We all love Ted Karras, but he isn’t getting any younger.
Matt Lee: Gone
Seth McLaughlin: Gone
So, the Cincinnati Bengals went back to the draft to find the heir apparent, and in typical Bengals fashion, they targeted a player who had first round buzz prior to a season-ending injury.
Let me introduce you to Connor Lew.
First, let’s talk about the anchor.
The defensive tackle initially takes an angle toward the guard, but when he counters back at the center, Lew stops
him in his tracks.
Lew has a strong base that he maintains while he is on the move in pass protection.
Here, we get a good look at Lew’s footwork. The defender tries to go right, then tries to go left, but Lew is always there to stop him.
As the quarterback scrambles one direction, Lew buries the defensive tackle in the opposite direction.
Here Lew puts it all together.
He has a nice kick step (which is not something you often talk about with centers) to get out and block the 2i. This is after throwing a strike of a snap, mind you.
The defender tries to come back inside and cross Lew’s face, and he succeeds. Lew loses some ground, but he gets himself back in position and stops the rush cold.
It’s extremely difficult to solo run block a head up defensive tackle because you don’t know what gap the are trying to get in and often nose tackles will just fight against pressure.
In this clip, Lew takes on the 0 tech on a zone block to the left. When the running back cuts back to the gap to Lew’s right, Lew shows great strength to hold on to the block and leave the hole open.
Now here is a clip where Lew makes a down block on a linebacker who is standing up in the B gap.
Again, let’s go back to the beginning of the play to fully appreciate this.
First, Lew must throw a perfect strike between his legs as he does on every play. So now he is starting with his hand between his legs, and he must move laterally two gaps over in order to pick up a defender who is presumably faster and quicker than he is without giving up any ground.
All in a day’s work.
The Bengals’ future at center is very bright indeed.
