Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Boot podcast. The You Got Bad Bad Luck addition,
Speaker 1: as Dave Lapham joins me to take a look back
Speaker 1: at the first week of Bengals training camp, including the
Speaker 1: calf injury suffered by Joe Burrow. The Bengals Boot Podcast
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Speaker 1: here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest
Speaker 1: edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet,
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Speaker 1: the greatest thing since Quarterback on Netflix. By now, you've
Speaker 1: probably heard of the eight part documentary that provides a rare,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes look at what it takes to play
Speaker 1: quarterback in the NFL, as The Seer's focuses on three
Speaker 1: qbs throughout the twenty twenty two season, Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 1: and Marcus Mariota. I watched it and thought it was outstanding,
Speaker 1: but when I asked Joe Burrow about it, he said
Speaker 1: he hadn't watched the show and didn't plan to. When
Speaker 1: another reporter asked why, here was Burrow's answer.
Speaker 2: Would you watch documentary about Hobson?
Speaker 1: That was a reference to legendary Bengals Dot Com editor
Speaker 1: Jeff Hobson. And for the record, I would definitely watch
Speaker 1: a documentary about Jeff. And just to be clear, Burrow
Speaker 1: wasn't comparing Mahomes, Cousins and Mariota to the Bengals lovable scribe.
Speaker 1: Joe simply prefers watching non football shows in his free time. Now,
Speaker 1: let's get to the first week of training camp. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you've heard of the broadcaster's jinks. For example, if you
Speaker 1: use the words no hitter in the late innings of
Speaker 1: an no no in progress, it's supposedly bad luck. If
Speaker 1: you mentioned that a kicker has made fifteen straight field
Speaker 1: goals just before his next attempt, he's bound to miss. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't believe in such a thing, but it almost
Speaker 1: felt like there was a reporter's jinx in Cincinnati this week.
Speaker 1: Following the Bengals first practice, Joe Burrow was asked several
Speaker 1: questions about finally having a normal training camp. If you
Speaker 1: remember his rookie year, was impacted by COVID protocols and
Speaker 1: the elimination of preseason games. In his second year, Joe
Speaker 1: was coming back from his gruesome knee injury, and last
Speaker 1: year he had an emergency app in deck to me
Speaker 1: and dropped ten pounds at the beginning of camp. So
Speaker 1: I've edited together Joe's answers when he was asked about
Speaker 1: the benefits of being healthy this year at the start
Speaker 1: of training camp.
Speaker 3: I'll come would hopefully we'll see.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel great.
Speaker 5: It was time.
Speaker 2: Last year was sitting in the hospital bed a couple
Speaker 2: of days post surgeries.
Speaker 3: So it's it's good to be out there with the guys.
Speaker 3: Anytimes you get more reps, the better you're gonna be.
Speaker 3: So when you have four weeks of training camp, you're
Speaker 3: you're gonna be four weeks better than you were if
Speaker 3: you didn't get those reps.
Speaker 2: And you know, you can't can't.
Speaker 3: Waste any of those days because all those days matter,
Speaker 3: and you're.
Speaker 2: On a pursuit of constant improvement, and if you waste
Speaker 2: those days, then you know you're wasting your time. You know, personally,
Speaker 2: I feel in my position, I don't want to waste
Speaker 2: any of these days that I have to to get better.
Speaker 2: I've I've wasted enough days last two years with you know,
Speaker 2: injuries and a pendicitis and COVID the year before that.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't I don't want to get out
Speaker 2: of camp wishing that I had, you know, seven more
Speaker 2: days that I could have got better. And so I'm I.
Speaker 3: Need these days to to be my best. I know
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be able to get a lot more out
Speaker 3: of this training camp than I have the last couple
Speaker 3: as long as I stay healthy.
Speaker 2: Which, like I said, knock on wood, nothing's happened yet.
Speaker 1: Nothing's happened yet, So much for that. The following day
Speaker 1: at practice, Joe wore a compression sleeve on his lower
Speaker 1: right leg, indicating that he probably experienced some minor tightness
Speaker 1: in his calf the day before, not significant enough to
Speaker 1: miss practice, but enough to wear a little extra support. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: when the Bengals quarterback attempted to roll out to the
Speaker 1: right near the end of the team's second practice, he
Speaker 1: felt significant pain in his right calf and was immediately
Speaker 1: taken to the training room. Zach Taylor says Joe is
Speaker 1: going to miss several weeks a calf injury. Caused Sam
Speaker 1: Hubbard to miss two weeks late in the regular season.
Speaker 1: Last year, he returned for the final game of the
Speaker 1: regular season and had his ninety eight yard fumble in
Speaker 1: the jungle return in the first round of the playoffs.
Speaker 6: I know about calf strains all too well, and they're
Speaker 6: really painful and they're you know, they're not the end
Speaker 6: of the world, but they do anger a bit. And
Speaker 6: I think that the training staff and Joe are going
Speaker 6: to do the right thing to you know, take care
Speaker 6: of this early in camp and be ready to go.
Speaker 6: But really early in camp. We'll see what the prognosis is.
Speaker 6: But you know, he's gonna do everything he can to
Speaker 6: be back out there quickly. And I have faith that,
Speaker 6: you know, it's just a bummer because I want him
Speaker 6: to have a healthy training camp. Nobody worked harder this offseason,
Speaker 6: and uh, you know whatever, it is just veryes you know,
Speaker 6: it's a bummer, and uh, you know, I don't know
Speaker 6: it'll bring the best out of him, for sure, but
Speaker 6: it wouldn't it be nice just to have an easy
Speaker 6: route to Week one for once. But uh, I know
Speaker 6: we'll we'll handle this as a team. He'll handle it,
Speaker 6: and uh we'll come out on top like we always do.
Speaker 1: Again. Burrow is going to miss several weeks, and while
Speaker 1: he was hoping to play a series or two in
Speaker 1: the preseason, that is almost certainly not going to happen now. Instead,
Speaker 1: the two guys competing to be his backup, Jake Browning
Speaker 1: and Trevor Simeon, will alternate days as the number one
Speaker 1: quarterback at practice. Browning is twenty seven years old and
Speaker 1: has been on the Bengals practice squad for the last
Speaker 1: two years after spending his first two NFL seasons on
Speaker 1: the Vikings practice squad. He was the first string quarterback
Speaker 1: in the first practice following burrows gaff injury and had
Speaker 1: a very solid day.
Speaker 5: I don't really know how ready any of your second
Speaker 5: thirsteon quarterbacks are until it's time to actually do it.
Speaker 5: And so yeah, I mean, I think I've been working
Speaker 5: really hard at this for a while, been on a
Speaker 5: lot of practice squads and spend a lot of time
Speaker 5: away from any cameras or getting any reps with ones.
Speaker 5: And so I feel like, now that's steel. I got
Speaker 5: a good practice. It's a singular practice, but I feel
Speaker 5: like I'm in a position where he can keep stacking
Speaker 5: some good days and hopefully have some good preseason games
Speaker 5: and hopefully win the backup job.
Speaker 1: Trevor Simeon is thirty one years old and entering his
Speaker 1: ninth season in the league with thirty NFL starts under
Speaker 1: his belt. In addition to competing with Browning, he wants
Speaker 1: to make sure the offense is running smoothly until Burrow returns.
Speaker 7: There's a certain level of professionalism that you try to have,
Speaker 7: and you know, I don't ask, you know, when I
Speaker 7: come in, I make the most of more reps, try
Speaker 7: to run the show as best I can. And it's
Speaker 7: good for me getting these reps with these guys, you know,
Speaker 7: because I'm the new guy, if you want to call
Speaker 7: it us.
Speaker 1: It's hard to get through training camp with only two
Speaker 1: healthy quarterbacks. So the Bengals have signed Red Sinnate, who
Speaker 1: spent the last three seasons on the practice squads of
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers and Dolphins, as well as ten games on
Speaker 1: the active roster with the Eagles in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Sinnate played one game in the USFL this year before
Speaker 1: breaking his foot. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to
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Speaker 1: with Alta Fiber and by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals.
Speaker 1: They're free to play with tickets and sign merchandise up
Speaker 1: for grabs. Find both inside the Bengals app. Now time
Speaker 1: to look at the Bengals first four practices with my
Speaker 1: broadcast partner Dave Lapham Lap. One of the biggest storylines
Speaker 1: going into training camp was Joe Burrow finally gets a
Speaker 1: chance to go through training camp healthy and unfortunately it
Speaker 1: only lasted for about a day and a half as
Speaker 1: he suffered that calf strain. I'm a recreational runner, as
Speaker 1: you know. I've had some calf issues over the years.
Speaker 1: They stink, but they heal. The key is don't rush
Speaker 1: it back.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. I mean that is that is the biggest piece
Speaker 4: of advice that could be given. Because I had one
Speaker 4: a mid calf and I'm like, oh, it feels pretty good.
Speaker 4: Can tot raises doing the get out there and doing
Speaker 4: football stuff started tugging like, boy, you know better not
Speaker 4: better take a little bit more time. So it's one
Speaker 4: of those when you feel like you're ready, give it
Speaker 4: another little bit of time to make sure that you're ready,
Speaker 4: because if you do exacerbate it, it can get a
Speaker 4: heck of a lot worse quickly, you know, And you
Speaker 4: don't want to be in that situation. You don't want
Speaker 4: to be a nagging thing. I've seen, you know, cap
Speaker 4: injuries now again, initially probably they weren't. They were more
Speaker 4: severe than what Joe's dealing with right now. But man,
Speaker 4: you know, guys, the regular season, the pressures on to
Speaker 4: come back, to come back too early, and they end
Speaker 4: up missing a good part of the season, you know,
Speaker 4: because trying to do too much too soon.
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor did not give a specific timetable. He used
Speaker 1: the expression several weeks, and then everybody tried to figure out, well,
Speaker 1: how many is several? Is that three? Is that four?
Speaker 1: I think it's more than two. I think we can
Speaker 1: draw that conclusion and probably the best case scenario is
Speaker 1: about three weeks. And obviously the real key is to
Speaker 1: be ready for the season opener, if possible, and I
Speaker 1: think that's the expectation if there's no setback.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, and I think that it's going to
Speaker 4: be say it's four weeks and you have like a
Speaker 4: week and a half before the regular season opener. I
Speaker 4: think at that point you might say at practice, we're
Speaker 4: going to just increase the tempo a little bit to
Speaker 4: get Joe ready because I remember, you know, the last
Speaker 4: couple of times it was like, well, I just wish
Speaker 4: I had seven more days, you know, to get ready
Speaker 4: for the temple of the National Football League defenses. You know,
Speaker 4: unfortunately he's going to miss that work day. You know.
Speaker 4: Against the Green Bay Packers, the Wednesday practice is like
Speaker 4: that's gold because you know, you used to going against
Speaker 4: the same guys and you know what their strengths are,
Speaker 4: you know what their weaknesses are. Now you give a
Speaker 4: team that comes in totally different people, running different things
Speaker 4: in different ways, and you know now you have to
Speaker 4: just rely on your football instincts and not like oh
Speaker 4: I know what this guy is going to do and
Speaker 4: taking educated guesses and you can. It's it's a much
Speaker 4: different dynamic when you go in full tilt and practice
Speaker 4: against an opponent and not a teammate. Iron can sharpen Iron,
Speaker 4: there's no question. But boy, when the Iron is another team,
Speaker 4: it's not Iron anymore. I guess what would be the
Speaker 4: next thing up the up the chart of precious metals.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's like it's not quite gold, but it's
Speaker 4: getting close. And you know the other thing is it's
Speaker 4: Joe's right calf. That's his push off foot. That's where
Speaker 4: he has to, you know, come with the most effort
Speaker 4: to get the ball started on his on his uh.
Speaker 4: You know, his mechanics are throwing the football so right
Speaker 4: handed quarterback. Any any damage to the right side is
Speaker 4: tough because that's where that's where all the power and
Speaker 4: thrust comes from.
Speaker 1: I want to give my wife Peg credit for this.
Speaker 1: She pointed out something to me after this injury that
Speaker 1: really made me think, and that is Tom Brady's ability
Speaker 1: to answer the bell week after week for more than
Speaker 1: twenty years. He did miss basically an entire season with
Speaker 1: a torn acl But we've all heard about his training
Speaker 1: regimen with the stretching and the bands and the flexibility,
Speaker 1: and you know, the Bengals have a world class training staff,
Speaker 1: strength and conditioning, medical staff, et cetera. But I wonder
Speaker 1: if you study what time Brady did to try to
Speaker 1: be just as pliable as you possibly can be.
Speaker 4: Diet, you know that Tom Brady diet was a big
Speaker 4: factor as well. I mean, yeah, I don't think there's
Speaker 4: anybody that took care of himself in the history of
Speaker 4: professional sports better than Tom Brady did. And and you
Speaker 4: know it's the thing is too his overall football IQ.
Speaker 4: He never put him I shouldn't say never, but he
Speaker 4: worked very hard to make sure that he did not
Speaker 4: put himself in precarious situations, you know, high low situation
Speaker 4: getting hit, and a lot of it is a credit
Speaker 4: to his teammates, a credit to how he played, how
Speaker 4: quickly he got rid of the football. He didn't try
Speaker 4: to do more than he knew that he could comfortably do.
Speaker 4: And he never lost his composure in that regard. Some guys,
Speaker 4: in the heat of the battle, they try to be superman.
Speaker 4: You know, he was superman just being within himself and
Speaker 4: the way he played football, and he never tried to
Speaker 4: get outside the realm of that, because that's when you
Speaker 4: can get hurt too. And a lot, you know, a
Speaker 4: lot of people would laugh at him when you cover
Speaker 4: up and just you know, collapse in the pocket, and
Speaker 4: oh he's protecting himself. And you know what, it worked,
Speaker 4: and it worked for a bunch of years sure, and a.
Speaker 1: Bunch of Super Bowl appearances in Super Bowl rings. Sadly
Speaker 1: before his calf injury, Joe Burrow is off to a
Speaker 1: tremendous started training camp. After day one, somebody asked, you know,
Speaker 1: how'd you feel out out there? He said, pretty damn good?
Speaker 1: And he was. He was looking extremely sharp for one
Speaker 1: point eight practices.
Speaker 4: He was. I mean, the thing that separates him, in
Speaker 4: my mind from everybody, the sideline to sideline, end zone
Speaker 4: to end zone. He sees it so quickly, and he
Speaker 4: sees it so accurately and properly, and he makes the
Speaker 4: right decisions all the time. I mean, if you if
Speaker 4: you just not confuse him, if you just make him hesitate,
Speaker 4: you think you had a big win. I mean, it
Speaker 4: is remarkable to watch him scan the football field. I mean,
Speaker 4: if I'm a defensive cord and he's back there scanning
Speaker 4: the field all kinds of time and all kinds of separation,
Speaker 4: I'm like, we're cooked. You know, he's going to slice
Speaker 4: and dice you, and he puts the ball in such
Speaker 4: great places. I mean, it's just it's it's something to
Speaker 4: watch him just diagnose. I could do that all day,
Speaker 4: just watch him. Look at the field sideline, the sideline
Speaker 4: line of scrimmage to the end zone, and he can
Speaker 4: come off the field and tell you where everybody lined
Speaker 4: up just at the snap of the football, if they
Speaker 4: adjusted it all in coverage and rolled or whatever. He
Speaker 4: can tell you the whole progression and where they ended
Speaker 4: up before he threw the football. It's remarkable to have
Speaker 4: a guy be able to do that, and that's what
Speaker 4: separates the great ones. A lot of them have tremendous talent,
Speaker 4: but very few of them sees the game of football
Speaker 4: like this guy does. He is ridiculously special that way.
Speaker 1: The battle for the backup quartered back job was kind
Speaker 1: of a minor storyline going into training camp. Well, it's
Speaker 1: a big storyline now because not only are we going
Speaker 1: to see Jake Browning and Trevor Simmy and working with
Speaker 1: the Ones on an alternating basis, but they've got to
Speaker 1: make sure that this goes smoothly basically for however many
Speaker 1: weeks that Joe Burrow is out, so that the offense
Speaker 1: is ready to go for day one when Joe Burrow returns.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think it looked pretty good the last
Speaker 4: couple of days, you know, is it Joe Burrow, like,
Speaker 4: you can't say that, but what quarterback could you say that?
Speaker 4: If he's running the schematic of what the Bengals are
Speaker 4: trying to do a little thing that I thought was big,
Speaker 4: no all sides, new cadence, new quarterback, and the offensive
Speaker 4: line discipline enough, patient enough to not get antsy, because
Speaker 4: you know, Joe has a much different cadence than the
Speaker 4: other guys, and usually you do have, particularly early on
Speaker 4: when you're in team, especially you know, a guy's false start,
Speaker 4: you know, is crippling in the stance a little bit.
Speaker 4: None of that that tells me that this football team
Speaker 4: is focused, and they're disciplined, and they want to be
Speaker 4: good up front. I mean in the old line, I
Speaker 4: think it's a very special group for a lot of
Speaker 4: those same reasons. I mean, I think that this you know,
Speaker 4: Joe said it, This is the best offensive line that
Speaker 4: I've played with, There is no doubt. And I think
Speaker 4: I think this this team has a chance to be special.
Speaker 4: I really do for those reasons. I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm like, there's nobody jumping around, you know, nobody, everybody's composed,
Speaker 4: everybody has trust in the next guy, and you know,
Speaker 4: not getting any antsy. That was good to see a
Speaker 4: little thing like that turns into a big thing. It
Speaker 4: really does.
Speaker 1: So we learned something interesting about Jake Browning. After his
Speaker 1: first practice with Joe Burrow out late last season, the
Speaker 1: Bengals elevated him to the active game day roster and
Speaker 1: back to back weeks, it might have been even been
Speaker 1: three weeks, and we all thought at the time, either're
Speaker 1: throwing him a bone. It's a way to get him
Speaker 1: a little extra money, a reward for doing a good
Speaker 1: job at practice. Well that wasn't it. As it turns out,
Speaker 1: another team tried to sign him off the Bengals practice squad,
Speaker 1: and they did that to hold on to him, and
Speaker 1: they're very happy they did.
Speaker 4: Right now, absolutely, I mean that you know that that
Speaker 4: speaks volumes to his work ethic, and it speaks volumes
Speaker 4: to you know, the work ethic and the way he
Speaker 4: approached the game of football led to other potential opportunities.
Speaker 4: But he was appreciative of the Bengals giving him a chance.
Speaker 4: He showed loyalty. They showed loyalty to him. He showed
Speaker 4: loyalty to them. He likes what's going on here, and
Speaker 4: that's the thing that I really think is good about
Speaker 4: what's going on now too, is you know they're drafting players, Well,
Speaker 4: you don't have any choice when you're drafted, but the
Speaker 4: guys that are free agents, they have a choice, and
Speaker 4: they want to come here. And when they come here,
Speaker 4: they don't want to leave. What does that tell you?
Speaker 4: That tells you it's a damn good environment around here,
Speaker 4: and that tells you this football team, a lot of
Speaker 4: people believe are going to win a lot of football
Speaker 4: games because you got good football players coming in here,
Speaker 4: wanting to come here. It's a destination and once they're here,
Speaker 4: they want to stay for as long as they possibly can,
Speaker 4: and that is all good.
Speaker 1: I'm always interested at the beginning of training camp which
Speaker 1: guys have made the biggest physical transformation. I would say
Speaker 1: the two guys on the left side of the offensive
Speaker 1: line might be at the top of the list. Orlando
Speaker 1: Brown Junior is twenty pounds later from the last time
Speaker 1: we saw him. He's down to three forty five and
Speaker 1: looks really good. And I'm telling you, Cordel Volson, he's
Speaker 1: ten pounds heavier and it is lean muscle mass. He's
Speaker 1: three twenty five and looks rock solid.
Speaker 4: Three twenty five and the lowest percentage of body fat
Speaker 4: amongst all the offensive lineman. He is the leanest offensive
Speaker 4: lineman at three hundred and twenty five pounds, which is
Speaker 4: ten pounds bigger than he was last year. I asked him,
Speaker 4: I said, how much? How much did you do about ten?
Speaker 4: I said, dude, you're looking like you're looking stout. Nobody's
Speaker 4: going to run over you, and you're going to be
Speaker 4: moving some people. And I mean, this is a young
Speaker 4: man that wants to be great. He doesn't want to
Speaker 4: be just good. He wants to be great, and he's
Speaker 4: going to do everything he possibly can to give him
Speaker 4: himself every opportunity to be great. I just I just
Speaker 4: think the left side, including Ted Karris, you know, Karris,
Speaker 4: Volson and Brown pretty damn good, you know. And you know,
Speaker 4: you look at you look at the right side. That's
Speaker 4: you know, that's nothing to sneeze at as well. You
Speaker 4: get the free for all that's going on at the
Speaker 4: tackle position obviously has to work itself all but Alex
Speaker 4: Kapp has played at a high level at the right
Speaker 4: guard position, and they have candidates, you know, more than
Speaker 4: one candidate they can play right tackle. When LC comes back.
Speaker 4: That's going to be a bonus. That'll be a huge
Speaker 4: bonus when he comes back physically able to participate, because
Speaker 4: nobody runs through LC either, you know. I mean he's
Speaker 4: a powerful man, So I mean there's depth in the
Speaker 4: offensive line, Dan, There's not a position group that doesn't
Speaker 4: have depth. I really can't see, like, oh, that's a
Speaker 4: major weakness on this football team. They have done one
Speaker 4: hell of a job in formulating a roster.
Speaker 1: There's no question right tackle right now is for grabs
Speaker 1: between Jonah Williams and Jackson Carman. I think it's fair
Speaker 1: to characterize it, and you can correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: As Jonah Williams job to lose.
Speaker 4: I would totally concur You know, the guy has played
Speaker 4: a lot of football at the collegiate level. He performed
Speaker 4: at an extremely high level in toughest conference in college football.
Speaker 4: High draft choice played right away. He has played tons
Speaker 4: of football. He's a technician and the game is extremely
Speaker 4: important to him. I mean, he he wants to be
Speaker 4: as good a player as he can possibly be on
Speaker 4: as good a team as he can possibly be. And
Speaker 4: watching him at the right tackle position, I'm liking what
Speaker 4: I see. It doesn't look like Jesu. This is foreign.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm really trying to try to solve this.
Speaker 4: I feel like a robot. I feel like on a
Speaker 4: rector set. He's looking pretty smooth and his movements out
Speaker 4: there to me, and he's moving pretty freely. It looks
Speaker 4: like he's back from the procedure that he had on
Speaker 4: his knee. So I do think it's his job to
Speaker 4: lose as well.
Speaker 1: Got some good one on one training camp battles that
Speaker 1: have shaped up in the first few days. On day one,
Speaker 1: Orlando Brown junior versus Trey Hendrickson, they got into a
Speaker 1: scuffle on the third snap of eleven on eleven. Those
Speaker 1: two guys, that is going to be fun to watch
Speaker 1: on a regular basis because they both practice hired there,
Speaker 1: both Pro Bowl players, and you know, Trey Hendrickson can
Speaker 1: get under an offensive lineman skin with the best of them.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you they Orlando's gone to four straight Pro Bowls,
Speaker 4: Trey's gone to two straight. So they've you know, been
Speaker 4: in the Pro Bowl together for the last the last
Speaker 4: two years. And there's nothing wrong with working hard at practice.
Speaker 4: You got to make sure it doesn't go over the
Speaker 4: top and you don't have some foolish injury as a
Speaker 4: result of something that you know was was wasn't part
Speaker 4: of what football is supposed to supposed to be about.
Speaker 4: But when you have guys that have achieved like they have,
Speaker 4: they have huge personal pride. I mean, it's monstrous and
Speaker 4: there's nothing wrong with it, you know, and you know
Speaker 4: if somebody tries to challenge it, sometimes it doesn't go
Speaker 4: so well, you know. But you have two prideful Pro
Speaker 4: Bowl performing players locking horns, man, and sometimes they can
Speaker 4: get a little nasty.
Speaker 1: The day after that scuffle, Trey Hendrickson got a kind
Speaker 1: of tracked extension. They added a year to his contract.
Speaker 1: I think a few things were involved there. Number One,
Speaker 1: he had outperformed the original contract that he signed. He's
Speaker 1: not being paid at the top of the defensive line
Speaker 1: scale even though he's been playing like it for a
Speaker 1: couple of years. So you reward him for that without
Speaker 1: you know, ripping up the last two years of his deal.
Speaker 1: You add a year on so they hold on to
Speaker 1: him for another year and reward him for excellent performance
Speaker 1: in his first two seasons of the Bengals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean Trey Hendrickson, what he's fourth I think
Speaker 4: in the NFL and quarterback sacks over the last two
Speaker 4: or three years in the NFL. So this this guy
Speaker 4: is a premier pass rusher. And I agree with you.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's an extension. A lot of that can
Speaker 4: be bonus. You can play with the salary cap. There's
Speaker 4: a lot of things when you know you just read
Speaker 4: one year contract. Okay, it's a contract extension. It's not
Speaker 4: replacing this year. There's bonus money that makes them hole
Speaker 4: this year, but it can be pro LTD pro rated
Speaker 4: on the salary cap. And the Bengals have one of
Speaker 4: a cap and amis that's as good as anybody in
Speaker 4: the National Football League and Katie Brown getting it done.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I would not be surprised if at some
Speaker 4: point if they can't get Joe Burrow's deal done that
Speaker 4: Logan Wilson would be the first one to me to
Speaker 4: be a deal be an extension happened with Logan because
Speaker 4: team Logan and the other guys this year, and Logan
Speaker 4: would be probably the most easy path to take. That
Speaker 4: would you could pro rate and do the least damage
Speaker 4: to your overall cap that would still leave room. You'd
Speaker 4: in a perfect world, probably you'd like to have Joe
Speaker 4: go first. But if Joe, if they can't get to
Speaker 4: an agreement with Joe and you want to get somebody
Speaker 4: done before the season starts, I think the pecking owner
Speaker 4: would be the Logan would be the next guy up
Speaker 4: maybe to get a contract done. Potentially, we'll see.
Speaker 1: And that was another benefit of the Trey Hendrickson extension.
Speaker 1: You can adjust those dollars accordingly to create more immediate
Speaker 1: space with the goal of retaining Burrow, Higgins and Wilson
Speaker 1: prior to this season. We're a few days into training camp.
Speaker 1: We are having this conversation after Back Together weekend, the
Speaker 1: Saturday practice inside of pay Court Stadium, roughly thirty thousand
Speaker 1: people in attendance. Anybody jump out any of the rookies
Speaker 1: in these first few practices. Is there anybody that's caught
Speaker 1: your eye?
Speaker 4: You know? I mean the defensive backs had a day
Speaker 4: at Back Together again. DJ Turner. He played well today
Speaker 4: and he's played well I thought all a training camp.
Speaker 4: He's got the speed, just the raw speed, but also
Speaker 4: he has the change of direction. The sink your hips
Speaker 4: and change direction with the wide receivers. He's very sticky
Speaker 4: in coverage. I mean, he's right there, He's getting it done,
Speaker 4: getting it done all the time. And dj Ivy had
Speaker 4: probably as good a workout as anybody did at the
Speaker 4: Saturday Back Together Acts that was open to thirty thousand fans.
Speaker 4: I mean he got juiced up. I mean he made
Speaker 4: plays and when the lights came on, he was there.
Speaker 4: He was making plays, contested catches, getting his hands on footballs.
Speaker 4: I think Cam Taylor Britt continues to battle with Jamar Chase,
Speaker 4: those stirring matchups out there on that corner on a
Speaker 4: snap by snap basis, And I can remember wide receivers
Speaker 4: talking about playing against Dion, you know, in practice when
Speaker 4: they were Cowboys, how much better they got working against
Speaker 4: the guy of his caliber, and and it lifted the
Speaker 4: whole boat, you know, in terms of those skill guys.
Speaker 4: So I see that because these young guys talked to
Speaker 4: him in the locker room after practice to like, nobody's
Speaker 4: better than our white outs. So man, I can make
Speaker 4: plays against our whiteouts. I can. I feel like pretty confident.
Speaker 4: I can hang in there with a lot of people
Speaker 4: and it's like they're really starting to show, but they've
Speaker 4: had so few reps, I mean almost on a snap
Speaker 4: by snap basis, they're going to get better. So this
Speaker 4: is just the beginning. I mean, they're scratching the surface.
Speaker 4: I really, I really like what I see on that
Speaker 4: on that back end and in the battle for four,
Speaker 4: five and six in the receiver corps, it's going to
Speaker 4: be a good one. There's some dogs there. Man.
Speaker 1: Charlie Jones, the fourth round draft pick rookie out of Purdue,
Speaker 1: had a bunch of catches on back together Saturday, the
Speaker 1: day before. Andre Yosi Vass, the sixth round pick out
Speaker 1: of Princeton, had some twenty yard plus catches on back
Speaker 1: shoulder throws where basically they said, you're bigger and stronger
Speaker 1: and faster than the guy covering you. We're throwing it.
Speaker 1: Go get it.
Speaker 4: He did, he did. I mean, it's it's going to
Speaker 4: be if you. The thing is, this roster is so competitive,
Speaker 4: so deep. If you make the Bengals fifty three man roster,
Speaker 4: it's a hell of an accomplishment. Now you may not
Speaker 4: be active on game day, but if you make that roster,
Speaker 4: that's the next thing. The first thing is to make
Speaker 4: the fifty three men and then you can do a
Speaker 4: little exhale, But then you want to make that roster
Speaker 4: on game day that is the next goal, you know,
Speaker 4: and then the goal after that would be contributed some
Speaker 4: of a package. Then the goal after that would be
Speaker 4: the start, you know. And but you know, I always
Speaker 4: approached it like you'd set goals and have a few, Okay,
Speaker 4: reward yourself, reward yourself, well, bet track in the right way.
Speaker 4: Pretty soon you're climbing the ladder of success. And you know,
Speaker 4: now all of a sudden you're reaching a pretty darn
Speaker 4: good goal. But along the way, you know, has something
Speaker 4: where you can feel good about yourself. So that's what
Speaker 4: that's the way, particularly as a rookie, That's how I
Speaker 4: approached it and the way they've got it done. Now
Speaker 4: in the National football they only have one cut. They
Speaker 4: go from you know, ninety players down to fifty three
Speaker 4: one cut. I mean, that's going to be it's going
Speaker 4: to be a flood of players on the waiver wire. Man.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you the personnel departments around the league, they
Speaker 4: got to be on their p's and q's to make
Speaker 4: sure that they've got everybody, you know, rated on a
Speaker 4: position by position basis, you know, one through whatever it's
Speaker 4: going to because there's gonna be a ton of bodies
Speaker 4: out there.
Speaker 1: Last year Back Together Saturday ended on a sixty five
Speaker 1: yard field goal by Money mac Evan McPherson. This year
Speaker 1: they let him try sixty seven yarder. He did not
Speaker 1: come close, which is very unusual to see. I mean,
Speaker 1: even his miss is usually missed by a whisker. So
Speaker 1: what did he do? He stayed out there after it
Speaker 1: was finished and made a sixty five yarder.
Speaker 4: He's he's something else. He's special as well. You know,
Speaker 4: his approach, his makeup. It's all you're talking to, you know,
Speaker 4: Jim Breech and other specialists along the years when when
Speaker 4: they talk about what you have to be to be
Speaker 4: a successful kicker in the National Football League in terms
Speaker 4: of personality and makeup and all. This kid he checks
Speaker 4: every box. He's he's the real deal.
Speaker 1: We are four practices. In my opinion, hasn't changed. Even
Speaker 1: with the calf injury suffered early by Joe Burrow. This
Speaker 1: is a Super Bowl contender and, without a question, one
Speaker 1: of the best rosters in the NFL.
Speaker 4: I agree, it's got it does have roster depth. Now,
Speaker 4: are they light years better with Joe Burrow at the
Speaker 4: quarterback position? No question, no question? Uh And I you know,
Speaker 4: I'm crossing everything that he's back even before the regular
Speaker 4: season opener, you know, not just for a couple of
Speaker 4: practices before the regular season opener, back to actually getting
Speaker 4: some good work, because I mean, he worked so hard
Speaker 4: in the offseason and like Zach said, he got more
Speaker 4: July snaps than he's ever had as a Bengal. So
Speaker 4: now if he's only off a short period of time,
Speaker 4: he can kind of pick up easier from where he
Speaker 4: left off, get some good reps for a week, a
Speaker 4: week and a half against you know, his teammates, and
Speaker 4: hone in and get ready for the Cleveland Browns, because man,
Speaker 4: I went up to Cleveland and playing Baltimore and Cincinnati,
Speaker 4: and that's no easy path, you know, and those could
Speaker 4: both be barn Burners, and you need Joe borrowed his
Speaker 4: best to compete in those bad boys.
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by Kettering Health,
Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. With more than
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Speaker 1: a new edition of story Time with Dan. It's not
Speaker 1: uncommon before the Bengals play a road game to see
Speaker 1: several of their assistant coaches come out and run the
Speaker 1: stadium steps for exercise before the players begin their pregame warmups.
Speaker 1: On September twenty third, two thousand and six, special teams
Speaker 1: coordinator Darren Simmons was running up and down the stadium
Speaker 1: steps before a game in Pittsburgh while a young lady
Speaker 1: practiced singing the national anthem. All of a sudden, a
Speaker 1: downpour hit downtown Pittsburgh and Darren headed for cover under
Speaker 1: the old Replay Hood, the area where NFL officials used
Speaker 1: to look at a TV monitor before switching to tablets
Speaker 1: a few years ago. When Darren got under that small
Speaker 1: shelter to get out of the rain, he was joined
Speaker 1: by the anthem singer and her mother, and Darren complimented
Speaker 1: the young lady on her performance. It was sixteen year
Speaker 1: old Taylor Swift, who later that day sang in front
Speaker 1: of a crowd of more than fifty thousand people for
Speaker 1: the first time. It was obviously not the last, As
Speaker 1: for Darren Simmons, this will be his twenty first year
Speaker 1: I'm the Bengals coaching staff.
Speaker 8: It means everything to me. It means a lot. It
Speaker 8: means that the level of trust that I have, that
Speaker 8: they have in me here, I think I don't take
Speaker 8: that lightly. That something is very, very very important to me.
Speaker 8: It always has been always. I'm indebted to these to
Speaker 8: the family here in the organization for what they've done
Speaker 8: for me and for my family. When I first moved here,
Speaker 8: my daughter was one and now she's a senior in
Speaker 8: college and we just had one kid. Now I have
Speaker 8: one kid who just graduated from high school here and
Speaker 8: another kid is going to be and eighth grader. So
Speaker 8: and they've had the same set of friends their entire life.
Speaker 8: And for me to be in this profession, for them
Speaker 8: to have those things, that means everything to me. It
Speaker 8: means more than you know. It means a lot to me.
Speaker 8: And being able to have our roots here is and
Speaker 8: this is home for us now and it has been.
Speaker 8: I felt that way for a long time. So it's
Speaker 8: not something I take lightly.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for This episode of The
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth podcast brought to you by Cattering Health, the
Speaker 1: official healthcare provider of the Bengals by Bengals Picks and
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Speaker 1: I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals
Speaker 1: Booth podcast