The Cincinnati Bengals have Al Golden at the controls of the defense now for a defense that suddenly has a sense of urgency during June practices.
That defense recently spotlighted Cam Taylor-Britt in a big moment when he intercepted Joe Burrow and celebrated with teammates.
As it turns out, that highlight was a big sign of things to come this summer, at least in terms of defensive usage. Taylor-Britt wasn’t at the boundary like usual. Instead, he was lined up as a slot man, eventually sticking to Mike Gesicki in coverage.
Cornerbacks coach Charles Burks and Golden are using secondary players all over the place because they see them not as cornerbacks, but do-it-all tools.
“We’re getting ready for 21 games. A long way to go,” Golden told Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “Safeties at corners, corners at safety. Corners at nickel. Mix and match. We have a lot of guys who are concept learners and that’s because of Chuck. Chuck’s a big-picture guy and that carries over to his players. They understand if they’re playing the curl or playing the flat in cover two, or the middle runner, they can do all those things, which is great.”
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It certainly helps that the cornerback room seems a little deeper than in past years. After Taylor-Britt, Dax Hill is a former first-rounder who stood out after his position change and DJ Turner is a former second-rounder. They really like DJ Ivey and Jalen Davis, too, plus second-year player Josh Newton.
Despite this little bit of hype, cornerback still might be the biggest boom-or-bust position on the roster. But the positivity is nice and letting guys get reps all over the unit in June can’t hurt.
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