Bengals Booth Podcast: I Get Knocked Down

NFL Network and NFL dot Com. If he had been in charge of the Bengals going into this year's draft, would he have taken Joe Burrow or traded the pick? He'll answer that question. And finally, this week's one on one player interview is with c j Uzama, now the old man in the Bengals tight ends room. Those were his words, not mine. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Prime Sport, the official fan, travel and hospital fatality

partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. And 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 an Itune, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since a golf lesson. I love golf, and at various points in my life I've been a decent player, certainly not great, but somebody who could pretty consistently shoot in the low eighties with the occasional round

in the seventies. Well not this year. I stink so much so that when I've had the chance to play, I've wanted to sell my clubs at the end of the round. So this week I broke down and took a lesson from my friend Doug Martin, the former PGA Tour player who is now the head coach at UC. It was awesome and in one hour I felt like I was back on track. So if you're a struggling golfer, don't give up. Take a lesson. After just one hour, I think that I no longer stink. Now, let's get

to football. On Friday morning, Joe Burrow faced his biggest test of training camp to date as the Bengals held their first scrimmage. The rookie quarterback even got tackled by a Gatorade cooler that Burrow tripped over on a scramble out of bounds, Joe cool hopped right up and after everybody breathed a huge sigh of relief, the Cooler was quickly yanked out of the way. That occurred on the third play of an eleven play touchdown drive. Quite a start for Joe Burrow, and Dave Lapham joined me to

talk about it when the scrimmage was finished. Lap at the NFL scouting combine, we learned Joe Burrow's hand size. Well. Now after seeing them scrimmage for the first time, we need his jacket size for the gold jacket that he's going to get going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I'm obviously being facetious, but he was really impressive today. He was out there for five drives in the scrimmage. The Bengal scored three touchdowns and two field goals on

those drives. Now, I should point out on the field goals he started at the opponent's thirties, so what would be known as the red zone. Plus didn't get any first downs on those two drives, so those are really wins for the defense. But still by my stats, thirteen for nineteen overall, a pair of touchdown passes to add and Tate and a very impressive showing, very impressive Dan. And you know, Zach has got a scoring system on

these scrimmages where the defense can score points. I mean, if they hold the offense to a field goal like they did, the offense gets three, the defense gets four. So you know, and then if the defense gets to takeaway at seven points at the offense touchdown at seven points. Today, I think of the letters C or the scrimmage that took place. I take the letter C, not meanings. He grated to see just the letter C. Because the dude had complete command. He was in total control of things.

He communicated everybody. He did not look like a rookie quarterback whatsoever. A couple of defensive coaches that I had a chance to speak with like a long distance, you know, I said, what's your take on Burrow? A kid can play. I mean, he's a player, there's no question about it. He is. He's impressed everybody. And when you look at it. In the scrimmage, Joe Burrow didn't have a lot of his weapons. You know, A J. Green was not in the mix whatsoever. T Higgins not in the mix whatsoever.

John Ross not in the mix whatsoever, varying reasons for that. Joe Mixon only played in one little part of it that was not live tackling. It was thump drill. Giovanni Bernard. Didn't see Giovanni Bernard out there very much at all, if any that I could recall. So, I mean Tyler Boyd and no, no, not gonna play. You know, took care of guys on defense too, like you know Geno Atkins, he didn't. He didn't see the football field defensive tackles he protected. You don't want to lose dj Reader. You

don't want to lose Daniels. You don't want to lose you know, there are no defensive tackles to get anywhere, and they've already lost one and Rent. So I think they were very smart about the whole thing. But back to Burrow with the offense, So what did he do? Oddent Tate had a day because Joe Burrow, Alex Ericsson had a day. It's like, hey, these guys are NFL players. I know they're gonna do their job. I'm gonna do my job. Those guys stepped up and when he gave

them opportunities to make plays, they rewarded them. The thing that Odd and Tate showed today Dan, that he's shown him forever is his billion to fifty fifty ball. It's twenty five at worst. With him, he's like a like a tremendous rebounder. I mean he gets position, uses that big body and man he and right now Joe Barrow already saying if you're I'm going to you if you don't catch it, I'm no, you're not gonna let the

defense make a play on it. The ball is going to go on the ground if you don't catch it, Joe, the ball is going to hit the dirt. It's not going to be in a defensive player's hands for an interception. So you can already see the trust and confidence that those guys have built up. And you know you mentioned it in one of our training camp reports. The dynamic between Tyler Boyd and Joe Burrows is building because they're taking so many snaps together. I'm excited to see when

he gets all of his weapons. I mean, you know the number ones as such, it wasn't it wasn't the number ones really when a lot of the number ones projected number ones for Verus and the sundry reasons weren't going. Boyd and Bernard were out there on that very opening drive with the thumping, not the tackling, but that was pretty much it for those two guys. I do want to go back to the very first drive of the day for Joe Burrow was an eleven play touchdown drive.

He was six for six, but the first two plays were runs by Joe Mixon. They did not pick up a first down. So now it's third down. Burrow drops back to pass pretty good pass rush, takes off and runs for the first down to keep that first drive alive, and then methodically marches them down the field. That's another aspect of his game that's going to come in very handy. There's no doubt, Dan. I mean, you know, Lamar Jackson was MVP because he could beat you throwing the foot bone.

He can beat you with his feet, you know, Joe Burrow it does not have the speed in the athleticism of Lamar Jackson. I'm not trying to make a comparison there, but what I am saying is when things start to break down, he has enough foot speed enough make you miss, you know, enough suddenness, enough quick twitch to extend to play and extend to drive create plays, and yeah, I mean Joe Burrow has the ability to make plays with his feet as well as his throwing arm and in

his brain. More importantly, most importantly is he understands the game of football. He sees the field so well and he diagnoses what he's looking at so quickly. He makes decisions, very very sure decisions in a very expedited fashion. Man he gets the ball out. He's a very impressive kid to watch. He was not perfect. On one drive, he had c j Uzama open in the end zone after buying a little bit of time and scrambling to his right, he missed him when he was open in the end zone.

On the very next pass, he threw a touchdown to Odd and Tate, so no damage done there. But he also threw a very dangerous pass at one point, rolling out to his left, pointed down field to one of his wide receivers, and then tossed a deep ball down the middle of the field that'll get intercepted a lot in a regular NFL game. And then thirdly, there was a deep ball to Alex Ericson who was open and Joe didn't really step into it that much, kind of floated it down the middle of the field and didn't

get it out there far enough for Alex Ericson. Yeah, it didn't lead him quite enough, and it had a little bit too hung in the air, a little bit a little bit too long. But the thing where I think he is, I mean really fun to watch when we're watching from behind the offense, like we're allowed to do, watch from the end zone, and we're standing on the field to play. And I like that because I can see the protections, I can see holes develop, you know,

in the running game and all that. But I can also see Joe Burrow, what he's doing when he slidesteps and what he's looking at and when he throws that football in the intermedi it ranges. It is impressive where he's putting that ball. I mean it is tight windows. Man. It's like that's the only place he could have put it to get their completion he got and he put

it right there. I mean dime, big time dime. So that that part of it is where you make your bread and butter in the National Football League, And you know, he led the led college football in quarterback rating under pressure and completion percentage under pressure and he was second in all of college football throws twenty yards and war so, I mean he can do both. I mean he can hit that short and met it stuff with the best of them, but he can he can get those chunk

plays for you. And on the drives we talked about, you know, the numbers that he put up, he chunked him. He had a few chunk plays in there. You know, it's not like it was screen passes, nickel and dime stuff. You know, tight end on a hitch. I mean, he

chunked him pretty good. I'll tell you where he's especially accurate, in my opinion, on those slants like seven to ten yards slant he hits the guy in stra He was really effective on those, to Mike Thomas and Auden Tate and you know, Dan, there's there's a lot of times there's going to be traffic there and if your receivers like don't throw, don't hang me out to dry, don't

make me stretch out for that thing. When those guys run those routes, they're running them with such confidence that Joe's gonna hit me where I know, he's not gonna put me in danger. He's going to deliver the ball where I can make a catch on it, and I'll still be able to protect myself from that from that big hit, because you know, all it takes is a slant or two were you know, the defensive backs counting

the receiver's ribs. I think I'll hit him between rib three and four on this one, and it come back said hell, like, dude, don't do that to me again. You know, receivers to a quarterback, and Joe's I think, very very aware of that, and he puts the ball right where it should be put. For sure. I didn't see Geno Atkins at all. Carlos Dunlap and Sam Hubbard were out there a decent amount. Carl Lawson played a lot. I don't remember seeing DJ reader. Mike Daniels was out

there a little bit, says Zach Taylor. Obviously a reader a little bit too, says Zach Taylor. Was obviously resting and protecting some of the big name defensive lineman, particularly the veterans. But with all of that in mind, how did the offensive line do? In your opinion? I thought they did pretty well. And uh, you know, Joe Williams

to me, it's encouraging to watch him play. He has what I call football character, and it's it's not just you know what he says, because some guys talk a good game, you know, but then can you go out and play in the dude? He is. He is a focused, you know, dialed in, grinded out guy, and he's he's getting his reps against Carlos Dunlap when he's in there, or carl Lawson. Pretty good combination. And like we said, you know, I mean his first two games, Joey Bosa

and Miles Garrett. I mean, he was drafted by the Bengals to block guys like Miles Garrett one on one. Miles Garrett was drafted by the Cleveland Browns to beat guys like Jonah Williams one on one. And Miles Garrett got a second contract already a biggie and Jonah Williams, you know, at the eleventh pick of the draft. Bengals are counting on him to be a plug and play guy for a decade or more. They're gonna be playing

against each other a ton. But he gets those two guys in one hundred hours, you know, Sunday at four o'clock and then you know, Thursday night at eight o'clock, man, a chevits that's but I think he's going to be able to handle it. And I liken it to the first time I played against Joe Green. It was my personal Super Bowl. I mean I was so geeked up, man, I could have picked the stadium up that night. Joe is not the game to Joe is who's this? You know?

And I'm thinking, you know, everybody's expecting Joe to kick my butt and if I block him a few times and gonna be like, Oh, who's this dude? You know, it was easy hung in there with Jonah. Has to have that mindset. Everybody's gonna be watching Joonah Williams go against Joey Bosa who just got the big deal, and then Cha Miles care tops that or vice versa. It's like they're They're the two highest paid pass rush edge rush in the game. Jony gets to prove himself right away.

It's a big opportunity. I think he's going to handle it that way. And watching him out there in practice, he's preparing that way, not just every single day, every single snap and a couple of times, you know, I saw like an emotional reaction from him. So I'm sure on the field he was exulting a little bit, you know, after touchdowns, and there's nothing wrong with that. He and Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan was doing some of the same thing. I think that left side could be pretty decent, I

really do. I mean they're young, you know, I'm both second year guys, but Jone aren't even playing his first year and Michael's played some and really grew, and now those two could be a nice tandem for a decade plus. On that left side. You should have just given me and Joe Green a coke. He would have taken it easy on you, coking a smile. Following up on the old line, they did have some pre snap penalties today, so Jim Turner will be barking about that the next

offensive line meeting. And you know, Dan, it's like Zach addressed it when we talked to him after the scrimmage. It's like, you're gonna be led in because Michael had one early and I could he was so jacked up. He came off the ball and tried to knock the linebacker into next week. So I mean, that's that's part of that is really obviously you have to be you have to have a controlled rage. As the way I used to describe it, I'd go into a game thinking that this guy tried to rob my house and do

something bad to my family. That's the way I hated him. I wanted to destroy the guy. And you're all jacked up, geeked up, ready to go. But then you have to be controlled enough where you're just not frenzied, you know, running around assignment errors bats, you know, not in a snapcount. It has to be a controlled rage, a controlled frenzy, and sometimes balancing those two things, you know are a little different, but yeah, they'll get cleaned up. Those things

will get cleaned up. Ball can't be on the ground, you know. You don't want to see any of that. You don't want any assignment errors, any mental errors from that standpoint, and Zach initially, I think, was pretty pleased with that. I did see a free runner that an offensive lineman get taken out of the scrimmage over and

was replaced. So there's going to be very little tolerance for those kind of things because you certainly don't want to be the guy who let him inside linebacker with a straight be line to your quarterback Joe Burrow and hit him. Was open up a new canad quarterbacks. You don't want to be that guy. You'll never live that one down. So at a diner you got the special of the day. That's kind of how it feels right now. With the Bengals starting linebackers, it's like, all right, who's

on the menu today? To start a linebacker and for the scrimmage with the ones. The first two guys today were veterans Josh Bines and Jordan Evans, but after that it was shuffle him in and out, mix and match. That continues to be the theme so far. Did anybody look particularly good to you today? You know I still continue to like you know, both Logan Wilson and Davis gaitheror I mean they do flash, they can they can really run, they can really run around. Now again it does.

I'm not as tuned in, haven't been a former offensive player. I'm kind of tuned into looking at it from an offensive linement perspective. Was there in assignment or I'm not as in tuned Okay, did he take the proper drop? Was he in the right gap? I mean I can tell if a guy's on the wrong gap don't And I didn't see necessarily any of that. And uh, I

didn't see any glaring mental errors by those guys. But there may have been some some some problems, you know, poor angles taking taken, maybe not enough depth on a drop on some completion. Who knows what the fine tuning part of it is. But but watching those guys play, they need reps, you know, they just need snaps. They

need repetition. Repetition breeds comfort level. And man, if you could take uh, you know, suck Josh buying some of his brain and injected into the into the rookies, you know, and transpose some of the transfer some of that some of that gray matter with all of his experiences. And there's no substitute for experience, you know. There there's no other way to get it other than to go through the experience. So, um, it is an interesting mix there, well,

Josh Finds and those young guys. So after the scrimmage, when Zach Taylor did a conference call with all the reporters and you know, answered ten questions about how great Joe Burrow is, he made a point without being asked to single out Will Jackson as a player that he thought was excellent today. Yeah, Will Jackson, I mean I'd have to look at tape to see that. But but

he like he's a quarterback. Colin plays, so his eyes go to the perimeter on the back end, and he wants to see coverage and he wants to see who's providing tight coverage. And and if Will Jackson kept jumping into his eye, into his vision, you know, he's gonna say, hey, that guy. He was. He was consistently effective, and that's good. That's good to see out of Will Jackson. You know, I mean he needs to he needs to have that kind of day. But other guys I thought, you know,

it had pretty solid scrimmages. But but nobody likes Jacques Patrick. Jacques was, he was. He was unbelievable. He's a hundred yards rushing. It seemed like in one drive. But yeah, Florida State kid, big body guy. Um, he does have some special teams experience and in college and in the XFL, And I asked Zack in the conference called, you know, without special teams games where Darren can actually see them against other colored jerseys play special teams, you know, does

that how does that factor in? And they are gonna like there's another scrimmer's Dan that we're gonna call on radio, by the way, on WLW and uh so they'll have special teams periods there that it sounds like you're going to be live and part of that evaluation process will take place and they're almost going to have to do that, you know, see if guys can finish plays, get guys on the ground, and um, you know, I remember Paul Brown.

It was so innovative and so great and such a such a inspiration, you know, as a coach, and he'd he'd always say, Dan, about this time of training camp. You know, we can trick people, we can fool people, we can do all that the way, but guys, you still have to block and you still have to tackle. And that's what today started it off. You still have to block lineback, defensive players have to get off blocks,

have to tackle. And Paul Brown, every single practice in training camp we would stretch and then do routine tackling drill.

Everybody tackled lineman, offensive lineman against offensive linement, quarterbacks against quarterbacks, punter against place kicker, and you would line up and wasn't live, but it was forty five degree angle at a decent little clip, gets your helmet across the battle head in front and take on the ground and get used to going to the ground tackling people because if the defense turns you over, you got to tackle the guy will score a touchdown. His big part right at

the very early stage. As soon as you get loose and warmed up routine tackling drill, everybody takes somebody to the ground. That was Paul Brown, as innovative and creative as he was. The basics man, lock and tackle. That's football. Jacques Patrick, the running back you were referring to, had a forty yard run and a fifteen yard touchdown run on the same drive. I'll tell you another guy who had a good day today, Ryan Finlay. Two touchdown passes. Both of them came in that red zone plus area

where they started at the opponent's thirty yard line. He threw one to Alex Ericson and the other to Mason Shrek wide open running down the seam. And he also had a deep ball completion to alex Ericson earlier in the scrimmage. Yeah, and this is where you know year one to year two. Hopefully, Ryan Finley, he got a taste of it, and it was probably a bad taste

in his mouth. I'm sure he wanted to spit it out pretty quickly and use some wealthwashing and start over and use it as a learning process, a learning tool. He was putting a very very tough situation, There's no question about it. He took some knocks. I mean, it was very, very difficult and desperate scenario. But you learn from it, and I think he's learned from it. He's a very intelligent player and he is making some plays and that's going to benefit the football team, no doubt

about it. You have to have more than one at the quarterback position, and history has shown that. We talked about Drew Sample on a recent UH Bengals training camp report video report and about how he has transformed his physique going into this camp. Well, he had a huge gain on a throw up the seam from Joe Burrow and I don't remember him having any catches like that last year. Yeah, he did. The run after catch was impressive. I mean he got his shoulder pass squared up and

went north and south like man right now. And I thought he was pretty good at the line scrimmage blocking to the Bengals. Uh, they had various in a sundry schemes utilized today, but one of them was the pin and pulled up was so good for Joe Mixon towards the end of the year. And Drew Sample had some nice pin blocks, you know, and and uh, you know he blocked down and pin one time. And Bobby Hart came out and had a nice, nice block out in space as a pulling lineman led to a you know,

one of their touchdowns. And it's it's encouraging to you know, to see these these young players. I mean, that's who that's who the Bengals are. When when you look at a lot of the positions that that guys were playing. We talked about Jonah Williams, Michael Jordan, Trey Hopkins has not been He's not a you know, a grizzle veteran guy, you know. I mean that offensive line. Bobby Hart's the

oldest player that offensive line. He's not, you know, not a graybeard, um, Drew Sample, CJ's It's they this roster, there's there's a lot of guys they're counting on in the early stages or in the prime stages of their career. Prime for me as a as a foreign player is like years four to seven, but now they're playing so much longer. It might be four to nine or four to ten because they are playing, you know, so much longer. But in the way nutrition and weight training on all that,

the way they're taking care of themselves. Um, and they're getting paid so much, do have to worry about offseason jobs. So it's a it's a different animal. But they're a lot of young players are gonna be given the keys to the car as such, and they're gonna have to learn to drive quickly, all right. Final thing, T Higgins has been going through wide receiver drills prior to this scrimmage type stuff at practice for the last few days.

He'll be back out there soon unless there's a setback, and there's no reason to fear that there will be. We happen to see AJ Green rehabbing on the Paul Brown Stadium field inside of the stadium prior to our video report yesterday, so AJ's getting closer. John Ross is back in town going back through the COVID nineteen testing protocol, so within a few days he's likely to be back. So I think sometime next week we're going to see

Joe Burrow throwing to all of his weapons. Yeah, and I think that's going to be potentially this next scrimmage Priday United Paul Brown Stadium. I think that'll be preseason game number three as such, where you know, everybody gets quite a few you play first half, who down, warm back up, play a series in the third quarter. I think that they'll, within reason, they'll they'll play you know,

quite a few of these guys. I mean, John Ross hasn't even been in the facility for a while, but they said he was looking really good physically, and he knows the offense. I mean, he participated in it last year. I mean, Tea Higgins, how quickly do you want to get him out there? I'm sure you want to try to get it out there as quickly as possible with you know, Joe Burrow and get him indoctrinated into the tempo and speed of the game in the National Football League.

And you know, interesting to see how much AJ Green will play, you know, if they continue to maybe you know, treat him with kid gloves a little bit and make sure the one thing I know they want to make sure of his AJ Green is available for the opener against the Chargers. They all with scrimmages, you know, whatever else. Just make sure that you've got him tracking h to participate and make plays in that season open against the

LA Chargers. But you know, Joe Burrow and aj Green, they'd like to get some timing, you know, and some repetitions. So I'm excited about seeing the true number ones. And like we said, you know what, if you're a pro, if those guys aren't playing, the thing you have to do is take advantage of opportunities presented to yourself. Untake Alex Erickson. Good job, You'll sleep well tonight. You took

full advantage. As Lap referenced, we will be broadcasting an upcoming scrimmage on the radio that will be on Sunday night, August thirtieth. 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. If you had to pick one decision in Bengals history that the team would most like to have back, it was probably back in nineteen ninety nine when they turned down a bunch of draft picks, including multiple first round selections from the New

Orleans Saints, and drafted achiey Smith number three overall. Washington had the fifth pick in that draft and wound up making the trade with New Orleans getting six picks in the ninety nine draft plus first and third round selections in the two thousand draft. In other words, Washington traded one pick for eight, including two first rounders. Washington's general manager at that time was Charlie Casserley, now an analyst for the NFL Network and a columnist for NFL dot Com.

He joined me for this week's podcast. Charlie, any Bengals related interview going into twenty twenty has to begin with a discussion about Joe Burrow. What did you think of him as an NFL prospect and as a former GM would you have drafted him number one overall or look to trade the pick from multiple number ones. I would have taken him. I thought he was the best quarterback in the draft. You know, there's always a risk with a rookie whether he's going to develop or not. But

I liked them. I wouldn't take the chance of multiple picks. You don't know what's going to happen with them, and if you have a quarterback, you'd like you'd take them. That's number one. Number two would I like about him? I think intelligence, his study, habits, his field, vision, anticipation, poison the pocket. I mean, I saw this guy standing there with people coming right at him and he never flinched. I wouldn't say he has a top arm, but there's

nothing wrong with his arm to make all the throws. So, like we're talking to former NFL GM Charlie Castleley, with no OTAs or mini camps and now no preseason games, what are your expectations for his rookie year. Well, Andy Dalton came in without an offseason, but he had preseason games and he went on and was I think he was twenty touchdown masses over three thousand yards throwing. Those are ballpark figures of what he did, but I know they're close, but I'm not sure. It's just hard to

say at this point in time. I think he's smart. I think that the offense will grow throughout the season. I think that you'll be You'll be putting it in as you go and I don't think there's any other way to do it. Don't know will load the guy. What he can do you execute? You know, I think a lot of it's going to depend upon you know, does he does he have everybody healthy with him? You know when Andy Goldon excelled, AJ Green excelled too. They

were both rookies at the same point in time. So he needs a healthy AJ Green, a healthy Joe Mixon, and a healthy offensive line. And if he's got everybody healthy, I think the offense can grow and he can do well. If I'm evaluating him, does he execute the offense? Make sure I don't have overloaded. And from his point of view, he can't try to make every play a home run.

He can't run around there forever in the backfield if it's not there to throw it away, run even if you have to take the sack, live for another day. So that's one of the things he's going to have to learn, Charlie. As you know, the Bengals have historically not been a big spender in free agency, but they dove in head first this year. What was your reaction and was there an addition or two that you especially liked. Well, there was a little bit of a surprise, but you know,

you have a second year head coach. You're trying to win here, and you've got the first pick in the draft, and you got a quarterback, so I could see what they were doing. I think DJ Reader to me, was the best free agents they signed. This is this guy's a complete player. Scott can play the run, he's strong inside, he can give you a push on the pocket, he's got some pass rush ability. You know. He was the one guy that that stood out to me that every team in the league would have won to have. We're

talking to former NFL GM Charlie Casserley. You wrote a column for NFL dot com about a week ago looking at all four teams in the AFC North and it included some key position battles. What positions in Cincinnati do you have your eyes on. Well, they got to sort the offensive line out. I think that that that's probably the key one when you look at it, and you know, I think the linebacker position, the all three boy of

positions are wide open. You've got to Jermine, Josh Bines, Jordan Evans, and you got the rookies Logan Wilson, who I like. I gotta believe he'll find a starting position. And then you got a couple of other rookies in there, Baylor and Davis Gator. So I think on the offensive line, really your center and your left tackle a set, I think, and then everything else is up for grafts. So then you get that settled in there. Were you a big Jonah Williams guy going into last year's draft. I liked them.

I thought he was an excellent prospect. I thought he was a good pick. I thought I had him rated in the first round. I thought he was a left tackle, and I think that that's a very unfortunately missed his rookie year. So again, it's awfully hard to sit there and evaluate how these well, these guys who are gonna play in September with fourteen padded practices and no games. So I think we're all gonna have to be a patient.

The offensive line is always the slowest group to come together, even with a full preseason in September, it's probably the lowest performing or at least performing level off a group of any on the team, and that especially hurts a rookie quarterback. So it's a group that's going to take some time to come together, but not unlike many other lines in this league. Charlie Joe Mixon is due to be a free agent at the end of this year. As a former team builder, how do you feel about

paying running backs? Well, it's one of those things. The second contracts always tricky because a lot of them don't make it through the second contract. But if you're getting a guy that's young and not twenty eight when he signs the second contract, I'd absolutely sign him to the second contract because the age is in your favor there. You know, Mixon is an outstanding player. He's one of the better young backs in the league, and you want

to have him. The problem is, I don't know where they are financially or what Mixon wants that that always becomes an issue in the thing. But I'm sure they want to sign him and be sure that they would love to have him because he's an excellent player. We're talking to former NFL GM Charlie Casserley. If you were running a team under these circumstances, what are some of the things you would be worried about going into this year. Well, I think it starts with the building. Do we have

the building safe? And I think teams have done an outstanding job with that and and so that's your credit to the teams. That's number one. Number two, the players when they were away from the facility. Are they going to be disciplined enough. We've taken care of one. We got them in here and got them out of every days safe. Are they going to be safe when they go away? And that's going to depend on the character

of the individuals, the maturity of the team. The team that does that the best is going to have a decided advantage this year. You can't have any situations where you're losing a number of players for a week or two at a time, and that's going to kill you. I think the other thing is flexibility in scheme and leadership. Mental toughness. I don't want to say that. I guess a mental toughness might be a right word, but no excuses.

Mentality by the coaching staff and flexibility otherwise meant we're playing. That's what I'm telling the players. The bus is leaving, You're gonna be on it. It's your job to be on it. That's one. But number two, what I'm gonna tell the coaching staff, as you know that sixty ninth player we have, I expect him ready to start on Sunday, because he might have to. So the coaches are gonna have to get every player ready and have a plan

to get every player ready with creative practice schedules. I suggested to the teams split up into smaller groups in the early part of preseason to get more instruction for the bottom level. A lot of times of practice, squad players don't get coached and prepared. They have to be prepared this week this year because they may have to play. You may have some positive tests on Sunday Saturday that don't turn around for Sunday, so you're gonna have to put some guys on the field. So those are the

principles and position flexibility. Your linebacker has got to play every position. Your defensive backs have to be at playovery position. But as a coach, this is my last point. You got to be flexible. Now, hey, we lost three wide receivers here, Well, maybe we got to play more to two tight ends. Maybe we got to use a running back at receiver. We lost our tight ends, well we better have an offensive lineman or two then go play tight end. We've better be able to go four wides.

We lose our running backs, do we have somebody that a wide receiver or tight end. It can play running back for one week. You better train these guys to do multiple things because you could have that happen to you. That's quite a list, and it seems like flexibility. Is that the key word in all of that. No, it absolutely is. And and smart practicing during the week and

otherwise socially distancing maybe some of your players. What what the experts believe is this is that playing football will not transmit the disease U. Contact tracing I was told by the CDC begins with fifteen minutes. The NFL is beginning in a ten minutes. But it's continuous, is what we're being told. There's no continuous contact on the field for ten minutes. Now, what the bench do You have your bench spread out? You might put people in the stands like they do in baseball. I watched some of

the highlights I watched in practice. I don't see people spreading apart the way they should did drills. I know, when you get to eleven or eleven, you know you're playing football, but you're doing drills, you're not playing football, and you're staying on the sideline. You're not playing football. So those are the things that you're gonna have to be disciplined about through the week. And people talked about

maybe quarantine the quarterback, the third quarterback. But if you do all your meetings virtual and they don't come near each other in practice okay, and they wear masks except when they don't have to, then it's inexcusable or a player to miss. I'm saying this, and I've told some teams this. With what you set up and you go test during the season, which I think you have to do, and what I would do, I put him in a hotel on Thursday night, I start a bubble. It's inexcusable

to miss a game this year. Charlie assess the Bengals competition in the AFC North Plus up Division Up Division. You know, Baltimore I think is going to be right where they were a year ago as a top team. Now, whether they have the same record, I don't know. Can teams catch up to their offense? Probably hard to do it no offseason and limited training camp because that's where you spend your extra time on practicing. Defending the Ravens option offense, which is unique to the NFL, is the

only one run like that. I think Pittsburgh will be back with Ben a quarterback. All the all reports are good, all reports in the off season where they we're going to be good. So I expect them to bounce back. I mean, they came close last year, so I think they're gonna be in it. And Cleveland has enough talent to win ten games. Now when are they're going to do it this year? I don't know, Okay, new coaching staff.

Offensive lines got some issues right now with the center a treader out and the wills of the first pick trying to learn left tackle when he played right tackle in college, so the offensive line may not be as sharp. Linebackers is a question for him. But they're they're good. You know, Cincinnati's fourth, but they're not a bad team.

So I think that it's a very competitive division. That's NFL Network analyst Charlie Casserley, who has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about what it's going to take to play football this year, and according to Pro Football Talk, Charlie is going to be part of an eight person committee that will be advising NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on issues related to the coronavirus. Marvin Lewis is also reportedly

a member of that committee. Now time for a one on one player interview, and early this week I caught up with tight end c j Uzoma is he begins his sixth year in Cincinnati. It's obviously drastically different from the previous five, and I asked CJ if the current protocols are starting to feel like the new normal. Yeah.

I think the first the first few days, I mean even even now a few of the things that we have to do to make sure that we're um, you know, staying a safe distance away from one another and working out and wiping the bar down after every rep touch stuff you kind of forget to do. You're you're trying to make sure that you don't forget to do certain things. But um, yeah, I think this is the new norm, and um, we're kind of adapting as best wee king.

Did you have any reservations about trying to play football in a worldwide pandemic? Um? Oh, no, I mean I think m being in Nashville and during everything and kind

of seeing how other cities were dealing with things. It's kind of like being in Cincinnati was my best bet in terms of, you know, quarantining thing away from people just because when people were going crazy just being out, and you know, it's kind of fifty fifty whether or not you're gonna people were staying home and trying to stay safe or going out and just carrying wrong going to bars and stuff. So I think, yeah, I was ready. Honestly, I was just ready to get back and get started.

We're visiting me the Bengals tight end c j Uzama. Let me ask the question that you probably get from everybody, you know, what do you think of Joe Burrow? I think, yeah, I've gotten that a lot. Yeah, I think he's bright. You know, we were kind of talking about it today w TD AJ Joe Bobby. I mean, a bunch of the guys Joe were like, you know, coming in, obviously he's a rookie, and we know that we had a very successful college career, but you know we're still thinking, man,

he's a rookie. Yes, run the plays, you know, the checks, all these things, and he he is killing it to us. You know, I think, um, you know, he's leads and bounds what anybody had expected him to be. Um in terms of mentally, you know, we knew what he could do physically, with don and putting upon certain areas and positions. But um, I think mentally he's is what's um been

the most surprising and in the best way. By the time we got to the National Championship game last year between LSU and Clemson, it was pretty obvious that Joe Burrow was likely to be the number one pick in the draft and wind up being your NFL teammate. Did you watch him use tight end Thaddeus Moss? I think he had two touchdown passes in that game, and get excited by his use of the tight end, Yeah, for sure,

I did. I think the two things that really excited me about tight ends were, yeah, him using Moss and then you know, I think then this, uh during or when ots be going on and during the off season, he was kind of throwing with two hometown tight ends that he had, and um, you know, hearing both of those things and seeing that happen, I was like, Man, this is gonna be this should be fun. You know. I'm I'm going to be sure to keep getting in his ear a little bit just to just how he knows. Hey,

I'm we're chatting with c j Uzama. This is the first time in your Bengals career. That your buddy Tyler Eifert is not part of the tight end room, How does that impact you? Yeah, it's it's different it. Um, you know, obviously I was, um a critical and crucial pardon in the tight end that I've become just because I've had a fear too, you know, a person just to pick his brain every now and then, and um having him around was always amazing. He's He's going to

be a lifetime, lifelong friend for sure. But UM, yeah, it's it's it's put um a different types of you know deal on my plate right now. I think, you know, being the oldest in the tight end room now and um kind of having that weight on my shoulders, I kind of like it going out to practice and knowing that, um, you know right now I'm that guy. So we have

a really good tight end room. I'm really excited about everyone we have and um yeah, I'm looking forward to honest I think we have we have a we have some we have some good things coming from the Titans. CJ. You're only twenty seven. You never have to use the word oldest, at least not yet. Wait, No, it's crazy to me. I'm thinking to myself. Man, yeah, I'm the oldest one in the room, but I'm not old. I am convinced. I am telling myself right now, I am not old. Um. It is funny to think that I'm

the oldest one in that room. I tell myself that I'm not old all the time, but in my case, I am Unfortunately. Let's talk about another guy. That's talk about another guy in the room, and that is Drew Sample. He missed the second half of the season basically last year, his rookie year, but it looks like he's come back and in tip top shape, a little bit stronger than he was as a rookie to get ready to block some of those big defensive ends in backers. What do

you think of Drew? Yeah, I think, um, you know that second years where you make the biggest read in terms of um reproduction and kind of slowing down the steet of the game. I think so. Um yeah, I've been I've been pleasantly pleased with you know, how how are he's um the set that he's taken and like

you said, he's gotten done, stronger, gotten faster. Um. You know, obviously we've only had really one day against the defense really where we're going full for for an hour and a half, but um, the route that he's running are more crisp, and UM, yeah, I'm I'm excited to see kind of what he has in store when we put those full pads on, because I know he's Um, he's gonna be a force for sure. Spending a few minutes

with c j Uzama. During your time in Cincinnati, the Bengals have historically resigned the best players on the roster, and you were a guy that earned a nice second contract so far in Cincinnati, but this offseason, the Bengals were among the big free agent free agent spenders in the NFL, DJ Von Bell, Trey Wayne's, most recently, Mike Daniels, What was your reaction to that free agent spending spree.

I think my reaction was just like everyone else who's been here for you know, fifteen fifteen years, so we're very surprised in the best way, you know, we're I called Geo after one of the days and I was like, Bro, what is what's going on? Like this is I didn't know this was gonna happen, Like I was. This is very unexpected, and um, you know, I think, you know, talking to Coach Taylor and the coaching staff. You know, they just wanted to get the best guys with the

best character, and that's what we brought in honest. I mean, I know Vaughan has had his interview, and I know if you don't know, Vawn wakes up at like four o'clock in the morning sometimes beforehand because he beats his alarm. And you know, it's those kind of guys that I want. I want to play next to that that makes me want to play harder for the defense and the guys across the ball, just because you know they're bringing that work ethic and that that killer mentality of you know,

I want, I want to be the best. I want to do every thing I can to make this team the best. So, um, I'm I'm high. I mean, we we got some good guys in there. Um, it's a lot of new faces for shared going into the locker room and now getting it being able to interact with the guys. But um, I can tell their high quality and I mean from what I from what I've seen so far, they're really good. You referenced your good buddy

Giovanni Bernard. Is he still rocking that full mustache. Oh my gosh, we I mean, can we get a petition to get that thing removed? What's going on here? He's still he's still rocking the mustache. He's gonna rock it for a while. I think that's his wife. Chloe likes it, so that's the only opinion he cares about. I can come in and rag him every day, but so why he likes it. He's fun with it, so um, I think he's gonna let it rock for a while. Happy wife,

Happy life. True. Our words were never spoken. C c J. You are a world traveler. In a normal year, in the off season, you would go see someplace you've never seen before, do something interesting in the off season. I always always enjoy hearing about your escapades. Were you forced to just stay in Nashville this whole off season? So yeah, I was actually supposed to go to Australia for a

little bit, and that trip is now halted until next year. Um, but I was actually able to go to Jacksonville, Wyoming, and I was able to go to ask you for X games, and right when I got back, everything got shut down. So I was able to travel twice, and then I thought I was grounded in Nashville. Not your normal off season, but hopefully you'll be able to get to Australia and knock that off the bucket list sometime soon. Thanks the c j Uzama, Charlie Casserley and Dave Lapham.

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 have and 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