Cincinnati Bengals: 5 players who stood out after 1st padded practice
Cincinnati Bengals who stood out after padded practice
5. Vonn Bell
As mentioned earlier, Bell spoke with the media prior to practice and gave plenty of memorable soundbites. One of the big things Bell said that rang true was how this defense might be full of new faces but they know they can be special. Bell said of this group that “We’re trying to build something special,” and the newcomers are excellent additions to this team.
Bengals safety Vonn Bell on the pass defense so far in camp: “we’re trying to build something special.”
— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) August 3, 2021
“Guys are going into year two in the system…. The pieces we added are excellent.” pic.twitter.com/9eCi0es7SK
Bell noted that last year, guys would point the finger at each other whenever a mistake was made. It showed too, as the defense struggled throughout all of last year and it’s why the Bengals had to go out and heavily add to this unit over the offseason.
Bell said the attitude change is noticeable and guys don’t take things personally anymore. It’s easy for this to be the case during camp but it needs to carry over into the regular season as well. The new faces might be coming in large quantity but so far, it looks to be paying dividends to a Bengals defense that struggled immensely last year.
Vonn Bell on D attitude change “Guys (have) bought in. … they don’t take it personal. … that’s the thing from last year, everything was personal, guys were pointing fingers.” #Bengals pic.twitter.com/yJq35Bddzn
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) August 3, 2021
There were some great quotes from Vonn Bell’s media session and he clearly sees a lot of good with this defense moving forward. It’s a new group of guys but Bell was with the team last year and already is seeing improvement between then and now, which is a good sign for the future.