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NFL Football Players Draft Injuries Rookies Season SuperbowlPublished: May 28, 2009
Bob Bratkowski was once The Next Big Thing.
Mike Zimmer is currently The Next Big Thing.
But the Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive and defensive coordinators have much more in common than that.
Both are the sons of coaches. Both took similar routes to the NFL. And both have the utmost confidence they can revive a Bengals team which finished 4-11-1 in 2008.
Bratkowski, entering his ninth season as the team’s offensive coordinator, said their confidence comes from their backgrounds as coaches’ sons.
His father, Zeke, spent 14 years as NFL quarterback and 26 years as an NFL assistant.
“Anybody that goes into the same profession as their father, whether it’s a plumber, stockbroker, insurance salesman—if you do anything your father did you know the ropes,” he said.
Despite their similarities, however, Bratkowski and Zimmer enter 2009 at far different points in their career.
Bratkowski, once considered something of a genius, has fallen out of favor with Cincinnati’s fan base. The Bengals trudged to the NFL’s worst offense in 2009, averaging just 245 yards and 12.8 points per game.
They didn’t have Carson Palmer. Or a healthy and committed Chad Johnson. But fans want Bratkowski gone anyway. Someone even started a “Fire Bratkowski Now!” petition on a popular local blog.
For Bratkowski, who has experienced nothing but success throughout the last two decades, it’s an odd experience.
In 1989 and 1991, Bratkowski won two national championships as the offensive coordinator at the University of Miami.
He then transformed the Seattle Seahawks into the most potent passing offense in the NFL in the mid-1990s.
After a brief stint with Pittsburgh, Bratkowski joined the Bengals, and between 2005 and 2007, orchestrated one the league’s top-five aerial attacks.
Yet in 12 months, the fiery, 55-year-old Texan went from whiz kid to whipping boy. He knows he must turn the offense around quickly.
“It comes with the territory,” he said. “It’s short-lived and what have you done lately.”
Bratkowski said once the offensive line gels—which features three new starters with almost no experience—the offense has a chance to be “really good.”
“We’ve got some issues to deal with but any time you’ve got a guy like Carson Palmer at quarterback, you can turn it around very quickly,” he added.
Unlike Bratkowski, Zimmer enters 2009 as the rising star of the coaching staff.
In his first season with the Bengals, Zimmer saw the team’s defense improve from 27th worst to 12th best in the NFL.
Youngsters Antwan Odom (DE), Domata Peko (DT), Keith Rivers (LB), Leon Hall (CB) and Chinedum Ndukwe (S) all blossomed under Zimmer’s tutelage, and with the additions of draft picks Rey Maualuga (LB) and Michael Johnson (DE), as well as free agents Tank Johnson (DT) and Roy Williams (S), many expect Zimmer to elevate this unit into a top-five defense.
Like Bratkowski, Zimmer attributes much of success to being the son of a coach. His dad, Bill, also played for the San Francisco 49ers.
“He was always fanatical about trying to stay one step ahead of everybody,” Zimmer recalled about his father. “He wasn’t afraid to try things. I thought of that when I went from a 4-3 to a 3-4. I thought about my dad going from the wishbone to the run-and-shoot. He didn’t care.”
“I’m big on technique,” he added. “I want to make sure guys do the things we’re asking to do to do it right. Play hard all the time. Hands in the right place. Feet in the right place.
I think in pro football a lot guys get to the point where they worry so much about who you’re playing or the scheme, your technique goes bad. …Typically I’m a little bit of a hollerer and screamer.”
Zimmer has been doing it right for a long time. He did it as a rookie secondary coach when the 1995 Cowboys won the Super Bowl and he put cornerback Larry Brown in the right spot to intercept two passes and win the MVP award.
He did it in 2003 when he had a starting rookie cornerback in Terence Newman and the Cowboys blitzed their way to a No. 1 ranking. Then he did it in 2005 and 2006 in that new 3-4 scheme and coaxed out rankings of 13 and 10.
Many organizations and pundits have already pegged him as a future head coach. But for now, Zimmer is jut focused on turning the Bengals into a winning team.
“I think we’ve got a good nucleus of guys,” he said. They all work hard. They all play hard. And now we’ve got some veteran guys to help bring some of the young guys along. That’ll help us.”
Published: May 26, 2009
Four new starters. Two have never played an NFL down. Another was the fourth best lineman on his college team.
Such is the Bengals’ offensive line situation, which has more question marks than a “Jeopardy!” transcript.
In 2008, the Bengals surrendered 51 sacks, the worst of any AFC team. Behind a porous offensive line, quarterback Carson Palmer broke his nose, sprained his ankle and partially tore a ligament and tendon in his right elbow. The Bengals finished the season 4-11-1 and had the lowest ranked offense in the NFL.
Although the team selected left tackle Andre Smith with the sixth pick in this year’s NFL Draft, the offensive line remains one of the Bengals’ biggest concerns. With blitz-happy Pittsburgh and Baltimore in their division, the inexperienced unit has little room for error.
Yet after the first voluntary workout of the spring, right guard Andrew Whitworth, one of the team’s only two veteran linemen, said he isn’t worried.
Whitworth, who has made 38 starts in three years, and right guard Bobbie Williams, a 10-year veteran, will anchor the line. Neither has ever made a Pro Bowl.
“A hungry offensive line to me is better than a talented one,” Whitworth said. “A lot of teams have proved they can win with a bunch of guys that haven’t played much and just want to get out there and fight and crawl and scratch.
“Right now we have a lot of guys that have a lot to prove, whatever it is. We have a lot to prove and we’ve got a lot of guys hungry to do it. I’m happy with whom we’ve got. … We’ll see where we go from here.”
Center Ryan Cook and left guard Nate Livings are the unit’s largest unknowns.
Cook has never played a snap in the NFL, and Livings was the fourth best offensive lineman at Louisiana State in 2005, before catching on with the Bengals as an undrafted free agent.
In 2008, Livings got six starts, but struggled with both blitz pickup and creating running lanes for the running backs.
And although top draft pick Smith has Pro-Bowl talent, he must transition from right tackle—where he played at the University of Alabama—to left tackle, where he’ll line up for the Bengals in 2009.
The 6-4, 332-pound All-American admitted it’s a tough transition, but is trying to learn as much as he can from the veterans. Williams said Smith is doing everything necessary to improve.
“I think he’s going to be OK because I think he wants to be good. He wants to show why they drafted him,” Williams said. “He listens. He’s humble. I’m going to help him every day and every way I know how.”
Williams said some of the offensive lines perceived inexperienced is just that: Perceived.
He pointed out that Cook, despite not playing, has been in the team’s offensive system more than two years, since the Bengals signed him his rookie year in 2007 after the Vikings waived him.
Offensive line coach Paul Alexander said the 6-3, 305-pounder was actually on the verge of playing last year until he suffered a season-ending broken toe during warmups before the Dallas game.
Coaches and players described Cook as having a high IQ and great communication skills, and they are confident he can learn quickly.
“He was real verbal; he’s real aggressive,” Williams said after the first voluntary workout last week. “Kyle has been around. He just doesn’t have any experience in games. He was chirping out the calls out there. I like hearing that.”
Still, players and coaches admitted the offensive line is a work in progress and needs to develop chemistry.
“That’s something that happens over time. It’s nothing you rush,” Whitworth said. “Even your good lines that have been together a lot of years are still developing and learning.”
Bengals Hall-of-Fame offensive tackle Anthony Munoz said the unit’s youth, however, could work in its favor.
“On paper, you’ve got guys who can adapt,” Munoz said. “There are a lot of young guys along with a new tackle. Hopefully with the reps and experience they can develop quickly.”
At least this week, QB Palmer didn’t seem worried about the situation.
“It’s not that inexperienced of a group because you have guys like Bobby and Whitworth to lead. … You can’t ask for more vocal and better leaders to show them the way,” Palmer said. “Experience won’t be something we’re going to be lacking just because of the attitudes of those two guys. … But we’ve got a ton of OTAs, minicamps and the preseason games.”
For the sake of his personal health—and the Bengals’ season—hopefully that’s enough time for the offensive line to gel.