Speaker 1: Let's talk Bengals. A week that's included a statement from
Speaker 1: Mike Brown, Zach's declaration his coaching staff expected to return,
Speaker 1: and tomorrow's much anticipated Duke tob A news conference. My Guest,
Speaker 1: Next Guest covering it all for Local twelve, Local twelve
Speaker 1: dot com. That must mean we're welcoming in skinny, Richard Skinner,
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 2: I'm good? Lance are you?
Speaker 1: I'm well? I'm curious. What do you make you've been
Speaker 1: You've been around the Bengals and covering the Bengals for
Speaker 1: years and decades. What do you make of Duke deciding
Speaker 1: to talk tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I think it was a decision that was probably made
Speaker 2: above him, and they just said, hey, man, you're gonna
Speaker 2: have to go answer for some of the stuff because
Speaker 2: Zach Taylor gets asked a lot of questions about personnel,
Speaker 2: and a lot of times Zach, in fairness, the first
Speaker 2: to that's a question for Duke and Mike. Petralia famously
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago said well, we don't get
Speaker 2: yest talk to Duke, and Zach's comeback was, well, I'm
Speaker 2: sorry for that. It was one of the great Tay
Speaker 2: tayes I've seen in a long time in a press conference.
Speaker 2: And that was Zach being you know, you know, nasty.
Speaker 2: It was I think he was taken aback by Mike's response.
Speaker 2: It was great because we requested Duke a bunch uh
Speaker 2: and I get a lot of a lot of general
Speaker 2: managers in the league don't talk on a regular basis,
Speaker 2: and we're not asking for a regular basis. We asked
Speaker 2: a bye week, which seemed like a perfect time when
Speaker 2: you're sitting at three and five and on the cuspop
Speaker 2: of not making the playoffs. As things progressed, it seemed
Speaker 2: like a perfect time and this felt like a perfect time.
Speaker 2: And we asked last week as a group and they capitulated,
Speaker 2: and credit to them for doing so, because I think
Speaker 2: this isn't everybodys looking at it is like, this is
Speaker 2: our press conference, This is Duke's press conference. This is
Speaker 2: Duke's chance to answer questions that you, as a fan
Speaker 2: want to know. You know, I know people are gonna go, well,
Speaker 2: you should be fired. What do you think we're gonna answer? No,
Speaker 2: that's not gonna happen. I mean, one of my one
Speaker 2: of my favorites was there was there was a reporter
Speaker 2: that came in from a stony years ago and he
Speaker 2: joked at one guy in his country when I came
Speaker 2: in to do a story on Marcus Hunt, and he
Speaker 2: famously told the story of I think it was a
Speaker 2: hockey team, the Stony hockey team, where reporter walked up
Speaker 2: with us with his tape recorder and simply said, you're
Speaker 2: a disgrace. Please respect, Please respond. No, we're not. We're
Speaker 2: not going there with this. There's a level of respect,
Speaker 2: but there have to be some tough questions to ask.
Speaker 2: We've all talked to the group about you know, how
Speaker 2: to ask them and what to ask and make sure
Speaker 2: we all get the i's dotted and teased cross and
Speaker 2: hopefully it comes across that way and hopefully Duke. Hopefully
Speaker 2: Duke responds that way. He doesn't come out with with
Speaker 2: with dis the blazing and he could he could just
Speaker 2: shut everything down and go I'm a genius and you
Speaker 2: guys are idiots and don't ask me questions. I don't
Speaker 2: think that's gonna happen, Skinny.
Speaker 1: Is there something or things in particular you're most curious
Speaker 1: to hear him address?
Speaker 2: Yeah, two things. One does the buck literally stop with
Speaker 2: him on draft night? I think it does. I think
Speaker 2: we all believe it does. Does it stop with Mike?
Speaker 2: Does it stop with Paul Brown? You know, Paul Brown,
Speaker 2: the grandson of or Mike brown son and grandson of
Speaker 2: Paul Brown. To stop with him, to stop with the
Speaker 2: coaching staff. I mean, somebody has to make that answer
Speaker 2: on draft night, right Like I'm making the call. You
Speaker 2: guys can all give your opinions, but here's the call,
Speaker 2: and I'm making the call on this. We don't have
Speaker 2: to all be in agreement, but I'm making the call.
Speaker 2: Who makes that call? And then I'm a big believer
Speaker 2: of if you ask to do this, why do you
Speaker 2: believe you're the guy to get this team out of
Speaker 2: the whole personnel wise and fix this roster? It hasn't
Speaker 2: worked the last three off seasons. And that's a long
Speaker 2: time in the NFL. I mean, John Harbaut just got
Speaker 2: fired after one bad year and it was probably time.
Speaker 2: I mean, things run its course. We know that lace
Speaker 2: things run its course, but he's borderline a Hall of
Speaker 2: fame coach, and the Ravens said, Yep, this is not acceptable.
Speaker 2: You're gone, and so why should you get a fourth
Speaker 2: off season? Duke Tobin to fix this roster. What makes
Speaker 2: you think you're gonna do it? Comment from Mike the
Speaker 2: other day to State where he said, we're gonna and
Speaker 2: I'm paraphrasing completely here, but we're gonna look at all avenues,
Speaker 2: uh to to you know, how we do business, how
Speaker 2: we do things? All right? Does that mean you're gonna
Speaker 2: change the way you scout? Does that mean you're gonna
Speaker 2: change the way you evaluate? Are you going to suddenly go, yeah,
Speaker 2: We're gonna do production over traits? Trades over production hasn't worked.
Speaker 2: Let's do production over traits. Is that a case? Is it?
Speaker 2: We're gonna add more scouts? I'm interested. I'm fully interested
Speaker 2: in that. I mean, if you're gonna, if you're gonna
Speaker 2: look at all things in your organization to make things better,
Speaker 2: a few more eyeballs wouldn't hurt. Now. We talked to
Speaker 2: Duke at the combine. He said, no, I'm good. I
Speaker 2: got enough voices, I got enough people to see things.
Speaker 2: Do you though, I mean, honestly, do you because it
Speaker 2: hasn't worked for the last few years, and in this
Speaker 2: day and age where things changed constantly in every business
Speaker 2: in our business, right like twenty years ago. Twitter wasn't
Speaker 2: a thing, and Facebook wasn't a thing, and TikTok wasn't
Speaker 2: a thing, and you know all these things. You know,
Speaker 2: blogs weren't a big thing. They were a little bit
Speaker 2: of a thing, and they were a big thing. Uh
Speaker 2: you tube wasn't a thing. For the most part, things
Speaker 2: change and evolved. Can you guys change and evolve too?
Speaker 2: And how do you do it?
Speaker 1: If there's one thing working in their favor this offseason?
Speaker 1: It's obvious that their needs are mostly centered on one
Speaker 1: side of the ball, on the defensive side. Is is
Speaker 1: the defense fixable in one off season?
Speaker 2: It wasn't twenty twenty one, right, I mean you brought
Speaker 2: in Mike Kilton, you brought in cheetoh Chi. You might
Speaker 2: have come the year before them excuse me, Cray Anderson came.
Speaker 2: I mean it was a little bit fixable and they
Speaker 2: did it. Now can you do that again with the
Speaker 2: money you have? I think you can. So you have
Speaker 2: about five or six spots you probably have to fix.
Speaker 2: That seems like a lot, But can you fix four
Speaker 2: or five of those? I think you can. You can
Speaker 2: do it through free agency and the draft.
Speaker 1: If you do it right, it's getting other are there
Speaker 1: contract extensions that you consider to be layups that should
Speaker 1: be on the table this offseat, is it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I don't a good way ups because they're always
Speaker 2: you know, contentious, right. Uh, you know DJ Turner should
Speaker 2: be extended, dak So should be extended. I did a
Speaker 2: story today on all the all the current free agency
Speaker 2: the Bengals have. What do you do with Joseph Osai?
Speaker 2: What do you do with Cam Taylor Britt? What do
Speaker 2: you do with Believe it or not? Geno Stone? I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not like you've got a pleasure of safeties at
Speaker 2: the moment. Do you look to go, hey, Gino, let's
Speaker 2: sign you for one year proven deal as a backup,
Speaker 2: not as a starter. Don't get me wrong. He can't
Speaker 2: be a starter by any stretching imagination. You have to
Speaker 2: either go through free agency or the draft to fix
Speaker 2: that spot. You know, Joe Flacco, you have a bunch
Speaker 2: of free agents you have to think about too.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: But yeah it can't. Yeah, I think it can, but
Speaker 2: you have to be really judicious with everything you do.
Speaker 1: Is the Trey Hendrickson story, uh finished here?
Speaker 2: And I think it has to be. I mean I
Speaker 2: even wrote because he was one of the free agents obviously, right,
Speaker 2: So I addressed that top of the top of the line, excusing,
Speaker 2: you're not gonna franchise tag if it's twenty six and
Speaker 2: some change, and probably gonna be higher than that. But
Speaker 2: that's where the franchise tag number is the moment that's
Speaker 2: too steep for a guy who just had major surgery,
Speaker 2: who is has just already. He turned thirty one in December,
Speaker 2: so he's gonna turn thirty two into next season late
Speaker 2: and the next season, but he's gonna turn thirty two.
Speaker 2: Didn't have great production. Twenty six mil for a guy
Speaker 2: like that is extraordinarily steep. Do you let him test
Speaker 2: the market? Maybe the market doesn't respond to him the
Speaker 2: way he thinks to smile, like, hey man, when I'm healthy,
Speaker 2: I'm a starter. Whos gonna get you sixteen sacks, seventeen sacks,
Speaker 2: fifteen sacks. Maybe the rest of the murder goes, No,
Speaker 2: you're not. You're thirty one goaler in the thirty two
Speaker 2: coming off major surgery. You didn't produce a whole lot
Speaker 2: this past year. No you're not. And at that point
Speaker 2: maybe he does. But it feels like there was so
Speaker 2: much animosity between both sides last offseason. It just doesn't
Speaker 2: seem salvageable or fixable. I think the the more realistic
Speaker 2: possibility is the Joseph Osaide situation, where you go, all right, man,
Speaker 2: go test the market. If you get start money. We
Speaker 2: are not We're not gonna respond to sort big time
Speaker 2: starter money. But if it's what we did last year,
Speaker 2: one year, six and a half mil, we'll bring you back.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Trey, it feels like that ship is sailed.
Speaker 1: He is Richard Skinner from Local twelve or T minus,
Speaker 1: eighteen hours and fifteen minutes away from Duke Tobin talking
Speaker 1: tomorrow afternoon. You're going to be all over it for
Speaker 1: reaction to listeners how they can read watch follow along?
Speaker 2: Yeah, follow me on Twitter at Local twelve skinny and
Speaker 2: at Local twelve dot com, Slash Sports slash Bengals. It's
Speaker 2: five no offense. I mean, you guys have run on
Speaker 2: your sister station a bunch of promotions for this, this
Speaker 2: epic press conference. I hope we make it epic. I
Speaker 2: hope people are not disappointed. But it's been I've listened
Speaker 2: to the soflows. I'm like, wow, is this like a
Speaker 2: president speaking about some national tragedy? Or just a is
Speaker 2: a practial general manager talking about a football team. But
Speaker 2: I get it. Man, Hey, I'd promote the crap out
Speaker 2: of a lance.
Speaker 1: I would too, Skinny, you're a good man. Good catching up.
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 1: All right, particularly all right, there you go, Richard Skinner
Speaker 1: Local twelve, Local twelve dot com. Let's take a time
Speaker 1: out of continue big night. Last night history made biggest,
Speaker 1: the highest ranked win in program history for the UC women.
Speaker 1: I was there with Kelly. We checked it out last night.
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