CINCINNATI — Yesterday had a different feel to it. I could feel a transition in the air. While it was still a rather warm July afternoon, a sense that Fall is just around the corner was evident. And with Fall comes football. The Cincinnati Bengals opened Training Camp yesterday with a practice at Dayton’s Welcome Stadium. These are my takeaways from it.
1. A.J. Green leaving practice on a cart with what sounds like a low ankle sprain is a storyline that is just getting started. Until he undergoes an MRI, it’s unknown how long he will be out and head coach Zac Taylor said afterwards that he didn’t want to speculate on the severity of the injury. He looked his usual old self during practice yesterday as he was flying through the air using his Olympic-caliber body to haul in passes. But as I was leaving camp, I was wondering if he went out too hard yesterday. Whatever the diagnosis is, the Bengals best option is to hold him out the entire preseason and until he is absolutely able to return, even if that is past the season-opener at Seattle.
2. Practice under Zac Taylor is so much different than it was under Marvin Lewis. There is a much better energy and everything is done with a purpose. I heard Taylor yell out to everybody to hustle up before 7-on-7. Looking back on it, that right there showed me that Taylor is not going to mess around in practice and not waste a single minute or even a second.
3. The crowd on hand yesterday was unbelievable. It was great to see the stands on both sides of Welcome Stadium packed with Bengals fans. I was concerned if there would be a lack of fan turnout given how things were toward the end of last year, but I really think the freshness and “New Dey” vibe that’s within the organization was a big reason behind yesterday’s turnout. Bengals Radio Network color analyst Dave Lapham played a large role in the crowd’s liveliness with his unmatched enthusiasm as the practice’s MC.
4. Not looking too far ahead, but the Bengals first preseason game is at the Kansas City Chiefs on Sat., Aug. 10. The starters won’t be out on the field for very long, but I, and surely a lot of us, will be watching the defense against the dauntingly lethal Chiefs offense. Last year on prime time, Patrick Mahomes II led the Chiefs offense in gashing the Bengals defense for a 95-yard touchdown drive on their first possession. If the Bengals first-team defense only plays one possession on Aug. 10, hopefully the result in this year’s preseason is better than what the entire country saw last year in the regular-season.
Let me be Frank and Cut to the Chase 