CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati Bengals rookie linebacker Carl Lawson couldn't help himself.

Lawson, frustrated with center Russell Bodine in the heat of the moment, found himself pushing and shoving. Lawson's helmet had been ripped off during the play, and Bodine's helmet soon came off, too.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, aware that practice had gotten heated among other players the day before, quickly put an end to it.

"Did he hurt you?" Lewis barked. "No? Then move on."

Lawson said later he knew he shouldn't be fighting. But considering Lawson moves constantly at top speed, sometimes it's hard to hold back. Lewis said Lawson's biggest problem, if it is even a problem, is getting him to slow down.

"The difficult thing about Carl is that he's a million miles an hour," Lewis said.

The Bengals coach, who clearly wasn't too concerned Thursday as he talked with a smile about Lawson, would prefer he takes things a little slower.

"He's going to get unleashed," Lewis said. "It's a hard thing. He's trying to be impressive. Well, he's impressed me enough."

The Bengals have had just one week of training camp, but their fourth-round pick has been one of the more impressive players on the field. Lewis compared him to David Pollack, who was selected in the first round of the 2005 draft after a 36-sack career at Georgia. Pollack's NFL career was cut short due to a neck injury in his season second.

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"We've had this 'guy,' and it never worked out totally," Lewis said. "Now, I have another one. David Pollack got hurt in his second year. He didn't get any training camp his first year, but he had a really good rookie year for what he got to do. Then he got hurt in the second game of his second year. But we've been searching for this kind of guy again, and we found another one. He's smart, football-wise. And he wants to be good. All the arrows are pointing up.”

Lawson has worked at both defensive end and linebacker, with the focus Thursday primarily at defensive end. While Lawson is listed as a linebacker, he's more of a hybrid of both positions, and will likely be used a lot as a pass-rusher. The Bengals had only 33 sacks last season.

"Hopefully he can help us out in the rush," defensive coordinator Paul Guenther said. "He's working some linebacker stuff, so we'll continue to push him along. He's going to help us."

Lawson played only one position at Auburn: defensive end, and his job was to rush the passer. Playing linebacker is something new for him, and he admitted his coverage skills are "not very good" at this point.

"I need to keep working," he said. "Not necessarily athletically, just knowing how it works on defense."

Lawson sounded upbeat and positive about tackling his new position. It's almost surprising how much he has taken to the amount of information being thrown at him. The odd thing is that it wasn't always this way.

Lawson's first love is rushing the passer. But he started to overthink things at Auburn after missing time due to injury.

He was shelved for all of the 2014 season with an ACL tear and for six games in 2015 with a hip injury. His mind wasn't where it should have been.

"That's the weird thing," Lawson said. "In college, I thought a lot. It slowed me down. These last couple of months I've realized that was my biggest problem. ...

"As a player you have to sit there and know your strengths and weaknesses. At Auburn, I thought too much, and I really didn't have that much experience because I was injured a lot. I was thinking about all of this stuff instead of using my athletic ability and my power to make plays. And since I realized that, coming off college, I thought, 'Wow, if I think less, I'm at my best, potentially.' And then I add thinking into it. So I flipped it around."

That's exactly what Lewis wants him to do: think less.

"It's funny, he and [third-rounder] Jordan Willis are conscientious in the same way. They don't ever want to be wrong. I keep telling them, 'Give me a little of [Carlos] Dunlap. A little Carlos. Just a pinch, and you'll be fine,'" Lewis said. "Because you have to be reckless to play this game on defense effectively. You have to have a little bit of that, because on defense, if you think you're going to coach this game based on numbers, you're going to get your butt beat."

Lawson can't be certain why he fell so far in the 2017 draft, but the injuries likely played a big part. He had to admit, as he watched pass-rushers go off the board on Days 1 and 2, he was a little ticked off. He felt he was better than his draft position.

"I feel like I totally got disrespected in the draft. It's how you want to feel. There were about 20 pass-rushers in front of me, and I watch film on everybody. I know how good I was," Lawson said. "And even as good as I feel I've gotten, there's still no reason I feel like [those players] should have gotten drafted over me. And my whole career, during the time that God blesses me with, I'm going to go out there and try to prove it."

Lawson was asked if that particular feeling drives him.

"Every day," he said.