Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth podcast, the Life Changes edition, as we
Speaker 1: look at some big changes on the Bengals offensive line
Speaker 1: with the start of training camp looming in a little
Speaker 1: more than a week. Coming up, I'll go one on
Speaker 1: one with Clint Bowling, who announced his retirement on Monday
Speaker 1: after being one of the bengals most reliable players for
Speaker 1: the past eight seasons. That news comes a few weeks
Speaker 1: after we learned the first round draft pick Jonah Williams
Speaker 1: will miss the season with a shoulder injury. I'll talk
Speaker 1: to Dave Lapham about the impact of those losses and
Speaker 1: what the Bengals are likely to do on the left
Speaker 1: side of their offensive line. Those conversations are straight ahead,
Speaker 1: but first, here's a quick reminder that you can have
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Speaker 1: Now let's get to football. We're sad to see him
Speaker 1: go because he was a great player and we value
Speaker 1: those experienced veteran players, and he's on a wolf for
Speaker 1: a long time. But I know that they're they're a
Speaker 1: piece of the decision and so happy for them. I'm
Speaker 1: happy for their family, and he'll get a chance to
Speaker 1: move on with the rest of his life. That was
Speaker 1: Bengal's head coach Zach Taylor, reacting to Monday's announcement that
Speaker 1: offensive lineman Clint Bowling is retiring for medical reasons. A
Speaker 1: few days after last see It ended, Bowling felt pain
Speaker 1: in his right leg. It turned out to be a
Speaker 1: blood clot, and shortly after that Clint learned that the
Speaker 1: blood clot had traveled to his lungs. That explains why
Speaker 1: he did not take part in the Bengal summer workouts
Speaker 1: and after talking to doctors and thinking about his wife
Speaker 1: and two daughters, who are both under the age of two,
Speaker 1: Bowling decided to call it quits. I spoke to him
Speaker 1: about that decision and his fine NFL career. Clint. She
Speaker 1: told us she'd been playing football since sixth grade. So
Speaker 1: this will be the first time in your adult life
Speaker 1: you've not been part of a football team in the fall.
Speaker 1: Is it kind of hard to believe that's going to
Speaker 1: be the case? Yeah, I mean it's a pretty surreal feeling,
Speaker 1: you know, really trying to wrap my head around you know,
Speaker 1: what am I going to do? But at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know, it's exciting to move on to the next venture.
Speaker 1: You know, football was a big part of my life,
Speaker 1: but it's not you know who I am, and to
Speaker 1: be able to figure out, you know, what I'm going
Speaker 1: to move on to next in life is exciting. It's
Speaker 1: such a sport of routine. You have to be in
Speaker 1: certain places at certain times. Your schedule is dictated for you,
Speaker 1: especially once training camp begins. Now I suppose other than uh,
Speaker 1: you know, appointments with your daughters and so forth, you
Speaker 1: can determine what you want to do in a daily
Speaker 1: basis yeah, you know, just uh, you know, hopefully still
Speaker 1: be a little regimented, just from getting up with the kids,
Speaker 1: dropping them off and taking care of them, doing whatever
Speaker 1: I need to do with them, and then, um, I
Speaker 1: guess just kind of catching some tea times after that.
Speaker 1: I got to be on time for those. So that's
Speaker 1: the that's the plan right now and just you know,
Speaker 1: kind of take this fall in and you know, hopefully
Speaker 1: get to travel some with my family and you know,
Speaker 1: just just relax for a little while. Will you be
Speaker 1: one of these guys that drops a bunch of weight
Speaker 1: after your playing career? I hope. So, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I'd like to start working on it and we'll see
Speaker 1: what what what I get down to or if I
Speaker 1: get down to anything, but I hope. So I'd like
Speaker 1: to you know, I've always enjoyed lifting and working out,
Speaker 1: like to continue doing that, um, and definitely will continue
Speaker 1: to do that just because you know, kind of keep
Speaker 1: myself motivated is to you know, stay in the gym,
Speaker 1: stay working out, and at the same time you kind
Speaker 1: of get that, you know, in the in the gym,
Speaker 1: you still got that locker room atmosphere with some trainers
Speaker 1: and that kind of thing. Guys that I've been working
Speaker 1: out with and training since I was in high school.
Speaker 1: We're visiting with Clint Bowling. In the Bengals news release
Speaker 1: that announced a retirement, Mike Brown had a quote in
Speaker 1: there that said he never got the credit he deserved.
Speaker 1: Did you see that? And do you agree? Uh? You know,
Speaker 1: just just part of being an offensive linement is sometimes
Speaker 1: you just have to accept that. And like I talked
Speaker 1: about earlier, just about you know, coming in and working
Speaker 1: every single day. If you know, you can definitely be
Speaker 1: upset about certain things, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's just about doing your job and making the guys
Speaker 1: around you better, and that's what offensive linement's all about. Sometimes.
Speaker 1: Twenty eleven draft class worked out pretty well Green Dalton Bowling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a you know, it was a good group
Speaker 1: of guys. You know, any time you can have you know,
Speaker 1: three starters on the offensive are on the offense like that,
Speaker 1: it's a I gotta think, you gotta think it was
Speaker 1: a good draft and for us to come in and
Speaker 1: as a team we were able to go to five
Speaker 1: playoff games in a row. Um obviously would have liked
Speaker 1: to have gone a different way, but uh, you know, ultimately,
Speaker 1: it was fun coming on with those guys and um,
Speaker 1: you know, experience in this city and team together. Have
Speaker 1: you heard from your former teammate Andrew Whitworth and his
Speaker 1: hee busting your balls that he's still playing and you
Speaker 1: are retiring? Um, you know, I actually told Andrew a
Speaker 1: few days ago a lot you know, kind of tried
Speaker 1: to talk to a couple of friends, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was one of the guys that I had talked
Speaker 1: to before everything. But um, you know, they wouldn't surprise
Speaker 1: me if he somehow played another two or three years.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, what he's been doing in LA
Speaker 1: has just been incredible. The way that he's been able
Speaker 1: to continue his career and play as long as he has.
Speaker 1: It's just, um, you know, it's unbelievable to watch. You
Speaker 1: had to practice against Geno Atkins in college and in
Speaker 1: the pros, so we know what a headache that must
Speaker 1: have been. But how about opposing players who did you
Speaker 1: consider to be the best guys you ever faced? Ah,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of different guys that that
Speaker 1: come to mind. You know, there's guys in our division
Speaker 1: like Cameron Hayward, who's you know, just a really physical
Speaker 1: player that doesn't take plays off. I mean every single
Speaker 1: play he's given it as all. You know, there's some
Speaker 1: guys in Baltimore, some sugs and some of those nose
Speaker 1: guards that are really you know, hard to move. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously other guys that you know, some premier
Speaker 1: guys like JJ Watter are obviously all really good players.
Speaker 1: So I mean, when you go into the NFL game
Speaker 1: and you know every single week you're going to be
Speaker 1: in for a challenge, what guys talk the most that
Speaker 1: you faced? Honestly, I never really talked much. I just
Speaker 1: went about there every now and then you come across.
Speaker 1: But there's never anybody that stands stands out to me,
Speaker 1: just because I tried to. I tried to keep to myself.
Speaker 1: I never My theory was I just never wanted to
Speaker 1: make anybody more mad than they were. So, well, now
Speaker 1: you don't have to face the Steelers anymore, how do
Speaker 1: you feel about them? You know what I mean? That
Speaker 1: was always a fun place to play, but you know,
Speaker 1: just to finish my career here, I mean that it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's gonna always be fun. Sharing for the
Speaker 1: Bengals and anytime they're playing Pittsburgh. It's it's always going
Speaker 1: to be a physical game, and you know some you
Speaker 1: know game that I'm always gonna be pulling for the
Speaker 1: Bengals for it was there a welcome to the NFL moment,
Speaker 1: your rookie year. Um, you know, just just the interactions
Speaker 1: and meeting the guys. Like I said, there's so many
Speaker 1: different personalities in the locker room and meeting so many
Speaker 1: different people. It was it was just a unique experience.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there was a particular moment, but
Speaker 1: maybe when I was walking through the parking lot and
Speaker 1: I saw all the different cars, that was probably the
Speaker 1: first thing that stood out. Is there a game or
Speaker 1: are there a couple of games that stand out as
Speaker 1: your favorites? Um, you know, one that we won I
Speaker 1: would definitely say would be the end of the season
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen playing at Baltimore, you know, having to switch positions,
Speaker 1: play out at tackle, and you know, winning on the
Speaker 1: last play of the game like that on fourth down
Speaker 1: was just you know, an awesome way to end the season.
Speaker 1: And then, um, you know, obviously there were some disappointing
Speaker 1: playoff games, but those playoff atmospheres, I mean, it was
Speaker 1: just you can tell it's cranked up another notch. I mean,
Speaker 1: you play football for sixteen weeks and then you go
Speaker 1: play a playoff game and it's just a different atmosphere.
Speaker 1: The crowd's a different atmosphere, the intensity levels different and
Speaker 1: it was just always fun kind of experience experience at
Speaker 1: football at just the highest level. Even when I asked
Speaker 1: you about wins, you mentioned losses. Did the losses hurt
Speaker 1: more than you know you savored the wins? I would
Speaker 1: say so, just because those those are the games that truly,
Speaker 1: you know that you stand out like, oh man, if
Speaker 1: I just did this differently, if we did this differently
Speaker 1: as a team, then this would have happened. And you know,
Speaker 1: you kind of relish in those moments a little bit
Speaker 1: more than some of the some of the wins. And
Speaker 1: that's just you know, some of those losses just stick
Speaker 1: in your mind a little bit, a little bit more
Speaker 1: than the winds do sometimes. If Andy didn't break his
Speaker 1: thumb in two thy fifteen, is that the season that
Speaker 1: you think might have ended in a very special way? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we were we were a great football team
Speaker 1: that year. We played a lot of good ball and um,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a. There's a ton of what ifs
Speaker 1: throughout my career, throughout the teams that I've been on. Um,
Speaker 1: so it's always you know, kind of tough to to
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, if we just did this differently.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, it's um, you know,
Speaker 1: had up played on a lot of good teams. What
Speaker 1: do you love or what did you love about this sport?
Speaker 1: Like I you know I said earlier, I think just
Speaker 1: the the camaraderie, the fifty three guys in this locker room,
Speaker 1: the all the unique and different personalities and um, you know,
Speaker 1: coming together as a football team and seeing where you know,
Speaker 1: how guys got here, where they're from, and their life story.
Speaker 1: It's just you know, there's so many unique stories and
Speaker 1: just to hear them all. Um, it was always fun
Speaker 1: to uh you know, pre practice, post practice guys joking
Speaker 1: around was always it was always fun. Do you feel
Speaker 1: good when you wake up after eight years in the NFL?
Speaker 1: Or are there still some aches and pains depending on
Speaker 1: if it's going to rain or whatever. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it just it just depends. For the most part. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel well right now, and um just excited to
Speaker 1: move on and figure out the next step sounds like
Speaker 1: the blood clot issue that popped up at the end
Speaker 1: of the season, at least briefly, was kind of a
Speaker 1: scary situation. Yeah. Absolutely, you know, just um, you know,
Speaker 1: anytime you have to go to a hospital, you know,
Speaker 1: you never know exactly what's going on, and just trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what exactly and was happening and wrapped
Speaker 1: my head around it was. It was tough. Um, But
Speaker 1: like I said, um, you know, sometimes there's things that
Speaker 1: are bigger than football, and um, you know, you just
Speaker 1: have to make that decision sometimes. Paul Brown used to
Speaker 1: famously tell people or tell players at the end of
Speaker 1: their career, it's time to find your life's work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how much thought have you given to your next venture coaching,
Speaker 1: broadcasting business? What are you thinking? You know, we'll we'll
Speaker 1: just really try to figure that out this fall. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: I'll be in a position to where I don't have
Speaker 1: to jump into anything I don't want to right now,
Speaker 1: So just to kind of take some time and start
Speaker 1: networking and meeting people and and really figuring out exactly
Speaker 1: what's next is you know, something that will start right now.
Speaker 1: I think you've done well financially, so you probably don't
Speaker 1: have to work again the rest of your life. But
Speaker 1: I don't picture you as sitting on the couch a
Speaker 1: couple of years from now. No, I think, um, you know,
Speaker 1: for guys to stay active, like we talked about football,
Speaker 1: at the end of football is just the beginning of
Speaker 1: your life. Football is a big part of my life.
Speaker 1: But you know, to to move on and stay busy
Speaker 1: and stay active. You know it's gonna be uh, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be exciting to see what that next step is.
Speaker 1: But you know, you absolutely I feel I have to
Speaker 1: stay busy as a person and challenge yourself. Sometimes training
Speaker 1: camp begins in less than two weeks. I'm assuming you're
Speaker 1: not going to miss that too much. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's been unique. It's a unique feeling knowing that you're
Speaker 1: not gonna have to put the pads on again and
Speaker 1: you know, fight your way through another football practice when
Speaker 1: you're about eight or nine days in. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a it's something that one of the things I won't miss.
Speaker 1: You had a great career. I've always considered you be
Speaker 1: you to be one of the real unsung heroes on
Speaker 1: this team. In the locker room, on the offensive line,
Speaker 1: just a total solid as a rock pro. Congratulations on
Speaker 1: eight great years. Thanks for all the time you've given us,
Speaker 1: and best of luck with Kelly and the girls. Awesome.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys very much for the past few years. Thanks.
Speaker 1: Bowling started all sixteen games in four out of the
Speaker 1: last five seasons, but he wasn't only reliable. According to
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus, he was the bengals highest rated offensive
Speaker 1: lineman among their starters last year. The news of Bowling's
Speaker 1: retirement comes roughly three weeks after we learned that rookie
Speaker 1: Jonah Williams, the eleventh pick in this year's draft and
Speaker 1: the team's likely starter at left tackle, will miss the
Speaker 1: entire season with an injured left shoulder. I discussed those
Speaker 1: developments with my broadcast partner, Dave lappam lapped. The roughly
Speaker 1: a month between the end of the mandatory mini camp
Speaker 1: in the start of training camp is supposed to be quiet,
Speaker 1: but that was hardly the case for the Bengals this year,
Speaker 1: as they lost a couple of offensive lineman. Let's start
Speaker 1: with number one draft pick Jonah Williams, who will miss
Speaker 1: the entire season with a torn labram in his left shoulder.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the injury itself, what will that mean
Speaker 1: to him going forward? My understanding is that the severity
Speaker 1: of the tear can be repaired readily and that it
Speaker 1: shouldn't be a hindrance. And as with all surgeries, everybody
Speaker 1: reacts differently, and then it's amount and then it amounts
Speaker 1: to how committed are you to rehab? Knowing him a
Speaker 1: little bit, I think he'll be a maniacle maniacal. I
Speaker 1: should say rehab, guys. I think I think that's what
Speaker 1: he'll He'll they'll probably have to say all right, Orange,
Speaker 1: they'll hold him back a little bit. I think he'll
Speaker 1: try to do maybe too much too soon. If anything,
Speaker 1: it won't be if the rehab is not is not great,
Speaker 1: it won't be for lack of effort. So I think
Speaker 1: he's going to be fine. And you know, it is
Speaker 1: that it is that left shoulder, which is his outside
Speaker 1: shoulder at left tackle, where you know a lot of
Speaker 1: the heavy traffic takes place, so you have to make
Speaker 1: sure that that it's back and it's it's at full
Speaker 1: where you're you're out there or trying to do something.
Speaker 1: So I think they made the decision wisely, you know,
Speaker 1: just let's just let this year, um, you know, take
Speaker 1: place in terms of him getting ready for the second
Speaker 1: year of his NFL career, and I think he's going
Speaker 1: to be a long one. I think he's going to
Speaker 1: have a long NFL career. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people want to know, how does that happen in a
Speaker 1: mini camp with limited hitting. Yeah, sometimes you can just
Speaker 1: get caught. You know, you're still you're still doing you know,
Speaker 1: et en penetrate, tackle twist, tackle penetrate, end twist, those
Speaker 1: stunts and those kind of things, and sometimes you can
Speaker 1: just get caught, you know, get your arm hot awkwardly,
Speaker 1: you know, amongst a massive bodies and just be you know,
Speaker 1: put in a position where your arm and your shoulder
Speaker 1: doesn't isn't going the way that it normally should go,
Speaker 1: you know, and and uh so that that you know,
Speaker 1: that can happen. That can happen, um, you know, at
Speaker 1: any time in the game of football. So unfortunately, and
Speaker 1: you know, of course, there was a lot of concern
Speaker 1: because Saban is known as the guy that beats beats
Speaker 1: his players up and was this an injury that he
Speaker 1: had at Alabama? It was a lingering injury and in
Speaker 1: today's high tech medical world. They can blood. They can
Speaker 1: determine from blood samples around the injured area, and by
Speaker 1: looking at the imaging, they're so specific they can tell
Speaker 1: if it's old injury or new injury. And this was
Speaker 1: a new injury that was sustained, you know, probably during
Speaker 1: those mini camps. Lap. It's the fifth consecutive year that
Speaker 1: the Bengals number one draft pick will have an injury
Speaker 1: plagued rookie season. Belly Price, John Ross, William Jackson, Cedric
Speaker 1: Obwaihi were the previous four. It's pretty ridiculous. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's bad luck it is. You know, when they drafted
Speaker 1: cedrical Way, he you know he had he had played
Speaker 1: in that Bowl game with the blown out nie and
Speaker 1: played the whole second half with that torn ligament in
Speaker 1: his knee and u and had surgery to repairt. I mean,
Speaker 1: those muscles, his quads and hamstrings were so strong that
Speaker 1: you know he could he could play and uh and
Speaker 1: finish the game. So yeah, it's crazy. But a lot
Speaker 1: of those were shoulder and chest problems. So I guess
Speaker 1: maybe the next time you draft the first round, or
Speaker 1: make sure there'n't have many shoulders or chest don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about injuries to those body parts. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is crazy the odds of that happening as often
Speaker 1: as it's happened in consecutive years. So the Bengals are staggering, staggering,
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. The last Bengals first round draft pick to
Speaker 1: play all sixteen games was Kevin Zeitler, but he was
Speaker 1: not their first overall pick that year. Drake Kirkpatrick was
Speaker 1: and he only played five games that year. The last
Speaker 1: time the Bengals number one overall pick played all sixteen
Speaker 1: games was two thousand and seven Leon Hall. There have
Speaker 1: been guys that have played fifteen, including Tyler Eiffort, but
Speaker 1: the last guy to play all sixteen who is their
Speaker 1: first pick in the draft was Leon Hall. That's incredible.
Speaker 1: You know when you when you h I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: they're draft in the first round for a reason. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, if you if you miss on first round
Speaker 1: picks due to lack of ability or injury, it can
Speaker 1: set you back a long period of time. And fortunately
Speaker 1: these were you know, in a lot of cases injuries
Speaker 1: for that rookie year, but then they came back and played.
Speaker 1: Although you know, guys like Tyler and John Ross have
Speaker 1: had injury played career so far, so you just never know.
Speaker 1: There's no guarantees. It is. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: In terms of full contact sport, you have one hundred
Speaker 1: percent injury risk every single snap, and I guess these
Speaker 1: are good examples of it. Now. The more recent offseason news,
Speaker 1: Clint Bowling's decision to retire after thing with a blood
Speaker 1: clot in the off season not a shocker. When we
Speaker 1: saw him standing off to the side during the various
Speaker 1: and mini camps and training camp or pre training camp
Speaker 1: offseason program, it was clear that something was going on
Speaker 1: and that this was at least a possibility. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean when you're talking to medical scenario like a blood
Speaker 1: clot in the leg that was traveling to the lung,
Speaker 1: you know, and now you're talking about you know, hospital trips,
Speaker 1: which he had, and now you're talking about a guy's
Speaker 1: health that is much more than just a game of football,
Speaker 1: particularly with a wife in a twenty month and a
Speaker 1: five month old daughters. So it was not I guarantee
Speaker 1: you it was not easy for Clint Bowling to make
Speaker 1: the decision he made, and the fact that he was
Speaker 1: up here for those mini camps just to go through
Speaker 1: the mental part of getting ready for the game of football.
Speaker 1: He had not made a total decision yet, but he
Speaker 1: was leaning toward probably the decision that he made here
Speaker 1: today for probably probably a couple of months. I bet
Speaker 1: he'd been thinking about it, talking about it. You make
Speaker 1: a trip to the hospital. It's it's gonna make you
Speaker 1: thinking about you know what am I gonna do when
Speaker 1: football is over? Because it looks like it's going to
Speaker 1: be over here. How big of a blow is it?
Speaker 1: It's it's it's significant because in today's NFL, versatility in
Speaker 1: the offensive line is a big deal because last year,
Speaker 1: thinking how many times the Bengals only activated seven offensive
Speaker 1: lineman because they had a Clint Bowling that could play
Speaker 1: multiple spots. That's why to me, Trey Hopkins has a
Speaker 1: chance to still make this football team because, like Clint,
Speaker 1: he's very intelligent and he's very versatile, and coaches like
Speaker 1: intelligence and versatility in their football players. So I think
Speaker 1: he might be the guy. And he may not necessarily
Speaker 1: be a starting lineman, but he's a guy that could
Speaker 1: be the seventh one of the seven guys active that
Speaker 1: can you can plug in anywhere and finish a game
Speaker 1: with and not be embarrassed about it. He can go
Speaker 1: and execute and finish games or play you know, two
Speaker 1: or three straight games depending on jury or whatever the
Speaker 1: case may be. So you're you're looking for, you know,
Speaker 1: somebody to to plug in to that you know, the intelligence,
Speaker 1: the versatility. But he had the experience now too, so
Speaker 1: he's he's uh, you know, this term pros pro is
Speaker 1: thrown around a lot. I do it probably too much.
Speaker 1: He is, you know, Webster is looking up the picture
Speaker 1: for pros pro. Clint Bowling's head is right there because,
Speaker 1: like Mike Brown said, you know, he's probably underappreciated. He
Speaker 1: didn't get enough credit for what you did for this organization.
Speaker 1: And he never toots his own horn. I mean, he
Speaker 1: doesn't say Clint Bowling doesn't say crap if he has
Speaker 1: a mouthful of it, you know. I mean, he's one
Speaker 1: of those kind of guys that just goes out and
Speaker 1: wants to be part of the team and and play
Speaker 1: and that they're gonna miss that, They're gonna miss what
Speaker 1: he contributes on the field. But um Young look like
Speaker 1: when he came in the league with Wit showed him
Speaker 1: the way this is, this is how you um operate
Speaker 1: as a professional offensive lineman the National Football League, what
Speaker 1: moves on bowling when young guys came in, that's the
Speaker 1: guy to watch everything he does. You do what he does,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be fine. And nobody plays forever, so you
Speaker 1: know there's going to be another guy that has to
Speaker 1: step up and fill that role, and there will be.
Speaker 1: But it's a role that's going to have to be filled.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the you know, that's that's the
Speaker 1: role that people I don't think realize. You know that
Speaker 1: he filled as well as he did. With Jonah Williams
Speaker 1: out for the year, Corty Glenn kicks out and plays
Speaker 1: left tackle. What's the battle look like going into training
Speaker 1: camp at left guard? Yeah, boy, it's it's wide open.
Speaker 1: Like like Zach said, there's you know, there's thirteen linemen
Speaker 1: they're gonna be going into training camp still and uh,
Speaker 1: you know when when you look at it, you think,
Speaker 1: all right, well, not only there's there's two things you
Speaker 1: have to think about. Who's going to be the left
Speaker 1: guard and who's the third tackle. I mean, they have
Speaker 1: two tackles and you know a lot of bengaldom isn't
Speaker 1: real happy with either one of the two tackles they have,
Speaker 1: who's the third tackle? Do you have to do you
Speaker 1: have to wait till the final cutdown of the last
Speaker 1: cuts in the National Football League before your third tackle
Speaker 1: shows up? Do you have to make a training camp trade?
Speaker 1: They've made training camp trades before. You may have depending
Speaker 1: on how it unfolds the camp. If nobody's shown, um,
Speaker 1: I think, I think you can identify your five best
Speaker 1: linemen and and somebody will end up playing that you know,
Speaker 1: that left guard spot. But then the roster depth is
Speaker 1: the key again. And you know, Hopkins, I think with
Speaker 1: his long arms could kick out there and not embarrass
Speaker 1: himself at the tackle position. You know you've got You've
Speaker 1: got other guys that have done it. Jerry went out
Speaker 1: there when he was with the Dolphins, played a couple
Speaker 1: of games at the at the tackle position. There are
Speaker 1: other guys that have played at the tackle spot, but
Speaker 1: not not a whole lot of reps, you know, at
Speaker 1: that tackle position. So you know, left guard and uh
Speaker 1: in third tackle, those are the ones that are gonna
Speaker 1: be under the microscope scope and are going to be
Speaker 1: you know, honed in on, focused in on big time?
Speaker 1: Is it Christian Westerman's job to lose. You know, I
Speaker 1: Christian Westerman physically is the guy. But is he gonna
Speaker 1: go where he's supposed to go and be there when
Speaker 1: he's supposed to be there and do what he's supposed
Speaker 1: to do? Those are the keys, And you know that's
Speaker 1: why Trey Hopkins is a guy that as a you know,
Speaker 1: I projected myself as a line coach and like coach
Speaker 1: Turner's like, man, you know, do I want to go
Speaker 1: with the with the guy that I physically might you know,
Speaker 1: really overpower some people. But key time on the road
Speaker 1: screaming fans, you got a beast in front of you
Speaker 1: all of a sudden. You know, you might have done
Speaker 1: it on the grease board, okay, but boy, now you
Speaker 1: have to operate under pressure and can you live with
Speaker 1: that potential mistake? Or do you want the guy that
Speaker 1: you know no matter what. Now, physically he may not
Speaker 1: do as great a job as the other guy in
Speaker 1: terms of movement and things like that, but he's gonna
Speaker 1: be on the right guy. He's gonna doing the right
Speaker 1: thing though. So those those decisions are going to be
Speaker 1: very interesting for the coaching staff to make. But I
Speaker 1: think this is the year that Westerman, hopefully you know,
Speaker 1: steps up. But West situation, Dan, you think about it,
Speaker 1: His issue is, you know, the mental part of the game. Well,
Speaker 1: this would be his third line coach in three years.
Speaker 1: New techniques, new systems, new assignments. That's hard. It's hard
Speaker 1: for anybody, particularly a guy that struggles with that type
Speaker 1: of thing. So you know, the thing is everybody's starting
Speaker 1: at ground zero from that standpoint because it's new system,
Speaker 1: new staff and all that. So Westerman is starting a
Speaker 1: ground zero with all parties. Um, hopefully he picks it
Speaker 1: up as fast as the others do. Is the big
Speaker 1: thing with new line coaches and picking up their system.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily how you specifically you know, set up your
Speaker 1: hands and your feet to block a specific guy, but
Speaker 1: how you handle the twists, the stunts, the approach that
Speaker 1: each line takes to handling that kind of stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there are you know, there are different techniques, um,
Speaker 1: you know, guys, guys, some coaches teach different hand placements
Speaker 1: and and and different torques that you might try to
Speaker 1: utilize in those types of thing aiming points. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the twist and the stunts and sometimes you know, protections
Speaker 1: are different in terms of terminology and then responsibility within
Speaker 1: the terminology. So it's like, you know, if you if
Speaker 1: you're a guard and you're an uncovered guard and you
Speaker 1: have a linebacker, and then you know, sometimes I gotta
Speaker 1: I gotta make sure I only had that inside linebacker.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't come, I gotta help inside on this protection.
Speaker 1: If inside linebacker doesn't come, I gotta check outside of
Speaker 1: the outside linebacker. So you know, it's like you're gotta
Speaker 1: keep it all straight and you have to keep all
Speaker 1: the terminology straight, and sometimes guys flat out brain cramp.
Speaker 1: You know, some guys, you know, master it quickly. Clint
Speaker 1: Bowling was a guy that mastered it quickly. I mean
Speaker 1: he could he would adjust, you know to uh new systems,
Speaker 1: new techniques, new coaches, no issue. Other guys takes a while.
Speaker 1: One of the big things we always look at at
Speaker 1: the beginning of training camp are the injured guys coming
Speaker 1: back and how quickly they get back on the field.
Speaker 1: So AJ Green, Kyl Loss and Ryan Glasgow Tyler, if
Speaker 1: dark Quaz Denard, that's going to be a big focus.
Speaker 1: When the guys get the rolling and dating it is,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a big focus, and all these guys,
Speaker 1: you know, potentially it could be significant contributors to the
Speaker 1: football team. You know, some starters some you know in
Speaker 1: today's NFL, the term starters is almost foreign to me,
Speaker 1: you know, because all these sub packages, you know, even
Speaker 1: with defensive linemen and sub packages. If you're if you know,
Speaker 1: you're going against the team that is going to have
Speaker 1: three and four receivers on the field the whole time,
Speaker 1: you're going to have your nickel pass rush group in there.
Speaker 1: In the defensive line, you only have two linebackers out there, Max,
Speaker 1: and you know, multiple defensive back So you know, it's
Speaker 1: like the starting eleven is nowhere near the starting eleven
Speaker 1: that's on the flipp card, you know, and it might
Speaker 1: be that way for eighty percent of the snaps in
Speaker 1: that football game. So all of these guys, um you know,
Speaker 1: have have shown or want to show that they can
Speaker 1: make significant contributions to their to the Bengals in the
Speaker 1: National Football League, and all of them have the potential
Speaker 1: the ability to do it. Will they stay healthy, will
Speaker 1: they come back healthy enough? And in some cases, like
Speaker 1: in Tyler's case, it's like, you know, people start to
Speaker 1: wonder how many injuries before. He's not running the routes
Speaker 1: like he did where he could sink his hips getting
Speaker 1: out of the cuts. You know, a big body guy
Speaker 1: that can run routes like a wide out. To me,
Speaker 1: it looks like he's still able to do that. But
Speaker 1: you know, you start to wonder, as the number one
Speaker 1: age and then number one age as well as injury,
Speaker 1: how big of a how big of a toll does
Speaker 1: it start to take on people? What will you be
Speaker 1: looking at when training camp begins into this new coaching staff,
Speaker 1: initially the old line, you know, as a former linement,
Speaker 1: I'll be looking at that offensive line. I know, I know,
Speaker 1: I know. Coach Turner, Jimmy Turner's got their attention. He
Speaker 1: is a type of offensive line coach that has got
Speaker 1: a big presence. He's got every player's attention that offensive line. Now,
Speaker 1: his task is to establish relationships with the players and
Speaker 1: trust that comes with the relationships with the players, and
Speaker 1: then relationships within the players themselves. Player the player relationships
Speaker 1: and the trust that goes along with that. And like
Speaker 1: we said, potentially, you know, they could be down to
Speaker 1: projected starters right now, you know, depending on how we're
Speaker 1: to unfold that We don't know. You can't look into
Speaker 1: crystal ball and say the left tackle was going to
Speaker 1: be Jonah and the left guard is going to be Clint.
Speaker 1: You don't know that for sure, but there's a damn
Speaker 1: good chance it could have gone that way, you know,
Speaker 1: barring injury and retirement because of injury and health issues
Speaker 1: and all that sort of thing. So that that group
Speaker 1: is going to be is going to be interesting to watch.
Speaker 1: And then I think um does the tempo, enthusiasm, spree accord,
Speaker 1: does all that sustain itself, you know, during all through
Speaker 1: training camp like it did in the mini camps and
Speaker 1: the OTAs and and that sort of thing. And then
Speaker 1: and then in the very beginning of the season, you
Speaker 1: know they're on the road early, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you get hitting the mouth on the road, and how
Speaker 1: will this team respond when they get hitting the mouth?
Speaker 1: As Tyson has said many times famous, everybody's got a
Speaker 1: game plan that you get hit in the mouth. So
Speaker 1: adversity is going to hit. It's a question to win.
Speaker 1: And how will this uh you know, this young coaching
Speaker 1: staff and these players you know, respond to that type
Speaker 1: of adversity. So there's there's a lot to look look
Speaker 1: forward to for sure. I always enjoy, you know, training camp,
Speaker 1: just watching how the team is put together. You know,
Speaker 1: it's you have you have ninety pieces to select from.
Speaker 1: In the beginning, you would let down. We'll let down,
Speaker 1: We'll let down. Why are you it down this way?
Speaker 1: And what's the thought process? And how how is this
Speaker 1: team going to be put together? And how is it
Speaker 1: going to compete? It's it's it's an interesting process to watch.
Speaker 1: Your batteries are reach outs. You're ready to go. I'm
Speaker 1: ready to rock and roll. Stud Let's do it. Bengals
Speaker 1: Training Camp begins a week from Saturday, July twenty seventh
Speaker 1: at Welcome Stadium in Dayton. It starts at two thirty
Speaker 1: and that's the first of ten practices that will be
Speaker 1: free and open to the public. That's going to do
Speaker 1: it for this week's podcast. If you haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: don't forget to subscribe, and if you have a minute,
Speaker 1: please give it a rating or leave a comment. Your
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Speaker 1: Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to the Bengals Booth podcast.