Bengals Booth Podcast: Last Call

Bengals Booth Podcast, the Last Call edition. As we get you set for the last home game of the year, featuring two teams that currently find themselves in last place to five and eight Bengals and the three and ten Oakland Raiders coming up, My broadcast partner Dave Lapham joins me to discuss a wide variety of topics, ranging from playing time at last for offensive lineman Christian Westerman to a great lap story about legendary former Raiders owner Al Davis.

After hearing from lap we'll hear from Carlos Dunn lap on being nominated for one of the NFL's most prestigious honors. And this week's Know the Faux segment, we'll get the lowdown on John Gruden's Raiders from former Pro Bowl offensive lineman Lincoln Kennedy, who currently calls Oakland's games on the radio with Brent Musburger, still going strong at the age

of seventy nine. 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 or pod Bean. It's the greatest inventions since Christmas cards. You heard me. I am a big fan of Christmas cards. Love seeing the family photos. I love hearing from friends that I haven't seen in years. However, I am not a big

fan of the bragging Christmas letter. Well, we can agree that it's great that your kids are crushing it at Ivy League schools. We don't need three mimiographed pages about it in your Christmas card. Now, let's get to football. The Bengals will try to snap their five game losing streak this Sunday against an Oakland team that has been awful under the one hundred million dollar man John Gruden.

The Raiders share the worst record in the NFL with San Francisco and Arizona, and Oakland has been outscored by one hundred forty four points. The Cardinals are the only team that's been outscored by more, with a deficit of one forty nine. The Bengals have been outscored by ninety but last week they pushed one of the best teams in the league to the brink, losing a nail bier

to the Chargers in Los Angeles. The Bengals defense, last in the league in points allowed, last in the league in yards allowed, was excellent over the final three quarters of that game. And that's where I begin my conversation with broadcast partner Dave lappham Lapp. In last week's game against the Chargers, LA scored touchdowns on its first two drives and it looked like it was going to be

another disaster like the Chiefs or Saints games. But after that, the Chargers had eight possessions without scoring a touchdown, including two drives that started in Cincinnati territory. What changed and is its significant going forward? I think it is Dan. On the first two drives, the Bengals gave up ten first downs, four first downs on the first drive, six

first downs in the second drive. The rest of the game those eight drives seven first downs total, And they started playing more man in the in the secondary, and they've drafted guys out of college William Jackson, Drake Kerpatrick, long long arms that like to press, play, bump and run, get their hands on people. Darkis Denard same thing at

Michigan State. You know they feel comfortable doing that. And I think that the coverage coverage was much better as a result, rivers has to hold the ball a little longer, pass rush starts getting there. Now the pass rushers start to get more confidence, they start turning up another notch and all of a sudden, the gloves fit in their hand. You know, good coverage, better sack possibility, better pressure, more

interception possibility. I mean it all is, you know, conjoined, there's no question about it, and it was disjointed, and now it looks it looks like it's starting to Meldon Mesh a little bit more. I hope that through the rest of the season they play more man coverage because they look pretty darn good. And I'm not saying that the Chargers had multiple receivers that could really beat up with route running Keenan Allen can and tell you what,

Jackson did a good job on him. So I'm anxious to see those guys go out and play man coverage and say I got you and I'm eliminating you for the rest of the season, and watch watch the increase in pressure on the quarterback lab For much of our broadcast last Sunday, you were raving about the interior offensive line play a belly price, Alex Redman and Christian Westerman. Did the Bengals have something there and it's had time to see exactly what Westerman can do. Yeah, Westerman played

forty two snaps, you know, in the game. And you know, I'm not I don't know about the assignment, if he carried out his assignment fully with the right person and all the things that go along with that. But watching him play, he is powerful, he is strong. He can bend, and he bends at the knees, not the waste You don't want to be a waste bender. You want to bend at the knees and then you're instill in a good football position. And he is. I'll tell you the

guy is. He's got some brute force and frute strength to him. And they were they were moving people. Dan. You know the first double team that I saw between Billy probably Price and Westerman, I mean, you got to buy a token for that ride if you're a defensive line. He went five seven yards backwards right into the linebacker's lap. They just washed everything away and Joe Mixon was feeding

off of it. I talked to Joe a little bit after the game and I'm like, that was I mean, when you see a push like that, he goes, oh, man, you know that's now. Now it's you're living right, You're living good. And if you give Joe as talented as he is, an ability to get past the line of scrimmage, for he makes his first cut and in some cases it was like two or three yards past the line of scrimmage, you know, just right up the belly of

the defense. That's that's really getting it done. And I think that's why they stayed in the game against the good football team as long as they did, as they imposed their will in the interior and everything. You know, they fed off of that aspect of it. So I do think that you need to find out what you have with you don't want to end another season and say, man, Christian Westerman, physically, we know we got something there. Kenny.

Can he respond? Can he handle a lot of the stress of the game mentally and all that goes along with it? Can he do it? One way to find out, got to expose him to snaps at critical times in games against you know, really good competition and see what you got. Redman has to continue to improve and quit with the mental errors. And Billy Price is literally halfway

through his rookie year because of the injury. So all three of those guys, I mean, I think the concluding three games of this season are pivotal and monumental for those three guys, that they can start to form some kind of a bond there and prove that, hey, the interior the Bengals offensive line might be pretty good in years to come. We've seen two starts by Jeff Driscoll. In those games, he's thrown two touchdown passes, one interception, he's had a touchdown run that got wiped out by

a bad rule, and he's been sacked seven times. Has he been better, worse? Or about what you expected? I think about what I expected. He I knew he had nfl arm talent and he does. I mean watching him throw, he's got velocity, accuracy, puts it in in tight spots. You know, he makes the uh the contested catch less contested. He'll hit his receiver before you know, the arrival of the defender and those kind of things. But he still needs to see the field, you know, a little bit

more readily and easily than he is right now. And that comes with reps they designed to play for Franks. I was looking at the game again and Franks did a little out and up move and it's seven points. It's there, and he either didn't see it or get off it too fast and didn't see it as it unfolded. You know. Another time he made a completion and got the first down, but there was another receiver on an eight yard hook that was all by himself. Would have

been an easier throw to make. And you can you can nit pick and cherry pick every single quarterbacks performance, but I think some of the easy throws I think are going to come to him, you know, based on the number of reps and the number of snaps he gets. But I'm impressed with him, I really am. I mean, I think physically he's got he's got a lot of skills. I mean, he's he can move, he's strong, he's big, physical. I think that he's um accelerating his career. I think

that in the first two games that he's played. I think around the league it's like, m let's let's take a longer look at at Jeff driscoll. He's not hurting himself. He's he's helping himself with this opportunity, and that's what you want as a as a backup quarterback when when opportunity knocks, you know, when the doors open to crack, you gotta kick it in, and I think he's doing that. I'm looking forward to see him play against the Raiders because the two games that he's played, look at the

pass rush. I mean Denver edge rushers, you know, and um, you know, back back to back games. You know, you got the situation that he just faced last week. You know a couple of good edge rushers as well, so now maybe you get a little bit of a breather. Denver's only got eleven quarter back sacks as a team in thirteen games, and he was playing against guys that had that many individually, you know, Chubb von Miller, Joey Bosa hasn't played that many games this year, but he's

capable of those kind of numbers. It's it's I think it's gonna be very interesting to see how he plays against the open Raiders and Paul Gunther. Aaron Donald has sixteen and a half sacks and the Raiders, as you mentioned, have eleven as a team. One thing about Paul Gunther though, as we know, with that double a Gapplitz and all the things he does off of it. He can run a lot of coverages behind that double a gapp. He can confuse quarterbacks. We saw him confuse Flacco time after

time at veteran quarterback. So that's the one thing. Jeff Driscoll is gonna be really good with his nose in the book, you know, and study and tape in the playbook and everything to make sure that he's not confused by stuff that Paul Gunther's going to concoct because you know, going against an inexperienced quarterback, he's going to throw the kitchen sink at him. In terms of different looks, who's

your most pleasant surprise and your biggest disappointment? I think I think based on the way the season unfolded the four and one start, there are a lot of good surprises. But in the one and seven stretch here, I'm I'm most uh, I guess pleased. I don't know about surprise, but most pleased with what Joe Mixon and Tyler Boyd are given. Not just with their numbers, but those guys are all in. I mean, they go out and they play no matter what I mean, They're gonna go out

and compete. They're gonna go out and slug it out. They're gonna get after it snap after snap. I think I think the fan base has responded to Joe Mixon and Tyler Boyd because of that. You know. I think that those guys have I think, shown themselves as as leaders. I think their leadership is building. I think guys are gravitating toward them, you know. And I think it's unfortunate that Jeff driscal is in the situation he's in, but

I think he's responded well. I think the thing to me that's telling what a quarterback is how the guys react and respond to him. And when he came into that football game, they responded very possitively, and they have ever since, and even in a couple of defeats, teammates coming up to him in the locker room when I'm in there right away after the game, you know, nice job, Hey, he worked your tail off today. I mean, you gave

everything you got. So they are responding to Jeff Driscoll not only with his physical abilities, but also, you know, with his makeup and the way he is with his teammates. And I know he works hard at practice, he practices his tail off, and I think guys are you know, grateful or appreciative of him taking advantage of the opportunity that he's been given. They feel like he deserves it

and he's doing something about it. I think probably my biggest disappointment is I'm stunned at how the defense played. I mean, I think every problem every Bengals fan is. I mean I thought, really the beginning of the season, with two Pro bowlers that just got big contract extensions and they you know, they'd have a lot of juice as a result, you know, for a lot of reasons

to go out and really have big years. And then on the back end with three first round picks, they're covering people that we talked about it a few times. That's the makings of a decent defense in today's NFL. And man, just to fall on their face the way they did is stunning to me. I mean, it's historically bad, and I had no inkling that it was going to be that bad. During the course of training camp. I thought,

oh man, they're hustling. Look, the only the thing that they did in the four in one stretch was creating the turnovers and defensive scores and all that that's dried up. I mean, that that well has gone pretty dry, and really it's it's almost it's almost incomprehensible to me that they can be as bad as they are statistically after thirteen games in into the season. So by far, that's my biggest disappointment, Surprise, shock, stunner, whatever you want to

categorize it. It's it's just absolutely mind boggling to me. So I'm watching Monday Night football this week and century Link Field in Seattle was rocking. The place was packed, the noise level was deafening. That will not be the case here on Sunday for the home finale, but it used to be. The Bengals sold out fifty seven straight games between two thousand and three and two thousand and ten.

As somebody who has been affiliated with this franchise for most of your life, how much do the empty seats bother you? And what will it take to get people back? It does bother me, and it bothers me as a former player, because I can harken back to a four and twelve season where our final home game against the Atlanta Falcons offense was being introduced, where we ran out the tunnel and you know, it's ten minutes before kickoff

or whatever it was, and our footsteps were echoing. There was nobody there, and you know, you look around, it's like, oh boy, you know now you have to you have to manufacture your own energy. And you got to do it. I mean, you're a professional, you're being paid to do it. But sometimes it's not as easy to do as people think. But you have to. And that's been I think a question that a lot of the fans have. Boy, these

guys even going to give effort. I mean, I'll show up if they give effort, if they if they try and my eyes are doing everything they can to win a football game and not throwing in a neutral and cruise control, you know, come and support them. So I think that's what it's going to take. And then when when the stadium is packed, I mean, feeding off that energy.

You know, the Super Bowl season, super Bowl sixteen in nineteen eighty one with the fans with the orange and black faces and the Hoodae, the you know, the the birth of the Hooday Chance and all that. It was unbelievable. It was like it was like a college atmosphere. And you know, then when you're running out of the tunnel, your feet aren't in the ground. I mean, you're you're on cloud nine. You're floating, and you feel like you can pick the stadium up, you know, uh, not only

go play football. So it is it is night and day and uh and all the other things go along with it. Dan, I mean as a as an offensive lineman, Um, I know what it's like to not be able to hear people. And that's what it was like. Our defense would feed off of that. Our crowd was going nuts and and the Bengals have to get back to that. And the only way they can do it is to give full effort every single snap and win some football games. This week, it's the twenty eighteen home finale, has the

Bengals host the three and ten Oakland Raiders. The Bengals are three point favorite, despite all of their injuries and their five game losing streak. Lap Raiders fans had high hopes with John Gruden returning to the sidelines this year.

Why do the Raiders stink? They dismantled the football team. Basically, they're they're building for the opening of their new stadium in Las Vegas, and they basically are thumbing their noses at the open Raider fans who have been tremendously loyal to that franchise for a number of years, and they had you know, they were thrilled. Here it comes John grudenback. Boy, We've got a quarterback this Pro Bowl caliber. We have Mac, who's the best defensive player, not anymore Max as Chicago Bear.

Cooper is a Dallas cowboy. They're accumulating first round picks, but I don't care. If you have ten first round picks, you may not ever find another Mac. To give up him, to give up on Mac and to trade him is unbelievable to me. Irving Bruce Irvan, another good pass rusher, is no longer a Raider. So they only have eleven sacks in thirteen games. It's it's unbelievable. There's no no pass rush. And there they've had their injuries too. You look at their injury reserve list, it's about as lengthy

as the Bengals is an interesting enough. Then there are eight former Bengals on that roster for them an injury reserve, so the virus is not only current Bengals former Bengals around the league. For the eighth former Bengals are on injury reserve with the Raiders that's that's mind boggling. So I think that's that's pretty much it. They've they've traded their best players to try to get future draft picks, and then the injuries to players that remained, and they're

a sella what they thought they might be. Last thing. It's been seven years since former Raiders owner Al Davis passed away, but his legend still looms large over the franchise. You have an El Davis story. I remember early in my career going out to Oakland and uh, you know, Al Davis said let the grass grow to about a foot and a half long because he didn't have he didn't have huge speed, you know, like Blittnicoff really couldn't run.

Marv Hubbard wasn't a guy that was really a runner, you know, more of a powerful football team than a speed team. So he would always let the grass grow and try trying to get the opposition's team speed a little bit. And I remember vividly the stories about it. Then when I went out there, I'm like, this grass is longer, there's no question about it. It's funny. And I see him on the field and uh, we were just going through um individual position drill warm ups, and

he kind of walked by the offensive liner. And when I was curling back to the end of the line after going through a little drill um, he comes walking Behy in his black and silver you know, garb, his his raider garb and he's chewing gum about one hundred and fifty miles an hour young. He was banging the banging his gums away and hey, hey, Sarah Kills, huh, he says, laughing, what's going on? Huh, Sarah Kills. I'm like, yeah, hey,

mister Davis, how you doing? You know? And that, honestly, that was a thrill to actually see him in that in that kind of environment and then think, I mean he actually knows my name. That was like, God, that's unbelievable that Al Davis knows my last name. That's cool

as heck. And then um, when the game later on, we're playing when Matt Millen is a Raider, we're playing the Raiders, and I was I'd gotten to be pretty good friends with him, and after the game we're talking and a couple of things happened during the course of the game that were pretty funny. But after the game, I said, man, you guys, you guys are dirty, you know, I mean, your your whole mentality is I mean you guys, you guys push it every single snap. I mean you're

committing multiple fouls. He goes, You don't think that's by design, dude. Al Davis says to us, look, go out there, do whatever you need to do to get the job done. And if they throw a penalty flag, all of you commit a foul and they're gonna go throw two in a row. And if they throw two, they're not gonna throw three in a row. He said, go out there and do whatever it takes. And he said that came from the top. That was that was from the top down. Just uh, you know, press the press the limit on

the rule and fractions every single play. And man, those guys, it was a street fight when you played those guys. Man, you had to bring it because they were bringing it all they were. They were going out there and doing everything they possibly could to win the football game. If we're within the rules or not within the boundary of the rules, just win baby, exactly. Just win baby at all costs, no matter what it takes. Al Davis the

legend Thanks Lap. Last week, the Bengals announced that Carlos Dunlap is the team's nominee for the twenty eighteen Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. Considered one of the league's most prestigious honors. It recognizes an NFL player for outstanding community service as well as excellence on the field. Carlos is helping the Cincinnati community in a wide variety

of ways. For starters, there's the Carlos Dunlap Foundation, which focuses on education, offering tutoring and after school events, and Carlos is in the second season of his anti bullying Tour. Dunlap made stops at five schools in Cincinnati and also met with kids in Charlotte, Kansas City, in Baltimore during road trips. This is the second time in four years the Dunlap has been nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, and he talked about the honor

with Lap on Wednesday. It's an unbelievable acknowledgment, you know, being able to, you know, get recognized and nominated, you know twice, especially knowing with all my teammates are doing here. You know, a lot of guys are very active in the community here in Cincinnati at home. So to get recognized knowing what they're doing, it's definitely, you know, a privilege and honor to represent the team again. And let's try to bring it home. I hear you. Your anti

bullying campaign has been highly recognized and rightfully so. I mean, it's it's pretty pretty impressive what you're doing there. And you're not only doing it here in Cincinnati, you're doing it you know, you're taking it on the road a little bit to other NFL cities. What was the h what was the impetus of what? What was the trigger mechanism that kets you involved in the in the anti bullying campaign. Well, with my foundation, UM, we've been going to a lot of the schools and and you know,

UM trying to hit home the importance of education. UM. So we go to talk to these n city athletes who don't really take their education that seriously, but they're you know, excelling on the football field, and we go on there and we challenge them to you know, take that same competitive mindset that they have on the field of playing service whatever it is that they're on UM and bring that into the classroom because uh, you know, you have to go through college and also, uh, your

college education and your college degree is something that never depreciate or go away. You know, you might get old, slow down a little bit, right, you know, all those other things that happened, injuries happened, but they'll never be able to take your mind away. And that college degree that you know, putting that up on the wall his unbelievable accomplishment. And some people are you know, first generation

for doing that. And you know, one of the schools nearby, one of the schools that I go to and talk about the importance of education, had a situation where, you know, a smart kid was excelling the classroom, but he was getting bullied for being smart, and it was to the point where he felt that alone that he wanted to

take his own life. And for a young kid at that age, you know, I can't imagine what he must have been going through to feel that much pressure as a kid, you know, you know, kids don't usually feel much of anything, but he must have been going through that much pressure that he felt like that that was

his only option. So we didn't want to We wanted to take a stand on that and try to make a difference on that, because no kids should feel that alone in a school system or school, at school whatever with this many adults, this many you know, principal administrators, UM, people that they didn't use as a resource. And and also you just want to educate the kids on what bullying is because you know a lot of times kids aren't aren't aware that they're actually bullying somebody. You know,

they think it's a joke. But one of the things we say, it's not a joke unless everybody's included. If you win the National Award what is it two undred fifty thousand dollars that that goes to your in your name, to your to what play sixty is it? Or your foundation or both? Or how does that work? Yeah, there's so half of it goes to the playbook or UM the foundation that the NFL designates, and then the other half I get to designate who it will go to. UM. I get to pick a foundation of my choice UM.

And for in order for me to win, I need everyone to go on their social media platform and use the hashtag Walter Payton Man of the Year but abbreviated w M. POY Challenge space Dunlap in this and that's how he can vote Yeah, that's how As simple as that is, how you can vote. You tweet that hashtag or you post a picture on Instagram using the hashtag, and that counts the voting. There's no there's no limits to how many times you want to voting. I want

to thank everybody in advance. This year, all thirty two team winners will be highlighted as finalists and recognized for their important work during the weekend leading up to the Super Bowl. To learn more about Dunlap's nomination, visit NFL

dot com backslash Man of the Year. Now time for this week's No The Fox segment is we take a closer look at the upcoming opponent, and to do that, we pick the brain, a former Pro Bowl offensive lineman Lincoln Kennedy who calls Raiders games on the radio with a legendary Brent Musburger. They're out manned at pretty much every position. What I mean by that is that injuries have decimated their this roster. They've asked Gruden and the staff has asked a lot of rookies to step up there.

They're averaging, you know, starting on every game at least twelve first year players, so you know, across the board. It's a it's a very thin rang. And most people have asked me over the last couple of months where the Raiders trying to lose the better position themselves with the draft. Well know, and John Gruden have a playing for him the way I do. I would never see that, and I guess you saw it last week against the Steelers.

Let me ask you, big man at the offensive tackle position, two rookies, Colton Miller, Marcel Eateman, how they playing, how they looking? They're big people, big body guy or excuse me, Brandon Parker at the right time. Yeah, yeah, Brandon Parker and Colton Miller. How the big boys playing on the

edge there. Well, you can imagine if you're a rookie coming into the National Football League, especially the AFC West Division, where you've got guys like you know, you've got guys like Botha and Ingram and von Miller and all you know, just name a few Bradley Chubb at the outside end, how hard it can be to be successful. And there's

no different. Colton Miller, for what it's worth, has done a fairly good job as a rookie stepping in and playing really one of the most difficult positions online cool and then Brandon Parker, for what it's worth, Brandon went to small school, he went to North Carolina and t and so for him to be thrusted in the position. He's got all the intangibles. He's got the footwork, he's got the size, he's got the strength. He just doesn't

have the experience. And you know as well as I do, when it comes offensive line play, it's all about reps and snaps and playing against premier talent. That's what you have to do in the National Football League. So he's taken his lumps. I actually actually backed it up. Derek Carr has taken his lumps by an experience. But but for the most part, you know, they're they're doing fairly well. They'll be good for the future. It's just they're going

to take their lumps this season. Right we're talking to the great firm pro bowler Lincoln Kennedy. The Raiders traded away too, eight players in Khalil Mackin and Maari Cooper. How did that impact morale? It really shrank it. I mean it really did. It depleted it. To be honest with you, A lot of guys in the locker room did not expect that to happen. I know why Gruden did it in both cases, but for the most part, a lot of guys didn't know what was going on.

They kind of got over after a while the Khalil match trade, but then when they traded to Maari Cooper because John Gruden when he came in, he took over the roster. He made it from. It went from one of the youngest rosters in the National Football League to one of the older rosters by signing like seventeen guys who were thirty and over. So it left a lot of those guys, those veterans in they're unsure about their future.

What's your take on the Roley McKenzie firing. And then John's catching a lot of a lot of grief obviously from the media about with the press conference about how he was surprised that it took place, and everybody's you know, interpretation is, Hey, the guys in control, the guy's gonna be head coach GM everything else. They're paying him one hundred million dollars, you know, for ten years. How can he not know? How can he be surprised? What kind of a trickle down you think there's been from that

if any of the players, and what's your take on it. Well, my my take is this, and I'm not surprised. I'm surprised in the timing. I knew it was going to happen, because ever since I mentioned when Gruden came in and took over, he basically depleted the roster all the draft choices, pretty much governed a lot of the draft choices that regime and Kenzie and his staff had over the years. So you knew Reggie was going to move on. And Reggie's a good guy, he's a good general manager. He'll

land on his feet somewhere else. I don't doubt that for a second. But you know, look, grud has been playing this game all season. He did it with Khalil MACKI did it with Mary Cooper, you know, acting like he wasn't in the know, and we all know it's We're not foolish, we all know what's going on. It is what it is. But he wants to put his own staple on this roster and he wants to He's going to start in this offseason. They've got a ton

of cash to spend. More importantly, they've got you know, three first round draft choices, so they're going to do a lot in this upcoming draft, this upcoming off season. Lincoln, you were the ninth pick in the draft out of Washington. The Bengals have a ninth pick in the draft out of Washington and John Ross. I imagine you have interest in John. What do you think of the injury problems he's had and the relatively slow start to his NFL career.

I would have liked him to stay in college a year longer and finish out that because I just think his durability needed to be tested and need to be tested by reps. It's very difficult to be put in that position, especially when you know what he did at a combine and everybody was so blown away about his speed. It's a little bit different than National football lea, Hey, everybody's fast, and you got to find a way to

be durable. I'm wishing John the best. I do hope he figures it out sooner or later, because look, I was in the situation when I first got drafted by Atlanta, did not sit in their said scheme of things, was written off by many to a bus as being a bus until I got the chance to play in Oakland and sort of revitalize my career for Cincinnati Bengal fans and Cincinnati's sake. I hope he's able to figure out

sooner rather than later. Yeah, it's amazing how it's It's where you go is almost as important as anything else. It's who you're, who you're coached by, what scheme it is. I mean, is it a fit? Isn't it a a fit? You know? I mean quarterbacks, Uh, if they if they get drafted into a bad situation in terms of coaches and schematic you know, they're a bus like golfs, a bus with fisher Now look at them. You know it really is. It's a lot of that is determined by

the luck of a draw. You know where you end up and how you end up. Let me ask you about Jared Cook. This guy's a freakazoid. Sixty five two hundred and fifty five pounds, runs like a wide out. I mean they detach them and let them run routes like a wide out. How big a factor is this is this guy in the future of football with the Raiders. Well, you look at the overall position of tight end. It's absolutely key essential in order for us to an offensive

be successful for the most part. They got to have a tight end. Look at Indianapolis. I think Indianapolis has four tight ends on the roster who are six three and taller. You talk about Travis Kelsey and you talk about the great Grocouski. Because the rules are the way they are. If you have a good size tight end, and if he has some speech to himself, it presents a matchup problem for defenses because he might be he'll be faster than an average linebacker, he'll be taller than

an average safety. So who are you going to put him? You're gonna waste the corner to put on them. Then he's bigger than him. So that's the advantages you get out of the position, especially if the receiver type. So, but Jared Cook has been the Raider's MVP, and Derek Carton knows it, and he's going to try to get defenses into Nickel or a dome scheme and they're going

to try to find out who's matched up. He saw last week in the Pittsburgh game that when he had a linebacker or undersized safety, it was automatic he was going to go to him. Yep. A couple more questions for Lincoln Kennedy. We saw a lot of Paul Gunter here as defensive coordinator and is the Bengals DC. Paul liked to rush for and drops seven. He hated the blitz. Bengals probably had the lowest blitz percentage while he was here of any team in the NFL. I looked at

the Oakland stats. They see eleven sacks as a team, and I assume that that's what Paul has been doing. Is that the case? That is the case, Well, he look, he's having the blitz because the Raiders don't have a rusher. The Raiders on each level of the defense, defensive linebackers, in secondary have had holes. They have needs and there's gonna be major turnover this offseason the Robster, especially on the defensive side. I like Gunther's scheme. He just doesn't

have the people to do it and talk with. But Paul extensively, you know, he said, look, if I had a guy like Khalil Mack, you know I can I could do some things with him, rushing him, get him isolated, stuff like that. But he doesn't have that luxury art and key. For what it's worth right now, the Raiders third round pick was is a nickel rusher because he's undersized, he's not an every down player. So the Raiders have got addressed the needs, as I said, on every level

of their defense. And Paul Gunter is going to have to have a major turnover in order to implement his philosophy because right now they just don't have the people to do it. Lincoln, how good is Maurice Hurst. He's playing really well. He had he was injured. He didn't play the last game. I think he had the last

game he was out, but he has been playing pretty well. Look, the Raiders are asking their rookies to do a lot because they have been decimated by injuries and had a bunch of the older players put on ir they're asking their young players to do a lot. More importantly, they've got to get the young players to believe into it, because even if the veterans say they don't want to be with the Raiders anymore, they want to go elsewhere, your future is going to be dictated a lot on

your rookies and your newcoming players. And so they've asked Maurice and TJ. Hall and a lot of Justin Ellis, a lot of defensive tackles to do a lot, especially in that interior rotation, because they're valuable as far as run stopping goes. What are the players thinking, like next year, where are we going to play Oakland suing Us? I mean, do the players think idea? You think of that stuff. Yeah. The thing is that players, players just want to play.

Said they had to play on the sandlot, they played, They do that. They don't. They don't get caught up in these things. Now. Yeah, the matter of uncertainty comes for a lot of the veterans who've got families and if they bought a place in California, they're trying to figure out where they're going to be. I mean that's where you kind of get offset. But I'm in a dark just like you guys, and I'm pretty close to the organization. I have no idea what we're playing this year. Yeah,

I don't. And it's it's said when you've got three games left in the season, and I'm really tired with a lot of the Raider faithful and Raider Nation up in the Bay Area. UM, there are a lot of season ticket holders who don't know they're they're unsure, they don't want to commit to the team, even though they want to follow because they don't know where it's gonna be. Huh, bizarre. The Raider fans have been is I mean, is energetic and supportive as any in the history of the NFL.

Is it waning at all with all this that's going on, or as Raider Nation as strong as ever. No, it's it's definitely waning. There's there's no doubt about it, because there's a level and certainty right now. There were a lot of Raider fans who were excited that John Gruden came back in the fold because when he came back, he projected that the Raiders are going to be competitive and there they were going to try to challenge for a Super Bowl before the Raiders left. Well, that's not

going to happen. It's not gonna happen this year, obviously, and it's not probably that's going to happen next year unless i mean everything falls their way and they get you know, it just doesn't happen like that in the National Football League. So there's a lot of uncertainty from the heartbeat of the Raider Nation, which is in Oakland, California. You know, the future looks bright as far as the stadium goes when they get in Vegas and everything else

when that time comes. But in that interim, in that time between now and then, there's a lot of uncertainty, and the Raider Nation is up in the here because they don't know where the team's going to be. They would love to support them, but here's the thing, this is such a bizarre situation even with the relocation, that it's really hard to commit to something or want to be a part of something, especially when they're not being as successful as they as you want on the field.

Final question will let you go, what's it like working with Musburger? Really surreal? And it really is. It's um. Every time I look over to Brent, I remember him as a kid on CBS with the crew and hearing his voice, you know, it's it was so it's timeless being and hearing the stories that he's had throughout his career. So it's it's absolutely wonderful. But um, it is a surreal moment when you when you realize what I realized

that I'm calling games with the legendary Brent Musblatter. It's it's a dream from true all right, thanks to Lincoln Kennedy, And that's going to do it for this episode of the podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or pod Bean, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or leave a comment. Your feedback is always appreciated. Five star ratings

help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thanks so much for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast