Bengals Booth Podcast: Future Looks Good

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currently covering pro football for OTB sports dot com. You can read all of his articles online for as little as two dollars a month on patreon dot com. That's pat r eo N dot com. Keyan has written several articles about the Bengals in recent months, and I spoke to him recently after he published a story about Joe Burrow. Keyan earlier today, you posted a story with a following headline, Bengals set up well with Joe Burrow. You've been doing in depth study of NFL quarterbacks for years. What are

Joe Burrow's best traits? I'd just like to point out that headline should be a lot more optimistic than is, like a certain limit there after getting those I want them to say, Bengals get star reward for awful season in Joe Burrow. I think like the first thing we have to talk about whenever we talk about any quarterback entering this league, and especially one who was so consensuously beloved and so hyped up during a season when everyone taught to below was going to be the guy Burrow

took a step ahead of him. Part of that was the injury, but I think even if Tago Below was healthy, he would have been ahead of him. So I think. But the first thing we have to mention is the hype gets a little bit out of control at the draft all the time because all the draft writers are looking for who's the best guy this year, who's the guy to talk of? And then when you enter the league, it does not matter if you're the best in your class.

It does not matter how good you are in college, because you've got to beat the likes of Patrick Humes and Lamar Jackson and all these guys. So I think Burrow has such a broad skill set it's very hard to pick the one thing that makes him really good and the one thing that could potentially make him great. But I think the most important trait that he has is his processing skills. So if you're talking about processing, you're talking about how the quarterback executes his own offense

while diagnosing what the defense is doing. So I'm gonna use Andy Dalton just because he's someone everyone's going to be familiar with from a Bengals point of view, Andy Dalton was a great priesttap quarterback. If he figured out what you were doing before the ball was snapped, he was going to figure out where the open receiver was and he was going to get the ball to him there in time. Joe Borrow is also a great priestlap quarterback.

If you give him a look, he's gonna know what to expect from that look, and he's going to know how to adjust off of that look. So the last part of that sentence is the difference there. Andy Dalton struggles to adjust when the look changed at the snap or when the defense shifted its coverage. So if you've got through Borrow's tape, there are so many of those big plays. The defense comes out showing cover two with

two safeties deep. They want you to think it's own and they're going to rotate at the last second, bring unsafety down. Now it's covered one and it's man, and Joe Barrow knows where to look when he gets the ball, where to adjust too, to go afterwards, so the ball come out in time. I think it was against Clemson against j Terrell. I think when Jamar Chase bet him for a touchdown down the right side literally lined up

in the slot. It changed the man. I think that play was a shift that might have been a different one from that game. It's been a lot of tape. I get these plays confused sometimes, but what happened there was he instantly or his eyes were in the middle of the field, he saw the safety rotation and instantly new to adjust and go to Jamarc Chase on the

outside because he had won on one coverage. And that's such an important trait because when you have a quarterback who drops back in the pocket and his confused and doesn't know where to go, he winds up like Baker Mayfield. He needs the offense used play action all the time. He needs screens, he needs very specific grow combinations to work because he can't do everything. He can't open the full field and that will let Zach Taylor do whatever

he wants as a coach. We're chatting with Keyan Fayhey a great Twitter follow at Keyan c I a NAF like American Football. What are Joe Burrow's biggest weaknesses? This is the thing about Joe Burrow that makes them fascinating in a sense, like there isn't a specific thing like if you bring I'm trying to think of a recent example. But if you bring a quarterback out of college and he's got a huge arm, He's got a monstrous arm. He's unbelievable talent, can make any troll. But he's never

played in shotgun, he's never made full field reads. Then your biggest weakness is right there. He's only ever done very specific things. You don't know if he can do all the other stuff. There's not a single thing that Joe Burrow did in college where you thought, oh, he has to get better at that to be a better NFL player. So my big concern with Joe Burrow is the LSU offensive line. The interior of that offensive line. It's just stonewalled everyone like they were giving him tom

giving him space. So when he did get pressured, it came from the edge. So when a pressure comes from the edge, you can adjust with it if you've got space in front you, because you can step up, you can step back, you can evade a little bit. If it comes from the middle. And this is why Aaron Donald is so valuable, You've nowhere to go, you're trapped. So Burrow very rarely saw those types of plays. But even if I talk about that like obviously the Bengals

offensive line won't dominate NFL defenders. With that offensive line dominant college defenders. It's just a different standard that doesn't happen anywhere. It's very rare, like the Eagles when Nick Foles won the Super Bowl. That's probably the most recent recollection of that happening. Maybe the Cowboys during Dak's rookie year. But normally quarterbacks are inevitbly going to face some pressure. But even if you look at that and say, oh, Borrow got very clean pockets, and as well, he had

great receivers. Even if you say that, there's a positive to that too, because like Tony or almost the quarterback. I always go back to Tony almost the most patient quarterback ever. People used to talk about how good the offensive line was, but they didn't recognize was when the offensive line gave him great time and space in the pocket, he rarely ever wasted it. And that's what Joe Burrow has got. He's got patience to stay in the pocket.

So even while I'm talking about he didn't face enough pressure up the middle for me to really understand there, he's showing you that, oh I'll sit here and wait for my receiver to come up because I know I've got time, which is a talent in itself. And the other part of that is he always recognized when it was a tree man rush, when it was a four man rush, when they were having tree down lineman and blitzing from the back end, when they had a five

man rush coming, when they had an Alli blitz. So his timing and his process to adjust based on what the defense was doing, even while the coming for the fact he was in clean pockets, was still very, very impressive. So you've asked me for a negative, and my negative is that he's pretty good at staying in the pockets. So I mean, I just blamed people for hyping up draft prospects, and look what I'm after doing. We're talking to Keyan Fayhey, who writes about the NFL for Off

the Ball Sports dot Com OTB sports dot Com. Last month, you power ranked all thirty two projected NFL starting quarterbacks. At that point, Cam Newton hadn't signed yet with New England. You had Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes at the top. Naturally, you had rookies to a Tungo Filoa and Justin Herbert at the bottom. I was surprised where you had Baker Mayfield. You referenced him earlier, but number twenty eight. That was kind of a shocker to me. Well, it's relevant to

what we're talking about. I like, so Baker Mayfield's hype, Baker Mayfield's excitement is based on the touchdown record from his rookie season. Far as I can tell. His college shape was pretty good too, So there is talent there.

There's definitely a physical talent there. That arm is incredible, But he has like I've never seen like a quarterback go from being uncomfortable in the pocket, running out of clean pockets, panicking when his first read isn't there, and changing around and fixing that as a problem and becoming a quarterback who can manage a pocket and stay in the pocket and stand there. And if you watch the Bengals enough, you've known that was one of Andy Dalton's issues.

It wasn't a major issue for Andy the way it is for Baker Mayfield, but during his prime, he wasn't going to stand in there. Alex Smith is another guy like that, where he's got a clean pocket, but his first read isn't there, so he's going to bail and run to his flat. And what actually started to happen with Mayfield was, even if the play was designed perfectly and working perfectly, he would still bail and drift backwards

and run to the flat. So Freddie Kitchens, while he wasn't a great play designer last year, wasn't a great play caller last year, he wasn't as bad as he's getting blamed to be either. Like when he called up good plays, when he designed nice plays, Mayfield was still kind of messing up by running himself out of the pocket.

So that's where you've got Kevin Stefancy men here, and they're going to do to Mayfield what the Vikings did the Kirk Cousins last year, which has put him in a play action heavy under center offense where you run all the time on first down, you run second down. It's a lot of bootleg. It's a lot of not asking him to do straight dropbacks, not asking him to make multiple reads down the field while dropping back in

the pocket, while mitigating pressure with a specific movement. So I think the new offense will help there, but I don't think you'll fundamentally change who Mayfield is as a quarterback. And like one of one of my pet peeves in the NFL is last year Mayfield was losing weight or sorry, he was bulking up last year to get better because that was his problem entering his second year. And this year he's going to be better because he's losing weight because he was too big last year. Or you get

entering a surge year. So there in yourself like there's something broken there in the process. You don't understand what's wrong or what you need to work on if you're doing the exact opposite of what you thought you needed to do last year. And I just don't see the potential for development or for turning around. And look, what I say about young quarterbacks in particular is not pressed it it's what I see at the time. It's what I see from him recently, like he could turn around

and be a great quarterback. I just I just don't see it happening. I would doubt it very much. A guy like Patrick Mahomes I saw coming out of college and I thought, yeah, I don't think he's ever going to be a great quarterback because at that time his footwork was a mess and he was just really a massive arm He took a year out with Andy Reid, refined his footwork, fix him up a little bit, and then his brain came out and you realize, whoa, this

is one of the smartest quarterbacks you'll ever see. So like it's everything's a protection moving forward. But based on last year, based on his rookie year, that's about where I would put Mayfield right now. We like strong opinion. Sometimes you get it wrong, that's all right, you're back well, you're back it up with data and that's what's fun

to read. Let's talk about Ben Roethlisberger. You had him ranked number twenty three, not just due to his injury from last year, partially due to his injury because of his age. Like you, if you're thirty eighth, you're a quarterback who's notoriously never in great shape, like I think he'll admit to that him self. Over the years. He's never been someone who's got a chisels midsection or someone

who's doing as much running as possible. He's the guy who turns up and throws the ball and plays backyard football, as he likes to say, and that's hard to do at thirty nine or thirty eight coming off an elbow injury coming off a career like Rossberger used to get sacked fifty times a year. He used to get beaten up by the Bengals a lot of the time, but by the Ravens, by the Patriots. In his prime of his career, he was playing behind an offensive line that got him hit a lot. So I don't think as

he's aged that he's gotten better. I think the numbers have don't really reflect it properly. With him. He's putting up big numbers, but he's also made a lot of critical errors, and his problem as being on the road, He's gotten worse and worse over the years. He will have two or three massive games at home, like the Panthers game from two years ago. I think it was that stands out re true five touchdowns, was incredible, it was unplayable. But then he turns around the next week

and puts up a complete stinker. And I just feel like that's the way he is as a quarterback, right but at that age, and you're not really a timing quarterback. Actually come back to Borrow again. Borrow we talked about very specific cross in apocablist. Every time he sees sees what the defense is doing When the defense tries to bate him into a mistake, he'll just see that and change and hasten up his hasting up his throwing motion

if he needs it to get the ball out. Rothlisberger struggles more with that because he's never been that structured guy. When Todd Haley was there, he became that structured guy because that's what Todd Haley wanted. But they ran Todd Haley out of towne then because that's not what Rothlisberger wanted. So ill you think there's a lot of factors there that are going to lead to average negative play. And the thing about them is Rothlisberger wants to be throwing

the ball a lot. He does not want to be a compliment in a run heavy offense. And then you look at the talents there. Levian Belle is gone and Tonio Browne is gone. It's been years since they've had Heat Miller, who was our last really good tight end. I think overall the quality from that offense is dropping, and it's just going to hurt them because they're gonna ask Rothlisberger to play like he did ten years ago and at thirty eight, I just don't see that happening.

We're talking to Key and Fayehea, for my money, one of the best writers out there when it comes to watching the tape and communicating it in an interesting way. Let's move off the orderbacks for a moment. You did an in depth study of Jonah Williams prior to last year's draft. How good of an NFL offensive line prospect is Jonah Williams. I think the interesting way there just means the accents, doesn't it. That's generally gone well for me Williams. This is gonna sound like the laziest analysis

you'll ever come across. But Jonah Williams did remind me a lot of Andrew Whitwork, And like the Bengals fans, that's great news. Andrew Whitwork one of the best offensive tackles has been in the league in the last twenty years. The key for me is with word was probably stronger, probably more powerful at the point of attack, and that

that's something Williams could develop with. So like when when a player goes away for a year, when he can't play football for a year, it's still like you can get in the weight room, depending on what your injury is. Once you finish your rehab, start working on your physical limitations, so he could come back and be much stronger than he was previously. What let's say he's the same guy

we saw at Alabama. What are you gonna get. You're gonna get someone who's very comfortable moving latter league, someone is very comfortable in his zone runs, which suits the off want to run someone who you can trust in past protection one on one. So what I really loved about Williams is he doesn't He's not going to dominate you in Malu. He's not Tyron Smith. He's not one of these freak athletes. But he will move his seat constantly to recreate leverage at all times. He will keep

the angle in his favor. When he's protecting his quarterback. He'll keep his rear end directed to his quarterback just to make sure he can all stop you from going past either of his shoulders hit. He places his hands very well, and because pos his feet very well. With your hands and feet moving in concert, that generally leads you to playing with great technique, and that means you're

concentrating your power and concerning your athleticism. But I think he's very much a very like I think Jake Matthews isn't the great comparison like with word is the guy turned too. But you have to acknowledge he's not going to be with from the start. I think he's going to be a huge value in the running game and a huge value in pass protection. My concerns with the with the Bengals pass protection is going to be the

rest of the offensive line. Hopefully you can put Joonah Williams there, leave him there for ten or fifteen years, and then you have this beautiful scenario, a beautiful situation where you lost game after game after game last year and this is your reward where you get a potential franchise left tackle and the potential franchise quarterback starting together for the first time at the same time. And notice

respect to what they've had their previously. But I don't like in the last ten years, there hasn't been a point where I've said, right, the Bengals really scare me. This year. They are definitely one of the best teams. They're going to be a Super Bowl and part of the reason has been the play at the quarterback. Part of the reason has been just the structure of the defense.

And that's another thing we can kind of talk about a little bit, but I think with Borrow and with Jonah Williams, your ceiling just takes that extra step up. You become like as long as you get the right pieces around those guys, you can very quickly follow Baltimore Ravens. And it's not going to be like the Browns last year, where everyone's hyping them up because they've got big names.

It's going to be these young guys with guys who are complimentary, who filled the right roles coming in around them, and hopefully the Bengals can build that way. Let's talk about the offensive weapons. They franchise Tag daj Green, they drafted t Higan, they have Joe Mixing in the backfield. How good are the scope position players that Joe Burrow will be working with. Can we just talk about Aja

Green beforehand? Though, because he didn't play last year and it was never a big deal to anyone outside of Cincinnati, And that's it doesn't make any sense, right because I know he's quiet, and I know Cincinnati is a smaller market, so everyone gets overlooked there and that's always the narrative. But the quality of this guy as a football player has never been appreciated and enough. Like Julio Jones gets so much credit for being a little bit worse than

Aja Green. Like Julio Jones is a no standing receiver, but Asia Green's a better rout runner. Aja Green is just as tough. He's got that huge cat riots, He's got all the athleticism. He's an incredible football player. He's been one of the best receivers in this league at a time when the league has had so many incredible receivers. Calvin Johnson returned, and we just got another line of guys coming in who are nearly as good as Calvin Johnson. It's ridiculous. And he's been there for so long. So

I'm the biggest Aja Green fan around. But the Bengals should trade him. And the reason they should trade him is because at that point of age he's at look, his value is hired to another team and it's higher in a trade to the Bengals than it is to the Bengals on the field right now. And that's a business move, and it's a move that fits the development curve of this specific team you want Borrow to be working with. He's gonna work with for the next four

to five years. If you keep Edge Green, it's still great because it can be like Reggie Wayne, but Andrew luck up to start of his career. If you don't even get that back, edge of Green can go somewhere. Probably the timeline fits a little better for him and the Bengals can get better overall. The value Tyler Boy I really like as a compliment to Green. I think like the possession receiver idea is a little bit antiquated and it's a little bit under selling what his ability is.

Like when he came out of college, everyone thought, oh, he's the slot receiver. He'll just play in the slot and he'll be consistent all the time. I think he's proven he's more than that. Even if he plays in the slot, He's got that atleticism to get down field. He can make big plays. He can he can make running precise roads as well as anyone audn't Taate. I know he's getting overlooked now because like John ROSSI still there as well. It's another guy who's got endless amounts

of talents. And te Higgins is coming in. But I thought him tait a lot last year, like as a young receiver, as one who hadn't played a usual month beforehand. He showed you a lot. He made a lot of difficult plays. He catched the ball well away from his body. He worked against type coverage a lot. He might get lost in the shuffle a little bit, which is not a reason why I'm looking at Aja Green and thinking you don't necessarily have to be here. We can still

be really good without you. See, Higgins is like te Higgins is a little bit like DeVante Parker in the sense he's going to get compared to Aja Green because of his body type and because of his athleticism he's got. I'll be better at the catch point. He's got to be better at reading the flight of the ball, and these are the things he can learn. Once he does that, it'll be terrifying for any cornerback trying to cover him.

I really like him. I thought he went way or that way he went still went in the second round. I thought he could have gone ten picks hard, and he did. I think some of the receivers who went ahead of him weren't as good as him. The guy the Eagles picked in particular whose name jumps a Reger Jager. If you put Higgins and Reager next to each other. I thought Reger looked like a run back, in Higgins

look like he could be a star receiver. So there's massive reasons to be excited about the skill positions in this office. The Bengals spent big in free agency, which they have historically not done. DJ Reader, Trey Wayne's, Von Bell, Mackenzie Alexander, josh By, Xavier Sue of feel well, all of those guys could start this year. Who is the

best edition in your opinion? That's a good question. So when you're looking at fais it's not necessarily the dual player or who is the best player of this group you've got, it's the value you get. Like Bill Belichick has signed a lot of big name players, but he's never really overpaid for a big name player. Are you actually like DJ Reader? It's not really a great one because he's gonna be similar to Andrew Billings who's left, so you're not going to necessarily see a huge impact.

I really like him as a player, and I think he's good value for what they got. The guy I like, the guy who I think has higher potential than much you think is McKenzie Alexander. So it's it's a confusing one because Mike Zimmer got these defensive backs, both of these defensive back Trey Wains and McKenzie Alexander in Minnesota, he might have left them go because a cap situation. Minnesota din't have a huge amount of cap get to cut Zavier Roles cut Everson Griffin. So that might have

been the issue. But you have to kind of worry a little bit when Mike Zimmer is letting defensive back because as you guys know, Mike Zimmer is an incredibly good defensive backs coach. But I always felt McKenzie Alexander had a lot more ability than his performance to show him Minnesota he can play inside, he can play outside. I think he might play a lot of inside in Cincinnati because you've got William Jackson there who's outstanding. Trey Waynes is going to stay on the outside, He's not

going to move on the inside. So you're basically taking two fifths of the Viking secondary and putting it into Cincinnati. And I think Alexander is one of those guys who can just benefit from and a fresh start, someone who's going to get a new voice in his head, going to have an opportunity to show off his ball skills a little bit more his assignments, what he's asked to do in the specifics of the offense or sorry, in this discility of defense might actually help him a little bit.

I like his footwork, I like his ball skills. His issue has been sticking with receivers outs. That's something he can get better at. If you if you, if you're in a different role as a slot receiver, as a slot quarterback, like what depends what you're asked to do. The Bengals have decent safeties. They have other cornerbacks that are going to take the bigger name receivers when they mix and man, so I think that Alexander could be the guy there who overachieved relative to what he was paid.

I started out by referencing the story that you wrote for OTB sports dot Com. Bengals set up well with Joe Burrow, but you also made the point in that story that they're not going to contend yet with a rookie quarterback. You don't immediately turn things around after winning two games and win the Super Bowl. How far away are they should Bengals fans realistically anticipate that within the next two or three years, they could be a legitimate contender. Again, absolutely,

because you've got the two most difficult pieces. But look, let's let's fast forward twelve months. Let's say it Joel Burrow has a really good rookie seasons, Like the numbers aren't insane, but he shows you he's going to be your sactor for the next ten years. Let's say Jonah Williams comes in and he's great too, Zavier Suavilo is an effective starting right guard, and then you all just have those areas to fill in. You don't need a wide receiver, you don't need a running back. Assimi mix

and stays around. You can probably bring in someone outside then to compete you've got. Defensively, I think you still are searching for that second past or. Sure at this point that second start to put Exogeno Atkins, and Atkins is obviously at the ending stage of his career. Offensively, I think they're set up. They're probably one two pieces away from having an above averaged really good offense, depending

on how Borow develops. Defensively is where I think they can concentrate, and that's a really nice position to be in because if you can concentrate all your equity in one specific area or month specific side of the ball. It's very it's much easier to evaluate and figure out what you want to do. Let's go back to the Vikings, who we just talked about. They've built their defense and it kind of sold Teddy Bridgewater out a little bit because they never had an offensive line with Teddy Bridgewater

and they didn't have receivers. He was trying to Charles Johnson, he was trying to matt Asiata was one of his best receivers. Of matt Acciata as a running back who should have been a fullback. That tells you how good the passing game was there. They built their defense up, they had the superstar defensive carried the team for a while, and then they focus on the offense. The Bengals can

do the opposite of that. Add a couple more pieces to the offense as you go and focus all your equity, all your investments on the defensive side, and build your team that way moving forward. I don't think this team is like really far away, Like if you compare them to the Los Angeles Rams, who are in a really bad position because they've spent so much money on certain players. They've traded away as so many picks, they've hemorrhage talent

for the last couple of years. They have to go into this year, figure out what happens this year, and then hit the reset button. If you look at the Miami Dolphins, you're betting on a quarterback who has a questionable hip. You hope he's going to be really good, but you've also overpaid a bunch of guys to build through free agency as the foundation of your team. That's not a great position to be an either. The Bengals aren't overpaying anyone. They're not committing long term money to anyone.

They shouldn't be. They haven't made awful moves and free agency it's going to set them back. They haven't hurt themselves with any draft picks. So you've got this table set and there's already a really nice steak there, but your quarterback, and there's a great side with it too, as your left tackle, and you've just got to add the rest of it. And I think they're going to be able to do that. Key and Faye, he has

been our guest. You can read everything he writes about football for as little as two dollars a month at Patreon dot com at r eon dot com. I am a very happy subscriber and I appreciate your time today. Thanks so much, thank you. Before we get to our next conversation, 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. One of the best stories on the Bengals roster is Trey Hopkins.

After breaking his leg in the preseason as a rookie back in twenty fourteen, Hopkins did not play in a regular season game in his first two years in the NFL, and only appeared in one game in year three, but he eventually became a starter at guard in two seventeen, and last year he started every game at center after beating out former first round draft pick Billy Price in training camp. Hopkins played so well that he was given a three year, twenty point four million dollar contract extension

near the end of the season. I spoke to Trey this week, shortly after he celebrated his twenty eighth birthday. Trey, how'd you celebrate your twenty eighth birthday? Well, I'm down back home and I was actually just hanging out with my family playing some cards and you know, I just got back out of here and then yesterday went efficient um with my family again. Have you spent the off season back home or did you spend part of it in the Cincinnati area. As spent all of it in

the Cincinnati area. And this is my first time seeing my family since They'ruhary Trey, You're coming off quite a year from winning a starting job in training cap to getting a three year contract extension in late December. How gratifying was it for you to see all of your hard work payoff? I mean it was great. I definitely win a the off season with a lot of good feel he's in the ending now. Um, I mean if we do get get out there, I mean to be great to actually you know, earn that and actually see

that contract to fruition. Um, you know, the end of the last year or after getting the last year, I see, even in the imagining things that turned out the way they did. And um, I mean I'm in very signs, very trout, and I'm still happy now. But sometimes you gotta you gotta, you know, you gotta get to work, no question about it. We're chatting with Trey Hopkins. Until last year, Trey, you were kind of a Swiss Army knife on the offensive line. Now you've got a spot center.

Is it a relief to be settled in at one spot? Oh? Ye as for strange to be able to just focus on one kind of page. But you know, the way life works. I feel like I've never had just light an off season where you can really later right now, and this one is kind of the same way, just because all the uncertainty with COVID and everything, and then figuring out how to train and then figuring out, you know what what to do. The facility is closing down

and things like that. So it's it's it's another strange off The seems like it will be another year where you know, there's never any relaxing. The contract that you signed after Christmas was life changing. Did you splurge on anything for yourself or anybody else? Um? No, I thought, mean not yet, not at this point. Um it was. It was kind of good just you know, for the first time I'm actually able to like sit down to advisories and so I had a good chunk, you know,

to actually do some some investments with. So that that's what I did with the way you see thus far and you've really done too much. That's that good University of Texas education being put to work Trey with no OTAs or mini camps. All of the offseason work for the team was done on zoom calls. How challenging was

that for you? It was challenging in the sense that it's clearing, monotonous, and then you miss out on those moments of kind of lady m which football where you know you're hanging out with you're in the lot room, you get to share those like funny moments. You get those you know, team building moments that way, and of course you have those kinds of those same moments in zone.

But another thing really can replace it in person camaraderie um that you normally having those tas because those days are a little bit less, it's a little less stressful for everyone in laws. You're not preparing for the game riding around the corner in three days, you know what I mean? So um that in that part it was it was difficult. UM. I think it was a great

opportunity for younger guys UM to learn UM. Again, it's another it's it was a tough spot for them on that not being over physically in pressure coaching lands like that. But it it was a good moment for them to not have to worry so much about the physical aspect as far as you know, um, perfecting the techniques on the field exactly then. But but it gave them good a good chance to really ironed out, like iron out

the playbook. From what we read and heard, you were barking out line calls on zoom calls as if you're facing a defense. Can you describe that? Oh, yeah, it's very easy. It's just you know, just going over film, whether it be clips from our games or in the games from from last year, and you know, Zach would give us a give us a play Um, Joe would call out the cadence and then it would be trade.

What's the call was identification And it's very similar to the way that you Turner with hold these meetings, you know, and you can protecting meetings that we would have throughout the week last year. So I don't think that aspect of any any difference. Just now instead of us all being in the same room to get it looking at the screen, um, looking at one projective screen that we're at home, looking at a zoom strength. What are your

impressions of Joe Burrow so far? Very impressive, very impressive things, have a great progress with offense. So it's just a very very short time. It seems like because of the season he had at LSU and winning the Heisman and winning the national championship, there's so much interest in him in Cincinnati among everybody right now? Was it the same among his soon to be teammates? Were you really eager to see, all right, what's this? What's this guy all about?

For sure? Definitely. I mean the number of overalls, the number one overall people there to be don't really skate by. I think everyone. There's a lot of excitement in the locker room, just you know, for this training, special life, um and just to he's got to see how he translates encouraged? Was this what I seems the star in the zone? Us with quarterbacks, we tend to think of a need to develop timing and chemistry with his receivers,

But what about the quarterback center relationship? Does that happen quickly or does that take some time? I mean, personally, I guess I'll only we have an experience to besides moveing to the idea haven't already um been there. But to be honest, it didn't take that long um snapping. For the most part. It was snapping of course, you know quarterbacks and they when they like a little bit more, they're like, oh, one wants to all a little bit higher, and you know, they want a little bit faster or

something like that. And that's something that normally you get that straight down within a matter of a couple of snaps, um, you know. But then when it comes to a communication between each other, I think we didn't have the opportunity, um in the ZOOE meetings to kind of work through those things. And I got to hear how he sees things and how he's gonna roll through his cadence or whether he's going to go through a full case before he has a check when he wants to make a check,

and then how he's gonna phrase those things. So I think that that Parker was good and getting to already get a jump on that. UM. Now a physical part, I would say it should not be that discud It shouldn't take long at all. This might be a stupid question, but since there are no OTAs or mini camps. That's a center practice snapping in the backyard or at a park or what do you do? Or I couldn't practice that US mapping lane because I was actually a boy myself.

But now that I trained that dignition um and or Grisian elite now um, and so now that I'm down there, some guys, um, I cannot actually snap the people. So so yeah, it's really just one of those banish you want to make sure you never really lose it, and you want to you want to make sure your cap on top of it. A few more questions for Bengal center Trey Hopkins. Let's look at the old line. Jonah

Williams returns from his injury to play left tackle. Xaviers to a Philo signed as a free agent, and we'll likely started right guard. How much does that solidify the offensive line? I feel like we have a we have a solid group getting there and there last year and then you lost your own early early on, you know, and OCAs with the soldier soldier injury. Um, it'll be great to see him out there. But you know, I'm excited as the c would with xs something, excited to

get to you know, play next thing. Because Sean was. Zoe BBC said, great, of course, It's it's kind of hard to descry people's just space having on them some zoom meetings, But I can't say I'm very excited for this group. They we're gonna head in the moone um this year, and I'm excited to get get to work with the size. You know, after starting all sixteen games last year, how long did it take to feel okay physically execular? I'll say probably, Well, you know what happened.

I actually gotten pretty sick at the beginning, like right after the last game, so that kind of that kind of took a little told long. Me too, But I would say about three weeks after the season. I Treyer about three weeks away from reporting for training camp. How are you feeling about the possibility of playing football in a pandemic Company's feel, honest, to be honest, excited for the opportunity to play. When being excited, so my contract, I mean, I'd love to do that to a mon's homecoming,

to get to it um. But there's still a lot of certain uncertainty. You know, as you talk about the NFL and SOBA coming together and decided to safety protocols and things like that, and exactly what is it gonna look like for us, because I mean, as anybody can can tell you, football is not really a game you

can play social distancing. So it'll be interesting to see how how this all actually plays out of reporting and how it affects the league and the games and practicing and things like that, because I mean, unfortunately, he's trying to take away a lot of stuff that that is

enjoyable about the game. Playing on Sundays in front of a full crowd, even at that crowd participation and things like that, and you know, being in a full locker room of people and cafeteria times and things like they're just sitting down during camp and getting your break sitting in the cafeteria and just you know, just talking with people, just being be interacting with people the way that humans

tends to do and you would kind of take for granted. So, um, you know, it's economy stealing on the side for the football partner that I mean, I know there will be a lot of parts that I'm that I'm get to this, and there's a lot of the uncertainty as will still floating around even as we are three weeks and done, three weeks away, full and poor day. Thanks so much for doing this, Stay safe and I look forward to

seeing in a few weeks. Let's see that. Hi. Thanks to Trey Hopkins and Key and Fahey, and 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 thanks for listening to the Bengals Boot Podcast.