Hi, get everybody on dan Hoard, and thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth podcast. The we could be good to get the addition as we hear from Mike Brown, Zach Taylor, Dan Pitcher, lou Anarumo, and Darren Simmons on six of the most important questions facing the Bengals when training Camp
gets underway on Wednesday. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by pay Core, Proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber, future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare
provider of the Bengals. Now 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 wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since mock Turtle Soup. The Bengals held their annual pre training camp media luncheon on Monday, an event that is affectionately known
as the Turtle Soup Luncheon among veteran Cincinnati reporters. That's because since the early days of the franchise, when team founder Paul Brown presided over the festivities at the downtown Queen City Club, the appetizer has always, and I mean always been mock turtle soup. If you've never had it, there's no turtle meat. The key ingredients are ground beef, veal, ketchup eggs, Worcester sauce, and lemon. It apparently used to be popular at Cincinnati's many German saloons in the early
nineteen hundreds. Would I order it in a restaurant, doubtful, But I happily consume a small cup every July, knowing that it means the football season is right around the corner. Now time to look at some key topics that were discussed at this year's luncheon. When training camp begins on Wednesday, I'll be sharing my five observations on Twitter or x if you prefer, at the end of every practice. In the same spirit, here are what I consider to be
six important questions facing the Bengals at training camp. Number one, the status of Joe Burrow. Zach Taylor told reporters on Monday that Burrow is fully cleared for contact, as he returns from risk surgery. As I've said many times in recent months, I did not see a discernible difference in Joe's throws when I watched him in off season practices. Today I asked team president Mike Brown for his opinion. When you watched Joe Burrow this spring? Did he look the same? Everything look normal?
I thought he looked up to speed, He was at the tail end of his reham him under wraps, they be in their trainers. They made sure he was spaced with how much he threw. Didn't ever try to overload him. From what I saw, he threw the ball with zip, with accuracy. He had distance when he needed it. He moved well. He looked tuned up and ready to go.
Joe has stated publicly that he has learned from previous injuries that if he's feeling some discomfort, it's okay to take a day off, But the coaching staff plans to be proactive building days off into Joe's schedule to essentially protect him from himself. Here's Zach Taylor on Burrough's status heading into camp.
How much is Joe starting to look like Joe again? I've only seen him physically walking down a Hallway. So I haven't seen him throw yet, but you know, everything everything has looked great, and so excited to get him back out there in the field new training camp. I know he's excited to go. Physically, he looks great.
Zach added one surprising nugget at the media lunge and saying that he expects Burrow and the other offensive starters to play in the preseason. Joe has played a total of three preseason snaps in his NFL career, and that leads to topic number two, figuring out a way to get off to a better start. In Zach Taylor's five seasons, the Bengals have started oh and two, oh and two, one and one, oh and two, and oh and two. In fairness to Zach, Burrow's health has been a big factor.
But there will clearly be an emphasis at this camp on being ready to win in Week one. Here are defensive coordinator lou Anroumo and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher.
I just think we're we're aware of it, you know, and I think you know coming out of the gates fast. That's been an emphasis and will be an emphasis throughout camp that. You know, Zach's already talked about but nobody wants to start behind the eight ball, that's for sure, and we're looking forward to getting off to a quick start.
It's all what you emphasize every single day, and attacking teams start fast, they stay fast, and they finish fast, and that's who we want to be. So, you know, can I sit here and say we're doing A, B and C differently because we want to make sure we win the first game of the year.
Well, we all.
Every year we prepare to win the first game of the year. But I do think it's okay to sit there and say, how do we make sure we are checking every box we need to check? So when we step on the field here week one, there's nothing that we haven't done that would help us win that game. So yeah, we think about it, we talk about it, and it's important for us to start fast.
Actions speak louder than words. And for the first time in their history, the Bengals will hold two joint practices in Chicago before their second preseason game and at home against the Colts before their third.
But you choose to do two joint practices just the way it played out. Really, the Colts was the one that we had targeted early in the offseason to make sure we played them in a preseason game. Shane and I go way back, let's practice together.
It's local.
And then we just coincidentally were playing the Bears, and so Matt reached out and asked if we want to do a joint practice, and I was open to it. We haven't done one on the road since I've been here. I think it's a great opportunity, not only to practice again against what I think is a really good football team, but also the team bonding aspect of things. You know, where the stress isn't as high as it gets during the season, you get a chance to go on the
road for three days. Guys get to go out to dinner together, spend time together. I think it's the right opportunity for our team at.
The right time.
Joint practices are intense and competitive and should help the team be battle ready for September. Topic number three, no drama despite no deals. It's no secret the t Higgins and Trey Hendrickson we're disappointed not to receive contract extensions in the offseason. But while the national media speculated about the two of them possibly being trained in camp, holdouts t and Trey are expected to be on the field
for Day one. Unlike Jesse Bates, who waited until late in camp to sign his franchise tag a couple of years ago, Te put pen to paper last month. Here are Zach Taylor and Dan Pitcher.
Te's character has shown brightly the four years he's been here. He's everything we hoped we were getting when I drafted him at A Clemson. He has handled a difficult situation perfectly in my opinion, you know, And so again it's there's a business side of things, and you had eight and you got to follow all that stuff. And for him to sign it when he did and say I'm showing up day one a training camp rated work so we can do great things as a team. Very appreciate
of that. And again, I know he handled a very difficult decision as well as he could have.
There's no bigger t Higgins fan than me. I've seen what he's done for this team, this organization and some of the most critical moments and some of the greatest successes that we've had during Zach's tenure. So super excited to have him back. I think he's a hu huge part of this team. I think his energy, the way he practices, the way he carries himself. I think guy's feet off of that, and so very happy that we get a chance to work with him through training him.
As for Hendrickson, he's coming off of seventeen and a half sacks season and is under contract for this year and next. Here's Ana Rumo.
He's had a great offseason. Like a lot of our guys, he's probably if you ask, you'll have to ask him, but to me, might be in the best shape of his life. Just had a baby here recently. I'll let him tell you that. But he's a great player.
Trey is among the best pass rushers on the planet. The hope at camp is that Sam Hubbard, Miles Murphy, Joseph Osai, Sheldon Rankins and others will give the Bengals
several defensive linemen that can get after the quarterback. Before we get to the next topic, here's a quick reminder that the Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by pay Corps, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider by Alta Fiber future Proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level and by Kettering Health, the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.
Now onto training camp. Topic number four the future of Dax Hill. When he was drafted in the first round in twenty twenty two, Dax was expected to be Bates' long term replacement at safety, but that didn't work out as planned, and now Hill will go to training camp working with cornerbacks coach Chuck Burks as he battles with DJ Turner to start at outside corner, a position he didn't really play at Michigan. Here are Ana Arumo and Taylor Well.
I think he's got traits that some of the best that have ever done it have. And then when I say that, I mean length, speed, athleticism. You know, if you're going to draw up an outside corner he had. He hits all the check marks on them on the dimensions. Now going to do it playing and play out as you know, as you said, he played slot corner in at Michigan. But you know, I'm really anxious to see
him do it, and he's embraced it. He's a great, great guy and wants to do well, and so we're excited to see him.
How do we help him reach his full potential? Because he got a really high level talent that we took in the first round that we're excited, we were excited about we took him, we're excited about now and and I know Chuck's really excited to work with him, get his hands on him. I'm sure there's a growing and a learning process out there, but he's got the skill set to do it. He's got the mental makeup to
do it. So I'm excited to get him, get him on the field, and get him work in this this training camp, see what he can do there.
Cornerbacks are susceptible to injury, and depth at the position is critical. The Bengals have talented young players and Cam Taylor, Britt Hill, Turner, draft pick Josh Newton, Alan Jorge and others, but the play of that group will certainly be a key thing to watch at training camp. For topic number five, we go back to the offense and consider how it might look different this year under a new offensive coordinator.
Following Burrow's wrist injury in mid November, Jake Browning kept the Bengals in playoff contention and also provided a glimpse for how the offense might evolve going forward. There were more snaps with a quarterback under center, there were more play action passes. Here's pitcher is having a more diverse
offense one of your objectives. I think any time that the defense is standing there trying to analyze what you presented formationally and from a motion standpoint, and there's a whole multitude of things that you've shown that you can do out of that that makes life hard on the defense. So that's always one of our goals.
And how that plays itself out, I think changes from week to week and a pint to opponent. And the important part this time of year is establishing a really good basis and a library that you can pull from so that when you get in those situations you have diversity within your personnel groups and your formation families and things of that nature. So yeah, it's really important.
The less time Joe spoke to us, and I'm going to paraphrase what he said, he said, we're going to be more attacking that you're what We're going to dictate more to the defense.
What we want to do.
How is an offensive coortin do you go about making those changes? To implement this thought.
Sure, I mean I think there's there's a handful of things that come to mind. I'm not going to detail them all. Not that anything that we haven't discovered, any secret sauce that no one else in football has discovered. I mean, this is this game has been played for a long time and a lot of really smart people. I think, first and foremost, it's a mentality, and it's something that we talk about and we don't just talk about it once. We talk about it all the time.
And so there are things you can do schematic you know, the speed you play at, the how you know how you use motion, how you choose to attack the field vertically in the passing game. There's all different things you can do to be more attacking. But but first and foremost it's about what's between the player's ears and knowing that they have the freedom to go attack and that they're not necessarily going to be second guests here and there.
We're always going to coach them, but there has to be a freedom there to to be an attacking player with an attacking mindset.
And how much effort or striving is there though still in today's game among teams to find the next secret, if you will, to come up with the next way that this game is going to develop. It never has before.
Yeah, I mean, it's what I've been doing for the last you know, six months, basically since the season ended. And you approach it from the standpoint of it is like, I'm not going to discover anything necessarily proprietary, but I need to know what's playing in the league. I need to know what's working and what isn't and how to is that maybe match what we have from a personnel standpoint.
So I think guys across the league are constantly trying to discover you know, you know, one little wrinkle maybe turns into a bigger wrinkle, turns into maybe some new form of scheme that has been run before, but now somebody's doing a little bit differently, and hey, maybe that fits us, or maybe you know what's good for them, but it's not good for us. But you got to do the research to be able to make that decision.
Dan Pitcher strikes me as being very Burrow like in being laser focused on football. I'm excited to watch practice to see how he'll employed Jamar Chase t Higgins, Jermaine Burton, Mike Gaziki, Zach Moss, Chase Brown, and the Bengals other offensive weapons. Finally, we get to training camp topic number six and perhaps the most obvious roster battle this year, the punt off between Brad Robbins and rookie Austin McNamara. Robbins had an inconsistent rookie year after being drafted in
the sixth round out of Michigan. McNamara had great college that to Texas Tech, but was not selected in this year's draft. I asked Darren Simmons if the experienced Robbins heads into camp as the quote unquote favorite, or if it's a wide open competition.
I think it's wide open, but I mean somebody has to take the first rep, you know, of the first day, and that'll be Brad. You know it's because he's thencome a guy and he deserves that. I mean, he's done this for a year. But he also knows that I told him that when he left. You know, after season's over, there'll be somebody here. They'll be competition. It's not your job. You have to go earn it again. And just like he did a year ago when Drew was here. So
Brad'll trot out there first. I'm excited to see both guys. I really like the things that Brad did. We identified a bunch of things throughout the off season that we need to see from him differently than what they were a year doing. I think he's done that. I think he's addressed that. He's also really excited. I think he's he's really excited right now too, you know. I think he also feels like he made pretty good progression from the time he left in June until now. I think
he's He's worked on a couple of different kicks. I think he's bulked up physically. He's a little bigger, he's a little stronger. So all good things, all positive things. There's a lot also positive things that Austin does well too, you know. I mean, he had a very good college career. He's very advanced in terms of his understanding about that position, about the punning position, in terms of technique and what
we want from him. He's a good kid too. So I'm really excited to see where these two guys go. But I mean, the guy's going to try out there first as bread.
So those are six important topics heading into camp. But I want to share one more thing from Monday's mock turtle soup luncheon. Last year, Joe Burrow injured his calf on the second day of camp, then aggravated that injury in Week two of the season against Baltimore. It was unclear heading into Week three if Joe would be able
to play on Monday Night Football against the Rams. Before the Friday practice of that week, Mike Brown drove out onto the field while the team was stretching, picked up Burrow and a golf cart, drove around in a circle as they spoke, and then dropped Joe back off with his teammates. My assumption at the time was that Mike told his quarterback to be smart and not to play unless he was close to one hundred percent. On Monday, we got Mike's side of the story.
I try to stay away enough that I don't get in the way. I don't want to be a problem for the coaches on that particular In that particular moment, I overstepped and did a dumb thing. I was convinced he shouldn't play, and he looked like he wanted to play in that game, and I went out there to tell him he wasn't going to play. I was going to make sure he wasn't going to play. Whereupon he played, and so that's all that happened. I felt still feel a little bit shamefaced about it.
What is your relationship like with Joe in general?
I respect him, I like his family. I don't want to be his best buddy. I don't think that's proper, but I admire how he handles himself. For me, he's one of the great players that I've had the chance to watch, and I enjoy watching him do what he does.
Here's hoping that Mike gets to watch a healthy Burrow for seventeen games and beyond in twenty twenty four. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, brought to you by pay Corps, Proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business, and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is
the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating, or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast