Bengals Booth Podcast: Better Days

schedule release and the latest Bengals news. And finally I'll talk to Todd Archer, who covers the Dallas Cowboys for ESPN, about Andy Dalton heading to Dallas. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Prime Sport, the official fan, travel and hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. And here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify or pod Bean.

It's the greatest thing since facebooks. On this day photo reminders, if you're on Facebook, you've undoubtedly received on this Day photos that you've shared in the past from one year ago, five years ago, etc. My son's birthday was last weekend and I received an on this day photo of an epic Bengals birthday cake that he requested and received eight years ago, complete with a logo, many helmets, and lots of orange and black frosting. So thanks for the reminder, Facebook.

Now you can resume conquering the planet. Let's get to football. If you've listened to this podcast or Bengals radio shows in the past, you're probably familiar with my fun Facts interviews where we get away from the xes and o's and try to get to know the person under the pads. You're about to hear the first fun Facts interview that

I've attempted over the phone. It's with Joe Burrow. And while it's not quite the same as when you're sitting right next to the person and seeing how they react, he was a great sport about answering a wide variety of questions. Time for some fun facts with the first pick in the twenty twenty NFL Draft, quarterback Joe Burrow. Joe, I want to start with the famous cigar picture after the National Championship win over Clemson. It reminds me of Joe Namath in the bathing suit by the pool before

Super Bowl three. It's like the epitome of cool incompetent. How did it happen? And did you have any idea in the moment? How big of a deal that would become one of our strength? In turns his family on the cigar company. So he was passing around in the locker room and we were spoken them and then they told me the time for media and you want to just put it out and they have to relite about myself. I was kept smoking it and so I'll end up

capturing a picture, great video, great picture. It's on T shirts. It's one of the most popular gifts out there. That thing has become hugely viral. Yeah. I mean this is craziness, and I don't think we're allowed to smoke inside. But I think the New Orleans costs. Let us let's get away with one. Yeah, win a national championship, you get a little bit of extra leeway. Joe on Draft night, the Heisman trophy made a nice decoration in your family living room. How heavy is it? And how do you

travel with the Heisman Trophy? I think it's about thirty pounds thirty or forty, and they gave us a nice little case with the walk on it that we can travel with, so nobody will take it from us. So when you haven't been able to go to fitness centers during this pandemic situation, you can lift the Heisman trophy good. You have stated publicly that your big splurge with your rookie contract is going to be a personal chef. Are their candidates already and what must they be able to cook?

Getting resumeates for a long time or since I first said that? So now now is the time where parmy starting to go through the wall. I'd have to think about my case has been changing lately. Some things that I used to like I don't really like as much anymore. So I think my options are pretty open. I have heard this isn't something that a chef will be required to prepare, But I have heard that you have a passion for the Honey Crisp apple easily the best apple

correct by far number one of all the apples. Are signing close. We have that in common, Joe, you have been described as being compulsively competitive. What loss still stings the most? Every one of them. There's not any particular losses that I hurt more than others. Losing this isn't very fun, and that's why I like to work as hard as I can to try to win as many games as possible. On the flip side, is there a win in something other than a big sporting event that's

still deeply satisfying? Enjoy beating people in ping pong? That's that's pretty satisfying. As we always have a family ping pong tournament on vacation, I usually win it. You'll be happy to know if you didn't already, there's a ping pong table in the Bengals locker room. I'll be frequenting that table. I want to go back to a game in your junior year at LSU seven overtimes Texas A

and m ultimately won seventy four seventy two. It's the highest scoring game at FBS history, nearly five hours long, and you physically crashed at the end of that game. How serious was that? Still? Too seriously, thought a little little blood sugar. I don't like to eat directly before games, so the last time I had eaten was lunch, and we ended up getting enough to feel like one am. So that's I didn't need anything at halftime. So that's the only reason that I had passed out in a

locker room. When you decided to transfer from Ohio State, your final two choices were the University of Cincinnati or LSU, and you obviously made the right choice. But I understand that had you transferred to UC there was a thought process that Andy Dalton actually might serve as a mentor or a sounding board since you would have been in the same city. Was that an appealing possibility? And did you two guys ever make contact? You didn't before the

last couple of days. Um, that was in discussion that they have never really crossed my mind that that was going to play a part in my decision making. You know, my goal was always in a national championships. That's the reason that I picked the LSU. Joe. By referencing families living in poverty where you grew up during your Heisman's speech, you helped raise more than half a million bucks for the food pantry in Athens County. Was that an eye opening moment for what you might be able to do

going forward for people with the platform you're going to have. Yeah, it really was, and I'm excited to kind of come up with some more things to help more people that hopefully we can do here in the next couple of years. All Right, a few wild card topics for you. Your dad was drafted by the Packers and played in the Canadian Football League for five years. Your brothers played big

time college football at Nebraska. But the best athlete in your family might have been your grandmother, right, Yeah, she dropped eighty two in a game in high school one time, eighty two points in a high school basketball game. And I've read that she averaged fifty plus. Yeah, yeah, she did as you were growing up in the driveway or anything like that. Did Grandma Dot ever toss a ball? No, I've never seen her. I've never seen her do it. I'll find out for some film of her doing it

one of these daies. I understand that you are a huge Cleveland Cavaliers fanatic, and rumor has it. I don't know if this was in the first finals against the Warriors of the second one, but you didn't leave your room, you didn't change your clothes something like that for good luck, explain. I didn't quite go that far. I just wore a Matthew Doble's over shirts and I wore for every during every game when you were a kid. Did you have any memorable meetings with a really famous athlete at my

cousin's wedding in Calciforny? And yeah, Peyton Manning attended a cousin's wedding. No, he was just at the hotel that it was happening at h Do you think you resemble Macaulay Culkin? Yeah, yeah, i'd say I'd say so now and I can't can't hid you that on thinking a little better looking. Now, what are you bad at? Because obviously you were a great athlete in every sport that you've played. We understand you're good at ping pong. You referenced playing chess when you spoke to reporters after you

were selected by the Bengals. What are you lousy at golf? If I might do something, I have to pick up and cracktic is quite a bit at the once. At the SEC media days, you use the term superluminal time travel. Are you a science nerd? I am a science nerd. I wish I had more time to kind of study it, but yeah, I'm into all those science documentaries and stuff like that. If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, politician, entertainer, whomever,

who would that person be. Julius Caesar? Why Julius Caesar. Here's a great conqueror, and obviously to do that you got to be a really good leader of men. So I'd be interested to just spend spend a couple of days with them. All right. Last thing, you attended the Super Bowl in Miami. You were hanging out with your buddy Sam Hubbard, and I heard that you were a little bit taken aback by the fact that famous people have now started recognizing you and showing their excitement about

meeting you. What's that like when you first realize, huh, my life has changed. I mean it was crazy people who you grow up watching and listening to, and that they're just coming up and introducing himself to me. I mean it was. It's been a crazy experience so far. All right, you're off the hot seat. I appreciate the time.

I look forward to meeting you in person. Joe has been bombarded by media requests beforehand after the draft, and I appreciate him taking time out for that fun facts conversation and hopefully at some point we'll do a second version face to face before we get to our next segment. Here's a quick reminder that you can take your Bengals pride to the next level in twenty twenty with an official Bengals fan package from Prime Sport. The Bengal schedule

was released on Thursday. It begins with a home game against the Chargers and ends with a home game against the Ravens. I discussed that and more with my broadcast partner Dave lapham Lap when the schedule came out. What were you looking for and was there anything you were hoping for? Well, I was looking to see what they might do and terms of um getting Division games and AFC games in the back half of the schedule if in fact they weren't going to play, you know, an

entire season. I thought they'd backload it, and it turned up to be just the opt There's only one NFC opponent in the first half of the season, the Bengals go to Philadelphia. There's three NFC opponents in the second half of the season. So you know that theory of mine kind of went could put. But I do know I'd noticed that none of the no team had to buy in weeks one through four, so you know, if they have to, if they have to manipulate move things around.

They can also play during the bye week instead of having to buy if they shorten the season, or or even if they don't, they just have to go back to the old, old kind of ideal where you don't have a bye week. So there are some built in contingent season and you know, they still have some some fiddle room, you know, moving a couple of weeks towards the end of the season if they need to, or only playing twelve games if they need to. But yeah,

this is kind of an interesting, interesting season. I mean, the Bengals after that opener against the Chargers down they go on the road four out of five games, man, and the last two on the road at Baltimore at Indy. And that's on October eleventh and October eighteenth. That's that's tough sledding right there. But as a former player, the first thing I do is, Okay, where are the grass fields? Oh,

go to Cleveland week two. That's crazy, that'll be And that's a short week, so you know you have to h you play the charge in the opening, you have to travel on a short week and right now, Thursday night road teams, it's a heavy, heavy underdog. I mean the home team on third men and our short weeks

has one high, high percentage of the time. But let's face it, as a shorter trip as you can get going to Cleveland, and if there is, if the dog Pound has the socially distance, it'll be a different dynamic. It won't be as crazy. If the stadiums aren't full, particularly at the beginning of the season, road games won't be that big a deal. Home home crowded pimases will be nullified. The Bengals did not have a Thursday night game last year, but the last two times they played

on Thursday night. It was the first Thursday night game, Week two against Baltimore in twenty eighteen, Week two against Houston in twenty seventeen. Here we go again. The first Thursday night game is a Bengals game, as you mentioned, on the road at Cleveland. Yeah, that's that's an interesting, interesting thing. And the reason is this one is the case is exactly one hundred years to the day that the NFL came into existence. So there's going to be

a big celebration in Canton. I mean, it's it's a historical day, the one hundred year mark boom on that particular night, So why not have the Cleveland Browns play and the Cincinnati Bengals play. Paul Brown all the connections, all the historic stuff, all of fame hundred year anniversary. So I guess it makes a lot of sense for that to be the first Thursday night game this year when you take into the into account what that particular

date September seventeen hundred years ago. As you mentioned, Thursday night road games are tough. The home team overwhelmingly wins. But I guess when I look at this one, not only is it nearby in Cleveland, but it's against a new head coach. And if you go back to last year, there were eight new head coaches in the NFL last year, including Zach Taylor. Five of the eight did not get a win in the first four weeks of the season,

and seven of the eight finished with losing records. For Cleveland, this is the eighth head coach in the last twelve years, So I guess if you have to play a Thursday night road game, it's good to be competing against the team with a new coaching staff. In a year where it might be harder than ever to have a new coaching staff. Yeah, I mean you look at you look at the situation Cleveland, a new head coach and a

first time head coach. Stefanski has never been a head coach before, Whereas in Dallas, you know, McCarthy has been the Giants brand new. Judge never had been a head coach before, Washington Rivera has so you know, in those in those businesses, there's some experience there, you know, as a head coach. So I think I think that that is needs to transition. Then the first time ever being a head coach, you're dealing with the coronavirus, you're dealing

with all these different things. I just think that that that's a that's a tough dynamic and uh and in the Bengals to catch the Cleveland Browns early in that in that kind of scenario when everybody's still in a dealing out process, because let's go to it. I think

the preseason games are in jeopardy. Everything's to be determined there the dates, you know, where they're the only thing in the preseason that's definite is on on August twenty eighth, The Bengals got down to Atlanta as the CBS nationally televised game tentatively, but I think the preseason games are in jeopardy. So if they don't, if you don't have any preseason games and you've never coached before as a head coach, and the you know, Bengals get one of

those scenarios. Now, good that Taylor is only in his second year and uh, but but to be that new at it, I think there is a slight edge there, you know. I think it nullifies a lot of things. One of the big things that stands out to everybody is the fact that the Bengals get a rare season opener at home just the second time in the last eleven years, and the last time was specifically for the

fiftieth season of Bengals football. That one didn't go well in twenty seventeen when they got shut out by Baltimore. But do you think it's helpful for Joe Burrow to play his first NFL game at home? I do. I

think it is helpful, you know. I think that he does have a contingent from nations that will be coming to that football game, including family, you know, And that's just a small piece of it, but I think that that will give him a little bit of comfort, and you know, he may be I wonder I would think that Taylor, particularly with the dynamic of this coronavirus, Taylor, you know, in my mind, more than likely will be

the guy to line up instead of Justin Herbert. Now I'm not saying that's not an impossibility, but if you have two rookie quarterbacks, you know, on the first pick of the draft and one of the sixth pick of the draft going head to head in that in that opener, and I think CBS, you know, made it a four or five game, made it the doubleheader game, in the late game, and maybe an anticipation of not only Joe Burrows first game as a rookie in the National Football League,

but potentially going against another highly touted rookie at the quarterback position. There's a lot of sex appeal to that. So you know, that makes some sense from a from a scheduling standpoint as well. And how about this, If Safford say that the Pittsburgh Steelers signed Cam Newton, there'd be three Heisman Trophy quarterbacks in the division. That would be That would be nuts. No, that there'd be four

Heisman Trophy quarterbacks in the division with Cam Newton. Joe Barrow is a Heisman Trophy winner, first pick of the draft. Same with Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson Heisman Trophy winner, you know, last pick of the first round. And then Ben with all his experience, talk about a quarterback division when we're

talking about quarterbacks, that would be nuts. But even if that's not the case, you know, you have all four quarterbacks or first rounders, two of them are first picks of the draft, three of them are Heisman Trophy winners, and it's turned into a quarterback division for sure. You also have RG three backing up in Baltimore, there's another Housing Trophy winner. True. Do you think there's a chance lap that Cam Newton will sign with Pittsburgh. I think

there's a I think there's a chance. I mean I did not see the Andy Dalton signing with Dallas. You know scenario It makes a lot of sense after the fact, but I didn't see it before the fact. And it all depends. I mean, the only scenario there is. You know, Jamis Winston took a million dollars to go with the New Orleans Saints because they had cap issues. Pittsburgh's got

the cap issues with Cam Newton. Not only you know, swallow the the ego hit of not being a starting quarterback, but taken that kind of a compensation to I don't know that. I think that one's kind of a launch shop. The boy strands of things have already happened, I guess. In terms of this season, it's been the strangest offseason in NFL history for the quarterback position. There is no question about it. I was shocked by Andy going to Dallas. I thought for sure he would go to the place

that gave him the best opportunity to play. My question for you is, he's not going to play in Dallas unless Dak Prescott gets hurt. Has Andy Dalton already entered the veteran backup phase of his career for the rest of his career. I think his mindset was that the Bengals didn't do him any favors by you know, Delane the process, and he felt like, you know, it was

it was such a bad market. Signed a one year contract and you know, then see what the market looks like next year and see if he can restart, you know, jump start his career. As a potential starting quarterback against somewhere else, depending on one unfolds during the course of the season with injury and everything else, everything else involved. And you know, to Dallas Cowboys, they're looking at it is we have the best backup in the league in

our opinion. Plus, if some some teams quarterback goes down to injury, we have a valuable asset to trade because his contract is very very you know, franchise friendly right now, and you don't you don't wish harm and anybody else. But if somebody, somebody gets hurt, they trade Andy Dalgon. He plays well and extends you know, a contract somewhere else. All those all those scenarios are in play as much. In worst case scenario, he stays in Dallas for a year,

colectus three million, doesn't have to relocate. His family, Stanleys, friends, everybody are are right there for him. Um, you know, and he makes a close contact with the guy named Jerry Jones, who when your post football career is over, and there's not a better guy in the world to know probably than Jerry Jones in terms of business contacts

and everything else. So when you look at a real big, big picture like you start to do, you know, when you're on the back nine of your career, makes a lot of sense on a lot of ways, like you playing for Donald Trump in the USFL. Right, we mentioned the one primetime game at Cleveland in Week two. Let's talk about the other the week before Christmas at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football. This will be the third straight Monday Night game that the Bengals

have played against the Steelers. They lost at Pittsburgh last year, didn't have one in twenty eighteen, lost at home to the Steelers in twenty seventeen. So when Monday Night Football is looking to put the Bengals on, they're typically looking to put them on against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah, they are, and they they've had some some barn burners, for sure. I think they like everything that's gone down in those games in Pittsburgh Monday Night in the twenty first. Like

you say, then they have the short week. They have to go down to Houston and play at one o'clock game, twelve o'clock kickdown there at Houston in battling Christmas as well. Short week. So it's not only a short week because of Monday night foot ball. But Christmas usually, you know, it's a different week in terms of players you know,

are usually let go. The schedule gets compressed anyway on a regular week, but you go Monday night at home, which is good against Pittsburgh, short week to travel against Houston, and Christmas holiday is one of those days where you're doing some preparations. It's going to be squeezed. I mean, I think I think both of their you know, And that's obviously the stuff you have to deal with when

talking about a nationally televised game. You have a short week for Thursday night, but then a long week the following week, and then this one. You know, you've got the short week from Pittsburgh to Houston because of the holiday that falls right in the middle of it. The old joke is that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Well, let's add a season finale against Baltimore for the band guy. This will be the eighth time in the last eleven years they've ended the regular

season against Baltimore. The good news is they've won the last five. The last five times they've did the season against Baltimore, Cincinnati's come out on top. Yeah, they've had, they've had a run a good luck, there's no doubt, Dan, And you know, you look at it. Two of the last three games or division games, which you know is not a surprise. It's been that way down the stretch of the league tries to have division time breaker games

of some consequence significance to finish off the season. And uh, you know, no exception to the rule of this time. There's you know, the three division teams or the Banks played three division games in the first half of the season, they played Cleveland twice, they played three division teams the second half of the season, and they play Pittsburgh twice.

So it's it's it's you know, it's it's laid out very very evenly, like we talked about after the home open or four of their next five are on the road after the bye week, which is very beneficial for the Bengals to fall right in the middle of the season. Again, I mean, you'd like it to be eight games, take your break, eight more games. Well, when they start the next eight, three of the next three of those four are on the road. So finally, you know what you say,

all right, well, finish in the season. What's it looked like it looks good. Three of those last four at home. You know, two of the last three or at home, and two of them are division games. Those two games, so if they can stay in the hunt, if they can stay competitive, you know, the month of December could be very very intriguing, and you know, finish it off on January third, very very intriguing. Let's talk about how

difficult and or easy this schedule is. If you go by winning percentage from last year, it's the sixth easiest schedule in the NFL. If you judge it by how Vegas expects these teams to be by looking at the preseason over unders, Jay Morrison from The Athletic points out that it's the thirteenth hardest. So it's difficult to say for sure. But I look it over and I think, okay, this is reasonably easy in my opinion. Do you agree? You know, I think I think it could be a

hell of a lot worse I am. I guess I don't like falling on the trap of oh, I'll this NFL schedule disease. This one haven't played. Man, they can all be tough. You know, when you think it might be a little bit of either here you can get your get smoked. I mean it can back up and backfire and blow up on you in a heartbeat. But yeah, it stands to reason. But you know, you looked at

it then and the Bengals two and fourteen. Every single team is circling when they play the Bengals, and then the division arrivals are circling them twice saying okay, there's a w Well look what they've done, you know, in terms of free agency and the draft and changing their whole football team. And you know every team does the same thing. I mean, they make as many changes as possible. Indianapolis has got a whole new quarterback room with Rivers

in Easton, Baltimore. They get Klais Campbell to add to the mitch. Know that their defense. Cleveland signed Conklin as a tackle and drafted Wills. So I mean everybody's made, you know, made changes, and you're going by last year's records. I think can be kind of sometimes a trap. You know, get getting into this trap. You don't want it to snap on you. So I think, you know, it stands to reason that you should be able to compete in

most of these football games. But boy, The thing is, we don't know what any of these players look like. We're hopeful that there's upgrades, and it stands for reason there will be. But until you get out on the field and the coaches see the players play, and the players see their teammates playing, how they can mess with you and kill all that process, all that dynamic takes effect and takes hold. It's pure speculation for sure. Yeah, I agree, you cannot completely base it on the team's

records from last year. I do think it's interesting when you look at the NFL Draft, the Bengals face the team that had the second pick, Washington, the fourth pick, the Giants, a fifth pick Miami, the sixth pick, the Chargers, the ninth pick Jacksonville, and the tenth pick Cleveland twice. So that does underscore they face some of the very

weakest teams from last year. Agreed, And it's interesting, Um, you know, in the month of November and November, then into December twenty second November, they face young second pick of the draft, Joe Burrow, the first pick the very next week to twenty ninth, Like you said, play the Giants Andrew Thomas, the fourth pick of the draft, and

then on December sixth, down in Miami, face two. Potentially, you know, if they don't read shirt him, So you got you got the second, fourth and fifth pick of the draft three straight weeks going against the number one pick in the draft. So that's that's kind of an interesting dynamic. And I guess the other thing I look at Dan now that I'm broadcasting instead of playing. I looked at it when I was playing as well, the holidays. You're gonna be home for the holidays. Well, it's good

for us. You know, we're home for Christmas, we're home for Thanksgiving, you know, home for Halloween unless you have a Thursday night game most years anyway. But that that part of it's all good. And then when you look in December, man, you get Dallas in Pittsburgh, you go to Miami, you have Dallas in Pittsburgh here, and you go to Houston and the Dome. So I mean it's the potentially, you know it's going to be cold here in December, obviously, Dallas, that's going to be a little

bit of advantage. Dallas Bey and a Dome team come up to the Steelers, no advantage. Baltimore January third, no big advantage. But playing in the Dome against the Texans on the twenty seventh and playing down in Miami on the set. Now Miami, and look at there is a big advantage because cold weather team, the blood sticking a little bit in the month of Sember, they have to come down to Miami. They may die in the vine

and the heat and humidity. But from the broadcast standpoint, a dog, let's go to Miami, let's go to Houston. Let's go on those nice, nice weather places or domes down that's great for us. One last thought on the schedule. If you go back to Andy Dalton's rookie year, one of the reasons why he was so successful and the team made the playoffs is that the schedule turned out to be very soft. And as we're pointing out, some of these teams that you're looking at that were lousy

last year are going to be much improved. Some of the ones you expect to be really good, we'll have injury problems or whatever and they won't be really good. But back in two thousand eleven, the Bengals won nine games. They did not beat a single playoff team. They only had one win over a team that finished with a winning record, and that team was nine and seven. So they beat Cleveland twice four wins, Baltimore six, Jacksonville five,

Seattle seven, Saint Louis two, Arizona eight, Indianapolis two. It just worked out that in Andy's rookie year, every card fell perfectly in terms of the schedule and they were able to take advantage of it. Yeah, as as as it turned out, like you said, you know, nine and seven, they only beat one team with a winning record. They beat the teams they were supposed to beat and struggled against the teams that they weren't necessarily are supposed to beat.

And that's why, you know, the perfect every every team the NFFL, it looks for every team to finish eight and eight. That would be the perfect world for the National Football League. Everybody's in the hunt every you know,

total parody, that's what they're looking for. And the last year, now that there's an extra playoff team, last year to eight and eight teams were to made the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers and there in the Rams they would have been in the playoffs eight with eight and eight records. So you know, you think, oh, we're gonna get ten wins to make the playoffs. Not really, I mean nine to seven more than one nine and seven team made

the playoffs and won the division. Um, you know in eight and eight teams would have been the final, the final playoff qualifier. So I mean that's the that's all. You take care of the games. When the season unfold and you really see what teams are like and how they're playing, take care of the ones that you're supposed to take care of, and you know you'd be in the hunt. You'll be in the You'll be in the in the in the race, there's no question about it. I want to get your reaction to a couple of

recent interviews. First, Jeff Hobson's story on Bengals dot com where he interviewed AJ Green. In that interview, AJ said, basically, I will meet Joe Burrow to work out wherever he wants to whenever that's allowed. So for anybody that thought being franchise tagged was somehow going to cause a problem between AJ Green and the Bengals, I think he shot that that down pretty successfully. Yeah, and then then you wonder,

because he's gonna, you know, risk injury doing that. If there are OTAs which there won't be so, I mean, I guess because of the coronavirus this year, all the question of whether A j was going to show up for OTAs and then he can what he didn't have to do. I mean, he's well within his rights not to not to show up and risk injury. Um. And I don't think that the termination on that I think is going to be a boot point because I don't

think there's gonna be any of those anyway. But the fact that that he is, Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna work with this guy. I'm gonna, you know, we'll go wherever Joe wants us to go. He's the quarterback, he's the leader. Will he has to destinates place, we'll go there and we'll throw with with Joe Burrow. That's a

that's a huge sign. And I think now you know, he's just like every other athlete and fan in the country, tomping at the debt, you know, I mean, obviously have read read the same article hops into a great job as usual, which is the man and you know his wife's working him out and he's working hard, and you know, I've felt all along of you mentioned to the Seat Times in my opinion that I think he's gonna have a huge year. I think he's gonna have a banner year.

I think he's gonna stay healthy and he is going to be the age eight Green of you know, six consecutive Pro Bowls before he started having having an injury in susan Um. I don't think he's he's lost anything in terms of the elite athleticism. Injuries have kept him out for a year and a half. But I think he's gonna have a huge year. And I do think that no one age Green the way we know him,

it's not a surprise to me. I mean, he's he's about his He is the most I don't know, likable, humble, perfect superstar you want to have on your team in your locker room. I mean when when guys come into Cincinnati, other media people and you know, get people out there, no players that you know, interactalent for the front, they can't believe it. They can't believe the kind of guy that this dude is. So's it's no shocker, but it's

still a real positive, real good for sure. Lance McCallister did a great interview with Duke Tobin on Seven Under WLW. I thought Duke was unusually candid, and one of the topics they covered was the possibility of bringing in a veteran mentor quarterback to work with Joe Burrow. Duke pretty much shot that down. Yeah, it doesn't surprise me because I think the maturity of Joe Burrow and Joe Burrow is older, you know, than Mahomes, older than Lamar Jackson.

I mean, he's twenty three years old, and he's been through a lot, you know, he's been through the ups and downs. He's Richard, I mean, he's he's got a lot of experiences, life experiences as well as athletic experiences, positively negative. And I think he's not your typical rookie in a lot of ways. I mean, I think with his football IQ and his maturation and everything that goes

along with it. Plus you know the fact that you know, Pitcher played the position, Callahan played the position, Zach Taylor played the position, Duke Jogan played the position, Mike Brown played the position. We probably have more quarterbacks throughout the organization than any team in the National Football League haven't played that position. So um, I thought that if Andy Dalton somehow came back to Cincinnati and filled that role. It would have worked out well because we know Andy Dalton.

He wouldn't have liked it, but he would have grinned and bared it. And um, you know, I'm gotten through it and gotten through the process, and I think he would have been a great, uh, you know, a great veteran presence for for for Joe Burrow. But Joe Barrow, I'm not asked him brought to Andy Dalton in that situation. I remember the presser he said, you know, if there's a veteran quarterback like that, you know, I'll a gapped if there's not all a gap to that as well.

I mean, he's he's got that earned confidence, as Zach Taylor labeled it, because of all of his experience and you know in life and football. I think so I'm not I'm not overly concerned that there's not that there's not a veteran quarterback like that. It fee almost like I remember talking to Tom Moore when Peyton when he coached Peyton Manning, and you know we talked about what veteran quarterback you know, had an influence on Peyton Manning as he goes, he goes man, dude, Peyton Mannings he

came into the lake. It's like, you gotta you have a you know, a brilliant genius in your room, and he knows all the answers. You're the coach. You gotta be on your a game. Peyton Manning made me a better coach because Peyton Manning would find mistakes that I made and point them out and make me feel like a pool, make me feel like an idiot. I think Joe Barrow has some of that in him, you know so I think that he'll probably probably take control of the quarterback room in a lot of ways like Peyton

Manning did. I'm not saying, you know that he becomes the coach, but I mean that's what Tom tom Moore said. Nothing you wouldn't believe. Early in his career. He said, I'm standing there with my arms fold. He's run in the whole damn show. Oh. I mean he's he's putting together periods of practice that he wants. He's out there on the field conducting it like a like a master conductor of the orchestra. Was unbelievable. I think Joe Burrow

has some of those counsels. Oh, I've bet Tom Brady you know, obviously he was in a much different situation coming as a sixth round kick. But his comment, you know, we went up to cross the interence that you just congratulation, you just made the best draft. It just selection you've ever made. I mean, I bet he was capable of doing those kinds of things. So some of those guys have the get factor, you know, they've got they've got whatever that takes. And I think Joe Burrow does agree.

Duke Tilbyn was also pretty definitive in expressing the Bengals desire to get a deal done with Joe Mixon prior to this season. Great. I mean, it's that's uh that that's a big priority. And you know, nothing makes any quarterback a better quarterback than a sound running game, particularly the young quarterback. You know that there's high expectations for this coming off a Heisman Trophy record breaking season as a college quarterback, the best year of quarterbacks ever had

playing in the UNC Double A or the LSU. I mean, the expectation is going to be off the charts, and to have a running back like Joe Mixon in the fold for not just your first year, but you know the first few years in the National Football League. You can't ask for anything more. You know, we talk about the receiver corps, you know, with with te Higgins being drafted, everything that's returning, and we talked about Joe Mixon and Giovanni Bernard. I mean, that's a hello, one two punch.

Gio is so smart. He understands every nuance of football. Geo's a common influence in the huddle to a young quarterback as well in terms of let's pick up, He's not going to go the wrong way, let's pick up. He's going to be where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be there, doing what he's supposed to do. You know, all of those things. And having Joe burrowing the fold man, it makes uh, you know, it lists the whole boat. We see. Joe is not only you know,

physical talent, but he's a he's an inspirational guy. He's an emotional guy in the positive way. You know. He gets everybody up in the bit as such, and and his teammates respond to him. So that would be a huge deal to get that extension done for sure. All right, let's wrap things up with some questions from Twitter followers under the hashtag ask lap our. First question comes from

man Abel Hoosen. Do you think the Bengals might add another veteran offensive linemen to help mentor and develop the young, hopefully emerging linemen on the roster. What do you think It's not an impossibility? You know, I think I think that that that you know, makes some sense if iff in fact, the economics dictate that that that could be the case. I mean, they're not gonna They're not gonna go then gonna go trade or anybody or anything like that. And usually to get it off of the waiver wire,

you know, there's it's it's a veteran like that. Uh, he's put it out on number eighteen, you know. I mean he's towards the end of his of his career physically. So it is a young group though, but there's no question. But again, Trey Hopkins, I'll take that guy's mindset, in his makeup and his disposition over a twenty five year of veteran. I mean, he's one of those guys that you know, they say about Joe Burrow when the coaches talked to Joe Burrow when they interview him, he was

like a ten year of veteran. Trey Hopkins was like that the first time I talked to him, you know, even back in coming down to Texas as a college tree years and even when I was doing games of Texas, this dude was like mensa, mensa, mensa. So sometimes leadership isn't just veteran age, you know, in terms of years in the league. Some guys are you know, talented physically, can stay in the league for a while, but they're

not the sharpest knife in the drawer. And Trey Hopkins talks about how smart Bobby Hart is and how Bobby Hart knows the offense inside. Um, Bobby Hart can make all the all the calls. So you know, those those two guys and the coaches the same thing. You know, both of them. Both of those players get get high praise from the offensive line coaches in terms of being football smart, in overall high iqes and that sort of thing.

So I think, you know, I don't know anything about Xavier Sua Flow obviously at this point in time, but I think they do. And knowing Jonah Williams like we do, Dan Jona Williams is not your typical rookie. This dude is like, you know, he made up his spreadsheet when he was in college. I mean that was revolutionary, never done before. And this guy takes football serious as a

heart attack. So even though they might be young calendar wise, I don't think that, you know, they're lacking leadership, they're lacking focus, they're lacking guys are gonna be like glong guys, let's get after this be done and let's get it done. I think they get guys that can get do that for him. And you mentioned Xaviers Sue a Philo and that's a three year deal and he's been around the block with a few different teams, so certainly he will

add some veteran experience. Next question comes from Joy Fields. Do you think the Bengals offense will take more chances down the field with Burrow and Higgins now in the mix or do you see more short and intermediate plays

being called? Well, I do think that that Joe Burrow does have immense accuracy with his deep ball, and you know that's something that was that was talked about with Joe Burrows a great year at LSU, and Joe Burrow admitted that he didn't need to have, you know, a little chuck down throws to get his confidence to see a completion. I mean he going to games. He went into the Clemson game, you know, ripping the ball down the field like the very first series of the game.

You know, he's not trying to hit the back out of the backfield a little a little h you know, hook to the tight end the middle of the field, just to you know, just as like a basketball player wants to see the ball go through the coopie quarterback wants to see a completion. Bader, He's not. He's not really, that's not a big part of his makeup. UM. So he will. He will attack the football field. I mean, he'll get it down the football field. And you know,

I think that they will. They will stretch the field if they particularly, you know, with aj greenback able to stretch to gen Ross is healthy, able to stretch at

key Higgins. I mean literally, I don't I don't think a rookie quarterback could ask for much more than than what Joe Burrow may have from a skill position standpoint, Like we talked about earlier, UM with Joe Mixon and Joe in the backfield and others and the wide receiver corps and the tight ends that that they've got to can you know, be complete tight ends, catching and block as well. I mean, it's it's a pretty damn good

skill group. The key is going to be that offensive line that we just talked about, will that old line Joe Burrow, you know, the opportunity to get the ball down the football field because you know, most times you need a little bit more protection obviously to get the ball but down the field. But with Joe Burrow, he reads so quickly, he does get the but he throws with great anticipation in accuracy, So that's going to help

the offense as well. The next question comes from the initial d We kind of covered this, but his question was he wanted an update on Mixon and a possible holdout, and then ask is this the crucial item for the organization to get accomplished? I think it's a. I think it's a huge priority. If it's not priority number one, is priority number one A you know, I mean, I think I think they're probably still um in talks with

AJ obviously in Joe Mixon. Those are those are the two I think that they'd like to uh, they'd like to get done with the cap room that they've got left extend those guys um and like like see happened in both cases and c and it is. It's a huge priority. It's a huge priority for a lot of reasons. I mean Joe Mixon as alignment. I can tell you that when you're blocking for guys like Joe Mixon, you feel like a much better player because it's like, I'm just going to give this guy a chance. I don't

have to dominate my guy. I don't have to handcake my dude. I just have to give jo all a defendative free and then just watch that twenty eight disappear, the twenty er his backside, Just watch it run away. I mean that that gives you an injection of confidence. You know, your adrenaline starts pumping. And I mean it's like, you don't, you don't. All you have to do is do your job. Nothing more. You don't, you don't. Just make sure you don't screw it up. As an offensive warning,

don't screw it up. Joe makes someone makes something happen. Next question from Greg Luther, who, in your opinion, is the biggest steel out of all of the draft picks. The biggest steel out of all the draft picks. Boy, well, I guess when you when you look at it, um, the one that probably jumps out the most is Marcus Bailey.

If Marcus Bailey doesn't have the knee injuries, but if in Butler Candy, and that's it's Christmas every day he does have him, you know, if he they had him as a solid third round pick, and a third round pick for them is like a late two. So they had him as a solid third round pick, and with the first pick of the draft this year, that is like a late two, as I said. And if he pans out physically, if he can, if he can hold up,

he can do a lot of things for you. He gives you that position versatility that all defensive coordinators are looking for. Bill Belichick's you know, won a lot of championships because of the position versatility of his defensive players, and they're they're kind of like the gold standard. And everybody wants to be able to do a lot of things without having to make substitutions of personnel. And this guy,

you know, can do that. So you look at somebody that you've had, you know, late two, solid three, whatever the case may be, and you get him as a seventh, seventh round to him, that one could be could end up being the steal just on that art alone. You know what, I think lap one of these linebackers, at least one of them is going to work out. Oh I agree. I mean it may be more than one, but I feel confident that at least one of these

guys is finally going to really work out. I agree with you, Dan, I think I think it's going to be. You know, the more I hear people that know a little bit about Logan Wilson and and uh, you know, he seems to be around the league. There was no shock obviously with Logan Wilson when when when he gets selected by the Bengals, A lot a lot of teams in the league thought a lot about this. Uh, this kid, there's no question about it, and it could work out, just like we talked about a bunch of times when

Kio spikes Brian Simmons Foley, Uh, Adrian Ross. When those guys three draft picks and a free agent get the three draft picks and watch for this, Uh Marcel Spears, this kid from Iowa State, He'll rip your face off. Now, this dude will hit you. So, you know, I think this guy could be you know they had three successful draft picks and a college free agent in that rebuilding

the linebacker room. They have three draft picks in this in this generation other and the potential free age and think restructure when redo the line by real and it's going to be very interesting to watch. Final ask lap question comes from Sean Jackson. Who will be the starting five offensive lineman? And how good do you think the offense will be? I think the offense will be as good as the offensive lineman allows it to be. Said

group Lab. I do think they have a huge They have a high floor and a high ceiling with the skill players, and it's going to be the offensive line is going to be the ones that determine is going to be closer to the high floor or will they allow it to generate and grow and blossom to the high ceiling. I think it's gonna be Jonah Williams, Michael Jordan, Trey Hopkins, Xavier Sue Philo and the right tackle position,

that's the interesting one. That's the battle royal. And I'm telling you I would not I would not dismiss Fred Johnson. You know, I do think the staff likes Bobby Hart. You know, they think he graded out better than a lot of people think that he grades out, and he continues to do that. He's the incumbent, But Fred Johnson made himself some money by playing as well as he played last year. He proved you could play left tackle.

Don't don't dismiss the big boy out there at the right tackle position and that and I think, as I said earlier, I mean, I think it is going to be a derby. I think a came identity is going to be out there as well, and best man wins. I mean, the right tackle position is the one that's going to be under microscope, telescope, arthroscope and every kind of scope. He can sign. All right, buddy, you're off the hot seat. Hope to see you on something other

than a computer screen sometime soon. Look forward to that. Dan the Man. My final conversation this week is with Todd Archer, who used to cover the Bengals for the old Cincinnati Post. Now he's on the Dallas Cowboys beat for ESPN, and I spoke to him this week about

the signing of Andy Dalton. When the Bengals released Andy, it was widely assumed that he would sign with either of the two teams that would p eventually give him the opportunity to compete for a starting job Jacksonville, where the offensive coordinator is Jay Gruden and the starting QB is Gardner Minshew, a sixth round draft pick from last year, or New England, where at least for now, the starting QB is Jarrett Stidham, a fourth round pick last year

out of Auburn who has thrown all of four passes in the NFL, and one of the four was a pick six. Instead, Andy wound up back home in Texas, and I asked Todd Archer if there was any inkling in Dallas that if and when the Bengals released Andy Dalton, the Cowboys would be interested. Maybe a little bit. But I think a lot of people are under the same assumption that you were, that he would want to go to a spot where you could compete to be the starter,

and that's not the case here. But I do think from the Cowboys perspective, the organization perspective, they kind of got lucky that he lives here. He lives in Dallas, He's a TCU guy that, you know, with what's going on in the world right now, he might have said to himself, do I really want to take my family somewhere for a year or two whatever, not knowing what

the situation is going to be, and try this. And I think the Cowboys benefited from from that and the fact that he'll have to drive a half hour up the road to their facility in Frisco, Texas. And yeah, he'll be Dack's back up. And Dak hasn't missed a game in his career, but he's still going to be home and he's going to be able to be around his family, and maybe sitting back for a year will be a good thing for him to rejuvenate him going forward.

In twenty twenty one, we're talking to Todd Archer, who covers the Cowboys for ESPN. The Cowboys of franchise tagged Dak. He has not signed beyond this year at least so far. Does this have anything to do with his contract situation? Yeah, I wrote about that today on ESN dot com. And there's no this isn't a leverage played by the Cowboys to say, oh, we got Andy Dalton in here, now you better sign. If this is a we've made the

team better move. If you go look at the Cowboys backup situation, their guy before Andy Dalton was Cooper Rush. He's thrown three more passes than me and you have in his NFL career, So you know they've gotten infinitely better right now at this spot with a guy almost thirty two thousand passing yards and two hundred and four touchdown passes. But it is not a sign of unhappiness

of where these negotiations are. And there will be people I think, oh, sure, yeah, whatever, of course if the leverage play, because now that if Dak holds out, well, then they can go with a guy like Andy Dalton and Dak's leveragees is lessened. Dak's not going to hold out. He played for two million dollars last year. Why wouldn't

he played for thirty one million dollars this year? And Dak needs another good season if he doesn't get this contract extension to go forward to get it either from the Cowboys, get tagged again, or maybe hit the market in twenty twenty one after this season. So there's a lot of things that still say Dak is going to be this team's quarterback for twenty twenty and beyond, and

this is just a situation where it's taken longer. I think everybody thinks, but I always find it funny Dan that people are saying, well, the Cowboys must not like him since things this has taken so long. They've made him an offer that, at least we think would make

him the second highest paid quarterback in the NFL. If you don't like a guy, you're not offering a guy thirty four million dollars a year, So that notion is always kind of I found it funny when when you hear people say there's got to be something the Cowboys don't like about Dak. They've made him a pretty substantial offer and to just kind of working through some points to get to a deal they hope before July fifteen.

I read somewhere, and it may have been in your reporting, that the Cowboys want him to sign for five and he wants to sign for four to get the free agency faster. Is that where that they pulled up is right now? Not d hold up, but it's a hold

up the length of the deal. He clearly would want a shorter deal and to be able to get out there again by the time he being what thirty two thirty three years old, and the Cowboys want him around longer because if you're going to spend that kind of money, you want to have some ability to have some flexibility in the early years to spread some money around. But

that's not the only issue going on. That's kind of been painted around from a lot of people here locally and nationally that it's just the length of the deal they can I mean, that's not the only thing. There's average per year, there's guaranteed money, there's the cash flow of this. There's a lot of elements to it. But the length of the contract is part of the deal, but not the sole reason why there's not a deal done yet. Andy is from Katie, Texas, which is near Houston.

But as we pointed out, he played for TCU. He has a home in the Dallas area. How popular is Andy Dalton in Dallas. That's a great And then there's a pretty big we joked about the Xavier Cincinnati thing right to start, there's a pretty big divide between Dallas and Fort Worth. In my view, like people in Dallas don't really look at Fort Worth very much, like it's not a big deal. But people I know in Fort Worth they don't call it DFW. They call it FWD.

So there's the Dallas Morning News doesn't really cover TCU. Now the Four Words Star Telegram does, but they don't cover FMU. So he's popular because he's he did great things that DCU for. Gary Patterson won a lot of games. And it's interesting that two of his coaches he's played in Bowl games against in Scott Coldean and Kellen Moore, and he I think he went two and one against those guys. Maybe help me out. Did they beat Wisconsin or did they lose to Wisconsin? They've been Wisconsin in

the Rose Bow. Okay, he went two and one against his now coaches on this staff. But he's fair fairly popular, and look from a playing perspective, you know, maybe it's because I covered the Bengals and I have strong feelings for the Brown family, and I realized they've done some things that haven't gone well for a long amount of a good amount of time. But Andy is a guy who went to the playoffs for five straight years. One

of the Cowboys last done that. I honestly don't I don't even know if they did that with Jimmy, so you know, now he didn't want a playoff game. Don't get me wrong, the cow but the Cowboys haven't been to an NFC title game since ninety five. It's been a while since the Cowboys have been the Cowboys. So I think this move though, is viewed as a positive for the Cowboys because, yeah, and he's from here and

he lives here. He had success at TCU, but mainly because they finally feel like they have a backup quarterback. If something were to happen to Dak, that they'd be covered. TCU beat Wisconsin twenty one to nineteen in that Rose Bowl. By the way, last question for Todd Archer, who covers the Cowboys for ESPN. Dax had four very productive years in Dallas, and he's got nine years of experience under his belt. Do you think that Dak will be picking

his brain a lot? I mean, clearly they signed Andy to have a good insurance policy if something happened to Dak. But do they like the fact now that for the first time in Dak's career, he's got kind of a veteran mentor to work with. Yeah. Absolutely, I think that is part of it. And you know, he was Kellen Moore's teammate here for his first couple of years before Kellen moved on to the coaching staff, so they have

a really tight connection in tight boon. And when he took over in twenty sixteen, Romo was still here, but Romo wasn't around much during the week to it with his rehab coming from the back, so they'd got Mark Sanchez was really a guy that Dak relied on a bunch of a rookie in twenty sixteen, but honestly, since then it's been Cooper Rush as the backup, an undrafted free agent out of Central Michigan that has been the guy.

But Dak is a one of his best traits is as a listener and seeking people out and trusting what they see. And Andy has seen probably just about everything in his career. And you know, this is something that the Cowboys had with Romo. They had John Kitten, another former Bengal. They had Brad Johnson, they had Kyle Orton as his backup, so guys that could test Romo academically in some respect in the room and while also pushing

him on the field too to be better. So I think the Cobs are hoping that they would get the same out of Andy Dalton here this year. Whenever we can play football again and whenever dak is around this team. If you get the long term deal or if he's playing on the franchise tech, that's going to do it. For this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast brought to you by Prime Sport, the official fan, travel and hospitality

partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast