Bengals Booth Podcast: Life Changes

will miss the season with a shoulder injury. I'll talk to Dave Lapham about the impact of those losses and what the Bengals are likely to do on the left side of their offensive line. Those conversations are straight ahead, but first, here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest invention since the National

Comedy Center. I grew up near Jamestown, New York, best known for being the hometown of Lucio Ball, and on a recent visit to see my folks. I checked out the National Comedy Center. It opened last year and it's a high tech, state of the art, interactive museum celebrating the history of comedy. So if you happen to be near Jamestown in the southwest tip of New York State, be sure to check it out. You won't be disappointed.

Now let's get to football. We're sad to see him go because he was a great player and we value those experienced veteran players, and he's on a wolf for a long time. But I know that they're they're a piece of the decision and so happy for them. I'm happy for their family, and he'll get a chance to move on with the rest of his life. That was Bengal's head coach Zach Taylor, reacting to Monday's announcement that

offensive lineman Clint Bowling is retiring for medical reasons. A few days after last see It ended, Bowling felt pain in his right leg. It turned out to be a blood clot, and shortly after that Clint learned that the blood clot had traveled to his lungs. That explains why he did not take part in the Bengal summer workouts and after talking to doctors and thinking about his wife and two daughters, who are both under the age of two, Bowling decided to call it quits. I spoke to him

about that decision and his fine NFL career. Clint. She told us she'd been playing football since sixth grade. So this will be the first time in your adult life you've not been part of a football team in the fall. Is it kind of hard to believe that's going to be the case? Yeah, I mean it's a pretty surreal feeling, you know, really trying to wrap my head around you know, what am I going to do? But at the same time, you know, it's exciting to move on to the next venture.

You know, football was a big part of my life, but it's not you know who I am, and to be able to figure out, you know, what I'm going to move on to next in life is exciting. It's such a sport of routine. You have to be in certain places at certain times. Your schedule is dictated for you,

especially once training camp begins. Now I suppose other than uh, you know, appointments with your daughters and so forth, you can determine what you want to do in a daily basis yeah, you know, just uh, you know, hopefully still be a little regimented, just from getting up with the kids, dropping them off and taking care of them, doing whatever I need to do with them, and then, um, I guess just kind of catching some tea times after that.

I got to be on time for those. So that's the that's the plan right now and just you know, kind of take this fall in and you know, hopefully get to travel some with my family and you know, just just relax for a little while. Will you be one of these guys that drops a bunch of weight after your playing career? I hope. So, uh, you know, I'd like to start working on it and we'll see what what what I get down to or if I

get down to anything, but I hope. So I'd like to you know, I've always enjoyed lifting and working out, like to continue doing that, um, and definitely will continue to do that just because you know, kind of keep myself motivated is to you know, stay in the gym, stay working out, and at the same time you kind of get that, you know, in the in the gym, you still got that locker room atmosphere with some trainers

and that kind of thing. Guys that I've been working out with and training since I was in high school. We're visiting with Clint Bowling. In the Bengals news release that announced a retirement, Mike Brown had a quote in there that said he never got the credit he deserved. Did you see that? And do you agree? Uh? You know, just just part of being an offensive linement is sometimes you just have to accept that. And like I talked about earlier, just about you know, coming in and working

every single day. If you know, you can definitely be upset about certain things, but at the end of the day, it's just about doing your job and making the guys around you better, and that's what offensive linement's all about. Sometimes. Twenty eleven draft class worked out pretty well Green Dalton Bowling. Yeah, it was a you know, it was a good group

of guys. You know, any time you can have you know, three starters on the offensive are on the offense like that, it's a I gotta think, you gotta think it was a good draft and for us to come in and as a team we were able to go to five playoff games in a row. Um obviously would have liked to have gone a different way, but uh, you know, ultimately, it was fun coming on with those guys and um,

you know, experience in this city and team together. Have you heard from your former teammate Andrew Whitworth and his hee busting your balls that he's still playing and you are retiring? Um, you know, I actually told Andrew a few days ago a lot you know, kind of tried to talk to a couple of friends, and you know, he was one of the guys that I had talked to before everything. But um, you know, they wouldn't surprise me if he somehow played another two or three years.

But um, you know, what he's been doing in LA has just been incredible. The way that he's been able to continue his career and play as long as he has. It's just, um, you know, it's unbelievable to watch. You had to practice against Geno Atkins in college and in the pros, so we know what a headache that must have been. But how about opposing players who did you consider to be the best guys you ever faced? Ah, you know, there's a lot of different guys that that

come to mind. You know, there's guys in our division like Cameron Hayward, who's you know, just a really physical player that doesn't take plays off. I mean every single play he's given it as all. You know, there's some guys in Baltimore, some sugs and some of those nose guards that are really you know, hard to move. Um. You know, obviously other guys that you know, some premier guys like JJ Watter are obviously all really good players.

So I mean, when you go into the NFL game and you know every single week you're going to be in for a challenge, what guys talk the most that you faced? Honestly, I never really talked much. I just went about there every now and then you come across. But there's never anybody that stands stands out to me, just because I tried to. I tried to keep to myself. I never My theory was I just never wanted to

make anybody more mad than they were. So, well, now you don't have to face the Steelers anymore, how do you feel about them? You know what I mean? That was always a fun place to play, but you know, just to finish my career here, I mean that it's you know, it's gonna always be fun. Sharing for the

Bengals and anytime they're playing Pittsburgh. It's it's always going to be a physical game, and you know some you know game that I'm always gonna be pulling for the Bengals for it was there a welcome to the NFL moment, your rookie year. Um, you know, just just the interactions and meeting the guys. Like I said, there's so many different personalities in the locker room and meeting so many different people. It was it was just a unique experience.

I don't know if there was a particular moment, but maybe when I was walking through the parking lot and I saw all the different cars, that was probably the first thing that stood out. Is there a game or are there a couple of games that stand out as

your favorites? Um, you know, one that we won I would definitely say would be the end of the season twenty seventeen playing at Baltimore, you know, having to switch positions, play out at tackle, and you know, winning on the last play of the game like that on fourth down was just you know, an awesome way to end the season. And then, um, you know, obviously there were some disappointing playoff games, but those playoff atmospheres, I mean, it was

just you can tell it's cranked up another notch. I mean, you play football for sixteen weeks and then you go play a playoff game and it's just a different atmosphere. The crowd's a different atmosphere, the intensity levels different and it was just always fun kind of experience experience at football at just the highest level. Even when I asked you about wins, you mentioned losses. Did the losses hurt

more than you know you savored the wins? I would say so, just because those those are the games that truly, you know that you stand out like, oh man, if I just did this differently, if we did this differently as a team, then this would have happened. And you know, you kind of relish in those moments a little bit more than some of the some of the wins. And that's just you know, some of those losses just stick in your mind a little bit, a little bit more

than the winds do sometimes. If Andy didn't break his thumb in two thy fifteen, is that the season that you think might have ended in a very special way? Yeah, you know, we were we were a great football team that year. We played a lot of good ball and um, you know, there's a. There's a ton of what ifs throughout my career, throughout the teams that I've been on. Um, so it's always you know, kind of tough to to feel like, you know, if we just did this differently.

But at the end of the day, it's um, you know, had up played on a lot of good teams. What do you love or what did you love about this sport? Like I you know I said earlier, I think just the the camaraderie, the fifty three guys in this locker room, the all the unique and different personalities and um, you know, coming together as a football team and seeing where you know, how guys got here, where they're from, and their life story. It's just you know, there's so many unique stories and

just to hear them all. Um, it was always fun to uh you know, pre practice, post practice guys joking around was always it was always fun. Do you feel good when you wake up after eight years in the NFL? Or are there still some aches and pains depending on if it's going to rain or whatever. Uh, you know,

it just it just depends. For the most part. You know, I feel well right now, and um just excited to move on and figure out the next step sounds like the blood clot issue that popped up at the end of the season, at least briefly, was kind of a scary situation. Yeah. Absolutely, you know, just um, you know, anytime you have to go to a hospital, you know, you never know exactly what's going on, and just trying to figure out what exactly and was happening and wrapped

my head around it was. It was tough. Um, But like I said, um, you know, sometimes there's things that are bigger than football, and um, you know, you just have to make that decision sometimes. Paul Brown used to famously tell people or tell players at the end of their career, it's time to find your life's work. Yeah, how much thought have you given to your next venture coaching, broadcasting business? What are you thinking? You know, we'll we'll

just really try to figure that out this fall. Fortunately, I'll be in a position to where I don't have to jump into anything I don't want to right now, So just to kind of take some time and start networking and meeting people and and really figuring out exactly what's next is you know, something that will start right now. I think you've done well financially, so you probably don't have to work again the rest of your life. But I don't picture you as sitting on the couch a

couple of years from now. No, I think, um, you know, for guys to stay active, like we talked about football, at the end of football is just the beginning of your life. Football is a big part of my life. But you know, to to move on and stay busy and stay active. You know it's gonna be uh, it's gonna be exciting to see what that next step is. But you know, you absolutely I feel I have to stay busy as a person and challenge yourself. Sometimes training

camp begins in less than two weeks. I'm assuming you're not going to miss that too much. It's you know, it's been unique. It's a unique feeling knowing that you're not gonna have to put the pads on again and you know, fight your way through another football practice when you're about eight or nine days in. You know, it's a it's something that one of the things I won't miss. You had a great career. I've always considered you be you to be one of the real unsung heroes on

this team. In the locker room, on the offensive line, just a total solid as a rock pro. Congratulations on eight great years. Thanks for all the time you've given us, and best of luck with Kelly and the girls. Awesome. Thank you guys very much for the past few years. Thanks. Bowling started all sixteen games in four out of the last five seasons, but he wasn't only reliable. According to Pro Football Focus, he was the bengals highest rated offensive

lineman among their starters last year. The news of Bowling's retirement comes roughly three weeks after we learned that rookie Jonah Williams, the eleventh pick in this year's draft and the team's likely starter at left tackle, will miss the entire season with an injured left shoulder. I discussed those

developments with my broadcast partner, Dave lappam lapped. The roughly a month between the end of the mandatory mini camp in the start of training camp is supposed to be quiet, but that was hardly the case for the Bengals this year, as they lost a couple of offensive lineman. Let's start with number one draft pick Jonah Williams, who will miss the entire season with a torn labram in his left shoulder. Let's start with the injury itself, what will that mean

to him going forward? My understanding is that the severity of the tear can be repaired readily and that it shouldn't be a hindrance. And as with all surgeries, everybody reacts differently, and then it's amount and then it amounts to how committed are you to rehab? Knowing him a little bit, I think he'll be a maniacle maniacal. I should say rehab, guys. I think I think that's what he'll He'll they'll probably have to say all right, Orange, they'll hold him back a little bit. I think he'll

try to do maybe too much too soon. If anything, it won't be if the rehab is not is not great, it won't be for lack of effort. So I think he's going to be fine. And you know, it is that it is that left shoulder, which is his outside shoulder at left tackle, where you know a lot of the heavy traffic takes place, so you have to make sure that that it's back and it's it's at full where you're you're out there or trying to do something.

So I think they made the decision wisely, you know, just let's just let this year, um, you know, take place in terms of him getting ready for the second year of his NFL career, and I think he's going to be a long one. I think he's going to have a long NFL career. I think a lot of people want to know, how does that happen in a mini camp with limited hitting. Yeah, sometimes you can just

get caught. You know, you're still you're still doing you know, et en penetrate, tackle twist, tackle penetrate, end twist, those stunts and those kind of things, and sometimes you can just get caught, you know, get your arm hot awkwardly, you know, amongst a massive bodies and just be you know, put in a position where your arm and your shoulder doesn't isn't going the way that it normally should go, you know, and and uh so that that you know, that can happen. That can happen, um, you know, at

any time in the game of football. So unfortunately, and you know, of course, there was a lot of concern because Saban is known as the guy that beats beats his players up and was this an injury that he had at Alabama? It was a lingering injury and in today's high tech medical world. They can blood. They can determine from blood samples around the injured area, and by looking at the imaging, they're so specific they can tell

if it's old injury or new injury. And this was a new injury that was sustained, you know, probably during those mini camps. Lap. It's the fifth consecutive year that the Bengals number one draft pick will have an injury plagued rookie season. Belly Price, John Ross, William Jackson, Cedric Obwaihi were the previous four. It's pretty ridiculous. I mean,

it's bad luck it is. You know, when they drafted cedrical Way, he you know he had he had played in that Bowl game with the blown out nie and played the whole second half with that torn ligament in his knee and u and had surgery to repairt. I mean, those muscles, his quads and hamstrings were so strong that you know he could he could play and uh and finish the game. So yeah, it's crazy. But a lot

of those were shoulder and chest problems. So I guess maybe the next time you draft the first round, or make sure there'n't have many shoulders or chest don't have to worry about injuries to those body parts. I mean, it is crazy the odds of that happening as often as it's happened in consecutive years. So the Bengals are staggering, staggering, It's ridiculous. The last Bengals first round draft pick to play all sixteen games was Kevin Zeitler, but he was

not their first overall pick that year. Drake Kirkpatrick was and he only played five games that year. The last time the Bengals number one overall pick played all sixteen games was two thousand and seven Leon Hall. There have been guys that have played fifteen, including Tyler Eiffort, but the last guy to play all sixteen who is their first pick in the draft was Leon Hall. That's incredible. You know when you when you h I mean, obviously

they're draft in the first round for a reason. And um, you know, if you if you miss on first round picks due to lack of ability or injury, it can set you back a long period of time. And fortunately these were you know, in a lot of cases injuries for that rookie year, but then they came back and played. Although you know, guys like Tyler and John Ross have had injury played career so far, so you just never know. There's no guarantees. It is. It is what it is.

In terms of full contact sport, you have one hundred percent injury risk every single snap, and I guess these are good examples of it. Now. The more recent offseason news, Clint Bowling's decision to retire after thing with a blood clot in the off season not a shocker. When we saw him standing off to the side during the various and mini camps and training camp or pre training camp offseason program, it was clear that something was going on

and that this was at least a possibility. Yeah. I mean when you're talking to medical scenario like a blood clot in the leg that was traveling to the lung, you know, and now you're talking about you know, hospital trips, which he had, and now you're talking about a guy's health that is much more than just a game of football, particularly with a wife in a twenty month and a

five month old daughters. So it was not I guarantee you it was not easy for Clint Bowling to make the decision he made, and the fact that he was up here for those mini camps just to go through the mental part of getting ready for the game of football. He had not made a total decision yet, but he was leaning toward probably the decision that he made here today for probably probably a couple of months. I bet he'd been thinking about it, talking about it. You make

a trip to the hospital. It's it's gonna make you thinking about you know what am I gonna do when football is over? Because it looks like it's going to be over here. How big of a blow is it? It's it's it's significant because in today's NFL, versatility in the offensive line is a big deal because last year, thinking how many times the Bengals only activated seven offensive lineman because they had a Clint Bowling that could play

multiple spots. That's why to me, Trey Hopkins has a chance to still make this football team because, like Clint, he's very intelligent and he's very versatile, and coaches like intelligence and versatility in their football players. So I think he might be the guy. And he may not necessarily be a starting lineman, but he's a guy that could be the seventh one of the seven guys active that can you can plug in anywhere and finish a game

with and not be embarrassed about it. He can go and execute and finish games or play you know, two or three straight games depending on jury or whatever the case may be. So you're you're looking for, you know, somebody to to plug in to that you know, the intelligence, the versatility. But he had the experience now too, so he's he's uh, you know, this term pros pro is thrown around a lot. I do it probably too much. He is, you know, Webster is looking up the picture

for pros pro. Clint Bowling's head is right there because, like Mike Brown said, you know, he's probably underappreciated. He didn't get enough credit for what you did for this organization. And he never toots his own horn. I mean, he doesn't say Clint Bowling doesn't say crap if he has a mouthful of it, you know. I mean, he's one of those kind of guys that just goes out and wants to be part of the team and and play and that they're gonna miss that, They're gonna miss what

he contributes on the field. But um Young look like when he came in the league with Wit showed him the way this is, this is how you um operate as a professional offensive lineman the National Football League, what moves on bowling when young guys came in, that's the guy to watch everything he does. You do what he does, you're gonna be fine. And nobody plays forever, so you know there's going to be another guy that has to step up and fill that role, and there will be.

But it's a role that's going to have to be filled. And I think that's the you know, that's that's the role that people I don't think realize. You know that he filled as well as he did. With Jonah Williams out for the year, Corty Glenn kicks out and plays left tackle. What's the battle look like going into training camp at left guard? Yeah, boy, it's it's wide open.

Like like Zach said, there's you know, there's thirteen linemen they're gonna be going into training camp still and uh, you know when when you look at it, you think, all right, well, not only there's there's two things you have to think about. Who's going to be the left guard and who's the third tackle. I mean, they have two tackles and you know a lot of bengaldom isn't real happy with either one of the two tackles they have,

who's the third tackle? Do you have to do you have to wait till the final cutdown of the last cuts in the National Football League before your third tackle shows up? Do you have to make a training camp trade? They've made training camp trades before. You may have depending on how it unfolds the camp. If nobody's shown, um, I think, I think you can identify your five best linemen and and somebody will end up playing that you know, that left guard spot. But then the roster depth is

the key again. And you know, Hopkins, I think with his long arms could kick out there and not embarrass himself at the tackle position. You know you've got You've got other guys that have done it. Jerry went out there when he was with the Dolphins, played a couple of games at the at the tackle position. There are other guys that have played at the tackle spot, but not not a whole lot of reps, you know, at

that tackle position. So you know, left guard and uh in third tackle, those are the ones that are gonna be under the microscope scope and are going to be you know, honed in on, focused in on big time? Is it Christian Westerman's job to lose. You know, I Christian Westerman physically is the guy. But is he gonna go where he's supposed to go and be there when he's supposed to be there and do what he's supposed

to do? Those are the keys, And you know that's why Trey Hopkins is a guy that as a you know, I projected myself as a line coach and like coach Turner's like, man, you know, do I want to go with the with the guy that I physically might you know, really overpower some people. But key time on the road screaming fans, you got a beast in front of you all of a sudden. You know, you might have done it on the grease board, okay, but boy, now you have to operate under pressure and can you live with

that potential mistake? Or do you want the guy that you know no matter what. Now, physically he may not do as great a job as the other guy in terms of movement and things like that, but he's gonna be on the right guy. He's gonna doing the right thing though. So those those decisions are going to be very interesting for the coaching staff to make. But I think this is the year that Westerman, hopefully you know, steps up. But West situation, Dan, you think about it,

His issue is, you know, the mental part of the game. Well, this would be his third line coach in three years. New techniques, new systems, new assignments. That's hard. It's hard for anybody, particularly a guy that struggles with that type of thing. So you know, the thing is everybody's starting at ground zero from that standpoint because it's new system, new staff and all that. So Westerman is starting a ground zero with all parties. Um, hopefully he picks it

up as fast as the others do. Is the big thing with new line coaches and picking up their system. Not necessarily how you specifically you know, set up your hands and your feet to block a specific guy, but how you handle the twists, the stunts, the approach that each line takes to handling that kind of stuff. Yeah, and there are you know, there are different techniques, um, you know, guys, guys, some coaches teach different hand placements and and and different torques that you might try to

utilize in those types of thing aiming points. But yeah, the twist and the stunts and sometimes you know, protections are different in terms of terminology and then responsibility within the terminology. So it's like, you know, if you if you're a guard and you're an uncovered guard and you have a linebacker, and then you know, sometimes I gotta I gotta make sure I only had that inside linebacker. If he doesn't come, I gotta help inside on this protection.

If inside linebacker doesn't come, I gotta check outside of the outside linebacker. So you know, it's like you're gotta keep it all straight and you have to keep all the terminology straight, and sometimes guys flat out brain cramp. You know, some guys, you know, master it quickly. Clint Bowling was a guy that mastered it quickly. I mean he could he would adjust, you know to uh new systems, new techniques, new coaches, no issue. Other guys takes a while.

One of the big things we always look at at the beginning of training camp are the injured guys coming back and how quickly they get back on the field. So AJ Green, Kyl Loss and Ryan Glasgow Tyler, if dark Quaz Denard, that's going to be a big focus. When the guys get the rolling and dating it is, it's going to be a big focus, and all these guys, you know, potentially it could be significant contributors to the

football team. You know, some starters some you know in today's NFL, the term starters is almost foreign to me, you know, because all these sub packages, you know, even with defensive linemen and sub packages. If you're if you know, you're going against the team that is going to have three and four receivers on the field the whole time, you're going to have your nickel pass rush group in there.

In the defensive line, you only have two linebackers out there, Max, and you know, multiple defensive back So you know, it's like the starting eleven is nowhere near the starting eleven that's on the flipp card, you know, and it might be that way for eighty percent of the snaps in

that football game. So all of these guys, um you know, have have shown or want to show that they can make significant contributions to their to the Bengals in the National Football League, and all of them have the potential the ability to do it. Will they stay healthy, will they come back healthy enough? And in some cases, like in Tyler's case, it's like, you know, people start to wonder how many injuries before. He's not running the routes like he did where he could sink his hips getting

out of the cuts. You know, a big body guy that can run routes like a wide out. To me, it looks like he's still able to do that. But you know, you start to wonder, as the number one age and then number one age as well as injury, how big of a how big of a toll does it start to take on people? What will you be looking at when training camp begins into this new coaching staff, initially the old line, you know, as a former linement, I'll be looking at that offensive line. I know, I know,

I know. Coach Turner, Jimmy Turner's got their attention. He is a type of offensive line coach that has got a big presence. He's got every player's attention that offensive line. Now, his task is to establish relationships with the players and trust that comes with the relationships with the players, and then relationships within the players themselves. Player the player relationships

and the trust that goes along with that. And like we said, potentially, you know, they could be down to projected starters right now, you know, depending on how we're to unfold that We don't know. You can't look into crystal ball and say the left tackle was going to be Jonah and the left guard is going to be Clint. You don't know that for sure, but there's a damn good chance it could have gone that way, you know, barring injury and retirement because of injury and health issues

and all that sort of thing. So that that group is going to be is going to be interesting to watch. And then I think um does the tempo, enthusiasm, spree accord, does all that sustain itself, you know, during all through training camp like it did in the mini camps and

the OTAs and and that sort of thing. And then and then in the very beginning of the season, you know they're on the road early, and uh, you know, you get hitting the mouth on the road, and how will this team respond when they get hitting the mouth? As Tyson has said many times famous, everybody's got a game plan that you get hit in the mouth. So adversity is going to hit. It's a question to win.

And how will this uh you know, this young coaching staff and these players you know, respond to that type of adversity. So there's there's a lot to look look forward to for sure. I always enjoy, you know, training camp, just watching how the team is put together. You know, it's you have you have ninety pieces to select from. In the beginning, you would let down. We'll let down, We'll let down. Why are you it down this way? And what's the thought process? And how how is this

team going to be put together? And how is it going to compete? It's it's it's an interesting process to watch. Your batteries are reach outs. You're ready to go. I'm ready to rock and roll. Stud Let's do it. Bengals Training Camp begins a week from Saturday, July twenty seventh at Welcome Stadium in Dayton. It starts at two thirty and that's the first of ten practices that will be free and open to the public. That's going to do

it for this week's podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe, and if you have a minute, please give it a rating or leave a comment. Your feedback has been helpful and five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde. Thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast.