Notes From Training Camp 2025

[Luvnit2]

(07-26-2025, 12:44 PM)pally Wrote: Mike Hilton finally found a home.  He is signing a 1 year deal with the Dolphins who lost Artie Burns a couple of days ago to an ACL tear,
The Bengals will face his blitzing on Dec 21st

I am glad he found a job. TY Mike Hilton and hope you have a great year, just a bad game against us.

[Essex Johnson]

(07-25-2025, 05:23 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Yoshi's RAS score is elite, but to me it doesn't seem like it translates to the field all that well. He seems to play slower, has trouble getting seperation, etc. Rarely do you see him beat defenders with his speed or quickness. 

I am excited for Yoshi this season for three reasons

1 liked in offseason added some muscle to his frame to help securing the ball, with separation and actually run blocking which last year was 30% of his snaps was run blocking. 

2  Last year was the first season he really ever played inside/slot , so it can be an adjustment, now he has a year under his belt

3  He has been a go to for Burrow in the Red Zone, with an great target to td ratio and i think he will get more targets with improvement in 2nd year in slot

[Luvnit2]

(07-26-2025, 12:51 PM)Essex Johnson Wrote: I am excited for Yoshi this season for three reasons

1 liked in offseason added some muscle to his frame to help securing the ball, with separation and actually run blocking which last year was 30% of his snaps was run blocking. 

2  Last year was the first season he really ever played inside/slot , so it can be an adjustment, now he has a year under his belt

3  He has been a go to for Burrow in the Red Zone, with an great target to td ratio and i think he will get more targets with improvement in 2nd year in slot

It is interesting 30% of his snaps were run blocking. I like Yoshi and feel he is getting better each year. Isn't this only year 3? Harrison was a great college WR and he struggled at times last year as a rookie. I would not be surprised if Yoshi takes another step forward. It also appears Burton may be a threat to Yoshi's playing time if he keeps progressing.

It would not break my heart if Yoshi and Burton take big strides in 2025. We are not close to being the #1 offense in the NFL, but if some guys step up on the OL and in the WR room, our offense could be scary good.

[Sled21]

(07-26-2025, 12:44 PM)pally Wrote: Mike Hilton finally found a home.  He is signing a 1 year deal with the Dolphins who lost Artie Burns a couple of days ago to an ACL tear,
The Bengals will face his blitzing on Dec 21st

Yeah, I'm going to miss him. Never thought I'd say it about an ex-Stoolers player, but he was one of my favorites during his time here. Dolphins is one of those must win games, to have the head-to-head if it comes down to the Wild Card. That said, I don't see Miami getting any more than 8 or 9 wins at most this year, which won't get them in. 

[*pally*]

(07-26-2025, 01:04 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: It is interesting 30% of his snaps were run blocking. I like Yoshi and feel he is getting better each year. Isn't this only year 3? Harrison was a great college WR and he struggled at times last year as a rookie. I would not be surprised if Yoshi takes another step forward. It also appears Burton may be a threat to Yoshi's playing time if he keeps progressing.

It would not break my heart if Yoshi and Burton take big strides in 2025. We are not close to being the #1 offense in the NFL, but if some guys step up on the OL and in the WR room, our offense could be scary good.

Joe loves the way Yoshi performs in a scramble drill situation.  A lot of his receptions were in 3rd down situations too

[*ochocincos*]

(07-25-2025, 06:38 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Yoshi was the #2 WR for a good portion of the year.

That said, yards per catch are really not a huge indicator of quality of play so long as you're above the minimum threshold expected of your position. Ja'Marr Chase only had 0.1 higher than Iosivas last year at 13.4. Meanwhile Burton had 26.3 yards per catch. It's largely just a product of how you are being used.

If you want to actually compare him to a good slot guy....
Boyd had a 3.3% drop rate to Iosivas' 8.2%
Boyd had 4.6 yards after the catch per reception to Iosivas' 1.9
Boyd caught 68.1% of his targets (70.6% in the Burrow era) to Iosivas catching just 59.0%

Iosivas' one strength is he is really good inside the 10. Outside of that he's been a really bad WR who just got way too many offensive snaps. I never say that PFF is gospel, but it matches the eye test and the stat test when it says he was the 126th out of 133 WRs last year.

So to me (probably because I got into football by playing a lot of FF), good is yards and TDs.
The more you have, the better.
If you are not as good, you won't get many opportunities to have the ball thrown to you, and thus will ultimately get fewer yards/TDs.

I'd rather have someone with a drop percentage of 7+% if they still put up good yards and TDs over someone who hardly gets any production but has a good catch %.

I still don't think Iosivas is as bad as some people think he is, and I do think his production was more limited from playing majority in the slot, based on how most slot receivers are usually lower production that their outside counterparts.

At the end of the day, I do think Iosivas is still worse than Chase, Higgins, and Gesicki, so he's still 4th option at best.
4th option is extremely unlikely to get 700+ yards in a season unless an injury 1-3 guys occurs that forces that 4th option into more opportunities than expected.

[*pally*]

Looking forward to watching Shemar Stewart on the practice field this morning pic.twitter.com/2UInykyDQC

— Dan Hoard (@Dan_Hoard) July 27, 2025

[Luvnit2]

(07-27-2025, 11:00 AM)pally Wrote:

Looking forward to watching Shemar Stewart on the practice field this morning pic.twitter.com/2UInykyDQC

— Dan Hoard (@Dan_Hoard) July 27, 2025

I am looking to see him in first preseason game. Will he display great athletic ability or be stymied by NFL OL? We will see very soon.

[*pally*]

no practice for Lucas Patrick who left on Friday with a calf injury. He is in street clothes with a sleeve on the calf

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(07-27-2025, 10:13 AM)ochocincos Wrote: So to me (probably because I got into football by playing a lot of FF), good is yards and TDs.
The more you have, the better.
If you are not as good, you won't get many opportunities to have the ball thrown to you, and thus will ultimately get fewer yards/TDs.

I'd rather have someone with a drop percentage of 7+% if they still put up good yards and TDs over someone who hardly gets any production but has a good catch %.

I still don't think Iosivas is as bad as some people think he is, and I do think his production was more limited from playing majority in the slot, based on how most slot receivers are usually lower production that their outside counterparts.

At the end of the day, I do think Iosivas is still worse than Chase, Higgins, and Gesicki, so he's still 4th option at best.
4th option is extremely unlikely to get 700+ yards in a season unless an injury 1-3 guys occurs that forces that 4th option into more opportunities than expected.

If the people behind you are even worse (Charlie Jones, Jermaine Burton) then they have no other choice than to force the ball to you.

I will counter the "good is yards and TDs" (which they are, but not to the extent that you can ignore all the other factors surrounding the yards and TDs that can tell you that they weren't good) with the 2019 Bengals.....

AJ Green missed the whole year.
John Ross missed half the year.
Tyler Boyd was the #1 WR. 

That left Auden Tate and Alex Erickson at #2 and #3 on the depth chart for most of the season in Zac Taylor's first season here. Zac Taylor coming here is important because Dalton tied his career high in pass attempts in 2019, but did it in 3 less games (he averaged 40.6 pass attempts per game). So typical Zac they were slinging the ball.

So our 4th and 5th WRs were pushed into 2nd and 3rd WR duties in an extremely pass heavy offense... the result? 575 yards in 647 offensive snaps for Tate and 529 yards in 615 offensive snaps for Erickson. They did it with terrible efficiency. And that's from 32-year-old Andy Dalton with Tyler Boyd as the #1 rather than 28-year-old Joe Burrow with Ja'Marr Chase as the #1.

I don't think anyone is going to argue that Tate and Erickson were good WRs. They were bad WRs who were put in a situation where they got a lot of playing time in a pass heavy offense.

[Gohards]

(07-27-2025, 11:00 AM)pally Wrote:

Looking forward to watching Shemar Stewart on the practice field this morning pic.twitter.com/2UInykyDQC

— Dan Hoard (@Dan_Hoard) July 27, 2025

I didnt know he picked #97. Love that number. Reminds me of geno atkins. If shemar is half as good as geno, we’ll be in good shape.

[Essex Johnson]

(07-27-2025, 11:00 AM)pally Wrote:

Looking forward to watching Shemar Stewart on the practice field this morning pic.twitter.com/2UInykyDQC

— Dan Hoard (@Dan_Hoard) July 27, 2025

I liked him walking into 1st practice with Jackson by his side, part of reason I liked the pick os the chemistry he has with Jackson right next to him at DT from A & M.

[ERIC1]

(07-26-2025, 12:51 PM)Essex Johnson Wrote: I am excited for Yoshi this season for three reasons

1 liked in offseason added some muscle to his frame to help securing the ball, with separation and actually run blocking which last year was 30% of his snaps was run blocking. 

2  Last year was the first season he really ever played inside/slot , so it can be an adjustment, now he has a year under his belt

3  He has been a go to for Burrow in the Red Zone, with an great target to td ratio and i think he will get more targets with improvement in 2nd year in slot

We were at practice friday..team looked sharp..jermaine burton was exceptional..he was playing like a number 1 or 2 receuver on most teams..love Yoshi...barring injuries..its gonna be a fun year.

[ERIC1]

(07-27-2025, 11:41 AM)Gohards Wrote: I didnt know he picked #97. Love that number. Reminds me of geno atkins. If shemar is half as good as geno, we’ll be in good shape.

Man..if he plays with the same intensity that he did in college our defense will be blessed..the man is talented, athletic and a non stop beast

[Whatever]

(07-27-2025, 11:33 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: If the people behind you are even worse (Charlie Jones, Jermaine Burton) then they have no other choice than to force the ball to you.

I will counter the "good is yards and TDs" (which they are, but not to the extent that you can ignore all the other factors surrounding the yards and TDs that can tell you that they weren't good) with the 2019 Bengals.....

AJ Green missed the whole year.
John Ross missed half the year.
Tyler Boyd was the #1 WR. 

That left Auden Tate and Alex Erickson at #2 and #3 on the depth chart for most of the season in Zac Taylor's first season here. Zac Taylor coming here is important because Dalton tied his career high in pass attempts in 2019, but did it in 3 less games (he averaged 40.6 pass attempts per game). So typical Zac they were slinging the ball.

So our 4th and 5th WRs were pushed into 2nd and 3rd WR duties in an extremely pass heavy offense... the result? 575 yards in 647 offensive snaps for Tate and 529 yards in 615 offensive snaps for Erickson. They did it with terrible efficiency. And that's from 32-year-old Andy Dalton with Tyler Boyd as the #1 rather than 28-year-old Joe Burrow with Ja'Marr Chase as the #1.

I don't think anyone is going to argue that Tate and Erickson were good WRs. They were bad WRs who were put in a situation where they got a lot of playing time in a pass heavy offense.

I dunno...Tate was a four time Golden Binns winner.  Some were saying he was Mike Williams after that '19 campaign.

[SunsetBengal]

(07-26-2025, 01:39 AM)Essex Johnson Wrote: He had an 80% red zone target to td ratio last year which is very impressive, to me it shows he is very focused inside the red zone with his routes and hands, now needs to expand that focus to the rest of the field

Getting open regularly in the tight windows of the redzone is definitely speaks to the display of raw athleticism as well as the flawless execution of the designed play and the endless reps of building perfect timing with Burrow.

I'd like to see the team take greater advantage of his long speed by giving him a few more deep targets between the 20s, rather than typically being the 3rd or 4th read on most plays.

[NUGDUKWE]

(07-27-2025, 11:00 AM)pally Wrote:

Looking forward to watching Shemar Stewart on the practice field this morning pic.twitter.com/2UInykyDQC

— Dan Hoard (@Dan_Hoard) July 27, 2025

He looks big. I'd like to see him next to some of our other DEs. I wasn't a fan of the pick but I'm excited to see him in action and hope he proves me wrong.
 

[SunsetBengal]

(07-27-2025, 01:33 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: He looks big. I'd like to see him next to some of our other DEs. I wasn't a fan of the pick but I'm excited to see him in action and hope he proves me wrong.
 

I think that sentence describes many of ours' feelings about Stewart.

[*pally*]

Welcome to the NFL Shemar Stewart, first snap in 11s on Sunday three helmets crash down on him pic.twitter.com/4WaNJAjAAA

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) July 27, 2025

 

Jerry Montgomery had Shemar Stewart in on every rep of install.

Literally. Every single rep.

— Joe Danneman (@FOX19Joe) July 27, 2025

  
I want to see him in actual preseason games, but Isaiah Williams is making a play for that final WR slot.  

Isaiah Williams lays out for Joe Burrow sideline pass in 7s helping to keep Burrow perfect early in practice. pic.twitter.com/SCje3OgKFX

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) July 27, 2025

[Isaac Curtis: The Real #85]

(07-27-2025, 01:35 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I think that sentence describes many of ours' feelings about Stewart.

I Second That Emotion. 

Hated the pick. But acknowledge the massive upside. And realize he is pretty raw & likely has a way to go. And is now a bit behind. 

But obviously rooting for him. I still fully expect Trey & Ossai to start. Murphy taking a step forward would be a welcome sight as well, though I am not terribly optimistic. 

Sample might be better than Murphy and Stewart atm, if Cam is back to 100%, but with less upside. Myles & Shemar would be my 2nd team DEs the moment. And I'd expect Stewart & Sample to get reps inside as well.

DE pecking order: Hendrickson, Ossai, Stewart, Murphy, Sample, C. Johnson, R. Johnson, I. Thomas. 

Likely we only keep 5. Maybe 6.