Fortunately for the Cincinnati Bengals, this time Orlando Brown Jr. didn’t ghost Cody Ford.
Brown was battling a groin injury during the Oct. 8 win against the Seattle Seahawks when things got to a point in the third quarter where he knew he couldn’t finish. But instead of going in for treatment, Brown stayed on the sideline and was there for Ford as he navigated his first game playing left tackle since high school.
It was just four months earlier when Brown left Ford hanging.
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Why Didn’t Orlando Brown Jr. Return Cincinnati Bengals Teammate Cody Ford’s Call?
The former University of Oklahoma teammates were both heading into free agency when Ford came up with the idea that they should stick together and take their talents to Cincinnati.
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“I texted him a couple weeks before I even had a visit lined up, and then I texted him the day before my visit,” Ford said. “I was like, ‘Hey, I’m going to Cincinnati. Let’s meet there.’ And he didn’t respond. So I was kind of butt hurt.
“Then on my flight here, I saw the news, and I was so excited,” Ford continued. “I was like, ‘Yeah, this is full circle right here.’ But I was also like, ‘Bro, you could’ve texted me back. But whatever.'”
Ford and Brown signed a day — and many millions of dollars — apart in March. Brown received what at the time was the largest signing bonus in league history for an offensive lineman at $31 million, which was part of a four-year, $64.1 million deal.
Ford signed for one year and $1.1 million with no signing bonus.
But in the team’s most recent game, Ford was one of the most important, if not most expensive, players on the field, tasked with protecting Joe Burrow’s blind side while playing left tackle for the first time since he was 17 years old.
Cody Ford is in at LT for Orlando Brown Jr., who is standing, with helmet in hand, next to O line coach Frank Pollack
— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) October 15, 2023
“It’s so difficult to come in cold off the bench and be able to perform up front,” Brown said. “You haven’t had time to really settle in or get a feel, and it’s crunch time. But he showed up and showed out in an important situation for us.”
Brown had intel on which moves the Seattle edge rushers were working most and what the defense’s overall plan was, and it helped Ford get through the fourth quarter, even if the Bengals’ offense was struggling around him. Brown said he was there to offer tips and answer any questions Ford had.
“He told me I was up, and he said, ‘Listen, this is what they’re doing, and this is what you can do,'” Ford said. “From the second I was told I was going in, he gave me tips and tells on how to attack those guys and how to work my reps. And after every drive, he was telling me what I could have done better, what looked good, and what didn’t look good. He was constantly in my ear.
“It speaks true to him, what kind of guy he is,” Ford added. “He’s not gonna leave the team out there and be the guy who makes it about him. He wants to show the guys that, even when he’s down, we have his support.”
Brown said with the extra time off for the bye, he expects to be ready to go for Sunday’s game at San Francisco. Brown did not participate in Monday’s walk-through, but that was scheduled to give him another day of rest as the Bengals attempt to get hot after the bye the way they have the last two seasons.
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While that will mean Ford is back on the bench, he said he feels good about how he played in his left tackle debut.
The Bengals still list him as a guard on their roster, but offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said last week that Ford quickly established himself as the team’s top backup tackle early in training camp.
“When he put the pads on, he really showed that he’s probably our next best lineman — tackle, guard, whatever it may be,” Callahan said. “We felt like if somebody needed to go in and play, he was the next guy off the bench at either spot. He ascended into that role pretty quickly.”
Ford, a 2019 second-round pick of the Buffalo Bills, started 15 games at right tackle as a rookie, but he has mostly played guard for Buffalo and the Arizona Cardinals since. When free agency was about to begin, his agent Chris Coy asked him how he wanted to be presented to other teams interested in him.
“I was like, ‘Sell me as a tackle,'” Ford said Monday. “For the Bengals to want to sign me as a tackle, that was huge. That was a big component of why I wanted to sign here in the first place.”
But Ford also had an idea of who the Bengals were as a franchise, and he made sure to reach out to some current players about the culture. They confirmed everything he believed.
“I play best, I perform best with a team that has a lot of structure, where there’s a standard; when you can tell from the outside looking in that the team holds the team accountable, and it’s player-driven,” Ford said.
“I think DT (Duke Tobin) and Mike Brown have a tremendous organization going. When I talked to some guys who had been here and were still here, everything held true to what I thought. I said, ‘Yeah, that’s the place I want to be.”
And Brown sticking around on the sideline and delaying treatment further confirmed it.
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