Trey Hopkins weighs in on Frank Pollack’s impact

The Cincinnati Bengals faced a lot of issues protecting Joe Burrow last season. Despite missing the last six games of the 2020 season, Burrow was still tied for the ninth-most sacks taken (32).

In fact, Burrow was on pace to be sacked roughly 51 times last season which would have been the most in the league just ahead of Carson Wentz, who was sacked 50 times.

Luckily for the Bengals, they are returning Frank Pollack as the offensive line coach, who took over once the organization decided to part ways with Jim Turner.

The hope is that Pollack’s return will trigger a massive boost to the returning parts along the offensive line.

Practice is supposed to be harder than games, and under Pollack, that is the case for the linemen.

Starting center Trey Hopkins spoke with Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com and discussed how true that statement is.

“You hear people say, you hear coaches say practice should be so hard so that the game is easy. With Coach Pollack, that is a real, that is a factual statement. It’s going to be another year, everyone sees, you guys will be out there and see it’s a different tempo. It’s a different pace this year,” Hopkins stated.

To take it a step further, Hopkins noted how Pollack’s experience has had a positive impact as well on an offensive line poised to make major strides in 2021.

“He knows the drills that he’s asking of you were going to be demanding,” Hopkins said of Pollack. “He knows that because he’s done it so you kind of have a little bit of a different respect for a guy like that when you know, when he’s just completely killing you and completely just running over you out at practice, but you know he himself has done it. You have a little bit higher little respect for him.”

The Bengals are hopeful that the return of Pollack won't only help the development of players like Jonah Williams and Jackson Carman, but also help players like Billy Price and Fred Johnson improve, which would provide much needed and talented depth to the offensive line.

You can check out Hobson’s entire camp notebook here.