Al Golden Dives Into Shemar Stewart's Progres, Defensive Communication Early in Bengals Training Camp

 Training Camp is barreling toward the first game of preseason for the Cincinnati Bengals. Defensive coordinator Al Golden spoke with the media on Sunday ahead of Thursday's game against the Eagles with a few updates.

The top one is checking in on rookie Shemar Stewart in his first week of NFL training camp with plenty of reps at his disposal.

"Good," Golden said about Stewart's performance so far. "He's got to get into football shape. Tempo got him a little bit today. So he's just got to keep working on that, keep working, and then you know we'll get him some days off and get him ready for Thursday night. But overall, he's physical, he's powerful at the point of attack, he plays with effort and energy, and you feel his presence on the field."

Golden also discussed how good the communication has been on defense so far.

Cincinnati struggled with that mightily on the backend last season en route to tying for 25th in points allowed per game.

"Very good. There's always a couple of things that you can fix, and it's expansive right now, so you can't drill down on specific calls like you would on a game plan," Golden said. "So there's going to be a little more. But overall, they're working together, they're solving problems, and they're communicating really well."

A game plan goes in for the first time in Golden's tenure during the next few days.