Tacklin' Tycen Anderson, who could be the next Bengals special teams captain even as he seeks more snaps at safety, is enjoying robust workouts after spending last offseason in ACL rehab.
After finishing among the league leaders with 10 tackles as a gunner covering punts last year and leading the Bengals in special teams' tackles the last two seasons, Anderson's goal is as simple as his current regimen.
"I want to have more tackles than I had last year," Anderson says. "I take it day-by-day, putting my best foot forward, hoping that leads to playing time on the back end. I just want to find a niche and a way to win games. That's all I want to do. I want to win."
Physically, that means getting stronger in both the upper and lower body while focusing on the small but critical muscles in the quads, abductors, shoulders, "glutes," and those surrounding the knees.
Anderson, a fifth-round pick in 2022, heads into his fourth season working in the Bengals' facility at Paycor Stadium under careful eyes from the staffs of strength and conditioning coach Joey Boese and director of sports medicine Matt Summers.
Nearly all the rest of his teammates are working elsewhere until they return in two weeks for the start of the Bengals’ offseason program. But Anderson was sold on staying home after director of rehab Nick Cosgray took him through steps that led to him being named the Bengals' 2024 Ed Block Courage Award winner.
Anderson watched a trio of players work and saw Trey Hendrickson go on to lead the league in sacks, left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. recapture his Pro Bowl form and Joseph Ossai post a career-high five sacks. Brown had built up his legs so strongly that he was able to play in the last two games despite two fractures in one of the legs. A mere mortal, they say, would have blown out a knee in season-ending fashion.
"When I was coming off my ACL, just seeing guys like Trey, Orlando Brown, Joseph Ossai," Anderson says, "to see Trey come off the season he had, it was clear to me we have the best strength staff and the best trainers in the league. If they played as well as they did, I'm staying right here."
Plus, Anderson, who could be in Dallas or Miami, says, "I'm an Ohio guy. I'm used to it."
Toledo, to be precise.
"It's usually 10 degrees warmer down here," he says.
BENGALS PULL HAT TRICK
During a big hockey week when Alex Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky's all-time NHL goals record, the Bengals equipment staff pulled off a worthy hat trick. New Era, the century-old hatmaker, named manager Adam Knollman's crew the best equipment staff in the AFC, complete with a championship belt.
It makes Knollman and assistants Sam Staley and Ryan Eckerle, "Lords of the Lids."
Let Knollman explain it.
"(New Era) tracks what everybody is wearing on the sidelines," Knollman says. "There are your preseason hats, your regular-season hats, "Salute to Service,' hats, 'Inspire Change,' hats, 'Crucial Catch' hats, and other initiatives. They're watching every game and tracking who has the correct hats on at the correct times on the sidelines."
It's not as easy as you may think to police among players, coaches and staffers. Because the Bengals' locker room is also in the building where they play their home games, Knollman says it's easy for players and coaches to grab favorite hats and head out to the field with an unsanctioned sideline chapeau.
"At that point," Knollman says, "you have to try and convince them they've got a new favorite hat."
The trio can be pretty convincing. They always have a bag behind the bench filled with hats permitted for that game. Knollman says it's a help that Bengals head coach Zac Taylor sets a good tone as a consistent wearer of ball caps. It turns out, to lead the league in hats is not much of a trick.
"You need cooperation, and we get a lot of it from these guys," Knollman says.
