Trey Hendrickson, the Bengals’ relentless Pro Bowl sacker who plays on the edge with an edge, sees the same kind of blade in the mindset of the newest Bengal.
“What most people won’t know about Sheldon is his X and O IQ. He’s off the charts football smart,” says Hendrickson of veteran three-technique Sheldon Rankins, his old teammate in New Orleans. “He knows the scheme. He knows the blocks. Not only would he know what plays were coming based on formations, but he would learn how they disguise plays.”
Rankins introduced himself to the Cincinnati media Monday as “a football junkie,” with a prodigious memory and he came right out of the box, recalling that the combustible Hendrickson got tossed from his first rookie minicamp practice. Rankins then became Hendrickson’s “wrangler,” keeping the enthusiastic young buck away from post-snap skirmishes.
“He’s right,” Hendrickson said.
In great detail, Rankins, who Hendrickson also says has moves most edge rushers don’t, then proceeded to break down how he broke down the Bengals with a career-high three sacks last season for the Texans in a game Houston needed everything to beat the Bengals at the gun.
Rankins says he greeted Bengals head coach Zac Taylor not with, “hello” but with “why the hell (sort of) didn’t you slide to me?”
Rankins is most certainly the leader in the clubhouse to win the media cooperation award on his third different team. (After winning it with the Saints and Jets, he almost won it last year in his lone season in Houston but lost to a hard man to beat in personable rookie quarterback C.J. Stoud.)
Rankins’ all-access-all-22 memory captures why Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow reminds him of another teammate in New Orleans, future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees.
“He’s never rattled and that was the thing with Drew,” Rankins said. “I’ve seen Drew take some shots and then come back on the next play and double…
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