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Bengals Booth Podcast: Waiting · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi again everybody. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast.
0:08
Speaker 2: B I've been waiting a long time.
0:13
Speaker 1: Addition, as we look ahead to the start of the preseason,
0:16
Speaker 1: by talking to two national reporters who visited Bengals training
0:20
Speaker 1: camp this week, Albert Breer from Sports Illustrated and Ben
0:24
Speaker 1: Solak from ESPN. Then I sit down with two offensive
0:28
Speaker 1: linemen who have developed a big brother little brother relationship,
0:32
Speaker 1: thirty one year old Dalton Reisner and twenty three year
0:35
Speaker 1: old of Marius Mems. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought
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1:10
Speaker 1: Nails the beer. All Right, so this is really cool.
1:15
Speaker 1: My friends at Ryeangeist Brewery in Cincinnati, the number one
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Speaker 1: craft brewery in Ohio and now an official hometown beer
1:23
Speaker 1: partner of the Bengals, are coming out with a beer
1:26
Speaker 1: named Coffin Nails in recognition of what I say at
1:30
Speaker 1: the moment when it's clear that the Bengals are going
1:32
Speaker 1: to win. I expect to be saying that often this year.
1:36
Speaker 1: If you live in the Cincinnati area, you're invited to
1:39
Speaker 1: join us for a launch party at the tap room
1:42
Speaker 1: in Over the Rhine on Friday, August fourteenth, from four
1:45
Speaker 1: to six. Coffin Nails. The beer is an IPA with
1:50
Speaker 1: tropical notes, or if you prefer a jungle ipa. The
1:55
Speaker 1: launch party is the day after the preseason opener against
1:58
Speaker 1: the Lions, so we'll have play I need to discuss.
2:01
Speaker 1: Hope to see you on Friday from four to six
2:05
Speaker 1: at the Ryangeist tap Room. Now let's get to my
2:08
Speaker 1: first guest. Several members of the national media visited training
2:12
Speaker 1: camp this week, and I had the opportunity to discuss
2:15
Speaker 1: the Bengals with a couple of my favorites. Up first,
2:18
Speaker 1: Albert Breer, the senior NFL writer for Sports Illustrated, Albert.
2:24
Speaker 1: What are you eager to see with your own two
2:26
Speaker 1: eyes at Bengals camp.
2:28
Speaker 3: I think the defense, you know, and like I just
2:31
Speaker 3: look at like the defensive front and all the additions
2:34
Speaker 3: they've made there, and it's Dexter Lawrence, of course, it's
2:36
Speaker 3: boy Mafe, it's Casius Howell, you know. So I think
2:41
Speaker 3: in particular that are looking for a big jump in
2:44
Speaker 3: that area. Well, you know, and then it's like younger
2:46
Speaker 3: guys like you know, Dax Hill and DJ Turner and
2:50
Speaker 3: Demetrius Knight and you guys they've had high hopes for
2:54
Speaker 3: so you know, I think the biggest thing is kind
2:56
Speaker 3: of can you correct everything that went wrong side.
3:00
Speaker 4: Of the ball over the last two years.
3:02
Speaker 3: And you know, there are a few teams like this
3:05
Speaker 3: to me, you know, across the league.
3:07
Speaker 4: And I think Dallas is like.
3:09
Speaker 3: This, you know, like where they've got a dynamite offense,
3:12
Speaker 3: and you know, the question is can they be middle
3:15
Speaker 3: of the road to good on defense. Houston's the reverse
3:18
Speaker 3: of it, you know what I mean. Houston's like, if
3:20
Speaker 3: you can be middle of the road to good on offense,
3:22
Speaker 3: the defense is suffocating and unbelievable. And you know, I
3:26
Speaker 3: think the Bengals are sort of in that spot where
3:28
Speaker 3: they don't need to have the best defense in the league,
3:31
Speaker 3: but if they can have a defense's top half of
3:32
Speaker 3: the league, they've got a chance to get back.
3:34
Speaker 4: To the super Bowl.
3:35
Speaker 1: You rode a great behind the scenes look at the
3:37
Speaker 1: Dexter Lawrence trade on that Saturday night when the news broke.
3:41
Speaker 1: What was your reaction.
3:43
Speaker 3: I was at my son's lacrosse practice. I remember that,
3:47
Speaker 3: and I remember I had heard earlier in the day
3:49
Speaker 3: that they were trading him for ten and so you know,
3:55
Speaker 3: my first reaction was, Okay, is there some sort of
3:58
Speaker 3: give back? It seemed like a lot the time right
4:01
Speaker 3: to me. And you don't see players going.
4:03
Speaker 4: For picks that high all that much.
4:05
Speaker 3: And part of the reason why, and I don't think
4:07
Speaker 3: enough people look at this part of it. It's like okay,
4:10
Speaker 3: like well, you know, like Jalen Ramsy got traded for
4:12
Speaker 3: two first, but the first that was the current year,
4:14
Speaker 3: first was in the twenties. And the reason why in
4:17
Speaker 3: most cases, like you don't have top ten picks because
4:21
Speaker 3: teams that are picking that high generally aren't in a
4:24
Speaker 3: position where they're win now. And like, let's go get
4:27
Speaker 3: a guy you know what I mean. So I do think,
4:32
Speaker 3: you know, I do think that that piece of it
4:33
Speaker 3: was like a there was a little sticker shock there,
4:35
Speaker 3: and then when you start to process it, you start
4:38
Speaker 3: to look at it and the level of the player,
4:39
Speaker 3: the dexter lawrence is and how it can feel it
4:41
Speaker 3: feel a need, and then exactly what would have been
4:44
Speaker 3: available to the Bengals at ten, which I don't think
4:47
Speaker 3: you would have been able to find somebody in the
4:50
Speaker 3: draft who'd have that type of presence. My guess is
4:53
Speaker 3: they would have wound up with Caleb Downs or like,
4:59
Speaker 3: I mean, you can pick a number of guys. I mean,
5:01
Speaker 3: maw I Noah had just gone. I'm trying trying to
5:03
Speaker 3: think of Ruben Bain. Yeah, Like so, like, are any
5:06
Speaker 3: of those guys going to be able to make the
5:08
Speaker 3: sort of impact the Texter lawrence is And I think
5:11
Speaker 3: the answers probably know. And I think the other thing
5:14
Speaker 3: that you look at too is, Okay, like, what's the
5:15
Speaker 3: difference between the guy we're going to add to our
5:18
Speaker 3: defensive front from ten to I think there were forty one?
5:22
Speaker 4: Was their second pick? Is that right? For sounds right? Yeah?
5:24
Speaker 3: I think so somewhere in there so like they wind
5:27
Speaker 3: up with cash as Howell probably wasn't that far behind
5:31
Speaker 3: for most teams, what like a Ruben bain Or and
5:33
Speaker 3: a Key Mesador was. So you know, I think the
5:37
Speaker 3: logic of it made all the sense in the world,
5:39
Speaker 3: and especially when you consider they, you know, the Bengals
5:42
Speaker 3: because of you know, their star players are very much
5:45
Speaker 3: in a window right now it could be for a
5:47
Speaker 3: championship despite the fact that they haven't made the playoffs.
5:49
Speaker 4: In three years.
5:50
Speaker 1: The Bengals also extended his deal by a year for
5:53
Speaker 1: twenty eight million bucks, which makes it more or less
5:56
Speaker 1: a three year deal for about twenty three million a year,
6:00
Speaker 1: which is great value, isn't it.
6:01
Speaker 3: Well Hey, I mean, like you know, and that's sort
6:03
Speaker 3: of the benefit to doing the deal when they did it,
6:06
Speaker 3: is you know, if they trade firm now you know,
6:09
Speaker 3: you're talking about you know, Jeffrey Simmons got thirty five,
6:14
Speaker 3: Jalen Carter got thirty eight.
6:17
Speaker 4: So like the price.
6:18
Speaker 3: And I always say this about this, like I think,
6:22
Speaker 3: like there's a reason why, like the Eagles have been
6:24
Speaker 3: able to manage things the way they manage them. And
6:25
Speaker 3: if you look at like the way the Eagles operate
6:28
Speaker 3: as an example, a lot of their deals are getting
6:30
Speaker 3: done in February. Why do you think they do that. Well.
6:33
Speaker 3: They do it because A, you know, their owners want
6:36
Speaker 3: to pay the cash out of pocket, will willing to
6:38
Speaker 3: pay earlier in the offseason. But B it's because they
6:42
Speaker 3: know that if we wait, the price tag is just
6:45
Speaker 3: going to go up. And we've seen it at a
6:47
Speaker 3: bunch of different positions where I think teams have cost
6:49
Speaker 3: themselves money by waiting, and so you know, I think
6:52
Speaker 3: it's certainly an example of like being aggressive and saying okay,
6:55
Speaker 3: like we want him coming in here happy. We also
6:58
Speaker 3: think that if we take care of him now, it's
7:01
Speaker 3: going to wind up looking like a deal, like a
7:04
Speaker 3: really good deal on the back end. And you know,
7:07
Speaker 3: a great example is like a running back now and
7:09
Speaker 3: you look at like what James cooklast got last year
7:11
Speaker 3: in Buffalo, and they went through a fight over that.
7:13
Speaker 4: And it's like half of what Bijon.
7:17
Speaker 3: Robinson got in Atlanta and Jamier Gibbs gott in Detroit.
7:20
Speaker 3: So the timing of those things can always be a factor.
7:23
Speaker 1: We're visiting with Albert Bier from Sports Illustrated. I think
7:26
Speaker 1: of everybody in the national media, you probably have the
7:29
Speaker 1: best relationship with Joe Burrow. I know you spoke to
7:33
Speaker 1: him earlier today. What stood out from that conversation.
7:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just think like the expectation level. I mean,
7:38
Speaker 3: we all know what's hert player he is. You know,
7:41
Speaker 3: I always think Joe's really he's introspective about things, and
7:46
Speaker 3: you know, I think like just the appreciation for getting
7:51
Speaker 3: to go play ball and the appreciation for having a
7:55
Speaker 3: full offseason where he's not dealing with anything knock on wood.
7:59
Speaker 3: Yet I just sense an excitement from him. Like I
8:03
Speaker 3: think he thinks, and he said it here at the
8:05
Speaker 3: podium with you guys right, like he thinks that there's
8:08
Speaker 3: a real shot here with this team. And it just
8:12
Speaker 3: so happens that the super Bowl is back in the
8:14
Speaker 3: stadium where the Bengals last played in the Super Bowl.
8:18
Speaker 3: So I think all of that adds up to like
8:21
Speaker 3: a quarterback who's very locked in and I think appreciative
8:24
Speaker 3: of what's ahead of him, appreciative of the group around him.
8:28
Speaker 3: And I think he likes the talent around him. I
8:30
Speaker 3: think he likes the makeup of the team, and I
8:33
Speaker 3: think there's a reason for him to be very confident.
8:35
Speaker 3: And I you know, as somebody in my business, I
8:40
Speaker 3: always appreciate the honesty, and he's always been that way,
8:46
Speaker 3: you know. And I don't think he's pulling anybody's chain
8:49
Speaker 3: when he makes the comparison to the twenty nineteen LSU team.
8:52
Speaker 3: We know what that team became, and it should tell
8:53
Speaker 3: you what he thinks this Bengals team can become.
8:56
Speaker 1: He had the memorable news conference late last year where
8:59
Speaker 1: he expressed his frustration, and a lot of members of
9:02
Speaker 1: the national media said, Joe clearly once out of Cincinnati,
9:05
Speaker 1: and you had a more nuanced look at it, I
9:08
Speaker 1: thought where you said, he's always wanted to be the
9:10
Speaker 1: change agent and be the guy that leads the Bengals
9:13
Speaker 1: to a Super Bowl many years down the road. If
9:16
Speaker 1: they haven't won, then maybe the picture changes. But I
9:20
Speaker 1: think a lot of Bengals fans appreciated the fact that
9:23
Speaker 1: you understood his mindset a little bit more.
9:26
Speaker 3: I think so. I mean, I think I can't crawl
9:28
Speaker 3: inside his head, but I've always felt that way, you know.
9:32
Speaker 3: I remember conversations I had with him in twenty twenty
9:35
Speaker 3: one where, you know, I would bring up the Bengals history,
9:40
Speaker 3: and like he'd almost always shut me down and be
9:42
Speaker 3: like those Bengals are gone. You know, that Bengals team
9:45
Speaker 3: doesn't exist anymore. That's not what we are anymore. And
9:49
Speaker 3: I think like being able to be the guy who
9:53
Speaker 3: is the one who's going to change the face of
9:55
Speaker 3: an organization was.
9:56
Speaker 4: Really important to him.
9:56
Speaker 3: And I think for two years he did, you know
9:58
Speaker 3: what I mean, Like for two years there it looked
10:02
Speaker 3: to everyone like the Bengals are going to be a
10:05
Speaker 3: force for an extended period of time. He gets hurt
10:08
Speaker 3: in twenty three. In twenty four he has like a
10:12
Speaker 3: lights out MVP type year, the defense was historically bad.
10:16
Speaker 3: And then in twenty five, you know, obviously another injury
10:19
Speaker 3: and another tough defensive year, and so you know, I
10:23
Speaker 3: think that desire to be the guy who flips it
10:28
Speaker 3: is still there now. Again, Like you know, I think
10:31
Speaker 3: these guys, like anybody, any quarterback who's at his level,
10:36
Speaker 3: which is the top of the league, you know, if
10:38
Speaker 3: you if there's you can knock on the door for
10:42
Speaker 3: so many times, you can knock on the door so
10:44
Speaker 3: many times, and you're gonna and there's gonna be a
10:46
Speaker 3: level of frustration. I'm not saying that's not there, but
10:50
Speaker 3: I it feels to me like his focus is on
10:52
Speaker 3: getting a championship here and changing how people look at
10:55
Speaker 3: the Cincinnati Bengals, you know, and and if that changes
11:00
Speaker 3: down the line, changes down the line. But I don't
11:02
Speaker 3: think that that's really where his mind is at now.
11:05
Speaker 3: And again I don't know that. I haven't asked him.
11:07
Speaker 4: Like, hey, do you ever want to leave here?
11:09
Speaker 3: But but I do think he wants to be I
11:12
Speaker 3: think he would love to be the guy who finally
11:14
Speaker 3: breaks through a wins whole thing here.
11:16
Speaker 1: The Bengals have some star players in Jill and Jamar
11:19
Speaker 1: and t and now Dexter Lawrence. Do you see anybody
11:21
Speaker 1: here that you think is the next future Pro Bowl
11:25
Speaker 1: or is somebody who's going to break out?
11:26
Speaker 5: You know?
11:27
Speaker 3: The one guy that was sort of interesting to me
11:29
Speaker 3: was when I was making my All Pro calls last year,
11:31
Speaker 3: DJ Turner. I always tell people, like, voting on awards
11:34
Speaker 3: is not that harding doing All Pro is. I take
11:38
Speaker 3: a lot of pride in it is important to me, guys.
11:40
Speaker 3: Bonuses can be you know, and incentives can be based
11:43
Speaker 3: on that stuff. And so I make a ton of
11:45
Speaker 3: phone calls the last two weeks of the regular season
11:47
Speaker 3: and putting together my All Pro team, and I one
11:51
Speaker 3: of the things that always sticks out to me is
11:53
Speaker 3: like when you have a unit that isn't very good
11:57
Speaker 3: and then somebody from that group, like I remember, it
11:59
Speaker 3: was actually interesting because two years ago, I remember the
12:03
Speaker 3: amount of support that in the mid season when I
12:06
Speaker 3: made some calls for a mid season awards, I was doing,
12:09
Speaker 3: Dexter Lawrence was getting Defensive Player of the Year mentioned
12:12
Speaker 3: the two years ago, the twenty four season, and so
12:15
Speaker 3: it like stuck out to me because it's like, it's
12:16
Speaker 3: not like this guy's got twelve sacks in the middle
12:19
Speaker 3: of the year. It's not like, but like he's got
12:21
Speaker 3: the respect to people around him. And I think DJ
12:23
Speaker 3: Turner was sort of that guy last year.
12:26
Speaker 4: One of the guys where you look at it.
12:28
Speaker 3: It's like when it could be in some cases it
12:30
Speaker 3: could be like a guard or a tackle or as
12:32
Speaker 3: tight end on a on an offensive struggling, and in
12:36
Speaker 3: this case is a corner on a defense who's struggling.
12:38
Speaker 3: Where it's like when they get mentioned, you take notice.
12:42
Speaker 3: And so I think DJ Turner would be the one
12:45
Speaker 3: that I would look at and say, you know, like
12:48
Speaker 3: that's a that's he's becoming a real guy. I know,
12:52
Speaker 3: Demetrius Knight was somebody they were really high on last
12:54
Speaker 3: year during camp. The rookie year didn't go the way
12:56
Speaker 3: they expected, So we'll see if he can turn around.
12:58
Speaker 3: And then I mean, yeah, I've always thought the world
13:01
Speaker 3: of Chase Brown. You know, I think Chase Brown's gonna
13:03
Speaker 3: it's gonna be just interesting to see his evolution. Lots
13:06
Speaker 3: of guys with a lot on the line individually, you know,
13:09
Speaker 3: this year when it comes to contracts and those sorts
13:11
Speaker 3: of things.
13:11
Speaker 1: Final question for Albert Breer and I'll let you go.
13:13
Speaker 1: We're about a month away from the start of the season.
13:15
Speaker 1: How does the AFC North stack up for you at
13:19
Speaker 1: this point?
13:19
Speaker 3: Yes, it's so interesting because like Baltimore and Pittsburgh, you know,
13:23
Speaker 3: have been so stable for so long, and they're both
13:24
Speaker 3: going through coaching changes at the same time, and they
13:29
Speaker 3: went in very different ways. You know, like Jesse Mentor,
13:32
Speaker 3: he's one of the Ravens own he's coming back, brilliant
13:36
Speaker 3: defensive mind, but he's a first time head coach. And
13:38
Speaker 3: then in Pittsburgh, you could say McCarthy's one of their
13:41
Speaker 3: own because he's from there. But like it is somebody
13:45
Speaker 3: from outside their organization who hasn't worked there, and he's
13:49
Speaker 3: obviously got the experience having worked for historic franchises before
13:53
Speaker 3: and having him with the Cowboys and the Packers and
13:55
Speaker 3: so and having led those teams. So, you know, I
14:00
Speaker 3: think the Steelers, I'd be concerned about the age and
14:04
Speaker 3: how many key guys are on the back end of
14:06
Speaker 3: the careers, not just entering.
14:07
Speaker 4: It's TJ.
14:08
Speaker 3: Watt, it's Cam Hayward, it's Jalen Ramsey. You know, they
14:11
Speaker 3: actually doubled down in the offseason by bringing in some
14:14
Speaker 3: older vets like Jamel Dean to play corner Michael Pittman.
14:19
Speaker 3: The Ravens are interesting because I would say one of
14:22
Speaker 3: the reasons why they moved on from John Harbaugh is
14:25
Speaker 3: because their expectation last year they felt like they had
14:29
Speaker 3: one of the best rosters they've ever had, and a
14:32
Speaker 3: failure to make the playoffs for them was, I mean,
14:39
Speaker 3: we need to evaluate everything type of thing, and so
14:43
Speaker 3: a lot of those guys are still in place, you know.
14:45
Speaker 3: So I think you have to assume that Jesse Mencher
14:49
Speaker 3: is gonna make an impact on the defensive side of
14:50
Speaker 3: the ball, and then you bring him Declan Doyle to
14:53
Speaker 3: call the offense, who was a coordinator but not a
14:56
Speaker 3: play calling coordinator in Chicago last year. And you have
15:00
Speaker 3: Derrick Henry back. Can he stay at the same level
15:02
Speaker 3: he has Lamar? Obviously is Lamar? You know you lose
15:07
Speaker 3: Isaiah likely you lose Tyler Linderbaum. So I think you
15:10
Speaker 3: know both Baltimore pittsbook have questions.
15:13
Speaker 4: They're different questions, you know.
15:15
Speaker 3: And so it's going to be interesting to see. And
15:17
Speaker 3: I think Cleveland will be feisty under Todd Monk, but
15:20
Speaker 3: I don't know how much you'd expect from them based
15:23
Speaker 3: on where they are at quarterback right now.
15:25
Speaker 1: Really appreciate your time, look forward to what you write
15:28
Speaker 1: your observations from Bengals camp, and look forward to seeing
15:32
Speaker 1: your work throughout the course of the season.
15:33
Speaker 4: Thank you, Albert great.
15:34
Speaker 1: Thanks Dan up Next Ben Solack, one of ESPN's smartest
15:39
Speaker 1: film study and data analysts. Ben, what were you eager
15:44
Speaker 1: to see when you got to Bengals camp today?
15:47
Speaker 5: There's this guy I don't know, I've a lot of
15:48
Speaker 5: people know. This guy in the roster that's nose tackled
15:50
Speaker 5: extra lines is kind of now you you hear that?
15:54
Speaker 5: Hey like this you know, a little bit stiffer competition
15:56
Speaker 5: and defensively here for Bengals and training camp, and that's
15:58
Speaker 5: been in the last few years.
16:00
Speaker 6: You want to take a look at that.
16:00
Speaker 5: You certainly see that right the last six six today
16:03
Speaker 5: at practice, boy him off he's being only in a
16:05
Speaker 5: brown off the edge. Brian Cook's driving on the rapp Babe.
16:07
Speaker 5: That's what we pay for, you know. And so certainly
16:10
Speaker 5: they're there to kind of hear about how those veterans
16:12
Speaker 5: are integrating into the team and if it's been as
16:15
Speaker 5: much of the defensive improvement has kind of.
16:17
Speaker 6: Been talked about.
16:18
Speaker 5: But I always enjoy seeing what the Bengals are cooking
16:20
Speaker 5: up on offense in training camp because most of these
16:23
Speaker 5: training camps you go to in these tours, they've got
16:26
Speaker 5: a new quarterback, they've got two new receivers, they have
16:28
Speaker 5: a new offensive coordinator.
16:29
Speaker 4: There's so much.
16:30
Speaker 6: Movement in league these days. The Bengals have got the
16:32
Speaker 6: same guys here for forever.
16:34
Speaker 5: Right, Joe is only really ever thrown into warranty right
16:36
Speaker 5: the whole time, he's only over heard plays from Zach Taylor.
16:39
Speaker 6: It's an unpresent, unprecedented.
16:41
Speaker 5: But in the modern NFL, really really really uncommon level
16:44
Speaker 5: of continuity, and so when they're here in training camp,
16:47
Speaker 5: they get to just do things and try things right.
16:50
Speaker 5: There's been a lot to talk about the under center stuff,
16:51
Speaker 5: but they're seeing what they can and they can't do
16:53
Speaker 5: an under center because they feel really good about their
16:54
Speaker 5: drop back gun game. You don't have to spend as
16:56
Speaker 5: much time working on that, you know, because it's always
16:59
Speaker 5: a fun visit bothout the ball.
17:01
Speaker 1: You haven't had a chance to listen back to whatever
17:03
Speaker 1: interviews that you did today, but just based on what's
17:06
Speaker 1: still ringing in your ears, did anybody say anything that
17:10
Speaker 1: really stood out to you?
17:12
Speaker 5: I was asking Zach about the under center and everything
17:15
Speaker 5: of it all. And it's funny because I was like,
17:17
Speaker 5: all right, like I heard like the under center wasn't
17:19
Speaker 5: too great the day before I got here. Maybe I'll
17:21
Speaker 5: need to approach this carefully and like softly, and actually
17:23
Speaker 5: brought up right away it was a guy cooler and
17:25
Speaker 5: talk about it. And so I said, okay, like, you know,
17:27
Speaker 5: you guys are doing a lot of under center. It's
17:28
Speaker 5: been tough. You run into some bad looks here where
17:30
Speaker 5: the defense have the advantage, you know, kind of what's
17:32
Speaker 5: the thought here? And a lot of the times when
17:35
Speaker 5: you're in my role and you're an analyst, you're talking
17:37
Speaker 5: about big schematic trends and who's going to solve offense
17:40
Speaker 5: and cutting edge stuff, And all Zach wanted to talk
17:42
Speaker 5: about was complimentary football, just total football.
17:45
Speaker 4: Right.
17:45
Speaker 5: We want to be able to be leading games earlier
17:48
Speaker 5: more consistently this year because we have a better defense
17:51
Speaker 5: and that we're protecting leads, it means we're playing under
17:53
Speaker 5: center more and so we're thinking about investing in under center.
17:55
Speaker 5: Not because the new schematic edge for the Cincinnati Bengals
17:58
Speaker 5: is the under center playoffs and pass drop explosive games.
18:00
Speaker 5: That's certainly there, that's prevalent. But the real thing that
18:03
Speaker 5: he was kind of harping on was we just if
18:05
Speaker 5: everything goes going to.
18:06
Speaker 6: Plan, we're going to be leading more games in the
18:08
Speaker 6: second half, you know, being a fewer shootouts.
18:10
Speaker 5: So we need to have this dimension to our offense
18:12
Speaker 5: where we can get under center, run the rock and
18:15
Speaker 5: then also have a legitimate menu of passing concepts off
18:17
Speaker 5: of it. That way, we can kind of dictate tempone
18:19
Speaker 5: pace a little bit more. And so that's the sort
18:21
Speaker 5: of thing where a lot of times when you're in
18:23
Speaker 5: my role, you get to focus on the on the
18:27
Speaker 5: cheese of it, on the on the scheme of it,
18:29
Speaker 5: on the theory of it. Coaches trying to win ball games,
18:31
Speaker 5: trying win ball games needs sometimes you need to be
18:33
Speaker 5: able to get nder center and go.
18:34
Speaker 1: We're visiting with the ESPN's Ben Solak. You referenced several
18:37
Speaker 1: of the newcomers on defense, Dexter, Lawrence Poie, Mafe, Brian Cook.
18:41
Speaker 1: You've also got Jonathan Allen get in practice today, Kyle
18:44
Speaker 1: Dugger and others. Are you buying significant defensive improvement for
18:49
Speaker 1: this team or is the jury still out?
18:52
Speaker 5: Yes, but let's be clear that I'm buying significant defensive
18:55
Speaker 5: improvement because last year's defense was so bad. You know,
18:57
Speaker 5: we got to get up from thirty first, you know,
18:59
Speaker 5: so okay, most likely.
19:00
Speaker 6: Yeah. The thing that I would you.
19:03
Speaker 5: Know, kind of caution Bengals fans on is I would
19:05
Speaker 5: say that you can simultaneously have a big improvement in
19:08
Speaker 5: the defense this year and then also still have a
19:10
Speaker 5: defense that is a problem in the postseason because the
19:12
Speaker 5: postseason just offenses getting so specific in the playoffs. Our
19:18
Speaker 5: playoff game plans in the NFL are so cool, so
19:20
Speaker 5: We don't play best to seven. We played best to ones.
19:22
Speaker 5: So you can get the drop on somebody. Bang, they're gone.
19:25
Speaker 5: You win that game, right. I think Niners Eagles this
19:27
Speaker 5: year like Eagles, like six point favorite coming into that game. Man,
19:29
Speaker 5: the Niners just had enough in the offensive bag with
19:32
Speaker 5: Kyle Shanahan peak out a win like That's how playoffs
19:34
Speaker 5: work in the league.
19:35
Speaker 6: And so Dexterra single handedly fixes the running game.
19:38
Speaker 5: Sick boy Mope is a twelve pack player. Awesome, you know,
19:41
Speaker 5: DJ Turner, Bran Cook's all great. If Demetrius tim Barrick
19:44
Speaker 5: Card doesn't take a step, they're gonna run into a
19:47
Speaker 5: offseason offensive game plan that just puts those linebackers under
19:50
Speaker 5: a microscope. And then all the money and all the
19:53
Speaker 5: development is for not because that one position was a
19:55
Speaker 5: weak point. And so the Bengals need to take two strides.
19:58
Speaker 5: They need to improve very clearly to become a more
20:01
Speaker 5: reliable defense and even to can show up against the
20:02
Speaker 5: bad teams, you know, more total wins, have a better record,
20:05
Speaker 5: better playoff seating, But they also need some of the
20:08
Speaker 5: guys who have been you know, circled by opponents to
20:13
Speaker 5: continue to take another step forward. I think your Jordan Battles,
20:16
Speaker 5: your Demetrius Knights, and Brett Carter's some of those guys
20:18
Speaker 5: who and their worst moments last year were guys who
20:20
Speaker 5: opposing offenses were trying to pick on.
20:22
Speaker 6: You need to make sure you don't have those guys
20:23
Speaker 6: when to get in the playoff football.
20:25
Speaker 1: Bengals have several big name national stars like Joe T,
20:28
Speaker 1: Jamar Now, Dexter Lawrence. What about guys who are ascending?
20:33
Speaker 1: Do you see anybody on this roster who might be
20:35
Speaker 1: the next person recognized nationally as one of the better
20:38
Speaker 1: guys at his position in the NFL.
20:40
Speaker 5: If if they I say DJ Turner's name every time
20:44
Speaker 5: I can on every single ESPN outlet, I will single
20:46
Speaker 5: handedly get djit Turner national attention. I swear to God,
20:49
Speaker 5: I will I just I every time I've come out
20:51
Speaker 5: for training camps, every time I've turned on Bengals defensive
20:54
Speaker 5: film for the last couple of years, you just see
20:56
Speaker 5: a guy who moves like the top corners move, who
20:58
Speaker 5: can see the ball, can address the way the top
20:59
Speaker 5: corner can. It has been a consistency issue for him,
21:02
Speaker 5: and it's been a mentality issue for him. He's talked
21:04
Speaker 5: about this and last year, for whatever reason, the light
21:07
Speaker 5: bulb turned on and you're just like, all right, who
21:08
Speaker 5: just keep this light bulb on? But people I don't
21:11
Speaker 5: even know if people in Cincinnati realize like his his
21:14
Speaker 5: hawk rate, which is how often you get pass pick
21:15
Speaker 5: ups to the interceptions, was second highest in the league
21:18
Speaker 5: among corners. It was the first one of the high
21:19
Speaker 5: balluting corners, the guys who.
21:20
Speaker 4: Play a lot of reps.
21:21
Speaker 6: He's doing that while shadowing top receivers.
21:23
Speaker 5: He is traveling to the left and the right side
21:25
Speaker 5: of the formation with Jay Flowers, with Jamis and Williams,
21:28
Speaker 5: with Romeo Dobbs.
21:29
Speaker 6: He even followed them into the slot. There's nobody's doing
21:33
Speaker 6: this there. Extremely does not do this. Patrick Chutan like
21:35
Speaker 6: kind of does it. He doesn't go into the slot
21:37
Speaker 6: that way, a soft partner.
21:39
Speaker 2: They don't do this.
21:40
Speaker 5: Do you have a guy who's leading the league in
21:42
Speaker 5: how many plays he gets on the ball and coverage,
21:44
Speaker 5: who also is following top receivers like we still write,
21:47
Speaker 5: you know, songs about these guys in the NFL, and
21:50
Speaker 5: the NFL has changed when we don't play corners that
21:51
Speaker 5: much that way anymore. But every to me, every iota
21:55
Speaker 5: of success that Al Golden had in terms of his
21:58
Speaker 5: pass coverage becords of the strength that you know years
22:00
Speaker 5: where they improved over the course of the year can
22:02
Speaker 5: be directly tied back to that. He had a guy
22:03
Speaker 5: who building a play man coverage one on one against
22:06
Speaker 5: top receivers and then he can play zone everywhere else
22:08
Speaker 5: and they could get numbers to that side. And so
22:10
Speaker 5: to me, like I, DJ Turner is to me, that
22:13
Speaker 5: can patically a top ten corner in the NFL and
22:15
Speaker 5: hopefully if you know when this pod comes out a
22:17
Speaker 5: day after whenever he gets paid life one and he's
22:19
Speaker 5: a Bengal for a long time making teams to play
22:21
Speaker 5: that way. So DJ Turner is to me like on
22:24
Speaker 5: the short list for one of the most underrated players
22:26
Speaker 5: agnostical positions in football.
22:27
Speaker 1: A couple more questions for Ben Solek from ESPN. The
22:30
Speaker 1: offense has basically been terrific for the past several years,
22:34
Speaker 1: but it didn't have a high explosive play rate last year.
22:38
Speaker 1: Any theories for how the Bengals can fix that.
22:40
Speaker 5: When you drop back a lot, you're not going to
22:42
Speaker 5: have a high explosive play rates because the teams with
22:44
Speaker 5: the high explosive play rates are the ones who are
22:46
Speaker 5: running and run to set up the pass right. So
22:48
Speaker 5: some of that, like some of the rate sat stuff,
22:51
Speaker 5: is unnecessarily negative on the Bengals, you kind of which
22:54
Speaker 5: want to look like raw passes because they just dropped.
22:55
Speaker 6: Back a lot when you're in the gun a lot.
22:57
Speaker 5: You're also just not going to be as explosive as
22:59
Speaker 5: a team as these teams that get under centered be
23:00
Speaker 5: these the teams that are getting under center are doing
23:02
Speaker 5: it to get to the play actual pass, which where
23:04
Speaker 5: are exposive pass to come from. So the Bengals are
23:06
Speaker 5: stylistically going to be more efficiency than explosive oriented period
23:11
Speaker 5: because of how they are schematically.
23:13
Speaker 6: A lot of that explosives come.
23:15
Speaker 5: From Jamar Chase yards are for the catch and then
23:17
Speaker 5: big t Haggen's catches down the field.
23:19
Speaker 6: The Jamar Chase yak. You always want to be living
23:21
Speaker 6: in that world. You want to be creating those opportunities.
23:23
Speaker 5: A lot of the t Haagens fifty fifty balls like
23:25
Speaker 5: those are great when you get them. You don't want
23:27
Speaker 5: to be living on that if you're can avoid it, right,
23:28
Speaker 5: because that sort of stuff can become a little bit tenuous.
23:31
Speaker 5: I think that you're going to see an increase in
23:34
Speaker 5: what I would call like designer plays and one off
23:36
Speaker 5: plays that are meant to rip off explosives. So these
23:38
Speaker 5: are screens, these are misdirection plays. You know, things like reversus,
23:42
Speaker 5: you know, the one read sort of throws where instead
23:44
Speaker 5: of asking Joe to be back there to be a supercomputer,
23:46
Speaker 5: you're going to say, like we are, by design getting
23:48
Speaker 5: the ball to Chase Brown while he's already in motion
23:51
Speaker 5: five yards line line of scrimmage and then asking him
23:53
Speaker 5: to go pick up fifteen.
23:54
Speaker 6: Twenty yards run after the catch, and that'll be an
23:56
Speaker 6: explosive for us.
23:57
Speaker 5: So you can always kind of turn the dial onto
24:00
Speaker 5: designery explosive plays. But I will say that I think
24:03
Speaker 5: that you can miss the forest for the trees if
24:06
Speaker 5: you say the Bengals offense has an explosives problem. I
24:08
Speaker 5: think that by how they're structured, they have come to
24:11
Speaker 5: accept we're not going to be the most explosive offense
24:13
Speaker 5: at football, but we still think we're gonna put a
24:15
Speaker 5: lot of points for drive up on the board.
24:16
Speaker 6: BIL to some of these other guys.
24:18
Speaker 1: You're on a bit of a Midwestern NFL tour. You're
24:20
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis yesterday. You're off to Cleveland after visiting Cincinnati.
24:25
Speaker 1: Do you drive away from the Queen City buying the
24:28
Speaker 1: hype where the Bengals aren't concerned?
24:30
Speaker 6: It's a great question.
24:31
Speaker 5: I believe that this will be a better version of
24:34
Speaker 5: the Bengals than they've seen the last couple of years.
24:36
Speaker 5: I'm probably a little bit lower than where everybody else
24:40
Speaker 5: is on the hype buying, simply because it's a long string.
24:44
Speaker 6: Of ifs on the defense.
24:45
Speaker 5: Right, See, if we get Dexter Lawrence back from the
24:47
Speaker 5: elbow injury that really impacted him, and you took him
24:49
Speaker 5: off the field of twenty four and so I'm down
24:51
Speaker 5: twenty twenty five. If we get boy of Mafe to
24:53
Speaker 5: be the same player who wasn't Seattle on a higher
24:56
Speaker 5: percentage of the snaps, If DJ Turner continues to be
24:59
Speaker 5: the player that he was, and then if and then
25:00
Speaker 5: if and then if, and once you start stringing together,
25:02
Speaker 5: if I got a lot of you know, fault points
25:04
Speaker 5: right where this this this house of card starts to
25:06
Speaker 5: fall fall apart here. So I think that Duke Tobin
25:10
Speaker 5: and Zach Taylor, Dan Pitcher, and Al Golden largely.
25:13
Speaker 6: Made the exact right calls. He took the exact right risks.
25:17
Speaker 5: They traded their first round pick Dan dunnas and Zach
25:19
Speaker 5: had been here right, like, I mean, they they took swings,
25:22
Speaker 5: and you got to admire a team that has an
25:24
Speaker 5: elite quarterback, that has elite level wide receivers and says, okay,
25:27
Speaker 5: let's take our swings. The development of the offensive line,
25:29
Speaker 5: like this is a real moment for them here, and
25:31
Speaker 5: so I think that they take the correct approach. But
25:34
Speaker 5: in the NFL, man, like I said, we played basket
25:36
Speaker 5: at once. The postseason is brutal, so you can take
25:39
Speaker 5: the correct approach and then you just a couple of
25:41
Speaker 5: balls don't bounce your way, and you're out in the
25:42
Speaker 5: wildcard round.
25:43
Speaker 6: Everybody says it was a failure.
25:44
Speaker 5: They're like, nah, man, it's just a really tight and
25:46
Speaker 5: tough league that we play.
25:47
Speaker 6: And and so I am buying the hype.
25:49
Speaker 5: But I tend to be more cautious around the top
25:52
Speaker 5: contenders across the NFL across the country than other people
25:55
Speaker 5: are because I just know how brutal this league is.
25:57
Speaker 2: I get smarter when we talk football. I appreciate your time.
26:00
Speaker 1: Best of luck on the rest of your training camp tour.
26:02
Speaker 1: Bang you Dan still to come my conversation with a
26:06
Speaker 1: pair of offensive linemen who have developed a tight bond
26:09
Speaker 1: in their first year as teammates. But first, here's a
26:12
Speaker 1: quick reminder that the Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to
26:14
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26:25
Speaker 1: and by Kettering Health, the best care for the best fans.
26:29
Speaker 1: Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.
26:34
Speaker 1: Dalton Reisner was one of my guests on the last
26:37
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth podcast, and you're about to hear from him again,
26:40
Speaker 1: but this time side by side with a much younger teammate.
26:44
Speaker 1: Amrius Mims asked you guys to join me because, as
26:49
Speaker 1: I've told you, I'm picking up a bit of a
26:52
Speaker 1: big brother little brother vibe between the two of you,
26:55
Speaker 1: the thirty one year old from Colorado and the twenty
26:57
Speaker 1: three year old from Georgia. Tell me this, Starting with you, Dolan,
27:02
Speaker 1: what do you like and respect about a Mariu's mams?
27:05
Speaker 4: I mean, where do I start for me, you know,
27:08
Speaker 4: ever since I showed up here, I feel like I
27:10
Speaker 4: had a respect and a love that came from Marius,
27:14
Speaker 4: And that means a lot whenever you're kind of at
27:17
Speaker 4: dis point in your career and you're chasing success and
27:20
Speaker 4: trying to find a team that you can be valued
27:21
Speaker 4: on and fit in on. So to have a guy
27:23
Speaker 4: that's a team's guy, a first round pick, a guy
27:26
Speaker 4: that has a really bright future, a guy that you
27:28
Speaker 4: know is going to be All Pro, Pro Bowl and
27:30
Speaker 4: that's our goals for this year. To have that type
27:33
Speaker 4: of love and respect from him and him want me
27:35
Speaker 4: to play next to him, that meant a lot to me.
27:37
Speaker 4: So at the fact the very get to see a
27:40
Speaker 4: tackle that had that love and respect for me, Man,
27:42
Speaker 4: I was willing to do and go to links for
27:45
Speaker 4: this guy for his career to be better. I tell
27:47
Speaker 4: him all the time, I said, man, if I have
27:48
Speaker 4: to make myself look bad on a play, or I
27:51
Speaker 4: have to do something on a play so that you
27:52
Speaker 4: can look great, and it's not that he asked me
27:54
Speaker 4: to do that, but I'll do that for him. We
27:57
Speaker 4: hadn't gotten into the type of football player he is,
27:59
Speaker 4: but the type of raw talent, the type of ceiling
28:03
Speaker 4: you can't even see his ceiling, I don't think, and
28:05
Speaker 4: he just has so much potential. But for me, Man,
28:08
Speaker 4: I've never been just about the football. For me, it's
28:10
Speaker 4: the type of duty. Is like, this is a great
28:12
Speaker 4: young man who's twenty three years old that carries himself
28:16
Speaker 4: like he's thirty, that is able to be coached. Not
28:19
Speaker 4: it's not like I'm coaching him that much, but he's
28:21
Speaker 4: able to see where he can get better. You see
28:23
Speaker 4: him growing, you see him want to be great. A
28:25
Speaker 4: lot of times you get guys that are you know,
28:27
Speaker 4: I guess you can't say a lot of times, but
28:29
Speaker 4: very rarely you get a guy that's six foot eight,
28:31
Speaker 4: this type of stature in size, with this amount of
28:33
Speaker 4: athletic ability. But at the same time, he wants to
28:35
Speaker 4: be great, he wants to be coached, he wants to
28:38
Speaker 4: see how he can be better. On top of all
28:40
Speaker 4: of it, he's a good human being. I just think
28:41
Speaker 4: it's rare. I think his parents did a great job.
28:44
Speaker 4: He's always smiling, he brings energy, love playing next to
28:47
Speaker 4: this guy.
28:48
Speaker 1: Man, same question for you, O Marius, what do you
28:50
Speaker 1: like and respect about dolphon Man?
28:52
Speaker 7: So I'm a big football guy. So I remember whenever
28:57
Speaker 7: the buzz started coming in about dult and possibly come
28:59
Speaker 7: on a visit. So I remember hitting my agent up.
29:02
Speaker 7: You can ask him word for word, I said, I
29:04
Speaker 7: need all information on this guy, like me, like being
29:07
Speaker 7: a big football guy. The Bikings old line. They had
29:10
Speaker 7: a pretty good old line. I remember from Dereshaw over
29:12
Speaker 7: the ol'neill and I just remember seeing like some fem
29:14
Speaker 7: one dog. I was like, oh, he plays hard. And
29:16
Speaker 7: I was like whenever he came, when his visit, hopefully
29:19
Speaker 7: I got to see him.
29:19
Speaker 4: I don't think.
29:20
Speaker 7: I don't think we ran to each other, maybe, but
29:23
Speaker 7: I just remember we signed him, and I was very
29:25
Speaker 7: happy about it. I was like, this guy plays hard,
29:26
Speaker 7: he does it the right way, like I said, and
29:29
Speaker 7: that's what you want in the old line man, you
29:31
Speaker 7: want as your guard I mean, And I was very
29:34
Speaker 7: I was very I was very happy with that. I
29:35
Speaker 7: was very pleased with the decision whenever he finally decided
29:38
Speaker 7: to sign. Like I said, I started off with Cody
29:41
Speaker 7: and Lucas and just going with those guys, but ultimately
29:44
Speaker 7: it was me and daughter at the end of that.
29:47
Speaker 7: And like I said, we've we've grown closer on and
29:50
Speaker 7: off the field. Man, I'm just thankful for the brotherhood
29:52
Speaker 7: that we have. We talked every day, whether that's about football,
29:57
Speaker 7: just about you know, just like some off the field
29:59
Speaker 7: and and you know, we've gotten close since since we
30:02
Speaker 7: got in the field with each other. We continue to
30:04
Speaker 7: get close because I just feel like, to be a
30:07
Speaker 7: good old line, you gotta be you gotta be tighte Man,
30:09
Speaker 7: you gotta know this guy's why. He gotta know my why.
30:12
Speaker 7: I gotta know why he takes. He want to know
30:13
Speaker 7: why I take, because like you want to, like, you
30:15
Speaker 7: gotta understand, like you're also plans for yourself, but you're
30:19
Speaker 7: also playing for I'm playing for him, I'm playing for
30:21
Speaker 7: his family. Yeah, Like I gotta feed my family. He
30:24
Speaker 7: has a feed his family. Ted has a feed his family,
30:26
Speaker 7: all the way down up from Dylan Obe. So like
30:28
Speaker 7: I said, when I feel like, when you take the
30:30
Speaker 7: selfishness out of it, I feel like he's one of
30:33
Speaker 7: the most selfish guys I've ever played with. Man, he
30:35
Speaker 7: just is always what can I do? How can I
30:37
Speaker 7: help you? And instead of like what can you do
30:39
Speaker 7: for me? So that's what really, like you know, made
30:42
Speaker 7: me grow close with donal So, so.
30:44
Speaker 1: When I hear that from each of you guys, I
30:46
Speaker 1: do pick up a big brother little brother vibe, not
30:50
Speaker 1: in the sense that the big brother is teaching all
30:52
Speaker 1: the lessons, but in terms of how close you guys
30:55
Speaker 1: have become despite the age difference.
30:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure. I think it's sometimes crazy. I mean
30:59
Speaker 4: I have I have four brothers. I have two older,
31:02
Speaker 4: two younger, and my youngest brother, Sheldon, is about to
31:04
Speaker 4: be like twenty five. And the way I view my
31:07
Speaker 4: little brother Sheldon is like that, that's a little baby boy,
31:10
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And then like mems, I'm
31:11
Speaker 4: treating him like he's my buddy at thirty years old.
31:14
Speaker 4: And I think the other day and in stretch, I said,
31:16
Speaker 4: you're twenty three. Oh my gosh. I don't know if
31:19
Speaker 4: you're thinking he's a big brother because of his size, but man,
31:23
Speaker 4: he is like a little brother of me. Man, But
31:25
Speaker 4: he's also more more than a little brother. I'd say,
31:27
Speaker 4: is a friend and I want to see him succeed.
31:30
Speaker 4: And that's when you know that, in my opinion, Dan,
31:32
Speaker 4: that you're gonna have success. What I've found is it's
31:35
Speaker 4: not always the closest team. But man, when you have
31:38
Speaker 4: close knit teams like this, And I don't want to
31:40
Speaker 4: let Mimes down. And I feel that I go out
31:42
Speaker 4: to practice every day and I might be fighting for
31:45
Speaker 4: my job, I might be fighting to be in the
31:47
Speaker 4: league another year, start another year, all these things, but like,
31:51
Speaker 4: I don't want to let Mims down, and I don't
31:52
Speaker 4: want to let Ted down, Like I think about that.
31:54
Speaker 4: I don't want to let Joe down. I don't want
31:56
Speaker 4: to let Scott Peters down. So like when you're thinking
31:59
Speaker 4: those things, man, I think that's when you have a
32:01
Speaker 4: great team. So it's pretty exciting.
32:03
Speaker 1: You joined the team about a week before the season
32:06
Speaker 1: began last year.
32:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, do you remember.
32:08
Speaker 1: Walking into the room and seeing him physically for the
32:11
Speaker 1: first time?
32:12
Speaker 4: Like him, I knew of Mems from the day he
32:14
Speaker 4: was drafted. I mean, I'm a football guy like Mems.
32:16
Speaker 4: I'm not as much of a football guy. And I
32:18
Speaker 4: hate to even admit that, but I mean during the season,
32:21
Speaker 4: we literally are online coach and us we all ask
32:23
Speaker 4: Mems for the scouting report, the injury report. Like this
32:26
Speaker 4: guy has all the information. So like if there's breaking news,
32:30
Speaker 4: he knows first. If there's like he knows all of
32:32
Speaker 4: this man, a guy's coming off ir guys switching eight like.
32:36
Speaker 4: He just he's a football guy. He cares about it.
32:38
Speaker 4: So even though I hadn't met him, I'd known about
32:41
Speaker 4: mems Man. I'm close with Justin Rascotti, and Rascotti got
32:44
Speaker 4: here a couple of years before I did, so I'd
32:46
Speaker 4: already been talking about Mems when making the decision to
32:49
Speaker 4: come here. Like, I think people forget like there was
32:51
Speaker 4: a lot of options for me, and I'm not acting
32:53
Speaker 4: like I'm this highly touted. It's not like I got
32:55
Speaker 4: paid a ton, but in terms of what I was
32:57
Speaker 4: willing to accept, there was numerous teams went on visits
33:00
Speaker 4: to And if he doesn't think a big reason I
33:02
Speaker 4: came here is because of him, he's crazy. If you
33:04
Speaker 4: watch that guy in film, he said, that's a guy
33:06
Speaker 4: that I can play well, play well with, and want
33:08
Speaker 4: to play well with.
33:09
Speaker 1: So Marius he was in two padded practices before the
33:12
Speaker 1: season opener last year. He winds up playing almost the
33:15
Speaker 1: entire game against Cleveland and plays great. Ted Carriss had
33:18
Speaker 1: the famous statement, this is the most stunning display of
33:21
Speaker 1: football professionalism I've ever seen. What did you think of
33:26
Speaker 1: what he did? The first time you guys played together.
33:28
Speaker 7: I just man, Like I said, it just shows how
33:31
Speaker 7: much of vet this guy is. Man. I just know
33:33
Speaker 7: when I was first thrown in the fire, whenever Trent
33:35
Speaker 7: went down, my rookiear, my head was spinning, like I
33:38
Speaker 7: just remember, oh my god, I'm standing on the side
33:40
Speaker 7: line when he got hurt, like Cody's about to go in.
33:42
Speaker 7: Coach like, no, You're about to go in, like what
33:44
Speaker 7: drafted you before getting But like I said, it just
33:46
Speaker 7: shows like how much of a pro he is, man,
33:48
Speaker 7: because most guys will get in the like like I said,
33:51
Speaker 7: Cleveland Brown, Like Cleveland Brown's have a good defense man.
33:53
Speaker 7: So for him to get in and play how he
33:55
Speaker 7: played and just take the communication. Just only being here
33:58
Speaker 7: a week, man just shows how much of you know,
34:00
Speaker 7: good player he is, man Ia say, A lot of
34:01
Speaker 7: guys can't do that. So it's a testament to him
34:04
Speaker 7: and how he's wired and how he just you know,
34:05
Speaker 7: loves the game of football and cares about his teammates
34:08
Speaker 7: coming in a week and you know, getting thrown in
34:10
Speaker 7: a fire against you know, in state rival and then
34:13
Speaker 7: ALC North opponent. So it just goes to show how
34:16
Speaker 7: much of a football players man is, so.
34:18
Speaker 2: It wasn't smooth start to finish. Excuse me.
34:21
Speaker 1: Last year you lost your job in week two, am as.
34:25
Speaker 1: I know you felt you played badly in Week four
34:27
Speaker 1: against Denver.
34:28
Speaker 4: How did you guys.
34:29
Speaker 2: Help each other through the ups and downs of last season?
34:34
Speaker 4: I think Mems is such a pro that, to be
34:36
Speaker 4: honest with you, I think I'd be giving myself too
34:38
Speaker 4: much credit if I had to go to him and
34:40
Speaker 4: help him get through the ups and downs. But I
34:42
Speaker 4: will tell you that, you know, for me, it's always
34:45
Speaker 4: seeing Mems for the positive things that he does. So
34:47
Speaker 4: if I ever see him being down on himself, I
34:49
Speaker 4: try to remind him of what he's really great at
34:51
Speaker 4: next play mentality. I think he does the same thing
34:54
Speaker 4: for me. I can speak to when we played next
34:56
Speaker 4: to each other and what worked for us was, hey man,
34:59
Speaker 4: let's go out there and take it one play at
35:00
Speaker 4: a time throughout this game. If we see things that
35:02
Speaker 4: we think we can make big game adjustments, that's fine.
35:04
Speaker 4: But one thing I always valued about Mems is like,
35:07
Speaker 4: during the game it gets hectic, and you know, say
35:10
Speaker 4: we have a te and both of us are like,
35:12
Speaker 4: hey man, we have no clue how we just got
35:14
Speaker 4: beat on that right. Maybe I didn't get over and punch,
35:16
Speaker 4: and I didn't push my guy to him. Maybe Mems
35:19
Speaker 4: turned his shoulder. Who knows what it is. But every
35:21
Speaker 4: time we came back to film on Monday. For being
35:23
Speaker 4: twenty three years old and in year two last year,
35:25
Speaker 4: the way he was able to come back and digest
35:27
Speaker 4: the film and see his wrongs and me see my wrongs.
35:31
Speaker 4: You expect that a guy in year eight, but not
35:33
Speaker 4: for a guy in year two, with his raw authletic ability.
35:35
Speaker 4: I gained so much respect for him. So I think
35:38
Speaker 4: he helped me through the ups and downs. By what
35:40
Speaker 4: I mentioned at the beginning, he always supported me, always
35:42
Speaker 4: was a fan of me, always liked the idea of
35:44
Speaker 4: playing next to me, and that meant a lot to me.
35:47
Speaker 4: But when it came to him, I think for me
35:49
Speaker 4: just speaking positive life into him.
35:50
Speaker 2: How did he help you?
35:52
Speaker 3: Man?
35:52
Speaker 7: Like I said, Man, I remember, just like you said,
35:56
Speaker 7: Week four was not a great game for me. And
35:58
Speaker 7: and like I said.
35:59
Speaker 4: I take to mention four and week two day come on.
36:06
Speaker 7: Again, yeah, man, we two and week four just it
36:09
Speaker 7: was just not good games for me. And like I said, man,
36:13
Speaker 7: like what you need in that time, right, there is.
36:14
Speaker 4: Just just for me.
36:16
Speaker 7: I just needed to just accept the fact that, you know,
36:18
Speaker 7: this is not my best performance. I never want to
36:20
Speaker 7: put that on film again. Like I said, nobody plays
36:22
Speaker 7: a perfect game. Ever, They're like the greatest guys in
36:25
Speaker 7: the league and have had horrible games. It just is
36:27
Speaker 7: what it is. And I'm very fortunate to have those
36:30
Speaker 7: games early rather than late and grow from those and
36:32
Speaker 7: it's just good. Like I said, you have Bets in
36:34
Speaker 7: the room who he's been playing a long time. I'm
36:36
Speaker 7: sure he's had a bad game before when we played together,
36:39
Speaker 7: but it's just how you overcome those bad games. And
36:41
Speaker 7: then too, at a young age, I had to realize
36:44
Speaker 7: from guys like him and Orlando, just do not like
36:48
Speaker 7: one bad play or a couple of bad players affect
36:51
Speaker 7: the whole game. Because there's times where I would get
36:54
Speaker 7: down on myself, but you can't. You can like, you
36:57
Speaker 7: can't let it because it's like it can it.
36:58
Speaker 4: Can ruin the whole game. And yeah, rather I'd rather
37:00
Speaker 4: have two.
37:01
Speaker 7: Bad players in the game to have a whole whole
37:03
Speaker 7: game where I'm just all over the place and I'm
37:04
Speaker 7: a guest. And really, like I said, the main reason
37:07
Speaker 7: he helped me is just realizing, like, man, wearing this together,
37:09
Speaker 7: you know, odlone's hard. Like it's literally five is one.
37:13
Speaker 7: You can't play. It's not one guy messes up what
37:15
Speaker 7: we all look bad. So just realizing that these guys
37:18
Speaker 7: have my back, and just realizing that it's not gonna
37:20
Speaker 7: be perfect all the time. It's just how can we
37:22
Speaker 7: move forward, how can we make it better, and how
37:24
Speaker 7: can we fight and win this game? That's all that matters.
37:26
Speaker 7: Like I said, we're we're fighting off. We find our
37:29
Speaker 7: butts off and we know it. It's just the fact
37:32
Speaker 7: that just like just we gotta understand that we may
37:35
Speaker 7: not get the national the like the national credit that
37:39
Speaker 7: we deserve on like sometimes, but as long as we
37:42
Speaker 7: know as a five we're playing good together with each other,
37:44
Speaker 7: we have each other's back, that's all that matters.
37:46
Speaker 1: Honestly, all right, I had the gall to mention a
37:49
Speaker 1: couple of bad games. Let's talk about the last seven
37:52
Speaker 1: games last year when you became the full time starter
37:55
Speaker 1: at right guard pf haf grade the Bengals number five
37:58
Speaker 1: in the NFL in passport bocking success over the last
38:02
Speaker 1: seven weeks.
38:03
Speaker 2: What clicked?
38:04
Speaker 1: Why was there such a dramatic improvement for the entire
38:08
Speaker 1: offensive line over those last seven games.
38:10
Speaker 4: I think we kept grinding. We always had it in us.
38:12
Speaker 4: We were doing those things early on. Mems makes great
38:15
Speaker 4: points in terms of sometimes the national media, sometimes even
38:18
Speaker 4: local media can get fixated on something and not be
38:21
Speaker 4: aware of where you're growing and where you're working to
38:24
Speaker 4: And we kept our heads on straight the whole year,
38:26
Speaker 4: and we kept working. We never quit. We continue to
38:28
Speaker 4: believe in ourselves. We continued to jail. We continue to
38:31
Speaker 4: fight for each other, and sometimes it takes time, and
38:34
Speaker 4: we started to jail. Towards the end of the year.
38:36
Speaker 4: We started to get it figured out. We started to
38:38
Speaker 4: figure out Scott Peters, I started to figure out Memes
38:41
Speaker 4: and Ted and they figure out me, and we started
38:43
Speaker 4: to build this continuity. And with time, man, this practice
38:46
Speaker 4: makes perfect, and in the game of football, nothing's perfect.
38:48
Speaker 4: But I think just with time, we just aged well
38:52
Speaker 4: and we'll just continue to get better throughout the year.
38:55
Speaker 4: We saw it start to pay dividends. And if we
38:58
Speaker 4: hang our hat on that, we'll come out and we'll
39:00
Speaker 4: have an awful game one and it won't be what
39:02
Speaker 4: we want. But we're not hanging our hat on that
39:04
Speaker 4: we're going back to work in camp now we're leaning
39:06
Speaker 4: on each other again. And I mentioned it earlier, but
39:09
Speaker 4: you you know you're gonna be great when you really
39:11
Speaker 4: enjoy the guys around you. I mean, we laugh all
39:13
Speaker 4: the time. You see us at practice, you see us
39:15
Speaker 4: in the locker room, like we enjoy each other. And
39:17
Speaker 4: I think that's dangerous for opposing teams.
39:20
Speaker 2: Your thoughts on the last step.
39:22
Speaker 7: Man, Like I said, Man, it's just I feel like
39:24
Speaker 7: we just really had to get in the classroom, like
39:26
Speaker 7: I said, where I really had to just like sometimes
39:28
Speaker 7: it's good as an old line to just get the
39:31
Speaker 7: uncomfortable out, just as a as a man, I feel
39:34
Speaker 7: like it's hard to just be like, Okay I was wrong,
39:37
Speaker 7: or hey, like I did this. But once you do that,
39:41
Speaker 7: and once you're like vulnerable enough to like understand like
39:43
Speaker 7: where you need to grow in areas that you know
39:46
Speaker 7: that you don't wanna say, that's when I feel like,
39:49
Speaker 7: once you like realize like what you're doing wrong and
39:52
Speaker 7: what needs to be fixed, that's when you become a
39:54
Speaker 7: good pro, a good football player and all that good stuff.
39:56
Speaker 7: And like I said, man, we have some uncomfortable talks
39:59
Speaker 7: in the old line room, teammate, the teammate, coach, the teammate,
40:02
Speaker 7: Like coach Peters told us what we need to he
40:05
Speaker 7: listed a whole a whole thing, like a whole like
40:08
Speaker 7: literally every person on our old line what we need
40:10
Speaker 7: to get better at. And I had about three or
40:12
Speaker 7: four things, and then, like I said, I took it
40:13
Speaker 7: personal and we just had to go to work. And
40:16
Speaker 7: I just feel like we did a good job of that.
40:18
Speaker 7: And that's how we you know, we we practiced on it.
40:21
Speaker 7: And I just feel like those last seven eight games
40:22
Speaker 7: is when we really started to jail because like we
40:24
Speaker 7: had those uncomfortable personal conversations and we were able to
40:27
Speaker 7: fight through it and like understand each other to a
40:30
Speaker 7: deeper level and just like like I said, play harder
40:32
Speaker 7: for each other, because, like I said, we weren't winning
40:34
Speaker 7: as much, but it was obvious. It was obvious we
40:38
Speaker 7: were getting better. And like I said, we don't want
40:40
Speaker 7: to hang our hats on how we finished the season,
40:42
Speaker 7: but we do want to like ascend from there.
40:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when the season ended, you were a free agent.
40:50
Speaker 1: The day after the season, you talked about it with reporters.
40:53
Speaker 1: We have footage of a Marius in the background campaigning.
40:57
Speaker 2: For you to come back.
40:59
Speaker 1: And the thing that you said to me that day,
41:00
Speaker 1: Marius was I am campaigning for the best right guard
41:04
Speaker 1: in the NFL to return.
41:06
Speaker 2: How much did you appreciate him going to.
41:08
Speaker 4: Bad for you? I appreciated him lying. I believe in
41:12
Speaker 4: myself a lot. I'm a good right guard. But I
41:14
Speaker 4: thought that was great. But man, I will say, like,
41:18
Speaker 4: even my wife she said something that actually stuck with
41:20
Speaker 4: me about what mem said. She was talking to someone
41:22
Speaker 4: after the season and she was talking about Mems and
41:24
Speaker 4: what he said, and she said, you know, the cool
41:26
Speaker 4: part about what mem said is no one made him
41:29
Speaker 4: say that. Like She's like, Dalton, were you like going
41:31
Speaker 4: up to Mems? Like, I'm like, I never went up
41:33
Speaker 4: to Memes once and said like, hey, man, help get
41:35
Speaker 4: me back. Like for him to care enough to say
41:38
Speaker 4: something that kind and to want me back is like,
41:41
Speaker 4: that's a really special thing. Man. I've been a lot
41:43
Speaker 4: of places, and I've got a lot of guys have
41:45
Speaker 4: great relationships with But I will say one thing, you know,
41:48
Speaker 4: I've never had teammates like Ted and Mems. I think
41:51
Speaker 4: those were the two main ones that like really campaigned
41:54
Speaker 4: for me to come back, man. And I never asked
41:57
Speaker 4: them to do that, No one told them they needed
41:59
Speaker 4: to do that. And that's something I'll carry with me
42:01
Speaker 4: my whole career, my whole life. That meant so much
42:04
Speaker 4: to me, and that's why I wanted to come back. Like,
42:06
Speaker 4: that's why when it came to free agency, I free
42:09
Speaker 4: agency was in a week and I could have probably
42:13
Speaker 4: made more in free agency. I'm just I'll just say that,
42:15
Speaker 4: like I, we had went to the combine, there was discussions.
42:18
Speaker 4: We all know how free agency works. I probably could
42:20
Speaker 4: have gotten a bigger contract somewhere else. This is where
42:23
Speaker 4: I wanted to be, don't. You don't have Mems at
42:25
Speaker 4: another place, you don't have Ted Carrits at another place, you
42:28
Speaker 4: don't have ob at another place. So at length, it
42:32
Speaker 4: meant a lot, that's for sure.
42:34
Speaker 2: You got your wish.
42:35
Speaker 7: Yeah, I gotta say it, man. I just saw what
42:39
Speaker 7: we did and a short amount of time, and how
42:41
Speaker 7: we went from literally not knowing each other, just knowing
42:44
Speaker 7: of each other, going through the worst parts of our
42:47
Speaker 7: like I said, the worst parts of the season together
42:49
Speaker 7: and then going to the best parts of the season together. Yeah,
42:52
Speaker 7: and those short amount of time. So that's imagine what.
42:54
Speaker 4: We can do.
42:55
Speaker 7: Literally, having over almost a year up under our belt,
42:58
Speaker 7: knowing each other now, and then I want into the
43:00
Speaker 7: season how much better we can be. Like I said,
43:02
Speaker 7: we're playing beside each other. I'm very familiar with him,
43:05
Speaker 7: he's very familiar with me. I know what makes him go,
43:07
Speaker 7: he know what makes me go. Yep, And it's just
43:09
Speaker 7: like I said, the sky's a lemar for us.
43:11
Speaker 2: Honestly, let's wrap it up with this.
43:13
Speaker 1: There's a lot of enthusiasm in Cincinnati for this team,
43:16
Speaker 1: I think rightfully so. But before your first practice, Zach
43:20
Speaker 1: Taylor stands up in front of the team and writes
43:22
Speaker 1: six and eleven on the board that was your record
43:26
Speaker 1: last year. I know that you've taken that message to
43:29
Speaker 1: heart in the sense that, hey, optimism is great.
43:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we've got to be humble and do the
43:35
Speaker 2: work to prove that we're better than that.
43:37
Speaker 4: Yeah. For me, I just appreciated it because that's the
43:40
Speaker 4: truth about what we did last season. And I'm more
43:43
Speaker 4: of a realist. I think the enthusiasm and optimism in
43:47
Speaker 4: town is awesome, and you want fans excited and you
43:49
Speaker 4: want to be excited as a team, and all the
43:51
Speaker 4: additions that the front office made is great, But like
43:54
Speaker 4: I'm more of like, hey, we have to put in
43:56
Speaker 4: the work. If we just sit here and relish with
43:58
Speaker 4: the fans, relish with everyone else, and act like we're great,
44:01
Speaker 4: I don't think that we're going to have the team
44:03
Speaker 4: that we want. But if we can just say, hey,
44:05
Speaker 4: we were six and eleven last year, we have work
44:07
Speaker 4: to do. Who cares what we look like on paper?
44:09
Speaker 4: We got a freaking grind because that's why we became
44:11
Speaker 4: a good offensive line last year. Literally, the whole reason
44:14
Speaker 4: is we blocked out the outside noise. We focused on
44:16
Speaker 4: us and we kept growing. So I think we need
44:18
Speaker 4: to do the exact same thing now and I think
44:20
Speaker 4: that that can lead to success this season.
44:22
Speaker 1: Big Brother Dalton Riisner, little brother the only time not
44:27
Speaker 1: so Little Brother, Amarus Vims, thank you so much for
44:29
Speaker 1: your time.
44:30
Speaker 2: Have a great healthy season.
44:31
Speaker 6: Thanks.
44:31
Speaker 4: Did I appreciate you?
44:34
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this episode of the
44:35
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