It's fair to say that new offensive line coach Scott Peters is probably the first Bengals staffer to win a major submission wrestling tournament using a move that is something called the "rear naked choke."

The Bengals are banking on the fresh and cagey perspective of Peters, a two-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, a UFC championship trainer and a former state of Arizona boxing commissioner, to heighten the art of protecting Joe Burrow.

But Peters mixes the martial arts with the mentality of an old school lineman who played his seven NFL games 22 years ago coached by former Bengals offensive line guru Jim McNally, one of his mentors.

Peters didn't make any hostile moves this week to submit to one of Bengals.com senior writer Geoff Hobson's conversations as they discussed his strike system, his early outlook of his new players, and his unique on-field coaching style.

And Peters talks about the toughest guy he ever faced. Who just happens to be the father of a current Bengal.

The Conversation

GH: You haven't really had time to delve into the draft prospects and it sounds like the staff is working on studying veteran free agents. What is a general observation of the guys you have?

SP: I'm encouraged. I'm impressed. There's room to get better. There's some talent in the room, for sure. Starting with Teddy (Karras) at center, you've got a great leader, a veteran player, tough guy. He's really the core, the nucleus of the unit.

And then you've got some great, talented tackles out there. I'm excited to work with both. I love (Orlando Brown). I think he's great. He's got the traits and the tools and the physique to be anything he wants to be at tackle. He's got length, he's got fast hands, and he loves the game. And he's got experience. Now it's like when you've got a guy like that, who is always looking to take his game to the next level, he's inquisitive. He wants to work, and that's just from the little I know. I've said it before. Tackles are kind of born, you know?

For the most part, guards are born, but they're developed. I think the tackles you need to find. It's very rare to find guys with the size, the length, the quickness, the foot speed, the aggression, the body control. So that's why they come at a premium. There's just not a lot of people walking around the planet Earth like Amarius Mims. Of that stature. Obviously, the abundance of talent. I'm looking forward to helping Amarius really achieve his best. And I think that can be pretty impressive if you're able to channel all the tools he has.

GH: There were changes made at left guard last season. (Cody Ford for Cordell Volson). How do you see the guard spot?

SP: We'll see. (Right guard Alex) Cappa is a good veteran player, and he's been around. Volson is now a veteran guard. I liked him coming out of college. I actually coached him at the East-West Shrine Game. He's a tough kid. He's played a lot … It starts with your want-to and I think he wants-to. He's got traits that you find desirable. He's a strong, thick kid. He's powerful. Sometimes it's good for everybody to get a fresh start … There are things we can do to help these guys inside, too, as well, and we'll see how things shake out. You never know. We're kind of in free agency. We're going into the draft. Every team is a new team, but those guys are tough guys who like to compete. Give them some tools and try to enhance them. It remains to be seen.

GH: After looking at tape, how much of an adjustment is it going to be for these guys to learn your technique? Or is line play simply line play?

SP: No, I think there are some nuances. I know the guys have been exposed to some good technique in the past. I think that the things that I'll probably do and bring are slightly unique in terms of the nuance. We're going to definitely emphasize some of the same things with striking, square sets, being aggressive in proactive protection.

Every coach has different drills that we do, so I can't speak to exactly what they did in the past, but the emphasis will be just refining many of the traits and skills to bring out the best in each guy. Making sure we're playing with posture, balance, being able to utilize our length, our athletic ability, working within our help system and the protection unit, where we're able to play to our strengths.

A lot of that is just probably more nuanced than anything else, which does make a pretty big world of difference when you talk about that. I think from coach to coach, it's kind of you get what you emphasize.

GH: Sounds like some fairly significant changes.

SP: I can't really speak to what exactly they've done in the past, but what I watched on tape, yeah, there's some definite areas that we're going to target for improvement.

GH: Improvement … you're known for emphasizing hands and striking.

SP: That's a big part of it. This is a hands league. When you watch the tape and you study the league, and you understand the opponents you're facing, you've got guys across the ball who are talented, they have bad intentions, and they train their hands, they train their pass-rush skills more than any other skill. As linemen, it's more than just sitting there taking a set off the ball and trying to stay in front of somebody. We have to utilize all the tools and all the traits at our disposal.

GH: Your system is the "Strike System." How would you describe it?

SP: The strike system is something I developed after years of training in martial arts. If you're talking about boxing, for example, a coach will hold up focus mitts and say, 'Give me a one.' That equates to a jab. 'Give me a two.' That equates to a cross. 'Give me a hook, an upper cut.' They're all numerical. Once you understand the strikes, and then you kind of equate that to a number, it's easier to communicate.

We have a series of strikes. A number of different strikes. We use independent strikes here, so it's not like you're just throwing two hands at the wall. We want to make sure each strike fits the scheme, it fits the opponent type. It really brings out the best in us. It puts us in the most advantageous position to win based on the objective.

It allows for, number one, teaching all of those strikes in the system. And once you learn those strikes, it's an easy way to communicate. 'Hey, I need a one-two here. I need a three-four here.' Whatever the strike may be that enables the player to then communicate quickly on the field. So if we need to make an adjustment, it's easier than saying, 'Hey, I need to give a long dissertation on how you do something.' They already know it. It really helps build their toolbox, and it also brings definition to what exactly we're trying to get done.

GH: You got that out of the gym?

SP: It was just kind of inspired by martial arts a little bit, just because that's how they communicate. And if you're in the middle of a fight in a ring and you're the corner man and you're talking to a guy in a cage or in a ring, you don't have time to write a book. He needs the information. And that's how guys communicate. It's similar to code words in football, where you might have a designed coded play. We just code our strikes, we code our attacks. We have counters that guys fully understand.

GH: So you teach the strikes as well as the system.

SP: That's the first thing you do. A lot of times guys go, 'OK, I kind of did that before, but I never had a term for it,' or, 'Oh, I see what you're saying here.' It's just really trying to give the players tools, give them some definition of how that looks. At some point, they have flexibility and how they use it.

GH: What's the one thing you took from Jim McNally?

SP: Details. Details. What I mean by that is the specificity of teaching. You get out there, you can't be vague, you can't mince words, you can't be general. You've got to be specific. That's what it takes to win in this league and to be consistently a better player. So give the players the specifics. They're going to benefit, they're going to trust. That's something that I understand walking into the room, I don't expect anybody to trust me until it's earned. And I think where I look to do that is through giving them tools, giving them things that can help them improve their game. Making the most of every guy and helping them achieve their best, because this is a lifetime of opportunity for each and every guy in the room, and we have a special opportunity here.

GH: You trained with one of the great combat athletes of all-time in Brock Lesnar. Have you got a Brock Lesnar story?

SP: I've got a couple. Brock is an extremely talented guy. When I showed up there in Alexandria, Minn., at his training camp, it was after I beat this guy Tommy Rowlands, who was a national champ. I submitted him with a rear naked choke in a major tournament. He's a big name in wrestling. I didn't know he was, thankfully. Probably wouldn't have done as well. That was like, 'Whoa, this guy submitted Tommy Rowlands.' So I got a call from Brock's head trainer. They asked me to come up there and train.

I walk into the gym, and there's Brock Lesnar wearing no T-Shirt. He's wearing spandex shorts. He's walking around on his hands all around the gym. He's a 280-pound man. It was impressive. I think I was able to get the better of him in training. But that was because we worked simply on the ground. But it was something that he appreciated, I think, if you specialize in something. We would go for rounds at a time. Full contact and everything like that. It was a good experience for me. He's a phenom athlete. He was a really great wrestler. Unbelievable athlete. Obviously he did that stuff with WWE, and he's an entertainer, but just impressive to see a guy that big walking around on his hands.

GH: He tried football, right?

SP: I remember when he did that. He had never played football. If he had majored in football and he played college football, I don't see why he wouldn't have been an excellent, top-level NFL player because of his athletic ability and size. But he probably made more money doing whatever he's doing wrestling I would guess.

GH: How did the martial arts help you to coach football?

SP: I like staying active physically. And, what I took away from martial arts went back to when a coach would tell me, 'Come on, block that guy.' And you're going, 'Hey, I need some detail here.'

With martial arts, it's all detail. That's all it is. The reason that submission worked was because you turned your thumb a fraction of a degree the right way in order to align the joints. It's the specificity that made the difference, You understand how the body works in order to beat someone, you exploit that.

That's good in the sense of football, too. It's more a way of thinking. We're not fighting people out there. This is football. But how we go about our business to get our objective met is probably something that's inspired me from martial arts.

GH: You're known for getting out there and really getting physical as you coach.

SP: I'm not putting pads on, but I plan on getting hands on guys. Because the one best thing is, it's easy to talk about it, but you've got to show them sometimes. You've got to get in there. You've got to let them feel it. That's something I like to do because I feel like you can get the messaging out there a little bit quicker. They understand where you need to be if you put them there. We'll be explicit with our terminology and our verbiage, but we want to show them, too, because that's a big part of coaching.

GH: Toughest guy you ever faced?

SP: To me, toughness is not like how many punches you can take. It's also how intelligent you are about it. 'Oh, he can take a punch.' Well, is that a tough guy, or is that the best guy? The guys that are tough are the guys that bring the physical, attack-style mentality. The guys that show up every day, they're the same person every day, and the guys that are constantly refining their trade. And then the guys who are willing to play through anything. Those are the guys I'd say are the toughest. So many guys come to mind.

GH: Who is the toughest player you ever faced?

SP: Shoot, probably Kris Jenkins. His son's on the team. (Defensive tackle Kris Jenkins Jr.) He was tough. Kris Jenkins was a freak of nature, physically. I want to say he was probably 6-6, about 350. And he had fast twitch. He had explosive power, he had a motor. He could beat you with speed, and he can run right through you. Just physical, mean. I played against Kris, and I played with Kris. He had it all. There were guys like Sam Adams, who was real big and very good, and you had guys like Ted Washington who was really big and really good. But they didn't have the same level of twitch like Kris had. He could beat you with speed, too. It was impressive.