Bengals Booth Podcast: August Is Over

stadium rooting for the Seattle Seahawks. Hey, nobody's perfect. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals. Download Ultimate Bengals ahead of the twenty twenty two season. It's free to play next level fantasy football with fantastic Bengals prizes. Get it now on the App Store and Google Play. And here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest to do of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet,

or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since Ken Riley's almost certain enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Approximately ten days ago, the Hall of Fame in Canton announced the three players in the seniors category that are finalists for the twenty twenty three class, including Bengals legend Ken Riley. The Rattler will get into the Hall of Fame if he is supported by at least eighty percent of the voters in January,

and that is considered a formality. Riley sixty five interceptions ranked fifth highest in NFL history, and while he obviously earned this, he got some help in recent years from fans like Bengal Jim Foster, who helped organize rallies to raise awareness that there should be more Bengals in the Hall of Fame. Bengals dot Com editor Jeff Hobson also deserves a shout out for making Riley's case with his fellow Hall of Fame voters. It's great news for Bengals

fans and especially meaningful for the Riley family. Here's hoping that a couple of Anderson's, Ken and Willie, are up next. Now time to look back at Saturday's preseason finale against the Rams. The Bengals got on the scoreboard first in the first a thirty two yard pass from Brandon Allen to Stanley Morgan led to an Evan McPherson field goal in a three nothing lead at the end of the

first quarter. It looked like the Rams might pull ahead early in the second when they drove deep into Bengals territory. Third down in three at the Cincinnati ten to hand off to Funk. He's got the first down inside the five, Tackled at the fours, ball comes out and the Bengals recover. Trey Von Henderson punched it away from Jake Fuck. Dominique Davis recovered the fumble, and moments later Brandon Allen de

for the Bengals longest play of the preseason. He waits at the goal line for a shotgun snap on second and nine, Pump fakes throws it down the guideline. It is caught on the run at the forty. Kendrick Pryor with the catch and he gets taken down at the forty two yard line. A thirty eight yard game. It led to another McPherson field goal to make it six nothing. But Kendrick Pryor winced when I asked him about that play.

Not just wish I would have scored. That's all been cool to have, Like an on a two yard line ninety eight yard teschdown, that would have been cool. But still happy though grateful, made a big play, But definitely always want more than what I can get, So definitely wish I would have got It would have been much cooler with a ninety eight toesdown versus a thirty eight yard game. So but it was, like I said, grateful though, trusted me, gave me a good ball, let me run

underneath it, just made a play. It was another good night for Pryor, who finished with five catches for sixty five yards. He led the Bengals in receiving yards this preseason with one hundred eighty two in three games. Felt like I did pretty pretty decent throughing the preseason games. You know, went out there throughout camp, those preseason games. Just got a chance to show people I can make plays and when my numbers called, I'll be there too, you know, make a play for something. So like, I

feel like I did pretty good. Do you feel like you've put yourself in a good position to still be part of this team going forward? Oh yeah, definitely. You know at this point inside of my control now, you know, if we got but we don't have any more practices our games left, So at this point it's just hoping. But I put on film, you know, it's good enough to make their roster. But I got got good confidence, you know, I felt like things should go should go good for me. But at this point, like I said,

it's out of my hand. So you're just gonna sit back, wait, wait till Tuesday, four o'clock. Tuesday at four is the deadline for cutting the roster from eighty to fifty three. If Prior doesn't make the cut, there's a strong chance he'll be part of the sixteen man practice squad. The bat Goals scored once more before halftime, as another McPherson field goal made it nine nothing at the break. The Rams managed just seventy five yards of offense in the

first half. LA didn't do much better in the third quarter as the Bengals forced a pair of fumbles. Zach Carter caused the first on a strip sack. T Gray Scales forced the second by ripping the ball away from running back Trey Regas. For the second straight week. The Bengals took a nine point lead to the fourth quarter.

They weren't able to hold the lead. Last Sunday, against the Giants, and they allowed the Rams to score in the fourth quarter on Saturday night, Hell send three receivers out to the right, one out to the left, shotgun Snap Perkins looking around. He's back at the twelve. Under pressure, gets away from Gunter running toward the left side. He's down to the five and he gets close to the pylon and he's in for a Rams touchdown when he is an athlete. That made it nine seven Bengals with

roughly eleven and a half minutes to go. How did the offense respond with a thirteen play drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock and ultimately put the game away. Browning drops back to pass fires in the end zone, bought by Justin Rigg for the touchdown. The young man from Springboro, Ohio, by way of the University of Kentucky with the touchdown catch and the Bengals lead

at fifteen to seven. It was Jake Browning's first touchdown pass in eight NFL preseason games between the Vikings and Bengals. And here's the guy on the receiving end, undrafted rookie tight end Justin Rigg, going through my head. I heard the play call and I knew that I had a chance to get that ball, and I saw the the outside leverage on the guy to break out, and right when I broke out, I knew the ball was coming

and then obviously ended up in the end zone. And I was in shock at first, because you know, especially as a blocking tight end, you never expect that type of thing to happen. But you just gotta be ready for when your numbers called. And it happened, and just through the roof excited. I gotta work on my celebration a little bit. I didn't. I didn't know what to do, but I'll get it next time, all right. Forgive me. I didn't keep watching to see how you celebrated. What

did you do? Oh? I just I just threw up my arms. I didn't know what to do. Celebrated with my teammates. But next time, next time, I'll have something else. Who got the ball? You were, Jake? I have it right here in my locker, right here. So I appreciate them getting me that ball, and I'll cherish that moment forever. We'll get to know just and much better later in the podcast, the final score the Bengal sixteen the Rams seven. Now let's hear from head coach Zach Taylor, who spent

about three minutes with Dave Lapham after the game. Coach pitched shut up for three quarters against uh, you know, a damn good football team. Hard to do. I thought it was really good performance by our defense. A lot of guys put a lot of snaps. It's a good

way to finish the offseason here. So the the two days that you that you had working together and the carry over to today's football game, it looked like guys were pretty familiar with assignment, alignement and adjustment and all the sort of things that needed to get done tonight. I didn't notice a lot of mental awers. That's something we'll see more tomorrow. But I thought the guys played fast, they played with confidence and allowed us to get a win.

So Jake Browning on the one touchdown drive, he was basically accounted for all the yards made, all the How good was he tonight? He managed the situation really well, you know. And they had a zile leverage in the run game playing base to eleven, so sometimes you just gotta throw it and and I thought we did a really nice job operating that situation. Yeah, I think you threw at eleven straight times, didn't you know something like that?

I think in that drive, yeah, they know, based to eleven, you know, I think they were down personnel gave us the excuse to throw the ball a little bit more, and so we took advantage of it. I mean, your defense though in the second half went base. I mean three linebackers, A lot of the linebackers and they were eleven and they were a kid and felt like high school again going out there with four down linement and three linebackers played pretty well with it. Yeah, traditional old

school linement there to a true four three. I thought that they handled it really well. You know, KeAndre had to play a different role for us. Michael Thomas had to play a different role. He played some nickel there in the second quarter. So I just thought our guys did a really good job adjusting to some of the things that we had to do to help ourselves in this game. Turnovers, you guys really protect the ball well. They had some difficulty and a lot of it was

due to the excellency your defensive football team. Again, they did a great job creating the turnovers. Win the turnover a battle. You got a great chance to win the game. I wish we could have capitalized a little bit more on the red zone there and offense, but I thought our guys did a really good job wining the turnover battle early in the game. I think their first four possessions three three and outs and then they had the fumble at the two yard line and the low red zone.

Pretty good. Yeah, it was really good. You know, it's anytime you can hold him to zero at halftime, then we feel like we're in a pretty good shape. Yeah, no question. So as far as I know, knock on wood, if I can find some nothing at all that looked like it was any kind of a problem from an injury standpoint, that was the biggest goal tonight, wasn't it.

Yeah we'll find out. You know, some of those things pop up the next day, and so we'll to make sure that everybody's healthy as we come out of this thing. And then now you're in a in a scenario where you're gonna have to evaluate things from a personnel standpoint, makes some tough decisions. I know, like everybody that I talked to in the locker room that is trying to fight for a job, man, I hope I stay here. I love this place. I love it here. Kudos to

you for creating that kind of culture. I mean, guys want to be here a big time. I think guys have really bought it and they enjoy being around each other. And that's important if you're gonna have a winning football team. Guys got to enjoy the process and be willing to do some hard work and like doing it with the people that they're doing it with. And I think that we've got that here. So now, just what's the process, coach? You got you gotta get down to the fifty three.

But the roster is still in flux, probably for a couple of days or so. You have Labor Day weekend off. But the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town to open the season. How much time have you given to the Pittsburgh Steelers during the course of training camp? Has there been some time to vote it to them. We're always keeping an eye on everybody, you know, and so it'll be nice to get through the Snell part and just dive into the Steelers. Congratulations, got the dub. He got out of

it in real good shape. It looks like physically it's a pretty good night. Good night, Yeah, I appreciate it. So now players on the bubble have to go through the agony of waiting to find out if they made the roster or the practice squad. One of the players who seems likely to stick around is undrafted rookie cornerback Alan George. He played every defensive snap against the Rams, and I talked to him about his performance and the upcoming roster cuts. I think for the most part, it

was good. Um, I kind of got I did the same thing in the first game. I took all eighty one snaps on defense, so or are not all anyone snaps on defense, But I took all the snaps on defense, So I kind of got my my lungs ready for that at that at that point when he played the Cardinals. So when we came out here today, I actually felt better. I was telling my wife that that I that I

kind of have to get my mom right. But I actually felt pretty prepared him and I was ready to him to handle the tempo or however fast they wanted to go. So I think for the most part, I handled the snaps pretty well. You went visited with your wife right after the game, but she pretty excited about how things went. Yeah, she's always excited. She's always in my former twenty or seven. Ever since we met, she's sent me a game day messes, long messes. I don't

know how she keeps formulating new ones. But and then she has a Bible verse in there and we just pray over it. So she's extremely supportive. She comes to every single one of my games. She hasn't missed one, so she's extremely support her. We're chatting with Allen George. I thought you had a good week and those joint practices against the Rams, I thought you did extremely well. Had the interception in one of those practices. Do you feel like this final week goes a long way toward

you sticking around here? Yeah, I mean I hope it does. I don't think anybody wants to exit the league or exit the team or a club. For the most part, I feel like I put my best foot forward, and if I did make a mistake, I was. I wasn't ever losing a rep. I was kind of just learning

from it. So my brother when I was growing up, he always just tell me you don't ever lose, you win or you learn and uh, and that's kind of one thing I carried down throughout my football career, so uh, anything that that hit me and during the during the RAMS practices or just any practice throughout camp. If it hit me once, I tried to make sure I got it off my tape and I didn't let it hit me again. So for I think I put my best before.

Did anything in particular stand out in those joint practices against the likes of Cooper Cup and the other great players that they have on that team. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't get the chance to cover Cup, but I talked to him after one of the practices, Uh, and it was just it was just crazy just to be in the same It's I mean, it's crazy for me to be in the same space as these people already.

I feel like I belong in the league definitely. Um, but just me coming from the situation I came from as an undrafted rookie from from Vandy and then I didn't play football till I was fifteen, from a city of eight thousand people like it. It's not common from my type to get here to this point. So um, anytime I get the chance to meet any of those people that might get a gold jackets, it's kind of nuts. So Um, I think I learned. I learned some intricacies

of how they run routes. Uh, and I've been able to kind of make that and adapt how I play certain certain receivers when it comes to body types or their speed or anything like that. So I always try to use the knowledge that I get from from the greats. If I feel like final question for Alan George, how do you plan to spend the next day or two hoping to get that that phone call that you're part of this team going forward? UM, I'm just gonna spend

it happy. I have no no, nothing, nothing to hold back. I really have no regrets of how I played this or my interactions within the building and meetings or training like like weightlifting or anything like that. I feel like I put my bestsel forward and in every regard. So I mean, my wife is just gonna relax or it relaxed as much as I can and then just pray and hope it was just like we did for the draft. I mean, that didn't that didn't work in our favorite

but when he got something right after. So if it goes our way, it goes our way, and I'll be extremely grateful. And if it doesn't I'll have my head up high, and I'll still be extremely grateful for the opportunity. You should have your head up high. You've done an excellent job. Best of what going forward? Thank you. Allen had five tackles against the Rams and shared the team lead and passes defense in the preseason with three. Now time for postgame analysis with Lap and this week's Radio

guys recap. All Right, Lap, The Bengals end the preseason with a nine point victory over the Ram sixteen to seven the final score. I know people don't remember wins and losses in the preseason, but the players do. When they take the field, they want to walk out of there with a win, and obviously everybody feels a little bit happier that at least they got one of these

three preseason games. I agree with you, Dan, I couldn't agree with you more in fact, And to get the victory against the Rams, who obviously had a bit of defeat in Super Bowl fifty six. And then you know the little uh, a little bit of a rub that occurred at the end of the second day of practice. I'm sure there are still guys that have feelings about that. So it's it's good to get a victory, particularly the way the defense played. I mean, jeez, they were just

lights out. You shut out an NFL team in any circumstance for three quarters, that's getting it done. I mean, these guys are out there on the football field for a reason. I mean, they can form, they're they're high end athletes. And I thought Louianna Rumo and his defensive team, I mean the first four possessions thirty three and ounce in a takeaway in a low red zone, I mean it was crazy good. And you know, I thought Brownie

played well. The receiving corps or own nine catches for ninety three yards last five forty two prior five for sixty five. I mean nineteen catches out of three guys, you know, for about two hundred yards. I mean, that's that's that's pretty good. They did a great job, I thought, finding holes and seams and the zone coverages of the rams and you know, we're on the same page. Browning did a good job finding those guys, you know, as

well as Brandon all and both quarterbacks played well. I mean Brandon ll And eleven out of fifteen four hundred and thirty yards, Browning nineteen for twenty four and seventy three, and like you said during the broadcast, Brownie was responsible to the touchdown drive all by himself ten for twelve to sixty three yards in the touchdown passed and he had the twelve yard run to keep the drive alive.

I mean it was the Jake Browning drive. I want to follow up on those three wide receivers, Trent and Irwin, Kendrick pryor Kwamie Lasseter. All of them had at least five catches tonight. I would think the Bengals will have a couple of wide receivers on the practice squad. Can they have all three? I know, it's it's h they all they all played like they wanted to be there tonight, There's no question about that. Can they have three out of sixteen? I think maybe they can. Maybe they can, boy,

they all deserve it. And then you know, Trevion Williams every opportunity he gets, this kid steps up as well, you know. I mean he's a practice squad guy last year, and he's certainly we had four catches himself for forty yards and seven rushes for twenty two and I thought I thought he was the best blitz pick up guy against the Giants last week. In terms of consistency of technique and all that. I mean, they've got some good football players. This personnel department here has put together a

roster that's got some some depth and talent. There's no question. A guy that stood out to me tonight who I really hadn't noticed much in the first two preseason games as linebacker t Gray Scales. He was part of the coin toss as one of the five Cincinnati kids that went out there at the beginning of the game. He had six tackles, he forced a fumble. That's a guy who's, you know, trying to stick around on the practice squad, and I thought he had his best performance tonight. I

agree with that one hundred thousand percent as well. I mean I put him down for all right now, he's going to really step up on special teams. He's gonna impress Darren Simmons. Well, heck, he got his snaps defensive lyne he stepped up in those. I mean he showed you know that. Okay, I'm on the big stage. This is important to me. I'm a Cincinnati guy. Great crowd again,

by the way, wasn't it for preseason him. I mean written they were into us, a good crowd, and the juices were flown now to him, this was his individual Super Bowl fifty six. You know it was that important to a lot of these guys, and they played like it. Yeah. I thought, he's If he's not a practice squad guy, that'd be stunning. He's got to be. You want to develop a kid like that that responded the way he responded, He certainly didn't. You know, the stage wasn't too big

and bright for him. He stepped up and he showed himself. So he showed up big time. What do you think becomes of the punting battle? Kevin Hubert's first punt, great hang time, forty five yards fair, caught exactly what Darren Simmons is looking for. But we know about the leg strength of Drew Chrisman, and he boomed when sixty five yards now went to the end zone, but it bounced at the five before going in. It's still forty five yards net. Do you think Darren in his mind has

his winner determined? Do you think he's gonna think about it for twenty four or forty eight hours? I don't. I wonder I wonder if he does have it determined because I think I think tonight showed what you have to make the decision about. One guy has booming howards are hanging off his right hip, and the other guy still is the tremendously accurate. You know, Finesse find the

directional punting spots perfectly. And I guess to me, we were talking about a little bit before the game in the booth that how many times during the course of the season do you have to flip the field as opposed to making accurate directional kicks and backing people up. I mean, the both invaluable things. If you can back somebody up inside the ten, never mind the twenty inside the ten like Kevin has done, you know, a myriad

of times in his career, that's massive. To make him go long field like that, I mean, that gives the defense extra juice. And you know, the offense is like, I can't make a mistake. If I make a mistake, now, gosh, they got points. You know, we're on a short field. So it changes play calling, change his attitude, changes mindset. But there's nothing better than you know, you're backed up in your fifteen yard line and a punter boots the ball from his own end zone to their ten yard line.

I mean that's like huge, So you know, I guess, I guess Darren has to weigh all that. I guess weigh all that out. To me, I don't know. It's almost like Kevin Huber in my mind, almost deserves to be knocked out instead of TKOD And I'm not sure he's knocked out. You know, I think Christman's a talent. I think somebody's going to gobble him up when he goes on the waiver wire. And I honestly, I think somebody that's got a punning problem is gonna goble up

Kevin Huber as well. Whoever they let go has got a job somewhere in the National Football League. But Kevin Huber is an institution here. I mean he's He's something that you know, seasons come and go, but Hubert stays. So it's going to be very very interesting. Darren Simmons has a very very intriguing decision to make, and you

know he did. I thought he was kind of tipping his hand a little bit when he says when he said early before training camp started, I think he said sixty percent of the job now because of place kicking, the excellence of the kickers as a holder and forty percent punter. I'm thinking, oh, he's going Huber. And then Chrisman is a good athlete and he's got high hand coordination.

He's shown marked improvement. And Darren says he's monitored. You know, he's tracked all of them, and it's it's a toss up so Man, but he's done it for all those years and Clark Harris and Kevin Huber have never had a screw up. All that stuff just means something to me. I don't know. It's one of those situations where how can you how can you say what? It's either decisions, it's that's made. But it's a difficult one, very tough. Let's turn to Jackson Carmen, who got every snap at

left guard. He may have been very solid over the course of most of those snaps the night. Hopefully he was when we go back and look at the tape of the game. But he did give up a sack, he had a penalty. The kinds of mistakes unfortunately that have, you know, hurt him because it's kind of a roller coaster ride with him. Do you think that helps clinches that clinch things in favor of Cordell Volson, if it

wasn't already clinch going into the game. Yeah, you know, I think I think that if if it was close going into the game. In my mind, Cordell Volson the thing that if I'm coaching the offensive line, I have a lot of trust and Cordell Volson and athletics is built on trust, just like relationships. Any relationships built on trust.

And I think Cordell Volson, even even as young as he is, he's he's very very I mean, all the abilities besides the physical ability or liability, responsibility, dependability, availability, he's got all the available abilities. And he's he's strong. You know, he finishes, he learns quickly. It's not you know, he doesn't make the same mistake twice. He's got he's got a lot of uh, he's got a lot of very very high redeeming qualities. You know. Um, He's made

us some good stuff. There's no doubt about it. So but honestly, I think they're gonna need both of them at some point in time. So if it does work out that they go with Cordell Wilson, Jackson, Carmen can't get his darbar down Jackson Carmen. I mean, if you, if you you know, my mindset would be all right, Well, I'll just try to get better, work harder. Maybe they rotate, maybe three guards rotate. You know, who knows, maybe they

end up. I'm not going to run a messenger guard system with Joe Barrow, but who knows what they do it. You just you don't spit the bit, you don't give up on it. And that's going to be the next That's the next thing that I would look at as a coach. All right, Well, if it doesn't work out, am I going to lose one of these two guys? And you can't make a decision on well, I don't want to hurt that guy's feelings. This guy would handle it better. So I'm gonna go with this guy because

he would. You don't want to do that. So it's I think. I think Cordell Wolson is probably comfortable with resting on the tape that he's put on display, and I'll let the chips fall as they may. Let's turn to Justin rig who caught a three yard touchdown past tonight. The Bengals number one tight end Hayden Hurst healthy ready to go for the start of the season. Drew Sample sprinted with some of his teammates before the game tonight, so it looks like hopefully he'll return to practice next week.

Mitchell Wilcox is still out, so the tight end position is a bit of a mystery. And justin Ray, we already knew he could block, and now he showed something in the passing game with a touchdown catching the red zone tonight. Yeah, that was good to see. I think they know. It's almost like they rewarded him for a job well done at the line of s primmage. Now we're gonna get you know, We're gonna target you and let you catch an NFL touchdown pass in the preseason.

You know, it's like a good job kid, and h you know, we know you can do this and we're gonna let you do it. And just like every position, Dan and I mean I when every single training camp I went to, I'm like, I gotta win us a job. First thing I have to do is win a job to get on the rush and then win a starting job. But you have to approach it that way every year because there's always somebody, whether they trade for him or they pick him up off the waiver wire or whatever

the case may be. A big part of a personnel department's responsibility is always trying to improve the football team. So, man, if you think you got it made, that's when you don't have it made. Honestly, it's it's so competitive. There are so many guys that would give their right arm to be in the National Football League. And if you feel like you know, I got it, I'm good man, you'd start that complacency. You're gonna get slapped down, man,

and get slapped down quick. So hopefully all these guys realize because that this roster Tuesday at four o'clock, that's just the beginning. There could be, you know, multiple tweaks during the course of the week. You know, there may be some guys that are on the on the waiver wire that they fully intend on bringing back and having a guy make the fifty three man roster then put them an injury reserve. It's a lot lesser time, so you have to play the roster mechanics, and they've done

that over the years multiple times. So at four o'clock on Tuesday, you can actually don't let the all the air out though, because man, There's there's more days the rest of the week that you're gonna have to worry about and deal with. And that's just life in the NFL. If it were easy, everybody to do it. Last thing, at the end of the final preseason game in your rookie year, did you know that you had made the team or did you have that uncomfortable weight to find

out that you were good to go? I was drafted in the third round, the sixty first pick in the draft, and a guy named Daryl White, All American guard from Nebraska. We were the two All American guards. He was drafted in the fourth round. Dog fight and you know, my good buddy, Stan Walter's fellow Syracuse salum was on the team still before he had traded to Philadelphia Eagles for John Rees, the quarterback and standing makes the Pro Bowl

at the eag He was a really good player. But so last cut and I get my playbook in my hand, I get out of my car and I'm looking at Frank's mouse who was the turk, And I'm like, I'm kind of tiptoe and you know, should I walk faster? And he looks at me and then he kind of looks around me. I'm like, so I go to my locker change out, put on my shorts, t shirt, going

to the team meeting him, and everybody had tape. Paul Brown put a strip of tape in the right hand corner up a right hand corner of your desk with your name on it, so Lion will up front. I go looking for my name, No lap him. I'm like, Sun up again. Frank's mouse didn't even recognize me. And that's how bad I suck. He didn't even know who the hell I was. This is awful and I made no impression, and I was beat red. I could I could feel the heat coming off my chest, and I'm like,

Darrell made it and make it something. So I really had no idea, and I'm thinking because because I played the first three preseason games, I played quite a bit, and then I didn't, you know, and Daryl played a ton and I'm thinking, Okay, is this a signal that you played well enough or it's like it wasn't good enough. And Darrel, they want to see him how well he's playing, and so you don't know. You just don't know what they're thinking. And so I turned around to find Darrell

and shake his hand. No, Darrel. I'm like, God, they cut both of us. I can't believe that. And then everybody starts laughing and stand hit hidden my desk in the he pulls my desk out. Ain't done, rookie. I wanted to kill him, but I'm like my heart was pounding, and so Paul Brown after the meeting, congratulations young man, and I'm like, coach, I was thinking, that's your first mistake. Don't think, don't think. I'll do the thinking you play. Don't think. I'm like, yes, sir. Words to live by.

Don't think doubt about it, no doubt about it, don't overcomplicate anything, don't think. Bengals returned to practice on Wednesday as they turned their focus to the regular season opener against the dreaded, hated, but grudgingly respected Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free

to play fantasy football game. This past season, Ultimate Bengals awarded a weekly winner during the course of the year, with tickets, autographed merchandise, and money can't buy experiences all up for grabs. Find Ultimate Bengals in the App Store and Google Play. Now time for this week's Fun Facts interview, where you get to know the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts with rookie tight End. Justin rig from Springboro, Ohio, about forty miles away from Cincinnati.

Were you a Bengals fan as a kid? Actually, I was not, I guess I kind of at first grew up and my middle brother was a Bengals fan, and then my oldest brother was a Steeler slash Falcons fan, and then I kind of revolted against going with one of them, and I was I've been a Seahawks fan kind of mine. It was my whole life until kind of up to until now, I guess. So, yeah, I Seahawks fan, growing up in Springboro wearing a Russell Wilson jersey.

How passionate were you about that? I mean it started with Matt Hasselbeck and Sean Alexander and them way back when I was a little younger, and when they went to the Super Bowl against the Steelers that year, and then ever since then, you know, yeah, I was a big Russell fan. Bobby Wagner, all those guys, just loved them all. Justin you're a big man, You're six six to sixty Were you always the tall kid in the back of the class photo or did you have a

late growth spurt growing up? I would say I was always a taller kid, but I would say up until eighth grade, I was kind of with those taller kids. But eighth grade, going into freshman year, I would say I just started to grow and be like the taller kid in school. Probably only a couple other kids in school were even close to the height that I was at, so I guess at that in high school I kind of took over the height. When it came time for college, you went to Kentucky Why UK? And was that a

difficult decision? I would say throughout the process, you know, going to different camps and stuff like that, I had no idea until I think I started to talk with Coach Stoves and Coach Marrow, and they were heavily recruiting me and just kind of talking to them, busy with them. They kind of made Kentucky feel like a second home,

and they kind of made they felt trustworthy. And I felt that the way Coach Marrow was talking to me, I could really trust what he was telling me, and everything that he did tell me came so till this day. I think that the way they recruit and the way they do, they're really upfront and honest with players, and I think that they're going to continue to grow that program like they are now. And I think I've made

a great choice coming there. You must have liked it because you're there for a long time, more than a quarter of your life. So you got injured. It's a true freshman, so you got a medical red shirt. Then the COVID rules allowed you to take an extra year, so you actually played in six different seasons. Was staying a football decision or did you just love UK that

much that you wanted another year? It was definitely. I mean I do love UK, but I think that extra year really helped me develop my game even more, with you know, getting a whole new offense and it kind of being the NFL style offense that we had. I think it really helped propel me to get to where I am now. I think staying that extra year was kind of beneficial to helping me get to the NFL. Aside from football, what was your favorite part of the

UK experience? I would say I do love UK as like a city, and I love everything that they have going on there. I feel like there's always something to do, and then you know, just I feel like anywhere you go, the college experience is really awesome, and especially having the teammates that I did and the friends that I had there, that it really was a great thing all around. You signed with the Bengals after the draft as a college free agent. I imagine you were hoping to get drafted.

Was that weekend disappointing? I mean yeah, I mean, every every player always wants to get drafted, and you're sitting there watching the whole draft, just watching your phone because you really never know. I knew I was just from reports and talking to my agent. I knew i'd be in that back end. I mean, I have different opinions, but I just knew that's where I would be, and I knew that the situation that I was in would come down to it, and you know, it's it's really

worked out for me. And I love being close to home, love being at the Bengals, and I love everything that they do here. You know, Coach Taylor has a great program going on, and I just love the way that the style of the organization they have. So we've heard stories about guys in your position. Where as the draft is winding down, the phone starts to ring. It's teams trying to get in position to potentially sign you as soon as they're allowed. Is that what it was like

for you? Oh? Yeah, I received phone calls from different teams, all kind of from all different areas, and you know,

it was just kind of it comes in fast. So I was getting those calls and then you know, right when you hung up, you talked to your agent about your options, what you think, and then you get another phone call and then you just kind of you got to make a decision fast because those offers could go away, like like anything can really happen in that time, and you could call back and they'd be like, okay, well off,

like that offers off the table type thing. But you know, we kind of had a game plan going into what my decisions would be and looking at different teams. We kind of had it down and I feel like this was the best fit for me. We're doing fun facts with tight End justin Riggs. So you made your NFL debut a couple of weeks ago at pay Course Stadium. How big was the rooting section and can you articulate what that was like to make your NFL debut so

close to home. Yeah, it was pretty awesome because you know, I had pretty much my whole family here. But then I also had a lot of close friends at the game too, And you know, you know, once you start playing, you kind of zone out, but then after the game you kind of realize all the people that were there to watch you. And you know, after I saw my entire family and I was just ecstatic, and I was like, I just played in the NFL game. You know, you

reach your goal. I mean, I have more goals now, but you kind of reached that final goal of I made it to the NFL and I got to play in the NFL game, But you know, I still got a lot more goals to prove and I got a lot of things to do. But just being able to share that with my family and friends was a great thing. I reference your size. You're an excellent blocker, but I know that you can sider yourself a good pass catcher as well. Correct, is that a big thing you would

like to prove to everybody you know right now? Like I see myself as that blocking tight end and I want to fit that team role and I'll go in there and block for a second down. I'm completely fine with that. You know, if I go out, if I do go out for a pass, I'm gonna catch it and I'm gonna run and I'm gonna do what I

can do. I feel like I have great hands, but right now i feel like I am a great blocker, and I'm gonna utilize that and push for my future as a blocking tight end show that I can do that, Just so so the team can trust me in that factor, I'll write a few wild card topics for Justin Rigg. According to year UK bio, your hidden talent is card tricks. There's evidence of this on YouTube, so I've seen some

of your work. How did that get started? You know, I think my freshman because in high school and stuff like, I would always like if I was at home, I would get bored. I would start learning card tricks. And there was a time period where I would a while that I learned a bunch of card tricks and then I really liked it. I thought it was really cool. And then I got to UK and I saw the formulare like, oh hidden talents. I was like, the only I can think of as a card tricks. I wrote

it down and it kind of stuck. And then throughout my years at UK, they asked me a couple of times to do I wasn't as doing it as much then, but they kind of asked me to do it. So I try to pull from memory some card tricks that I could do. But yeah, I think I love you know, America's got talent and all that stuff that you see all those things on I think they're really cool. I recommend checking it out on YouTube. You do it well. If that you're hidden talent, what are you terrible at? Terrible?

You know? With all seeing all these rookie show things that they're doing across the league and stuff, There's one thing I will never sing. I cannot sing. I have a bad voice. I know I can't sing, and I just I would refuse to do that. But yeah, I would say that was the one thing I'd be that I'd be bad at. John Caliperry recently did an interview where he said UK is a basketball school. Were you offended? I mean a lot of things can get taken out of context, and I don't know the full story of it.

I did see all that stuff, and you know, you see it all over social media and stuff. But I know that the both programs and all of UK athletics have a great, you know, friendship, and they're all together and they want every single organization or every team to succeed. And I think that that feud was I know that those coaches don't have that feud with each other, and I know they're probably they probably already figured it out.

And to me personally, you know, I think what coach Joe has done has shown that we that were in everything type of school, and I think that it shows I don't think that it was meant that way. I guess Coach cal did go on to say he wants the football team to win double digit games every year and go to a bowl game, so I guess he couched it a little bit. Yeah. Final question, This one's

kind of deep. If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, entertainer, statesman, whoever it might be, who would that person be and why, like maybe George Washington, just to meet somebody back from way back then and just kind of understand what the things that they went through and how I guess that time period and just what it what it was like, because you really never know what happened all those years ago and just kind of see, I guess what happened

then I don't. That's a tough question though. I'll have to think about that one more. I'm trying. A bunch of people are going through my head, and I'm just trying to pick a good one. But yeah, I would just think anybody from you know, back in like eighteen hundreds or just just to know what that time period was. Like. You can't go wrong with George Washington, father of our country. That's a great answer. Yeah, that's why I picked. I was like that, you can't go wrong with that, all right.

If you think of something else, feel free to let me know. But in the meantime, appreciate your time, best of luck, and congratulations on this opportunity making it into an NFL campus a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself. Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate it, all right. That's justin ring. That's going to do it for this episode of The Bengals Booth podcast presented by Ultimate Bengals. Download Ultimate Bengals ahead of the upcoming season. It's free to play next

level fantasy football with fantastic Bengals prizes. Get it now on the App Store and Google Play. And if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast