Bengals Rookies Hoping to Show Their Value in Friday's Preseason Opener Against Packers

Cincinnati hosts Green Bay on Friday night.

In Darrin Simmons' office you’ll find what he deems “healthy” energy drinks, no longer cases of Red Bull from year’s past. You also find a pillow and cot. 

Essential tools for a guy who is staying up late and waking up early to evaluate all 87 guys on Cincinnati’s roster. He’s not just evaluating players, he’s working on making sure they're ready for Friday's preseason opener.

“It’s difficult for sure, Simmons said following the Bengals joint practice with the Packers. “We have to have a vision of what that 53-man roster is going to look like every day for me, it’s not just something that happens at the end. I’ve got to try to formulate what that roster is going to be so that I can get the players who are going to be ready who are going to play for us against Cleveland. I’ve got to get them playing, got to get them used to each other and then the ones who are close, they’re in the second group and they’re vying for those extra spots so I spend a lot of time daily working through my depth charts and all of the different combinations of the punting, the punt return team, the kickoff team, kickoff return team, even the field goal team. Getting them prepared for Cleveland but at the same time we have to be ready to play a game here on Friday against Green Bay.”

With the new cutdown rule change, teams will trim their roster down to 53 players on August 29th instead of having multiple cuts. 

For the most part, starters don’t typically see the field in the preseason, but these games give huge opportunities to players hoping to make the roster. 

This is a journey we’ve seen many players endure. You might remember Vincent Rey, a player who went undrafted in 2010, before signing a two-year, $731,000 deal with the Cincinnati Bengals. There was a period when he was waived and then resigned to the practice squad before finally making the 53-man roster that same year. 

Rey’s first start in the NFL didn’t come until 2013 against the Miami Dolphins. Rey had five tackles in that game, but he impressed the coaching staff with his ability to adjust formations during the game and call plays. Cincinnati had a top five defense, allowing  just 19.5 points per game and finishing with an 11-5 record. 

Rey was a well respected, detailed player and an important piece to Cincinnati’s success. He’d later sign a 3-year $11.5M extension with the Bengals in 2016.

Safety Nick Scott knows this journey well, He was a seventh round pick in 2019. He developed into a key piece for the Rams and started at safety in their 23-20 win over the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI. 

Cincinnati signed Scott to a 3-year, $12 million contract in March.

“I get excited for sure to see those guys get an opportunity,” Scott said. “I was a seventh round draft pick and those preseason game are kind of how I made my name and earned some respect on my team and made the squad.”

The Bengals picked wide receiver Andrei Iosivas in the sixth round of this year's NFL Draft. Friday night will be Iosivas’ first opportunity to put his resume on film and prove his worth to the coaching staff.

“I came in with a chip on my shoulder coming from the Ivy League you know later round pick all those things," Iosivas said. "I was blessed enough to get picked in the draft obviously but I still feel like I have some stuff to prove and that’s just kinda the guy I am, wanting to prove everyone right who believe in me and prove people wrong who don’t so that’s my mentality going into these things.”

Simmons is entering his 21st season coaching for the Bengals and knows exactly what to look for when new players step onto the field on Friday night against Green Bay.

“I think you try to replicate as best you can game speed in practice, it’s just difficult to do that because guys are trying to protect each other, we don’t want to get each other hurt so it’s so good to practice against another team like this,” Simmons said. “I do think guys can flip a switch a little bit, they have to. We felt that today how a couple of guys need to shift from first gear up into overdrive fast. They need to feel what game speed is like because there’s nothing that can compare to what game speed is.”

Iosivas plans to show his teammates and the rest of the NFL that he has another gear and another level that he can reach on game day. He faced the Packers in Wednesday's joint practice, but has gone up against his teammates for the rest of camp. 

“These guys are my brothers in this locker room so it’s hard,” Iosivas said. “I’m intense but another side comes out of me when it’s like people who aren’t my brothers so it was fun. I was talking a little bit. I think people in here think I’m the quiet, nice guy but if you look at the special teams tape I was talking a lot.

"It was definitely a fun time and I can’t wait for Friday because I think these guys are scared of me.”

The Bengals host the Packers at Paycor Stadium on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET. 

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