How Bengals are scheduling health, success

There were slow walks through the Cincinnati Bengals' locker room the week of October 12th, but it had very little to do with the swagger earned from a comeback win over the Seattle Seahawks.

No, there was a decided lack of ebullience.

Simply, football hurts. And the Seahawks have rather infamously battered opponents on more than just the scoreboard, a physical team that leaves it mark well after the final whistle.

By the end of the week however, with a trip to Buffalo on the horizon, the Bengals' locker room looked … normal.

Well, as normal as you can look after five games.

The Bengals went into Ralph Wilson Stadium in New York with only defensive back Leon Hall out of action due to injury, and they wore out the banged-up Bills to move to 6-0.

Perhaps more impressive than the unbeaten start for the Bengals is the fact that, according to the Wall Street Journal, they are just the ninth team since 2005 to not make a change to its season-opening 53-man roster through six weeks.

They are one of three teams to have just two players on injured reserve – wide receiver James Wright and linebacker Marquis Flowers. And both were placed on that list before the regular season began. By contrast, Pittsburgh leads the league with 13 players on injured reserve.

Many factors play into the health of a team. Fortune. Physical preparation. Toughness. But the Bengals also believe they are experiencing success due to a change in the weekly schedule, mainly with the workload on Friday and Saturday, instituted by head coach Marvin Lewis in training camp.

“We’re basically finishing up our hardest part of the week 72 hours before we play a game, which we feel good about,” Lewis said. “So the player has an opportunity to really work on his body. We get to go from the physical focus to the mental focus to the personal focus, for him to get his body back to a peak shape, whatever it may be for him, to play his best football on Sunday.”

Now, six weeks into the regular season – with 10 total games on the ledger counting the preseason – the players can say there has been a positive effect on their bodies, and therefore, on the field.

“I can sense I feel better as the week goes on,” guard Kevin Zeitler said. “Saturday, OK, Sunday, OK I finally feel like I’m a person again. Just to start to the cycle over. That’s kind of the best way to describe it. You’re sore as all heck like normal the first couple days after the game, but throughout the week, working, the way we practice, getting the blood flowing and lifts and all the stuff we do, I think it does help promote the recovery.”

A slow build

One could say this change was four years in the making, following the lockout of 2011 that saw a new collective bargaining agreement alter how often teams could practice and allow contact in those practices.

The Bengals, however, didn’t have to change much in that regard. Lewis said the team was already hitting less often than others before the work stoppage, but he and strength and conditioning coach Chip Morton have been on a quest to truly maximize the hours allowed.

“We look at everything,” Lewis said. “I always look at everything and try to find a way to do something different or better, what can we do to help ourselves? This kind of focuses in on the coaching element and makes every rep count and gives us a better focus. And if we can improve ourselves physically and mentally, then it’s an advantage.”

But one could point to 2013 as to when the league took a drastic step forward in game-week preparation, when the Philadelphia Eagles hired Chip Kelly away from the University of Oregon. He brought in a sports science coordinator to tailor workouts and tracked player movements – and fatigue – with Global Positioning Systems on equipment. Food service was changed, and each Eagle would get custom shakes made for his dietary needs.

Kelly also changed the traditional NFL practice schedule, giving his team Monday off while eliminating practice on Friday. The Eagles would hold just a walkthrough on that day, and then follow it up Saturday with a brisk practice. The Eagles went 10-6 and made the playoffs that year, and are 23-15 under Kelly since.

A year ago, as the Bengals were introducing GPS to their own practices and earmarking $2 million toward upgrading the gym and cafeteria at Paul Brown Stadium, Mike McCarthy and the Green Bay Packers hired a full-time nutritionist (also from Oregon) and changed their schedule. Tuesday would remain an off day, but Friday was also a walkthrough and recovery day - with a sped-up Saturday workout.

Green Bay advanced to the NFC Championship game.

The Bengals' plan for 2015 and what they do within it – while drawing on research and conversations with other officials from around the league – is unique.

The team uses a variety of methods refined by Lewis, Morton and assistant strength and conditioning coach Jeff Friday to better maximize how each player’s body reacts not only to game-day punishment, but also to each day of work between games.

Left tackle Andrew Whitworth says this is the best he’s felt at this point in the season.



“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I think this is the best, schedule-wise, it’s ever been. I think it’s exceptional. I’ve always been one to kind of question why I do something, what’s the reason for what we do. That’s just kind of how I am, whether it’s working out or studying something. I always like there to be a process and kind of clear-cut, hey, this is why I’m doing something. And, so for me, I really get it. I understand it.”

The team uses traditional recovery methods such as hot and cold tub treatments, or a combination of both called contrasts, as well as a device called NormaTec boots, which improve circulation and reduce soreness in the legs.

Morton and his staff also incorporate a variety of custom stretches and treatment options to facilitate muscle recovery in each individual player. The GPS has also given the Bengals an objective way to measure how intensely a player is working, and has provided data that aided in the schedule design.

“We’re thankful,” linebacker Vinny Rey said. “In the NFL, there are a lot of nicks and injuries and you never know when they can come. That’s why you’re grateful when you’re out there, but you have to control what you can and the coaches are doing a great job with the schedule.”

The result has been a 53-man active roster that, for the most part, has been able to participate in practices on a daily basis. The team has had its fair share of names on the injury report, but has lost only one game from a starter due to injury – safety George Iloka, in Week 4 against Kansas City.

Hall is the only other major contributor to have missed a game due to injury.

The soft-tissue injuries that can sometimes knock a player out for weeks at a time – think groin or hamstring pulls – have yet to do so to the Bengals.

And while the organization recognizes it will take an entire season to truly measure the impact of the schedule change, the Bengals are not only a healthy team thus far, but they are already a measurably faster team in 2015 than they were in 2014.

“I think that’s where you’re seeing a benefit, big time, because guys are getting that flexibility, that recovery more day in and day out than they have in the past so when it comes down to it, you want guys healthy during the season so they can play,” running back Rex Burkhead said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re strong and fast – if they’re injured they can’t do anything.”

A mental sharpness

Training camp was when this program was rolled out, and it required buy-in not only from the players but also from the coaches. This is because in order to change how the players' bodies were treated at the end of the week, it required a change in how much they were coached.

A Friday practice is now nearly entirely mental.

This was the element that required the blindest faith on the coach’s part. The players had to put in the work, to make sure they were progressing.

“I think we’ve done a great job – the players have done a great job – of staying the course,” Lewis said. “They’ve done a great job of moving ahead mentally on Fridays. That’s what I’ve been most pleased with.”

Then, Saturday, Lewis said the plan was to increase the heart rate and re-activate the body.

But the players believe that full mental day, followed by a day of practice, has fine-tuned their knowledge of the week’s game plan. That, coupled with feeling better physically, has led to better performance.

“You look at some of the results, you look at some of the things going on, hey listen, any little bit counts in this league,” offensive lineman Eric Winston said. “There are so small differences of teams, and anything that gives you a little bit of an advantage, you gotta do it. I think whether it’s a placebo or not, the guys feel like they’re ready to go. You know what, sometimes that’s good enough to win in this league.”

A veteran hand

That faith was rewarded, in large part, because of the makeup of the team.

“The veteran players have taken the ball and made sure we get what we need and we’re doing it the right way,” Lewis said. “And everybody’s understanding why we’re doing it. So, that part, I’m really pleased with.”



Winston pointed that out immediately as a potential reason for why the change has worked so seamlessly.



“It’s good for a team that’s been here and established as us because you do lose some practice snaps because of it,” he said. “You’re going to get them back in walkthroughs and things but you’re not going to get as many full speed snaps. So you have to have a pretty established team of guys that can weather that, not getting every single snap you might get on a regular week.”

On offense, Andy Dalton has total command of Hue Jackson’s offense. Every key position player is in at least his second year, and this is the fifth year many have spent together.

Defensively, little has changed on that side of the ball as well - in terms of having to work in new faces.

A.J. Hawk was a free-agent acquisition and had to learn the defense, but he worked in this schedule last year with the Packers. He said that if young players see established veterans deviating from the plan, or not participating, they will too.

“You’ve heard older guys say, ‘You don’t know how lucky you have it’ with this, how this is set up,” said Hawk, a 10-year veteran. “It starts with that. Because it’s true. It actually carries over on the field and carries over how you feel, hopefully.”

The long game

Some players, even Lewis himself, have playfully tapped the top of their head when talking about the health of this team through the bye week. In football, many injuries simply cannot be prevented. There is luck involved, and many in the organization feel there is a cyclical element to it.

For instance, while the Packers were one of the least injured teams in 2014 and nearly reached the Super Bowl, they are one of the most injured in 2015, according to ESPN.com. Yet they are also 6-0.

But the point of all this is that in the final weeks of the regular season, but especially in a deep postseason run, the Bengals are not just healthy, but are running as fast and performing as sharply as they were in Week 2.

“I think that’s what we’re finding, what’s that fine line of working out and being able to work really good but then also have enough rest time to be completely 100 percent by the time you get to Sunday,” Lewis said.

He smiled to himself.

“As much as 100 percent is, as the weeks go.”