It was Green Bay linebacker D'Vondre Campbell who nicknamed new Bengals nose tackle T.J. Slaton Jr. "Truck," a few years ago.

Slaton had just moved into the Packers starting lineup, and Campbell observed one day, "If you keep playing like this, they'll have to back up the truck."

As in a Brink's truck.

So when Slaton signed with the Bengals earlier this week for a two-year withdrawal of $15 million, he had a reunion with the driver.

New Bengals defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery is the guy who put him in that starting lineup when he coached Slaton for the first three years of his career as the Packers defensive line coach after they took him in the fifth round out of Florida in 2021.

And Montgomery is pretty much the reason he's here. Not because of the demolition derby AFC North and the need for run stoppers. Not because of the weather. Not even because of Joe Burrow.

Slaton has a deep memory bank when it comes to the 45-year-old Montgomery, who went to New England last year after nine years with the Pack.

"He helped me with the standard. What it means to stick around in this league," Slaton said. "The time you have to put in to be able to get the results you want out of the game. He instilled a lot of stuff that wasn't really there at first. It's good to be able to reunite with someone who kind of built me as a player. He had words of wisdom."

Montgomery is not only delighted with the Slaton reunion, he calls the re-signing of three technique B.J. Hill "huge," and says he can't wait to get on the field with the young pass rushers who just came back on one-year deals in Joseph Ossai and Cam Sample.

But as the Bengals' run-game coordinator in a vicious division, Montgomery sees a comforting sight in the 6-5, 340-pound Slaton.

"Talk about playing smashmouth football. You need a couple of guys like that," Montgomery says. "We changed his work ethic and how he worked, and how he practiced. He came a long way from where he was at Florida. He showed flashes at Florida and when you take a guy like that you hope you can develop him and get him to play like the way we think it should look like and he was able to do that."

Montgomery had a willing pupil in Slaton, and they saw enough growth by the middle of his second season that it had them thinking of a bold move.

At the start of his third year in 2023, Montgomery had enough confidence in Slaton to move three-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark off the nose and over to the three technique.

"We felt good about Kenny going anywhere. If we move him, we're taking a lot of production off the field at that position, and can we replace it?" Montgomery says. "And T.J. did that.

"He replaced Kenny's production in the run game at a nose tackle, which is saying a lot because Kenny was averaging 60 some tackles a year."

In that break-out season, Slaton basically doubled his snaps to 626 and tackles to 50. When Montgomery left the next season, Slaton had 200 fewer snaps, but he had 30 tackles, and ESPN ranked him first among defensive tackles in run stop win rate for the NFL's seventh-best defense.

"It's always good to have a guy in there who plays the way you need him to play and he's stout," Montgomery says. "He can take two. Kill single blocks. When he's really playing well, he can push the pocket on early downs and affect the quarterback."

Montgomery likes the mix of vets and kids in the room, which is why he was so happy with the Hill signing.

"Talk about production and a play style. B.J. has that already," Montgomery says. "To have a guy who does what we want to do already, it would have been hard to have him walk out of the door. I'm thankful he wanted to be a Bengal."

He's also thankful he's back driving "The Truck," in the run-rich AFC North.

"He's as solid as it comes in the run game," Montgomery says, "and has really developed his game."