Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals boot podcast. The Opportunity Opportunity This is your
Speaker 1: big opportunity addition as we look ahead to Sunday's game
Speaker 1: at Paul Brown Stadium as the O two and one
Speaker 1: Bengals are at three point favorite as they host the
Speaker 1: one and two Jacksonville Jaguars. Coming up, Dave Lapham joins
Speaker 1: me to discuss right guard. No, not the popular mail deodorant,
Speaker 1: the position which could use some freshening up. Will cover
Speaker 1: that and all of the Bengals key storylines. This week's
Speaker 1: one on one player interview is with center Trey Hopkins
Speaker 1: as we discuss protecting Joe Burrow and opening holes for
Speaker 1: Joe Mixon. And finally, it's our No the Faux segment
Speaker 1: as we get an in depth look at the Jaguars
Speaker 1: from Gene Frenette, a straight shooting columnist from the Florida
Speaker 1: Times Union. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Prime Sport,
Speaker 1: the official hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. And here's
Speaker 1: a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition
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Speaker 1: computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or
Speaker 1: pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since the QB School.
Speaker 1: Remember JT. O'Sullivan the Bengals backup quarterback in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine. He has a channel on YouTube these days
Speaker 1: called the QB School where he does in depth analysis
Speaker 1: of quarterback play. On Tuesday, he spent seventeen minutes going
Speaker 1: over Joe Burrows performance against Philadelphia and it's excellent. I
Speaker 1: highly recommend checking out the video and then tune into
Speaker 1: the Bengals pep Rally Show this Friday afternoon. JT will
Speaker 1: be our guest at three fifteen. Now time to bring
Speaker 1: in my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. Let's discuss the number
Speaker 1: any issue on this team, and that is the play
Speaker 1: of the offensive line. They gave up eight sacks against
Speaker 1: the Eagles and eighteen quarterback hits, although according to head
Speaker 1: coach Zach Taylor, the line was not responsible for all
Speaker 1: of those sacks. The offense lind didn't give up eight sacks,
Speaker 1: you know, they gave up four, and one of them
Speaker 1: was at the last play the half. You know, when
Speaker 1: I asked Joe to hold on the ball for about
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds. Um, you know, we had receivers involved, we
Speaker 1: were somewhere on naked, somewhere on the tight end, you know.
Speaker 1: So there was a lot of people involved in No.
Speaker 1: Eight sacks. It's always going to be reflection on the
Speaker 1: offensive line, but that's just not the truth after this game,
Speaker 1: you know. And and again it's there are we we
Speaker 1: got to continue to improve up there. You know. We
Speaker 1: got two guys on the left side there that are
Speaker 1: played probably combined ten games of their NFL career, and um,
Speaker 1: we're only going to get better, you know, and those
Speaker 1: guys are are accountable to what they can improve on.
Speaker 1: And so again I'm not I'm always. I'm always. Um,
Speaker 1: it's never as bad as you think it is. And
Speaker 1: there's some things that we're improving on, and um, we'll
Speaker 1: continue to improve on as the season goes. That being said,
Speaker 1: how how do you feel about the amount of times
Speaker 1: Joe was contact something? Did those differ from maybe some
Speaker 1: of the contacts that he had in Week one and
Speaker 1: Week two? Yeah, I do, you know, it's we had
Speaker 1: two sprint outs where he got contacted on you know,
Speaker 1: out of bounds almost you know, and and his biggest
Speaker 1: hit of the day was on a naked you know,
Speaker 1: where he scrambled on a naked and the line's not
Speaker 1: really planning on him being there. You're faking to the
Speaker 1: right and you're keeping the ball the left. They're not
Speaker 1: expecting him to be back on the right hitting an
Speaker 1: explosive play. To TV, that's just what he brings to
Speaker 1: the table. You know, it's anything's on the table on
Speaker 1: any given play call. And you know he got hit.
Speaker 1: We got the penalty there, and so you know, some
Speaker 1: of those that look really bad are on some plays
Speaker 1: where we don't necessarily intend on that happening. But again,
Speaker 1: that's that's what makes Joe the player that he is
Speaker 1: is he's not afraid to take those hits and put
Speaker 1: himself in those positions because it means explosive plays. And
Speaker 1: there's a balance there of being smart, you know, not
Speaker 1: putting yourself in that position. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I'm screaming out and throw the ball away. On the
Speaker 1: play where t got called out of bounds, I'm scrammed
Speaker 1: two feet from him, screaming throw the ball away. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he puts a spin move on somebody
Speaker 1: and gets us twenty five completion completion on the field
Speaker 1: and turns on sources of laughing at me, you know.
Speaker 1: So there's just some things with his offense that we're learning.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be some explosives there that are unexpected, and
Speaker 1: we got we gotta be all the block for ten
Speaker 1: seconds sometimes and some things where you don't think the
Speaker 1: ball's coming back at you, but it is. And that's
Speaker 1: part of what's going to make this thing pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: All Right, we're gonna hear from Joe Burrow on that
Speaker 1: subject in just a little bit. Let's unpack some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that Zach Taylor had to say there. He said,
Speaker 1: I asked Joe to hold on to the ball for
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds. He's referring to the Hail Mary at the
Speaker 1: end of the second quarter. Then he also talked about
Speaker 1: the biggest hit that he took, that shot, that wicked
Speaker 1: shot that knocked the wind out of him on a
Speaker 1: naked So he's rolling out to his left, there's a
Speaker 1: guy there. He stops, starts to run back to the
Speaker 1: right a little bit. And in the NFL, if you
Speaker 1: do that, you are setting yourself up to potentially just
Speaker 1: get crushed. Le did You're on your own and Malik
Speaker 1: Jackson said, oh, I'm going hunting, and you put a
Speaker 1: big X on his chest and shoulder and smoked it.
Speaker 1: You can rationalize, You can build a case, almost like
Speaker 1: a lawyer, to say, oh, you know, eight sacks, they
Speaker 1: all weren't in the offensive line. And that's true, but
Speaker 1: you can find other plays where the quarterback save the
Speaker 1: offensive line from a sack, or a running back save
Speaker 1: the offensive line from a sack. I don't care what
Speaker 1: the numbers say. I don't care how you try to
Speaker 1: rationalize it. All I know is one I'm watching a
Speaker 1: game as a former lineman. I don't see a clean
Speaker 1: enough pocket a high enough percentage of the time. And
Speaker 1: you can Billy Day all you want about you know
Speaker 1: this that I don't give a damn. It's like, is
Speaker 1: the pocket secure enough but with the center and guards
Speaker 1: for the quarterback to step up if he needs to,
Speaker 1: And is it wide enough from the tackles for the
Speaker 1: quarterback not to worry about getting hit? And way too
Speaker 1: higher percentage of the time. It's not. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it's all five guys. I'm not saying that by
Speaker 1: any stretch, because I've been there and I know it
Speaker 1: only takes one guy, but there's way too many times
Speaker 1: where it's happening where one guy has an issue. And
Speaker 1: in some cases, you know, like Zach said after the game,
Speaker 1: his first reaction as a former quarterback after the game
Speaker 1: is when a three technique is coming up to feel
Speaker 1: like a free runner and that's the outside shoulder of
Speaker 1: the guard. The right guard is coming up the field
Speaker 1: like he's hardly touched. That's disconcerting to the quarterback, no
Speaker 1: question about it. So the bottom line is it has
Speaker 1: to get better. I know what good protection looks like.
Speaker 1: I think almost everybody knows what good protection looks like.
Speaker 1: Right now, it's not good protection. It's not good enough.
Speaker 1: And you know, and Joe needs to make an effort
Speaker 1: to not exacerbate the problem. He needs to make a
Speaker 1: decision where man if I start to take too many
Speaker 1: of these, I'm not going to be around for a
Speaker 1: very long time because these guys. The SEC is a
Speaker 1: great level of competition, but these guys are bigger, faster,
Speaker 1: stronger than the SEC. Has more offensive and defensive line
Speaker 1: playing in the NFL than any conference. But all of
Speaker 1: these guys playing in the NFL right now on both
Speaker 1: sides of the line of scrimmage could play in the SEC,
Speaker 1: not just you know, two per team, maybe three on
Speaker 1: a team offensive defensive lineman. So it's just another jump up.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have defensive ends outside linebackers that are
Speaker 1: more athletic than running backs you played against in college.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. That's just that's nature of the beast, and
Speaker 1: you're just going to have to decide I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna put myself at unnecessary risk for the
Speaker 1: sake of one play. Not going to do it. Molie
Speaker 1: Campbell got penalized for that hit, and I'm sure he'll
Speaker 1: get fine, but I'm alike Jackson. I'm sorry, but I
Speaker 1: really haven't heard anybody talk about that as a cheap shot.
Speaker 1: If Vontest Berfect had hit a quarterback like that, it
Speaker 1: would have run non stop. Right twenty four to seven,
Speaker 1: people would have been calling for him to be banned
Speaker 1: from the league. I'm not saying Malik of Jackson is
Speaker 1: a dirty player. I don't know of any history of
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, but that was a dirty hit
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Yeah it was. It didn't launch himself
Speaker 1: toward the shoulder neck area, he ran through him. You know,
Speaker 1: kind of you're right, if Vontes Berfet or Joe Green,
Speaker 1: or you know, pick a guy Dick Buckis, pick a
Speaker 1: guy with a reputation, so you know that can be
Speaker 1: a prejudicial scenario, There's no question about it. But he
Speaker 1: was flagged. I'm glad he was flagged because you know,
Speaker 1: one of those I wonder if you'se find he will
Speaker 1: be fined. I mean, the league find that out at
Speaker 1: the end of the week. He wasn't ejected, obviously, but
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's looking at the final he was penalized
Speaker 1: like that. Bottom line is you got to protect quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: A Quarterbacks are the storyline of the National Football League
Speaker 1: and they're the most valuable asset you have in your company.
Speaker 1: So you gotta protect him. You gotta protect him. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's talk about right guard Xavier sue Philo was the
Speaker 1: starter in Week one. He got hurt. Billy Price finished
Speaker 1: up that game. Fred Johnson started and played Game two.
Speaker 1: Fred Johnson started Game three, got yanked at halftime, Billy
Speaker 1: Price finished up. It didn't go particularly well. They've got
Speaker 1: Alex Redman on the practice squad. They promote did keep
Speaker 1: in Sutherland from the practice squad this week. What are
Speaker 1: they going to do a right guard. Before you answer
Speaker 1: the question, let's hear from offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. We're
Speaker 1: looking at all of them and the play there has
Speaker 1: got to be better, and I think everybody can see that. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know that I felt at halftime.
Speaker 1: We kind of felt French struggling more than as you watched.
Speaker 1: The tape wasn't as bad as itself. There's just a
Speaker 1: couple of plays that make it feel bad. And then
Speaker 1: Billy kind of did some good things early and then
Speaker 1: he struggled late in the game there in passcrow. So
Speaker 1: we just we need better play there. And so all
Speaker 1: the options are on the table as far as the
Speaker 1: players that are on our roster. Um. You know, I
Speaker 1: ultimately the chances of a Pro Bowl guard walking through
Speaker 1: your door and week through the season are real low.
Speaker 1: It's just there's just the nature of it. So there's
Speaker 1: really no cavalry comment in that sense. Um. So we
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta find ways to take it. The best
Speaker 1: guys on the field, and we're looking at all the options,
Speaker 1: especially who's here, and if there is somebody out there
Speaker 1: in the world that can help us, we'll sort of
Speaker 1: look at that too. He sounded like Rick Petino and
Speaker 1: his Boston Celtics days, Larry Bird and Kevin McHale aren't
Speaker 1: walking through that door. And he's right, you're probably not
Speaker 1: going to be able to land a great guard right
Speaker 1: now at this point of the season. But but what
Speaker 1: do you think, what do they do? It's it's open competition,
Speaker 1: you know. And if I'm if I'm alignman, if I'm
Speaker 1: a guard, I'm like, this is my chance, you know.
Speaker 1: But the problem is, why the hell hasn't that happened
Speaker 1: long before this? Why does it have to come to
Speaker 1: this desperate situation where it was so bad that the
Speaker 1: right guard was the biggest problem in the past, protection
Speaker 1: from more snaps than not. So why did it come
Speaker 1: Why does it come down to this? This is the
Speaker 1: fourth game of the season. Now, there was no training camp, now,
Speaker 1: ot is all that sort of thing. They thought they
Speaker 1: were better off than they were. Obviously once it got
Speaker 1: to live bullets, man, it certainly wasn't good enough anywhere
Speaker 1: near good enough. And in my opinion, the guy that
Speaker 1: can handle the job the best is Alex Redmond. Alex
Speaker 1: Redmond has seventeen NFL starts. Alex Redman has played next
Speaker 1: to Trey Hopkins, He's played next to Bobby Hart. They
Speaker 1: know live action, where to set for stunts. They have
Speaker 1: a feel for each other. They they've communicated all those
Speaker 1: kind of things that are important. They're extremely important. You know.
Speaker 1: So if he's healthy. But that's the problem. You know,
Speaker 1: Alex had the wrestling incident. I guess you know in
Speaker 1: the offseason right for training missus training camp. Now there's
Speaker 1: no preseason games, no OTAs, no mini camps, and he
Speaker 1: missed his training camp. What are you supposed to do?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, he painted himself in the organization
Speaker 1: both into a corner and they decided, you know, he's
Speaker 1: not ready for they let him go. And the and
Speaker 1: the thing is what has to go on the light
Speaker 1: that has to go on his head is nobody picked
Speaker 1: him up when the Bengals let him go, Nobody picked
Speaker 1: him up. The Bengals brought him back. Okay, so now
Speaker 1: when you're healthy, we know you can play, we know
Speaker 1: you can finish, we know you're a beast, we know
Speaker 1: you can you know, by finish, it's like not just
Speaker 1: block people, but then try to abuse him at the
Speaker 1: end of it and say, you know, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: want to line up against me anymore. That kind of
Speaker 1: an attitude. He has got that saltiness. Now he has
Speaker 1: to make sure he doesn't take it too far. Don't
Speaker 1: let the pendult swing too far. You don't want any
Speaker 1: silly penalties. You don't want any false starch, you don't
Speaker 1: want mental errors. You know, those are the kind of
Speaker 1: things he has to make sure. He has to make
Speaker 1: sure he is on point dot and I crossing the
Speaker 1: tea detail oriented proved to the coaches that he is
Speaker 1: not only ready to go physically, ready to go mentally.
Speaker 1: Because if that's the case, he's the best right guard
Speaker 1: they have in my opinion, bar none. You know, case closed.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's best in league or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying from what they've got to choose from
Speaker 1: right now, he is their most viable and best option.
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow has been sacked more often than any other
Speaker 1: quarterback in the NFL so far this year. He's been
Speaker 1: sacked fourteen times. Deshaun Watson of Houston right behind him
Speaker 1: with thirteen sacks. According to Pro Football Focus, if you
Speaker 1: measure the highest percentage of pressure, it's not at the
Speaker 1: top in terms of the Bengals. Former Bengals quarterback Jeff
Speaker 1: Driscoll has been pressured on forty seven percent of his
Speaker 1: drop backs, that's number one. Joe Burrow has been pressured
Speaker 1: on roughly thirty eight percent of his drop backs, that
Speaker 1: is ninth most in the NFL. So here's Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: on the pressure he has been facing in his first
Speaker 1: three NFL games. You know my style, everyone talks about
Speaker 1: the hits and you know the sacks. My style of play,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get hit. You know, I'm gonna try to
Speaker 1: extend the play as much as I can. And that's
Speaker 1: something that I'm gonna have to live with, and I've
Speaker 1: I've lived with it. I understand that. You know that's
Speaker 1: going to happen. You know, there were a couple of
Speaker 1: times where I held the ball a little too long
Speaker 1: and you know at the end of half, end of
Speaker 1: game that you know, the eight sacks was kind of
Speaker 1: misleading because you end a half end of game, you
Speaker 1: don't want to turn it over, you don't want to
Speaker 1: the clock to stop. So I took a couple of
Speaker 1: sacks on purpose. Um, So the eight sacks was a
Speaker 1: little misleading. So I remember one you you ran a
Speaker 1: naked bootleg, wasn't there You started to come back and
Speaker 1: try to make a play, you know, like you have,
Speaker 1: You've done a lot and uh, you're you're on your
Speaker 1: own then, I guess, aren't you. Yeah, you know That's
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna live with when I make When I'm
Speaker 1: you know, running about, running around out there trying to
Speaker 1: make plays. You know, I understand that I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: hits when I you know, naked to my left, roll
Speaker 1: back right. But we completed the ball, made a play,
Speaker 1: got a first down. So I'm gonna live with that
Speaker 1: hit every day of the week. As you advance in
Speaker 1: your NFL career, there's a balancing act there between taking
Speaker 1: the hit, making the play. Taking the hit and making
Speaker 1: the play. Are you still in the process of going
Speaker 1: through evaluation part of it? Yeah? But like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm always gonna try to make a play. And now
Speaker 1: you know, I understand when and when not to. You
Speaker 1: know the situations of the game. You know, if it's
Speaker 1: second and long, you know, getting closer, taking a sack,
Speaker 1: just get rid of the ball and play third and
Speaker 1: you know eight instead of third and fifteen. But you know,
Speaker 1: on the one, it was second and fifteen, and in
Speaker 1: my mind, there's not a lot of difference between second
Speaker 1: and fifteen and third and twenty. So I'm gonna extend
Speaker 1: that play a little longer than I would have otherwise.
Speaker 1: After the game, Sacks said that, you know, when the
Speaker 1: three technique is getting big time pressure, it's almost like
Speaker 1: a free runner. It doesn't matter what play is called.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a tough dynamic. I mean, that's hard
Speaker 1: for you to see in that situation when the pressure
Speaker 1: is coming right in your face in the middle of
Speaker 1: the pocket, isn't it. Yeah, But you know it's my
Speaker 1: job to make that guy miss and make a play.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't get paid to take sacks. I
Speaker 1: get paid to make plays, and so that's my job.
Speaker 1: Things are going to happen where you know, we got
Speaker 1: five guys blocking every single play, and they got pass
Speaker 1: rushers that are paid millions of dollars to come and
Speaker 1: sack me. So guys are gonna lose, Guys are gonna
Speaker 1: get beat. That's the nature of the league. It's my
Speaker 1: job to limit mistakes and make plays. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: the sacks a little bit more lap right now, he's
Speaker 1: on a pace to basically tie the all times single
Speaker 1: season record that was set by David Carr number one overall,
Speaker 1: picked by Houston his rookie year, when he got sacked
Speaker 1: seventy six times. That's basically the pace that Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: is on right now. He got sacked eight times last week.
Speaker 1: I went back and looked at the most sacks that
Speaker 1: the all time great Bengals quarterbacks took in a single game,
Speaker 1: Kenny Anderson eight, Carson Palmer six with Cincinnati, but yet
Speaker 1: sacked eight times once with the Arizona Cardinals, Boomer six,
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton eight last year, the all time record David
Speaker 1: Klingler in his first NFL start ten. That's the Bengals record.
Speaker 1: That's not the NFL record, which is twelve shared by
Speaker 1: two great quarterbacks, Donovan mcnabbin Warren Moon. Yeah, and you wonder, Okay,
Speaker 1: those guys are athletic running around, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: hold the ball, make plays and everything goes along with it.
Speaker 1: You know. I wonder what Andrew Luck, how his career
Speaker 1: would have been if he can do now. The offensive line, though,
Speaker 1: is much different. I think Andrew Luck right now would
Speaker 1: be enjoying his life because Philip rivers Is and the
Speaker 1: Indianapolis Colts fixed that problem after Andrew Luck decided to retire,
Speaker 1: which is unfortunate. But yeah, it's look like like Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow said, pass rushers are paid a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Defensive linemen paid a lot of money to rush the
Speaker 1: passer and pressure the quarterback. And the Bengals right now
Speaker 1: dan lasting the league in sacks with fourteen that's thirty second,
Speaker 1: one hundred and seven yards lost thirty second as well,
Speaker 1: dead last. They've lost over a football field. They've given
Speaker 1: back over a football field of offense due to their
Speaker 1: quarterback sacks Denver who you mentioned, you know, with our
Speaker 1: with our good buddy playing a quarterback position, thirteen sacks,
Speaker 1: one hundred and six yards, one less sack, one less yard.
Speaker 1: They're thirty first in both categories. So when you're given
Speaker 1: up fourteen sacks and over a football field in yards,
Speaker 1: it's obviously it's it's something that has to be addressed.
Speaker 1: But then on the other hand, Joe Burrows the only
Speaker 1: rookie quarterback since nineteen fifty that has back to back
Speaker 1: games thirty plus completions with no interceptions since nineteen fifty,
Speaker 1: So in the midst of all of that that's going
Speaker 1: on around him, you know, all the whirlwind, He's still
Speaker 1: executing and performing pretty darn well. So if things get better,
Speaker 1: think how much better Joe can be. He's not operating
Speaker 1: at a deficient level right now as a rookie quarterback
Speaker 1: with all the friends going on around him. So if
Speaker 1: that can improve whatever percent, ten percent, twenty percent, Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow will improve as well. I mean it can only
Speaker 1: get better. I mean if if he's posting these numbers
Speaker 1: under these adverse conditions, when conditions improve, so should his numbers.
Speaker 1: He has one for sixteen on throws that have traveled
Speaker 1: twenty or more yards downfield. The one completion his first
Speaker 1: career NFL touchdown to C j Uzama, and that was
Speaker 1: twenty three yards, So it's not like fifty. How much
Speaker 1: of that is not having time and space? I think
Speaker 1: a good bit of it. And you know the other
Speaker 1: thing is if you get ping ponged around when you
Speaker 1: do have an opportunity, you overthrow it. I mean I
Speaker 1: think I think the throw that overthrew it to AJ Green,
Speaker 1: he said himself, high school quarterback, it's got to make
Speaker 1: that throw ninety nine times out of one hundred Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow hits Aj Green. I think on that pass now,
Speaker 1: you know, am I saying that pressure had affected him
Speaker 1: at that point that early in the season to where
Speaker 1: he didn't make a good throw. I don't know, Maybe,
Speaker 1: maybe not, but I do know that over time, when
Speaker 1: you're getting smacked around like that, it's like, oh, here's
Speaker 1: the the deep ball opportunity. Oh it might be, it
Speaker 1: might present itself here, get it out now. You're getting
Speaker 1: it out too fast. You're not as accurate as you
Speaker 1: could be. If you if you feel like I mean
Speaker 1: the great deep ball throwers. You know you're throwing with
Speaker 1: the anticipation and accuracy everywhere deep ball as well, but
Speaker 1: the deep ball throws that really killed defenses over the years.
Speaker 1: Hold it that extra half a beat to make short
Speaker 1: and the boom laser you know, getting in there. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it is. It's all about time and like we've
Speaker 1: talked about a million times, space, keep people arm's length away,
Speaker 1: keep them away from Joe Burrow. So far this season,
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, Aj Green has looked pedestrian.
Speaker 1: Not terrible, but not what you expect out of Aj Green.
Speaker 1: He's on a pace for sixty nine catches and six
Speaker 1: hundred nineteen yards this season. His longest catch so far
Speaker 1: this year is fifteen yards. Here's offensive coordinator Brian Callahan
Speaker 1: on the first three games of the year for Aj Green.
Speaker 1: You need to get more on Aj There's no question
Speaker 1: about that, you know. And I think he's felt his
Speaker 1: way through three weeks here after not playing for two years,
Speaker 1: and I think every time he steps out there, he
Speaker 1: gets better and gets more comfortable. And you know, he
Speaker 1: really hasn't taken reps in the offense up until the
Speaker 1: season started. You know, he's been a right he's been
Speaker 1: meetings and he's been attentive and he understands and but
Speaker 1: you know, going out and doing it sometimes it's a
Speaker 1: lot different than it is sitting in a classroom, and
Speaker 1: that part of it's. I think every day that goes by,
Speaker 1: he gets more comfortable, he gains more confidence, and you know,
Speaker 1: we need Ada to help us. And then we've called
Speaker 1: on him in some big spots already this year and
Speaker 1: he's made place for us, and we just you got
Speaker 1: to continue to find ways to get him the ball
Speaker 1: and get him give him more optus and make plays
Speaker 1: as well. Brian when you were talking about receivers stretching
Speaker 1: the field. I think you said that Aj can still
Speaker 1: do a little of that. There was a time that
Speaker 1: he there was a time that he did a lot
Speaker 1: of that. Does that kind of reflect where he is
Speaker 1: at this stage of his career. I think he just
Speaker 1: he's just coming off of a hamstring injury that limited
Speaker 1: him for most of Camp. I think he feels finally
Speaker 1: feels like he's fully ready to open it up, and
Speaker 1: he's done a lot of good things so far. He's
Speaker 1: put a lot of content the balls that have been
Speaker 1: first downs and good plays for us to move the
Speaker 1: chains down the field, and finding ways to get aged
Speaker 1: down the fields and more too, is something that you know,
Speaker 1: we need to keep keep prodding and pushing to get
Speaker 1: to that spot. I don't know that it's effect of
Speaker 1: anything other than um, you know, kind of how the
Speaker 1: games have fallen, the types of scheme we've seen, and ultimately,
Speaker 1: you know, being able to get in a position to
Speaker 1: throw those balls down the field. You know, we missed
Speaker 1: him in the Chargers game. He was he was open.
Speaker 1: So I don't think it's a factive other than just
Speaker 1: just gotta gotta connect on some of the deep shots
Speaker 1: and then you've got to find ways to get them there.
Speaker 1: In the last two weeks, at least when I've been watching,
Speaker 1: I don't see great separation between AJ Green and the
Speaker 1: guys covering him. And Denzel Warden Darius Slay are two
Speaker 1: to the better cornerbacks in the NFL, So that has
Speaker 1: something to do with that. But we're talking about AJ Green.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter who covered him in the past, the
Speaker 1: best corners in the game at least a few times
Speaker 1: during the game, he was going to fake them out
Speaker 1: of their jock and be wide open. AJ Green's body
Speaker 1: language oozes with uncertainty in my opinion, you know, like
Speaker 1: I think Brian Callahan said, he's kind of feeling his way,
Speaker 1: you know, out there on the football field. And I
Speaker 1: concur one hundred thousand percent, and I've said it a
Speaker 1: million times and I'll say one more. He's a REP guy.
Speaker 1: He will tell you I'm a REP guy. I need
Speaker 1: to be on the football field doing it over and
Speaker 1: over and over again. He's not a guy that takes
Speaker 1: it from the classroom and feels comfortable until he's out
Speaker 1: on the field actually going through the process with a
Speaker 1: defender and knowing exactly what he's doing, how he's supposed
Speaker 1: to do it, where he's supposed to be, how he's
Speaker 1: supposed to get there, all those kind of things. And
Speaker 1: there's no doubt in my mind that when opposing coaches
Speaker 1: and players watch tape of AJ right now, they say,
Speaker 1: let's get our hands on him. In the past, AJ would,
Speaker 1: I mean, just destroy guys that we're trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: check him out the line of scrimmage, bump and run,
Speaker 1: he'd be he'd have a release and be buy him.
Speaker 1: Now they're getting their hands on him, and they're riding
Speaker 1: you know, they're riding them, you know, And I mean
Speaker 1: the touchdown passed a good example could have been called.
Speaker 1: Could have because he more than five yards down the field.
Speaker 1: Maybe he had his hands on him. You can chuck
Speaker 1: within a five yard area. Was at the three yard line,
Speaker 1: so it was close, wasn't that? How much out of that?
Speaker 1: But you can't bear hug him, you can't put an
Speaker 1: arm around him, which is what happened. And then he
Speaker 1: could call for the push off, but he was so
Speaker 1: frustrated because of how he was bottled up. He pushed
Speaker 1: off to get to try to get separation because he
Speaker 1: knew they were going to him. They said, Aj, this
Speaker 1: is the biggest play of the game. You're our best player.
Speaker 1: We're going to you. And he knew it. So he
Speaker 1: knew at the top of his route. Damn, this ain't working.
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta do something to give some separation.
Speaker 1: So right now, watching AJ, I'm watching a player with
Speaker 1: a little uncertainty. You know, I'm not saying he doesn't
Speaker 1: know what to do assignment wise. What I'm saying he
Speaker 1: has not had enough repetition where he feels totally comfortable,
Speaker 1: where he's just ripping up the football field. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's he's it all hang out to me, to me,
Speaker 1: he's got a governor on him. You know, he hasn't
Speaker 1: he doesn't let he hasn't let it go to the
Speaker 1: to the top of his uh you know, auto bond
Speaker 1: type range. Yet he's got a governor, you know, And
Speaker 1: and hopefully he'll start to feel more and more comfortable
Speaker 1: and take that governor off. On defense, Carl Lawson had
Speaker 1: two sacks last week. He also had a pair of hurries,
Speaker 1: and according to Pro Football Focus, Lawson is currently tied
Speaker 1: for eighteenth among edge defenders through three weeks. He also
Speaker 1: had a good game as a run stopper last week
Speaker 1: in Philly, and he embarrassed nine time Pro Bowl left
Speaker 1: tackle Jason Peters. Here's Carl on last week's performance. I
Speaker 1: think me just being on the field more is just
Speaker 1: you know, that's kind of helped because it's like, you
Speaker 1: know sometimes when you gotta um sub in and get
Speaker 1: your motor running a little bit, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: but now you know, it's on something a bitter a
Speaker 1: better role this year where I get to play, you know,
Speaker 1: for a second and third down. I'm just getting the
Speaker 1: rhythm and I can you know, impose my will on
Speaker 1: the game a little bit more, you know, So I
Speaker 1: don't not necessarily think that Peters was doing it. Just
Speaker 1: you know, just me being out there more and just
Speaker 1: having some experience I think helped with my play. Is
Speaker 1: Carl Lawson more than a situational pass rusher? I think
Speaker 1: he is now. He does have three quarterback sacks, tied
Speaker 1: for fifth in the NFL with Miles Garrett and Joey Bosa.
Speaker 1: Pretty good company. But he can play the run. I
Speaker 1: mean when he gets lined up on tight ends and
Speaker 1: some of the packages that lou An Rumo has. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a mismatch. And the thing about him is
Speaker 1: he plays with low center of gravity anyway, and he
Speaker 1: does that in the running game as well. And he's
Speaker 1: got really good hip snap. He can roll his hips
Speaker 1: and man, when he strikes you and has that low
Speaker 1: pad level, he can be a load. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: got a very very quick first step. He's sudden, he's explosive.
Speaker 1: He can play with power, he can play with strength,
Speaker 1: he can convert power to strength. He's got a bunch
Speaker 1: of trade that that would translate to more than just
Speaker 1: like an edge pass rush guy on third down. I
Speaker 1: think he can do more than that. For you, did
Speaker 1: lou Anna Romo basically let the front four go in
Speaker 1: passing situations last week? It seemed like it. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: seemed like they they thought we got some favorable matchups here.
Speaker 1: I mean, Peters is going in the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: but he's thirty eight years old, it's seventeen season. He's
Speaker 1: you know, I was kidding during the game, they're two
Speaker 1: statue of liberties, one in Philadelphia and one in New York.
Speaker 1: Because he wasn't He's not moving like he was and
Speaker 1: Carl Lawson was the one one arm stab throwing him around.
Speaker 1: I mean he was, he was just having his way
Speaker 1: with him. But yeah, it's it's uh, they decided they
Speaker 1: could just beat him. Don't have to do anything fancy,
Speaker 1: don't have to overload the blitz action, don't have to
Speaker 1: twist as much. Just one on one pass rush, get
Speaker 1: up the field and get something done. And Carlos Dunlap
Speaker 1: had nine unassisted tackles. That's a that's a very productive
Speaker 1: day out of the defensive end. Like I said a
Speaker 1: couple of times, I thought they let Lane Johnson get
Speaker 1: away with some action on the edge. I thought that
Speaker 1: Lane Johnson, I know, he's coming off an ankle injury.
Speaker 1: He looked a little diminished, and Peters looked big time
Speaker 1: diminished from where he was in his prime. Did Mike
Speaker 1: Daniels have an impact in his return? He did. You know,
Speaker 1: he's uh, he definitely you know, can invert the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. And he played another one plays with a
Speaker 1: low pad level. He's you know, six to one and
Speaker 1: three hundred plus pounds. I mean that's like trying to
Speaker 1: block a you know, a mini fridge that's got some mobility,
Speaker 1: or a hydrant that can move around and he definitely
Speaker 1: he definitely shores it up for him up front. Hopefully
Speaker 1: the word is that he came out of it well,
Speaker 1: I was, you know, Okay, you come off a groin,
Speaker 1: you play twenty some odd snaps the next day after
Speaker 1: the game. Is the tale of the tape? How so
Speaker 1: are you? How stiff are you? And uh, he went
Speaker 1: into the training when I might understand, you know, not
Speaker 1: in that serious scenario. So hopefully he'll be able to
Speaker 1: ramp up his snaps because he's going to help. And
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not sure about Gino. Doesn't look
Speaker 1: like Gino's gonna make the dance this week either, unfortunately.
Speaker 1: And you know how bad is this shoulder injury? What's
Speaker 1: going on here? You know it's get your best defensive
Speaker 1: player not playing the first month of the first four
Speaker 1: games of the season. Man, you could use him. It's
Speaker 1: a team struggling to stop the run. He can help that.
Speaker 1: He and Daniel's in there together with DJ Reader and rotation.
Speaker 1: I'm dogging hunt right there. Gino Atkins did practice on
Speaker 1: a limited basis on Wednesday, so if he's not back
Speaker 1: this week, hopefully he'll return soon. Linebacker Logan Wilson missed
Speaker 1: Wednesday's practice due to the concussion protocol. The highest graded
Speaker 1: pass blocker through three games on the Bengals offensive line
Speaker 1: has been center Trey Hopkins. Pro Football Focus ranks him
Speaker 1: tenth among NFL centers in that category so far this year.
Speaker 1: It's only his second year at the position, and I
Speaker 1: spoke to the twenty eight year old this week. Trey,
Speaker 1: you know how this works, regardless of how many pass
Speaker 1: at tempt your quarterback throws or if there are situations
Speaker 1: where he has to get rid of the ball, if
Speaker 1: he gets sacked, the offensive line gets ripped. How difficult
Speaker 1: is that aspect of the job right now? I think
Speaker 1: we've made it more difficult than it needs to be.
Speaker 1: We just have to settle things down, and we have
Speaker 1: to We have to give each other tommy needs, no
Speaker 1: matter how many times it is in a game, matter
Speaker 1: where we throw it a hundred times, when we throw
Speaker 1: it once, um, when the plays called block it is
Speaker 1: our responsibility. So just let it stay that simple, I guess,
Speaker 1: and and and we just got to do a better
Speaker 1: job to share it up and be a lot firmer
Speaker 1: up there. Following last week's game, both Zach Taylor and
Speaker 1: Brian Callahan said when they looked back at the tape,
Speaker 1: it was better than they thought. Did you feel the
Speaker 1: same way. It's difficult to find yourself get into that conclusion.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a very it's a difficult thing. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a thing that takes a lot of maturity
Speaker 1: because I mean a tie, it's still not a win.
Speaker 1: So you still have that that you still have that
Speaker 1: same bitter taste in your mouth, and a lot of
Speaker 1: times it's easier to just to go go over the
Speaker 1: things that went wrong. Those things seem to stand out
Speaker 1: a lot more in your head when when you don't
Speaker 1: win a game, just like when you win a game,
Speaker 1: things that went right, since he seemed to stand down
Speaker 1: a lot more than they should, but they're both exactly correct.
Speaker 1: When we sat down with the coach and actually watched
Speaker 1: the film and slowed down and watched play by play
Speaker 1: and watch assignments and steps and techniques, yes, there there
Speaker 1: has been an improvement um and throughout these three games
Speaker 1: so far, still not enough obviously to get the win,
Speaker 1: which is the ultimate goals. So he has to keep
Speaker 1: pushing towards that. Visiting with Trey Hopkins on the play
Speaker 1: last week where Joe Burrow had the win knocked out
Speaker 1: of him. Did that take the wind out of you
Speaker 1: watching it? Yeah? Yeah, it it definitely. It's not a
Speaker 1: not a good feeling, not a not a good play,
Speaker 1: not something that you ever want to have happened, for sure,
Speaker 1: for sure it was. It was definitely disheartened. I want
Speaker 1: to go back to it. Joe Burrow quote from the
Speaker 1: preseason about his relationship with the offensive line. He said,
Speaker 1: those guys have to be my best friends. I have
Speaker 1: to make them happy so they'll fight for me. And
Speaker 1: then he went on to say they are going to
Speaker 1: have some nice Christmas presents this year. Does Joe make
Speaker 1: you guys feel appreciated? Yeah he does. Yeah, he does.
Speaker 1: And one thing Joe does he makes it a point,
Speaker 1: which is something that's kind of new. He always speaks
Speaker 1: to the aligne first thing he doesn't he comes into
Speaker 1: the huddle Eastern series, he speaks to the olne and
Speaker 1: practicing in the games, and he's been a great presence.
Speaker 1: Um he hasn't been a down. Bo's been an encouraging
Speaker 1: one and just letting us know, hey, I'm on board
Speaker 1: you guys and we got to get this thing right,
Speaker 1: and then I believe and he believes in us to
Speaker 1: get it right. So now it's just up to us
Speaker 1: to protect the guy and to do a better job
Speaker 1: at that all of us. Let's turn to the running game.
Speaker 1: It was excellent in the second half of the season
Speaker 1: last year. Can you put a finger on why you
Speaker 1: haven't been able to pick up where you left off?
Speaker 1: Not exactly a finger. It's one of those things where
Speaker 1: you look at you look at the film and it's
Speaker 1: it takes all eleven on offense and even when you
Speaker 1: got ten doing it right, you got nine. Those pieces
Speaker 1: are critical, and that's one thing that's that's where we're at.
Speaker 1: That's what we're seeing with our run game. It's just
Speaker 1: small pieces or what you think are small pieces, actually
Speaker 1: play a huge role when it comes to live bullets.
Speaker 1: So it's just making sure all eleven guys were all
Speaker 1: we're all on the same page, and we're all executing
Speaker 1: to the best of our abilities on each place. You
Speaker 1: never know when the big run could be. You never
Speaker 1: know when you're one block. Even if you don't get
Speaker 1: it right, there one extra that that little bit of
Speaker 1: strange just gets to get the defender of off balance
Speaker 1: just a little bit more to get Joe just firsting
Speaker 1: through that hole, you know what I'm saying. So it
Speaker 1: just comes to all of us executing on every play,
Speaker 1: not each of us taking taking our turns and missing
Speaker 1: an assignment or missing a step or being behind or
Speaker 1: something like that. It hasn't been what you would have
Speaker 1: wanted so far, but it's been far superior to the
Speaker 1: first half of last year. Does the turnaround you had
Speaker 1: last year give you confidence that you will turn it
Speaker 1: around him again this year? Sure? I mean I have
Speaker 1: confidence because the guys that are in this locker room
Speaker 1: one hundred percent now. We don't want it to take
Speaker 1: as long as last year. Obviously, we have a game
Speaker 1: coming up on Sunday that we have to be confident
Speaker 1: that we can win. We are confident that we can win,
Speaker 1: and we deserve too, and we're gonna work and prepare
Speaker 1: for it. Um So the turnaround, we're not giving ourselves
Speaker 1: that much time, We're not giving ourselves that much that
Speaker 1: much leadway we need. We need this right now because
Speaker 1: the guys in this locker room deserve it. We work
Speaker 1: too hard, they put in a lot of time. We've
Speaker 1: got to turn this thing around. Now, you've played with
Speaker 1: three right guards in three games, partly due to injury,
Speaker 1: partly due to performance. How difficult is that. It's not
Speaker 1: the best situation, it's not optimal. It's not what you
Speaker 1: would go into the season and say, yeah, we're just
Speaker 1: gonna rotate each one. But it's it's part. It's something
Speaker 1: that just happens, and like anything else, you gotta take
Speaker 1: it in stride and you gotta roll with the punches
Speaker 1: and the guy that gets called up, that guy just
Speaker 1: does the best disability. Everybody around him, rally around him,
Speaker 1: and we get this thing going. It's not something that
Speaker 1: you could really you can labor on too long or
Speaker 1: woe is me about? It's just it is what it is.
Speaker 1: Let's play last thing for Trey Hopkins. You've got a
Speaker 1: three point loss, you've got a five point loss, you
Speaker 1: have a tie. Are you encouraged by how close these
Speaker 1: games have been or angry that you have not been
Speaker 1: able to seal the deal? Angry? We were close all
Speaker 1: last year in a two win season. We were close
Speaker 1: in pretty much all of those games. All said, there
Speaker 1: wasn't a game that I felt like we just could
Speaker 1: not have one. So It's not enough to be close.
Speaker 1: It's not enough to have a competitive game or to
Speaker 1: not gonna get blown out. These are games that we
Speaker 1: can when we should win, and we have to figure
Speaker 1: out a way to win. Hope you get it done
Speaker 1: this Sunday. Thanks for the time, appreciate it trade so much.
Speaker 1: Now time to turn our attention to this week's opponent,
Speaker 1: but one and two Jacksonville Jaguars. It looked like they
Speaker 1: were in full tanking for Trevor Mode when they traded
Speaker 1: away defensive stars Jalen Ramsey, Klias Campbell, and Yunique and
Speaker 1: Gockway and released running back Leonard Fournette. But lo and behold.
Speaker 1: The Jags opened the season by upsetting the Colts and
Speaker 1: had the Titans on the ropes in Week two before
Speaker 1: losing on a field goal in the final two minutes.
Speaker 1: But then Jacksonville laid a Terra dactyl sized egg last week,
Speaker 1: losing by eighteen to the Dolphins at home. Gene Frenette,
Speaker 1: a columnist to the Florida Times Union, joined Lapping Me
Speaker 1: on the Bengals Game Plan show this week, and I
Speaker 1: asked Jean if the Jaguars had exceeded his expectations so
Speaker 1: far this year a little bit. Certainly the last game
Speaker 1: gives you a little bit of a pause, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: it looked like a semblance of Jaguars teams we've seen
Speaker 1: in the past, and more to the point, it looked
Speaker 1: like a team that was very, very young and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe did not handle having a little bit of praise
Speaker 1: thrown their way the first two weeks, and for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: you know, put up a clunker. And now, now granted
Speaker 1: they had some injury issues. I mean, their starting center
Speaker 1: was out for the game, their best receiver DJ Shark
Speaker 1: and best deep threat did not play, So that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's a little bit, a little bit of it, but
Speaker 1: you know, you certainly can't blame all of it on that,
Speaker 1: right at Plus, they lost their h you know, probably
Speaker 1: what may be the one of the top two place
Speaker 1: kickers in the league, and Josh Lambo, who's still on
Speaker 1: IR won't and won't be there this week either. That, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, all those things factored in a little bit.
Speaker 1: But you know, none of that excuses the fact that
Speaker 1: the Jaguars defense for the third week in a row,
Speaker 1: looked absolutely hideous in the first quarter and put and
Speaker 1: put the and put their team in a fourteen point
Speaker 1: hole yet again. Yeah, that's the thing that is amazing
Speaker 1: to me. Thirty five points allowed in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: twenty seven in the second quarter, sixty three points allowed
Speaker 1: in the first half, and three football games. That that
Speaker 1: makes it. That makes it some tough sledding for you.
Speaker 1: When you talk about how young thirty youngest team in
Speaker 1: the league, twenty five years, twenty and seventy four days
Speaker 1: average age of the football team, thirty six players with
Speaker 1: four years or less varience? Were all the changes made
Speaker 1: with the name players strictly economics or a segment earlier
Speaker 1: here in the show, we were talking about culture. Were
Speaker 1: their culture issues that some of these veteran players were
Speaker 1: causing problems and concerns? Was of a combination of everything.
Speaker 1: Why did they decide to just strip it and get
Speaker 1: so young? Well, the accurate answer is it was a
Speaker 1: little bit of both. Some of it was salary cap related,
Speaker 1: some of it was culture related. And by the way,
Speaker 1: the Jaguars the youngest team in the NFL, and I
Speaker 1: think the only reason it might have gone the third
Speaker 1: youngest is because they had to sign a veteran that
Speaker 1: bumped up their average. Because they were they were more
Speaker 1: like about twenty five years and one month. Okay there
Speaker 1: for a while, but you know, I mean this, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is going on going off of release from the
Speaker 1: league for this game. Yeah, yeah, point the point, the
Speaker 1: point is obvious. But no, it was it was both
Speaker 1: culture and economics related. They you know, they they traded
Speaker 1: away Calais Campbell. That was certainly an economics issue. That
Speaker 1: certainly wasn't a production culture issue because he's the best
Speaker 1: leader you had in that locker room. So uh, Jawen Ramsey,
Speaker 1: that was pretty well documented what happened there, and they
Speaker 1: ended up getting two first round draft picks for it
Speaker 1: for him, so A. J. Bouier was probably a little
Speaker 1: bit more economics. And then you've you know, there's an
Speaker 1: unique and goaqway. I mean, you saw with that situation
Speaker 1: evolved into he didn't want to play for the team anymore,
Speaker 1: and h you know, but he wasn't a bad guy
Speaker 1: in the locker room, but he just got to the
Speaker 1: point where he was shut up because he didn't think
Speaker 1: he was getting that he didn't think he was valued
Speaker 1: as much as he valued himself. And consequently, uh, you
Speaker 1: know we've seen that you know, the pass rushers weren't
Speaker 1: getting the high market and deals they were getting two
Speaker 1: years ago, and he just, you know, he just got
Speaker 1: caught in a little bit of a timing thing and
Speaker 1: so so. But the point is when you let go
Speaker 1: that many veteran talented guys and you replace them with younger,
Speaker 1: cheaper players, you know every once in wow, that's going
Speaker 1: to come back and bite you. And I think that
Speaker 1: was what we saw the other night. You know, you
Speaker 1: saw a young team on the big stage, had it
Speaker 1: all to him, to itself and just did not handle
Speaker 1: it well. Right. Jeane for Nett from the Florida Times
Speaker 1: Union is our guest Jean for nine years here, Andy
Speaker 1: Dalton was the quarterback and a lot of people felt like, well,
Speaker 1: clearly he's good enough to get you to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but is he good enough to take you to a
Speaker 1: super Bowl or win a Super Bowl? What about Gardner? Minshew?
Speaker 1: He's obviously proven he's good enough to you know, keep
Speaker 1: them in games. He has some terrific performances like he
Speaker 1: did in Week one, But can an NFL team win
Speaker 1: big with Gardner? Minshew? Well, the Jaguars are the Jaguars.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if he'll get. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he'll get that chance to find that out
Speaker 1: with the Jaguars. You know, as you know, the NFL
Speaker 1: is a week to week league. You know, first two
Speaker 1: weeks go by and they're saying, hey, we got something
Speaker 1: really it looks like we might have something really special
Speaker 1: in Gardner Minshew. Then a game like Miami happened, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden you're tapping the breaks a
Speaker 1: little bit, and then you realize that you know, things
Speaker 1: are going to change from week to week. And in
Speaker 1: my opinion, Gardner Minshew is gonna be a quarterback in
Speaker 1: this league for a long time. He's gonna he's gonna
Speaker 1: be in this league in some capacity for the next
Speaker 1: eight to ten years in my opinion. Now what is
Speaker 1: going to be his role over the course of that time,
Speaker 1: that I think is still to be determined. I think
Speaker 1: the Jaguars think they got something pretty good in him.
Speaker 1: But I also think that Gardner Minshew is the type
Speaker 1: of quarterback you've got to surround him with some really,
Speaker 1: really good and special talent if you're going to go
Speaker 1: a long ways with him. That's just my feeling on it.
Speaker 1: I you know, and you know what that describes a
Speaker 1: lot of NFL starting quarterbacks, you know, if they don't
Speaker 1: have there's only like three or four guys in the
Speaker 1: entire league that can literally put a team on their
Speaker 1: shoulders and take them somewhere. Right. So, well, Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: certainly Tom Brady and at a younger Tom Brady, a
Speaker 1: younger Drew Brees. But there's just not that There's just
Speaker 1: not that many of those guys. You know. I'm Patrick Mahomes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know what, I'd like to see how Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes would do if he had the job, if he
Speaker 1: had the Jaguars skill players. I mean, I'm not taking
Speaker 1: anything away from Patrick Mahomes, but he came into a
Speaker 1: perfect ready made situation in terms of the running back,
Speaker 1: in terms of the receivers, in terms of the tight end. Um,
Speaker 1: he's a special quarterback there. Yeah, he's a generational talent,
Speaker 1: There's no doubt. Also he also benefited from you know,
Speaker 1: having Andy Reid and just a great situation. So uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean right now, I think Russell. I
Speaker 1: think Russell Wilson's the best quarter if you if you
Speaker 1: asked me to pick the best quarterback in the NFL,
Speaker 1: I'd be Russell Wilson, he'd be my first pick. But
Speaker 1: getting back to Minshew, I you know, it's it's still
Speaker 1: it's a work in progress, that's what it is. You know,
Speaker 1: if he goes up this week and has a great
Speaker 1: game against the Bengals and the Jaguars win, you know,
Speaker 1: ten or fourteen, four points, well, does that validate him
Speaker 1: as the long term answer at the court at the
Speaker 1: quarterback position. No. I mean you're going up against a
Speaker 1: rookie and Joe Burrow who's taking fourteen sacks who sell
Speaker 1: in the first three games. I don't know how many
Speaker 1: of those are covered sacks, how many of those are
Speaker 1: have either you know, got sacked immediately ort or held
Speaker 1: the ball too long. It's probably a little bit of both. Right,
Speaker 1: So you know, this week is certainly not going to
Speaker 1: be a you know, affirmation or otherwise on Gardner Minshew.
Speaker 1: He's just got to keep trying to progress as a
Speaker 1: quarterback and hope that he's good enough to win the job.
Speaker 1: Because quite frankly, if if you know, if they only
Speaker 1: win three or four games this year and they get
Speaker 1: and they're able to get into the Trevor Lawrence sweep sing,
Speaker 1: I think the Jaggers will be good enough. It will
Speaker 1: be just good enough to stay out of the Trevor
Speaker 1: Lawrence Derby. Let's put it that way, right right. I
Speaker 1: think the fact that you're talking about the uncertainty of
Speaker 1: the player, Minshew, it's going to be about running the football.
Speaker 1: And you go a free agent college free agent running
Speaker 1: back Robinson, who is very impressive to watch on tape.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's Maurice Jones Drew, but he's a
Speaker 1: poor man I don't know how poor man, but he's
Speaker 1: a poor man version kind of in my guys a
Speaker 1: little bit watching him. Three touchdowns rushing tied for seventh
Speaker 1: in the NFL, averaging four to nine to carry two
Speaker 1: in ten yards, eleventh in the NFL. And last year
Speaker 1: Jaguars rushed for two hundred and sixteen yards against the
Speaker 1: Bengals and when so, I would think Jacksonville's game plan.
Speaker 1: I don't know what Jake Gruden's thinking, but I would
Speaker 1: think he'd come in here and run the football. The
Speaker 1: Bengs are dead last in the NFL, not only this year,
Speaker 1: but over the last two years twenty nineteen and twenty
Speaker 1: twenty against the run, giving up over one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty yards a game on the ground over the last
Speaker 1: year plus, so I would think that would be their big,
Speaker 1: big deal. Well, you certainly have to you certainly have
Speaker 1: to think that that has to be part of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I know it's a passing league, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's that's what that's what the NFL
Speaker 1: evolved into for the last ten seen years. But you
Speaker 1: look at the teams that are running the ball, well,
Speaker 1: those are the teams that have got the better records
Speaker 1: in the NFL right now, and the teams that pass
Speaker 1: the ball a lot, including your Bengals, are not doing
Speaker 1: so well. You have to be able to You have
Speaker 1: to be able to have you got to have a
Speaker 1: running game. I mean, you just do. I mean the
Speaker 1: Kansas City Chiefs are maybe a little bit of an
Speaker 1: outlier there, but for the most part, you've got to
Speaker 1: be able to run the ball when you want to
Speaker 1: run it. And you know the Jaguars, you know, they've
Speaker 1: fallen behind early, and it'll be interesting to see what
Speaker 1: happens if they win the coin toss again, whether they'll
Speaker 1: defer or take the ball, because you know, Doug Maron
Speaker 1: has said he's going to maybe revisit the strategy of
Speaker 1: always deferring when he wins the coin toss, because you know,
Speaker 1: the Jaguars I've gotten off these terrible starts because of
Speaker 1: what the defense is, you know, basically sleepwalking in the
Speaker 1: first quarter for whatever reason, or maybe they're just not
Speaker 1: good enough. It's possible that that that's the possibility as well.
Speaker 1: But you know, they're certainly not playing as bad in
Speaker 1: the fourth and third and second orders as they have
Speaker 1: been in the first. But yeah, I mean, James Robinson
Speaker 1: has just been He's been the most pleasant surprise of all.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's it's not even it's not even close.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you ask Jaguars, you know who, who's
Speaker 1: who's been the biggest surprise? They weren't. Now, James Robinson
Speaker 1: was not a surprise to the coaching staff because they
Speaker 1: saw in camp, you know how well you know, particularly
Speaker 1: his vision. He just has seems to have a knack
Speaker 1: for making the first guy miss and for picking the
Speaker 1: right hole and being decisive and doing it. And you
Speaker 1: know that's the reason why his yards for terry average
Speaker 1: right now is as good as it is. Small sample size,
Speaker 1: I get it, three games, but yeah, I mean I would.
Speaker 1: I would expect James Robinson has been averaging seventeen touches
Speaker 1: a game between receiving and rushing, and I would expect
Speaker 1: that that that trend would continue and maybe even get
Speaker 1: up a little bit. But you know, the Jaguar has
Speaker 1: got a lot of weapons. But if they don't have
Speaker 1: DJ Chark this weekend, and I think that's going to
Speaker 1: be a game time decision, and I think Lender the
Speaker 1: center will also be a game time decision. Chart does
Speaker 1: change things a little bit. It may it's going to
Speaker 1: be a lot easier for defensive coordinators to defend the
Speaker 1: Jaguars if Chart's not in the lineup. Didn't they Jack
Speaker 1: go get a second opinion? What happened with that second opinion?
Speaker 1: I've heard somewhere he's getting a second opinion on his chest. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's happened with the second opinion, But
Speaker 1: you know he's back in practice today on a limited basis,
Speaker 1: and it just feels like to me that Jaggars are
Speaker 1: going to take this up all the way until Sunday,
Speaker 1: and he'll be a game time decision. You know you
Speaker 1: got you when you've got chess issues and back, I
Speaker 1: mean that that's you know, that's quite a bit to
Speaker 1: deal with, and maybe they sit him out for one
Speaker 1: more week just to give him time to for cool breakers,
Speaker 1: you know. You know, if this was mid December, they
Speaker 1: probably have him out there. But you know, it's only
Speaker 1: week four and the last thing you want to do
Speaker 1: is aggravate that injury and then you'll have him out,
Speaker 1: you know, and then you'll have him on ir you know.
Speaker 1: So I think that the Jaguars are going to play
Speaker 1: that with a lot of caution going into this Sunday.
Speaker 1: My last question for Jean for Net from the Florida
Speaker 1: Times Union. How does Tyler Eifford look? Uh, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean he's uh, he's a pretty pretty good looking guy.
Speaker 1: Is he practicing much? But I mean from a football
Speaker 1: standpoint for now, I mean, to be perfectly honest with him,
Speaker 1: he looks like he's just a guy, you know, just
Speaker 1: to you know, okay, tight end, good, you know, decent blocker,
Speaker 1: I guess, but you know, I haven't seen anything for
Speaker 1: right now that makes me go, boy, Jaguards were smart
Speaker 1: to go get him now. I'm sure, you know, I
Speaker 1: bet Tyler might be a little bit more productive this
Speaker 1: week facing his old employer. In fact, he actually I
Speaker 1: was I was somewhat impressed that he actually had a sarcastic,
Speaker 1: dead panning remark when asked about whether he had a conversation,
Speaker 1: you know, with with with Minshew about you know, being
Speaker 1: able to have more production this week, and yeah he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I said, we talked about twenty targets. Of course, then
Speaker 1: he reverted back to, uh, you know, Vanilla Bland. Nice
Speaker 1: guy answer your question, Tyler effort, but nothing, you know
Speaker 1: now he hasn't made it. Yeah, he hasn't made me go,
Speaker 1: oh wow. He looks like the guy. He looks like
Speaker 1: that tight end from you know, five years ago or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the twenty fifteen version. Unfortunately he took too many, too
Speaker 1: many shots, no doubt, no doubt. Final question. Final question
Speaker 1: here too, Gene, And thanks for all the time you
Speaker 1: carve for us. Um the guy who basically said, let's
Speaker 1: get Tyler right down here. He knows my system. Jay Gruden,
Speaker 1: what kind of an impact has he had with the organization? Offensively,
Speaker 1: you can't begin to imagine how many rose pedals and
Speaker 1: bouquets were thrown at Jay Steep after the first two
Speaker 1: games in the season. Oh gosh. He was like, oh,
Speaker 1: finally we got this play caller enough. And this is
Speaker 1: one of my pet peeves about NFL fans and even
Speaker 1: about the media to some degree that if something works
Speaker 1: really well, it's a great play call, and if something
Speaker 1: just is terrible, it looks like, you know, the first
Speaker 1: guy they want to blame is a play caller, you know,
Speaker 1: having no idea that you know, one guy could have
Speaker 1: missed an assignment or whatever. You don't know. There's a
Speaker 1: zillion factors that go into whether somebody's a good play
Speaker 1: caller or struggles to be a play caller. Do I
Speaker 1: think Jake Bruden was a good higher? Yes, I do.
Speaker 1: I mean that they had to. They had to get
Speaker 1: something different because it's just it just didn't work with
Speaker 1: John d. Philippo last year and certainly with Nick Foles done.
Speaker 1: You know they was not going to work. But no,
Speaker 1: I think Jay is you know, for the most part,
Speaker 1: come in and done a nice job and is utilizing
Speaker 1: the weapons that they have. But you know, this, this
Speaker 1: NFL is plays. It's not I mean, it's players. It's
Speaker 1: not plays. As much as fans want to bet yak
Speaker 1: about play calls, and you know, a third and seven,
Speaker 1: where the quarterback throws a three yard out not realizing
Speaker 1: that Hey went some three progressions that he had nobody,
Speaker 1: so he took his check down, hoping his guy could
Speaker 1: make a play. Right. I mean it just you know,
Speaker 1: you see this all this time, his criticism about sometimes
Speaker 1: throwing behind the six or what have you. And there's
Speaker 1: so much going on on an NFL play, you got
Speaker 1: to depend on your quarterback to make the right decisions,
Speaker 1: go through his progressions, what have you. But I would,
Speaker 1: I would say that Jay Gruden was it was a
Speaker 1: logical hire for Doug Marone to make, and I do
Speaker 1: think it's I do think it's it will prove to
Speaker 1: be a good hire. Whether it's good enough to get
Speaker 1: Jay a head coaching job again next year, you know that.
Speaker 1: Only time will tell that, but I think it's I
Speaker 1: think on paper, it's a very good hire. You'll have
Speaker 1: much more on the game this Friday and the Bengals
Speaker 1: pep Rally Show from three to six on ESPN fifteen
Speaker 1: thirty and Cincinnattie online at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com
Speaker 1: or on the iHeart Radio app by searching for ESPN
Speaker 1: fifteen thirty. That's going to do it for this episode
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