Carlos Dunlap, Pete Carroll take swipes at Bengals’ culture

Cincinnati Bengals great Carlos Dunlap is already making game-saving plays for the Seattle Seahawks.

And both he and Pete Carroll have made some interesting comments about culture and Dunlap’s prior surroundings.

This week, Dunlap dropped a hint about just how different the team culture is in Seattle.

“This is a whole different environment, man,” Dunlap said, according to ESPN’s Brady Henderson. “The culture here is very lovely, and it’s contagious.”

And Carroll himself, while praising Dunlap the player and person, got a swipe in by comparing Seattle to Cincinnati, too, as captured by Curtis Crabtree of Pro Football Talk:

“He’s having the time of his life. He is having a blast. He’s been upbeat and spirited and having fun with it and more than willing to do whatever, the work and getting out to practice and getting reps. I mean, all of it. He’s practicing really well. Got a really pleasant personality that’s fun. He’s having a good time so if you haven’t, if you guys haven’t been around him you know, when you get around him, you’ll see. He brings a good spirit to it and his attitude is excellent because he’s having so much fun. It’s different than what he’s been around.”

“It’s different than what he’s been around.” That stings.

Even if it’s just Carroll referring to a winning environment vs. a losing one, the comments come at a time when other Bengals players are fighting back publicly about reports of a toxic locker room culture.

Dunlap went public with his dissatisfaction and forced the team into making only its second in-season trade since the mid-1980s. That he has been instantly productive for a contender is both alarming and a little predictable, and the comments are just something to throw on the pile for review when evaluation about the Bengals’ future happens this offseason.