After a year of learning almost entirely from the sideline, former first-round pick Darqueze Dennard hopes his time is coming.
The 24th pick of the 2014 draft, Dennard was relegated primarily to special teams last season, playing just 77 snaps on defense. Now that one of the veterans who tutored him, Terence Newman, has moved on to Minnesota, Dennard is anxious to show what he can do on the field.
"The older guys did a great job of telling me that things happen for a reason," Dennard said per Bengals.com. "Just continue to work on your craft. This is a time where you can go back to the lab and get better. When you get an opportunity, you can make the best of it."
While many would expect a first-round pick to at least get a crack at some playing time as a rookie, Dennard was in an unusual situation in that all four of the corners above him on the depth chart -- Newman, Adam Jones, Leon Hall, and Dre Kirkpatrick, were also No. 1 picks.
"I am in a great situation," Dennard said. "I didn’t get thrown into the fire too early. You see a lot of first round corners thrown in too early and they fade out of the league. You don’t hear too much about them anymore."
Now that the window is more ajar, he's already making the most of it. He heeded the advice of his fellow defensive backs to take better care of his body, and it's already paying dividends during offseason workouts.
"Last year he had a college football player’s body and this year he has an NFL body,” said defensive backs coach Vance Joseph. "His body fat is down and that’s a big deal because now he’s running better and he can run fast for a long time now.
"The last two weeks he came on strong. He had four or five interceptions, he’s playing nickel and outside corner, so I’m excited about Darqueze for training camp."
Head coach Marvin Lewis loves what he sees from Dennard. "We didn’t have to throw Darqueze in the fire. He got a chance to learn behind some great pros and we're reaping the benefit now."
Sounds like Dennard will be seeing a lot more than 77 snaps this season.
h/t: Cincinnati Bengals
