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It turns out the Cincinnati Bengals have a few players more than familiar with new defensive line coach Marion Hobby.
The Bengals announced the hire of Hobby on Saturday, though it might have never come together without a little help from defensive lineman D.J. Reader.
Hobby and Reader spent time together at Clemson and it goes deeper than that — Hobby knew all about the local high school player Reader during his days at Duke.
Here’s what he said about Reader and on the quick conversation they had about the Bengals, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:
“Great kid. A little sophomore. He was probably six-foot tall at that time … he played baseball, too. You didn’t see it then, but when I reunited with him at Clemson it was, ‘Well, look at here…I asked him straight up. You know me well. Do you think this is a good fit for me?’ He gave me confirmation it was.”
Rest assured Reader is happy about the move too:
“Super happy. Super happy. Really, really good guy. Good coach. He coached me all four years (at Clemson). Kind of crazy. I’ve known him since I was a young kid…Coaches hard. Guys come to work. His family is a priority. A real solid dude. He’s a tough coach. He’s funny. You have to come to work and go hard, but he’s also got some fun to him. He’s a very cool dude. He’s interesting. I’m a big fan of Hobby.”
One of the quieter criticisms of head coach Zac Taylor is a limited list of connections he can pull from — which is why we still vouch for the Bengals hiring Wade Phillips.
But flexing a player connection like this is a good move too, especially when it already gets a reaction like this in the locker room from one of the team’s most important pieces.
Provided the Bengals make some more moves along the defensive front seven, it’s clear Hobby has the reputation to make the unit into something special.
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