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