On day one of Bengals training camp one of the plays of the day came in the form of a reverse to Tyler Boyd, which turned into a touchdown, caught by Bengals veteran receiver Brandon Tate. There is some background to how that came to be, which you’d expect since it was only the third play of the day and quite an impressive feat for a rookie receiver to launch an 80-yard touchdown on his first day of camp.
If you remember back to Mohamed Sanu’s 50-yard dart down the sidelines to Brandon Tate back in 2014 against the Falcons, you’ll realize the concept of the two plays is quite similar.
Sanu is now gone, playing with those very same Falcons whom his 2014 play came against. And as such, the Bengals are looking to see if Boyd, their second round 2016 Draft pick, is capable of stepping into the Mr. Versatility role that Sanu held for the last few years in Cincinnati.
Per Bengals.com, that Sanu touchdown throw is a play that was shown regularly during the spring to the team and they watched it again on Friday morning when the Bengals were going over the practice walk through.
“I knew I could do it, but there were high expectations because Sanu did well,” Boyd told Bengals.com about the play. “He threw a dime against double coverage so I knew I had to get up to par. Big shoes to fill right there.”
This is nothing new for Boyd.
We spoke with Boyd’s college wide receivers coach, Kevin Sherman who explained that last year, in the Pittsburgh Panthers’ offense, the team knew they had to get Boyd the ball whenever they could because he would simply make plays, including coming out of the wildcat formation.
“His strength is as a competitor. He has great ball skills and a good skill set. He was very productive for us, he’s our go-to guy,” said Sherman, who was Boyd’s coach at Pitt for just the 2015 season after he also coached at Purdue, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, among other NCAAA programs during his career.
When Boyd threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to Tate on Friday, it wasn’t his first time doing such a thing. The Pittsburgh offense asked of him the same, so it’s no wonder Boyd felt he could replicate what Sanu did for the Bengals back in 2014 with that touchdown to Tate.
“We found ways to get him the ball all over and even in the wildcat, we were just trying to find ways to get him the ball so he could be productive on a weekly basis. He was very good at helping us win ball games,” Sherman said.
“You try to find out who can do those things and find ways to put playmakers in your offene. Once he learns the ropes in Cincinnati, at the NFL level, I think he’ll fit right in.”