With Cam Sample eyeing a training camp return from a torn Achilles, news broke Wednesday night that the Bengals are reportedly expected to re-sign their most versatile defensive lineman to a one-year deal.
When Sample was injured last Aug. 1 in a training camp practice, it robbed the Bengals of a fourth-year player who can stop the run on the edge and provide some pass rush at tackle. Some club insiders put that injury right up there with season-enders to cornerback Dax Hill, linebacker Logan Wilson, and left end Sam Hubbard when it came to impacting the defense.
Sample has been rehabbing at Paycor Stadium ever since the surgery because, “It’s like family in there and I trust those guys. And I wanted to be around my teammates.”
Every day but Wednesday, the first day of free agency. He was a free agent and couldn’t go in. But on Thursday, once he signs his deal, he can go back to the gym.
“I’m not going to leave Cincinnati without finishing some business,” Sample said. “We didn’t have the year we wanted as a team and I didn’t have the year I wanted as a player.”
Sample is leaving his timeline up to the trainers, but he says he feels like he can hit the ground running in training camp.
He doesn’t turn 26 until early in the season, but he’s played more than 1,000 snaps and come up with some big plays in big games:
A tackle for loss as well as a sack of Patrick Mahomes in an AFC Championship Game. A sack of Geno Smith on the last play of a first half in a game the Bengals beat Seattle by a field goal. And his first NFL sack came on the first play after the Bengals took a 7-0 lead in Pittsburgh when he got to Ben Roethlisberger in a game the Bengals won, 24-10.
“Chess piece,” Sample said of his game. “Move me up and down the D-Line.”
