Camping out at Paycor Stadium as it all begins Wednesday with a few random thoughts on what to think while watching:
Al Golden's hire as defensive coordinator is just so Mike Zimmerish.
It will be recalled that Zimmer was called on in 2008 to rescue a prolific Bengals offense that just saw Carson Palmer set the club record for passing yards, Chad Johnson set the club record for receiving yards, and T.J. Houshmandzadeh set the club record for catches. They finished 7-9 with the No. 27 defense.
Zimmer, already highly respected with top 5 runs in Dallas, made an immediate impact. With pretty much the same personnel, the Bengals leaped to 12th in NFL defense in '08 before going on a run of four top ten finishes in the next five years that included two division titles.
It's Golden's first turn as an NFL DC as he inherits a unit that was ranked 25th. He also comes in enormously respected, both around the league and the nation after working on both sides of the ball in the NFL before helping Notre Dame to last year's national title game.
Just take a look at where the Fighting Irish finished in key categories in the country last season: First in turnovers, second in scoring, second vs. the pass, fifth on third downs, eighth in red zone, ninth in overall yards.
Zimmer was 52 when he took over the Bengals defense and Golden just turned 56.
Two different guys and coaches. But the similarities are more than interesting.
OK, OK, nobody is looking at the edge rushers who are at camp. But look at what No. 58 Joseph Ossai has done when they need him.
In the last five games of 2022, which was really his rookie year, the Bengals won all of them to win the division title, and he had at least one hit on the quarterback in all five games to go with 2.5 sacks. In 2024, when they had to win the last five to have a shot at the postseason, Ossai had three sacks and six QB hits. His five sacks came in the last seven games. And for maybe the first camp since the rookie year that wasn't in 2021, he's healthy.
Did you hear offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher talk the other day about how Chase Brown is a focal point of the offense?
He's more than worthy after last year's break-out season. Talk about going from belle of the ball to bell cow. The tradition of Bengals running backs has been big.
There have been some great mighty mites, starting with the great Essex Johnson, stretching to the Ring of Honor worthy James Brooks, and most recently with Giovani Bernard.
At 5-10, 211 pounds, Brown is bigger than those guys. But he's not as big as the eight guys who have had more touches than him in a season, starting with 5-10, 228-pound Rudi Johnson and 6-1, 225-pound Corey Dillon. Or the 6-2, 245-pound Boobie Clark and 6-0, 252-pound Pete Johnson. There are also the 5-11, 227-pound Cedric Benson, the 6-2, 222-pound Harold Green, the 6-1, 220-pound Joe Mixon, and the 5-10, 215-pound BenJarvus Green-Ellis.
Here's for Brown getting at least 17 more touches than last season. That will make him the smallest Bengals back to touch it at least 300 times in a season.
New Bengals offensive line coach Scott Peters is a direct descendant of former Bengals O-line coach Jim McNally, a recent recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Award of Excellence.
In his first game as the Bengals offensive line coach in the 1980 opener against Tampa Bay, McNally lined up with two first-rounders in left tackle Anthony Munoz and center Blair Bush, a second-rounder in left guard Glenn Bujnoch, a seventh-rounder at right guard in Max Montoya, and a fourth-rounder in right tackle Mike Wilson. The future Hall-of-Famer Munoz was the only rookie.
The way they figure to line up Wednesday, Peters has only one rookie, too, in left guard Dylan Fairchild, a third-rounder. There's one first-rounder in right tackle Amarius Mims, a third-rounder in left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., a sixth-rounder in center Ted Karras and, pending how the competition works out, second-rounder Cody Ford or undrafted Lucas Partrick at right guard.
Peters would seem to have the more decorated line at this point. Brown has a Super Bowl ring and four Pro Bowls while Karras has two rings as a backup. But Munoz came to be regarded as the greatest of all time. Montoya was making the 18th start in the career of the greatest Bengals guard ever. And, the Bengals went to the Super Bowl in 1981.
Mims is projected to be the sixth straight different Opening Day right tackle: Bobby Hart, Riley Reiff, La'el Collins, Jonah Williams, and Trent Brown.
What can reigning Triple Crown wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase do for an encore?
How about 1,677 yards on 136 catches for 20 TDs? Not exactly far off last year's 1,708 yards on 127 catches for 17 TDs.
If he hit those numbers, he'd be nearly at the top of the Bengals all-time receiving lists in five brief seasons.
It would put him ahead of Ring of Honor member Isaac Curtis into third place with 7,102 yards, trailing only Ring of Honor member Chad Johnson and A.J. Green. It would tie him for the all-time touchdown lead with Johnson at 66. And he'd have 531 career catches, inching past Carl Pickens into third behind only Johnson and Green.
Joe Burrow is coming off one of the greatest seasons an NFL quarterback has ever had. How great?
In a season last year that saw five quarterbacks hit 70% of their passes, Burrow jacked his all-time NFL completion percentage lead by .5 over Tua Tagovailoa and .9 over Drew Brees. He's got Tua, 68.6 to 68.1, and Brees, 68.6 to 67.7. That's even though Tua led the league last year at 72.9 and Burrow finished fourth at 70.6 throwing the most passes in the league for the most yards.
How great? Burrow is the only active quarterback to have two 70% passing seasons. The only other quarterback to have multiple 70% seasons is Brees with seven as he stares at a likely first ballot nod to the Hall this year.
Burrow can separate with a third 70-percenter this season.
(By the way, the NFL's only 70-percent passer between the end of World War II and 2009 was Bengals all-time passing leader Ken Anderson.)
