Inside the Bengals' offensive line reset: Scott Peters ‘brings a breath of fresh air'

New York Times

2 days ago

Even during the May OTA malaise, few drills draw the eye more than the athleticism and advanced drill work of the Bengals' skill players. Joe Burrow slips and slides through tackling dummies before leaping to uncork off-platform throws. Ja'Marr Chase goes airborne and casually snags a one-handed pass over his head. Tee Higgins accelerates, then toe-taps on the sideline with the same ease as he did catching the game-winning touchdown against the Broncos in December.
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Off in the distance, however, away from the star spotlight, you can see the offensive line group. The action looks, well, different. In the early portions of practice, they can be seen merely standing, each with an arm extending into a partner's chest, seemingly holding each other up and keeping that pose for extended stretches.
Not exactly advanced athleticism theater. Yet, that's 100 percent the point for this group under new offensive line coach Scott Peters.
He's tasked with installing a new set of techniques designed to improve consistency across one of the most inconsistent units in football last season. For now, that has Peters dedicating valuable time and resources to the most foundational details.
Sometimes it's as simple as recalibrating the expected body positioning of a Bengals offensive lineman.
'It's a drill we'll use to test someone's posture because if you have a bad posture, you won't be able to sustain that,' Peters said. 'You won't be able to hold them up. If your arm gets broken down, you shouldn't fall forward. If someone is leaning on them, I should be able to stop you with one arm and just breathe and relax. If you knock my hand down, I shouldn't fall.'
Center Ted Karras calls Peters' approach a 'huge refresh' that finally formalizes what he's been trying to explain to young linemen for years regarding his hand technique and the importance of posture. But even he's still learning rather than teaching these days.
'A lot of it is brand new for me,' he said, 'so, Year 10, that's pretty unique.'
Unique, indeed. The entire process achieves a rare accomplishment during the non-contact portion of the NFL schedule in making the Bengals' offensive line one of the most interesting position groups on the field.
'It gives a chance to build the fundamentals, then we talk about when and where you apply those things,' Peters said. 'You are building a toolbox.'
Peters arrives in Cincinnati with a background in jujutsu, but his philosophy fills with baseball and boxing metaphors.
He talks about throwing strikes, changeups, counter-punches and approaches. Embracing the sweet science and cerebral nature in this battle of the big boys is the essence of his coaching style.
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When fans or even trained eyes watch the Bengals' offensive line this fall, there won't be a noticeable difference in what pass protection looks like.
'Maybe to the nuanced eye,' Karras said. 'Hopefully, it translates to more one-on-one wins.'
That's the bottom line here. Peters wants to increase the Bengals' batting average in protecting Burrow.
That doesn't mean winning with dominating blocks. It means not whiffing.
'We have to bat a thousand,' Peters said. 'We are not trying to hit home runs. We are trying to get base hits and high averages.'
The Bengals ranked dead last in the NFL in ESPN's Pass Block Win Rate last season, winning just 50 percent of the time. The Broncos led the NFL at 74 percent. The league average was 60 percent. The team's offensive line posted an average finish of 27th in PFF's offensive line rankings over the last five years and never above 20th.
Out of 143 qualifying NFL offensive linemen last season, only Karras (6th) finished higher than 79th for the Bengals in blocking efficiency on true pass sets.
How effectively the Bengals' linemen adapt, implement and self-correct Peters' more aggressive techniques can change those numbers. At least, that's the theory those charged with protecting the franchise quarterback are buying.
That's why conversations about how the early days of this recalibration are going quickly go deep into the weeds. The specificity and detail with which these new tools are taught is 100 percent what makes them effective.
'It's not easy to start from zero,' Peters said. 'Some of the techniques are new, it's not just go out there and throw your hands out there. It's how you do it, from what platform, from what foundation your body operates from so your strikes are impactful and you are doing it without having to compromise posture. Guys will throw heavy hands and get beat and wiped and stuff. It is teaching them a foundation of how you throw a proper strike. You throw a proper strike and do it with good mechanics and ramp up the speed it looks like you have more pop in your hands, you have more length, you can play with better posture so if they did wipe your hands or knock you hands down you wont' be staggering forward and get beat.'
Guard Cordell Volson perks up when the conversation turns to posture. Volson, too often over the last three years, would be doing just what Peters described and falling forward if his hands were wiped away. The same can be said for Cody Ford and seemingly everyone who played guard. There's a belief that merely mastering a posture that keeps the battle alive, even if the defender successfully wipes the hand away while simultaneously bringing more power to the punches that do connect, can shift those win-rate averages from league worst to something more manageable.
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Half of that battle lives in the confidence to take the fight to the opponent and add different tools so the lineman isn't doing the same thing every snap.
'You want to be able to confidently throw hands,' Peters said. 'Some guys don't throw hands because they are nervous about getting wiped. It's like a boxer going into the ring and not throwing a punch because he doesn't want to get hit. You are going to have to throw. We know what they are going to try to do. We want to try to build them a way to respond as part of an automatic response.'
Former offensive line coach Frank Pollack was in Cincinnati for four seasons after replacing Jim Turner, head coach Zac Taylor's first offensive line coach. Pollack is 57 and played with Jerry Rice. Turner is 59 and came from a military background.
Peters, 46, retired after seven seasons in the NFL in 2009. His hands-on style, approachable mentality and new-school tactics have resonated.
'Scott is a really open guy,' said Volson, who accepted a pay cut rather than a release because he says he believed in what Peters could do for his career after being benched last season. 'You can bounce ideas off him and ask him questions. We can play more toward our skill set. He instills a lot of confidence in us. I think he brings a good energy. We enjoy talking to him. We enjoy going into meetings with him. I think that's really cool. It definitely makes my day way more enjoyable, that's for sure.'
Left tackle Orlando Brown enters his eighth season on his third NFL team. As a captain last year, he saw the toll of the season and the battles many of his linemates faced wear on them as the season progressed. The difference, even at this point, has stood out.
'It's good for a lot of guys,' Brown said. 'Especially those that maybe struggled recently. He brings a breath of fresh air.'
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Fresh air and resetting expectations are why they are easing through the motions. The 32-year-old Karras said he was anxious to view tape of the first Phase 2 practice because he was purposely slowing down to work on applying the new styles, even as the oldest player on the entire roster.
This might not make the summer sizzle reel on Instagram, but those days will come.
'The first thing is making the guys aware that the things are possible that we do,' Peters said. 'And teaching them how to move and the mechanics, because you are not going full speed. You have to teach them the mechanics of how to move, the tools and all the components. Then, as we go forward, you just apply this particular technique.'
Offensive line junkies love this stuff. They could debate all day the value of two-hand punches versus one-hand, reactionary versus aggressive, vertical sets versus jump sets.
Those details are everything for Peters' crew. To everyone else just wanting Burrow upright, it's much more basic in the endgame.
'What he is teaching is all we are trying to do is increase our win-percentage chances on a one-on-one block because we are going to have more one-on-ones than anyone else in the league,' Karras said. 'Whatever increases that threshold of percentage chance to win.'
(Top photo of center Ted Karras and guard Dylan Fairchild practicing at OTAs: Albert Cesare / Imagn Images)