Seven hundred WLW. We are up and running on a Friday night of Verneil Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet. Very excited to welcome in My first guest covers the Bengals for CLNS sincywithwy dot Com, host of the Jungle Roar podcast on YouTube. He's already dropped today's latest episode. It's an excellent listen. That would be the man we call Trags, Mike Petrellia. Mike, you were there. Let's start
broad and then we'll narrow it down. Give us your general reaction to the sixty three minutes or so with Duke Tobin.
Wow, that's a loaded question, Lamb. Well, I guess my general reaction is good on the Bengals to make him available. It was a very performative and perfunctory press conference. What do I mean by that? I think it was there. I think it was held so that Duke Tobin could show his faith on behalf of the front office and ownership and give their perspective on what happened this past year. It was also a pr ploy and an intelligent pr ploy to offer some sympathy to the incredibly frustrated fan base.
That is why you heard Duke Tobin say multiple times that they are disheartened by Bengal fans being disheartened and that they are all about trying to change the narrative by dedicating themselves to improving the roster this offseason. So when it comes to the nuts and bolts, the x's and o's of how they're going to go about it,
the people making those decisions aren't going to change. You're not going to have any additions to the scouting department, You're not going to have any additions to the Pro Football Operations staff, the one that does the evaluations in free agency, for instance, Duke Tobin is not going to hire an assistant or two to help him evaluate talent. He's not going to do that. And what I was left with is feeling like, well, they're just going to
run it back with the same people. And at the very end of the sixty three minutes, we got an insight to what he meant by that, and that is that the technique of what they do this offseason is going to be a little bit different, meaning the personnel and the scouting department are going to try and tweak what they do. The coaching staff is going to come back with different schemes, and there's going to be a little bit of emphasis on the players to do their
jobs better. That's what I was left with in tragues.
When it comes to why we should believe they can fix this, the go to answer seems to be because we've done it before. And I think that we have a lot of fans shaking their hands.
Well, here's why it does. What happened in nineteen eighty one, what happened in nineteen eighty eight? What has happened so far after twenty twenty one? All three of those years that I just mentioned, of course were Super Bowl years. Well, within three years the team was headed down the slide to oblivion. Now in eighty eight they made it back after seven years and fine, But in three more years after eighty eight, what happened? They went into the dark
dark ages of Bengal football. And they've been to the playoffs lance twice in ten years. Skinny on my podcast also mentioned that, and he was the one who asked Duke today, well, you've been to the playoffs just twice in ten years, why should any fan bel leave that you're capable of turning things around? You and your staff and Duke again came back with the answer, We've done it before. I believe in the people we have in
the building. Well, you may believe in the people you have in the building, but your fan base doesn't and the results aren't there. And he mentioned many times today Lance that the effort and the dedication of the coaching staff and the young players is exceptional. Well, that's great, and you see improvement in the young players terrific. Where's the production and the NFL, as is any major league sport, professional sport, it's all about production, and the Bengals production
the last three years has been very poor. Last year they had a winning record, but they were nine and eight, Lance, they were four and eight with Joe Burrow starting all twelve of those games, and of course he started all seventeen. There's a serious fundamental flaw in the players that are being put around Joe Burrow, certainly on the defensive side of the ball.
And you alluded to the scouting aspect of all this, and he really doubled down on the fact that despite we all know how small the department is, his belief that they have all the information they need.
They believe that they would rather have fewer voices contributing to the pie, if you will, fewer chefs making the meal because too many chefs ruin the meal. And they have believed that for forty forty five years, Lance, and it's not going to change now it is.
I get still worked up over this. I got to take a breath. He also mentioned finishing in the big aspect of being able to finish games, and yet is what's frustrating to me trags. While he pointed out the troubles finishing this year, they had troubles finishing last year and it wasn't fixed.
So it just that's not a question. It's all land. Yes, what is the natural logical deduction you take from that? Well, if you can't finish games, it's coaching. So I interrupted Duke and I said, well, Duke, you know what that means. It means that falls at the feet of Zach and his coaching staff. What do you think of them? And then he went into this flowery uh commendation and praise of Zach Taylor. And I agree, having covered Zach Taylor now for five full seasons, he's one of the brightest
football people I have ever been around. But that doesn't mean necessarily he's a good head coach and a situational coach, especially at the end of games. What did Duke point out this afternoon, Specifically, we have losing DNA at the end of games. Players make too many mistakes. They don't wrap up on tack like Jordan Battle at the end
of the Bears game. He pointed that game out specifically today, which really means to me that game stuck in his craw And you know, as much as the Browns game was a microcosm of the season, that Bears game ticked everybody off in the organization. And I'm sorry, but you've got to have better coaching to teach the technique. Jordan Battle is not a rookie and he, as much as Duke Tobin pointed him out as perhaps one of the cornerstones of the defense going forward. You've got to be
much much better if you're Jordan Battle going forward. And I think it's up to the coaching staff to take a long, hard look at how they're going to get Jordan Battle to be more productive, because right now I don't think I see it drags.
It seems pretty clear based on what he said and how many times he referenced it, and emphasis will be on improving, upgrading that defensive line and pressure on the quarterback.
Yep, he's all about pressure in the quarterback. He said that a couple of times this afternoon, Lance that you got to get after the quarterback. And rebuilding the defense to Duke Tobin means rebuilding along the defensive line. And he mentioned by name in twenty twenty one and in twenty twenty DJ Reader and Larry Ogan Jobi, and he needs to go back to the drawing now. DJ Reader is a free agent this year, but he's not the same player he was five years ago. Let's not get
too far ahead of ourselves. But Duke Tobin and his personnel staff have to go out in free agency, spend the limit and find those players that they sailed to find last year.
Sixty three minutes, approximately forty seven questions asked. You are the president of the Cincinnati chapter the Pro Football Writers' Association of America. Were you happy with the execution of the group today? I thought it was an impressive performance.
I was. I mean, that's a lot of questions to be asked, and it is a logistical challenge, to say the least, to give the beat people their proper opportunities to ask questions. Myself, Paul Danner, Junior, Richard Skinner, James Rapine, Kelsey Conway, who did a fabulous job today, had three questions actually typed up so that when she had her opportunity, she got all three questions in. But also it was an opportunity, as I said, this was performative for TV
folks to get all their questions in. And I thought, given how lumbering environment this is, I think it was. I think it was held pretty well. And here's what I was happy about. It never got to the point where somebody was show voting and trying to show up Duke. Because what I was concerned about going in is there's a lot of raw emotion from the fan base, and a lot of reporters got questions like for comments and dms,
we're counting on you, We're counting on you. And yes, we definitely felt the obligation to ask the questions that needed to be asked for the fans, but you have to do it in a manner where it's respectful to Duke Tobin, and I thought it was. I thought it came off very well in that regard. And one more thing,
one more thing. Good on Duke Tobin to take time out at the very beginning to you know, send out sympathy to Jay Morrison, who I think we all know now has been through hell and he lost his wife obviously, Nikki. And for Duke Tobin to you know, start the press conference. I actually think it was good because kind of kept everything in perspective. So good on Duke for doing that.
Trags, You've had a busy day and you were all over this. Tell listeners how they can watch, read and follow.
Sure we have the reactions and my takeaways up on the X at Trags t r Ags colns since with a y dot com. We'll have a column up later today, later tonight or tomorrow, and the Jungle War Podcast with Richard Skinner is up on YouTube dot com at Jungle War Pod. My apologies in advance. My sound is a little low, so you might have to type me up just a little bit when I'm talking.
Treg's final thought, and I'm late for news, but I wanted to publicly thank you for your weekly, year long contributions to the Roundtable Show. You made our show better. Your appearances are much appreciated. We look forward to doing again next year, and I hope I can bug you before then.
You got it, Lance anytime, Thanks to you.
There you go, Mike Petrellia trags all right when we come back. My thoughts, Your thoughts, let's say, exchange ideas. RNL carry or Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevrolet seven hundred ww