Bengals Booth Podcast: One

Will also touch on the impending return of AJ Green and Minshee Mania as the Bengals try to shut down Jacksonville's impressive rookie quarterback with a great mustache, Gardner Minshew. My locker room conversation this week is with linebacker Leroy Reynolds, who knows better than anybody else on the team what it's like to grind through a terrible start. He began his career in Jacksonville back in twenty thirteen as a rookie,

the Jags started oh and eight. In his second year, they started oh and six, and then one and ten. We'll discuss how a player gets through it, and in this week's No The Faux segment, we'll get the lowdown on the Jags from a guy who has been writing about them throughout their history, Gene Frenette from the Florida

Times Union. All of that is straight ahead, But first, here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since sports gear from teams that no longer exist. I celebrated a birthday this month, and my son gave me an awesome gift a T shirt from the NBA team of my youth,

the Buffalo Braves. I'm guessing that some of you don't even know that Buffalo had an NBA team in the nineteen seventies, but it did before moving west end of actually becoming the LA Clippers. The Clippers will be wearing Buffalo Braves throwback jerseys at some point this year, and they sell Braves merchandise on their website. It's awesome, as is much of the gear that you can find online

from sports teams that no longer exist. Now let's get to my conversation with Dave Lapham as we discuss the Bengals, OZ and sixth start and what it's going to take to get a win over Jacksonville on Sunday Lap. The Bengals are only averaging fifty six point five rushing yards per game. Last week in Baltimore, Lamar Jackson had fifty seven after his first two runs. What if anything, can the Bengals do to get something out of their running game?

Tradeful Lamar Jackson. I mean, honestly, they're up. They're burning the midnight oil right now trying to figure that out. You know, it's the problem that they have is and it's not every snap. You know, people are gonna say, oh, seven eight in the box and they're doubling Tyler Boyd. I mean, they don't have that many players. That's not

happening every single snap. But there are down in distances, you know, conditions of a game where you're trying to do something and they have the box loaded, the box crowded, and then you have to throw it and then they double Tyler Boyd. Well, they don't have seven or eight in the box when they're dubling Tyler Boyd. It's different circumstances,

different down and distances. But the problem is that you don't have in my opinion, part of the issue could be solved by having aj Green and John rossback because if they can just be threats on the outside stretch in the football field, it gives you more running lanes. I mean, it opens the box up, makes everybody play play deeper, makes the linebackers play deeper off the line of scrimmage, and then they have to take you know, start taking drops. Gets the safeties out of there. I mean,

right now, it's it's it's rush hour in there. It's congested, there's a lot of traffic in there, and you know, the offensive line to boot isn't getting a whole lot of push. So it's like running into the Great Wall of China that has the extra bricks in it. You know, it's like, oh my gosh, man, it's like beating your head up against the wall. And you know, you'll try, Okay, let's try inside zone and maybe okay, let's work the

outside zone. Okay, let's maybe run a gap play kind of playing trying to, you know, see if we can get them without a little bit. Nothing's working. I mean, it is. It's unbelievable, and I think it's just a numbers game, you know, a matter of sometimes a matter of bodies, the number of bodies that are there to be blocked, and then guys aren't blocking them efficiently enough. So that's a recipe for disaster. And that's what the

running game is right now. It's disastrous. Lap Last year, the Bengals fired their defensive coordinator during the season, Tarall Austin, because things were not going well on defense. Marvin Lewis acted as his own defensive coordinator for the rest of the year. This year it's lou Anna Romo and basically

not much has changed. What conclusion should we be drawing about the Bengals defense, Well, if I'm a defensive player, I'm in the mirror and saying it must be me, you know, because they've they've made some changes, and not only with coaches, but philosophical changes, you know, with those coaches and even some schematic stuff. I mean, lou and Rumo again has tried a lot of different things. Five man defensive line, five defensive backs, with the five defensive

lineman only one linebacker on the field. He's had all three linebackers on the field, two linebackers on the field. You know, he's running every every combination you can run in the secondary nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar. He's running every every coin you can run back there. I mean it's penny whatever. You got a sack at Jeeah coin defenses. There's such a thing. I'm thinking those coins are counterfeit. I don't know. It's like it's crazy, but he's he's

you know, it's right now. It's if he felt like the football team on both sides of the ball. There's not one thing that coaches can say, this is our identity. This is when the times get tough, this is what we're gonna go too. And the times has gotten tough,

and they can't go in anything. They don't have an identity established on either side of the line of scrimmage yet, and that is a tough tough thing for a coaching staff when you're putting together a game plan, and man, that's why a big part of the reason they haven't won a football game yet. In crunch time, it's like, oh, we got this. Now we're gonna We're gonna close it out. This is what we're doing, this is who we are. The Bengals get a taste of Minshee mania this Sunday,

Gardner Minshew come into town. The rookie quarterback drafted in the sixth round by Jacksonville. He was supposed to be the backup under Nick Foles, and then Foles broke his collarbone in Week one. Gardner Minshew's passer rating is identical to Tom Brady's. At this point of his rookie year, Minshew is playing very, very sound football. The thing that impresses me most about him Dan just two interceptions, tied for six fewest in the in the NFL. He's got

nine touchdown passes, tied for leventh in the NFL. That plus seven touchdown interception ratio is gonna work, you know. I mean, he's got better than four to one ratio. So you have to like that about him. And against Carolina he was twenty six for forty four three hundred and seventy four yards two touchdowns against the Panthers, who have a good defensive football team, so they leaned on him, you know, in those on that occasion, and he has

run the ball. I mean it's not designed runs like we've seen, you know with Lamar Jackson, but you know, when he's in trouble, he has tucked it in. Run twenty one times one hundred and twenty five yards six yards per twenty one yard rush. So you have to

still respect him. You know, you can't over rush him, you can't rush by him, you can't distort your rush lane, you know, because he's going to be looking for those type of things like guys coming right out of college do if a couple of reds aren't there, my next backs option is to try to get something, try to get with it with my legs. I've heard that he's squats five fifty. I mean he's he's a he's a strong kid. His dad is a like a bodybuilder type dude,

you know, a big workout guy. And Minshew's no joke. I mean, Minshew was going to go to Alabama and he wanted to be a coach. So he's going to go to Alabama and learn under the great Sabman. And um, you know they said, you know, why don't you don't you hit to Washington State here, come out and play out here and lead the country in passing. He almost did. He led the pack twelve in passing. But h I'll tell you it's a heck of a story. Really is a heck of a story. And this kid when the

opportunity presented itself. He has stepped up big time. We know the Bengals have had trouble stopping sideline to sideline running games. Well that's not the challenge this week. It's a battering ram coming right at him in Leonard Fournette. No question, Leonard Fournette is l lodo. I mean, he is a guy that is just gonna try to run you over. There's there's not a whole lot of wiggle to him, but he when he hits creases, he hits.

He hits some violently, he hits some hard. Hit an eighty one yard run so far this season, I mean he's um. He had a game against the Denver Broncos that's the best rushing game in the league so far this season. He had twenty nine rushes, tied for most in a single game for twenty and twenty five yards,

the best rushing total in a game this season. So he has another another hundred yard rushing game against Carolina twenty three carries, one hundred and eight yards in a touchdown, so he's capable, obviously, and his five hundred and eighty four yards a third best in the NFL. He's averaging over five yards of carry five point one. The Bengals are giving up five point three per carry, So they got their work cut out for them in handling Leonard Fournette.

And if they don't, I mean, Fournette makes life a lot easier for a young quarterback like Minshew. And if they start gashing the Bengals running the football, Minshew is going to have a good football game. If they can somehow control Leonard Fournette and not let him run crazy, Minshew will have more difficulty solving and handling the room was defense, that's the bottom line, that's the fact of

life in the NFL. Last week saying it's apparently shut down Jacksonville by playing two deep safeties that gave Gardner Minshew trouble. But can the Bengals do that considering how much trouble they're having stopping the run, that's going to be the big key. Then the onus is on the front seven. You know, how well are you going to play?

I think that Jacksonville Jaguar's offensive line is big and physical like they've been facing and at this at this juncture, if I'm Luna Rouma, I don't know how much confidence I have doing that. You know, I'm not. It's going to be an interesting to see how much two DP does play because at this point in time, they've been gashed, but they've been gashed by this style of offense. They've been gashed by, you know, the Houdini mystery magic. You know,

it's like, don't know, they don't trust their eyes. Their eyes are betraying them because these offenses are doing so much with personnel informations and motion and all that sort of thing. I think Jacksonville may be more like Seattle was. You know, Jacksonville made line up and just say here we are, come get us. And the Banks played well,

you know against Jacksonville. So you know, hopefully h they get a break from all these all these college type offenses that they've been facing, with these quarterbacks that are, um, you know, the basically the poster child for these type of offenses from an execution standpoint, running him and go back to a more traditional, conventional NFL quote, you know,

style offense. We'll see what happens. Jermaine Pratt got increased playing time last week and made some plays in the run game, but man, he struggled trying to cover tight ends and tight ends that, you know, I mean, Andrews does not. He's not a blazer, you know when you say the name Mark Andrews or he's like, oh man, that's a big boy that can run. I mean, it's almost like when you when you see him, it's like, how does he get open as much as he does?

Because he doesn't have you blazing speed, but he understands the game of football. He understands leverage and uh and they schemed him open, and I think part of it was Pratt biting on. I don't know what he was seeing what he was biting on, but he was I mean a simple, you know, a simple like out move that seemed like Pratt was in trail position by about five yards. And he can run, so it's not the physical part of it. He's just I don't know what

he was looking at. But you know the one I'm thinking of when he ran the little out route to the sideline and then just took it up the football field, Pratt was nowhere near him, nowhere near him. AJ Green started practicing in Pad's last week. I don't think he's going to play this Sunday against Jacksonville, but at this point I'm thinking why not just wait until after the buye. I mean, what's the likelihood that Aj Green is going

to help you beat the Rams in London anyway? Yeah, I mean I guess it's I've been saying that for a while. I felt like, you know, if it's at this point, why not take the extra week and make sure you know it's like, okay, is he close? Well? Why not be positive about it? And you know a lot of times players that are coming off an injury like he is, a lot of times training staffs and medical people will say, Okay, when you're ready, we're going

to wait another week to be positive you're ready. And that's been the philosophy I think here in Cincinnati with every injured player that's ever been injured, I mean they don't players don't come back fast here compared to other places in the league. So I think that's the mentality overall. And a guy like Aj wouldn't shock me whatsoever if if we were a boardline or questionable at all. You know, the temptations huge, because, like we said, if he comes

out in the football field, everything changes. The running came will to mark my words. I mean, there'll be better lanes to run the football, other receivers will have more opportunity to make catches because everything changes, the entire configuration. The defense takes a tilt toward a player the caliber of aj Green, So there is a huge temptation to get him back, but it'd be fool harder to bring him back so too early, and he has a setback, and now he's you know, he's done for the season.

Potentially he hasn't even played a full game for you if he gets hurt in that one game. So it would it would not stun me whatsoever if if he didn't play until after the bye week. But knowing him, he really wants to play. I'm sure the coaches obviously are very h they're panting to get him back out on the football field, but you certainly you know the

situation they're in. I mean, if you're four and two right now and you're fighting for your division supremacy, that's one thing, but your own six, you know, it's like, why why are you bringing him back potentially too early? Why are you doing that? So it's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. This offensive line might have been good if everybody was healthy from the beginning, of the Year. Johnah Williams had left tackle,

Cordy Glenn at left guard. If Billy Price didn't begin training camp with plantar fasciitis, maybe things would have gone better for him. But that's not the reality that we're living in. And now there have been more injuries that are piling up. John Miller got injured early in the game last week. Andre Smith has been out people listening to this know the a litany of injuries they're dealing with. How much has the lack of continuity upfront taking that

offensive line down another notch? It always plays a part. You know, I've said for years now. You know, an offensive line when it's performing well is like making a fish. You don't even think about it. You just curl your forefingers, wrap your thumb. It just happens, you know, spontaneously, and there's unspoken word communication when an offensive line is playing at a good level with each other, understanding what the other guy is going to do in certain situations. You know,

you don't have to overcommunicate verbally. You can do it just by you know, body language and little things that you that you use to communicate. So that that's tough, But I will say that from day one, not only of training camp but OTAs, Jim Turner's big thing was everybody has to play multiple positions for this very reason.

So he was running a lot of combinations. You know, every single workout, he was lining guys up in different spots, every single preseason game, landing guys up in different spots for this very thing. But with that said, game snaps, game speed, you know, the only way you can get those kind of things is to do it over and over and over again together with the same people. And when those people are switching around and it's musical chairs up there, it adds to the challenge, There is no

doubt about it. It adds to the challenge. It just there's no substitute for on task, you know, game experience, there's none. Pro football is a hard sport to play when things are going well. How do they keep it fun when a team is l and six. That's a

big challenge, you know. Because the O and eighth season that I have referred to multiple times, I will say that my sanctuary was still to come down to Spinney Field with my teammates because we were all suffering the same damn thing, and we were all you know, misery loves company, you know, so you come down and commiserate and okay, and we talk about how how are we gonna how are we gonna get off this night? What

are we gonna do? You know, let's figure out how we can get something done, because, like I said, I didn't want to see anybody else, you know, I barely want to see my wife and kids. I was so embarrassed. But um so, you know I'd literally that whole that whole season, even when we started winning some football games, I was. I was absentee in terms of the neighborhood. I was nowhere to be found. I was in the

witness protection program. But um it is it still is your because you know, if you start listening to that. Guys talk about it all the time. The outside noise can be can add pressure. I mean it can just it can ruin your life. It really can, and it will make you maybe do some things you might regret doing. You don't want to do that to people, you know. But a lot of people don't have much sensitivity for how you might be feeling, that's for sure, because they're frustrated.

They don't understand how frustrated you are. And you can't give people knuckle sandwiches. That's not gonna that's not gonna play well. So you have to be smart about it, and the best way to do it is to avoid that those kind of confrontations, those kind of things. So it is, it's hard, but it is still the sanctuary.

So we would try to figure out things, you know, to do, whether it's a you know, offensive lineman playing a touch football game and you know, one of the lineman's obviously a quarterback, you know, or whatever, whatever the case may be, just try to lighten it up a little bit. But you knew that you better get your notes to the grindstone as quickly as you possibly can

because there was work to be done. And you know, the sad the sad thing is sometimes too as far as an offensive line's concerned, when the team is struggling, and even when the team is playing well, offensive line play a lot of times when it's when it's at least acceptable, acceptable to great is not a huge difference. When you're watching tape, it's like you're getting the job

done and plays are being made. Sometimes like you're getting the job done, plays aren't being made, and it's like the offensive line play is not hugely different on tape. But somebody has to make somebody miss, somebody has to make a great cat, somebody has somebody has to do

something to light a fire. But there are times also when you watch an offensive line playing, it's like, oh man, you know, everybody took their turn on getting their butts royally kicked, and that stands out like a store thimb as well. So I'm sure they're experiencing all of it for sure. By the way, our adjacent cubicles at Paul

Brown Stadium, that's my sanctuary these days. All right, let's get to the keys to victory this Sunday, the Bengals get off the schneide we say coffin nails bang bang bang at the end of the game because they do what against Jacksonville. Well, first thing they have to do, Dan is somehow figure it away to run the football and stop Jacksonville from from dominating the football game playing keepaway.

I mean, Jackson's going to look at exactly what Baltimore did, look at the stats, and then the film's going to support it. Pound the ball, play keepaway. That's what they're gonna try to do. Minimize the opportunities the Bengals have and four Nett's going to be the big, the big deal. You got to control that guy. Five hundred and eighty four yards third in the league, five point one to rush.

He's also capable, you know, catching the ball out of the backfield seven hundred and seventy three scrimmage yards, third best in the league. So the Bengals are thirty second in the NFL running the football yards per game thirty second, are defensive allowed yards allowed per game, thirty second in yards allowed per rush five point three. Offensively fifty six and a half is dead last. Three point one is

thirty first. So overall, the Bengals are minus one hundred and twenty eight rushing yards a game a football field and a quarter and minus two point two average rush per attempt minus two point two dead lasts in league. Minus und twenty eight yards a game, dead last in the league. You can't allow that to continue to happen. That's what Jacksonville is going to try to do. Then, ball security, you know, Jacksonville, they've only got two takeaways,

tied for the fewest in the league. They won an interception tied for second fewest because Denver and half one yet or Arizona doesn't have one yet, that's who doesn't. They have a fumble recovery tied for fewists in the NFL. Two takes amazing with that defense that they have. In the last two games, the Bengals have only given the ball up one time, so it's been even in the turnover ratio. There were no turnovers in the Arizona game.

Each team had won in the Baltimore game. So ball security is going to be a big deal in that football game. And then inside the twenty gonna call it the red zone for the defense. Red zone for the defense, how about green zone for the offense? I mean red stop? How about green Why don't you go do something in the red zone in the scoring zone for the offensive

football team? They're thirty one point three percent scoring touchdowns in the red zone now is dead last five touchdowns in sixteen opportunities, five tds, thirtieth four times they haven't scored a point, tied for fifth worst scenario there. Jacksonville's offense has struggled as well, thirty eight point nine percent twenty ninth in the NFL, but they've only not scored points one time. Their second in the NFL in terms of scoring points when you get in the red zone. Defensively,

both teams have done a lot better. I mean, Cincinnati's sixth best in the NFL touchdown percentage in Jacksonville's fifth best. Bengals three times no points tied for tenth best in the league, Jacksonville four times no points allowed, tied for sixth best in the NFL. So they've played good red zone defense both teams have, and neither team has played very good scoring zone offense. It's been read and they

have to turn the traffic signal to Green. Who's going to be able to be the traffic cop and turn the traffic signal to Green in the scoring zone and score some damn touchdowns. Green means go, yes, let's get it done this Sunday against Jacksonville. Thanks Lap. There are two undefeated teams left in the NFL, the Patriots and forty nine ers, and there are two winless teams left

in the NFL, the Bengals and Dolphins. Linebacker Leroy Reynolds was with one of the undefeated teams in training camp, the forty nine ers, and is now playing for the Bengals. I talked to him in the locker room this week, we're in the locker room with Bengals linebacker le Roy Reynolds in training camp with San Francisco and then becoming a Bengal in week two? Do you have all of your stuff? Are you still living out of a suitcase

after a month? I mean, well I was transitioning, so I'm still transitioning, but yeah, just you know, suitcasing, it bag still in the truck. We're talking to Leroy Reynolds. You've played for five different teams, six if you include San Francisco from training camp this year. How do you go about fitting in with a new team in a new city. Just being myself, always being myself, being true to will always been as a player as a leader.

I just kind of carry that and you know where I'm wherever I am, just take that with me and try to leave as ample and be the best me I can be. So just being myself. We're visiting little Roy Reynolds. San Francisco is off to a great start. Did you see that coming when you were with that

team during training camp? You know for sure? I think that you know, they did a great job competing, did a great job getting better each and every day, So you know, it's just a reflection of the work they put in, and it was obvious like, well, you know, there was a lot of work getting put in. So you see those guys being playing well, being successful, getting

after it. So yeah, I noticed that. Definitely. One of your previous stops was Atlanta and you played in the Super Bowl for the Falcons team that made it in the twenty sixteen season. My broadcast partner Dave Lapham was on the Bengals for a Super Bowl team and he describes the feelings like he felt like he could lift the stadium when he ran out there for the starting lineups. Do you remember the adrenaline rush and what was going through your mind? Yeah, and I was a real feeling.

I still remember the lights flashing off a kickoff. You know, as a kid, you always see that on TV, you know, the lights flicking from everybody taking picture. So I still remember that. I just remember how the grass felt, how good it felt. I just felt like the right day probably gives you the overwhelming desire to get back. Oh, definitely, definitely, definitely, that's definitely what I want to do. Especially in my career. A lot of guys aren't able to reach that point.

Something grateful enough to be able to reach there. But I would love to go back for sure. We're talking to linebacker Leroy Reynolds. So you've had the high of going to a super Bowl with the Falcons and you also experience with the Bengals are going through right now early in your career with Jacksonville as a rookie, you're on a team that started the season oh and eight. How do you fight through that? UM and just having pride? You know what we do? I think and all guys do,

all the guys in the locker room do. I think? UM? Just being UM at a level where you know we can compete, get better, and and and and win games. UM. So I think that's the mentality. Uh. There's so many factors that play into it. But I think they're really good teams that I've played on. It starts with veteran leadership. From the day you arrived here. You've been a core member of the special teams. What are the qualities that

a great Special Teams player has to have? UM spend a competitor, UM, willing to go out and play the tough down. UM. You know you're usually running sixty seventy yards on the play, um, all outspeed, and you're usually battle somebody while you're doing it. So it's just one of those gut checks. Um, you just gotta out out

will the man. UM. So for me, that's always been my my pedigree, being able to out wield the man and out work them to you know, to get to the ball or prevent him from getting to the ball. So I try to take pride in that, UM and just try to get better. Coach Darren's done a good job just implementing me, getting me acclimated, and I'm still just getting better learning the system of playing around, you know, with the guys that I have. UM plays a great

special teams player. He's done it for a while, and just from his leadership he's been, you know, welcome me in and allowed me to kind of, you know, do my thing as well. Final question for linebacker Leroy Reynolds. You have a saying on your Twitter profile and I seen you wearing a T shirt with this hunt as well, All Gas No Breaks. Explain the meaning behind all gas No Breaks? Um, Well, it's more so again like the mentality, UM, it's about effort, always mean about effort. It's between you

and you learn that at a young age. So for me, it's, you know, go all out every chance you get. Play with effort, play with passion, play with energy and be kind of um give all of yourself. So for me, it's just the possibility of going all out now holding back and emptying your tank. So all gas, no bricks, appreciate your time. Best the Fluck this week, I'm problem.

Thank you appreciate. That's Leroy Reynolds. Now time for this week's Know the Faux Interview as we do a deep dive into the Bengals upcoming opponent with somebody that knows the team. This week it's columnist Gane for Nette from the Florida Times Union. You can find him online at

Jacksonville dot com. He joined Lapping Me on the Bengals Game Plan Show and we started with the big news out of Jacksonville this week, the trade of Jalen Ramsey to the La Rams for two first round draft picks and a fourth I asked Jean a two part question, if the Jags did the right thing and how the locker room reacted to the trade. The first part, I'd say absolutely, I mean Dalen was becoming not necessarily a big distraction, but I would say a headache to both

the coaching staff and the front office. From the coaching staff standpoint, just a limbo status nees week of not knowing whether he would play or not play his back the element had become somewhat of a little bit of a charade, not that he didn't have a back intrigue, but whether he was really going all out to recover from it, to get himself ready to play. And as far as the locker room goes, now, they were they were all alling the line. You know, you know they

can deal with this. It's not a big faction. You know, they understand part of the the business, what have you. But I do think that some degree to has to be a little bit of relief. I think it's find me a resolution to all that. Do you think the problem um that Ramsey had was Tom Coughlin and not Doug Marone or Tom Coughlin and Doug Marone or not Tom coflin, but Doug Marone. I mean what what where was his problem? What was Jalen Ramsey's problem? Did he ever declare what

his uh his big issue was? Well? I think everybody it seems to feel like it was with Tom Coughlin more than anything else. To listen to. Dylan Ramsey's a fantastic player, but he's also an impulsive, narcissistic off the door prayer is right. As I wrote for the Morph paper,

he's the second g Stiva behind Antonio Brown. And you know, when you create some of the things that Dalen has created, and there's been a lot of stuff over the course of three and a half years, you know, this kind of stuff fills up and I think the la rams over the course of time. I'm going to find out what the Jaguar found out, and that is Dalen Ramsey. As great a player as he is, that he will help. He will help your team on the field, also provides at a off the field, and you know he kind

of wears you out. He wears coasting staff out and wears the media out. Where's everybody out? Our guest is Jean Frenette, a columnist from Jacksonville. If Ramsey has been a pain in the New York in the you know what so far this year, Gardner Minshew has been the opposite one of the great stories in the NFL so far this season. Have you seen enough of them Jean to have a strong opinion as to whether he is for real or well, I guess, I guess My question to you is, what do you define as for real?

If you define it as a guy who can be a sut starter in the NFL, I would say, yeah, I guess I would say somebody that you would want to be your quarterback long term. Well, I don't know if the sample size is big ing up yet for that, but he definitely has been far more impressive than than

I or anybody else they anticipated he would be. Now, last week, you know, he had sort of his you know, his kryptonite game in the New Orleans Saints found ways to just really keep him from ever getting into any kind of a rhythm, and he didn't get a whole lot of help from his receivers in that regard. They did as just a whole lot what the safecist is doing.

And I'm sure the Cincinnati Bengals this week are going to try to do some of the same things the Saints did, which would play a lot of Twoman and safety help over the top and forced the Jaguars to receivers to adjust, you know, try to find the holes over the middle as they called them. But you know, the NFL is a test from big sex games. Some weeks you have, some week you have it. You get the better of your opponent of the weeks, the better of you. And we'll see how Gardner meant to react

coming off the game where the better of him? One more question on the Jalen Ramsey um scenario. Do you do you anticipate any uh after shock and during the course of this whole thing, a leader like Calais Campbell, where was he? Where was his stance on this? I mean, did he ever have any any kind of discussion with Jalen Ramsey that you're aware of, or did did he try to you know exactly, you know, appease uh and uh?

I don't know, be a buffer in the situation between Jalen Ramsey and the front office and the coaching staff or did he just let it play out? No, players do that. They just go interfol. Players respect another player's face when it comes to business off the field. I mean they just do. I mean it is not the player's flight to get in to be some sort of intermediary to bluing the front office and a teammate. That's about their job and they don't want that. I mean,

that's something that they know is out of bounds. You know, so did so did Jalen Ramsey? Did Jalen Rant I don't mean to couch, but did Jalen Ramsey Uh at that point not take anything out on the teammates? I mean, what was what was the teammate's posture in this whole thing? They just said, Okay, we understand you want to go go ahead. We're not going to have any issue with what you're doing here to disrupt our team. Yeah, that's

pretty much it. Because listen, regardless of what drama might be going on with a star player in the team, all those two other guys that locker room have a job to do. They have they have film to study, they have preparations to do from the next game. Getting caught up in somebody else's drama, it's not gonna do this dem any good and it's not gonna do the team any good. So you know, there was no there was no like, you know, interception on the part of

Jalen Ramsey. This was strictly jailing acting out on his own. He's a very impulsive guy and once he had it in his head that he wanted out there was not gonna be anything to use mine and if not, probably a coincidence because forty eight hours after he didn't play in a game was the older was expected it to play. All of a sudden, he wass traded and shipped out right. Gene Fournette from the Florida Times Union is our guest Gene.

It seems to me when people talk about the best running backs in the NFL, they rarely mentioned Leonard Fournette. Should he be in the conversation. His stats this year are awesome? Um, yeah, he has to some degree out. I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make I'm not gonna make him an elite NFL back yet. I don't think. I don't think he has the always has the instinct and the cutting ability and things like that

of an elite NFL running back. But if you give him a hole to get through and to let him get in the second level, then yeah, uh it's great. But I don't see. You know, even though the yards per carry is much better than it has said his path and he's clearly such for focused and better conditions coping getting the season, I don't think he's gonna lead NFL back. I do think he can be a very

good one month. Looking at Fournette's numbers, you had a huge game against Denver two in twenty five yards, most in the NFL in a single game. He had another one hundred and eight yards against Carolina. So he has a big game and then maybe not so much. Is it the lack of consistency that you have an issue with? Two? And I mean a DJ Chark the same way he'll have He has a couple of big games, but then not, you know, on on a weekly basis. I mean it's kind of a yo yo thing. Is that? Is that

an issue in your mind? Or are you okay with that? Well? I don't think DJ Shart is a yelo at all. He's been pretty good all year until this past week. Letter from that's a little bit of a different story, of course. You know letters much more can uh? You know, dependent on the offensive line creating those planes for him. A receiver, you know, you're not so much dependent on an entire judic to help you look to it. You're dependent on a running game though, so you can have

an opportunity to get opened down the field. That can help you, that's for sure. But I mean DJ Chart got got double teams pretty consistently last year for the first time all chiever. So if a decent wants to take away a receiver, they can do that. The question is can the team make the decents pay for for you know, stating a lot of you know, a lot of players the way of one of one guy, and the Jaguars weren't able to do that last week. But if they do that another week, then maybe then maybe

DJA Shock will getting more opportunities we had last week. Yeah, when you running back like Fournette and a receiver like Chart, Okay, you just count the number of players in the box. Well, I can put eight in the box and stuff Fournette. Chark's gonna eat. I gotta I gotta double Chart, so I can't put it in the box. Fournette should eat. So they should play off each other. I mean, you can't have eaten the box and double the receiver and you don't have many players out in the football field.

So I mean those guys should, you know, kind of benefit off each other depending on what the defense tries to take away. It'll be interesting to see. It's gonna be a count the box. Yeah, well, let's not put DJ Shark in the same category as like a Julio's Jones or or put Leonard Fournette in the same category as an Elliott Just yeah, okay, they're good. They're very good good receivers. BJ Chark has improved over last year more than anybody I've ever seen twenty five years covering

the Jaguars from first years. The seven year DJ Stark uprovement has been phenomenal and letters much better all of mean he was last year. The other parts of the offense for the offense of mind walking together as they meeting those opportunities at that points sisted the Jags so far, and you've got a quarterback kids who I have to

commend and done really well. Let's not forget that, and a couple of different lousions the game that they won as far as the Denver Broncos game, so you know one or two points look at the Bengals, Yeah, no, you're right, I mean could be huckdown right, Yeah exactly. I mean, you know it's lost by a point, three points, four points, and six points. So you know four of their losses are by a touchdown less than a touchdown. You may let me ask you this, how are people

running the football for five point two yards? Because the Bengals at five point three yards a kind of staggering to me. I mean, they're a bunch of game, but five points to a care I mean, what in your eye, what's been the problem with stopping the run? Well, they had one really horrific game at Carolina. Okay, give up two hundred and eighty five yards jushing and McCaffrey went off on them, and so that's us the numbers a little bit. But the dec has been talk about incomesistence.

This decents has been you know, jekylin high the entire season. It has three really either terrific ors to that game. So you don't do one week to the next, what decents you're gonna get? That's part of the problem right there. All thanks to Jean for Nette. And here's a quick reminder that if you live in the Cincinnati area and listen to this podcast before Friday afternoon at three, we hope you'll join Lapp and Wayne box Miller for the Bengals pep Rally Show on Friday from three to six

at Buffalo Wings and rings in Fairfield. Their special guest in the final hour of the show will be Bengals cornerback Tony McCray and there will be plenty of giveaways as well. That's going to do it for this episode of the podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment. Those five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for listening to the Bengals Boot Podcast.