Cincinnati Bengals Sign Eric Dungey After Mini-Camp Workout
Former Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey was signed by the Cincinnati Bengals following a mini-camp workout on Friday, according to AllBengals.com. The former Orange quarterback was invited as an unsigned player but signed with the squad after impressing the coaching staff. The mini-camp included invited players, undrafted free agents and drafted rookies.
Eric Dungey was supposed to play in The Spring League’s opening weekend last weekend, but those plans have changed after he received the mini-camp invite.
Eric Dungey is Syracuse's all-time leader in career passing yards, second in completions and third in touchdown passes. He is one of the most productive quarterbacks in Orange history. Forced into action as a true freshman when veteran Terell Hunt got hurt, Dungey played with grit, toughness and determination, and became a fan favorite.
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He helped lead Syracuse to an upset over the defending national champion Clemson Tigers in the Dome in 2017. Dungey then led the Orange to a 10 win 2018 season capped by a Camping World Bowl win over West Virginia. Syracuse finished that season 10-3 and ranked 15th in the country in the final polls.
"Coach Babers came in and from day one he demanded perfection," Dungey said. "That was a huge thing. He made it a very highly competitive place to be. He loves competition and I think he saw that I was a very competitive person. He brought the best out of me in that sense. That's why I always got a lot of respect for him because he's able to see what makes players tick and he gets the best out of them. He gets the highest performance out of them. For me, he saw that I loved to compete. He really went out of his way and took the time to teach me the ins and outs of the game.
“He always said by year three, you're going to running this offense at his level, he likes to say. He would say I'll never get to his level but I feel like I had a very, very solid understanding of it to the point where I was making some corrections on him. He probably won't ever admit that, but just go from there. That's how he was though. He wanted you to be perfect. He wanted you to know everything there was about the game. That's why they're going to be successful. They've just got to get back to the competitiveness inside the team, and I think that's what they've been doing especially with these offseason moves they've been making bringing in these new players."
Dungey then had shot in the NFL with the New York Giants and Cleveland Browns, but was unable to make a roster.
"A common misconception, obviously I went to the Giants and I was very grateful for the opportunity, I went as a quarterback/tight end but I was just in the tight end room. A 219-pound tight end in the NFL for the first year ever playing is not going to work out, especially when I've been playing quarterback my whole life. Unfortunately I was cut because I really didn't fit the tight end build.
“After that I got a great opportunity at Cleveland. I learned a lot just being in that room with Baker (Mayfield), Drew Stanton, Garrett Gilbert and those guys. Very smart, cerebral guys. I just kind of saw how they went about things for about 10 weeks. Just being in that atmosphere was an incredible experience.”
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