Cincinnati Bengals offensive line coach Jim Turner likes to mix things up, with Alex Redmond the latest example.
As a disclaimer, Turner hasn’t been dealt the best hand since arriving. He had two retirements and the loss of a first-round pick over the summer before getting to this season. His starting left tackle is hurt.
Going into Week 6, Andre Smith is still dealing with an injury (he’s technically the backup to Jonah Williams, Cordy Glenn) so Turner has a creative solution: throw Redmond out there.
Maybe creative isn’t the right word. Redmond, after all, is the guy who just came back from a four-game ban and was one of the most-flagged linemen in the NFL last year.
He also hasn’t played a tackle position since high school.
“Guys like him just bring an energy. I love Redmond. He brings an energy in there, there’s a physicality,” Turner said, according to Bengals.com. “He kind of like sparked that whole practice today. He plays hard and he loves football. Being around a guy like that it’s contagious … We’re going to find out (if he can play tackle). Not totally sure yet.”
It’s a little surprising. Besides the obvious being Redmond’s lack of experience, veteran John Jerry actually held up pretty well last week in the middle of the game when coming in for Smith.
But this is Turner, who not only has a tough task in front of him, but has also gone on record as saying the line could look different every single week because that’s how he likes to do things.
At this point, the Bengals are 0-5 and should be in evaluation mode. Taking a chance to evaluate whether Redmond has any viability on the edge wasn’t easy to see coming but probably can’t hurt.
