“I’m not here only to work with Ced, but any guy that needs my advice,” said Anderson, who runs the Willie Anderson Lineman Academy in Atlanta with the help of former Falcons defensive end Chuck Smith.
“It’s always been that way in (Bengals offensive line coach Paul Alexander’s) room,” Anderson continued. “The older guys help the younger guys and eventually you help them to replace you. That’s the nature of the game.”
The Bengals already have a wealth of knowledge at the tackle position in Andrew Whitworth and Eric Winston, who have combined to play 293 games in 19 seasons. But while Whitworth and Winston, both of whom are in the final year of their contracts, are valuable in meeting rooms, they’re busy getting their own work in during practices.
That’s when Anderson can be the most help with youngsters like Ogbuehi and last year’s second-round pick Jake Fisher, offering immediate critiques after each rep while reinforcing technique.
“The more linemen can get into specialty training, that’s one thing I’m doing, to train footwork and train footwork drills and train your eyes and train your hands,” said the 6-foot-5 Anderson, who played at 340 pounds. “I call linemen the new skill position, because it’s a skill and it’s no longer your big grunt guys.”
“Traditionally O-linemen are lifting weights. The game has changed now,” he added. “Back then the game was a run game, now it’s protect the $100 million guy (quarterback) back there. He gets 100 (million dollars), D-ends get 100, tackles get 60-70. The whole game is either protect this guy right here or kill him.”
The game may have changed since Anderson was in his prime, but the man himself has not.
Anderson was one of the few players in the locker who was always available to answer reporters’ questions when the losses were mounting during the lean decade of the 1990s.
And he was the center of attention the last two days, spending 10 minutes talking to reporters shortly after arriving toward the end of Sunday’s practice, and he was back at it for another 12 minutes Monday, when he covered a wide range of topics.
On Ogbuehi: "He's stronger than I thought. You see his body type. He's got very strong hands. Obviously a great athlete, great feet. I want to see him do more things. I was talking to Carlos Dunlap this morning, he was asking me different moves that give tackles problems. That's what I'm here for. He's at that age. The good thing about it is he's going to face Carlos every day and you'll be surprised at how much that helps guys out, facing a Pro Bowler every day."
On the difference between today's Bengals and those he played for: "To see how talented this team is, it's amazing. To be in a position to be around here and to see these guys able to win 10-plus games every year where it's the norm, to where in the '90s we struggled for a long time until Marvin (Lewis) got here and things changed around. I'm in Atlanta, and no one ever talks about the Bengals in Atlanta. But when it comes on and they have national games and we're winning national games, you can brag a little bit."
On Bengals owner Mike Brown: "When I made the Pro Bowl the first year (2003), he knew how hard I wanted to make the Pro Bowl. I was scrambling trying to make it. We thought for the five previous years I should've made it. Three of those years I was the first alternate. Mr. Brown wrote me a letter, my first Pro Bowl. That meant so much to me, just reading that letter. I just remember it being so special."
On his son, Jair, who will be a freshman WR at Georgia Tech: "What I've learned is when you get those itty bitty moms, you get smaller kids. He's 6-2, his mom's 5-2. At first, he was playing quarterback so I spent seventh, eighth grade going to every quarterback camp in the country. I could probably coach quarterbacks now along with offensive line because I had to get good at it with him."
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