Former Bengal Eric Thomas | Analyzing Cincinnati Bengals 2024 Defensive Backs

Former Bengal Eric Thomas | Analyzing Cincinnati Bengals 2024 Defensive Backs

what a great decision you made to join us in the trenches today brought you by first star Logistics and I’m telling you the studio is second and none and our guest is second and none because it is Eric Thomas ET ET he not only phoned home he ran home he tackled home he did it big time he was one of the best defensive players best best corners best players in bangal history he could fly he talks about playing the secondary he talks about Dax Hill moving from safety to Corner instead of corner to safety he talks about the young defensive backs he’s impressed with the rookie uh draft picks up front because as the as we all know an old football axum you can’t stop the run you ain’t stopping the pass either you got to stop the run and make it onedimensional all of that Eric Thomas is one of those guys you could talk to football talk football with for a long long time and we did you’re GNA like it [Music] certainly do appreciate you taking the time to join us in the trenches with Dave lapman brought to you by first star Logistics as always coming to you from our studio second and none Studio by the way in our brand new building so we’re we’re in good shape here with respect to what we got going on we’re in unbelievable shape with our guest because this guy knows football we’re talking Eric Thomas we’re talking ET this guy has played football has broadcast has coached has done everything he can do in the game of football Eric Thomas second round pick out of two lane nine-year player in the National Football League the 88 season was one to remember uh member of the SWAT team Bengals go to the Super Bowl ET obviously play in the in the Super Bowl and then goes to the Pro Bowl as well thing about him he’s a he’s an unbelievable Sprinter long jumper as well so just an outstanding athlete that the Bengals had at the cornerback position one of the greatest Corners in the history of Cincinnati Bengals football and we love talking football with ET what’s up my man hey what’s going on that great introduction I appreciate it I don’t know if I’m all that but I sure appreciate it you are all that real quick I know we’ve talked about this before I mean coaching part of it what’s it like I I can only imagine what what it’s like to coach a kid and and develop him and help in the maturation as a human being and as a football player and see him get a scholarship to play at the next level what is that feeling like when you know you were instrumental and help him get that done man you I tell you what I think about uh back when I was player and uh you know as you know dick laau was my coach here and and he was such the great teacher day uh and you know he was patient he was softspoken but he was all about the teaching part of it and you know the teaching part of it translates to your life and how you handle yourself as a person uh the things that you want to try and Achieve uh from being an athlete or football player and so we had we got very lucky that we had dick leau a guy who had played in the leag for 15 years understood the landscape of how the league uh uh works players need to come into the league and and and and have this approach and this way about going to be a professional and so for me having such a great role model uh and someone to learn from and watch even though I had no idea at the time that I was planning on coaching in any kind of way uh but to take that and now pass it along I just had a kid that played for me down at Taft High School a kid named Quinton Price He 62 about 185 pounds oh plays Corner uh he’s long and he’s fast and I got this K in the 10th grade and he was sort of long and dangly and so to have the opportunity to take this sort of raw product and sort of help him develop and understand how to play the position how to understand the responsibility of going out there and playing at a high level week in and week out uh the responsibility of watching film and trying to see how much you can absorb to learn before you even take the field and to watch this kid go from a sophomore who was just a long kid and no one knew that he was going to turn out to be a good player but you look at his bot and for him to to go from a sophomore to now being at the University of Cincinnati on a full ride scholarship uh and having a chance to play in the Big 12 and get this opportunity to continue his athletic career and his schooling um that’s it makes you feel really really good because at this point in my life I’m not trying to do anything for myself in in in regard I’m done with my athletic career I’m no longer playing so uh in order to have the opportunity to pass along some of that information that uh that I got as a player uh from the great coach that I had uh has been man it’s it’s been worth a million bucks Dave it’s been fantastic I I can only imagine you know when when the kids the first time that they you know you gather up with them and and uh and you’re imparting the knowledge whether it be in the classroom on the field or whatever and they’re thinking oh my gosh man that’s Eric Thomas he was a pro bowl player with the cincin he he played in Super Bowl 23 that’s Eric Thomas man he was covering all these great I’m listening to Eric Thomas I mean do you do you see in their faces that it’s like they’re aren’t every word man absolutely uh I what you I think what you find is that athletes are different these days than we were day but what they what they want still they still want to learn yeah uh they still want to be good and they still and they still understand that the only way I’m going to get that is if I absorb that from someone who knows someone who’s been there someone who’s had that experience and so for me uh I hear The Whispers And I hear the guys the Super Bowl he he’s a pro bowl cour all this kind of stuff and I and I look that’s great for me I said that’s not great for you guys I said because you’re not me you have to do you have to do what you can do and so I tell him said look it’s great to look at what I did I said but I I want you to look at the the the the information I’m going to give you and the way I’m going to teach you and see if that can help you go achieve whatever you want um I told said coaching is a a it’s really a sort of a thankless job until guys are gone and then you see them come back and then they come and talk to you I mean I had guys that uh I coached over at Prin in high school that I still talked to and that was five years ago and uh five six years ago and these guys still talk to me they still some of them still playing playing college football and they’re very fortunate that they’ve had a sort of a sounding board in coach ET they can call and uh talk to about things about making decisions about what they want to do with their careers and so for me as you know the growth of of the young man is really what coaching is about trying to help people see if they can reach some of their goals themselves and not just be a good athlete and a good player but also take that on and become a good citizen become a good person in in society because that’s going to get you a lot of places uh uh that football wouldn’t and so I think that just having that opportunity to do that Dave it’s a it’s a it’s a blessing I tell you I I remember the relationship I had with my coaches High School College in the in in the NFL um offensive line coaches and honestly I mean literally they were they were like my second dads you know I mean I worship those guys man I mean if they told me to you know to to to run through the wall backwards I would anything they told me to do I I would have done um and honestly unfortunately you know I’m getting to an age where there aren’t any of them around anymore but when I lost them every single time that one passed on I I was like man it just crushed me you know it was almost like I lost that family member that Dad uh Father Figure and it’s it’s it’s very very unique I mean people some people people are listening you know that didn’t experience what we experienced they might oh man that’s cornball stuff man it’s real though it’s real yeah these bonds and relationships are Real Deals aren’t they you know when you’re a young man and you have that like when you come into the pros you know we we all came into the league we’re green uh we have no idea what the league is about we’re coming in now we’re seeing players that we watched on TV and now we’re actually in the same locker room with some of those players and it and it can be sort of intimidating initially but what happens is once you get into the part about football yep it age has nothing to do with it it only comes down to who has the most desire to learn and be good and I think that I think about you as in your career you know the you know you think about the 52 player I don’t think what I know about Dave La is Dave La could play anything he play center he play guard he play tackle and that’s really what you know football is about but that’s that’s the learning part of that’s having a coach that’s willing to take the time to say hey Dave we want you to do this this this we know you can do it and we’re gonna teach you and give you the tools and so I felt the same way about you know me and what I do with my with my coaching just try to see if I can give these guys some tools to want to uh go out there and take on the field and see if that can get them to a level that they want to be well you were an unbelievably versatile football player as well you could play a lot of position tick Lao loved you for for that reason as well as many others takes me to uh I guess transition to a guy a current Cincinnati Bengal Dax Hill who has played Safety but now they’re going to put move him outside and you know you hear a lot about Corners going inside the safety toward the tail end of their career going from safety to Corner is a much different Dynamic than going from corner to safety what do you think about that with respect to Dax Hill how do you think he might Faire um and what are the challenges that he may be facing ET you know one of the things you know Solomon wilcott and I talk a lot we talk football like you and I do we can just talk football all day and you know we talked about Dax uh last year and you know he’s a he’s a very very good athlete yep um one of things that that I thought was to leave him at safety and let him continue to grow and learn because I think that at some point if he if he doesn’t cut it at corner and the Bengal release him the next team if he gets picked up by another team which he probably will is gonna have him play safety I think that that’s where his his ceiling is I don’t know if he can play corner I do know he’s one will of an athlete but I know too that uh and talking to Solomon who actually made the transition from corner to safety right when I think it was rookie year yep it was different for him playing that position but playing safety was easier for him than playing Corner uh because he had been a corner his whole his whole career um when you play the position from that angle playing outside in all the time you have to get used to understanding that part of it because when you play Corner even if you’re in man-to-man coverage and say a running play comes and it breaks outside you still have to play the corner you you still have to turn the ball back inside and these are things that I think that it takes years and it takes a lot of experience to learn obviously him being a pro he’ll have an opportunity to get coach coached up well and hopefully he can get used to playing football from that angle rather than playing football from inside out where you play safety um I do know that he’s a well of an athlete uh when they have training camp I’m gonna make it a point to go down there and see him because I like to see how he performs um I think it’s a very very tough transition because you don’t see that a lot as you said but you do see guys from going from corner to safety um if he can make this transition it’ll be and and he can be good at it it’ll be one of the one of the best stories I think for their team this year if he can go out there and play at that high level that they need him to play if they’re a team that’s talking about trying to uh get the playoffs and have Super Bowl aspirations uh the quarterback position the quarterback play is so vital we saw last year when cam Tay Brit got injured went down for those several games they were in scramble mode trying to find who to put on the field to play the quarterback position yep um uh TJ Turner uh played okay in spots but he had a really really tough year his his rookie year looked looked a little bit like mine I mean you know he he had he got roughed up a little bit The Hope is that he develops and if he can play at a high level that’ll make the the other guys have to come up to his level as well particularly in Dax Hill because Dax Hill is gonna want one of those jobs he he’s not gonna get it from cam T Brit unless cam Brit slips a whole lot right back in his rookie year he’s he’s he’s going on his fourth year just like that he at the point where he’s he should be ready to uh uh stay at that level it’s interesting to see how Dax Hill goes into this and how he looks at the competitive part of it because he’s gonna have to take someone’s job in order to get himself on the field and he can man he can flip his hips and run I mean that that’s not an issue with him I mean he has got those kind of traits and that that’s um watching him in corner you know and I’m I mean i’ I’ve watched a lot but I’ve never played it like you and and and guys but you know it looks like you know he may may have a shot and it’s there’s a lot less to think about a lot less traffic out there and all that sort of thing I agree with you Cam Taylor Britain watching him ET at OTAs and in me Camp stuff man he’s he’s even uh trimmer and More Physical he’s hit the weight room this kid he’s the number one guy by far there’s no doubt he’s number one guy out there he was having a to me in my opinion I told s he was having a pro bowl season last year yeah he was having a pro he was making plays every single game then he got the hamstring went down and and that costus him some of his season but I just think that you know again I think they have you know you got to have four corners and then and obviously we had Mike Hilton who’s just a slot corner but you got to have four maybe even five corners on your team to get through a season um is at the point now you have 17 games you might even need six corners to get through the season because it’s such a a vital position so I think that if if that’s if that’s can give them what they need even from a depth standpoint that they put him out there and they can trust that he can get out there and get the job done it’ll be a plus for the team um again I with everything I know about him phenomenal athlete I remember his rookie year Dave during preseason and I said they got him one they gotta D yeah I me he had an outstanding preseason all over the field intercepting passes knocking down balls making the tackles they need to make um making the plays out in space that we’ve seen him make and it’s funny because you watch him as a rookie and then you watch him last year and how many games he had an opportunity to make a play because the ball was almost thrown up in the air to him and he just couldn’t get that done I thought that they should have kept him at safety you got Von Bell back Von Bell’s experience can help him because I guarantee you if you line him and Von bill at the same position and then as each one of those guys that get to a certain position he’ll get to places that Von Bell can’t get just because as you said his athletic ability um I would have liked to see him develop at that position I think that he with his with his athletic ability he could probably be a Pro Bowl safety because he’s got the range he’s got good size he he’s not afraid to tackle he does all the things that you want from a football player but he just doesn’t do it consistently enough and I think last year getting thrown into the fire um they thought that he was ready to take that step and and and clearly he wasn’t ready he wasn’t ready Von Bell uh um Gino stone that they got from Baltimore another guy that you know can direct traffic back there and all that Jordan battle young SA you know up and coming and you know Lou loves to run three safeties in his packages uh a lot of the time too and like you say there can be six six DBS out there on the field when you count them count them all up um Lou was very disappointed obviously in the explosives I mean every time I talked to him like you know bring up last year oh man explosives that was it running game passing game I we gave up too many blanky blank explosives and uh you know a lot of it is you know making sure that you’re lined up right initially and then when you need to make adjustments to get to where you need to be make sure that all happens too or else you don’t have a chance I mean in this league these guys are so damn good you don’t have a chance right that’s right well you know I think that last year you know when or two years ago when you had two veteran safeties two guys who who really sort of know what they’re doing two guys who can sort of drift drift around give you a different look and still get to the area responsibility and Jessie bat and Von Bell he had that luxury of of that yeah and and and and and I think even when uh uh earlier when before uer got hurt you know you were solid at the corners and solid at safties and now you go from from being you know shaky at corner to very shaky at safety and and and we knew Solon I talked about going into free agency and what would happen uh we were scared to death that they would lose both of those guys we knew there’s a great possibility they gonna lose Jessie Bates just because second round pick uh he’s not even in his prime yet good player solid player but we thought they could keep Von Bell and when they lost both of them we were like shuttering because we knew this is the time where teams become vulnerable on balls downfield and and and I know for a fact that last year I know how Louis feels because Solomon said we we talked about this last year we saw the ball go over 20 30 yards downfield more than any anytime over the pr prior three seasons yeah you couldn’t throw a deep on him without that ball getting intercepted so I I think that if they can get back to that point where they can tighten that down and I think Stone’s a good player I think F you watch him play in Baltimore he’s explosive he’s smart uh he he’s at an age where he’s still growing uh mentally and physically yeah seven picks seven picks last year that’s right you put him with a guy like Von Bell a very headyy football player smart uh gonna make sure that they get lined up right I think battles a good player um he won’t start but I think he’s going to turn out to be a very very good Pro because you know what he understands get where they asked you to be and and when you’re a rookie player you know that’s the thing with young players can can they you tell them their responsibility can they get there and do it and and and be effective that way well battle was so I think now they have at least three safeties that they can do some things with this where I think Dak would have excelled because as you know when Dak was at Michigan State he played sort of a a a Nickel Dime uh player there he played down inside the slot right and and and and it’s something that it takes a while to get comfortable with you know he I don’t think he could ever come in and do for right now what Mike Hilton’s doing in the slot on one side when when when when the big go to their dime package and you have to bring another safety slot SL slash Corner in to cover that back or that tight end on the other side he should be able to do that very effectively yep right at his wheelhouse that’s right what he did in college right so it’s sort of disappointing and surprising that he can’t do it here at this level so uh uh I I think that I heard last year that that possibly if Corner was a a thing for him yeah still just in my opinion um you know I would would have left him where he is you know I know his contract coming up and everything they want to see what he is and you they got to make a decision about him but I can tell you right now if they don’t resign him he say he doesn’t play well they didn’t start this year they can’t find a way to resign it he’s going to another team and he is going to play safety they’re going to play him at safety because with that kind of athletic ability it’s just a matter of just if they have to limit in terms of what he does they want to get him on the FI that position because he’ll make some plays just because he’s so explosive um that’s a conversation that Dax still think can going for a long time uh uh it it can but I think that at the end of the day it’ll be interesting to see how he uh how he plays it I’ll be a training camp to watch I’ll be there so ET and the in the uh you you mentioned uh Stone they got in free agency and defensively in the draft I mean Luan rumo they were active defensively for l in the draft here they get Chris Jenkins the 49th pick in the second round out of uh Michigan uh very solid defensive tackle interior player McKinley Jackson Another interior defensive line big guy uh 97th pick out of Texas A&M third round guy and then in the fifth round they get Josh Newton uh cornerback out of uh out of TCU um 149th pick in the fifth round they had him rated as maybe a late third rounder and this kid plays with tremendous Instinct he’s real competitive it looks like ET I mean he’s a very physical tackler he gets people on the ground High character guy smart guy even at otaa in mini camp he was challenging everything I mean what do you think about this kid I think he’s gonna be very very good um you I watched him when after they drafted him and you know we we talked about can they go in and get another Corner that in later lat in the draft that was projected much higher when you look at him you know you know these draft projections they kind of mean something they kind of don’t as you know because they miss on so many players they get it wrong let’s face it the the greatest quarterback in the history of our game was a six round pick and and you think that that you think a few teams missed on him 199 199 that’s crazy so I think that uh I knew they were looking for another guy back on the back in another Corner because I said you got to have at least five corners you got to have five corners so here’s ay that comes in I think that he going to be looking to get on the field you know and that now kids these days he played the Big 12 they throwing the ball all over the place he comes in with a lot of experience covering the football covering the field so I think again here’s a kid who has a chance to come in right now we know cam trer Brit’s holding down one corner yep we don’t know if DJ Turner is holding down another Corner we don’t know if we based on what we saw last year on film it’s not going to be good enough if he does that again so this other this other kid comes this fifth round pick to come in and think you know nothing set in stone until it’s set in stone until week one of the season and and I think that uh if if he comes in and he does the things we saw him do as as a as a college football player he’ll have a chance to get on the field and play a little bit in the uh seventh round 224th pick dejon Anthony uh excellent press cover guy uh out of Old Miss they had him rated as a high six rounder they got him in the seventh and like you said I mean where these you know have guys ranked get them on the field and see what they can do uh free agency Lane Robinson out of tan Corner out of tan they signed in free agency uh you’re Al mam Mater H PJ juwels safety out of Southern Illinois Michael Dow out of Miami Ohio I mean they they realize they have to get a compe I think they probably got 15 DBS 14 15 DBS coming to it’s gonna be competitive it’s good Dave because you know you know what happened last year when they when they when the injury bug hit them you know Camp brick goes down uh Wu wasn’t quite right back right yet I mean they they were really scried in the bottom of the barrel I mean a couple of games they had to try to slly Dak outside a little bit and just too much I I think that they realized Louis real realized now we have to keep our defensive back room locked and load because the fastest way to lose games in this league Dave as you know is bad horrible quarterback play and bad secondary Play It’s You know the Bengals had so many games last year where had they just been able to take keep teams from throwing the ball up the field and taking and taking that that top away they would had they would have won they would have won three more games yeah because they got bombed in some of them games you think about the Houston game I mean they won they beat the 49ers but the 49ers I mean really had it easy going up in down the field throwing the ball and and you know if a team’s gota gotta run the ball up in up the middle and they’re gonna beat you like that God bless them yeah but you can’t give it to him by uh let him throw it over your head you talked about the two early draft picks the defensive tackles fantastic move I mean because I think I think about the Dallas Cowboys last year and what happened to them it happened to them late in the season where team started gashing them up the middle and running the ball on them real real effectively the Bengals were were were okay in the run some games not so okay in other games right I think that the the the addition when DJ reader went down big hole so now that they have two young young players in there that can fill that that Gap in there with with with BJ Hill and Sheldon rankins it gives them an opportunity to say we have rotation inside we have size inside we have youth inside and so it gives them a chance to be better at that that because when you get soft in the Run game Dave you gonna be soft in the pass game too if you can’t stop the run you’re just vulnerable to everything you know we saw it with the Dallas Cowboys in the Green Bay Packers last year uh Green Bay got it going to run game it just opened up the whole it it was the floodgates and so I think that if the Bengals can can have these players come in players perform at the level in which they expect them to it’s a great opportunity for them to get back to where they want to be being if the quarterback’s healthy and the offens coordinators Instinct with him and all those things we talk about that have that have have to have Team come together but it’s a great opportunity for this team because they have a a pretty good blend of veteran players and want I say veteran not old old veteran players but veteran players that are in their fourth fifth six years and and younger players coming in that’s about where you want to be it’ll give them a chance to make a run and you know the hope is that if they play uh like we think they can um I don’t know if Super Bowl is it but you know I think you get into the tournament you want to get into the tournament every year because once you get in just like just like two years ago when they got in they took it all the way to the end and so you know like I know people they can have the rankings who’s this who’s that when the playoff start no one knows who’s gonna win that tournament when it starts and so the most important thing is that they get in I think they they put themselves in a position with the young players uh and the veteran players that they have that they can probably make a little run this year so ET they uh they did a good job but plug and holes like you say DJ rer moves on and Sheldon rankins a couple of draft picks I mean they they they’ve done a good job in free agency in the draft pluging holes then developing developing uh these these young draft picks so Tyler Boyd moves on slot receiver I mean very very accomplished slot receiver they draft in the third round the 80th pick Germaine Burton who uh played in the SEC he played at uh he played at uh at Alabama he played at Georgia firstr talent in a lot of people’s opinions I mean not many you can run what what do you know about Burton how do you feel about that selection well you know it’s funny you know my mom’s from Georgia my mom’s from Georgia she’s uh grew up in Atlanta Georgia so um I watch a lot of Georgia football I’m an SEC guy because I played at two lane and even when I played at two lane we were a major independent but our whole schedule the majority of our schedule was school we played L we played Georgia we played Kentucky we played Old Miss we played Mississippi State so uh we I’m used to watching that type of football and I watched him when he was at Georgia and you could see then I think he was a right a freshman at Georgia but that’s I think that’s year they won the National Championship I said this kids gonna be really really good next thing you know transfers to Alabama right you see the same type of explosiveness uh he’s obviously playing play playing in another Top Flight program but you know what I saw with this kid this kid makes play after play after play and I think he does it differently than Tyler boy this guy this kid does it with speed kid this is something I think that’s going to be great for them because they didn’t have that since since Z since Joe Bro and Z has been here they haven’t had that burner in the slot uh I thought one of the things that would happen was they would take Jamar Chase move him down in the slot because he would be very dangerous there yeah that you’d have to have someone outside but here’s this Burton kid who who’s a slot receiver he’s got sides he’s got speed this is going to be a really really uh great opportunity for them because people don’t understand when you put a third re out there like this who could possibly be a one receiver your third corner is going to be on him you got your two outside corners your third corner is going to be on the slot guy and that’s what I think the Bengals can take advantage and think Tyler Boyd had opportunities I mean he dropped balls that I just you know even to this day I just still can’t understand how he could drop those balls but if this kid can get in that slot and he can get the kind of Separation that we’ seen him getting in college he’s going to see a lot of balls coming his way this I mean this is a game changer this is a guy who’s who’s almost like a starting receiver coming into your building and he’s going to be learning from two guys who have had a lot of success in the league and he’s coming in the position where he’s gonna be playing against every team’s thirdd corner he should do very very well um you know I heard about the I guess the off the field stuff that’s gonna be that won’t be an issue till it’s an issue right that’s that’s the thing is that you know here it is they should talk to him say hey man you got a great opportunity you got a great opportunity you don’t want to go do something to mess this up because you’re playing with a franchise that wanted you you playing with a quarterback that can get you that football and that should mean more than anything else he ought to spend as much time he can learning from Joe bro trying to be that that player but if he can get there quickly uh like where Tyler boy was and he probably can he’s faster player got good hands this offense could could do something come down still can can they run the football and those kind of things but the opportunity to be explosive is certainly there ET can’t thank you enough man I mean one thing you mentioned speed on Burton this football team’s got some speed and you’re one of the fastest players ever to put on a Cincinnati Bengals uniform I mean ET could fly fly man and not only fly change direction I mean it’s it’s like you’re a hell of a football player my man and uh apprciate appreciate you uh carving time for us giving us a chance to talk football with ET because like you said earlier I can talk football with you all day we’ve talked a lot of it brother that’s appr I’m telling you thank you once again ET brother for the best have a great Fourth of July my man appreciate you Dave have a great day brother you too Dave lapam here and every day I am grateful for my experience to have played professional football as a player I realize self- motivation leadership and appreciating your teammates are key at First St Logistics you can use those same attributes to create the life you want for you and your family build your future by working hard like I did you’ll see results both on and off the field 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Former Cincinnati Bengals corner Eric Thomas joins us today on In the Trenches with Dave Lapham to discuss the Bengals 2024 defensive backs.

One of the biggest questions for this 2024 Bengals defense is the revamped secondary.

Will Vonn Bell return to his starting position after leaving the team last year? Can Geno Stone go from one of the best backups in the NFL to a dominant starter with the Bengals?

What will become of the Bengals 1st-round pick Dax Hill? Minicamp reports suggest he’s getting playing time at outside corner but as ET says in our interview that’s one of the hardest jumps to make in the NFL.

We want to thank Eric Thomas for being a fantastic guest and for joining us today on In the Trenches with Dave Lapham brought to you by First Star Logistics. We also look forward to growing our new central channel, First Star Media Group, and having you fans follow us along the ride. A lot more content is coming soon so definitely hit that subscribe button so you never miss one of our uploads!
As always Who Dey!