Darqueze Dennard joined Fox 19 for an in-studio interview this week where he talked about how he's changed his lifestyle heading into his second year in the NFL, the competition at cornerback, and his "future Hall of Fame" teammates. The second year cornerback seems calm, cool and collected heading into his second training camp with the Bengals.
"For me, personally, I just had to cut a lot of stuff out. I still had that college mindset of eating pizza, burgers, french fries, a lot of junk food, eating anytime of the night, things like that, and overall it wouldn't help me... I wouldn't be as explosive as I could be," Dennard said.
Dennard, a big LaRosa's pizza fan says he hasn't had a slice of pizza in a few months, which he admittedly misses. "If I have a good pre-season, I'll sneak out and have me a slice or two," Dennard joked.
With so many potentially elite cornerbacks on the roster, the position will be one of the best to watch in training camp. The Bengals do have four former first round draft picks at the CB position after all.
On the competition, Dennard said, "It's going to be fun, especially for me, I love to compete. And you know, we got a great group of guys, we've got some veterans, some young guys as well and they can all play. With the veteran guys all playing for a long time, they've had some successful careers and will continue to have some success in their careers.. And we've got some young guys who are hungry, as well as me and Dre as well, we've got Josh Shaw, and some more young guys who are ready to compete and ready to earn their chance on the field. I think it's going to be a great position battle with all of us, but it's also a competition as well and we always help each other out when that time comes."
But, even with all the competition, Dennard says the camaraderie among the CBs is great. "We all help each other out, we all compete. If someone makes a play we all go high five him, congratulate him, and we get back in competitive mode and say you got one, I'm going to come back with two."
"It's a great team. If you can earn a spot as a starter on this team that's loaded with talent, it's a huge accomplishment. We've got a team full of great players, future Hall of Famers, future Pro Bowlers, and All-Pro players and to be able to earn a starting spot on this team, it would be amazing. I know we're going to have success this year and I just want to be a part of it."
As far as how Dennard spends his free time, the CB is currently reading Relentless by Tim Grover, who trained Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade. Dennard hopes by reading it, he can tap into their mindset of, "being relentless" at this point of his career.
Watch the full interview here.