Much has been written about Mike Hilton mentoring rookie Josh Newton already for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Ditto for how high the expectations in the building are for Newton.
With May nearing an end and almost all players working in voluntaries though, we’ve got some updated thoughts on the hyped rookie from Hilton himself.
“He’s picking up both positions. He’s communicating well already. We’ll see how he does when someone is across from him,” Hilton said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “He can move his feet and he catches it well.”
Hilton expanded, too: “He has to balance between inside and outside. I don’t want to do too much because he’s got to get one thing down first and then go from there. There’s so much more to inside than outside. You have run fits, blitz patterns, and probably the better route runners are inside. I feel like being inside you need a complete overall game.”
This inside-out versatility is a big part of the reason the Bengals drafted Newton in the first place.
And what’s interesting is that while he figures to stick inside, there’s always a chance things go a different direction depending on how former first-round pick Dax Hill does at cornerback after his position change.
It’s a good problem to have right now and the Bengals are lucky there’s a veteran like Hilton there to help oversee it.
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