Two of his receivers say Andy Dalton has put some early zip on the ball.
Andy Dalton has been getting second looks from his wide receivers during their throwing sessions in Phase II of the voluntary sessions. His trip to Los Angeles back in March to work with throwing guru Dr. Tom House seems to have helped.
"Best I've seen him," said Mohamed Sanu Wednesday. "I think it's everything. That guy helped. He's put a lot of work in the offseason, just seeing how he approaches it….it's on you fast. You turn around and you're like, 'whoa.'"
New offensive coordinator Hue Jackson has emphasized doing everything at a quicker pace. Breaking out of the huddle. Running routes. And included in that is Dalton getting back into his drop quicker from behind center and getting rid of it quicker.
"He's got a lot of zing, a lot of velocity to him,' said wide receiver Marvin Jones. "Especially when it matches the intensity with the way we run our routes. We run our plays in different periods and it just bring s everybody up, him included. He's spinning the ball real nice.
"When you have a goal you want to get, where you want to get as a team, everything elevates," Jones said. "This offseason we want to get to the ship….everybody's intensity running and working out and throwing is all heightened. We know what we've got. We know where we're going to go."
BODINE WON'T SCARE: Veteran Mike Pollak figures to be the first center when the practices start Tuesday, but fourth-rounder Russell Bodine is coming in with a big endorsement from offensive line coach Paul Alexander. Running back Giovani Bernard, Bodine's North Carolina teammate, said the Bengals asked him about Bodine before the draft.
"I told them he's an aggressive guy, a guy that you definitely want on your team," Bernard said. "His attitude and how he played and his aggression kind of translated to everyone on the offensive line. You could see when he played his mentality and how much he wanted to have big plays here and there. It showed throughout the offensive line. I think he's a great addition to our team."
Bodine is known as a guy that plays hard to the whistle and if you're standing by the pile and the whistle hasn't blown yet, look out.
"I like that. He's one of those guys he's always going to watch for his guys. He's never going to let anyone bully on a guy or whatever it may be," Bernard said. "He's always going to clean up the pile.
"If we get a flag here and there, it's OK,' he joked. "He has that attitude, he has that aggression, he has that go-getter attitude I love. All our offensive line is like that. I think that shows they just don't want to be messed around with. They want to be able to play and they want to do what they can do."
SLANTS AND SCREENS: The Bengals signed their first two draft picks Wednesday when they inked sixth-rounder Marquis Flowers, a linebacker out of Arizona, and seventh-rounder James Wright, a wide receiver out of LSU...
Left tackle Andrew Whitworth says the knee problems that wiped out his offseason last year are behind him and he's doing everything everybody else is doing and he'll be Jackson's left tackle on Tuesday….
Whitworth, the Bengals rep to the NFL Players Association, isn't opposed to the idea of expanded playoffs. But he thinks something also has to be done with the preseason schedule. He's not sure if it should be cut by two games, but he does believe the issue has to be put in sharper focus.
"We keep looking on the back end because that generates more money and we understand that," Whitworth said. "But you also have four games that mean absolutely nothing that are just a risk for every guy that gets on the football field. Why are we not paying attention to that? If we want to focus on adding a game, why don't we give the fans a break and not make them pay for a game that doesn't mean anything? So that's also another side of it. Like we said, we don't want to look at just the positives, let's look at all the things that go into that and how we can be the best."....
