Myles Murphy on Dexter Lawrence, Cashius Howell, Joe Burrow and More: Bengals Training Camp

Sun, Aug 9, 2026

Video Transcript

very tall, long, strong tackle, so it's always good work going against them and then like us as a D-line moving forward we've been doing nothing but taking steps forward, so I'd love to see that as a group with the preseason game coming up this week.

How do you feel the extended 11 on 11 period today helped prepare you guys for a game like situations?

Most definitely just with the endurance, honestly, just the endurance of the game because the game is nothing compared to nothing compared to practice because.

In the game you got the TV timeouts, regular timeouts, you know, uh, like it's, it's a lot more rest time in games.

So to build up that callous, that conditioning within practice before you get game rest in preseason or the regular season is always just a, it's always a good thing for everyone on the field to do.

Was it kind of game like today?

Yeah, uh, that's probably as intense as it gets for a game because it was a lot, it was a little bit of no huddle.

Uh, extensive plays, long drives.

It was hot outside, so I think that's, that's literally the best conditions to prepare for the season.

How do you look at your role this year compared to, to previous options there's some changes on the end.

Um, what do you think about your role, you know, coming up this year?

Uh, definitely, uh, my role, I feel like it's a little bit more of a leadership role, whether it be just outspoken, about to say on the, on the D-line.

I'm still not the oldest.

I'm still one of the young guys, but as far as like tenure here on the Bengals, like I've been with Al for now 2 years.

I know the defense.

Some guys do still look at me like, OK, what do we got?

So of course it's like knowing, knowing, knowing the defense, being loud within the defense and you know, being that guy that doesn't break, honestly.

Do you feel any added pressure or anything with the with the new room?

No, I'm about to say there's no.

The guys we got in this room, it's literally, you can go to everyone and literally just say be yourself, and being yourself is more than enough to win in this league with the guys we got.

You've had a lot of snaps outside in a 3 to 4 look.

It seems to fit your skill set pretty well.

What, what do you think of that that role, that potential role?

I mean, I like it.

It really doesn't, it really.

Gives me more, more of an attack mindset.

It does.

It shows different looks for the O-line.

It makes it harder for them to read who's actually coming, whether it be me or Boyer, or if we're bringing a BC or a D9 up the middle.

So it gives different looks.

But when it, when I am going, I'm rolling.

Like it, it, it gives me nothing but an attack like whether it be, whether it be run or pass because I'm setting the edge or burning the edge, one of the, one of the two.

Dline had a couple wins today.

D-line had a couple of wins today.

Where have you seen that unit just grow the most from practice one to practice, whatever it is now?

Uh, it's confidence.

Because like we, like I've watched all, I watched all of that film with in my like Cassius coming in as a rookie.

I watched his college tape.

Like he, he can rush.

Like we all know that he can rush.

So like just the building the confidence throughout the entire camp, that's, I think that's the most important thing any player can do, just build that confidence, whether it be reps or going home, watching film and going, going to the playbook, getting more confidence in the playbook and being, being able to play faster.

So however you can build that confidence is like the number one deal that you can do, and that's what, that's all I've seen with this group every day a lot of different.

Guys have talked about the camaraderie in the locker room, but specifically the defense.

Um, do you feel that?

Is it, is it more so this season, and what do you think has kind of sparked that?

Uh, yeah, I felt that day one, honestly, I felt what sparked it, uh, like initially was how we ended the season last year.

Like we ended on a high note, and I felt like we all came into this offseason like let's continue that high note and then what added on to it, bringing on big guys, uh, John, Dex, uh, B. Cook, some guys on the back end and some other guys, so that didn't do anything but.

Add on to that confidence that we already had going into the season.

So yeah, what have you learned the most from Oyer just in the last, you know, couple weeks, couple months that you've been working with him?

Uh, just the mental, just the mental piece aspect.

Well, of course, rushing, like he, he has like coached all of us up on like a little bit of rushes, uh, footwork and steps and all that stuff, but his football IQ was.

It's like, second to none , honestly like he, he knows the ball.

Um, I think that's one of the big reasons why we got him, why we got him here.

Of course he can rush.

He's a very powerful, twitchy player, but his IQ is very high as well.

So I think that's that's one of the big reasons why we got him here and that's one of the things that I'm slowly learning, really quickly learning every single day being around him.

There was a snap today where two defensive linemen were had a hand in the dirt.

Everybody else was standing up and moving around.

Is that kind of indicative of, you know, the things that Al is doing.

Give the other side difficult looks.

Yeah, he never wants to give the quarterback a concrete look.

It's the NFL and we're going with the best quarterback in the league every single day.

So the last thing we want to do is to sit still and give him a concrete read and be like, OK. Audible to this and that we'd never want to give him a still look.

So whether it be the back end move, whether it be me and Boye kind of just showing different coverages, that's exactly what we wanna do.

What, how would you characterize the confidence in your in your game, how it's changed this year in the last couple of years, um, he said, how would I characterize my confidence.

How would you describe your confidence and how your game has changed, uh, more so just knowing who I am and just seeing what I can be, honestly, like putting, putting, uh, different things on tape from last year and knowing that, knowing I can build off of it and being around guys, being around veteran guys that were in my shoes and like giving me pointers on how they made those next steps that, you know, just gives me more confidence honestly moving forward and being, being able to.

Know the defense and then help out some of the younger guys or guys that are like with me or whatever.

So yeah, just going into the season with just more confidence.

You sound like you have a different attitude.

Maybe it's the veterans that are around you like you were talking about Boyer or Jonathan.

Is your attitude feel more, do you feel more comfortable?

Yeah, way more comfortable.

Like going into year two with Al, um, he trusts me.

I love that.

So I mean really just going off of that trust and going off of the confidence and knowing, knowing the playbook so I can play fast and being able to know it well enough to teach it to anybody like having that, having that confidence and sureness in the defense and knowing that we're gonna, we're gonna.

Um, you get off the ball and ball out.

So really I just really all I gotta do is my 111.

I trust my guys on defense.

So yeah, you and Dexter didn't ever laugh at Clemson, but did he come around?

Did you get to know him or or learn anything about him just from being a Tiger?

Um, only a little bit when I was being recruited.

He was a sophomore or junior, and I was in maybe freshman, sophomore in high school.

So when I came up on a visit, that's when I first met him, but.

I mean since then it's just been like maybe video games like we, we would play like 2K together every once in a while but not too much.

I would watch, I would watch him.

I would watch his film all the time like even in college when, when I got uh access to the DB sport we, we use Xos in our college.

Once I got access to that, I would watch college or NFL Film all the time, whether it be edges or the tackles like Dexter.

So I, I watch his film all the time.

I'm.

I always wanted to play with him because he was a tiger or because he was a great player.

Both because he was a tiger, but I mean dominant player, uh, well, what jumps out now that you've watched him for so many years as you're playing with him?

What jumps out, especially when you're lined up next year?

I feel like a lot of people kind of like give the excuse, oh, it's is Dexter Lawrence.

He's a beast of a man.

He could just run through anybody, but he's actually very technical in his game.

Like he knows, he knows where the slide's going.

And how to how to rush an edge.

He doesn't just run down the middle of people.

He actually, he does run, rush edges as big as big and as strong as he is, um, so he knows exactly how to play the D tackle position, not just because he's a behemoth of a man, but because he's actually smart and knows how to rush edges and knows where to go.

And it's not just y'all added him , you added you added Jonathan.

Defensive line has looked so far.

What gives you confidence you guys can carry that over into the season when things start to matter?

Um, just the experience, honestly, like the experience teaches a lot within the, especially in the D line, um, knowing guys we got Boyer, year 6 or 7, we've got, uh, John, Bils, BJ, um, year 8, year 10 guys.

So knowing that they've been through that fight, um.

I trust, I trust their preparation.

That's really what it is.

I trust their preparation.

They've been in the league for a while.

They're guys that that they know, they, they know they need to be in the playbook.

They need to be on their recovery.

They need to be on their nutrition, all that good stuff.

So it's nothing that needs to be told to them.

They're gonna show up to work every day.

We didn't get to talk to you after the Friday night practice.

What was the reaction to Dexter knocking down Joe?

Uh, normal.

I mean, nothing, nothing too surprising.

I mean, of course we want to stay off the quarterback, but you know, it's football.

Things happen.

Um, of course we both checked up on Joe and Joe got right up and said it's fine, it's football, so I mean.

But uh you know he's he's been, he's been pushing, he's been pushing in the middle all camp and all, all we gotta do on the edges is just burn the edge, shorten the edge a little bit, just get to the quarterback, really create havoc back there.

Have you asked Cassius what he's gonna do for the rookie show?

No, I don't, I don't want it.

I want it to be a surprise.