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Speaker 1: Pike Sincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in

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Speaker 1: part by Cincy Shirts. Cincy Shirts, All Cincy, all Day.

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Speaker 1: This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

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Speaker 2: It is Cincinnati Sports Station and you are now listening

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Speaker 2: to our number two. Thanks to our friends at Cincy Shirts.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for being a part of this. We'll get some

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Speaker 2: phone calls in after talkbacks today five one, three, seven, four, nine,

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Speaker 2: fifteen thirty. For now, it's Thursday. It's one o'clock. You

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Speaker 2: know what that means. We talked to our guy covering

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Speaker 2: the Bengals from eight to Z Sports, John Sheeran joining

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Speaker 2: us right now. What's up, John?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah?

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Speaker 2: How much are you looking forward to a bye weekend? John?

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Speaker 5: Oh, it's lovely. It's I have a free Sunday. The

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Speaker 5: sun is out. I have so many plans of maybe

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Speaker 5: doing nothing. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be the

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Speaker 5: best Sunday the last two months.

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Speaker 4: Are you gonna watch any NFL football? So you remember

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Speaker 4: what it's supposed to look like?

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Speaker 5: You know, I haven't decided that yet, but if I do,

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Speaker 5: I'm going to be trans six for sure.

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Speaker 2: How important is it just to have a bye weekend

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Speaker 2: for your mental health at this point.

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Speaker 5: I mean, it can't there's nothing that comes close to

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Speaker 5: at this point. I wish there was two more, which

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Speaker 5: is what I hope that the NFL is pushing for

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Speaker 5: once they push the schedule all the way to March

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Speaker 5: or something like that.

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Speaker 3: But I'm looking forward to it.

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Speaker 2: This team, it's obviously on the defensive side of the

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Speaker 2: ball a comedy of airs. You have four players who

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Speaker 2: make up the top ten in the NFL and missed

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Speaker 2: tackles in that category, including the top two. I don't

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Speaker 2: even know where to start on the defensive side of

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Speaker 2: the ball. If you were tasked over the bye week

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Speaker 2: and trying to find ways to improve this defense, where

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Speaker 2: would you look to start the door?

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Speaker 3: I don't know. It's just like.

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Speaker 5: These guys when they play it, I've never seen it

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Speaker 5: to the point where like they look like they're overmatched,

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Speaker 5: Like they kind of look like they just don't have

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Speaker 5: the juice. And that's surprising because this was built on

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Speaker 5: some one of a principle of athleticism. And it's like

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Speaker 5: guys get to the spot, but once they're there, they

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Speaker 5: realize that, oh they have to take on a block

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Speaker 5: or have to scrape over the top of this gap

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Speaker 5: in order to reach the gap right, and it's like

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Speaker 5: they do maybe one good thing a play, but they

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Speaker 5: need to do three good things in each play. And

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Speaker 5: that's why they get bowled over in their run fits,

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Speaker 5: and that's why they're chasing down guys for thirty yard games.

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Speaker 5: It's why they're always late despite being quick, and it's like,

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Speaker 5: I don't know if they just don't know what they're

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Speaker 5: seeing in preparation from Monday to Saturday, or when they

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Speaker 5: go out onto the field, they're just physically outmatched. That's

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Speaker 5: just what it looked like on Sunday against the Bears

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Speaker 5: offensive lines that I had. I had concerns about going

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Speaker 5: into this game because they rebuilt that entire interior group

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Speaker 5: and they can get out after you at the second

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Speaker 5: level and they can spread you out, and Ben Johnson

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Speaker 5: does a great job of scheming all that up. But

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Speaker 5: it looks so much worse than I could have possibly matched,

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Speaker 5: because this team looks like they're just they just don't

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Speaker 5: have any confidence with them in their athleticism and that's

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Speaker 5: why they just it just looks so as bad as

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Speaker 5: it is, and it's just really hard to get over.

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Speaker 2: That I look at how bad it is and I

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Speaker 2: wonder how will it get better? I don't see it

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Speaker 2: right now in Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter. I don't

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Speaker 2: see it with Shamar Stewart. There are questions about pretty

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Speaker 2: much all three of those guys when they were drafted

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Speaker 2: by the Bengals. You're now at the bye week, you

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Speaker 2: get the second half of the schedule. But when you

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Speaker 2: look at this defense from top to bottom, Miles Murphy

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Speaker 2: is not panning out. The secondary outside of probably DJ

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Speaker 2: Turner is not panning out. We'll talk about Trey Hendrickson

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Speaker 2: in just a moment. How many players currently make up

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Speaker 2: this defense? John, where you would go into next year saying, Man,

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Speaker 2: that guy has to be a part of the mix.

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Speaker 3: No one that has to be here necessarily because.

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Speaker 5: No one is playing up above where they were last year.

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Speaker 5: It feels like everyone has gotten a little bit worse

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Speaker 5: or they're basically staying the same. And that could be

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Speaker 5: a testament to what they saw out of these guys

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Speaker 5: last year when they weren't playing. And that's another conversation, right,

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Speaker 5: But it's like, in order for this defense to get

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Speaker 5: to where it was supposed to be, a lot of

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Speaker 5: these guys had to make a jump, not even like

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Speaker 5: a big just a gradual progression. We're not even really

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Speaker 5: seeing that from Dax Hill, who I think has basically

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Speaker 5: been the same player that he was last year, and

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Speaker 5: you would like to see a little bit more improvement

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Speaker 5: out of him. But it really is hard to go

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Speaker 5: into anything with the cornerbacks right now. With the way

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Speaker 5: that the rest of the defense is playing, it seems

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Speaker 5: like the cornerbacks are like the lone bright spot of

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Speaker 5: this group because again, Miles Murphy continues to have a

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Speaker 5: great get off, but can't disengage. He can't win a

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Speaker 5: rip move to save his life. You're not seeing anything

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Speaker 5: in terms of patch rushing juice again outside of bj

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Speaker 5: Hill from your defensive tackles, and the linebacking play is

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Speaker 5: just it's amongst the worst that I've ever seen. It's

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Speaker 5: definitely the worst in the NFL right now, but it's

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Speaker 5: amongst the worst that I've ever seen, and this team

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Speaker 5: has gone through some terrible linebacking.

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Speaker 3: Play over the last two decades.

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Speaker 5: So there is no real significant piece of this defense

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Speaker 5: right now outside of Tree Henderson that you would want

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Speaker 5: next year going forward, and maybe you know DJ Turner

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Speaker 5: obviously is now in that group as well, but you

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Speaker 5: would like to see him finish the year strongly because

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Speaker 5: it has been a problem with him for his career

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Speaker 5: as well.

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Speaker 4: Let's talk about Trey Hendrickson. Bengals decided not to move

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Speaker 4: him at the trade deadline. What did you make of

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Speaker 4: that move and how do you expect this to play

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Speaker 4: out coming up into next offseason where he's obviously eligible

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Speaker 4: for the tag and the price. How do you expect

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Speaker 4: this to work out with the Bengals and tray another

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Speaker 4: season of this.

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Speaker 5: It was just part for the chorus, really when you

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Speaker 5: heard reports about how they were supposedly lowering their price

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Speaker 5: a little bit, and then the Quinn Williams trade happens,

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Speaker 5: like oh, there's first round picks being thrown out for

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Speaker 5: defensive line and okay, now we're back in the table

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Speaker 5: with our.

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Speaker 3: Price, and it's like, guys, this.

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Speaker 5: Is not this is You're comparing apples and oranges with

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Speaker 5: these two players, Like this is just elementary stuff. So

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Speaker 5: it wasn't too shocking to not see him be moved,

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Speaker 5: but it does continue to lens into the fact that

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Speaker 5: after this guy's best year of his career, the directionlessness

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Speaker 5: and the carelessness of which they've treated his future is

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Speaker 5: beyond disgraceful. And the fact that there's just no clear

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Speaker 5: plan as to what to do with him and how

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Speaker 5: to treat him, and.

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Speaker 3: Just putting the bandit on his contract this year was

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Speaker 3: just it's all been bad.

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Speaker 5: So it hasn't been surprising to see him still be

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Speaker 5: here despite the fact that he probably shouldn't be here

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Speaker 5: with the way that the season has gone down. But

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Speaker 5: it does open the door, of course, for them to

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Speaker 5: retain as much power as possible in the situation, place

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Speaker 5: another franchise tag on him, make him wait it out,

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Speaker 5: see if a team is desperate enough to give him

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Speaker 5: a first round pick for a guy who's now older

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Speaker 5: and has another injury on his rap sheet, which is

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Speaker 5: not going to increase his value at all. So the

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Speaker 5: fact that they didn't just get this over with is

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Speaker 5: just beyond me. But it's not shocking at all.

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Speaker 2: I guess, not only to the points you just mentioned, John,

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Speaker 2: but what about just the off season for Zach Taylor

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Speaker 2: or whoever the head coaches of the Cincinnati Bengals, because

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Speaker 2: it just feels like that would become more of a

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Speaker 2: distraction again. For this team. I thought going into the

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Speaker 2: offseason you wanted to eliminate as many distractions as possible,

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Speaker 2: and then the Trey Hendrickson thing happened, Shamar Stewart thing happened.

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Speaker 2: Wouldn't that just be putting another burden of a distraction

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Speaker 2: on this team going forward? If you're going to play

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Speaker 2: the same song and dance with Trey Hendrickson.

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Speaker 5: It doesn't matter to them because the way that they

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Speaker 5: manage business from the front office level and from the coaching.

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Speaker 3: Level is just so disjointed.

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Speaker 5: There's no there's no conciseness with what they want to

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Speaker 5: do from like a team wide vision standpoint. If there was,

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Speaker 5: then there would be clear to us to what to

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Speaker 5: do with Trey Henderson. And not leaving out on limbo

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Speaker 5: for several months this offseason until finally resolving that a

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Speaker 5: week before the regular season begins. It completely disrupts what

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Speaker 5: you're trying to do from a coaching perspective, because from

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Speaker 5: a business side of things, you just want to win.

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Speaker 5: You don't want to do things in the timely matter

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Speaker 5: that helps out everybody within your organization, and that continues

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Speaker 5: to be the problem with this team. The management side

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Speaker 5: of things they want to do things their way, and

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Speaker 5: then they force the coach to take these questions from

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Speaker 5: reporters because we can't talk to anybody in management about this,

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Speaker 5: and it's just like the coach is just left sitting

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Speaker 5: on his hands, like I don't know what you want

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Speaker 5: to do. Like Trey is here, like he wants to play,

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Speaker 5: he wants to practice, but he's got to handle his

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Speaker 5: own stuff and hopefully it doesn't happen yet again next offseason.

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Speaker 5: But until something clicks within the front office, that's probably

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Speaker 5: the most like the scenario.

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Speaker 2: A scenario that I don't know potentially could unfold, that

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Speaker 2: of Zach Taylor or that of Duke Tobin. Do you

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Speaker 2: envision a change for this organization at either head coach

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Speaker 2: or the de facto GM.

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Speaker 5: It really has to come down to someone speaking up

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Speaker 5: inside that building, whether it's Mike Brown at the age

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Speaker 5: of almost ninety years old saying that we need to change,

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Speaker 5: or it comes from the quarterback and Joe Burrow, whatever,

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Speaker 5: whomever has the most power within that building has to

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Speaker 5: do something. Because I do think that while it's never

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Speaker 5: really been a serious conversation about a change in the

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Speaker 5: quote unquote GM chair of that team.

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Speaker 3: Despite the fact that there.

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Speaker 5: Isn't actually a GM, this is going to be potentially

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Speaker 5: the third year in a row in which they don't

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Speaker 5: make the playoffs. The last time that happened was Marvin

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Speaker 5: Lewis's final three years here as head coach, and obviously

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Speaker 5: significant changes followed that in twenty nine team with the

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Speaker 5: hiring of Zach Taylor and really Duke Tobin being at

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Speaker 5: the face of that hiring as well. Like these these

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Speaker 5: two guys are basically paired together with the last six

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Speaker 5: seven years of this operation. So I really do think

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Speaker 5: that if this season goes down the way that we

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Speaker 5: all expected to do, which is them not making the playoffs,

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Speaker 5: then you could see something. But again, something has to

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Speaker 5: happen internally. Someone has to speak up and put their

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Speaker 5: foot down and say enough is enough. We got to

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Speaker 5: change at least this part of it. So it's possible,

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Speaker 5: but it still He's been there for almost thirty years,

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Speaker 5: and I'll believe it when I see it.

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Speaker 2: Offensively, I know for this team going forward, the offense

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Speaker 2: hasn't been a problem, and I know that there are

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Speaker 2: still percentage points out there that this team can make

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Speaker 2: a run and make the playoffs because of what the

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Speaker 2: AFC looks like. But knowing where this defense is and

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Speaker 2: knowing where this season is heading, especially with the next

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Speaker 2: five opponents, do you envision a scenario at all where

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Speaker 2: Joe Burrow does take another snap for this team this year?

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Speaker 3: I really don't.

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Speaker 5: If I, like you know, gun to my head, I

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Speaker 5: would say no because of just how tough the next

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Speaker 5: month is going to be and the fact that they

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Speaker 5: could possibly be at something around five and eight, which

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Speaker 5: is where they were last year, and then they can

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Speaker 5: hold on to the fact that they won the last

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Speaker 5: four or five games the last season and have that

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Speaker 5: be the basis of why this this is now still possible.

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Speaker 5: But it really takes them winning as pretty significant underdogs

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Speaker 5: despite you know, with the defense that they have, and

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Speaker 5: if Burrow is at best looking at mid December, at

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Speaker 5: that point, you're probably still a couple of games under

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Speaker 5: five hundred, and I just don't think that that is

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Speaker 5: the good scenario which you bring him back there. It's

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Speaker 5: gonna take something very unlikely within the next month for

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Speaker 5: I think all that tone to be changed and for

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Speaker 5: him to be willing to actually do Obviously I think

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Speaker 5: he wants to play, but there has to be also

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Speaker 5: be something along along the lines of, look, Joe Flacco

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Speaker 5: is playing fine enough and this is probably not going

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Speaker 5: to end the way that anybody wants to, So I

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Speaker 5: just I would say that he's probably not going to

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Speaker 5: play just because of how the last two weeks have

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Speaker 5: gone down and how that impacts their chances of actually

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Speaker 5: making this playoff push.

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Speaker 2: I would envision that the asking price will be driven

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Speaker 2: up based on his play on the field. But would

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Speaker 2: you be making it at priority going forward into next

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Speaker 2: year to find a way to get Joe Flacco back

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Speaker 2: on this roster if nothing more than to be a

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Speaker 2: backup and more of a mentor to Joe Burrow? Would

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Speaker 2: you be making that one of your offseason priorities.

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Speaker 3: Man, that's a good question.

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Speaker 5: I feel like no one's really asked that yet, but

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Speaker 5: it's definitely something I would consider at this point. I

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Speaker 5: think it comes down to what he once and I

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Speaker 5: think that he realizes that he's in the best possible

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Speaker 5: situation for him at this point in his career, because

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Speaker 5: he's never dealt with an offense and he's never commanded

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Speaker 5: an offense quite like this with this much firepower, And

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Speaker 5: I think he's very much enjoying it, and maybe there's

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Speaker 5: also an awareness that, Yeah, for as great as Joe

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Speaker 5: Burrow is, he does deal with some injuries from time

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Speaker 5: to time, and that's always an opportunity for him to

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Speaker 5: get some more playing time.

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Speaker 3: But obviously there's gonna be.

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Speaker 5: At least a couple of bad teams that are watching

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Speaker 5: what's happening in Cincinnati is probably gonna make somewhat of

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Speaker 5: a push for him, And he's probably gonna be a

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Speaker 5: little bit more expensive than your thinking, just because he

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Speaker 5: comes with the pedigree of winning a super Bowl and

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Speaker 5: is coming off of just this insane stretch of production.

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Speaker 5: So I'm really interested to see how he finishes the season. Obviously,

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Speaker 5: I'm not expecting four hundred yards and four touchdowns every

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Speaker 5: single week, and if that happens, then maybe you are

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Speaker 5: talking about a different outcome.

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Speaker 3: For the season.

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Speaker 5: But yeah, like, if he wants to come back and

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Speaker 5: be a backup, I would absolutely be in on that,

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Speaker 5: But I just don't think that's gonna be his best option.

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Speaker 2: When you look at this team up front, Joe Flacco's

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Speaker 2: ability to go under and they've unlocked a running game,

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Speaker 2: which in fact has helped the offensive line and the

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Speaker 2: quick passing game at the bye week, looking at where

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Speaker 2: this team has been, how do you assess the old

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Speaker 2: line as a whole.

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Speaker 3: The old line I think is playing well. It's not

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Speaker 3: going out of its mind.

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Speaker 5: It's not significantly better than what it was in the

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Speaker 5: best days of Joe Burrow. But I think it definitely

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Speaker 5: benefits them to go under center and to bounce it

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Speaker 5: out with the run game. I think it's made their

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Speaker 5: lives a little bit easier. And you are seeing it,

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Speaker 5: like again, like the numbers aren't drastically different necessarily, and

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Speaker 5: especially because like Joe Flacco does get the ball out

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Speaker 5: really quickly on average, and when he is pressured, it

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Speaker 5: doesn't look as good as when Joe Burrow is pressured.

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Speaker 5: So there is some deception happening, I think with what

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Speaker 5: people are seeing. But overall, the offensive line is playing fine. Like,

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Speaker 5: if this is the outcome, if this is the result

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Speaker 5: of this offseason where in which they didn't address the

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Speaker 5: guard position properly and they made some lasting the switch

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Speaker 5: is if this is where it is now based off

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Speaker 5: of their process, I think you would take this result.

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Speaker 3: It's not where it should.

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Speaker 5: Be necessarily for a season long sustainability standpoint, But I

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Speaker 5: think it's been okay, and I think obviously it's not

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Speaker 5: the biggest problem with the team at all.

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Speaker 2: Sustainability is the question I look to going into the

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Speaker 2: second half of the year. Obviously, what Joe Flacco has

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Speaker 2: done has been amazing. Here comes a bye week, here

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Speaker 2: comes a little bit more time for teams to prepare

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Speaker 2: with more film. Is the model in which they've been

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Speaker 2: able to use over the last couple is that sustainable

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Speaker 2: through the back end of the year, at least on

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Speaker 2: the offensive side of the ball.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, Like again, forty two points is not the expectation

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Speaker 5: every single week, and I think they've they've definitely take

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Speaker 5: advantage of just I think teams not necessarily knowing what

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Speaker 5: to expect with Flaco under center. But so long as

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Speaker 5: he continues to make timely decisions and he continues to

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Speaker 5: put the ball in the vicinity of his best receivers,

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Speaker 5: I would expect that this offense remains at the very

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Speaker 5: least competitive.

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Speaker 3: I don't envision a lot of.

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Speaker 5: Stinkers necessarily, and obviously they cannot afford that with the

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Speaker 5: way that this defense is played. But it also could

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Speaker 5: come down to where the offense is doing everything in

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Speaker 5: the power to try to keep up with what the

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Speaker 5: defense is doing, and at some point that could reach

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Speaker 5: somewhat of a breaking point, right if you're thinking about

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Speaker 5: it from a mental aspect, if you go into every

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Speaker 5: week thinking that you need to score forty or fifty

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Speaker 5: points to even have a chance at winning, Like, I

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Speaker 5: can't imagine the toll that it takes on the guys

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Speaker 5: on the offense side of the ball and how that

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Speaker 5: kind of impacts their mental So it's not something that

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Speaker 5: we can really talk about or quantify necessarily, but it

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Speaker 5: is something that I think about because of how disjointed

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Speaker 5: that locker room probably is from one side of the other.

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Speaker 4: John, before we let you go, I can't help it.

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Speaker 4: But notice on your Twitter bio it says a versatile

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Speaker 4: guy per Jeff Hobson. Can you explain that? Did Jeff

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Speaker 4: Hobson wants to call you a versatile guy?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember you guys.

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Speaker 5: You guys talked about this, but after I came off

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Speaker 5: the air at one point I meant to bring this up.

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Speaker 5: But we had Jeff Hobson on for the Orange blugg

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Speaker 5: Inside of Bengals podcast three years ago. It was the

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Speaker 5: start of the twenty twenty two season. We were talking

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Speaker 5: about after they you know, had that embarrassing loss to

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Speaker 5: the Steelers, and you know, we were talking to Jeff

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Speaker 5: and just wonderful, nice old man.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and he.

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Speaker 5: At the very end of the program like, you know, John,

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Speaker 5: like you're you're you're a versatile guy.

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Speaker 3: And I didn't hear anything he.

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Speaker 5: Said after that because I was blushing because as a

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Speaker 5: great compliment from a great man. So immediately after that

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Speaker 5: interview over, we thank Jeff and I edited my bio

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Speaker 5: and it hasn't changed since its probably never gonna change.

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Speaker 4: That's awesome.

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Speaker 3: I love it. Jeff is the best.

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Speaker 2: I love it John. Even though it's a bye week.

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Speaker 2: I know that work does not stop for you. What's

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Speaker 2: the easiest way for folks to follow along with everything

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Speaker 2: he got going on?

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, it is the Sports dot Com back Clash Cincinnati.

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Speaker 5: It is the Sports Cincinnati. Wherever you get your short

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Speaker 5: form video content, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, we are everywhere.

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Speaker 3: My face is everywhere.

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Speaker 5: My face is honestly too many places at this point

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Speaker 5: with the Bengals beating this bad but keep you locked in,

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Speaker 5: we got some stuff for you.

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Speaker 2: You're the best, John, Thanks so much.

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Speaker 4: For joining us.

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Speaker 2: We'll talk next week.

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Speaker 3: Enjoy that bye week. Thanks gullos.

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Speaker 2: It's John Sharon a is E Sports Versatile. Versatile John

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Speaker 2: Sharing appreciative of his time and uh of our listeners

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Speaker 2: time as well, because now we get to hear from

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Speaker 2: them via talkbacks. Next to Cincy sure TSPN fifteen thirty

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Speaker 2: Cincinnati Sports Station. Now your chance to