Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on dan Hoard and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast, the That's.
Speaker 2: The State of the World.
Speaker 1: To day edition, as I discussed the state of the
Speaker 1: Bengals and the rest of the AFC North with the
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Speaker 1: to this week's guest. Every year around this time, Adam
Speaker 1: Rak from the NFL Network writes a state of the
Speaker 1: Franchise story about all thirty two NFL teams for NFL
Speaker 1: dot com. He wrote about the teams in the AFC
Speaker 1: North last week, and join me to discuss the Bengals
Speaker 1: and their division rivals. Adam, your State of the Franchise
Speaker 1: articles end with five categories for determining whether a team
Speaker 1: is going to be successful for the upcoming season. So
Speaker 1: the categories are as follows A win the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: B make a playoff run, see earn a playoff berth,
Speaker 1: D finish above five hundred or e show progress. In
Speaker 1: the AFC North, two teams are a win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: The other two are B make a playoff run. As
Speaker 1: you have studied all thirty two teams, is there any
Speaker 1: other division in the NFL that's like that?
Speaker 2: Not at all, not even close.
Speaker 4: You know, the NFC North has got an interesting set
Speaker 4: of circumstances as well, But I don't think that any
Speaker 4: team or any division is as complete from top to
Speaker 4: bottom as the AFC North all four of those teams,
Speaker 4: and honestly, like if any four of those teams ended
Speaker 4: up in the Super Bowl wouldn't be a complete shock.
Speaker 4: I think two of them you'd be like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: that we've seen them make runs towards the championship game.
Speaker 4: The other two haven't really had playoff success over the
Speaker 4: last number of years. But I think, truly, when you
Speaker 4: look at division's top to bottom, there is no team,
Speaker 4: there's no division better than the AFC North.
Speaker 1: So the Bengals are an a in order to be
Speaker 1: successful in your opinion, they must win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Why is the bar set that high?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 4: I believe that when you look at the quarterback situation
Speaker 4: and how well he's played when completely healthy, there should
Speaker 4: be no other expectation for this Bengals team. And obviously
Speaker 4: getting to the Super Bowl wasn't one of them. But
Speaker 4: at some point you want to win one of these things.
Speaker 4: I was convinced coming into twenty twenty two going up
Speaker 4: against the Rams, despite the fact that it was in
Speaker 4: Sofi Stadium, I really thought the Bengals were going to
Speaker 4: I thought they were the better team and thought they
Speaker 4: were going to end up winning that one, and so
Speaker 4: I still believe that the expectation should be the same.
Speaker 4: I don't think that despite the fact of what happened
Speaker 4: last year, which again it's interesting because I wrote this
Speaker 4: in the article, like you look at the Bengals season
Speaker 4: last year and you think to yourself, like, I was
Speaker 4: a bad season, nine to eight, despite not having Joe
Speaker 4: Burrow for a good chunk of it, and even Joe
Speaker 4: Burrow not being healthy for the majority of it. I mean,
Speaker 4: you remember that Mudday night game again the Rams, where
Speaker 4: you're like, what should they do? Like you almost thought
Speaker 4: that should they shut him down? Like you didn't know.
Speaker 4: Despite all of that, with everything that was going wrong,
Speaker 4: it was still a nine to eighteen, which in they
Speaker 4: call that the Tomlin. I believe just getting nine to eight,
Speaker 4: which is good enough, that's all we care about now.
Speaker 4: I don't want to. I don't want to take it
Speaker 4: easy on the Bengals. I don't I don't want to.
Speaker 4: I don't want to sit here and be like, ah,
Speaker 4: if you win a couple of playoffs. No, we're past that.
Speaker 4: Joe Burrow is too good. T Higgins is on his
Speaker 4: franchise tender. It's time to go out and win one
Speaker 4: of these and I think that the Bengals have a
Speaker 4: special group of players and I think they understand the mission.
Speaker 4: They understand what it is, what's at stake. Ever since
Speaker 4: they got to the Super Bowl a couple of years ago,
Speaker 4: I think that that that bar has been raised. And
Speaker 4: I think for Joe Burrow, that's how he's going to
Speaker 4: be measured moving forward. Is what do you do in
Speaker 4: the postseason and beyond? Can you win super Bowls? Can
Speaker 4: you be that guy who breaks through? You know, you
Speaker 4: don't want to be Mano. Not that Dan Marino had
Speaker 4: a terrible career, but Dan Marino goes to the Super
Speaker 4: Bowl in his second season and everybody was like, well,
Speaker 4: you know he'll be back, He'll get into their opportunity,
Speaker 4: and it never happened. I would not want to see
Speaker 4: that for the Cincinnati Bengals. I really want to see
Speaker 4: them make that next step. And when it comes to
Speaker 4: teams in the ASC, and you talk about how tough
Speaker 4: the AFC is, who's the team that gives the Chiefs
Speaker 4: the most trouble?
Speaker 2: Like it is the Bengals.
Speaker 4: Like the Chiefs go in there and they kind of
Speaker 4: ruin everybody, you know, they go in there, they make
Speaker 4: Baltimore's life miserable, Miami not competitive. Jacksonville did okay against
Speaker 4: them a couple of years ago but eventually got kind
Speaker 4: of blown out. It's the Bengals, And while I might
Speaker 4: advise against the doing the burrow head thing, I still
Speaker 4: liked it, and I liked the moxie, and I think
Speaker 4: a lot of it.
Speaker 2: And it's not really just Burrow.
Speaker 4: It's lou An Roumo who makes everything so difficult for them.
Speaker 2: So I think that the expectation should be the super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Even last year, next to last game of the regular
Speaker 1: season without the Bengals led.
Speaker 4: With with Jacob Browning playing quarterback, and you thought, like,
Speaker 4: you know what, they're doing it again, like they're doing
Speaker 4: it and again, like you know, the twelfth, the twelfth,
Speaker 4: the twelfth Chief comes out at some point too where
Speaker 4: you're like, oh, I forgot, you got to deal with
Speaker 4: this still, But yeah, like that was a thing, like
Speaker 4: a regular season game. That's another crazy thing about the
Speaker 4: Bengals season is like nine and eight, like okay and
Speaker 4: everything like that, But man, that game they should have
Speaker 4: won that game against the Kansas City Chiefs, should should
Speaker 4: have come away with that one. And again it comes
Speaker 4: down to the coordinator and you know, thank goodness, and
Speaker 4: I mean, it's unfortunate. I don't know if lou has
Speaker 4: aspirations to be a head coach, he does or anything
Speaker 4: like that. I'm sure he does. Everybody does. It's amazing
Speaker 4: to me that he doesn't get considered like it really is.
Speaker 4: And he's he's a big time he reminds me. I
Speaker 4: don't know if I wrote this or not. I was
Speaker 4: thinking it were.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like Robert Rory where you're like, oh, like,
Speaker 2: you know, Robert Orriy averages game bomp.
Speaker 4: You know, he averages seven points a game, but yet
Speaker 4: he makes the big shots over and over again. And
Speaker 4: that's the most interesting thing about the Bengals is you
Speaker 4: look at their defense. They're never a top fifteen defense.
Speaker 4: It's not like the Jets, like, oh, they're the number
Speaker 4: two overall defense. But when it comes to the playoffs,
Speaker 4: when you need to devise a scheme to slow down
Speaker 4: players like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, nobody's better than
Speaker 4: lou Anaruma. And to me, if I'm hiring a coach,
Speaker 4: if I'm hiring a coach and I know that there
Speaker 4: is a lot of job openings in the AFC. I'm
Speaker 4: thinking about Tennessee in particular. I'm like, ooh, Like you
Speaker 4: don't want to have the guy who kind of owns
Speaker 4: like the guy who's kind of done a really nice
Speaker 4: job against some of these AFC teams, Like okay, so
Speaker 4: be it. But man, I think at some point I
Speaker 4: think of the Jets as the one like if things
Speaker 4: don't work out for the Jets this year, like okay,
Speaker 4: Like I know nobody wants to hire defensive coordinators anymore,
Speaker 4: but I think that he really deserves it, and I'm
Speaker 4: impressed by his game and I'm impressed every time I
Speaker 4: see him in those big moments because they really do
Speaker 4: find a way to shut op posing teams down.
Speaker 1: So that's the perfect segue to my next question, because
Speaker 1: one of the categories you have in your articles for
Speaker 1: every NFL team is most important non quarterback, and I
Speaker 1: think in recent years where the Bengals are concerned everybody,
Speaker 1: we'd say offensive line because it's been all about trying
Speaker 1: to protect Joe Burrow better. But you have picked the
Speaker 1: defensive line, specifically two defensive tackles. Rookie Chris Jenkins, the
Speaker 1: second round pick out of Michigan and Sheldon Rankins.
Speaker 3: The free agent signing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean the offensive line was a I feel
Speaker 4: like we address that enough, like you talk about that enough,
Speaker 4: like you talk about Burrow, Zach Moss coming in to
Speaker 4: play running back and everything like that. But the defensive
Speaker 4: line to me was another sticking point and trying to
Speaker 4: get that pressure on the quarterback. And I was really
Speaker 4: impressed number one with a draft pick. I thought that
Speaker 4: was the fact that he fell that far. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 4: that's a perfect spot for him. The free agent signing
Speaker 4: was good. You can get pressure on the outside, but
Speaker 4: if you can sort of get up the middle and
Speaker 4: collapse the pocket, and we've seen that a lot with
Speaker 4: these Bengals defenses over the years.
Speaker 2: If you can get that.
Speaker 4: Solved and get that short up, I think that that
Speaker 4: helps them moving forward. When you're playing against all these
Speaker 4: great quarterbacks, what is one of the different Like you
Speaker 4: look at what really frustrated Tom Brady back in the day,
Speaker 4: it's like pressure up the middle.
Speaker 2: And that's for a lot of quarterbacks now.
Speaker 4: Obviously Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen have the ability to
Speaker 4: scramble out of the pocket and everything like that. But
Speaker 4: you still want to flush them like, you still want
Speaker 4: to get them off rhythm and really just be a
Speaker 4: pest for lack of a better term. So I really
Speaker 4: thought that that was kind of an underrated thing that
Speaker 4: the Bengals did during the offseason. And again looking through this,
Speaker 4: you know you can see. I mean, obviously, Jamar Chase
Speaker 4: is wildly important for this team. Protecting Joe Burrow is
Speaker 4: wildly important. But I did want to give a little
Speaker 4: bit of a shout out to the defense because I
Speaker 4: think it is important to get pressure on the opposing quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And I felt Network candalyst Adam Rank is our guest.
Speaker 1: You can read his state of the franchise stories on
Speaker 1: all thirty two NFL teams at NFL dot com. You
Speaker 1: highlight a few key players or coaches for every NFL team.
Speaker 1: For the Bengals, you've picked out new offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher,
Speaker 1: running back Zach Moss, and wide receiver Jermaine Burton. Let's
Speaker 1: specifically talk about Moss. What do you make of the
Speaker 1: Zach Moss Chase Brown combo taking over for the guy
Speaker 1: who got almost all of the work, Joe Mixon.
Speaker 4: Zach Moss was tremendous last year and I felt like
Speaker 4: the cert like if he would have been able to
Speaker 4: give it an opportunity to play a full season. Now,
Speaker 4: obviously he gets bumped from his gig, which is going
Speaker 4: to happen life of a backup. He really did show
Speaker 4: some promise, and I don't think that he needs to
Speaker 4: come into Cincinnati and be the number one guy and
Speaker 4: take all the carries like Joe Mixon did because of
Speaker 4: who they've got there.
Speaker 2: And we talked about this.
Speaker 4: We talked about this in the fantasy take too with
Speaker 4: Brown there, and I kind of stole this from you,
Speaker 4: and I'll let everybody know. I'll pull back the curtain.
Speaker 4: I didn't like, listen, just sell. Everybody knows when I
Speaker 4: do this with all the teams. If I when I
Speaker 4: have contacts with certain teams, I'll be hey, let me
Speaker 4: ask you a question. Because one of the things that
Speaker 4: we liked about Joe Mixon, and you pointed this out
Speaker 4: to me, and I was like, oh, yeah, that is
Speaker 4: a great point is that Joe Mixon's great, consistent, sturdy,
Speaker 4: but wasn't like a home run hitter. And you want
Speaker 4: the you want the Nelly Dela Cruz, the Joey Vado type,
Speaker 4: a home run hitter who can come in there and
Speaker 4: give you a little bit of pop. And I think
Speaker 4: that's a dynamic that's going to be added to this
Speaker 4: Bengals offense this season. I thought last year he was
Speaker 4: really good. What do you have like five point six
Speaker 4: yards per carry something ridiculous Like he.
Speaker 2: Did a great job.
Speaker 4: So I think this running back tandem is going to
Speaker 4: be good because Zach Moss has the consistency, He can
Speaker 4: do the kind of stuff that Joe Mixon does, but
Speaker 4: it's but it's it's Brown who can go out there
Speaker 4: and give you a little bit more punch. And when
Speaker 4: you have a team with Joe Burrow and Chase if
Speaker 4: you have the ability to hit a home run with
Speaker 4: your running back when you're inside the tent like your
Speaker 4: own ten or own twenty, anything like that, having that
Speaker 4: kind of threat can really change that a dynamic of
Speaker 4: an offense, something that they haven't had over the last
Speaker 4: couple of years.
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd is gone and will be missed, but they
Speaker 1: drafted Jermaine Burton. Yeah, this past year. They drafted Charlie
Speaker 1: Jones and Andre yoc Vash. They have added Mike Caseki
Speaker 1: as a wide receive as a tight end weapon. How
Speaker 1: do you think those weapons stack up with the rest
Speaker 1: of the pack.
Speaker 2: I like Burton a lot.
Speaker 4: I think that he can come in and really making
Speaker 4: an impact immediately. I you know, a lot of people
Speaker 4: look at this through a fantasy lens and you've got
Speaker 4: t Higgins and Bartase getting the majority of the of
Speaker 4: the of the targets. But when Tyler Boyd was here,
Speaker 4: he was the number one slot receiver, Like he had
Speaker 4: the most targets for a slot receiver since I think
Speaker 4: it was twenty twenty two or it excually twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: And obviously he's in Tennessee now, but like that's still
Speaker 4: a huge part of this offense. And whomever steps in there,
Speaker 4: and I think that Burton can come in to be
Speaker 4: that guy, it's going to get a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 4: Mike is sicky, you know before the last couple of seasons,
Speaker 4: which really didn't the fit didn't really work out for him,
Speaker 4: But he was a guy who was consistently getting around
Speaker 4: seven hundred receiving yards a year. These guys can come
Speaker 4: in and add something to the team, like you have superstars.
Speaker 4: I think that's what people like gets lost a lot
Speaker 4: of times is that you have superstars. We have Jamar
Speaker 4: Chase and Tyler and to T Higgins. You've got that covered,
Speaker 4: but sometimes you need that gritty underneath guy. It's third
Speaker 4: and nine, you know the defense is rolling over to
Speaker 4: Jamar Chase. If you can get somebody with a pretty
Speaker 4: good one on one matchup, you want to go to him.
Speaker 4: And that's one of these and we need and Weed.
Speaker 4: The Bengals need somebody like that to step up. I'm
Speaker 4: getting ready to do my Bears podcast, so I'm getting
Speaker 4: used to saying the West, but like, those kind of
Speaker 4: guys matter, and it's the most most frustrating thing. Like,
Speaker 4: think about it last year when you were watching like
Speaker 4: the Cleveland Browns and when David and Joku started taking off,
Speaker 4: Like how annoying that is as a fan, Like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, Okay, we got a Marii Cooper covered got
Speaker 4: this guy And then you're like, oh, it's in Joco
Speaker 4: third and nine.
Speaker 2: He gets a ten yard reception.
Speaker 4: Those are the type of players that you're looking for
Speaker 4: with it's Bengals offense. And Joe Burrow has done a
Speaker 4: great job of including a lot of different people into
Speaker 4: this and I think of like it's funny because the
Speaker 4: Bengals have had kind of like Rando tight Ends over
Speaker 4: the last couple of years, but always seem to make
Speaker 4: big plays. And I think that's what they got, and
Speaker 4: they've done a really nice job of replenishing that roster.
Speaker 2: And I think Burton is also there just.
Speaker 4: In case te Higgins eventually moves on, but right now,
Speaker 4: I think that he can step in and kind of
Speaker 4: take some of that production that Tyler Boyd had.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow helps tight ends get paid. He did it
Speaker 1: with c j Uzama, got a big zob from the Jets.
Speaker 1: He did it with Hayden Hurst, got a big day,
Speaker 1: a big deal from the Panthers. Mike Kasicki signs a
Speaker 1: one year deal. He produces in a big way for Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: Chances are he's going to get a big contract from
Speaker 1: somebody else.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he'll go to Carolina and get millions of dollars. Yeah,
Speaker 2: something like that. That's a great job with that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was trying to think.
Speaker 4: I was trying to think of ben Utech if that
Speaker 4: if that crossed, but no, it was it was Oma, yeah,
Speaker 4: pre Burrow And sometimes like listen, as we get older,
Speaker 4: you're like, did they play together.
Speaker 2: Did Dan Ross play with Burton? No?
Speaker 4: Okay, but you know what I'm saying, like you kind
Speaker 4: of like, but like cj Uzama was the guy that
Speaker 4: was thinking of.
Speaker 2: Cj Uzama was a is a player that I really like.
Speaker 4: But he is also of that mold of Okay, he's
Speaker 4: not he's not a superstar per se, like he's not
Speaker 4: Tony Gonzalez, but still just is so good and so adapted,
Speaker 4: like oh, they're on the goal line, like, okay, they
Speaker 4: got mixing covered, they got chased. Oh there's there's Uzama
Speaker 4: just going out there and catching a touchdown. I think
Speaker 4: it's mostly frustrating from fantasy to that you have those
Speaker 4: players and you're like, of course it's cj Uzama. Couldn't
Speaker 4: be anybody else I have. I have Tyler Boydy that
Speaker 4: still couldn't be that guy. But you know what, those
Speaker 4: kind of things happen.
Speaker 1: Excellent deep cut with Dan Ross. By the way, Bengals
Speaker 1: fans will appreciate that in your State of the Bengals story,
Speaker 1: you don't specifically name a weakness or a biggest question mark.
Speaker 1: Do you have one with Cincinnati?
Speaker 2: I mean you got to protect the quarterback. I think
Speaker 2: that's what I think it comes down to the.
Speaker 4: Health of Joe Burrow, and it's I don't know if
Speaker 4: it's fair to question. I I don't like saying players
Speaker 4: are injury prone because I think it's like it's a
Speaker 4: violent game, like anybody like nobody's impervious to injuries.
Speaker 2: There's nobody that's you know, that escapes it.
Speaker 4: You know, it gets everybody at some point. I mean, listen,
Speaker 4: you look at what happened to Aaron Rodgers last season,
Speaker 4: and I was riding up the Jets thing today and
Speaker 4: it's just like that wasn't like the offensive line, that
Speaker 4: wasn't this or you know, anything like that. It was
Speaker 4: like it was the turf, you know, and it's a
Speaker 4: turf monster and everything like that. So truly it does
Speaker 4: come down to the health of Joe Burrow. Although Browning
Speaker 4: play pretty well last listen. But the thing that that's
Speaker 4: the big key, and it's weird to me, and maybe
Speaker 4: I spend too much time on TikTok like some sort
Speaker 4: of like I don't know if it's one person or
Speaker 4: if it's a it's a number of people who like
Speaker 4: somehow have now decided they're taking aim at Joe Burrow.
Speaker 4: I'm like, really, like you want to you want to
Speaker 4: take dame of Joe Burrow, Like okay, Like I will
Speaker 4: have that conversation.
Speaker 2: I think that he's one of the best.
Speaker 4: In the game, and I think we saw that when
Speaker 4: he came to LSU, just the swagger and everything about him,
Speaker 4: and you know, coming into Cincinnati, going to AFC championship
Speaker 4: games in two times in his first three years, Like
Speaker 4: you can't ignore stuff like that, Like he is a
Speaker 4: big time player. But the truth is he's got to
Speaker 4: be healthy. But that's every that's every quarterback, that's every
Speaker 4: that's everything. And so I do hope that the changes
Speaker 4: that they've made over the offensive line help out and everything.
Speaker 4: But you know, Joe, I have a lot of faith in.
Speaker 4: I think he's one of the bright young stars in
Speaker 4: this game. I am not one of those haters.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 4: It offends me in a way, but I think that
Speaker 4: that's basically what it comes down to. It's Joe Burrow
Speaker 4: is healthy. This team's going deep into the playoffs. So
Speaker 4: I don't I don't think there's any question about that.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow has finished two of his four seasons. He
Speaker 1: went to the Super Bowl and won. He lost the
Speaker 1: AFC Championship on the last second field goal in the
Speaker 1: other So that's what a healthy Joe Burrow does.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent. And that's the thing too. You know,
Speaker 4: we saw what happened last year with Lamar Jackson. Now
Speaker 4: he was coming off a season where he didn't get
Speaker 4: the chance to finish it. The Ravens fell off at
Speaker 4: the end of the year. Lamar Jackson stays healthy, he's
Speaker 4: a near unanimous MVP. They go all the way to
Speaker 4: the AFC Championship Game and then blow it per usual,
Speaker 4: but still they go to the AFC Championship game. Similar
Speaker 4: thing with Joe Burrow if he's healthy, Like, that's a
Speaker 4: that's a championship team too. And I know when I'm
Speaker 4: sitting there doing the records, like everybody will look, I
Speaker 4: do have the.
Speaker 2: Bengals making the playoffs.
Speaker 4: Obviously, it might not be as many wins as people
Speaker 4: would want because I think the schedule is a little
Speaker 4: bit tougher. But at the same time, you're like, this
Speaker 4: is a team that doesn't need to go fourteen and
Speaker 4: three to get the number one overall seed.
Speaker 2: To go out there and make some noise.
Speaker 4: And sometimes too, like it didn't really help out the
Speaker 4: Baltimore Ravens at all. So for me, I think as
Speaker 4: long as the Bank, I think they're smart about the
Speaker 4: way that they approach things. Get to the playoffs, and
Speaker 4: when the playoffs start, nobody wants to see the Cincinnati Banks. Nobody,
Speaker 4: And there was a big read like they could Kansas
Speaker 4: City was playing with a lot of desperation last year
Speaker 4: in that game. Even they knew, like I know that
Speaker 4: Joe Burrow's not playing, they still didn't want to see
Speaker 4: the Bengals in the playoffs. And you could tell by
Speaker 4: the intensity in which they closed that game out. It
Speaker 4: was the absolute truth. And I think a lot of
Speaker 4: AFC teams feel the same way.
Speaker 2: Well with Adam in a moment.
Speaker 1: But first, a quick reminder that the Bengals Booth podcast
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Speaker 1: future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business
Speaker 1: and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health
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Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Adam Rank from
Speaker 1: the NFL Network is our guest. You can follow him
Speaker 1: on x at Adam Rank. Let's take a closer look
Speaker 1: at the rest of the division. You mentioned the Ravens
Speaker 1: thirteen and four last year, two games better than any
Speaker 1: other team in the AFC, but they couldn't beat the
Speaker 1: Chiefs at home in the playoffs. They lost a lot,
Speaker 1: They lost fifteen free agents, They lost three of their
Speaker 1: starting offensive linemen. They obviously have added Derrick Henry. What
Speaker 1: do you think of the Ravens? Are they as good
Speaker 1: as they were a year ago?
Speaker 2: It's a good program. I mean, let's be honest, Like they.
Speaker 4: Do a great job of bringing in talent, replacing guys.
Speaker 4: They did sign their defensive tackle and jeez, Louise.
Speaker 3: But adabk Justin Madabek.
Speaker 4: Yes, sorry, listen, fantasy guy. I mostly the other that
Speaker 4: was a huge signing for me. And the thing that
Speaker 4: always kills me about the Ravens, and I'm sure that
Speaker 4: anybody who roots for the Bengals understands this frustration is like.
Speaker 2: How do they always get these guys in the draft?
Speaker 4: Like remember a couple of years ago, just watching the draft,
Speaker 4: and you're like, how are the Ravens.
Speaker 2: Drafting Kyle Hamilton, Like does how does that end up? Like,
Speaker 2: how do they end up with him? That does doesn't
Speaker 2: make sense.
Speaker 4: I was at the Rookie premiere and I saw him
Speaker 4: walking around in a Raven's uniform and like, this just
Speaker 4: doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2: He's a top player. I don't know how he fell
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 4: Similarly, they got Nate Wiggins out of Clemson this year
Speaker 4: and they're like, how, Like.
Speaker 2: What do it they draft thirtieth?
Speaker 4: How does this team always seem to find a way,
Speaker 4: And like Nate Wagans will be an All Pro within
Speaker 4: two seasons just because he plays for the Ravens. It's
Speaker 4: that kind of annoying franchise. But at the same time,
Speaker 4: not annoying enough because they're winning Super Bowls or anything
Speaker 4: like that, but still annoying because they're always good and
Speaker 4: they're always going to be into the mix. And I
Speaker 4: think Derrick Henry is a significant, significant addition for them.
Speaker 4: I mean, this is one that should have happened. Lad
Speaker 4: they should have made the trade during the season. I
Speaker 4: don't know how that didn't happen. I wish the NFL
Speaker 4: had better trade deadline deals, but it just seems like
Speaker 4: an automatic thing and since twenty twenty, you know, no quarterback,
Speaker 4: no running back has had more rushing yards, So it'll
Speaker 4: be an interesting dynamic. What I'm curious to see does
Speaker 4: that benefit the wide receivers, Like is Rashad Bateman actually
Speaker 4: going to.
Speaker 2: Go out and do anything? Is Zay Flowers gonna do anything?
Speaker 4: Or is it going to be their Mark Andrews and
Speaker 4: Isaiah likely as the two best receivers on that team.
Speaker 4: So I like the Ravens. I think it's a good organization.
Speaker 4: I think they do a lot of things well. But
Speaker 4: I think that you know, as critical as everybody is
Speaker 4: with the Cincinnati Bengals, why aren't we more critical about
Speaker 4: the Ravens, Like why why do they always get like
Speaker 4: everything's assumed with them? But with the Bengals, who finished
Speaker 4: nine to eight with a backup quarterback, like they have
Speaker 4: to seemingly like defend themselves every year, but you don't
Speaker 4: have to get a chance to do it on the field.
Speaker 2: But that Ravens team is pretty good.
Speaker 1: Cleveland went eleven and six before getting blown up by
Speaker 1: the Texans forty five to fourteen in the playoffs. Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson is expected to be ready for Week one after
Speaker 1: his shoulder surgery. Are you buying the Browns as a
Speaker 1: contender with Deshaun Watson.
Speaker 4: Listen, you saw what kind of trouble I got in
Speaker 4: with David and Joku last year. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 4: disrespector in the Browns talk about that.
Speaker 3: He went after you in December.
Speaker 2: He did. Yeah, it was it was my name, my name.
Speaker 4: It's both flattering and it was funny because something had
Speaker 4: happened with my alma mater, cal State Fullerton. They were
Speaker 4: playing in a big basketball game. I think they're playing
Speaker 4: UCLA or somebody like that, and they lost. So people
Speaker 4: are like ooh, you know, like on Twitter already, they're like, oh,
Speaker 4: rough night for Adam Rank and I'm like, well, I'm like, jeez,
Speaker 4: that's a deep cut for you people to be thinking
Speaker 4: that this college basketball game has been rough for me.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, David and Joku called me out.
Speaker 3: Got it.
Speaker 2: So that was fun and we had, you know, I
Speaker 2: enjoy you know, it's kind of funny. We did.
Speaker 4: Think I did the whole spit take on the NFL
Speaker 4: Fantasy Live, which people.
Speaker 2: Are like, was that scripted?
Speaker 4: I'm like, obviously, like I'm sitting there with a cough,
Speaker 4: like when have you ever seen me drinking coffee during
Speaker 4: the middle of a segment? When have I been on
Speaker 4: camera that long? They're usually running b roll over us,
Speaker 4: but it was It was shocking. And then I did
Speaker 4: get an opportunity to see him at the Super Bowl,
Speaker 4: so we did.
Speaker 2: We did squash the beef.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize too that my good friend Akbar Baja
Speaker 4: Biamila is good friends with David and Joko, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: you couldn't put in a good word, like never once
Speaker 4: did you think to call him and be like.
Speaker 2: Hey, But it was fun.
Speaker 4: We had some fun with the Cleveland Brownspans, and it
Speaker 4: felt like I had settled everything. I did a couple
Speaker 4: of cameos, I did podcasts trying to like smooth everything over,
Speaker 4: and then we came up for the game picks, and
Speaker 4: I picked the Texans. I think it was the only
Speaker 4: one at the NFL network who picked thet Texans, and
Speaker 4: then the Brown Spans they came after maybe MJD. MJD
Speaker 4: would have been the only one because he's really good
Speaker 4: at this. And I remember they at first they came
Speaker 4: after me, but they're like, oh, you're doing us a
Speaker 4: favor because you've been picking against this all year.
Speaker 2: You're like, yeah, dude, you guys are losing. You're not
Speaker 2: winning this game.
Speaker 4: And they did it, and it went about as well
Speaker 4: as I had expected it for the Texans at least,
Speaker 4: I think that this team is good. Defensively, they're good.
Speaker 4: You know, Miles Garrett one of the best in the game.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm happy that he won Defensive Player of
Speaker 4: the Year, but I do sort of get like the TJ. Watt,
Speaker 4: Like I can see where he feels slighted, where you're like, yeah,
Speaker 4: he's not kind of a point. But hey, the Browns
Speaker 4: were a big story and Joe Flacco was fun, and
Speaker 4: so there was a lot of good things going on.
Speaker 4: They do have some issues at the quarterback position. Joe
Speaker 4: Flacco is obviously in Indianapolis right now. He's been replaced
Speaker 4: by Jamis Winston, which is important because Deshaun Watson has
Speaker 4: not played more than six games in a season with
Speaker 4: the Cleveland Browns. His passer rating is somewhere right around
Speaker 4: eighty compared to one hundred when he was with the
Speaker 4: Houston Texans. They really need to figure this out, and
Speaker 4: they need to figure out what they're doing with a
Speaker 4: Marii Cooper. They need to get him signed into camp
Speaker 4: and everything like that, because I like the trade for
Speaker 4: Jerry Judy, but the Jerry Judy trade doesn't matter if
Speaker 4: you don't have a Marii Cooper, like you want Jerry
Speaker 4: Judy and to Marii Cooper and some of the other
Speaker 4: guys that they have there, and then Joku obviously like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you want to have that great robust receiving corps, I
Speaker 4: will point out, and then Nick Chubbs out, we don't
Speaker 4: know what we're gonna get with him, but his replacements
Speaker 4: played pretty well in his steed, so that's fine.
Speaker 2: Deshaun Watson, though.
Speaker 4: I will and it's fair to point out the Browns
Speaker 4: were five and one when he was the starting quarterback,
Speaker 4: so it's fair to say, like, hey, this is a
Speaker 4: pretty good organization. It's a pretty good team. But it's
Speaker 4: hard to live that way, like you're really like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you're five and one. I will give you the credit
Speaker 4: for that. They did play very well. His best game
Speaker 4: of the season was his final one before he got
Speaker 4: hurt and was out for the rest of the year.
Speaker 4: So I'm buying the Browns as a very team that
Speaker 4: should make the playoffs and super Bowl. Aspirations are a
Speaker 4: little rich. But at the same time, for to be
Speaker 4: a successful season, you've got to the playoffs. You need
Speaker 4: to go win a couple of games. But I still
Speaker 4: think that's a pretty good that's a pretty good team.
Speaker 4: They should have some success. I do think they'll be okay.
Speaker 4: I don't think they're better than the Bankers, but they're good.
Speaker 4: It's a good team. I'm not disrespecting. I'm David, you're
Speaker 4: a good team. You will get double digit you should
Speaker 4: get nine to ten wins.
Speaker 1: Your gut, David Nijoku will get We'll find a way
Speaker 1: to listen to this and story until next December. Take
Speaker 1: another shot at you. Let's get to the Steelers.
Speaker 2: By the way, they ever think about that too, Like
Speaker 2: you just won the division.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4: I was on a GMFB and they were like we
Speaker 4: were talking about it, and I said, you know, because
Speaker 4: it happened to Peter Schrager one time, and he was like,
Speaker 4: it's kind of jarring. I'm like it is, and then
Speaker 4: like when you started to examine it, you're like, you
Speaker 4: just won. Like I get like you want to go
Speaker 4: after like haters and things like that, but like you
Speaker 4: should go be happy wait on the next day to
Speaker 4: call out the haters. But you know, I got called
Speaker 4: out for it. I was over in Cleveland for a
Speaker 4: little bit. I was like Sean Michaels in Canada during
Speaker 4: the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 3: So that was fun.
Speaker 4: It's all in good fun, don't It's not like he
Speaker 4: personally knows me.
Speaker 2: Oh he does now, but he didn't personally know me.
Speaker 2: He knows me as a character on TV.
Speaker 4: It's like, it's like if I didn't like Walter White,
Speaker 4: Like it's nothing to do with Brian Cranston, but I
Speaker 4: don't like Walter White thing, so I'm fine with it.
Speaker 1: Was the exact quote. Adam ranked that guy stinks.
Speaker 4: Guy sucks. Yeah, that guy sucks. That'll be the name
Speaker 4: of my comedy special. Adam ranked that guy sucks.
Speaker 3: With David sitting in the front row.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, the Steelers ten and seven last year lost
Speaker 1: in the playoffs to Buffalo, their twentieth consecutive non losing season.
Speaker 1: There's the stat Gosh, they've changed quarterbacks. Thirty five year
Speaker 1: old Russell Wilson twenty five year old Justin Field. It's
Speaker 1: going to be one of the two who wins the
Speaker 1: job and does that make Pittsburgh any better.
Speaker 4: Russell Wilson should win that job and he should be
Speaker 4: the starting quarterback.
Speaker 2: It will make them better. Anything other than Kenny Pickett
Speaker 2: should make them better.
Speaker 4: They really fumbled the bag with that one. I really
Speaker 4: thought that that was a very questionable pick. And I
Speaker 4: remember Franco Harris how excited he was reading the card,
Speaker 4: and it was a great moment. It was a great
Speaker 4: TV moment. Pittsburgh kid going, you know, our guy who
Speaker 4: played at Pittsburgh going on to play for the Steelers.
Speaker 4: There was a lot to like there. But at the
Speaker 4: same time, looking at him as a college prospect, you're like,
Speaker 4: I don't know, I don't know, I don't know Pittsburgh,
Speaker 4: but okay, Russell Wilson makes them better. And I think
Speaker 4: he's getting back to a formula which made him so
Speaker 4: successful in the past, playing on a team with a
Speaker 4: great defense, the ability to run the football, which should
Speaker 4: open up his play action specialty. Like his passer rating
Speaker 4: is somewhere around one to ten on the play action pas.
Speaker 4: If he can get that cooking with George Pickens, there's
Speaker 4: a real opportunity for him to go back there and
Speaker 4: kind of, you know, rewrite history for himself. To me,
Speaker 4: it's kind of similar to what Kurt.
Speaker 2: Warner was doing.
Speaker 4: He played for the Rams, obviously won a couple of
Speaker 4: Super bowl or won a Super one one Super Bowl,
Speaker 4: won a Super Bowl, lost a Super Bowl. Like Russ
Speaker 4: goes to the Giants and despite the fact that the
Speaker 4: Giants were five and four, they still benched him for
Speaker 4: Eli Manning and then you know, he goes to Arizona
Speaker 4: and has that great third act. Russell Wilson can have
Speaker 4: that kind of great third act and the pairing with
Speaker 4: George Pickens should help him a lot. Justin Fields, I'm
Speaker 4: a huge fan of I believe Pittsburgh will slow play
Speaker 4: this a little bit, and I truly believe that they're
Speaker 4: gonna end up finding ways to get him into the
Speaker 4: offense creatively. Now, the folks at EA Sports think that
Speaker 4: they should be on special teams, and if I'm if
Speaker 4: I'm justed, I would try to find a way to
Speaker 4: make myself as valuable as possible, Like find a way
Speaker 4: to do as much as you can to really like
Speaker 4: ingratiate yourself into this team and knowing that you're going
Speaker 4: to get an opportunity at some point, so he will
Speaker 4: get some chances he will. I don't know if it'll
Speaker 4: be a Taysom Hill type of situation, but something similar
Speaker 4: to that. A real dynamic, special player who should be
Speaker 4: who should be featured in a variety of different ways,
Speaker 4: and I hope that they find a way to really
Speaker 4: truly lock in and get the best out of him.
Speaker 4: I remember his rookie season in a game against the
Speaker 4: Pittsburgh Steelers. He was making incredible throws. He rallied his
Speaker 4: team and it looked like, Okay, there's something special there.
Speaker 4: And then they changed coaches and it was never really
Speaker 4: quite the same. Pittsburgh has a history of being able
Speaker 4: to develop some quarterbacks, Kenny Pickett notwithstanding, but I think
Speaker 4: that they did a great That's that's funny to me,
Speaker 4: like they were so scarred by the Kenny Pickett experiment.
Speaker 4: We need all the quarterbacks, Let's get everybody. Let's let's
Speaker 4: bring in every I'm surprised I didn't bring in Zach
Speaker 4: Wilson as well, Like, let's do let's throw as many
Speaker 4: people at this situation as possible, because we'll figure it
Speaker 4: out somehow. But that's a good team, and the defense
Speaker 4: is great and TJ. Watt I listen for all the
Speaker 4: Steeler fans who were thinking that he should have been
Speaker 4: the Defensive Player of the Year. I'm like, yeah, I
Speaker 4: get it, Like I understand and so and by the way,
Speaker 4: I'll be out of Cam Hayward's Celebrity Softball Classic, sorry,
Speaker 4: Bengals fans. I'll try to find a way to represent
Speaker 4: Cincinnati while I'm out there.
Speaker 2: But but uh, yeah.
Speaker 4: That's a good that's still a good team. I mean,
Speaker 4: all these teams are good. There's no slouches in this
Speaker 4: division at all.
Speaker 1: All right, final thing for Adam Rank from the NFL Network,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate your time. You refer to Cincinnati as
Speaker 1: the San Diego of the Midwest. Yeah, you often do.
Speaker 1: How did you fall in love with Cincinnati?
Speaker 2: This is crazy.
Speaker 4: So Renee Paquette, she's a she's an announcer for all
Speaker 4: all of EAT wrestling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he does some podcasting for the Bengals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and.
Speaker 4: Her her husband is John Moxley, who's a Cincinnati person.
Speaker 4: And so I was taking a trip to Cincinnati, and
Speaker 4: she had just randomly tweeted out like, hey, I keep
Speaker 4: hearing that Cincinnati is the San Diego of the Midwest,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, you know what, I'll be the judge
Speaker 4: of this.
Speaker 2: I will let you know.
Speaker 4: I'm going there in a couple of weeks. And as
Speaker 4: somebody who's been to San Diego numerous times. By the way,
Speaker 4: when I was in college, my girlfriend went to San
Speaker 4: Diego State, so I'm very familiar with San Diego.
Speaker 2: Love love san Diego.
Speaker 4: So I go to Cincinnati and you come over and
Speaker 4: you fly into Kentucky, which is weird to me, like
Speaker 4: we're flying into another state, like what is happening? But
Speaker 4: it's beautiful, Like it's so beautiful when you fly in,
Speaker 4: like what a great spot. And then you see Kentucky
Speaker 4: and Kentucky looks pretty cool. And then you get into
Speaker 4: Cincinnati and I was staying right downtown and I had
Speaker 4: an opportunity to walk up to Ryan Geist and all
Speaker 4: that stuff and went over to the Sam Adams Place
Speaker 4: and just kind of like.
Speaker 2: Around what is at Finlaye Market. I went there the
Speaker 2: more the morning I was going to pay for a stadium.
Speaker 4: I was at finlay Market and I saw a bunch
Speaker 4: of people lined up at a at a bakery and
Speaker 4: I'm like, I don't know what they're selling, but there's
Speaker 4: a huge line, so it must be good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I was like and I told Renee, I said,
Speaker 4: you know that I got I get it. I get
Speaker 4: I see I see exactly what people are talking about. Now,
Speaker 4: I will say San Diego has better beaches. Uh, this
Speaker 4: the County of San Diego, San Diego. I don't think
Speaker 4: the city actually has a beach, but that's nitpicking.
Speaker 2: The beaches are from other beaches. You got to give
Speaker 2: that up.
Speaker 4: But I think everything else, like the vibe, the people,
Speaker 4: The people are great, and the ballpark, the baseball stadium
Speaker 4: is incredible, and I love the fact that you walk
Speaker 4: into that area you know that surrounds it. And I
Speaker 4: remember walking up to some like I'm like, you guys
Speaker 4: are just like you can drink a you're out in
Speaker 4: public like an adult, Like oh okay, like this is
Speaker 4: this is pretty nice. And I remember too, like ordering
Speaker 4: something and she's like that'll be five dollars please, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm sorry what.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, is this is spat? Like is this
Speaker 2: She's like no, this is just the price of it.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god.
Speaker 4: I have a good friend who lives out there, and
Speaker 4: so I'm like, I get it now. We always used
Speaker 4: to make fun of him, like Cincinnati, like the magazine
Speaker 4: is always repend than Natty, And I'm like, oh no,
Speaker 4: I get it, Like I totally get it now. I
Speaker 4: see why he's doing it. It's a great place and
Speaker 4: I thoroughly enjoy it and my Angels. I'm an Angels fan.
Speaker 4: They played in Cincinnati this year, if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 4: and I was remiss that I wasn't able to make
Speaker 4: that journey. But you know, maybe in a couple of
Speaker 4: years when the Angels come back, I definitely want to
Speaker 4: go back out there.
Speaker 1: You're welcome back anytime, and I appreciate you coming on
Speaker 1: this podcast at this time of the year every year.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for your time. Keep up the
Speaker 3: great work.
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you so much. Appreciate it and look forward
Speaker 4: to doing it again next year.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this episode of the
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Speaker 2: I'm Dan Hord.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast