An Inside Look at How Bengals Star Ted Karras Gets Ready For Regular Season

Ted Karras is entering his third season with the Bengals. He's made 33 consecutive starts since signing with Cincinnati in March, 2022.

Elise Jesse | May 21, 2024

Cincinnati Bengals center Ted Karras (64) walks the sideline as the clocks runs late in the fourth / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY

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Cincinnati Bengals

As Bengals center Ted Karras prepares for his eighth season in the NFL, he’s not just hanging out with Frank Pollack eating glass, lifting heavy weights, or diving into the playbook, he’s also getting his body ready in a chiropractor’s office.

The two-time Super Bowl Champion was all smiles as he sat down on Dr. Greg Pitman’s chiropractic table.

“I hope Dr. Pitman cracks me like an egg today,” Karras joked in an exclusive interview with BengalsTalk.com.

“He’s a big guy,” Dr. Pitman said. “Not all athletes are like that but with Ted’s size you definitely have to use a little bit more force and quickness when adjusting him but the average patient you can be pretty gentle.”

The first time the 6’4”, 300 pound veteran limped into the office he was wearing a brace after suffering a knee injury in the second quarter during Cincinnati’s divisional round win over the Buffalo Bills. Karras, the epitome of a “glass eater,” decided to grit through the injury during the contest, knowing a win would get them back to the AFC Championship Game.

Pitman’s work was a game changer for Karras leading into the 2023 regular season that next September.

“I took one look at his knee and his fibula was laterally rotated, so [we] did an adjustment with that, got him into some orthotics,” Dr. Pitman said. “He’s pretty flat footed so we took out that medial deviation in his heel and when we did that his alignment was back and he got rid of the knee brace and he’s been super quick off the jump and he’s been doing good and that adjustment has held all season. He hasn’t had to have that adjusted again.”

Pitman is following the footsteps of his father, Dr. Greg Pitman, who has been serving the Cincinnati community for over 35 years while teaching his son the ins-and-out’s of the family business.

“My dad created an amazing practice here and he taught me a lot of stuff that you can’t really learn in school," he said. "I’m very blessed with the opportunity and I just love what I do.”

Family Tree Chiropractic has a history of serving Cincinnati’s newest members, from babies that are just weeks old, to the Ruby family (Jeff Ruby’s restaurants), to former Bengals players like Carlos Dunlap, who flew Dr. Greg Pitman to Super Bowl LVII ahead of the Chiefs' matchup with the Eagles.

"They’re so much stronger after the adjustment,” Dr. Pitman said. "If you’re going into the game with that extra strength and everything is moving and functioning properly mobility wise, joint restriction wise you can play how you need to play and not have to worry about injury or anything like that.”

Karras is entering his ninth season after being drafted in the sixth round by the New England Patriots in 2016. Fighting for a spot on the roster takes top priority each year. Every guy who enters the building wants to feel their best when competition begins with goals of not only making the roster, but being a key component of the starting group. Their bodies need to be able to perform at a high level even in July months before the first regular season

“To be completely aligned and to get checked every week is a thing I really try to do. You can tell going into a game when you haven’t been adjusted when you’re not fully aligned and ready to go,” Karras said.

Offensive linemen get stepped on constantly throughout the season. So much so that Karras feels the need to apologize to the nail tech during his postseason pedicure.

If you thought about the scene in Dumb and Dumber when Jim Carrey is being held down by Jeff Daniels as a nail tech takes a chain saw to his nails, you’re not alone (we did too).

“No, it’s not quite like that, but all of my nails after the season are black and blue,” Karras laughed.

We were there during Karras' entire adjustment and as Dr. Pitman tested Karras’ strength and made his adjustments on his neck and back, the difference in muscle tightness from the start to the end was very clear.

“Right off the bat they see a lot of improvement in just one appointment,” Dr. Pitman said. “It's their consistency throughout the season, before games, and then help them recover after the games, after they’re all beat up.”

Other well known athletes like Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams and even Michael Jordan have been outspoken about using chiropractic as a means of keeping them at the top of their game during the height of their careers. What do all of these greats have in common? What jumps out to me is career longevity and availability.

Injuries are expected at the pro level in any sport, but especially in a sport like football where speed and force are primary characteristics of every single play. The 2023 NFL season seemed to be riddled with injuries with big-name stars going down, including Joe Burrow (wrist), Aaron Rodgers (Achillies), Justin Herbert (finger fracture), Anthony Richardson (shoulder), Kirk Cousins (Achilles), Daniel Jones (knee) and Deshaun Watson (shoulder). While injuries seemed high due to the importance of their position at quarterback, the NFL says there were significantly less injuries overall in 2023.

The NFL releases injury data at the end of each season and according to the report, players missed 700 fewer games in 2023 compared to the previous season.

"Clubs began the 2023 injury prevention process in the offseason by developing individualized, data-driven preseason acclimation strategies to help players reintegrate into football activities at the start of training camp and decrease the risk of injuries as players ramp up to in-season performance levels. These efforts helped drive a 29% decrease in missed time due to lower extremity strains during training camp, compared to 2021 and similar to 2022 when the injury reduction efforts around the preseason ramp-up period began."

The league is working hard to limit injuries, but players like Karras are taking matters into their own hands. Soft tissue injuries are a huge risk for players in the trenches, yet Karras managed to play 1,075 snaps and started all 17 games last season, good enough for 11th most in the NFL among centers. His body goes through a special kind of hell to keep Burrow upright, but it has become clear that the league and its players value availability and longevity.

"He takes all of these micro traumas every time especially being a lineman because of that head-to-head contact every single play," Pitman said. “The biggest thing is helping their mobility, any joint restrictions- we are taking that out to prevent injuries and that helps strength too.”

Strength, balance, and flexibility are a must for trench guys looking for keep their quarterback clean and open up the run game to keep opposing defenses honest. Burrow has made his way back to Paycor Stadium for spring/summer workouts and it looks like he has a chip on his shoulder already. The Bengals made sure he'd have one of the largest offensive lines in the league and he'll need them on a consistent basis knowing players like T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, Alex Highsmith, Myles Garrett, Za’Darius Smith, Justin Madubuike, and Odafe Oweh will be chasing after him in the AFC North.

Health is wealth and talk is cheap in this league and the Bengals need health on their side in 2024 to reach their goals after missing the playoffs in 2023. The easiest path to the playoffs for Cincinnati is through its division. The AFC North became the first division in the Super Bowl era to have all four of its teams finish with winning records making a strong claim as the best division in the NFL.

For veteran players like Karras, health means an opportunity to win a third ring. Does he think about it a lot? Yes, but like we said, talk is cheap

“That’s our goal every day, but we are doing a little moratorium on Super Bowl postseason talk,” Karras said. “We kind of talked maybe a little too much last year in the spring about all of that stuff and nothing is guaranteed. Obviously, we missed the playoffs. We are moving onto 2024 though, but I think we are going to take it more one day at a time, have a great spring together, have a great training camp and then start faster than we have the last couple of years.”

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