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Bengals Booth Podcast: Pleased To Meet You · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: I get everybody on Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast, the Please to Meet You Hope
0:11
Speaker 1: You Guess My Name edition as I chat with Bengals
0:15
Speaker 1: newcomer Thaddeus Moss, the former LSU tight end who has
0:19
Speaker 1: been reunited with his college quarterback Joe Burrow. And speaking
0:23
Speaker 1: of Joey v he was the big story on Tuesday
0:26
Speaker 1: when the Bengals held their first OTA practice as Number
0:29
Speaker 1: nine was not only in attendance, but took part in
0:32
Speaker 1: most of the drills exactly six months and three days
0:36
Speaker 1: after suffering his knee injury. I'll discuss that and much
0:39
Speaker 1: more with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham, who will also
0:42
Speaker 1: answer the ask lap questions you submitted via Twitter. The
0:46
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light. Seltzer Refreshed
0:50
Speaker 1: the Game and here's a quick reminder that you can
0:53
Speaker 1: have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write to
0:56
Speaker 1: your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, stick
1:00
Speaker 1: your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest
1:03
Speaker 1: thing since the kindness of my boss Mike Brown. Last
1:09
Speaker 1: week on this podcast, Mike joined me to share stories
1:12
Speaker 1: about the team's Ring of Honor candidates. If you haven't
1:14
Speaker 1: listened yet, you should because nobody knows more about Bengal's
1:18
Speaker 1: legends than he does. As you may know, Mike does
1:22
Speaker 1: not do a lot of interviews, but he's always been
1:24
Speaker 1: very gracious to me, and he agreed to meet me
1:26
Speaker 1: in his office last week because of the pandemic. It's
1:29
Speaker 1: the first time I've had a face to face conversation
1:32
Speaker 1: with him in more than a year. So we sat
1:34
Speaker 1: down at the conference table in his office and recorded
1:37
Speaker 1: an interview that lasted nearly an hour as Mike shared
1:40
Speaker 1: memories and anecdotes about his legendary father Paul, and the
1:44
Speaker 1: eighteen former players under consideration for the initial Ring of
1:47
Speaker 1: Honor class. It was great stuff, and I was probably
1:51
Speaker 1: in his office for an hour and a half as
1:53
Speaker 1: we chatted about the team and a wide variety of topics.
1:56
Speaker 1: When we finished, he walked with me to the door,
1:58
Speaker 1: and as I was exiting office, I dropped my digital
2:02
Speaker 1: recorder and Mike joked, I hope you didn't just destroy
2:05
Speaker 1: the interview. I assured him he had nothing to worry about.
2:08
Speaker 1: I've dropped that recorder dozens of times and it's indestructible,
2:13
Speaker 1: but even if I somehow broke the recorder, the interview
2:16
Speaker 1: was saved on a removable memory card. I was one
2:19
Speaker 1: hundred percent confident that everything was fine. So I got home,
2:24
Speaker 1: loaded the memory card into my laptop, hit play and
2:28
Speaker 1: got nothing. Nada, zilch zip. An NFL owner who happens
2:37
Speaker 1: to be my boss, had given me an hour of
2:39
Speaker 1: his valuable time to do a relatively rare interview, and
2:42
Speaker 1: I had managed to destroy the recording. So now what
2:45
Speaker 1: do I do? The segment was fantastic, and I knew
2:49
Speaker 1: Bengals fans would really love Mike's stories, But could I
2:52
Speaker 1: really ask him to do it again? I was mortified,
2:56
Speaker 1: but after several minutes of panic and self loathing, I
3:00
Speaker 1: elected to make the phone call of shame, making it
3:03
Speaker 1: abundantly clear that if Mike did not want to redo
3:06
Speaker 1: the interview, I would certainly understand. To his credit, he
3:10
Speaker 1: was completely understanding. He may have been cursing me under
3:13
Speaker 1: his breath, but he invited me to come back to
3:16
Speaker 1: his office the next day, where he kindly spent another
3:19
Speaker 1: hour sharing stories about the greatest players in franchise history.
3:24
Speaker 1: Just to be safe, I used two recording devices. The
3:28
Speaker 1: end result was a great podcast, and I hope that
3:31
Speaker 1: gives you an added sense of just how good a
3:33
Speaker 1: person Mike Brown truly is. Now let's get to Thaddius Moss.
3:38
Speaker 1: After starting his college career at nc State, Thaddy has
3:41
Speaker 1: switched to LSU, where he had to sit out a
3:43
Speaker 1: year as a transfer. The following year, he had a
3:46
Speaker 1: broken left foot and missed that season as well. He
3:49
Speaker 1: finally got on the field with the Tigers in twenty
3:51
Speaker 1: nineteen and was a key weapon for Joe Burrow on
3:55
Speaker 1: LSU's national championship team, finishing with forty seven catches for
3:59
Speaker 1: five hundred seven yards and four touchdowns. But following the season,
4:04
Speaker 1: doctors found a broken bone in his right foot during
4:07
Speaker 1: a routine medical exam at the NFL scouting Combine. As
4:10
Speaker 1: a result, he wasn't drafted. Thaddius eventually signed with a
4:14
Speaker 1: Washington football team, but spent his rookie year on the
4:17
Speaker 1: injured list. When Washington let him go in April, the
4:20
Speaker 1: Bengals pounced and claimed Moss off waivers. I spoke to
4:25
Speaker 1: him this week, fattis, what was your reaction to being
4:28
Speaker 1: acquired by the Bengals and being reunited with your college quarterback,
4:32
Speaker 1: Joe burrow Man. Just felt good, just felt good. You know,
4:35
Speaker 1: Cincinnati is somewhere where I wanted to be coming out
4:38
Speaker 1: of the draft originally, you know, and it just feels
4:41
Speaker 1: good to be somewhere where I'm wanted, you know, or
4:45
Speaker 1: be around some familiar faces. Describe your connection with Joe,
4:50
Speaker 1: because I've read that you worked with him quite a
4:52
Speaker 1: bit when you were coming back from your foot injury
4:54
Speaker 1: back at LSU. Yeah. Well, I mean me and Joe
4:58
Speaker 1: both haven't work, you know, a really high work ethic.
5:01
Speaker 1: So I pretty much told him, whenever whenever it is
5:05
Speaker 1: that you're throwing, I don't care if it's you know,
5:07
Speaker 1: just whenever it isn't you're throwing to hit me up.
5:09
Speaker 1: So me and him, you know, we're we're working together
5:12
Speaker 1: pretty much every single weekend. Um, And I told him
5:16
Speaker 1: the same which I told him the same thing when
5:17
Speaker 1: it comes to film as well. Anytime you're watching film,
5:19
Speaker 1: let me know I'm trying to be with you, you know,
5:21
Speaker 1: through everything. Get that relationship down and get that chemistry down.
5:26
Speaker 1: Sounds like you feel like you two guys are very
5:29
Speaker 1: like minded. I would like to think so. Um, you know,
5:33
Speaker 1: me and Joe are good friends off the football field
5:36
Speaker 1: as well. But I like to think that we are
5:40
Speaker 1: like minded and that's that's that's probably why we're such
5:42
Speaker 1: good friends. We are chatting with Bengals tight end Thaddius Moss.
5:46
Speaker 1: People are joking that the Cincinnati Bengals are becoming the
5:50
Speaker 1: Bayou Bengals with this LSU connection between you and Joe
5:54
Speaker 1: and two members of the rookie class, Jamar Chase and
5:57
Speaker 1: Tyler Shelvin. That's four guys from the two us A
6:00
Speaker 1: nineteen national championship team. What do you think of having
6:04
Speaker 1: this quartet of LSU Tigers out in the Bengals? Now?
6:08
Speaker 1: I think you can't go wrong getting as many LSU
6:11
Speaker 1: players as you can on your football team. Um, you know. So,
6:15
Speaker 1: so hopefully in this next draft, in this upcoming draft
6:17
Speaker 1: next year, we grab some more some more LSU players.
6:21
Speaker 1: But now it definitely feels good, like I said, to
6:24
Speaker 1: be around some familiar faces. Um, you know, I know
6:26
Speaker 1: everybody's work ethic, um, you know, and everybody going into
6:30
Speaker 1: this thing. So it's definitely gonna be some good outcomes,
6:33
Speaker 1: you know, with us being together. The last time we
6:36
Speaker 1: saw you in action, you caught a pair of touchdown
6:39
Speaker 1: passes in the national championship win over Clemson, and you
6:42
Speaker 1: set the LSU record for receptions by a tight end
6:45
Speaker 1: that season. What stands out to you about that great
6:48
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen season. I mean, I don't it all still
6:54
Speaker 1: looking back on it at all, where it feels like
6:56
Speaker 1: a dream, from the first game all the way to
6:58
Speaker 1: the championship game. But probably what stands out to me
7:00
Speaker 1: is just a relationship with the players and just how close,
7:03
Speaker 1: just how closely were as a football team. You know,
7:06
Speaker 1: like we were just really close with each other on
7:08
Speaker 1: the field. Off the field, you know, we all still
7:10
Speaker 1: stay in contact, but probably just how I just probably
7:13
Speaker 1: just how close to the football team it was, and
7:16
Speaker 1: you know we were just rolling that year. You had
7:19
Speaker 1: an excellent year catching the ball, but it sounds like
7:22
Speaker 1: you also blocked extremely well. Can you talk about that
7:25
Speaker 1: side of your skill set as a tight end. Yes, well,
7:29
Speaker 1: I like to be well rounded. When I first got
7:33
Speaker 1: to LSU, the word about me was that all I
7:36
Speaker 1: wanted to do was run routes and I didn't want
7:38
Speaker 1: to block. Sou you know, I like to think of
7:41
Speaker 1: myself as a well rounded tight end. U You know,
7:44
Speaker 1: I can do do whatever it is that you need
7:46
Speaker 1: me to do, if it's plays in a passing game,
7:48
Speaker 1: if it's blocking in the run game or blocking in
7:50
Speaker 1: the past game. You know, I'm I like to think
7:53
Speaker 1: that I can do it all, which is what I
7:54
Speaker 1: think a tight end should be able to do. A
7:56
Speaker 1: tight end should be able to do everything that it
7:58
Speaker 1: is the coach ask for them to do. And that's
8:00
Speaker 1: how that's how I like to look at myself. We're
8:02
Speaker 1: chatting with Thaddius Moss. Your rookie year last year was
8:06
Speaker 1: impacted by injury. What happened? And how are you doing now?
8:11
Speaker 1: I had the surgery coming off of coming out of
8:13
Speaker 1: the combine. You know, I had had another at a
8:15
Speaker 1: fracture in my foot. Uh you know I didn't know
8:18
Speaker 1: about that. I played with you know the whole season,
8:21
Speaker 1: the whole championship season that I didn't know about. So, um,
8:24
Speaker 1: you know I had to get that fixed. And um,
8:27
Speaker 1: just with with COVID and everything the world getting shut down,
8:30
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to fully rehabit how I needed to
8:32
Speaker 1: with everything getting shut down and um, you know, so
8:37
Speaker 1: I was put on IR all year. Uh you know
8:39
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to really I couldn't even get a
8:41
Speaker 1: few I didn't even get some practices in. So but
8:44
Speaker 1: how I'm feeling now, I feel great, man, This is
8:46
Speaker 1: the best I felt since before any of the injuries. Um.
8:49
Speaker 1: You know, I put a lot of work in and
8:50
Speaker 1: get back to this, get back to this point, um,
8:53
Speaker 1: you know. And I feel good about myself and where
8:55
Speaker 1: I'm at right now with my body, and I'm really
8:57
Speaker 1: looking forward. Um you know, I'm really looking forward to
8:59
Speaker 1: what the future Holes and Cincinnati for me. Foot injuries
9:03
Speaker 1: are obviously a serious thing, and I know you had
9:05
Speaker 1: surgery a couple of times that LSU might last year
9:08
Speaker 1: have been a blessing in disguise, just giving it a
9:11
Speaker 1: year to rest and recover. I mean, it can be
9:14
Speaker 1: looked at it like that. Yeah, I definitely took the
9:17
Speaker 1: year was definitely helpful, and I was able to take
9:19
Speaker 1: a step back and look at my body, listening to
9:21
Speaker 1: my body and work on it. Um you know. But
9:25
Speaker 1: I don't I don't. I don't want to look. I
9:27
Speaker 1: don't like looking at that as a blessing in disguise,
9:29
Speaker 1: because nothing about it was a blessing. Yeah, but no,
9:33
Speaker 1: I'd like to say I definitely took advantage of last year,
9:35
Speaker 1: and like I said, I'm looking forward to I'm looking
9:38
Speaker 1: forward to this year and you know, taking it day
9:40
Speaker 1: by day. The Bengals have a young tight end room,
9:44
Speaker 1: with the exception of seven year vet C j Uzama.
9:47
Speaker 1: How much contact have you had with your fellow tight
9:49
Speaker 1: ends I've had. I mean, I wouldn't say a lot
9:53
Speaker 1: of a lot of contact, but I've talked to almost
9:55
Speaker 1: everybody I've talked to. I've talked to him a good bit. U. Yeah,
10:00
Speaker 1: I mean I talked to him a good But it's
10:01
Speaker 1: a good it's a good group of it's a good,
10:03
Speaker 1: good tight end room, good group of guys. Uh, you know,
10:06
Speaker 1: with James Casey being a position coach, a great guy, um,
10:10
Speaker 1: you know, and they're all just good guys in tight
10:11
Speaker 1: end room, really helpful, um, you know, really just down
10:15
Speaker 1: to earth guys. And uh, it's gonna be a fun
10:17
Speaker 1: year working with him. With with those guys, James Casey
10:20
Speaker 1: is an interesting guy. Former professional baseball player, former NFL
10:23
Speaker 1: football player, and a young guy. He almost looks like
10:26
Speaker 1: he could still play. Are you looking forward to learning
10:29
Speaker 1: from him? I am looking forward to him coming out
10:33
Speaker 1: of the combine. Originally, UM, I thought me and me
10:36
Speaker 1: and Coach Casey had a really good relationship just from
10:38
Speaker 1: the conversations that we've had um. But now definitely I'm
10:42
Speaker 1: looking forward to working with him and learning from him,
10:44
Speaker 1: and you know, just getting in there day in day
10:46
Speaker 1: out with him and you know, hearing what he has
10:48
Speaker 1: to say and applying it, you know, because he's he's
10:51
Speaker 1: been there and done it himself. And also it's it's
10:53
Speaker 1: it's fresh. You know, he was just he was just
10:55
Speaker 1: playing not too long ago, so he definitely has some
10:58
Speaker 1: experiences that I want I'm looking forward to pulling from.
11:01
Speaker 1: Daddy Is. I don't even know if you're aware of this,
11:03
Speaker 1: but the Bengals have had a lot of great players
11:06
Speaker 1: in recent years who went undrafted. Vantes Perfect, Alex ericson
11:11
Speaker 1: Vinny Ray just to name a few. I know those
11:14
Speaker 1: guys played with a chip on their shoulder as a result.
11:17
Speaker 1: Do you have the same chip. Absolutely already already have
11:21
Speaker 1: a chip on my shoulder. I've already had a chip
11:23
Speaker 1: on my should in my whole life from my last name.
11:25
Speaker 1: And you know, being undrafted was definitely I felt like
11:29
Speaker 1: it was disrespecting to slap in the face, So definitely
11:32
Speaker 1: playing with a chip on my shoulder. This is a
11:35
Speaker 1: bigger chip on my shoulder, you know, to prove everybody wrong,
11:37
Speaker 1: improve myself right, and you know, definitely definitely a chip
11:42
Speaker 1: on my shoulder. I'm just looking forward to getting out there.
11:43
Speaker 1: I'm playing ball. Man. You mentioned your last name. Your dad,
11:47
Speaker 1: Randy is one of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history.
11:50
Speaker 1: You helped unveil his bust when he went into the
11:52
Speaker 1: Pro Football Hall of Fame in twenty eighteen. How has
11:56
Speaker 1: that impacted your football life? It's brought more attention, you know,
12:01
Speaker 1: it's brought more attention to me. Um. Some most of
12:04
Speaker 1: it's been on wanted because I could care less about
12:06
Speaker 1: the attention. Man, I just want to play football. Um So,
12:08
Speaker 1: definitely it's brought more attention and more eyes on me. Yeah,
12:13
Speaker 1: it's had its perks, but it definitely had its downs
12:15
Speaker 1: and its negatives. But just having him in my corner,
12:19
Speaker 1: you know, being able to rely on him, hearing what
12:21
Speaker 1: he has to say about everything because he's been through
12:23
Speaker 1: so much, has definitely being been helpful. A couple more
12:26
Speaker 1: questions for Bengals tight end Thaddius Moss. You played your
12:29
Speaker 1: freshman year of High School in Northern Kentucky at Boone County.
12:33
Speaker 1: How long did you live in the Cincinnati area and
12:36
Speaker 1: does it make it a little bit easier to join
12:38
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati franchise having spent some time around here? Yes, Um,
12:43
Speaker 1: I think I lived here about six years in northern Kentucky.
12:48
Speaker 1: You know that it definitely does make it a little
12:50
Speaker 1: bit easier. On top of coming coming into a football
12:53
Speaker 1: team where I have some familiar faces, but to an
12:55
Speaker 1: area that I know pretty well, you know, and I
12:58
Speaker 1: still have some family out here. So just being out
13:01
Speaker 1: here in a familiar place with some familiar face, it
13:03
Speaker 1: definitely makes the transition a whole lot easier. Did you
13:06
Speaker 1: follow the Bengals at all or attend any games during
13:09
Speaker 1: that six year period? Um, I mean I followed the Bengals.
13:13
Speaker 1: I would say I was a Bengals fan, but I
13:15
Speaker 1: think I came to me. I came to two football games,
13:20
Speaker 1: and I know one of them was when my when
13:21
Speaker 1: the Patriots played the Bengals. But I think I came
13:23
Speaker 1: to two football games and followed them a little bit.
13:27
Speaker 1: I followed him a good bit. I should not say,
13:29
Speaker 1: all right, last thing I see you've been assigned or
13:33
Speaker 1: chosen the number eighty one. That was the number your
13:36
Speaker 1: dad wore with the Patriots when he set the NFL
13:38
Speaker 1: record for touchdown catches in a season. Did you choose
13:41
Speaker 1: it or was it just handed to you? Well, it
13:45
Speaker 1: was handed to me, And I mean I was a
13:47
Speaker 1: number that I wore in college, you know, that's my number.
13:51
Speaker 1: I wouldn't really say I picked it based off those
13:54
Speaker 1: my father and what he's done wearing that number. You know,
13:58
Speaker 1: I just thought any one looked good on me. That's
14:00
Speaker 1: what I'm rocking with. But I handed it to me,
14:03
Speaker 1: you know, from the team, and I'm you know, I
14:06
Speaker 1: was pretty I was pretty happy to get that number,
14:08
Speaker 1: you know, considered as my college numbers as well. Well.
14:11
Speaker 1: The team obviously saw a lot of footage of you
14:13
Speaker 1: excelling in that number at LSU, and I know the
14:15
Speaker 1: Bengals are delighted to have you on the roster. Welcome
14:18
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati and I really appreciate your time. Thanks absolutely,
14:22
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by
14:26
Speaker 1: Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint
14:30
Speaker 1: of fruit flavor. Over the past month or so, the
14:32
Speaker 1: players from twenty one NFL teams have released statements saying
14:36
Speaker 1: they intend to skip voluntary spring practices, better known as
14:40
Speaker 1: OTAs or organized team activities. The Players Union actively encouraged
14:46
Speaker 1: its members not to attend, citing the reduction of injuries
14:50
Speaker 1: after everything was done virtually in the off season last year.
14:53
Speaker 1: But when the Bengals held their first OTA practice on Tuesday,
14:57
Speaker 1: attendance was perfect. Players Association Rep Jesse Bates reached out
15:01
Speaker 1: to the other influential veterans on the club and they
15:04
Speaker 1: came to the conclusion that after winning just four games
15:07
Speaker 1: last year, the players need to take advantage of every
15:10
Speaker 1: opportunity to get better. It certainly speaks to the character
15:14
Speaker 1: of the players in the Bengals locker room. Dave Lapham
15:17
Speaker 1: and I attended Tuesday's practice and shared some observations when
15:21
Speaker 1: it was finished. Lap the big story on the first
15:24
Speaker 1: day of OTAs was, obviously Joe Burrow. Not only was
15:27
Speaker 1: he out there, but he was very active at practice.
15:30
Speaker 1: He wasn't running and wasn't rolling out from left to right,
15:33
Speaker 1: but he was throwing and taking part and in virtually
15:35
Speaker 1: every drill. Yeah, he was, And he said after practice
15:39
Speaker 1: he feels like he's eighty five percent. It looked it
15:42
Speaker 1: looked even maybe even better than that. I didn't notice
15:45
Speaker 1: any hitch steps, any false steps. I didn't notice anything,
15:49
Speaker 1: you know, different in his footworkers mechanics. I thought, I
15:53
Speaker 1: thought he did really well. And you know, when you
15:55
Speaker 1: think about it, it's like, all right, which one would
15:57
Speaker 1: be the better knee for a quarterback the left knee
15:59
Speaker 1: of the right knee. The right knee would be you know,
16:02
Speaker 1: that's where you're you're planting and then pushing off. So
16:06
Speaker 1: is that the tougher to come back from or is
16:07
Speaker 1: it the left ny where you're following through and you're,
16:10
Speaker 1: you know, you're torking and contorting a little bit. I
16:13
Speaker 1: think there's like six and one half dozen another there.
16:16
Speaker 1: So I think the fact that he is where he
16:18
Speaker 1: is is pretty impressive. If it was the arm, you
16:21
Speaker 1: definitely want it to be the left, no noubt. It
16:24
Speaker 1: was interesting hearing from head coach Zach Taylor after the
16:26
Speaker 1: first OTA practice talk about how cautious they are being
16:30
Speaker 1: with Joe at practice, to the point that when they
16:33
Speaker 1: were doing passing plays they didn't even have Joe Mixon
16:36
Speaker 1: line up in the backfield by him, just in case
16:40
Speaker 1: they accidentally collided or there was a fumbled snap that
16:43
Speaker 1: led to a collision. They want to make sure that
16:45
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow is standing alone back there at all times. Absolutely,
16:49
Speaker 1: caution is everything, and he is going to be operating
16:53
Speaker 1: from the empty backfield. Look, I mean, if there's a
16:56
Speaker 1: back or a receiver initially lined up there, they're going
16:59
Speaker 1: to motion out of there and give him all the
17:01
Speaker 1: real estate that they can. And yeah, you would hate
17:05
Speaker 1: to see like him trip on a ball, step on
17:08
Speaker 1: a ball, step on a guy's foot. You know, if
17:11
Speaker 1: there's in live action a lineman gets bull rushed back
17:14
Speaker 1: to the quarterback, you know, a defensive lineman and bull
17:16
Speaker 1: rush to an offensive lineman that led to the initial
17:18
Speaker 1: injury and through his body in and his body into
17:21
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow's knee. So at practice, even if there's a
17:23
Speaker 1: bull rush and the quarterback is he's making his stride
17:26
Speaker 1: step steps on one of those players foot and you know,
17:29
Speaker 1: now all of a sudden you have a different and
17:32
Speaker 1: uneven landing spot for the quarterback's footneck can obviously affect
17:35
Speaker 1: the knee. So I think they're gonna be extremely careful
17:39
Speaker 1: with him all through training camp. It's going to be
17:41
Speaker 1: interesting Dan to see if he does take snaps. He
17:44
Speaker 1: verbalized that he'd like to potentially take some preseason snaps,
17:47
Speaker 1: and I can understand that you don't knock off the
17:49
Speaker 1: dust and rust and cobwebs, but you weigh that against
17:53
Speaker 1: things we're talking about, I'm not sure. I mean, Mike
17:56
Speaker 1: Brown and the organization and the coaching staff, they're gonna
17:59
Speaker 1: have some long time about that. I'm sure the goal
18:01
Speaker 1: all along is to be ready for Week one against
18:04
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings. And even though Joe raised the possibility
18:07
Speaker 1: of maybe getting in a few snaps in the preseason,
18:10
Speaker 1: as you just mentioned, I can't see it. I just
18:12
Speaker 1: don't buy the notion that Mike Brown and Zach Taylor
18:16
Speaker 1: are going to say, yeah, go ahead, take three series. Yeah.
18:19
Speaker 1: I agree with that, and I think that it will
18:21
Speaker 1: make it all the more difficult for Joe in the
18:23
Speaker 1: opener against Mike Zimmer, one of the more accomplished defensive
18:28
Speaker 1: coordinators in the National Football League now the head coach
18:31
Speaker 1: with Minnesota Vikings. But his thumb print and all four
18:34
Speaker 1: finger prints are all of that defense. So he's going
18:37
Speaker 1: to make life as tough as he possibly can for
18:40
Speaker 1: not only Joe, Burrow, but the offensive line from recognition standpoint,
18:44
Speaker 1: Joe from a recognition standpoint, and try to cause some confusion,
18:47
Speaker 1: get some free runners and things of that nature. So
18:51
Speaker 1: guys are going to have to really be on their
18:52
Speaker 1: game mentally and physically against a guy like Mike Zimmer
18:56
Speaker 1: who will be game planning and scheming against them. So
18:58
Speaker 1: if you are a starting line right now and Joe
19:01
Speaker 1: Burrow as your quarterback, how excited would you have been
19:03
Speaker 1: today to see him out there after what took place
19:07
Speaker 1: in the tenth game last year. Yeah, I definitely would
19:09
Speaker 1: have been juiced up. You know, there's no question about it.
19:11
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, the guy that I think probably
19:15
Speaker 1: felt the best about it as Michael Jordan because he's
19:18
Speaker 1: the one that obviously got taken advantage of physically on
19:21
Speaker 1: that play, and it looks like he really made a
19:25
Speaker 1: concerted effort to drop some tonnage in the offseason. I mean,
19:28
Speaker 1: he's in much better shape. He's a different looking body
19:31
Speaker 1: out there, So I think he realizes that he's in
19:34
Speaker 1: a fight for his life, you know, for not only
19:36
Speaker 1: a starting spot, but a roster spot. And I think he's,
19:40
Speaker 1: you know, showing some signs right away that I understand
19:43
Speaker 1: where I am, I understand what I have to do,
19:46
Speaker 1: and I think early indications are maybe that he's, you know,
19:50
Speaker 1: he's he's making some changes. So I think all of
19:52
Speaker 1: that's good. And if I'm an offensive lineman, and having
19:56
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow in the huddle, like Zach said, you know,
19:58
Speaker 1: Riley Reef and some of these guys will never heard
20:00
Speaker 1: you know, Joe Joe Burrow communicate in the huddle. So
20:04
Speaker 1: all of that I think is a factor. And Dan,
20:07
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, you can zoom all you want
20:09
Speaker 1: until you right next to a guy, look a guy
20:10
Speaker 1: in the eye, shake his hand. You know, you don't
20:12
Speaker 1: know exactly what you have for a teammate, you know.
20:15
Speaker 1: And I think all of that, all those intangibles are
20:18
Speaker 1: hugely significant for Joe Barrow to want to be as
20:22
Speaker 1: a part of as much of it as he possibly can.
20:24
Speaker 1: I think speaks volumes that we already knew about Joe Burrow.
20:27
Speaker 1: I mean, he's the real deal. He understands who he is,
20:31
Speaker 1: how important he is. He has tremendous people skills. He's
20:35
Speaker 1: a special dude. They don't update weights on the roster
20:39
Speaker 1: and OTAs, and they're not always all that accurate anyway,
20:42
Speaker 1: But I'd be interested to know how Michael Jordan compares
20:45
Speaker 1: to a year ago. He looked fifteen pounds lighter, to
20:48
Speaker 1: make I agree, fifteen maybe twenty somewhere in there wouldn't
20:52
Speaker 1: surprise me whatsoever. And and I think on a day
20:55
Speaker 1: like today where it was, you know, the heat index
20:57
Speaker 1: was up there a little bit, I think he was
21:00
Speaker 1: bounce around the field pretty well. You know. I noticed
21:03
Speaker 1: he had a lot of energy, of a lot of
21:04
Speaker 1: pep and his step and so I think he's again
21:07
Speaker 1: trying to turn the page and open up a new
21:10
Speaker 1: chapter in his career. And talking about teammates being excited
21:13
Speaker 1: about Burrow being out there practicing. I thought it was
21:15
Speaker 1: amusing to hear from Jesse Bates that he was excited
21:18
Speaker 1: just to see Joe Burrow high stepping when they first
21:20
Speaker 1: go out. Something that simple meant something to his teammates. Yeah,
21:25
Speaker 1: that's it's absolutely true. And uh, and I noticed the
21:28
Speaker 1: same thing. You know, when you're doing the little uh
21:30
Speaker 1: skip hop steps, you know that they're due. Just in
21:32
Speaker 1: some of the drills, he went through everything. He didn't
21:35
Speaker 1: take himself out of any of the movement things. And
21:39
Speaker 1: you know, Calistanics all of it, and it's all it's
21:41
Speaker 1: all meaningful. So I think the fact that he participated
21:45
Speaker 1: in every single aspect of it was significant. The thing
21:49
Speaker 1: I did notice Dand though the Bengals had great attendants,
21:52
Speaker 1: obviously one hundred percent attendants at this and not other
21:54
Speaker 1: teams in the league can make that claim. But I
21:57
Speaker 1: do think that that there's been an agreement that it's
22:01
Speaker 1: going to be very, very minimal. They didn't even run
22:03
Speaker 1: any offense against defense, and I remember every OTA their
22:07
Speaker 1: very first workout of OTAs at the end team drill
22:10
Speaker 1: was run and they ran offense against defense and they
22:13
Speaker 1: plays they didn't, So I think I think they're they're
22:17
Speaker 1: scaling everything back. Okay, if you show up to mini camp,
22:20
Speaker 1: make sure you don't do anything or do less of
22:24
Speaker 1: where injuries might occur. If you're in team eleven eleven
22:28
Speaker 1: and you're playing bump and run, you have hands on people,
22:31
Speaker 1: and people get tangled up in a pile. If you
22:33
Speaker 1: run an inside run play, even though it's not full
22:35
Speaker 1: of contact, there's a lot of feet and a lot
22:37
Speaker 1: of bodies around each other, and guys can get caught
22:40
Speaker 1: in compromising positions and bend the wrong way with an
22:43
Speaker 1: ankle or a knee or whatever. So I think that
22:45
Speaker 1: there's been some sort of an unwritten agreement as such
22:48
Speaker 1: that Okay, if you go through OTAs, you're gonna maybe
22:52
Speaker 1: at the very end the last week of OTAs, you
22:54
Speaker 1: might be able to run some team But it sounds
22:56
Speaker 1: like they're not going to run any team drills all
22:58
Speaker 1: this week and maybe to next week. I think that's
23:01
Speaker 1: by design. I don't think that's an accident. Well, let's
23:03
Speaker 1: talk about attendance, because that was the other big story
23:06
Speaker 1: on Day one. We've seen players from other teams say
23:09
Speaker 1: that they planned to skip the OTAs, And I'm trying
23:11
Speaker 1: to picture what this practice looked like in other cities.
23:15
Speaker 1: Were they doing it with twenty guys out there, twenty
23:18
Speaker 1: five guys out there instead of nearly one hundred. Yeah,
23:20
Speaker 1: I mean you look at it. If you've only if
23:22
Speaker 1: you only had seven draft picks, if you didn't sign
23:26
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen free agents at different positions, you couldn't
23:29
Speaker 1: run team drill anyway. So yeah, I mean it's interesting.
23:33
Speaker 1: I think in other places it might have looked like
23:35
Speaker 1: the rookie Minnie camp that we watched it last week
23:38
Speaker 1: and that's probably about it. You know, the rookies are
23:41
Speaker 1: going to show up. The rookies are like, uh no,
23:43
Speaker 1: don't don't expect me not to. I can't honor your
23:46
Speaker 1: union request because I'm not a member of the union.
23:49
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make the football team first and foremost.
23:51
Speaker 1: And I remember, I remember that, you know when I
23:55
Speaker 1: when I was a rookie, there was a work stoppage
23:57
Speaker 1: and and man it was tough. Well, you know, rookie,
24:00
Speaker 1: a rookie, you're you're crossing the picket lines. Future teammates
24:03
Speaker 1: are walking the picket lines, and you're you know, you're
24:06
Speaker 1: going in there to go to practice, and they're looking
24:08
Speaker 1: to lay. Hey, rook you know we'll be catching up
24:10
Speaker 1: with you. Look forward to seenior on the practice field.
24:13
Speaker 1: You know it's going to be interesting, you know. But
24:15
Speaker 1: so it was a real interesting dynamic there, and I
24:18
Speaker 1: don't I don't kind of wish that on anybody, for
24:20
Speaker 1: sure of it. It is interesting how it might look
24:22
Speaker 1: around the league. And I did ask DJ reader the question,
24:25
Speaker 1: why did you think it was important for everybody to
24:26
Speaker 1: show up for OTAs? And he said, because we went
24:29
Speaker 1: four and twelve last year, which is actually worse than
24:32
Speaker 1: they were four eleven and one. The tie against the
24:34
Speaker 1: Eagles gets no respect, But that's it. In the nutshell,
24:37
Speaker 1: these guys are sick of being bad and if a
24:39
Speaker 1: few practices in the offseason might make the difference and
24:42
Speaker 1: winning a few more games, they're going to show up
24:44
Speaker 1: and then try to get it done. Yeah. I mean,
24:46
Speaker 1: I think the guys who were part of last year's
24:48
Speaker 1: football team. You know, look, okay, we stunk. We didn't
24:52
Speaker 1: get it done. We were nowhere near where we wanted
24:54
Speaker 1: to be. Now we have all these new players and
24:56
Speaker 1: new additions, and we need We got a lot of
24:59
Speaker 1: work to do. You know, we have a bunch of
25:01
Speaker 1: new faces. We want to make sure that we're on
25:03
Speaker 1: the same page. The only way to get better is
25:06
Speaker 1: to take reps together. Repetition breeds comfort level of the
25:10
Speaker 1: guy next to you and how you feel comfortable working
25:12
Speaker 1: with him next to him, And there's there's no replacement
25:16
Speaker 1: for repetitions. I mean, you can talk about it till
25:18
Speaker 1: you're blue in the face, but you get off there
25:20
Speaker 1: on the field. Man, it's a different world out there,
25:22
Speaker 1: and you have to you have to actually go through it.
25:25
Speaker 1: Get the muscle memory and repetition breeds comfort level, and
25:29
Speaker 1: they want to start that as quickly as they possibly can.
25:31
Speaker 1: The other thing I wrote down of note from day
25:33
Speaker 1: one of OTA's was the starting offensive line from left
25:36
Speaker 1: to right, Jonah Williams, Quentin Spain, Billy Price, Xaviers to
25:40
Speaker 1: A Philo and Riley Reef. Obviously, we shouldn't read too
25:43
Speaker 1: much into this. Trey Hopkins isn't fully cleared yet coming
25:47
Speaker 1: back from his torn acl He was observing, and Jackson
25:50
Speaker 1: Carmen's going to be given every chance to win one
25:53
Speaker 1: of the starting guard spots. But do you read anything
25:57
Speaker 1: into Quinton Spain lining up as the left guard, Xavier
26:02
Speaker 1: Sue Philo lining up as the right guard. You know,
26:04
Speaker 1: I mean they're they're the veterans, They've they've got the experience. Uh,
26:08
Speaker 1: you know, I think a lot of it is overall
26:10
Speaker 1: experience levels. Um, it's it's a there's there's a lot
26:14
Speaker 1: of youth in that in that group, and there's a
26:16
Speaker 1: lot of youth in the in the In the next
26:18
Speaker 1: group that lined up, uh Deante Smith lined up at
26:21
Speaker 1: left tackle with the number two is Michael Jordan lined
26:23
Speaker 1: up at left guard. Uh Sutherland lined up at center,
26:26
Speaker 1: which was a little bit of a surprise to me
26:28
Speaker 1: with the number two's identity lined up at guard and
26:31
Speaker 1: Prince lined up at right tackle with the number twos,
26:33
Speaker 1: and you still you know, you still have other It's
26:36
Speaker 1: it's a full full boat in terms of bodies, so
26:39
Speaker 1: you still have other players. Trey Hill obviously got snaps
26:42
Speaker 1: at center as well, but he was the number three
26:45
Speaker 1: center today and I don't think that's the projection for him.
26:48
Speaker 1: But I think you have to start somewhere, So I
26:51
Speaker 1: think a lot of it is just years service, experience
26:54
Speaker 1: with the organization, those kind of things. All Right, We've
26:57
Speaker 1: got a bunch of ask Lap questions that were submitted
26:59
Speaker 1: via Twitter this week. The first one comes from Steven
27:03
Speaker 1: what offensive line to make up the best starting five? Yeah,
27:07
Speaker 1: that's certainly to be determined, and you know some of
27:09
Speaker 1: it is injury related. Obviously. Trey Hopkins is the best
27:12
Speaker 1: center if healthy, but Billy Price is the guy that
27:15
Speaker 1: lined up to start OTAs at the center position. I
27:18
Speaker 1: think the tackle spots Riley Reef, I think he'll probably
27:23
Speaker 1: line up at the right tackle position, Jonah Williams at
27:25
Speaker 1: left tackle, but then you look at the guard spots.
27:28
Speaker 1: I mean it's wide open and it's anybody's ball game
27:31
Speaker 1: in there. And he lined up a couple of veterans,
27:34
Speaker 1: the s Brothers Spain and Sue a. Philo, because of
27:37
Speaker 1: their NFL experience and experience in the Bengals organization, I think,
27:41
Speaker 1: but but anybody really, I mean, it's it's a clean slate.
27:44
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what you did in the past. Frank
27:47
Speaker 1: Pollock is looking for his five best players. And the
27:50
Speaker 1: interesting thing that they do have, Dan, it's there's a
27:52
Speaker 1: lot of bodies in that in that offensive line room,
27:55
Speaker 1: for sure, and a lot of them have position versatility.
27:58
Speaker 1: And as many as seven these guys have lined up
28:01
Speaker 1: at the tackle position. So the fact that you've got
28:04
Speaker 1: that many guys that could, in a pinch, you know,
28:07
Speaker 1: line up out there, I think it could get very,
28:08
Speaker 1: very competitive because you're only going to keep seven to
28:11
Speaker 1: nine of them, probably eight or nine guys. And if
28:13
Speaker 1: you have guys that can play center, guard or tackle
28:16
Speaker 1: in today's National Football League, that's extremely valuable. And Frank
28:21
Speaker 1: Pollock is going to have an interesting process to decide
28:24
Speaker 1: what's the best five to throw out there. All right,
28:26
Speaker 1: we have a good follow up question based on that answer.
28:29
Speaker 1: This comes from Ben coverte Ken Hakima Dentagy steal the
28:34
Speaker 1: left guard spot. I think he can. I think he's
28:36
Speaker 1: got the ability. They lined them up as a second
28:38
Speaker 1: right guard today. He was in there behind Sue Filu
28:43
Speaker 1: at the right guard position. But you know, right and left,
28:45
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter in today's NFL again with the
28:48
Speaker 1: position versatility we're talking about. And I think he does
28:51
Speaker 1: have the skill set. I think he has defeat and
28:54
Speaker 1: I think he has the hand placement ability. And you know,
28:58
Speaker 1: if you can play tackle, usually you can slide inside
29:01
Speaker 1: the guard, and he has played quite a bit of
29:04
Speaker 1: tackle in his football career. So I think if he
29:08
Speaker 1: shows the athletic you know, that fits him athletically, and
29:11
Speaker 1: he's one of the five best players in Frank Pollock's mind,
29:15
Speaker 1: He's going to line him up at one of those
29:16
Speaker 1: guard spots. There's no doubt about it. I think that
29:18
Speaker 1: he definitely should be in the mix, and I think
29:21
Speaker 1: he is. Let's stick with the offensive line. Brian and
29:24
Speaker 1: Greg essentially asks the same question, should the Bengals sign
29:28
Speaker 1: recently released Washington Football team offensive tackle Morgan Moses. You know,
29:35
Speaker 1: I think the economics of it, or maybe the what's
29:40
Speaker 1: holding Morgan Moses back from signing anywhere right now, the
29:44
Speaker 1: June first or June second, whatever it is, when the
29:47
Speaker 1: salary cap changes, what kind of a hit that will
29:51
Speaker 1: be from a salary cap concern, All of those things
29:54
Speaker 1: into come into play, come into consideration. I would think
29:58
Speaker 1: that you're never not a valid waiting opportunities to get
30:01
Speaker 1: prospects to the offensive line. But can it fit? Can
30:04
Speaker 1: the economics work? Is the player? What's what's the medical
30:08
Speaker 1: on the player? Is there something that you know Joe
30:11
Speaker 1: Joe Q fan has no idea that that there's been
30:14
Speaker 1: an issue with Moses over the last couple of years.
30:17
Speaker 1: So all of those play a big part in the
30:20
Speaker 1: Trainers are usually very very honest with each other, you know,
30:23
Speaker 1: within the confines of the National Football League, they don't
30:26
Speaker 1: they don't really keep secrets from each other. In that regard,
30:29
Speaker 1: Bengalorean asks this question, what is your take on the
30:32
Speaker 1: linebacker corps? What do they need to do to not
30:36
Speaker 1: make linebacker a priority in next year's draft? Well, they
30:40
Speaker 1: drafted three of them in the not this past draft,
30:42
Speaker 1: but the draft before, and they like all of them.
30:45
Speaker 1: Um So I think that they're excited about their their
30:49
Speaker 1: linebacker corps, and usually from year one to year or two,
30:53
Speaker 1: there's a significant UH better understanding of the game, what's
30:58
Speaker 1: asked of you, how to X cute it and UH
31:01
Speaker 1: and fit within the scheme of the of the of
31:04
Speaker 1: the defensive coordinators mindset and putting his game plan together.
31:08
Speaker 1: So I think all of those factors are going to
31:10
Speaker 1: be UH an improvement for the linebacker corps in general
31:15
Speaker 1: and specifically with every single player. So I expect across
31:19
Speaker 1: the board linebacker play to improve. And you know, I
31:23
Speaker 1: think obviously Josh Bines was a guy that you know,
31:27
Speaker 1: it was almost like an assistant coach on the football field.
31:30
Speaker 1: Does he have anything left, you know, in terms of
31:35
Speaker 1: rubber on the tire to stay out there and give
31:39
Speaker 1: them a lot of snaps. But I do like the
31:41
Speaker 1: young athletic group of linebackers. I do think that they
31:46
Speaker 1: all love football. I think that's a big factor and
31:49
Speaker 1: I think they're going to perform well for the Bengals
31:51
Speaker 1: this year. I think they're gonna be a big, big
31:53
Speaker 1: reason for defensive improvement. As we know, Dan Bengs are
31:56
Speaker 1: going up more rushing yards than any team in the
31:58
Speaker 1: NFL over the last three years. Come line, and people
32:01
Speaker 1: are like, wow, they only had seventeen sacks, you know,
32:03
Speaker 1: amongst the worst in the league. You had to earn
32:05
Speaker 1: the right to be able to rush the passer. If
32:07
Speaker 1: you're if you're a sitting the running game, it's hard
32:10
Speaker 1: to get a pass rush. Man. I can speak from experience.
32:13
Speaker 1: If you're an offensive lineman, knowing you can run the ball,
32:16
Speaker 1: you don't even worry about pass protection. There's that's not
32:19
Speaker 1: even a concern. But if you can't move the ball
32:23
Speaker 1: on the ground, now you know you're gonna have a long,
32:25
Speaker 1: long day protecting your quarterback. Man Main Bengals has a
32:29
Speaker 1: question about the defense. We've seen glimpses of lou Anarrumo's
32:32
Speaker 1: d over the past couple of years, but various problems
32:35
Speaker 1: and injuries seem to have prevented it from blossoming. What
32:38
Speaker 1: can we expect from an Ana Rumo defense at full firepower? Yeah,
32:43
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's a It's a defense that has,
32:46
Speaker 1: you know, a multiplicity to it. They can they can
32:49
Speaker 1: morph from a four three to a three to four look.
32:52
Speaker 1: And that's why, like we talked about with position versatility
32:56
Speaker 1: with the offensive line, he looks for that type of
32:58
Speaker 1: thing with his with his d defensive players as well,
33:01
Speaker 1: Can the guy, uh you know, stop to run on
33:04
Speaker 1: the edge as well as rush the passer on the edge?
33:06
Speaker 1: Can can the guy drop back into coverage as well?
33:10
Speaker 1: I mean, can he provide you know, more than one
33:12
Speaker 1: or more than two things for your defensively And if
33:16
Speaker 1: that's the case, you can do a lot of things
33:18
Speaker 1: with a few players, because that's that's what Bill Belichick
33:21
Speaker 1: has done. Bill Belichick, in my mind, his defensive success
33:24
Speaker 1: over the years is he has found, you know, very
33:27
Speaker 1: very sound football players that have a good intelligence for
33:32
Speaker 1: the game of football, to have position versatility, and he
33:35
Speaker 1: can count on them to do multiple things and do
33:37
Speaker 1: them all the way they're supposed to be done, do
33:40
Speaker 1: it how your coach to do it. And I think
33:42
Speaker 1: now that lou an Umu feels like he's got a
33:45
Speaker 1: room full of that type of player that he's hand picked.
33:48
Speaker 1: Now over the last couple of drafts and free agents.
33:50
Speaker 1: They they spent dollars in free agency and used high
33:53
Speaker 1: draft picks, you know, to help them. So I'm excited
33:57
Speaker 1: to see the fit. You know what, lou Anna Rumo
34:00
Speaker 1: asks that these guys are they capable of doing and
34:03
Speaker 1: they better be, because you know they've been chosen to
34:06
Speaker 1: do so, and see what kind of fit that how
34:09
Speaker 1: that unfolds, and what the Bengals can do, because if
34:12
Speaker 1: the New England Patriots are so hard to prepare for,
34:16
Speaker 1: because even from one quarter to the next or one
34:19
Speaker 1: half to the next, they're running a totally different scheme
34:22
Speaker 1: against you, and you know that's at the highest level.
34:25
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying the Bengals defense is going to
34:27
Speaker 1: be that, but it'd be nice if all of a sudden,
34:29
Speaker 1: you know, you see the opposing offensive lineman going to
34:32
Speaker 1: the sideline taking the helmets, I'll scratching their head and
34:34
Speaker 1: the coach has got a grease board and he's frantically
34:36
Speaker 1: diagramming because they don't know what the hell's going on
34:38
Speaker 1: out there with respect to the scheme. And when you
34:43
Speaker 1: can run different schemes and not have to substitute players
34:46
Speaker 1: to do it, that's when you're living in high cotton.
34:49
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you make that New England comparison, because
34:51
Speaker 1: to me, that's the type of defense that lou Ana
34:53
Speaker 1: Rumo wants to be as opposed to a Baltimore blitzing
34:56
Speaker 1: every play forty five percent of the time. It's more
34:59
Speaker 1: of the England thought of every week, we are going
35:03
Speaker 1: to more for our defense to take away what you
35:05
Speaker 1: do best. They're gonna take away what you do best,
35:07
Speaker 1: and we're gonna make you uncomfortable mentally. We're gonna tax
35:10
Speaker 1: you mentally because we feel we've got to. We've got
35:13
Speaker 1: a superior football IQ collectively on the defensive side of
35:16
Speaker 1: the football. Then you have on the offensive side of football,
35:19
Speaker 1: particularly off front seven against your O line, and we're
35:22
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna raise hell with you. And I think
35:25
Speaker 1: that's what Those are two things that the Patriots do.
35:28
Speaker 1: The Patriots tax you mentally and and they do they
35:32
Speaker 1: do right then, and they say that's the guy we
35:35
Speaker 1: gotta take away, and come hell or high water, we're
35:37
Speaker 1: taking that guy away. Day. WU asks this question, why
35:41
Speaker 1: isn't Darius Phillips getting more of a chance. It seems
35:44
Speaker 1: like whenever he plays cornerback he's a turnover machine and
35:47
Speaker 1: on special teams he can be electric. I think consistency
35:51
Speaker 1: is his biggest uh. I guess the thing they're looking
35:54
Speaker 1: for him to improve upon, that's his achilles heel right
35:59
Speaker 1: now for him is is he will He probably has
36:03
Speaker 1: the best hands in the secondary and can make plays
36:06
Speaker 1: on the football as well as anybody in the secondary.
36:09
Speaker 1: But his snap to snap consistency of where he's supposed
36:12
Speaker 1: to be when he's supposed to be there, how he's
36:14
Speaker 1: supposed to do it from a technique standpoint, is not there.
36:19
Speaker 1: As much as other players and coaches trust smart players
36:23
Speaker 1: that know what they're doing every single snap. Like we
36:26
Speaker 1: just talked about with Bill Belichick, if you don't have
36:29
Speaker 1: football smarts, you're not playing for Bill Belichick. And in
36:33
Speaker 1: a lot of coaches and every coach in the National
36:35
Speaker 1: Football League or any level of football, they love smart players.
36:39
Speaker 1: You have confidence and feel good about having smart players
36:42
Speaker 1: on the football field. I would throw in staying healthy
36:45
Speaker 1: as well. He's had a need that's given him trouble
36:47
Speaker 1: since he's been in Cincinnati. Doesn't always practice, so he
36:49
Speaker 1: would be able to. He needs to be able to
36:51
Speaker 1: answer the bell week after week, practice after practice, game
36:55
Speaker 1: after game in order to get more snaps, no question
36:57
Speaker 1: about it. Dependability, reliability, all of the ability words definitely
37:02
Speaker 1: fit for him to get more snaps, no doubt. Here's
37:05
Speaker 1: a question from Nathan, where do you think the chances
37:08
Speaker 1: are bringing Geno Atkins back on a one year deal. Well,
37:11
Speaker 1: that's a that's a great question. I mean, I don't
37:13
Speaker 1: think you ever say never, particularly with the relationship that
37:17
Speaker 1: they have he has with the organization, the organization has
37:21
Speaker 1: with him. I'm sure again the June early June deadline,
37:25
Speaker 1: with the salary cap ramifications and all that is an
37:28
Speaker 1: impact with if in fact he's going to be invited
37:31
Speaker 1: to somebody's training camp. Do people in the league feel
37:35
Speaker 1: that he has any rubber left on the tire? He
37:39
Speaker 1: has had bad injury. You know, one of the more
37:43
Speaker 1: durable guys ever in the history of the Bengals in
37:46
Speaker 1: terms of the defensive lineman. But he's had his problems
37:49
Speaker 1: down the stretch here of his career and as he
37:51
Speaker 1: breaking down a little bit. That's the big question that
37:53
Speaker 1: people have. So it'll be interesting to see how many
37:57
Speaker 1: people are interested if there is any interest in Gino,
38:00
Speaker 1: and I would think the Bengals would at least maybe,
38:03
Speaker 1: you know, kick the tires one more time and see
38:05
Speaker 1: what Gino thinks. Uno Chase asks this, who has the
38:11
Speaker 1: inside track for backup slot receiver. They brought in Riley
38:15
Speaker 1: Lees and Trent Taylor and seem high on Trent and Irwin. Yeah,
38:19
Speaker 1: I mean Trent Taylor obviously has the NFL experience. I
38:24
Speaker 1: think we're looking at him as an Alex ericson clone
38:27
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So I think that he has the
38:31
Speaker 1: best chance of being active because he's his return abilities,
38:35
Speaker 1: his overall special team's abilities, he has five years of
38:38
Speaker 1: snaps in the National Football League. I think he's probably
38:41
Speaker 1: got the inside track in terms of taking the role
38:44
Speaker 1: of Alex Erickson. And I'm wondering if he's wearing the
38:48
Speaker 1: same place. I can remember if he's wearing eleven or twelve.
38:50
Speaker 1: He's wearing one of those two number He was eleven,
38:52
Speaker 1: he was eleven. Okay, I thought if he was wearing twelve,
38:54
Speaker 1: they were that was definitely the intent there. But yeah,
38:58
Speaker 1: I think he does have a shot. Riley Lees was
39:01
Speaker 1: wearing twelve. I noticed he does not wear gloves. What
39:04
Speaker 1: wide receiver in this day and age does not wear gloves. Well,
39:07
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, particularly when it gets you know a
39:09
Speaker 1: little bit a little bit snowy and icy, and now
39:12
Speaker 1: those fingers get really really cold and stiff. You know,
39:16
Speaker 1: your your your fingertips freeze. You can't even get a fingerprint.
39:19
Speaker 1: The FBI couldn't get a fingerprint off you out there
39:22
Speaker 1: after a game, and be interesting to see if that,
39:24
Speaker 1: if that mindset changes, he probably wears them when it
39:27
Speaker 1: gets cold. All right, from hitted straight. What would it
39:30
Speaker 1: mean to you to see the Bengals win a Super
39:32
Speaker 1: Bowl And do you risk realistically see it happening during
39:35
Speaker 1: your broadcasting career? Well, that's a that's a great question.
39:39
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to happen, you know, in
39:42
Speaker 1: the eighties. Got to the Super Bowl as a broadcaster
39:46
Speaker 1: in eighty eight and uh, you know, we want in
39:48
Speaker 1: eighty one and eighty one, eighty two season again in
39:51
Speaker 1: eighty eight eighty nine. I thought, man, this chance got
39:53
Speaker 1: there twice, you know, third times a charm. You got
39:56
Speaker 1: to get there a third time, I guess, you know,
39:59
Speaker 1: for that to be the charm. But back in the
40:01
Speaker 1: eighties I would have said, hell yeah, I think there's
40:04
Speaker 1: a great chance to experience a you know, a Super
40:07
Speaker 1: Bowl win as a broadcaster. Didn't get it done as
40:09
Speaker 1: a player, got there and obviously came up short, and
40:14
Speaker 1: you know, never really do you ever get over that,
40:17
Speaker 1: but it would be nice to get when as a broadcaster,
40:19
Speaker 1: Dan would I'd love to call a super Bowl winning
40:22
Speaker 1: performance with you. That would be awesome. Oh, it's going
40:24
Speaker 1: to happen. Trust me, it's going to happen. And here's
40:26
Speaker 1: why it's going to happen. I am not going to
40:28
Speaker 1: allow you to retire until that happens. Oh man, you
40:35
Speaker 1: may have to prop me up and slap me around
40:38
Speaker 1: now because it's happening in the Joe Burrow era. I said,
40:40
Speaker 1: you're not going to have to wait very long. All right.
40:42
Speaker 1: We'd like to end whenever possible with a couple of
40:44
Speaker 1: wild card questions that came in on ask Lap. The
40:49
Speaker 1: first one comes from Travis. What made you decide to
40:53
Speaker 1: do your own podcast? It's great, by the way. Oh
40:57
Speaker 1: I appreciate that, Travis. Yeah, it just had you know,
41:01
Speaker 1: just started thinking about, uh, you know something UM doing
41:05
Speaker 1: doing interviews with not just Bengals and football people, but
41:09
Speaker 1: just sports people in general, and UM in the city
41:12
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati that Cincinnati fans might have an interest in,
41:15
Speaker 1: and maybe sports figures outside of Cincinnati that has some
41:19
Speaker 1: sort of a Cincinnati connection. I just thought that might be, uh,
41:22
Speaker 1: might be fun to do. And first our logistics who
41:25
Speaker 1: I do some work with in the offseason. UM, they
41:29
Speaker 1: had an interest in and being a sponsor of the podcast.
41:32
Speaker 1: So they set up a beautiful studio for me over
41:35
Speaker 1: there at their at their location, and uh, it's been
41:38
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Um and really you learned something
41:42
Speaker 1: about these guys. It's something always comes up during the
41:45
Speaker 1: course of a half hour, forty five minute podcast that
41:47
Speaker 1: you didn't necessarily think you were going to be going
41:50
Speaker 1: down that road. I mean, you know all about it.
41:52
Speaker 1: You do a great job on podcasts, and it just um, yeah,
41:57
Speaker 1: I just I enjoy. I enjoy find and out not
42:01
Speaker 1: the unknown, but maybe the less known about people that
42:05
Speaker 1: are more high profile. You know, it's kind of interesting.
42:08
Speaker 1: Travis is right, it's awesome. I've listened to almost every
42:11
Speaker 1: episode that Kevin euclis one this week was great. If
42:14
Speaker 1: folks want to skip the Dan Horde episode, you were
42:18
Speaker 1: it was fun to do. It was fun to do.
42:20
Speaker 1: I just did uh Luke Fickle Monday and he was
42:25
Speaker 1: not good. He was great. I mean it was a
42:27
Speaker 1: good forty five fifty minutes and really some interesting stuff
42:31
Speaker 1: about Coach Fickle in there. I don't want to give
42:34
Speaker 1: anything away, but I think it's I think it's worth
42:36
Speaker 1: the listen. He's he's you know, he's he's special. That dude,
42:40
Speaker 1: he's he's got it together. Can't wait to listen. Even
42:42
Speaker 1: though I've talked to Luke a billion times. I'm sure
42:44
Speaker 1: just from the nature of having somebody different asked the questions,
42:47
Speaker 1: I'll learn something about him that I've never learned before.
42:50
Speaker 1: Final question comes from Governor Chief, what was your favorite
42:54
Speaker 1: postgame meal? My favorite post game meal? It didn't It
43:02
Speaker 1: didn't happen very often, But I'm predominantly I'm a beef guy.
43:06
Speaker 1: I love a good steak, but man, being from New England,
43:10
Speaker 1: if you find a good lobster, a good lobster tail
43:15
Speaker 1: can't beat it. And I like to tear a part
43:17
Speaker 1: of lobster. I'd like to order a whole lobster and
43:18
Speaker 1: just you know, get to get out of the tail
43:22
Speaker 1: to close the whole thing. And uh, my mother in law,
43:25
Speaker 1: God rest her soul. She got every bit of lobster
43:28
Speaker 1: meat there was to get in the lobster and then
43:31
Speaker 1: would make an unbelievable lobster salad. So I'd have to
43:35
Speaker 1: say that the most special meal would be an unbelievably
43:39
Speaker 1: well perfectly cooked lobster. Do you eat the tamali the
43:44
Speaker 1: green stuff? At the top of the tail negatory, nor
43:48
Speaker 1: the row. I don't eat the tomali or the row
43:50
Speaker 1: the red rock. No, no, I don't. I don't go there.
43:52
Speaker 1: But she ate the Tamali. I mean she went after
43:56
Speaker 1: the whole thing, and they say it's a delicacy, and
43:59
Speaker 1: I'm like, good than you can have mine. That's going
44:06
Speaker 1: to do it. For this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast,
44:08
Speaker 1: brought to you by bug Light, Seltzer, refreshed the game.
44:11
Speaker 1: If you haven't done so already, please subscribe and if
44:13
Speaker 1: you have a minute, give it a rating or share
44:15
Speaker 1: a comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast.
44:19
Speaker 1: I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to The Bengals
44:22
Speaker 1: Booth Podcast