His participation in team activities has been much anticipated not just because of the return from injury but also to answer the question of whether he could be a candidate to replace Mike Hilton at nickel cornerback. On Thursday, Hill worked on the outside in individual drills but his only team snaps came in the slot, where Josh Newton has mainly been playing with the first-team defense.
“It was a quick two plays in and out, but I feel like it was good just being out there, getting my feet wet,” Hill said. “You’ve been playing this game for so long, but once you take a break, it’s just different, so you kind of just want to keep it slow and to a minimum, but I think it was good for me to be out there and in the slot.”
Hill said he likes the idea of moving around, and that seems to be a theme in Golden’s system. The new defensive coordinator likes the versatility of players like Hill and the ability to use them in different roles to create horizontal depth and also provide different looks to keep the opposing offense guessing.
The Bengals now have everyone back in their secondary, after DJ Turner also went down for the 2024 season in Week 10 with a broken clavicle. Turner was full-go during the offseason workout program, and Hill’s return gives Golden options on the outside and in the slot. Hill was arguably the team’s best outside corner last year at the time of his injury, but he played inside during his college career at Michigan.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Hill said he’s just glad to be on the field with his teammates again and feeling confident in his surgically repaired knee.
“It feels great, just being out there with teammates,” Hill said. “We’ve been preparing for months now, especially in this new defense. I feel like it’s good everyone is out there taking reps, moving guys around, I think that’s key. Leading up to the season, I feel like that’s important so just being out there and seeing what we have, it’s a good deal.”
Hill said the Bengals have a “great plan” to increase his workload slowly, but Thursday was perhaps a good day to still be easing back in as several others were struggling with heat and humidity, even with the team moving practices this camp to the morning, rather than mid-afternoon.
Newton had to come out of the first period of team drills Thursday because the heat was getting to him to the point of him vomiting multiple times. He remained on the sidelines with a cold towel around his shoulders, but defensive end Myles Murphy later was carted off because of cramping.
Overall, Day 2 was much better for the offense, though Tee Higgins also ended his practice early after exiting drills to get stretched out by trainers. Quarterback Joe Burrow had conceded that the defense “won” Day 1 of camp, but the offense bounced back with a much better day Thursday with sharper throws and fewer drops.
Still, players on offense are taking note of early improvements in the defense, which was overhauled from a coaching standpoint and added to in some key spots in terms of player personnel.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“I mean, they look good playing a new style,” wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase said. “They look like they having fun out there. We got new pieces to the puzzle. I think the whole defense is excited to prove that they’re better than last year, not just better than last year but putting themselves to higher standards.”
Linebacker Logan Wilson said the defense is hungry “to be way better,” and that especially was reflected on the first two days of camp, even if the offense looked sharper Thursday.
“Guys were kind of defeated and realized that no one played to what we were capable of playing at, so we were kind of pissed off,” Wilson said. “Guys are coming out swinging. We harped on, we had, I think, 19 practices in OTAs, and we harped on (Wednesday) was not Day 1, it was Day 20, so continuing to build and having that continue-to-build mindset individually and collectively will help us get better.”
“I just feel like the aura is just a little different in terms of our mindset on defense because we didn’t play as good as we wanted to on defense last year, and we know we’ve got to be better,” he added. “So, we’re coming out guns blazing I feel like. We’re just going to continue to stack days as camp goes along.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
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