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Bengals Booth Podcast: King Of The Road · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth Podcast, the King of the Road edition.
0:12
Speaker 1: As we catch up with Peter King from NBC Sports
0:16
Speaker 1: in the middle of his annual NFL training camp tour,
0:19
Speaker 1: he'll share his thoughts on Joe Burrow, the Bengals free
0:22
Speaker 1: agent acquisitions, and what it was like to stand next
0:25
Speaker 1: to Paul Brown at practice at the start of his
0:28
Speaker 1: sports writing career. After that, I'll share some thoughts on
0:32
Speaker 1: the Jesse Bates contract situation, and I'll go one on
0:36
Speaker 1: one with a player who will see his first game
0:39
Speaker 1: action in seven hundred and fifteen days when the Bengals
0:43
Speaker 1: open the preseason on Saturday night at Tampa Bay. The
0:47
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Bud Light. Seltzer Refreshed
0:51
Speaker 1: the Game and here's a quick reminder that you can
0:53
Speaker 1: have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write to
0:57
Speaker 1: your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing Tune, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify,
1:02
Speaker 1: or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since Ernie Johnson's
1:07
Speaker 1: speech to the Alabama football team. Ernie Johnson, the host
1:11
Speaker 1: of Inside the NBA on TNT, was recently invited by
1:15
Speaker 1: Alabama coach Nick Saban to give a motivational speech to
1:18
Speaker 1: the Crimson Tide. In it, he discusses his son Michael,
1:22
Speaker 1: who was adopted from Romania, with what was later determined
1:26
Speaker 1: to be muscular dystrophee. Rather than summarize Ernie's speech, I
1:30
Speaker 1: strongly encourage you to watch it. Just search for Ernie
1:34
Speaker 1: Johnson Alabama and it will pop right up. I promise
1:37
Speaker 1: you it's the best five minutes in nineteen seconds you'll
1:41
Speaker 1: spend all week. Now, let's get to football. Peter King
1:46
Speaker 1: from NBC Sports has an annual tradition of hop scotching
1:49
Speaker 1: around the country from training camp to training camp to
1:52
Speaker 1: learn as much as he can about all thirty two
1:54
Speaker 1: teams before the start of the season. I caught up
1:57
Speaker 1: with him first thing in the morning from his hotel
2:00
Speaker 1: room via zoom this week to discuss the twenty twenty
2:03
Speaker 1: one Bengals and more. Peter, you rank the Bengals twenty
2:08
Speaker 1: seventh in your offseason power rankings, which is certainly understandable
2:11
Speaker 1: after six wins in the last two years. But you
2:14
Speaker 1: wrote that you are optimistic about their future. So what
2:17
Speaker 1: are the reasons for your optimism? I think Joe Burrow
2:20
Speaker 1: is Dan Fouts, and I think anytime you believe in
2:28
Speaker 1: your franchise that you have got your quarterback of the future,
2:34
Speaker 1: that's a gigantic help for the team. And the Bengals
2:38
Speaker 1: for the first time since Carson Palmer think they've got
2:42
Speaker 1: their long term quarterback. Now. That's all due respect to
2:45
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton, and I think history is going to judge
2:49
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton far more fondly than probably the average Bengals
2:52
Speaker 1: fan will because look to me, and I'm not equating
2:57
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton to Matthew Stafford, but when your franchise doesn't
3:02
Speaker 1: have everything together, your quarterback can be really good. And
3:06
Speaker 1: it may not show in the One Lost column. Andy
3:09
Speaker 1: Dalton was a damn good quarterback for that franchise at
3:14
Speaker 1: a time when they didn't have all the answers and
3:17
Speaker 1: they still don't. And you know, we probably you got
3:21
Speaker 1: to go back to the days of Asias and White
3:24
Speaker 1: Collinsworth to win this team. You really felt this team
3:28
Speaker 1: was very close. Now, the Bengals made the playoffs with
3:32
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton, but I don't know that anybody ever thought
3:36
Speaker 1: that they were close or that they were going to
3:39
Speaker 1: be one Joe Montana drive away from winning a Super Bowl.
3:42
Speaker 1: I have not felt that about the Bengals since the eighties,
3:46
Speaker 1: and I don't know that this version, this iteration of
3:50
Speaker 1: the Bengals will be the same way. But you know,
3:53
Speaker 1: the fact is, if you have a quarterback, you've got
3:56
Speaker 1: the most important person in your franchise. Not the most
4:00
Speaker 1: important player on your team, but you got the most
4:03
Speaker 1: important person in your franchise. And the Bengals have them.
4:06
Speaker 1: The sad thing about Andy Dong from my perspective, was
4:09
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, there were ten and two, there were the
4:12
Speaker 1: number one seed in the AFC at the time, and
4:14
Speaker 1: he broke his thumb. We'll never know if that was
4:18
Speaker 1: the year that he might have earned that love and
4:20
Speaker 1: respect that hasn't really gone to him. I look, I
4:25
Speaker 1: am one of these people. I like the fact that
4:29
Speaker 1: you know, and obviously I broke into this business covering
4:32
Speaker 1: the Bengals in nineteen eighty four, and I have tremendous,
4:36
Speaker 1: tremendous fondness for the city, for my time there, and
4:41
Speaker 1: quite honestly for the franchise. I know it may not
4:43
Speaker 1: seem that way sometimes when I write about them, but
4:46
Speaker 1: I really, I mean, I really have great kind of
4:54
Speaker 1: great fondness for you know, what the Bengals try to be. Really,
5:00
Speaker 1: I mean, they have their faults, but I have great
5:03
Speaker 1: fondness for the attempts that they make and what they
5:06
Speaker 1: try to be. You know, Like one thing, I've always thought,
5:12
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you want your coaches to go out on
5:14
Speaker 1: the road scouting. They're the people who have to coach
5:17
Speaker 1: the team. Why the separation of church and state with
5:20
Speaker 1: coaches and personnel people. I just don't think that's smart,
5:25
Speaker 1: you know. For people who criticize the Bengals for things
5:28
Speaker 1: like that and for being cheap, I say, that's how
5:31
Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboys built a dynasty. They sent Jimmy Johnson
5:34
Speaker 1: and his staff on the road for a month and
5:37
Speaker 1: a half in that scouting process, and that landed them
5:40
Speaker 1: so many good players. And I don't want to get
5:42
Speaker 1: off on a tangent, but there are a lot of
5:45
Speaker 1: ways to skin the cat. The biggest way to start
5:48
Speaker 1: to skin the cat, or to skin the Bengal is
5:50
Speaker 1: to get the quarterback. And they got them well. While
5:53
Speaker 1: we're on the subject of Joe Burrow, after watching them
5:56
Speaker 1: a little bit at LSU and then watching them with
5:57
Speaker 1: the Bengals, a little bit last year and more importantly
6:00
Speaker 1: talking to a lot of people about him. Do you
6:03
Speaker 1: have a favorite observation or anecdote or anything along those
6:08
Speaker 1: lines that really gets to the heart of Joe Burrow
6:10
Speaker 1: for you. You know Joe Burrow, You know, he looks
6:15
Speaker 1: like he should be selling insurance for western southern life,
6:22
Speaker 1: but he's so he's such he's such a badass. And
6:29
Speaker 1: you know I'm not I'm not breaking any ground there,
6:33
Speaker 1: but he is so tough. You can just tell, you know,
6:37
Speaker 1: I could tell this. I don't have an anecdote because, honestly, Dan,
6:41
Speaker 1: I don't know Joe Burrow. You know, I've talked to
6:43
Speaker 1: him a couple of times. I don't know him, so
6:46
Speaker 1: it'd be stupid for me to say I know Joe
6:49
Speaker 1: Burke because I don't. But I think a couple of
6:55
Speaker 1: things that really stick out, Like, you know, his dad.
6:58
Speaker 1: I think his dad and mom did a really good
7:00
Speaker 1: job raising him because they raised him to be, you know,
7:04
Speaker 1: independent and tough and you know, to be able to
7:07
Speaker 1: take the crap that goes on in a young person's
7:10
Speaker 1: life sometimes. I mean, his dream was to growing up
7:14
Speaker 1: in Ohio, was to be the quarterback of the Buckeyes,
7:17
Speaker 1: and he goes there and he gets hurt and he
7:19
Speaker 1: gets beat out, and he's got a transfer. Like he
7:23
Speaker 1: left Columbus, Ohio with his tail tuck between his legs.
7:27
Speaker 1: And you know whoever thought it's funny about how quarterbacks
7:32
Speaker 1: work in the NFL right now? You know, a year
7:36
Speaker 1: ago today, nobody has had heard of Zach Wilson. Okay,
7:42
Speaker 1: Zach Wilson turned out to be the second player in
7:44
Speaker 1: the draft. Similarly, the year before that, if you had
7:49
Speaker 1: talked about Joe Burrow, who had a decent twenty eighteen
7:54
Speaker 1: season at LSU, you would have said, you know, fourth
7:59
Speaker 1: fifth round pick, maybe at best Day two, but probably
8:02
Speaker 1: Day three. And then he just comes out on fire.
8:07
Speaker 1: And I think the one thing I remember in the
8:11
Speaker 1: run up to the draft, the thing that really impressed
8:14
Speaker 1: me was how in the game against Alabama that was
8:19
Speaker 1: the mega game of the year. And I asked him
8:23
Speaker 1: about this, and also I've asked Joe Brady about this,
8:29
Speaker 1: you know, his former offensive coordinator at LSU. He came
8:35
Speaker 1: out firing. He doesn't need the three or four quick
8:39
Speaker 1: little checkdowns against the great Nick Saban's defense to get
8:44
Speaker 1: confidence in himself. He doesn't need that. He just, you know, hey,
8:48
Speaker 1: let's go, you know, let's throw a twenty five yard
8:52
Speaker 1: in cut on the first first pass of the game
8:55
Speaker 1: or whatever it was. But it was a downfield throw
8:58
Speaker 1: and I just admiration for that. I think the one
9:01
Speaker 1: other thing I would say about him in today's NFL,
9:06
Speaker 1: and especially with the Bengals, because you don't know and
9:10
Speaker 1: I don't know how they're going to protect them. I mean,
9:13
Speaker 1: you know, it'll it's wonderful to take Jamar Chase and
9:17
Speaker 1: I don't kill him for the pick or anything like that,
9:20
Speaker 1: but you know, if Penay Sewell is a poor man's
9:24
Speaker 1: Anthony Munio's, it's not going to look like the right pick, obviously,
9:28
Speaker 1: but you know, we'll see what happens. But I think
9:31
Speaker 1: what you saw in his rookie year is his ability
9:35
Speaker 1: to take a lot of hits after you know, until
9:38
Speaker 1: the ultimate one. His ability to take a lot of
9:40
Speaker 1: hits and to keep functioning in a good manner. The
9:43
Speaker 1: game against Philadelphia, he got the living crap beat out
9:46
Speaker 1: of him, and he just kept coming back for more.
9:49
Speaker 1: And I remember listening to him on the collins Worth
9:51
Speaker 1: podcast a few I don't know, maybe three months ago,
9:55
Speaker 1: talking about you know, kind of what he felt was
10:00
Speaker 1: kind of the respect he got from the Eagles after
10:03
Speaker 1: that game, and Chris was talking about it as well.
10:06
Speaker 1: But that is going to play well in his own
10:10
Speaker 1: locker room. So I think he's I think he's well respected,
10:14
Speaker 1: getting well respected by the rest of the league, and
10:16
Speaker 1: you can tell he's well respected in his own locker room.
10:19
Speaker 1: Talking to Peter King from NBC Sports, you did an
10:21
Speaker 1: interview with my colleague Jeff Hobson last year where you
10:26
Speaker 1: said the Bengals are going to love the free agent
10:28
Speaker 1: acquisition of Von Bell, and it definitely played out that way.
10:33
Speaker 1: So this year they go back into the free agent pool.
10:36
Speaker 1: Trey Hendrickson, chitabey O, Woogie, Mike Hilton, Riley Reef, Larry Ogan, Jobi.
10:42
Speaker 1: So they spent big, largely on defense. Do any of
10:46
Speaker 1: those names move the needle for you, anybody you think
10:48
Speaker 1: that's really going to work out well? I mean, Riley
10:51
Speaker 1: Reef is a short timer. He's a Scotch tape at
10:55
Speaker 1: a position that's desperately needed. You know that they needed
10:58
Speaker 1: to upgrade. The Bengals hit a cold streak in evaluating
11:03
Speaker 1: offensive lineman. Gone in the days when Jim McNally hit
11:06
Speaker 1: a lot of home runs with guys like Kazerski and
11:10
Speaker 1: Rhymers and Scrafford and all those guys. That just hasn't
11:14
Speaker 1: happened in recent years. So you've got to spend money
11:18
Speaker 1: in free agency to make up for the fact that
11:21
Speaker 1: you can't find Max Montoya anymore. But you know, I
11:27
Speaker 1: think he's an important one. Obviously. The guy who I
11:30
Speaker 1: like the most is Mike Hilton. I think he's a
11:34
Speaker 1: I think he's one of these players every team's got
11:38
Speaker 1: two or three of them who you just think, man,
11:41
Speaker 1: people don't appreciate him for the player who he is
11:44
Speaker 1: and the sort of force that he is on a defense.
11:48
Speaker 1: I think he's going to be an impact player. Now.
11:51
Speaker 1: Hendrickson's interesting because you know, I think what the Bengals
11:58
Speaker 1: saw in him, uh and what they what they I mean,
12:03
Speaker 1: they saw a lot of disruption obviously, you know on
12:07
Speaker 1: the front seven, which you know, when you lose Carl Lawson,
12:10
Speaker 1: that's what that's what you need, and you lose what's
12:14
Speaker 1: his name, Carlos Dunlap to Seattle. So I think the
12:19
Speaker 1: difference though for him is going to be comes from
12:24
Speaker 1: a place where he had a lot of help, and
12:26
Speaker 1: he had a lot of other people on the line who, uh,
12:30
Speaker 1: you know, basically you know, I'm not saying made it
12:34
Speaker 1: easy for him, but you know, when you're on a
12:37
Speaker 1: defense that has a lot of talent and a lot
12:42
Speaker 1: of players who need to get the attention to the offense,
12:46
Speaker 1: it's it's more advantageous, especially for a rusher to make impacts.
12:51
Speaker 1: So you know, he's not going to have the same
12:54
Speaker 1: kind of help that he had. I mean, if you
12:57
Speaker 1: think about it, no loss in no Geno Atkins right
13:01
Speaker 1: and Dunlop. I mean, that's a lot of big league
13:07
Speaker 1: players missing from a defense that wasn't great to begin with.
13:12
Speaker 1: It was good, I think at times, but it wasn't
13:15
Speaker 1: great to begin with. So there's going to be an
13:17
Speaker 1: awful lot of there's gonna be eyes on him. I
13:20
Speaker 1: think he's gonna have to be better than he was
13:25
Speaker 1: in New Orleans to have the same sort of sort
13:28
Speaker 1: of statistical impact that he had in New Orleans. What
13:32
Speaker 1: do you think constitutes a successful season for the Bengals
13:35
Speaker 1: this year? Keeping Joe Burrow healthy and just his continued
13:42
Speaker 1: development as a player. I think the Bengals are gonna
13:46
Speaker 1: play some games like the eighties Chargers. I think they're
13:52
Speaker 1: gonna They're gonna lose some forty one to thirty three
13:56
Speaker 1: and they're gonna win a game thirty eight to thirty
13:59
Speaker 1: five a few games. I think that's the style of
14:03
Speaker 1: game they're going to play. I think the Bengals will
14:06
Speaker 1: be one of the three or four most exciting teams
14:08
Speaker 1: in football. That doesn't necessarily equate two wins. I mean
14:13
Speaker 1: if they win six or seven games, I think that
14:16
Speaker 1: would be a really good accomplishment. And I do believe
14:20
Speaker 1: they'll win a game this year where people say where
14:24
Speaker 1: did that come from? Like they'll beat Cleveland or Baltimore
14:28
Speaker 1: or Pittsburgh, and like, I think they'll probably go like
14:31
Speaker 1: two and four in the division, maybe even three and three,
14:35
Speaker 1: just because as long as Borrow plays, they're going to
14:41
Speaker 1: be very hard to stop every Sunday. Let's talk about
14:44
Speaker 1: your Bengals roots for a moment. You cover the Bengals
14:48
Speaker 1: in eighty four, the start of your NFL reporter career
14:51
Speaker 1: for the Enquirer, and that meant hanging out of training
14:54
Speaker 1: camp with Paul Brown. What did that football education do
15:00
Speaker 1: for you that still helps to this day? Probably the
15:04
Speaker 1: biggest regret I have in forty one years as a
15:06
Speaker 1: sports writer is that I didn't go back to my
15:09
Speaker 1: room at Wilmington College during training camp every day and
15:14
Speaker 1: write down five things that Paul Brown told me. I
15:18
Speaker 1: can't believe. I mean, and you know, you're standing on
15:21
Speaker 1: the sidelines and it's been thirty seven years, so I
15:27
Speaker 1: can't sit here and say, yep, on this day, I
15:29
Speaker 1: remember one thing he said to me vividly. We're standing
15:33
Speaker 1: on the sidelines now. In those days, I would say
15:36
Speaker 1: the vast majority of days the Bengals practice twice. I mean,
15:41
Speaker 1: you talk about not having sports science. I mean, imagine this, Okay, Wilmington, Ohio,
15:49
Speaker 1: you know, which in July and August is as anybody
15:55
Speaker 1: who lives in Cincinnati any place around Cincinnati in July
15:58
Speaker 1: in August, it's going to be very humid, and day
16:01
Speaker 1: after day after day, you know, in the cornfields of Wilmington, Ohio,
16:08
Speaker 1: the Bengals going out and practicing from nine to eleven
16:12
Speaker 1: and from three to five. And I mean, how does
16:15
Speaker 1: a human being do that? But that's what the Bengals did.
16:18
Speaker 1: That's what every team did, and it seems insane to
16:21
Speaker 1: think about that, but I'd say, most of those practices
16:25
Speaker 1: were padded, and so it just was a it was
16:29
Speaker 1: a It was so arduous and so hard and so tough.
16:33
Speaker 1: And one day I made a comment to Paul Brown,
16:36
Speaker 1: standing there with his Panama hat on the sidelines, just
16:40
Speaker 1: I probably watched on average every day I stood next
16:44
Speaker 1: to him for an hour. I mean, I just watched
16:47
Speaker 1: a lot of practice with Paul Brown. And one day
16:49
Speaker 1: I said, I'll tell you, the sun kind of beats
16:54
Speaker 1: the crap out of you out here. It's just it's
16:56
Speaker 1: so hot. I mean every day. You know, he loved
16:59
Speaker 1: watching off offensive line drills, and I just said, man,
17:04
Speaker 1: I just it's amazing the year after year after year
17:08
Speaker 1: you come back and you just watched this day after day.
17:11
Speaker 1: And he goes, young man, this is our lifeblood, you know,
17:15
Speaker 1: and that's all he had to say. You know, he
17:17
Speaker 1: was like, oh, you know. What he was saying to
17:19
Speaker 1: me was, hey, listen, if you don't like it, go
17:23
Speaker 1: cover field hockey. You know. But he was he was
17:29
Speaker 1: just in the end. I know that people who have
17:32
Speaker 1: played for him. You know, if you asked Jim Brown
17:35
Speaker 1: about this, the last thing he would say is he
17:37
Speaker 1: was so kind. But when Paul Brown when my father
17:41
Speaker 1: I left Cincinnati to go to work in New York
17:46
Speaker 1: in eighty five, and the next year my father died.
17:49
Speaker 1: He had cancer and he died. But right before he died,
17:53
Speaker 1: I was like, I had a conversation with Mike Brown,
17:55
Speaker 1: and I told him that my dad was probably not
17:58
Speaker 1: gonna make it. I had lung cancer and all that.
18:02
Speaker 1: And like five days later, in the mail at my
18:05
Speaker 1: house in Enfield, Connecticut, Paul Brown's book that he wrote
18:10
Speaker 1: with Jack Clary showed up and there's a letter with it.
18:13
Speaker 1: He had signed it, and there was a letter with
18:15
Speaker 1: it said, mister King, you raised a fine boy. And
18:19
Speaker 1: that was just I mean, I get choked up even
18:24
Speaker 1: thinking about it right now. But he was quite a guy.
18:28
Speaker 1: I really liked him. But that was a tremendous time
18:32
Speaker 1: to start in this business, you know, Dan, right now?
18:36
Speaker 1: You know, I tell people, what's it like covering the
18:39
Speaker 1: NFL In two thousand, About twenty reporters, including me, covered
18:44
Speaker 1: the scouting combine in Indianapolis. In twenty twenty, right before
18:48
Speaker 1: the start of the pandemic. One two hundred and forty
18:53
Speaker 1: three reporters were credential to cover the combine. It's it's insane.
18:57
Speaker 1: It's I don't I don't know how possibly anybody can
19:03
Speaker 1: can look at football and say, hey, that just what
19:07
Speaker 1: we need. What we need more coverage. But in those days,
19:11
Speaker 1: the day before the draft in nineteen eighty four, Sam
19:15
Speaker 1: White set me down in his office, a young beat reporter.
19:18
Speaker 1: I was on the job for maybe two weeks, and
19:21
Speaker 1: he sat me down in the office and he told me,
19:23
Speaker 1: just don't say anything to anybody outside of this market.
19:27
Speaker 1: No internet in those days, no anything. He told me
19:30
Speaker 1: who they were going to draft. I mean, he's, okay,
19:33
Speaker 1: first round, we're gonna take Rickey Hunley, Uh, you know.
19:36
Speaker 1: Then later in the round we're gonna take Boomer Assias
19:38
Speaker 1: and Stanford Jennings. All I mean is it is insane.
19:44
Speaker 1: And that's the and and and and training camp and
19:47
Speaker 1: coverage and all that stuff. It was just a lot
19:51
Speaker 1: easier in those days, and it was a lot easier
19:55
Speaker 1: to find things out in those days. So I really
19:59
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. That's actually one of the things I admire
20:02
Speaker 1: most about your work. The technology changes, the industry changes,
20:06
Speaker 1: and rather than do what you have to do kicking
20:10
Speaker 1: and screaming, you seem to embrace it. So for example,
20:13
Speaker 1: we're doing this by zoom. A lot of people hate
20:16
Speaker 1: the fact that we'd have to do so many interviews
20:18
Speaker 1: by zoom these days. But I get the sense that
20:21
Speaker 1: you're like, well, okay, it does give me the opportunity
20:24
Speaker 1: to talk somebody, talk to somebody and have eye to
20:26
Speaker 1: eye contact on the opposite side of the country at
20:29
Speaker 1: a moment's notice. The minute I say, man, I long
20:34
Speaker 1: for the old days, take me out behind the barn
20:37
Speaker 1: and shoot me. I mean, I just it's it doesn't
20:40
Speaker 1: do any good. Nobody wants to hear that. Who in
20:43
Speaker 1: the world would sympathize with a sixty four year old
20:48
Speaker 1: sportswriter because the world has changed? Am I am? I
20:52
Speaker 1: do I long for the days when I spread four
20:54
Speaker 1: newspapers out on the table and read them for an
20:57
Speaker 1: hour and a half. Of course, I do love newspapers,
21:02
Speaker 1: but you know what, that's that's yesterday, so you better adjust.
21:06
Speaker 1: And in my opinion, and what I tell young journalists
21:09
Speaker 1: and yeah, I've been back to Ohio University a few times,
21:12
Speaker 1: and then you know kids coming up these days, I
21:16
Speaker 1: just said, listen, this business will always need storytellers. You
21:22
Speaker 1: need to find out the story and when you find
21:25
Speaker 1: out the story, there will be a way to tell
21:28
Speaker 1: the story. I don't know what it's going to be.
21:31
Speaker 1: You don't know what it's going to be. And that's
21:32
Speaker 1: why every opportunity you have, you can you learn how
21:37
Speaker 1: to do podcasting, will do that, you know, try that,
21:40
Speaker 1: Try everything that comes along. And I remember a young
21:46
Speaker 1: woman from my home at the time, where we were
21:48
Speaker 1: living in New Jersey. Her name is Emily Kaplan. She
21:52
Speaker 1: now works at ESPN. She's a high school student there.
21:55
Speaker 1: I got to know her. She just desperately wanted to
21:57
Speaker 1: be in journalism, and so I, you know, advised her
22:01
Speaker 1: a little bit. And the one thing I said to
22:03
Speaker 1: her about her time at Penn State, I said, if
22:06
Speaker 1: I were you, one year, I'd work for the school paper.
22:10
Speaker 1: One year, I'd work for the TV station, one year,
22:13
Speaker 1: I'd work for the radio station. One year I would
22:15
Speaker 1: try to do some sort of blog or internet something,
22:23
Speaker 1: you know, but I would try to do everything, you know,
22:26
Speaker 1: at a huge university like that. And because I think,
22:30
Speaker 1: you know, I told her, you don't know at the
22:32
Speaker 1: end of these four years what the world is going
22:35
Speaker 1: to is going to look like. And heck, she's done
22:39
Speaker 1: a great job. She worked for me a little bit
22:41
Speaker 1: at Sports Illustrated now as at ESPN doing hockey, and
22:44
Speaker 1: she's on around the Horn and she's just a rising star.
22:48
Speaker 1: But you've got to take that seriously. At your heart,
22:53
Speaker 1: you've got to be a reporter, but you've also got
22:55
Speaker 1: to understand that you need to be flexible, and quite honestly,
23:00
Speaker 1: it's fun. You know. I loved being and I love
23:03
Speaker 1: working for the Inquirer. I loved it, man, those are
23:05
Speaker 1: some of the great years of my life. It's all
23:08
Speaker 1: warm and fuzzy to me, but I do think that
23:14
Speaker 1: there has to be a part of your ethos in
23:17
Speaker 1: this job that says, whatever the way to get the
23:22
Speaker 1: information out, I'm going to try to master that. And
23:26
Speaker 1: that's really what I've tried to do over the years.
23:28
Speaker 1: And you know, it's really been a fun, fun world.
23:32
Speaker 1: I can't believe it's been forty one years since I
23:34
Speaker 1: walked into the Inquiry at six seventeen Vine Street, and
23:39
Speaker 1: probably everybody who listens to that will say, what the
23:42
Speaker 1: Inquiry used to be on Vine Street? But you know,
23:47
Speaker 1: it just time changes. But I you know, I got
23:52
Speaker 1: nothing but love for how my career started. Well, the
23:56
Speaker 1: highlight of my week is Monday morning, approximately six thirty am.
24:00
Speaker 1: Big cup of coffee in football morning in America. So
24:03
Speaker 1: I look forward to your travels during training camp this
24:07
Speaker 1: week and learning stuff on Monday morning. And I really
24:09
Speaker 1: appreciate your time today. Thank you so much, ay Dan,
24:12
Speaker 1: It's been wonderful. Please call anytime, Peter may Rue the
24:16
Speaker 1: day he encouraged me to call anytime. Now let's get
24:20
Speaker 1: to Jesse Bates. Last week he agreed to join Dave
24:24
Speaker 1: Lapham and me on one of the live training camp
24:26
Speaker 1: reports we've been doing on the Bengal social media channels.
24:30
Speaker 1: He agreed to do that before a report came out
24:33
Speaker 1: on ESPN that he and the team are not making
24:36
Speaker 1: progress toward a contract extension. To his credit, Jesse did
24:40
Speaker 1: not cancel the interview we had scheduled and in case
24:43
Speaker 1: you missed it on Thursday, here's that five minute conversation. Jesse.
24:48
Speaker 1: We appreciate you coming on with us this morning. I
24:50
Speaker 1: suppose we need to get the elephant in the room
24:53
Speaker 1: out of the way right off the bat, and that
24:55
Speaker 1: is the state of your contract negotiations. A report came
24:58
Speaker 1: out a couple of days ago suggesting that the two
25:01
Speaker 1: sides are still considerable distance apart. How do things stand
25:06
Speaker 1: right now and are you still optimistic that a deal
25:08
Speaker 1: can get done before the start of the season. Yeah. Um,
25:12
Speaker 1: I think as far as my contract goes, I guess
25:15
Speaker 1: I haven't done enough yet to be considered one of
25:18
Speaker 1: the you know, the top safeties in this league. So
25:22
Speaker 1: which is fine. Um, That's fine with me. I'm gonna
25:25
Speaker 1: go to work just like any other day my first
25:28
Speaker 1: three years being here. UM. You know, just being able
25:31
Speaker 1: to have that open conversation with my agent has been great, um,
25:35
Speaker 1: in regards to just having the conversation very open. And
25:41
Speaker 1: I think this will probably be my last time that
25:43
Speaker 1: I speak on the contractum, just because I think it
25:47
Speaker 1: can get a little messy. UM, as far as you know,
25:51
Speaker 1: UM thinking about it too much. UM. But you know,
25:54
Speaker 1: I've been out there practicing every day. I have a
25:57
Speaker 1: goal that I want to reach. Personally, I know I
26:00
Speaker 1: have to get better to help this team get to
26:03
Speaker 1: where we need to be. So, like I said, I
26:05
Speaker 1: let my agent work out the numbers and stuff like that.
26:08
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be the best teammate, best leader that I
26:11
Speaker 1: can be for the twenty twenty one Bengals. So we'll
26:14
Speaker 1: see we'll see what happens, and I know you will
26:17
Speaker 1: be all of that. And you're a humble guy as well,
26:20
Speaker 1: because I think you are the best safety in the
26:22
Speaker 1: National Football League. Three three interceptions last year, you got
26:25
Speaker 1: your hand on fifteen other footballs, broke up fifteen other passes,
26:29
Speaker 1: amongst the top handful in the National Football League. Your recognition,
26:34
Speaker 1: your range, all those things are incredible. Plus you're you're tackling,
26:38
Speaker 1: you know, you're getting people on the ground. Is that
26:40
Speaker 1: something that was really important to you to get that,
26:43
Speaker 1: you know, that be known as somebody that's gonna when
26:45
Speaker 1: you hit your your journey ends. Yeah. I think that's
26:50
Speaker 1: a mentality that every safety kind of has. Especially for
26:53
Speaker 1: me as a post safety, I feel like I get
26:55
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunities to kind of laid that statement
26:58
Speaker 1: like hey, don't come across the mid or you know,
27:00
Speaker 1: the deep balls or no flies one type of thing. So,
27:04
Speaker 1: like I said, this isn't about me. This is about
27:07
Speaker 1: you know, the Cincinnati Bengals, and I'm just excited to
27:10
Speaker 1: be a part of it. Jesse. If somebody asked me
27:14
Speaker 1: what position group has been most impressive so far in
27:17
Speaker 1: training camp, I would say the defensive backs. The additions
27:21
Speaker 1: like Mike Hilton and should Obey a Wooge have had
27:24
Speaker 1: excellent camps so far. Do you agree that the group
27:27
Speaker 1: has performed extremely well in the first votes nearly two
27:30
Speaker 1: weeks now of training camp. Yeah, I think we've done
27:33
Speaker 1: a really good job of just being able to set
27:35
Speaker 1: the standard starting with our group. Yeah, we as a
27:40
Speaker 1: defense we want to be great, But I think as
27:43
Speaker 1: a secondary I hope every you know, position group is
27:46
Speaker 1: kind of thinking of, you know, we have to be
27:48
Speaker 1: the ones that set the tone. It's the same thing
27:51
Speaker 1: I've always preached to me and Von. I feel like
27:53
Speaker 1: the team kind of goes as we go on the
27:55
Speaker 1: defensive side. So I think that everybody's kind of except
28:00
Speaker 1: did that kind of mindset, and um, it's definitely kind
28:02
Speaker 1: of paid off and shown um that kind of mindset
28:05
Speaker 1: throughout training camp. And so the next step is making
28:08
Speaker 1: sure that we get you know, the twos and the threes, um,
28:12
Speaker 1: you know, up to speed as well as we get
28:14
Speaker 1: into this preseason stuff and make sure they put good
28:17
Speaker 1: stuff on film. Um, because I mean, even if it
28:19
Speaker 1: doesn't work out here, uh, there's there's gonna be some
28:22
Speaker 1: great film for those guys to go on throughout their career. So,
28:27
Speaker 1: like I said, you just got to understand all sides
28:29
Speaker 1: of the of the business and UM. Just being able
28:32
Speaker 1: to have some veterans in that room has has definitely
28:34
Speaker 1: helped us UM have some success early on in training
28:38
Speaker 1: camp Ates and Bell the Killer Bees, no question about it.
28:43
Speaker 1: But like you said, veterans in the room have seen
28:46
Speaker 1: a lot of snaps, have seen all the route combinations.
28:50
Speaker 1: Recognition from everybody in that back end has been extraordinary
28:53
Speaker 1: and the biggest key communication. You know, you can't talk
28:56
Speaker 1: enough back there, and you guys have talked a lot
28:58
Speaker 1: making sure you're all in the same page. Has that
29:00
Speaker 1: been a big key to the success. Yeah. Like I
29:03
Speaker 1: said that, just being able to have those veterans that
29:06
Speaker 1: have seen a lot of football UM, seeing a lot
29:08
Speaker 1: of route combinations, seeing how how do we get beating quarters,
29:12
Speaker 1: how do we get beating three j um Just stuff
29:15
Speaker 1: like that. Being able to have experience UM and not
29:19
Speaker 1: just always getting it from the coach, I think has
29:22
Speaker 1: definitely helped us UM. And I think that we're not
29:25
Speaker 1: being very silent. We're not being quiet about you know,
29:28
Speaker 1: holding up that as in a secret. We're able to
29:31
Speaker 1: pass that down to the younger guys, and I think, um,
29:34
Speaker 1: they've done a hell of a job as well. So um,
29:37
Speaker 1: like I said, I'm excited to actually be able to
29:39
Speaker 1: be ready for a game plan and get things installed. Um,
29:43
Speaker 1: that's when we'll really figure out what we're about. So um,
29:47
Speaker 1: we'll start with Tampa Bay Week one preseason. I think
29:50
Speaker 1: we're playing the first couple of series, so that that'll
29:52
Speaker 1: be very exciting. All right, let's get back to Jesse's contract.
29:57
Speaker 1: I have a fifteen year old son who probably loves
29:59
Speaker 1: the Bengal more than he loves me. On Tuesday, at
30:02
Speaker 1: three eighteen in the afternoon, he sent me a text
30:05
Speaker 1: that read why no Bates extension. He was reacting to
30:09
Speaker 1: that tweet sent out by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN that
30:13
Speaker 1: said the following the Bengals in Safety Jesse Bates the
30:16
Speaker 1: third are not expected to reach a contract extension at
30:19
Speaker 1: this time, per source, sides not progressing toward a deal.
30:25
Speaker 1: That tweet allowed me to have a teaching moment with
30:27
Speaker 1: my son about contract negotiations, posturing, and Bengals history. The
30:33
Speaker 1: source was obviously Jesse's agent, and I don't dispute what
30:36
Speaker 1: he told Jeremy Fowler. I don't know what each side
30:39
Speaker 1: is asking for, and they could very well be at
30:42
Speaker 1: a standstill. But as I told my son, an agent
30:45
Speaker 1: tells a reporter that for a reason to put public
30:48
Speaker 1: pressure on the team in negotiations, that's posturing. Sometimes it's
30:53
Speaker 1: done publicly and sometimes it's done behind closed doors. And
30:56
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, I'm not faulting Jesse's agent. He's
31:00
Speaker 1: trying to get his client the best possible deal. But
31:03
Speaker 1: all of this is not unusual when it comes to
31:06
Speaker 1: big contract extensions, and when you look at Bengals history,
31:09
Speaker 1: when they prioritize giving one of their top young players
31:12
Speaker 1: a second contract, the deal almost always gets done, and
31:17
Speaker 1: it often happens near the end of training camp. Will
31:20
Speaker 1: that be the case with Jesse Bates, I honestly don't know,
31:24
Speaker 1: But as I told my son, let's see what happens
31:27
Speaker 1: over the next few weeks. The Bengals Booth podcast is
31:30
Speaker 1: presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with
31:34
Speaker 1: a hint a fruit flavor. When the Bengals open the
31:37
Speaker 1: preseason on Saturday, we will not see Joe Burrow, although
31:40
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor has not ruled out playing him at some
31:43
Speaker 1: point in the preseason. Brandon Allen will be the Bengals
31:47
Speaker 1: starting quarterback on Saturday, followed by former Vanderbilt star Kyle Schermer,
31:52
Speaker 1: who joined the Bengals practice squad last December. He played
31:56
Speaker 1: in four preseason games for the Kansas City Chiefs two
31:59
Speaker 1: years ago. In fact, he threw a touchdown pass against Cincinnati.
32:03
Speaker 1: And I spoke to Kyle this week about getting another
32:07
Speaker 1: opportunity to play. The last time you got to play
32:11
Speaker 1: in a game was the two thy nineteen preseason because
32:14
Speaker 1: there were no preseason games last year. How fired up
32:17
Speaker 1: are you just to get out there and play again? Yeah,
32:19
Speaker 1: I'm excited. Anytime you're a competitor, you can and you
32:23
Speaker 1: line up against a different set of guys, you know,
32:25
Speaker 1: the competitor, and you gets all fired up. So we'll
32:28
Speaker 1: be ready to roll and uh yeah, fired up to
32:30
Speaker 1: get out there. The Bengals will wind up keeping at
32:33
Speaker 1: least three quarterbacks between the roster and the practice squad.
32:36
Speaker 1: Do you consider the preseason games to be pretty vital
32:39
Speaker 1: to try to earn one of those spots? Yeah? I
32:41
Speaker 1: think every day, you know, uh, you know, practice and
32:45
Speaker 1: the preseason games are vital. You know, every meeting, you know,
32:48
Speaker 1: every every lift, anytime you're around your teammates, around the coaches, everybody.
32:52
Speaker 1: You know, you're you're auditioning, and um, you know, I
32:55
Speaker 1: want to be a part of the squad, and you
32:57
Speaker 1: know I'm looking forward to, you know, to the preseason games,
33:00
Speaker 1: but every day in practice has been you know, full
33:03
Speaker 1: go for me. So, yeah, we're chatting with quarterback Kyle Schermer.
33:07
Speaker 1: You spent your rookie year with Kansas City, partly on
33:10
Speaker 1: the practice squad, active for a little bit during the season,
33:13
Speaker 1: and that year the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. Describe
33:16
Speaker 1: the experience of being part of that tremendous Kansas City team.
33:20
Speaker 1: You know, it was a phenomenal experience. I learned a
33:23
Speaker 1: lot in my time there, my year there, and a
33:27
Speaker 1: lot of great people, interacted with a lot of great
33:30
Speaker 1: uh you know, coaches and players, and just try to
33:33
Speaker 1: take as much as I could from that experience and
33:36
Speaker 1: apply it, you know in my day to day life
33:39
Speaker 1: and you know here at the Bengals. Uh, you know,
33:41
Speaker 1: howeverr it helps me. So yeah, as football fans, we've
33:44
Speaker 1: seen Patrick Mahomes do some incredible things and don't look
33:47
Speaker 1: passes left handed passes, etc. Do you have a great
33:51
Speaker 1: behind the scenes thing that you saw Patrick Mahomes do
33:55
Speaker 1: that would amaze us? It's funny, a lot of those
33:58
Speaker 1: behind the back, you know, no look passes he did
34:01
Speaker 1: in practice, so it was it was almost like not
34:04
Speaker 1: a surprise to us when he did in a game.
34:06
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, Patrick's a phenomenal player, and uh yeah,
34:10
Speaker 1: there's a lot of fun stories. You played at Vanderbilt.
34:13
Speaker 1: You had a tremendous college career, breaking all of Jay
34:16
Speaker 1: Cutler's passing records with the Commodorees. But it's a challenge
34:20
Speaker 1: for a quarterback at Vanderbilt. You're competing in the SEC.
34:23
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say that the talent gap
34:26
Speaker 1: is probably there in most games that you played in.
34:29
Speaker 1: How did that prepare you for the NFL? Yeah? I
34:31
Speaker 1: think you have to appreciate every bit of the process.
34:36
Speaker 1: You know, leading up to a game day. You know
34:39
Speaker 1: in season, training camp, off season, you know your day
34:42
Speaker 1: to day work and practice, in your off season prep.
34:45
Speaker 1: You know, every little bit of time that you spend
34:48
Speaker 1: as crucial. And I just gained an appreciation for, you know,
34:53
Speaker 1: trying to be a football player on and off the field,
34:55
Speaker 1: and you know, it was it was a tremendous experience.
34:59
Speaker 1: You know, I take great pride in my experience of Andy.
35:03
Speaker 1: Your father is Pat Shermer, former NFL head coach with
35:06
Speaker 1: Cleveland and the New York Giants, now the offensive coordinator
35:08
Speaker 1: for the Broncos. Did football become an obsession at an
35:12
Speaker 1: early age because of that for you? Yeah, no doubt,
35:15
Speaker 1: no doubt. I Uh, it was always cool growing up
35:18
Speaker 1: around NFL facilities watching, Uh, you know, professionals work and
35:23
Speaker 1: you'll just be around football all the time. It was.
35:25
Speaker 1: It was a lot of fun and uh, it really
35:28
Speaker 1: gave me a lot of experience at a young age
35:30
Speaker 1: that you know, you can't replicate, and it's it was
35:34
Speaker 1: so Yeah, I've really enjoyed being a coaches kid growing up.
35:37
Speaker 1: Were any of the great quarterbacks that he coached especially
35:40
Speaker 1: good to you when you were a little kid? Oh yeah,
35:43
Speaker 1: Um yeah, all the guys in Philly, Donovan McNabb, Coy
35:48
Speaker 1: dam or A. J. Feely when he was in Philly,
35:51
Speaker 1: Sam Bradford and Saint Louis, who else she's uh called McCoy,
35:58
Speaker 1: Brandon Weedon in Cleveland. I can't say that too loud
36:01
Speaker 1: here being on the Bengals. But but you know a
36:04
Speaker 1: lot of guys you know, and uh, you know, like
36:06
Speaker 1: I said, it was, it was a privilege growing up
36:08
Speaker 1: you know, around the game, around professionals, seeing how serious
36:12
Speaker 1: but fun you know, Uh, this job, I guess is
36:15
Speaker 1: and you know, so it's a privilege. Kyle. I appreciate
36:19
Speaker 1: your time. Best of luck against the Bucks and throughout
36:21
Speaker 1: the preseason. Thank you appreciate it. That's going to do
36:24
Speaker 1: it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought
36:26
Speaker 1: to you by Bud lights Seltzer, refreshed the game. If
36:30
Speaker 1: you haven't done so already, please subscribe and if you
36:32
Speaker 1: have a minute, give it a rating or share a
36:34
Speaker 1: comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm
36:38
Speaker 1: Dan Horde, and thank you for listening to The Bengals
36:41
Speaker 1: Booth Podcast.