Josh Johnson Praises Bengals' Young Receivers After Win over Bears in Preseason

Sun, Aug 23, 2026

Video Transcript

That, uh, the touchdown throw to him, the Kobe , did he give him an, I mean, it looked like he kind of gave him an inside move a little bit, and then patience was awesome.

We talk a lot about patience versus press, um, and a lot of young guys typically struggle with that because they just wanna go now.

But what he did, he worked it and he stopped his feet, and to me it was just, it was a nice throw to judge where he's going and lead him and let him go make the play.

Then you went right back on that first drive and he, uh.

You threw it to him and he kind of lost the contested ball and then you went right back to him on almost on almost the same play that I think that was the 3rd and 14 had the same defense, same look, um, pitch called a great call and to me that's where the ball is supposed to go.

Let him go do his thing and he did it.

But, what did you see from him on, on that, you know, I mean why was it supposed to go to him?

Um, just the way the coverage.

I had options to go to either, well, the first one it was, it was called for him.

The second one was options to go either side.

Um, to me, the corner gave us the same look.

I don't see no reason why not to go at it again.

You missed the first one, we'll get the second one, and, you know, shout out to him as a 3rd string quarterback, Josh, you don't get a lot of reps at training and practice.

How, how do you come out and perform so well when you don't get a lot of reps?

Um, for me personally, myself, um.

This is all God, man.

I'm grateful , um, because my whole career has kind of been like this, and you know, when you, if you a man of faith or have any relationship with God, you know, like the things he put us through is for a reason, and now I'm 40, I can look back at things I was going through at 22.

That's helping me now and how I prepare, how I understand the reps might not be there for me, but how was other ways that I could steal opportunities to just bring a calm to yourself to go out there and play confidently, and, uh, so for me that's just all of gratitude to God because.

He kept nudging on me to say like, you know, this might be what it is for you, but there's a will, there's a way, and, uh, my whole career has kind of just been like gotta get out the mud, and that's just kind of what it is, and now I'm just kind of used to it.

Did you do anything tonight that impressed yourself at 40 ?

Um, great move on, but uh, I think it's always good to go out there and show you can still make it, man, um.

In this, in this business, people wanna put labels on you and put tags on you.

Um, everybody thinks they have the right answers, and to me, like I said earlier, the one answer, the one person I know who has the answers is the man above.

And for me, when I wake up with opportunity, that man it's purpose.

And so the purpose for me is to go out there and do whatever my guiding ability allow me to do.

I might not be able to take it to the house no more, but, uh, I can still make plays and move the chains and then, uh, just went with my mind, allow these guys to be great at what they do, make plays.

12 my uh 12 might have.

Say it one more time.

When you got the opportunity to play tonight, how do you think you played?

I think we played well.

Uh, my job is to go out there and play clean, get us in and out of the huddle, execute.

Um, our coaches do a great job of putting us in a great position.

This is a very quarterback friendly offense.

Um, there's two throws that I really want back.

Um, the flat route to Dante that could have been explosive when they corner catted us, and then the slam route right after that.

That was one of my best throws of the night.

Um, I really wish I could have those back, but overall we played good.

It's not just, it's not about me, man.

It's only I can't do nothing without the other 10 guys going out there really fighting and being on top of their job.

You went right to Don.

Did it come out well?

Felt good.

Yeah, the ball felt great.

Um, shout out to Ryan and Adam, and them.

They had the balls buffed up real good.

But it was spinning.

It was spinning at night.

You went right to Dante right away in that first drive.

I mean, it was like, um, you know, I mean, I guess what he carried over from practice, the game, uh, the play call was for either him or Eric.

Um, the way the defense expanded, they took Eric away.

Dante was presenting himself in the right spot.

To me, it's throw him a great ball that he can talk with and talk to him and spin him to the space, and he spin to the space and got the yards.

So it's all up, it's all Dante, man.

It's all the receivers.