases, not worrying about a shuttle, He's worrying about receiver training. Look, and so you know it is it's just day three, but he has had a very good camp up till now, and I'm excited to see what he can do.
Tyler Boyd has gone, Jamar Chase hasn't practiced yet. What have been your impressions of Yosi Vash and the other receivers that have been out there.
I think very impressive. Yosi Vash to me, like you know, Jake's talking about from year one to year two, particularly going from the IVY League competition to the National Football League, that had to be like WHOA. That had to be a big adjustment, even for a guy as smart as Yosi and he he is extremely intelligent, not just raw intelligence Princeton, but I mean he's got very good football
like you as well. And two guys that I thought have really done a really big time job in the off season improving their route running, Chase Brown and Yosi, and I think it's showing. And I think he sees things faster. He's running very very good routes. He's always been an incredible athlete. He's got six for three inch height, long arms, he can high point a ball contested catch, he can separate, he can run after catch. I mean,
there's really not much that he can't do. So I think that as a as a football player, year one to year two, you look to make big gains. I mean that's when, man, I didn't know what I didn't know last year. Look at it in the offseason, when you're looking at a tape, when you're thinking back on things, you're like, oh my gosh, man, what was I doing? What was I thinking?
Oh?
I really didn't know what to think. And now you come back in year two, you have all those experiences under your belt and you go through another off season where you're not training to get drafted and all that sort of thing. It's a much different offseason, the pace of it, everything. You can just settle into your work routine and he worked. Chase Brown worked a lot of these first year guys going into the second year worked man. And it's it's shown your.
Mention if Chase Brown is the perfect segue because he and andre Jo Sivas trained with the same well known wide receivers coach in the offseason. Chase Brown is obviously a running back. Here's Chase on the benefits of that training.
Went all in on, you know, trying to be the best version of myself as far as receiving.
The ball and protection.
And you know, I really want to upgrade in that aspect of my game, especially if I want to take a step forward in this offense in this league. So that's where I focus on this entire offseason, dedicated.
Countless hours to it, and you know, I'm just looking forward to putting in on.
Chase averaged four yards per carry as a rookie, more than eleven yards per catch as a rookie. Where do you see that improvement after his work with the wide receivers coach.
Yeah, I mean his his route running ability is much improved. Markedly improved. You know, he's always been a burner. I mean he can just he can outrun anybody, but changing speeds, you know, accelerating, decelerating at the proper time, seeing your hipskin and then out of cuts, getting separation. And he's always been a decent catch of the football. I don't think people really knew or expected that. But I like
the other thing he talked about, let's pick up. I mean, he's five to eleven, well over a two hundred pounds. He can. He's a stout guy.
He can.
It's it's you can't have a situation where every time he's on the football field. Oh, they're never gonna ask him to pick up blitzes. You know, that's that's not part of his game. All he's going to do is get out of the backfield and run routes. You might as well just line him up on the slot at that point, you know. So I think I think he has the proper mindset to attack everything and improve on
your strengths and make your weakness's strengths. That's what you try to do as a professional athlete, and I think he's really done a pretty good job of it. His first off season.
Let's turn to defense and another member of last year's draft class, DJ Turner. He had three pass breakups on Friday. I heard some of his teammates calling him mister PBu. Now that's not necessarily a compliment, because they'd like to see him intercept some of those passes and not just break them up. But in any case, here's Mike Hilton on the improvement that he sees in DJ Turner a.
Year two jumping that people expect it, you know, year one being a rookie houstone to substituations. Obviously, Chido comes back from his injury and him pretty much starting his whole rookie year and it's took but he that was great experience of for him and now he's going to year two with a lot more confidence and belief in itself. So we expect him to be on our top guys.
As we do this interview, Cam Taylor Britt hasn't practiced yet after having his tonsils taken out. DJ Turner has made a bunch of plays he has.
I mean he's taken advantage of advantage of his opportunities, and I mean when when a guy is out for an extended period and he's like the number one corner. And that's what Cam Taylor brid is going into this training camp. When you're number one guy is out, everybody else ratchets up. I mean, it's next man up. So now, not only additional reps come additional reps against a higher
caliber player, also comes from a matchup standpoint. So when you get that opportunity, you want to capitalize, you want to make good on it. And he is I mean, he's he can, he can put his foot in the ground, change direction. I mean, he's a burner. I mean, he's one of the fastest guys in the league probably, but he can also you know, change direction. That that's that's that's a rare combination. And you know, it's interesting you
look at contested catches. Well, every time there's a contested catch, that means the defender covered him pretty damn well. There's no separation. So in the contested catch situation, what's happening is the receiver high point making a play on ball. Now, now, now you got to work on something to get the ball off of them. Are you getting you're sure of past breakups?
Which he is.
Okay, that's the next step. The final step is catch the bad boy yourself, you know. So he understands that and when when he's in those kinds of situations, he's come down with some of those some of those takeaways, some of those turnovers, Louis and Arrumo, all his defensive buddies will be carrying them off the field on their shoulders.
DJ is competing with Dax Hill for the starting outside corner spot on the opposite side of Cam Taylor Britt. Dax played slot corner at Michigan. He rarely played outside corner. Here's lou Ana Arumo on why they are trying him in that spot.
Well, I think he's got traits that some of the best that have ever done it have. And then when I say that, I mean length, speed, athleticism. You know, if you're gonna draw up an outside corner he had. He hits all the check marks on the on the dimensions. Now going to do it playing and play out as you know, as you said, he played slot corner in at Michigan. But you know, I'm really anxious to see
him do it, and he's embraced it. He's a great, great guy and wants to do well, and so we're excited to see him, It's gonna be fun.
There's a pretty strong words from lou Ana Romo. I think Dax can always move inside. Maybe he will eventually replace Mike Hilton as the slot corner, hopefully somewhere down the road, quite a bit down the road, because Mike's got a lot of good football left in him. But if Dax Hill proves to be good on the outside, that is such a valuable spot that it would be an enormous positive for the team. That's why they're playing him outside.
Right absolutely and DJ Turner one year difference at Michigan. I mean, there were teammates in that back end at Michigan. So when you're playing with a guy that you played with in your collegiate career, there's just a the familiarity aspect of that is something that shouldn't be discounted. I mean that that's a that's a scenario I think that people take for granted or don't even really think about. But it just gives your comfort level and your surroundings
kind of thing. But he has all the traits. I mean, he can flip his hips. That's what I was wondering about. I wanted to see him, you know, on a deep ball, backpedal, flip his hips and rum guy man smooth, very smooth transition. I think he's making now, you know. Will there be roadblocks? Yeah, I mean everybody, everybody has problems. Everybody, you know, nobody's
perfect doing anything in this game of football. The key is when something does go wrong, the guys that have successful long period of time can compartmentalize it, learn from it, get over it, and move on. And and at that position, at the cornerback position, like they say, one trait you have to have is amnesia. I mean, if you do get beaten badly, you can't harbor it. You can't you know,
dwell on it. You can't wallow in it, because then one bad play will turn into two, R three or four and at that point it's over.
Defensive line is one of the key positions we're all watching. They signed Sheldon Rankins, They drafted Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jackson in the second and third rounds. But the guy who's caught my eye and the early portion of camp has been Sam Hubbard. He had ankle surgery just days after the season ended. He looks reinvigorated. He would have had a sack of Joe Burrow the other day. If you're allowed to hit the quarterback. Here's Sam and being healthy.
I'm feeling great, you know.
I just being an athlete again, moving how I want to move, running at top speed and cutting. You know, Joe got out of the pocket and I was chasing them, you know, making cuts and tracking his hip like I couldn't in the past. And it just feels good. You know, you never know how it's gonna feel until you get out there doing football full speed again. And with two of days under my belt, I'm really feeling great, getting confidence and you know, looking good on film, which is excited.
But I want to have the best year of my career this year, so I'm just getting started.
Was it hard to watch film when you worked yourself trying to gut it out last year?
Yeah, no doubt. I don't want to watch that. You can't protect yourself. So I was just getting thrown around out there. But you know, when you're on one leg, you do what you can, and I think I fought pretty well. But I want to play at a high level at all times, and that's what I'm going to get back to.
Sam says his goal is ten plus sacks. Can you see it?
Yes, I can, I can see it. I have the utmost amount of respect for Sam Harvard because what he did last year is so hard, not just physically and during the pain mentally saying I suck and I can't do anything, you know, But I know I want to do this because I want to help my football team. I'm an unselfish guy, and if there's anything I can do, if I'm out there on one leg or out there on a half a leg or whatever it is, I'm going to go out there and do it for my
football team. I can't tell you how much respect I have for Sam Hubbard doing that, because there's a lot of people out there that don't know what Sam Hubard was going through an experience and that were probably ripping his tail, you know. I mean, you put yourself in situations like that, you know, when you decide to do what Sam did. But Sam's like, you know what, so be it. I'm going to go out there and play for my teammates. And I thought he played at a
very good level. I mean, Sam's obviously got a tremendous amount of personal pride. He is very very hard on himself. I didn't see him getting thrown around. I mean, you know, I mean everybody is every once in a while, it happens to everybody. But for him to play like that was extraordinary. Now he's back physically, and you know I would have six and a half sacks on one leg I think something like that last year. Yeah, I can see him getting ten on two healthy legs. And that
deal with Joe Burrow. I remember, we used to do this drill called Mirrow dodge. You know, it was a shadow drill between cones like maybe eight yards and we do it against defensive line and they try to like, you know, fake us out. You know, it's almost like you're playing tag in a very short space. And that was a tough drill to do against these edge rushers when I was playing. You know, they're quick and smaller
and all that. He's doing it against a quarterback that's a hell of an athlete, and he's mirroring every move Like wow, I mean that is an athlete, an incredible athlete. I mean this guy we know lacrosse, defensive back, linebacker, defensive line and his career at Moler. I mean, he is an athlete and what he is more than anything. He is a tough, minded, competitive team football player. Love Sam Harbard.
I mentioned Rankins, Jenkins, and Jackson. Joseph Osai is another player that we are all focused on this camp. What have you seen so far out of Joseph Osai?
Yeah, I think Joseph Osai has taken advantage of the opportunity with the h Boys out a little bit. You know, Sam had had a veteran day, and Trey's missed a couple of days due to getting nicked up a little bit. And you know, I think Osai has done a nice job taken advantage of additional snaps that have been presented to him, you know, at the edge position. I think Joseph Si and Keem Davis gather have said, you know what,
got a chance here? You know, guys are down. You don't, you don't want it, you don't, you don't look for it. Is it a veteran day, is it an injury, is it con selectomy, you know, whatever the heck it is. But when those when those snaps present themselves, you want to capitalize. You want to take advantage of the opportunities.
And that's what these guys are doing. And again, you know there are number of snaps ratchet up and the people that are going against become even more favor or a matchup that if I do well against this guy, I'm really gonna get noticed by the coaching staff. I mean, it's all about gaining the trust of your teammates, your coaches if you're going to make this football team. And then, like we talked about Dan, you know there's thirty one
other teams got tape, and there's other leagues. You know, I'm not saying a guy like Joseph I have to worry about playing and you know, not an NFL team, but you want to maximize those reps when they present themselves. He's doing it.
We are going to hear one more SoundBite. I've been watching Mike Asiki pretty closely. He's made some nice catches so far in camp. So I asked Jake Browning about him, but I didn't get the answer I was expecting. Here's Jake.
Between him and Tanner, I think we got two of the better, you know, receiving tight ends in the NFL. I think Mike's obviously a name everybody knows, but I think Tanner, you know, every time, he's kind of one of those other guys that kind of bounces around early in his career, kind of fighting to make a team. But then all of a sudden, he plays and it's like, you know, I had all the confidence in the world on to him because it's just like, I don't know
what's going to happen. By no Tanner is going to be open, and so that makes it feel a goad. And he's I think he played a little quarterback at some point, So he's really a really good body language and I always feel like I'm on the same page with him, even if I haven't had a ton of reps with him, because he's just you know, he tells you what he's doing with his hands and little things like that that are really friendly for a quarterback.
I asked about Mike Kasicki. Jake made a point of praising Tanner Hudson. Are we sleeping on Tanner Hudson too much?
Man? You're talking Tanner Hudson six ' five, Kasicki sixty six and run very good routes. I mean they're they're exceptional with their rout running ability and contested catch and you know, they can high point a football. They get a big catch radius and with those body types, and they're very intelligent in terms of their route running. They're always where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there, and they're a quarterback's best friend. And we've
talked about it before. Guys like this, you can put them out in the football field at the end of the line of scrimmage and present a too tight information and motion them out, put them in the slot, and you can go from twelve personnel to ten personnel without a substitution, and that puts an immense amount of pressure on a defensive football team. You're going to create a mismatch there somewhere, and I think that the thing that Jake talked about. Yeah, I don't know exactly what's gonna unfold,
but Tanner Hudson is always open. I think they feel that way about Gasticky as well. But both of these guys understand defense, understand leverage, understand coverages. They've got themselves a couple of really good receiving tight ends there that have versatility to do other things.
A couple more topics before we wrap this up. The Bengals drafted Brad Robbins last year. He had an inconsistent rookie year obviously, so they signed undrafted free agent Austin McNamara to compete with him at training camp. This Friday, they added an undrafted punter, Ryan Rico out of BYU, who had originally signed with Kansas City before they let him go. What do you make of having three punters in camp at this stage?
I think that Darren Simmons, you know, I said. I asked him about that. I said, boy, you brought a third into the mix. He goes, I've always liked three someome three ways. Whatever you want to however you want to tournament, he said, I love that number three. I think it's just okay, competition's on. You know, It's like, don't don't take anything for granted. You know, I think I'm not saying mind games or anything like that. I think they're looking for the best answer.
You know.
I don't think that that Darren wants to go through another season like he went through last year, and I don't think anybody does. The player does either, so and I got to give a lot of credit to him as well. I mean, you talk about guys that you know, worked worked their body a little bit. I mean Brad Robbins is a good ten to fifteen pounds, bigger and stronger himself. I mean he and a lot of that is is like strength. I mean he's he's driving the
ball a lot, a lot better. I just think that that Darren Simmons is going to leave no stone unturned in terms of making sure that that aspect of the kicking game is in the best order it possibly can be. When training campaigns.
Final thing you had Ted Karras on You're in the Trenches podcast recently sponsored by First Star Logistics, he is making no secret of the fact that this team needs to get off to a better start. Sometimes guys, yeah, they won't address it directly. He's not having any of that. He says, hey, we cannot fall behind again after being going to each of the last two years. Do you see any difference at camp? Is there a different sense
of urgency? Is there anything about the way that they are attacking training camp that strikes you as all right, they're doing that in order to get off to a better start.
I mean, I see competition, you know, definitely, but it's so early yet. When pads come on, that'll be a good indicator to me, particularly with the guys in the trenches.
You know.
But I thought last year, Dan, I thought they really worked hard against each other. I really did. They just you know, it just didn't work out. But I do think there's nothing wrong, you know, the elephants in the room. I mean, why try to hide them? You know. It's like any of you young guys that didn't experience this last year, I'm going to tell you about it, and guys that we went through it and ain't happening again. Boys, you know, I mean, it's like that has to be,
has to be. One of the early goals is to get off to a good start, and as we know, three out of the first four games in their schedule. Most pundits would say they could be three and one, they were all winnable, they could even go four and
all whatever. But they they getting off to a winning start and not having a crawl out of a losing record, particularly in the division, and being only two to one and two in the division, you know, I mean they only have three division games in their first eleven games, then they got three in the final six games. So you don't want you don't want to in those eleven games.
You don't want to be one and two in your division, that's for sure, and have to you know, really in the last six games of the season almost run the table in your division. That would even put more pressure on you. So there is a sense of urgency. I think, who let's let's not make it tough on ourselves. Let's get off to a better start.
Great stuff, as always, appreciate your time. Let's go watch practice number four.
Let's do it. Dan, you're the man.
As you may have read or heard in the Bengals practice on Sunday night, Sam Hubbard injured his knee and left the field on a cart after a collision with tight end Mike Kasiki. Thankfully, it does not appear to be serious. According to ESPN's Dan Graziano, who was in attendance, Hubbard had an MRI later that night. The test results
were good and Sam should be okay. Before we get to our next guest, we remind you that the Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by pay Corps, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by kettering health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health
is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. I've been getting to know the Bengals draft picks this year by asking them five questions that are a little bit different from the norm. We've been going in order, starting with the Marius Mims, and we've reached draft pick number eight, the second of the bengals two six round selections. Time for five questions with rookie defensive end Cedric Johnson out of all miss question number one, I read that your
dad is a former marine. We think of military parents as being disciplinarians. Was that the case for you? You and how did it impact your childhood?
Nah? Not too crazy, actually, my dad, I mean he was he instilled in us like discipline and like having having odd things together, as you expect from a military guy. But it was the my mom was really the disciplinarian, like she was the one keeping everything in order to keep things straight, giving us a whooping here and there, you know. But it was it was really it was really more so on my mom.
Did your dad use the military clock? Was, you know two o'clock fourteen hundred?
No? No, no, no, no, he didn't he didn't do us like that. He kept it simple for us. He kept it simple for us, all right.
Question number two for Cedric Johnson. He went to Ole Miss, where the speed limit on campus is eighteen miles an hour because that was Archie Manning's uniform number back in the day. Did you know that when you saw that eighteen mile an hour sign the first time?
Absolutely not, But I quickly learned being on campus there, they they teach that kind of thing pretty quickly, and especially we used to have a it used to be an old trophy room in there where it was like all the different guys that graduated from Old Miss, Argie man and Eli like that. It was a whole room just dedicated to those guys. So, like you learned pretty quickly.
I gotta say, as far as college traditions go, the eighteen mile an hour speed limits pretty cool.
Yeah, Nah, that's pretty tough. You got just set speed limits straight for you. Like, that's pretty exclusive, all right.
Question number three for Cedric Johnson. Every year a college football writer named Bruce Feldman comes out with his Freaks list of the top one hundred athletic freaks in college football. You made the list a couple of years ago. How big of an honor is it among college football players to be on the Freaks List?
Pretty big, I feel, I mean just being able to be pointed out like that, just among all the different college athletes. You know, there's plenty of guys that are putting in work, working on or to become as stronger, become as fast as they can, and just to get their recognition and mit the lot.
Do you know that some of your current teammates are former Freaks List guys?
Oh?
Really, I can. I mean, I'm that's not surprising. I just not surpris him at all. I can imagine you need two names? Yes, name dropped me one.
Chris Jenkins, that makes sense, Yosei Vosh was on there. Jeffrey Gunter was on it a few years again.
Okay, then I ain't know jeff was on there. Pretty good. I'm gonna ask him about that one. All right.
I just gave you some topics of conversation with teammates. Sorry. Question number four. Your older brother, Cephas is in the NFL. He was a quarterback in college. He's now a wide receiver with a Tampa Bay Box. What advice has he given you about your first NFL training camp.
Uh, you know, just just buying in everything, just taking in the moment. Really this moment. We've been working in, working for all our lives. So he's just really telling me to take in a moment, enjoy everything. He's just been trying to give me as much advice as he can. But I know, for the lungs, he's just always been telling me, like he said, you your situation gonna be different. Bro,
You're gonna get drafted. You're gonna get drafted, and I don't know, I don't know how your situation won't go. But he he's just always telling me to like buy in on all phases of the game. Special teams, just make sure I get in, get in good with all the players, coaches, just create good relationships like that.
How proud are you of him for making this transition from college quarterback NFL wide receiver.
Very very proud. But it's nothing I didn't know he could do already. He used to play. He used to play receiver way back when in Pee Wee DA's, so I knew, I knew he still had it in him and he just an athlete at the end of the day. He always had the ability it was no surprise.
At all to me.
All right, Fifth and final question for Cedric Johnson. Tell me something about you that not many people know.
Oh my goodness, not many people know. I'm just a pretty chill guy. Honestly, I just try and stay out the way. I'm just trying to add as much value as i can to the team. And I'm going home hopping on a game. She'll literally standing out the way. I don't do too much go out or nothing like that. I'm just trying to benefit the team as much as i can.
So hunting quarterbacks on the field. Yes, a calm, cool, collected, chill guy off it.
Yes, literally simply put it. I like that. I like that.
Happy to help. You're off the hot seat. Appreciate the time, best of luck.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
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