But Eason has a ring, played in the big game twice and spend five minutes with him and it's clear he knows his way around an NFL trench. As a fellow Clemson alum, Reader remembered Eason from his visits to campus and the relationship helped back in March. When Daniels suddenly became a free agent before last season, Eason, new in his job with the Bengals, knew all about him.
"I didn't really know about (Eason). I really didn't, but I got to learn a lot about him just from the times we spoke on the phone and the Zoom meetings that we had," Daniels said. "I can definitely tell why everybody likes him, why all the players gravitate towards him and why his room really respects him. He's definitely a guy I look forward to being coached by and learning from and really getting acclimated with on the dynamics of becoming a Bengal. I'm really looking forward to following his lead."
Back in March when the Bengals first began courting Reader, the coaches couldn't talk to the players. But Reader felt comfort knowing Eason was here.
"I thought, 'OK, that's somebody I'm familiar with, that's awesome,'" Reader said back then to Bengals.com. "He came back to talk to us when he was transitioning out of the league as a player. He was one of those guys on the highlights back when they had a couple of guys stealing the show and he was one of the really good guys. He was in Tennessee (coaching on the Titans defensive line) when I was coming out. He came down and worked me out. I knew what he was about I liked him."
There were other factors, of course. Remember, Daniels, 31, was a fourth-round pick of the Packers in 2012 and saw the Marvin Lewis Bengals perennially go to playoffs. The Bengals were a team to watch. And Daniels lived it. He played in a Paul Brown Stadium game in 2013 when the Bengals defense literally stole one from Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers had to go to overtime at Lambeau to beat them in 2017 on a day Daniels remembered Bengals rookie end Carl Lawson bagging 2.5 sacks.
"I always admired the Bengals. I remember we came here in 2013 and despite our efforts on defense, we had four turnovers and a touchdown we still lost the game because they were a tough, hard-nosed defense," Daniels said. "They had Coach Lewis (and Mike) Zimmer if I'm not mistaken. But that's the mentality of the organization. We're going to play tough, it's a tough division, going to be tough on defense, offensive line is going to be tough, we are going to run the ball hard. I've always admired that.
"The Bengals are always a team whose defensive line I've watched and said man, we need to play with that kind of intensity, that level of aggression, that type of violence. The Bengals were definitely a team I looked to like that. Seattle kind of exemplified like that. And the Ravens. In Green Bay we always struggled against that type of knock you down, tough defenses. I always wanted to be part of something like that and now I get the opportunity to."
All three players have something to prove, too now, at different points in their careers.
Atkins, 32, made the Pro Bowl last season, but only on rep and not his mere 4.5 sacks. And it wasn't all his fault. He was overworked and didn't get a lot of help from his offense. But the fact is he has made six top 100 lists in his career, but not last year.
Daniels, rated a top 100 NFL player by his peers from 2016-18, has ended the last two seasons on injured reserve, and says this is the best he's felt since 2017.
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