Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Hoard and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast. The Welcome to the Future addition,
Speaker 1: as I discussed some of the Bengals' biggest offseason questions
Speaker 1: with Sam Monson, lead NFL analyst for Pro Football Focus.
Speaker 1: But first I'll talk to a player who says he
Speaker 1: did not play up to his own expectations this season,
Speaker 1: linebacker Jermaine Pratt. And we'll wrap things up with a
Speaker 1: crazy NFL Weather edition of story Time with Dan. The
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Speaker 1: greatest thing since the Bengals Bar and Kitchen at the Airport.
Speaker 1: There are seven new dining and beverage options coming to
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport, including the Bengals Bar
Speaker 1: and Kitchen, which is being described as a sports bar
Speaker 1: which pays tribute to the city's NFL franchise. What a
Speaker 1: great idea. According to the CBG website, the airport welcome
Speaker 1: more than seven point six million passengers in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: and now many of them will be reminded that Cincinnati
Speaker 1: is one of only thirty cities in the country that
Speaker 1: has an NFL team. According to an airport press release,
Speaker 1: it's expected to open in the coming months. Now, let's
Speaker 1: get to my first guest. According to Pro Football Focus,
Speaker 1: Jermaine Pratt was one of the best linebackers in the
Speaker 1: NFL two years ago. PFF grated your main eighth overall
Speaker 1: among linebackers and number one in pass coverage. That was
Speaker 1: the final year of Pratt's rookie contract, and he earned
Speaker 1: a three year extension for twenty point twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 1: Here was defensive coordinator lou Anarumo after the Bengals re
Speaker 1: signed Jermaine. I mean Jermaine's you know, since his rookie year,
Speaker 1: he's always taken a step forward every year.
Speaker 2: You know, if he doesn't come away with a turnover
Speaker 2: each game.
Speaker 3: He's he's you know, upset, so mind, but he's he's
Speaker 3: on everything.
Speaker 1: He's a strong tackler, always around the ball. You know,
Speaker 1: so love him. Jermaine certainly had stellar moments this year.
Speaker 1: His red zone interception at San Francisco thwarted a potential
Speaker 1: game tying drive, and he forced to fumble in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter of the Buffalo game that helped seal that win.
Speaker 1: But by his own admission, Pratt wasn't as consistent as
Speaker 1: the year before, and his Pro Football Focus grade reflected that,
Speaker 1: dropping to number fifty seven among linebackers. I talked to
Speaker 1: Jermaine about it at the end of the season.
Speaker 4: I can't look back and see what I did and
Speaker 4: like looked up and say I did well. I play okay,
Speaker 4: it's a par you know, I gotta play elite for
Speaker 4: us to be great on defense.
Speaker 1: You don't sound like you were happy with your own
Speaker 1: play this year.
Speaker 4: Nah, I say sometimes I made good plays, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 4: I wasn't consistent enough to help us win games. You know,
Speaker 4: I I win some. I help us win games late
Speaker 4: with like a big turnover and stuff. But I need
Speaker 4: to be consistent within you know, helping younger guys be
Speaker 4: more impactful. You know it was this probably was harder,
Speaker 4: I say, because I didn't have the guys around me
Speaker 4: that make my job more easier.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: Then you got young guys they're trying to feel you know,
Speaker 4: sometimes you be out there thinking you're still playing with
Speaker 4: better than guys, but you're playing with rookie. So it's
Speaker 4: just getting better each and every year.
Speaker 1: It's hard for me to analyze why the run defense
Speaker 1: hasn't been as good. You got most of the same
Speaker 1: guys back. What do you think have been the biggest
Speaker 1: issues for why that that portion of the defense just
Speaker 1: hasn't been quite as good.
Speaker 4: It's a eleven man. You know, everybody gotta do they
Speaker 4: one eleven? You know, it's like we have a supposed
Speaker 4: to run every game, one or two a game, and
Speaker 4: then they be like did so you know that that's
Speaker 4: a hit, But we gotta figure out ways to stop it.
Speaker 4: You might have to get beef up front, or or
Speaker 4: I just got to play better.
Speaker 1: Big plays in general, right, Passing and running have been
Speaker 1: a major issue this year.
Speaker 4: Yes, you know that's that's we I think the lead
Speaker 4: the NFL. It's mostly supposed to plays. You know, that's
Speaker 4: something I ain't customed to say. You know, that's that's everybody.
Speaker 4: You know, everybody gotta do their job better. You know,
Speaker 4: everybody gotta look at itself in the mirror and get better.
Speaker 1: You had a I guess about a five game stretch
Speaker 1: where Joe is fully healthy, beat the forty nine ers,
Speaker 1: beat the Bills. Looked like the team that you guys
Speaker 1: probably expected to be. Do you feel like that's the
Speaker 1: team you're going to be next year when he healthy again.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: You know, every year they'll be a new team, new
Speaker 4: challenges we may face. But I know next year we
Speaker 4: gotta start faster. I mean we said that each and
Speaker 4: every week. It's the start faster we get if we
Speaker 4: win some games early in the in the season, get
Speaker 4: rolling fast. We gotta figure out where to start faster.
Speaker 4: And said, I don't know, maybe like we be having
Speaker 4: a long playoff run and we're trying to itch our
Speaker 4: way back into the season, So I think it shall
Speaker 4: be this. Obviously it will be huged for a lot
Speaker 4: of guys. You know, guys are coming off injury. So
Speaker 4: you know when you got a guy that's off injury,
Speaker 4: he get the focus more on himself and become more dangerous.
Speaker 4: As we've seen Joe did become more dangerous and led
Speaker 4: us to the super Bowl. You know, guys get back,
Speaker 4: get back right, and then guys look at itself as individuals.
Speaker 1: How can you get better? How can you pat the team?
Speaker 4: How can you grow from this year the less next
Speaker 4: year to be better.
Speaker 1: So as one of the veteran leaders on this team,
Speaker 1: that's going to be your massage. It could be in
Speaker 1: the next year. We've got to start fast.
Speaker 4: Because yeah, that's what be everybody mind say. You know,
Speaker 4: we can't keep on dropping early games. You know that's costness,
Speaker 4: I say, because we're trying to fight and call letter
Speaker 4: in season. You know later in the season. Last year
Speaker 4: was winning games, so it was unefeated roll into the playoffs.
Speaker 4: This game, we were trying to play kitsch up. You know,
Speaker 4: everybody are playing MEFL games and end of the year.
Speaker 4: But we gotta jump out. I feel like we gotta
Speaker 4: start faster.
Speaker 1: Jermaine is twenty seven years old and has been mister
Speaker 1: reliable in Cincinnati, only missing one game due to injury
Speaker 1: in five NFL seasons. He helped force the fumble in
Speaker 1: the jungle in the twenty twenty two playoffs and picked
Speaker 1: off Derek Carr the two yard line with twelve seconds
Speaker 1: to go in the twenty twenty one wild Card round
Speaker 1: to clinch Cincinnati's first playoff win in thirty one years.
Speaker 3: Nine yards of real estate will determine this playoff game
Speaker 3: fourth down end goal from the nine seventeen seconds to
Speaker 3: go to play clock at three shotgun snap car throws
Speaker 3: in the traffics prep.
Speaker 2: A the football coffin now fam bam bam. How about
Speaker 2: that it ends on a turnover? Unbelievable? Huh? The Cardiac
Speaker 2: kids take it to the last snap.
Speaker 3: Want to play by Jermaine Proud extending the arms to
Speaker 3: intercept that throw by Derek Carr and win the game
Speaker 3: for Cincinnati and twelve seconds left, the Bengals have to
Speaker 3: snap it one time and the drought is over.
Speaker 1: He's earned the nickname Playoff p and I think he's
Speaker 1: a strong bet to bounce back with a better season
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought
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Speaker 1: for the best fan. Kettering Health is the official healthcare
Speaker 1: provider of the Bengals. Now time for an in depth
Speaker 1: look at some of the key issues facing the Bengals
Speaker 1: this offseason. My guest is Sam Monson, lead analyst for
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus. Sam, one of your PFF colleagues, wrote
Speaker 1: this week that the Bengals will undoubtedly be back in
Speaker 1: contention with a healthy Joe Burrow. Do you agree?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that's true. I mean, Joe Burrow I
Speaker 5: think has already shown himself to be one of those
Speaker 5: quarterbacks that's good enough that, assuming he's healthy, he's going
Speaker 5: to put you in contention every single year. You know,
Speaker 5: Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, those teams are always
Speaker 5: going to be in contention as long as they have
Speaker 5: quarterbacks that good. Another teams will come and go. But
Speaker 5: I think that's an incredible starting point. So yeah, I
Speaker 5: think a lot of the season's problems were sourced with
Speaker 5: Joe Burrow's injuries. Even though Jake Browning played very well
Speaker 5: in Instead, let me.
Speaker 1: Follow up on Jake Browning because I suppose that's one
Speaker 1: of the positives from this season. The Bengals learned that
Speaker 1: they have a competent backup quarterback in Jake and they
Speaker 1: control his rights for two more years. How good was
Speaker 1: he in your opinion and should the Bengals consider trying
Speaker 1: to get something in exchange or do you need to
Speaker 1: have a guy like that, especially when Joe's had some
Speaker 1: injury problems.
Speaker 5: I think he was really good. Outside of playing Pittsburgh,
Speaker 5: Jake Browny was fantastic this year. It was weird, like
Speaker 5: his two worst games by a distance, came against the Steelers,
Speaker 5: and pretty much every other game I think he played
Speaker 5: really well. Some of his performances felt a little bit
Speaker 5: sort of unsustainable. I don't want to say lucky, but
Speaker 5: they were more you know, let's put the ball up
Speaker 5: and see if a receiver makes a play, and they
Speaker 5: did quite a lot of the time, because you know,
Speaker 5: the Bengals have really good wide receivers. But that's always
Speaker 5: a little bit of a precarious style of play to
Speaker 5: replicate week after week after week. Sometimes those balls are
Speaker 5: not going to go your way, and you're not going
Speaker 5: to get the payoff from them. But overall, I mean,
Speaker 5: he showed he could run the offense, he showed he
Speaker 5: could make good decisions, he showed he could be accurate
Speaker 5: with the ball, and maybe wrote his look a little
Speaker 5: bit at times during the season. But I agree he
Speaker 5: showed that he is immediately one of the better backups
Speaker 5: in the NFL. I think this year, of all the years,
Speaker 5: showed not just from the Bengals point of view, but
Speaker 5: league wide, the value in having a good backup quarterback.
Speaker 5: You know, so many teams had to turn to their
Speaker 5: backups this year, and if you need a guy to
Speaker 5: win you you know, three or four games in the season,
Speaker 5: Jake Brown just showed that he's capable of doing that.
Speaker 5: So I would be inclined to say the value of
Speaker 5: that exceeds the value of anything you could get for
Speaker 5: him in a trade, So keep him around.
Speaker 1: So Pro Football Focus has come out with a ranking
Speaker 1: of the top one hundred free agents, and t Higgins
Speaker 1: is high on the list at number four. Most of us,
Speaker 1: or many of us, myself included, think that the Bengals
Speaker 1: are likely to franchise tag him for roughly twenty one
Speaker 1: million bucks to keep the band together, so to speak,
Speaker 1: for at least another year. Is that what they should do.
Speaker 5: I think the decision should be between that and getting
Speaker 5: a long term deal with him sorted out, you know,
Speaker 5: trying to keep him around long term as part of
Speaker 5: the whole thing. But it's felt like for a while
Speaker 5: they were going to go the sort of Jesse Bates
Speaker 5: rut with T Higgins and play him throughout that rookie deal, franchise,
Speaker 5: tag him and for you know, a step up in costs,
Speaker 5: and then move on when it's time to really commit
Speaker 5: big money to him and instead go in a different direction.
Speaker 5: I don't think it's necessarily a bad decision, a bad approach.
Speaker 5: You know, you get one more year of T Higgins
Speaker 5: and then theoretically you've had a chance to come up
Speaker 5: with the backup solution, and Cincinnati is good generally, I
Speaker 5: think at four planning these things and having already made
Speaker 5: back up there to step into the bigger role. But
Speaker 5: it's always a risk. You know that the Bengals had
Speaker 5: Tax Hill this year to step into the role left
Speaker 5: by Jesse Bates, and it didn't quite go that way.
Speaker 5: It didn't quite work the way he wanted it to.
Speaker 5: You might have the best laid plan, but it doesn't
Speaker 5: mean that guy is going to be able to step
Speaker 5: into that role. You know, this year, I imagine maybe they'll
Speaker 5: draft somebody as well. But you know, the Andre Yoshivas
Speaker 5: looks like a receiver that could potentially become, you know,
Speaker 5: step into that number two role in a year's time,
Speaker 5: But it's projection at this point. That might be the plan,
Speaker 5: that might be what you want to happen, but you're
Speaker 5: really not going to know whether it's going to work
Speaker 5: or not until at the end, you know, twenty twenty five,
Speaker 5: when you actually make that switch and then hope fingers
Speaker 5: crossed that it's going to have the results you expected
Speaker 5: it to. So I definitely think it's a sensible plan.
Speaker 5: It's one that makes sense, but it is a risk
Speaker 5: anytime you're going to an unknown quantity versus someone that
Speaker 5: you know is good in this offense.
Speaker 1: Sam Monson is our guest lead analyst for Pro Football Focus.
Speaker 1: For other Bengals free agents made that PFF Top one hundred,
Speaker 1: DJ Reader nineteenth, Chinna Beao Wuji twenty sixth, Joana Williams
Speaker 1: fifty fourth, and Tyler Boyd seventy fourth. Who should they keep.
Speaker 5: I think they should try and keep DJ Reader. He
Speaker 5: would be the the first name on that list that
Speaker 5: I would try and bring back. He's so important to
Speaker 5: what they do. He's the most difficult skill set I
Speaker 5: think to replace as well, Like you can't find DJ
Speaker 5: Readers just out there on the open market. He's incredibly
Speaker 5: good against the run. He brings enough as a pass
Speaker 5: rusher he can impact that side of the game as well,
Speaker 5: and they really miss him when he's not in that
Speaker 5: defensive lineup. So I think he's the first guy I
Speaker 5: would try and bring back. Ouzie I think is a
Speaker 5: player that they would like to have back, but it
Speaker 5: kind of depends on the costs, and I think that's
Speaker 5: one that maybe you can replace easier. I think Jonah
Speaker 5: Williams the move to right tackle didn't really work out
Speaker 5: for him. He didn't bounce back to the level that
Speaker 5: he'd been at before last year, which was the worst
Speaker 5: year of his career. Was more in line with that
Speaker 5: just on the other side of the line. So I
Speaker 5: think they'll be looking to move on from him anyway,
Speaker 5: regardless of the costs, regardless of whether they need to
Speaker 5: give him a big extra deal and then Tyler Boyd
Speaker 5: kind of depends on the cost. You know, I think
Speaker 5: they would like to have him back, but it also
Speaker 5: feels like a player that would be the easiest to
Speaker 5: try and replace and have somebody step into that role
Speaker 5: and do what Tyler er Boyd did fur them, or
Speaker 5: at least an approximation of it. Again, they might already
Speaker 5: have that guy on the roster. You know, maybe it's
Speaker 5: not Yosebast this time. Maybe it's Charlie Jones that can
Speaker 5: become their primary slot receiver and take those targets. So
Speaker 5: you know, if Tyler Boyd, if the market isn't strong,
Speaker 5: or if he's willing to come back on a cheap deal,
Speaker 5: maybe they'd be interested. But otherwise I think they would
Speaker 5: be looking to move in a different direction.
Speaker 1: Sam, is there a pending free agent on another NFL
Speaker 1: roster that you think makes sense for Cincinnati.
Speaker 5: It's a weird year for a free agency this year.
Speaker 5: It's not the strongest class in the world. There's some
Speaker 5: guys that at the top end I think that make
Speaker 5: a lot of sense, but you're gonna have to bring
Speaker 5: big money to the table. I mean, if a guy
Speaker 5: like DJ Reader does make it out of the door,
Speaker 5: and you're looking to try and replace that. Christian Wilkins
Speaker 5: from the Miami Dolphins is potentially available if he hits
Speaker 5: the open market. That is one of the few guys
Speaker 5: I think that kind of replicate what DJ Reader brings
Speaker 5: to the table. Really good against the run, enough about
Speaker 5: him as a pastrusher to be a factor there as well.
Speaker 5: You know, Justinmoutabuike. I imagine it's going to make a
Speaker 5: ton of money given the season he just had for
Speaker 5: the Ravens, but if they were able to steal him
Speaker 5: away from a division rival, that would be absolutely spectacular.
Speaker 5: And then I think there will be a few cornerbacks
Speaker 5: available in free agency as well. Whether it's lugurious need,
Speaker 5: I imagine the Chiefs will lock him up and not
Speaker 5: let him hit the market. The Bears Jalen Johnson, similar
Speaker 5: kind of thing. I imagine they'll franchise tag him. I
Speaker 5: can't see him hitting the market either, but there will
Speaker 5: be I think some intriguing players available that they could
Speaker 5: dip into.
Speaker 1: If Jonah Williams leaves as a free agent, there's going
Speaker 1: to be an obvious needed right tackle. How's that pool
Speaker 1: in free agency? And or the draft.
Speaker 5: It's not good in free agency, not taking that it's
Speaker 5: a better year in the draft, and absolutely I think
Speaker 5: that would be a live situation for them. One name
Speaker 5: I think that is interesting though, in a free agent
Speaker 5: he is Michael Owenu from the New England Patriots. He's
Speaker 5: had a weird career where they've bounced him around the
Speaker 5: line an awful lot, whether it's left guard or whether
Speaker 5: it's the either guard position or right tackle. I think
Speaker 5: his best position has been right tackle. And basically anytime
Speaker 5: he's played, he's he's played extremely well, really good PFF grades,
Speaker 5: really good performance. They've never seemed to quite buy into
Speaker 5: him one hundred percent. And he's now scheduled to hit
Speaker 5: free agency, so you know, it's not like they've been
Speaker 5: proactive and bringing him back and keeping him as part
Speaker 5: of the future there. And I wonder what his sort
Speaker 5: of league wide standing is, whether he's underrated by everybody
Speaker 5: and he's a guy that could be had for relatively
Speaker 5: low money, or if for some reason the Patriots just
Speaker 5: didn't value him as much as maybe the play suggests
Speaker 5: they should have. And actually he'll have a strong market
Speaker 5: in free agency given the relative lack of players at
Speaker 5: that position. But if Michael Owenu, you know, was available
Speaker 5: for not a huge amount of money, I think that
Speaker 5: would be a huge upgrade at that spot.
Speaker 1: We're chatting with Sam Monson from Pro Football Focus. You
Speaker 1: can follow him up on Twitter at PFF Underscore. Sam.
Speaker 1: Let's talk Bengals running backs. When you look at Joe
Speaker 1: Mixon's numbers for the year, he had more than fourteen
Speaker 1: hundred dollar purpose yards, he scored twelve touchdowns. Chase Brown
Speaker 1: added explosive this once he started to play for the
Speaker 1: latter end of the season. Are they good with that
Speaker 1: duo going forward or do they need to add something
Speaker 1: at that position.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think it's a good duo going forward,
Speaker 5: and I think they're a pair that compliment each other. Well,
Speaker 5: it's not like Joe Mixon is reaching the age where
Speaker 5: you're particularly concerned about running backs as well. He's still
Speaker 5: only twenty seven years old. Okay, there's quite a lot
Speaker 5: of mileage on the clock for him. I think it's
Speaker 5: a position where you know, you should always have an
Speaker 5: eye on the draft, right and just bring in a
Speaker 5: young player and see if that guy is going to
Speaker 5: bring you something that may be unexpected or maybe simply
Speaker 5: just with the benefit of being a young player. When
Speaker 5: generally speaking, I think running backs at this point the
Speaker 5: first contract is the best play you're going to get
Speaker 5: from them.
Speaker 1: So I think I think they're.
Speaker 5: Fine if that's the two they end up rolling with
Speaker 5: primarily next season. But I would absolutely draft somebody and
Speaker 5: see what you can find or on Earth and maybe
Speaker 5: you're in a position where you can move on from
Speaker 5: Joe Mixon and get cheaper and not suffer any kind
Speaker 5: of drop off at at that spot.
Speaker 1: Sam, I think we'd all agree that the Bengals defense
Speaker 1: was disappointing this year. The question is why. Was it
Speaker 1: largely the result of having youth in the secondary? Did
Speaker 1: veterans at other positions underperform? What do you think were
Speaker 1: the biggest contributing factors to that disappointing performance.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it was a bit of everything.
Speaker 1: You know, we said before.
Speaker 5: They had this contingency plan of moving on from Jesse Bates,
Speaker 5: going to a design success or an error a parent.
Speaker 5: I don't know that they planned on losing both safeties
Speaker 5: at the same time. I think that was a bit
Speaker 5: of a surprise to them and that sort of upset
Speaker 5: the Apple card A bit. Now we don't just have
Speaker 5: to rely on one new guy back there. We've got
Speaker 5: to do it with two injuries. So obviously played in
Speaker 5: as well, and suddenly you just got the secondary that
Speaker 5: is not used to playing with each other, that isn't
Speaker 5: on the same page consistently, and.
Speaker 1: Really the front four as well.
Speaker 5: I mean, Trey Hendrickson had a great year, an incredible
Speaker 5: pass rusher, had a ton of pressure, a ton of sacks,
Speaker 5: but they didn't have that consistent, complimentary piece to him.
Speaker 5: Particularly on the other side. They weren't able to get,
Speaker 5: you know, a ton of pressure outside of Hendrickson. I
Speaker 5: think that impacted everybody behind him. Anytime you can get
Speaker 5: a ton of pressure, it's going to negate some of
Speaker 5: the deficiencies on the back end, and the Bengals weren't
Speaker 5: really able to do that.
Speaker 1: PFF's highest graded defensive player on the Bengals roster was
Speaker 1: a rookie safety, Jordan Battle, who once he started playing,
Speaker 1: really helped solidify that position. Did the Bengals strike it
Speaker 1: rich would that third round draft pick?
Speaker 5: Yeah, he looked absolutely fantastic. He's one of those guys
Speaker 5: that you know had had really good hey but didn't
Speaker 5: necessarily test off the charts and was just sort of
Speaker 5: good at everything. You know, didn't necessarily stand out, didn't
Speaker 5: look like an a credible athlete, didn't get pushed up
Speaker 5: draft boards because you get enamored by the potential of
Speaker 5: what he could do and all the crazy things. He
Speaker 5: was just a really good player in all facets of
Speaker 5: the game, coming out of a good program. You know,
Speaker 5: that asks quite a lot of those defensive backs. But
Speaker 5: I think players like that tend to fly under the
Speaker 5: radar sometimes when you get distracted by shiny objects and
Speaker 5: guys that run in the four to threes and things
Speaker 5: like that. But I think he showed that he can
Speaker 5: step into an NFL defense and do exactly the same
Speaker 5: job as he could in the SEC against top level competition.
Speaker 1: Damn, When you add up the production of the bengals
Speaker 1: four tight ends, you get eighty eight catches for six
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty six yards at seven point eight per catch,
Speaker 1: and four touchdowns. Should the Bengals have upgrading tight end
Speaker 1: near the top of their list of priorities or is
Speaker 1: that enough production?
Speaker 5: I mean, I think they would like to. I think
Speaker 5: it's a position that you're seeing the value of and
Speaker 5: the impact that can come from the tight end position
Speaker 5: if you have a good one, if you have a
Speaker 5: quality receiver at that spot. Look what the Bills did
Speaker 5: last season by going to get Dalton Kinkaid in the
Speaker 5: first round, even though they've already given a significant contract
Speaker 5: to a guy like Dawson Knox. I think you're also
Speaker 5: seeing a growth in the proliferation of two tight ends
Speaker 5: sets in the NFL. It's not something Cincinnati does an
Speaker 5: awful lot of, but maybe this would give them the
Speaker 5: ability to go in that direction a bit more, or
Speaker 5: at least give them some more options when it comes
Speaker 5: to personnel groupings. So yeah, I think that's an area
Speaker 5: that they've I don't want to say they've scrimped on,
Speaker 5: but they haven't hit on a guy in recent years
Speaker 5: at that spot to be able to come in and
Speaker 5: make the difference. They've rolled the dice a few times
Speaker 5: on sort of former big talents, first round picks, guys
Speaker 5: that have a pedigree but haven't worked out so far
Speaker 5: in the NFL, and they haven't been able to recapture that.
Speaker 5: They haven't been able to find the ability the talent
Speaker 5: that got those guys drafted it high up. Obviously, the
Speaker 5: injuries were a big part of that, but it might
Speaker 5: be time to just go and get your own sort
Speaker 5: of high draft pick at the tight end position and
Speaker 5: see if you can strike it rich that way.
Speaker 1: What about offensive tweaks, whether it is more two tight
Speaker 1: end sets, whether it's more under center runs, whether it's
Speaker 1: more play action. Do you think that there's something along
Speaker 1: those lines that the Bengals really need to seriously consider
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5: I think there is something to being more versatile and
Speaker 5: more multiple when it comes to personnel groupings and the
Speaker 5: way you deploy the group.
Speaker 1: That you have.
Speaker 5: The Bengals have tended to skew on the other side
Speaker 5: of that, which is we run basically the same personnel
Speaker 5: and we just out execute you. And there's it's absolutely
Speaker 5: a valid way of thinking, but I think generally speaking,
Speaker 5: it is easier to cause problems for defense if you
Speaker 5: can mess with the personnel and you can change things
Speaker 5: up and give them different looks on a consistent basis,
Speaker 5: as opposed to they're going to have a pretty good
Speaker 5: idea how you're going to line up before you even
Speaker 5: get on the field, and you just have to execute
Speaker 5: better than they do. I think you just gain so
Speaker 5: much more by introducing that element of doubt and causing
Speaker 5: them problems before the snap, as opposed to letting them
Speaker 5: be the ones that are proactive with misdirection and you know,
Speaker 5: disguise and rotating safeties and changing the look pre and
Speaker 5: posted snap and those kinds of things. I think when
Speaker 5: you see all the offenses that are really starting to
Speaker 5: take over the NFL right now, it is ones that
Speaker 5: are much more diverse and multiple when it comes to
Speaker 5: those things, Sam m.
Speaker 1: The Bengals went one in five in the AFC North.
Speaker 1: Their only win was over Cleveland when the Browns basically
Speaker 1: rested everybody in the final week of the regular season.
Speaker 1: There's a healthy Joe Burrow fix that? Or do the
Speaker 1: Bengals need to specifically think about those six games against Baltimore, Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: and Cleveland as they build their roster in the offseason. Yeah.
Speaker 5: As we said before, I think a healthy Joe Burrow
Speaker 5: makes you puts you at every single game, you know,
Speaker 5: and it certainly changes the outcome of several games relative
Speaker 5: to a Jake Browning. So yeah, I don't think that
Speaker 5: there's I don't think they exposed anything about Cincinnati this year.
Speaker 5: Other than the fact that they didn't have Joe Burrow
Speaker 5: for a lot of the season and they weren't as
Speaker 5: good as they've been in previous years. And that division
Speaker 5: was really.
Speaker 1: Good this year.
Speaker 5: I mean, the Browns had the best defense in the
Speaker 5: NFL for most of the year. The Ravens looked like
Speaker 5: the best team in the AFC, and Pittsburgh were what
Speaker 5: Pittsburgh usually is, which is good enough to win, you know,
Speaker 5: nine games, scrape over that five hundred mark from Mike
Speaker 5: Tomlins record that he never loses.
Speaker 1: So it's a tough place.
Speaker 5: I mean, there's a reason all four teams in that
Speaker 5: division had a winning record. It's harder to get wins
Speaker 5: in that division that it would have been if you
Speaker 5: were playing in the NFC South for example.
Speaker 1: Final question for Sam Monson from Pro Football Focus, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time. We've reached the second round of
Speaker 1: the playoffs, so you got Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 5: I mean it's interesting now we get the number one
Speaker 5: seeds entering the equation and you know the line the
Speaker 5: points spread has them both as big favorites. I think
Speaker 5: sometimes we tend to forget based off the wildcard week
Speaker 5: that actually the best teams are sitting at home watching
Speaker 5: this and ready to enter the fray with a week
Speaker 5: of rest behind them. But Houston were fantastic a week
Speaker 5: ago against Cleveland Green Bay the same thing against Dallas,
Speaker 5: so I think both those games are live. But the
Speaker 5: forty nine Ers are the best team in the NFC.
Speaker 5: The Ravens probably are the best team in the AFC.
Speaker 5: So it's still the most likely super Bowl, I think.
Speaker 1: And if that is the Super Bowl, which of the
Speaker 1: twoty alike?
Speaker 5: I think everyone will be going for Baltimore because of
Speaker 5: the way the last game went. I think that game
Speaker 5: was kind of I don't want to say fluky, but
Speaker 5: the way that it went against San Francisco doesn't happen,
Speaker 5: you know, very often everything bounced against them. I would
Speaker 5: actually I would back to forty nine Ers in that scenario.
Speaker 1: Sam, appreciate your time as always, Thanks so much, great
Speaker 1: stuff anytime.
Speaker 5: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Before we wrapped things up, how about an addition of
Speaker 1: story time with Dan. Last week, insanely cold weather for
Speaker 1: playoff games in Kansas City and Buffalo brought back memories
Speaker 1: of the coldest playoff game of them all, the nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty two Freezer Bowl at Riverfront Stadium, where the temperature
Speaker 1: hit minus nine and the wind chill reached minus fifty nine.
Speaker 1: The end result was good, as the Bengals beat the
Speaker 1: Chargers to earn a trip to their first Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: but the conditions were miserable for everybody involved, with one
Speaker 1: possible exception the weather forecasters, who get very excited when
Speaker 1: it's nasty outside. I wrote a commercial about that once,
Speaker 1: and you're about to hear it on Storytime with Dan.
Speaker 1: Remember bud Light's Real Men of Genius commercials. For several years,
Speaker 1: the mock salutes were the funniest thing on the radio.
Speaker 1: There were tributes to mister Giant foam fingermaker and mister
Speaker 1: bowling shoe giver Router, and well, just listen.
Speaker 6: Bud Light presents real men of genius, Real men of genius. Today,
Speaker 6: we salute you, mister tiny thong bikini ware, mister tiny
Speaker 6: thummy Gediwhere beach goers the world over see you coming
Speaker 6: and say hey, check out the wooly mammoth and the
Speaker 6: rubber bands.
Speaker 1: A mammoth.
Speaker 6: Defying the natural laws of physics, you managed to squeeze
Speaker 6: a forty six inch waist into a thirty in suit
Speaker 6: like ground meat crammed into a sausage skin. You take
Speaker 6: to the beach and proudly strut your stuff. If you've
Speaker 6: got it, flaunt it. That's your motto, which is ironic
Speaker 6: because you haven't got it. So crack off in a
Speaker 6: nice cold bud light, sweet cheeks, and know that if
Speaker 6: you weren't wearing that suit, we'd ask you to take
Speaker 6: a bumkin.
Speaker 3: Women, I'd like.
Speaker 6: Here and iss Missouri.
Speaker 1: The real men and women of Genius were the writers
Speaker 1: of those commercials, along with the two voices you hear
Speaker 1: on every one of them. The deep voice narrator is
Speaker 1: an actor named Pete Stacker, and the singer is Dave Bickler,
Speaker 1: the lead singer of the Band's Survivor, best known for
Speaker 1: the hit I of the Tiger. So what does all
Speaker 1: of this have to do with me? Here's the story.
Speaker 1: Many years ago, when I was still a sports anchor
Speaker 1: at Fox nineteen, I learned that those two guys were
Speaker 1: going to be doing some recording at a studio in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: So I contacted the advertising agency that did the campaign
Speaker 1: and told them I was interested in doing a story
Speaker 1: about the real men of Genius commercials and the two
Speaker 1: guys that we hear but never see. The advertising agency
Speaker 1: set up interviews with Pete and Dave and the story
Speaker 1: turned out great. But I also asked them for a favor.
Speaker 1: I figured it would be fun to write a couple
Speaker 1: of those ads about the TV news business, and I
Speaker 1: asked if they would be willing to record them. They
Speaker 1: said yes, and you're about to hear the result. Here's
Speaker 1: my real Men of Genius tribute to meteorologists everywhere.
Speaker 6: Bud Light presents Fox nineteen Real Men of Genius, Real
Speaker 6: Men of genius. Today we salute you, mister excited about
Speaker 6: storms weather man. Mister excited about storms weather that'd while
Speaker 6: normal people hate snow, sleet and heavy rain, you act
Speaker 6: like it's your birthday. How can I thank you for
Speaker 6: on those nights a one hour newscast becomes all weather
Speaker 6: all the time, and most of us don't even know
Speaker 6: what barometric pressure is?
Speaker 1: Jumulo nimbus what?
Speaker 6: And for all we know, there's no such thing as
Speaker 6: Doppler radar for Doppler nineteen thousand. Open a nice cold
Speaker 6: bud Light, mister meteorologist. But remember, even when the weather's lousy,
Speaker 6: you don't care. You're bone dry in a room with
Speaker 6: no Windows, Mister excited about Stock swather Man, bud Light
Speaker 6: Beer and ISAA Bush Saint Louis, Missouri.
Speaker 1: That concludes Storytime with Dan and this episode of the
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast brought to you by pay Core, Proud
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Speaker 1: business and community to a new level, and by Kettering
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Speaker 1: haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and
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Speaker 1: I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to The Bengals
Speaker 1: Booth Podcast