Latest / Bengals Booth Podcast / Bengals Booth Podcast: Big Decisions

Transcript

Bengals Booth Podcast: Big Decisions · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth Podcast The What Do You Want Me
0:11
Speaker 1: to Do? Make all the big decisions for you. Addition,
0:20
Speaker 1: as my broadcast partner Dave Lapham joins me to discuss
0:24
Speaker 1: the draft, free agency, NFL teams and salary cap hell,
0:28
Speaker 1: the possibility of a Bengals Ring of Honor at Paul
0:31
Speaker 1: Brown Stadium, and much much more. The Bengals Booth Podcast
0:36
Speaker 1: is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game, and
0:41
Speaker 1: here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest
0:43
Speaker 1: edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet,
0:47
Speaker 1: or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify,
0:52
Speaker 1: or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since starting the seniors.
0:58
Speaker 1: This week was the final of the regular season for
1:01
Speaker 1: many college basketball teams, meaning it was Senior Day all
1:04
Speaker 1: over the country, the final home game of the year
1:07
Speaker 1: where teams honor their seniors. Many coaches taken a step
1:12
Speaker 1: further by starting all of their seniors, including the walk Ons.
1:16
Speaker 1: Florida State did that this week, and the walk Ons
1:19
Speaker 1: included Jason Lindner, whose dad was one of my high
1:23
Speaker 1: school teammates, Jason scored an early basket in a lopsided
1:27
Speaker 1: Seminoles win. Of course, when you start the reserves, you
1:31
Speaker 1: run the risk of getting off to a slow start,
1:33
Speaker 1: and that happened to you see last weekend when coach
1:36
Speaker 1: Brannon started two walk ons against Memphis, quickly fell behind
1:40
Speaker 1: six nothing and wound up losing by six points. But
1:45
Speaker 1: in my opinion, it was still the right thing to do.
1:48
Speaker 1: Walk Ons bust their tail at practice and help teams
1:51
Speaker 1: get better despite rarely getting the opportunity to play. For me,
1:56
Speaker 1: starting the seniors at their final home game despite their
2:00
Speaker 1: gill level is one of the great traditions in college basketball. Now,
2:05
Speaker 1: let's get to football. Much like the Bat signal, I
2:09
Speaker 1: shined the lap signal into the nighttime sky this week.
2:12
Speaker 1: In other words, I asked if you had any questions
2:14
Speaker 1: for Dave Lapham on Twitter, and you had a bunch,
2:17
Speaker 1: mostly about the draft and free agency. But I started
2:21
Speaker 1: our conversation with a topic of NFL quarterbacks asserting their power.
2:28
Speaker 1: Let's start with some recent NFL developments. Deshaun Watson launce
2:33
Speaker 1: out in Houston. Russell Wilson hasn't gone quite that far,
2:36
Speaker 1: but he has named four teams he would be willing
2:39
Speaker 1: to go to if Seattle wanted to make a deal.
2:42
Speaker 1: The Cowboys, Saints, Bears, and Raiders. Here's my question. Is
2:47
Speaker 1: this the start of a movement where superstar quarterbacks call
2:51
Speaker 1: the shots? Yeah, it's pretty amazing, Dan. I mean, it's
2:56
Speaker 1: like when I start hearing what's going on and see
3:00
Speaker 1: what's going on, It's like, man, back in the day,
3:03
Speaker 1: guys wouldn't even never thought about that. But it's it's
3:05
Speaker 1: all about money and money's power. And I mean back back,
3:11
Speaker 1: you know, when I was playing, coaches made more money
3:13
Speaker 1: than players. Today, not really the case, you know. I mean,
3:16
Speaker 1: the players are making a ton of money, uh, and
3:19
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in particular. So it's it's almost like so foreign
3:24
Speaker 1: to me when I hear guys saying, oh, he should
3:27
Speaker 1: have a say and who they hire and how they
3:31
Speaker 1: put things together. I mean, not the game plan. Yeah,
3:34
Speaker 1: I understand that, but I mean, you want to be
3:38
Speaker 1: a GM and a quarterback, you want to be a
3:40
Speaker 1: director of football operations and a quarterback. I don't know,
3:44
Speaker 1: it's it's it's almost gotten to the point where you
3:48
Speaker 1: know there's a power shift going on. I just wonder
3:52
Speaker 1: how far that PowerShift will go um and it's becoming
3:57
Speaker 1: more and more like you know, the NBA, I mean,
3:59
Speaker 1: the NBA player can dictate I want this guy, want
4:03
Speaker 1: that guy to come with me, and we'll make a
4:05
Speaker 1: Big three and we're going to try to win a
4:06
Speaker 1: world championship. And the quarterbacks obviously the most important position
4:10
Speaker 1: in football and maybe the most important position overall in
4:14
Speaker 1: all the team sports. So they've got the power and
4:17
Speaker 1: they're being compensated that way now. So it's not a surprise.
4:20
Speaker 1: I guess do you expect Watson to get traded, Wilson
4:24
Speaker 1: to get traded? Both or neither. I don't think Wilson
4:29
Speaker 1: will get traded this year, but you know, obviously, if
4:33
Speaker 1: there's enough, if there's enough noise being made, and obviously
4:38
Speaker 1: it depends on what happens this year, depends on what
4:41
Speaker 1: kind of changes are made within the Seattle organization that
4:45
Speaker 1: might pacify Wilson. Obviously, he's tired of getting hit. He's
4:50
Speaker 1: been sacked the bunch. I mean, he's like, he gets
4:53
Speaker 1: hit and sacked more than any quarterback in the league
4:55
Speaker 1: over the last nine years. It's crazy. You don't realize it.
4:59
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of it is he holds onto
5:01
Speaker 1: the football and tries to create an extent and he'll
5:03
Speaker 1: make great plays doing that, but he's also going to
5:05
Speaker 1: take some licks. And when you're out there on your
5:08
Speaker 1: own doing that kind of thing as an offensive linement,
5:11
Speaker 1: i'm your your instruction on a if it's a pocket
5:14
Speaker 1: pass in particular, you know you're instructed to perform this
5:18
Speaker 1: technique and these mechanics to protect the quarterback in that spot,
5:21
Speaker 1: and if he's elsewhere, it's kind of on his own,
5:24
Speaker 1: and it kind of destroys all of that. So you know,
5:28
Speaker 1: there's how much of that is a factor in all
5:32
Speaker 1: the all the punishment that he's taken. So I mean,
5:35
Speaker 1: maybe he wants to change the schematic of the offense
5:39
Speaker 1: as well as control personnel and he wants to be
5:43
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator, director of football operations head Scott who wants
5:46
Speaker 1: to be everything. I guess so to me, you know,
5:51
Speaker 1: it's if if you can't. Everything's built on relationships and
5:55
Speaker 1: trust in really life, never minds sports, but sports. If
6:00
Speaker 1: you can't trust, your organization is going to do everything
6:06
Speaker 1: they possibly can to you know, put you in a
6:09
Speaker 1: position to win. Maybe you don't. Maybe you try to
6:13
Speaker 1: find a way to get away from that organization. And
6:15
Speaker 1: I guess that's what it's boiling down to. Guys just
6:18
Speaker 1: don't have the faith and the trust in their organizations
6:21
Speaker 1: that they're going to do, you know, what they need
6:23
Speaker 1: to do. They're certainly paying them. I mean they're saying, no,
6:28
Speaker 1: we value you, and here's how we value you. When
6:31
Speaker 1: you go to the bank, you're going to see how
6:33
Speaker 1: we value you. But you know, in these players opinions,
6:36
Speaker 1: there's more to it than that. And that's what that's
6:39
Speaker 1: what everybody's you know, really concerned with. I guess at
6:42
Speaker 1: this point in time, they want they want everything to
6:44
Speaker 1: be perfect, that's for sure. Everybody's striving to be in
6:46
Speaker 1: the perfect, perfect spot, perfect situation to maximize their effort
6:53
Speaker 1: as much as possible because it's a short career. It
6:55
Speaker 1: can be a very short career. And that gets interesting
6:59
Speaker 1: where Joe Burrows concerned because even before he was drafted,
7:02
Speaker 1: people speculated how happy he was going to be in Cincinnati.
7:05
Speaker 1: And I used to scoff at people who worried about
7:07
Speaker 1: Joe signing a second contract with the Bengals before he
7:11
Speaker 1: had even played in a single game in a Bengals uniform.
7:15
Speaker 1: And I'm still not overly concerned about those kinds of things.
7:18
Speaker 1: But I guess you do have to show a player
7:21
Speaker 1: of his skill level and potential stardom that you are
7:25
Speaker 1: doing everything you can to win. Yeah, I think so,
7:29
Speaker 1: you know, and and and really, you know what they're
7:32
Speaker 1: talking about now, the Jets trying to decide, you know,
7:37
Speaker 1: we do we stay with our guy that we picked third,
7:40
Speaker 1: you know, in the draft when he came out of USC,
7:42
Speaker 1: or do we go for one of these you know,
7:44
Speaker 1: young quarterbacks Wilson whoever it is, at number two this
7:49
Speaker 1: year and start the clock again on that multiple year
7:54
Speaker 1: rookie contract where we can build our organization up and
7:58
Speaker 1: have a window to try to go and win big.
8:02
Speaker 1: You know, It's it's almost like a double edged sword though,
8:04
Speaker 1: because you know, a lot of times, I mean some
8:07
Speaker 1: some quarterbacks, a lot of them fail. Let's face it,
8:10
Speaker 1: I mean, over fifty percent of the first round quarterbacks fail.
8:14
Speaker 1: They don't they don't end up having the career that
8:16
Speaker 1: that you would expect, even even the first pick of
8:19
Speaker 1: the draft. I mean, there's there's no guarantee. Over fifty
8:22
Speaker 1: percent of them don't even sign a second contract with
8:25
Speaker 1: the Peen Draft of them these high first round draft picks.
8:28
Speaker 1: You know, it's that's just the way it is in
8:31
Speaker 1: the national football You get to total crapshoot. If we're
8:34
Speaker 1: a pure science, the draft wouldn't be as interesting as
8:37
Speaker 1: it is because it's a total crapshoot. There's no no
8:40
Speaker 1: two ways about it. But um, when when you if
8:44
Speaker 1: you're going to try to go for the gusto with
8:47
Speaker 1: a young quarterback man, years one, two, and three may
8:51
Speaker 1: not be the premier years for the guy. It may
8:53
Speaker 1: take them a little bit of time to adjust, if
8:55
Speaker 1: he does adjust at all. So you're you're looking for
8:58
Speaker 1: the perfect storm. You're looking to draft of the guy
9:01
Speaker 1: that you've got your totally convinced that this is a
9:05
Speaker 1: guy that I can plug and play and he's going
9:07
Speaker 1: to be able to win for us if we have
9:09
Speaker 1: the right people around him and then have the money
9:11
Speaker 1: because of his low contract inexpensive contract to go and
9:15
Speaker 1: surround himself with all these weapons to go ahead and win.
9:17
Speaker 1: That's the perfect storm. I mean that that just uh,
9:21
Speaker 1: you know, Vegas will take odds on that every single day.
9:25
Speaker 1: But you know, you look at a guy like Joe Burrow.
9:28
Speaker 1: I think Joe Burrow when you look at all the components,
9:31
Speaker 1: not just the fisthical aspect, of the mental aspect, the intangible,
9:35
Speaker 1: all the things that go with it. He is a
9:37
Speaker 1: guy I think that if you can surround him with
9:41
Speaker 1: some good components, I think he can win for you
9:44
Speaker 1: pretty damn early. I mean, I think he's that type
9:46
Speaker 1: of player. I think he's that type of football intellect,
9:50
Speaker 1: you know, that type of intangibles. I really do. I
9:54
Speaker 1: think he's one of those guys that you can put
9:56
Speaker 1: some money on in that regard. So yesterday Ben roethlis
10:00
Speaker 1: agreed to a new contract with the Steelers to save
10:02
Speaker 1: them some calorie salary cap space in terms of their
10:06
Speaker 1: ability right now, not two or three years from now,
10:10
Speaker 1: four or five years from now. How do you rank
10:12
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks in the AFC North Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield,
10:17
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow, Ben Roethlisberger. Yeah, it's it's it's an interesting
10:21
Speaker 1: mix because Lamar Jackson is so different with the skill set.
10:26
Speaker 1: You know, it's hard to it's hard to rate him.
10:29
Speaker 1: You know, He's he's like here's here's the traditional quarterback,
10:33
Speaker 1: and there's and then here's these hybrids, you know, these
10:36
Speaker 1: these different kind of quarterbacks, and he is, let's let's
10:39
Speaker 1: put it this way from a football player standpoint, scares
10:42
Speaker 1: you to death. You know, He's one of those kind
10:44
Speaker 1: of guys that athletically he is so off the charts,
10:48
Speaker 1: it's it's unbelievable. Um Baker Mayfield, I think, you know,
10:52
Speaker 1: once he got the right head coach and offensive system,
10:55
Speaker 1: I think he's shown that he can do the things
10:58
Speaker 1: that he did, you know, at Oklahoma. Maybe not to
11:01
Speaker 1: the level at Oklahoma because the competition level is so
11:04
Speaker 1: much more difficult to compete against, but you know, I
11:07
Speaker 1: think he's I think he is on the rise. I
11:10
Speaker 1: think he's an ascending player. I don't think he's a
11:12
Speaker 1: player that's hit his plateau or is is on the
11:15
Speaker 1: on the decline. I think Ben obviously is on the
11:18
Speaker 1: physical decline. There's there's no question about it. But he's
11:22
Speaker 1: Ben's the uber competitor, There's no doubt about that. And
11:25
Speaker 1: all the all the naysayers that he's hearing in this
11:28
Speaker 1: soft season, I think the guy is going to be
11:30
Speaker 1: big time motivated. But honestly, Dan, I think pounce he
11:34
Speaker 1: retires the offensive lines kind of in shambles. Foster retired
11:38
Speaker 1: Pouncy retired. They're they're just they're just not what they were.
11:42
Speaker 1: I mean once, the last time we saw the Pittsburgh
11:45
Speaker 1: Steelers unable to run the football to the extent they
11:48
Speaker 1: were unable to run it last year, unbelievable. And if
11:51
Speaker 1: they don't get those things fixed, you know, I think
11:54
Speaker 1: Ben's at the stage in his career where he can't
11:56
Speaker 1: just put the whole team on his shoulders like he's
11:58
Speaker 1: done in the past and say I'm going to take
12:00
Speaker 1: you to the Promised Land. So they're going to be interesting.
12:03
Speaker 1: I think it's you know, I think it's a time
12:06
Speaker 1: where you can maybe ease your way past Pittsburgh in
12:10
Speaker 1: terms of what's going on with that organization a little bit.
12:13
Speaker 1: But I put you know, I put Joe right up
12:16
Speaker 1: there with the other three, the three quarterbacks, the three
12:20
Speaker 1: younger quarterbacks in the division of all one Heisman. They
12:23
Speaker 1: wanted in different ways for different reasons, but they're all,
12:27
Speaker 1: you know, very capable of trans transposing those talents that
12:32
Speaker 1: they had in college in the NFL if they have
12:34
Speaker 1: the right people in terms of coaching and scheme and
12:38
Speaker 1: all that sort of thing. So I would rate I
12:41
Speaker 1: would rate they're so young, and again Jackson. He's so
12:47
Speaker 1: hard to the pigeonhole in terms of the traditional quarterback grade,
12:51
Speaker 1: but he scares me to death. He probably scares me
12:54
Speaker 1: as much or more than any of them. And obviously
12:56
Speaker 1: the way he's played against the Bengals, I mean, he's
12:58
Speaker 1: got the Bengals number right now. They haven't come close
13:00
Speaker 1: to finding a way to solve him. Really. Um the
13:04
Speaker 1: one time he played when he was a little bit
13:05
Speaker 1: nicked up, it was it was a little bit different dynamic.
13:08
Speaker 1: But when he's one hundred percent physically capable of running
13:11
Speaker 1: around like he does like a human joystick, he's he's ridiculous.
13:16
Speaker 1: But I honestly as a player, as a former player,
13:21
Speaker 1: I kind of like Joe Burrow as a as a
13:25
Speaker 1: total entity at the quarterback position more than Baker because
13:30
Speaker 1: I think Joe's I don't think Joe's is mercurial or
13:35
Speaker 1: as you know, up and down personality standpoint. I think
13:38
Speaker 1: he's more steady, uh you know guy that that I
13:43
Speaker 1: think you can count on to not lose his mind
13:46
Speaker 1: in crucial situations and things like that. So I think
13:49
Speaker 1: his makeup gives me a tiebreak or vote over over
13:53
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield. I like Baker Mayfield's skill set, but I
13:56
Speaker 1: think he's a sometimes a little bit of a wild card.
13:59
Speaker 1: You know. I don't see any of that kind of
14:01
Speaker 1: thing in Joe Burrow long term. I'd take Burrow over
14:05
Speaker 1: any of them right now. Hard to go against Lamar Jackson,
14:09
Speaker 1: I mean right now, for his ability and the way
14:14
Speaker 1: the Ravens are using him, I guess because of the injury.
14:17
Speaker 1: I'd have to go Baker two, Burrow three right now.
14:22
Speaker 1: But it's amazing that I put Ben fourth. He's the
14:25
Speaker 1: one that's going to the Hall of Fame. He's the
14:27
Speaker 1: one that's got a couple of Super Bowl titles. He's
14:30
Speaker 1: the one that led the Steelers last year to the
14:32
Speaker 1: greatest start in franchise history, and they won the division.
14:36
Speaker 1: And yet I think the two of us and a
14:40
Speaker 1: lot of people out there are kind of looking at
14:41
Speaker 1: the Steelers as the team that's dropping, when they were
14:44
Speaker 1: the team that was the best in the division last year,
14:47
Speaker 1: at least until the playoffs rolled around. It is crazy,
14:50
Speaker 1: And you know, people, You'll hear people say a lot
14:53
Speaker 1: that sometimes the end comes, you fall off a clip.
14:56
Speaker 1: Sometimes the end comes it's a more gradual decline. One
14:59
Speaker 1: th that everybody knows other than Tom Brady or other
15:04
Speaker 1: times undefeated, you know, and father Time looks like he's
15:07
Speaker 1: catching up to Ben a little bit. Like I said,
15:10
Speaker 1: with Tom Brady, he's that guy's the biggest freak zoit ever.
15:13
Speaker 1: I mean, he's a He's a trend breaker in every
15:18
Speaker 1: sense of the word. So the roster cuts have started
15:22
Speaker 1: around the NFL. There will be many more to come.
15:25
Speaker 1: The Vikings cut Kyle Rudolph this week after ten great
15:28
Speaker 1: years at tight end. Giants have cut Golden Tate, Tyler
15:33
Speaker 1: right forgot let go by the Jaguars. Sounds like the
15:35
Speaker 1: Raiders are going to cut offensive lineman Gabe Jackson. Like
15:39
Speaker 1: I said, there will be many others. Let's start with
15:41
Speaker 1: Kyle Rudolph since there's the local tie. Any interest in
15:45
Speaker 1: Kyle Rudolph, you know, it would have to be at
15:50
Speaker 1: what price? I think, you know, with ten years, ten
15:53
Speaker 1: years in the league. Obviously, is he what he was
15:57
Speaker 1: you know four years ago, three years ago? What ever?
16:00
Speaker 1: Obviously there's a salary cap castule people. You're right then,
16:03
Speaker 1: I mean the interesting thing is there's gonna be a
16:06
Speaker 1: lot of situations where guys are out there, like I
16:09
Speaker 1: never expected that well, for a lot of reasons, it's
16:12
Speaker 1: going to be the way it is. Instead of one
16:13
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety eight million, the cap is gonna be
16:15
Speaker 1: one hundred eighty one hundred and eighty five. And you
16:17
Speaker 1: have teams half a dozen teams that are in salary
16:20
Speaker 1: cap jail right now. And now when the starry cap
16:25
Speaker 1: comes out at a lot less, there's gonna be maybe
16:28
Speaker 1: eight teams that will be in salary cap jail, and
16:30
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to start. It's gonna be a bloodbat.
16:32
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to start whacking people, slicing and dicing.
16:35
Speaker 1: So there's gonna be veteran players out there that you're
16:39
Speaker 1: gonna be able to get at a discounted price. And
16:42
Speaker 1: there's going to be out of the thirty two teams,
16:44
Speaker 1: maybe as many as eight that can't even bid, So
16:47
Speaker 1: you're down to twenty four bidders instead of thirty two.
16:50
Speaker 1: So now it's like, man, you've bettered your odds by
16:53
Speaker 1: twenty five percent of being able to land a Tier
16:56
Speaker 1: one or a Tier two guy. This year, I think
16:59
Speaker 1: Tier one and Tier two they're both going to a
17:01
Speaker 1: little bit higher. You know, some of the high tier
17:03
Speaker 1: twos would be Tier one guys in other years, but
17:06
Speaker 1: because of the salary cap situation, the salary cap trouble,
17:10
Speaker 1: a lot of teams find themselves in You're gonna have
17:12
Speaker 1: really good players that are making a ton of money
17:15
Speaker 1: that'll be out there that won't be making that money anymore,
17:17
Speaker 1: and can you can you land some of them. It's
17:21
Speaker 1: going to be interesting to see exactly who's out there.
17:23
Speaker 1: And in the Bengals, having the sixth most money to
17:26
Speaker 1: spend in the league tells you that, you know, hopefully
17:30
Speaker 1: they'll be able to land a good Tier one player,
17:34
Speaker 1: maybe a couple of Tier two guys potentially. So I
17:38
Speaker 1: think that they may find themselves in a in a
17:40
Speaker 1: pretty good situation. And you look at last year's draft,
17:44
Speaker 1: rated the best in terms of what they got from
17:47
Speaker 1: production standpoint. Out of the seven draft picks they obtained,
17:51
Speaker 1: they got them all high every round. Obviously, it was
17:54
Speaker 1: you would hope that they put the bat on the
17:56
Speaker 1: ball on almost every draft pick, and they did. So
17:58
Speaker 1: they have that to build on. And year one, year
18:00
Speaker 1: two is usually the biggest improvement in terms of light
18:03
Speaker 1: going on in your development. I can attest to that.
18:06
Speaker 1: I remember it being that way. It's like oh yeah,
18:08
Speaker 1: the game. The game is a lot different year two
18:10
Speaker 1: here than it was my rookie year. So you have
18:13
Speaker 1: you have that and you know one some one two
18:16
Speaker 1: year the first, second and thirty year players for the Bengals.
18:19
Speaker 1: They have another good draft. I mean they could they
18:21
Speaker 1: could find themselves in a pretty good spot that they
18:24
Speaker 1: can pick up a couple of Tier two and one
18:27
Speaker 1: of those Tier one free agents to go in that mix.
18:30
Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting. See what you get there
18:32
Speaker 1: in free agency, then attack it in the draft. And
18:36
Speaker 1: they have money to spend in free agency. They have
18:38
Speaker 1: the fifth pick in every round in the draft. I mean,
18:42
Speaker 1: they should be able to do some damage here in
18:44
Speaker 1: this offseason. Dan, for sure, you can make the case
18:47
Speaker 1: that with the salary cap going down, there has never
18:51
Speaker 1: been a better year to be where the Bengals are
18:54
Speaker 1: in the top six in cap room right now. I agree.
18:59
Speaker 1: There's no using about it. I mean, you know, when
19:02
Speaker 1: you can, you don't. You don't want to say, oh, yeah,
19:05
Speaker 1: there'll be another world pandemic, you know, like we just
19:09
Speaker 1: experienced in twenty twenty. I mean the odds of of
19:13
Speaker 1: of taking place what took place, and you know, disturbing
19:18
Speaker 1: and disrupting every single professional sport and then disrupting the
19:23
Speaker 1: revenue in every single professional sport. You're right. I mean,
19:27
Speaker 1: the Bengals have found themselves in a in a pretty
19:29
Speaker 1: good situation. The fact that they are a very salary
19:32
Speaker 1: cap savvy, you know, and some people criticize the way
19:35
Speaker 1: they handle the cap, but around the league, you know,
19:38
Speaker 1: when you talk to people around the league then and
19:40
Speaker 1: we both have Katie Blackburn gets very high grades for
19:45
Speaker 1: her acumen in terms of handling cap. You know a
19:48
Speaker 1: lot of people are like, Wow, she's and she knows
19:50
Speaker 1: what she's doing, and she has put them in a
19:53
Speaker 1: pretty good position, you know, to take advantage of it.
19:56
Speaker 1: And now it's uh, instead of your normal free agency,
20:01
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a gold standard free agency. It's gonna
20:04
Speaker 1: be a spit shine free agency. There's gonna be a
20:06
Speaker 1: lot of talent out there you would have never ever
20:09
Speaker 1: thought might be available. You're gonna be able to take
20:11
Speaker 1: a shot at And the Bengals are creating more cap
20:14
Speaker 1: space as we speak. On Friday, they cut offensive lineman
20:18
Speaker 1: b J. Finney. That saves three point two five million
20:20
Speaker 1: against the cap. Here are some of the other guys
20:23
Speaker 1: that are rumored to possibly be in danger of being
20:27
Speaker 1: cut for cap space. Gino Atkins is obviously the biggest
20:30
Speaker 1: one that would save nine point five million. Bobby Hart
20:33
Speaker 1: would save five point nine million. C j Uzama possibility
20:38
Speaker 1: could save five million. Giovanni bernard A possibility could save
20:42
Speaker 1: four point one million. Xavier Suafilo's name has been mentioned
20:46
Speaker 1: two point four million. Which of those guys do you
20:49
Speaker 1: think is most likely to be let go? I think
20:53
Speaker 1: that you know, obviously AJ won't be coming back, but
20:57
Speaker 1: there's no cap, no cap ramification, you know there as
21:00
Speaker 1: far as that contract is concerned. But I would probably
21:03
Speaker 1: think Gino Atkins is is that that's that's one where
21:08
Speaker 1: you know the most savings can be can be made,
21:10
Speaker 1: And you would think, um, just like a lot of
21:13
Speaker 1: teams around the league, some of these players that are
21:16
Speaker 1: being cut, teams are going to let these players go
21:19
Speaker 1: as sarah cap casualties and say, wink wink, look we're
21:22
Speaker 1: not we're not waiving you because we don't want you anymore.
21:25
Speaker 1: We don't think you're capable of playing good enough football
21:28
Speaker 1: for us and being a factor, but we can't afford
21:32
Speaker 1: you in this situation period, So we may be getting
21:36
Speaker 1: back to you. And you know, Bengals may say that
21:39
Speaker 1: kind of thing to Gino depending on who has an
21:42
Speaker 1: interest out there, um in terms of other teams. But yeah,
21:46
Speaker 1: I mean I think I think he will be He's
21:49
Speaker 1: he's where they can make the most savings, and that
21:52
Speaker 1: seems to be where I think the uh, the Saray
21:55
Speaker 1: cap acts is gonna fall first. I mean, if you
21:58
Speaker 1: let Gino and Bobby Hart though, just those two, you
22:01
Speaker 1: can bring Carl Lawson back, absolutely, and you could use
22:05
Speaker 1: that to franchise tag Carl Lawson if you wanted to, absolutely,
22:08
Speaker 1: and then and you wouldn't have even dipped into the
22:11
Speaker 1: money that you're looking to go out and get other
22:13
Speaker 1: free agents. Yeah, if you just do some some some
22:17
Speaker 1: house cleaning within your own organization, who you're trying to resign,
22:21
Speaker 1: Who can you let go to try to get that
22:23
Speaker 1: that whole thing, you know, structured properly, just some internal
22:26
Speaker 1: shifting before you even out there and address outside free agents. Yeah,
22:32
Speaker 1: you're right, I mean they could really, I mean it
22:36
Speaker 1: would be I don't know, I'm trying to think of
22:38
Speaker 1: a Hollywood star that had a facelift that looks so
22:41
Speaker 1: dramatically different after had the facelift done, but it could
22:44
Speaker 1: be one of the most unbelievable facelifts ever in the
22:47
Speaker 1: history of mankind. The things could pull off this year
22:50
Speaker 1: and changing the entire look at their franchise. You really could.
22:55
Speaker 1: I could name something that went badly. I won't, but
23:00
Speaker 1: there have definitely been something that didn't work out so well.
23:03
Speaker 1: I want to change the subject briefly and then we'll
23:05
Speaker 1: get back to the draft and free agency because we
23:08
Speaker 1: have a lot of questions about that that we're submitted
23:10
Speaker 1: by fans with the hashtag ask Lap on Twitter. But
23:15
Speaker 1: here's the question I want to get to before that.
23:17
Speaker 1: Recently we saw photographs and video where it appeared the
23:22
Speaker 1: Bengals we are looking at different letter sizes and colors
23:26
Speaker 1: for a possible ring of honor at Paul Brown Stadium.
23:30
Speaker 1: There has been no official announcement yet, but it certainly
23:32
Speaker 1: looks like they are seriously considering it. What did you
23:36
Speaker 1: think when you heard that and saw that? Yeah, I
23:39
Speaker 1: think that there'd be I guess everybody's reaction would be
23:44
Speaker 1: it's about time, you know. I mean, I think it
23:46
Speaker 1: is definitely definitely time for something like that. I can understand,
23:52
Speaker 1: you know, Mike, Mike Brown and conversations over the years.
23:54
Speaker 1: So I've had with Mike Brown. Honestly, his big thing
23:57
Speaker 1: is he really does not a single players out. You know.
24:01
Speaker 1: It's like he has an appreciation for what so many
24:05
Speaker 1: players have done for him over the years from a contribution,
24:08
Speaker 1: you know, to the franchise standpoint, that he just feels
24:11
Speaker 1: like singling them out. And people are going to say
24:13
Speaker 1: that's just an excuse they doesn't want to spend the money,
24:16
Speaker 1: take the time, you know, whatever the reasons. But you know,
24:19
Speaker 1: I honestly believe that's that's kind of knowing Mike, you know,
24:22
Speaker 1: for a few years now, I think really believe that
24:24
Speaker 1: that's that's his his mindset. Um. So I'm not sure
24:30
Speaker 1: that that Katie and Troy and Elizabeth and everybody else
24:33
Speaker 1: has the same shares the same opinion, but I do
24:37
Speaker 1: know that over the years Mike has felt that way. So, uh,
24:41
Speaker 1: if Elizabeth and Katie and if they can sell it
24:44
Speaker 1: to Mike and and get it done, I'd welcome it
24:47
Speaker 1: with with open arms. I mean, I think, you know,
24:49
Speaker 1: you think about guys like Ken Riley, would have been
24:52
Speaker 1: great if Ken Riley could have been in that ring
24:54
Speaker 1: of honor before he passed away, and now I was
24:55
Speaker 1: gonna have to be posthumously, so you know, it's that
24:59
Speaker 1: that's you know, those those kind of things start coming
25:02
Speaker 1: to combined right away. But um yeah, I just think
25:07
Speaker 1: that that there's nothing wrong with shaner appreciation for the
25:11
Speaker 1: history of France. I was given the fan base a
25:14
Speaker 1: rallying point. Um, I see positives and all of that.
25:19
Speaker 1: My impression from interacting with Mike over the years on
25:21
Speaker 1: this subject was that his feeling was fall as the
25:24
Speaker 1: ultimate team game, the right guard has just as much
25:28
Speaker 1: of an impact on your success as the star player
25:31
Speaker 1: whose name would go up on the Ring of honor.
25:33
Speaker 1: But what I think might get mistaken in Mike's thought
25:39
Speaker 1: process on that is that the right guard would appreciate
25:42
Speaker 1: seeing the quarterback's name go up there, even if you
25:46
Speaker 1: know that that player had just a bigger, bigger role
25:49
Speaker 1: on leading the team to a great season. I agree
25:52
Speaker 1: with you, Dan, I mean it was you know, when
25:55
Speaker 1: when Kenny Anderson won a passing title. I know that
26:00
Speaker 1: as aligneman, I live vicariously through the success of Kearny Anderson.
26:05
Speaker 1: I feel like, oh man, you know I had a
26:07
Speaker 1: little bit of a part in him having that tremendous success.
26:11
Speaker 1: He didn't his his abilities, he executed it. But you know,
26:16
Speaker 1: everybody had to do their job in Kenny Anderson to
26:20
Speaker 1: do his job to the level that he did his
26:22
Speaker 1: job to win a passing title, and he won four
26:25
Speaker 1: of them. He won four passing titles. And as as aligneman,
26:29
Speaker 1: you know that was involved with that. You know, you
26:30
Speaker 1: think I did, I did, I must have done something
26:33
Speaker 1: right some of the time, you know, and you do,
26:35
Speaker 1: you start to you start to live vicariously through the
26:38
Speaker 1: success of others, and that's what teamwork is really. You know,
26:41
Speaker 1: everybody feeds off each other and you uh, you know, somebody,
26:46
Speaker 1: somebody's always going to get more credit than others. That's
26:48
Speaker 1: just that's just the nature of the beast. But um,
26:51
Speaker 1: you know there everybody, if you're not doing your job,
26:56
Speaker 1: you're gonna make it more difficult to everybody else to
26:58
Speaker 1: achieve the success that they could. So everybody's important. And
27:02
Speaker 1: I you know, and I agree with you. I do
27:04
Speaker 1: think that that's Mike's mindset, that that's his pilosophy. He
27:06
Speaker 1: doesn't really want to single people out because you get
27:09
Speaker 1: you have eleven moving parts on offense and defense. You
27:12
Speaker 1: have a lot of things going on out there in
27:14
Speaker 1: the football field on an every snap basis, no doubt.
27:19
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to ask Lap questions. We've got
27:22
Speaker 1: a bunch. We've got some good ones, many of them
27:24
Speaker 1: dealing with the draft and free agency as you would expect.
27:28
Speaker 1: Let's start with Vincent. Here is his question and ask Lap,
27:33
Speaker 1: what would you address in the draft on defense? Something
27:38
Speaker 1: specific or best player available? Well, I mean to me,
27:45
Speaker 1: I guess you'd hope that that they would be one
27:47
Speaker 1: and the same, that the best player available would would
27:51
Speaker 1: address the need. And I'm one that would go if
27:56
Speaker 1: it's if it's one of my top needs, if it's
27:58
Speaker 1: a top two or three need overall, um, I go
28:02
Speaker 1: with the player that fits that the best. Um, I
28:07
Speaker 1: would not, I would not reach to address the need.
28:09
Speaker 1: In other words, I would take the best player that
28:12
Speaker 1: I have a need. Like I'm not going to take
28:15
Speaker 1: a quarterback. If the best player available on the boards
28:18
Speaker 1: quarter I'm not taking a quarterback. Obviously, we just took
28:20
Speaker 1: one the number one pick last year, so you know,
28:23
Speaker 1: you just don't go with best player available unilaterally across
28:26
Speaker 1: the board. But if the best player available is an
28:30
Speaker 1: offensive tackle, I go there. Best player available is a
28:35
Speaker 1: is a defense a pass rusher that would scare people?
28:38
Speaker 1: You know, I go there, um so I think that
28:42
Speaker 1: it's in my mind it would be a combination um
28:46
Speaker 1: and and and I perceive from there. I guess The
28:48
Speaker 1: other thing that you that I would do if I
28:51
Speaker 1: was ever running a draft is, you know, try to
28:53
Speaker 1: try to find the best way that you possibly can,
28:56
Speaker 1: because you never know how the order is going to go.
28:59
Speaker 1: That's why the sooner in the draft and pick the
29:01
Speaker 1: less variable as you have, so you know what kind
29:03
Speaker 1: of player pool is going to be. But even projecting
29:06
Speaker 1: down to the second round or the third round, even
29:09
Speaker 1: if you have one of the higher picks, you don't
29:10
Speaker 1: exactly know who's going to go where and when, and
29:14
Speaker 1: what trades are in happening, all those sort of things
29:16
Speaker 1: in the first round. But the best of my ability, though,
29:18
Speaker 1: I would say, all right, well, the strength of the draft,
29:21
Speaker 1: of these positions, these teams are going to make a run.
29:24
Speaker 1: Just try to piece the puzzles together and say, all right, well,
29:28
Speaker 1: the best player available there might be at that position.
29:34
Speaker 1: There may be a guy in the second round that's
29:36
Speaker 1: pretty close, but the best player available at this position
29:40
Speaker 1: is so far ahead of the next guy that might
29:42
Speaker 1: be available in their second or third round. That's my tiebreaker.
29:46
Speaker 1: You know, I take the big, big picture view of
29:49
Speaker 1: it as well. I just wouldn't, you know, pigeonhole and
29:52
Speaker 1: focus on just that one pick. You know, I want
29:56
Speaker 1: to try to, you know, strike us consistently as I
29:59
Speaker 1: can't on a round by round basis of the best
30:03
Speaker 1: player of available. Fitting needs, you know, to have a
30:08
Speaker 1: larger degree as I possibly could. And when it comes
30:11
Speaker 1: to defense where the draft is concerned, I think you
30:14
Speaker 1: can probably eliminate a couple of spots with a high pick.
30:17
Speaker 1: You don't need a safety at least high. Wouldn't be
30:20
Speaker 1: shocked if you take one at some point if you
30:22
Speaker 1: really like one, but you don't, you don't have to
30:24
Speaker 1: worry about Bates and Bell in the short term. Probably
30:28
Speaker 1: don't need a linebacker high with the three that you
30:32
Speaker 1: drafted last year, although again at some point I wouldn't
30:36
Speaker 1: be shocked to see them take another. So as opposed
30:39
Speaker 1: to drafting for need, it's almost eliminating the areas where
30:42
Speaker 1: you're already strong right like you know, um, I wouldn't
30:46
Speaker 1: necessarily put running back up there. As you know, quarterback
30:50
Speaker 1: obviously running back on the offensive side of the defensier,
30:53
Speaker 1: like you said, safety and particularly inside backer outside backers.
30:58
Speaker 1: If he's that dominant rush guy though, if he's that
31:00
Speaker 1: edge guy, you know, now you get that hybrid. Is
31:03
Speaker 1: it a defensive ends is an outside linebacker? What is it?
31:06
Speaker 1: All I know is he gets after the quarterback. You know,
31:09
Speaker 1: I may go after that guy. So yeah, it's I agree, Dan,
31:14
Speaker 1: I'm in the same thought process. Next question comes from Sam.
31:18
Speaker 1: If the offensive line improved substantially in free agency, do
31:24
Speaker 1: the Bengals still take Piney Sewell if available, or opt
31:28
Speaker 1: for a wide receiver or tight end Kyle Pitts. Yeah,
31:33
Speaker 1: or And the thing is, unfortunately this year from an
31:38
Speaker 1: edge rush standpoint, there's no Miles Garrett, there's no Chase Young,
31:42
Speaker 1: There's nobody like that. So, you know, the defense of
31:45
Speaker 1: the edge rush guy, I think the Bengs gonna be
31:48
Speaker 1: able to get a good edge rush guy in the
31:49
Speaker 1: second round. I think University Miami has two, University of
31:54
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh has two. I mean, there's some edge rush guys,
31:57
Speaker 1: so they're all not going to go in the first round.
32:00
Speaker 1: I think somebody may be there in the early stages
32:03
Speaker 1: of that of that second round. Um. Yeah, but that's
32:08
Speaker 1: exactly right. If you if you go out and you
32:10
Speaker 1: get a Tier one offensive tackle and a Tier two guard,
32:15
Speaker 1: now all of a sudden in the draft, you does
32:19
Speaker 1: that change your focus? Does that change your thought process?
32:22
Speaker 1: It could depending on who you get, and uh, you
32:25
Speaker 1: know if it's that, it absolutely could. All I know
32:29
Speaker 1: is from the offensive line standpoint, haven't played the position.
32:34
Speaker 1: When we had our best offensive lines in the eighties,
32:38
Speaker 1: Anthony Munio's was the eraser at left tack and a
32:41
Speaker 1: sul can be an eraser at left tack from what
32:43
Speaker 1: I've seen, And we had a black kicking guard in
32:47
Speaker 1: Max Montoya who would just as soon beat the heck
32:51
Speaker 1: out of you then look at you, and I think
32:54
Speaker 1: that you know, they could go out and get if
32:56
Speaker 1: you could get somebody one of those guards. You know,
33:00
Speaker 1: free agency, you get tuney or shirt in free agency
33:04
Speaker 1: and you get not soul. If you don't get tackled
33:08
Speaker 1: in free agency and you could get sulf you could
33:11
Speaker 1: have those two areas filled in. Um. I just know
33:16
Speaker 1: that that that works. I've seen that work, you know
33:19
Speaker 1: with Anthony Muno. As we said, we don't have to
33:22
Speaker 1: slide always let's everybody else take care of people in here.
33:25
Speaker 1: He's got him, he's the eraser. He's taking care of
33:27
Speaker 1: that guy. Those kind of players are generational players are
33:32
Speaker 1: like once, you know, just a dream come true for
33:35
Speaker 1: any offensive line coach. And that's why I value Sulu.
33:40
Speaker 1: And but but again, if if if they sign the
33:47
Speaker 1: best tackle in free agency and Schul could go, Luke
33:52
Speaker 1: could go before number five. Anyway, in my opinion, it
33:55
Speaker 1: could happen. I saw Todd mcchay's latest mock draft at
33:59
Speaker 1: least got four quarters Backstron the first four picks of
34:01
Speaker 1: the draft by a trade with trade and all those
34:04
Speaker 1: other things. But if Sul is gone, I wouldn't have
34:08
Speaker 1: a problem then going, you know, going with the best
34:10
Speaker 1: wide receiver. I wouldn't have a problem doing that. Um
34:15
Speaker 1: the tight end, I know, I know everybody loves this
34:19
Speaker 1: tight end and I can I can understand why because
34:22
Speaker 1: he is a mismatched nightmare fan. The guy's six five,
34:27
Speaker 1: two fifty and runs in the high four forwards. That's
34:29
Speaker 1: what they think, think he's gonna run. But I'm not
34:35
Speaker 1: even I'm not even sure he's an adequate blocker. Watching him,
34:39
Speaker 1: he's he's willing, but not capable. I don't he's I mean,
34:44
Speaker 1: they play him, they put him out there as a pie,
34:46
Speaker 1: they play him in the slot. He's a big mismatch problem.
34:49
Speaker 1: It's what he is throwing the football. And there's no
34:52
Speaker 1: doubt that that he's a talented player, absolutely no question
34:57
Speaker 1: about it. I mean, the guy's a freak, and you
34:59
Speaker 1: would but basically in football, you're you're trying to uh,
35:03
Speaker 1: You're trying to create and then have the defense counter
35:08
Speaker 1: your creation, and this guy would would be a point
35:12
Speaker 1: of emas in that regard, you'd have to respond to
35:14
Speaker 1: what the offense. The offense is dictating and the defenses
35:18
Speaker 1: is trying the defense is trying to counter. When you
35:20
Speaker 1: have a guy like this, this tight end tis there's
35:22
Speaker 1: no doubt, but I'd still I mean, if we're going
35:27
Speaker 1: to do something a receiver, I'd go Chase. The dude
35:29
Speaker 1: had eighteen hundred yards and twenty touchdowns. Who were throwing
35:32
Speaker 1: him the football? Joe Burrow, I mean, I think he's
35:34
Speaker 1: the best receiver. Watching him. Then he's strong, he throws
35:38
Speaker 1: people around, releasing off the line of scrimmage. You know
35:41
Speaker 1: he's not He's not the most physically imposing. He's not
35:44
Speaker 1: the fastest of all the receivers, but what he is
35:46
Speaker 1: is a damn good football player. So yeah, I mean,
35:51
Speaker 1: if I if I get my offensive line taking care
35:53
Speaker 1: of in the draft, I wouldn't have any trouble saying,
35:55
Speaker 1: let's evaluate weapons for Joe Burrow on the you know,
35:59
Speaker 1: at the quarter back position. I don't think there's an
36:02
Speaker 1: edge rusher that I'd take it at five necessarily. Um,
36:07
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't have a problem doing that question from
36:11
Speaker 1: Alan is Zach Taylor on the hot seat if he
36:14
Speaker 1: wins fewer than eight games this year? Oh, that's a
36:19
Speaker 1: good question. I'm sure he's on his own hot seat.
36:22
Speaker 1: You know, you'd like to see, uh, you'd like to
36:25
Speaker 1: see the doubling doubling down continue one two in the
36:28
Speaker 1: first year, double the win total of four. You want
36:31
Speaker 1: to at least double it in year three the eight.
36:33
Speaker 1: So you're you're you're at the over and under. I guess, um,
36:38
Speaker 1: you know, I think I think rather than just putting
36:40
Speaker 1: a number of wins out there, because you never know
36:46
Speaker 1: the reason for the wins and losses, Like we talked
36:48
Speaker 1: about Pittsburgh starting out eleven and all and then all
36:51
Speaker 1: of a sudden they're in time. You know, they had
36:53
Speaker 1: some significant defensive injuries, you know, and you can never
36:57
Speaker 1: you can never m four cast the injuries that might
37:02
Speaker 1: take place during the course of the season, and they
37:03
Speaker 1: can cripple a football team, particularly injuries to the wrong people.
37:08
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to say unilaterally, no matter what,
37:11
Speaker 1: Zach has to win more than eight football games, because
37:14
Speaker 1: you don't know what's going to transpire during the course
37:16
Speaker 1: of that season. But with that, if he leaves training
37:21
Speaker 1: camp with the team that is going to be hopefully
37:25
Speaker 1: so much different than last year's team that won four
37:27
Speaker 1: games in terms of what they're going to be able
37:29
Speaker 1: to get in created see in another draft and developed
37:32
Speaker 1: last year's draft class. I mean, everybody would hope that
37:35
Speaker 1: you're gonna win at least eight, maybe more, but you
37:39
Speaker 1: don't know how the season's going to unfold in terms
37:41
Speaker 1: of injury and other things that may be involved. You'll
37:44
Speaker 1: also have one extra game. It would appear it looks
37:47
Speaker 1: like the NFL's on the verge of going to seventeen,
37:49
Speaker 1: and it would be a home game against the forty
37:51
Speaker 1: nine ers for Cincinnati, which would be interesting. Next question
37:55
Speaker 1: comes from Ryan if Panay Sewell and Jamars are both
38:00
Speaker 1: god at number five. What should the Bengals do? And
38:04
Speaker 1: he goes on to say, I think trading back would
38:07
Speaker 1: be ideal, But if they don't, who should they take. Yeah,
38:11
Speaker 1: that's the first thing that came to my mind. Trade back,
38:14
Speaker 1: you know as well? Um, yeah, that's a that's a
38:18
Speaker 1: good one. If they're both there at five and they
38:21
Speaker 1: can't they can't find a trade partner and Chase is gone.
38:25
Speaker 1: And I mean, obviously everybody's saying it's like, well, if
38:29
Speaker 1: you don't take Pitts, you know, it's it's ridiculous. Pits
38:33
Speaker 1: and Pits is shown up and everybody's and every every
38:36
Speaker 1: mock draft. I see, now he's not going any lower
38:39
Speaker 1: than seven, you know. I mean, he's He's up there,
38:41
Speaker 1: there's no doubt. And I do agree that he is.
38:45
Speaker 1: He's a he's a talent that people have to He's
38:48
Speaker 1: a matchup problem. That's and what you're trying to cause.
38:52
Speaker 1: Every game in the National Football League is matchup problems.
38:56
Speaker 1: And some it's hard for a coach do it by scheme.
39:00
Speaker 1: You know, I'm gonna scheme guys open all the time.
39:03
Speaker 1: Shanahan has got a reputation and deservedly so. For scheming
39:06
Speaker 1: guys open as well as any coach in the National
39:08
Speaker 1: Football League. That's hard to do on a snap by
39:11
Speaker 1: snap basis. You know, as we've seen Dan, windows are
39:13
Speaker 1: tight in the NFL. That's the biggest adjustment for college quarterbacks.
39:17
Speaker 1: You know, a guy's yard open in college, you don't
39:19
Speaker 1: throw that in the NFL. That's as good as a guess.
39:22
Speaker 1: You're gonna fire that sucker in there. So you know,
39:25
Speaker 1: when you have a mismatch guy, you know, like Pits,
39:29
Speaker 1: that's uh. You know, that's that's something to take into consideration.
39:34
Speaker 1: You know, the Bengals, though, Dan, over the years, they
39:37
Speaker 1: value corners as well. They've taken cornerbacks in the first
39:41
Speaker 1: and second round. You know, may they may be the
39:43
Speaker 1: one to take a cornerback with that with that pick
39:46
Speaker 1: in the draft if they don't like any of the
39:49
Speaker 1: other receivers, or they may have a cornerback rated higher
39:52
Speaker 1: than they have Pits or or you know whoever else
39:56
Speaker 1: that's left at number five when they when they do
39:58
Speaker 1: their board, when they evaluate their board. I think there's
40:01
Speaker 1: one other thing to keep in mind where Kyle Pitts
40:04
Speaker 1: is concerned. I think people might be underestimating how the
40:07
Speaker 1: Bengals feel or felt about c j Uzama working with
40:12
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow. He was off to a great start last
40:15
Speaker 1: year two games, eight catches, eighty seven yards in a touchdown. Now,
40:18
Speaker 1: admittedly that's a small sample size, but that projects to
40:22
Speaker 1: sixty four catches for six hundred ninety six yards in
40:25
Speaker 1: a season, Andy tores Achilles. So you know, there's definitely
40:29
Speaker 1: a red flag there in terms of coming back. But
40:32
Speaker 1: I really think they expected that combination to produce big things,
40:37
Speaker 1: and I think that I would be I'd feel very
40:41
Speaker 1: safe and saying I have not studied Pits that much
40:43
Speaker 1: in terms of blocking. I've seen them. He is a
40:47
Speaker 1: contested catch full I mean, he's a he's a great player.
40:50
Speaker 1: He is an offensive force, there's no question. But I
40:55
Speaker 1: would stake at stake my reputation and probably at this
40:58
Speaker 1: point cj Zama's or capable blocker, you know, than than
41:02
Speaker 1: Pitts is as well. And that's that's a factor, you know,
41:05
Speaker 1: when you get to this Leaguelet I do know one thing.
41:08
Speaker 1: Pitts is not Kittle. He's not gonna block like like
41:12
Speaker 1: George Kittle. I mean he's not He's not that type
41:15
Speaker 1: of guy, I think, and he doesn't block as well
41:18
Speaker 1: as Kelsey. I think, you know, that's an underrated part
41:20
Speaker 1: of Kelsey's game. I hear all these comparisons to Kelsey.
41:23
Speaker 1: I don't think he blocks like Kelsey. Kelsey's a block.
41:26
Speaker 1: Its Kelsey a block for him, and he really will.
41:30
Speaker 1: Next question comes from Jim. Is there an offensive lineman
41:34
Speaker 1: and free agency that the Bengals could sign that would
41:37
Speaker 1: be better than drafting Sewell? Or is Sewell a lock
41:42
Speaker 1: if available at number five? Well? I think, I think
41:46
Speaker 1: if you have have a chance to to sign like
41:51
Speaker 1: a I know Trent Williams is on the on the
41:53
Speaker 1: back nine. He's thirty two years old, but the dude
41:56
Speaker 1: is a player. Pro Football Focus rated him the number one.
42:00
Speaker 1: He was the highest rated offensive tackle in football. I mean,
42:03
Speaker 1: if you can get a proven commodity like that to
42:06
Speaker 1: line up at left tackle, he'd be able to play.
42:10
Speaker 1: You know, he's not done. He's on the back nine
42:13
Speaker 1: for sure, but he's not done, obviously. And whenever you're
42:18
Speaker 1: taking somebody from the college level to the to the
42:20
Speaker 1: national football level, there's already always a question about that transition.
42:26
Speaker 1: And you know, the knock on sulas Organs the finesse offense,
42:29
Speaker 1: and you know it's it's not it's not NFL piped
42:33
Speaker 1: stuff all the way and from top to bottom in
42:36
Speaker 1: terms of what they asked him to do. So, in
42:39
Speaker 1: my mind, if you've got a proven commodity, um and
42:42
Speaker 1: you know, or even if you could sign a gun, well,
42:46
Speaker 1: it would have to be a tackle obviously for them
42:49
Speaker 1: not to draft soul in my opinion, but it'd be
42:53
Speaker 1: a guy like that. Darryl Williams had a great year
42:55
Speaker 1: with the Buffalo Bills. I mean, if I if I
42:58
Speaker 1: were able to sign Daryl Williams, even one of the Williams,
43:01
Speaker 1: I'd be I'd be fine with they could sign him,
43:04
Speaker 1: I'd be okay with him. And he's he's a little
43:06
Speaker 1: bit younger too. I believe he's like twenty eight, twenty
43:08
Speaker 1: nine years old. Yeah, he's twenty eight yep, and uh so, yeah,
43:12
Speaker 1: I mean ta Taylor Molten's the other one, right, Yeah,
43:16
Speaker 1: Molten would be the other one. Um. But at my level,
43:21
Speaker 1: I guess from the Williams brothers standpoint, my Trent Williams
43:24
Speaker 1: would be level one guy. Darryl Williams will be an
43:27
Speaker 1: upper or level two guy, you know, for me, I
43:30
Speaker 1: don't think Daryl Williams would cost as much as Trent Williams.
43:33
Speaker 1: And maybe you could, you know, get a little more
43:35
Speaker 1: bang for your buck with Daryl Williams, because you'd be
43:37
Speaker 1: able to go out and get somebody else as well.
43:40
Speaker 1: But if you're trying to solve your biggest need, man,
43:44
Speaker 1: go out and get Trent Williams, man and thinking get
43:46
Speaker 1: him somehow you can get that done. All right, Next
43:50
Speaker 1: question comes from Tyler. Here's how Here's what he writes.
43:55
Speaker 1: It goes Jamaar Chase, Kyle Pitts, and Tanay Sewell in
44:01
Speaker 1: that order. Tell me why I'm wrong? Well, if Tyler
44:07
Speaker 1: is going by alphabetical order, he's right, it would be Chase, Pitts,
44:10
Speaker 1: Sewell in that order. But he's obviously not intending it
44:14
Speaker 1: to be alphabetical. So tell Tyler, is he wrong Chase,
44:18
Speaker 1: Pitts Sewell in that order? Well, you know, to me, Tyler,
44:24
Speaker 1: Chase and Pitts are great players. But if Joe Burrow
44:27
Speaker 1: doesn't have time to get the ball to Chase and
44:29
Speaker 1: Pitts to moot point, you know that's why you know.
44:33
Speaker 1: To me, all we've talked about is the number one
44:37
Speaker 1: priority is protecting Joe Burrow. It was tragic how Joe
44:42
Speaker 1: Burrow threw the ball so much last year and took
44:44
Speaker 1: a beating. So the best way to solve that problem
44:49
Speaker 1: on Joe Burrow coming back from an ACL injury is
44:52
Speaker 1: to make sure that he's got people up front that
44:55
Speaker 1: are going to do a hell of a job protecting them.
44:58
Speaker 1: Give him that much more time ability to operate, and
45:01
Speaker 1: let those skilled people operate down the football field. I
45:04
Speaker 1: mean a lot of these all these guys were on
45:08
Speaker 1: good college football teams who had good offensive lines and
45:11
Speaker 1: good quarterbacks that could get them the football. So they
45:15
Speaker 1: may come into the NFL and it's like it doesn't
45:18
Speaker 1: even look like the same guy. Well it doesn't because
45:20
Speaker 1: the offensive lines, you know, getting taken advantage of more
45:24
Speaker 1: than the offensive line that he played with in college,
45:26
Speaker 1: and the quarterbacks not having time to operate. I mean,
45:29
Speaker 1: that's why we were talking about before Mike Brown, it's
45:32
Speaker 1: the ultimate team game. It is. I mean in first
45:36
Speaker 1: and foremost, you know, you do have to have an
45:40
Speaker 1: offensive line that is going to give Joe Burrow time
45:44
Speaker 1: and confidence. I think confidence is going to be a
45:46
Speaker 1: big thing. I think Joe Burrow is a very confident guy.
45:49
Speaker 1: But man, after going through what he went through, the
45:52
Speaker 1: traumatic hit in every sense of the word that he
45:55
Speaker 1: took in the traumatic injury that resulted from it, you
45:58
Speaker 1: got you gotta help it. You gotta make you gotta
46:01
Speaker 1: make him not You're gonna make him right away feel
46:04
Speaker 1: as comfortable as he did before the injury in that pocket.
46:08
Speaker 1: The best way to do it is to get big
46:10
Speaker 1: beasts up front. Question from Drew are there any under
46:14
Speaker 1: the radar offensive line prospects or free agents that we
46:18
Speaker 1: should keep an eye on? Huh? Under the radar? I
46:23
Speaker 1: haven't really studied it the draft that far too. I
46:26
Speaker 1: don't know how far into the radar that you're that
46:29
Speaker 1: you might be talking about, but I get I think
46:32
Speaker 1: the guy that that that I would maybe the level
46:36
Speaker 1: two guy that may not get as much answers or
46:38
Speaker 1: he might because he's a level two guy that dispersatile.
46:41
Speaker 1: This Feeler from Pittsburgh, I think I think Matt Feeler
46:44
Speaker 1: would be somebody that that Frank Pollock would do a
46:47
Speaker 1: good job with. I really do. I think that I
46:50
Speaker 1: think that that could that could potentially be, you know,
46:53
Speaker 1: somebody that uh that they might might be able to
46:56
Speaker 1: target a little bit um as a tackle or a
47:00
Speaker 1: guard because he's played both. What do you like him at? Yeah,
47:03
Speaker 1: I would see him. I would try him at both
47:07
Speaker 1: and see where he fit in terms of working with
47:11
Speaker 1: other guys. You know, I'm going to get my best
47:13
Speaker 1: five guys out there, no matter what the situation is.
47:16
Speaker 1: And if he if he ends up being you know,
47:18
Speaker 1: in that mix at tackle, so be it. If he's
47:21
Speaker 1: in that mix at guard, so be it. I mean
47:23
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people, uh, you know that
47:25
Speaker 1: are really good lineman. I you know, um Jackson Carman,
47:30
Speaker 1: a kid from from Clemson. I mean he's not under
47:33
Speaker 1: the radar, but Fairfield High School, YEP. I wouldn't mind
47:37
Speaker 1: having local boy. I wouldn't mind having that big old man,
47:40
Speaker 1: uh in the offensive line. I mean, I don't know.
47:43
Speaker 1: I don't know if the under the radars meaning you know,
47:45
Speaker 1: the guys that are talking about for top five picks
47:49
Speaker 1: or guys that are later in the draft. I'm not sure.
47:51
Speaker 1: But I haven't really studied, you know, all of those
47:54
Speaker 1: guys that are going to be later in the draft.
47:56
Speaker 1: At this point, question from coach k all Day, I
48:03
Speaker 1: don't think this is Mike Chaschevski who could be some
48:06
Speaker 1: potential replacements in free agency if Will Jackson leaves, well,
48:10
Speaker 1: let's start with the notion of Will Jackson leaving. Do
48:13
Speaker 1: you think they'll resign him or tag him? That's I mean,
48:18
Speaker 1: I think I think they have the money to resign
48:22
Speaker 1: Lawson and Will. I really do, and I'd make every
48:26
Speaker 1: effort to do that. I think. You know, Karl Lawson
48:29
Speaker 1: obviously is still an as sending player twenty five years old. Um,
48:33
Speaker 1: you know, he's obviously he's got power, he's be sudden,
48:36
Speaker 1: he's got that really unusual first step quickness, explosiveness. He
48:41
Speaker 1: didn't have length. That's the only thing about Karl Lawson
48:44
Speaker 1: to me that you know, is the one trait that
48:47
Speaker 1: you'd like to see that he doesn't have his length. Um,
48:51
Speaker 1: but he's got he's got everything else. And then obviously,
48:54
Speaker 1: I mean Will Jackson is when you look at the
48:57
Speaker 1: top fifty players, both of those I show up in
49:00
Speaker 1: the top fifteen, you know, on a league wide basis.
49:03
Speaker 1: So if that's what you know, all the evaluators are thinking, um,
49:07
Speaker 1: you know, why not why not make sure you get
49:09
Speaker 1: your own resigned? You know, if they're you've got a
49:11
Speaker 1: couple of top fifteen free agents out there, and uh,
49:15
Speaker 1: you know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and and
49:18
Speaker 1: you know what you need to work with them to
49:20
Speaker 1: improve upon, and so I try to I try to
49:24
Speaker 1: get them both signed. So that would be, uh, you know,
49:27
Speaker 1: that would be my first answer obviously would be you know,
49:29
Speaker 1: I wouldn't necessarily let him, let him take a walk.
49:34
Speaker 1: I try to try to get him under contract. I think,
49:37
Speaker 1: getting back to what we were talking about earlier with
49:39
Speaker 1: Gino and Bobby Hart, if they were to make those
49:42
Speaker 1: moves to create more space, I think they would have
49:45
Speaker 1: room for lossing Jackson and an offensive lineman. Yeah, if
49:52
Speaker 1: they created more space, I agree. Next question comes from Man.
49:58
Speaker 1: This is an interesting one. There's been speculation that Kevin
50:01
Speaker 1: Zeitler could be available. That would mean he was getting
50:04
Speaker 1: cut by the Giants. Would the Bengals consider bringing him back?
50:10
Speaker 1: I would think that from an organizational standpoint, they would
50:14
Speaker 1: consider it, but it'd be at the right price. Again,
50:16
Speaker 1: Kevin Zeitler would be out there because he'd be a
50:19
Speaker 1: cap casualty, but he's still operating at at an efficient level,
50:24
Speaker 1: but not at the dollars that he's you know, he'd
50:27
Speaker 1: be currently making would he come back to Cincinnati for
50:31
Speaker 1: a haircut. I don't know. I mean, I think I
50:35
Speaker 1: think that both all parties parted ways on good terms.
50:39
Speaker 1: I don't think there was any bitterness. I think that
50:42
Speaker 1: Kevin Zeitler felt like he was treated well when he
50:45
Speaker 1: was here with the Cincinnati Bengals, being a first round
50:47
Speaker 1: picked out of Wisconsin. And I think they liked his
50:50
Speaker 1: work ethic, They liked everything about Kevin Zeidler. They had
50:54
Speaker 1: no problems with him whatsoever. Good locker room guy. Everything
50:57
Speaker 1: was positive about Kevin Zeitler. So I don't think there'd
51:01
Speaker 1: be any hesitation on their end. Now as far as
51:05
Speaker 1: Kevin Zeiler's concerned, I don't remember Kevin Zieler's voicing. He
51:09
Speaker 1: was not a very you know, somebody that would tell
51:14
Speaker 1: you things were bothering him. He wasn't that type of player.
51:17
Speaker 1: But I think that he was pretty satisfied with the
51:21
Speaker 1: Bengals from an organizational standpoint. To me, that's not a
51:25
Speaker 1: thing that's beyond the realm of possibility whatsoever. I think
51:29
Speaker 1: they were a playoff team every year he was here. Yeah,
51:33
Speaker 1: he was here during the height of the Marvin Lewis era.
51:36
Speaker 1: There's no doubt and he was a really good player.
51:39
Speaker 1: I mean, he's just solid player. There's no question. He's
51:41
Speaker 1: made a lot of money. So the decision would be,
51:46
Speaker 1: if you're going to play for less money, would you
51:49
Speaker 1: come back to Cincinnati or would you go elsewhere to
51:51
Speaker 1: play for less money. If it's a team that's close
51:55
Speaker 1: to the playoffs and his estimation that does need an
51:58
Speaker 1: interior offensive lineman, he might choose that over the Cincinnati Bengals.
52:02
Speaker 1: Can you give me your impression of him breathing after
52:05
Speaker 1: things did not go well on a particular play man
52:10
Speaker 1: he was Jean. He was a deep breather man. All right.
52:18
Speaker 1: Final ask lap question this week comes from Dalton, who
52:22
Speaker 1: does an incredible job of posting Bengals graphics on Twitter.
52:26
Speaker 1: Here's his question. He would love to hear if you
52:28
Speaker 1: have any stories about Jim Leclair boy. Jim Leclair guy
52:35
Speaker 1: I played with for a long time. We were teammates
52:37
Speaker 1: with the Bengals, then teammates with the Generals. Both went
52:40
Speaker 1: to New Jersey at the same time and played a
52:43
Speaker 1: couple of years there. And Jim Leclair I can tell
52:46
Speaker 1: you a personal story my rookie year. We're doing interior
52:50
Speaker 1: line drills, and it's interior running game, so there's really
52:55
Speaker 1: no secret as to what's happening. I mean, all it
52:58
Speaker 1: is is like a nutcracker drill that's expanded to like
53:02
Speaker 1: about to entail. You know, six players, three on offense,
53:05
Speaker 1: three on defense, a couple of guards in the center,
53:08
Speaker 1: too defensive tackles, and an inside linebacker. So, um, we're
53:14
Speaker 1: running the drill and one play called for a double
53:17
Speaker 1: team on the defensive tackle and I was supposed to
53:19
Speaker 1: rub off to Jim mclair to the next level, get
53:21
Speaker 1: up to that next level on the double team, we
53:23
Speaker 1: doubled the defensive tackle. I get a pretty good release
53:26
Speaker 1: and I'm up up to the next level and I
53:27
Speaker 1: start peeking to try to locate Jim mclair. I mean
53:31
Speaker 1: I got hit. He put a forum on my forehead, man,
53:34
Speaker 1: and I had the yellow flash, and you know, I mean,
53:38
Speaker 1: the birds were circling and there was a long distance
53:42
Speaker 1: phone call ringing. Nobody was picking up on the other end. Man,
53:45
Speaker 1: I was, I was literally rung, and I thought, wow,
53:49
Speaker 1: I mean, Jim McClair had an unbelievable forearm. So I
53:52
Speaker 1: come back to the back to the huddle and Stan
53:55
Speaker 1: Walter's a fellow Syracuse offensive lineman. He kind of peaks
53:58
Speaker 1: his head into me. He goes, you okay, I said, yeah,
54:01
Speaker 1: I think so, he goes. Let me give you a tip, rookie,
54:04
Speaker 1: don't be peaking when you're looking for Jim Leclair. I said,
54:07
Speaker 1: I found that out on my own. Man. That dude,
54:10
Speaker 1: he could come downhill and he would just try to
54:12
Speaker 1: drive your head into your shoulders and you know, make
54:15
Speaker 1: him no neck. He was something. And another thing I
54:18
Speaker 1: remember doing is going, uh to watch Jim Leclair wrestle Victor,
54:22
Speaker 1: the wrestling bear that would tour the cities. And Jim
54:25
Speaker 1: Leclair was a wrestling champ in college. He was he
54:29
Speaker 1: was a great wrestler. And this dude had broad shoulders,
54:32
Speaker 1: man like coat hanger shoulders and you know, tapered down
54:35
Speaker 1: to no waste, and he was he was just really strong.
54:38
Speaker 1: And Victor had a muzzle and they declawed him, so
54:44
Speaker 1: he had taken to his teeth. Would put a muzzle
54:45
Speaker 1: on him and declawed him. But it is a big
54:47
Speaker 1: old bear. Well nobody you know, penned Victor and uh,
54:52
Speaker 1: but Jim Leclair he starts starts going after Victor like
54:55
Speaker 1: he's like he's wrestling in a college man. He shoots
54:58
Speaker 1: a leg and he's trying to Victor down, you know,
55:01
Speaker 1: and crisis swap. He got Victor on his back, and
55:04
Speaker 1: the guy who handled Victor said it had never happened before,
55:08
Speaker 1: and as soon as he got Victor on his back,
55:10
Speaker 1: he just the guy like waved it off ended the match.
55:13
Speaker 1: I mean, in my mind, he pinned Victor the wrestling bear.
55:16
Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, that's unbelievable, because Victor was They had
55:19
Speaker 1: it. It It was at an outdoor camping show and they
55:23
Speaker 1: had big swimming pools around the ring, and Victor was
55:26
Speaker 1: backhanded people into the swimming pools. You know. Claire goes
55:30
Speaker 1: up there and I couldn't believe it. I'm telling you.
55:32
Speaker 1: Jimmy Leclair. And one other final story on Mclair. This
55:37
Speaker 1: one's not quite as pretty, but this guy cuts him
55:40
Speaker 1: off when he's driving the practice and just you know,
55:43
Speaker 1: almost causes an accident. So, you know, the guy. Leclair
55:48
Speaker 1: drives up next to the guy and the guy's got
55:50
Speaker 1: like two other guys within the car and he signals
55:52
Speaker 1: for Leclair to pull over. So Leclaire in this car
55:55
Speaker 1: pull over and Leclair gets out of the car and
55:57
Speaker 1: the guy. The guy and his two friends get out
55:59
Speaker 1: of the car. They start getting after Leclair and he's
56:02
Speaker 1: innocent and they cut him off and the one guy
56:06
Speaker 1: takes a swing at him. Jim Leclair one punch of
56:09
Speaker 1: three guys, three knockouts, out cold. Police come. They're like
56:14
Speaker 1: trying to you know what went down here? And Jim says, look,
56:17
Speaker 1: he said, there's one of me, there's three of them.
56:19
Speaker 1: You know, what do you think happened here? And he
56:21
Speaker 1: was late for practice and when he asked him what
56:24
Speaker 1: happened he told him and I'm like, man, those guys
56:27
Speaker 1: bad decision to challenge Jim Leclair. I'm telling you that
56:30
Speaker 1: that guy, pound for pound, might have been the toughest
56:32
Speaker 1: human being alive. He shot the leg on Victor. The
56:35
Speaker 1: bear got the leg. Man. He's trying to do the takedown.
56:39
Speaker 1: He's throwing moves on him. He's doing the escape move.
56:44
Speaker 1: He was wrestling his tail off his classic. Did he
56:47
Speaker 1: ever share how Victor's breath was? He did, in fact,
56:51
Speaker 1: then he said the worst part of the Victor could
56:55
Speaker 1: get the tongue out of that mask. Victor's tongue was
56:57
Speaker 1: about three feet long. The Victor was wrapping the tongue
57:01
Speaker 1: around Leclair's head and he said that tongue smell to
57:05
Speaker 1: the high heavens. Boy, it's stunk like nothing he'd ever
57:08
Speaker 1: smelled in his life. And Victor, it was all over
57:11
Speaker 1: Jimmy's head. Yeah, he needs a shower after that minute. Dalton,
57:16
Speaker 1: I bet you're glad you asked for stories about jim Leclair.
57:19
Speaker 1: That was the perfect capper to this week's or this
57:22
Speaker 1: version of Ask Lap Partner. Thank you so much, awesome
57:26
Speaker 1: stuff as I always look forward to doing this again
57:28
Speaker 1: sometime soon. My pleasure, Dan feel the same, have a
57:31
Speaker 1: good one that's going to do it. For this episode
57:34
Speaker 1: of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by bud Light,
57:37
Speaker 1: Seltzer refreshed the game. If you haven't done so already,
57:41
Speaker 1: please subscribe and if you have a minute, give it
57:43
Speaker 1: a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals
57:47
Speaker 1: fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you
57:50
Speaker 1: for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast