If Bengals tight end Erick All Jr. was looking for confidence in his comeback from injury, he found it in an unexpected place: getting hit by a truck.
The frightening overseas accident this summer — and the way he popped right back up after it — gave All all the assurances he needed that he was fully recovered from his ACL injuries and ready to handle the rigors of the NFL.
While the Bengals may be easing All back in and treating him with kid gloves, if he could handle getting hit by a truck, he can handle trucking defenders.
“I got up and was like, ‘I’m f–king ready, I’m ready,’” All told reporters at Bengals camp. “And it didn’t hurt me at all. But it just kind of gave me that confidence, like, ‘Oh, I’m back.’”
Back after an admittedly tough first two seasons in the NFL.
Having initially torn his ACL in college, All re-tore it halfway through his rookie campaign in 2024.
He missed all of last season, as well.
There could be a natural hesitancy after that kind of injury.
But All had been walking along a sidewalk in Greece on vacation, preparing to cross an Athens street when a three-wheel truck — which he likened to a moped — swerved to avoid another person and slammed into him.
The impact threw him to the ground.
But he bounced right back up with just scrapes on his face and a few bumps and bruises but no real pain.
And buoyed confidence.
The truck accident just served as proof that his body is ready for the contact of NFL collisions.
“That did a lot of good things for the mental, I’m telling you,” All said. “Because that’s what I do. I’m here for the physicality, and so, you know, after not playing for a while, and I got smacked by that thing, and I got up, ‘I’m like, that’s as big of a hit that anybody could give.’ That’s the first time I ever got pancaked, ever, and so I’m like, ‘If I can take that, I’m good.’ I’m usually the hammer.”
For All, it just seemed like a prototypical football play, colliding with a defensive lineman.
Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor has said All’s innate physicality is one of his best assets.
“He loves football, and he loves the physical portion of football,” Taylor said earlier this summer. “The word ‘physical’ in the dictionary is a picture of Erick All trying to put his face through somebody’s soul, and that’s the best way I can describe him.”
While All is fully cleared and participating in training camp, Cincinnati coaches have tried to get him to rein in his intensity as he reintegrates into full practice.
Good luck.
“That’s as big of a hit that anybody could give,” All said. “If I can take that, I’m good.”
