3. Joe Mixon Getting the Game Ball Back From Frank Pollack
Mixon, the Bengals' two-time 1,000-yard running back, thinks Pollack can get him a third after a foot injury limited him to five games last season. As head coach Zac Taylor changed up his staff after the season, Mixon lobbied up and down the Paul Brown Stadium elevator to get Pollack to return as offensive line coach and he got his man
"He's an interesting man. I like his style. He gets after it," Mixon said that day Taylor hired Pollack in January. "The thing about Frank is that no matter who is out there on the field, we're going to run that little ball. He's committed to the run."
It will be recalled that after the Bengals won Taylor's first game over the Jets in 2019, Mixon went across the field to give his touchdown ball to Pollack, then the Jets offensive line coach. Mixon later talked about how much of an impact Pollack had on him mentally and physically during the 2018 season when he ripped off a career-high 4.9 yards per carry while winning the Bengals' first ever AFC rushing title.
Talk about protecting Joe Burrow. Five yards per carry would be as valuable as an $80 million guard.
Now in camp with the pads on, we figure to see one of the biggest changes to Taylor's playbook in three seasons with Pollack's signature wide zone play that sums up his philosophy and underlines Mixon's strengths.
"It's a stretch run that allows you to take advantage of the defense and makes them wrong. They can never be right if you are doing it the correct way," Pollack said back in January. "It's something that really allows you to have more margin for error. The back can make the line or a linemen correct and vice versa. I think it adds a little more flexibility in that regard and it promotes the unit to play better."
2. Reunion of Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase (and it looks so good so far)
"Reunited and it feels so good," went No. 1 more than 40 years ago when Peaches and Herb sang it and now another duo is hoping to take it to the top of the charts. But then, Burrow and Chase have already made beautiful music together.
While Burrow won the Heisman Trophy with an NCAA-record 60 touchdown passes two years ago at LSU, Chase caught an SEC-record 20 of them to go with another league record 1,780 yards.
After the Bengals took Chase with the fifth pick two months ago, Elias Sports Bureau said it was the first time in the 54 years of the common draft that an NFL team has selected a quarterback-receiver combo from the same school in the top five during consecutive drafts.
And even though the Bengals basically went through ten up-tempo walk-throughs in the spring, it looks like these two are still in sync. Along with Burrow's rehab, Chase's play was the talk of May and June. From his inside-outside versatility to his vise-strong hands to his icy pro's pro learning of the playbook, he has had them buzzing.
There's going to be so much scrutiny of the long ball during camp that the scribes are going to need telescopes instead of binoculars. The deep ball was the one category Burrow struggled in last season and it was the one category with Chase in Baton Rouge where they went off the charts.
(How many times are we going to see this stat in August? Pro Football Focus graded Burrow with a staggering 98.2 when he targeted Chase on throws 20 yards or longer two years ago. The web site had Burrow for just 61.5 on those 20-yard throws last year.)
There's also the there's-only-one-ball sub-plot. Not only is Chase re-united with Burrow, but he's hooked up with his fellow collegiate game-breaker in Tee Higgins, the guy that came within a whisker of setting the Bengals rookie records for catches and yards last season. Not to mention two-time 1,000-yard slot receiver Tyler Boyd.
With Higgins as his running mate and Boyd inside, Chase has a shot at breaking the 67 catches of Higgins and Cris Collinsworth and the 1,057 yards of A.J. Green. Just think, when Collinsworth and Green did it 30 years apart, the second-leading receivers were tight ends.
Let the countdown begin.
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