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Bengals Booth Podcast: Give A Little Bit · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth Podcast, DA give a Little Bit, Give
0:11
Speaker 1: a little Bit of My life for you edition as
0:17
Speaker 1: I talked to Bengals punter Drew Crispin about the unique
0:20
Speaker 1: way that he's giving back to the Cincinnati community. Then
0:24
Speaker 1: I'm joined by author and podcaster Tyler Dunn from golongtv
0:29
Speaker 1: dot com. He's written some great feature stories about the
0:32
Speaker 1: Bengals and shares his thoughts about Cincinnati's chances in twenty
0:36
Speaker 1: twenty three and some other hot button topics in the NFL.
0:40
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by Paycorp.
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Speaker 1: More than twenty nine thousand customers trust paycor to help
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Speaker 1: them recruit, pay engage, and retain employees. Learn more at
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Speaker 1: paycore dot com. Now here's a quick reminder that you
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Speaker 1: can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write
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Speaker 1: to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever you
1:02
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since random Bengals
1:07
Speaker 1: discoveries on YouTube. While doing a little Bengals prep work recently,
1:12
Speaker 1: I stumbled upon five members of the nineteen eighty eight
1:15
Speaker 1: Super Bowl team appearing on the Family Feud. There are
1:20
Speaker 1: actually two episodes and it was billed as a Super
1:23
Speaker 1: Bowl rematch. Az Icky Woods, James Brooks, Boomerasiasin, David Fulcher
1:28
Speaker 1: and Anthony Munoz took on five members of the San
1:31
Speaker 1: Francisco forty nine ers. If you want to check it out,
1:35
Speaker 1: just go to YouTube and search for Bengals Family Feud.
1:39
Speaker 1: You won't be disappointed. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought
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Speaker 1: to you by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of
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Speaker 1: the Bengals. With more than one hundred and twenty care
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Speaker 1: facilities and fifteen hundred care providers, Kettering Health is committed
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Speaker 1: to guiding you to your best health. Visit ketteringhealth dot
1:55
Speaker 1: org to learn more. Now let's get to this week's guests.
2:00
Speaker 1: Last year, in the tenth game of the season, Drew
2:03
Speaker 1: Chrisman replaced Kevin Huber as the Bengals starting punter. In
2:07
Speaker 1: seven regular season starts, Chrisman averaged forty seven point eight
2:11
Speaker 1: yards per punt with a net average of forty two
2:14
Speaker 1: point six. He was thirteenth in the NFL and punting
2:17
Speaker 1: average and eleventh in net average, and those stats were
2:21
Speaker 1: very similar to Kevin Huber's best seasons in Cincinnati, but
2:26
Speaker 1: Drew did not punt as well in the playoffs, and
2:29
Speaker 1: now we'll be involved in a training camp battle to
2:31
Speaker 1: hold onto the starting spot with six round draft pick
2:34
Speaker 1: Brad Robbins. Drew's found a unique way to stay in
2:37
Speaker 1: shape for the competition, and I discussed it with him
2:40
Speaker 1: this week. Drew, for those who have not seen your
2:43
Speaker 1: social media posts, explain what you've been doing in your
2:47
Speaker 1: spare time.
2:48
Speaker 2: It's kind of hard to put it in just a
2:50
Speaker 2: couple of sentences. Certainly if your viewing the videos for
2:53
Speaker 2: the first time, it's a lot to take in, and
2:55
Speaker 2: really for me, it's a lot to take in out
2:57
Speaker 2: the moment it's transformed into something then I really didn't
3:00
Speaker 2: even expect to get to at this point. I started
3:03
Speaker 2: off just kind of as a little extra workout. During
3:06
Speaker 2: this time period, I was looking into buying a peloton,
3:09
Speaker 2: and just.
3:10
Speaker 3: The cheap, slash frugal side of me just.
3:12
Speaker 2: Would not be willing to dish out that kind of
3:15
Speaker 2: money and pay that monthly subscription. So I don't know
3:19
Speaker 2: why Instagram or algorithm guys must have heard what I
3:23
Speaker 2: was talking about and they showed me a video of
3:25
Speaker 2: a guy going around doing door dash and I was like,
3:27
Speaker 2: that just seemed so much fun and plus a great
3:30
Speaker 2: workout as well, and get the experience of the city
3:33
Speaker 2: and you know, get out meet some people. And I
3:36
Speaker 2: was like, let's just give it a try. And after
3:38
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks of doing it, I was like,
3:39
Speaker 2: this is this is.
3:40
Speaker 3: Just so much fun.
3:41
Speaker 2: And then obviously it's turned into a little bit more
3:44
Speaker 2: of a charity thing at this point, but still getting
3:47
Speaker 2: a good workout by all means.
3:49
Speaker 1: So if there's anybody out there that doesn't know what
3:51
Speaker 1: door dash is, you're basically on your bike picking up
3:55
Speaker 1: things from one site and delivering it to another site.
3:58
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the workout aspect of this. Cincinnati is
4:02
Speaker 1: famously the end of the city of Seven Hills. What
4:05
Speaker 1: kind of bicycle workouts are you getting as a door
4:08
Speaker 1: dash delivery person.
4:09
Speaker 2: I have learned to stay downtown. Even downtown can get
4:14
Speaker 2: a little hilly at times, especially going across the bridges
4:17
Speaker 2: over to Kentucky and whatnot. But yeah, I have stayed.
4:21
Speaker 2: I first started off around you see, the campus, and
4:25
Speaker 2: I learned quickly to uh, to avoid that area that
4:29
Speaker 2: that can that can get tiring very quickly just after
4:32
Speaker 2: an order or two, a little more than I anticipated
4:36
Speaker 2: at the beginning. So we've stayed a little more closer downtown.
4:38
Speaker 2: I can ride for more hours and and make more
4:41
Speaker 2: money that way. But uh, yeah, no, it's certainly, certainly
4:45
Speaker 2: you learn. Every day you go out there, you learn
4:46
Speaker 2: something new. And I learned that one pretty quickly.
4:49
Speaker 1: Has there been a Mount Adams delivery there has?
4:52
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, no, I've I've I check it. That's about
4:56
Speaker 2: the worst spot you can kind of get when you're
4:58
Speaker 2: sitting on Fountain Square and you something going to out Adams.
5:01
Speaker 2: Usually typically if I get one of those, I uh
5:03
Speaker 2: probably in the day on that one, at least one
5:05
Speaker 2: last one, last sweat before I drive back to Indiana.
5:08
Speaker 1: So we're visiting the Bengals. Pund or Drew Chrisman, there's
5:12
Speaker 1: a little bit of a robin hood aspect to this
5:14
Speaker 1: that you alluded to. You make money as a door
5:17
Speaker 1: dash delivery person, but you have elected to plow that
5:20
Speaker 1: money back into helping people. So after you do these deliveries,
5:24
Speaker 1: you will buy food from local restaurants and just drop
5:28
Speaker 1: it off to people who appear to be in need.
5:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, correct, And like I said, I started this officer
5:33
Speaker 2: as an next form of exercise, and naturally, doing this
5:37
Speaker 2: work you make money.
5:38
Speaker 3: I mean, some people do this for a living.
5:41
Speaker 2: So yeah, I started noticing the account got, you know,
5:44
Speaker 2: pretty high, and after a couple of days, a couple
5:46
Speaker 2: of weeks of doing it, and you had a couple
5:47
Speaker 2: hundred dollars in the account. And I was like, well,
5:50
Speaker 2: you know, I'm just riding around and you know, seeing
5:53
Speaker 2: a city.
5:54
Speaker 3: You know, the city is beautiful, there's lots of beautiful
5:56
Speaker 3: things about the city.
5:56
Speaker 2: But also there was something I noticed was, you know,
5:59
Speaker 2: there was a little bit of a new on the
6:01
Speaker 2: streets and people panhandling and stuff like that. And I
6:04
Speaker 2: mean just seeing that first hand on the street level,
6:07
Speaker 2: you know, just kind of pools at you as you're
6:09
Speaker 2: going to Chipotle and taking order to some skyrise building
6:13
Speaker 2: and on the street outside of it, there's a guy that's.
6:15
Speaker 3: Begging for anything.
6:16
Speaker 2: Really, So I thought, yeah, there'd be no better use
6:19
Speaker 2: for that money to go and you know, help out
6:21
Speaker 2: and just a little bit of way possible. And the
6:24
Speaker 2: reaction I got from that has been just phenomenal. And
6:27
Speaker 2: now all of a sudden, I have tons of people
6:29
Speaker 2: wanting to reach out, and I even have people have
6:31
Speaker 2: been miming me money to increase my you know, my
6:34
Speaker 2: reserve of funds to be able to go buy more food.
6:37
Speaker 2: So it's really awesome what it's turned into. And certainly
6:40
Speaker 2: didn't expect this by any means, but certainly all the
6:44
Speaker 2: attention has got, I think is going to go to
6:45
Speaker 2: a greater good.
6:46
Speaker 1: So there are a lot of guys in this locker
6:48
Speaker 1: room that are doing great things for the community. Joe
6:51
Speaker 1: Burrow's slogan for his foundation is everyone has a responsibility
6:55
Speaker 1: to do good. Have you taken that to heart?
6:57
Speaker 3: Oh? For sure.
6:58
Speaker 2: I think just with this platform in general that we have,
7:01
Speaker 2: it's you know, it's almost a disservice if you don't,
7:05
Speaker 2: you know, use back and give back in some way,
7:07
Speaker 2: just with how blessed we are to get to this point. Certainly,
7:11
Speaker 2: you know you've had help along the way, and it'd
7:14
Speaker 2: be selfish me not to you know, realize that. And uh,
7:18
Speaker 2: you know, I think I really realized that last season.
7:21
Speaker 2: I'd finally like you know, broke through and made it
7:23
Speaker 2: to the active ross or started my first game, and
7:26
Speaker 2: you know, I thought that that was gonna be like
7:28
Speaker 2: a feeling feeling, and as soon as I got that
7:32
Speaker 2: roster spot after the third game i'd played round, there
7:35
Speaker 2: was still a little bit of something missing and and uh,
7:37
Speaker 2: it made me kind of looked back to my college
7:39
Speaker 2: days and when I was doing a little bit more
7:42
Speaker 2: charity work and you know, being on social media, a
7:44
Speaker 2: little more active inn you know, engaging with the fans more.
7:49
Speaker 2: And so that was just something I was like, maybe
7:51
Speaker 2: that's the spark that I needed to get back to
7:54
Speaker 2: kind of fulfill that that whole I was feeling.
7:56
Speaker 3: And certainly doing this.
7:57
Speaker 2: As has helped has helped FI that for sure, and
8:02
Speaker 2: I am as happy as I have been, for sure.
8:04
Speaker 1: So the videos that you've been sharing on social media
8:07
Speaker 1: are amusing. You wear a go pro camera, I guess
8:10
Speaker 1: on your helmet, your bike helmet. I'm guessing you put
8:13
Speaker 1: them to put these videos together. You can hear your
8:15
Speaker 1: interaction with people that where you're picking up the food,
8:19
Speaker 1: and in cases where you've given out food, they're graphics
8:22
Speaker 1: that go with it. You've got music on these videos.
8:24
Speaker 1: It's a pretty elaborate production.
8:27
Speaker 3: I try my best to keep entertaining.
8:29
Speaker 2: I know it's you know, it's good cause, and people
8:32
Speaker 2: probably just watch at that point. By the same time,
8:34
Speaker 2: people want to be entertained as well. That's just how
8:36
Speaker 2: the media world is, you know. Sometimes if it's not
8:39
Speaker 2: if it doesn't grasp your attention the first couple of seconds,
8:42
Speaker 2: most people just click off of it and they won't
8:44
Speaker 2: go they'll go about their day because there's so much
8:46
Speaker 2: stuff to be out there. So I try to make
8:48
Speaker 2: it entertaining as fun and light as possible.
8:50
Speaker 3: I'm still learning as I go. There's there're a lot.
8:53
Speaker 2: More to learn, and hopefully continue to make these videos
8:56
Speaker 2: and keep making people's days.
8:57
Speaker 1: So are you a big cyclist? Have you always written
9:00
Speaker 1: bike a lot?
9:00
Speaker 2: So in college we would do my wife and I
9:03
Speaker 2: would go to this place like a cycling studio is
9:05
Speaker 2: called six one four Cycle and Columbus, and we really
9:09
Speaker 2: enjoyed that. We'd go there at least once a week
9:12
Speaker 2: during the off season, and and.
9:14
Speaker 3: Uh, I was just I was. We enjoyed that it's
9:17
Speaker 3: a great.
9:17
Speaker 2: Leg workout and and so I don't know if I'd
9:22
Speaker 2: ever consider myself a cyclist. My dad would say that
9:25
Speaker 2: I'm crazy to even get on a bike. Every time
9:27
Speaker 2: I get on it. Growing up, i'd have scuff knees
9:29
Speaker 2: or you know, cuts down the legs of some sort
9:32
Speaker 2: bruise chin.
9:33
Speaker 3: But uh, so far, so far, it was so good.
9:37
Speaker 2: I got a bike that's pretty sturdy now and I've learned,
9:40
Speaker 2: i think from the childhood experiences, the hard way of
9:43
Speaker 2: how to stay upright on a bike and hopefully knock
9:47
Speaker 2: on wood.
9:47
Speaker 3: We continue that way.
9:49
Speaker 1: So I don't know if it's called a handle on
9:51
Speaker 1: door dash, but your name or your handle is Drew C.
9:54
Speaker 1: And your first name is spelled d r u E,
9:56
Speaker 1: So it's a little bit unusual. Has anybody recognized you
10:00
Speaker 1: was the Bengals punter?
10:01
Speaker 3: They haven't.
10:02
Speaker 2: Actually the first day I was out yesterday actually for
10:05
Speaker 2: the first time really since making it public and start
10:07
Speaker 2: posting videos, and certainly the one where I gave out
10:10
Speaker 2: food caught the most attention. And after that I did
10:13
Speaker 2: have a person on the street. I was just sitting
10:15
Speaker 2: at a crosswalk waiting for the light to change, and
10:17
Speaker 2: a guy came up. You know, they recognized me and said,
10:20
Speaker 2: you know, they followed, follow along, saw the videos, appreciate
10:23
Speaker 2: what I was doing.
10:24
Speaker 3: But that was really the first time. I think.
10:27
Speaker 2: I think it has to do with that's probably myself
10:29
Speaker 2: or just any Bengal or professional athlete in general is
10:32
Speaker 2: probably the last person you expect to be delivering new food.
10:35
Speaker 2: So but yeah, Drew cy d r Ui, if you
10:38
Speaker 2: see that pop up, there's not many of us out there,
10:40
Speaker 2: so that's probably gonna be me if you see it
10:42
Speaker 2: on your order.
10:43
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about your other job, Bengals punter.
10:46
Speaker 1: At this time last year, you were getting ready for
10:48
Speaker 1: a training camp battle with Kevin Huber. Kevin got the
10:51
Speaker 1: job to begin the season. Ultimately you took over as
10:54
Speaker 1: the starting punter. Do you go into this training camp
10:58
Speaker 1: with a similar feeling you're gonna be bad a rookie
11:00
Speaker 1: Brad Robbins, who is drafted this year for that job
11:03
Speaker 1: this year?
11:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say it's similar.
11:05
Speaker 2: Shoot every yeah, every camp, every almost every day I've
11:09
Speaker 2: been here, there's always been another punter on the roster.
11:12
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's really not not not really anything new
11:15
Speaker 2: to me at this point, and so I've gotten pretty
11:17
Speaker 2: familiar with that, that feeling, and yeah, just take it
11:20
Speaker 2: one day at a time. We had a great OTAs
11:22
Speaker 2: and really got to feel for each other. He's a
11:24
Speaker 2: great guy, He's a heck of a punter. It's gonna
11:26
Speaker 2: be it's gonna be a great time. You know, whoever
11:28
Speaker 2: ultimately ends up getting the job, I think it's gonna
11:30
Speaker 2: be great for this organization and do do some great things.
11:34
Speaker 1: So you seem pretty zen about the whole thing. Like
11:37
Speaker 1: every year in the NFL, it's a competition. You got
11:39
Speaker 1: to win the job every season.
11:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's just part of the gig. You know,
11:42
Speaker 2: there's only thirty thirty two of us out there, and
11:45
Speaker 2: so the thirty two best in the world are gonna
11:47
Speaker 2: get It doesn't matter if you're you're only one on
11:49
Speaker 2: the roster. If you're not getting the job done, they're
11:52
Speaker 2: going to find someone else the next week. That's just
11:54
Speaker 2: how it works in this in this business world, and
11:57
Speaker 2: it is a business and if you're not getting the
11:58
Speaker 2: job done, you know they're gonna find so in that can. So, yeah,
12:01
Speaker 2: there's no there's no job security by all means. Even
12:04
Speaker 2: if there isn't a guy sitting a couple of lockers
12:06
Speaker 2: down that you know is battling for the same job,
12:08
Speaker 2: there's a hundred other guys out there that are doing
12:10
Speaker 2: the same.
12:10
Speaker 1: So several years ago they drafted a kicker, Jake Elliott.
12:14
Speaker 1: People assumed, well, he was the draft pick, he's going
12:17
Speaker 1: to be the kicker, and then in training camp he
12:20
Speaker 1: was outperformed and the job went to Randy Bullock. I
12:23
Speaker 1: think Darren Simmons is the type of guy who's gonna
12:26
Speaker 1: make it clear, made the best man win.
12:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, he actually the day after the draft or no,
12:32
Speaker 2: it was actually that night after the draft he called
12:34
Speaker 2: me and kind of told me that story, and like,
12:36
Speaker 2: you know, there's been a template for this happening before.
12:39
Speaker 2: It's not completely out of your hands yet. You know,
12:41
Speaker 2: certainly we're going to give everybody a fair shaw as possible.
12:44
Speaker 2: And I saw that firsthand with Evan and Austin Sebert
12:48
Speaker 2: as well. I was injured at the time, so I
12:50
Speaker 2: couldn't punt, but I was able to sit in the
12:52
Speaker 2: meeting rooms and see just how meticulous he is and
12:54
Speaker 2: just you know, stats and taking everything into account, and
12:58
Speaker 2: I think I think he really does. It really is
13:02
Speaker 2: an open job, and that's really all you can ask for.
13:04
Speaker 1: So all right, final question. We talked about two of
13:07
Speaker 1: your jobs. Let's talk about the third. The fourth of
13:09
Speaker 1: July is coming up. You'll be working in the fireworks store, correct.
13:13
Speaker 2: I will be yes, there's no getting out of that job.
13:16
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter where you're at what I'm doing. Everybody
13:19
Speaker 2: comes back in town for that one, and it is
13:21
Speaker 2: gearing up for sure. I think just if like the
13:25
Speaker 2: next week, I think we're going to twenty four seven,
13:28
Speaker 2: And so anytime you won you want some fireers, come
13:32
Speaker 2: stop by. More than likely at least my dad will
13:35
Speaker 2: be there, if not myself. I've kind of taken over
13:37
Speaker 2: the night shift nowadays and stalking the shelves at night, two,
13:42
Speaker 2: three in the morning, getting ready for everybody to buy
13:46
Speaker 2: it the next day.
13:46
Speaker 3: But it's always a good time.
13:48
Speaker 2: I grew up in that store and tell you what
13:50
Speaker 2: that's that's another workout as well, lifting some lifting some
13:53
Speaker 2: Excalibur and some five hundred grand cases throughout the night.
13:57
Speaker 2: You'll be feeling that the next day. So there's no
13:59
Speaker 2: short as of extra work I can get in this
14:01
Speaker 2: time of the year.
14:02
Speaker 3: My dad planned it out perfectly, So.
14:04
Speaker 1: Feel free to put in a plug. Name and location
14:06
Speaker 1: of the store.
14:07
Speaker 2: Party at Traps Laurenceburg, Indiana, right off the exit. Can't
14:10
Speaker 2: miss it, big red, white and blue building. Best bang
14:14
Speaker 2: for your book, that's our motto. So come blow some
14:17
Speaker 2: stuff up, have some fun.
14:19
Speaker 1: Very well put. Thank you for so much for your
14:22
Speaker 1: time today, Stay upright on that bike and thank you
14:25
Speaker 1: for what you're doing for people in need.
14:26
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. Thanks for the time.
14:29
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14:59
Speaker 1: There's plenty of free content on the site and additional
15:02
Speaker 1: material if you choose to subscribe. Tyler Dunn is the
15:06
Speaker 1: man behind golongtv dot com and he's written great profiles
15:10
Speaker 1: about DJ reader, chitabey Owooje, Tyler Boyd, and other Bengals
15:15
Speaker 1: and I caught up with him this week. Tyler, the
15:19
Speaker 1: last time we saw each other was right before the
15:21
Speaker 1: AFC Championship game. You came to Cincinnati and did a
15:24
Speaker 1: story titled the villains, how true disrespect created a monster
15:29
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati. You've got a real knack for getting players
15:33
Speaker 1: to open up, and there are some great quotes in
15:35
Speaker 1: that story. You're in a lot of NFL locker rooms.
15:38
Speaker 1: What stands out to you when you come to Cincinnati?
15:41
Speaker 4: How authentic everybody is and that they don't take themselves
15:47
Speaker 4: too seriously. It was so refreshing. It's always refreshing to
15:51
Speaker 4: walk into that Bengals locker room and then here I
15:53
Speaker 4: go panderin again. I promise, I mean everything I say here, Dan.
15:57
Speaker 4: It is though, it's a different team with with unique personalities,
16:02
Speaker 4: and it strikes me as by design. I feel like
16:06
Speaker 4: Zach Taylor, Dutobin, everybody they know the kind of player
16:11
Speaker 4: that they want to bring in, and I just I
16:14
Speaker 4: guess in my job in the media, you have expect
16:17
Speaker 4: any locker room to be full of players who are
16:21
Speaker 4: just going to spew cliches and are guarded. Guarded doesn't
16:25
Speaker 4: even begin to explain how a lot of help players operate,
16:29
Speaker 4: and for good reason. I mean, Twitter has kind of
16:31
Speaker 4: broken everybody's brains and one thing gets said and the
16:34
Speaker 4: next thing you know, you know, it's retweeted a million
16:37
Speaker 4: times and guys have to backtrack and take back what
16:40
Speaker 4: they said. Well, I just I love going to Cincinnati
16:42
Speaker 4: because you know, everything that these guys say they mean
16:46
Speaker 4: and they don't care who hears it, because guess what,
16:50
Speaker 4: football is a sport, it's a game. Like I know
16:53
Speaker 4: Travis Kelcey and Patrick Mahomes got all upset about Burrowhead, Like,
16:58
Speaker 4: get over yourselves. If you really need that to get
17:02
Speaker 4: yourself going, you're probably in the wrong profession. So it
17:05
Speaker 4: made for great theater and everything. But it's just fun
17:09
Speaker 4: to have a conversation with like a Mike Hilton, Eli
17:13
Speaker 4: Apple when he was kicking around and there right, I'm
17:15
Speaker 4: even Chiabey Woozier and DJ Reader, exceptional Tyler Boyd, all
17:22
Speaker 4: of these guys. You know, they could talk for hours
17:26
Speaker 4: and hours about not just their lives but how they
17:29
Speaker 4: do their jobs. And it makes our job in the
17:31
Speaker 4: media a lot of fun.
17:33
Speaker 1: All right, So you mentioned Burrowhead, Mike Hilton famously calling
17:37
Speaker 1: Arrowhead Burrowhead, and some of Eli Apple's trash talk that
17:41
Speaker 1: goes crazy on social media. You didn't mention the mayor
17:45
Speaker 1: and his ill timed remarks prior to the AFC Championship game.
17:49
Speaker 1: I take it from your tone though, that you don't
17:51
Speaker 1: think the Bengals overdid it.
17:54
Speaker 4: No, I don't think so. You know what gets lost is,
17:59
Speaker 4: you know, if the Chiefs did genuinely use some of
18:02
Speaker 4: this stuff is as fuel. Fine, I guess I have
18:06
Speaker 4: a hard time thinking that Patrick Mahomes is stepping up
18:10
Speaker 4: to the line of scrimmage looking at Cincinnati's defense and thinking,
18:13
Speaker 4: you know what they were talking about Burrowhead before this game,
18:17
Speaker 4: so I'm going to try extra hard this play. I mean,
18:20
Speaker 4: it's kind of dumb. I feel like the other effect
18:23
Speaker 4: is more powerful when you're Cincinnati and this stuff gets
18:27
Speaker 4: you going, and you're a team that plays with an edge,
18:30
Speaker 4: that plays with a swagger, with a cockiness rightfully, so
18:35
Speaker 4: it's a team that's been bad for a number of
18:37
Speaker 4: years and to kind of zap the culture. It all
18:41
Speaker 4: started with that big bang moment, right von Bell lights
18:44
Speaker 4: up Jujus Smith Schuster because he's dancing all over the
18:47
Speaker 4: logo and puts him in his place, and everything to
18:50
Speaker 4: that point forward, whether it's burrow with the swagon offense,
18:52
Speaker 4: all those guys on defense playing and thinking a certain way,
18:55
Speaker 4: I feel like it's more powerful On that end of
18:57
Speaker 4: the spectrum. That kind of gets lost is the way
19:00
Speaker 4: that the Cincinnati Bengals players talk and think and operate
19:04
Speaker 4: day to day, game to game to genuinely change what's
19:08
Speaker 4: been a moribund culture. You know, coach to coach, quarterback
19:12
Speaker 4: to quarterback. That is needed, and that is good and
19:16
Speaker 4: that is powerful. So does Zach Taylor's credit. And he
19:20
Speaker 4: said this, I believe, at a press conference ahead of
19:23
Speaker 4: that AFC Championship game. So when all this stuff's in now,
19:25
Speaker 4: all the headlines and all the talking heads are having
19:29
Speaker 4: conniptions over it. I mean, I give him so much
19:33
Speaker 4: credit to sit there and say, I want our guys
19:35
Speaker 4: to be themselves, like, be you, whatever gets you going.
19:38
Speaker 4: I mean, there's probably players in the locker room that
19:40
Speaker 4: that don't like to talk. They would rather punch in,
19:42
Speaker 4: punch out, and that's fine too. But I think the
19:46
Speaker 4: worst thing a coach can do is to apply a
19:49
Speaker 4: cookie cutter formula to success. And in that sense, Bill Belichick,
19:55
Speaker 4: I guess that's the one detrimental effect of the Patriot
19:58
Speaker 4: way and do your job. They won a lot of games,
20:02
Speaker 4: a lot of Super Bowls, a lot of conference championships,
20:04
Speaker 4: all of this, and for whatever reason, out of that
20:08
Speaker 4: all it was assumed, Okay, they did it because everybody
20:11
Speaker 4: just shuts up and plays football and is militaristic. Well,
20:14
Speaker 4: a lot of those coaches under Bill Belichick went to
20:16
Speaker 4: other teams and it didn't really work out. So you
20:20
Speaker 4: have the gravitas of those rings. You have Tom freakin Brady,
20:23
Speaker 4: the best quarterback ever. Maybe that has something to do
20:26
Speaker 4: with it a little bit more than you know, trying
20:29
Speaker 4: to stay out of a headline. So I just give
20:32
Speaker 4: Zach Taylor and the Bengals so much credit for for
20:34
Speaker 4: letting these guys be themselves because they get it. They
20:37
Speaker 4: know the upside to a team operating this way.
20:41
Speaker 1: Well, there's one final chapter to this topic, and that
20:44
Speaker 1: was the Bengals tossing another log on the fire recently
20:46
Speaker 1: with Pat Who, which some of the Chiefs seemed to
20:49
Speaker 1: take exception to. Here's my question, what do you think
20:53
Speaker 1: of this rivalry Bengals Chiefs back to back AFC Championship games.
20:57
Speaker 1: The Bengals won the first, the Chiefs won the second,
21:00
Speaker 1: and a lot of discourse between the two rosters.
21:04
Speaker 4: It's good for the game, it's again, it's refreshing. I
21:09
Speaker 4: think Dan. I mean, you've covered football a lot longer
21:12
Speaker 4: than me. I feel like, this, what year did you
21:15
Speaker 4: start covering I don't want to say year old, and
21:16
Speaker 4: then you know, proceed to show how old do you are?
21:18
Speaker 1: I think that was accurate. So I graduated from our
21:23
Speaker 1: alma mater, Syracuse in nineteen eighty five, so I was
21:26
Speaker 1: covering the Buffalo Bills mostly shortly after that for a
21:29
Speaker 1: TV station in Syracuse.
21:32
Speaker 4: So even I feel like even in the eighties, most
21:35
Speaker 4: of the nineties, maybe even early two thousand's, this was
21:39
Speaker 4: a little more normal I get. I guess kind of
21:41
Speaker 4: pre social media. Social media is maybe sanitized the coverage
21:47
Speaker 4: of pro football more than anything. But I think that
21:52
Speaker 4: when made sports great, would makes sports great over the year,
21:56
Speaker 4: our rivalries and players john back and forth, and it's
22:00
Speaker 4: it's gonna be settled on the field. But you can
22:03
Speaker 4: have all the theatrics, and you can have all these opinions,
22:06
Speaker 4: and you can have you know, Pat Who in the
22:09
Speaker 4: middle of you know, the dead part of the NFL calendar.
22:13
Speaker 4: It's great. I think it's just good. I don't know
22:15
Speaker 4: how anybody could get upset or look down upon Jamar
22:19
Speaker 4: Chase Poort a little gasoline under the fire. Because these
22:23
Speaker 4: two teams aren't going anywhere. Because these two quarterbacks aren't
22:26
Speaker 4: going anywhere, you might as well have fun with it,
22:28
Speaker 4: lean into it. I got to think back to the
22:32
Speaker 4: Lakers and the Celtics. I was born in eighty seven,
22:35
Speaker 4: so I didn't I didn't live it in real time. Sorry, Dan,
22:39
Speaker 4: to watch those documentaries and just anything that you can
22:43
Speaker 4: devour on YouTube, just how much those two teams hated
22:48
Speaker 4: each other, loathed each other. I mean, you had those
22:50
Speaker 4: rivalries and in all of sports, and you don't really
22:54
Speaker 4: get it. You definitely don't get it in the NBA.
22:56
Speaker 4: I mean, these players are all just kind of mercenaries.
22:59
Speaker 4: They use their destination on a year to year basis,
23:02
Speaker 4: so there really isn't any loyalty and you don't really
23:06
Speaker 4: have right I mean, I mean, Kevin Durant owned the
23:09
Speaker 4: Golden State Warriors, and now Chris Paul went to the
23:11
Speaker 4: Golden Like there are players who have been opinionated about
23:14
Speaker 4: certain teams and then they just join that team, where
23:17
Speaker 4: in football, at least guys do stay on their team
23:20
Speaker 4: for an extended period of time or ten two so
23:24
Speaker 4: you have a chance at a real rivalry. But Also
23:27
Speaker 4: in football, unlike the NBA, you don't get such authenticity
23:32
Speaker 4: out of the participants, right. It's it's individualism is a
23:37
Speaker 4: little more controlled. You know, they have helmets on on
23:39
Speaker 4: the field, but can see their faces and the and
23:41
Speaker 4: the heat of the moment as much like we do NBA.
23:44
Speaker 4: And so anytime players start drawing back and forth and
23:49
Speaker 4: leaning into, uh, you know, the hatred of an opponent,
23:52
Speaker 4: I think that's I think it's good. It's it's entertaining.
23:55
Speaker 4: But guess what, It's a violent game, the most violent
23:58
Speaker 4: team sport on Earth. And I say that in the
24:00
Speaker 4: best possible way. That's why we love football. So guys
24:04
Speaker 4: should just say what's on their minds. It's emotional.
24:07
Speaker 1: I'm with you. Rivalries are good. We're chatting with Tyler
24:10
Speaker 1: Dunn from golongtd dot com. He is also the author
24:14
Speaker 1: of the book Blood and Guts How Tight Ends Save Football.
24:17
Speaker 1: We're about a month away from the start of training
24:20
Speaker 1: camps around the NFL. Where do you think the Bengals
24:22
Speaker 1: stack up with teams like the Chiefs, the Eagles, the Bills,
24:27
Speaker 1: the forty nine ers, whichever powerhouse you have at the
24:30
Speaker 1: top of your list.
24:32
Speaker 4: I mean, they're obviously right there. As long as Joe
24:35
Speaker 4: Burrow's healthy, they'll always be right there. And I guess
24:39
Speaker 4: it's really simplized, a simplified way to put it, but
24:43
Speaker 4: he is unbelievable. I'm sure that you've struggled to find
24:48
Speaker 4: new superlatives and new ways to describe what makes them special.
24:52
Speaker 4: But I'd really thought that last season, what he was
24:55
Speaker 4: able to do and being patient was such a big
24:59
Speaker 4: step for his personal growth. The teams dared him to
25:03
Speaker 4: check the ball down, dared the Bengals to run, dared
25:07
Speaker 4: them to go eight, nine, ten plays on their way
25:11
Speaker 4: to the end zone. And a lot of these quarterbacks
25:14
Speaker 4: get antsy. A lot of the best ever get antsy.
25:17
Speaker 4: Patrick Mahomes gets antsy, and they want to force that
25:21
Speaker 4: ball into that tight window. And you know, Kurt Warner
25:24
Speaker 4: pointed this play out to me and I didn't even
25:26
Speaker 4: realize it, but one of Patrick Mahomes's best highlights from
25:30
Speaker 4: this past season was that little flip he had. I
25:33
Speaker 4: think it was Jack mckinn. He kind of rolls right
25:35
Speaker 4: and he was like a push flip. It was crazy.
25:38
Speaker 4: I mean, he's the only person on the planet that
25:39
Speaker 4: can make that play. But Kurt Warner said, Look, if
25:42
Speaker 4: you watch that play, you know from above he has
25:45
Speaker 4: a receiver wide open on the other side side of
25:47
Speaker 4: the field. If he just plants that back foot sees
25:50
Speaker 4: it gets rid of it, Boom, it's a completion. It's
25:52
Speaker 4: within the rhythm of the offense. No quarterback in football
25:55
Speaker 4: plays within the rhythm of an offense better than Joe Burrow.
25:58
Speaker 4: And I think for him to play as patiently and
26:02
Speaker 4: deliberately as he did last season was a step and
26:05
Speaker 4: in year three that you just don't really see at
26:10
Speaker 4: the most quarterbacks. And I'll tell you this, Dana drew
26:14
Speaker 4: the envy of the Buffalo Bills. I'm going to dive
26:18
Speaker 4: into this conversation, but I had Isaiah McKenzie on a
26:21
Speaker 4: Happy Hour a Here at Go Along did a show
26:24
Speaker 4: with him the last two seasons when he was a
26:26
Speaker 4: member of the Bills now with the Indianapolis Colts. But
26:29
Speaker 4: he was as candid as I've heard anybody on the
26:32
Speaker 4: Bills about that playoff loss and what went down, and
26:37
Speaker 4: again back to social media, and you know what we
26:40
Speaker 4: hate about all of that In twenty twenty three, I
26:44
Speaker 4: can't even blame Jamar Chase and Tyler Boyd and the
26:46
Speaker 4: Bengals for getting pissed off at Isaiah. And you know,
26:49
Speaker 4: he had the comment it would have been a different
26:51
Speaker 4: game in a dome. He didn't say they'd win, he
26:53
Speaker 4: decided it would be a different game. I think it
26:56
Speaker 4: was interpreted by the Bengals as like a slight as
27:00
Speaker 4: a dig at Cincinnati. He was digging the Bills if
27:05
Speaker 4: you listened to him in full. He was really criticizing
27:09
Speaker 4: Ken Dorsey's offense in Buffalo in the fact that it's
27:13
Speaker 4: just too boom or bust. It was like, if the
27:15
Speaker 4: big plays were hitting, it was great. He wants to
27:18
Speaker 4: take those shots. But Isaiah's like, I'm looking at Joe
27:21
Speaker 4: Burrow and the Bengals and you know, guys are running six, seven,
27:24
Speaker 4: eight yards turned around and it's quick. But he completed
27:27
Speaker 4: passes to like seven or eight different receivers in the
27:30
Speaker 4: first quarter alone, and he says, we should have been
27:33
Speaker 4: doing that, and the Bills weren't. They had these long,
27:35
Speaker 4: developing plays. They were trying to hit the deep shot
27:38
Speaker 4: and they could do it. They weren't built to play
27:41
Speaker 4: in the snow, which is crazy. It's not what the
27:44
Speaker 4: snow sneaks up on you in Western New York because
27:46
Speaker 4: you know, Dan, it's not like all of a sudden,
27:48
Speaker 4: there's a blizzard. Oh my god, what happened? It's snowing.
27:52
Speaker 4: But they weren't. They had no running game without Brian Dable,
27:55
Speaker 4: They really had no short passing game. Isaiah mackenzie was
27:58
Speaker 4: gonna be the slot receiver their version of Coleby Bes
28:00
Speaker 4: left and didn't even really use him as a slot receiver,
28:04
Speaker 4: and it was a mess. The Bengals were more equipped
28:07
Speaker 4: to win that game because of their passing game the
28:09
Speaker 4: way it was structured, but they was physically tougher, mentally tougher,
28:13
Speaker 4: and that game fell over from the word go a
28:18
Speaker 4: lot like the tomorrow Hamma game felt, honestly. I mean,
28:20
Speaker 4: I think that would have probably been a Cincinnati blew
28:22
Speaker 4: out as well. So I think there's a huge divide
28:25
Speaker 4: between these two teams. I mean, maybe Buffalo closed it.
28:27
Speaker 4: I think they made a lot of really good decisions
28:30
Speaker 4: this offseason. They work in the fringes of free agency,
28:33
Speaker 4: but man, between the digs drama, Dorsey need to figure
28:38
Speaker 4: things out the fact that Cincinnati hasn't had to make
28:41
Speaker 4: those really hard financial decisions quite yet. I still like
28:45
Speaker 4: Cincinnati a little bit more than Buffalo.
28:48
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you brought up Isaiah McKenzie's comments because
28:51
Speaker 1: I think a lot of Bengals fans heard just the
28:54
Speaker 1: following that somebody on the Bills blamed the loss on
28:58
Speaker 1: the snow without knowing any of the context. And some
29:03
Speaker 1: people have said, well, what did they think that the
29:06
Speaker 1: Bengals uniforms blended in with a snow or something like that,
29:09
Speaker 1: because the Bengals were wearing white. But the fact of
29:12
Speaker 1: the matter is Isaiah McKenzie on your podcast basically said
29:17
Speaker 1: the snow was a problem for Buffalo because they were
29:20
Speaker 1: throwing the ball too far down the field and the
29:23
Speaker 1: receivers are having trouble with the timing of the routes
29:27
Speaker 1: because of the bad footing, etc. That was basically the
29:29
Speaker 1: gist of it.
29:30
Speaker 4: Right totally, And he's right. It would have been a
29:34
Speaker 4: different game on a fast track in a dome, completely
29:37
Speaker 4: eliminating weather from the equation. I think Cincinnati still wins.
29:40
Speaker 4: And I bet you if you were too back Isaiah
29:43
Speaker 4: into a corner, he'd probably admit the Cincinnati still wins
29:46
Speaker 4: that game, but it is a different game. And I
29:49
Speaker 4: think that you know, the Bengals shouldn't really take offence
29:54
Speaker 4: because he's really criticizing the Bills and the structure of
29:58
Speaker 4: their offense and the fact that they were just too finase.
30:03
Speaker 4: He kind of said what a lot of people on
30:05
Speaker 4: that team are thinking, but can't say. You know, he's
30:08
Speaker 4: a member of the Colts now, so he's speaking a
30:09
Speaker 4: little more freely. But he kind of chuckled and said, look,
30:12
Speaker 4: we don't We did not have a running game. We
30:14
Speaker 4: had nothing. So you know, when teams sit back on
30:18
Speaker 4: the Bills like they did the Bengals, it's not like
30:20
Speaker 4: they can just hand the ball off to a Joe
30:23
Speaker 4: Mixon or anybody back there and win five yards at
30:28
Speaker 4: a time that the line wasn't really built that way,
30:31
Speaker 4: the play calling wasn't structured that way. And it's Cincinnati
30:36
Speaker 4: absolutely clobbered the Bills. I mean, that was gosh, it's
30:41
Speaker 4: you know, we'll look back at that game, Dan, We'll
30:43
Speaker 4: see the box score and some of the stats. It's
30:47
Speaker 4: not going to do it justice. I mean, they really
30:49
Speaker 4: did embarrass the Bills in their own stadium.
30:53
Speaker 1: So, speaking of offseason moves, the Bengals have at least
30:56
Speaker 1: on paper, significantly upgraded their offensive line with the addition
31:00
Speaker 1: of Orlando Brown Junior, the best free agent offensive lineman
31:02
Speaker 1: that was on the market. Were you shocked by that move?
31:06
Speaker 1: I think many people here in Cincinnati, myself included, didn't
31:09
Speaker 1: see it coming.
31:11
Speaker 4: It was one of those rare moves in free agency
31:14
Speaker 4: where you almost remember where you were when it happened.
31:17
Speaker 4: When it did kind of break Twitter, I was just
31:20
Speaker 4: I was like laying in bed doing what a lot
31:22
Speaker 4: of us do, just kind of half asleep and half
31:24
Speaker 4: awake and scroll doom scrolling. I'm like, what the he?
31:28
Speaker 4: How did Cincinnati got Orlando Brown? I think I assume
31:33
Speaker 4: Cincinnati was in a similar position as Buffalo. I get
31:37
Speaker 4: may maybe not quite yet, but they weren't in a
31:39
Speaker 4: position to spend I guess subconsciously, I'm thinking, you gotta
31:42
Speaker 4: hang up for Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, do your best
31:46
Speaker 4: to keep Tea Higgins. They just didn't seem to be
31:49
Speaker 4: a team to be in the market for the best
31:51
Speaker 4: offensive tackle out there. For whatever reason, Orlando Brown just
31:55
Speaker 4: didn't get what Orlando Brown thought he was going to
31:58
Speaker 4: that first wave, and you have to credit the Bengals
32:01
Speaker 4: in their front office for just being patient. This is
32:04
Speaker 4: what the best teams do like, they don't panic, they
32:07
Speaker 4: don't do anything rash those first twenty four to forty
32:11
Speaker 4: eight hours. They kind of let the silly money just
32:14
Speaker 4: get spent. And I say that hesitantly because like the
32:20
Speaker 4: Jacksonville Jaguars spent like crazy a year ago and it
32:23
Speaker 4: worked out, and then two years ago, Cincinnati spent like
32:26
Speaker 4: crazy and it worked out. So I'm not the kind
32:28
Speaker 4: of guy that just blast teams for spending a lot
32:31
Speaker 4: of money, because if you've got a really good quarterback
32:34
Speaker 4: Trevor Lawrence Joe Burrow, and you've got money to spend,
32:37
Speaker 4: you better spend it because that's that can be what
32:40
Speaker 4: elevates you. And now these two teams they might be
32:42
Speaker 4: playing in the AFC Championship Game. So that being said, though,
32:45
Speaker 4: where Cincinnati was that it just made sense to kind
32:48
Speaker 4: of let a lot of that money fly. And they're
32:50
Speaker 4: probably looking at it like a lot of us, thinking,
32:51
Speaker 4: how in the hell is Orlando Brown not signing a
32:53
Speaker 4: contract with anybody. The Chiefs were probably even surprised they
32:57
Speaker 4: went ahead and got a different tackle because I assumed
33:02
Speaker 4: they didn't think they could keep Orlando Brown, but to
33:05
Speaker 4: steal him from Kansas City is such a coup. I'm
33:07
Speaker 4: not telling your viewers and listeners anything. They don't know
33:10
Speaker 4: what the last two seasons ended for the Bengals because
33:13
Speaker 4: of a key pass protection moment where they weren't able
33:17
Speaker 4: to give Joe Burrow that extra split second. And that's
33:22
Speaker 4: where Burrow is different.
33:23
Speaker 5: I mean, if he has just a little bit more time,
33:26
Speaker 5: the way he reads the field is so unlike anybody
33:29
Speaker 5: in football Mahomes, Alan, Lawrence deck Lamar, throw anybody out there,
33:35
Speaker 5: Aaron Rodgers.
33:35
Speaker 4: Nobody reads the field better than this guy. But he
33:39
Speaker 4: just it's scary to think we could do with just
33:42
Speaker 4: a little bit more time. And if you can just
33:44
Speaker 4: hold up on the edges one on one without chippin' Wethough,
33:48
Speaker 4: I'm sure they would love to chip on a certain
33:50
Speaker 4: play from that AFC Championship game. But if you can
33:53
Speaker 4: hold up without chipping, then you've got more receivers out
33:56
Speaker 4: there to let him go to work. So it's huge.
33:58
Speaker 4: I mean, I honestly, I'm not going to sit here
34:00
Speaker 4: and act like I'm this offensive line guru. I haven't
34:03
Speaker 4: been grinding the Orlando Brown film, but at any time
34:07
Speaker 4: I've seen him, even back to the Baltimore days. I mean,
34:09
Speaker 4: he's a mountain of a man. It's hard to believe
34:12
Speaker 4: that there can be somebody this big on a football field,
34:14
Speaker 4: but he bends and he moves pretty well. I mean,
34:16
Speaker 4: what do you think, Dan?
34:18
Speaker 1: You know, some people say that he's not one of
34:20
Speaker 1: the best tackles in the NFL. Maybe he's a little
34:24
Speaker 1: bit overrated, or he would have been better on the
34:26
Speaker 1: right side than the left. So what, He's a four
34:28
Speaker 1: time Pro bowler, he's proven he's durable. The worst case scenario,
34:33
Speaker 1: and this is the absolute worst case scenario, is that
34:36
Speaker 1: he's top half in the league, which is a significant
34:40
Speaker 1: upgrade and plenty good enough. I'm a subscriber to the
34:43
Speaker 1: theory that your offensive line has to be solid at
34:47
Speaker 1: every position. You don't necessarily have to have Anthony Munos
34:51
Speaker 1: at one of your tackle spots. You just can't have
34:53
Speaker 1: anybody that kills you. And with Orlando Brown at twenty
34:58
Speaker 1: six years old, at six eight, three hundred and sixty pounds,
35:02
Speaker 1: great attitude, great worth at work, ethic, it's a total
35:06
Speaker 1: no brainer. And throw in the fact that they got
35:09
Speaker 1: him for the exact same dollar amount that the Falcons
35:13
Speaker 1: are paying Jesse Bates, so they lost to safety and
35:17
Speaker 1: added a four time Pro Bowl left tackle who's twenty
35:20
Speaker 1: six years old at the exact same price. So yeah,
35:24
Speaker 1: maybe he's not one of the top five. I don't care.
35:28
Speaker 1: I personally think he's probably, you know, at least top ten,
35:31
Speaker 1: certainly top fifteen, and that's a big upgrade for the
35:35
Speaker 1: next four years.
35:37
Speaker 4: You just put it so perfectly too. I think this
35:39
Speaker 4: is what the best teams do as well as they
35:42
Speaker 4: think a year ahead. They're not going to come out
35:45
Speaker 4: and say, well, we're going to lose Jesse Bates, so
35:48
Speaker 4: we're drafting these players. They planned for this all and
35:53
Speaker 4: now they finally address what ailed this team, the offensive line.
35:57
Speaker 4: It's hard to imagine and that they I'm thinking back
36:02
Speaker 4: to two years ago that they got to the Super Bowl.
36:04
Speaker 4: Of that line especially, it's unbelievable. I mean, quit in Spain. Hey,
36:10
Speaker 4: it's it's hard to knock anybody in the NFL. It's
36:13
Speaker 4: the best of the best. But here in Buffalo is
36:16
Speaker 4: like they couldn't wait to get rid of the guy,
36:18
Speaker 4: and he's out there in a Super Bowl trying to
36:19
Speaker 4: block Aaron Donald. For them to even get to that
36:23
Speaker 4: point says a lot about Joe Burrow and the Bengals.
36:25
Speaker 4: So now I'm with you. Just find the five best
36:27
Speaker 4: guys up front wherever they are. If you can get
36:30
Speaker 4: five guys you can depend on and there's no weak link,
36:33
Speaker 4: you're gonna be fine.
36:35
Speaker 1: And hope you can get to the AFC Championship Game
36:38
Speaker 1: without losing three starters in three consecutive games at the
36:41
Speaker 1: end of the season. Has happened in the Bengals last year.
36:44
Speaker 4: Also, Irv Smith is I mean, he's really good. I
36:47
Speaker 4: know he's had injuries on that. That's another spot where
36:51
Speaker 4: they kind of you know that you lose a quality
36:54
Speaker 4: guy in Hayden Hurst who's jumping over He's still jumping
36:57
Speaker 4: over people in Orchard Park probably, but they pivoted so
37:01
Speaker 4: well to somebody. Obviously he's got the he's got the
37:05
Speaker 4: bloodlines his dad. I believe he was a tight end
37:07
Speaker 4: for the Saints through the nineties. He can he can
37:10
Speaker 4: block better than most. But another receiving option who's absolutely
37:15
Speaker 4: an NFL starter at a at a premium price.
37:19
Speaker 1: Our guest is Tyler Dunn from golongtv dot com, author
37:22
Speaker 1: in podcast or I'm going to hit you now with
37:24
Speaker 1: some hot button NFL topics and get your opinion on these.
37:28
Speaker 1: You have been critical on golongtd dot com of Aaron Rodgers.
37:32
Speaker 1: Do you think it's gonna work out with the Jets?
37:36
Speaker 4: No? I do not. I think that well number one
37:41
Speaker 4: Father Time is undefeated and the best of the very best,
37:46
Speaker 4: inevitably this side of Tom Brady. Right, tom Brady has
37:49
Speaker 4: kind of warped reality a little bit with his avocado
37:52
Speaker 4: ice cream and Alex Guerrero and who else knows what
37:56
Speaker 4: he's doing. I'm just I can't get past the hairline,
37:59
Speaker 4: Like couple of ball guys here, what is he? He
38:03
Speaker 4: did something, there's some voodoo at play. I don't know what.
38:06
Speaker 4: He started losing his hair and then all of a
38:08
Speaker 4: sudden he's got a full head of hair for the
38:10
Speaker 4: rest of his career. So we can't compare Tom Brady
38:13
Speaker 4: to anybody because he's not normal, And don't I don't
38:16
Speaker 4: think Aaron Rodgers is unique abnormal in that category. It's
38:22
Speaker 4: Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, Philip Rivers, Eli,
38:29
Speaker 4: Ben Roethlisberger, everybody. When they get to thirty eight, thirty nine,
38:32
Speaker 4: forty and you have the season that you saw out
38:34
Speaker 4: of Aaron Rodgers last year. It doesn't just redirect and
38:39
Speaker 4: shoot back up very rarely does it because he didn't
38:43
Speaker 4: see the field that well. There were open receivers, he
38:46
Speaker 4: just didn't hit him. He wasn't running Matt Lafleur's offense
38:50
Speaker 4: play in and play out. There was a point last
38:52
Speaker 4: season when they lost to the Jets, Commanders and the Giants.
38:57
Speaker 4: I think I have the order wrong there. For those
38:59
Speaker 4: three back to back to back losses, that's where green
39:01
Speaker 4: Bay season really went downhill. I want to say he
39:05
Speaker 4: had like one hundred and ten dropbacks and Aaron Jones
39:08
Speaker 4: and aj Dillon combined for like fifty carries. So they
39:11
Speaker 4: got away from the strength of the team. And that's
39:12
Speaker 4: Aaron Rodgers. He's got the autonomy at the line of
39:15
Speaker 4: scrimmage to change whatever play he wants, and rightfully so
39:19
Speaker 4: he's seen everything. But that really only works if you've
39:21
Speaker 4: got Davante Adams out there and thousands upon thousands of
39:25
Speaker 4: reps baked in. I mean, and it took time. It
39:28
Speaker 4: takes a long time to get on Aaron Rodgers intellectual level.
39:32
Speaker 4: It took Jordan Nelson a while, Randall Cobb awhile Davante
39:37
Speaker 4: Adams was written off as a bust in Year two,
39:41
Speaker 4: Terrible Year two, a lot of drops, and then all
39:44
Speaker 4: of a sudden, Aaron Rodgers has went in two MVPs
39:46
Speaker 4: with him, So I can't see him just going to
39:50
Speaker 4: another team with new players. Maybe he has pissed off,
39:56
Speaker 4: goes full heel. He's already been taking shots green Bay
40:00
Speaker 4: at every opportunity, trying to rewrite history the best he can.
40:06
Speaker 4: As we all know, if you start lying, it's hard
40:08
Speaker 4: to keep track of your lies. And I feel like
40:10
Speaker 4: that's how Aaron Rodgers is trying to paint his exit
40:14
Speaker 4: from green Bay, and green Bay is just sitting there like, okay,
40:16
Speaker 4: whatever Aaron. Like they don't want to talk about the
40:21
Speaker 4: Crazy X like many of us do, not, like we
40:24
Speaker 4: don't want to relive that dark time in our lives.
40:27
Speaker 4: Or they're just like, get out of here. We're moving
40:29
Speaker 4: on to Jordan Love. So we're never really going to
40:31
Speaker 4: hear their side of the story, not at length, but
40:34
Speaker 4: everything we do know because Aaron just keeps going on
40:37
Speaker 4: and on about the packer's not facetiming him when he
40:41
Speaker 4: had one bar. But oh yeah, they tried to reach out.
40:44
Speaker 4: It's it's at some point he'll do what he did
40:47
Speaker 4: last year and throw teammates under the bus. He goes
40:50
Speaker 4: on McAfee and says, if you don't know what you're
40:52
Speaker 4: doing out there, you should be playing. Well, you're a player,
40:56
Speaker 4: you're a quarterback. I mean should that apply to yourself. Then,
40:59
Speaker 4: when you're not open receivers and you're losing and you're
41:02
Speaker 4: not performing, I can't see the sending well. I really,
41:05
Speaker 4: especially in that division where the Bills are still really talented.
41:08
Speaker 4: Miami's loading up for a Super Bowl run. I Vic
41:11
Speaker 4: Vangio is arguably the best defensive mind the side of Belichick.
41:17
Speaker 4: I mean top three, and they have Jayalen Ramsey who's
41:20
Speaker 4: pretty good, and the Patriots. They're s the Patriots. I
41:24
Speaker 4: mean that defense is is loaded. They're not going anywhere.
41:27
Speaker 4: I could easily see the Jets finishing dead last in
41:30
Speaker 4: this division, which great, you know, Woody Joe Robert. Was
41:35
Speaker 4: it really worth it? I mean, Zach Wilson was that
41:38
Speaker 4: much of a disaster that they were so desperate to
41:41
Speaker 4: do anything in their power. But I still think there
41:43
Speaker 4: could have been a better option out their form. I
41:45
Speaker 4: don't make a play for Lamar Jackson. Jackson or hunt
41:48
Speaker 4: on this season, Troad drafted quarterback next to or any anything,
41:51
Speaker 4: but this it's I don't think it's going to end well.
41:53
Speaker 4: And if he wins MVP and they make the playoffs
41:55
Speaker 4: and they go in to the Super Bowl, run have
41:57
Speaker 4: me back on and I'll apologize to all your viewers.
42:02
Speaker 1: All right, High button topic number two. Will Deshaun Watson
42:05
Speaker 1: returned to being one of the NFL's best quarterbacks in
42:08
Speaker 1: his second year in Cleveland.
42:11
Speaker 4: Love what Cleveland did, meet and potatoes off season. I mean,
42:15
Speaker 4: Dalvin Tomlinson, Juan Thornhill, even trading for Elijah Moore from
42:18
Speaker 4: the Jets. One of the best offensive lines in football.
42:22
Speaker 4: Nick Chubb is exceptional. I don't know, though. It was
42:27
Speaker 4: really bad. And obviously we're just talking football here, there's
42:31
Speaker 4: all the other stuff when it comes to Deshaun Watson.
42:33
Speaker 4: But the rust was even worse than I think we
42:36
Speaker 4: all thought it never he never really got better as
42:40
Speaker 4: the games continued. So maybe with a full off season
42:44
Speaker 4: it'll be better than he was last year. But I
42:46
Speaker 4: don't know the Deshaun Watson from early in his career
42:48
Speaker 4: that just kind of danced and branched and improvised and
42:52
Speaker 4: did whatever he wanted. I don't know if we're going
42:54
Speaker 4: to see that player again again, because look at the division,
42:58
Speaker 4: Mike Tomlin, I think we'll have him figured out. Baltimore's
43:03
Speaker 4: only going to be better, and Lamar's not going anywhere,
43:06
Speaker 4: and obviously Cincinnati is going to win the next ten
43:10
Speaker 4: super Bowls. Because I'm on your show again, it's like
43:13
Speaker 4: a similar to the Jets. It's like you got this
43:15
Speaker 4: quarterback and you gave up so much for them. I mean,
43:18
Speaker 4: in the Browns case, your soul two hundred and thirty
43:22
Speaker 4: guaranteed three first round picks and for what, I don't know,
43:27
Speaker 4: a lot of really good people there in terms of
43:29
Speaker 4: the front office. I think Andrew Barry, Glenn Cook. They've
43:32
Speaker 4: got smart football people running the show, and I love
43:34
Speaker 4: what they did this offseason. Then you take a step
43:37
Speaker 4: back and you look at the division, it's like, well,
43:39
Speaker 4: I don't really know who they overtake here.
43:43
Speaker 1: All right, you're in the Buffalo area. Is the Stefan
43:46
Speaker 1: Diggs situation a minor blip or a major problem in Buffalo?
43:53
Speaker 4: Great question. I cannot speak with total conviction one way
44:00
Speaker 4: or another, which tends to make me want to say
44:04
Speaker 4: it is it is a major problem because if it
44:07
Speaker 4: was just a blip, we don't know anything. Sean McDermott,
44:11
Speaker 4: who's always protecting the players at press conference, I shouldn't say, oh, we'
44:16
Speaker 4: see Shuldin protect him after thirteen seconds. I should say
44:20
Speaker 4: who never says a hell of a lot of anything
44:21
Speaker 4: at press conferences, especially when it comes to specifics of
44:24
Speaker 4: his players. Made a point to say he was very concerned,
44:29
Speaker 4: and it was clear he had just gotten out of
44:30
Speaker 4: a meeting with Stefan Diggs. Players see Diggs leave the building.
44:35
Speaker 4: He's gone. Something was said, He's mad about something. This
44:41
Speaker 4: is an extension from the Cincinnati playoff loss when he's
44:45
Speaker 4: in Josh Allen's space and he had to be coaxed
44:48
Speaker 4: back into the locker room to hear Sean mcdermot's speech
44:50
Speaker 4: by Duke Johnson, a practice squad running back, had to
44:54
Speaker 4: convince him to get back in there. You would think
44:57
Speaker 4: that what the four months in between, they would figure
44:59
Speaker 4: it out whatever was wrong. They just would sing Kumbaya
45:02
Speaker 4: and and and and work out their issues. But those
45:06
Speaker 4: issues still exist. They're not going to go way between
45:09
Speaker 4: now in training camp. If they didn't go away between
45:11
Speaker 4: the divisional playoff round and Mini camp.
45:15
Speaker 3: So is it?
45:16
Speaker 4: You know, you hear so many different things. I've heard
45:18
Speaker 4: many theories stand like he's he's mad at Josh Allen
45:21
Speaker 4: because their relationship soured. He's he's mad because he's just
45:24
Speaker 4: not getting the ball in these critical playoff moments, mad
45:29
Speaker 4: about his contract, mad that the seasons keep ending in
45:34
Speaker 4: this horrible, tragic fashion. I don't know what's true, but
45:39
Speaker 4: it's probably a little bit of everything. And I think
45:44
Speaker 4: that there is a disconnect with him and Sean McDermott.
45:47
Speaker 4: I think that's obvious. But I do think that the
45:50
Speaker 4: Bills knew what they signed up for. Like he wanted
45:54
Speaker 4: to get the hell out of Minnesota rightfully, so he
45:58
Speaker 4: didn't like where the offense was going with Zimmer kind
46:00
Speaker 4: of bringing it back to the nineties. He felt it
46:03
Speaker 4: was a little archaic. Wasn't taking advantage of a skill set?
46:07
Speaker 4: Gets to Buffalo and you know the risk that you're
46:10
Speaker 4: taking on. But in my opinions, it's worth the risk.
46:14
Speaker 4: Because everybody I've talked to, whether it was Chadhall who's
46:17
Speaker 4: no longer here, who knows Maybe that's another reason he's upset.
46:20
Speaker 4: The wide receivers coach Isaiah McKenzie. Players on both sides
46:24
Speaker 4: of the ball. They say, like Diggs is the one
46:26
Speaker 4: who really kind of changed the atmosphere at One Bill's Drive.
46:29
Speaker 4: You know, this was a team that did make the
46:31
Speaker 4: playoffs for seventeen years, they've they've never really had a
46:34
Speaker 4: upper echelon, alpha dog, maniacal competitor like Stefan Diggs. He
46:40
Speaker 4: is as insane of a competitor, intensive a competitors you're
46:44
Speaker 4: gonna find in football. And that's gonna come with a
46:47
Speaker 4: lot of baggage. It's gonna come with what we see
46:49
Speaker 4: the offseason and him clashing with the head coach and
46:52
Speaker 4: getting in Allen's face and all of that. But I
46:56
Speaker 4: think if you're the Bills, you just you just have
46:58
Speaker 4: to accept it. You don't have to embrace it, but
47:00
Speaker 4: you have to accept it because the alternative isn't that pretty.
47:05
Speaker 4: I don't think you can get much if you traded
47:06
Speaker 4: him at this point, at his age. The other receivers
47:10
Speaker 4: are good, not special. For better or worse. You better
47:15
Speaker 4: figure it out, Buffalo, because you need him if you
47:17
Speaker 4: want to keep pace with Cincinnati, with Kansas City, even
47:20
Speaker 4: Jacksonville in the AFC.
47:23
Speaker 1: My guest has been Tyler Dunn. The website is golongtd
47:27
Speaker 1: dot com. I have a very happy subscriber for folks
47:30
Speaker 1: who are not familiar with it. Explain what it is
47:33
Speaker 1: and how they can get it.
47:35
Speaker 4: No doubt. I just feel like your listeners, all the
47:38
Speaker 4: fans across the country are the ones pouring their hard
47:42
Speaker 4: earned money into this product to fill stadiums, to buy
47:47
Speaker 4: Sunday ticket packages which are reaching astronomical heights. I mean,
47:52
Speaker 4: you pour not just money, but your heart and soul
47:56
Speaker 4: into the sport. So I just feel like with where
48:00
Speaker 4: a lot of sports media is, it's gone toward the
48:04
Speaker 4: gifts and the tweets and the takes and the memes
48:06
Speaker 4: and the fast food and everything's very, very bite sized.
48:11
Speaker 4: So when I launched Go Along three years ago, it
48:13
Speaker 4: was to kind of attack from that that other end
48:17
Speaker 4: of the spectrum and give people a story that, yeah,
48:20
Speaker 4: might take a half hour to read, but you're gonna
48:22
Speaker 4: learn something. It's gonna help explain the sport or a
48:28
Speaker 4: particular player that you think you know a little bit
48:31
Speaker 4: about but you really don't know. And it does take
48:35
Speaker 4: just you know, special personalities like those in Cincinnati being
48:40
Speaker 4: willing to sit down and open up. So I'm very
48:42
Speaker 4: fortunate you know that so many of those players with
48:44
Speaker 4: the Bengals are willing to kind of go down that road,
48:47
Speaker 4: and they don't just want to few a few cliches
48:50
Speaker 4: and and kind of go along their merry way. They're
48:53
Speaker 4: like a DJ Reader was unbelievable last year. It was
48:55
Speaker 4: so cool getting to know him. But they want to
48:57
Speaker 4: sit down and explain their lives makes them tick. And hey,
49:01
Speaker 4: if that's what if folks want to do and take
49:04
Speaker 4: their brains back a little bit right in the social
49:06
Speaker 4: media world. Hopefully we can keep this thing going. So
49:09
Speaker 4: I can't thank everybody out there enough for subscribing. We've
49:12
Speaker 4: got a great Bengals base and I'll definitely be out
49:14
Speaker 4: there for training camp.
49:16
Speaker 1: That's going to do it. For This episode of the
49:18
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49:49
Speaker 1: I'm Dan Hord and thanks for listening to the Bengals
49:52
Speaker 1: Booth podcast.
50:03
Speaker 5: Yea