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Bengals Booth Podcast: Right Now · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast the right now. Addition, as we
0:12
Speaker 1: take an in depth blook if the Bengals chances of
0:15
Speaker 1: winning a third straight AFC North title with an annual
0:19
Speaker 1: guest on this podcast, Robert Windrab. Robert writes about the
0:23
Speaker 1: Bengals during the season for Cincinnati Magazine and prior to
0:26
Speaker 1: each season. He is among the writers featured in the
0:30
Speaker 1: FTN Football Almanac formerly known as the Football Outsiders Almanac.
0:35
Speaker 1: If you're going to buy one preseason guide about the NFL,
0:39
Speaker 1: the Almanac is the one to buy. Plus, I'll talk
0:43
Speaker 1: to the star of the Bengals preseason opener, Tyson Anderson
0:47
Speaker 1: about having as many interceptions in one quarter against the
0:50
Speaker 1: Packers as he did in five years at the University
0:54
Speaker 1: of Toledo. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you
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1:21
Speaker 1: your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since Only Murders in
1:26
Speaker 1: the Building. When Kay Adams joined me on this podcast recently,
1:30
Speaker 1: I mentioned in our conversation that I am a huge
1:33
Speaker 1: fan of Steve Martin that goes for just about anything
1:37
Speaker 1: Steve has ever done, including the TV show Only Murders
1:41
Speaker 1: in the Building that just started its third season on Hulu.
1:45
Speaker 1: It's a comedic look at three people who live in
1:47
Speaker 1: the same New York City apartment building investigating suspicious deaths,
1:52
Speaker 1: and the chemistry between Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena
1:57
Speaker 1: Gomez is outstanding. My wife and I have just started
2:01
Speaker 1: season two and I don't want to give anything away,
2:03
Speaker 1: but I will share this The show features some of
2:07
Speaker 1: the best celebrity cameos of all time. Now let's get
2:11
Speaker 1: to my first guest. In this year's FTN Football Almanac,
2:15
Speaker 1: the voluminous data projects the Bengals to win ten point
2:19
Speaker 1: two games and gives them a thirty percent chance of
2:22
Speaker 1: winning twelve or more. Those projections are about as good
2:25
Speaker 1: as any team in the NFL, and yet there's a
2:28
Speaker 1: team in their own division with better numbers, and it
2:32
Speaker 1: might not be the one you think. I discuss that
2:36
Speaker 1: and all things Bengals with the guy who wrote the
2:39
Speaker 1: chapter about the team in this year's edition, Robert Weintraub. Robert,
2:44
Speaker 1: let's start with this shocker from this year's Almanac. While
2:47
Speaker 1: the Almanac projects the Bengals to be one of the
2:49
Speaker 1: best teams in the NFL, the Cleveland Browns are actually
2:52
Speaker 1: projected to have more wins and finish on top of
2:56
Speaker 1: the AFC North. Why the love for Cleveland.
3:00
Speaker 2: Nobody has to give it to them, right? You know,
3:02
Speaker 2: I almost walked off the Almanac in protest when I
3:05
Speaker 2: saw that myself. Most of it is just a minor
3:08
Speaker 2: mathematical noise. You know, we play the season out one
3:11
Speaker 2: million times to arrive at these figures, and that obviously
3:16
Speaker 2: incorporates a wide, wide range of possibilities. So you know,
3:19
Speaker 2: that's not exactly the Almanac saying put all your money
3:22
Speaker 2: on Cleveland to win the AFC North this year. What
3:25
Speaker 2: it is saying is that the projection system really likes
3:28
Speaker 2: it when you add players in the off season and
3:31
Speaker 2: improve upon perceived weaknesses. Like the Browns did on defense,
3:35
Speaker 2: and it doesn't like it when you lose starters like
3:37
Speaker 2: the Bengals did in their safeties for example. You know,
3:42
Speaker 2: that's probably just that is enough to swing it towards
3:46
Speaker 2: the Browns. And obviously, with the Shawn Watson at quarterbacks,
3:50
Speaker 2: so much depends on him, and he's such an unknown quantity.
3:53
Speaker 2: A lot of that is taking on faith what the
3:55
Speaker 2: Browns have done sort of without Watson. So there's a
3:59
Speaker 2: bit of you know, quasi mathematics going on there, you
4:03
Speaker 2: should say. And really what's important is that if you
4:06
Speaker 2: look at the margins where the Bengals have, you know,
4:09
Speaker 2: in thirty percent of those seasons won twelve or more games.
4:12
Speaker 2: You know, we talked about this last year and we wondered,
4:15
Speaker 2: you know, why why are the Bengals not Super Bowl favorites? Essentially,
4:19
Speaker 2: and I pointed out then the key is that, you know,
4:23
Speaker 2: for many years they were projected to have a strong
4:26
Speaker 2: percentage of seasons where they won five or fewer games,
4:29
Speaker 2: and hardly any when they were going to win twelve
4:31
Speaker 2: or more. Now that's completely flipped and it's you know,
4:34
Speaker 2: much more likely that they win twelve or more be
4:37
Speaker 2: aka a Super Bowl contender than they are winning five
4:40
Speaker 2: or fewer. Obviously, the only way we can see that
4:43
Speaker 2: happening is if Joe Burrow hurts his calf again or
4:46
Speaker 2: some other body part. We don't want to go down
4:47
Speaker 2: that road and speak it into existence. But the point
4:50
Speaker 2: is they're a very strong team. The Browns are good too,
4:53
Speaker 2: and I think we all know that the Ravens are
4:55
Speaker 2: good too, and they're projected to be right there in
4:57
Speaker 2: the mix as well. So much of this comes down to,
4:59
Speaker 2: you know, so many small and really unpredictable factors that
5:03
Speaker 2: to you know, take his gospel, and maybe this is
5:06
Speaker 2: heresy coming from somebody who wrote for the Almanac, but
5:09
Speaker 2: to take those numbers as gospel saying that the Browns
5:11
Speaker 2: are definitely going to win and the Bengals will be
5:13
Speaker 2: in second. Really you shouldn't take it that way. They're
5:17
Speaker 2: all strong teams and they're all going to be in
5:19
Speaker 2: the mix, both in the AFC North and the greater
5:21
Speaker 2: AFC playoff picture.
5:23
Speaker 1: Let me follow up on additions and subtractions for the Bengals.
5:26
Speaker 1: I think at the end of last year, many of us,
5:29
Speaker 1: maybe most of us, assume that Jermaine Pratt would be gone,
5:32
Speaker 1: but that von Bell would stay. It turned out to
5:35
Speaker 1: be the other way around. Are they better off the
5:38
Speaker 1: way it ultimately played off played out or no, I.
5:42
Speaker 2: Mean better off. That's difficult to ascertain. You really have
5:46
Speaker 2: to ask lu Man and Rumo that question. I suppose.
5:48
Speaker 2: I think both provided obviously pros and cons to losing them.
5:55
Speaker 2: I think Pratt would have been a difficult player to replace,
5:59
Speaker 2: just for what he brings, and he's a really calm,
6:02
Speaker 2: sort of a sledgehammer in the Almanac. He plays very
6:06
Speaker 2: physical style that the Bengals don't have in a lot
6:09
Speaker 2: of other positions. And if he had been replaced with,
6:12
Speaker 2: you know, some of the guys like a Keen Davis
6:14
Speaker 2: Gaither or the other reserve players that the Bengals have
6:16
Speaker 2: in linebacker, you're sacrificing, you know, just a physical presence
6:21
Speaker 2: and some weight really there. And he plays so well
6:23
Speaker 2: alongside Logan Wilson. That's something I think would have been
6:27
Speaker 2: difficult for the Bengals to replace. Not that von Bell
6:31
Speaker 2: isn't difficult to replace, but they obviously already had a
6:34
Speaker 2: free agent, excuse me, a number one draft pick in
6:37
Speaker 2: Dax Hill sort of ready to go for Jesse Bates,
6:41
Speaker 2: and they realize, well, if Monan we can sort of
6:44
Speaker 2: double up on that, get another high premium draft pick
6:47
Speaker 2: in Jordan Battle, and you know, bring in Nick Scott
6:50
Speaker 2: kind of go with the numerical approach to replacing Vaughan,
6:54
Speaker 2: replacing his leadership and what he and Bates brought in
6:58
Speaker 2: terms of communication and veteran savvy. It's difficult to quantify us,
7:03
Speaker 2: especially for a metrics based organization. I don't think anybody
7:07
Speaker 2: doubts that they will be missed, and that certainly early
7:10
Speaker 2: in the season, I think as well just where you'll
7:12
Speaker 2: see it probably more. And the idea is that they
7:15
Speaker 2: new kids grow into the jobs. They're obviously faster and
7:19
Speaker 2: a little bit more physical than Bits and Bell maybe
7:22
Speaker 2: at this point in their careers. So you're sacrificing a
7:25
Speaker 2: little bit of that savvy for just pure athletic ability,
7:28
Speaker 2: and hopefully when the number, when the playoff crunch or
7:33
Speaker 2: the postseason crunch comes, those guys are ready to go
7:36
Speaker 2: and provide at least close to the same amount of
7:40
Speaker 2: you know, production that Bell and Bates game is.
7:43
Speaker 1: Our guest is Robert win Traby writes regularly about the
7:45
Speaker 1: Bengals for Cincinnati magazine and wrote the Bengals chapter in
7:48
Speaker 1: the FTN Football Almanac this year. I want to go
7:52
Speaker 1: back to the draft because you wrote a very positive
7:55
Speaker 1: article on the digital pages of Cincinnati Magazine about the draft,
7:58
Speaker 1: and you actually have a unique perspective about Miles Murphy.
8:02
Speaker 1: You have been following him for years, correct.
8:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean following him sounds like I've been stalking
8:08
Speaker 2: him for years. I wouldn't say that's the case. I
8:11
Speaker 2: do live in the Atlanta area, and Miles, of course
8:14
Speaker 2: played down here, grew up down here, and you know, yes,
8:19
Speaker 2: so I've been watching him, and like all players who
8:22
Speaker 2: are great high school players, as Murphy was, I was
8:24
Speaker 2: very interested in where he would go to university and
8:27
Speaker 2: hope that he would not go to the University of
8:29
Speaker 2: Georgia as so many others do down here. I just
8:32
Speaker 2: don't want to see Georgia roll up all the players
8:36
Speaker 2: who are five stars or from down here. And he didn't.
8:39
Speaker 2: He went to Clemson, and I think that was a
8:41
Speaker 2: good choice for him. And yet at the same time,
8:44
Speaker 2: maybe he would have benefited a little bit from George's
8:46
Speaker 2: ability to crank out incredible professional grade defensive linemen because
8:53
Speaker 2: I think Murphy did underachieve a bit at Clemson. There
8:56
Speaker 2: were various factors involved in that. They had some defensive
8:59
Speaker 2: code changes there. The entire Clemson programs seemed to go
9:04
Speaker 2: through a bit of a you know, for there by
9:07
Speaker 2: their standards, a down cycle a little bit in Murphy's
9:10
Speaker 2: last couple of years there, his fellow lineman had some
9:13
Speaker 2: injuries and he was playing a little bit out of
9:15
Speaker 2: position then sometimes, so you know, there were some mitigating
9:18
Speaker 2: circumstances there, But there's no question that he has all
9:21
Speaker 2: the specs of a classic NFL defensive lineman, and not
9:26
Speaker 2: just as a point. You know, we think so much
9:28
Speaker 2: about defensive ends in the NFL as just pure edge
9:31
Speaker 2: rushers and you know, the Trey Hendrickson type who just
9:34
Speaker 2: get after the passer. But really, what I think we'll
9:36
Speaker 2: see for Murphy, certainly in the beginning of his career,
9:40
Speaker 2: is more like what Sam Hubbard brought when he was
9:42
Speaker 2: just breaking into the league, which is really setting the
9:44
Speaker 2: edge strong run defense. Even when he was not playing
9:47
Speaker 2: great against the pass it comes, and he was certainly
9:50
Speaker 2: a strong run defender, has a really good use of
9:53
Speaker 2: hands and is very quick in that sense against the run,
9:57
Speaker 2: which is a sort of unheralded trait. I think we'll
10:00
Speaker 2: see him contribute in that sense, and he might come
10:04
Speaker 2: off the field on third downs and play the first
10:06
Speaker 2: couple down, spell Hendrickson a little bit, play against the
10:10
Speaker 2: run more as a rookie, and maybe into the second
10:12
Speaker 2: year and then really, you know, hopefully develop into the
10:16
Speaker 2: all round kind of edge player that a first round pick.
10:19
Speaker 2: And certainly that he has the qualities that he can
10:23
Speaker 2: evince in the NFL, no doubt about that.
10:25
Speaker 1: Did their approach to the draft suggest anything to you?
10:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I write about this in the Almanac, and I
10:31
Speaker 2: think you see big picture that the Bengals and the
10:34
Speaker 2: Kansas City Chiefs are really eyeing each other from across
10:37
Speaker 2: the Midwest there a little bit, and are sort of
10:41
Speaker 2: going and drafting and arranging their rosters with one eye
10:46
Speaker 2: on each other. We saw that when the Chiefs drafted
10:49
Speaker 2: a bunch of defensive players who were faster after getting
10:54
Speaker 2: really blown off the turf there by. The Bengals offense
10:57
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one saw the effect of that last year,
11:02
Speaker 2: especially in the championship game. Their their speed on defense
11:04
Speaker 2: really showed up against the Bengals and that AFC title game,
11:10
Speaker 2: I hate to bring up and every time I think
11:13
Speaker 2: about it, it makes me more angry. But the Chiefs give
11:15
Speaker 2: them credit. They played well defensively in that game, and
11:18
Speaker 2: I think in this sense he saw a little bit
11:20
Speaker 2: of the same thing. The Bengals really kind of drafted
11:24
Speaker 2: and went for more speed all the way through the lineup,
11:26
Speaker 2: really especially on defense. The defense in large part because,
11:30
Speaker 2: of course, the offense is where all the money is
11:33
Speaker 2: about to be going when Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase
11:36
Speaker 2: and t Higgins assumedly signed their big contracts, so they
11:41
Speaker 2: had to get younger, they had to get cheaper, and
11:43
Speaker 2: they really wanted to get faster on defense, and that
11:45
Speaker 2: I think really was a big part of their draft
11:48
Speaker 2: strategy and why they went after a lot of these
11:51
Speaker 2: guys on the defensive side of the ball who can
11:53
Speaker 2: really run. DJ Turner obviously, and Murphy for a big guy,
11:57
Speaker 2: can really run. Battle is certainly no slow and Chase
12:01
Speaker 2: Brown has excellent speed as well. So I mean, that's
12:04
Speaker 2: that really seemed to me the overarching theme of the draft.
12:07
Speaker 2: Of course, you know in the war room they might
12:09
Speaker 2: not have been thinking that way at the time, but
12:11
Speaker 2: looked like that's what they were trying to do from
12:13
Speaker 2: a big picture perspective.
12:14
Speaker 1: Robert Wintraub is our guest. You can follow him on
12:17
Speaker 1: Twitter at Rob Wine Rob w e i n The
12:21
Speaker 1: big offseason move was big landing six eight, three hundred
12:26
Speaker 1: and forty five pound or Lander Brown Junior to play
12:28
Speaker 1: left tackle. What does the data tell us about him,
12:31
Speaker 1: how good he is and the impact that a better
12:35
Speaker 1: offensive line will have on Joe Burrow in this offense.
12:39
Speaker 2: Well, I hate to bring up the fact that Orlando
12:40
Speaker 2: Brown actually led the NFL in pressures allowed by our
12:44
Speaker 2: charting stats. Now, part of that is because he also
12:47
Speaker 2: played the most snaps I believe of any left tackle
12:49
Speaker 2: on the league, or maybe you a second, but you
12:52
Speaker 2: know so percentage wise that was not the case. But
12:54
Speaker 2: sheer counting numbers, he had more pressures allowed than anyone.
12:58
Speaker 2: That was also a factor. Bit of the way Kansas
13:01
Speaker 2: City plays, the Patrick Mahomes kind of running around schoolyard
13:05
Speaker 2: style kind of allows for more pressures. At the same time,
13:09
Speaker 2: I think you'll see that, you know, the Bengals, the
13:11
Speaker 2: way they want to play Burrow, getting the ball out
13:13
Speaker 2: much faster, a much more rhythmic style of offense will
13:16
Speaker 2: help Brown He certainly wasn't that way in Baltimore either,
13:20
Speaker 2: when Lamar was kind of doing the same thing, kind
13:23
Speaker 2: of running around and you know, giving up a lot
13:26
Speaker 2: of pressures because of the time he spent in the
13:29
Speaker 2: in the backfield looking for receivers. Burrow doesn't play that
13:31
Speaker 2: way at all, So I think you'll see that number
13:34
Speaker 2: come down. And what he does mainly is just kind
13:37
Speaker 2: of raise the talent floor to a place where it
13:39
Speaker 2: hasn't been before, certainly not in the last several years
13:42
Speaker 2: and certainly not in Joe Burrow's career here in Cincinnati.
13:45
Speaker 2: So that can only help. And you move Jonah Williams
13:48
Speaker 2: over to right tackle, and you know, dare I say it,
13:51
Speaker 2: maybe he's a better right tackle than he is a
13:53
Speaker 2: left tackle. I mean, stranger things have happened. He played
13:56
Speaker 2: right tackle at Alabama. All the word out of training
13:59
Speaker 2: camp has been that he looks pretty natural over there.
14:03
Speaker 2: And then you know, if you settle that issue. Obviously,
14:05
Speaker 2: we know that the interior part of the line has
14:08
Speaker 2: been pretty much settled. Ted Carris with a great season
14:11
Speaker 2: last year that was really kind of unheralded. Everybody loves
14:14
Speaker 2: him because of his personality, but I don't think he
14:16
Speaker 2: got the credit for being really strong against the past
14:18
Speaker 2: like he was obviously, you know, Alex Kappus, that's new
14:22
Speaker 2: standards for toughness and Cordy el Bolson looking to make
14:25
Speaker 2: that leap from year one to year two after starting
14:27
Speaker 2: every game, you can only get better from there. I
14:30
Speaker 2: think right now you're looking at a team that you know,
14:32
Speaker 2: they went up from I think thirty first to sixteenth
14:35
Speaker 2: in our adjusted sack rate from twenty one to twenty two.
14:41
Speaker 2: Are they going to make another fifteen slot leap to
14:44
Speaker 2: the number one spot in the NFL? Probably not, But
14:47
Speaker 2: if they can move up just into the top ten,
14:49
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, all we've ever wanted is Joe
14:52
Speaker 2: Burrow behind a top ten offensive line, right and even
14:55
Speaker 2: more important, if they can run the ball in that
14:57
Speaker 2: sort of same with that sort of same effectiveness, that
15:00
Speaker 2: just makes the offense even more dangerous. You know, we
15:03
Speaker 2: brought Joe Mixon back and a rookie behind him, and
15:06
Speaker 2: Chase Brown is sort of an unknown quantity to the
15:09
Speaker 2: running game. Joe struggled a bit last year and what
15:13
Speaker 2: we call second level and open field yards. He wasn't
15:16
Speaker 2: breaking tackles very much, so it'll be incumbent upon the
15:20
Speaker 2: offensive line really to make the running game work more
15:23
Speaker 2: than it has in the past, necessarily, and I think
15:25
Speaker 2: you have the talent to do so. And you know,
15:28
Speaker 2: barring injury, which obviously was their bulge at the end
15:30
Speaker 2: of the season last year, they're in as good a
15:33
Speaker 2: shape as they've been on the offensive line since, you know,
15:36
Speaker 2: the glory days maybe of Willie Anderson in there or there,
15:39
Speaker 2: I even go back to the Munos Montoya days. Let
15:43
Speaker 2: let's not go crazy, but they're certainly in a much
15:45
Speaker 2: better place than they've been in recent memory. And that's
15:47
Speaker 2: a good thing.
15:49
Speaker 1: Well with Robert coming up, but first, here's a quick
15:51
Speaker 1: reminder that the Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you
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16:19
Speaker 1: talked about mixing and brown. You write in the Almanac
16:22
Speaker 1: that the Bengals are thin at running back and tight end.
16:25
Speaker 1: So let's move to tight end. Are you buying Irv
16:29
Speaker 1: Smith Junior as a viable replacement for Uzama and Hayden Hurst.
16:35
Speaker 2: With all the money in my pockets, which is, you know,
16:38
Speaker 2: only about fifteen bucks right now, So maybe I'm not
16:40
Speaker 2: putting too much money on the line there. I mean,
16:43
Speaker 2: obviously with Irv it's all about his health. I mean,
16:46
Speaker 2: he certainly has the talent to do so he can
16:48
Speaker 2: certainly be a viable replacement for as you say, Uzama
16:52
Speaker 2: and Hurst, both of whom's sort of you know, had
16:55
Speaker 2: similar careers as talented but not exactly productive tight ends,
17:00
Speaker 2: or they got paired with Joe Burrow, and Burrow got
17:04
Speaker 2: them both huge contracts at the end of his one
17:07
Speaker 2: year with both of those guys. So if as long
17:10
Speaker 2: as Eric can stay on the field, which he has
17:13
Speaker 2: not really been able to do in the past, I
17:15
Speaker 2: don't see any reason why he wouldn't. It helps in
17:17
Speaker 2: a bit that the Bengals, you know, they really value
17:20
Speaker 2: tight ends schematically the way a lot of other teams do.
17:24
Speaker 2: They hardly ever play two tight ends, they hardly ever
17:28
Speaker 2: go with multi running backs either, which is part of
17:30
Speaker 2: the reason why I think that their strategy overall was
17:33
Speaker 2: sort of to, if not minimize, then you know, to
17:36
Speaker 2: sort of put those two positions on the back burner.
17:39
Speaker 2: They play mostly three wide receivers, and they want those
17:42
Speaker 2: three wide receivers to win individual battles, and they play
17:45
Speaker 2: out of empty lot schematically speaking, more than almost any
17:49
Speaker 2: team in the league in all those factors. So you know,
17:52
Speaker 2: you don't need earth Smith to be a Kelsey or
17:55
Speaker 2: a Gronk kind of player. You just need him to
17:57
Speaker 2: be a guy like a Hearst or Nuzama who takes
17:59
Speaker 2: the pressure off up the middle of the field, who
18:02
Speaker 2: defenses have to honor and to make the occasional big play.
18:06
Speaker 2: Let Joe Burrow do the rest. And there's no reason
18:09
Speaker 2: to think why. As long as he's healthy, the Bengals
18:11
Speaker 2: have something in him, No question he has the talent
18:14
Speaker 2: to do so.
18:15
Speaker 1: So when the Bengals drafted Joe Burrow, you coined my
18:18
Speaker 1: favorite expression about him. He oozes awesomeness out of every
18:23
Speaker 1: pore except for his calf. As it turns out, right now,
18:27
Speaker 1: as you looked at the data from last year, does
18:30
Speaker 1: anything jump out about Joe Burrow's growth.
18:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's tough to ooze out your calf
18:37
Speaker 2: ports when you have the compressions leave on it, right.
18:39
Speaker 2: I think that was the problem there. It blocked his awesomeness. Yeah. Well,
18:43
Speaker 2: you know, we talked about it last year, which was
18:45
Speaker 2: that you were surprised that he had a difficult time
18:48
Speaker 2: in the red zone from an efficiency standpoint, And what
18:52
Speaker 2: jumped off the numbers this year was the his dramatic
18:56
Speaker 2: improvement in that area, which you know, we were hoping
18:59
Speaker 2: for all sort of knew he had it in him.
19:01
Speaker 2: And then you know, this is Joe Burrow we're talking about.
19:03
Speaker 2: There's nothing he can't do. So it was just a
19:06
Speaker 2: matter of sort of getting the offense to kind of
19:10
Speaker 2: rally around him a little bit and make those red
19:13
Speaker 2: zone efficiency plays. And they did so, and they were
19:17
Speaker 2: you know, something else that left off was that they
19:18
Speaker 2: were you know, not just top eight, I believe in
19:22
Speaker 2: red zone offense, but also on defense, and they were
19:25
Speaker 2: you know, top five and late and close situations both
19:29
Speaker 2: on offense and defense, and top three in the offense
19:32
Speaker 2: and third down percentage, you know, and they were extremely
19:35
Speaker 2: good in what we call situational football. The cliche, I know,
19:38
Speaker 2: but it's true. And you know, we were talking about
19:41
Speaker 2: how small the differences between the Bengals and the Browns
19:43
Speaker 2: and the Ravens. Something that's been so critical to the
19:46
Speaker 2: Bengals success over the last couple of years has been there,
19:49
Speaker 2: you know, really excellent job in these critical situations, both
19:53
Speaker 2: on both sides of the ball. And obviously with Burrow,
19:56
Speaker 2: you know, he's proven now that that's what his that's
19:59
Speaker 2: when he it really shines the most, is when you
20:01
Speaker 2: need it the most and when you need him to
20:03
Speaker 2: make plays, whether it's a big you know, touchdown, leading drive,
20:06
Speaker 2: or just getting a first down to kill the clock.
20:09
Speaker 2: So now that he has that kind of red zone
20:11
Speaker 2: bugaboo out of his system, if it even was a problem,
20:14
Speaker 2: might just been one year sort of statistical non entity,
20:18
Speaker 2: but he only had that small sample size to draw
20:21
Speaker 2: up from, I think, you know, as long as he
20:23
Speaker 2: can keep up those kind of numbers in those important situations,
20:28
Speaker 2: we obviously know the talent that is surrounding him, they'll
20:30
Speaker 2: make the big plays. The little plays that Burrow continues
20:34
Speaker 2: to make will spell the difference in keeping the team
20:36
Speaker 2: right at the top of the AFC Pact.
20:39
Speaker 1: A couple more questions for Robert Weintraub, who writes about
20:42
Speaker 1: the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine and wrote the Bengals chapter
20:44
Speaker 1: in the Football Almanac this year. The AFC is loaded.
20:49
Speaker 1: The quarterback gauntlet is incredible in the conference this year.
20:53
Speaker 1: So I assume that the team that somehow makes it
20:56
Speaker 1: through this gauntlet is going to do so by the
20:59
Speaker 1: most narrow margins imaginable. Is that basically what the data
21:03
Speaker 1: tells us.
21:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, they got to play us. Let's remember
21:07
Speaker 2: that that's certainly an important element in this tough as
21:11
Speaker 2: the schedule might look. When the other teams look at
21:14
Speaker 2: it and they have to play Cincinnati, that's not a
21:16
Speaker 2: good thing either. Now, I think that gets lost sometimes.
21:19
Speaker 2: And surprisingly enough, the schedule this year, and this is
21:22
Speaker 2: always sort of you know, what looks like a harder,
21:26
Speaker 2: soft schedule at the beginning of the year might never
21:28
Speaker 2: turn out to be that way by season's end. You
21:31
Speaker 2: never know. That the league is full of surprises, and
21:33
Speaker 2: that's what makes it so compelling. But by our numbers,
21:37
Speaker 2: the Bengals schedule this year is pretty average, right in
21:40
Speaker 2: the middle of the pack. Their efficiency of their opponents
21:43
Speaker 2: is exactly zero. Meaning it's not positive. It's not negative.
21:47
Speaker 2: It's a very workable schedule. The schedule rotation, of course,
21:51
Speaker 2: brings you know, the NFC South at the NFC West
21:55
Speaker 2: and the AFC South, which at least on paper again
21:58
Speaker 2: seems like a good thing. Of course, you have a
22:01
Speaker 2: very tough division and that's always going to be something
22:03
Speaker 2: that kind of is an anchor to the Bengals in
22:06
Speaker 2: comparison to other teams around the league. But that's just
22:09
Speaker 2: there across the bear. But you know, I don't think
22:12
Speaker 2: that the Bengals approach it that way. I think they
22:15
Speaker 2: look at every game like they got the best quarterback,
22:18
Speaker 2: or at least, you know, one of the best quarterbacks.
22:21
Speaker 2: They don't worry about, you know, oh god, we have
22:24
Speaker 2: to face Trevor Lawrence this year, we have to you know,
22:26
Speaker 2: face Josh Allen again this year or whatever again. I
22:30
Speaker 2: think that mantra they got to play us. You know,
22:32
Speaker 2: it sounds it looks great on a T shirt, but
22:34
Speaker 2: it really is sort of an organizing principle of the
22:37
Speaker 2: team now. And think how far and how much that's
22:40
Speaker 2: changed over the last couple of years. When you know,
22:43
Speaker 2: all we ever thought about was, oh, here comes you
22:45
Speaker 2: know the Steelers, we got to play the forty nine
22:47
Speaker 2: ers this year whatever. And now the shoes on the
22:50
Speaker 2: other foot and teams run the league think to themselves, oh, oh,
22:52
Speaker 2: we got to play Cincinnati. I mean that just that
22:55
Speaker 2: in itself, that kind of mindset. It's not really a
22:58
Speaker 2: metrics or an analytics thing necessarily, but it's great as
23:01
Speaker 2: a Bengals fan to know that that exists around the league.
23:05
Speaker 1: All right, final thing for Robert Weintraub. I grew up
23:07
Speaker 1: in New York State. We got the New York City
23:11
Speaker 1: TV stations on cable, so I watched Mets games, Yankees games,
23:15
Speaker 1: Knicks games, Nets games, Rangers games, Devil's games, et cetera.
23:19
Speaker 1: You are doing something called the New York City one thousand. Now,
23:24
Speaker 1: we all like lists. I've never heard of anybody tackling
23:29
Speaker 1: a list included one thousand things on it. Explained the
23:33
Speaker 1: New York City one thousand.
23:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess the best way to explain it is
23:40
Speaker 2: not so temporary insanity. I just, you know, I started
23:44
Speaker 2: to think about it. I'm from New York too, in
23:46
Speaker 2: case people don't know from the city, and you know
23:50
Speaker 2: I except for the Bengals, I'm obviously a big New
23:53
Speaker 2: York sports fan as well, and I just got a
23:56
Speaker 2: big fan of history as well, both sports history and
23:59
Speaker 2: sort of great New York and American history. And it's
24:02
Speaker 2: just I started thinking about all the incredible stuff that's been,
24:05
Speaker 2: you know, gone on through the years there, and I
24:08
Speaker 2: start thinking about the wide range not just the teams
24:10
Speaker 2: you mentioned, but all the boxing and horse racing and
24:13
Speaker 2: golf and tennis and everything else that goes down in
24:15
Speaker 2: New York. And for some wild, insane reason, I decided
24:20
Speaker 2: to not just make a list, but to write about
24:22
Speaker 2: each one of these. So I have a sub stack,
24:24
Speaker 2: like so many other people in the media these days, called,
24:27
Speaker 2: as you said, the NYC one thousand, and you can
24:30
Speaker 2: go to that substack anytime and check it out. And
24:35
Speaker 2: you know, the sheer volume of games over the years.
24:38
Speaker 2: You know, sports have been going on in New York
24:40
Speaker 2: City for about one hundred and forty years plus now,
24:43
Speaker 2: and I just, you know, I started at fifty, and
24:45
Speaker 2: then I went to one hundred very quickly, and that
24:47
Speaker 2: became five hundred very quickly, and then I wanted to,
24:50
Speaker 2: you know, include all these great athletes and names and
24:53
Speaker 2: people who go through there, who've gone through the city,
24:57
Speaker 2: even just for one off appearances like a Muhammad or
25:00
Speaker 2: you know Bill Russell in all time greats like that,
25:03
Speaker 2: and right about those, and so very quickly it got
25:06
Speaker 2: to the one thousand, and I'm counted down. I'm somewhere
25:09
Speaker 2: in the eight hundreds now, so you can. It's all
25:12
Speaker 2: archived though, and sometime and probably about ten years, we'll
25:15
Speaker 2: get to number one. But the issue is that it
25:18
Speaker 2: all had to happen in sort of the New York
25:20
Speaker 2: City footprints, So it's not you know, Super Bowl three
25:23
Speaker 2: where the Jets won down in Miami, that doesn't count.
25:26
Speaker 2: It's got to happen in New York. So that's my
25:29
Speaker 2: little you know, conceit with the whole thing. But there's
25:32
Speaker 2: even with that, there's more than enough teams and or
25:37
Speaker 2: I should say matches, events, games, fights, horse races to
25:42
Speaker 2: really make that list difficult to marrow down, surprising as
25:46
Speaker 2: it sounds, and you know, one of these days, before
25:50
Speaker 2: I shuffle up this mortal kill, I'll get to number
25:52
Speaker 2: one and share it with all of you. But the
25:55
Speaker 2: more people who check it out, I do think you'll
25:57
Speaker 2: be entertained and maybe learn a few things along the way.
26:00
Speaker 1: Very entertaining based on the ones that I've read so far,
26:03
Speaker 1: and since you're in the eight hundreds, I'm guessing it's
26:05
Speaker 1: going to be quite a while before we get to
26:07
Speaker 1: a thirty nine year old Jimmy Connors in the nineteen
26:10
Speaker 1: ninety one US Open, which might be my favorite New
26:14
Speaker 1: York City area sports moment.
26:17
Speaker 2: That's fascinating. Yeah, that's definitely high up on the list,
26:20
Speaker 2: and it sort of encompasses a lot of what New
26:23
Speaker 2: York sports is about. Electricity, personality, incredible, you know, display
26:29
Speaker 2: of athletic ability and that. You know, the way I
26:31
Speaker 2: rank these events is not just by you know, on
26:34
Speaker 2: the court, field whatever. That's one category, but it's also
26:39
Speaker 2: you know, is it a Hall of Fame person, a
26:42
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame athlete involved, Is there you know, something
26:44
Speaker 2: that really meant something to history involved or was it
26:48
Speaker 2: just a one off it was important to New York itself?
26:51
Speaker 2: Obviously at Connors at the US Open kind of hits
26:54
Speaker 2: all those sweet spots along with others. There were some
26:58
Speaker 2: that were higher, and there were even some ten matches
27:00
Speaker 2: that might have been a little higher. But that's way
27:02
Speaker 2: up on the list for sure. And you know, Jimbo,
27:05
Speaker 2: a Californian really came to encompass a lot of what
27:09
Speaker 2: New York City and New York City athletics and that
27:11
Speaker 2: personality is really all about. So he's made the list
27:14
Speaker 2: in a couple of other areas as well, So if
27:17
Speaker 2: you're not just a football fan, but a fan of
27:19
Speaker 2: any other sport, you can definitely find something to enjoy
27:22
Speaker 2: in the list, no doubt about it.
27:24
Speaker 1: Highly recommend the Almanac again this year. Your chapters about
27:27
Speaker 1: the Bengals and the Browns are both outstanding. We look
27:31
Speaker 1: forward to your weekly articles about the Bengals on the
27:34
Speaker 1: digital pages of Cincinnati Magazine and I always appreciate your
27:37
Speaker 1: time this time of the year. Thanks so much, look
27:40
Speaker 1: forward to continuing to read the NYC one thousand.
27:44
Speaker 2: Greatly appreciate it. Dan, have a great season, and give
27:46
Speaker 2: my love to your broadcast partner Dave Lapham as well.
27:50
Speaker 1: You don't have to be a fan of New York
27:51
Speaker 1: City sports to enjoys Robert list of the top one
27:55
Speaker 1: thousand events. His writing is the fun part. If you're
27:59
Speaker 1: interested in check kicking it out, just search for NYC
28:03
Speaker 1: one thousand sub stack. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought
28:07
Speaker 1: to you by Bengals picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free
28:10
Speaker 1: to play with tickets and side merchandise up for grabs.
28:14
Speaker 1: Find both inside the Bengals App. Week two of the
28:18
Speaker 1: preseason takes the Bengals to Atlanta on Friday night, and
28:21
Speaker 1: while it sounds like the starters might get a few snaps,
28:24
Speaker 1: the backups will still see most of the action. That
28:27
Speaker 1: includes young players like second year safety Tyson Anderson, who
28:31
Speaker 1: had two interceptions in a span of about eight minutes
28:36
Speaker 1: in last week's loss to the Packers. I spoke to
28:39
Speaker 1: the twenty four year old this week. Tyson, you are
28:42
Speaker 1: the star of the preseason opener last Friday night. You
28:45
Speaker 1: had two interceptions, including a forty three yard at pick six.
28:48
Speaker 1: It had to be thrilling for you. Could you sleep
28:50
Speaker 1: after the game?
28:51
Speaker 3: H No, I ain't really sleep too much. I was
28:55
Speaker 3: just up and joining with my family. Honestly, we just
28:57
Speaker 3: kicked it out all night. Honestly, was just at the
28:59
Speaker 3: houses on each other company.
29:01
Speaker 1: You're from the Toledo area, so you had a bunch
29:03
Speaker 1: of folks down for the game.
29:04
Speaker 3: Yep. My dad, my mom, grandparents, sister, her friends and
29:08
Speaker 3: family friend was there too, so we had a lot
29:10
Speaker 3: of people.
29:11
Speaker 1: You had two interceptions in the game. You had two
29:14
Speaker 1: interceptions in your career at Toledo. Was it bad luck
29:18
Speaker 1: at Toledo or is there something about the things you've
29:21
Speaker 1: learned here or the defense you're playing in now that
29:24
Speaker 1: helps explain that two interceptions in one half performance.
29:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll probably say Toledo just had a few dropped
29:31
Speaker 3: opportunities too. So just making the most of my opportunities
29:35
Speaker 3: when I have the ball hit my hands, just making
29:36
Speaker 3: sure I come down with it. That's more so been
29:38
Speaker 3: in my emphasis because I know I dropped a few
29:40
Speaker 3: at Toledo. And now obviously coach lou just putting us
29:43
Speaker 3: in in great situations in our dB coaches, Coach Chuck,
29:46
Speaker 3: coach coach Rob just giving us knowledge to go out
29:49
Speaker 3: there and play fast and make plays.
29:51
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought up lou Anroumo because after the
29:53
Speaker 1: game you were naturally bombarded by reporters and you kept
29:56
Speaker 1: saying time and time again, coach Anarumo puts us in
29:59
Speaker 1: great position to make plays. So what stands out about
30:03
Speaker 1: playing for him now for one year?
30:05
Speaker 3: I mean he's just a players coach. The guys just
30:07
Speaker 3: rally around him. Like I said, he just always puts
30:09
Speaker 3: us in great positions, got up prefer of things we
30:12
Speaker 3: do defensively that kind of just a lot of stuff
30:16
Speaker 3: that we do to kind of throw quarterbacks off and
30:17
Speaker 3: throw offensive coordinators off, and we do a good job
30:20
Speaker 3: of protecting the end zone and things like that. So
30:23
Speaker 3: he for sure does a great job just switching it up,
30:24
Speaker 3: getting us in and out of calls. Uh, stuff like that.
30:27
Speaker 1: We're visiting with safety Tyson Anderson. I'm sure a lot
30:30
Speaker 1: of people have seen the footage of your teammate Mike
30:34
Speaker 1: Thomas almost moved to tears after the game because he
30:38
Speaker 1: was so happy for you and so proud of you.
30:40
Speaker 1: What did that mean to you?
30:42
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, man, I always tell everybody my family back
30:45
Speaker 3: home and I was going through all I was going
30:47
Speaker 3: through last year. He was always one dude I know
30:50
Speaker 3: I could always talk to, always could lean on, and
30:52
Speaker 3: it was always Mike. Whether I was me going and
30:55
Speaker 3: watch film with him, what I was him invited me
30:57
Speaker 3: to his house on Thanksgiving when my family was three
31:01
Speaker 3: hours away, and just kicking it with his family and
31:03
Speaker 3: his kids and stuff like that. So Mike, man, he
31:05
Speaker 3: just a legend in my eyes. And then playing the
31:07
Speaker 3: game a long time, and no matter what in this league,
31:10
Speaker 3: you really don't meet too many people like him to
31:12
Speaker 3: kind of get back to the younger guys like he does,
31:14
Speaker 3: and just happy to be in influenced by just having
31:17
Speaker 3: a part of my life. For real.
31:19
Speaker 1: You had a hamstring injury last year, so the last
31:21
Speaker 1: time that you played prior to last Friday night was
31:24
Speaker 1: the final preseason game last year. What did you miss
31:28
Speaker 1: about playing in football games last season?
31:30
Speaker 3: Just the crowd, the reactions of the crowd, and then
31:33
Speaker 3: just that brotherhood. It just when you make plays and
31:35
Speaker 3: things like that, and your guys just celebrating with you,
31:38
Speaker 3: and just being out there that camaradie and just being
31:40
Speaker 3: with your brothers and just not want to make mistakes
31:42
Speaker 3: because you don't want to let the guy next to you.
31:44
Speaker 1: Though you weren't able to practice for most of the
31:46
Speaker 1: year last year, you did get to at the very
31:48
Speaker 1: end of the season around playoff time. What did you
31:51
Speaker 1: do during your rookie year?
31:54
Speaker 3: Honestly, just a lot of a lot of bodywork, obviously
31:57
Speaker 3: a lot of lot of resting, and then just sharpening
32:00
Speaker 3: up on understanding the playbook so cause I know, if
32:02
Speaker 3: I know the playbook, it allows me to play a
32:04
Speaker 3: lot faster, and that's kind of the things that I
32:07
Speaker 3: that I took on and just implement different things for
32:10
Speaker 3: my body, just chiropractic work, acupunctual massage, pilates and things
32:14
Speaker 3: like that, just to because last year, obviously I was
32:17
Speaker 3: shortened because of injury, and this year I'm just trying
32:19
Speaker 3: to do everything I can just to stay healthy and
32:21
Speaker 3: stay available.
32:22
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you're different physically from all the
32:24
Speaker 1: things you described.
32:25
Speaker 3: Uh, for sure, just got a lot stronger, a lot
32:27
Speaker 3: more flexible. Those are the two biggest things.
32:30
Speaker 1: We're talking to. Tyson Anderson. You're playing for a spot
32:32
Speaker 1: on the fifty three man roster this year. What do
32:35
Speaker 1: you think you need to show the coaches in order
32:38
Speaker 1: to earn one of those spots.
32:39
Speaker 3: I'd probably just say just continue to just be myself,
32:42
Speaker 3: be humble, be accountable, just fly around. Just make all
32:45
Speaker 3: the players that come my way and and everything else
32:49
Speaker 3: will handle itself. That's all I can do is take
32:50
Speaker 3: care of me, control my controllables, and I'll go handle
32:54
Speaker 3: the rest.
32:54
Speaker 1: One of those things that is controllable is your effort
32:57
Speaker 1: on special teams. And it looks like you are willing
33:01
Speaker 1: and available to do everything and anything that Darren Simmons
33:04
Speaker 1: asked you to do.
33:05
Speaker 3: No, for sure, man, me and coach Simmons got a
33:07
Speaker 3: pre relationship. He's just trying to earn that trust, like
33:09
Speaker 3: it's all it's about. If he don't trust you, if
33:11
Speaker 3: the coaches don't trust you, there's no way you gonna
33:13
Speaker 3: be out there on the field. So just earn that
33:15
Speaker 3: trust that I can be in the right spot at
33:17
Speaker 3: the right time, knowing that I can do the right
33:19
Speaker 3: assignment when it need to be done, and knowing I
33:21
Speaker 3: can do that assignment properly with the right technique at
33:24
Speaker 3: all times. So that's what I'm trying to do.
33:26
Speaker 1: Two great players and leaders at your position left at
33:29
Speaker 1: the end of the year, Jesse Bates and Von Bell.
33:31
Speaker 1: When that happened, did you look at a greater opportunity
33:34
Speaker 1: to contribute at the safety position this year?
33:36
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you for sure see that. And I'm so
33:39
Speaker 3: thankful for those guys, just like Mike Thomas, just an
33:42
Speaker 3: environment a lot to me as well, just the knowledge
33:44
Speaker 3: and they approach the game and just how they they
33:47
Speaker 3: were true pros. So just to watch that and sit
33:50
Speaker 3: back and just observe how they watch film observe how
33:52
Speaker 3: they were attentive in meetings, observed when they walked into meetings,
33:56
Speaker 3: observe all those things that made them great. Was just good.
33:59
Speaker 3: The good to see. So yeah, obviously I'm leaving for sure.
34:01
Speaker 3: Somebody got to step up, and I've been grinding for
34:04
Speaker 3: a year or now to show them that show, the
34:06
Speaker 3: coaches show, everybody improves myself that I can be.
34:09
Speaker 1: To God, you showed it in week one of the preseason.
34:11
Speaker 1: Best of luck in doing it again in Atlanta.
34:13
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. We'll continue to stock days and
34:15
Speaker 3: get better.
34:16
Speaker 1: That's Tyson Anderson. Friday's game in Atlanta kicks off at
34:20
Speaker 1: seven thirty and our pregame coverage on the Bengals Radio
34:23
Speaker 1: Network gets underway at six. That's going to do it
34:26
Speaker 1: for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, brought to
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Speaker 1: please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute,
34:53
Speaker 1: give it a rating or share a comment that helps
34:56
Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Hord and thanks
35:00
Speaker 1: for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast