Bengals Booth Podcast: Good Vibrations

Higgins or DJ reader. I will talk to the player that Adams selected. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Prime Sport, the official fan, travel and hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. And here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write to your phone, tablet, or computer by some scribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or Podbean. It's the greatest thing since Father's Day. My love of sports came from my dad.

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to this week's guests. Recently, NFL dot com has been posting state of the Franchise stories about every NFL team, and the Bengals version was extremely positive. The title was Bengals trending up with Joe Burrow and I am going to read the second paragraph here goes, It's an exciting

time to be a Bengals fan. This is a team on the rise, potentially heading for unprecedented levels of success, and the Bengals are a proud franchise if they have a history filled with some of the greatest innovators in the game and some of the best who ever played it. The only thing missing is a championship. I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say that a title is within reach this season, but the Bengals are putting together the

building blocks to get there one day. The person who wrote that is Adam Rank, and he joins me on this week's podcast. Adam, your first beer is on me if we ever meet. But in all seriousness, is the optimism you expressed mostly due to Joe Burrow. Well, I gotta be honest with you. I have great editors, apparently because I'm not that eloquent, so I appreciate them and

all the hard work that they do for that. But really, you know, I, you know, is somebody who was a huge fan of Carson Palmer growing up and everything like that. I really follow the Bengals for quite some time. Obviously I follow every team, but this is a time where I look at it and I don't know if it's just because of Joe Burrow and his arrival, but I look at what the Bengals have going on and I

just feel really good about it. And I, you know, and I talk about it in a piece, and I know we can de dive into it a little bit more. But I know it's hard to believe that, you know, just one player can come in and change in an entire organization, but I believe that he can't. And I'm just a huge believer in Joe Burrow, and I love everything that he's bringing to the Bengals, and so if I'm a fan of the team, I would be fired up.

And again, like I said, I don't want to say that you're going to be in the playoffs or you know now that you wouldn't want to be in the plaff, but you know they got the franchise moving in the right direction for the first time what feels like a while we are chatting with Adam Rank from NFL dot com. I only have one quibble with your article. You wrote that the Bengals have had some great quarterbacks, but have never had one who was the dude, a guy that

exerted confidence. I think Boomer Assiasin was actually the epitome of that, and that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about Joe Burrow. I think he's the first guy since Boomer that has what you're talking about. You

know what, I hear what you're saying. I think, yeah, I might have meant a little bit mistaken because you know, you think it back to the super Bowl and pad the forty nine ers on the ropes ropes, excuse me, and if they would have been able to win that one, then, you know, I think that Boomer's career would be looked

at differently. So I would agree with you, and I think I might have might have missed miss spoke, but I was thinking of more of the recent quarterbacks and guys who I really loved it, guys who I thought are good quart like they're great quarterbacks. Like you look at him and you're like, this is a great quarterback. But the example that I used, and this would be lost on anybody who doesn't like wrestling, but there's a difference between a guy like the Rocks and a guy

like Roman Graine. So both are very good, but the Rock is another level. And I have Joe Burrows that kind of player that is on another level. I think that going to LSU and doing everything that he did that really helped him, you know. And if you're at quarterback after there and thinking about going back to college, if you can use college the way Joe Burrow did, because I believe that he walks into the building right now ready to go, and I will agree with you,

he is the best quarterback. He's got the best demeanor, the best swagger, the best confidence of any quarterback since Boomer size. If I apologize to Boomer, a fellow leftie, might I might have missed the boat on that one. Apology accepted on Boomer's behalf. We're talking to Adam Rank from NFL dot com aside from Joe Burrow. What did you think of the Bengals draft? Oh? I loved it.

I you know what, I really love the idea of having a young quarterback and saying, you know, we should do we should surround him with some really good players. It's the opposite approach of what the Packers did, where Aaron Rodgers were like, hey, we've got a great quarterback, let's draft his replacement for three years down the road. So I love when they drafted t Higgins. You know, you know, you're thinking about it. You're just kind of like, Okay,

what are they gonna do here? They're gonna go defense, they could address the secondary, and they brought in Kei Higgins, who to me was a first round talent and a who was not a surprise because there was a lot of good receivers in the draft, but it was, you know, a little bit of a shock that he was still available day two and the Bengals took him and I'm like, you know what, this is what I like. This is what I like to see. They're committed to going out

there and winning and giving. And you know, you look at the receiver room as it is right now, there's some pretty good guys in there. You know, a J Green, assuming he comes back and is healthy and ready to go, and Tyler Boyd has put together back to back thousand yard seasons. We like all it, and take John Ross when he's available, But then you bring in a guy

like te Higgins and I'm like, this is it. They're gonna go out there and they're going to give it a go, and this is what I think the Bengals need to do. So I'm getting fired up just talking about it, and we are getting fired up listening to you talking about it. Adam Rank wrote the Bengal State of the Franchise story on NFL dot Com this past Wednesday. It's a great read. I highly recommend going back and

checking it out if you didn't read it already. Among other things, you've got some great analogies in there, including one where you compared Zach Taylor to TV chef Gordon Ramsey.

Explain why, well, I think that you know, it's one of those things that you notice in television that when there's a successful TV formula where you're having a like Gordon Ramsey goes out and does rest for Kitchen Nightmares, and he goes out there, and then every other networks like, we need our own version, and sometimes they work out,

sometimes they don't. And you know, last year, Jack Taylor, to my conjecture, was hired because of his association with Sean mcveay and that was a selling point and I don't disagree with it, but okay, he was kind of inexperience, but okay, so let's see how this goes. And after one season, I don't think we got a good read on what Zack Taylor is all about. I don't think

it was any fault of his own. There was a lot of things that were going wrong, and I wouldn't pin it on him, but we want to know, like, what is his deal going to be? Like is he going to be the guy who steps up? And you're like, yes, this is a great spinoff. This is better than what Robert Irvine did with his life. I think his was Kitchen Nightmare, And so you want him, You want Zack to take a step up and I again, and I put this at the end of the piece. It's like,

I'm willing to say last year never happened. I would not pulled last year against him anything like that. They've now put together a pretty good deal. There's still some issues on the offensive line and things like that, but I think now that they've given him a pretty good a pretty good template to work with, and now it's

it's up to him to take a step forward. He even admitted I was reading an article on Don Bengel dot com where he was like, we need dudes who have a little bit of an edge, a little bit of a swagger, and even some of the teams with Marvin Lewis had that defensively. I would like to see that on the offensive side, and I think Joe Burrow could do it. And it's up to Zach Taylor right now to kind of harness that. I'm embarrassed to admit that I watched that Robert Irvine show once. Not my

proudest moment. We're visiting with Adam Rank. You can follow. I like Robert Irvin, but yeah, that was a misstep, terrible show. I don't know enough about him other than that show, but that show was awful. You can follow Adam Rank on Twitter at Adam Rank. You pick second year tight end Drew Sample to be the Bengals breakout star this year. Why Drew Well? I believe that it's a position that could flourish for the Bengals when you bring in a lot of guys who stretched the field

and can get after it. Obviously, we just talked about the receivers a moment ago. I do believe that a guy like Drew can make a step forward this year with a young quarterback who's going to target is tight ends underneath. If if the lanes are opened up for him, I think he can make kind of a step forward.

And I know a lot of people were upset last year because it only seems weird when you draft the tight end in the second round and a lot of people are you know, I'm a Bears fan, so they grafted Cole Commit this year and I'm like, oh, this is kind of a tough one to sell. But I do believe, and I watched him at Washington. I think he's he's a good player. I think that's a he's a good blocker. That was his calling card. So Number one he's going to help out of the running game.

You know, we're looking for Joe Mixon to breakout, like really breakout this season, and he's going to help in the running game, but he can also be one of those pass catchers and they need somebody to step up down to Tyler e. Birts down in Jacksonville, So you know he's going to be one of those guys. I don't think he's going to go out there and be the second coming of Robert Kronkowski, but I think he's going to go out there and sneakily to put together

a number of touchdowns. And I know if you're a fantasy player, you'll be upset because you're starting Tyler Boyd or Tee Higgins and they're gonna be like, oh, touchdown, who wasn't too and gonna be Drew Sample and you're gonna be great. Nobody has them on their roster, but whatever. But for Bengal fans, I think they will enjoy him taking that leap forward this year. All right, Adam, you've been doing the state of the franchise stories on every team in the AFC North. Where do you think about

the division as a whole? I have a good division. I think it's gonna be a lot tougher this year. Obviously, with the Steelers getting back Ben Roethlisberger, that's gonna be huge for them. They had a top five defense last year.

They're eight nights with absolutely dreadful play at the quarterback position. Now, if Ben Roethlisberger can return and he doesn't have to be the guy who's throwing for forty five hundred yards, but if he can be a little bit productive, just better than Mason Rudolph level, I think that's a very good team. The Ravens obviously, not only are a good team,

they got better with Kalis Campbell and the Browns. You know, it's unfortunate that they got Kevin Stefanski because I'm sure you guys all enjoyed Freddie Kitchens and what he did. I wanted a lifetime contract for Freddie Kitchens. Oh my gosh, like bring them back him another year. You get rid of them so quickly. Yeah, that's that's the unfortunate thing. So I think for the Bengals that they'll be improvement.

And it's going to be hard to really register because these those other three teams in the division are so good. But I think they're going to come out and I think this division is going to be one of the best in football, that's your question. But I think the Bengals are going to be good. But it's like, oh, if you were in another division, you would have an opportunity to maybe make a little bit of a rhyme. But I think being in the AFC North is going

to be tough. It is challenging, but that's the way it is. You are predicting a victory for the Bengals in Week one against the Chargers, and it was an excellent read. You did a great job of the state of the franchise story. And I don't only say that because it was optimistic. In general, it was very well done, a fun read as well, and I enjoyed it very much. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me appreciate it. Let's do this again sometime and I look

forward to you buying me that there. I'll buy Adam sever role if the Bengals reach the heights that he thinks are possible under Joe Burrow. And just so we have our TV cooking shows straight. Gordon Ramsey did Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares Robert Irvine did restaurant impossible. 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. As we heard in my conversation with Adam Rank, his pick for the Bengals breakout star in twenty twenty, his tight end Drew Sample, the Bengals second round draft pick last year out of the University of Washington. Drew had five catches for thirty yards last year before missing the final seven games of his rookie season with an ankle injury. Now that Tyler Eifford has gone to Jacksonville as a free agent, Drew as likely to play

a much larger role in twenty twenty. And I caught up with a twenty four year old tight end this week, Drew. I saw some footage of you on the local news recently working out at his Cincinnati are A fitness facility. Did you stay here in the off season? Uh? Yeah, I took after after the season, I went home for a little bit. I think it was about two weeks and then we were back here and then we had a few trips. Uh went to Pebble Beach for my

dad's fiftieth birthday. But we've been back since basically the fault before all the coronavirus stuff hit. We were back at the beginning of March and the February, I believe, and we've been We've been here ever since, so it's been nice to kind of have a home base now as a golf lover. How was Pebble Beach? It was amazing, it was It was definitely an awesome experience, and we played pretty much all the major courses down there, and we ended with Pebble and it was It was tough.

It was tough for us, obviously, but it was as gorgeous as advertised, and it was it was awesome. Worth turning fifty for your daddent got I got one birdie, So I was tapping with that. There you go, Drew, and that the TV story that I referenced. You were working out with Sam Hubbard. Have you guys been pushing each other in the off season. Yeah, definitely, we've been working out a black Feet performance. It's kind of it's up in Blue Ash And Sam was the one that

introduced me to Pat who's our trainer. I think last offseason for kind of a after a pah stuff, and I really like everything that he's been about, and it's it's been nice to go to work out with someone like Sam who, like you said, we can really push each other. I think we compliment each other well, like in workouts and stuff, and then obviously on the field going into show a lot of practice and stuff. I think it's a it's a nice competition. It's a good

little rivalry. We are talking to Bengals tight end Drew sample For many of us, Drew the one bright spot during the coronavirus shutdown has been spending more time with our families. Your first child was born last August, you have another one on the way. How has this time been for you and your wife? It's been amazing, Like you know, obviously ups and downs being quarantined, but I think, you know, both of us just tried to make the

best of it. I mean, we were able to have spend so much time with Olivia, and you know, she's grown. She's at the age where she's grown so much. Even though the past like two weeks, you know, she just started crawling about a month ago and now, you know, Nastal standing up. Like, there's just so many different things that you know, probably without the coronavirus, I would have probably missed or at least not been there to see you know, her first time crawling, her first time standing

and things like that. So, you know, definitely just finding the positive things. And as a dad, you know, I was really happy I was able to put him that time and spend time with you know, my wife obviously and Olivia. So it's I think it's been good. Obviously there's a lot of stuff going on in the world, but I think, you know, you just gotta take pausits from it, and it was definitely one of them. It's definitely a good silver lining. Let's go back to last year.

You suffered suffered a high ankle sprain and missed the final seven games of the season. How bad was it and how are you doing now? Um, you know, obviously this was an ideal, you know, getting rolled up on trying to rehab back again of the season, but it just wasn't just wasn't progressing, and so um it was actually, you know, I was I would say I was fully healthy probably you know, a month a month or so after the season. Um, So I was kind of able

to come into this offseason pretty much fully healthy. So give me, gave me a full offseason plus this you know, obviously had a lot of extra time with the coronavirus, and so I feel really good, you know, uh, rehabbed as much as I can, you know, strengthening that type of thing. And so you know, I felt like I've had a really good off season and I'm definitely sadder for this season coming up. We're catching up with du sample. The coaches said, you were really coming on at the

point where you got injured. How did you feel you were doing at that point. I think that's fair. I think I was starting to really adjust to it. Obviously, it's you know, a big jump, um, you know, from college to NFL, and so you know, I was definitely getting more comfortable just seeing things games starting to kind

of slow down a little bit. Um. So, obviously I was pretty bob not being able to play the rest of the year, but you know, I just try to take everything learned last year and put it into this offseason and put it in this season. Um. So you know, whenever we get going, I'm really excited to go out there. And show what I could do. Discussing that college to the NFL jump that you reference, was there anything specific

that was a real eye opener for you? I mean I kind of knew and you know, you you know that that obviously everyone there's no there's no bad players. Everyone was at the top of their level. Um and you know, in the first ten or so games, I mean every week, you know, you play against really good players that you've either grown up watching or you or you've heard of, or you know, just just people that have been in the league for a long time. And um, so you just know, there's no there's no weeks off.

Every game is a battle. Every plays a battle, and that's what's fun about it. You get to compete against the best of the best. And I think that's you know that with the speed of the game, I mean, like just because everyone's so good. I think those are just the main things. And you know, once you kind of there's so much information without learning a new offense, everything that goes into it's you know, it's hard to

just play free. And so um, I felt like I was starting to do that, you know, towards the end and there so I'm excited for I'm excited to get things to go on this year. Have you tweeked anything about your off season prep based on that experience? No?

I mean I think this is an interesting year because everyone says, you know, the best off season is you know, or the hardest off season I should say is after you're a year, because you rookie year, you know, you commea and train everything, and then this is this year has been kind of an interesting challenge because obviously it's longer than normal. We didn't go at protas and so um. You know, I've been working with Sam and Pat and I think we've we've been able to navigate it really well.

So I feel like I haven't had a true, you know, normal off season by NFL standards yet. But this year has been great just because we really stepped back and looked at the details of everything and a lot of a lot of us a lot of time into the things that you know, maybe might get overlooked by some people. So I feel really really happy with the work we put in this off season and I'm excited for the season. We're talking to tight Endrew Sample. A key member of

the group is gone. Is Tyler Eifford left as a free agent, it's likely to mean more snaps for you. Does that affect your mindset going into next season? Um, you know, obviously, losing a good player like that, you know, someone that has been here a long time and did a lot of good things for us is tough. But um, you know, I think we got a lot of good guys in the room, and you know, I'm excited to help contribute in any way can I Obviously I want to come in and I want to play as much

as I can. I want to help this offense. Um. So you know, it's obviously hard. He's been here so long, he's done a lot of things. Um, you know for the organization and being able to watch him work for a year was fun. But now I'm definitely excited just to kind of take that jump and for our room to try and take that next step. Drew, have you enjoyed Team Zoom meetings and do you think they've been productive? Yeah?

For sure. I think I think Zac did a really good job of just kind of keeping everyone together, all the all the coaches and um just really you know, there's you know, there's some days we have a little more fun than others, but obviously overall, you know, we got we got through a lot of installs. You know, we had um, you know, offensive offensive meeting, special teams meetings.

It was really nice to kind of just get back into things, you know, go over the play look, um, you know, new stuff, old stuff, just really refreshing all of it and you know, be able to watch you know, stuff from last year and and just really look at ways to get better. And I think play stay coach Jerry did a great job of making sure everyone was you know, locked in, and so I think, um, you know, I think we just were able to make the best of it, and um, I think it's definitely gonna pay

off come season. And as a veteran or as a returning player, you are done with that this week, correct, Yeah, today it was our last day. So um just you know they're letting us get out really focused on you know, getting football shaped, getting back into things and basically getting ready for camp whenever, whenever that may be. We are catching up with Drew sample Drew his last season wound down, it seemed like a strong possibility that the Bengals would

wind up drafting Joe Burrow, and obviously they did. Did you watch him in the college football playoff games with that in mind, I mean I did obviously, you know, obviously he was a great player, and you know, we we a lot of people to talk about that. So but I have definitely watched a couple of games, and you know, seeing the type of player that he is, and um, just to kind of mindset and everything that he had in his zoom meets and everything is has

been fun to watch. So, you know, I haven't actually met him out, but I'm excited to meet him. And uh, you know, I know he's he's putting a lot of work in this offseason two, so we're we're hopefully going to start building something special here. Did anything stand out when you watched him in those games at the end of the year. I think it's just poise and you know, stay calm. I mean, he made a lot of plays off script plays. He made a lot of great throws.

I think, um, you know, as a quarterback, being able to make the right throws, get out, you know, get out of things and make plays. I think that's I think that's really all you can ask a lot of quarterbacks in the league. You see it with a lot of the top guys just to be able to make plays, and I think that's something that he was able to do and big reason why they had such good season. So you're getting ready for a year number two? Do you feel like you have anything to prove in year two?

You know, for me, I just always feel like I just want to go out and and play my game and show people the type of player that I know I am. Um, you know, I don't think necessarily I mean you always, I just think I want to play for the team. You know, obviously we didn't have a great season last year, and so I know all the guys in our room, in our offense, just on our team want to, you know, show everyone that that we

didn't you know, put our best foot forward. And so I think guys are really excited to go out and show show the type of players we are and show the type of team we are. This year, you weren't able to have OTAs or mini camps, but training camp at least for now, seems to be on schedule. How confident are you that everything is going to proceed on schedule or close to it in the fall? Um, you know, I can't really I can't really say I really hope.

So you know obviously, um, you know, as sports to slowly started to come back, he realized when there are done, how big of you know, even for me, you just watched another sports and everything when there's nothing, it's it's it's kind of hard. So, um, you know, I know we just want to get back. You know, we want to play a season obviously, and you know, hopefully they you know, come out with the guidelines and we'll be able to follow that because I know guys, you know,

I know guys want to play it. But also you know, you have to be safe with everything going on, so you know, I know the PA and stuff won't won't agree to anything that doesn't you know, protect us as players. You know, every wants to flip football. So whatever that looks like this year, hopefully hopefully this happened and what it does, I know we're exciting about it. Sounds good to me. Good to hear that your ankle is back to normal. Congratulations again on that second baby on the way,

and I appreciate your time. Look forward to seeing you when that's allowed again. Awesome. Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. Thank you. I thanks to Adam Rank and Drew Sample 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 Booth Podcast.