Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Cincinnati Bengals
Transcript
- 0:00Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. I wanted to let you know that
- 0:02we recorded this Opposition Territory podcast on Tuesday May seventh, twenty twenty four.
- 0:07By the time you hear this, some things may have changed here there,
- 0:09but we hope you enjoy the show. All right, folks, welcome to
- 0:28Opposition Territory here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly
- 0:32Philly sports podcast show in the world. That's right, eleven years strong.
- 0:36We've got a great discussion. Come in your way, man. I gotta
- 0:39tell you the Cincinnati Bengals a fascinating team. Year after year, We've seen
- 0:43this team building itself up to competitiveness within the AFC, and unfortunately last year
- 0:51their star quarterback in Joe Burrow goes down kind of a rough up and down
- 0:55season for the Bengals in twenty twenty three. What does twenty twenty four mean
- 1:00this team as they're moving forward. We got a great discussion. We got
- 1:03a great guest coming your way. Let's get right to it. It is
- 1:06great to have back on the show on our Opposition Territory podcast this week to
- 1:11get into the Cincinnati Bengals. He is from A to Z sports covering the
- 1:15Cincinnati Bengals, and you can also hear and see him over at the Orange
- 1:19and Black Insider podcast that you can search out on YouTube. Great great friend
- 1:25of the show, mister John Sheer, And how you doing, Buddy.
- 1:27I'm doing well, Jeff. Thanks for thanks for bringing me back on.
- 1:30It's like a yearly tuition press exactly, exactly. Love talking Bengals with you.
- 1:34And you know, this is a team that I consistently find interesting in
- 1:38a lot of different ways, you know, being on the NFC side of
- 1:42things, following the Eagles on the AFC side of things. You know,
- 1:46the Bengals are a team that I always kind of root for in a way
- 1:48because like I always find or I have found them over the past few years,
- 1:52almost get into that echelon of like we're almost there, we're almost there,
- 1:55and then something happens, you know, it's like somebody kicks the you
- 1:57know, part of the chair from under the fans and the team. But
- 2:02I was hoping we could start our conversation here John by doing a little reflection
- 2:06on the Bengals twenty twenty three season. I mean, it was certainly an
- 2:09emotional roller coaster of a season, for the team and for the fan base.
- 2:13For sure. This is a team that certainly had high hopes getting back
- 2:16to the AFC Championship and that obviously didn't happen for a number of reasons.
- 2:22Seems like it may have been or maybe the end of an era, perhaps
- 2:27from things that I've been reading on the interwebs out there, How do you
- 2:30look at the twenty twenty three season and how does that translate into what might
- 2:36come this season for the Cincinnati Bengals. I mean, Jeff, you talk
- 2:40about high hopes, I am twenty seven years old. I've never seen many.
- 2:46I've never seen one person predict, like legitimately predict the Bengals will win
- 2:50the Super Bowl, right, And I saw a multitude of professionals in this
- 2:53industry do that very thing. It was a popular thing to do because,
- 2:57I mean, going back on back to back AFC Championship appearances, they went
- 3:00to a Super Bowl two years prior. It seemed like twenty twenty three was
- 3:04going to be that year to take that next step. And a lot of
- 3:06those predictions came a month after, you know, Joe Burrow suffered his cap
- 3:09strain and the entire season just kind of went on its head even before it
- 3:14got to August, right, So it was tough from the beginning. At
- 3:17the very least, they had experience of starting zero to two or starting slow
- 3:22out of the gate and kind of figuring things out. And of course a
- 3:24similar thing like that happened and back in twenty twenty three when Burrow, you
- 3:29know, finally got his caf right when October came around, and they looked
- 3:32like the machine that they were primed to be. But I think on top
- 3:37of just the Burrow injury as well, I don't think they had a particularly
- 3:39great offseason in terms of adding and replenishing the talent that they lost coming off
- 3:46of that twenty twenty two season. The loss of both safeties Jesse Bass and
- 3:50Von Bell were pretty detrimental in their plan for replacing those two guys, and
- 3:53it didn't end up being successful at all. They still had problems pushing the
- 3:58ball down the field and finding it explosive alternatives. Aside from Jamar Chase,
- 4:01they barely had anyone else aside from him who could even break tackles and give
- 4:05them more yards than what was just given in front of them, So they
- 4:09dealt with very similar problems that they ran into in twenty twenty two, after
- 4:13teams kind of figured out how to put a cap on just the go ball
- 4:15such mar Chase that worked so well a couple of years prior. So I
- 4:18don't think they I don't think they're planned for really building the roster was tremendously
- 4:24great in twenty twenty three. I think a lot of things out of the
- 4:26backfiring on them, and that lack of agency production and maybe a draft that
- 4:31had a couple of good pieces for the long term but didn't get as much
- 4:35immediate impact. That obviously factored in as well. But yeah, Burrow just
- 4:40never being himself in the beginning and only having like a handful of really healthy
- 4:44games before he went out with that risk injury. It really tanked everything.
- 4:46And when you talk about an end of an era, I kind of agreed
- 4:48to a sense that that year was the last year that that specific Super Bowl
- 4:53window was open with that core of players. I think players like Tyler Boyd
- 4:58and Joe Mixon leaving Tyler what I guess just signed with the Titans today.
- 5:01He did. Those those were veterans that were with the team even before Zach
- 5:05Taylor was there, and they've seen the highest the highest, and lows the
- 5:08lows, and they were really crucial with building the foundation of what is now
- 5:11the culture in the locker room now. So obviously guys like Burrow and Chase
- 5:15and at least for now Higgins are still there, Tree, Hendrickson, Mike
- 5:17Hilton, you know, some of those main stays who were so so impactful
- 5:21for creating that initial Super Bowl, Super Bowl run. Those guys are still
- 5:25there. But this does feel like the true next window around Burrow and Chase
- 5:30of trying to figure out how to best formulate the team, and with some
- 5:32of those guys now out the door, it does feel like a page has
- 5:35kind of turned it a little bit. Yeah, it absolutely does, as
- 5:39somebody on the outside. That's why I asked you that, because I see
- 5:42a new era essentially coming to Cincinnati when it comes to you know, what
- 5:46what kind of weapons do we give Joe Burrow in the future, you know
- 5:48what kind of offense do we want? Run You use the word you know,
- 5:53or I should say phrase lack of explosive type of stuff going on in
- 5:57terms of the offense last season from not only highlights but games that I saw
- 6:00that was extremely apparent, and I think this Bengals team needs to get back
- 6:04to that explosive type of mindset and talent acquisition if they want to be successful
- 6:10in the AFC overall. And I guess that brings me, you know,
- 6:13to a gentleman move already been talking about here, Joe Burrow. I mean,
- 6:16he's the key piece of this Bengals upcoming offseason. He's a key piece
- 6:19of the team. And I think we can say that the quarterback position is
- 6:23just the main piece of just about every NFL team. I mean that's nothing
- 6:26new. But when quarterbacks go down, especially quarterbacks as talented as Joe Burrow,
- 6:32you see how the sports psychology aspect of that filters down, I think
- 6:36to other parts of the team. So in terms of Joe Burrow, aside
- 6:42from his health, John, how does he need to grow as a player
- 6:46this coming season and even as a leader this coming season for this team if
- 6:50they're gonna see some success in the AFC. I think it's a great topic
- 6:55to bring up today because he was talking to the press for the first time
- 6:59I think January, and I think the most important thing that he said with
- 7:02that was learning when to not push through injury and learning of like how to
- 7:08listen to your body. I know you've mentioned, you know, trying to
- 7:10go away from injuries a little bit, but I do think that that's important
- 7:13considering what happened last year when he was dealing with tightness in his calf and
- 7:15it was ninety degrees out in Cincinnati was the second day of training camp,
- 7:19and he decided to put on the sleeve and try to push through it and
- 7:21ended up, you know, tanking the beginning of that year for him.
- 7:25So I think, you know, learning to listen to his body better is
- 7:28something that you know, we can all kind of learn it from, but
- 7:30especially you know, players and people who put their bodies on the line for
- 7:33their livelihood. So that that's an incredibly important development for him to take as
- 7:39a player on the field. Last year, at this time, you started
- 7:42to see the Bengals try to go in again like this is OTA's you know,
- 7:46like the pads aren't on. You know, nothing is real just yet,
- 7:49but it's still a part of like installing what the offense is supposed to
- 7:53look like. And this part of last year you saw them try to put
- 7:57Burrow, you know, dropping back from under center with more playof rollouts,
- 8:00and I think that was an emphasis of trying to get that into the offense
- 8:03last year. Unfortunately, when he couldn't move like he could normally like,
- 8:07they couldn't really do that and they had to, you know, stick him
- 8:09in the shotgun. And I think this year is going to be the same
- 8:11type of emphasis where they want to put him under center a little bit more
- 8:15to try to diversify the offense, to try to keep the defense more on
- 8:18its toes. But that's still an area that Burrow doesn't have a ton of
- 8:20experience. Obviously. What he did best at LSU, you know, going
- 8:24back five or six years now, he was just in the gun and picking
- 8:26defense to pardon in the post that phase, and they've built in tailored the
- 8:30offense to him around that specific skill set. But I still think when you
- 8:33look around the league and we talk about generating more explosive plays, that the
- 8:37best teams like the forty nine Ers and the Chiefs, they put their quarterbacks
- 8:41under center and they have they give defenses more gaps to account for, and
- 8:45combining that with a running game under center, that's how you create more explosive
- 8:48plays. That's how you create more space for the playmakers on the outside.
- 8:52It's not just going in eleven personnel and spread it out an empty like that.
- 8:56That's defenses are too smart for that nowadays, and they've they've shown head
- 8:58over the past couple years with his defense. So getting Burrow more comfortable under
- 9:03center with the playofction game is very crucial for the next step of this offense.
- 9:07And maybe just as a leader, like we talked about, you know,
- 9:09guys like Mixing and Boyd are not there. DJ Readers is a big
- 9:13loss in that sense as well for the leadership that he'd provided. So there
- 9:16is a sense of like a void and that part of just the team composition.
- 9:22And Burrow has never really been like I know, he's compared to Tom
- 9:24Brady a lot, but he's never been like the let's go like yelling,
- 9:26you know, like trying to energize people. He's never really been like Drew
- 9:30Brees or like something like that. But I think there's definitely room for him
- 9:33to kind of fill that in because he's always been a proponent of if you
- 9:37don't have anything to say, don't say it, because if you just if
- 9:39you're just yapping for the sake of yap, and no one's gonna take you
- 9:41seriously and people are gonna tune you out. But I think there are some
- 9:45steps of him maybe speaking up more often, because like there are voices that
- 9:48are no longer in that locker room. And obviously everyone's gonna look at him
- 9:52because I mean, he is the franchise absolutely well. I want to get
- 9:54into this Bengals offseason with you, John team some talent, but they gained
- 10:01some talent as well, running back Zach Moss, tight end Mike Gaseki,
- 10:05offensive lineman Trent Brown, just a few of the bigger quote I guess you
- 10:09would say, quote bigger additions to the team this offseason. And we're gonna
- 10:13get into the draft pieces in just a bit. But I'm wondering, you
- 10:16know, when you're reflecting on this offseason thus far, how do you view
- 10:20the team building from the free agency standpoint? As we're here, you know,
- 10:24at the beginning of May, like you said, you know, OTAs
- 10:28are here. What you're seeing here with regard to free agency and your reflections
- 10:35on that, What are your thoughts here? I thought they did really well
- 10:37in free agency, and I know we had the benefit of hindsight looking back
- 10:39at last year but the talents such as Genostone, Zach Moss, Mike Aseki
- 10:46a lot more proven compared to like the additions that they made last year with
- 10:50like a Nick Scott or Nerve Smith. They took a lot more risks last
- 10:52year with trying to get the most out of players that were never really tremendously
- 10:56good in the first place. But I think they've they got more known commodities.
- 11:00I think the difference between this year's for agency class maybe some of their
- 11:03past successful free agency classes, is that the deals are more short term.
- 11:09No, there's nothing longer than a two year deal here, like Sheldon Rankings
- 11:11two years, Zach Moss two years, Geno Stone two years. I think
- 11:13all three of those guys fit exactly what they needed in terms of the positions
- 11:18that they're playing and the skill sets that they provide. That Geno Stone is
- 11:20that ballhockey and instinctive free safety that they had nothing of the sort last year
- 11:24when they lost Jesse Bates. Zach Moss gives them more of a yards after
- 11:28contact tag running back that can generate more yards on his own, which is
- 11:31something that they needed more from. Joe Mixon. Mike Eski, I think
- 11:35is the exact vertical threat tight end that they've haven't had really in the entirety
- 11:39of the Joe Burrow era. Frank Brown a solid pass protector you can put
- 11:43on an island, even though you don't really trust them to play a full
- 11:46year. That's why they did what they did in the draft, which I'm
- 11:48sure we'll get to in a minute, but all the players that they added
- 11:50makes sense. I think the only sense of caution here is that there's not
- 11:54a lot of long term stability there and they're probably going to have to replace
- 11:56some of those guys in a year anyways. And even still like two year
- 11:58deal are essentially one year deals in the NFL, So I'm interested to see,
- 12:03you know, if these guys end up resigning or if they ended up
- 12:05being being replaced next year. But I think for just the sake of this
- 12:09year in free agency, they did a good job of filling those holes with
- 12:13proven talents that fit their scheme and fit what they need to perfectly. And
- 12:16that's why the draft is so important. And we're certainly going to be getting
- 12:18to the Bengals Draft in just a bit. But again, folks, we're
- 12:22talking to John Shearon from a to Za Sports and the Orange and Black Insider
- 12:26podcast that you can get over on YouTube. Search them out there, great
- 12:30great podcast and also follow John on the Twitter dot com or I should say
- 12:35X at this point, I still can't. It's still it sucks. It
- 12:37sucks trying to say, and it really does. Anyway at John Underscore sharing
- 12:43it is a great, great follow and as we're moving along with our discussion
- 12:46here, John, in this off season, there's a lot of money that's
- 12:50going to be spent at the wide receiver position for the Cincinnati Bengals. At
- 12:54this particular point in time, they put franchise tag on t Higgins all the
- 13:00he has asked to be traded. Jamar Chase just had his fifth year option
- 13:03and the club is still trying to figure out his value based on a number
- 13:07of contracts that have been doled out with other players and teams during this off
- 13:11season. You know, we were talking about Joe Burrow and he's going to
- 13:15need those weapons to really compete in this AFC this coming season here, if
- 13:18they're going to get the team back to the AFC Championship, how do you
- 13:22see this wide receiver room really taking shape this offseason? As I know you've
- 13:26reported on it, and just you know, what are the vibes, what's
- 13:30the feeling at this point. Yeah, so we probably should start with tuh
- 13:35Higgins just because that's the main story. I don't expect him to report to
- 13:39any real off season activity. I expect him to report for Week one because
- 13:43his career rings are about eight million and he's projected to make twenty two million
- 13:48this year, so he's not going to be able to recuperate that if he
- 13:50sits out and pulls like a Le'Veon Bell. So he'll play. It's a
- 13:56matter of how much chemistry that Burrow develops with the receivers, say side from
- 14:00him in the offseason, if that impacts maybe how they kind of start.
- 14:03Because Jamar Chase is still there and the offense completely flows through him, you
- 14:07can always count on, you know, around ten targets a game for him.
- 14:11And they lost Tyler Boyd and a lot of people ask me, you
- 14:13know, if the draft doesn't go the way they want to a receiver or
- 14:18if they still need depth there, are they going to bring back Tyler Boyd.
- 14:20I never really thought that was the case, because I really did think
- 14:22that they wanted to move on from him and find a different type of athlete
- 14:26out of that position, maybe not a guy that can only play the slot,
- 14:30because Tyler Boyd for years was never that much of a separator on the
- 14:33outside. You can never really trust him to really challenge boundary cornerbacks or run
- 14:37the vertical rout tree. He was always that underneath intermediary option, which is
- 14:41fine, But I think when you have a piece like Jamar Chase and all
- 14:45the best receivers in the NFL, their most productive sells when they get moved
- 14:48into the slot, justin Jefferson, Tyreek Kill. The list goes on.
- 14:50The more that you can move around Chase and the less limited the rest of
- 14:54your personnel is in terms of where they can line up, I think the
- 14:56more options that you have. So I think that was always kind of their
- 15:00ted. They wanted to replace Tyler Boyd with someone who can line up on
- 15:01the inside and the outside, and that's why they landed on Jermaine Burden.
- 15:05Character issues aside, He's he's had success in both of the slot in it
- 15:09on the boundary for Alabama, and he's elite separator with the lead athleticism,
- 15:13explosion, a proven explosive thread down the field, which is also what they
- 15:16needed. They needed someone else aside from Chase who can put pressure on the
- 15:20defense. And you know they're going to continue to face Cover six and Cover
- 15:22two and these two and these two high shells that they face. So anyone
- 15:26that someone that they can have running down the middle of the seams, whether
- 15:30that be a Mikesekia tight end or a Burden from the slot, it opens
- 15:33up a lot more space for Chase to really operate. So it's going to
- 15:35be Chase, Higgins and Burden as your starters, and then filling out that
- 15:39room, Madre Yoshavis, Charlie Jones. Second year players. Yoshavis is probably
- 15:43still ahead of Charlie Jones and the deaf chart just because he played more as
- 15:46a rookie. He and Jones dealt with an injury last year, so his
- 15:48developments a little bit behind. He's also I think twenty five years old,
- 15:52so that that's slightly cautious considering he's only a second year player. Yeah,
- 15:56and then Trenton Irwin is probably going to be the guy that rounds out that
- 16:00receiver room. He's been with the team for a few years now. He's
- 16:02developed trust with Burrows, so it's gonna take, you know, a rookie,
- 16:04underrafted guy to really push him off the roster because they like him a
- 16:08lot. I think I think Bengals fans are gonna need to see that explosion,
- 16:11like we were talking about earlier. They're gonna need to see it,
- 16:14and we're certainly, I think, going to see it. From the draft.
- 16:18Picked that you had mentioned wide receiver Jermaine Burton and you know, getting
- 16:22into these Bengals draft picks A mars Amms likely to be protecting Joe Burrow for
- 16:30years to come at the tackle position. He was taken in the first round.
- 16:34Defensive tackle Chris Jenkins was picked in the second round, and again Jermaine
- 16:37Burton we just talked about wide receiver taken in the third round. I loved
- 16:42the draft. I loved the Bengals draft for where they are what they need
- 16:47looking to the future. John, I really thought the first three rounds were
- 16:51really great picks for the Cincinnati Bengals organization and team. How would you assess
- 16:56and grade the Bengals draft as the you know, team looks toward the future
- 17:00here with these picks. Yeah, I think a lot of people who you
- 17:04know were predicting the Bengals draft, they kind of nailed the positions that they
- 17:07were going to target in the first three rounds. Offensive tackle. With this
- 17:11specific class of tackles that entered the NFL, it made the most sense for
- 17:15the eighteenth pick. I don't think the Bengals it sounds conceded, I guess,
- 17:19but I don't think they expect a draft in the teens in the coming
- 17:22future. With Burrow and Chase, I think I think they expected to be
- 17:25in the twenties. So yeah, I think when someone like a Marius Mimms
- 17:27who you know, they said themselves, if he played more in college,
- 17:30he probably wouldn't have been an eighteenth world pick. He probably would have been
- 17:33closer to the top ten. So they saw him as a value there as
- 17:36an elite athlete, past protector who I mean the value for you know,
- 17:41blocking for Joe Brow it speaks for itself. And then Chris Jenkins in the
- 17:44second round defensive tackle, I think made sense at that juncture. They needed
- 17:48another body there for both the short term in the long term and then burden
- 17:52you know, the character concerns that a lot of people had. You know
- 17:56that every team is going to say they did their due diligence and they feel
- 17:59comfortable it's just gonna be a we'll wait and see if you know, they
- 18:02were right about that. They're still taking a risk on him because you know,
- 18:04he wasn't on the draft boards for some other teams, so that that's
- 18:07always going to be, you know, you know, a risk with him,
- 18:10and it's going to be there until he proves everyone wrong. And you
- 18:14know, he's completely focused on football. But I think it's a perfect mix
- 18:18of guys who will contribute now and guys who will definitely be counted on in
- 18:22the future, which is how every team should really attack the draft. I
- 18:26think with Mims, he's not going to start Week one if Trent Brown and
- 18:29Brown are both healthy. But like we talked about with Trump Brown, he's
- 18:30only completed three of his nine seasons and he's always missed time consistently in his
- 18:36career. So if you sign trimp Brown, you better have a decent enough
- 18:38backup because that's that's a potentially big drop off, and I think that's the
- 18:41perfect runway for Mims to kind of get settled in the NFL and not start
- 18:45right away. I think he if he's thrown out there into the Wolves.
- 18:48I think he's got I think he's a better tackle and pass protector than maybe
- 18:52people gave him credit for because he didn't play as much. But still there's
- 18:55definitely seasoning that he can he can gain with in practice reps and you know,
- 18:59play in the preseason. So you wouldn't trust them maybe to start Week
- 19:02one, but if we ten or eleven comes around, they need him to
- 19:04play. I think that's the perfect time to really throw them into the wolves
- 19:07there. And with Chris Jenkins. Yeah, like Sheldon Rankins or Beja Hill
- 19:11or your starters a defensive tackle, but they they really needed like a third
- 19:14competent defensive tackle in the rotation last year and they just didn't have it.
- 19:18So Chris Jenkins can definitely play a couple hundred snaps and be that. And
- 19:21obviously Burden is going to start us at third receiver. So the first three
- 19:25rounds are gonna be the ones that everyone looks at because that those are the
- 19:26highlights of the class. So it's a good combination of guys who may not
- 19:30be starters and initially aside from Burton, but I think all three will play
- 19:34this year and all three will be pretty good other rules. I gotta tell
- 19:37you really quick. I didn't put I didn't put it in the topics that
- 19:40I sent to you. But like I'm getting to the point as somebody who
- 19:44follows sports, and I don't. I don't know if you think of this
- 19:47as well. You know, you talk about Jermaine Burton, and there were
- 19:49those topics and storylines coming out about you know, the quote character concerns.
- 19:56I think when it comes to professional athletes in general, there's character concerns with
- 20:00so many folks you know, that are playing professional sports. And like I
- 20:04mean, I think character concerns kind of get taken a little too far within
- 20:10sports media at times. If if Burton or whoever out there is getting arrested
- 20:15like three or four times a year, you know, for something, I
- 20:18think it's a character concern. And yes, I understand, you know his
- 20:21past and stuff, But there are folks like, for instance, Jeremy Tunzell.
- 20:25My god, God bless the guy during the rate before he was going
- 20:29to be potentially drafted and somebody dropped him smoking marijuana and everything. Oh,
- 20:33there's a huge character concerned with Jeremy Tunsell, and like it never manifested itself
- 20:38into anything with somebody trying to screw him at the end of the day.
- 20:41I don't know. Sometimes I think character concerns get a little too blown out
- 20:45of proportion. I'm not saying that you said that at all, by the
- 20:47stretch of the imagination. I just think character concerns in general, it just
- 20:51it kind of stinks for some athletes because there are other folks out there who
- 20:53make very questionable decisions at times. I should definitely say that, Like,
- 20:59obviously, every it's such a generic label and every case is definitely different.
- 21:03With Burden, it's it definitely has been. Like there was the incident when
- 21:07the Tennessee stormed the field, and I think he struck a fan and like
- 21:11immediately regretted it, learn from his mistake immediately. I think the majority of
- 21:15it comes from, like there were questions with Georgia and Alabama's coaching staff,
- 21:19and but it was it was potentially a situation where it's a young kid who
- 21:23just never really found the group of coaches that understood him or could work with
- 21:29him. And I think coaches may have been frustrated with that. And that's
- 21:32where a lot of that stuff came from. So has nothing to do with
- 21:34I guess off the field stuff. It's it's entirely about the Bengals have built
- 21:37a really strong culture and a really strong locker room, and throwing this guy
- 21:41into the mix is a really good test to see how strong that is,
- 21:45if they can get the guy to completely buy in, and if they can
- 21:48learn how to manage him and how to how to deal with his competitive nature
- 21:52in his emotions, because that's on the coaching staff as well, if they're
- 21:53taking that risk of bringing him, and it's up to them to best manage
- 21:57him as an individual instead of just treating him like a drone. So it's
- 22:02up to the Bengals obviously to make this work. But yeah, like when
- 22:06you have a bunch of analysts and a bunch of teams, you know,
- 22:07saying like we were going to deal with this, is the Bengals making a
- 22:11risk. But yeah, for him, it's definitely not like, oh he's
- 22:14a bad kid. No, like he's just different, exactly exactly. Well,
- 22:18before I let you go here, John, last couple questions here.
- 22:22Two part question essentially for you about the best move that the Bengals have made
- 22:26this offseason and the worst move that they've made this offseason. Let's start with
- 22:30the best one. What do you think that best move is that the team
- 22:34made this offseason and why? Man, I don't know if like one really
- 22:40sticks out, but I just think that the biggest takeaway when like when Burrow
- 22:44went down was that the offensive line is full of non athletes and that is
- 22:48a problem when you face Miles Garrett TJ. Watt four times a year the
- 22:52Baltimore Ravens twice a year. Yeah, so I think I think adding like
- 22:56a functional athlete in Trump Brown, who again like has so much experience of
- 23:00pass blocking on an island in one on one situations when you're in a pass
- 23:03heavy offense, to bring him in. But of course that wasn't the only
- 23:06thing that you could do, because if his background of being insured all the
- 23:07time, then to get a truly elite athlete in a Marius Mims to build
- 23:11around for the future, that is such a smart one two combo for this
- 23:17year. And obviously you know, when you get Mims some playing time,
- 23:19you get him some seasoning, he can take over fully in twenty twenty five
- 23:22and give you a truly elite offensive lineman, an elite athlete which Jeff like
- 23:27they haven't had in so long, Like we're talking about since Andrew Whitworth was
- 23:32drafted like twenty something years ago, and he was a he was a physical
- 23:34marvel at six seven, three thirty. They managed to play until he was
- 23:37forty years old. And the expectation for Mims like, like, that's unfair
- 23:41to put that all on him, but like, like the very best tackles,
- 23:45like you saw with Jason Peters, You've seen it with Lane Johnson,
- 23:47Like they're all really elite athletes who can move extremely well while also carrying a
- 23:51lot of force, and that that just fits mims man. So like,
- 23:53the Bengals have needed athletes like that on the offensive line for a long time,
- 23:56and especially at a position where you're going up against the best pass rushers
- 24:00in the world, you know, for most of your schedule. That was
- 24:03such an important pick. So I love what they did at right tackle,
- 24:04and it was obviously big need for them all right, last, but not
- 24:07least, what do you think the worst move was? What do you think
- 24:11the worst move is that the Bengals made this offseason? I think, like
- 24:15what happened with nose tackle can't really be understated. I think with DJ Reader,
- 24:19he was such an elite player, and he was so unique for that
- 24:22position that you can't just replace him with one guy. And I think there's
- 24:27still some things that we don't fully know about how that all transpired. From
- 24:33what I heard, like they didn't really give him a serious offer compared to
- 24:37what the Lions did, and maybe like when Reader learned about what the Lions
- 24:41were offering, they kind of up the offer a little bit. But I
- 24:44think they were concerned about projecting his injury forecast because he was going to be
- 24:48thirty years old and he was just coming off of another major injury. So
- 24:52I understand like letting him go, but like, it can't it can't be
- 24:56ignored that that's just a weak's point for them right now. And then he
- 25:00was so important for the defense that they have to change, Like they schematically
- 25:03they can't do the same thing without a DJ Reader type player, and they
- 25:07weren't going to get that in free agency. They weren't going to get that
- 25:08in the draft outside of maybe maybe Devandre Swept, but they weren't in position
- 25:12to draft him because he went so early. So they drafted McKinley Jackson Texas
- 25:15A and m who's a nose tackle but I don't think he's the same type
- 25:18of nose tackle as DJ Reader, and I think that's that's a big challenge
- 25:22for and Romo to either completely alter what he does up front, because you
- 25:26can't just have just this massive dude too capping like both eight gaps there,
- 25:30because that was what DJ Rier was able to do. So I think it's
- 25:33it's up to him and Ruma and Marrying Hobby the defensive line coach, to
- 25:37really hondre up some alterations there, because like if they try to do the
- 25:41same thing that they did with DJ Reader with McKinley Jackson, I don't foresee
- 25:45that going too well. All right, I'm gonna let you go, Buddy
- 25:48again folks. John Sharon from A to Z Sports and the Orange and Black
- 25:53Insider podcast check out what they're doing over there on YouTube, great great podcast
- 25:57at John Underscore and on Twitter slash x John. As always, Buddy,
- 26:02it was great to see you. Love talking to you. Come join us
- 26:04back down the road. I'd love to have you back on the show,
- 26:07my friend. Absolutely, Jeff, thanks for having me. That's gonna do
- 26:11it for us here on Opposition Territory this week. Please share our podcast with
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