Newman on McCaleeb: You can see now that he's understanding

While Bengals cornerback Terence Newman is feeling optimistically youthful on what figures to be a final tour for the 34 year old who turns 35 in September, another young cornerback is experiencing life as a defensive back for the first time.

Auburn running back Onterio McCalebb signed with the Cincinnati Bengals as an undrafted free agent following the 2013 NFL draft and was tasked with making a conversion to cornerback. Luckily for McCalebb, former Bengals great cornerback Ken Riley reached out while secondary coach Mark Carrier provides very basic lessons on technique during Cincinnati's rookie minicamp last month.

Though it appeared that his transition wasn't going very well, Bengals cornerback Terence Newman gives a more optimistic outlook on McCalebb.

"You can see now that he's understanding, that's he's more comfortable and doing less thinking. It's a good feeling when you see a kid and you see the light go on," said Newman to FoxSportsOhio.com. "One thing that I know about football is that if you don't have a guy who is a true guy, who's going to shoot you straight and tell you that was horse (manure) or keep it real and tell you that was a good job, if you don't have a guy that can keep it real with you it's going to be hard to actually get better. You need somebody who understands it and who's going to shoot you straight and tell you this is what you've got to do. It makes it that much easier."

It's highly unlikely that McCalebb makes the team on the 53-man roster. However, due to the team's historical nature to develop players (many after forcing a position change), it wouldn't be surprising if the Bengals, already obsessed with McCalebb's blazing speed, sign him to the team's practice squad after final cuts.