Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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you're having an awesome Tuesday. Thrilled that you are here.
We have a lot of ground to cover. The Reds
have signed a guy like a guy who actually might
be able to help play the outfield and hint lefties,
(00:27):
and a player that people have heard of and a
guy who's been in an All Star Game before. So
that's that's good. Right, that's good. Now we know they'll
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(00:50):
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FCU dot org. Paul Danner Junior is here from The
(01:11):
Athletic and the Growler podcast. Up. How's it going. I'm
doing all right? How are you doing? I was I
was doing fine and then you ruin my day? Why
did I ruin your day? Because you had the story
of Eric All being done for the season. Yeah. I
hate this. I hate this for the Bengals. I hate
this for him. You know, you and I were talking
last week about mike Yasicki and how he's really not
(01:32):
a tight end, and then I asked about Eric Hall,
who I feel like, not among people in the building,
not among folks who cover the team, but I feel
like it's just kind of a forgotten guy because he
was hurt for so long. But also he was so
good early in the season, and so, you know, watching
him last year, we talked about like they finally had
the tight end they've been looking for my entire life,
(01:53):
and then when he got hurt, it's like, Okay, well
he did enough to make me think about what he
can do in year two, and now we're not going
to see year two.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah, and so it's it's tough because they you know,
they reformed so much of what they were doing around him.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
There was so much hope, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
We we spent so much time talking about all these
draft picks that have busted and they've just it's just like,
you know, things that have gone wrong. And then here
was the one, like, at least until November three, shining
example of one that they had gotten like incredibly right. Yeah,
and it felt like this is gonna be a shining
piece of this draft class for a long time.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
The background on him was the reason he was available
in the fourth rounds because there was concern about stuff
like this. Now he had had a back thing that
wasn't really as much the concern. There was concern about
this knee and this stability and a potential for you know,
a re injury situation, and when it happened, they was, okay,
(02:52):
well maybe this would be a standard.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's not standard, right.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
The basics of it are essentially that it's going to
require two surgeries to fix it instead of just one,
which kind of resets the timeline here in the coming
months and wipes out the twenty five season. The whole
being this will fully put this behind Eric, Yeah, and
then come twenty six that you can start really taking
forth for what they believe is gonna be a great career.
(03:15):
But you know, inherent risk obviously and all this at
this point.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So he's he's missing the season due to what you
call complications from a previous knee surgery, which is obviously
a result of what he dealt with that Iowa his
last year, which cut that season short. And then the
fix is going to require two knee surgeries.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, one already done, okay, the other one gonna come
here soon to basically like kind of restart that that timeline.
So which it's just you know, it's it's it's awful,
but you you know, they they reset Now they've known
this for a while. It's actually taken a while to
kind of you know, pin it all down. Uh, but
you know it's they're kind of aware this going into
(03:53):
this season, and you you you know, you reset your
approach in free agency in the draft, you know, I
don't you know, they've been able to play the tight
end game pretty well free agency in terms of hatching
these guys together. So's it's nothing insurmountable. It just stinks
for him and for an offense that you started to see, boy,
(04:13):
big time potential of what you can be with this
guy called.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
My favorite player. Yeah in mid October. Yeah, he was right.
He was their favorite player. I mean he was they.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I never thought we'd see the day that they would
be going out there in twelve personnel as much as
they were, but that was how they were just saying, like, look,
this guy has to be on the field for us.
He changes everything in terms of the versatility. And then
right before his injury, you started to see him show
his chops a little bit in the passing game, and
you're like, oh, man, if this part comes along, you
can really be dangerous. I think, you know, they hope
(04:44):
that the long term is they still have that, but
you know, right now they just have to focus on
getting him right and making sure that that career can
stay intact.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yeah. So I guess on one hand, you might go, Okay,
well they can put this behind him, and that sounds great.
At the same time, it's a college career cut short.
You know, it's a rookie season cut short, and it's
an entire next season not playing football, So like, nobody's
banking on Eric Hall or should be in twenty twenty
(05:13):
six right now, right, there's there's skepticism there. Yeah, so
at that position because the other guy they took McLaughlin
from Arizona whatever happened to him? Yeah, he around anyway,
so can't I mean Cam Grandy passed him on the exactly.
So they took two tight ends in the draft last year.
One guy's not going to play, the other's a wall
(05:34):
passed by Cam Grandy. So does this mean that they
have to emphasize tight end in this year's draft? I
think I think you can? You you do?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
It depends on I mean it really it's hard to
talk about. I'm dealing with this right now because it's, uh,
can you guys get us a mock draft season right
and I have? Or Okay, okay, that's not fine. I
get it, Like this your goal's happening right now. How
are you not thinking about the draft? I get it,
Like draft starts and mobile, I'm with you. The draft
(06:05):
also starts after free agency, so it's really I think
inevitably almost every year, I think teams should be looking
at tight end in those mid to mid to late
rounds because you can find guys it's worth shots. This
stuff happens, right, So I think you're always taking that turn.
But in terms of urgency level with it, let's see
(06:26):
what happens in free agency. I think what they've gotten
out of Drew Sample, while unspectacular, has been a life saver, yes,
And what you can do with the other pieces, I mean,
with what they did after eric All went down, the
offense still shine. You can work around it. You have
Gasiki out there, You're throwing it all over the place,
what have you. But if you want to be tougher,
(06:46):
if you want to have more physicality, if you want
to feel like you can pound the run game, short
yardage situations will tell them go to those, to the eric.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
All movement over and over again.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Well, when they lost that, continue to struggle in short
yardage and they would throw it a ton and all
that stuff you need. You could use another player like that.
They're just, you know, hard to find, and honestly, I
think they're they're at you know, inner goal would have
been to find another erak All this year anyway and
go out there with those two guys together and have
(07:14):
the ultimate versatility, right, And I think that's kind of
like go go full, you know, Gronk and Aaron Hernandez
without the bad stuff, and and but go out there
with that, and you can do that and and really
change the whole scope of what you are offensively so
that you should always be looking fat. And I think
they're still looking for that regardless of this news, and
(07:36):
if they can find it in the right place, I
think they're willing to do it. I don't see them
all of a sudden, you know, valuing tight end higher or
anything like that, because it wasn't exactly a super high
value in the first place.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
But they're always, you know, interested. Some are gonna say, well,
you took a player coming out of college dealing with
a knee issue, and maybe that's why he fell to
them at four. I would say a player of his
build and caliber was worth using. But some are gonna
say those picks are too precious to use on a
guy with such an injury red flag. At the same time,
(08:07):
it's not like the guy didn't play last season. He
played football, played well last year.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, I mean, I don't have a problem with taking
flyers on injury stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
When you reach day three, like.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Everybody's got everybody, everybody's got something and you're hoping to
hit the home run, whether it be because of injury,
whether it be because of character, whether it be because
of you know, a physical skill that's not developed yet.
All of that stuff is what Day three is. And
I I think if you're the Bengals, you do it again,
and you do it again tomorrow. Even if you told
me that it's not going to work out for him,
Like if you just said that that's the way it
(08:40):
ends up, you still take the chance because of the
talent and the makeup of the guy. And and if
the body does hold up like it did through those
you know, first nine games last year, you have something
truly special. I think you take that chance every time.
That's the inherent nature of the draft, in my opinion.
I mean, it's just you win some, you lose some.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I just there were a lot of times early in
the season where I would say to you and others
like that's a dude, like that, that's a dude. They
knew it instantly. And talking to his position coach at Iowa,
a former Bengalis Ju Hodge, and I said, well, compare
him to Sam Laporta. And he said to me, Sam
Laporta is awesome. I love Sam. This guy's better. Yeah,
(09:23):
and like, all right, part of that maybe he's playing
to the audience, but you don't say that I used to.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I remember talking I remember talking with you about this
in preseason earlier in the year and telling you the
story of it was the look on Dan Pitcher's face
when I brought up that motion thing they were doing
and first time I saw it in camp and I
looked at him and I was like, that feels like
and his face was like, oh, get used to that. Yeah,
it's like we found something here with this guy and
(09:51):
the stuff that he can do, and he you know,
they they were just over the moon with him and
feeling like he can be a true centerpiece. So the
hope being that come twenty twenty six he is that
It's just it stinks for them and for him that
it won't be sooner.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Well stinks for me, yeah, for you. I was having
a good day. Yeah, I'm having a fine day. I
hate that. And I went to your page at the
Athletic because I wanted to cite a couple of things
from the Al Golden Story. And then there's this Eric
All thing, which just is a huge turn in the
punch bowl, So thanks so much. I appreciate it. I
hate j'a nice job doing your job. I'm sorry, I apologize,
(10:33):
all right. I want to talk about Al Golden, specifically
from the standpoint of something that you did include in
your piece on Al, which you should go read if
you haven't at the Athletic dot Com. And then the
the Eric All thing has for me at least made
the big exercise we're all going to dive into tomorrow
a little bit more difficult mock off season tomorrow. It's tomorrow,
(10:54):
all right. We'll talk about that coming up in just
a bit. Paul Danner Junior, The Growler Podcast and The
Athletic Doc follow on x at Paul Danner Junior. He's
here till four We are here till five thirty today
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Speaker 1 (11:44):
This report is sponsored by Rapid Rating on ESPN fifteen
to thirty, Moegger, Paul Danner Juniors here as he is
every single Tuesday, the Athletic dot Com and The Growler Podcast.
You did a a good in depth look at Al
Golden's defense with Charlie God.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, I've been loving the Charlie rewatches. We've got a
lot of fun that he's excellent, of course, as your
listeners know, but it's been fun to dive into those
and he is thorough and and we yeah, he's got
all kinds of good stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
It was a lot of fun. Yeah. So you and
writing about Al Golden, I was watching the games on
Sunday and we had talked about like, and this is
exact verbiage that Al used yesterday, that the line has
never been more blurred between pro and college football. Yeah,
And my instant thought about that was just the way
the two institutions work. The players are paid, they're basically
(12:36):
pro athletes playing college football. I'm watching the games on Sunday,
and I often thought to myself, they're running college offenses,
even the Kansas City Chiefs, who typically don't do this.
I'm watching the Bills, the Commanders, the Eagles specifically, but
also the Chiefs, and they're running college offenses. Yes, And
then I started to think about Al Golden. And then
in your piece about Al you kind of talk about
(12:57):
how schematically there's never been less of a distinction between
the two college and pro football. Yeah, and so if
you're gonna hire a guy from college, this is the
kind of guy and this is the time to make sense.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And How made that exact comment in his press conference. Yeah,
he's like when I was sort of asking about the merging,
and he's like, yeah, I mean, watch the watching the
games the other day.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
There they are.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
They're they're running the RPOs, they're doing they're doing the
quarterback design run stuff. This is all stuff that they
plotted for every single week in Notre Dame. And and
and you know you have to look at not just that,
I mean, and if you're gonna talk about well players,
young players, older players, money's involved, not just that, I mean,
there's guys on Notre Dame that are older than on
half the linebacker, half the players on the roster I mentioned,
(13:39):
like Jack Kyser, whatever. But I mean, you talk about
guys that are twenty five, twenty six years old in
college now and you know, yeah, men, I mean exactly,
and you're you're you know what you're teaching. It's it's
not all that different, uh, And we've just seen so
much of it translate that I don't think that there
was any any concern there, certainly from Zach Taylor's point
(14:02):
of view or from a translatable point of view. And
you look at Will that what he did at other
day move over to Cincinnati, Will Short. I mean, it's
a lot of the same stuff that you're trying to stop.
And the talent level is different and the quarterback level
is different, but theoretically you have better players as well.
And I think the hope is that his kind of
continuous history and something he pointed out of how many
(14:22):
freshmen he kind of was able to get ready to
play on the fly last year and you look at
that and how well they instantly played and they dealt
with the injuries. It's it's no different than rookies having
to come in when guys get hurt and and and
playing through that and having a certain standard and level.
And he certainly comes across like you here, it's it's
(14:42):
it's focus on the details, all energy, you know, stability,
He sort of he gives that off without question, no nonsense,
and that's what they're looking for. Does that mean he's
going to be a great coordinator here, I don't know,
but I mean I think of it's certainly and feels
the part of what they were looking for out of
(15:03):
that position.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I listened to him answer a question about the slow starts. Yeah,
And I like what he had to say about like
it's it's going to start for us in the spring,
and I think what he does, he's not gonna he's
not gonna tip his hand all that much. But but
there was I think an acknowledgment that yes, organizationally me
included obviously this has to get fixed, because that's my
biggest issue with the Cincinnia Bengals right now, are the
(15:27):
the over septembers constantly playing catch up and then not
looking prepared week one.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, and I think that is you know, it sounded
like he was speaking from a place that he had
been speaking with Zach Taylor about this exact concept, like,
we've got to be better early in the season. It's
going to be a focus of the offseason. I you
know the old I see better than I hear, right, Marv, Marv.
But in this case, I'll see what I'm looking at
(15:54):
during OTAs in that time of year, if that looks
at all different, if they use more of that time,
if there's more competitive periods, if there's more work there,
I'd be interested in that more than I would be
people saying that they plan on trying to start faster
or whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
You wrote about Al's commutes from here to South Bend
and the speeding ticket, Yeah, the ticket. I needed more.
I needed more background on that. So my last speeding
ticket knock on Wood two thousand and eight, about thirty
miles outside of South Bend. I think it's on Route
two thirty one, if I'm not mistaken. Hustling to a
(16:30):
UC versus Notre Dame basketball game and I got a ticket,
and the guy pulls me over and he walks up
to the car, and I have my stuff waiting, and
I go high officer. I'm kind of in a rush
and he goes, that's why I pulled you over, and
that is my last ticket. Is there anybody who has
driven that that stretch? And I've driven it, I don't know,
eight or nine times and not gotten a speeding ticket
(16:52):
at some point that period, that stretch between and I've
seen all the cop cars between Indianapolis and South Bend.
That is one gigantic Hoo's your state speed trap? Yes, yes, I've.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Driven it a few times because it's been part of
our path when we would go vacation to Michigan right
and knock on one, not gotten one. Now, I don't
know if I have I certainly don't have as much
time on that road as ou Golden did, no doubt.
But I've done it enough and I'm proud. But you're right,
I mean, it is a constant state of monitoring and
(17:28):
just there they are every time. I'm happy to say
I don't have one. But maybe when you already.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Played Notre Dame in the football in twenty twenty one,
played on a Saturday, and I knew folks who like
you know, kind of got their tailgate, go after it,
enjoy the game, and then enjoy themselves and then they're
like what, we're just going to drive back tonight, and
it's like, don't do that. Don't do it. Don't do it.
Number one, you just shouldn't do that. Number two, you're
begging for it on that stretch, like, just don't. So
(17:57):
how often was he commuting between here and South Bend?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
You know, I think a decent amount, But I would
you know, when you get into the full part of
the off season. Yeah, you know, you're you're not when
you're not really on campus anyway doing anything. Work from home,
you I think it's kind of a work from home,
but I mean it's pretty often. I mean it seemed
it seemed like it was a you know, not a
rare occurrence for sure. Uh, but you know, you're kind
(18:20):
of like every night. It's not every night that would
be great, get up at three am, drive to South Bed,
put in a work day at midnight.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
You know, how are you supposed to sleep in the
office if you do that? Exactly? I mean you can't, right, Yeah,
precious hours he could have been working on on game plans.
All right, it's mock off season time. Yeah. Uh, And
we're going to dive into it, you and I tomorrow
on the Growler podcast. The mock Off Season Spreadsheet, which
for the uninitiated is it's it's a a working document
(18:53):
that allows you to make personnel decisions based on what
the players are going to make. And you could allocate
funds to raft choices specific players they could acquire in
free agency, players they could extend. You can free up
money by cutting guys. It's usually a lot of fun.
This year very very difficult and painful. It's not out yet.
(19:14):
It comes out tomorrow, but you did give me a
chance to play with it as a sneak preview. I'm
here for you and I want to spend some time
on it when we come back. Looking forward to it.
I mock Off Season time twenty eight minutes after three o'clock.
Paul Danner Junior Fromthathletic dot com. He's here till four
o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
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Of lifetime, power train protection and guaranteed credit approval from
their family to yours for life. Kelseyshev dot com Rads
have signed free agent outfielder Austin Hayes to a one year,
five million dollar contract. This originally reported by Ken Rosenthal
of the Athletic Deal Penza Physical includes a million dollars
in incentives. He was traded by Baltimore, traded from one
(20:30):
first place team to another at the deadline last year,
sent to Philadelphia. He did not do well in Philly.
Hayes two fifty six with a six seventy two ops.
The Phillies non tendered him. His arbitration number was a
projected six point four. He did deal with a major
kidney issue last year that I guess reports out of
(20:51):
Philadelphia indicate that that issue had been perhaps bothering him
before he was even traded. Now. Prior to this, he
was an All Star with the Orioles in twenty twenty three.
He's always hit left handed pitching pretty well. So Austin
Hayes a red corner autfielder. We'll talk about that a
little bit in further detail in the four o'clock hour. Unfortunately,
(21:11):
the bad news continues for Eric All, who tour his
ACL on November third. Our guy Paul Danner Junior reports
that he has expected to miss the twenty twenty five
season due to complications from knee surgery that he had
in college college basketball. Tonight, you See is on the
road at Utah ten o'clock tip tonight. The Uts are
eleven and eight here. The game on seven hundred WLW
(21:32):
Nolamont Butler for the Wildcats. UK's at Tennessee Volunteers coming
off of lost Auburn Kentucky coming off a loss on Saturday.
The Vanderbilt tip off at seven pregame at five thirty
on ESPN fifteen thirty. The NKU Coaches Show is on
Fox Sports thirteen sixty at six o'clock. Also tonight, Miami
coming off its first lost in MAC play as a
(21:53):
home game against Eastern Michigan and the Dayton Flyers are
at Saint Bonaventure. Paul Danner Junior is here. What's up.
It's mock off season time. It's time. It's time we
finally made it. This exercise is frustrating, it's educational. It
is a useful tool to help you understand how certain
(22:14):
decisions might impact other decisions. And this one's really difficult
because of some of the real tough choices the Bengals have.
But I did find it therapeutic. Yeah, because I went
ahead and cut seven players from last year's team. Is
that where you started? Yeah, Media, You've got these different offense, defense,
draft picks, special teams acquired picks right, and it's a
(22:35):
fun exercise. You'll have it up tomorrow at the athletic
You can make trades. I just went right to Kutz
and I was ruthless. Okay, this is not a political statement,
but if you think what the President of the United
States is doing with government workers is rough, what I
did to Sam Hubbard, Sheldon Rankins, Alex Kappa, Ginostone, Jermaine Prat,
Cordell Volson, and Zach Moss much more ruthless. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Well, I mean, look, it's true. We talked with this
last week and sort of putting this thing together. It's
the the unique nature of this year, this offseason is
just that is all the amount of money that they
can cut and save and then reallocate to different players
and depending on what last week your your point was,
(23:18):
I don't want any of these guys going through a
list of potential cuts. You can do that and you
add like fifty million dollars potentially up to your cat.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Forty five point four million dollars. Is what I've said
is by cutting those seven dudes, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
You let you let Ted Carris hang on. He was
the only other name on there. Yeah, I kept t Carris.
Everybody else had. But I mean, that's to me, that's
the interesting nature of what they can do here, is
they they can how far down do they want to go?
How far in the past do they want to leave
last year? How much hope do they have of of
(23:52):
you know, anything from these guys. There's just a lot
of money tied up in them to clear to clear up,
and then you can see all kinds of different directions
that you can go and where did you go from there?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So that's where I started. Then it got difficult, Yeah,
it does because and the main reason why I was,
I wanted to address a lot of positions via the draft. Well,
then I needed to acquire more draft picks, So then
I traded Trey Hendrickson. But he's their one good defensive player,
and so you and I have talked about this a lot.
That to me is the most interesting. He's the most
(24:24):
say what you one about t Higgins who has occupied
a ton of time and airspace and column inches Like
the Trey Hendrickson thing, to me is just it's beyond
difficult because he's a great player and they don't have
that many great, many good players on defense. I'm okay
players on defense right now, and if I'm Al Golden,
(24:44):
I'm going to coach Trey Hendrickson. Yeah, But I also
I need this defense to be overhauled and that requires
draft capital and he's the one guy who can get it.
So where I have gotten stuck doing this it is
with him specifically, because at a lot of the positions,
here's here's this, or my my ultimate conundrum, I guess
lies how much can I prioritize guard in the draft?
(25:08):
And then from there I then tried to make other
decisions because I whent's screwing with this thing, and I'm
not done because you're not going to talk about it
on your podcast tomorrow. Yeah, I'm not done. But all right,
So if I if I do what they don't do
and take a guard in round one, which I prioritize,
but then I only have so much draft capital to
(25:29):
address corner and edge, rusher and other areas on the defense,
it gets difficult. But at the same time, like, how
what do I do with guard? Then? So those are
the two things that I got stuck on. What to
do with Trey and what to do with guard.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think the interesting part of this conversation why I
like it every year is it forces you to prioritize.
It forces you to do that rather than say you
want everything, which is what so many of us do.
I think you have to look at what position group
are you willing to go forward with and say, I'm
comfortable with this group being what it is. And I
(26:04):
think for me, when you look at it this way,
it's the secondary.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yes, it's it's yeah, I'm gonna live with this. I
found myself screwing with that area less than the others.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, And I think, you know, the genostone question is
interesting because I think you could move on from Genostone
and you save the money and you can reallocate that soon.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
As Mike Kilton we were talking off air, Yeah, I've
done this exercise where where I've moved on, and I've
done this exercise where I've kept them.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
It's an interesting amount of money. I mean, for for
what Mike Kilton is and whether you want to say,
but I think you know, if you're gonna look at
would you rather use that nine million dollars in cap
money to another edge rusher or a defensive tackle like
a BJ Hill type maybe you know something like that,
If that's what you want to do, when then it
might it probably means not bringing back Mike Hilton because
(26:52):
of all the things, the trenches, you know, the guards,
all this other stuff tight and you're gonna bring back
Asiki all of these things that you've got to get
locked down before that. I think you end up where
I think with the secondary you say, all right, I'm
willing to let this ride, and I think that's a
sense you get a little bit from them. That's kind
(27:13):
of the area where Al Golden can come in and
have his biggest impact is getting these young secondary players
to play confidently, to play together, to play with feeling
like things are simple and they understand it a little
bit of what you saw the last five weeks of
the season. Yeah, but to get Dax Hill and Cam
Taylor Britt and Jordan Battle and dj Turning all those
(27:34):
guys to become that and I think at a certain point,
due to just the restrictions that they have, they're probably
gonna have to make that bet, like that's probably where
they're gonna have to let it fly and hope that
they can put it together back there.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
So you have different slots for the corner CB one,
CB two, CB four slot corner. The one where I
shrugged my shoulders and said all right was cornerback one
Cam Taylor Britt. Yeah. I mean this is a player
who got bench last year and then, to his credit,
came back and played okay, right, but boy, for two
(28:07):
thirds of the season that was a disaster. Yeah. I
mean he got benched multiple he got benched. Yeah, and
so that's fresh in my mind. Yet the way you
put it is perfect, Like there's there's just some guys
that I'm gonna have to go, dude, we got to
coach them up and figure out figure out a way
to make it work and hopefully different coordinator, different group,
(28:28):
different season, more experience that they figure it out. And
so that thought process it trickled down from CB one
and I went with Cam and I literally shrugged my
shoulders and went, Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
It's so hard to find CEB one. That's just it
like it's expensive, or you're using your first round pick
like Philly did on Quiny and Mitchell, I mean you
and and I don't think the Bengals can afford to
do that with their problems on the line. If your
their first round pick can come from a no, no,
I wouldn't. No, one's really gonna have a huge problem
their first round pick is you know, is a corner.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Or what if that's the guy right that's the best player.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Fine, but let's be honest in a real world, the
ideal scenario here is their first round pick plays with
his hand next to the line of scrimmage somewhere, and
probably on the defensive side of it is more than
likely where that needs to come from. And so I
think to think that you're going to go find that,
you're you're probably not going to go pay for that
when you have all the other things you need to
do and.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
The pie, there's a pie.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
But if when you're dealing with all of that, you're
probably not going to go to the corner route. You're
probably going to be spending your money and your draft
at location on some of these more problematic areas, like
protecting Joe Burrow and getting more pass rush which has
been which was the problem last year, and just kind
of being bigger and more physical on the inside in general.
So that's kind of definitely a theme that stood out
to me, and going through this is and then but
(29:47):
then you're like, well, what's out there? Yeah, you know,
and there's some places where it's it's just it's it's
not as much as you'd want, or some places where
I think this is actually, uh, there are so many
options on the defen line. It should be very encouraging
for Bengals fans, between free agency and a very very
deep draft in the first two rounds on the defensive line,
(30:08):
in both interior and on edge rushers, to feel like they,
if done properly, they could really get this done right.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Okay, So if I trade tray on your exercise and
cut all those guys that I've whacked. I now have
ninety three and a half million dollars. Well, if I'm
that deep on the edge, and I'm that deep on
the defensive line, then I can soften the blow from
trading away my best defensive player. Theoretically. Yeah, I mean
I think that you could, you could sign.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
The idea would have to be that you're obviously spending
premium draft capital on your defensive run and probably an
edge rusher at the top. You're banking on something from
Miles Murphy at some point, but your your one sack.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
What one sack would be a huge upgrade. Let's get
two more than last year.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know, you could be talking about,
you know, spending in a mid level in free age
and getting somebody like I think there's guys anybody a
Zizo Juli or or there. There's there's some ad judges
in when you go into the list where you're not
spending sick you know, I keep spending that much money,
but you're spending eight to ten million dollars in cap space,
(31:15):
and you're getting somebody who is who's who's more than
solid should be able.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
To get you something off the edge.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
And if you put a bunch of young top picks
around them. You're betting on the you know, the aggregate,
helping to make up for what you lose.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
At the same time, like, you say this out loud,
and it's not gonna make any sense, right, No, it
makes no sense. Trey Hendrickson is a defense one year
Hendrickson right one year? One year? I that right. One year,
Trey Hendrickson is a Defensive Player of the Year finalist.
Your defense stunk last year, You're gonna trade him? Like,
when you say it out loud, it's it's mind boggling.
(31:52):
But but but when you when you do an exercise
like this, and then you just understand where he is
in his career and look at all their tea needs.
Like I hate to say it, but that's kind of
what I settled on because I want ninety three million
dollars to spend.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and if you think you can
spend it better, I mean do The problem is do
you end up spending it where you're just spending it
on another guy, but who you don't know, But maybe
you have him for longer, maybe he's younger. Because I
think that's part of the conversation with Tray Hendrickson at
this point, a guy who's crossed over thirty now, and
how long is he gonna be able to keep up
(32:27):
this level of play.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
He's probably never gonna have a year like this is
absolutely page one A in the Patriots Bill Belichick playbook. Yes,
this was the exact example.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That they have ten of these over the course of
the two decades where they were winning was they would
take this guy with one year left who was thirty
years old, who was in high demand. They would sell
high and they would get a bunch of young players
and picks for him and reallocate and keep it churning.
This is a prime example of proactive roster management versus
potentially reactive And I'm not saying saying that it's a
(33:00):
bad thing and it's totally reactive. It's kind of more
of an all in move to keep Trey Hendrickson at
this point rather than to sell because then you're thinking
more about the future years. But this is what it is, like,
are you going to try to be proactive and build
for the longer haul or is this gonna be like, hey,
one more ride with Trey and and let him go
get more sacks and maybe he just plays out of spite.
(33:23):
All I know is I don't want to be the
one to tell him that you're just forcing him to
go play on that contract this year, even though they
very much it's it within their rights to do.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
But it comes back to something else. You and I
have talked about the quest for a quiet offseason in
training camp. Well, keeping Trey but not extending him likely
doesn't doesn't reduce the amount of noise that we don't
want to hover around this team over the next eight months.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Right, Yeah, I just there's gotta be I mean, there's
gonna be some noise there.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I don't and I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Maybe Trey has come to terms, Yeah, with the situation,
I'm gonna guess that we're not gonna hear nothing from there.
Maybe he's come to terms with the fact that this
is what it is and now one more great year
and he can actually hit free agency.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Maybe not. I don't.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
I don't know, but I feel like there's it's not
gonna do. I don't see a version where it's quiet.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
So in my merciless cost cutting here, this felt good.
This this like I felt like a bean counter at
a media company. I mean, looking at the spreadsheet. We're
just whacking people didn't even really think about it. So Hubbard,
Rankin's cap as Stone, Pratt, Volsen, Moss. Then I'm thinking, like,
do I announce these all in one fell swoop? Yeah,
(34:40):
because as you know, sometimes you get the press release
from the Bengals and it's like, well we cut this guy,
see you. But then sometimes it's a player of stature
and there has to be a quote from the coach.
And then sometimes it's a player of real stature and
it's a quote from the coach and a video and
a video and like a thank you Twitter video and
Mike Brown has a quote. So like Sheldon Rankins wouldn't
(35:01):
qualify for any of that. Alex Kappa, no Gino Stone,
no Jermaine Pratt's tough has some iconic moments in this
franchise's history. Yeah, he might get a video. You might
get a video. Cordell Volson. I mean, are there videos
of guards? I don't think exact much. You could take
a still shot of the injury report, and but Sam Hubbard,
(35:21):
you gotta do something cool. Remember when Volson.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Ran out in front of the screen and he hit
like the fastest time for an offensive lineman on the Bengals,
like since Frank Pollack had been here, you remember that play?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
No, that's the one that's the video. I don't that's
what it is. Trayvon Williams on the Uh. I don't
think he's gonna.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Make you know, you don't need to go there, like
you just want to go there at this point.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
It's we did an entire segment two weeks ago. No
honoring Trayvon Williams, celebrating him. We want to make an
award for him. It's true. No, I all right, Uh, Tarren,
how are we on time? We're bad on time to
have should break now and do another minute with Paul
or just do another minute here? Just do another minute here.
(36:09):
What of these following people stands out to you? Pete Carroll,
Liam Cohen, Aaron Glenn, Ben Johnson, Brian Schottenheimer And this
dude's gonna work out? I think Ben Johnson might work out.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Yeah, I mean, you've got a talented quarterback and an extremely.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Talented play caller. I don't know about the rest of it.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
I don't know if he knows how to be a
head coach, but I bet that offense can cook.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Brian Schottenheimer. I kind of said to myself, really, does
the Cowboys always have to do this? Well? So what's
so interesting about them is like the Cowboys you think
of like splash, you know, and their coaches, with the
exception of Bill Parcels, for the last thirty years, have
been Brian Schottenheimer's.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Yeah, constantly uninspiring. I wonder why that is. Is there
any common.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Thread, no man to all of these coaching hires where
they would continually be uninspiring? I don't know what could
it possibly be. I have no idea. I don't know.
I can't even place it. Don't know. Pete Carroll over
under on number of games he coaches in Las Vegas,
over under twenty and a half over over. I think
it's gonna work out, do you? I kind of like, really,
(37:13):
I kind of like Pete Carroll. It's a great coach. Well, look,
every what're not gonna be He's got Al Davis's kid
running the team. They're a mess. They're a mess. But
you know what, give me, give me, give me.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Pete Carroll, give me with gum chewing energy like Carroll competition. Yeah,
and uh and let I mean I feel like it's
there's a chance it's better than it better it was.
I think he does Okay, he definitely lasts more than
twenty games.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Mark that what about the weirdo in Jacksonville?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
You just I always you just just don't be a meme, right,
Like it's our constant deal, don't be a meme, And
they just don't do it at.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Your opening press conference. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
I feel like he's gonna be pretty happily counting his
money and it really doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
I probably be a meme for that money. Can we
find a way to put something in the ball so
that we don't have to guess when quarterbacks or other
players hit the line to gain I thought there was
a chip in the ball.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
This happened a couple years ago, Like they knew at
this one point that the ball had gone over the line,
And I'm like.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Can we just put the chip in the ball. Why
don't we have the chip in the ball at this point? Why?
Why is this the method that we use to determine
It's brutal, help determine the outcome of AFC Championship games.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
It's over and over again. It's just always it's always something.
I mean it's hard, the game is hard to officiate
in that point. But I there just has to be
a way. There's just no way. There's not a way
to figure this thing out at this point. And that's
and this is from I love when the chain comes out. Yeah,
the chain gang comes out, and then they get you
get the stretch. Yeah, right, like I'm here. I enjoy that.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
There's always that moment right before that final stretch where
the crowd holds its breath.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Here's my thing. You don't have to lose that. It's
like robo umps. They have the like ear piece in
that tells them put it a link short or put
it and he just puts it down and you see
how far he's gonna pull. He slowly pulls, and he
knows where he's putting. It doesn't have anything to do
with actual He just moves it beyond the ball. Maybe
he does it with like the kite gets to do
the hand signal. Still, I'm all for that, keep that,
(39:08):
but just just tell them ahead of time.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
I was listening to a podcast the other morning, and
the gentleman that I was listening to was talking about,
like plausibly we can get to Mars and I'm like,
that's pretty cool. We can't figure out a way to
figure out the ball across the line in a football game,
We're gonna go to mars. Sure. Yeah, maybe there could
be a rover Like there's like a little like a
rover route on the field that just kind of constantly measuring,
(39:31):
giving us better angles. Paul Tanner, Junior at the Athletic
dot Com. Not a great idea The Growler Podcast. I'll
join you tomorrow for more on the mock off season. Yeah,
looking forward to Thank you very much. We'll go to Utah.
You see takes on Utah tonight next to ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
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