Bengals Beat: Mike Hilton Doesn’t Expect Rookies Like Jordan Battle To Feel Like Rookies ‘Just Be Comfortable With Yourself’

CINCINNATI — Mike Hilton, being the leader he is inside the Bengals locker room, had a distinct and direct message for the incoming rookie draft class that he’ll be getting ready to work with this week.

“Just come out and be who you want to. Be you. Be comfortable. Yes, you’re a rookie but you’re not,” third-round safety pick Jordan Battle related to me of the message from Hilton. “You come into a situation where you’ve been there before. You played at Alabama. Just be comfortable with yourself. Be you and bring out that personality and lead however you can.”

Hilton’s message might have been directed at Battle but it’s a message for every first-year player that will step into the Bengals locker room. The expectation and goal is a Super Bowl and to get there, players can never allow the moment to be too big.

The Bengals are bringing in four defensive players in their draft class, the first three of which are expected to contribute at various levels throughout the season.

With leaders like Hilton, Chido Awuzie, Sam Hubbard, DJ Reader and Logan Wilson, there will be plenty of resources for the rookies to draw upon in the next several weeks of spring practice, OTAs and June minicamp.

Battle was working with safeties coach Robert Livingston, DJ Turner II and DJ Ivey were working with Charles Burks and of course, defensive line coach Marion Hobby was hands on with first-rounder Myles Murphy during Friday’s one-hour rookie mini-camp drill session inside the IEL structure.

“First of all, it’s great coming into winning organization,” Battle said. “Joining the Cincinnati Bengals, coming from Alabama. So I’m a guy who knows how to win, stepping on the field. Just like thinking like it’s dreams come true. Usually guys don’t make it this far. And just being the guy who did make it this far and then taking it all in and giving my all.”

“Of course is worth the wait. Just getting drafted was a goal of mine and getting drafted to a great team, which is what happened, and to a team that can compete for a Super Bowl, a team that was in the Super Bowl before and just trying to get that Super Bowl ring.”

Not only are the expectations of competing for a championship every year the same for Battle, so too is the complexity of going from a Nick Saban defense to one directed by Lou Anarumo.

“Yeah, of course, coming from Bama and a complex defense, guys who play there know you have to be smart to get on the field. You have to be smart, be comfortable in the playbook. In any situation in a game or practice. Just being comfortable and be able to play with your mind free and be able to play fast.”

Spend five minutes talking to Battle and you instantly see why he thoroughly impressed the Bengals in the pre-draft interview process. Battle wanted to show the Bengals he had the mind and dedication for being able to play the back middle of a defense. The Bengals were duly convinced.

“That was kind of the goal of going into every single interview. How can I make these guys like me? How can I make them want to draft me you know? Just just showing off how smart I am,” Battle said. “I kind of shy away from trying to say that but just I got to realize that it’s a gift to be smart on the field. And just take that on and (be) a guy who can learn quickly, and a guy who can take that to the field and translate it. I’m a guy who tried to be in my studies a lot, just doing that and trying to play early as possible.”

Battle learned early on from head coach Nick Saban at Alabama that if you work hard on your studies and prepare yourself to be ready to play, you’ll get your chance. Battle got his first chance to start in the secondary against Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and LSU in 2019. History certainly could repeat itself with the Bengals in 2023.

“That comes with understanding the playbook, understanding what the team has given you that helps you play fast and play with instinct,” Battle told me. “When you know what the offense is trying to do and you know the offense is trying to attack, it makes you makes you look at it and read and then play faster.”

Closing out games:

Though Brad Robbins, the rookie punter drafted out of Michigan, is fighting for a punting job on the 2023 Bengals, he used a baseball metaphor from his younger days to answer how he plans to handle pressure situations late in games. His good friend and competition for an NFL job, Drue Chrisman, has received criticism for his late-game punt down the middle of the field in the AFC Championship that allowed a 29-yard return that set up the Chiefs for the field goal that sent them to Super Bowl LVII. How does Robbins think he’ll be able to approach late-game situations?

“I’m kind of dating back so you ate baseball, right? Every good story starts with something like that. So I was a closing pitcher, like my whole life,” Robbins told me. “I pitched. I played middle infield all that kind of stuff. I thought I was going to be a baseball player. So my mentality, which I feel like is a strong suit of mine, is just that closing pitcher mentality.

“I’m used to having the team depending on me, I have very few reps, right? Maybe one or two innings. Teams depending on me late in the game, right? The ability to kind of close the door and put the foot down and understand like I need to execute this and I only have limited opportunity. It’s been ingrained in me since I was an 8-year-old. I feel like that mentality has helped me a lot. Also picked up golf. So a lot of books you read about golf, they just talk about the process over outcome type stuff. So, that’s something I had to learn in college and I’m still continuing to learn. Definitely process oriented thinking versus outcome. So rather than thinking about, ‘Alright, I need to do this in this situation,’ it’s like, well, I’ve hit this punt 10,000 times before. Really all I think about is like my process like, ‘Hey, short steps, eyes down,’ all that kind of stuff, rather than I need to do this. I need to hit this ball.”

Then there are the intricate – and not so intricate – conversations he’ll have with special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons, who took Robbins out of the practice structure Friday morning at rookie minicamp and talking punting.

“I’m sure there’s many more conversations to come about that,” Robbins said. “We definitely talked about picking our lines. And I picked his brain about hey, what do you think about sort of picking a target you know, kind of lining something up in the stands with like a target and then like putting, picking something on the ground about three feet in front of you that you want to walk to, instead of like, trying to think about walk into like a high up object, right. And that’s kind of a similarity you can bring from like golf and punting and like, ‘I never thought about that.’ It’s actually a really good thought process. I like the way he views the game, and I think we’ll have a lot more in depth conversations about that kind of stuff.”

As for his friendship with Chrisman, it actually goes back to a time before Robbins went to the school up north.

“Yeah, he’s one of my good buddies, actually,” Robbins related. “I’m from Columbus. He went to Ohio State and he was a year above me and was on scholarship, and was getting ready to play. Their special teams coordinator at the time told me ‘Hey, Drue’s on scholarship, you can come walk on here if you want,’ and I probably still wouldn’t see the field until he left. Well, he actually called me on my way up to Ann Arbor and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m actually heading up to Ann Arbor and got a scholarship offer up this way.’ So the conversation shifts and all that kind of stuff, but me and Drue have known each other for a long time and he’s one of my favorite people.

“He’s the nicest guy in the world. And yeah, just excited to be around him and learn from him, too. He’s one of my good buddies. So I’ve looked up to him, in a way, and I feel like that’s pretty cool. And I’m really excited to just get to work with him, and all the other guys, too.”