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Bengals Booth Podcast: The Knowledge · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on dan Hord and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The the Nage addition, as ESPN's
0:13
Speaker 1: Ben Solec joins me for an entertaining look at the
0:15
Speaker 1: Bengals off season and their chances of contending in twenty
0:19
Speaker 1: twenty five, followed by five observations about the Bengals offensive line.
0:25
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Corps,
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Speaker 1: the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is
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Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Now here's a
0:46
Speaker 1: quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of
0:49
Speaker 1: this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer
0:52
Speaker 1: by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest
0:56
Speaker 1: thing since using uniform numbers for memorization. There's a golf
1:02
Speaker 1: course in the Cincinnati area where a four digit code
1:06
Speaker 1: is needed to enter a bathroom on the course. When
1:09
Speaker 1: I asked somebody for the code, they said it was
1:12
Speaker 1: easy to remember. Jackie Robinson, Barry Larkin say no more
1:17
Speaker 1: four to two one one. My memory isn't as sharp
1:21
Speaker 1: as it once was, but the uniform number technique works
1:25
Speaker 1: for me every time, and you can use it for
1:28
Speaker 1: important numbers and dates. For example, my wedding anniversary is
1:33
Speaker 1: Bill Russell jim Ar Chase. Now if I could only
1:37
Speaker 1: remember where I left my keys. Now let's get to football.
1:43
Speaker 1: As I record this podcast, training camp is roughly three
1:47
Speaker 1: weeks away. Last week I got the local perspective on
1:50
Speaker 1: the team from seven Bengals Beat reporters, and this week
1:54
Speaker 1: it's the national perspective as I caught up with ESPN's
1:59
Speaker 1: Ben Solack. Dan, you have written and said a lot
2:02
Speaker 1: of interesting things about the Bengals this offseason, and I
2:06
Speaker 1: want to start with something that you wrote after the
2:08
Speaker 1: Bengals reached their contract extensions with Jamar Chase and t Higgins.
2:12
Speaker 1: Quote the trio of Burrow Higgins Chase cements auto contender status.
2:21
Speaker 1: That is a strong statement. Explained why you feel that way.
2:24
Speaker 2: Because of the Broncos Bengals game last year, where the
2:29
Speaker 2: entire premise of the Broncos defense, which was like inarguably
2:32
Speaker 2: a top five most certainly a top three, perhaps the
2:34
Speaker 2: best defensive football Last season, the entire premise was, well,
2:38
Speaker 2: we have Patrick Sartan, and you're not used to playing
2:41
Speaker 2: games in which we can just take your wide receiver
2:43
Speaker 2: one away and we're to force your offense to play
2:45
Speaker 2: left handed, and that's such a challenging thing to deal
2:48
Speaker 2: with from an offensive perspective. And the Bengals just kind
2:51
Speaker 2: of said loll and then threw it to t Higgins
2:53
Speaker 2: a bunch opposite Riley Moss. Right Like, I'm fairly confident
2:57
Speaker 2: that te Higgins is a top fifteen receiver in the NIF.
3:00
Speaker 2: I think he's right there with DeVante Smith in the
3:02
Speaker 2: argument for the best wide receiver two in football.
3:04
Speaker 3: I think t would be.
3:04
Speaker 2: A wide receiver one and over half the teams in
3:06
Speaker 2: the league. I think he would have made over thirty
3:07
Speaker 2: million dollars via the free agent market this year. He's
3:09
Speaker 2: that caliber of a guy. There's obviously injury concerns, but
3:12
Speaker 2: he's on the field. He's on the field, and Joe
3:14
Speaker 2: took such a nice step forward last season. We all
3:16
Speaker 2: know what Jamar is and so if you have that
3:18
Speaker 2: caliber of a passing attack, you're gonna be in every
3:21
Speaker 2: single game you play, because there's no second half deficit
3:24
Speaker 2: that you feel like you can't dig your way out of.
3:25
Speaker 2: You're gonna be able to dictate terms to opposing defenses,
3:28
Speaker 2: even those who have elite corner ones who can win
3:31
Speaker 2: against Jamar and mancot Bridge, And you're gonna be able
3:33
Speaker 2: to make playoff bushes because you can just get lucky
3:35
Speaker 2: and get hot with that passing game. And so yeah,
3:38
Speaker 2: there's so much to talk about with the Bengals outside
3:41
Speaker 2: of the nucleus, right outside of the solar system of
3:44
Speaker 2: Joe Burrow, Jabar, Chase and t Higgins. They got a
3:46
Speaker 2: lot changing and to deal with them to improve upon.
3:48
Speaker 2: But that trio right there, it's as good as it
3:50
Speaker 2: gets in football. It keeps them in the AFC conversation
3:52
Speaker 2: every single year.
3:53
Speaker 1: At this time last year, going into last season, I
3:57
Speaker 1: didn't think realistically there was any way they were going
4:00
Speaker 1: to keep both. Did you feel the same.
4:02
Speaker 3: Way one hundred percent?
4:03
Speaker 2: I was when I was at camp last year was
4:06
Speaker 2: when Jamar started not showing up to camp because he
4:10
Speaker 2: wanted an extension, while also they were still dealing with
4:13
Speaker 2: Tea not wanting to participate in camp because he wanted
4:15
Speaker 2: his extension. I was like, all right, this is chalked
4:17
Speaker 2: like you, there's just too many balls in the air
4:20
Speaker 2: to juggle contract wise. And the Bengals obviously have more
4:23
Speaker 2: limiting factors on their ability to make these mega deals
4:25
Speaker 2: than other teams because they are a family owned team
4:28
Speaker 2: that weren't recently purchased with huge amounts of money and
4:30
Speaker 2: minority owners, like they just have less cash moving around
4:32
Speaker 2: than some of these other squads to And so I
4:34
Speaker 2: thought they were going to get priced out. And again
4:36
Speaker 2: I think t could have made considerably more money on
4:39
Speaker 2: the open market if he wanted to get out of
4:40
Speaker 2: Cincinnati now, the same you could have said about Chris
4:42
Speaker 2: Stalwin and Tampa Bay. He took a discount to stay there.
4:44
Speaker 2: I don't think he made a bad business decision at all.
4:47
Speaker 2: But they were able to work the Joe Burrow angle
4:49
Speaker 2: of it work. We made the Super Bowl angle of
4:52
Speaker 2: it work, the what you can be here as Jamar
4:54
Speaker 2: Chase's running mate and have this very unique, very strong,
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Speaker 2: one A one B situation such that they were able
4:59
Speaker 2: to keep both of those guys. It is I think
5:01
Speaker 2: from the day that they realize Jamar and Joe were
5:03
Speaker 2: going to be what they are so the twenty twenty
5:05
Speaker 2: one Super Bowl run. They have been making efforts, the
5:07
Speaker 2: ownership group in the Blackburn's efforts to be ready for
5:11
Speaker 2: these contracts and the fact that they got that ball
5:13
Speaker 2: over the line is extremely impressive, So kudos to them.
5:15
Speaker 3: It's a big deal.
5:16
Speaker 1: ESPN's Ben Solak is our guest. We often associate quarterbacks
5:20
Speaker 1: with Super Bowl windows, and Joe Burrow has famously said
5:24
Speaker 1: the window is my career.
5:27
Speaker 2: Do you agree, Yeah, in the sense that an elite quarterback,
5:32
Speaker 2: And I think Burrow I hate using the word elite
5:34
Speaker 2: because to me, elite means top ten percent, top five percent.
5:37
Speaker 2: To mean that's like Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen,
5:39
Speaker 2: the MVP guys right, so near elite, top five whatever
5:43
Speaker 2: action if you want to use when you have that guy,
5:45
Speaker 2: and then yeah, you have the receivers.
5:46
Speaker 3: Like I say, you're always contending.
5:48
Speaker 2: However, Burrow is taking the term there and kind of
5:51
Speaker 2: making it his own. We talk about super Bowl windows
5:54
Speaker 2: and winning windows. What we're really talking about in the
5:57
Speaker 2: media are rookie contract windows and your most competitive team
6:01
Speaker 2: builds are those team bills in which your quarterback is
6:03
Speaker 2: an extremely low cap hit because it allows you to
6:06
Speaker 2: get forty million dollars in surplus, fifty million dollars in surplus.
6:09
Speaker 2: You can go around and pay everybody, get free agents
6:12
Speaker 2: in on the defensive tackle, linebacker, corner, offensive guard, tight end,
6:15
Speaker 2: and you can build those ancillary pieces. It's how the
6:18
Speaker 2: Eagles built around Jalen Hurts before they made their Super
6:20
Speaker 2: Bowl runs, how the forty nine ers built around brock
6:23
Speaker 2: perty and now that he has to get paid. You
6:24
Speaker 2: saw their talent departure this past year.
6:27
Speaker 3: So Joe can say that, and he's not wrong.
6:30
Speaker 2: However, I can start naming for you some Bengals who
6:33
Speaker 2: have gotten out of the building because price tag wise,
6:36
Speaker 2: the Bengals had to make some some contract decisions.
6:38
Speaker 3: And so he's correct.
6:39
Speaker 2: But we're also right when we talk about the differences
6:41
Speaker 2: between that first window, that rookie contract window, and then
6:44
Speaker 2: the later windows, in which the margins are a lot smaller.
6:47
Speaker 1: Let's move from Joe and his targets to the guys
6:50
Speaker 1: in front of him. The Bengals are going to have
6:52
Speaker 1: a couple of new starters on the offensive line. It
6:54
Speaker 1: all looked an all likelihood. Rookie Dyllon Fairchild at left
6:58
Speaker 1: guard and then either Lucas Patrick, Cody Ford or maybe
7:01
Speaker 1: Cordell Vohlson at right guard. What's your concern level?
7:07
Speaker 3: Like moderate to severe?
7:09
Speaker 2: But that's what it's been in the last couple of
7:11
Speaker 2: years with the interior, right, I think even when you
7:14
Speaker 2: know they had just made the Alex Capa signing, and
7:17
Speaker 2: you know Ted Carriss was a couple of years younger,
7:18
Speaker 2: and it felt much better than it had when Hakima
7:21
Speaker 2: Dnergy was starting feeing the Super Bowl. Right, it felt
7:23
Speaker 2: much better, but it still wasn't the sort of interior
7:25
Speaker 2: offensive line where I looked at like a playoff run
7:28
Speaker 2: which you got to go through Chris Jones, and which
7:29
Speaker 2: you got to go through at Oliver and which you
7:30
Speaker 2: got to go through Dom du Madebuque and Baltimore, and
7:33
Speaker 2: I say, like.
7:33
Speaker 3: Wow, the Bengals are fine on the interior.
7:35
Speaker 2: I've always been moderately to severely concerned about the Bengals interior.
7:39
Speaker 2: They're rolling the dice on a couple of different guys.
7:41
Speaker 2: You brought up Fairchild, who was a player I liked
7:43
Speaker 2: a lot coming out of the draft. I thought he
7:44
Speaker 2: was going to be a round four, round five project guy,
7:47
Speaker 2: round three, year one starter that might be shaky. Lucas Patrick,
7:50
Speaker 2: I think is your average NFL right guard. You would
7:53
Speaker 2: love if Cody Ford or Cordell Olson can beat him out.
7:56
Speaker 2: I'm not sure you're couting those chickens until they hatched, though,
7:59
Speaker 2: so it's probably not a great interior. Again, I think
8:02
Speaker 2: guard center guard, it's a below average group in the NFL.
8:05
Speaker 3: But also that's I.
8:06
Speaker 2: Think that's pretty close to how it's been the last
8:08
Speaker 2: couple of years, and they know how to color in
8:10
Speaker 2: the lines around it, and so the concern level is there.
8:12
Speaker 2: But I've also seen them be an a lead offense
8:14
Speaker 2: despite poor guard play.
8:16
Speaker 3: So there you go.
8:17
Speaker 1: What'd you think of a Marius Mims when the Bengals
8:19
Speaker 1: selected him, and what do you think of him now
8:21
Speaker 1: that he's got a rookie year under his bill.
8:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, Amarius has a chance to be very, very, very good,
8:25
Speaker 2: and I believe that strongly coming out of Georgia. I mean,
8:28
Speaker 2: you took Amarus mims twenty twenty five best plays as
8:31
Speaker 2: a prospect, put them against anybody else that was like
8:33
Speaker 2: a top five pick, and it was the youth and
8:35
Speaker 2: the lack of experience of some of the injury concerns
8:37
Speaker 2: that knocked him down the board a bit. Now here
8:39
Speaker 2: you are one year later he's been He.
8:41
Speaker 3: Was eighteen overall. Mims was the year he came out,
8:44
Speaker 3: Is that right?
8:44
Speaker 2: I can't remember what exact pick they took him, but
8:47
Speaker 2: you got some good film. He also got a little
8:49
Speaker 2: bit banged up over the course of the season, and
8:50
Speaker 2: you're in the summer as well, and you're worried about
8:53
Speaker 2: the availability, worried about how many snaps he can put together.
8:55
Speaker 2: I thought he quitted himself quite nicely when he was
8:57
Speaker 2: at full health last season, once he had a sea
8:59
Speaker 2: legs under him, I got a little bit of experience.
9:00
Speaker 2: I thought you saw the clear vision for an impressive,
9:03
Speaker 2: a Pro Bowl caliber right tackle.
9:05
Speaker 3: So I'm very bullish on Mims.
9:07
Speaker 2: I just I always hold my breath right, making sure
9:09
Speaker 2: that you know it's tough on ligaments, lower by the
9:12
Speaker 2: ligaments to carry three hundred and fifty pounds around like that.
9:14
Speaker 3: So you're just hoping that.
9:15
Speaker 2: He stays healthy long enough, gets through the rookie growing
9:17
Speaker 2: pains well enough, and delivers on the investment.
9:19
Speaker 3: Because he looks like it looks like he could be
9:20
Speaker 3: a star.
9:21
Speaker 1: Every Bengals coach, player and fan would like to see
9:24
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow take fewer hits. Zach Taylor says playing with
9:28
Speaker 1: the lead and being in fewer shootouts would help, maybe
9:31
Speaker 1: more than anything else. But what else schematically do you
9:36
Speaker 1: think they could be doing or should be doing. Should
9:39
Speaker 1: Joe throw it away more, should they try to emphasize
9:42
Speaker 1: the run more. What do you think of that in
9:44
Speaker 1: terms of trying to cut down on the hits that
9:46
Speaker 1: Joe takes.
9:48
Speaker 2: I think Joe could decide to talk and run more,
9:50
Speaker 2: and both talking run in terms of crossing the line
9:53
Speaker 2: of scrimmage and talking run in terms of just escaping
9:55
Speaker 2: the pocket. When we talk about pocket management, we're using
9:59
Speaker 2: an umbrella term to often describe very different things. There
10:03
Speaker 2: are really good pocket managers who are great at buying
10:05
Speaker 2: an extra half second to get the throw off from
10:07
Speaker 2: a bit of an adjusted platform, and instead of taking
10:10
Speaker 2: a huge blow, they take a glancing blow. This is
10:12
Speaker 2: your Tom Brady category of pocket managers. There are unbelievable
10:15
Speaker 2: pocket managers who just have a sense of escapability and
10:19
Speaker 2: strength and maneuverability in the pocket that they could be
10:22
Speaker 2: under durest from multiple players and still get out of it.
10:24
Speaker 2: Ask Sam Hubbard about trying to tackle Lamar Jackson on
10:27
Speaker 2: that one huge scramble up against the goal line last year.
10:29
Speaker 2: That's your Lamar Jackson pocket manager. And there's a wide
10:32
Speaker 2: spectrum in between calibrating to exactly when to hold onto
10:37
Speaker 2: the ball for how long to hold onto the ball,
10:39
Speaker 2: When to try to buy a half second, why did
10:40
Speaker 2: they try to escape, to buy two seconds? When to
10:42
Speaker 2: just tuck and drop your eyes and go right now.
10:44
Speaker 2: That is a learning curve for every quarterback over the
10:47
Speaker 2: course of years. Patrick Mahomes is still changing the way
10:49
Speaker 2: he does that. Josh Allen is still changing the way
10:51
Speaker 2: he does that. So on and so forth. Burrow, who
10:53
Speaker 2: is extremely good. We can't take a single thing away
10:56
Speaker 2: from him. Who's extremely good at getting to his checkdown,
11:00
Speaker 2: getting to the backside, finding aggressive throws downfield late in
11:02
Speaker 2: the down. He is a wonderful processor who knows where
11:05
Speaker 2: his outs are. Still probably has a little bit too
11:08
Speaker 2: much confidence in his ability, a little bit too much
11:11
Speaker 2: willingness to take a big shot so he can give
11:14
Speaker 2: Andre Josevas one handed catch opportunity eighteen yards down the
11:18
Speaker 2: field when it's like, hey, Joe, for a second earlier,
11:20
Speaker 2: you just talked to the ball randomly picked out four yards,
11:23
Speaker 2: we'll get you back on second and sex you know,
11:25
Speaker 2: we'll go for this. And so I think Taylor's is
11:27
Speaker 2: absolutely correct in terms of the trailing aspect. You would
11:30
Speaker 2: love to be able to leave more games a little
11:31
Speaker 2: bit better defense, run the ball with Chase Brown. But
11:35
Speaker 2: I remember that when Burrow decided to stop taking sacks.
11:37
Speaker 2: It was, I want to say the twenty two season,
11:39
Speaker 2: like he had those bad early games against against the Cowboys,
11:42
Speaker 2: and the offense was nasty and he was taking a
11:44
Speaker 2: ton of sacks, and then he just made a choice
11:47
Speaker 2: like I'm not going to live this way anymore. That's
11:48
Speaker 2: a hard thing to do, to change your stripes like
11:50
Speaker 2: that as a quarterback. So he's proven he can make
11:52
Speaker 2: play style changes to lessen the amount of contact he's taking.
11:56
Speaker 3: It's probably the case that he has to choose to
11:58
Speaker 3: do so.
11:58
Speaker 1: Again, has he evolved over the course of five NFL
12:02
Speaker 1: seasons in your opinion.
12:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the biggest way for sure.
12:06
Speaker 2: I One of my firm beliefs in terms of understanding
12:09
Speaker 2: players is guys can get better or worse within their
12:12
Speaker 2: play style, but they rarely change their stripes at the
12:14
Speaker 2: quarterback positions. The Jameis Winston's or the Jameis Winston Sometimes
12:17
Speaker 2: it's five touchdowns, no picks. Sometimes there's no touchdowns, three packs.
12:20
Speaker 2: But we're shooting, baby, we're aggressive. We're throwing the ball
12:22
Speaker 2: down the field, right, Derek Carr is gonna check it down.
12:24
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter if it's third and nine with the game
12:27
Speaker 2: on the line, Ball's going underneath. You know, you are
12:29
Speaker 2: as you are. You don't change your stripes. And through
12:31
Speaker 2: the first couple of years of Burrow's career, I would
12:34
Speaker 2: have described him as, oh, you know, excellent process or oh,
12:36
Speaker 2: very accurate, but I would have said that he takes
12:38
Speaker 2: too many sacks, and he's willing to hold onto the
12:40
Speaker 2: football too long, and high sack quarterbacks tend to stay
12:42
Speaker 2: high sack quarterbacks. And then you just flicked a switch.
12:45
Speaker 2: And I know there was a lot of coaching about that.
12:47
Speaker 2: I talked with Dan Pitcher about that in camp last year,
12:49
Speaker 2: and he kind of laughed at the memory of some
12:51
Speaker 2: of those conversations with Burrow and what that growing process
12:53
Speaker 2: was like. But Burrow really dialed down in his sack
12:57
Speaker 2: rate in a way that not a lot of quarterbacks
12:59
Speaker 2: are capable of doing. The pressure rate still stays high
13:02
Speaker 2: because he likes to hold.
13:03
Speaker 3: On the football.
13:03
Speaker 2: But in general, the number one way the Burrow has
13:06
Speaker 2: grown is his ability to erase sacks, right, That erase
13:10
Speaker 2: that very big negative play. I do think also last
13:13
Speaker 2: season we talk a lot about Burrow the processor and
13:17
Speaker 2: you know, pre snap post snap recognition. A lot of
13:20
Speaker 2: that was when they were in their RPO game and
13:21
Speaker 2: they were in their spread offense. And he deserves his
13:24
Speaker 2: flowers for it. But that's also it's a clearer picture.
13:28
Speaker 2: Last year they were in a lot more twelve personnel
13:30
Speaker 2: and they did a little bit more play action, and
13:31
Speaker 2: they changed a lot of the looks and Burrow was
13:34
Speaker 2: still just like not only nails in terms of his
13:36
Speaker 2: decision making, but he remains one of the most impressive.
13:39
Speaker 3: Aggressive throwers of the football.
13:41
Speaker 2: Guys like Patrick Mahomes Josh Allen are struggling a little
13:44
Speaker 2: bit to find the downfield throws that they used to.
13:46
Speaker 2: Burrow's got no problem, right, His ability to identify that
13:49
Speaker 2: one moment of weakness and then shoot at it with
13:51
Speaker 2: no hesitation, that's one of one, right, Like the big
13:54
Speaker 2: differentiator between him and Justin Herbert, that debate that's gone
13:57
Speaker 2: on for years. You know these two quarterbacks and their
13:58
Speaker 2: differences and who's better than whatever.
14:00
Speaker 3: The big thing about Burrows he just knows when to shoot.
14:02
Speaker 2: He knows how to rip off that big play in
14:04
Speaker 2: a way that really nobody else in the league does
14:05
Speaker 2: through the air. So that's those are the two areas
14:07
Speaker 2: with Burrows and through the most over his time.
14:10
Speaker 1: ESPN's Ben Solac is our guest. You can follow him
14:12
Speaker 1: on x at Benjamin Solac. The Bengals passing game is
14:17
Speaker 1: so good that I think the Chase Brown is flying
14:19
Speaker 1: under the radar a little bit. He had more than
14:21
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred combined rushing and receiving yards last year. He
14:25
Speaker 1: scored eleven touchdowns. Are you bullish on Chase Brown?
14:29
Speaker 3: Absolutely love what I saw from Chase Brown last year.
14:31
Speaker 2: I I what Chase Brown did last year from just
14:35
Speaker 2: like his individual play and how it impacted the offense
14:39
Speaker 2: to me, was more interesting, more dangerous, more scary than
14:43
Speaker 2: like anything Joe Mixon ever did.
14:45
Speaker 3: And Joe Mixon was a great player. He's a three
14:46
Speaker 3: down player.
14:47
Speaker 2: Joe Mixon remains a solid player, do not get me wrong,
14:50
Speaker 2: But what Brown did, especially as a receiver right after
14:53
Speaker 2: Zach Moss went down, Brown was averaging like four and
14:55
Speaker 2: a half catches a game for thirty five yards, right,
14:57
Speaker 2: some of the explosive catches out of the backfield. And
14:59
Speaker 2: then the ability to be a viable quick option again
15:02
Speaker 2: talking about like screen game and RPO game and cheasing
15:04
Speaker 2: a little bit more yardage, getting a ball out of
15:06
Speaker 2: Burrow's hand faster so he doesn't have to take those hits.
15:08
Speaker 3: Brown was just so valuable.
15:10
Speaker 2: And then the second to third level stuff is just
15:12
Speaker 2: like the speed in the second level is sick and
15:15
Speaker 2: it's really really nice to have a second player like that.
15:18
Speaker 2: When you think about how good Jamar Chase is after
15:21
Speaker 2: the catch, it's not really Key's game. It's not really
15:23
Speaker 2: a Sicki's game. It was never Boyd's game. It's not
15:26
Speaker 2: jose of US's game. Having Brown actually be able to
15:28
Speaker 2: eliminate some angles, it just gives you so many more layups. Right,
15:31
Speaker 2: You're throwing these swings, you're throwing these screens that can
15:33
Speaker 2: all of a sudden it become twenty yard gains, thirty
15:35
Speaker 2: yard games. The way that Jamar Chase has manufactured offense
15:38
Speaker 2: for you. So I am enamored with Chase Brown. There's
15:41
Speaker 2: probably a limit on how many touches you want to
15:43
Speaker 2: give a guy of his size between the tackles.
15:45
Speaker 3: That's the reality of it. They probably over.
15:47
Speaker 2: The course of the next couple of years are going
15:49
Speaker 2: to want to find a timeshare way to make sure
15:51
Speaker 2: they don't overload him with carries. But what he did
15:54
Speaker 2: once Moss went down with the course of the season,
15:56
Speaker 2: between the tackles and then all the ancillary stuff.
15:58
Speaker 3: To me, I'm unsurprised.
16:00
Speaker 2: That they're willing to kind of make him the running
16:01
Speaker 2: back one to see what he looks like on a
16:03
Speaker 2: full volume of touches. I think again, it's not that
16:05
Speaker 2: he's better than Mixing, because Mixing is very consistent, but
16:08
Speaker 2: he's so dangerous and it's another thing you got to
16:10
Speaker 2: deal with on the chalkboard when you plan for this offense.
16:13
Speaker 3: I love Chase Brown.
16:15
Speaker 1: As we record this podcast, the Bengals have not been
16:17
Speaker 1: able to reach a contract extension with Trey Hendrickson. He
16:20
Speaker 1: is under contract through this season. So if you are
16:24
Speaker 1: running the show, here are your options. A. Extend him
16:28
Speaker 1: for a total of three seasons at roughly thirty million
16:31
Speaker 1: dollars a year or more. B Give him a raise
16:35
Speaker 1: this year and then part ways. See trade him for
16:38
Speaker 1: draft picks. What draft picks might again, Well, I saw
16:43
Speaker 1: that you proposed at some point in the last month
16:46
Speaker 1: or two like a second and a fifth or something
16:49
Speaker 1: like that, so I'll give you four.
16:51
Speaker 3: That could be kind of okay.
16:53
Speaker 1: So let's say for the sake of that, that you
16:55
Speaker 1: get that offer from somebody a second and a four.
17:00
Speaker 3: I think I would do it.
17:01
Speaker 2: I would want conditions that if he continues to be
17:04
Speaker 2: as productive, that the picks become stronger, because didn't feel
17:07
Speaker 2: like super strong picks for a guy who was just
17:09
Speaker 2: as productive as Hendrickson was. Now I will say I
17:12
Speaker 2: went back and I watched a lot of Hendrickson last month.
17:14
Speaker 2: Because of the whole contract negotiation. Let's call spade a
17:17
Speaker 2: spade here. The guy wanted to accumulate sacks as he
17:19
Speaker 2: wanted a contract on plays in which sacks were not
17:21
Speaker 2: really viable. His interest in contributing to the efforts of
17:25
Speaker 2: the eleven on defense were at times questionable. I don't
17:29
Speaker 2: fault him for that at all. If I were thirty
17:31
Speaker 2: going on thirty one and I were nearly leading the
17:33
Speaker 2: league in sacks and I was having a contract dispute, buddy,
17:36
Speaker 2: I'd be prioritizing the exact same thing.
17:37
Speaker 3: So I don't I don't fault Trey for it.
17:39
Speaker 2: At all, But if there are bridges burned there in
17:43
Speaker 2: terms of the culture for him in Cincinnati and his
17:47
Speaker 2: contract negotiations, then I want to get out.
17:50
Speaker 3: While the getting out it's good, and it's not like
17:52
Speaker 3: I'm doing.
17:52
Speaker 2: It with a twenty four year old who I planned
17:55
Speaker 2: my whole franchise around, and now he's me.
17:56
Speaker 3: He's thirty one years old.
17:57
Speaker 2: You know you were already going to start thinking about
18:01
Speaker 2: post Trey Hendrickson lives and schemes and depth charts and
18:06
Speaker 2: outcomes a couple of years ago, right when you were
18:08
Speaker 2: drafting Joseph Side, when you were drafting Miles Murphy, you
18:10
Speaker 2: were thinking about the fact that we don't know how
18:11
Speaker 2: much longer those guy's prime we are gonna last. We
18:13
Speaker 2: don't know if he's gonna continue to be this fourteen
18:15
Speaker 2: sack guy that he's been in low body's a seventeen
18:17
Speaker 2: sack guys, Holy smokes, you've been preparing for life after Henderson,
18:21
Speaker 2: And so to me, if I can get a near
18:24
Speaker 2: contender to give me a Day two pick now and
18:26
Speaker 2: then an accelerated pick Okay, if he has ten plus
18:28
Speaker 2: sacks another day, tub pick later. If I can get
18:30
Speaker 2: the lines of the commanders to do that, I'm gonna
18:32
Speaker 2: get out. While the getting out's good. I'm gonna say,
18:35
Speaker 2: all right, I did a great job with Tea, I
18:36
Speaker 2: did a great job with a Jamar contract, and I'm
18:39
Speaker 2: ready to move forward with a younger approach on defense.
18:42
Speaker 2: We know from last season that even if you get
18:45
Speaker 2: an unbelievable twenty twenty five Trey Henderson, you get a
18:49
Speaker 2: seventeen sax season from Trey Henderson this year, and A
18:52
Speaker 2: goes necessarily solve the defense.
18:54
Speaker 3: Other stuff's got to happen.
18:55
Speaker 2: Hopefully it does, but we know that that alone does
18:58
Speaker 2: not a good defense create for the put And it
19:00
Speaker 2: was last year, and so you can't trick yourself into saying,
19:04
Speaker 2: go give him a raise. Now he's going to give
19:05
Speaker 2: us seventeen sacks again, and we'll fix all the other
19:07
Speaker 2: stuff and our defense will begin up.
19:08
Speaker 3: For the super Bowl. That's way too many ifs, so
19:11
Speaker 3: I would want to begin out now.
19:13
Speaker 1: They also selected Shamar Stewart with that in mind. He
19:16
Speaker 1: was the seventeenth pick in the draft this year. What
19:18
Speaker 1: did you think of the Bengals selecting Schamar, and what'd
19:20
Speaker 1: you think of their draft as a whole.
19:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the Schamar pick I liked for Cincinnati. Again,
19:25
Speaker 2: it's actually more similar to the Amarius Mims pick than
19:28
Speaker 2: I think people realize. You take the best twenty twenty
19:30
Speaker 2: five plays of this guy.
19:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, he could be in the top five pick.
19:33
Speaker 2: There's a great reason why he's not a top five
19:35
Speaker 2: pick though he was highly inconsistent. He doesn't have the
19:37
Speaker 2: sack production. So the Bengals take the swing further down
19:40
Speaker 2: in the draft. And this is how Duke Tobin has
19:42
Speaker 2: been drafting.
19:43
Speaker 3: Right.
19:44
Speaker 2: It's very easy to take pictures of Duke Tobin's last
19:47
Speaker 2: few years as a drafter and be like, dude, what
19:49
Speaker 2: is this right? In terms like some of the defensive
19:51
Speaker 2: players they've swung and missed on. But I've always been
19:53
Speaker 2: a Duke Tobin believer and defender because he knows that
19:57
Speaker 2: for Cincinnati specifically, with again like some the limits on
20:00
Speaker 2: the money that the ownership group has, some of the
20:03
Speaker 2: big contracts they had coming down the Mountain, he had
20:05
Speaker 2: to approach the draft from a very aggressive position just
20:07
Speaker 2: to we gotta take the big swings, we gotta take
20:09
Speaker 2: the big risks if we connect on these and might
20:11
Speaker 2: be able to get us over the hill. So I
20:13
Speaker 2: appreciate the way that he's drafted. I like the Stewart
20:15
Speaker 2: draft pick for them. Got to get him in the building.
20:17
Speaker 2: Gotta figure this out. Guy absolutely needs reps. He needs
20:20
Speaker 2: to eat the playbook, like we got to get the
20:23
Speaker 2: dude in the building. So I like the Stewart pick Night.
20:26
Speaker 2: I liked it was a round earlier than I thought
20:27
Speaker 2: Night would go Fairchild. Like I said, I liked it
20:29
Speaker 2: was around earlier than I thought Fairchild would go. But
20:31
Speaker 2: that's kind of how the draft process works. You know,
20:33
Speaker 2: you have these players, Okay, I understand the fit. I
20:35
Speaker 2: understand the like I think it's gonna go pick sixty five,
20:37
Speaker 2: and then he goes pick forty five. What are you
20:38
Speaker 2: gonna do? Night as a Pratt one to one replacement
20:41
Speaker 2: makes so much sense to me. I think that's gonna
20:43
Speaker 2: be a very good fit. Fairchild. I'm not sure your
20:45
Speaker 2: one's going to be pretty The hope is that you're
20:47
Speaker 2: two and year three a little better.
20:48
Speaker 1: We are visiting with ESPN's Ben Solak. In a recent
20:51
Speaker 1: story where you listed names to know for the upcoming season,
20:55
Speaker 1: you included the Bengals new defensive coordinator El Golden. El
20:59
Speaker 1: Golden at the right time to elevate the Bengals defense.
21:04
Speaker 3: No idea.
21:05
Speaker 2: You know, the college to NFL jump is extremely hard
21:09
Speaker 2: to predict from a schematic perspective, right. I think that
21:12
Speaker 2: when when John Harbaugh makes the leap, and he was
21:14
Speaker 2: obviously in the NFL previously, we can all go okay,
21:17
Speaker 2: like this is probably gonna work. There's gonna be some
21:18
Speaker 2: good stuff here, what have you. Golden obviously has been
21:21
Speaker 2: in Cincinnati before, has been in the NFL before. But
21:23
Speaker 2: when you're talking defensive scheme, much more so than offensive scheme,
21:26
Speaker 2: you're talking about a coach's ability to adjust relative to
21:29
Speaker 2: his personnel and to adjust relative to the week by
21:32
Speaker 2: week demands of the offense that he's facing. Defensive personnel,
21:34
Speaker 2: excuse me. Defensive scheme is much more about I have
21:37
Speaker 2: a big roll ofex of things I can do, and
21:40
Speaker 2: I know how to hand select that two or three
21:41
Speaker 2: things we're going to do this week. First offensive scheme
21:43
Speaker 2: where it's like this is my stuff, we run it,
21:45
Speaker 2: let's go. And so it's very hard to prognosticate when
21:49
Speaker 2: if a defensive coach is going to be good. From
21:52
Speaker 2: an ex's and most perspective, ELEVATEI guys are not a
21:54
Speaker 2: lotvich depends on the individual and his understanding of the players.
21:57
Speaker 3: So it's something to watch for.
21:58
Speaker 2: The thing that gives me some excitement and some faith
22:02
Speaker 2: is the fact that Golden's coming from the college ranks,
22:05
Speaker 2: coming from a younger demographic, a younger cohort of players,
22:09
Speaker 2: and the big difficulty with lou Ana Roumo's defense over
22:11
Speaker 2: his time in Cincinnatis. I thought it was a great defense.
22:13
Speaker 2: It had its awesome heyday in the early twenty twenties.
22:16
Speaker 2: But the big difficulty was it was a lot for
22:18
Speaker 2: the young players to eat. It was a lot for
22:19
Speaker 2: the young players to chew up and understand. That was
22:21
Speaker 2: a very complex defense required a ton of communication. If
22:24
Speaker 2: you weren't at a level of football intelligence, you just
22:27
Speaker 2: couldn't get on the field right. We couldn't even like
22:29
Speaker 2: hide you in a certain spot. You were just going
22:31
Speaker 2: to get backed on. You were going to be wrong
22:33
Speaker 2: in your assignments. And so the hope is that Golden,
22:35
Speaker 2: who's used to working with a younger cohort, like I said,
22:38
Speaker 2: can still get a complex defense out there getting NFL
22:40
Speaker 2: caliber defense out there, but simplify things for the younger guys,
22:43
Speaker 2: allowed them to play a little bit faster. Because you've
22:44
Speaker 2: seen good things right from your DJ Turners and your
22:46
Speaker 2: Dax Hills and so what have you. So I got
22:49
Speaker 2: no idea for you. It's very hard to figure it out,
22:51
Speaker 2: but I'm watching with interest.
22:54
Speaker 1: In the same story, you listed Dax Hill among sixteen
22:57
Speaker 1: key players returning from injury this year. Dax was drafted
23:01
Speaker 1: to play safety, but played well after the shift to
23:04
Speaker 1: outside corner last year. Did you see enough to think
23:07
Speaker 1: that Dax Hill can be a high level outside cornerback
23:10
Speaker 1: in the NFL?
23:12
Speaker 2: Not yet, No, And I think that his best spot
23:14
Speaker 2: is the nickel. I prefer him in the nickel to outside.
23:17
Speaker 2: And what with Mike Hilton is still a free agent
23:20
Speaker 2: at this point, right Hilton unsigned? Anywhay, Yeah, I would
23:22
Speaker 2: expect him to be the nickel player. I also like
23:24
Speaker 2: that because it keeps DJ Turner on the outside.
23:27
Speaker 3: Between the two.
23:28
Speaker 2: When I've seen them play healthy, I've been more impressed
23:31
Speaker 2: with Turner than Hill on the outside. I thought that
23:34
Speaker 2: was like kind of a gimmey. And then sometimes I
23:35
Speaker 2: say that in Bengals fans are like very surprised by that.
23:37
Speaker 2: I don't know, that's just been my impression camping. Then
23:39
Speaker 2: the limited action for both of them, and so I
23:41
Speaker 2: like a DJ Turner on the outside and a Dax
23:43
Speaker 2: Hill DJ Turner fighting for that outside spot. I should
23:46
Speaker 2: be clear, and then Dax Hill being the first off
23:48
Speaker 2: the board for that nickel spot. If you end up
23:51
Speaker 2: you know, when you're in your base defense, you don't
23:53
Speaker 2: need a nickel. You want to experiment with Dax being
23:55
Speaker 2: an outside player there, fine, but again I think you're
23:57
Speaker 2: running into a too much on his plate problem, which
24:00
Speaker 2: is a lot of the issues in the lou anaumo era.
24:02
Speaker 3: So to me, just leave him at the nickel. I
24:03
Speaker 3: think that's where he's best in the NFL.
24:05
Speaker 1: What about Cam Taylor Britt. A couple of years ago,
24:08
Speaker 1: people were speculating that he could be on a Pro
24:10
Speaker 1: Bowl track, and then this past season he got benched
24:13
Speaker 1: multiple times and had a really disappointing season.
24:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I lessen twenty three Camp Taylor Britt. I was there.
24:20
Speaker 3: I was drinking the kool aid right, And it's worth
24:22
Speaker 3: noting when it.
24:24
Speaker 2: Comes to these big, long, physical corners who aren't necessarily
24:29
Speaker 2: the speediest guys but are very good at producing on
24:32
Speaker 2: the ball. You gotta live a little bit with both
24:34
Speaker 2: edges of the sword, right. I remember Rusulla Douglas in
24:37
Speaker 2: Philadelphia before he went to Green Bay and figured it
24:40
Speaker 2: out right, like these guys are feast or famine. It's
24:42
Speaker 2: just a little bit the nature of the position. And
24:44
Speaker 2: it's also those particular guys in their play style. With
24:47
Speaker 2: that said, you could tell camp Taylor Britt was taking
24:50
Speaker 2: a lot of unnecessary risks last year.
24:51
Speaker 3: You could see that there were mental errs last year
24:53
Speaker 3: that led to big plays.
24:54
Speaker 2: And I think it's easy to wipe a lot of
24:56
Speaker 2: that away and say, new defensive coordinator, maybe he's gonna
25:00
Speaker 2: agree with him a little bit more. Scheme's going to
25:01
Speaker 2: protect him a little bit more. He's going to go
25:03
Speaker 2: back to being an impactful player. That's fair to a point.
25:06
Speaker 2: It also happened the twenty twenty four season. Happened, right,
25:09
Speaker 2: and corners have legendarily, you know, impervious confidence. But it
25:13
Speaker 2: happened like he had a very bad season and it
25:15
Speaker 2: clearly affected him. And so the idea that he's just
25:17
Speaker 2: going to bounce back right to the sea mark that
25:19
Speaker 2: he was on is probably a little bit optimistic, but
25:22
Speaker 2: development is never linear, especially at the cornerback position, where
25:25
Speaker 2: again it can be very feast of fame and very volatile,
25:28
Speaker 2: very high risk, high reward. And so I saw have
25:29
Speaker 2: a lot of faith in cam Taylor britt because narratively,
25:32
Speaker 2: I can wipe away a lot of what happened in
25:33
Speaker 2: the twenty four season. But that doesn't mean I just
25:35
Speaker 2: want to kind of like, you know, put my hand
25:37
Speaker 2: on my eyes and pretend it never happened. You have
25:38
Speaker 2: to acknowledge the fact that this is a mercurial player
25:41
Speaker 2: right now.
25:42
Speaker 1: All right, let me pick your brain about the other
25:44
Speaker 1: teams in the AFC North. What is your biggest question
25:48
Speaker 1: where Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland are concerned.
25:52
Speaker 2: Baltimore, I think we'll start with there because I think
25:54
Speaker 2: that you got to reach to go find a question
25:56
Speaker 2: about Baltimore. I think Baltimore is going to be an
25:57
Speaker 2: extremely good team. Once again, the biggest question for them
26:00
Speaker 2: is the linebacker position. Last year, rope One Smith was
26:03
Speaker 2: really rough to start the year, which it didn't look
26:05
Speaker 2: like he was like fully in shape. He leveled out
26:09
Speaker 2: as the season went on. They were playing Trenton Simpson
26:11
Speaker 2: young man next to him, Simpson was struggling to figure
26:14
Speaker 2: things out, get his sea legs under him, so eventually
26:16
Speaker 2: they replaced him with Chris Board and with Malie Harrison,
26:19
Speaker 2: both of them left in free agencies. Right now, it's
26:21
Speaker 2: Roquan Smith and it's Trenton Simpson with pretty much nobody
26:23
Speaker 2: behind him, a fourth round pick, a free agent from
26:26
Speaker 2: the Rams. That position has been a strength of the
26:28
Speaker 2: Ravens last couple of years. It can be potentially a
26:31
Speaker 2: weakness this year. And they had to put all their
26:33
Speaker 2: resources into the secondary ex That's why they had a
26:34
Speaker 2: lot of turnovers. So linebacker's the spot for them where
26:37
Speaker 2: I'm worried about the depth. I'm worried about the performance
26:39
Speaker 2: for Baltimore Cleveland.
26:41
Speaker 3: What are we thought?
26:42
Speaker 2: Everything I'm worried about in Cleveland not to worried about
26:45
Speaker 2: in Cleveland. I don't think whoever the Browns play at
26:47
Speaker 2: quarterback is going to be good enough to register on
26:49
Speaker 2: the seismic scale of the AFC North, let alone in
26:52
Speaker 2: the AFC.
26:52
Speaker 3: And so I mean, I'm.
26:54
Speaker 2: Just worried about further hijinks and shenanigans out of Cleveland
26:58
Speaker 2: and then Pittsburgh. A lot of names man Jalen Ramsey,
27:02
Speaker 2: John new Smith, Darius Slay, DK Metcalf, Aaron Rodgers, a
27:05
Speaker 2: huge amount of turnover from a team that's been perennially
27:08
Speaker 2: a nine and eight, right perenally right.
27:09
Speaker 3: Above five hundred.
27:10
Speaker 2: I look at this team, I feel like a five
27:13
Speaker 2: hundred team, you know, big carousel spin, and I'm worried
27:17
Speaker 2: that there's not that big of a result there at
27:20
Speaker 2: the end. They need another really good year from a
27:22
Speaker 2: defensive front that's once again gotten a year older.
27:24
Speaker 3: TJ.
27:25
Speaker 2: Watt, Cam Hayward, Al Smith, a high Smith dealing with injuries.
27:28
Speaker 2: They need guys like Ramsey and Darius Lay to contribute
27:30
Speaker 2: to that secondary right away. Those over thirty year old
27:33
Speaker 2: dbs go. Look at the history of DB's once they
27:35
Speaker 2: hit the big three.
27:36
Speaker 3: Oh, it is not a good history. So it's a
27:38
Speaker 3: finn bet bear.
27:39
Speaker 2: They need Aaron Rodgers to be an elevator, right They
27:41
Speaker 2: need him to be a guy who lifts up the team,
27:43
Speaker 2: who improves the team, something he hasn't been since he
27:45
Speaker 2: left Green Bay. He's forty two years old. It's a
27:47
Speaker 2: thin needle to thread. So I see the vision. I
27:50
Speaker 2: understand they're they're acting with urgency, which I appreciate they
27:53
Speaker 2: needed to do that, and they've added some names.
27:55
Speaker 3: It was, it was the appropriate course of action.
27:57
Speaker 2: Got to hit some tough three balls here, got hit
27:59
Speaker 2: some shots order for all this to Colas and so
28:03
Speaker 2: you know it's Mike Tomlin. You trust him until the
28:05
Speaker 2: scoreboard actually has triple zeros and they lost the game.
28:07
Speaker 3: You know he's good to wriggling his way out of
28:09
Speaker 3: tight corners. But this is a tight corner.
28:12
Speaker 1: Final thing. The Bengals will contend in the AFC North
28:16
Speaker 1: and be a team that can make a postseason run if.
28:20
Speaker 2: The defense is twenty year better, right, I mean, like
28:23
Speaker 2: the model of elite offense and good enough defense gets
28:27
Speaker 2: us into a playoff run is a very well trodden
28:30
Speaker 2: model at this point.
28:31
Speaker 3: That is a very common way for NFL teams to get.
28:33
Speaker 2: To the postseason. And then it's three games to the
28:35
Speaker 2: super Bowl. Let's just get hot, right, Let's just win
28:38
Speaker 2: a couple. So I don't need this defense to elevate.
28:40
Speaker 2: I need it to be average right by the way
28:42
Speaker 2: attend the end of the season, rolls around. Need to
28:43
Speaker 2: be fine enough that they can hold their weight for
28:47
Speaker 2: two punts, right, stop up two drives and then put
28:50
Speaker 2: the onus on burrowing on this offense to consistently score
28:52
Speaker 2: thirty plus. It's not the best way to do it.
28:54
Speaker 2: The best way to do is the eaglesways have the
28:55
Speaker 2: best offense, the best defense.
28:56
Speaker 3: Who cares. But you don't get to do that every
28:58
Speaker 3: single year.
28:58
Speaker 2: And so elite offense and average defense is a very
29:02
Speaker 2: viable model for playoff success, has been for the last
29:04
Speaker 2: five seven years. And the Bengals are well equipped for that.
29:07
Speaker 2: So defense takes just a moderate step into functionality. And yeah,
29:10
Speaker 2: we're cooking with hot grease.
29:12
Speaker 1: Ben, This has been tremendous and a lot of fun.
29:15
Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time. Keep up the great work.
29:17
Speaker 3: And thanks, thank you to I appreciate you.
29:20
Speaker 1: Ben obviously knows his stuff. You can find his content
29:22
Speaker 1: on ESPN dot com, ESPN Plus and various ESPN podcasts.
29:29
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Core,
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29:46
Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Former Pro Bowl
29:51
Speaker 1: offensive lineman Kyle Long recently graded all thirty two offensive
29:55
Speaker 1: lines for CBS Sports and put the Bengals in the
29:58
Speaker 1: average category. For what it's worth, Baltimore was the only
30:02
Speaker 1: team in the AFC North that grated higher, and the
30:05
Speaker 1: Ravens were in the above average category, not in the
30:09
Speaker 1: top two tiers. Here are five observations for why the
30:13
Speaker 1: Bengals offensive line could turn out to be better than
30:17
Speaker 1: Kyle Long and many others expect. Observation number one is
30:21
Speaker 1: that the Bengals are in great shape and tackle with
30:24
Speaker 1: one of the league's biggest duos in Orlando Brown Junior
30:28
Speaker 1: and Amrius Mims. Orlando was a four time Pro Bowler
30:32
Speaker 1: before coming to Cincinnati and was playing at that level
30:35
Speaker 1: last year before suffering a broken fibula that limited him
30:39
Speaker 1: to eleven games. Here are Joe Burrow, Dan Pitcher, and
30:43
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor on Orlando's play before the injury.
30:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was playing great, best for his career, one
30:50
Speaker 2: of the top tackles in the league.
30:51
Speaker 4: He's a first time captain. I know that means a
30:54
Speaker 4: lot to him. It means a lot to us because
30:57
Speaker 4: you know, we believe in him, his consistent and you
31:01
Speaker 4: tell you just you can tell how much it means
31:03
Speaker 4: to him. You know, we need key pieces like that
31:05
Speaker 4: that you can just depend on to do their job
31:06
Speaker 4: and not need a lot of attention. And he's done
31:09
Speaker 4: a great job there.
31:10
Speaker 1: Orlando State and Cincinnati in the offseason and worked out
31:13
Speaker 1: regularly at Pey Corps Stadium. He should be as good
31:16
Speaker 1: as ever in twenty twenty five. And if the opposite
31:19
Speaker 1: tackle spot you have twenty two year old Amrius Mims,
31:23
Speaker 1: my pick to be the Bengals breakout player this year.
31:27
Speaker 1: Here's Orlando on his six', eight three hundred and fifty pound.
31:31
Speaker 1: Teammate the DIFFERENCE i see from his time of year
31:33
Speaker 1: compared to last.
31:33
Speaker 4: Year he's definitely gotten better AND i can't wait to
31:37
Speaker 4: see what he does On.
31:38
Speaker 5: Sundays. Man he's really really been putting it together all.
31:41
Speaker 1: OFFSEASON i fully expect That amrius will be mentioned as
31:44
Speaker 1: one of the NFL's best young tackles by the end
31:47
Speaker 1: of the. Year Here's Dave lapham on The cincinnati.
31:51
Speaker 5: Skyline i've got tremendous confidence in what those tackles can.
31:55
Speaker 5: Do they are genetic, freaks they are physical. MARVELS i,
31:59
Speaker 5: mean you, know six' eight plus three hundred and thirty
32:03
Speaker 5: five to fifty pounds and, long arms, big hands, tremendous feet,
32:09
Speaker 5: you know in terms of being able to move their
32:11
Speaker 5: feet and laterally and. Change direction and it's incredible the
32:17
Speaker 5: size of, these behemoths with their ability to bend, the
32:21
Speaker 5: knees bend at their hips and lower their pad level
32:24
Speaker 5: and move and. BE athletic i think they're as good
32:28
Speaker 5: at cannamisers In The National.
32:29
Speaker 1: Football league observation number two Involves Center. Ted carris i'm
32:34
Speaker 1: not sure if it's, widely known but Last Year Pro
32:37
Speaker 1: football Focus graded ted as the fourth best pass blocking
32:42
Speaker 1: center IN. The nfl at the age of, Thirty one
32:45
Speaker 1: ted had the highest pass blocking great of his career
32:48
Speaker 1: since becoming a full. Time starter, once again.
32:51
Speaker 5: Here's Lap ted carriss is a tremendous leader. Of men
32:55
Speaker 5: he knows the game of football as well as the,
32:57
Speaker 5: coaches do, extremely. Intense eigent he can come up and
33:03
Speaker 5: recognize defenses and help. A quarterback he can recognize things before,
33:08
Speaker 5: the quarterback and a lot of times the quarterback are
33:10
Speaker 5: depending on him to call out fronts and alignments and
33:14
Speaker 5: all that sort. Of thing in the defensive line when
33:17
Speaker 5: he's making calls to his.
33:18
Speaker 1: Offensive linemen So the bengals are in good shape at tackle.
33:21
Speaker 1: And center observation number three Concerns Rookie, dylan fairchild the
33:26
Speaker 1: leading candidate to start at. LEFT guard i don't know
33:30
Speaker 1: if you saw it on, social Media but fairchild has
33:32
Speaker 1: been using his so called time off between the final
33:35
Speaker 1: mini camp and the start of training camp to work
33:38
Speaker 1: OUT with Mma Star. Sean strickland there's a video clip
33:42
Speaker 1: of the two wrestling that Chowse off, fairchild's, strength quickness.
33:46
Speaker 1: And flexibility here's what offensive Line Coach scott peters told
33:50
Speaker 1: me After the Bengals drafted fairchild in the.
33:53
Speaker 6: Third, round obviously you did a lot of work in
33:56
Speaker 6: the draft looking at every guard that was conceivably available for,
34:00
Speaker 6: the draft and one thing that really stood Out with
34:02
Speaker 6: dylan is uh is his just, his size, athletic ability
34:06
Speaker 6: in his, Play strength he's he's one of the Strongest
34:09
Speaker 6: people i've ever tied. Up with. Very strong he's a.
34:12
Speaker 6: Great kid, he's humble, you know he works. Very hard he's,
34:16
Speaker 6: extremely TOUGH and i think you know all that stuff with,
34:18
Speaker 6: his dimensions his, physical nature the way he plays. Extremely
34:22
Speaker 6: hard those are the things that we, you know really
34:24
Speaker 6: stood out. To me, YOU know i think he can
34:26
Speaker 6: set a firm anchor. In there he's got the tools to,
34:29
Speaker 6: play long which is something we emphasize as. In protection
34:32
Speaker 6: he's got good feet, to MOVE and, i think, you
34:35
Speaker 6: know he's got all the tools you're looking for in,
34:36
Speaker 6: a player especially, a guard. You KNOW so i think for,
34:40
Speaker 6: for us it was a no brainer at that point, In,
34:41
Speaker 6: time uh just To take DYLAN because, i think, you
34:44
Speaker 6: KNOW like, i said he has all the traits so
34:46
Speaker 6: that you're looking for in an.
34:47
Speaker 1: Elite guard dylan doesn't have to, be elite but he
34:50
Speaker 1: does have to be reliable if. He Isn't the bengals
34:53
Speaker 1: do have a three year starter waiting in the Wings
34:56
Speaker 1: In Cordel volson observation number four concerned the starter at
35:01
Speaker 1: the other. Guard spot it looks like that's going to
35:03
Speaker 1: come down to a training camp Battle Between lucas Patrick And.
35:07
Speaker 1: Cody ford patrick played mostly left guard For the saints
35:11
Speaker 1: last year and center the year before For. The bears
35:14
Speaker 1: the last time he was a full time starter at
35:16
Speaker 1: right guard was in twenty Twenty In, green Bay when
35:20
Speaker 1: lucas posted THE highest pff grades of. His career ford
35:24
Speaker 1: played both tackle spots and left guard For the bengals
35:28
Speaker 1: last year and earned the respective teammates and coaches for
35:31
Speaker 1: his ability to hold his own. Wherever needed here's Offensive
35:35
Speaker 1: Coordinator dan Pitcher on Patrick versus ford at. TRAINING camp i.
35:39
Speaker 4: Think it would be a, good battle and those guys
35:42
Speaker 4: are two competitive guys that KNOW what nfl football. Looks
35:44
Speaker 4: Like and i've looked forward to seeing how that.
35:46
Speaker 1: Plays out and we shouldn't Rule Out cordell vohlsen as
35:48
Speaker 1: a right. Guard candidate he played on the right side
35:51
Speaker 1: of the line in college and says those banked reps
35:54
Speaker 1: would help him move from the left side to. The
35:57
Speaker 1: right the fifth and final observation and INVOLVES new o
36:01
Speaker 1: Line Coach. Scott peters I'm A frank, pollock FAN and
36:04
Speaker 1: i don't think he ever got enough credit for Helping
36:06
Speaker 1: the bengals come within minutes of Winning A super bowl
36:09
Speaker 1: with a patchwork offensive line that included four players who
36:13
Speaker 1: combined to start one Game After super bowl. Fifty Six
36:18
Speaker 1: but i'm excited to see what impact, His Replacement, scott peters.
36:21
Speaker 1: Will have scott is eleven years younger and brings an
36:25
Speaker 1: unusual background with his martial. Arts Expertise Here's. Ted garris, you.
36:30
Speaker 7: Know that's that's one of THE joys i take as a.
36:32
Speaker 3: Football player i've had.
36:33
Speaker 7: A LOT of o line coaches in, my time and,
36:35
Speaker 7: you know to learn Something that i've never even heard
36:37
Speaker 7: of has, you know it's taken, you know this eight
36:40
Speaker 7: weeks to kind of get comfortable with it and now
36:42
Speaker 7: we can take it in the summer and.
36:43
Speaker 3: Train IT but i think he's done a.
36:44
Speaker 7: Great job, you know we're gonna have some some nuances
36:47
Speaker 7: that are a little, bit DIFFERENT and i think it's gonna,
36:50
Speaker 7: you know what we talked about when he first, GOT
36:51
Speaker 7: hired i, was like how can we increase our one
36:55
Speaker 7: on one? Win percentage that's like all, you know that's
36:57
Speaker 7: like the. Main goals how can we put tools in
37:00
Speaker 7: our players' hands that increase.
37:02
Speaker 3: The chances of a one on?
37:03
Speaker 7: One victory because WE and i, think that, you know
37:06
Speaker 7: we've kind of it's great to have a guy come
37:08
Speaker 7: in that hasn't been here kind of look at it
37:11
Speaker 7: from ten thousand feet and really be honest about you
37:14
Speaker 7: know what, we are who, we are you know who
37:17
Speaker 7: we are as, an offense and how we can, you
37:19
Speaker 7: know be the best unit for.
37:20
Speaker 1: This offense that's going to. Do it for this episode
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