PHOENIX _ Mike Macdonald, head coach of the reigning Super Bowl champion Seahawks, has a lot to smile about here at the NFL's annual league meeting.
It turns out new Bengals pass rusher Boye Mafe is one of them.
"Boye's a good dude. I'm thinking of all the times we were messing around in the defensive team room," said Macdonald Monday morning during the NFC coaches media breakfast. "Guys love him. He's always in a great mood. He's going to work really hard. He's going to do a great job."
Those job specs Mafe brings from Seattle to the Bengals in free agency are helping fortify an edge vacated by former NFL sack champion Trey Hendrickson and manned by two first-round picks in Myles Murphy and Shemar Stewart.
The Bengals are looking for Mafe's juice of last season (44 pressures and 40 hurries, via Pro Football Focus, which would have led the Bengals) and the production of the previous two seasons of a combined 15 sacks.
Macdonald used Mafe 50% of the time doing a little bit of everything. But not much on third down in a year he had two sacks.
"Everybody drops in our defense," said Macdonald, not without a certain pride. "Boye isn't a guy we necessarily moved around a lot.
"When I think of Boye, I think of a guy that has some gas off the edge, something that was kind of his add to our defensive front last year. His ability to win quickly is pretty special to him. That's his best trait rushing the passer is his ability to win quickly."
According to PFF, Mafe has 146 pressures over the past three seasons as well as 41 run stops, which rate in the top third for both categories among NFL edges. The Bengals believe his ability to set the perimeter is a nice fit for the AFC North.
"Pass rush sacks are, actually, a little bit overrated," Macdonald said. "I think probably the best thing Boye does is quick wins early. Something you need. You need to be able to affect the quarterback fast. Can he finish a little bit better? Yeah, absolutely.
"But you get the quarterback off the spot, that means somebody else is probably making that play, too. Another guy we were really excited about. We're going to miss him."
Harbaugh Salutes Flacco
New Giants head coach John Harbaugh (still weird to write, even weirder to see) rhapsodized the New York sporting press by quoting George Bernard Shaw. Then he went full Hemingway with the Old Man and The Bengals when asked about Joseph Vincent Flacco.
"My guy," said Harbaugh, as he should be since Flacco was the MVP of Harbaugh's Super Bowl win over brother Jim's 49ers.
"He's one of a kind, Joe Flacco. I love him."
If anyone knows Flacco, it's John Harbaugh. They came into the league together in 2008, and Flacco won nearly 60% of his 163 starts for Harbaugh during 11 seasons.
"The thing about Joe that makes him go the most is Joe knows how to pace himself," Harbaugh said. "Doesn't get too high. Doesn't get too low. He keeps it even, and underneath there's like this simmering. The outward calm underneath this competitive (nature). You're going to have to throw him out. It's going to be the type of deal when he's done, he's going to have two more years."
Flacco almost made that 202nd start against Harbaugh last Thanksgiving Night after filling in for Joe Burrow with a 91 passer rating on 13 touchdown passes in the previous six games.
"He's playing great. I was nervous," Harbaugh said. "He was coming into Baltimore last year to beat his old team. And he was fully capable of doing it. But it didn't happen."
It didn't happen because Burrow did in his first game back from Turf toe, lighting the Ravens, 32-14, on two touchdowns and 261 yards.
Fitz Loves Cincy
With newly-elected Pro Football Hall-of-Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald headed to Canton, he has much love for a trio of Bengals greats and a Cincinnati icon he would like to see in Cooperstown in his own Hall of Fame.
"Pete Rose," Fitzgerald says, "one of the top five baseball players of all-time."
Fitzgerald was here Monday helping the NFL push its flag football enterprise in the city where he became synonymous with cactus during 17 starry seasons with the Cardinals.
If he had played one more year into 2021, he would have played with the Bengals' own legendary wide receiver A.J. Green after he left as a free agent.
"That was a wrap for me," Fitzgerald said. "I had my fill."
But they still became good friends, talk often, and were frequent golf companions until Green recently moved back to Atlanta.
"He's getting better," Fitzgerald reported. "He can't beat me yet, but he's getting a lot better."
Fitzgerald says he reached out to Green about ten days ago to congratulate him on the tribute he penned in The Players' Tribune to his late Cardinals teammate Rondale Moore. Moore took his own life last month and Green wrote passionately about the man he called, "Rondale Green," because they were as close as family while calling for the NFL to expand its commitment to the mental health of players.
"I appreciate your honesty and transparency," Fitzgerald said of his conversation with Green, "and willing to talk about something so raw and fresh."
Fitzgerald never got to play with Green, and says if he got to play with current Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, "That would have been a dream come true."
Fitzgerald got to spend much of last week with Burrow in Los Angeles watching him get ready to play in the flag football round robin, and came away extremely impressed.
"After practice, he was running extra routes with guys. 'If I get this look, I throw it over this,''' Fitzgerald recalled, and he expounded on the Burrow Cool. "He just seems unflappable. No moment is too big. Nothing can speed him up. To be always throwing it to Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase doesn't hurt.
"I told him, 'Hey Joe, I can see why you're All-Pro and won the Heisman.'"
Burrow did NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a solid by playing in the Pro Bowl last month, and now he's literally waving the flag for him as the league's biggest star endorsing the new game.
"After the event, he was talking to Commissioner Goodell. The ideas he has growing flag to expanding things in the league. He takes ownership," Fitzgerald said. "I really liked him, and I'm glad he's one of the faces of the National Football League and that he cares so much about the game and the people."
Fitzgerald had to laugh. Burrow wasn't only a flag quarterback, he was lobbying guys to play.
"Joe was one of the guys who raised his hand to make calls," Fitzgerald said. "He was doing all of our jobs and playing awesome through the process. I wish more guys understood the big picture in terms of a sense of a community. Joe understands it."
Fitzgerald goes into Canton this summer with quarterback Drew Brees, kicker Adam Vinatieri, linebacker Luke Kuechly, and running back Roger Craig. He knows Bengals Ring of Honor right tackle Willie Anderson was close in a fifth straight trip to the finals. He wondered how close, but the results aren't public.
"He's going to make it," Fitzgerald said. He'll make it."
Slants and Screens
Inseparable Prime Video analysts Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth, two of the more popular Bengals ever, surfaced Monday …
Fitzpatrick, whose 4-3-1 finish in place of injured Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer in 2008 pretty much launched his 17-year career, took note of the 41-year-old Flacco's return. Fitzpatrick retired at 39 four years ago with seven children to help raise, and knows Flacco has five kids.
"You've got to love the game to still be playing at that point," Fitzpatrick said. "The cool thing is as I got older, and I know he goes through the same thing, it's cool to experience it with your kids. Especially when your kids are old enough to appreciate it." …
Still, Fitzpatrick was surprised Flacco came back to the Bengals:
"I think Joe probably wants to play. There probably wasn't an opportunity to go bridge and play somewhere. But I know he had a great time last year when he got in there and played, and he has a good relationship in that quarterback room." …
Fitzpatrick and Whitworth were part of the team that called the Bengals' Thursday Night 33-31 win over the Steelers at Paycor Stadium last season that was fueled by Flacco's 342 yards, a day that began with them running into Flacco when they were staying at the same hotel.
"To do what he did on Thursday night in your second week with no preparation in an offense you know nothing about," Fitzpatrick said, "I think people still don't understand how remarkable that is." …
Whitworth, the anchor of six Bengals postseason teams at left tackle, also took note of current left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.'s two-year extension.
"What a great human being. I know how he respects Zac Taylor and the organization," Whitworth said. "I'll never forget with the Rams in training camp when we had a joint practice with Baltimore, and we got a chance to visit and I realized what a special young man he was and you knew he had the right head on his shoulders and the right passion for the game."
Whitworth also knows it's not easy playing left tackle for the Joe Burrow Bengals.
"The guy has always been somebody not afraid of the challenge or the expectations, and those are the things you have to have to play that position," Whitworth said. "The people who get a chance to play against him and with him respect that about him." …
Whitworth says the Bengals have grappled with the offensive line since he and guard Kevin Zeitler left after the 2016 season, but he has noticed this O-line looks to be the best since.
"I thought as the year went on, they definitely got better," Whitworth said. "You've got to grow personalities and develop together. Continue to build off that identity. And build off the expectations as part of this group and how we expect each other to play. Forget the outside narrative or anybody not in our room. It's about our room and the pride we take week in and week out." …
