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Bengals Booth Podcast: Hot Fun In The Summertime · 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 hot fun in the summer time. Addition,
0:14
Speaker 1: as I have a fun conversation with Seth Galina from
0:17
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus, who has an optimistic view of the
0:20
Speaker 1: Bengals chances of returning to the playoffs this year, You'll
0:25
Speaker 1: want to hear what Seth has to say. The Bengals
0:28
Speaker 1: Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light. Seltzer Refreshed the
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Speaker 1: Game and here's a quick reminder that you can have
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Speaker 1: the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet,
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Speaker 1: or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify,
0:43
Speaker 1: or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since youth coaches.
0:48
Speaker 1: For nearly ten years now, I've either been the head
0:51
Speaker 1: coach or an assistant coach on my son's Notthole baseball team.
0:55
Speaker 1: Shout out to the Eagles, who had a fine season
0:57
Speaker 1: this year. I love doing it. It's great to spend
1:00
Speaker 1: that time with my son, and it's also been fun
1:03
Speaker 1: to see his friends and teammates improve over the years
1:06
Speaker 1: and develop into young men. But it's also made me
1:09
Speaker 1: appreciate all of the coaches that I had as a kid.
1:13
Speaker 1: Youth coaching is the number one form of volunteerism in
1:16
Speaker 1: the US, and it can be varied, time consuming. So
1:20
Speaker 1: if you're a coach, thank you. And if you have
1:23
Speaker 1: a child that plays youth sports, thank his or her coach.
1:28
Speaker 1: Now let's get to this week's conversation. Seth Galina is
1:32
Speaker 1: a Montreal based writer and podcaster for Pro Football Focus,
1:36
Speaker 1: and he also has a coaching background, having coached linebackers
1:40
Speaker 1: and quarterbacks in the past. I reached out to get
1:43
Speaker 1: Seth on the podcast after seeing a recent article he
1:46
Speaker 1: wrote for PF that painted a pretty optimistic picture for
1:50
Speaker 1: the Bengals in twenty twenty one. Seth, on June third,
1:54
Speaker 1: you published a story with the following headline, the Cincinnati
1:57
Speaker 1: Bengals will return to the playoffs if Joe Burrow can
2:00
Speaker 1: fine tune the deep passing games. So I have two
2:03
Speaker 1: questions for you based on that headline. Number one, do
2:07
Speaker 1: you mean this year? And number two, why do you
2:11
Speaker 1: think the Bengals were so bad in that area last year?
2:15
Speaker 1: I do mean this year, and maybe I'm getting a
2:18
Speaker 1: little ahead of myself, but I'm very bullish on the
2:21
Speaker 1: Bengals chances and that's because I'm very bullish on who
2:24
Speaker 1: I think Joe Burrow can be as a quarterback. So
2:27
Speaker 1: I get, let's get that out of the way. I'm
2:30
Speaker 1: very much into the Bengals this season. I think the
2:32
Speaker 1: issues they had last year were well, you know, I
2:36
Speaker 1: wrote this in the article, but they're really threefold. First,
2:39
Speaker 1: one look at the quarterback position. You have a guy
2:42
Speaker 1: who was throwing the ball super accurately down the field
2:45
Speaker 1: in college, and it just kind of didn't happen for
2:48
Speaker 1: him last year. Obviously, he doesn't have this like super
2:52
Speaker 1: arm strength, but I don't think that should matter that much.
2:56
Speaker 1: I think it was just more of a fluke yere
2:59
Speaker 1: where he just missed a couple of times, more than
3:01
Speaker 1: a couple of times down the field, you know, on
3:04
Speaker 1: on just sideline vertical sideline routes. And I think the
3:09
Speaker 1: nice thing about Burrow is that it's not like other quarterbacks.
3:14
Speaker 1: I can give you a good example like Daniel Jones,
3:17
Speaker 1: who you know, might not have to have an elite
3:21
Speaker 1: arm either, but Daniel Jones doesn't even try to throw
3:25
Speaker 1: down the field. Joe Burrow loves to throw down the field.
3:28
Speaker 1: He has a higher, you know, a relatively high average
3:31
Speaker 1: depth of target. He loves throwing nine routes down the field.
3:34
Speaker 1: That's his game, you know, trusting his receivers to go
3:37
Speaker 1: make plays for him. So on one hand, he wasn't
3:40
Speaker 1: throwing the ball super accurately. On the other hand, trusting
3:43
Speaker 1: his receivers to make plays for him down the field
3:46
Speaker 1: didn't go as planned in the way that you know,
3:48
Speaker 1: going back to the twenty nineteen season an LSU in
3:51
Speaker 1: the way that Jamar Chase, who obviously he's reunited with,
3:54
Speaker 1: and and Justin Jefferson and Terris Marshall went up and
3:59
Speaker 1: made plays for him, you know, fifty fifty balls, the
4:02
Speaker 1: LC receivers made plays for him. The Bengals receivers last
4:06
Speaker 1: year could not come down with contested targets. I think
4:10
Speaker 1: they were last in the league in percentage of deep
4:13
Speaker 1: targets that were contested that they came up with. So
4:17
Speaker 1: that's Burrow himself is number one, the receivers are number two,
4:20
Speaker 1: and the number three things. I felt like the play calling,
4:25
Speaker 1: they just could have used a lot more of these
4:29
Speaker 1: kind of hard play action, turn your back to the defense,
4:34
Speaker 1: come out of it, and you know, get the safety
4:37
Speaker 1: to bite on some route and then throw a post
4:40
Speaker 1: over a set and I just didn't feel like there
4:42
Speaker 1: was enough of those plays called. And if they can
4:45
Speaker 1: get up to again, it's just you're really just trying
4:47
Speaker 1: to get to league average, not asking them for too much,
4:49
Speaker 1: just want to get to league average on those type
4:52
Speaker 1: of plays. And I think with that you're cooking because
4:59
Speaker 1: we know that Joe Burrow can make plays basically under
5:03
Speaker 1: twenty yards. His technical ability is accuracy is top notch.
5:06
Speaker 1: So if you can just figure out the rest and
5:09
Speaker 1: it's a big part of the game, obviously creating explosive plays,
5:11
Speaker 1: then then they're going to be fine. We're talking to
5:14
Speaker 1: Seth Kalina from Pro Football Focus. Let's follow up on
5:16
Speaker 1: Jamar Chase. How much will he help and did you
5:20
Speaker 1: agree with the decision to draft him number five overall
5:23
Speaker 1: instead of Pinasol. I don't think you could have went
5:25
Speaker 1: wrong with either of them. I think probably the Bengals
5:31
Speaker 1: might be under the kind of understanding that all they
5:35
Speaker 1: really want to do is be average at offensive line,
5:40
Speaker 1: and then if we're just average at at every position
5:43
Speaker 1: on the offensive line, rather than having any major holes
5:47
Speaker 1: or having any major elite players who Pinasul probably will
5:51
Speaker 1: be then they'll be okay. And if and if that's
5:54
Speaker 1: the case, then you go get the receiver who can
5:56
Speaker 1: make plays one on one. I mean, that's really what
5:59
Speaker 1: you want, is a guy who can win on the outside.
6:02
Speaker 1: AJ Green clearly wasn't that player in twenty twenty. So
6:08
Speaker 1: you replace him with a younger player who can go
6:11
Speaker 1: up and make plays for them, who can get separation
6:13
Speaker 1: against press coverage that you can just play as an
6:16
Speaker 1: isolated receiver, which the Bengals like to do. So I
6:21
Speaker 1: think it works. I think it's a really good situation
6:24
Speaker 1: for Chase to go into and kind of the Bengals
6:28
Speaker 1: bringing him in I think is a good a good
6:30
Speaker 1: play by them. We're talking to Seth Galena from Pro
6:33
Speaker 1: Football Focus. You can follow him on Twitter at p
6:35
Speaker 1: f F Underscore. Seth, you wrote an in depth story
6:39
Speaker 1: about Jamar Chase about a year ago when at that
6:42
Speaker 1: time we expected him to have another year at LSU.
6:46
Speaker 1: What can the Bengals steal from the way that LSU
6:49
Speaker 1: use Jamar Chase? So the main idea from that was
6:54
Speaker 1: what LSU did with Chase, which was he was there
6:58
Speaker 1: what you would call an extra receiver, the guy that
7:01
Speaker 1: you are going to isolate on one side of the field,
7:04
Speaker 1: and you're going to let him win? Are you going
7:05
Speaker 1: to ask him? Hey, dude, time for you to win
7:08
Speaker 1: on slant routes on whatever out. So usually that receiver
7:11
Speaker 1: is I would say, hugging the sideline, but he's close
7:14
Speaker 1: to the sideline, right, that's how we think about football,
7:16
Speaker 1: I would say, But what LSU did was they brought
7:19
Speaker 1: him in a lot more so you're still isolated, but
7:22
Speaker 1: he was closer to the quarterback basically, And what that
7:27
Speaker 1: allowed him to do was kind of be able to
7:31
Speaker 1: use two releases. You can release inside for inside breaking routes,
7:35
Speaker 1: but he still had the room to release outside and
7:38
Speaker 1: run out, run corner routes to the sideline and then
7:42
Speaker 1: uses his physical ability to win one on one. And
7:45
Speaker 1: the Bengals already kind of do stuff stuff like that.
7:48
Speaker 1: They had brought in what we'd call you know there
7:52
Speaker 1: there are. They don't run a ton of RPOs, which
7:54
Speaker 1: I actually think they should run more of um. But
7:56
Speaker 1: one of the RPOs that they did run was a
7:59
Speaker 1: kind of isolated receiver what I'd call a glance post.
8:02
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like between a post and a slant.
8:04
Speaker 1: So it's five steps and then he's going to break
8:06
Speaker 1: inside on the forty five degree angle like a slant,
8:09
Speaker 1: and they're ran it a little bit, but with LSU,
8:12
Speaker 1: they ran it all the time in twenty nineteen. So
8:15
Speaker 1: I think you bring in Chase, you know, with his
8:18
Speaker 1: quarterback from college. I think that's the type of situation
8:21
Speaker 1: where you can you can move Chase inside a bit,
8:24
Speaker 1: have him run still those inbreaking routes, but then you
8:28
Speaker 1: also get the benefit of being able to throw him
8:32
Speaker 1: routes to the sideline, like corner routes where he's so
8:34
Speaker 1: good at out routes, and then you even just give
8:38
Speaker 1: him more room to work the sideline on a vertical
8:40
Speaker 1: or vertical fadeball, vertical goal route, kind of like we
8:43
Speaker 1: talked about before. So I think there's some things you
8:45
Speaker 1: can bring in that they've kind of already done, but
8:47
Speaker 1: a little more stuff you can bring in, which mar
8:49
Speaker 1: Chase there. When I reached out to set up this interview,
8:53
Speaker 1: you responded with, Yeah, I love talking about Burrell. I
8:57
Speaker 1: know you have experience in coaching quarterbacks. What are some
9:00
Speaker 1: of the things they jump out when you study him
9:02
Speaker 1: on tape? There's a confidence level. I mean, like, this
9:06
Speaker 1: is not a technical thing at all, but there's just
9:07
Speaker 1: an incredible confidence and I can make all these throws.
9:11
Speaker 1: But he also, you know, on the technical side, he well,
9:15
Speaker 1: I mean, look, first of all, he doesn't make mistakes.
9:18
Speaker 1: He's not really throwing it the coverage. He's reading defenders.
9:21
Speaker 1: You know, obviously good in the pocket. But I think
9:24
Speaker 1: again from going back to the technical side, his feet
9:27
Speaker 1: are as good as you're going to see in the league. Really,
9:32
Speaker 1: he doesn't take any false steps. He's always throwing on time.
9:36
Speaker 1: And yeah, because he doesn't have this a lead arm strength,
9:39
Speaker 1: he can't afford to be laid on any throw and
9:42
Speaker 1: he is and he's not, so I think that's really
9:45
Speaker 1: the main thing. Very balanced in the pocket. You know,
9:48
Speaker 1: he takes his drop back. He's not like rushing back there.
9:51
Speaker 1: He's not too slow. He's really balanced so that when
9:54
Speaker 1: he gets to the end of his drop back, the
9:57
Speaker 1: feet don't have to kind of reset themselves. And we
9:59
Speaker 1: see that a lot of you know, I just happened
10:01
Speaker 1: to watch Drew lock tape recently, another young quarterback, and
10:05
Speaker 1: he's still learning that type of thing where okay, you know,
10:07
Speaker 1: I don't I can get to a situation where if
10:11
Speaker 1: I refine myself. I don't need to take these extra
10:14
Speaker 1: little steps, and those extra little steps in the NFL
10:16
Speaker 1: will kill you. And Burrow doesn't have to do that
10:19
Speaker 1: because he's already at at an elite level and the
10:21
Speaker 1: technical footwork and then of course, like the accuracy is
10:24
Speaker 1: stunning in some places on the field, throwing out routes,
10:27
Speaker 1: throwing slant stuff like that. So yeah, I think from
10:30
Speaker 1: a technical perspective, the feats or really stands out to
10:33
Speaker 1: me as as as top notch. One more question about
10:38
Speaker 1: the June third article, and then I'll move on to
10:40
Speaker 1: something else you wrote in the final paragraph. They could
10:43
Speaker 1: be a real dark horse to make the playoffs, and
10:45
Speaker 1: even the wind of the vision. Obviously Burrow is a
10:48
Speaker 1: huge reason that you feel that way. But I don't
10:51
Speaker 1: think you would write that if you didn't think the
10:53
Speaker 1: overall talent was at least pretty good. Yeah, I mean, look,
10:57
Speaker 1: the skill position players are pretty good. Like I think
11:03
Speaker 1: they've been hyped up a lot, you know when I
11:05
Speaker 1: look at or read other Bengals articles that they're hyped up.
11:10
Speaker 1: For sure. You're obviously assuming that a player you take
11:13
Speaker 1: at number five overall it's going to be a really
11:15
Speaker 1: good receiver. So I think like there's a chance that
11:19
Speaker 1: those guys are really, really good. I would say there's
11:23
Speaker 1: not a guarantee, but there's a chance. Obviously at running back,
11:26
Speaker 1: you're feeling pretty good about yourselves with Mixon. Like I said,
11:29
Speaker 1: the offensive line just needs to be average. So I
11:32
Speaker 1: would say a lot of things do have to go well,
11:35
Speaker 1: but there's the makings of a nice roster in terms
11:38
Speaker 1: of the type of players they have, you know, all
11:40
Speaker 1: the you know, the receiving corps has different types, whether
11:44
Speaker 1: you look at Boyd or Higgins or or Chase. So
11:49
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of things to like. The
11:52
Speaker 1: defense is interesting. They were very they were league average
11:56
Speaker 1: last year, I would say, and if they're league average again,
12:00
Speaker 1: that's pretty much all you need from this defense. Obviously,
12:02
Speaker 1: if they if they can, if they can manage to
12:04
Speaker 1: get above that, that'd be great. So I think there's
12:06
Speaker 1: a lot of things to like. And I think if
12:08
Speaker 1: if they all go right, I'm sure you could say
12:11
Speaker 1: this about a bunch of teams, but I feel like
12:12
Speaker 1: if they all go right, yeah, you could definitely win
12:15
Speaker 1: the division, go to the playoffs, especially with three walk
12:17
Speaker 1: art teams. I think going to the playoffs is a
12:19
Speaker 1: realistic expectation assuming Burrow bounces back from the injury and
12:22
Speaker 1: is and is very good. We're talking to Seth Galena
12:26
Speaker 1: from Pro Football Focus. He is also the host of
12:28
Speaker 1: PFF's College Football podcast. Since You're Joe Burrows story. You've
12:33
Speaker 1: written about the offensive and defensive schemes of all thirty
12:35
Speaker 1: two NFL teams. Obviously, the Bengals are primarily a three
12:39
Speaker 1: wide receiver, one tight end offense. Are there any obvious
12:43
Speaker 1: ways that you see for the Bengals to be more
12:45
Speaker 1: efficient than they've been the last couple of years under
12:47
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor. Yeah, I wouldn't mind if they went back.
12:51
Speaker 1: You know, Zach Taylor was brought in from the let's say,
12:55
Speaker 1: the Sean McVeigh tree, and you don't really see that
12:58
Speaker 1: type of offense, which is fine him. Know, he's more
13:00
Speaker 1: than welcome to do whatever he wants, whatever he feels
13:03
Speaker 1: is necessary. So you see them, you know, in the
13:05
Speaker 1: shotgun obviously, and it helps with Burrow there, you know,
13:08
Speaker 1: he played like that in college. But I also think
13:10
Speaker 1: Burro being just a very good quarterback means you could
13:13
Speaker 1: get them under center more. You could start stretching defenses
13:16
Speaker 1: out sidelines to sideline with that wide zone outside zone
13:19
Speaker 1: running play and then and then use play action off
13:22
Speaker 1: of that rather than the kind of you know, if
13:25
Speaker 1: you're going to be in the shotgun, then that your
13:28
Speaker 1: whole play action experience is going to change because you
13:31
Speaker 1: can't you know, I've said it before, you can't turn
13:34
Speaker 1: your back to the defense and really sell it hard.
13:37
Speaker 1: Burro does a good job of selling the shotgun play
13:40
Speaker 1: action stuff, but I think you can do a lot
13:41
Speaker 1: more from under center. So I would like to see
13:43
Speaker 1: them maybe maybe kind of balance them, sums up themselves
13:46
Speaker 1: out a little more by going under center, running some
13:49
Speaker 1: more stretch and seeing if that can get them anywhere.
13:52
Speaker 1: What stood out when you studied lou Anna Romo's defensive schemes.
13:57
Speaker 1: I mean it was pretty you know, I don't think
13:58
Speaker 1: anything necessarily stood out, you know, I wrote this in
14:01
Speaker 1: the article, but I'm very interested to see I kind
14:05
Speaker 1: of didn't realize this until I went went and looked
14:07
Speaker 1: at it, But a lot of man coverage and it
14:10
Speaker 1: kind of works with the players they had. Now that
14:12
Speaker 1: you're you're you're changing around some defensive players. Obviously, William
14:15
Speaker 1: Jackson has been a mainstay, was a mainstay at in
14:18
Speaker 1: Cincinnati for a long time and one of the better
14:21
Speaker 1: man coverage defenders. Now you don't have them anymore, So
14:24
Speaker 1: are you going to say, okay, we can we can
14:26
Speaker 1: play more zone defense. And it's funny because you know,
14:30
Speaker 1: William Jackson goes to Washington where they did not play
14:35
Speaker 1: a lot of man, they played a lot of zone,
14:37
Speaker 1: and they said, hey, we didn't have we don't have
14:38
Speaker 1: the horses right now to play man. We're gonna keep
14:40
Speaker 1: every We're gonna play zone. We're gonna keep everything in
14:42
Speaker 1: front of us. So I wonder if and again just
14:45
Speaker 1: the William Jackson connection is there, if now you lose
14:48
Speaker 1: William Jackson and now the Sinci defense says, okay, now
14:52
Speaker 1: wait a minute. When we don't have the horses to
14:53
Speaker 1: run man coverage, we're gonna stay in more zone coverage.
14:56
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep things in front of us, and hopefully
14:59
Speaker 1: we don't allow a lot of explosive plays that way.
15:02
Speaker 1: So I'm very interested to see because I do think
15:04
Speaker 1: it could change a bit with the personnel changes. But
15:08
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, it was a league average defense,
15:10
Speaker 1: and that's that's I feel like with the personnel, that's
15:13
Speaker 1: probably what you can hope for again this year. Seth
15:15
Speaker 1: Kalina is our guest from Pro Football Focus. In free agency,
15:18
Speaker 1: the Bengals signed Trey Hendrickson, Larry Ogan, Joebi, Mike Hilton,
15:23
Speaker 1: should Obey a Woogie, and Riley Reef, among others. Which
15:26
Speaker 1: additions do you like? Which ones aren't you as high on?
15:30
Speaker 1: I think there's the Trey Hendrickson one is interesting because
15:34
Speaker 1: I think the sack total that he put up in
15:36
Speaker 1: New Orleans maybe isn't as predictive, let's say, of where
15:42
Speaker 1: he could be. But I really like that player. He's
15:48
Speaker 1: a hard worker, he's good against the run, so I
15:50
Speaker 1: think he can he can still give you something even
15:52
Speaker 1: if maybe you know, the sack total comes down by
15:56
Speaker 1: five or six or something like that. I think I
15:58
Speaker 1: still think, you know, don't look at it like at
16:01
Speaker 1: the end of the season only he only got seven sacks,
16:04
Speaker 1: only only got six sacks. I think he's still a
16:06
Speaker 1: well rounded player and can give you a lot, you know,
16:09
Speaker 1: on the defensive line, on the edge. And you are
16:12
Speaker 1: a big fan of the Mike Hilton signing. If I
16:15
Speaker 1: remember correctly, you're talking about a guy who's super underrated,
16:20
Speaker 1: can play in the slot. Well, that's where he's going
16:24
Speaker 1: to play, is in the slot, and it'll be a
16:27
Speaker 1: different you know again, talk about the scheme, you know
16:30
Speaker 1: what he does. What he did for the Pittsburgh Steelers
16:34
Speaker 1: was was interesting because he was kind of a hybrid
16:38
Speaker 1: like playing in the slot, but also like he's he's
16:41
Speaker 1: a he's a sturdy dude, and he likes to get
16:43
Speaker 1: his nose a little dirty and play against the run.
16:46
Speaker 1: And you know, the Steelers defense bl blitz him a
16:49
Speaker 1: lot from the slot. So it'll be interesting to see. Okay, well,
16:52
Speaker 1: are the Bengals going to do that or are this
16:55
Speaker 1: going to hang him out and play man to man
16:57
Speaker 1: on the slot. I think, you know, for my money,
16:59
Speaker 1: would be better if they if they use him like
17:01
Speaker 1: he did in Pittsburgh and and have him, you know again,
17:04
Speaker 1: like I said, get his nose dirty, fit up against
17:07
Speaker 1: the run, blitz him off the edge. He's such a
17:10
Speaker 1: dynamic player like that that I hope, I hope we
17:12
Speaker 1: see him being used like that again. We're talking to
17:15
Speaker 1: Seth Kalina from Pro Football Focus, So I read PFF regularly.
17:19
Speaker 1: I always try to see whatever is being written about
17:21
Speaker 1: the Bengals by you and your colleagues, but I thought
17:23
Speaker 1: it'd be good to see what you might have written
17:25
Speaker 1: about them in the past that I might have missed.
17:27
Speaker 1: And I stumble upon a reference to you spending three
17:30
Speaker 1: days as a guest coach with the Bengals in twenty eighteen.
17:34
Speaker 1: Did that happen? Yeah, I would. Where I was coaching
17:39
Speaker 1: the defensive coordinator at the time was friends with the
17:43
Speaker 1: Bengals former defensive coordinator Tarall Austin, so we were able
17:47
Speaker 1: to go there and they taught us so much getting
17:49
Speaker 1: getting to go in the practice field. I stole so
17:51
Speaker 1: much gatorade from the locker room I may have. Yeah,
17:57
Speaker 1: So it was such a great experiences getting to you know,
18:02
Speaker 1: I was coaching the linebackers at that time, so I
18:04
Speaker 1: was there with a really really good linebacker room at
18:06
Speaker 1: that point. I learned so much from you know, I'm
18:09
Speaker 1: a Saints fan, so growing up, you know, I lived
18:13
Speaker 1: through the Jim Haslet days and I got to, you know,
18:15
Speaker 1: be in the same room as him when he was
18:17
Speaker 1: a Bengals linebacker coach. That was that was fantastic. Yeah,
18:20
Speaker 1: good guy. I grew up rooting for the Buffalo Bills,
18:23
Speaker 1: so naturally I was a Jim haslet fan from his
18:25
Speaker 1: playing days with Buffalo, what happened in the Bengals locker room. Uh. Well,
18:30
Speaker 1: so your listeners won't know this about me until now,
18:35
Speaker 1: but I'm a very, very stupid individual. And it was
18:39
Speaker 1: very hot that day in uh in Cincinnati, and I
18:43
Speaker 1: decided to wear long sleeves and we were out in
18:46
Speaker 1: the practice field all day, and I think I might
18:48
Speaker 1: have gotten a little heat stroke, and I wasn't feeling
18:50
Speaker 1: very well. And my claim to fame is that I
18:54
Speaker 1: vomited in the Bengals locker room. So and yeah, so
19:00
Speaker 1: I've I've marked my my territory there in Paul Brown Stadium,
19:07
Speaker 1: and I'm clinging to that. I've asked a lot of
19:09
Speaker 1: stupid questions in that locker room, but I'm proud to
19:11
Speaker 1: say I have not vomited a few more questions for
19:14
Speaker 1: Seth Galina from Pro Football Focus, as I mentioned, also
19:17
Speaker 1: the host of PF's college football podcast, Let's talk about
19:21
Speaker 1: college football for just a moment, because PF just released
19:24
Speaker 1: the College Football Preview magazine, more than six hundred pages.
19:27
Speaker 1: It's got all sorts of great stuff in there. Looks
19:29
Speaker 1: like Cincinnati is ranked twelfth in the preseason by PF.
19:35
Speaker 1: Do you consider the Bearcats to be the best team
19:38
Speaker 1: outside of the Power five. I do. I think a
19:41
Speaker 1: lot of it is. I think they're they're in for
19:44
Speaker 1: a very interesting season. You know, when you think about
19:47
Speaker 1: these type of teams, the non the non Alabama has
19:52
Speaker 1: done on Clemson's, the non lsues, etc. These teams tend
19:58
Speaker 1: to find lightning in a bottle one year and then
20:03
Speaker 1: you know, and obviously there's a very stable program there
20:06
Speaker 1: for the Bearcats, but still like to get to where
20:09
Speaker 1: they were last year. It's it's magic, right And I
20:12
Speaker 1: think you know a lot of your listeners will will
20:14
Speaker 1: will have been very excited last year watching them play.
20:18
Speaker 1: So I do wonder if you could find that again
20:21
Speaker 1: or if it's going to be a situation where maybe
20:24
Speaker 1: this year is a little bit of a rebuild and
20:26
Speaker 1: then they're back at it in two years. But with
20:28
Speaker 1: that said, you return to quarterback, you return a lot
20:31
Speaker 1: of talent on the defensive line in the secondary. For me,
20:35
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that I'm looking for is obviously new
20:39
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator. Marcus Freeman is now Notre Dame. They bring
20:42
Speaker 1: in Mike Tressel too. I think two completely different philosophies,
20:48
Speaker 1: and we don't really know exactly what Mike Tressell is
20:50
Speaker 1: going to do, but he comes from Michigan State where
20:53
Speaker 1: we know with with D'Antonio and Pat Nardoozi before like,
20:59
Speaker 1: they all are going to be a quarters, you know,
21:02
Speaker 1: four down defensive lineman, kind of a classic you know
21:05
Speaker 1: defensive style where if you watch Cincinnati last year, very
21:10
Speaker 1: different style of defense that Marcus Freeman was running, and
21:12
Speaker 1: it was one of my favorite defenses to watch because
21:16
Speaker 1: they were just you couldn't you didn't know anything was
21:19
Speaker 1: going to happen from post snap to pre snap. Sorry,
21:22
Speaker 1: from pre snap to post snap. They were flying around
21:25
Speaker 1: three man defensive line. The linebackers were both kind of
21:28
Speaker 1: hybrid players. The safety was a linebacker but he was
21:30
Speaker 1: also a cover guy, but he was also this and
21:32
Speaker 1: then figure out ways to kind of do that and
21:35
Speaker 1: still play man coverage behind. It was really fascinating. So yeah,
21:39
Speaker 1: you know, again there's talent that returns, but the scheme
21:42
Speaker 1: I do wonder if CHESSI will continue in the mold
21:47
Speaker 1: that Marcus Freeman that did, or he'll kind of bring
21:50
Speaker 1: in his own style. Obviously, looky, he's his own man.
21:52
Speaker 1: Will probably bring in his own style, but I'm very
21:55
Speaker 1: interested to see what they do there. Yeah, I'm sure
21:57
Speaker 1: Mike tress will bring in some of his own stuff.
21:58
Speaker 1: On the other hand, I wonder if it was Luke
22:00
Speaker 1: Fickle's defense or Marcus Freeman's defense, It's probably. You know,
22:05
Speaker 1: they were very closely aligned, both personally and as a
22:08
Speaker 1: football coaches, and I'm guessing coach Tressell comes in with
22:12
Speaker 1: the overall thought of, hey, let's not mess up what's
22:15
Speaker 1: working by trying to do too much. That's different. Yeah,
22:19
Speaker 1: I would say that's probably, And I wouldn't look I
22:22
Speaker 1: hadn't look this up, but you get the feeling that
22:25
Speaker 1: there's certain connection there between Mike Tressell and Fickle v
22:30
Speaker 1: o Ohio States somewhere down the line. So I would
22:34
Speaker 1: imagine that they know each other relatively well, and they've
22:37
Speaker 1: been probably picking each other's brains for years, and so
22:41
Speaker 1: I would think that Fickle would want to keep keep
22:45
Speaker 1: this type of defense. The only thing is it is
22:47
Speaker 1: a unique defense. So it's like, if you don't know
22:51
Speaker 1: it like the back of your hand, can you solve
22:53
Speaker 1: the problems that you're going to face on a week
22:55
Speaker 1: two week basis? You know, Yes, the Michigan State defense
23:01
Speaker 1: is a little more like I said, classic traditional to
23:03
Speaker 1: a certain degree. But if you know how to fix
23:06
Speaker 1: the problems with that are inherent to it, then you're
23:11
Speaker 1: better than you might be better off than a defense
23:14
Speaker 1: that you don't know as well. So yeah, I would
23:16
Speaker 1: assume we would see more of the same stuff that
23:19
Speaker 1: we saw from Freeman last year, But the back of
23:22
Speaker 1: my head says that me it might be a little different.
23:25
Speaker 1: As you pointed out, if you're not Alabama or Clemson
23:28
Speaker 1: or somebody like that, it's hard to go undefeat it
23:30
Speaker 1: and back to back years very few teams do. But
23:33
Speaker 1: let's just say that Cincinnati somehow pulls it off, and
23:37
Speaker 1: that would include road wins in back to back weeks
23:40
Speaker 1: early in the season at Indiana and at Notre Dame,
23:44
Speaker 1: which would make a big splash nationally. If they did it,
23:47
Speaker 1: would they have a legitimate shot at making a fourteen playoff.
23:52
Speaker 1: I want to believe it. I want to believe it
23:54
Speaker 1: because I would make spile that would make college football
23:58
Speaker 1: so much better. But and certainly you would knock off
24:01
Speaker 1: Notre Dame, who could be a team that would be
24:04
Speaker 1: in the top six or whatever fighting for that spot,
24:07
Speaker 1: um Indiana. I don't think it's gonna win the Big Ten,
24:11
Speaker 1: but I think they're a sleeper pick to win the
24:12
Speaker 1: Big Ten. They could be very good. So yes, it
24:15
Speaker 1: would help. It would certainly. You know, if you could
24:18
Speaker 1: go through the conference, you know, the AAC undefeated and
24:22
Speaker 1: then like you did last year, but then add two
24:23
Speaker 1: out of conference wins that are that are elite to
24:26
Speaker 1: you know, one elite program, one very good program, it
24:29
Speaker 1: would it would do you some good. You have to
24:33
Speaker 1: see how the I hope. So, but you know, you
24:35
Speaker 1: know you're gonna get two SEC teams that are you know,
24:38
Speaker 1: zero one losses. You know you're gonna get a Clemson
24:40
Speaker 1: team that's pretty good to go undefeated again. And and yeah,
24:46
Speaker 1: the four spot's gonna be really interesting. I hope. So,
24:48
Speaker 1: I really hope. So because we need we need, we
24:50
Speaker 1: need comaturtable needs a team to crash the party one
24:54
Speaker 1: of these years, right well, twelve team playoff is apparently coming,
24:57
Speaker 1: so the Cincinnatis of the world will get their chance
25:00
Speaker 1: in a few years. Final question for Sef Galen and
25:02
Speaker 1: I appreciate all of your time. Last month, you took
25:05
Speaker 1: an early look at the top quarterback prospects for next
25:08
Speaker 1: year's NFL draft. You didn't have Desmond Ritter of Cincinnati
25:11
Speaker 1: in the top five. I get that there's some really
25:13
Speaker 1: good players out there. I was a little surprised though
25:15
Speaker 1: he was not in your five honorable mentions. Why not?
25:20
Speaker 1: I think if we see there's flashes there with Ritter
25:24
Speaker 1: and you know, you have the live arm, you have
25:26
Speaker 1: the running ability, I would like to see it play
25:31
Speaker 1: one to play sixty. Every game, play sixty, Like I'm
25:34
Speaker 1: talking like it's still two thousand and three and that's
25:37
Speaker 1: all play one. Yeah, I would just like to see
25:42
Speaker 1: that happen on a consistent basis. I think there's, like
25:46
Speaker 1: I said, there's a lot of talent there, but you're
25:49
Speaker 1: looking for something. And there was a really good stretch
25:52
Speaker 1: and I don't remember the weeks now and maybe in
25:54
Speaker 1: the middle of the season towards the end of the
25:57
Speaker 1: season that you look said, oh, okay, here's here's a player.
26:00
Speaker 1: You know, here's a real quarterback that we can look
26:02
Speaker 1: at for next year's NFL draft. But I don't think
26:05
Speaker 1: it's it's there consistently. But if he puts it all together,
26:10
Speaker 1: because like I said, the tools are there, that armed
26:12
Speaker 1: up ball just rockets off his arm. So yeah, I'm
26:16
Speaker 1: excited for him, but I just feel like I need
26:18
Speaker 1: to see it more for like a whole season. Fair enough, Seth,
26:22
Speaker 1: this has been great, and let the record show that
26:24
Speaker 1: if the Bengals deep passing game is NFL average and
26:30
Speaker 1: they go back to the playoffs you called it on
26:32
Speaker 1: June third, it would be good because I have a
26:36
Speaker 1: lot of other stuff that I've called this offseason that
26:38
Speaker 1: probably not going to pan out, so this will be
26:40
Speaker 1: a good Thanks so much for your time, best of
26:43
Speaker 1: luck to your Canadians, and again, keep up the good work. Thanks,
26:46
Speaker 1: thank you again. You can follow Seth on Twitter at
26:50
Speaker 1: p f F Underscore Seth. That's going to do it.
26:54
Speaker 1: For this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to
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Speaker 1: that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde,
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Speaker 1: and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.