Paul Dehner did a peice about Yoshi, Brown, and their new wide receiver coach Drew Lieberman for the Athletic.

Full Article: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5588373/2024/06/26/bengals-andrei-iosivas-chase-brown/

Quote:They were relentless.

And rough around the edges.

“I got really lucky,” Lieberman said. “It was mostly them. It was their coachability, their willingness to commit to this. They are the most on-point, dedicated, nice, incredible kids. Not to mention, neither of them knew a goddamn thing, so I had no bad habits to break.”

Lieberman laughs at the side-by-side video now. The differences in speed, stride length, hands and breaks looked almost comical.

“The main thing is the technique of it, just running full stride,” Brown said. “Route running is an art. You see a lot of guys, the top-tier guys make it look easy, but there is a lot that goes into it, full stride, break points, hip shifts. There’s a ton of things that break down a good route runner.”

Quote:“The whole first month of February all we did was work on being ball stoppers,” Lieberman said. “Chase became confident catching the ball. When he first came to me, every time he would catch the ball, his head would snap back first, he would flinch away from the ball. There’s no consistency with the way you shoot your hands, you are just praying you catch it.”

What followed were days upon days of catching through lunges, squats, on one leg, laying down and constantly simulating every contortion, break type and adverse condition for a catch. They rebuilt the basics.

Spending hours on the field with a receiver coach repeating these specific motions isn’t possible with the limited practice time allowed in the NFL. Every rep is valuable for learning scheme and functionality with the offense. You can talk it and emphasize it, but development can often fall by the wayside in the NFL churn.

Truly dedicating to the repetition of catching for somebody who never really did so is the gap in the market Lieberman preys upon.

“Make him fearless, make him confident, keep his head steady,” Lieberman said. “Then create consistent catching mechanics once you stabilize everything. As soon as the ball started slowing down, the game started slowing down. Chase looked like a running back when I started with him, like an uncoordinated route runner. Now this guy looks like a starting slot receiver in the NFL.”

The article also has a few short youtube training videos with before and after.

Lieberman strikes me as an incredible coach to work with. Glad that he's getting our second year weapons prepared to take the next step in their careers.

Chase Brown catching the ball in space, and past the LOS would be an incredible boost to the offense.

our new WR coach going to make Yoshi and Chase Brown nuts, if Tee doesn't stay, Burrow will have a lot of weapons regardless.

Yoshi was a record-setting, All-American Heptathlete from an Ivy League school. Working hard is not going to be "new" to him.

Many on here have mentioned from time to time how this team really needs to hit on some of these late-round guys.
The Bengals may end up doing just that with Iosivas and/or Brown.

Either of these guys could really help take the Bengals offense to the elite level.

(06-26-2024, 12:21 PM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: our new WR coach going to make Yoshi and Chase Brown nuts, if Tee doesn't stay, Burrow will have a lot of weapons regardless.

Troy Walters is still the Bengals WR coach. The guy mentioned in the article doesn’t work for the team.

(06-26-2024, 12:37 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Troy Walters is still the Bengals WR coach. The guy mentioned in the article doesn’t work for the team.

Yep this is like getting a Summer School tutor when school is out.
Bengals can't be practicing officially, so players often will get outside coaches not affiliated with the organization during the offseason.
This would be like an OL going to work with Willie Anderson at his academy or whatnot.

I've been saying it all off-season, but Yoshi is going to blow the **** up this year. Many of you are high on Burton, and his time will come...but Yoshi is going to be the guy this year that many of you are thinking Burton will be.

Looks like Yoshi has improved as a receiver and also transformed his body this off-season I really think the depth of our WR room will make Higgins expendable.

I got a kick out of this: "Not to mention, neither of them knew a goddamn thing, so I had no bad habits to break.”

Don't know what this says about last-year's coaching, however.

(06-26-2024, 12:23 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Yoshi was a record-setting, All-American Heptathlete from an Ivy League school. Working hard is not going to be "new" to him.

The article mentions that this is Yoshi's first personal receiver coach and the first one to really break down his routes release to catch.

(06-26-2024, 12:09 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Chase Brown catching the ball in space, and past the LOS would be an incredible boost to the offense.

(06-26-2024, 12:24 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Many on here have mentioned from time to time how this team really needs to hit on some of these late-round guys.
The Bengals may end up doing just that with Iosivas and/or Brown.

Either of these guys could really help take the Bengals offense to the elite level.

I've been talking about wanting a receiving back for a couple years now and how it was a major part of guys like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees success. Hoping Chase Brown can give them that 1400 yard 700/700 running receiving split.

This is the quote I liked. It says a lot about both players

Quote:“I would say Andrei and Chase made the fastest improvement of any players I’ve ever had in the program of 15 years doing this, this is year seven at the NFL level,” Lieberman said. “I’ve never had two players improve faster.”

(06-26-2024, 12:58 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: I've been saying it all off-season, but Yoshi is going to blow the **** up this year. Many of you are high on Burton, and his time will come...but Yoshi is going to be the guy this year that many of you are thinking Burton will be.

Looks like Yoshi has improved as a receiver and also transformed his body this off-season I really think the depth of our WR room will make Higgins expendable.

Yoshi has a chance to really compete for some outside reps with Chase getting more snaps in the slot this year which could set him up big for Tee's departure.

Burton has a chance for some outside but more inside snaps where no one on the roster has alot of experience running Tyler Boyd's choice routes although neither does Burton. Chase Brown is the guy that is going to get the most opportunity to blow up this year.

Wow, that was eye opening reading that and then seeing the vids. Chase Brown specifically looks like a different player after being
coached up by Lieberman. The way he is running in and out of his breaks with that speed and those hands a couple months later is
extremely impressive. Chase Brown is my guy to break out now for sure on Offense. Thanks for this Synric.

Mentioning Jermaine Burton reminded me of the interview he and Housh did last week figured I'd throw it in here too.

(06-26-2024, 01:32 PM)Synric Wrote: Mentioning Jermaine Burton reminded me of the interview he and Housh did last week figured I'd throw it in here too.

He's saying the right things, let's hope he's taking them to heart. I see people all the time that do something bad, then say "That's not who I am." Who you are is what you do when you think no one is looking. I hope Burton can put his past behind him like Mixon did and go on to be a fan favorite.

Brown looks scary good!

His foot work on those cuts is incredible and is going to have defenders tripping all over themselves!

As a DB, we were always taught to watch the hips because they don't lie, but he moves his hips so quick with his moves that it will be tough for any DB or backer to get any clues at where he's going!

(06-26-2024, 02:21 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: Brown looks scary good!

His foot work on those cuts is incredible and is going to have defenders tripping all over themselves!

As a DB, we were always taught to watch the hips because they don't lie, but he moves his hips so quick with his moves that it will be tough for any DB or backer to get any clues at where he's going!

Yeah, he is putting in the work that is for damn sure and he was already one of the fastest players in the NFL last year.

Put on a lot of muscle as well so he should be much harder to tackle.

Hopefully Brown proves out and so does Yoshi - it speaks well of them both that they went to a personal coach to get their techniques fixed. You saw the results already during OTAs and camp where (for example) Yoshi is catching with his hands instead of his body.