Bengals News (5/20): Starting to open

The Bengals coaching staff have been using voice overs to various position groups during the virtual offseason.
Travis Brammer broke into the NFL as a hustling utilityman alternating dropping video cassettes into VCRs with dropping off cartons of orange soda to Paul Brown's dorm room. So if there is anyone that can Zoom in on how the virtual offseason has given a voice to voice-over coaching and changed his team's playbook forever, it is Brammer, the Bengals' long-time video director.

Bengals legend Ken Anderson is on Twitter and has Hall of Fame jokes
Anderson sees the humor in it though. While joking about waiting on verification, he even weaved in a Hall of Fame quip: “Still waiting to be twitter verified, starting to feel like something else I’ve been waiting for…

Cincinnati Bengals set to open Paul Brown Stadium on Wednesday
Restrictions on the number of people allowed inside a facility are going to be heavily monitored and proper safety guidelines will be enforced. According to Pro Football Talk, “No more than 50 percent of a team’s staff (not to exceed 75 total employees) are allowed. That doesn’t include coaches or players, with the exception of those getting medical treatment.”

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is already leading by example
“I’m fairly good at connecting with a lot of different people. I’m a Southeast Ohio kid. I think my high school kind of prepared me for it a little bit," Burrow said last month. "We’re not super racially diverse, but we’re very socioeconomically diverse, so you get [to know] a lot of different kinds of people. That allowed me to connect to a lot of different people, and that really helped me when I was at Ohio State. And going down to LSU, I’ve been able to connect with people from rural Virginia, people from inner-city Chicago, New Orleans, rural Louisiana — so I think that’s something that I do very well.”

Boomer Esiason says Bengals need to redo their 'horrific' uniforms
"The one thing I will say - going into next year - the Bengals are going to have to redo their uniforms. They are just horrific. I don't like them," Esiason said. "They've just got too much stuff going on. Too much orange. Too many things happening on that uniform. They need to like - I want to say tone it down. It's hard to tone down tiger stripes, but you can."

Bengals’ performance in free agency tabbed as one of NFL’s best
ESPN’s Mike Clay outlined his top 25 upgrades this offseason and slotted the Bengals at No. 21, primarily due to landing defensive tackle D.J. Reader.

Around the league

NFL chief MD: No timeline for when players can return
Sills said that in response to a question about whether it is still possible that players could be brought back in time for the traditional June mini-camps. Team owners held a virtual meeting Tuesday, at which the progress of a return for football was discussed. Offseason work has been conducted remotely so far, but ever since facilities were shut down in mid-March, there has been an expectation among some coaches and executives that players would likely not be able to report to team facilities until training camp.

Grappling with lack of diversity among NFL coaches, GMs
With two Super Bowl wins on his resume, 49ers coach Bill Walsh had the clout to take on NFL culture three decades ago. It was 1987, and Walsh was tired of seeing the door slammed in the faces of talented minority college coaches seeking to jump to the league. So, with the blessing and support of ownership, he invited aspiring coaches of color to spend training camp with the team.

Fitzpatrick 'excited' Dolphins drafted Tagovailoa, but still wants to play
"I'm excited that they drafted him," Fitzpatrick said on Eric Wood's "What's Next" podcast, via SI.com's Alain Poupart. "I'm excited because in watching him play at Alabama, he looks like a pretty dynamic talent. Just in meeting him a few times, he seems like an unbelievable kid, great head on his shoulders, says the right things, wants to do the right things, so like — for me — I'm his biggest cheerleader right now, but I also want to be out there playing. I also want to be on the field because that's why I'm still doing it, because I still enjoy the game."

Pa. governor not pleased with Ben Roethlisberger's barbershop trip
Roethlisberger's new look required a trip to an Allegheny County barbershop, an establishment which is not yet permitted to be open in some Pennsylvania counties (including Allegheny) as the state proceeds with a multi-stage reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic, per PennLive.com. When asked about Roethlisberger's trip to the barbershop, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf was not pleased with Roethlisberger's decision.