Not to be confused with Athens, Ohio, where Joe Burrow mostly grew up, but Athens, Greece was the site of a scary accident last month when Cincinnati Bengals tight end Erick All Jr. was hit by a truck. All came away remarkably unscathed from the potential life-threatening situation.
The NFL life hasn't been too kind to All since the Bengals drafted him in the fourth round back in 2024. That whole class looks like a bit of a disaster, yet All has looked excellent when healthy. Unfortunately, complications from a surgery on the torn ACL he suffered as a rookie kept him out all of last season.
All told, All has played in only nine games for the Bengals. Nevertheless, hopes are high for him this year — and he's doing nothing to extinguish the raging buzz. Burrow himself has said, "you wouldn't know" All has been through all his injury adversity by how he's moving at training camp.
It turns out getting hit by a truck made All... all good
Caleb Noe of WCPO took some video in the locker room after Thursday's training camp practice, wherein Erick All Jr. captivated the media crew and whomever on the X/Twittersphere stumbled across his scare whilst abroad:
"I got up and was like, 'I’m f—king ready.' It didn’t hurt me at all. It just kind of gave me the confidence like, ‘Oh, I’m back.' [...] I got hit pretty hard...It was like I got sift blocked. [...] But it really was huge for my confidence. [...] That’s the first time I got pancaked ever. [...] I’m usually the hammer."
Suppose that's one way to find out your surgically-repaired knee will hold up. In fact, he also mentioned that coaches are encouraging All to chill out because he's so exuberant on the practice field and wanting to do everything at full tilt.
Imagine that: Getting hit by a truck, and having the revelation that it made you more confident than ever before. NFL players really are built different, eh?
What could've been a traumatic event or a collision that for sure ended his football career instead spun into a massive positive for All. The 25-year-old still gives off some of those youthful invincibility vibes and naivete. Or maybe All is just genuinely chuffed that he can laugh off that particular dust-up with fate after enduring myriad injuries dating back to college.
All's bothersome knee and a back injury that required surgery in 2022 have prevented the undeniably gifted tight end from reaching his ceiling as a player. And that ceiling is, make no mistake, very high.
Burrow has implied that he expects All to have a considerable role this year. If that's the case, the Bengals can do a lot more 12 personnel formations, and be quite multiple with Mike Gesicki as a de facto slot wide receiver.
Plus, as All's mentality about the truck accident suggests, he loves physicality and the blocking aspect of playing tight end. That should help the running game and Chase Brown, too.
This offense is going to be fun to watch. All could be a big part of why.
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