James Casey, the Bengals' old-school tight ends coach with the new job title of run game coordinator, has a lunchtime workout regimen to match.

At 41, and after seven knee surgeries to match seven NFL seasons as a utility tight end throwing his neck into lead blocks for some of the NFL's most prolific rushing offenses, Casey has adopted "an old man workout."

No cardio. And the only heavy lifting is in the podcasts and audiobooks he listens to trying to pick up any new bits of information while staying in shape.

"We talk a lot of football in the tight ends room," Casey says. "But it can't always be about football. You've got to be able to talk about other things that are interesting."

He's a frequent listener of Sean Kelly's podcast, and he's been dialed in lately to segments on the Dead Sea Scrolls. You don't have to go back that far to know Casey got his new title much like he won his job with head coach Gary Kubiak's Texans as a fifth-rounder out of Rice in 2009.

Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher calls Casey "the ultimate team player," who "you would never know had a playing career … from a work ethic and just a willingness to do all the dirty work. All the things that are not glamour and garner the attention or credit. That's just who James is. That's why he's a great asset for."

Which pretty much describes what the F tight end was doing for Houston in the days Casey was doing windows and checking the oil while blocking for an NFL rushing champion in Arian Foster and a top-ten offense that won back-to-back AFC South titles.

So don't expect a major overhaul in how the Bengals put together the run game this season. Especially after they ran the ball last year better than ever in head coach Zac Taylor’s seven seasons. And it was a year he chose not to have an official run game coordinator after departed offensive line coach Frank Pollack had the title for four years.

It was the sounding board approach of Taylor and Pitcher at its best, a fair-and-equal hearing for each position coach and his suggestions before they are synthesized into the playbook and weekly game plan.

As Pitcher says, Casey's new title is more of an acknowledgment of what he's done as Taylor's only tight ends coach rather than the signaling of any major shift in how they conduct business. He'll certainly have more responsibility, but that is still to be hammered out in the run-up to training camp.

Casey has glittered at all phases in the tight ends room for Taylor as one of his first hires out of the University of Houston in 2019.

Blocking specialist Drew Sample is the most tenured player on offense. Mike Gesicki’s 65 catches in 2024 are the most by a Bengals tight end in 43 years. In that same season, Erick All Jr., was headed to All-Rookie teams before he got hurt. Tanner Hudson, who had 15 catches for three teams before he got here, has 77 in three years under Casey.

"We've got a really good flow here of how we work together as a staff," Pitcher says. "We have great continuity, and everybody has their role and their input. James is a critical part of that. He's got a lot of really good thoughts and ideas from a scheme standpoint that we've already incorporated, and we'll continue to incorporate into what we do. I'm going to go to him just like I always have."

Yet Casey brings a unique obsession to his role. "I'm fascinated by the run game," says Casey, intrigued how it takes just one breakdown from the group to get a play blown up while defenses can seem to survive their gaffes.

For instance, Casey has been in charge of short-yardage and goal-line. Last year, on third-down and fourth-down with three yards or fewer to go, the Bengals converted 33 of 40 runs for a league-leading 82.5%. And they did it without All, a monster blocker and sneaky receiver who allowed them to diversify with two tight-end sets after years of leading the league with 85-15ish ratios of using one tight end.

"He's one of the most researched coaches that I've been around in terms of the opinions that he has and the techniques that he teaches his players," Pitcher says. "He's not just throwing stuff against the wall. "From the technical instruction of the tight end to scheme ideas in terms of what we do in the run game, protection, whatever it is, it's all because he's seen it. He's done the research. He's watched it."

Casey is known to splice together miles of video, loving the tedium of cutups rather than delegating it. So with All returning this season off his torn ACL and Casey their specialist on two-tight end sets, there could be some new loops.

Casey doesn't want to get into all that. He appreciates the fans' thirst, but he calls it "propriety information." But if you want to know the mindset he's bringing, go back to that rookie training camp in Houston during a fully-padded goal-line period where Casey thought he was killing it, going all-out, and finishing, and overall making a big impression.

Until the head man, Kubiak, approached and said, "James, I know you think you're playing hard and doing everything you can, but it's not good enough. You're going to have to do better to make this team."

Casey calls it the best advice he ever got, and he's tried to be that with his own players.

"I'm so appreciative of that. He could have just not said anything, right?" Casey says. "The next play, I'm playing more aggressive. I'm playing harder, finishing more. I'm being tougher. I'm being more physical, and because he told me that, that's the advice I try to always give people.

"Blocking is a mindset. It's a mentality. You have to have a certain attitude to finish, to be aggressive. Sometimes, you think you're playing hard, but you can play harder."

Since Taylor installed his offense in 2019, no team has fewer running attempts than the Bengals, and Casey doesn't look for the philosophy to change.

"We've got Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins. If we don't throw the ball, we're dumb coaches," Casey says. "But, obviously, you have to be able to run the ball. To close out games. The weather. The opponent. It's something we emphasize. And we have to do it better than last year because the record wasn't good enough."

And, clearly, Casey takes pride in it, and says their formidable ability to pass gives them some advantages in the run game.

"One benefit that we do have is Burrow is such a good quarterback that defenses respect that, and maybe give us some lighter boxes sometimes," Casey says. "When you see our run game on game day, it may not be under center with the fullback all the time like some other teams.

"Some of our run schemes may be a little bit different than some other teams in the league, because we're trying to capitalize on what the defense is seeing all the time, and take advantage of where we have the advantages."

A triple major at Rice after spending a few years on the mound as a White Sox draft pick toiling in the minors, Casey may have lived more than 41 years. But he's still learning about pretty much everything. The father of two teenage boys, he's currently listening to Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation, a book discussing what has been called an epidemic of teen mental illness.

"I want to help my kids. I want to help my players," says Casey, the ultimate team player with another title.