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190521-Bengals-Booth-Podcast-Just-Like-Starting-Over.mp3 · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi going everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth podcast, the Just Like Starting Over edition,
0:12
Speaker 1: as my broadcast partner Dave Lapham joins me to discuss
0:16
Speaker 1: the start of OTAs under new head coach Zach Taylor
0:19
Speaker 1: and a big change on the Bengals offensive line. OTA,
0:23
Speaker 1: by the way, stands for Organized Team Activities, which is
0:27
Speaker 1: a fancy NFL term for practice with no live contact
0:31
Speaker 1: and some other limitations. The Bengals are allowed to have
0:34
Speaker 1: ten OTAs, which they will conduct over the next three
0:38
Speaker 1: weeks with no weekend workouts permitted. Coming up on the pod,
0:42
Speaker 1: I'll get laps observations about the first OTA workout, including
0:47
Speaker 1: that big change up front, a few players that stood out,
0:51
Speaker 1: and assistant coaches that caught his eye. Well. Also here
0:55
Speaker 1: from Corty Glenn, who did something he hadn't done in
0:58
Speaker 1: an estimated ten years. Is on Monday, and in this
1:01
Speaker 1: week's fun Fag's Interview, I will talk to Bengals President
1:05
Speaker 1: Mike Brown about the position group that has probably cranked
1:09
Speaker 1: out more great players than any other in team history.
1:13
Speaker 1: All of that is straight ahead, but first, here's a
1:16
Speaker 1: quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of
1:18
Speaker 1: this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer
1:22
Speaker 1: by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean.
1:27
Speaker 1: It's the greatest invention since foling. In the interest of
1:34
Speaker 1: full disclosure, I haven't tried it yet, but foling is
1:37
Speaker 1: a combination of football and bowling, where you throw a
1:41
Speaker 1: football to try to knock down your opponent's bowling pins
1:45
Speaker 1: before they knocked down yours. A thirty lane foling warehouse
1:50
Speaker 1: has opened in Cincinnati, and it includes a bar. I
1:54
Speaker 1: plan to give foling a try very soon. Now let's
1:58
Speaker 1: get to football as I bring in my broadcast as
2:00
Speaker 1: partner Dave Lapham to discuss the Bengals first OTA practice
2:04
Speaker 1: under Zach Taylor. One OTA practice in the books and
2:08
Speaker 1: lap I guess the closest thing to news on day
2:11
Speaker 1: one was how the offensive line lined up, the fact
2:13
Speaker 1: that Jonah Williams was at left tackle and Cordy Glenn
2:16
Speaker 1: moved inside to left guard. Now, Clint Bowling isn't practicing yet,
2:20
Speaker 1: Alex Redman isn't practicing yet, so these things can obviously
2:23
Speaker 1: still change. But what was your reaction to seeing that.
2:26
Speaker 1: I wasn't really shocked by any stretch. You know, Cordy
2:30
Speaker 1: Glenn has played the guard position, although it was back
2:32
Speaker 1: in this college days. He mentioned that he might have
2:35
Speaker 1: done it a little bit at practice when he was
2:36
Speaker 1: at Buffalo, but never did play getting any game snaps
2:39
Speaker 1: at the guard position. And you know, it's a different
2:41
Speaker 1: world basically. You know, at the tackle position, you're working
2:45
Speaker 1: in space and you have to be real patient with
2:48
Speaker 1: your technique and sometimes with your hands, whereas inside at
2:51
Speaker 1: the guard position, everything's coming fast. You have to get
2:54
Speaker 1: your hands on people a lot faster. You have to
2:55
Speaker 1: make quicker decisions. You can't wait as long to decide
2:59
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do, how you're going to attack with
3:01
Speaker 1: your technique at the guard position as you can, you know,
3:04
Speaker 1: at the tackle positions. So they are they are different worlds.
3:07
Speaker 1: But I think Cordy Glenn, you know, has played in
3:09
Speaker 1: both worlds, and I think he's going to be able
3:11
Speaker 1: to adjust to playing in both worlds. But as you said, Dan,
3:15
Speaker 1: it's the first day of OTA, so there's there's miles
3:18
Speaker 1: to go before anybody rests, that's for sure. But with
3:21
Speaker 1: the eleventh pick of the draft, it's not a surprise
3:22
Speaker 1: that Jonah Williams is lining up at the spot that
3:24
Speaker 1: he you know, he played so well at Alabama. You know,
3:28
Speaker 1: I only gave up on one sack and I don't
3:31
Speaker 1: know eight hundred and something snaps. I think Seth pass sets.
3:34
Speaker 1: It was at the left tackle position. So he's pretty
3:37
Speaker 1: pretty impressive with his technique out there. He's got great feet,
3:40
Speaker 1: he's quick, he's got great hand placement. Um I think
3:43
Speaker 1: he can play the left tackle position, and I think
3:46
Speaker 1: they want to give him the first crack at it
3:48
Speaker 1: out there. It sounded like Corty Glenn appreciated the way
3:51
Speaker 1: new offensive line coach Jim Turner handled it. He pulled
3:53
Speaker 1: him aside. It sounded like it was a few weeks
3:55
Speaker 1: ago and more or less let him know that this
3:58
Speaker 1: might be the way that things are going to go
3:59
Speaker 1: at least o Tas. I think that's wise thing to do.
4:02
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, wouldn't be real fair to
4:04
Speaker 1: just throw it out there as a surprise on you know,
4:07
Speaker 1: that morning you go to meetings and it's like, yeah,
4:09
Speaker 1: here's where you're going to be playing now, as opposed
4:11
Speaker 1: to you're preparing your mind and your mindset for maybe
4:16
Speaker 1: something else. So I think that that's smart that's wise.
4:18
Speaker 1: I think that shows that Jim Turner is all about
4:22
Speaker 1: communicating with his players, which is good. And you know,
4:25
Speaker 1: I'm impressed with watching him work with his offensive line.
4:28
Speaker 1: He gets a lot of reps. He's he comes from
4:31
Speaker 1: the Frank Pollock school. There's no standing around killing grass.
4:34
Speaker 1: I mean, these guys go through a ton of reps
4:37
Speaker 1: no matter what they're doing, if they're in cone drills,
4:39
Speaker 1: if they're on sleds, if they're you know, working against
4:41
Speaker 1: each other, there's a maximum number of opportunity for every
4:45
Speaker 1: single guy in a short period of time. And uh,
4:48
Speaker 1: the thing I like about him with his technique, the
4:51
Speaker 1: lineman's feet are always moving. They're always chop stepping, you know,
4:54
Speaker 1: they're not taking big plotting you know steps and anchoring
4:57
Speaker 1: like you know, Andre the Giant. I mean, they get
4:59
Speaker 1: the jackhammer feet and I like that in their technique.
5:03
Speaker 1: And I do like what they're doing with their hands.
5:05
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of similarities between what Frank
5:10
Speaker 1: Pollock and what Jim's doing. Is this offensive line coach
5:12
Speaker 1: with this group looking at the rest of the line.
5:14
Speaker 1: Billy Price was at center. John Miller, the free agent
5:17
Speaker 1: they picked up from Buffalo as at right guard, Bobby
5:19
Speaker 1: Hart was at right tackle. Billy Price looks good to me,
5:22
Speaker 1: looks fit, he looks strong, he looks competent after getting
5:27
Speaker 1: through an injury plague rookie year. Yeah, I think it
5:29
Speaker 1: was kind of a nightmare. You know, probably starting with
5:31
Speaker 1: the combine. He really had never been hurt and you know,
5:34
Speaker 1: messes his pack up at the combine and the bench
5:37
Speaker 1: press testing, and so you know that was like, wow,
5:40
Speaker 1: that's that's out of left field. That's kind of a rarity.
5:42
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, he comes back from that and
5:44
Speaker 1: he has the almost like Liz Frank type injury with
5:48
Speaker 1: that foot that that is not a real comfortable thing
5:50
Speaker 1: to deal list. So literally and figuratively, never was able
5:53
Speaker 1: to get his feet on rome, you know, and now
5:56
Speaker 1: now that he has. The good thing is he went
5:58
Speaker 1: through all the mental reps the entire season, even when
6:02
Speaker 1: he had the peck problem from the from the combine.
6:05
Speaker 1: He was taking all the mental reps out there in
6:07
Speaker 1: OTAs and mandatory mini camps and then training camp, and
6:10
Speaker 1: so he did see it. He did experience all the meetings. Uh,
6:14
Speaker 1: there's there's something he said for that. And he got
6:16
Speaker 1: out in the field and played, so he experienced the
6:19
Speaker 1: tempo of the National Football League and the differences that
6:22
Speaker 1: you have to make adjustments to coming from the college level.
6:25
Speaker 1: So his improvement from year one to year two, we
6:28
Speaker 1: always talk about it. It's always big for every rookie.
6:30
Speaker 1: For him, I think it's going to be astronomical because
6:33
Speaker 1: you know, he was doing it wounded, you know, last
6:36
Speaker 1: year a couple of different times. If guys are healthy,
6:39
Speaker 1: there really aren't a ton of starting jobs open on
6:42
Speaker 1: the roster, but one is at defensive end, where Michael
6:44
Speaker 1: Johnson isn't around anymore. Sam Hubbard was in there with
6:48
Speaker 1: the ones to begin the first reps of OTAs on Monday.
6:51
Speaker 1: Carrie Win rotated into that spot quite a bit as well. Yeah,
6:55
Speaker 1: I'm impressed with both of them. I think they're both athletic.
6:58
Speaker 1: Sam Hubbard and Carry Winner are going to give the
7:01
Speaker 1: Bengals a lot of snaps, and I think good snaps
7:03
Speaker 1: off that edge. Kerry Win reminded me of Eddie Edwards
7:06
Speaker 1: out there, a little bit of long, long armed, you know,
7:09
Speaker 1: long bodied type defensive lineman that has you know, enough
7:12
Speaker 1: body strength he can lock you out with those long arms,
7:14
Speaker 1: and the running games set an edge a little bit
7:17
Speaker 1: as well as as pass rushing and Sam Harvard. We
7:20
Speaker 1: saw everything about Sam you love his athleticism is effort
7:24
Speaker 1: and Win's that kind of guy too. They're big hustle guys.
7:26
Speaker 1: I mean, they don't waste. You never see them walking anywhere.
7:30
Speaker 1: You never see them bringing up the rear and any drill.
7:33
Speaker 1: They're always in the forefront of everything and they're always, uh,
7:36
Speaker 1: you know, a first guy at the line if they're
7:38
Speaker 1: going to run sprints. Those are the type of guys
7:40
Speaker 1: you like to have. And I think I think that's
7:42
Speaker 1: going to be a pretty good one two punch over
7:44
Speaker 1: there at that position for sure. As for Vontez perfect
7:47
Speaker 1: spotted linebacker, the Bengals actually came out in Nickels, so
7:50
Speaker 1: Preston Brown and Nick Vigil out there at linebacker and B. W.
7:53
Speaker 1: Webb was in there as the extra defensive back. When
7:56
Speaker 1: they did get three linebackers on the field, the first
8:00
Speaker 1: went out, there was Jordan Evans in that third spot, right,
8:02
Speaker 1: And that that makes sense. You know, at this point
8:06
Speaker 1: you have a you know, a rookie linebacker hasn't signed
8:09
Speaker 1: a contract yet. How much do you want to expose
8:11
Speaker 1: him potentially? So and that'd being proud, of course at
8:15
Speaker 1: the linebacker position. But you know, I was impressed with Webb.
8:19
Speaker 1: I thought Webb made made plays at that at that
8:21
Speaker 1: spot in the nickel. Obviously lew Is very familiar with him,
8:26
Speaker 1: coached him with the New York Giants, brought him here
8:27
Speaker 1: for a reason, and he showed up. I mean, he
8:31
Speaker 1: made some plays. I thought that overall, the tempo of practice,
8:36
Speaker 1: everything was very, very crisp. Guys were excited. There was
8:40
Speaker 1: a lot of enthusiasm. You can talk about that kind
8:42
Speaker 1: of stuff. You can talk about excitement in the room, enthusiasm,
8:45
Speaker 1: will it carry to the field? It did. It carried
8:47
Speaker 1: from the classroom to the field. And it wasn't false,
8:50
Speaker 1: you know, there was nothing false about it. Defensive players,
8:53
Speaker 1: you know, when one room would go off the field,
8:55
Speaker 1: an other one came out. It was the sprint. It
8:56
Speaker 1: was like Nascar. It was like making a pit stop.
8:58
Speaker 1: I mean they were flying by each other getting on
9:00
Speaker 1: and off the football field. That's the kind of thing
9:03
Speaker 1: you know, you'd like to see. I thought, as is
9:05
Speaker 1: the case, a lot of times, Dan defense might have
9:08
Speaker 1: outplayed the offense and the very first to skirmish as such,
9:11
Speaker 1: when they go eleven on eleven, and I think, I
9:14
Speaker 1: think the offense will you know, obviously, their their graph
9:18
Speaker 1: will start going out very quickly. Um Zach made reference
9:21
Speaker 1: to the point that they were turnovers, but they were
9:24
Speaker 1: self inflicted. The ball was on the ground too much
9:26
Speaker 1: in terms of just simple handoffs and those kind of things. Defensively,
9:29
Speaker 1: would like to see more turnovers, more takeaways forced by
9:31
Speaker 1: the defense, but the offense was was way too charitable,
9:37
Speaker 1: and so they have to tighten that part of it up.
9:39
Speaker 1: All security is a big, big deal. But I thought that,
9:43
Speaker 1: you know, the temple of practice overall, to and from
9:48
Speaker 1: drills on and off the football field, on the field
9:50
Speaker 1: as they're running plays against each other, I thought all
9:53
Speaker 1: of that was very very high level. The execution not
9:56
Speaker 1: where you want it yet, but it's only day one.
9:59
Speaker 1: One offense guy who did make plays was the second
10:01
Speaker 1: round draft pick tight end out of Washington, Drew Sample.
10:04
Speaker 1: He had several catches, including a deep ball down the scene.
10:07
Speaker 1: He did he looked, he looked very good, you know,
10:09
Speaker 1: and uh, you know he's down the middle against you know,
10:12
Speaker 1: it's not chopped liver out there. It's it's against Jesse Bates,
10:15
Speaker 1: who you know, that's the last two second round picks
10:18
Speaker 1: back to back years going after each other. And Jesse
10:20
Speaker 1: Bates had a very very strong rookie season, so you know,
10:24
Speaker 1: it's good to see sample making those plays. And I
10:26
Speaker 1: thought he was a very easy catch of the football.
10:29
Speaker 1: He didn't struggle. I mean, it wasn't like he was,
10:31
Speaker 1: you know, working. He catch the football is very very simple.
10:34
Speaker 1: You know, he just was like suction cups man flicked
10:36
Speaker 1: those hands out there in a very very easy catch
10:38
Speaker 1: of the football, which I think was a really good sign.
10:41
Speaker 1: And he ran good routes. And you know, that's the
10:44
Speaker 1: thing that the other thing that I was impressed with
10:46
Speaker 1: young guys, veteran guys. It's new systems on both sides
10:49
Speaker 1: of the football. I didn't see a ton of mental errors.
10:52
Speaker 1: I didn't see mental breakdowns. I saw physical breakdowns, and
10:55
Speaker 1: that's correctable. The mental errors are correctable also, but discouraging.
11:01
Speaker 1: You know, if you spend time in the classroom, you
11:02
Speaker 1: expect guys to understand installation. The fact that they're retaining
11:05
Speaker 1: what the coaches are putting out there, I think is
11:07
Speaker 1: a real good sign because I didn't see any jail breaks,
11:10
Speaker 1: any mental errors out there. Again, physical mistakes and they
11:14
Speaker 1: happen and they'll hopefully get better. The bulk of the
11:18
Speaker 1: OTA practice was spent in individual position drills. You spent
11:22
Speaker 1: a lot of time watching Jim Turner work the offensive line.
11:25
Speaker 1: We talked about the way he's going about that a
11:27
Speaker 1: little bit. Did any of the other assistant coaches new
11:30
Speaker 1: assistant coaches get your eye? Yeah, I think I think
11:33
Speaker 1: a lot of them. You know, I think I think
11:35
Speaker 1: every single position group that I looked at the players.
11:39
Speaker 1: You can tell when players responding to coaches or if
11:41
Speaker 1: they're just kind of like, you know, let me just
11:44
Speaker 1: get through this drill, and all of them are you know,
11:47
Speaker 1: their eyes are on them, their ears are open. I mean,
11:49
Speaker 1: they're they're definitely paying full attention. You don't you don't
11:52
Speaker 1: see guys, you know, looking at the ground, kicking dirt,
11:54
Speaker 1: trying to you know, kill daisies or whatever. You don't
11:57
Speaker 1: see any of that going on. Guys, are you know
11:59
Speaker 1: a ten in front and center? And I think I
12:02
Speaker 1: think that's a that's a good indicator that the coaches
12:05
Speaker 1: have already gotten the respects of the players. And we
12:07
Speaker 1: talked about all the players. We talk in the locker
12:09
Speaker 1: room with Dan They all talk about the youthful enthusiasm
12:12
Speaker 1: and excitement that the coaches are bringing to the classroom.
12:15
Speaker 1: They're bringing it to the football field as well, and
12:17
Speaker 1: players are responded to that and uh, and there they're
12:20
Speaker 1: buying what the coaches are selling. The coaches are good
12:22
Speaker 1: teachers and the players are learning from these teachers, which
12:26
Speaker 1: is good. Um. The attention paid the detail, I think
12:30
Speaker 1: is very very good. And I really impressed with all
12:35
Speaker 1: the coaches up and down all position groups. They seem
12:38
Speaker 1: to have, you know, the players not in the palm
12:41
Speaker 1: of their hand as such, but you know they have
12:42
Speaker 1: full control and full attention of all their players. How
12:46
Speaker 1: about defensive line coach Nick Eason in particular, that's a
12:49
Speaker 1: group that has a lot of talent but didn't dominate
12:52
Speaker 1: last year. And he's almost I think they look at
12:56
Speaker 1: him as a veteran contemporary. I mean he gets after him.
12:59
Speaker 1: He challenged physically mentally. I mean, he wants effort now
13:03
Speaker 1: and if if you're not giving him effort, he's not bashful.
13:06
Speaker 1: And he didn't care who you are. He didn't care
13:08
Speaker 1: if you're a multiple time Pro bowler or a college
13:11
Speaker 1: free agent. He's treating you the same way, it's like, man,
13:13
Speaker 1: you got to you gotta show me more than that.
13:15
Speaker 1: You gotta hustle. You know, you don't have to be
13:17
Speaker 1: a great player to hustle. And I want hustle out
13:19
Speaker 1: of everybody up and down the entire defensive line roster.
13:23
Speaker 1: And and he's demanding it. And I think the players
13:26
Speaker 1: I talked to and that position group say he's a
13:29
Speaker 1: no nonsense guy and and he'll challenge anybody. And he's
13:33
Speaker 1: challenged the leaders of that position group very early on
13:37
Speaker 1: to make sure that everybody knows that he's not going
13:39
Speaker 1: to play any favorites in that regard, and he expects
13:41
Speaker 1: the same out of everybody. And I think I think
13:44
Speaker 1: he's going to get big effort out of the defensive front.
13:46
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be interesting to watch how
13:49
Speaker 1: the season progresses with those guys. I think there's going
13:51
Speaker 1: to be some internal competition there that's never never a problem.
13:54
Speaker 1: It's always healthy. And I think guys are going to push,
13:59
Speaker 1: you know, there their fellow teammates to two bigger heights,
14:02
Speaker 1: and it's going to be led by their coach. I mean,
14:04
Speaker 1: he's going to get after it. He'll go into gap
14:06
Speaker 1: all of them. I mean, he's a big, strong guy,
14:09
Speaker 1: and I think I think they respect the fact that
14:11
Speaker 1: he played in the league for a long time. And uh,
14:14
Speaker 1: you know, I think that that part of his resume
14:16
Speaker 1: they're very respectful of. And and he knows what he speaks.
14:19
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got he's got those guys watching their hands.
14:23
Speaker 1: He's got them working their hands extremely well every single day.
14:27
Speaker 1: And that's what it boils down to. It boils down
14:29
Speaker 1: to footwork and hands and who who's better in those
14:32
Speaker 1: areas And you can never work on those enough. And
14:35
Speaker 1: he knows that, he understands it. To be able to
14:37
Speaker 1: play in the league, you have to have both. You
14:38
Speaker 1: have to have good feet and excellent hands. This comes
14:41
Speaker 1: as no surprise, but it certainly looks like Andy Dalton
14:43
Speaker 1: is already grasping exactly what Zach Taylor wants to do.
14:46
Speaker 1: I agree with you, Dan, I mean, Andy's and he's
14:49
Speaker 1: a smarter football player, I think as there is. You know,
14:52
Speaker 1: obviously Tom Brady is the leader of the pack in
14:55
Speaker 1: that regard with his six Super Bowls, and but but
14:58
Speaker 1: he has had continuity, you know, with his coaching staff,
15:01
Speaker 1: his same head coach the entire career for Tom Brady
15:04
Speaker 1: and a good part of it with Josh McDaniel, you know,
15:06
Speaker 1: I mean other than when he left to go to
15:08
Speaker 1: Denver for a little bit of time, he's had the
15:10
Speaker 1: same coordinator, so that that part of it is is
15:13
Speaker 1: good for Tom Brady. This will be Andy Dalton's third
15:16
Speaker 1: different offensive installation in three years. And it's not like
15:20
Speaker 1: he's a rookie. I mean he's you know, he's been
15:21
Speaker 1: in the league for more than a handful of season.
15:23
Speaker 1: So but he can he can comprehend it. I mean,
15:26
Speaker 1: he can grasp, but he can unlearn and relearn as
15:29
Speaker 1: fast as anybody I've I've seen. And I really liked
15:33
Speaker 1: the offense too. I mean, the quarterbacks are out of
15:35
Speaker 1: pocket as much as their in pocket. There's a lot
15:37
Speaker 1: of movement going on with this offense, a lot of
15:41
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of jet sweeps, a lot of
15:43
Speaker 1: fake jet sweeps, and then play action pass around that.
15:47
Speaker 1: Sometimes quarterbacks stays in the pocket, sometimes they're out of pockets.
15:50
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're you know, an unprotected quarterback on a naked bootleg.
15:53
Speaker 1: Other times they have people in front of him as blockers.
15:55
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a You're going to see a lot
15:58
Speaker 1: of different things as a defensive football team from this offense.
16:01
Speaker 1: And again, Zach wasn't totally excited about the overall execution
16:05
Speaker 1: of the offense in the first day, but everybody knows
16:08
Speaker 1: it's going to get a lot better. We mentioned b
16:11
Speaker 1: W Webb and Sample as a couple of guys that
16:14
Speaker 1: that seemed to have good days. Anybody else catch your eye,
16:18
Speaker 1: particularly somebody that maybe it's a little bit off the radar. Well,
16:21
Speaker 1: this guy's not off the radar. But you know, I
16:23
Speaker 1: was watching Jonah quite a bit at left tackle, and
16:26
Speaker 1: he's solid. He saw it as a rock. I mean,
16:28
Speaker 1: he's a he's a sound technician. He's almost like a
16:32
Speaker 1: robot tackle out there. You know, watching him. Again, it's
16:34
Speaker 1: underwear ball, so you can't really, you know, get that
16:38
Speaker 1: get that excited about it yet. H Cordy Glenn, I thought,
16:42
Speaker 1: you know, just a well, inside, it is going to
16:45
Speaker 1: be interesting. Those two guys working together, if that's the
16:48
Speaker 1: way it's going to be, is going to be very
16:49
Speaker 1: interesting in terms of picking up all the stunts and
16:52
Speaker 1: twists and all the calls that have to be made
16:54
Speaker 1: and everything goes along with it. I thought Cordy was
16:56
Speaker 1: playing a little bit high you know, at the guard position,
16:59
Speaker 1: gonna have to maybe work on that pad level a
17:00
Speaker 1: little bit. Um. But I think we've hit, you know,
17:04
Speaker 1: some of the guys, some of the some of the
17:06
Speaker 1: guys though that you'd expect to catch your eye. Giovanni
17:09
Speaker 1: Bernard still catches, you know. He to me, he's got
17:12
Speaker 1: that quickness, that burst, that lateral quickness that he has
17:14
Speaker 1: is fun to watch. You know. We got to remember
17:17
Speaker 1: Joe Mixon wasn't out there. A j. Green wasn't out there.
17:19
Speaker 1: You've got, you know, big time players that weren't part
17:22
Speaker 1: of the action out there. So I thought, I thought
17:25
Speaker 1: some of the defensive lineman um really really. I thought defensively,
17:29
Speaker 1: a lot of guys flashed. A lot of a lot
17:30
Speaker 1: of players flash. We talked about, you know, quite a
17:33
Speaker 1: few of them, and again I thought, b W Webb,
17:35
Speaker 1: you know flash pretty well. I thought the defense was aggressive.
17:38
Speaker 1: I thought there was a heavy blitz mentality to what
17:41
Speaker 1: they're doing. I think they're going to get after people.
17:44
Speaker 1: I think offensively and defensively. I think it's it's all
17:46
Speaker 1: about attack, you know, it's about aggressiveness. And I thought
17:50
Speaker 1: a lot of players have shown universatility that they were
17:53
Speaker 1: hoping the coaches were hoping that they had. You know,
17:56
Speaker 1: sometimes you have to morph and mutate into something different.
17:59
Speaker 1: You know, Core he's going to go through that and
18:01
Speaker 1: other guys are going to do it. Um. But I
18:04
Speaker 1: think I think the football IQ with both players that
18:07
Speaker 1: have to have football IQ is there. I think leadership
18:09
Speaker 1: is there. We talked about all the captains they drafted,
18:12
Speaker 1: talked about leaders that are already on this football team.
18:14
Speaker 1: And you know, everybody's undefeated right now. Everybody's optimistic right now.
18:17
Speaker 1: But uh, it was good start. They're far from the
18:20
Speaker 1: finished product. They've got a lot of polish to put
18:22
Speaker 1: on to be a finished product. But I think it
18:24
Speaker 1: was a good start. It's kind of strange not to
18:26
Speaker 1: see Marvin Lewis standing back there in the secondary with
18:29
Speaker 1: his practice itinerary in his hand, following things. I know,
18:32
Speaker 1: it's sixteen years of being that way. And Zack's just
18:37
Speaker 1: the total opposite Marvin. Defensive orientation, like to get back
18:40
Speaker 1: there as a as a deep deep safety and observe everything.
18:45
Speaker 1: Now Zach with the offensive orientation, he's right behind the
18:47
Speaker 1: huddle because he's calling the plays. I mean, he's right there.
18:50
Speaker 1: He's um, you know, he's got the the Waukee talkie,
18:52
Speaker 1: uh you know, with the with the calls going right
18:54
Speaker 1: to the quarterbacks headsets and there in their helmets. So
18:58
Speaker 1: it's a it's a much different dynamic out there. You're right, Dan,
19:01
Speaker 1: it's cafeteria open. I'm kind of hungry. Let's let's let's
19:04
Speaker 1: pound some grub. Nothing nothing wrong with a good lunch,
19:08
Speaker 1: thanks Lap. Following practice on Monday, reporters crowded around the
19:12
Speaker 1: locker of offensive lineman Cordy Glenn to get his thoughts
19:15
Speaker 1: on lining up at guard after strictly playing tackle in
19:19
Speaker 1: his first seven NFL seasons. I mean I played it
19:23
Speaker 1: before it, but I mean obviously when we drafted Jonah,
19:25
Speaker 1: you know it's gonna be different, especially with that type
19:28
Speaker 1: of investment. So I gotta do what everything about the
19:31
Speaker 1: team mones, That's what it calms downs. We've already answered
19:34
Speaker 1: us once. The last time play uh far light ten
19:37
Speaker 1: years ago? Ten years ago. Yeah. So he never played
19:40
Speaker 1: it in the NFL, even in preseason games or anything.
19:42
Speaker 1: Never played Maybe a pratt like I might have tried
19:46
Speaker 1: it out. No, I have no preseason that you think
19:49
Speaker 1: it's easier to go outside inside rub and inside outside
19:52
Speaker 1: if you haven't done either before. I don't know if
19:55
Speaker 1: they're totally different animals. Yeah, it's different. I'm not sure.
19:58
Speaker 1: I don't know answered that one forty its first day
20:01
Speaker 1: of OTAs the long way from the season opener. But
20:04
Speaker 1: do you figure I am probably a starting guard this year? Uh?
20:10
Speaker 1: I don't, man, I don't know. We'll see. I mean,
20:12
Speaker 1: the first thing for it to work would have to
20:15
Speaker 1: be your and you embracing it. Really, I mean, are
20:18
Speaker 1: you wide open minded to the possibility of doing it? Yeah? Definitely. Uh,
20:23
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I'm out there right now practicing.
20:26
Speaker 1: I've been out there, you know, since they told him,
20:28
Speaker 1: doing everything prepare for it. So yeah, just kind of
20:32
Speaker 1: look at it as that's being a fro Yeah, going
20:36
Speaker 1: your job. Could Schurner give you the sense that you'll
20:40
Speaker 1: still be getting some time at tackle and he's just
20:42
Speaker 1: gonna kind of like try to figure out what works best.
20:45
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, man, I really have no idea. We
20:49
Speaker 1: just had our conversation or whatever, and that was it.
20:51
Speaker 1: I don't know, did you like to wait he handled
20:54
Speaker 1: you mention it kind of a Manda Band conversation. It
20:56
Speaker 1: wasn't It wasn't like he came in there and it
20:58
Speaker 1: just like what it was in the Prentice buildings, like, oh,
21:01
Speaker 1: we'll go do this, he said. We had a meeting
21:03
Speaker 1: about it, and I mean, that's all you can ask for. Really.
21:05
Speaker 1: As I mentioned in my conversation with Dave Lapham, last
21:08
Speaker 1: year's starting guards Clint Bowling and Alex Redman are not
21:12
Speaker 1: practicing right now as they recover from injuries. So we
21:15
Speaker 1: are still a long way from knowing if Cordy Glenn
21:18
Speaker 1: will move to guard this season. Now time for this
21:22
Speaker 1: week's fun Facts interview and another visit with Bengals President
21:25
Speaker 1: Mike Brown as I get his thoughts on the best
21:29
Speaker 1: wide receivers in franchise history. If you had to choose
21:32
Speaker 1: a position where the Bengals have had the most great
21:35
Speaker 1: players at any given position, it might be wide receiver.
21:39
Speaker 1: And today we're going to look back at some of
21:40
Speaker 1: the all time best enfranchise history with team president Mike Brown.
21:44
Speaker 1: Let's start with Isaac Curtis, who averaged seventeen yards per
21:48
Speaker 1: catch during his eleven years with the Bengals. When you
21:50
Speaker 1: think of Isaac, what stands out well? Isaac was probably
21:55
Speaker 1: the pick of the litter. He was a great player
21:59
Speaker 1: here at an intense speed. He was the fastest I'm
22:04
Speaker 1: sure of any wide receiver we ever had. He had
22:09
Speaker 1: wonderful hands, but he played in an era when defense
22:15
Speaker 1: was allowed to bump and hold up the wide receiver.
22:19
Speaker 1: They could keep their hands on the wide receiver all
22:23
Speaker 1: the way down the field, and that made it much
22:28
Speaker 1: tougher to throw the ball during that era. If Isaac
22:33
Speaker 1: had played in today's era, I wonder how anyone would
22:37
Speaker 1: have stopped him. But he was a great player, a
22:42
Speaker 1: good person, and if I had starting all time Bengals team,
22:52
Speaker 1: he would be on it. Mike. A key player on
22:54
Speaker 1: your first Super Bowl team was a gangly rookie wide
22:57
Speaker 1: receiver from the University of Florida named Chris Collins. Yeah,
23:01
Speaker 1: Chris uh. They have lots of memories at Chris, and
23:06
Speaker 1: they date back to when he paraded across the stage
23:10
Speaker 1: at the combine. In those days, the combine was more primitive.
23:15
Speaker 1: There were actually two of them. The league had one
23:19
Speaker 1: group of teams and one combine, and another group of
23:23
Speaker 1: teams in a different combine. But we were down there
23:26
Speaker 1: watching Chris at the Tampa Bay Bucks Complex and he
23:34
Speaker 1: walked out in the group of scouts much smaller in
23:39
Speaker 1: those days, just one small room. But they all began
23:43
Speaker 1: to laugh because Chris looked like a drowned rat. He
23:48
Speaker 1: was six five and about one hundred and eighty five
23:51
Speaker 1: if then, and he, instead of being offended, laughed back,
23:59
Speaker 1: which made in him pression. He didn't care what you thought.
24:04
Speaker 1: And then when we got him here for the first time,
24:09
Speaker 1: you knew immediately that he was a special player because
24:13
Speaker 1: he was not only tall, he was quick out of
24:16
Speaker 1: the break and you could see that right away he'd
24:20
Speaker 1: get separation. And of course he was a very smart player.
24:25
Speaker 1: When you put those things together, you had a pro
24:30
Speaker 1: Bowl player, and that's what he was for us. Do
24:34
Speaker 1: you enjoy listening to him as a broadcaster some of
24:37
Speaker 1: the time. He's a good brother. He's very very talented,
24:43
Speaker 1: and he has a quick mind, you can see it.
24:46
Speaker 1: And he's got a good sense of humor. He's insightful
24:50
Speaker 1: and surprising ways at times. He's the top of the
24:58
Speaker 1: group there. He's just has proven that to everybody. We're
25:02
Speaker 1: looking at some of the great wide receivers en franchise
25:04
Speaker 1: history with Mike Brown. Your second Super Bowl team had
25:07
Speaker 1: Collinsworth on one side, and the nineteen eighty five Rookie
25:10
Speaker 1: of the Year Eddie Brown on the other In that
25:12
Speaker 1: season nineteen eighty eight, he averaged twenty four yards per catch.
25:17
Speaker 1: It's still a record for a player that had fifty
25:20
Speaker 1: or more receptions. Eddie was extremely fast, quick, He was
25:28
Speaker 1: really hugely gifted. The thing that came along to make
25:34
Speaker 1: it hard on him was he had what was called
25:36
Speaker 1: gamekeeper's thumbs. His hands were injured in such a way
25:41
Speaker 1: that he lost the strength of his grip. Football hit
25:45
Speaker 1: his hands, his thumb would give way backwards and it
25:50
Speaker 1: actually hit both hands. If you judged him healthy, he
25:58
Speaker 1: would have been right up there with Isaac. The thing
26:03
Speaker 1: he had was extreme quickness. He was one of those guys.
26:09
Speaker 1: I used the phrase jump frame, and that dates back
26:13
Speaker 1: to the old movie days, where you had frame upon
26:16
Speaker 1: frame in a film, and with him, you would see
26:19
Speaker 1: him in one frame and then you'd see him all
26:22
Speaker 1: of a sudden, a couple of yards away. How'd he
26:24
Speaker 1: get there? Well, he was a quick He got it done.
26:29
Speaker 1: The franchise record for touchdowns scored in a season belongs
26:32
Speaker 1: to a wide receiver with shall we say, a prickly personality,
26:35
Speaker 1: Carl Pickens. Carl was a great athlete. He could jump
26:41
Speaker 1: out of the room. He was a high jumper. I
26:44
Speaker 1: think he could clear seven feet in the high jump.
26:47
Speaker 1: Our attack with him was just to throw the ball
26:50
Speaker 1: in his general direction and he'd come up with it.
26:54
Speaker 1: He could get above the other guys. We came up
26:57
Speaker 1: with that blooper ball and we'd throw it way down field.
27:02
Speaker 1: You don't see it today, but our deep pass was
27:07
Speaker 1: truly sixty five yards down field, and these other guys,
27:11
Speaker 1: the defensive backs for the other teams, would get lost
27:14
Speaker 1: underneath it. And Carl had a marvelous way of knowing
27:18
Speaker 1: where the ball was and judging his position to catch it.
27:23
Speaker 1: He made a lot of great plays for us. The
27:26
Speaker 1: all time franchise record holder for receptions, yards and touchdowns
27:30
Speaker 1: as Chad Johnson. What is his Bengals legacy? We all
27:34
Speaker 1: Chad was unusual. He got separation and Carson and he
27:42
Speaker 1: and their days here when they were both functioning at
27:46
Speaker 1: their best, were unstoppable. Chad would go down on that
27:53
Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen yard in break and Carson would put that
27:57
Speaker 1: ball into him, and then all hell break loose. People
28:02
Speaker 1: would be running into each other. Chad would be threatening
28:06
Speaker 1: to run right through it all. It was a terrific
28:12
Speaker 1: combination for us. Chad brought with him his propensity for
28:18
Speaker 1: showman ship, and at times even I laughed. You took
28:25
Speaker 1: Chad in the second round of the two thousand and
28:27
Speaker 1: one draft, and then the seventh round you made one
28:29
Speaker 1: of the great late draft picks in franchise history in
28:33
Speaker 1: t J. Hushmanzata. Yeah. TJ was a smart receiver. He
28:38
Speaker 1: thought he was fast, and I guess that was enough.
28:41
Speaker 1: He was fast because he never lacked for confidence about
28:45
Speaker 1: what he was going to do or where he was
28:47
Speaker 1: going to be. He and Chad were terrific combination, and
28:55
Speaker 1: I would put TJ in the X smart department as well.
29:02
Speaker 1: He knew what he was about. Everything was thought out
29:05
Speaker 1: with him. They were a great duo and especially hard
29:09
Speaker 1: to stop when paired with a laid great Chris Henry Well.
29:13
Speaker 1: Chris could run and he had a long reach radius,
29:18
Speaker 1: a catching radius was extraordinary. But if he caught up
29:22
Speaker 1: to you, if you were a defensive back and he
29:24
Speaker 1: got alongside of you, it was all over. He'd just
29:27
Speaker 1: run away. And when we had him as part of
29:31
Speaker 1: the mix, part of the combination we had on the field,
29:34
Speaker 1: it scared the other team. They had to accommodate for
29:38
Speaker 1: him because they didn't want to pass going over their heads.
29:41
Speaker 1: They didn't want a quick score that opened things for
29:44
Speaker 1: everybody else. So that was what he brought to the
29:46
Speaker 1: mix that takes us to the present day and a
29:49
Speaker 1: J Green at this point? Do you put him up
29:53
Speaker 1: there with Isaac Curtis on the list of the franchises
29:56
Speaker 1: all time best wide receivers. If I had a starting
30:00
Speaker 1: all time Bengals team, he'd be on it. He brings
30:04
Speaker 1: a different package. He's fast, but not as fast as Easy.
30:10
Speaker 1: He's quick, but not as quick as Chad. He has
30:16
Speaker 1: a tremendous catching radius and a very competitive spirit. You
30:26
Speaker 1: feel really secure with him on one side. They have
30:33
Speaker 1: to overplay him. They know if they don't they're in trouble.
30:36
Speaker 1: And yes, you're right when you say we've had a
30:39
Speaker 1: number of top white outs over the years. I think
30:43
Speaker 1: probably that is a position where we've had more than
30:47
Speaker 1: our share of great players. I always enjoy this. Thanks
30:50
Speaker 1: for the time, good to visit, and that's going to
30:53
Speaker 1: do it for this week's podcast. If you haven't done
30:55
Speaker 1: so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitch your Google,
31:00
Speaker 1: Spotify or pod Bean and if you have a couple
31:03
Speaker 1: of minutes, give it a rating or leave a comment.
31:06
Speaker 1: Your feedback's great in five star ratings help more Bengals
31:10
Speaker 1: fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you
31:14
Speaker 1: for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast