Hi, gain everybody.
I Dan Horde and thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth Podcast. The I've been waiting audition as we discussed Thursday's release of the NFL schedule with one of the people largely responsible for putting it together, the NFL's VP of Broadcast Planning, Mike North, plus a pair of one on one conversations with two Bengals newcomers, cornerback Sidney Jones the fourth and
quarterback Trevor Simeon. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by Alta Fiber, future proof fiber Internet capable of delivering multi gigabit speeds designed to take your home, business, and community to a new level. Elevate your connection with Alta Fiber. Now here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write to your phone, tablet or computer by subscribing wherever you get
your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since Maons. Cincinnati's Flying Pig Marathon took place last weekend, and kudos to everybody who managed to cross the finish line despite heavy rain and thunder. That includes Evan McPherson's wife Gracie, who ran her first marathon, and the Bengals kicker who ran the half marathon. In fact, his runner's bib read money.
Mack.
My wife Peg is a marathoner who is qualified for and run the Boston Marathon eight times. And I am truly of the belief that a marathon is the one sporting event where every single finisher is a winner. The training is brutal, the event itself is brutal, and to cross that finish line knowing that you put in the time and effort and made it has to be incredibly gratifying. So congratulations to last week's finishers, and I hope that going downstairs is no longer painful. Now let's get to
my first guest. Thirty two teams playing seventeen games. There are two hundred and seventy two regular season matchups each year in the NFL. Putting together a schedule that maximizes TV viewership while minimizing competitive imbalance is a complex puzzle. In fact, there are approximately one quadrillion possible combinations. That's
the number one, with fifteen zeros after it. Mike North is the NFL's vice president of broadcast Planning, in one of the league's top executives in creating the schedule each year. He was kind enough to join me on Tuesday night, less than forty eight hours before the schedule is released. Mike, when you joined me on this podcast last year, you said something that made local headlines at the time. The quote was, the Bengals will have to get comfortable not
playing Sunday at one o'clock. Getting primetime games is a big deal last year. Now it's assumed by Bengals fans Spike market size. Are the Bengals at or near the top of the list of the teams that the TV networks are clamoring for.
They are. I mean, there's no toys around it. This is a success driven league. And certainly there are legacy brands and you know, teams that have national appeal almost seemingly regardless of their record. But we all follow teams with good records, star quarterbacks, playoff appearances, super Bowl appearances. There's there's no question the Bengals are going to find themselves in a lot of different windows. Not all the games at one o'clock on Sunday, those days are those days are over.
Just so people know for sure, what is the max for primetime games?
A club can be scheduled for six, can be flexed into a seventh. We've had Sunday night flex since two thousand and seven. Bengals have been on both sides of that equation, getting flexed in and getting flexed out. Monday night football flexible scheduling starts this year, and you can be flexed into a seventh primetime appearance. And then when
we get to week eighteen, all bets are off. We can do whatever we all think is the right thing to do as we sequence week eighteen to ensure that we have that cascading waterfall of playoff implications from Saturday afternoon, in the Saturday night, in the Sunday afternoon, in the Sunday night. So you know, quote unquote primetime, it's really less about who's playing at night than it is about
who's playing on something other than Sunday afternoon. So you could play on a Monday night, you can play on a Sunday night, you can play on a Thursday night, you can play on a Saturday afternoon, you can play on a Sunday morning at nine thirty am. Technically those are all quote unquote primetime appearances. They're just non Sunday afternoon appearances. But letter of the law, you can be scheduled for six primes flexed into a seventh, and then
we'll all do whatever we think is right. In week eight, we.
Are chatting with Mike North, VP of broadcast planning for the NFL. The Super Bowl champion Chiefs host the NFL kickoff game on Thursday, September seventh. The Bengals have a road game this year at Kansas City would obviously be a great opener, But the Chiefs have home games against Philly that's a Super Bowl rematch. They've got Buffalo at home. Their division rivals obviously are at home. Have there ever been more enticing choices for that Thursday night opener?
Yeah, that's a great question, Dan, Maybe maybe not. I mean, look, it's it's Kansas City, and right now they are musty TV. I'm pretty sure you, me and nine friends could play Kansas City and that would do a pretty good number
for kickoff. You know, they are musty TV. And to that end, you could make an argument that maybe you don't need to use a Cincinnati, a Philadelphia a game like that in a window where we're all going to be so excited for the season to start, you know, five months from now or four months from now that you know, maybe you don't need your quote unquote best asset in that opening window. That's not to say, you know, we're gonna put a quote on quote lesser game there.
But I'm not sure the Chiefs have a lesser game on their home schedule. So you mentioned them all, Buffalo, Sincy, Philly would all be great. Anybody in that division would be fun. I'm intrigued by Chicago and Detroit also coming into Kansas City. You know, Chicago was pretty exciting last year. I know the record doesn't necessarily reflect you know, success,
and maybe that's not worthy of that window. Detroit was, you know, maybe the hottest team in the league last year, eight out of the last nine or whatever it was the last time we saw them. You know, they win in a Lambeau and ruined the Packers season. You know, any division games would be interesting, right Herbert and the Chargers always play the Chiefs tough. The Raiders have a
new quarterback, they always play the Chiefs tough. And I think everybody's gonna be really intrigued with Denver this year when you think about the new coach and can he get out of Russell Wilson what we're all used to seeing from Russell Wilson. I love the options. I love the flexibility. Kind of changed our process a little bit as we searched through the you know, infinite Most years, to your point, there's one or two pretty obvious options for kickoff and then you kind of go from there.
We kind of did it the other way this year. Sometimes when we solved kickoff was almost the last piece of the puzzle. There were a lot of good options and pretty sure, whatever we choose, we're gonna do.
Okay, the Bengals have four road games that could at least potentially be international games, but I'm guessing those opponents don't want to lose home games against Cincinnati. Can teams veto certain opponents on the international games, Yeah.
When a club is selected or designated or volunteers. Forgive me, I'm not one hundred percent sure how the sausage gets made with an international team. But when a team is designated for international play and it's one of their home games, yeah, they have some rights and some obligations and some commitments, and yeah, they can take a look at their home opponents and they can work with an international team. We
generally don't do division games over there. That's you know, from a fans to those are always some of the most exciting games of the season. To you know, take those and move them overseas might not be exactly the right thing to do for the fan base and the season ticket members. So generally we don't play the inner
the division games over there. And then you know, if there's one or two really big ones, maybe somebody by rotation hasn't been there for a while, you know, or maybe he isn't going to be there for another eight years. To take that one away from the fans maybe isn't the right thing to do. So there's a lot of back and forth, a lot of give and take, just trying to figure out, you know, how to thread that.
You know, which of these games make the most sense to keep in your home stadium, Which of the ones would be really interesting to take overseas. Maybe there's a fan base already kind of built in in the UK or in Germany for one of your home opponents. But you're you're not wrong when you think about, for instance, you know, Kansas City and they think about, hey, you know, we are hosting Cincinnati this year. You know, on the one hand, the Chiefs might say, we'd really love to
have him here. Then again, you know, all the stuff that went on last year with burrow Land, maybe it wouldn't be abit thing to get the Bengals in another city. So there's a lot of give and take. Look, I think the really the smartest way to look at it is a game like Cincinnati Kansas City, for instance. That's
my CTV. I mean, you're talking about one of the top five games of the year, and I'm not sure nine thirty am in the East six thirty am in the Pacific time zone is the right place for us to deploy one of our, you know, arguably top games. So I'd be surprised if a game like Cincinnati Kansas City made its way across the pond. But it would be a hell of a statement and it would be really fun for our fans over there. But I don't don't buy your tickets yet.
That so, Mike, the last time the Bengals gave up a home game to play internationally was a London game back in twenty sixteen, so it's been a long time. We know they won't lose a home game next year. Because they only have eight home games, should we more or less expect hosting an international game in a couple of years considering the time frame and the fact that they'll have nine home games in two years.
Yeah, I mean it's certainly gonna come from the AFC. We're gonna draw from the AFC for twenty twenty five, so they're certainly in the mix. The resolution that the ownership pass basically says everybody's gonna give up a home game once every eight years, So there's gonna be four games a year every eight years. Everybody's gonna give one up. So to your point, if you didn't get it, you know this year, you're certainly in the mix for twenty five, and then if you didn't get it then at some
point twenty seven, twenty nine. Yeah, it's it's gonna happen. A lot of it depends on, you know, where are we record wise, where are we with our stars, where are we with our international marketing. Some of these international cities strangely just you know, kind of adopt NFL teams and if all of a sudden, you know, Madrid, Spain or wherever else we're considering, seems to be a you know Bengals hot spot, then you know, we'd be smart to try to make sure we can get a Bengals
game to them. That's not to say the Bengals wouldn't be great in London or Germany or Mexico or anywhere else we play, but I think those things kind of evolve over time, and our international folks work with our teams, and the teams will tell us, the fans will tell us, and yeah, look, at some point everybody's gonna go certainly once as a home team, but that doesn't prevent them from going into visiting team either. So maybe not this year,
but certainly at some point. Yeah, we'll see some games over the pump.
We are visiting with Mike North, the NFL's VP of broadcast planning. There are two hundred and seventy two regular season NFL games. You often talk about each how each one is an asset. How do you determine the value of each game? Do you assign it a numerical value? Do you give each game a grade? How do you go about doing that?
Uh, it's a part art in part science. You know, they I refer to them as assets. They're really not like you know, commodities like financial assets. They belong to the fans, right and at the end of the day, the job is to make sure that the fans get to see the games that are most important to them. And obviously all seventeen Bengals games are going to be the highest rated games from a viewership standpoint in the city of Cincinnati. But you know where else do fans
care about the Bengals? Is it your division opponents? So we're starting to build a national brand where heck, even in New York, if the Jets are on buy and the Giants are on Monday Night and we need to pick the right game to put in the number one media market in the country at one o'clock, maybe it becomes a Bengals game. And so you sort of track how the Nielsen ratings and the viewership numbers come in.
You watch things like you know, fantasy football ownership and hats and jersey sales and Instagram followers and secondary ticket pricing and you know, legalized sports betting action and all the ways that our fans are interacting with us and telling us what's important to them. If it were that simple to just simply put a number on it, that would be great, Dan, I would love that. I'd love
to try to build that model. I'm not sure it's ever quite that simple, but there is a little bit of science to it, a little bit of Hey, if you have a Bengals game, then you've got the Upper Midwest covered regionally on a map for CBS at one o'clock, So maybe you don't need a Browns game that day, or at least not on the same network. Or if you have a Steelers Ravens game, maybe that's not a good time for the Bengals to be playing Sunday one.
Why don't we move the Bengals to four o'clock or eight o'clock or Monday, or maybe this is a good week for their bye, but their bye has to track with their Thursday game, because you don't want it right before right after, and you're gonna need those two sort of breaks. Want to full buy, one a mini buy,
so it all kind of ties together. It would be great if there were ever one true mathematical formula that we could write and just kind of hit the button on the computer and walk away for a couple of weeks and come back and hey, here's the winner. It's never that simple. There's got to be some room for the humans to kind of guide the search and say, nope, maybe a little more of this than a little less
of that. Soart part science, but yeah, we're trying to build a model where we can sort of actcurreately predict what the value of each of these games is to our fans, and then make sure that we deploy them strategically.
We've got some changes to talk about this year. Strictly speaking, CBS is no longer the primary home of AFC games, and Foxes no longer the primary home of NFC games. Is that correct?
They're no longer the default home of anytime the AFC team is on the road. So for decades, anytime an AFC team was on the road, that game belonged quote unquote to CBS. So then if the league wanted to put it in primetime, take it for Sunday night or Monday night, then it was kind of taking it away from CBS. And you had to manage the number of games you took away from CBS and all the kind of back and forth with the numbers and the math.
That part's gone on. Every game is a toss up, but CBS is still the primary home of the AFC, They're gonna have at least twice as many Bengals games than any other partner. So more Bengals games than not will be on CBS, more Ravens games, more Steelers games, more Chiefs games, more Jets games will be on CBS than not. And on the other side, more Cowboys games, more Eagles games, more Bears games, more Niners games will be on Fox than not. Those are still the primary
home for at least half their games. But this notion of oh, we're taking away this game, that part's gone. So every game is a toss up. But when you sprinkle them all in, you're still going to see more Bengals games on CBS than anywhere else.
So the NFL passed a rule this year allowing teams to play two Thursday games after playing the previous Sunday. Is that going to happen to a team or multiple teams and how do you handle the inevitable pushback, Well, it's gonna happen.
It's not a new rule. It happened last year. The Cowboys and the Titans each played two short week games last year. The Cowboys obviously always play on Thanksgiving, and they played another short week game later in the season. They played the Titans in Week seventeen on a Thursday night, and the Titans played a Week ten I think I think it was Thursday night game at Lambeau. So you had two teams last year playing two short weeks, and ownership voted this year to allow for more than that
to play two short weeks. So yes, you are definitely gonna see more than two teams play multiple short weeks. The challenge for us is gonna be first and foremost, you know, spreading them out, using the two Thursdays and the bye week to kind of ensure that the team that has the multiple short weeks has multiple rest opportunities. You know, you might see a Thursday and week five, a bye in week nine, and then another Thursday in
week fifteen or something like that. Or maybe you see a bye in week seven and a Thursday and week eleven and another Thursday late in the year. So we're gonna try to spread them out. We're gonna try to balance it so that no team feels like, hey, that's too many short weeks all right in a row. And
then we're gonna you know, spread them out fairly. If you happened to like the Cowboys and the Titans have two short weeks last year, probably not our best schedule if we give you two short weeks again this year. So I wouldn't expect the Cowboys and the Titans to have two short weeks. So it'll be a different mix of teams. Three, four or five teams maybe that are gonna have multiple short weeks, and then see where that goes, see what the feedback is, and see if we want
to adjust that moving forward. But this notion that you know, there's a misnomer out there that every team gets a primetime game, that that's not the case. That hasn't been the case for years, And you know, the commissioner always says, you know, you earn your television exposure you play your way into primetime. So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of teams on Amazon more than once, and that probably means a couple of teams not on
Amazon at all. But if you have a good season, if you're playing your way into primetime, there's opportunities, whether it's the TVD Saturday Pool or flexible scheduling for Sunday night or Monday night there's always ways that we can adjust. But yeah, when the schedule comes out in May, you'll surely see teams, multiple teams with multiple short weeks for the first time.
Monday night games can be flexed. Moving games from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night or vice versa is one thing. Changing days of the week is more challenging. What are the specifics of Monday night flexing.
Yeah, the specifics are it's, you know, just like we've been doing for Sunday Night since two thousand and six. If we see a game, you know, about a month out that looks, you know, a little less compelling than we hoped when we put it on the schedule in May, we'll start talking to those two teams, We'll look at the other games that weekend, and we'll see if it
wouldn't make sense. You know, often what we try to do with flexible scheduling is you see a game in a one o'clock or a four o'clock window on a Sunday afternoon on CBS or Fox, and just by virtue of the market sizes and the other games in the window, a really good game with playoff implications might only be available in fifteen twenty twenty five percent of the country. And that's not really fair to those teams that have
earned additional exposure. And it's not really fear to the teams to leave them in primetime if you know they're seasons slipping away. There's nothing good, there's nothing fun or rewarding about a couple of teams just playing out the string in primetime. It's not fair to the fans, it's not fair to the television viewers, it's not fair to the partners that that's just not what any of us want. So, you know, for Sunday Night Flex, we've been pretty judicious.
One one and a half times a year. Last year was a bit of an outlier. I think we had four, But most years, you know, Sunday Night is once or twice for Monday Night Flex. Understanding the impact of moving, you know, teams off days and fans having to change the plans, you know, maybe maybe once a year. I don't think it's gonna be reckless. I don't think it's gonna be cavalier. This wouldn't be about hey, can we
add one hundred thousand viewers? This would be about hey, this game is nowhere near as good as we thought, and there's another game that weekend that's just sitting there right for the taking. And if we don't move it into a better window, most of our fans are gonna miss it. And that's probably not what we're trying to do either. So hard and fast rules, not yet first time we're doing it. I think we'll talk to the teams.
I think we'll talk to our partners. We'll learn a lot this year, even if we don't make any moves, we'll learn a lot just about talking to the teams, talking to the operations folks. You know, yes, there's a lot of people that have to change their plans, but you know, so do your guys right. You got to change hotels and charters and meeting space and practice schedules. And where were they we the week before? And where
are we the week after? And is it fair to put this team now we know a Monday night game on the road if the following week they're already scheduled for another road game, and you know, those are all the things that are going to have to go into our decision making. Again, I don't think we'll be reckless.
I think we'll be pretty judicious. But it's there for a reason, and it's really there to, you know, protect the teams that maybe are in a national window that you know no longer even want to be, and reward the teams that have earned themselves some additional exposure.
You added a Christmas triple header last year when Christmas Day fell on a Sunday. It's on a Monday this year. Is the Christmas triple header here to stay?
It's certainly here for another year. I don't know if it's here to stay. It's gonna be a tough sell on a Tuesday. But for twenty twenty three, yeah, another Christmas Day triple header. It'll be uh CBS one o'clock Monday, Fox four thirty Monday, and then the regular Monday night ESPN game at a fifteen that night. So, yep, another Christmas tripleheader this year.
You have added a Black Friday game this year. Do you consider it important to have a quote unquote glamorous matchup to get that game off to an impressive ratings start? Yeah?
I mean, yeah, the simple answers, Yes, I think we will try to thread that needle, find that right game. It's another short week, so you might, you know, have to find the team playing. You know, like we said, multiple short weeks, maybe playing on a Friday is a little less onerous than playing on two Thursdays. But yeah, the simple answer is, I think we're gonna test it out see if our fans are interested. You know, it's not a holiday for everybody, but you know, it's a
traditional sports day. There's always a lot of sports on television that day, and I think an NFL game kind of in the afternoon, right there might be a great inuation for us for a really fun weekend. You've got the three games on Thursday, now on Friday, big games on Sunday, another one on Monday. That's a really fun weekend of football and it kind of you know, kicks off the you know run to the playoffs and the and the final quarter of the season, if you will,
And yeah, I would. I would expect there to be you know, maybe not the A plus game, but certainly a game that that sounds like a football game for Black Friday.
Last year, the Bengals and Bills obviously had the Monday night game that was halted because of Jamar Hamblin's collapse. Is there any sort of make good on that from the NFL's perspective, whether it's to the media partner ESPN or to the teams, any repercussions of following that game.
Look, there's always conversations going on with the teams, with the networks, with all of our partners. There was a lot of discussion. You'll remember this. There was a lot of discussion last year about should we have finished that game and finished you know, for the twenty twenty two season. It ended up having you know, pretty significant playoff imp cations. It would have been interesting how we decided to you know,
thread that needle. There was a lot of talk about should we let everybody finish the season week eighteen and then everybody take a break and the Bengals and the Bills come back in week nineteen and kind of finish pick up where they left off. There were those who thought maybe that would be a little too traumatic, maybe a little bit triggering, to actually literally go back to that spot in the second quarter and pick it up
right after Damar had had his incident. You know, as it turned out, we were only talking about the two in the three seed, and you know, call it karma, call it poetic justice. But you know, the Bengals getting that win and moving on in the playoffs probably put an end to anything that we were gonna, you know, think about. Obviously hopeful that DeMar continues to recover, and my goodness, this yere seems like he may be playing again, maybe even as soon as this year, which is a miracle.
But surely that the fact that they play again this year, it's gonna be a story. And again perfect example of you know, call them assets, call them what you will, We're probably not doing our jobs. If you put that game on a Sunday at one o'clock and it's only available in twenty percent of the country, and it's got a Cowboys game and a Steelers game and a Chiefs game around it, that's a game that everybody's going to
be interested in. So I think it's a pretty safe bet that that game is going to find itself in a national window when the schedule comes out.
The Cincinnati Reds are home on the NFL's opening weekend. Years ago, it seemed like the Bengals never opened the season at home. If the Reds were home, does that have any impact in this day and age.
Sure, Yeah, no question. I mean, look like we said, it's part art and part science. I'm sure the world would keep spinning if we went ahead and scheduled a Bengals game at the exact same time as a Reds game. But that's not in our best interest. That's not in the city of Cincinnati's best interest. I'm sure the you know, police force probably wouldn't appreciate all those people downtown. You know.
I know we've done it for a preseason game, right maybe like a game in the afternoon and a game at night, and you can make a really fun sports day out of it. But I would not expect the Bengals and the Reds to be playing at the same time, at least as it pertains to the Reds regular season schedule. You know, will work around the Reds as best we can weeks one, two, three, and four, when at least the red schedule is known. Weeks five, six, seven, eight,
the Red schedule is not known. We have no idea which these baseball teams are going to be in playoffs. We have enough trouble guessing which NFL teams are going to be in the playoff chase, so you know, we may find ourselves one of these Octobers where we might have to do a Bengals in a Reds doubleheader, and I'm sure we'll work with the city. We'll work with our friends at the Major League Baseball and try to make sure that everybody can you know, have a good
experience with it. But yeah, whether it's you know, fans having to choose, media, having to cover downtown footprint, traffic, congestion, police, whatever, it is probably not our best schedule if we have to have the Reds and Bengals playing at the same time. So we'll avoid it in the regular season. Regular season
for baseball. Once you know, the Reds make the playoffs, well we might have to have a conversation and figure out the right way to handle, you know, a Sunday in October if both teams are playing at home.
Will be a good issue for the Cincinnati Yeah, fan base to have. All right, final question for you, Mike, I appreciate your time. This is a bit of a curve ball. Last year's Super Bowl drew a record for most total viewers. More than one hundred and fifteen million people watch the Super Bowl, but the highest share for a Super Bowl game is Super Bowl sixteen Bengals and forty nine Ers. With changes in TV viewership. Is that record considered impossible to break?
Good question. I'll never stay impossible, because you know, we may well find ourselves one day with you know, the best storyline we could imagine, whatever that is in a super Bowl. So I'll never say never. But your point is valid. When when we talk about, you know, share, what you're talking about is people watching television. How many were watching you know, that one program. You know when we grew up Dan and they were what three four channels right, So on the television, you didn't have that
many choices. And if you're watching television, you were probably watching whatever the big event was. You know. Now our kids are growing up with hundreds, hundreds, hundreds of channels and they don't even have to just go to the television to ingest their media. They can follow other things, including the super Bowl online. So is that share number safe? It probably is. There's just so many options out there,
so many different, you know, outlets for entertainment. I think if anybody were interested in watching the super Bowl, they'd be watching the super Bowl. It's not like anybody you know forgot the super Bowl was on, you know, all the promotion in the marketing and whatever. You think is helping drive viewership at least in the regular season, probably not necessary at super Bowl time. So those who want
to watch will watch, you know. It's part of the reason why we've you know, changed it into more of a you know, family friendly event, if you will. And whether it's you know, pregame or the halftime show or whatever it is that goes into the Super Bowl. Now, hopefully there's something for everybody. Hopefully anybody who wants to watch can watch it. But you're probably right. My guess would be that share record is safe.
The outcome of Super Bowl sixteen was not what we desired, but it's nice to have the record for the greatest super Bowl TV share of all time?
Wasn't it? Also? Wasn't that game also played during like an ice storm.
Yeah, Pontiac Silver Dome with horrific weather that is.
So nobody could leave their homes. They were trapped and there were only three or four television channels. I mean, I guess that's how you said a record. If we ever find ourselves with you know, a real you know blizzard across all fifty states and all the you know internet goes out and you know, all the television channels go dark except for a couple maybe we could threaten that share record, but I think it's probably safe. Mike.
I can't imagine how busy you are right now, so for you to do this less than forty eight hours before the release show on TV, I'm really grateful. I know my audience loves hearing your insight, and I look forward to doing it again with you at this time next year.
Yeah, I always happy to talk about it. I'm still, you know, marvel humbled that people are so interested and it's become a, you know, one of the tenth pole events of the NFL season schedule release. It didn't used to be, right, It used to just kind of sneak out a little stealth, kind of under the radar on a you know, random Thursday in April. But the fact that everybody's so interested now, you know, hopefully justifies all the hard work that the team puts in. We're we're
really lucky, We're really grateful. We've got an incredible staff that really do give you know, twenty four to seven for a good ten or twelve weeks here. This thing couldn't happen without folks like Annie Bo's and Charlotte Carey and Blake Jones and Lucy Popco and well, we're really, really fortunate that everybody works so hard and cares so much, and really looking forward to the schedule getting out there
and hearing everybody's reactions. I know it won't all be posled, but like you when we were looking and I were saying right before we came on, you know, nobody gets everything. Everybody gets something. Nobody's ever going to be perfectly happy with their schedule, but hopefully in the sense that anybody's disappointed, you know, hopefully it's just a little bit, and hopefully it's pretty evenly across all thirty two teams and all of our media partners. And then the season will start
and best laid plans right out the window. We'll see what storylines emerge. And like we said, these games belong to our fans, and we'll make sure that we can move them around as best we can in as fair way as we can to make sure that everybody can watch the ones they want to watch.
The schedule release is set for eight o'clock on Thursday, with separate shows on the NFL Network and ESPN two. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by pay Corps. More than twenty nine thousand customers trust Paycrep to help them recruit, pay, engage and retain employees. Learn more at paycorp dot com and by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and side merchandise up
for grabs. Find both inside the Bengals app. The Bengals signed three free agents this offseason who already have Super Bowl rings. One is Orlando Brown, who won a ring last year with the Chiefs. The others are cornerback Sydney Jones the fourth, who was a rookie with the Eagles back in twenty seventeen when they beat the Patriots, and quarterback Trevor Simeon, who is a rookie of the Broncos in twenty fifteen when they beat the Panthers. Brian Callahan
was on Denver's coaching staff at the time. Sidney Jones fourth is a former Washington Husky whose teammates there included current Bengals Jake Browning and Drew Sample. He's played for four NFL teams over the last six seasons, and he turns twenty seven. In a couple of weeks. Our first opportunity to visit with Sidney Jones, one of the newest Bengals after signing, is a free agent this offseason. What appealed to you about coming to Cincinnati.
Playoff team, playoff caliber team, super Bowl opportunity. It's a great, great team, great organization. Heard many, many great things about this place, so definitely decided to step in the building to contribute.
The Bengals mentioned when they signed you they had great reports going back to when you came out of college and were drafted in the second round. Did they indicate to you that you are a player that they've been following for a long time.
Actually, Uh, before I signed with Vegas last year, they got a hold of me. You wanted me to come here, but at that point I already committed to Vegas. So it's cause like kind of kind of one of those deals. I couldn't, you know, break that promise, but it all ended up working out, coming coming back full circle. So uh, definitely grateful for that.
Looking at the roster, Chita bea Wuche is coming back from his torn ac all everything looks good. They expect him to be good to go for Week one. Cam Taylor Britt had a very good rookie year, but that leaves a lot of snaps for somebody to play on the outside at corner. Do you see yourself having a significant role?
Uh, definitely, that's that's always my mentality. All is my goal to come in and contribute and do whatever it takes for this team to win.
Tell me a little bit about how you feel about your NFL career today, because it looks to me like when you've been healthy, you've played well, but staying healthy has been the challenge.
Definitely, an injury is part of the game. You know, They're definitely unfortunate. They come at weird times and you hope you do everything you can to avoid them. But sometimes it's just it's just part of the game and it happens. But definitely, when I'm healthy, I know what type of caliber player I am.
For visiting the Sidney Jones, what do you think you bring to the table here?
I bring uh physicality, ball skills, competitive nature, Uh, just just everything you're looking for in a football player. I think I'm all around, all around, versutil player.
Did you know anybody here? You got any friends in this locker room?
Jake Browning.
Drew Simple, you dub guys, I know chiad be Woza Little Pac twelve love you played a Colorado up? I was that you dubh Who else? Irwin?
We go way back with it.
He he doesn't remember me because we used to play seven or seven against each other in SoCal He didn't he didn't remember me.
We played against each other at Stanford.
When I was a U dub two. Uh, that might be about it.
Does Trenton Irwin really not remember you? Or did you shut him down so that he is claiming not to remember? You never know?
You never know?
He got me. I think he used to get out for me in high school a little bit, but I got after him in college a little bit, so you know, a little good trade off.
How did those Washington guys help? Did they share any insight about playing for this team and.
In this city?
They say, you'll love it, So let's I trust those guys.
So what was your impression of the Bengals as a player around another team? Looking at how this team has you know, grown and become a contender in recent years. O, It's great to see.
I love I love looking at teams and seeing their growth and seeing you know, they came from necessarily in a non competitive spot to going to a competitive spot, and then that's something I really enjoy, uh something about my personality. I'll take pride in like just building something and wanting to be a part of growth.
We kind of my time at UDAL was kind of like that.
We're just kind of you know, base, baseline, average, whatever. And I feel like I was a part of something that grew and and and took it over so that we didn't win a national championship, but we finished them or fourth in the country, got to the playoffs, and I felt like I was part of that growth and that whole project of building that. So, uh just I love seeing that wherever it's, whatever sport is in.
I love sports.
So just watching watching a player or organization kind of take uh take its growth and take its course has been a good thing to watch.
It's just a young secondary, especially after the departures of Jesse Bates and Von Bell. Do you think your leadership is going to be significant.
Along with Tudo, along with Mike Hilton and Mike t I think my experience, I have a lot of experience and can shed a lot of knowledge and wherever I sit in and as you know, as I grow with the team and get comfortable and build trust with the guys, I definitely think that will be valuable.
Jones will wear the number twenty four in Cincinnati. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. With more than one hundred and twenty care facilities and fifteen hundred care providers, Kettering Health is committed to guiding you to your best health. Visit ketteringhealth dot org to learn more. Up Next recently signed quarterback Trevor Simeon, who will compete with Jake Browning
to be Joe burrows backup. Simeon is thirty one years old and has started a total of thirty in the NFL for the Broncos, Jets, Saints, and Bears. In fact, his best NFL start statistically was against the Bengals because he threw for three hundred and twelve yards and four touchdowns in a win at Peycorp Stadium in twenty sixteen. First day in a new place, describe this feeling. I know you've been through it a few times before.
Yeah, it's good. It's exciting to get to meet everybody, meet my teammates and get a lay of the land. So two hours in so far, so.
Go who did you know? If anybody?
Not really anybody you know? I know, no Cali, James Casey I played with in Denver for a little bit. But yeah, just getting to know everybody, shaking hands and trying to learn everybody's.
Names, presenting with Trevor Simmy and based on everything I've read, you and Brian Kellen have a great relationship.
Yeah, CALLI was my assistant coach quarterback coach in my rookie year, and we had a Greg Napp uh and obviously Peyton was in there in brock Oswiler. So we had a good group. And you know, you're something about your first year. You allus remember that that kind of closeness.
Did you get the sense that Brian really sold you, for lack of a better expression, to Zach and to ownership, as this guy would be the perfect fit on our roster.
I hope.
So I don't know, yeah, I hope. So you know we've kept in touch, you know, via text over the last several years. But uh, yeah, I thought it was it was a cool opportunity to link up with somebody that I had crossed over with before, and obviously, you know, I just want to be on a good team with some good coaches.
So years probably fly by. When you're playing in the NFL. You've gone from young starter now to experienced mentor. Is that difficult to process?
Yeah? I don't.
I try not to process it now minute. You know, every once in a while you kind of figuring out what what uh? What's what's transpired? But you know, I'm thankful for every every bit of it, every team I've been on, every coach, every teammate. It's it's been a fun ride. So excited to keep it going.
The quarterback fraternity is an interesting one. What have been your impressions of Joe Burrow from AFAR.
I love watching him play. I think he's, you know, it is a terrific football player, and you know, as a quarterback, you certainly appreciate, you know, a couple the top handful of guys watching him play on TV, and he's he's a guy that you know, I will certainly stop what I'm doing and watch a ball game.
For anything in particular standout, Yeah, I think.
He's I think he's just got a great feel for passing the football. You know, I think, uh, sorts of anticipation they can make obviously every throw and there's a little bit of creativity in there too. So just a fun guy to watch.
Where does your four touchdown game against the Bengals stack is one of your favorite NFL highlights? Uh?
You know, it's up there. It's fun. It's fun. I've always enjoyed winning on the road, so I think all the road winds I've had in my career are definitely up there. But yeah, it's it's fun looking back at it. Cool to be here now playing on the home side.
You've got a Super Bowl ring, correct.
Yeah, I like to get another one.
We would like you to get another one. I was just talking to Sydney Jones, the fourth who's new this year. He has one as a rookie with the Eagles. When you've been on a team that's done that, how much is it what your appetite to be part of it again?
Huge? You know? And I was. It was my rookie year too, so I was so spoiled in that sense. Uh, And it is. It's it's a totally different feeling, and it's it's something that you know, when you go through the first time, you're like, well, maybe maybe I get back again, and you're trying to not take it for granted, but kind of seeing what it what it took, and what the team looked like, and you know, got to get a ball to bounce your your way a few
times and you got a really freaking good team. So yeah, looking looking forward to trying to do it this year.
Simeon will wear the number nineteen in a Bengals uniform. That's going to do it. For this episode of The Bengals Booth podcast brought to you by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs by pay Core, the official HR software provider of the Bengals, and by Alta Fiber future
Proof Fiber Internet elevate your connection with Alta Fiber. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horn and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth podcast