Bengals Booth Podcast: Gotta Look Sharp

his eye over the past few weeks. One of the Bengals draft picks that is expected to play a significant role as a rookie is second rounder Drew Sample, the tight end out of Washington. We'll hear from thirty four year old James Casey, the Bengals new tight ends coach, on why he is excited to have Sample on the roster. And in this week's fun Facts interview, I'll talk to Bengals quarterbacks coach Alex van Pelt about a wide variety of topics, ranging from breaking Dan Marino's passing records at

pitt to singing on stage with Hank Williams Junior. All of that is 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 invention since the snape mousetrap. In the late eighteen hundreds, Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said, quote, build a better mousetrap in the world will beat a path

to your door. I don't know what the path to the door looks like at the Canness Company, but I've become a fan of the snappy mouse trap. Unlike the traditional old wooden trap, they're easy to set, with virtually no chance of catching your own finger, and the reusable so if you need to take care of a mouse or mice, you can learn more at Kenes dot com. That's k n e SS. Now, let's get to football as I bring in my broadcast partner Dave Lapham lap Tuesday's practice was a fun one to watch for a

few reasons. Number one, the weather conditions could not have been better, which is always nice. But secondly, they did some stuff that was designed to be competitive between offense and defense. They did kind of a no huddle two minute drill type of thing, except they put one fifteen on the clock instead of two minutes. They did more red zone like they did last week, and then they ended practice by having the offense try to drive out from deep from their own territory, and it seemed like

both sides are kind of keeping score. Yeah, they were into it and situational football, but it was it was competitive, and of course the defense was complaining that the offensive warning end. The head coach was given first downs when he shouldn't have. And they had officials out there as well, so you know, zach z I could have the officials a few times. I mean, the coaches were into it, the players weren't it. I thought it was. It was great. It was fun to watch, and you'll hear around the

league how competitive some of these practices good. You know, guys tell me how down in New Orleans with Drew brees Man, it's like game day on Wednesday, Tom Brady, same thing. I mean, he and Teddy Bruski. It was legendary offense defense competing, you know, and so that that just raises the bar and raises the whole ship. You know, when it comes to game day on Sunday, the idea

is to make make game day almost easy. It's almost like a little break because you work so hard and so competitively on your big work days that you know Sunday rolls around and it's like it's all going to fall into place and it's going to be not a walk in the park, but it'll be an easier, easier dynamic for you. The other thing that's actually doing a lot of coaches have done over the years. You know that I've been associated with football, and Paul Gunther did

this most recently. He's calling players up to the grease board and having them design, you know, entire offensive plays now. And the idea is not just tunnel vision what I'm doing, but no, the whole package of the play. Everybody's assignment. So you'll understand why you're doing it and when you're gonna be doing certain things and not just I'm doing this no matter what. And and defense is making adjustments

and you have to maybe make other calls. You understand why you're making those calls because it normally affects what you're doing. You understand that it's going to affect things on both sides of you. And so the mental aspect of it and comprehending the entire big picture, not just a little picture. It's gonna, I think, pay big dividends to the football team on all phases of it. These OTAs are voluntary. Cordy Glenn was not in attendance on Tuesday. Additionally,

John Ross didn't practice. He was on a stationary bike. Early in the practice. Trey Hopkins stepped in as the starting left guard, and Alex Rickson had a huge day, partly because he was getting a lot of those snaps that John Ross would normally get. Alex Erkson made a bunch of players, a bunch of back shoulder catches. I mean, dude, We've talked about it so many times. He's just a football player. But let's start with a couple of guys,

you know, in those positions. And the fans obviously know Alex Rikson what he's about and he's made big contributions. But Trey Hopkins, he was playing really well, you know. And then the guy that I think this coaching staff has him at left guard and Cordy Glen's absence because this guy is so smart and being intelligent allows him to play both guards, center or either tackle. So I think the fact that the coaches feel so comfortable with

him understanding the offense. You know, he get plugged in at that left guard position and everybody knows, you know what he did. You know when Billy Price was injured and he stepped in in center position and played well. I mean it's almost like, wow, this might be his best position. So one thing that coaches I remember Paul Brown saying, when you know, I remember after a couple of drafts, coach, why do we take this guy in the third round because he's smart. David cannot have enough

good smart football players. They don't have to be all pro superstars physically, but I want guys that knowing what the hell they're doing. And that's Trey Hopkins. You know, he's not going to wow you with you know, Hall of Fame type strength or whatever as an offensive lineman. But the dude is very, very good and extremely intelligent. So I think Trey Hawkins deserves some kudos. And let's hit the receiver position. While you mentioned that, Dan, you know,

Ericson is what he is. I mean, he's he's big time. I think in terms of always overachieving. You know, you never worry about Alex Rixon not giving you one and ten percent as the saying goes. But Stanley Morgan's impressed me. I think he's the best of the of the guys. You know, they didn't it didn't work out. I think if they had drafted a receiver second or third round, they probably would have gotten a receiver, but as it gotten to later rounds, they didn't have one high enough

in their board to make that selection. Stanley Morgan they signed as a free agent. And the reason that he was available as a free agent. He doesn't have a world class speed. He's not going to be a guy whoa look at the physical abilities of this guy. But he's another one that's very intelligent. He's got a position versatility. Already,

they're playing him in a bunch of different positions. All time leading receiver at Nebraska, and people own you know, they run the ball, but they've been throwing the ball here lately, and he's he's the best they've had there. And Zach Taylor, you know, trust at those coaches in the contacts he has at that school. And and this kid, you know, was highly recommended and you look at him on tape. He runs great routes. He understands we're in zones to you know, settle into his own and get

open for the quarterback or run through his zone. And you know, if you have to get open for the quarterback, Hander stands all those concepts. So I'm impressed with Stanley Morgan. I think he's got a better than even chance to make the football team. I really do. When you talked about Paul Brown drafting smart guys back in the day, it made me think of a story I read sometime in the last two or three weeks in the Boston Globe about how much of a premium Bill Belichick puts

on drafting and or acquiring smart guys. And you look at it, Dan, look at the position versatility he's had with different guys. You know, Mike Vrabel defensive end, linebacker, tight end offensively. You know, he's kind of like the Sam Hubbard of the of the Patriots. So there's there's Littney, and there's a long long list of guys that in the way Bill Belichick approaches a game almost on a

series by series basis. They may change, they may change everything, and if you don't have guys that can do it, you have to you have to quote dumb it down to your dumbest guy on the field. So if you have five guys that understand calculus but six to don't, you're not gonna be able to, you know, have that sophisticated a game plan. But if they all understand calculus, now you got something, you got something special, and you're head of the game. Because it's like, oh my gosh,

they're morphing into this. Now they're doing that. How many things are they going to do? You have to have someone television to be able to do that. Zach Taylor can certainly speak to that based on the Super Bowl last year where Bill Belichick went into the game saying, we are not going to give up the play action deep ball and played a defense that basically they had not played during the regular season or first few rounds of the playoffs. Yeah, I mean they were a man team.

You know, they played like seventy five eighty percent man. They played seventy five eighty percent zone in the Super Bowl, and they basically said, you know, the two weeks of preparation that week you had out in the West Coast, the week you had in Atlanta, yea scrub that you guys are gonna have to adjust because we're not doing that. We're not. We're not showing you anything that you can

take advantage of with those big chunk plays. All right, let's talk about some other guys that maybe are a little bit under the radar that caught your eye had practice today. I know one of them was one of last year's draft picks who got hurt, defensive lineman Andrew Brown. Yeah. Dan, you look at him physically, he's got what it takes to play in the league. I'm not saying, you know, a perennial Pro Bowl guy, but he's got some heavy hands,

some explosiveness. When you see him go through bag drills, he pops those bad boys. And he's got I mean, he was the best high school player in the state of Virginia. You know, people like, oh, yeah, well boy, there were a bunch of powerhouses of Virginia. But this kid, this kid was a really good player and he had a lot of big time offers stated Virginia. And I think he's got the skill set physically. Now is he

gonna be able to put it all together? He's kind of a tweener, you know when you when you look at him. He's listed at sixty three, two hundred and ninety six pounds. Is that big enough to play defensive tackle? Is it perfect? You know, dimensions for defensive end, But all I know is physically he's got some capabilities. And to be interested if you could take that next step mentally and uh and understand everything that the lou and Aruma is putting in out there, because that defense is

looking pretty good. I mean, they're not playing softcover too anymore and letting people free released off the line of scrimmage. They're getting after them, they're blitzing, they're getting after the quarterback, and they're playing tight coverage. They're getting up their pressing people, and it looks it looks pretty good. I felt overall

the defense won the day. The offense had their moments and had plays in today's workout, but on a snap by snap basis, if you evaluate it as an impartial evaluator, you don't have to give the nod to the defense. I thought that was especially true in the no huddle two minute drill. Again they actually put one fifteen on the clock, but in that portion of the practice, I thought the defense really shown. I agree, Dan, I mean, I think they're well put together. I think I think

the scheme is very sound. And the players are really responded to it. I think I think they appreciate that. You know, again, it's not you don't have to study volumes and volumes of an encyclopedia, you know, and have three answers for everything, and that they do this you. But I have another answer for that. It's like, you know this, this whole game is you either punch or CounterPunch. You don't want to always be CounterPunch and everything the offense does to you. You want to just have a

few things and make them CounterPunch. And I think that's the track that the defense is on. We mentioned that Hopkins stepped in as the starting left guard or the number one left guard, with Cordy Glen not in attendance today and Clint Bowling still on the rehab field. But Christian Westerman also cut your eye today. Yeah. I mean, I think physically he's got it all. I mean, he is a thumper now, He's very very strong, he has a good pad level. He bends at the hips and

not at the at the knees. He's not a knee bender. And when he strikes you, you're struck. The thing is, again, it's hard to deal with it. If he's only got forty percent of it of it, you have to have at least seventy five eighty percent of it, you know, from mental standpoint at this stage, or the coach's lose confidence. I mean, coaches want laid on the line with guys that they feel like you're going to be able to

get it. Doesn't matter how big, strong and powerful you are if you're blocking the wrong guy or going the wrong way. So he just has to keep working on that part of his game. And again, you know, feeling is that's why Trey Hawkins is probably not as physical, physically talented as Westerman, but mentally he's way ahead of

the game on him. We've mentioned on previous podcasts that it's almost an all star team on the rehab field right now with guys like AJ Green, Tyler Eiford, etc. We're keeping an eye on Carl Lawson and Ryan Glasgow today and both of those guys look like they're moving really well as they look to come back from their injuries.

I agree, you know, I think it's probably not going to be right at the beginning of training camp, but at some point maybe to play in that third preseason game where you know you're gonna be taking snaps with with pretty good players for a good periody of the game that can roll a lot of guys in there when they're still guys are going to be NFL players on the field, So you might target that preseason game number three is when some of those guys are gonna

maybe maybe hit it and really test it. And that's the thing. You can you can feel really good on the rehab field and you know, but I remember when I just had scopes to my knee. You know, it's like, mentally, you have to hit, hit the ground, get caught in a pile, something has to happen. Where is it really okay? And once you get past that little stage of it, that little block, once you know you go live contact and and you fit the battlefield and you come out unscathed.

Now you're cooking with gas. So I do think that getting snaps in the preseason for both of those guys, at some point it's going to be, you know, a paramount to get done. But I'm not sure it's going to be in the first couple of weeks. Any other under the radar type guys catch your eye today, Well, you know, you look at the tight end position, Dan Um. You know Sethan Carter I thought was playing really well and he had the shoulder injury. Yeah, I like that guy.

I think he can block at the inn line of scrimmage. I think he can catch the football. Jordan Franks last year. I mean the thing about Jordan Franks im that little wheel route that he ran after the fake. He motioned across the backfield and he caught a ball down the football field. When you have a tight end that can run and you have that size speed ratio advantage, you know, Jordan Franks will he'd be able to take another step.

So I'm basically trying to, you know, hit guys at at almost every position group that maybe we haven't talked about it a lot, and the fans haven't really heard about a lot, but you know, they may make the jump from one year to the next. And let's go to the linebacker position. Dan. You know, with Jermaine Pratt having the hamstring injury that slowed him a little bit, Deshan Davis has gotten a lot of snaps and I

like him. I can see why you know, the guys were people were fearful maybe a little bit because he's not a real big guy, but man, he carries a lot of weight in that lower body and he plays with a very low pad level. And he's smart. I mean, you know he can call sing those for you. He understands the defense, he flies around the football, he's he's

a playmaker. He's a productive guy. So you know, I think I think he's gonna he's gonna be a factor, you know, on the football team as well in the secondary. Trayvon Henderson, remember how well he was playing before he has his knee injury. You look at that dude's legs. I mean he's stout. Now he's put together, you know, Trayvon Henderson come back and can he compete at the level he was competing at it maybe even more and at the safety position. So I mean there's there's a

lot of guys to keep an eye on. There's no question about it. Ryan Finley, I think is at the quarterback spot, is starting to you know, understand things a little bit better and he's making plays both in and out of the pocket. I think he's getting a lot more comfortable and a lot more confident. And you can see why he was drafted, you know, in the fourth round. So there's there's quite a few guys to keep track of during the course of this, uh, this thing for sure.

Last thing. We are in the tunnel of Paul Brown Stadium, kind of in between the Bengals locker room and the entrance to the playing field. Several golf carts have gone rolling by. Mike Brown moments ago went buying a golf cart. Do we need to have some of these people teach you how to drive a golf cart? Lap? The man unbelievable. Dan.

I tried to, Uh, I tried to pass on a cart path that was too narrow and front wheel, front right wheel went off the cart path and it was just a total downhill, like forty five degree decline, and I was, I'm not gonna be able to keep this up there the second the back wheel went off and I was like, oh, it's like slow motion. Start to I rolled. It rolled a bad boy, but a little bit of a hip issue, a little hitching to get along with the hip, but just a little scratch on

the arm and the cart. The carts survived because I used it in the afternoon round as well. But man, I'm retiring from evil Knieval with the golf carts. Next time we golf, I'm driving pack got you, I got your coach. Thankfully, Lap wasn't hurt and that wasn't the only good news to come out of the golf tournament he co hosts with former teammate and roommate Ken Anderson.

This year's event raised more than two hundred thousand dollars for the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati and the Ken Anderson Alliance, which provides opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities. Kudos to two of the all time great Bengals and people for continuing to make a difference in the community

well after their playing careers. When the Bengals drafted tight end Drew Sample in the second round this year, number fifty two overall, after moving back ten spots to pick up extra fourth and sixth round picks from Denver, some of the draft guru suggested that he would have been available later. We'll never know, but if Ota practices are

any indication, Sample will help the Bengals right away. He was considered to be the best blocking tight end in the draft and he's caught everything thrown his way in the practices that have been open to the media. The Bengals have a new tight ends coach this year in James Casey. He spent seven years playing in the NFL and was still active as recently as twenty fifteen. I spoke to Casey about the addition of Drew Sample you played the position, Tell me what you like about this guy.

He's he's got great, great technique, great feet, great bass. About how he's blocking him, he's you know, you watch a lot of these college guys and it's I think

it's rare, and I'm not, you know, extremely experienced. I haven't doing it for twenty years, But when I watched all the guys that are coming out this year, he was one guy that just stood out to me as being like a sound football player with a really good technique that you don't you don't feel like you got to come in or like teach him and coach him

up on a whole bunch of different things. You can more to like jump into it and get him learned the scheme and kind of of course you're gonna try to get him better on some of the techniques and get him more physical and all those things. But he was he was a polished player and who played with great effort and great technique, and that's what you're looking for our tight ends. We're looking for smart guys, and he's extremely intelligent. We're looking for tough guys. He's a

really tough guy. He's playing a lot of football, and then we're looking for guys that got really quick feet, so because we're gonna do a lot of lateral stuff with our offense, and he fits all those molds. Were kind of interaction did you have with him personally? I got to you know, really most of us at the combine, and once we left the combine, everybody knew we loved him. We got to, you know, set in the meeting. You know, we kind of had like a form meeting with him

with the whole staff, and he was extremely intelligent. One of the most impressive guys that I've been around as far as like his intelligence and asking the questions. It was almost like I could just see him. I don't know if he wants to do this in the future, but even as young as he is, I could seem wanting to be a coach one day. He was you know, any question you're asking about the offense that they run at Washington, he knew everything about it, and he knew

what everybody was doing. He knew how to articulated. He was confident. He was a bright eyed guy. He wasn't low energy at all. He was I like the guys in our locker room. We're gonna love him. He's gonna fit in our our group really well, because we already got a lot of really good tight ends and a lot of great guys in our room, and it's great

to add another great guy. So you know, he's just gonna fit in right away and there's gonna be no issues in our room about you know, any kind of bad people or guys that aren't loving football like he's gonna. He was very, very impressive, and of course you probably

could tell me how I'm talking. I'm I'm tremly excited, and especially early on just getting started coaching here, like to get a guy I can get as a young guy and kind of get him, you know, kind of put my stamp on him and help him develop with the trade down of ten spots where you kind of fighting your nails hoping it would still be there at

fifty two. I was I was very nervous about it, knowing that we had that we had him ready high and then uh And you know, as you travel around, you go to all the pro days, and you go to the combine, and you talk to other other tight end coaches you know, around around the league. You get you get a sense of how certain guys feel about certain guys, how they talk to him. And you know, I have no doubt that a lot of tight end coaches and a lot of teams around the NFL had

this guy ready really high. And I know media wise he might not have been like the top tight end guy. But the guys that watched the ball and watched the film, I think everybody that did that know that this guy's a really good player. And time time's gotta tell you gotta come in here. It's gotta go and work and go prove it. And to me as a coach, I tell those guys, you know, you gotta you gotta make an undeniable. You know, you gotta go out there and

practice so hard that it's on deniable. How good Jarling, we gotta, we gotta put you on the field, and you got to you got to be so good they can't annoy you. Basically, you know, you know, guys to tell my guys in my room, Like, you got to be so good that they can't annoy you, that they have to put you on the field and you have to go. You're gonna produce this because how will you

practice and how will you compete? If Tyler Eiffort can stay healthy, the trio of Effort, cj Uzama, and Drew Sample would give the Bengals a formidable tight end group. Now time for this week's fun Facts interview, as we get to know a second year member of the Bengals coaching staff who's had quite a history as a player and coach. Time for some fun facts with Bengals quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt, a native of Pittsburgh, a former star with the Pittsburgh Panthers. But you played high school

football in Texas. Correct describe how that came about? Yeah, that was awkward. I kind of My parents had divorced early on, and I was living with my dad in a small town in West Virginia and I had started there for three years. Through my junior year, I happen to have a best friend that was a senior who was a way better athlete than I was, better football, basketball, baseball player, and he did not get recruited at all, and it kind of woke me up a little bit.

So my mom had moved to San Antonio, Texas, and there was a situation where they didn't have a starting quarterback returning. So I took a chance and transferred halfway through my junior year and ended up starting my senior year of high school football down there and got a scholarship back to Pittsburgh. So those are pre internet days. How did you even find out that there was a

high school there that needed a QB? Well, my mom was kind of pulling strings talking to the coach, just getting a feel for what the situation would be and if it was something that would interest me. And I was concerned if I didn't maybe move on to a bigger area, I wouldn't have a chance to play in college. And rolled the dice and it worked out for the best. Doing fun facts with Alex van Pelt, it certainly did.

You came back home to the Pittsburgh area wound up playing for pitt as I mentioned, started for four years. It must have been crazy to start as a true freshman at a place like pitt Yeah, it was interesting. I had a couple of backs that were ahead of me on the depth chart that I wanted transferred and one didn't make great. So all of a sudden, I came into the spring as a starter, and that was when Paul Hackett came in as the offensive chord dator.

And you know, he and I really we meshed for those four years and I learned a lot of football from him and know him a lot. He's really a coaching mentor to me still to this day. Pitts had some great quarterbacks, first and foremost Dan Marino, but when you look in the all time record book, the all time leader in passing yards is Alex Van Pelt. Yeah. I think I threw it about five thousand more times than he did, so I think the average it may not have averaged out as high. But yeah, that's one

I'm pretty proud of. And I teased Dan when I see him. So after starting for four years at pitt you were drafted by the Steelers in nineteen ninety three and went to training camp with Pittsburgh under Bill Kauer. What was it like to be drafted by your hometown team. It was great, It really was. A family was excited. My wife from Pittsburgh and her family as well, so we were excited for the opportunity to stay in town.

Didn't make the most of the opportunity. He's though. I didn't make it through camp, but got cut at camp and sat out that year until midway through the season, and I ended up going Paul Hackett had left at the time to Kansas City as their offensive coordinator, and Joe Montana pulls a hamstring, so I knew the system. So I got the call. I got to go out and dress for three games, and then when he was healthy, I was released and then resigned again the next year.

What stands out about even being around Joe Montana, I'd say the biggest thing is his note taking. By far, I mean that guy. It didn't matter how many times you installed a base concept that he's heard for fifteen years. He would write down every detail on the paper. And that struck me. If he's doing it, I better do it. So I still to this day. I have a little quote up here. You know, you can't see it, but that's all. The story is all about that and Joe

taking notes. So that's the biggest thing I took from Joe. We're doing fun facts with Alex Van Pelt. He was not the only Hall of Fame quarterback you are around because you spent most of your NFL career with the Buffalo Bills, and early in your tenure there, it was the final couple of seasons of Jim Kelly's NFL career. Yeah, and that was a great experience. I mean, Jim is

such a such a gracious guy. I mean he when I walked in the building for the first time, I was immediately included in him in this group of the quarterbacks, and I thought that was really cool. He was one of the greatest leader I've been around. He knew when the push buttons, he knew when the jump guys, you know, when the hug guys, and he held everybody at a high standard and very accountable, and that spread through the team.

I think that was a great experience for me to see how a veteran guy actually runs the team, and he really did. Doug Flutie is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he's in the College Hall of Fame and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And you're around Doug as well in Buffalo. Yeah, Doug's exciting player, obviously, I mean the energy he brings into the stadium each week. I grew up a West Virginia fan, and I was at the Mountaineer Boston College game that the West Virginia

beat him that year. So I've been watching Doug for a long time, so I have to get a chance to, you know, to be in the same room with him and pick his brain. That was pretty cool too. What was Marv Levy like? Oh, mar Marvel was the best. I always tell the story that Marv would be the only man that in a team meeting could quote a fourteenth century Scottish poet and somehow make it relate and all the guys would understand it. You know, he was a genius the way he handled those teams and all

those personalities on those teams. He couldn't have done a better job. So I grew up in Lakewood, New York, which is a little bit south of Buffalo, and you were extremely popular with Buffalo Bills fans. Well. I was a little short and probably a little overweight for the position, so I think a lot of those body types related to me. I kind of come from a blue collar background, so I think I kind of fit in there with the community as well, and I actually had a radio show.

It was kind of a spoof on the popular morning radio rock station, and I would just say anything funny just to get a laugh, and I think I acquired a lot of listeners and followers. At that time. It was totally slapstick. None of it was serious. But I think combination all those things and out in the community,

I was a big part of the community there. I tried to do as much as I could, you know, whether it be juvenile diabetes or in a food bank or anything, to stay stay visible and active in the community. You got into a real broadcasting career after your playing career was finished. You were the color commentator with a great John Murphy on Buffalo Bill's broadcast. But didn't stick with it. Did you just miss being one of the guys in the locker room preparing for games and game day?

And that was really it. And when I retired from football, my thought processes, well, I'm gonna I want to give broadcasting a shot, and if I don't feel like this is what I'm wanna do, I want to get into coaching. At the time, I said I wanted to be John Madden or John Bruden, so I knew it was gonna be one or the other. I wanted to be the best at it. I went through the first year of doing the radio. I enjoyed it, but I really missed

being in those meetings and knowing the why. I could talk about the football all day and what happened and you know who's responsibility for that gap and all that was easy, but I related it to watching your friends open up Christmas presents from outside the window. I wanted to get back into the window inside. We're visiting with Alex van Pelt. Much of your NFL coaching career was spent in Green Bay with the Packers, working with Aaron Rodgers.

What's the most remarkable thing you ever saw Aaron Rodgers due, Well, there's many to me. Probably the biggest one would be the playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys. It's third and twenty. I think there's ten seconds left to go in the game. Most teams were tied up. Most teams probably run the ball and take it overtime. Aaron gets in the huddle, designs a protection that we've barely ever used to talk of, you know, talks about talks the guys through the protection,

and three routes that we had never run. He draws up in the dirt on that final play and hits Jared Cook on the sideline after a great scramble. To me, I was like, what was that play? Well, no, I just told him to do this, this and this, and I told the protection to do this, and it worked perfectly. And one was that game. There was a stretch there in Green Bay where you had a beard and head coach Mike McCarthy had a beard, and you bore a

striking resemblance to each other. Were they're strange instances where you were confused for him. One hundred times referees would come over and shake my hand before the game, and I'd stop him about halfway over and say, no, I'm not Mike and Alex, oh sorry, coach. You know. Fans would yell down, come on, Mike. You know. So it's a playoff beards, so there's no You had no chance to shave it off until it was all over, so

we had to keep the beards on. I always just tell people my legs are a little thicker than his, So if we had all shorts, that would be about the way you could tell. So this is your second year with the Bengals working with Andy Dalton and the other Bengals quarterbacks. What if anything surprised you about Andy when you started working with him. Just as mechanics, I thought, first off the bat, I'd not seen many guys throw

with the mechanics. I mean, his mechanics and his fundamentals are very very sounds as sound as anybody's really And the knowledge of the game and that and the vision of the field, I mean he's got He's been doing it for a long time. Here's a guy that has seen a lot of different looks and rarely as he get fooled on a football field. So his experience of seeing defense, you know, combined with his perfect fundamentals, I was very excited to get to work with him. All right.

One more fun fact for Alex Van Pelt, tell me about the time you sang on stage with Hank Williams Junior. Yeah, that's a wild one. I was in Kansas City. We were flying back from River Falls, Wisconsin, back to Kansas City. Training camp had just ended, and Derek Thomas, the great outside linebacker, was on the flight and came back and asked to find like country music. Of course I did so, I'll pick you up at the hotel. We're gonna go see Hank Junior. Little did I know they're from the

same hometown in Alabama and great friends. So I'm thinking, where are we gonna get these tickets? You know, what are you? So DT drives right around, right through waves all the security guys in Wichita, drives right back and pulls into the arena, gets out by the tour bus and the managers there, and Hank's wife was there. We

walked directly up on stage. It was myself, Troy Ridgeley, who was a Notre Dame defensive lineman that was my roommate at the time in DT and Hank and we're singing one Whisk, good Whisky, good Love, and good Women, and he's passing the microphone around in front of like twelve thousand people in this arena. And it was a great night. Got to go to dinner with them afterwards and spend some time with them. But just goes to say,

what kind of guy Derek Thomas is here? I was a second year player, third fourth string quarterback, but he knew I like country music and invited me. Anyway, So you've played in an NFL game in front of eighty thousand and sung on stage in front of fourteen thousand, which is more nerve wracking. Oh, definitely the eighty thousand, because I'm a good singer. Well, do you care to share that's a joke. That's completely a joke. Yeah, eighty

thousand screaming fans on the road. Stuffer ah, you're ready fowsome football. That's the extent of my hank. This was fun, absolutely Yeah. I enjoyed visiting with you. Best of luck this year. Thank you very much. My thanks to this week's guests, And that's going to do it for this

week's podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if you have a minute, please give it a rating or leave amen five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thank you for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast