CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Bengals head coach Zac Taylor has at least acknowledged he needs to do something different in training camp and the preseason to try and avoid slow starts that have plagued each of his first six seasons, and while it still not known what he is going to do differently with his training camp practices, there will be changes.
The majority of training camp practices will be held from 10 a.m.-noon rather than in late afternoon as they had been since he became head coach, starters are going to play more in the preseason than ever before in his tenure and there won’t be joint practices with other NFL teams.
The Bengals are 1-11 combined in the first two games of Taylor’s first six seasons. Though several of the five 0-2 starts were due directly to quarterback Joe Burrow coming off an injury, a surgery and once dealing with after effects of an appendicitis, Taylor decided change was needed leading up to the early games even if it is just to appease the fans.
“Every season has been different,” said Taylor. “Recently our 0-2 starts have been different. It’s something we certainly talk about and training camp will feel a little bit different in some ways. We are only going to practice with ourselves in the offseason, this preseason. We are going to let our starters play a little bit more, hopefully in the games. Hopefully it plays out that way. I do think practicing in the mornings will be good from a players standpoint. Takes temperature off of them to get really quality reps. There will be opportunities later in camp to fight through the heat as we get ready for some 1 o’clock games. The only real difference is for the coaches the install progression is a little bit different when you practice in the morning, but we embrace that. It will be good to change it up for us. Some of us have been here for a long time, it will be good to change it up and have to adapt like we ask our players to adapt. So, I am really excited for training camp to get here so we can start to put in the work. We have talked in depth about it as a coaching staff. so I think we are really ready to go tomorrow, but we’ll take these five weeks and fine tune everything and be ready to go.”
Veteran center Ted Karras said he believes there will be benefits from practicing earlier in the day.
“Just practicing after lunch is tough,” said Karras. “You get that 2:30 feeling. You need a 5 Hour energy (drink).”
Taylor said he made the decision to change the practice time a couple of months ago.
“Coach had a plan,” said defensive coordinator Al Golden. “You know, at the end of last year, prior to my involvement at all, coach had a plan for what he wanted it to look like, both in the off-season and in preseason camp, and our job is to execute that plan and make it the best plan possible. He gives us that forum as coordinators and as a staff, so obviously we’ve contributed to that, but I think he’s got a really great plan in terms of how we wanna approach training camp with the ultimate goal of being starting fast.”
Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said he isn’t a proponent of making a change for change sake, but says a fresh approach to training camp is a good idea.
“When you’ve been together for as long as we have, shuffling something that’s simple and inexpensive, that’s good,” said Pitcher. “From a logistical standpoint, it can help with the heat. The players are probably happy. From a coaching standpoint, it does affect how you prepare. You go from having a walkthrough in the morning for an afternoon practice to having a walkthrough the night before to prep for a morning practice. The flow of your day and how you organize meetings and how you plan ahead, it does have a significant impact on that. It’s just getting used to the new schedule. I’m excited about it. We’ll see how it goes.”
Taylor’s decision to have starters play more in preseason games is still fluid in terms of how much they will in those games and in how many of the games they will play,
“Having been through this 14 years now really it can change every training camp,” said Taylor. “Certain games change depending on health and on decisions we want to make. I don’t mind putting that out there in the world that we’re considering playing these guys in two or three of the games, but that’s always subject to change based on injuries.”
As for not having joint practices this season, Taylor said some of that was due to team’s preseason schedule being spaced out 10 days from the first preseason game (Aug. 7) to the second (Aug. 18) and then a four-day turnaround from the second game to the third one (Aug. 23).
“I don’t think joint practices have a great benefit for what we need to do this year,” said Taylor. “We don’t need to sacrifice that day before we’re preparing for an opponent and practicing that day and then taking a day off and then going and playing a game. We’re just going to get three great days of work of our install, of improving on the things we need to improve on instead of competing against another team. There will be years where we do that once, maybe twice like last year, but this was a year we decided we were just going to focus on ourself. A little of it took shape the way our preseason schedule is going to fall. We play Philly pretty quick and then we’ve got long break before playing Washington. I’m excited to get some really good work. We’re going to get six great fully-padded practices between the Philly game (Aug. 7) and the Washington game (Aug. 18) with no distractions, just us going against each other making sure we’re improving on the things we need to improve on. We didn’t even do the phases for the tail end of that week so that we can make those decisions when we get into camp on what we’re going to do and what we’re going to emphasize. You can tell I’m fired up about it. I can’t wait to get to that part of the preseason and see where this team has grown into.”
Taylor is still mindful of keeping his team as fresh as possible for the stretch drive of the season where the Bengals have flourished the last few seasons.
“The rhythm of the days and how we’re gonna be physical for two days and then a walkthrough day and then two days, that is to keep us fresh at the end of the season and prevent the injuries and make sure we’re ready to go and we’ve got enough fuel in the tank as we close out the season, which is something we’ve been strong with,” said Taylor. “Now it’s just these first couple weeks of September, starting faster than we have. Really our only focus is Cleveland (on Sept. 7 in the regular season opener). Just getting ready for Cleveland, starting fast for Cleveland, that’s our No. 1 priority.”