June or not, Cincinnati Bengals news keeps hitting at a steady pace.
With Ring of Honor talks, former players speaking out and new stars on the team talking about their plans it hasn’t exactly been a quiet week or so.
Here’s a look at some of the most notable news hitters over the last week.
Whitworth wanted to retire as a Bengal
Andrew Whitworth wanted to hang up the cleats as a member of the Bengals before the front office low-balled him…so he left.
Whitworth’s comments aren’t anything we haven’t heard before from him at this point — but they still sting. A modern Bengals legend wanted to retire with the team and didn’t get that chance, instead going elsewhere to even play in a Super Bowl.
Silver lining? Whitworth could still retire as a Bengal.
Tee Higgins speaks on Joe Burrow
Bengals rookie wideout Tee Higgins is impressed with what Joe Burrow had to say.
Higgins’ comments stand as one of the first times we’ve really heard about how other guys in the locker room feel about Burrow speaking out the way he did. And as expected, Burrow is living up to his billing as a leader and has guys willing to rally around him because of the immense respect factor.
The ‘raw, uncut’ meeting
Zac Taylor axed normal proceedings last Monday and instead split his guys into groups and had them bond over talks concerning racism and the ongoing protests.
And that’s amazing.
It sounds like a little thing. But Taylor getting all of his guys on the same page and placing an emphasis on something much bigger than football is critical in many ways. And as Bengals players in the writeup said, it was an eye-opening experience for many in areas more important than a game.
D.J. Reader wants to be even better
Reader wants to keep improving.
That’s a scary thought for other AFC North quarterbacks. Reader was already one of the nastiest interior players in the NFL before signing with Cincinnati this offseason. Now he’s slimmer — which should only help his game — and ready to be deployed in even more scenarios than in the past.
Get ready to see a star go to work next to Geno Atkins.
Bengals Ring of Honor talks start again
The Bengals front office has reportedly started talking about a Ring of Honor again.
That’s great — but not really. It shouldn’t have gotten to this point. It shouldn’t have taken the death of a legend like Ken Riley to get this topic back on the table. Past philosophy or whatever other reasonings don’t hold a ton of weight — the Bengals have a rich history worthy of celebrating and it needs done because clealry the Hall of Fame won’t do it fairly.
If we had to guess, no traction happens on this front this year because of Coronavirus restrictions anyway. But the fact it’s a topic again is a good sign — it needs to happen as soon as possible.
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