Day 1 of the 2014 Bengals training camp is now in the books. For the first time in seven months, the entire roster was on the practice field at the same time in some capacity.
While some players were on the sidelines with various injuries, it was nice to see everyone back together and ready to focus on the season at hand with no holdouts or serious injuries preventing them from being present.
So, let's get down to what exactly happened today.
First off on the injury front: Andrew Whitworth became the latest player to hit the PUP list. He apparently suffered a calf injury during conditioning drills on Wednesday. Not a great sign for the 32-year-old Whitworth, but nothing to sound the alarms over either. Players will say that the first two days of camp are often the hardest, as it's when their bodies experience the most shock after an offseason of rest and rehab.
Leon Hall was on the field for the first day of camp, a goal he set out to accomplish almost as soon as he tore his Achilles last year. IT's the second time Hall has suffered the injury (different side though), and it's the second time Hall recovered in time to be present for the first day of camp.
Now for the new players who signed: Wide receiver Jeremy Johnson was signed after being undrafted out of SMU this year. He originally signed with the Patriots, but was cut one week prior to the start of camp.
The Bengals also claimed receiver Conner Vernon off waivers from the Browns. Vernon was an undrafted player in 2013 who joined the Raiders for the preseason. He was cut and later added to the Browns' practice squad before the final game of last season.
Speaking of receivers, AJ Green admitted that the early training camp injury last year put him behind last season. He said it affected him so much that he didn't feel like he was back to himself until Week 6.
Russell Bodine continues to look like the guy at center. That's no surprise, given how well he did in OTAs, plus the fact that his main challenge, Mike Pollak, is out after missing most of the offseason workouts with a knee injury.
No matter what he does, Andy Dalton can't seem to stay out of the news, though most of the time, it's someone else's doing that causes that. In this case, it was a rude group of fans who held signs of 'Don't sign Dalton he sucks' and 'AJ to AJ is the future', referencing rookie quarterback AJ McCarron being the future at QB.
Yeah, ok. Go back to playing Madden in your mom's basement kid.
In more positive news, we got the first public sighting of Andy's newborn son, Noah Dalton (get ready for a subsequent 'awww!').
Speaking of Andy, he talked about Hue Jackson, the new offense and running more up-tempo stuff. He, along with backup Jason Campbell, were also used in some option plays.
Oh, and this guy showed up:
Best dressed of the day pic.twitter.com/lAXMHTbSoL
— Brennen Warner (@JustBeWarned) July 24, 2014
Someone tell the guy in the BenJarvus jersey to think about investing in a Giovani Bernard jersey soon.
Big thanks to Brennan Warner for the photos and Tweets. We'll have another update from nfl391 shortly as well.