Help raised by a trio of U.S. Navy personnel and a grandfather who was an Army drill instructor, projected swing tackle Jalen Rivers has emerged as one of those veterans before his time as the Bengals' voluntary spring workouts sail into their final phases emboldened by their seaworthy draft class.
"The joke that we always make is that when he was eight, he was going on 30. He has an old soul. Has always had an old soul," says retired Command Master Chief James Daniels, his stepfather who also coached him.
"He's usually the youngest person on the team, but the older people end up looking up to him."
The 6-6, 319-pound Rivers, 22, is young and oozing with potential as an interchangeable guard-tackle. But not the youngest even on the offensive line. There are two younger in starting right tackle Amarius Mims and Dylan Fairchild, the rookie left guard from Georgia with whom he's been spending a lot of time.
Rivers and Fairchild are part of a class praised for its maturity that had the scouts pleased last month after the draft and the coaches optimistic this month once they got their hands on them
"They are impressive. It's an impressive group as a whole, whether talking about the six draft picks, the undrafted guys," said cautious head coach Zac Taylor earlier this week. "I think from top to bottom, it's a class that you feel really good about.
"There has been no adversity that has come at them at this point. No pads, no 11-on-11, no games or anything like that. They can't control that. All they can control is what their attitudes have been. Their ability to take in the information given to them, their effort on the field, and effort in the weight room. So far, so good on all those guys."
When director of college scouting Mike Potts' post-draft riff reached Rivers in the fifth round, he hesitated for fear of sounding repetitive when it came to extolling the character of the picks.
"He's a buttoned-up, polished kid," Potts told Bengals.com last month. "The coaches and staff at Miami could not speak higher of him. The favorite of many there."
It's just not Potts and the Bengals. Daniels says one NFL general manager or coach told Rivers during the draft process that as a human being, they couldn't find a negative shred out there about him. "If there is, you're hiding it well," the man told him.
"They try to find stuff. They've got all the resources," Daniels says. "He's just not that guy. It's that old school discipline. Loyal guy."
So loyal that when he and his lifelong teammate, Chantz Williams, his high school and AAU tag-team partner at Oakleaf High School in Jacksonville, Fla., were getting recruited together by the bigs such as Miami, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, etc., Rivers crossed Clemson off the list. Even though they weren't going as a package deal, when Clemson said Chantz wasn't the right size to play D-End, Rivers told Daniels the school was no longer in the mix for him, and he never spoke of Clemson again.
Rivers certainly is heard in the room of offensive line coach Scott Peters, where his attention to detail and quality of questions have been noted by Peters and assistant Mike McCarthy.
"There's not much you need to tell him about being a pro," says Peters, who says it's like talking to "a multi-year veteran."
"He already has that kind of conduct as he walked into the building."
Rivers came off the field one day this week with beads of sweat and Pro Bowl left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.'s advice popping off him. Not exactly the University of Miami, where last season he routinely moved between guard and tackle during games as the Hurricanes racked up the nation's most yards and points per game.
"In college, when you come in, you're learning the system in stages," Rivers says. "Here, when you're a rookie, a lot of things happen. It's faster. A lot more install. You have a lot of independence here, so you have to really make sure you're doing extra. You're a pro now. I'm far away from home. I've worked on my independence. I'm pretty good at that."
Those were his orders for as long as he can remember. Daniels retired from the Navy after 30 years. Rivers' mother, Donna Daniels, retired as a Yeoman Senior Chief 26 years in. His father retired after 20 years as a chief.
Donna and James have been together since Jalen, "was in Pampers." If Rivers or his two older sisters ever wondered aloud about the strict rules of the household, James Daniels would tell them, 'Y'all think I'm hard on you? Compared to your Daeda, I'm being easy on you."
"Daeda," is James' father, an Army master sergeant, and while James thinks the military has been an obvious factor in his stepson's journey, he also believes Rivers is a flat-out overachiever.
Daniels recalls Rivers recorded just one B in his 12 years of school that began when he was five (an 89 in health his sophomore year) and at Oakleaf, he says he posted a 4.26 grade-point average among his advanced core courses despite playing four sports. Then he took a 3.8 at Miami.
"Once he learns it, he learns it," says Daniels, who coached the secondary at Oakleaf, "and that's why coaches are like, 'Okay, so we had him at this position, and then he played this position, and we stick him back there, is that going to hurt him?' But it never does. He just goes where they need him. It never does hurt him because he doesn't forget what he's learned."
One example became the centerpiece of his recruiting video. Despite not playing defense since Daniels coached his elementary school team, the then-335-pound Rivers made one of the tackles of the year following an end-zone interception. He hauled down the dodging DB in the open field with a textbook-lift-and-thump tackle.
"He just didn't forget how to keep his eyes down," Daniels says, "keep his feet moving, and bring his arms, and he made the form tackle."
Rivers never longed to make the military his life's work. But Daniels says he used a tenet of military life to help him in school: "Make your weakness a strength," which is how he became a math whiz even though he disliked the numbers.
What he really liked was writing poems and essays, and he uses the skill now even though it's the language of Scott and not Shakespeare, and it's prose for a pro.
"If you're able to take notes and write down your thoughts and formulate the outline, it will definitely help you in the meeting room," Rivers says. "You're looking at film and listening to Coach. You're writing down a lot of stuff to formulate your thoughts."
He's also using his reading for pragmatic purposes and is perusing what he calls lifestyle books, such as Rich Dad, Poor Dad, a guide to financial literacy and independence.
"They took care of me at Miami … Nothing like here, though," says Rivers, who signed his rookie deal earlier this month.
The Bengals can see Rivers' versatility paying big dividends. It was his pass-protecting athleticism in a Joe Burrow offense that drew them to him.
But his size, ability to learn how to upgrade his run game to match his pass pro, and his college experience of in-game rotation between guard and tackle also has them thinking he can eventually play both guards and both tackles.
Right now, Peters has him at left tackle.
"We like to major guys in one spot so they start to build the toolbox," Peters says. "It's a little easier for them to learn and then replicate those moves on the opposite side after they've learned one spot.
"We see him as a tackle and a guard right now because of his length and his ability to pass protect. He gives you some options … He's someone we know when the time's right, we'll be able to move him around a little bit."
Downstairs in the locker room, Rivers is echoing Peters' message. If the Bengals lose linemen and "need me to move to the right side or guard, I have to earn their trust and show them I'm capable enough do it."
He can see where being raised Navy helped him through early challenges.
"Just being a pro off the field, off the court. I played a lot of sports growing up," says Rivers, a state champion shot putter who also played basketball. "I had to balance sports with academics and being able to balance all that stuff and still have my mind on straight."
Straight enough to pass inspection.
"If he does anything short of exceeding expectations," says Master Chief Daniels, "it will be the first time."
