WEBVTT - Bengals Booth Podcast: Super Freak 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:05.400 I get everybody on Dan Horden. 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:08.200 Thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth Podcast. 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.600 The super free, super free. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:16.200 Addition, as I pose five questions to the mutant Bengals 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:20.520 rookie Chris Jenkins. Plus Can't Lee Platt, the guy who 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:24.840 invented relative athletics score discusses the freakiness of this year's 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.360 draft class, and finally, I'll talk to a quarterback who 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.600 is back on the Bengals roster six years after being 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.600 drafted by Cincinnati. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.400 you by pay Corps, proud to be the Bengals official 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:43.400 HR software provider, by Ulta Fiber, future proof fiber Internet 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.720 designed to elevate your home, business, and community to a 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.800 new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.800 the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.080 of the Bengals. Now here's a quick reminder that you 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:01.480 can have the latest edition of this poto delivered right 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:05.319 to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever you 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:10.600 get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since Howard denneroff. 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.840 On Wednesday, it was announced that Howard is leaving Westwood 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:19.040 One Sports after being the executive producer of its national 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:23.920 radio broadcasts for roughly thirty years. So if you were 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.000 in your car and couldn't be in front of the 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.520 TV for part of a Super Bowl or the Final Four, 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:33.640 or the Masters, or the Kentucky Derby or the Olympics, 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.480 and wound up listening on the radio, chances are Howard 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.760 was in charge of the broadcast. I don't know of 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.840 anybody in any walk of life who does his or 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:49.280 her job better. Howard's knowledge, attention to detail, and ear 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:54.640 for what makes a great broadcast and broadcaster is simply unmatched. 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.400 I don't know what he plans to do next, but 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:02.720 any company would be fortunate to higher Howard Denaroff. Now 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.480 let's get to football. Last week on this podcast, I 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:11.040 posed five questions to first round draft pick of Marius Mims, where, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.560 among other things, we learned that he hasn't surrendered a 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.840 sack since he was a junior in high school. That 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:21.200 was five years ago. I told him, Marius, we'd all 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.560 be perfectly happy if he averages one sack allowed every 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:29.400 five years in Cincinnati. Now time for another round of 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:34.080 five questions with the team's second round selection, a defensive 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:39.920 tackle out of Michigan with a fantastic nickname. Time for 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:44.120 five questions with second round draft pick Chris Jenkins. Question 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.040 number one is, Bengals fans have now learned your nickname 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:52.920 is the Mutant, which is a fantastic sports nickname. What 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.639 did you think the first time you heard it? And 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.400 is there a better sports nickname than the Mutant? 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.600 So, you know, my sophomore year, that's when our head 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.240 strength coach, Coach heard gave me that nickname. And this 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.640 is before I earned my stripes. I've really proved myself 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:09.639 on the team, so you know, getting that from him 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.560 when I first heard it, you know, I was kind 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:13.720 of starshucking the moment. I was kind of shocked, and 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.480 then the whole team embraced that before I feel like 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:18.920 I really embraced it. And you know, ever since I 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.080 got that nickname, you know, I just tried to embrace 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.720 what people saw in me and just get that right back. 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.920 And then so Mamba Magic, I mean, does anything compare? 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:30.800 Is there anything that you think, all right, that one's 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:31.360 even better? 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:33.480 I think no, I think the Mutant definitely up there. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.720 But with that, with such a cold nickname, that just 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:38.680 means I have to be that much colder on the field. 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:40.000 I like it all right. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.320 There's a guy that puts out a freak list every 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.760 year before the college football season, supposedly the top one 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.800 hundred athletic freaks in college football. You were in the 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.160 top ten prior to last year. And one of the 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:53.600 things they showed, which is some video that's now like 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.280 making the rounds on the internet, it's called the Turkish 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.320 get up that you did with one hundred seven tventy 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.040 pound dumbbells. I didn't even know they existed at one 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.400 hundred and seventy pounds. Describe the Turkish get up? 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.480 Well, the Turkish get up, you know, it's really like 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.240 a full body movement. It's a full body lift. You know, 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.160 you start with it, you're holding you know, one hundred 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.160 and seventy or one hundred and seventy pounds, you know, 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.240 on a single arm and start off, but you got 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:18.960 to use your core to push up off the ground. 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:20.440 You got to be able to stand up with it 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:22.279 all the way off the ground and then get back 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.520 down with it without without it fall and without losing 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.039 track of it. And you know, that's really something where 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.720 before I really came to the Canda, Michigan. I didn't 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.000 even know I could do, let alone do that much 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.719 amount of weight, So, you know, and really, those dumbells 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:36.880 get to about two ten and I've yet to break 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.760 the record there yet. But really I'm trying to get 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.240 I really won't feel satisfied until I could at least 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.880 get to some completely unheard of I want to break 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:47.599 the limit the heaviest dumb bell if I could do 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:47.960 it with it. 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:49.080 Oh heck yeah, all right. 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:52.040 For people that haven't checked it out, look up Chris Jenkins, Turkish, 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:52.480 get up. 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:54.799 You will be impressed. Question number three. 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.880 You were the captain on a national championship team last 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.800 year with the Wolverines. They just released them video sometime 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:03.680 in the last week or two of your national championship 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:05.679 rings and what they're going to look like. I assume 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.440 you've seen that. What'd you think and what other swag 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.880 do you have? Did you save from the national championship? 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:12.280 Well? 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.840 Yeah, no rings. When we saw them, they're beautiful, man, 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.320 The Rose Bowl ring, it is honestly the best, to 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.680 be honest, is beautiful. But you know, finally getting those rings, 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:22.400 seeing them and putting them on, man, it was just 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:24.599 having that jip. You know that's what you worked for 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.040 and having that and to be honest with you, don't 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.359 got no other jet really from the natty you know, 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:31.800 I don't got I really don't. I'm not that joypy 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.440 in general. So that's what makes the rings that much better. 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:36.000 That's why we got to get more and more and more, 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:37.000 as many as possible. 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.599 So you've actually had the ring. It wasn't just video. 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:41.920 Oh no, we got the rings. We got the rings 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:43.680 right now, all four of them, all four of the 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:45.880 beautiful rings, right where they belong. 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:47.840 Nice. Okay, I didn't see that. 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:50.960 Question Number four for Chris Jenkins, your coach at Michigan 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.799 was Jim Harbaugh. Tremendous coach now with the LA Chargers, 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:56.560 but famously quirky. 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.320 Do you have a best Jim Harbaugh story? 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.520 Absolutely? I think I want to say his really, his 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:04.840 workout stories are the best stories for me because you 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:07.480 wouldn't expect it, like say, whatever you're wearing now, whatever 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.520 I'm wearing now plus a polo plus a cap khakis. 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.600 He's he's working like that at six am. It don't 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.480 matter if we're getting in the if coach, our strength 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:18.840 coach told us to get in the cold top submerge, 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.200 you know, as a mental test before we do a workout. 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.360 He would do that in the khakis and a polo 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:25.960 before not working at it. Both like, that's that's his 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.640 type of versity, and that's what we fell in love with, 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:30.680 you know, you know, being at Michigan because you know 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:31.880 you're gonna you're gonna. 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.400 Do that cold top in the khakis. Absolutely, that is fantastic. 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:36.360 I wish there was a video of. 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.200 That on the end ofnet all right, fifth and final question, 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:43.960 tell us something about you that not many people know. 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:46.880 Really probably not a lot of people know, But I'm 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.080 an anime lover. I'm really just a nerd in general, 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.200 huge nerd, Like I got comic book collection at the crib, 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:54.880 you know that I've had since I was like young, 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.040 in like a ten year old. So you know, when 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:58.960 I'm off the field, I'm really just like i'd say, 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.320 like a giant dork and a big football jock's body. 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.280 Like me and me on and off the field are 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.160 kind of two completely different people. But at the same time, 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.000 you know, like it's yeah, I'm just I'm just a 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:11.320 nerd for real, for real, legos all that. 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:12.800 Oh my kid, loves lego. 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:17.040 Do you remember former NFL defensive lineman Mike Daniels, mostly 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.600 of the Packers, a little bit with the Bengals, Absolutely, 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:20.280 a little bit. 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:23.440 If I'm if I'm not mistaken, I think he might 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:25.160 have played with my uncle for the time. 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:27.760 Well, I bring it up because he was a huge 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.000 anime guy. So you're not the only NFL defensive tackle 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:31.960 who loves animating. 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.240 Okay, No, that's what's up. Nah, that's what's up. Then 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.800 we definitely gonna have to collab at some point on anime, 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:39.040 you know, at least in the off season, at least 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.040 when we know you feel me during in season. We 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.560 gotta we gotta take our business. 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:43.720 All right. 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.440 The mutant is off the hot seat. I appreciate your time. 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:47.600 Look forward to gtting to know you better. 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.560 Yes, appreciate you. Thank you for having me, Thank you 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:50.000 very much. 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.000 So the Turkish get up is not the only evidence 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:58.440 that Chris Jenkins is a physical freak. His forty yard dash, 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.400 broad jump, and then press numbers were all graded as 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.800 elite by a guy that many of you have undoubtedly 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:10.480 heard of, Kent Lee Platt, the inventor of raz Or 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.800 relative athletic score that takes many of the things that 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:18.200 are measured at the combine like height, weight, forty times, 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:22.600 vertical leap, etc. And combines them to form one number 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.400 on a scale of one to ten. Jenkins RAS score 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.520 was eight point nine to nine, which is very high 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.480 for a defensive tackle. I caught up with Kent this 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:35.560 week to discuss his work and what it tells us 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:40.240 about the Bengals. Can't you are described on the internet 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.280 as a map chunkie and a football nerd? 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:44.680 Is that accurate? 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:47.440 That's very accurate. That's what I go for. 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:48.960 I love it. 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:53.920 So give us a description for how our as relative 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:55.240 athletic score came about. 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:59.200 So I started rasback in twenty thirteen. This was the 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.560 Leveon Beld. It wasn't just Leveon Bell, but he was 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.400 kind of the catalyst, like that turning point that really 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.120 made me want to go through with doing something about it. 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.719 But at the time he had run a four to 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.920 six in the forty yard dash and the entire argument 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.040 about him going into the draft that year was about 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:20.680 how unathletic Leveon Bell was and I just did not 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.560 It just didn't track with what the data actually said. 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:25.880 And I'd been looking at the data for a while, 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:27.840 so I knew that, but just the fact that that 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:29.880 was the whole argument was he ran a bad forty. 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.720 He's unathletic. You're talking about the guy that was two 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:34.520 hundred and thirty pounds as a running back, and he 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.360 had a six seventy five to three cone, which is 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:38.600 one of the better three cones you can possibly get 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:40.960 for any physician, let alone a two hundred and thirty 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.160 pounds running back. So the idea that we use all 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.680 those terms that don't really mean anything if they don't 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:48.760 have any context behind him. I wanted to add a 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.600 little bit of that context. So I developed a system 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:53.800 that puts all of those testing numbers on a zero 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:57.640 to ten scale compared to the player's position group, dating 0:09:57.679 --> 0:09:59.680 back all the way back into nineteen eighty seven until 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:03.520 the player draft year. Everything is stop light color coded again, 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.960 because it's easy, it's accessible. The intention is that anybody 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.000 can look at these scores and kind of understand what 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.000 they mean and what they're for. And it's been a 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.480 lot of fun and I feel like people have enjoyed 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:15.040 it so far. 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.600 There's no questions that fans enjoy it. Have you gotten 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:20.160 feedback from NFL teams. 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.920 So NFL teams all have their own dedicated analytics departments, 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.440 They've got their own teams of personnel, they have access 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.560 to data that we will never have access to. What 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.199 RAZ provides is a useful analog to what a lot 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.920 of the NFL teams are using. It's similar to what 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.520 they use and close enough for some teams that it's 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:43.440 virtually indistinguishable. I do talk to scouts fairly regularly, and 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.000 usually for them when they're coming to me for data, 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.000 it's just like, hey, I want to see if these 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.200 two guys are comparable, or hey, can you check and 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:55.280 see how many guys fell within this range for forty 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.959 yard dash at this weight or something like that. It's 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.440 usually little requests like that. Because I have such good 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.120 data availability, it's easier to get at my data than 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.160 a lot of the teams still have. But generally they 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:09.480 all have their own stuff that they've been using for years, 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.400 and this is just similar enough to it. 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.200 And it seems to me that fans are most interested 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.680 in RAS in association with the draft. Is that the 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.560 case for you or are you using it now in 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:21.600 other ways as well? 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:24.280 I use it for all kinds of stuff outside of 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.560 not even just the draft, but the NFL, NFL players, 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:30.800 college college players that are going to the NFL. They 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.560 don't really need guys like me to advertise for them, 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:35.160 right they don't. They don't need me to go out 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.160 there and talk about how athletic these guys are. Everyone knows. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.240 Everybody can watch it. They're going to get talked about 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.000 for months leading up to the draft. I do some 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:45.280 work with high school students that are trying to get 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.280 into college. Those guys don't get any anybody to advocate 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.360 for them. There isn't really a good way to propose 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:52.880 or to show the kind of testing that they have. 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:55.440 I've been working on that for a couple of years 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:57.880 and have made some pretty good headways in doing that 0:11:57.920 --> 0:11:59.400 and using the metrics in a way that kind of 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.160 helps high schole students get their names out there. But generally, 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.520 when it comes to the stuff that's for that's that's 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.839 like public facing. It's all draft stuff and just looking 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:11.880 at neat trends. I mean, I'll do stuff at free 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.040 agency and other times of the year just because it's fun, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.880 Like it's just fun to do that. Does it really 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.000 matter what a guy tested? Eight nine years ago, but 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:22.880 when he came out of the drafts on his second 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.440 free agency period. No, no, it doesn't matter at all. 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:27.560 But it's still fun, you know, it's always good to 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.319 look back on that stuff and see what's up. 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:31.600 We're going to get to the Bengals here in a second. 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:36.600 But are there positions where RAZ judges success best and 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:37.800 others where it doesn't. 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.400 Absolutely, tight end is always the one that we bring up. 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.320 It has one of the cleanest correlations to success for 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.080 any position, just because it's just one of those positions 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.640 where you've got to be athletic to win. Every other 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.319 position has at least one player who has found success 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:59.959 in the NFL just despite testing poorly. Tight end doesn't 0:12:59.920 --> 0:13:02.200 have that. Since since the year two thousand, there's only 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:04.600 been one player who had a poor RAZ at tight 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.760 end who still found reasonable success in the NFL, and 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:12.760 it was Jordan Reed, who barely qualified for RAZ because 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.280 of injury, which was ultimately the story of a good 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.000 portion of Jordan Reid's career. But every single tight end 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.120 since the year two thousand has been either a well 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.320 above average athlete or an elite tier athlete. And you 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.079 see that every single year. Anytime that guys come out. 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:32.080 It's never a good sign on a tight end test poorly. Consequently, 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:33.880 you look at the other side and you have guys 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.560 like our positions like quarterback, where a lot of the 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.240 skills that make a good quarterback aren't what we're testing 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:43.000 with the drills that go into RAZ. If a quarterback 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.680 is a pocket passer, pretty much none of those metrics 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.840 are going to matter. You can argue that the cone might, 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.079 you can argue that the shuttle might, but generally those 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.400 drills don't really mean a whole lot for the success 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.600 of a quarterback. While the math says that there's a 0:13:56.600 --> 0:14:00.080 correlation with center, I've found that there's a lot of 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.680 NFL centers who have tested poorly and still found NFL success. 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:05.840 I generally chalked that up to being just a more 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.120 cerebral position. You know, you're paying attention more to what 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.120 a guy has north of the neckline than the general athleticism. 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.720 The math still tells us that there's a strong correlation there, 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:17.800 but there's enough guys that have tested poorly and found 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.600 success that it's notable to look at that position a 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:21.320 little differently. 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.600 Our guest is Kent Lee Platt. He is the creator 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.440 of RAS Relative Athletics Score, and he is a great 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:32.440 X follow at math bomb. Yes math bomb, you can 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:37.800 see his data online as well at rasis dot football. 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.880 Let's take a look at the Bengals draft class, beginning 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.200 with their first pick, number eighteen, overall offensive lineman A 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.920 Marius Mims. He had an Elite RAS score of nine 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.920 point five nine on a scale up to ten. After 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.680 the pick, you sent out the following tweet, I'm very 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:58.120 happy for Bengals fans as their team took their first 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:03.040 Elite RAS offense linemen in a decade. This seems to 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.720 be something that you've been following for a while where 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:06.800 the Bengals are concerned. 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.440 Yeah, it's not just the Bengals. The overall athleticism on 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:12.560 the offensive line was a big deal for me when 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:16.320 I first started RAZ because I'm a Lions fan. I 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.280 follow the Lions. That's my team, and the Lions had 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:23.120 one of the least athletic offensive lines in the NFL 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:27.240 for for years and years and years, and right around 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:29.640 there with them was the Bengals. They were also there 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:34.160 with a very unathletic offensive line. The Lions eventually got 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.240 away from that. They switched general managers they changed their 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.320 focus a little bit when it came to drafting athletes 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:41.280 on the offensive line, but the Bengals never did and 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:44.200 it bled into their free agency signings. The type of 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.160 guys they brought into free agency, it's like they were 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:51.280 actively avoiding anyone who could move. And I've had a 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:52.840 lot of good laughs. I have a lot of friends 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:54.560 that are Bengals fans, and I've been doing this for 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:56.200 a while and we've had a lot of really good 0:15:56.280 --> 0:16:01.280 laughs joking about just how extreme it was, because it's 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.239 not a small difference. I mean, they're they're on average 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.640 like three or four points lower on a scale of 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:09.920 zero to ten, like three or four points lower than 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:13.280 the next worst team in general. So they just just 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.800 an extreme outlier in that regard. But they drafted a 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:20.000 couple of guys in this draft class, and coming from 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.240 what they've been doing for the last decade and seeing 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:24.640 them finally change that has got to be a little 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:25.680 bit of a breath of fresh air. 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.240 So you're right, there's seventh rounder Matt Lee also had 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:34.800 a very high eras score. Have you found historically that 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.200 the higher rated offensive lines in terms of rushing yard 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:40.440 sacks allowed, et cetera. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:42.160 Have higher RAS scores. 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.600 Generally, it's more it's a better indicator of individual performance 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.440 than it is group. Anytime you look at an average, 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:51.600 especially when you only have a couple of a couple 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:53.760 of numbers, right so there's only five players on an 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:57.400 offensive line, one bad score can really throw off the average, 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.960 so overall looking that you don't really see that. Now, 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.879 as far as a general trend, two of the teams 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.199 that are generally add or near the top are the 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.840 Chiefs and the Eagles. Those are generally very good teams 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:13.480 and they usually have good offensive lines. The Indianapolis Colts 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.480 have been up and down with their offensive line performance, 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:20.920 but they're consistently one of the highest athletic offensive lines 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.560 in the NFL. So there are some general trends that 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:25.959 we can get from it, but we also know that 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.240 it has to do a little bit with scheme as well. 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.080 A few years ago, when the Raiders had a good 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.960 offensive line, that wasn't a very athletic offensive line, but 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.159 they were also very power heavy. They were all about 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.440 those big people movers that can just bully people around. 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.360 So it was very much a schematic choice for them 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.919 to do that. And when you have teams that follow 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:49.720 what the Eagles have been doing for the last fifteen 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:51.480 or twenty years. They've been doing it for a long time, 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:53.760 and you're trying to find those guys that have all 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.919 that athleticism. They can move, they can pull along the 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.239 offensive line. It just opens up a lot of what 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:05.120 you can do. Statistically speaking, its correlates better the further 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.399 on the outside of the offensive line that you are. 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.000 Tackles have a bigger correlation than guards. Guards have a 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:14.280 bigger correlation than center. But you just want athletes when 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:15.280 you can get them. 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.479 So if the Bengals have not historically drafted offensive lineman 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:24.320 with high RAZ scores, what about other positions historically? 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:26.680 I know that they've they've they've went up and down 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.240 for wide receivers, but kind of at the extreme. So 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.200 Jamar Chase was one of the most athletic wide receivers 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.080 of all time. But then you have guys like T 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.439 Higgins who didn't test all that well. I actually had 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:40.720 a whole thread on t Higgins before he was drafted 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.960 about how you know, RAZ is really good at at 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.720 identifying general trends, but there's certain players who have a 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.040 style of play where it doesn't necessarily illustrate what they're 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.720 good at. We saw it with Ceedee Lamb, we saw 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:56.240 it with Calvin Ridley. We've seen it with my favorite one, 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.200 An Kwan Bolden, who you know, for An Kwon Bolden, 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.359 it didn't matter that he wasn't fast or explosive or quick, 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:03.840 because if the ball was in the air, it was 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.320 his football and you had to beat him for it, 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:08.640 and most of the time you were losing that fight. 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.080 You know. With t Higgins, he mostly used his length. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.399 He was very adept at boxing players out by using 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:19.040 his body and using that control that he had over 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:21.440