You never know where you might find versatile rookie tight end Erick All Jr., who has helped his hometown Bengals change the way they play the game.
When he sat down for Bengals.com senior writer Geoff Hobson's weekly conversation, he set the alarm on his phone to alert him to a team meeting. When he finished the talk later over the phone from his home in the northern suburbs, he introduced his two-year-old son Houston.
In between, All, the Fairfield High school product, discussed how he was attracted to the physical aspect of the game as a seven-year-old for the Hamilton Bulldogs, what he sees as his high potential as a receiver, and why their latest chess piece has pulled out the board again.
The Conversation:
GH: I heard you took a chess set to Cleveland last week. Do you play a lot?
EA: Yeah, I'm trying to get better, so I've been playing a lot lately.
GH: How long have you been playing?
EA: I got introduced to the game when I was going into my junior year at Michigan, right before the season. I would play a lot with my teammates. A lot of my teammates played at Michigan, but when I went to Iowa, there weren't that many guys that played and it kind of messed up my rhythm with the game. But I'm trying to get back into it, trying to play guys on the team, and playing more on the chess.com app. My highest level I got to was like 980.
GH: Is that good?
EA: Once you get into the thousands, that's when you're getting pretty decent at the game, and you know what you're doing. The really good guys are at 1,300 and 1,400. The masters are like at 2,000, 2,300, up in that range.
GH: Are you shooting for master?
EA: Not necessarily. I just want to get good. It's fun. I'm not trying to be the best ever to play the game. I'm just trying to be the best I can do. Those guys sit there and play non-stop and they know every opening and know, exactly what to do versus this look. They make money playing the game.
GH: Who did you play with at Michigan?
EA: A lot of people. I played with Coach (Jim) Harbaugh. I played with Carter Selzer. I played with Lou Hanson. We would sit there in the cafeteria and then all the guys would be at one table playing the game.
GH: How was Harbaugh?
EA: He was good. He just took forever between each move. I'm talking about he took forever. He would just be thinking through everything. That's how he is. He just makes sure he's making the right decision with everything he does. But he was really good, really good.
GH: Who plays It here?
EA: I heard that Joe Burrow is pretty good. I haven't played against him. I play a lot against just Tanner McLachlan and Maema (Njongmeta). That's really it. I don't know too many guys on the team that play it.
GH: Why do you like it?
EA: It's just a strategic game. It takes some thinking to do. I think it's pretty cool. When I was in Iowa, I would go every Monday after football, I would go to Starbucks, and just play for like two hours on chess.com.
GH: Is football like chess?
EA: I guess in some ways it can be as far as you're going to get an opponent, and you're each making different moves to win a game. But I feel like with chess, I don't know. You have to capture the king, and then it's a lot you have to think about. For me, it's different because I've been playing football my whole life, and with chess I just started.
GH: Ironically, you're one of the bigger chess pieces of this year because your ability to block has kind of spawned this use of the double tight ends that Zac Taylor didn't use much before this season. It had always been a three-receiver team. Pretty much 80% in some years. And you're one of the reasons they're using 12 personnel more than twice as much. I don't know if you were aware of that history.
EA: I had no clue.
GH: You seem to be the classic rookie. Focused because everything is so new.
EA: Everything is new. What I just try to think about is the stuff I can control. If he doesn't put me in, I can only control what I do when he puts me in the game. I just try to focus on being in the moment, and getting the job done, and winning. That's it.
GH: In chess, you'd be like the knight, right? A versatile piece?
EA: It controls the board a lot. It can go in either direction. Frontwards or backwards.
GH: Knights mix it up. They say you decided to go to Iowa after Michigan because when you saw them practicing they were doing the Oklahoma drill.
EA: It was the Blocks Drill. From the sideline to the left hash, and then they use the left hash and the right hash for the middle, then from the right hash to the sideline. So it's tight end, tackle, guard versus D-End, guard, tackle on the defense, and there's no running back. You guys are just lining up and just hitting each other, blocking. I watched Dunk do it, Gennings Dunker, and he was just killing people. I didn't go just because of The Blocks. But it was like one of the most electric drills that I've seen in college. It was fun.
GH: Bottom line. You like to hit. What do you like about hitting?
EA: I feel like there's nothing better than when you're playing this game and you physically dominate your opponent. That's just my favorite thing to do in the game.
GH: When did you first realize that?
EA: I say probably like my second or third year playing the game, maybe a little later. I started playing when I was four. Probably around seven or eight.
GH: Was it one hit that you remember that got it going?
EA: I remember this one specific practice where I would just make a hit, and my dad was my coach. I don't know exactly how it is now, the culture was to make big, loud hits. The people loved it. Everybody at the games loved it. It was just part of the game. And it was, like, glorified growing up. And it just stuck with me throughout.
It's definitely want-to. You just pull up to a game or to our practices back then and it just sounded like people out there chopping wood. Just hits everywhere.
GH: What was the name of that team?
EA: I grew up playing for the Hamilton Bulldogs, and then I left and we went out to Middletown, and we were called The Little Buckeyes. I ended up going back to the Bulldogs in fifth or sixth grade.
GH: So the Little Buckeye last Sunday in Cleveland on second-and-five from the Browns 18, on the touchdown pass from Burrow to Ja'Marr Chase, it looks like you're chipping Myles Garrett, the NFL Defensive Player of the Year. It looked like the Little Buckeye threw him off.
EA: When you're doing those chips, you're just trying to deliver the guy to the tackle. Making it easy on him. You're either later in the progression or just helping out the tackle.
GH: Were you over there because that's where Garrett was?
EA: I don't think so. It was just the play call. You're just chipping the end no matter who it is every week. Deliver it to (the tackle). Take the defender away from going to the outside or inside. The goal is to just take away one of the sides and make it an easier job for the pass pro.
GH: What was it like going against Garrett?
EA: I really didn't think much about it, just because when you do, I feel like that could add pressure. I didn't really think much about it, just focused on doing my job. But definitely, you know, before the game, like in the huddle, I looked over at Drew (Sample) and I was like, Man, that's crazy. I'm playing against Myles Garrett.
GH: It just kind of hit you right there?
EA: Yeah, I was like, man, he's right there. But as I was going against him, I didn't think much. Just focusing on my technique and getting the job done. Execution.
GH: How much has Drew helped you?
EA: A whole lot. A whole lot. Any little technique or different looks when we're out there. He's very great at communicating on what we've got to get done and who we're working to, things like that. He's helped me a great amount.
GH: Zac Taylor has been saying the way this position has grown, starting with Sample and C.J. Uzomah being two of the smartest tight ends around, and with position coach James Casey having played it in the league, a lot is expected of this position here both physically and mentally. And yet you seem to have taken to the playbook. How tough is it to pick up?
EA: The playbook was pretty tough. But when you add in the different nuances, understanding the objective of each play … I feel like it could have been much harder. But Drew, Mike (Gesicki) and Tanner (Hudson), and Coach Casey, they've helped me more than anything. It was pretty hard. It still is hard. Each week, we're putting in plays, things that we haven't run in a while. It continues. But they help me out a lot, and make it easier.
GH: We've been all talking about your blocking. But Ja’Marr Chase was saying last week that this guy with the ball in his hands is pretty good.
EA: Ja'Marr said that? Wow, I didn't know he said that. That's pretty cool. I'm not like Ja'Marr with the ball in my hands, for sure.
GH: Nobody is.
EA: I just try to do the best I can do when I get the ball in my hands. I just feel like right now, I'm rusty, and I need to do a whole lot better. But I'm definitely not the best I have been with the ball in my hands, and I'm definitely not the best I can be with the ball in my hands. I feel like at times I can break more tackles and do a lot more with the ball. I just feel like I need to get the ball in my hands more to get better and to get it back like how I know I can be.
GH: Is there a player you emulate?
EA: Not really. I never really tried to or did anything that any specific player does. I try to be different. More than anything, I try to be able to be the best at being physical and be the best in the pass game. But there are definitely things I take away from players. Especially more so in the pass game. Releases. What they do at the top of their routes, things like that. Receivers, tight ends.
GH: How do you want to get better? What are you working on?
EA: With chess?
GH: No, football.
EA: I was just playing. Just playing football more and learning from my mistakes, and taking coaching and most importantly, never get complacent, which I won't. I focus on stuff like that because it can be easy to become complacent and that's what I feel like a lot of players fall victim to.
GH: Is that your son talking?
EA: Yeah. Say bye. That's just what he says when we close the garage door. Houston, say hi.
GH: Hi, Houston. When's his birthday?
EA: Sept. 3, 2022.
GH: He's two months older than my oldest grandson. Fourth-down Freddie. They sound a lot alike. That's a lot on your plate. Being a dad and playing in the NFL.
EA: It's life. I love every bit of it. And for me, it's not hard at all. I love him so much, I'm just living life. It's just great. It's like a part of life. Right now, he's telling everybody about his baseball glove. He just got a glove. He doesn't know how to squeeze it yet. He just holds his glove, and I throw the ball in there for him.
GH: Playing in your hometown seems to have really worked out for you.
EA: My parents and family get to spend more time with him and it works out perfectly.
GH: Do you live near where you grew up in Fairfield?
EA: Yeah, I live right down the road from where I grew up. I'm pretty far from the facility, but close to home, it's cool. It's the best scenario ever. Everything worked out perfectly. It's definitely a blessing.
GH: What are you and Houston going to do today on your day off?
EA: We're probably just going to sit here and chill. We have a little bouncy house for him in the basement, so he'll probably jump around and play around. And my friend is coming over later to chill with me and my cousin. Sit around and play just chill.
