Bengals Left Tackle Jackson Carman’s Postseason Of Opportunity And Mind Over Matter

Jason Krause, who loves Jackson Carman like he’s one of his own, has named the text message thread with his other family “Road Trip To Arrowhead.”

But his old head coach, more than most, knows the trail his blue-chip player took from Fairfield High School to Sunday’s AFC title game (6:30 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) in Kansas City wasn’t as smooth as the drive he took with Carman’s cousins to last Sunday’s AFC Divisional in Orchard Park, N.Y., to watch his first NFL start at left tackle.

“He had faith. He kept doing his job and working his tail off,” Krause says of that stretch Carman didn’t play a scrimmage snap until the season’s last game. “That’s exactly why I’m so proud of him. He didn’t (go in the tank.) His mindset was unbelievable through the entire thing. That’s probably what I’m most proud of.”

Since it’s the playoffs, things are screeching fast and loud. Carman says since it is the NFL, all the stadiums transform into “white noise,” anyway. With Jonah Williams (knee) not yet practicing, it looks like he may be across one of the NFL’s most estimable pass rushers in Chiefs edge Frank Clark, a three-time Pro Bowler whose rookie year of 2015 found Carman beginning to help define Krause’s program in the Cincinnati suburbs.

“Great player. One of my favorite players when I was coming out watching him,” Carman said after practice this week. “I remember I used to watch him do like slo mo head spins. Great player. Great technician.”

But this is no autograph session. Carman took 35 snaps in this game last year, most in the second half, and he helped the Bengals into the Super Bowl with a cut-throat overtime drive that featured the powerful running of Joe Mixon behind a grooving O-Line.

Carman wasn’t lined up against Clark that day, but he got a taste of him and the dangerous tackle Chris Jones, another perennial Pro Bowler now coming off a massive 15.5-sack season.

Still, that was at right guard. The other side of the world from the spots Carman played on the left side…