Speaker 1: I get everybody on Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth podcast. The Stubby Up. Addition, as we
Speaker 1: take a look at the first several days of training
Speaker 1: camp coming up, I'll talk to my broadcast partner Dave
Speaker 1: Lapham about a topsy turvy first week of practice under
Speaker 1: new head code Zach Taylor. We'll discuss AJ Green's injury
Speaker 1: and what it means to the Bengals offense, take a
Speaker 1: look at a few players who have stood out in
Speaker 1: the early going, and discuss coach Taylor's approach to trying
Speaker 1: to keep the team as fresh and as healthy as
Speaker 1: possible leading up to the regular season opener in Seattle.
Speaker 1: And in this week's fun Facts conversation, you'll get to
Speaker 1: know one of the best special teams coaches in the NFL,
Speaker 1: Darren Simmons. We'll discuss a wide variety of topics, including
Speaker 1: his playing career as a college quarterback and punter, his
Speaker 1: favorite special teams play in sixteen years as a Bengals coach,
Speaker 1: and his ultimate goal of becoming a head coach. Those
Speaker 1: conversations are straight ahead, but first here's a quick reminder
Speaker 1: that you can have the latest edition of this podcast
Speaker 1: delivered rite to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing
Speaker 1: on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's
Speaker 1: the greatest invention since YouTube how to videos. I am
Speaker 1: ashamed to admit that I am probably the world's least
Speaker 1: handy person. Other than changing a light bulb or filling
Speaker 1: my gas tank, I'm basically useless. But I'm getting a
Speaker 1: little better thanks to the numerous how to videos you
Speaker 1: can find on YouTube. For example, this week, I replaced
Speaker 1: the watch band on my running watch. Now that might
Speaker 1: sound pretty rudimentary to you, but trust me, it was
Speaker 1: a borderline miracle. Now time for football is I bring
Speaker 1: in my broadcast partner, Dave lappam Lapp. Quite a first
Speaker 1: week for new head coach Zach Taylor and his first
Speaker 1: practice as the Bengals head coach. A. J. Green goes
Speaker 1: down about forty five minutes into practice, the first day
Speaker 1: that the Bengals are supposed to be in full pads,
Speaker 1: it gets canceled due to lightning. He has quote unquote
Speaker 1: weathered the storm pretty well. I think I think, I
Speaker 1: think you're absolutely right. I mean, it's one thing about
Speaker 1: him that I felt like after meeting him on and
Speaker 1: off the field as such. Is that he was steady,
Speaker 1: very steady personality wise, and I think it's pretty much
Speaker 1: born fruit there, you know. I think he's he's had
Speaker 1: a couple of howards is thrown out him and he's
Speaker 1: just you know, just shucks him like like it's no problem,
Speaker 1: which I think is a good sign. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't get flustered easily. I think that's going to
Speaker 1: be a good good indicator of his temperament during the
Speaker 1: course of a game. I think he'll keep his cool,
Speaker 1: uh and stay level headed and be able to make good,
Speaker 1: solid decisions because you know, he won't be emoting as such.
Speaker 1: So I think those are those are all good signs.
Speaker 1: You know. Aj Green, it's just so unfortunate. I've had
Speaker 1: a chance to talk to him a little bit and
Speaker 1: he's he was just so you know, for AJ he
Speaker 1: was as down as I've seen him. And that he said,
Speaker 1: you know, laugh, I never got hurt now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the last three years, it just seems to
Speaker 1: be an injury bug a boo. And uh, he was
Speaker 1: he was definitely you know, sad's not the word for it.
Speaker 1: It was. It was even sadder than sad. But then
Speaker 1: I saw him a day later and he was already
Speaker 1: his spirits were already, you know, starting to bounce back.
Speaker 1: So I think he is a quick healer, you know,
Speaker 1: I think he will scar, which has to happen, you know,
Speaker 1: after injuries and after surgery if there's ligament tears, and
Speaker 1: you know, the problem with those kind of things is
Speaker 1: when you have an injury and a joint, you know,
Speaker 1: there's so many things in there. There's bone, there's ligament,
Speaker 1: there's tendons, there's sheaths around the tendons and ligaments, and
Speaker 1: all of those things can be messed up. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of soft tissue and a lot of things that
Speaker 1: and the soft tissue can affect the bone and it
Speaker 1: can be bone chips and all these particular in there.
Speaker 1: I mean, over the years, I've I've had some injury,
Speaker 1: and teammates of mine have had injury, and you know,
Speaker 1: you just get to learn to realize that sometimes until
Speaker 1: you get in there as such, which is I think
Speaker 1: it's a wise thing that they did. You don't really
Speaker 1: know what you're looking at. And m R eyes are great,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. Where I never had an m R.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what an mr I would would
Speaker 1: feel like. I guess it doesn't feel like much of anything,
Speaker 1: But you know, the pictures are very very clear, so
Speaker 1: I think based on those pictures, I think they've decided
Speaker 1: they're better go in there and make sure that everything's
Speaker 1: everything's hunky dory as such, and hopefully he'll be he'll
Speaker 1: be back sooner rather than later, because that's a that's
Speaker 1: a huge, huge piece of an offense to miss, for sure.
Speaker 1: He had surgery on Tuesday. Zach Taylor said later that
Speaker 1: day that he's likely to miss at least the first
Speaker 1: two games of the regular season. Do you think that
Speaker 1: that is an optimistic timetable for how quickly he could
Speaker 1: be back, You know, I hope it's a I hope
Speaker 1: it's on the on the long end, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's no way he's going to be around for the
Speaker 1: open to me, in a perfect not a perfect world,
Speaker 1: but a perfect world based on the world we're in
Speaker 1: right now, which is not a perfect world with the injury,
Speaker 1: if they could get him back for the Steeler game
Speaker 1: Week four, Week four and last game September Monday night
Speaker 1: football national television, big you know, a big game against
Speaker 1: a division rival, I hated division rival. If AJ Green
Speaker 1: could come back and play in that game, that would
Speaker 1: be a shot of juice that this team would be.
Speaker 1: You know, it would be unbelievable. It's like getting a
Speaker 1: not just a first round pick, You're getting a future
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer, you know, back as a weapon. That
Speaker 1: would be a nice a nice component to having that game.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be a tough game, going on the road
Speaker 1: and playing against the Pittsburgh Steelers under the lights, uh,
Speaker 1: with that crowd and everything that goes along with it. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's unfortunate. The thing the thing that
Speaker 1: you know, I look at it when I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna miss him for regular season games potentially you know,
Speaker 1: two or three games, maybe four. Okay, now you can
Speaker 1: put another guy in the box because there's not a
Speaker 1: weapon that you have to maybe worry about with doubling.
Speaker 1: So if you really want to run the football like
Speaker 1: this team does, all of a sudden, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like the hands washing the other hand, A teams try
Speaker 1: to take them out of the football game. The only
Speaker 1: way to do it is to put a couple of
Speaker 1: guys on them. So now not having to worry about that,
Speaker 1: you might be able to load the box up a
Speaker 1: little bit more regularly. Now it's tougher for Joe Mixon.
Speaker 1: He's got to make the unblocked guy miss all the time.
Speaker 1: It just becomes you know, in the National Football League,
Speaker 1: the biggest commodity you can have is space, and you
Speaker 1: try to create space. You try to make the defense
Speaker 1: defend every blade of grass you can. And if you've
Speaker 1: got a j and John Ross and all these components,
Speaker 1: your offense healthy, and you can spread the field out
Speaker 1: and stretch them horizontally by formation, then stretch them vertically
Speaker 1: by speed, by foot speed. You know, you get a
Speaker 1: dynamic there. But if AJ is not in the mix,
Speaker 1: and John Ross isn't in the mix yet, but hopefully
Speaker 1: he should be, you know by the regular season. That's
Speaker 1: why if Malone shows he can play, he can run,
Speaker 1: I mean he can stretch it. John Ross can stretch it.
Speaker 1: You know, AJ can stretch it. And now you're having
Speaker 1: to defend again horizontally en vertically. Wouldn't shock me, though,
Speaker 1: Dan if instead of eleven personnel, one running back, one
Speaker 1: tight end, maybe goes some twelve personnel because you've got
Speaker 1: seven tight ends in camp I think four of them
Speaker 1: are going to make the football team, and you know
Speaker 1: that'll help Darren Simmons as well, because you know it's
Speaker 1: you know, other than Tyler Eiffort, every other tight end
Speaker 1: that's on the football team could help him in a
Speaker 1: special teams play. Plus the fact that you know, all
Speaker 1: of them have different skill set. Some are better blockers,
Speaker 1: some are better receivers, some can do both. Tyler Eiffort,
Speaker 1: you know, can do both. But I mean when he's
Speaker 1: on the field, they went nickel last year, whether he
Speaker 1: was on the field a loan or he was on
Speaker 1: the field as a as a second tight end. So
Speaker 1: at least if you go to personnel, you might get
Speaker 1: him in base defense and be able to balance him
Speaker 1: up so you can take away some of the funk
Speaker 1: that they might be doing. You know, put a tight
Speaker 1: underneath the stide of line of scriment. Do you make
Speaker 1: them balance up? Now, all of a sudden, it's you
Speaker 1: have a base defense that's balance up, and it's a
Speaker 1: it's a different picture. So, I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things you can do. They're not hamstrong necessarily by
Speaker 1: losing a wide receiver. With respect to what they can
Speaker 1: do offensively, personnel wise, formations, all the things they're going
Speaker 1: to do. But when it's AJ Green, I mean that guy.
Speaker 1: There's there's not very many guys, if any, in the league. Honestly,
Speaker 1: they can do all the things he can do. I
Speaker 1: mean he's got speed, quickness, his jackhammer, feed on that sideline,
Speaker 1: I hand coordination, I mean he does. We've seen him
Speaker 1: in practice two things that are out of this world.
Speaker 1: They're crazy. They just can't replace that. There's no good
Speaker 1: time to lose AJ Green that we know, But if
Speaker 1: it had to happen, I would think first day of
Speaker 1: camp would be the best time for two reasons. Why.
Speaker 1: It gives him a chance to come back sooner in
Speaker 1: the regular season and not miss many games. But secondly,
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton, AJ Green have been doing this forever. They've
Speaker 1: got chemistry, and the offense is different, so the routes
Speaker 1: are a little bit different, but at least they've got
Speaker 1: that history, that shared history. If you're trying to get
Speaker 1: other wide receivers ready to play and contribute, then all
Speaker 1: this additional time at camp will be good for them. Agreed.
Speaker 1: I think you're running the money on both points. I
Speaker 1: think that AJ Green is such a ridiculous physical freak
Speaker 1: of nature that he'll heal quickly and he won't need
Speaker 1: a whole lot of practice to ramp up to a
Speaker 1: high level. Maybe not as high level as AJ can be,
Speaker 1: but it's still a higher level than your average wide
Speaker 1: receiver around the National Football League. So you look at that.
Speaker 1: I mean, Julio Jones is saying he's not going to
Speaker 1: play a preseason stap. I'd venture to say Antonio Brown's
Speaker 1: not going to play much in the preseason. All these
Speaker 1: elite groups wide receivers aren't going to play in preseason
Speaker 1: games anyway. And take a chance I'm losing. These guys
Speaker 1: are paying fifteen twenty million dollars a year or two,
Speaker 1: so AJ Green, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised that
Speaker 1: they were going to limit his snaps in preseason games anyway.
Speaker 1: But practice, repetition and all those things you're talking about
Speaker 1: are important. But like you said, they've done it for
Speaker 1: eight years already, so they have a lot of that,
Speaker 1: but it is some different routes. And AJ was talking
Speaker 1: about getting his nose in the playbook, and he'd missed
Speaker 1: all the OTAs and the mini camps and all that,
Speaker 1: so he wanted to get that part of it, the
Speaker 1: study part of it, and then translating it to the
Speaker 1: football field. And he's a rep guy. AJ likes to
Speaker 1: have reps on the practice field, So with those diminished,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a little bit of catching up to
Speaker 1: do there. So it's going to be interesting to see
Speaker 1: how how it all plays out. But I do think,
Speaker 1: I like think again looking at the very first workout today,
Speaker 1: Dan in pads Man, I mean, tight ends are motion
Speaker 1: and whamen knows, you know, defensive tackles and it's a
Speaker 1: play actually pass over that pass in the middle of
Speaker 1: football field. You know, a receiver's wide open. Quarterbacks have
Speaker 1: changed in the launch point. You know, both ways, rolling right,
Speaker 1: rolling left. Linemen are pulling. Receivers are you know, in
Speaker 1: tight formations, the splits are tight to the formation and
Speaker 1: then they're wide and then they're motioning and then jet
Speaker 1: sweep motion and motion back the other way. There's a
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on, and then you'll see the defenses,
Speaker 1: I mean basically a lot of these motions and everything
Speaker 1: will change the strength of the formation. Defensive lineman will
Speaker 1: be shifting, linebackers will be everybody's communicating shifting if you
Speaker 1: do this stuff at the end of the play clock,
Speaker 1: I mean there's a chance, in my mind, the later
Speaker 1: you do something like that, the higher the risk of
Speaker 1: them somebody not getting the line properly. Maybe you'll catch them.
Speaker 1: Not they're moving, they're not even in their stance where
Speaker 1: they're lined up improperly or whatever. So I like a
Speaker 1: lot of the things that they're doing. I think it
Speaker 1: stresses a defense. I think there's there's a lot of
Speaker 1: things that that are positive there. And man, they ran
Speaker 1: the first team period. They're ran fifteen plays in like
Speaker 1: seven minutes. I mean they were they were boom. They
Speaker 1: were getting reps. When I went the pass rush drill,
Speaker 1: they were getting reps. I mean, you know, there was
Speaker 1: no standing around and talking about every fine point and
Speaker 1: doing all this coaching and guys are not working. You know,
Speaker 1: they'll they'll coach him, but they'll coach him on the
Speaker 1: run and next guy's up and it's I mean, well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. Coach Turner and Coach Easton got
Speaker 1: got a lot of reps in the pass rush, more
Speaker 1: more than I've seen. So I like the temple of
Speaker 1: everything they're doing, and I think that's going to translate,
Speaker 1: you know, out on the football field and defensively, you know,
Speaker 1: they continue to impress. I mean, they continue to understand
Speaker 1: what coach Lou wants done and how he wants it done,
Speaker 1: and they're responding. I mean, I think I think that
Speaker 1: you know, again, this is the first padded workout, but
Speaker 1: like we talked about after the first practice on Bengals
Speaker 1: dot com, um it's it's happens every year, even if
Speaker 1: you've played a number of years. When you're anchoring your pads,
Speaker 1: the other thing you have to do is lower your pads.
Speaker 1: And there's two ways to lower your pads. You can
Speaker 1: bend your knees to lower your pads, and that's the
Speaker 1: football functional way to do it, or you can bend
Speaker 1: at your waist and lower your paths. And that's not
Speaker 1: the good way to do it, because you know, you
Speaker 1: don't have flection in your knees. You're bending at your waist,
Speaker 1: your chins over your skis, over your feet, you're out
Speaker 1: of balance. But if you're bending at the knees properly
Speaker 1: and you're still a good football, powerful striking position, that's
Speaker 1: a good way to lower your paths. And I saw
Speaker 1: some bending at the waist instead of bending in the knees.
Speaker 1: And that's just a repetition, breeds comfort level with guys,
Speaker 1: and that as well. The more you do it these
Speaker 1: you know, it's muscle memory stuff, and get back to
Speaker 1: doing that so that that'll ramp up quickly. And that's
Speaker 1: that's something that's noticeable every every year when training camp
Speaker 1: starts first padded practice. A couple of lineup nuggets from
Speaker 1: the first padded practice. Number one, Christian Westerman was in
Speaker 1: there with the ones at the left guard position after
Speaker 1: John Jerry was the first left guard when they opened
Speaker 1: camp in Dayton last Saturday, and Ryan Glasgow lined up
Speaker 1: as one of the starting defensive linemen. Was rotating in
Speaker 1: there quite a bit with Andrew Billings at the defensive
Speaker 1: accle spot next to Geno Atkins. But Ryan Glasgow is
Speaker 1: the first guy out there coming off his knee injury. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the good things to see Ryan Glasgow. I thought, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he's a he's a sluggo man. He'll just
Speaker 1: go in there and mall with you. And he's just
Speaker 1: he is a blue collar lunch pail, all the cliche
Speaker 1: you want football player love, the guy of the effort.
Speaker 1: He gives football means something to him, means a lot
Speaker 1: to that guy, means a lot to his family. I
Speaker 1: think that's that's another football family of brothers and dads
Speaker 1: and you know, everybody's played, so um, it was good
Speaker 1: to see him back and they're slugging it out. The
Speaker 1: other guy that I thought looked good was Carl Lowston
Speaker 1: coming off the edge. I wanted to see in pads.
Speaker 1: What did his first step look like? Was there some explosion?
Speaker 1: What was that takeoff looking like? And it was looking
Speaker 1: pretty good, pretty good for the first you know, time
Speaker 1: in padded practice. So I thought those two guys, it
Speaker 1: was good to see them get out there and uh
Speaker 1: and show something and show that their rehab has gone
Speaker 1: one and they're ramping up, tracking up in the right direction.
Speaker 1: Starting center, Billy Price hasn't practiced yet. It sounds like
Speaker 1: he's going to be back any day now, so that's
Speaker 1: good news. In the meantime, Trey Hopkins has been the
Speaker 1: number one center, no surprise there, but rookie Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: was the guy getting the second team reps at the
Speaker 1: center position, and that padded practice on Wednesday, Yeah, Michael
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan and Brian Lundblade a kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: rotated a little bit between the center and guard spot,
Speaker 1: and you know that's that's both of them have to
Speaker 1: show that they can play both of those positions if
Speaker 1: they're going to make the football team. And Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: played center at Ohio State and played guard at Ohio
Speaker 1: State and even could play tackling emergency up there, so
Speaker 1: you know he's got that position versatility. And like we've
Speaker 1: talked about a few times, whoever makes the team if
Speaker 1: they don't have a starting spot, not just two positions,
Speaker 1: not just like center and right guard, center, right guard,
Speaker 1: left guard, you have to show that you can you
Speaker 1: can play multiple positions because they that's why Trey Hopkins
Speaker 1: has a big advantage because he's so smart. He understands
Speaker 1: them all because assignment wise, and he's shown he can
Speaker 1: play them. So he's got an inside track, you know,
Speaker 1: on being an extra lineman. If he doesn't get a
Speaker 1: starting position, well, they want to find out what other
Speaker 1: lineman can play not just two, but three of the
Speaker 1: five spots potentially, you know, you know, worst case scenario,
Speaker 1: you can't have a guy who's not a starter being
Speaker 1: just a backup center or just a backup right guard,
Speaker 1: but you can't play center or left guard. You just
Speaker 1: can't do that. In today's NFL, you don't carry that
Speaker 1: many guys, So you know, I think they'll be moving
Speaker 1: guys around and taking to look see. And I bet
Speaker 1: we'll see some guys out there, particularly in preseason games,
Speaker 1: you know, kicking out there to the tackle positions. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: that's interesting, you know. I guess they want to see
Speaker 1: if he could do that in a pinch to finish
Speaker 1: the game or whatever. So there'll be some experimentation, for sure.
Speaker 1: I thought the most disruptive defensive lineman in the first
Speaker 1: padded practice with Sam Hubbard moving into the starting lineup
Speaker 1: in Michael Johnson's old spot. And I think he's poised
Speaker 1: to have a really big second season in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Love him, Love everything about the guy because you know,
Speaker 1: his work ethic is unbelievable. I mean he gets up
Speaker 1: the football field with pressure and then just dead sprints
Speaker 1: back to wherever the football is. I mean that guy.
Speaker 1: The GPS tracker on him, i'd like to see for
Speaker 1: a defensive lineman. I bet his miles parr. I bet
Speaker 1: he's he's rolling up there at a significant rate running.
Speaker 1: He's he can run. Man, he's got some speed and
Speaker 1: he's busting it. He's busting and he's putting smiles on.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's running a good distance and he's running
Speaker 1: at a high rate of speed. So just his work ethic,
Speaker 1: his hustle and you know, we steen, we saw him
Speaker 1: as a rookie being involved in a takeaway touchdown. That's
Speaker 1: because of his practice habits of you know, running to
Speaker 1: the ball. You know, he'll pressure the quarterback if the
Speaker 1: ball so he'll run to where the ball is. And
Speaker 1: if one of his teammates makes a play in the
Speaker 1: balls in the ground, he's in prime position to do
Speaker 1: something with it and about it. So everything that he
Speaker 1: does is a high, high level of intensity. And uh,
Speaker 1: I love Sam Harvard and he can there's another guy
Speaker 1: that can. You know, he's shown he can play defensive end.
Speaker 1: He's shown he can slide inside the nickel and pass
Speaker 1: rush in there. They used him as a defensive tackle
Speaker 1: in the regular you know, as a three technique in
Speaker 1: some instances last year as a rookie, you know, due
Speaker 1: to injury. That's not his Ford tape, but he's shown
Speaker 1: he can do it. So he's got positioned versatility as well.
Speaker 1: After that first padded practice, Zach Taylor said, the offense
Speaker 1: won early, the defense won late. It was interesting to
Speaker 1: watch new defensive coordinator lou An A. Rumo early when
Speaker 1: the offense was dominating. He was almost Mike zimmer Esque
Speaker 1: in the way he was lighting up the defensive players.
Speaker 1: Finish blank blank blank finish, finish every point. I mean
Speaker 1: he was at a lot of blank blank blanks, and
Speaker 1: and you know it was like, Okay, that's good. I mean,
Speaker 1: hard coach him, and it's you know, the communication wasn't there.
Speaker 1: There were there were some mistakes and then play like
Speaker 1: like he was staying there. You know, there were miss
Speaker 1: tackles and not in position to make plays. And and
Speaker 1: they flipped. They flipped the switch man. They turned it
Speaker 1: and turned turned their fortunes around. And the next three
Speaker 1: periods that were scoring periods, the defense dominated one at
Speaker 1: eighteen to three. Big reason for that big a margin
Speaker 1: is miss field goals, makeable field goals. I mean, one
Speaker 1: drive started from the thirty five yard line, there was
Speaker 1: some yards game and miss a field goal, missed another
Speaker 1: field goal in the red zone. Each kicker miss one
Speaker 1: of them. When the offense gets the ball in that
Speaker 1: favorable field position, defense holds and no points. You know,
Speaker 1: God bless, you did a hell of a job. So
Speaker 1: they want to make sure the defense gets a nice
Speaker 1: kiss on that because the offense can score touchdowns. And
Speaker 1: they didn't. They didn't, they didn't come, they didn't sniff
Speaker 1: the end zone in those three defensive periods. So the
Speaker 1: defensive communication turned it up big time. And then offensively
Speaker 1: they were. They were doing things right early on and
Speaker 1: those three scoring, three competitive scoring deals that went on
Speaker 1: in different stages and situations field position, they had some
Speaker 1: issues with, you know, targeting the right spot and pass
Speaker 1: protection and there were some free runners. Uh so their
Speaker 1: communication fell apart a little bit. And that's that's that's
Speaker 1: what football is all about. It's eleven guys communicating properly
Speaker 1: on either side of the ball. If you if there's
Speaker 1: a communication lapse, you get issues. Is it as hard
Speaker 1: for you to believe as it is for me that
Speaker 1: they'll be playing a game a week from Saturday? It is?
Speaker 1: It is amazing. I mean, you know, they can't go
Speaker 1: to camp now just two weeks before that, you know,
Speaker 1: that first preseason game, and I like, I like, what
Speaker 1: Zack's doing um, you know, and weather disrupted it for
Speaker 1: a little bit. You know, he had the uh you know,
Speaker 1: I call it, uh you know, like workload uh handling
Speaker 1: the workload kind of thing like they do in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Guys will miss games. Well, Zach had that that one
Speaker 1: day where it was like half speed walkthrough and just
Speaker 1: getting ready for some contact and then um, you know,
Speaker 1: rain took away one of his contact periods. And I'm
Speaker 1: a big believer in you know, these guys work year
Speaker 1: round now to stay in pretty good shape. You don't
Speaker 1: need to kill them, you know in training camp. You
Speaker 1: want these guys to be ready to play in the
Speaker 1: regular season. And it's worked for the LA Rams. This
Speaker 1: is what they've done under Sean McVay out there and Zach,
Speaker 1: Zach's believing it obviously, and and I think I think
Speaker 1: it'll pay dividends. I mean, gone or the days where
Speaker 1: you know, you get your head smashed in for nine
Speaker 1: weeks and you couldn't drink water and you know you
Speaker 1: just got beaten to death. Those days are long gone.
Speaker 1: And I lived through some of those and they weren't
Speaker 1: fun at all. You know, you wonder is there something
Speaker 1: else I can do and make a living. I know
Speaker 1: there is maybe I don't know how long I'm going
Speaker 1: to do this, but I like what they're doing. And
Speaker 1: when they go, I think the players appreciate that he's
Speaker 1: trying to take care of them that way, and when
Speaker 1: they go, they're they're doing. Like we talked about the temple,
Speaker 1: the best way for football conditioning is that because normally
Speaker 1: you get a bigger break than that. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you'll you'll go hard and then you'll, you know, depending
Speaker 1: on how up temple your offense is, there's lulls and breaks.
Speaker 1: He has got them at a very high clip, very
Speaker 1: high rate between every snap. That's the best way to
Speaker 1: get your cardio done in football is doing football football.
Speaker 1: You have to perform football acts, football functions in very
Speaker 1: short recovery periods, and that's the best way to get
Speaker 1: conditioned for football. And he's conditioning big time for football.
Speaker 1: You can go and run. You're a distance guy, you know,
Speaker 1: go out and run. That's you know, that's one way
Speaker 1: to condition. But then you have to get in football
Speaker 1: condition where you're you're pushing and pulling and you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're working all the attachments and ligaments and tenants and
Speaker 1: all your joints and everything, and then you've got to
Speaker 1: do it again, you know, in a very short time frame.
Speaker 1: So it's a different conditioning for your body and for
Speaker 1: your cardio vascular And I think I think that they've
Speaker 1: got a pretty good idea with how they're doing it
Speaker 1: with this work hard in two days recover, work real hard,
Speaker 1: two days recover. I like that pattern. The Rams are
Speaker 1: number four in the NFL last year in fewest starts
Speaker 1: missed and number one in the NFL two years ago
Speaker 1: in fewest starts missed by their key players. If Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor brings anything from Sean McVeigh and the Rams, let's
Speaker 1: hope it's a system for keeping guys healthy. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: look at to the veteran offensive lineman Sullivan and Whitworth
Speaker 1: well into their thirties, and you know they didn't miss
Speaker 1: they didn't miss games. So you know, you can play
Speaker 1: a longer period of time at a higher level by
Speaker 1: not you know, getting it taken out of you during
Speaker 1: the offseason and during training camp. As long as you
Speaker 1: keep yourself in a good semblance of shape. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you let yourself get sloppy, you know, in yo Yo,
Speaker 1: that that's gonna that's a horse of a different color.
Speaker 1: That's a different story. But if the players understand what
Speaker 1: the coach is trying to do, and the players, you know,
Speaker 1: be professionals and take care of their bodies, and they
Speaker 1: can play a longer time at a higher level. And
Speaker 1: that's what that's what the whole concept is. Plus making
Speaker 1: so much money, it's it's good for the ownership to
Speaker 1: check their investment and good for the players to do
Speaker 1: it as long as they can. I mean, both all
Speaker 1: parties benefit. It makes too much sense. That's why beating
Speaker 1: the hell out everywhere. Of course, nobody was making that
Speaker 1: kind of money back in those days. But you know
Speaker 1: that's why, you know, making less than thirty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year, saying it's worth all this. Yeah, I always
Speaker 1: wanted to do it my whole life, But man, how
Speaker 1: many years can I do this? Guys? Don't have to
Speaker 1: think like that anymore. You got twelve. I got twelve
Speaker 1: all together. Yeah, I was lucky. Knocked on the wood.
Speaker 1: The Bengals next practice is Friday afternoon from three to
Speaker 1: five at the practice fields adjacent to Paul Brown Stadium.
Speaker 1: Then on Saturday it's the annual Family Day event at
Speaker 1: the stadium. The gates open it two and practice begins
Speaker 1: at three. There will be kid friendly activities throughout the stadium,
Speaker 1: prize giveaways, autographs from everybody on the roster. After practice,
Speaker 1: and then once the players clear the field, you will
Speaker 1: be allowed onto the playing surface. Everything is free, including
Speaker 1: parking at the lots next to the stadium. So again,
Speaker 1: check it out Family Day Saturday at Paul Brown Stadium.
Speaker 1: Now time for this week's fun Facts segment as we
Speaker 1: get to know the longest tenured coach on the current
Speaker 1: staff as he enters his seventeenth year with the Bengals.
Speaker 1: Time for some fun facts at Bengal Special Teams coordinator
Speaker 1: Darren Simmons, a native of Elkhart, Kansas, down in the
Speaker 1: southwest corner of the state near Oklahoma and Colorado. Describe
Speaker 1: your hometown, very small, farming community, twenty one hundred people
Speaker 1: that kind of fluctuates. Twenty one twenty two one hundred people,
Speaker 1: right in the very southwest corner. I mean, you can't
Speaker 1: be any further southwest. The city limits to my hometown
Speaker 1: is Oklahoma state line. Colorado is about five miles west
Speaker 1: of us. We're a two A school UM in the
Speaker 1: state of Kansas. Kansas has one through six A or
Speaker 1: two A schools. We're on the smaller half, UM, but
Speaker 1: very very much a farming community in uh An Oil
Speaker 1: and gas uh you know, crude oil and natural gas
Speaker 1: productions big down there too. We're doing fine facts with
Speaker 1: Darren Simmons. Let's talk about your athletic career. You started
Speaker 1: out at Dodge City Community College in Kansas, and in
Speaker 1: addition to punting, you played quarterback. Give me a scouting
Speaker 1: report on Darren Simmons the quarterback. Well, I went to
Speaker 1: I went to University Kansas as a punter. So now
Speaker 1: that it gives you some of my uh background as
Speaker 1: a quarterback. Now, I mean I I started a couple
Speaker 1: of years UM at Dodge City as both a quarterback
Speaker 1: and a punter. Kind of patterned myself after Danny White,
Speaker 1: you know with the Cowboys, UM, who did both. UM,
Speaker 1: So it was kind of a dual threat on fourth
Speaker 1: down where I dropped back to pond, Well, we're gonna
Speaker 1: fake it? Are we gonna go for it? Mean? What
Speaker 1: are we gonna We're gonna punt it? What were're gonna do? Um?
Speaker 1: But obviously my Mike quarterback days were limited there because
Speaker 1: I went on as a punter. Soul. That gives you
Speaker 1: a little scouting report, all right, And as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: it was on to Kansas to play for the Jayhawks
Speaker 1: for your final couple of college seasons. What was it
Speaker 1: like for a kid from small town Kansas to play
Speaker 1: for the university up Well, it was actually really weird
Speaker 1: because really everybody west of Kansas State goes to Ka State,
Speaker 1: and everybody east of Kansas State or Manhattan goes to KU.
Speaker 1: And I kind of did the flop and went right
Speaker 1: over the top of Kansas State and went to Kansas.
Speaker 1: And I don't regret that decision one bit. The majority
Speaker 1: of my graduating class actually went to Kansas State, so
Speaker 1: it'ld have been a natural thing, but you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of straight away from the herd went to Kansas.
Speaker 1: Kansas was just coming off a Lohall Bowl win over BYU,
Speaker 1: and they were both obviously poor programs had been historically,
Speaker 1: but they were both on their way up. And I
Speaker 1: thought Kansas was a little ahead of where Kansas State
Speaker 1: was time, and so I chose to go there. And
Speaker 1: you know, I still go back there and visit a
Speaker 1: lot it's on our way home down I seventy when
Speaker 1: we could drive back to Kansas in the summertime. So,
Speaker 1: you know, Lawrence is a cool town. I could see
Speaker 1: living there. It's a really cool small town, which it
Speaker 1: is close enough to Kansas City where you get still
Speaker 1: the big city things that come with that. So really
Speaker 1: really enjoyed my time at Kansas and that's where ultimately
Speaker 1: met my wife. We're visiting with Special Teams coordinator Darren Simmons.
Speaker 1: You chose wisely. Kansas was terrific while you were there
Speaker 1: your senior year. They finished in the top ten in
Speaker 1: the country and in a big win over Oklahoma, you
Speaker 1: had a forty five yard run on a fake punt.
Speaker 1: I have seen the footage on YouTube. What do you
Speaker 1: remember about the play? Well, I member, we'd practiced that
Speaker 1: play for a long time, and you know, being a punter,
Speaker 1: the you know, if you're going to punt the ball,
Speaker 1: the one thing that you want to do is when
Speaker 1: you receive the snap, you want to want to focus
Speaker 1: on punting it. I remember our head coach at the time,
Speaker 1: Glenn Mason, said, for the specific play, catch it, then
Speaker 1: look up to see if they're rushing, if they're rushing,
Speaker 1: then punt it. If they're not rushing, then take off
Speaker 1: and run, and which is there's a that's a lot
Speaker 1: to do in a short amount of time. But anyway,
Speaker 1: obviously being from Kent where I'm from, in Kansas at
Speaker 1: Oklahoma game is a huge game because I actually probably
Speaker 1: grew up as a as a Sooner fan, and I
Speaker 1: had a bunch of family at that game. And h
Speaker 1: it was we were down pretty big throughout that game.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of plays in that game that kind
Speaker 1: of helped propel us pass them, and uh, that was
Speaker 1: one of them. So, uh, you know, that was obviously
Speaker 1: a very fun time for them. While you were at Kansas.
Speaker 1: Roy Williams was the basketball coach Kansas basketball at the
Speaker 1: time was terrific, as it still is obviously to this day.
Speaker 1: Did you get to know Roy at all or any
Speaker 1: of the great basketball players that were there at the time.
Speaker 1: We did. You know, the football team and the basketball
Speaker 1: team were actually pretty close at the time, and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I have nothing but great things, great fond
Speaker 1: memories of Coach Williams in his time there. He was
Speaker 1: very very supportive of our program, our football program. You know,
Speaker 1: we were on the way up at the time, and
Speaker 1: I think in fact my senior year, we were the
Speaker 1: one of the few teams in history at the time
Speaker 1: to have a football team playing a bowl game and
Speaker 1: finishing the top ten. The basketball team makes the Final four,
Speaker 1: and in the baseball team goes to the College World Series,
Speaker 1: which I think at the time is only like eight teams.
Speaker 1: So it was a very successful year that year. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, Coach Williams is a heck of a coach.
Speaker 1: I think he still has, uh, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of ties still still back to Kansas, and Ike has
Speaker 1: fond memories back of the people and everything that went
Speaker 1: into that school. So he was very supportive of us.
Speaker 1: And good good man. We'll do a few more fun
Speaker 1: facts with Darren Simmons. Let's move on to your coaching career.
Speaker 1: You had an uncle with NFL ties, correct, Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1: Um My dad's brother, Jerry Simmons, was a strength coach,
Speaker 1: you know, and he came from the same small hometown
Speaker 1: of bell Cart that I did. He went to Fort
Speaker 1: Hay State, which is a Division two school out in Kansas,
Speaker 1: and then he get his start. His first full time
Speaker 1: strength coaching job was at Rice I think he was
Speaker 1: a graduate assistant at Clemson and then his first full
Speaker 1: time job was at Rice. He went from Rice to
Speaker 1: Southern cal named from Southern cal to the New England Patriots,
Speaker 1: and I think Raymond Barry was the head coach then,
Speaker 1: and uh maybe Don mcpherston for a little bit. And
Speaker 1: then he went from New England to the Cleveland Browns
Speaker 1: and he went to Cleveland with Bill Belichick when when
Speaker 1: he first got there, then he kind of survived that
Speaker 1: whole move from Cleveland to Baltimore and was there in
Speaker 1: Baltimore under Ted Marcher Brodo and that's when I got
Speaker 1: hired there. But I was fortunate throughout my high school
Speaker 1: days even my college days, I would always go help
Speaker 1: me and my younger brother would go help him during
Speaker 1: two days or in training camp, whether it be out
Speaker 1: of Southern cal or at New England and at Cleveland. Well,
Speaker 1: at Cleveland I got to know the special teams coach
Speaker 1: there very well. My uncle pushed it. I was letting
Speaker 1: know that I was a putner, and I got to
Speaker 1: work with him a lot, the special teams coach by
Speaker 1: name Mascott O'Brien, and we developed a relationship and and
Speaker 1: you know it still sticks to this day. What were
Speaker 1: your initial responsibilities on an NFL staff. Well, I was
Speaker 1: the assistant special teams coach and assistant strength and conditioning coach,
Speaker 1: you know, assistant special teams coaches at the time. There
Speaker 1: was only probably three or four of us in the
Speaker 1: league at the time. Now every team has one, virtually,
Speaker 1: I think me with exception one or two full time
Speaker 1: assistant special teams coaches. But as a way for me
Speaker 1: to kind of get in the door, it was a
Speaker 1: dual role thing where I think it allowed me to
Speaker 1: help my uncle in the weight room and be his
Speaker 1: assistant and there and then also be split my time
Speaker 1: with special teams too. So it was a good way
Speaker 1: if it was a good opportunity for me to get
Speaker 1: my foot in the door as a young guy, and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm very appreciate of that opportunity. Do you
Speaker 1: have a favorite moment, favorite game, favorite special teams play,
Speaker 1: anything in particular that stands out? One specific play I
Speaker 1: guess that comes to mine was my first year here
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three and we're playing Kansas City.
Speaker 1: In Kansas City, I believe was undefeated at the time
Speaker 1: and maybe like nine and Ozo and Dante Hall, who
Speaker 1: was their returner that has had an unbelievable season. I
Speaker 1: think he'd scored four times, maybe five, and he was
Speaker 1: trying to break the NFL record, and we almost gave
Speaker 1: it to him in the first half, but we kind
Speaker 1: of flipped it. We kind of flipped it on him,
Speaker 1: and in the second half we played lights out on
Speaker 1: special teams, stopped him and really took him out of
Speaker 1: the game, and then Peter Wart scored on a punt
Speaker 1: return which kind of blew the game open for us
Speaker 1: and to win. So that was obviously a very very
Speaker 1: proud from me. He's a young coach and maybe in
Speaker 1: my first year as the full time guy, that was
Speaker 1: a pretty big moment for me. Final question for Darren Simmons.
Speaker 1: John Harbaugh went from NFL special teams coach to Super
Speaker 1: Bowl winning NFL head coach. Is head coach which you
Speaker 1: ultimately aspire to do? I think that's a good question,
Speaker 1: and it is something that I aspire to do. You know,
Speaker 1: I think is the evolution of the way that special
Speaker 1: teams coaches are looked at has obviously changed, you know,
Speaker 1: it's I think Frank Gains was one of the first
Speaker 1: guys that went from being a special teams coach to
Speaker 1: a head coach and didn't work out for him. In
Speaker 1: Kansas City, things did not go well. And but now
Speaker 1: that John got his opportunity and has done with it
Speaker 1: what he has, I think certainly over the past several years,
Speaker 1: you're seeing more and more special teams coaches getting opportunities
Speaker 1: for interviews, which is a big thing. I like to
Speaker 1: get rat race too and get my hand in there.
Speaker 1: You know, I think special teams coaches have a little
Speaker 1: bit of advange because I get the opportunity to work
Speaker 1: with the entire team, and I think that's a little
Speaker 1: bit what a head coach does. He gets you have
Speaker 1: to understand the personalities in what makes each player tick.
Speaker 1: And I think that a special team's coach is the
Speaker 1: closest thing to what a hit coach does do then,
Speaker 1: So you know that that is certainly something that I
Speaker 1: would look forward to someday. This has been fun. You're
Speaker 1: off the hot seat. Thanks for the time, great, Thank
Speaker 1: you do And that's going to do it for this
Speaker 1: edition of the podcast. If you haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify,
Speaker 1: or pod Bean and if you have a moment, please
Speaker 1: give it a rating or leave a comment. Your feedback
Speaker 1: has been great and those five star ratings help more
Speaker 1: Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast