Bengals Booth Podcast: Getting To Know You

to Know All about You. Addition, as the Bengals get ready for their first head to head meeting with Joe Burrow and the other top prospects in this year's draft at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis coming up, I'll discuss that and much more with my broadcast partner, Dave Lappall our topics include Joe Burrow's most recent comments about possibly being the number one pick in this year's draft.

I'll ask Lap if he would vote yes or no on the new collective bargaining agreement proposal that the owners have approved. And best of all, Lapp will answer the questions you submitted on Twitter and Facebook under the hashtag ask Lap. That's straight ahead. But first, 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 airborne vitamin tablets. As you might be able to tell, I'm dealing with a bit of a cold and whenever I have one. One of my strategies for fighting it is putting Airborne brand vitamin supplements in grapefruit juice. It's basically a big vitamin C cocktail. Does it make medical sense, I don't really know, but it seems to work for me. So the next time you have a nasty cold, try Airborne vitamin tablets in

grapefruit juice. It tastes good too. Now let's get to football, where it's time to ask lap Lap. I don't know if you are familiar with this, but there was recently a twenty eighth amendment added to the Constitution which dictates all Bengals podcasts must begin with a discussion of Joe Burrow. Here's what I want to start with today. Joe Burrow's recent comments to the Fort Worth Star Telegram when he was there to accept the Davey O'Brien award, which included

a Rolex watch. By the way, that was nice. When asked about being drafted by Cincinnati, here's what Joe Burrow had to say, quote, I am blessed to be in the position I'm in. If they select me, they select me, I'm going to do everything in my power to be the best football player that I can be. That all sounds good, But he also said, I'm not exactly sure what the question was. I do have leverage. They have their process and I have my process. So what did

you make of those comments? They were they were kind of North and South Bowl a little bit, you know, the first comment, obviously, I was impressed by, you know, he's a competitor. In talking with his teammates that were down at the Senior Bowl, particularly the offensive lineman from LSU, that's all they said was, you know, cold blooded competitor um, but in all the right ways. You know, no, uh, nothing negative, all positive and how he led and uh and how he set goals and achieved his goals and

everything that went along with it. And so I'm thinking, well, here's a guy that with all the people saying, you know,

oh Jesus Cincinnati Bengals two and fourteen a joke. You know, why would you who would want to play for that football He made it sound like he wanted to be part of the solution and turnaround, and you know, a guy part of it would be the next chapter of the Joe Burrow Made for TV movie and that you know, comes out of nowhere, because I'm looking at uh, I'm looking at all these publications before the twenty nineteen seasons started, Joe Burrows not even talked about. I mean, he's not

even discussed Day two pick. Yeah, day two pick, and his LSUS not even in pick to be in the in the playoffs, you know, I mean, the LSU's not talked about. Joe Burrows not talked about. You know, it's Joe Brady's not talks about. And it is a storybook deal what they did, you know how, and they've all benefited. Joe Brady is now an offensive coordinator Carolina Panthers, Joe Burrow is about to be the first pick of the NFL draft, and it would be the next chapter of

that story. I think, why not take a guy, you know, the the come from nowhere Heisman Trophy winner who had the most prolific quarterback season the history of college football on all levels every way you measure it. It was unbelievable. Never had even come close to having a season like Joe Burrow head. So why not the next step go to the National Football League, take a two win team to nine or ten wins and make him playoff competitive and be part of the solution. I like that. I

like that that part of it. You know, he has his leverage. What is that? I don't know. I really can't figure it. The leverage is you don't play for a year. And I don't see the Borough family, the father, mother, two brothers that played at Nebraska, one played safety, one played linebacker. Football family to the nth degree. I don't see that a guy who came from that environment with a mindset to sit out a year. He's also going to be twenty four this year. Yeah exactly. I mean

the clock's ticking, you know. Um, I just I guess that's what he's talking about. I don't know. He might. He may have been in an off in a very very far stretched way talking about well Eli Manning. He dictated where you know, he went. John Elway dictated what happened with him in terms of the draft. Um, you know, yeah, that did happen. John Elway had baseball as leverage, correct

it went and played minor league organization. Yeah right, he was in the Yankees organization and a good prospect, you know, could have maybe played, maybe made the major leagues as a baseball player. Joe Burrow was an All State basketball player.

I mean, what is the NBA bound doubt it? You know, so, I mean I don't understand you know that that leverage part of it, that that he's talking about, other than you know, just uh, just maybe letting in a way, letting other teams know, look, go ahead and trade for me. You know, if you're thinking about making an offer, go ahead and make an offer to the Bengals, because you know, I'm trying to establish as much leverage as I possibly can. Instead of coming out and saying, you know, I want

to be a Cincinnati Bengal. I look forward to be in a Cincinnati Bengal. That's what everybody in Bengaledon wants to hear. He's not going to say that, you know, because you know what if it's traded, you know, now all of a sudden, Well I really did want to be a Bengal, but now I'm glad to be a whatever. I mean, you can you can rationalize it that way. I know all Bengal fans would love to see him say, look, no matter, I'm fine, I'm I want to be a

Cincinnati Bengal. They've had a great quarterback history and tradition there. I want to add my name to that list of great quarterbacks with the Cincinnati Bengals. That's exactly what bengaldu would like to hear, but they're not going to hear it. Well, maybe they could hear it at the combine. He's scheduled to do a news conference on Tuesday, I believe. But let's talk about the count the scouting combine, which gets underway this weekend and runs all of next week with

the drills in prime time for the first time. So if you want to watch guys in primetime running the forty and doing the bench press, you're gonna have your chance this week. But this will also be the Bengals opportunity to sit down face to face with forty five players for eighteen minutes apiece. And I've got to assume that Joe Burrows on that list be the first opportunity to do that with him. Normally, the player is trying to impress the team. Do the Bengals need to impress

Joe Burrow with their vision for his future? I think so. I think it would be if I were Joe Burrow. The first question when they say you know, they're fire questions at Joe Burrow and then probably at the end, if there's time, they say, do you have any questions us? My question would be, if I'm Joe Burrow, what's your plan? You know, how do you how do you foresee what changes will be made in terms of personnel, philosophy, or whatever the case may be to turn around a two

win team. I'm not the If you think drafting Joe Burrow solves all your problems, I'm here to tell you they probably don't. What else are we talking about? That's what I would ask, you know, I would put on my humble hat. You know, I have confidence in my ability, but me single handedly is not going to take a team from two wins to ten wins. What else are we talking about? And I do think, you know, they should have some sort of an idea or some sort of a plan to present him, because he's going to

sell them very quickly on his personality. I mean, I think they already know enough, so I think I think that interview session is going to be a lot different than just about all the others. I think all the others are going to be more fact finding. He is so overexposed at this point. I mean, everybody knows everything about Joe Burrow's life. His football life is private life, every aspect of the Joe Burrow story. So yeah, I would.

I would. I would get to the next level of um, you know, drilling down as quickly as I kid could with Joe, and I would. I would see, um, you know, with his football acumen. You really you and Joe Brady connected. What was it? What were the things that made your season so successful? Put up on the grease board here, things, you know, concepts that you guys implemented, things that you

were looking for at all times. Tell us what the Joe Burrow season was like, you know, as you were preparing for an opponent and maybe taking through certain things and games and all that sort of thing. Just to confirm his football IQ, which everybody says, as you know, Suma cum laudy. So he's he's a football menza and he processes quickly. So I think they'll get through that pretty quickly too. But I do think, I do think

the future plan is big for both parties. I did a rant on last week's podcast, first talking about how Joe Burrow had never said specifically that he didn't want to play for the Bengals, but then the second part of my rant had to do with this notion that he shouldn't want to come to Cincinnati, and I want to follow up on that because it continues to bother me. If those stories had been done in the late nineteen nineties, they would have been harder to refute during the so

called lost decade. But you can't go to the playoffs six times in a seven year period by sheer luck. Can't be done in the NFL. I think Marvin Lewis deserves a lot of the credit for helping the Bengals modernize their organization. I think Duke Tobin is largely done an excellent job as a GM without having the title of GM. Why is it that two thousand and nine to two and fifteen doesn't seem to exist for so

many of the national football commentators. Yeah, they look at it as, you know, as the anomaly of the blip, you know, the it just it's a unicorn. It doesn't belong, you know, And and I can see that for a year. But when you're to the point where you're you know, perpetually at five straight you know, six out of seven, that kind of thing now becomes you know, very significant. And of course everybody is going is and should give Marvin Lewis a lot of credit. I mean, he was

there for sixteen years and made seven playoffs. Almost half of his coaching career he was in the playoffs for the Cincinnati Bengals. That's that's a record. I mean, five playoff appearances in a row as a record. But you know, people don't even talk about that. What they talk about is the last playoff win January nineteen ninety one. And

you know, it's such a long drought. As every organization will tell you, it is hard to make the playoffs hard, and you know equally or even more so to win a playoff game, and that can be attested to obviously by this franchise. But to make the playoffs five years in a row, only a handful of teams, you know, organizations have done that. It's it's not like half the franchises in the National Football League. I think it's maybe, you know, maybe more a little more than a handful,

like six, I think of maybe done. It got into the playoffs five straight seasons at any time. So um, it's it's not it's not something to take lightly, but I think you know the easy um comment on that is everybody's saying that was Marvin Lewis. Marvin Lewis is now at Arizona State. Marvin Lewis isn't part of the Bengals organization anymore. So, UM, it's almost like, you know, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady? Is it? Is it? Tom Brady? Is it Bill Belichick? You know? Is it the Cincinnati Bengals?

Is that Marvin Lewis? You know, you take Marvin Lewis out of the picture, what else is? Uh? Where's where's the light? Uh? In the Bengals organization. It's going to lead them out of the darkness currently with the two and fourth record, you know. So that's what that's what you know, I hear from a lot of people. We'll see, you know, and Marvin did do a great job of bringing, you know, the exposers that he had with the Baltimore

and Pittsburgh and those organizations. He did bring, you know a lot of that outside ideas and ways of doing things to the Cincinnati Bengals. Zach Taylor has had exposure multiple places himself, you know, Miami, LA, a college scene. You know, it's he has he has I'm sure some ideas as well. So we'll see how his are implemented. I'm not the only person annoyed by this thought process

that the Bengals are completely incompetent. The current players are getting ticked off about it now as well, Tyler Boy, Joe Mixon, and Auden Tate among others tweeting about it this week. Do you think that the proving people wrong thing is going to become a motivator for this year's team? Players always look athletes always look for the chip to put on their shoulder, and this one is not a chip. It's the old two by four. Yeah, I mean, guys.

One thing that guys have that ascend to this level of professionalism in terms of sports or anything really, any any um you know, job that you try to you seek to try to improve yourself on and be the best you can be, is pride. You know, these guys have big time personal pride, and they feel like they're being personally attacked, even even if it's just it's when they see Cincinnati Bengals, they see themselves, I mean that

it's it's you. I mean they're just totally tied together, So they feel like they're being attacked by people, not just organizationally or coaching staff board. It's like me, I'm being attacked and my teammates are being attacked. So I'm gonna come to the I'm going to come to my defense. I'm going to come to my teammates defense. And the best way to do that is to is to shut The best way to shut people up to win football games,

to play better. So I do think there's a big chip there, and I do think guys that will be part of their motivation. There's no about it. They have plenty of material for a bulletin board. In fact, they could fill a bulletin board. There would be a city block big. There's all kinds of stuff out there. Man. All right, let's get to the big breaking news in the NFL. We interrupt the Joe Burrow portion of the show to get to this. The owners have approved a

new collective bargaining agreement. Now it goes to the thirty two player reps. They have to approve it by a two thirds majority, and if that happens, then it goes to the roughly two thousand players as a whole. They vote, and then it would just have to pass by a simple majority, and that would mean ten years of labor piece. Some of the things that are in there. It calls for the possibility of a seventeen game regular season that would apparently kick in as soon as twenty twenty two.

It calls for an expanded playoff field, one more playoff team from each conference that could actually go into effect this year if this gets approved quickly. There's some other stuff in there that benefits the players, like a bigger share of the total revenue pie. If there's a seventeen game schedule, they could make five more billion dollars over

the next ten years if this thing gets approved. Here's my question for you, if you are an active player right now, based then what you've read and heard, would you vote yes or no? I would vote yes because I think I think a lot of the things that they're addressing in there. The big money players are going to say no. J. J. Watts already come out absolutely no. He's got hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank.

This All they have to do is have fifty one percent of the rank and file of the players vote yes. Five percent of the players get humongous money. They're talking about on that seventeenth game, capping a quarter million bucks for that game. You know, well, there'll be five percent of the players that have a real problem with that because they make a lot more than that, which is incredible two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per game, Oh

my god. But a big number of people over fifty percent would be like, yeah, I do that seventeenth game and get that get that extra money. I mean, my career is is it going to be well I even get vested? Will I be around long enough to be vested? I mean, the number of people that are fortunate enough to play, you know, ten years or more in the National Football League's not a huge number. It's two thousand players to begin with, and then the players are making

this humongous money. Is five percent of those two thousand players, it's it's not you know, you know, you're talking seventy guys maybe you know, or you know, not even that sixty some odd guys. So it's not. I think I think it would be the tail wagging the dog if those sixty five people determine the fates of all those others, you know. So I think it's going to pass, and

I think it probably should. And because there's a lot of things I mean they're talking about with the seventeenth game, they're talking about bringing more people off ir the's more more readily. They're talking about activating an extra linement offensive linement on game day. So so seventeen it's like, okay, well, we don't want teams limping in, gimping to the playoffs.

We still want it to be good football. So they're saying that the practices is going to be a lighter you know, workload is going to be a big factor with this. With the seventeenth game, um, I think I think it'll quickly go to eighteen because seventeen that odd number. Where's that game going to be played every other every other season? You'd have an extra home game than other teams.

I think it's going to be a neutral site where they're trying to you know, generate some interests as the next NFL franchises, have teams go there and play wherever they may be around the country. And then world international, Yeah, go to Mexico. You're even talking Brazil, you know, London. Yeah, I think that's a great idea rather than having a team in London. Didn't use that seventeenth game to play a bunch of games over there and then a handful

of others in Germany, Mexico, Canada, whatever they're talking. So yeah, I mean, and make it more of an international, international scope. And why would you do that? Dollars? I mean, that's that's the bottom line. It's it's all about the dollars. And really, uh, it's it's a brilliant move to try to get this collective barring a riem and done because

the next network contract is twenty twenty one. So if they have this in place, we have more revenue for you more you know, um, not more, we have more inventory for you that needs more revenue for us. Um. You know. The extra playoff game. Could it be a Monday and night football game? That would make the Monday night football package much more lucrative, you know, And and the extra playoff game that's just that's just two teams. You know that If they do that, the extra playoff game,

I think is going to be a no brainer. I think that's now the seventeenth game. There may be a little bit more, a little bit more push and pull on that because you know, you're talking about player safety and how are we going to address that? And that's the biggest thing supposedly for CTE Concussion Protocol blah blah, So that that's gonna that's gonna get a little bit of a pushback. And I do see them going from seventeen fairly quickly to eighteen, and they're they're asking permission

to go to seventeen and asking permission to go to eighteen. So, like you say, probably it won't happen in the twenty twenty two maybe not even twenty twenty or twenty twenty one season, maybe twenty twenty two for the seventy seventeenth game, and real quickly it may be they may say, Okay, we'll do the seventeenth game in twenty twenty two. In the eighteenth game would be in twenty twenty three, if they have all that time maybe to get ready for I could, I could see them. Odd number is weird

to me, that odd number. I think I think it's a scheduling nightmare. My guess though on that, and I could be wrong, is that you know they'll go to seventeen for a while. You think I just have a hard time because that's going to be the sticking point because of health concerns. Will you accept another game of punishment? To your body. I just think it would maybe even the entire ten year term before they can then try to sell them on eighteen. Really. See, I was thinking

the other way. I was thinking that if they get seventeen in, because ultimately I think they'd like to go eighteen and two. I mean I think that's the as in preseason two, right, Yeah, eighteen and two, and then everybody will have more combined workouts, two organizations getting together a training camp, and getting more workload done, you know, heavy workload done. That way, I could see that happening,

and it would be controlled. Obviously, it wouldn't be as tough on bodies as even preseason games, which are very limited in terms of participation by players. But the preseason games, as we know, they've become a joke. I mean, there are teams in the NFL that don't play it their starters at all in the entire preseason, not just the fourth third preseason game. I mean play players just the third preseason game. Those starts for over half. They're not

doing it at all. They're not even having guys out there getting any any work in the preseason, so it's become kind of a farce. So I could see them trying to go you know, to eighteen and two at some point in time, or at least having a phraseology in the collective barring agreement that at any time during that ten year timeframe, we can bring the eighteenth game you know, to the table for discussion instead of you know, locking having that off the table as such for a decade.

So the new league year begins on March eighteenth, so it sounds like they're trying to get this thing done by then so that some of this stuff can go into effect right now. And if you're trying to get the players to vote yes, that's a big carrot to dangle. The salary cap will go up, could help current free agents. The minimum salary is going to go up by one

hundred thousand bucks. I mean, if you if you want the rank and file to approve the thing by one vote as a majority, things like that are going to get that lower tier that you were talking about to say yes. Yeah. I mean if if if sixty six percent two thirds of the if the hum of the player reps pass it, I think they're gonna get fifty one percent of the players very easily. I really do. Um So, I think the player rep. The conference calls that are going to be going on today are going

to be very interesting. Um, you know, and they're gonna they're gonna have calls to to all of their teammates. I mean, the telephone company is gonna be busy. There's gonna be some lines. They are gonna be having some having some issues. But uh because and I can see honestly, UM, guys at their homes with their player up speaker phone the wife right there, are you kidding me? We're taking that? Are you kidding me? My husband? He might not make the team. Honestly, It's it's like you have to as

a as a player rep. You have to sell the benefits of everybody's situation is different, and you have to kind of mollify everything for each case you know of. And I'm not going to tell you to play a seventeenth game. What right do I have to do that? But here's reasons why, here's reasons not to you decide. And I'm telling you pressure married married players crossed the picket line faster than the guys that are single. There's

no doubt about that. When you have veteran players crossing the picket line, every one of them has a wife and kids, every single one of them. All. Right, before we get to this week's ask Lap questions from people on Twitter and Facebook, I want to cover one more topic and this has to do with a great Q and A that Paul Dayner Junior did on The Athletic

with Zach Taylor. And there was one thing in there that made me think that Zach Taylor might be listening to our podcast, because you said quite a while ago that training camp was not physical enough this year in an effort avoid injuries. There just wasn't enough contact. So here's what Zach Taylor said to Paul Dayer this week. Quote. The bottom line is we have to have the mentality that we are going to be more physical. That starts in training camp the first day you put the pads on.

It is almost word for word for what you were saying. Yeah, I think it's a factor. And in this collective bargaining agreement that we're talking about, they specifically address minimizing, diminishing the amount of contact you know, at training camp. So but what you can do, I would do, you know, heartily, I would do with full effort. I think that there's

there's no substitute for it. I just it's it's hard to ramp it up, and particularly if you're going to start cutting down preseason games, it's hard to ramp it up. And I think maybe doing something with other teams like I talked about before, you know, where you bring up

people together and you have one on ones. After a while, you a training camp, like I knew Eddie Edwards every move, you know, and it was like, I'm not saying it was easy to pass protect Eddie Edwards, but it was much easier week three than it was week one when it was like, oh man, what's he going to be doing? You know? And everybody has moves that they do better than others and favorite moves and just getting an exposure to different stuff because you can you can you can

fall into a little bit of a trap. You can lull yourself into a yeah, I'm ready to go, and all of a sudden you go against a dude that's got some stuff like, man, I haven't seen that before. How do I just what do I do to come back that? What's my counter to that move? Man? That's a pretty good move. So there's no there's no basically replacement for repetition against it. You know, you just can't. You can't, like you know, mentally mental telepath. You put

it in your head, it just doesn't happen. You have to go out and do it and wrap it. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see. And I don't think Jim Turner will have any any problem or a coach East under the defense. I don't think there'll be uh, there'll be any problem with you know, picking up the tempo. Uh, you know, with the upfront guys all right. Time to

hear from Bengaled them via the hashtag ask lap. Got some great questions from the audience a couple of weeks ago the last time we did that, So here we go. We got a bunch of them today from Dale. The Bengals don't typically cut players, but after going two and fourteen, do you think they will change that philosophy and in turn also be more aggressive in free agency? They very well could. You know, there's there's some people you know that are are potentially uh being considered to be let go.

There always are, you know, every year, and I could see that happening this year, you know, Cordy Glenn. In my mind, it has to be the number one, number one candidate for that it would free up free up additional dollars. There's there's other guys you know, on the roster.

We could probably go through a Litanya guy. So you do you have to h you know, you have to consider that opening up more dollars that would allow you to go ahead and attack free agency with more gusto and maybe in bigger numbers in free agency, not necessarily creating dollars to sign this one free agent for megamegadollars. That's a fifty fifty proposition. But um, you know, in turn, like for example, if I could move Corty Glenn's salary and have money where I could go sign two veteran

linebackers in free agency? Heartbeat done? Where do I? Where do I sign to get that thing accomplished? I do that yesterday? So I think those kind of things are probably on the table. Drake Kirkpatrick's name comes up quite a bit as a potential cap casualty. What do you think? Yeah, that one's that one's interesting, you know, I mean it's um uh is it to the point where and when I if my name were ever brought up as a

cap casualty? The first thing I would do if I really liked the organization and want to stay, I'd have my representational I would have back in the day. I would have gone into the club and said, you know, let's let's rediscuss what what what kind of value do you think I have? And if it doesn't fit with what you think you present, go ahead and let him

do it. But if there's if, if you're real with yourself, you know, and and they're a real with them with what they're thinking, um, you can you can redo a deal. You guys have done that, and I think it's intelligent to do that, honestly. So, UM, I think I think camp or cap casualty sounds so severe. There could be a lot of massaging though, you know, massaging with players and um and and just see where see where it all all shakes out, see what happens, all right. I'm

combining the next two from Chris and Steve Oh. Chris, if the Rams don't resign Andrew Whitworth, what are the chances that the Bengals would offer and that he would be interested? And then from Steve Oh, what about Whitworth at right tackle and moving Bobby Hart to right guard? Well,

you know, I'm not sure. You know. Then then then it's like, what do you do with a guy like Fred Taylor, you know who who basically has shown I thought Fred Taylor Johnson, excuse me, Fred Johnson's Fred great running back Jacksonville Jaguar, Fred Johnson, who made himself some money last year. I thought, you know, I thought he performed pretty well. Very athletic guy. Um, former basketball player. You know, it's just kind of scratching the surface of

what his you know, abilities are. Um. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure at this stage of the career they made they made a determination that Andrew wit Worth um was was at the end of his career a few years ago, to bring him back. Now, if the team that he did excuse me, that he did sign with no longer has interest, I'm not sure they bring him back. You know. At that point, Um, it's like, you know, when Max Montoya was done, they didn't bring Max Montoya back.

They made an error, and you make mistakes, you know, sometimes you don't guess right, you don't project it right. Everybody does. It happens, and Max went on to great years with the Raiders, and you know, they didn't bring them back to Cincinnatione's done with the great years with the Raiders. I can see the same same kind of scenario in this one, um, and I think that they're there.

They're they're building their offensive line with with people that aren't you know, aren't on putting out on number eighteen on their career. You know, they're trying to build their offensive line differently than that from Jordan. What compensation would you predict for potential trades for Andy Dalton and or Cordy Glenn Boy Andy Dalton? I mean when you look at look at what the Ravens got for Flacco, I think it was a fifth round pick from the Denver Bronco.

I think that was a four. Was the four? Okay? So in that case, you know, here's the guy that was Super Bowl MVP. You know, I had got the big contract. But he goes eleven touchdowns no interceptions in the playoffs and his team wins the Super Bowl. So again people are saying, you know, second round pick, and to me, with the glut of free agent quarterbacks that you don't have to pay, you don't have to give anything for. I mean, this is not a good year

honestly for to try to trade a quarterback like like Andy. Now, is he more valuable to franchises than some of these quarterbacks that are on the very end of their career. I think Andy's got obviously quite a few years left, but still, when you have guys like that in the marketplace, it changes the value. So I'd take a four. I'd take a four for Andy Dalton, I'd take a I don't know. I don't know what i'd take for Corty Glenn. Yeah,

bag of leats. I don't know. I don't know what you know at this point with Cordy if they if they can trade Corty Glenn, God bless him. I don't know what kind of value he has, you know, league why, I'm not sure what they can get for Corty Glenn. But if somebody throws something out there, I would pounce on that, whatever it is. From a Twitter follower who goes by overly optimistic Bengals fan, do you envision the Bengals using more heavy personnel in dynamic ways? You know

it's they've got uh. You know, we just talked about Fred Johnson and in the athletic ability that he has, and he was the he kind of advanced from the third tackle in packages to let's put him at left tackle at the end of the season, see if he can play. I can see it. I can see them, you know, utilizing more of that heavy, heavy personnel. You know,

they've they've they've got some athletic offensive limit. I Prince is another guy from Ohio State that they're you know, they're going to try to develop a little bit that they picked up, you know, awful waivers so during the course of the season. So uh yeah, I mean I do think that with Isaiah Prince and with Fred Johnson, you've got two guys that it's almost like you had your draft early, you know, and you you picked up guys that that have shown they can play in the

National Football League. So it's not like, man, you know, can they or can't they? Now I think Fred has shown more than Isaiah has obviously at this point. But Isaiah's I think somebody that you can work with. Um, so it's gonna yeah, it's gonna be interesting. I could see him doing that. I could see them going heavy personnel creatively, UM seeing Fred maybe even being a threat catching the football with an out for one pass. Yeah, and uh they jumped them. I mean they covered the

big boy. They blanketed him. So you know, obviously, um, he's not a he's not a secret. He's not a surprise that that he played basketball and he's athletic and all that. So yeah, it'll be interesting that what kind of packages they can they can do there and you know, Joe Mixon, Giovanni Bernard all the running. I'm sure they'd love it, you know, to run behind h extra big

body mass type guys like that from Mark Well. The next generation of the Brown family run the franchise differently, and do you have any feel for what they'll do as the stadium lease expires in twenty twenty six. Um, I think the next generation has been largely running in the Bengals organization for a while. You know, Mike Brown is eighty four years old. I think the day to day operation and decision making is already in the in

the lap of Katie and Troy Blackburn. Um. Now Mike is heavily involved in terms of they don't do anything without informing him. I'm not saying that he's involved in the process, but he's not spearheading the process like he once did. He has handed off a lot of those duties and responsibilities already to Katie and Troy, so um, you know they've been doing it for a while, you know as well. It's not like it just happened, you know,

last week. It's been a number of years, a good number of years now, and uh and I think it's probably increasing, you know, on a on a year by year basis, which is more than an understandable as far as the least the stadium lease man that that that one, that one kind of scares me a little bit because as the league continues to be extremely popular, some city is going to throw some crazy deal out there that

you wonder, how can you turn it down? So that that's that's my big concern is as this juggernaut continues to grow fourteen billion fifteen billion dollars and well revenue industry of the National Football League by twenty twenty six, it may be closer to twenty billion or more, some cities gonna say I want a piece of that. I want to I want to get on in that action. And you know what, how will Cincinnati battle that or counter that or what kind of offers will be made

that that is a little bit of concern. Of mine for sure, all right? Another combined question from Paul and Christian. Paul asked what would the Bengals accept to trade out of the number one overall pick? And then Christian asked, did the Achille Smith offer back in the ninety nine draft have any effect on accepting or rejecting offers in relation to dealing the number one overall and I guess we should go back and discuss the ninety nine offer

from the Saints. They wanted Ricky Williams. The Bengals had the number three overall pick. The Saints offered all of their ninety nine picks rounds one through seven. They had the twelfth overall pick that year, plus their number one in two thousand, plus their number one in two thousand and one, plus their number two in two thousand and two. So that was three number ones, two number two's, and

a three, four, five, six seven. All things changed for the number three pick in the draft, which the Bengals turned down and took a Keiley Smith. The Redskins took a slightly watered down version of the Saints offer at number five overall, but in any case, getting back to the question, what would the Bengals accept in order to trade the number one overall pick this year, and did what ultimately turned out to be a bad decision affect them going forward? You would think. So I couldn't believe

they didn't pull the trigger on that trade. And you know, I think a lot of people in the organization couldn't believe that they didn't pull the trigger on the trade. And obviously, hindsight is it should have pulled the trigger on the trade. And if the Miami Dolphins are willing to give up their whole draft, which includes three number one uh and and every other pick, I mean, how do you how do you not take that? That's that's

remarkable to me. But um, I guess part of the feeling that that you have to deal with at that point is if they're willing to give up all that, why am I trading that pick? Now? The Bengals didn't have interest in Ricky Williams that Mike Dicker was like, this is what I want, this is what I need, this, this is this is the final component I'm missing. This is the piece I don't care about all the other stuff.

I'm good with him. It elevates us to whatever level. Um, if if the Dolphins do offer the motherload of three first round picks. Party has to say, you know, what do they see in Joe Burrow that we don't necessarily And if if they were to do that now, I don't see him doing it because I think they're gonna draft to A and I think they're gonna have a. They feel like they're going to have a guy who may be the best quarterback in this draft if if

he heals. But how do the Bengals, how do the those drafts too, thinking that he may have to miss his rookie year. How many number one picks have they had that have missed their whole rookie year the last four No, but you look at you look at TWA being so beaten up and having so many injuries. The greatest player in Bengals history, who's in the Hall of Fame, didn't play much at USC. It was like he's not available. He's a great player, but hellie, I mean, so many

teams took him off the board. You know, I told the story about Parcels with the Giants. They would not put him on the board and he was infuriated and they just I mean, Anthony was off of more boards than he was on and the Bengals make the pick, turns into you know, mister durable I mean totally available. So his run of bad luck happened in college, Billy Price.

You know, all these guys that we're talking about that the Bengals have had first round the one starts forty eight straight games, one starts fifty straight games in college, and can't get to training camp in their rookie year. So it's weird. You know, maybe maybe you don't draft the healthy ones through college because they're gonna get hurt

in the NFL. Maybe the ones that have gone through the injury deal, you know, maybe the football gods say, yeah, you've paid your price, You're gonna have a great NFL career. Ross though, No, John Roski, JOHNA. Carter, I mean very first preseason, you know, in his first preseason up there in Detroit. You know, you look at the first pick of the draft, Um, you know, kid John of Carter with with an injury like that a devastating and that and that's the thing that muddy is this whole deal

is is you know, the injury. Nobody's an injury south there, you know, and it's like you can't put your you can't put your hat on and prognosticate injuries when they're gonna car As we said, you know many times you're one percent at injury risk, one percent of every play, one hundred percent of all players on the field. That's just the nature of the beast from j T. Who will the Bank will select at number thirty three, that's the first pick in the second round, or will they

trade up or down? Well, I think that they will take the best defensive player that's on the board. I really believe that after taking Joe Burrow, I think they feel like, you know that that's obviously going to upgrade them offensively in their minds at that point in time, and then they'd probably at the next pick go go for the best defensive player. And they do have I mean it could be at any any of the three levels.

Their their defense could could take an infusion. So I think whoever that is, you know, whoever slides to that thirty third pick. Now the question is about the trade, and we've talked about this, you know, the thirty third pick, the sixty fifth pick that every round when they have the first pick of that round, they're gonna get phone calls because people are going to redo their boards quickly. In some you know, after day one, first round, everybody

does their boards. First pick of the second round, that's the Bengals, second and third round, even the third round. Shuffle your board quickly, and you're gonna have to do it to her. You're gonna have to, you know, have it almost done. The last two or three picks, doesn't affect it or not. And okay, boy, that guy slid out of a second. He's there at the very top of the third first pick. Bengals get calls. Then after the third round, another whole night and the next morning

to reshuffle your board for the draft hits again. And boy, there you are at the first pick of the fourth round. So they're gonna have a lot of phone calls, a lot of draft conversation activity with every pick. So I could see them, I could see them really almost maybe with the thirty third pick, I could see them probably trading down more so than giving up a high pick every round to move up into the bottom end of

the first round. I could see them getting capital with that thirty third pick, and then you know, moving around up or down later. But I'm not sure that thirty third pick with the you know what, the fifty fifty fourth or whatever it is, sixty fifth, the next pick in the third round, taking those two to move up, or mortgaging next years. You know, we'll do this thirty third pick and the fourth round pick of you know, two twenty one. I don't see them doing that as

much as maybe trading back. I'll make the call right now they are trading down in the second round. I just see, you know, the first round comes to an end. There's a lot of great talent left in the Bengals think, you know what, we want more picks. We've only got one in every round right now. This is our chance. Who knows, maybe at another second rounder, certainly you could probably get an extra third round or if you trade down a little bit in the second round. I think

that's going to happen. I really do. And if we're saying, okay, take the best defensive player available with a thirty third pick, if there's you're looking at your board and there was a run on the offensive side of the football and there's a bunch of defensive players left, you'd be happy with the thirty three trade back and getting multiples. You know, hit every position, hit two of the three position levels, you know, with picks and or if a wide receiver,

It's like, I can't believe that dude's still there. You know, Um, maybe you can pick him up, you know, if you don't trade back too far. So it who knows, but I agree. I think in the early stages of the draft, they'll be trading back first and second round, if there's any trades. Won't obviously can't trade up any higher than number one, but you'll be trading back in the first, trading back in the second, and then after that potentially

potentially moving up. But I could I could even see trading back in the third round, trading back in the second, getting additional picks, trading back with your first pick of the third round if you've got an additional third, moving back and getting another third in the four I could see him playing that game pretty much, you know, the domino effect all the way down every round the draft. Next question from John Well, the Bengals pick up job on Ross's fifth year option. If not, well, they select

a wide receiver in the first three rounds. I don't see them picking up you know, John Ross's option unless he has a Pro Bowl year. They have to make the decision by March or by May fifth. No, let's say, I don't see how they can project to pay him fifteen million dollars on this year's salary cap. There's no way. I just don't see it. So yeah, I mean I think I think that if there were a receiver, this is such a receiver, um plentiful draft, They're gonna take

a receiver. It's just a question of how high. Just a question of how high, and um, you know, I don't I don't see them picking up John Ross's his option. I just now if he has an unbelievable uh you know last season, Um, you know, maybe at that point, good for John, he's got leverage, But how much more? How much more would they pay him than fifteen million dollars for the for the first year of the following contract.

Anyway they pay him less. Yeah, I mean, it's like you'd have a bonus, you know, if you if you get a second body of the apple, there's a bonus and all that, and it's all pro rated. But the actual contract maybe he might get depending on the bonus, he might get close, but you're not going to be paying him the average of the top five salaris of his position the first year of a contract extension if he does have a great year. So I just there's no way they're going to pick up that fifteen mil.

There's no way. Here's a quick reminder that he was taking one pick before Patrick Mahomes. But we move on to Tyler. What are your thoughts on linebacker Akeem Davis Gaither a player that you saw in person at the Senior Bowl. Yeah, I was very impressed with him. He can flat out pick him up and put him down. The dude can run. You know, not a big linebacker six two two fifty. You know you think, okay, you know, could he even play? Does he have the coverage abilities

of like a big safety. Yeah, he does. He can run and um, everything that I gathered watching him on the field, Um, he has a good He had a good rapport with his teammates. Seemed like he was not one of these uh you know guys. It was difficult to deal with in terms of other players him thinking he was too cool for school. None of that. My understanding is that he was very good in the classroom. So on a lot of levels, I like him, and I would think Darren Simmons would like him as well.

A guy like that would would upgrade you know, his special teams obviously as well. So I think he's good value. I think he's got significant value. He was. He was one of the guys that, you know, I thought of the handful of linebackers for North and South in the Senior Bowl, he was somebody that jumped out at me a little bit for sure. All Right, we'll do a couple more hashtag ask Lap questions from Steven. The Bengals switched blocking schemes about midway through the season, which helped

the running game. Should they stick with those changes or should they go back to the initial scheme and find players that fit. I think that if the guys that finished the season are pretty much the guys that are starting this one, I think you stay with the continuity of that what worked. You know, to me, it's the last thing you want to do is if you and

and it definitely it definitely fits. You're not going to have a guy that you're going to throw in there that is going to be a big athletic stiff, you know. I mean, everybody that they've they've got in camp right now has the athleticism to do the things that we're talking about, the gap scheme, where you know, you block down your pull linemaner in space instead of just inside zone and outside zone where you're just trying to mall

and mash people. So m I think with the personnel that the reason they made the change was adapting their scheme to fit their personnel. So if their personnel doesn't change drastically, why would you change away from anything that had worked so well the last five games of the year second half of the season, there were six in the NFL in Russian the last eight games of the year, the last five I think it was even better than that.

So I'd stay with what was working, that's for sure, and then just keep building on it and go from there. All right, final ask lap question. This is from Jared Will the Bengals have new uniforms this year? And I will twist that slightly and say and ask should they have new uniforms because Chris Simms keeps making this thing that just to change the mojo, got to change the helmet. It's time to try try something different to change the mojo. Well, I know the last time the change was made, we

went to the Super Bowl. That was the eighty one season, they made the big change and put stripes on the helmet, and, um, you know the initial reaction by everybody, including players in the team. Oh my gosh, man, we look like we're literally at the zoo. I mean, this is like we better play. Well, these are a little bit dicey. I mean it was, it was. It was a big, big,

bold move that Paul Brown made. But he always liked the rams, you know, helmet with that with that logo, so he wanted to go more in that direction and have something like there's no doubting who that football team is. When you see that, you know exactly who it is. And and it panned out, definitely panned out. Um, I

don't know. I don't know how drastic a change, uh that would be talked about, but maybe, you know, maybe something to just I think I think any edge that you can try to find, whether it be psychological, physical, whatever it is, as long as the players believe it, the players are buying it, I'm good with it. You know, it doesn't matter, I guess what. Whatever. The only people

that it matters um the final. In the final, when you melt it all down and boil it all down, the guys were in the uniforms and going out there and playing for the City of Cincinnati and for their franchise. Here's the uniform change I want to see. I want there to be a number nine with a Burrow on the back of it. Yeah, I like that. I like that call. I do. I think, you know, the more I the more I see him, and the more varied environments I see him in, I like him more and more.

You know, I think I think the one thing that he seems to be everybody has different personalities, even even these people that are interviewing him, some of them just looking for as much dirt and as much and he handles it all very well. You know. He might give him just a little, but he doesn't go overboard. You know. I think he's intelligent, extremely intelligent, and I think he's a He's a natural born leader of men. I mean,

guys grab a tate toward him. I don't I have not heard one person after their first and counal with Joe Burrow say I don't know about that guy. I mean, he sells you. He sells you fast. Appreciate the time, thanks buddy, my pleasure, sir. Anytime that's going to do it for this episode of the podcast. Next week, Lap and I will head to Indianapolis for the Scouting Combine where Joe Burrow, Zach Taylor, and Duke Tobin are all scheduled to speak. On Tuesday, we'll have some good material

and next week's show. And if you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment. Those five star ratings help more Bengals fans find our podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast