Orlando Brown Jr. on Bengals’ Decision to Fire Frank Pollack, Tee Higgins’ Future and More

Cincinnati Bengals On SI

Transcript

00:00How tough is it seeing Frank go, Rolando?

00:02Very hard, man.

00:04Frank Pollock did so much for me in my career.

00:07Honestly, outside of the injury this year,

00:10man, I was off to a great start.

00:11And man, especially in pass protection,

00:15I made such a large leap, which is very rare from six to seven.

00:19You're six to seven.

00:21But Frank had a very large impact on me, man.

00:23And he helped me out in my career so much.

00:25What was your reaction when you found out?

00:28It's sad, man.

00:29Just because it's our livelihood,

00:31he has such a great passion for us as players

00:34and for coaching the game of football

00:36at our offensive line position.

00:38You know, it's sad.

00:39What was your reaction?

00:41Yeah.

00:42Obviously sad.

00:42Yeah.

00:43Yeah, I mean, like, surprise, yeah.

00:47You know what I mean?

00:47But man, it's the NFL.

00:48You know, it's so many things that happened.

00:51I mean, I've been traded after an offseason.

00:54I've been franchise tagged.

00:55I've been told I was going to get franchise tagged

00:57and didn't get franchise tagged.

00:58So I mean, I can't really use the word surprise.

01:00But I mean, it just is what it is.

01:03You've played for some good O-line coaches in the NFL

01:05and in college.

01:06What are you hoping the next guy can bring to the table?

01:09Yeah.

01:11Man, honestly, I think that that's

01:14kind of above my pay grade in a sense.

01:17But just somebody that I think is

01:20able to just get the most out of the room, I guess.

01:24You look at this team, this is obviously a very big offseason

01:27with a lot of guys who could stay,

01:29could get long-term contracts.

01:31How curious are you to follow what's

01:33going to happen here the next few months?

01:35Yeah, I'll be here, man.

01:37You know, pretty much, I'm a Cincinnatian.

01:39I'll be here pretty much all offseason,

01:41working out here, training in the facility.

01:43So I guess I'll see the faces coming in and out of here.

01:46But I'll definitely be keeping up with it.

01:48I know you've seen Joe stand up for T,

01:51say that T is in need, all of those things.

01:54Do you feel the same way about T?

01:55I do, man.

01:56I think when you look at how pass-heavy our offense is,

02:00having as many comparable targets is important.

02:06And you look across the NFL, man,

02:09just with some of the teams, the way

02:11that some teams handle contracts,

02:12I'm pretty sure that we'll do what's best.

02:15But T is important for us, man.

02:18He's come in, he's been productive every year

02:20he's been here.

02:22He comes in, he works his tail off.

02:24He's got a crazy work ethic.

02:26So hopefully everything's able to work out for him, man.

02:28He's important to me, important to us.

02:30Whoever ends up being the next offensive line coach,

02:33let's say he calls you day two on the job and says,

02:35tell me about Marius Mims, what would you say?

02:39Yeah, well, I mean, he had an incredible rookie year, man.

02:41I mean, he literally seemed, I think,

02:43every great defensive end in this league that is still

02:47currently playing from, obviously, Michael Parsons,

02:50TJ Wild, Miles Garrett.

02:52I mean, he's seen them all, man.

02:54Max Crosby this year, I guess we didn't play the Bosa's,

02:56but, or the younger Bosa, baby Bosa, but he's seen them all.

02:59And, you know, he's a guy that's come in as a younger player.

03:03He's been extremely productive.

03:04He's worked his tail off.

03:06He came in every day with an extremely positive attitude

03:08and mindset and he only got better.

03:10And I think that's what you're going to continue to see

03:12from him throughout his career is just the trajectory

03:15heading upwards, continuing to get better,

03:17continuing to work hard and hopefully having

03:19two all pro tackles here in the future.

03:21Will you need a procedure in the off season

03:23or will your injury heal on its own?

03:24It'll heal on its own, yep.

03:26You know the expectation, Orlando here,

03:29how close do you think this team is to being a championship?

03:32I think we are pretty close, man, believe it or not.

03:34I think those, these last five games,

03:36you kind of seen that with the way that Joe's playing.

03:39Honestly, it makes it much easier on everybody, you know,

03:42when you've got a quarterback that's kind of figured it out

03:44already, so, man, for us, I think just making sure

03:48that we take care of what we can take care of

03:51and control what we can control.

03:52And I guess as a leader, man, it starts here in the locker room.

03:55Because of the kind of, because of the season

03:57you had at the beginning,

03:58you pretty much kind of replicate

04:00what you did last offseason?

04:01I mean, because it seemed to work out pretty well for you.

04:04Yeah, there's always more.

04:05And, you know, I haven't sat back

04:07and done all my evaluation yet

04:08just because the season just ended yesterday,

04:10but there's always more.

04:11And I'll go back and look at those games that I played in

04:14and see where I can take it from there.

04:16But, yeah, I mean, I'll replicate it as much as I can,

04:19but I'll take it to the next level even more.

04:22I mean, but staying here at the stadium, I guess.

04:24Oh, yeah, for sure.

04:25Yeah, I'll be right here with Joey Bozet.

04:27Come and find me, please.

04:28I'll tell you what to wish for.

04:31You feel like you guys kind of relearned

04:33the value of the early season games this year.

04:36You come out of it this season

04:38as almost a lesson to take away.

04:40Yeah, you know, man, even last year,

04:42I guess as I was coming here,

04:44I believe they got off to a slow start the year before in 21.

04:47You know, you kind of, you never want to put yourself

04:49in that position, and you always want to be able

04:52to control your own fate going into the playoffs.

04:54You know, late in December,

04:56you don't really want to have to be playing in those games

04:58where it's like, you know, you'd rather it be more so like,

05:00we got the playoffs clinched, you know,

05:02we want to clinch this better seeding position.

05:05So we know what we got to take care of, man.

05:07We know that coming in, hitting the ground running,

05:09starting week one, taking care of business

05:11early on in September, it's going to be a large part

05:13of us having our long-term success in the season.

05:15Is there something you feel like you guys can do

05:17in the run-up, whether it's in the off season

05:19or in camp to be a better team early,

05:22or is that a mentality thing?

05:24Man, I think it's more mentality than anything.

05:26You know, it's hard to win.

05:27It's hard to win in life.

05:28It's hard to put yourself in good position.

05:31You know what I mean?

05:32It's hard to really understand all those things.

05:33And sometimes at the highest level of football,

05:36you got to get used and comfortable with an understanding

05:38of pushing yourself to the limit of what it takes to win.

05:41And I think that these last two years,

05:44mentally, we haven't been in that state of mind

05:46where our backs are against the wall

05:48in December and November, and we got to fight

05:50for a chance to get where we want to get.

05:51You know what I mean?

05:52The mindset, the fire that's lit underneath your ass

05:56in that point needs to be there in July, June,

05:59August, all the way through.

06:00And so, man, I think that, you know,

06:02I take a lot of pride in that as a player,

06:04you know, putting more pressure on myself

06:06to be more for us at those points.

06:09Do you have to play more in the preseason?

06:11Do you have to change training camp?

06:13I don't think any of those things need to change.

06:15I think most importantly, it's just the mindset, man.

06:17Understanding that when we go out there

06:18versus New England, we're four and eight already.

06:22You know what I mean?

06:23We got to go out there and earn our right.

06:26Will the most painful days still be ahead,

06:28watching Buffalo, Baltimore, Kansas City

06:31ultimately play for the big one next month?

06:34Yeah, no, man, honestly, I love watching football.

06:38Man, I really do.

06:40But it is tough after playing in the Super Bowl,

06:42watching it, so, you know, it'll suck, man.

06:45But, you know, I guess you could say it's always next year.

06:50So I'll go back to work.

06:51I'll take care of what I need to take care of,

06:53and we watch a lot of football.

06:54How much did you watch yesterday?

06:56How long did you last in the Kansas City game?

06:58Man, man, probably that first quarter.

07:00I was like, I just kind of had an idea.

07:03You know, Denver went out there and took care of business.

07:06Did you get any responses to your text messages?

07:08No, no, I didn't send out any texts, man.

07:10I probably should have, but no, I didn't send out any texts.

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