Bengals Booth Podcast: Safety Dance

in the Dallas game. I will also ask Lap if his confidence in the offensive line took a hit from what he saw in the first half at at and T Stadium aka Jerry World aka the Palace in Dallas. The next time you're in Dallas, by the way, you can take a guided tour of the stadium and have your picture taken on the start the fifty yard line

for a mere thirty two bucks plus. In this week's fun Fact segment, you'll get to know German born tight end Moretz bo Ringer, who made NFL history a couple of years ago when he became the first player ever drafted straight out of Europe without playing college football in the US. First, he has a remarkable story and a

cool accent. 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 Google Play. It's the greatest invention since pie. When it comes to dessert, some people like cake, others like pudding or chocolate mouse. But I am a pie guy. And I mentioned it now because there is an apple pie a few feet away as I record this, and I will be crushing

a slice as soon as I finish. Now, time to bringing my broadcast partner Dave Lapham to discuss the Iloca news and the standouts in Saturday's twenty one to thirteen win in Dallas. Lap Let's start with Sunday's big news, the release of George Iloca. Some people were shocked. I would say I was mildly surprised. How about you, Yeah, I'd say that maybe the timing, you know, a little bit. I think a lot of his teammates were surprised because of the timing. But when you look at it, I mean,

Jesse Bates has shown that he can play. I thought he you know, I thought he made a lot of good plays in the game against Dallas. The one on one in space, he's hitting people and they're getting nothing. I mean, the journey is over. And that was the question about him, you know, coming in, Uh, you know, great guy tracking the football, interceptions, making players in the football, but would he tackle? And he's to me, he's answered

that question with flying colors. So I think, um, you know, the fact that they have a belief in him, and you know, I think they're trying to clear some some cap space to sign extend the contracts of either Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlapper both. So you know, when you look at the two moves they made with older players, there were, uh, there was money to be had for salary cap purposes. Though that that kind of makes you think the timing is coming sooner rather than later to have one of

those guys extended potentially. So I mean, when you add it all, added it all up and thought about it, not really a shock, but I guess the timing may have been maybe a little surprising. I wasn't shocked for a couple of reasons. Number One, the Bengals made it abundantly clear in the offseason they wanted upgrade the safety position. They talked to Kurt Colem and he wind up signing with the Saints instead of the Bengals. They talked to Eric Reid, who still hasn't signed with anybody, and then

they drafted a safety in the second round. So clearly they weren't thrilled with the play at least last year. If Sean Williams and George Iloka, and then secondly to me, Sean Williams and George Iloka are kind of the same guy, good tackling, solid, very solid players, but neither one is a center field type that's going to get a lot of picks. Sean Williams is a year younger, quite a bit cheaper. Seems to make sense to me. If you've got two guys that are more or less the same,

keep the younger, less expensive guy. Yeah. And I think also, um, when when Jesse Bates showed that he could be the quarterback of the defense, because that's what George was. George was like a coach on the field, getting everybody lined up. Um, he's the guy that makes the calls and then makes the adjustments and coverages, you know, based on what the offense is doing, and that that's going to be a big responsibility. There's going to be some pressure quote Une

Air quotes on on Bates to get that done. He'll make some mistakes. You know, he's a younger player. George was remarkable in that way though he had tremendous has tremendous football LIKEQ and I think they feel like Bates does as well. And and let's face it, you know what George Alka is, Bates is ceiling. You have no clue yet. And if they're close right now, why not go with the younger, less expensive guy that has a

bigger upside. So from the business standpoint, you know, it makes it makes sense for a lot of the reasons that you know you mentioned earlier as well, and um, you know, it's just that's just the way it is in the national football A good example this week's opponent, the Buffalo Bills. They get ten interceptions out of their starting safeties, five apiece, one made the Pro BOL, the other one probably should have. Bengals got two out of

their starting safety. So what they want is they want more plays like Buffalo has given them given that defensive football team on the back end, and they're hoping that, you know, Bates could be a big contributor to that. Let's follow up on the timing slash salary aspect of this, because George was in the third year of a five year, thirty million dollar deal. It reportedly frees up about five million bucks against the salary cap. Do you think that

this is pointing toward a deal with Geno, Carlos or both. Yeah, you'd have to assume that. You'd have to think that that it's it's eminent, you know, it's they saved saved money by waving a veteran receiver, save money by veteran waving a veteran safety. It just, you know, it makes sense that they're on the customer getting something done with one of them, hopefully both, but at least one of them.

And the timing is about when it has happened, you know, right right before the season starts, So it would not be a surprise at all if in the next few days or the next week or so, there's some kind of some kind of deal that's going to be announced and hopefully they're just thought in the eyes and crossing the tees. Let's face it, if they extend Geno Atkins, it all makes sense, absolutely, yeah, no question about it.

And players we were talking about that you know Dre in conversation with Dre today, you know that's that's the business. And you know he said, I know there's guy's going to be making a pile of money on this football team here shortly. So it's it's no mystery. It's no secret. It's just life in the National Football League, in today's economy, in the UNFL, for sure. All right, Let's go back

to Saturday's win in Dallas. Bengals win at twenty one thirteen, but the starters were outperformed by the Cowboys in the first half when Dallas led ten nothing. Let's specifically talk about the offensive line. Are you more concerned about the O line coming out of that game than you were going in? Yeah, I mean questions weren't answered, you know that that you were hoping might be. In looking at it a little bit, I thought that the running game wasn't as bad as my initial reaction was. It was

a twofold thing. It certainly needs to be better than it was upfront, But I thought the running backs were trying to do too much, making cuts that they didn't have to make. They weren't running attack the tracks as tightly as they could have, and they were trying to create a home run and doing a little bit too much. So I think it's just a matter of you know, settling on whoever it is in the offensive line with

the running backs and getting that rhythm and timing. I mean, you know, the relationship between your blockers and your running back is something that just comes with repetition, and repetition breeds comfort level and breeds excellence. And they're not there at this point in time. It's just it's just not in sync. It's not you know, they all talked about, like AJ talked about being off a tick after the

game offensively with the passing game. Well they're off a tick, maybe a tick and a half in the running game. And it is it's all just a timing thing that you can only get done when you're at full speed. You know, in game conditions, you can rep it and practice all you want, but until you get out there and it's it's the real speed, the real deal, you know, things are a lot different for sure. Let's get to the positive. Let's pass out some game balls after the

victory in Dallas. Give me a few guys that stood out to you on both sides of the ball. Well, I tell you. I thought that offensively, you know, you look at you look at Brian Hill. He took advantage of his opportunities fully. You know, he averaged twenty three and a half yards of catch and he averaged six yards of rush, so you know, that's pretty pretty proficient, pretty efficient. He had his four play fifty nine yard drive that was all him. So guys like Trey Carson,

who I thought stepped up as well. Trey Carson and Brian Hill are saying, don't forget me. You know, I'm here here, I am I'm out here performing. And if it's not the Bengals that are going to answer the raised hand, it might be another team in the NFL, or it might be a team in Canada or these new leagues, or what these guys are doing in these preseason games is trying to extend their football life, trying

to extend their football career. So they know that they're not putting tape down just to be evaluated by the Cincinnati Bengals organization. It's being looked at by everybody, and everybody is looking at every every single bit of tape that they possibly can from every single football team in the National Football League. So it's competitive to make that fifty three man roster, but there are other opportunities. You know. It's it's maybe you don't hit a home run, but

why not hit a ground rule double. You know, if you if you can stay alive and you might score, somebody might knock in, you know. So it's the same same type of thing. You just you're scratching and clawed to continue your your career. And I thought, you know, those two guys stepped up, I thought, on the on the offensive side of the football, and then defensively, Nick Vigil, I mean Vigil. Vigil was strong. I think he had feign assisted tackles and a couple of assists, and he

had the quarterback sack, one of the five sacks. The Bengals did have five sacks on the day and Dallas only had one. And I thought Bates, Jesse Bates, with feign assisted tackles. We saw him hit his game responsibilities properly and make plays, and I thought, that's the so we talked about earlier. That was the big plus. He's done it in a couple of games now, and you know, two preseason games does not a career make or a season make by any stretch. But it's encouraging to see

him doing that, you know, that type of thing. And I thought Billings, you know, we talked about it before the game. Have they solved the nose tackle position. We thought maybe that's the closest one to be insolved. He took another step. I thought it wasn't Travis Frederick, but it was a good offensive line still in there when he was playing, and he had three unassisted tackles and as an interior guy, and that's not counting the disruptions

that he took back to somebody else. One of his tackles was a tackle for lost four yard loss on his own, but then there were other plays that were negative plays because he made that back make his first cut and teammates were there to finish it up. So I thought, I thought Billings really showed up. And then you know the young guys, Jordan Willis with a couple of sacks and Sam hovered with the strip sacks. So

defensively I thought they did. I thought they miss misfit one gap responsibility that hurt him in the running game, but overall, I thought they played the run decently against a pretty good, you know, offensive line. So you know even though they were they get outplayed. I agree with you, Dan, meaning in the football game, it wasn't like they were totally embarrassed and dominated. When when you look at it, it's never as bad as you think, and it's never

as good as you think. You know once you really take a look at it. So I think you know you can work from it and build off it, that's for sure. Are you ready for my game ball? What's your game ball? I am giving it to Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis for the following reason, going for two with a minute to go in the third quarter to more or less guarantee that that game would not go to overtime. And of course it worked on a nice catch by John Ross half a fastball from Jeff driscoll.

But you know what, we need to turn the clock back to the first preseason game because we did not kill Bears coach Matt Naggey nearly enough for attempting a game tying fifty two yard field goal with less than a minute to go that would have forced overtime. And there is over time in preseason games. Brook, you mistake I head coach, for I bet his teammates said, you make it, you're walking home, You're not flying. I mean that that was that was kind of nuts. And speaking

of kickers, what about Brown? How about him getting the game ball fifty five yard or I honestly, I wonder

if he was supposed to do all that kicking. I haven't asked the coaches yet, but because you know, he didn't have the opening kickoff right, that was the only time we saw a kitching right right and uh in the opening kickoff, and then after that when he made that fifty five yard or maybe you know, Darren says to Marvin, let's let's let's take a look at let's you know, let him can he deserves to continue here? He made that. Who knows, maybe it was planned. I've

not checked that out. I don't know if it was planned that way or not, or if he just kind of kicked himself into additional opportunities and continued to shine. I mean, that kickoff goes through the end zone, hits the crossbar. That would have been at least another ten yards past the back line of the end zone. This that's that's twenty yard. It's you know, out of out

of bounds, almost to the seats. I mean, the guy has a kin and a howitzer hanging off that right hip, and uh, the hang time he gets with it not only distance, but I mean that's a big parabola. Well that's that's in that dome. To get it was like an Adam upper deck home run, majestic trajectory on his kicks. Man, it's crazy. Marvin said after the game that it's not an open competition. It's still Mike Nugent's and not Mike Nugent Randy Bullock's job. And let's you know, give credit

to Randy Bullock. He made ninety percent of his field goals last year. He hasn't missed a kick in a game so far this year. But I will say this, I used to think that if Randy Bullock went down, they would not have the nerve to go to John Brown just because he's never done it in a game before. I figured, well, if Randy tweaked something, they would do what they did last year. They would go find another Marshal Kane to kick in a game or two. John

Brown is changing my mind about that. I think that if Randy Bullock were to suffer an injury, I think John Brown is showing them enough that they would say, you know what, let's give him a shot. And I think that's the reason they let him do the additional kicking is to build a resume that not only the Bengals have that opinion, but other teams in the league look at it and say, man, he's on my short list.

You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna bring him in for at least a tryout where he wouldn't have been on on the tryout list. When kickers either you know, lose their opportunity due to ineffectiveness or injury and then they're looking for somebody else. He might be on a few people's list by the time this preseasons are what then, like we said again, Canadian football, these new leagues, he's trying to extend his career. I mean he is. He is a neophyte for sure. So every every opportunity he

gets is going to be it's like gold. It's like a gold bar for him to have kicks that kind of magnitude and that kind of opportunity. So and he responded, so I think he is. You know, he's gonna he's gonna make his mark and make some lists. For sure. It seems like every year, or maybe every couple of years, somebody makes this team based on returns. In the preseason. It was Dane Sonzenbacher. A few years ago, it was Alex Ericson two years ago. Is Darius Phillips becoming that

guy this year? Maybe he would have made it anyway? Fifth round draft, picked to play quarterback, But he had a forty four yard kick return. He had a twenty four yard punt return. He was very successful as a kick returner in college, and I'm wondering if he is showing them enough as a return man to more or less guarantee that he's going to stick around on the fifty three. I mean, he's he's making a making a statement for sure. He's shown up twice in both games.

He showed the wiggle of short space quickness. He definitely has an innatability. Those return guys. Some of the things that they do you can't really coach. It's instinct, it's feel, it's knack. Guys have a knack for it and other guys don't. You know. That's why it's like, well, John Ross, why you know, why isn't he returning? Well, you saw in that punt he wasn't really too sure about messing with it, said he lost in the lights. Okay, that's happens.

It happens. It definitely happens. And if you feel like you have you don't want to, you know, stab at it and cause cause issues. But I mean he is, he's totally comfortable back there. You know, when when guys are running down at you like they are in the National Football League on special teams, it's a it's a very very unique feeling. And he has to come and the composure to handle it and deal with it, make

good decisions in the return game. And he has shown Darren Simmons the first thing you have to do is secure the football, and he's done a good job at catching the football. So and that's what Alex Erickson was all about. He was very very sure back there, as well as his ability to return it. But you know, now you look at it and you say, okay, well, alex Erickson and Phillips. So they in a battle because

you're not just fighting all the wide receivers. If you've got a defensive back trying to make the back end of that roster and he can return kicks and you're a receiver trying to make the back end of the roster and you can return kicks. You're going against each other. You're not going against Auton Tat or whoever else, Cody Corps. You're going against those guys and a guy from an the position group. And that's that's the life in the

NFL from a roster standpoint. But if both of them make it, Darren Simmons even in a better situation because one gets nicked up, you just tossed the other one in there. And he had that with Adam Jones. Now with Adam Jones, you know, not on the football team. You know, Phillips might be a guy that would be you know, potentially at some point in time and some of the sub packages if he works his way up to that. Plus he could provide a return opportunity if

Ericson gets knicked up. I guess the good news for Alex Rickson is he's having excellent camp as a wide receiver. Made a tremendous toe tap catch on third and eleven for a twenty eight yard gain, drew a key pass interference penalty in the Dallas wins, so he doesn't necessarily have to hold on to his job as a return man. Because I think he's one of their top five wide receivers.

I think he's one of their you know, if you look at the fifty three men roster, he's not He's not like number you know, forty six, the last guy. To me, he's a solid member of the football team. I was just pointing out. You know, it's like the competition. You can't have television just oh, I'm competing with these cornerbacks or you're competing with a lot of people when you're not, you know, one of the top twenty two guys on the football team. So it becomes the more

you can do. And yeah, to me, Alex Erritson, it's it's it's gold stamp. I mean, he's he's on my football team and he will be as long as he can probably play. I love the kid. I love everything he gives to uh you on the football field, in the locker room. You know, he's a he's a great member of the organization. But that's uh you know, Phillips. Phillips is making showing it, showing that he can h It's all based on number of snaps you can provide, you know, and he's showing he could be maybe a

factor in the sub packages. If if he's if he continues to improve and progress with what they want systematically here, and then with his natural gift of a return guy like you mentioned a few times. Anybody at any level that returns as many balls or scores as many touchdowns as that kid did, as many different ways as he did, he's got to be a football player, and he is. He's a good football player. Five kick return touchdowns, one

punt return touchdown in college for Darius Phillips. Final topic is John Ross had a twenty nine yard catch, excellent play on the two point conversion to hold on to that throw from Driscoll before getting popped, and then early in the game failed to catch a punt that cost the Bengals field position. They had to start their first drive of the game from the four yard line as a result, I feel like in the first two weeks we have seen what the Bengals are going to get

out of John Ross as a rookie. Knock on wood, that he stays healthy, they're going to be some mess ups. He didn't play last year. In Game one, he fell down it led to the pick six. In Game two, he fails to catch the punt but he is going to provide that big play element that they have sore so sorely lacked. Twenty yard catch in game one, twenty nine yard catch in game two. Maybe he doesn't catch sixty balls this year, but when he makes plays, they're

going to be for big games. He may average twenty yards to catch or eighteen or more, you know, and that that's the kind of thing he can do. Like you said, he's gonna be um, he's gonna pop off the tape both ways, you know, potentially, and hopefully it's a heck of a lot more from a positive standpoint with him, you're gonna maybe look at some train wrecks, like we talked about. You hate to see train wrecks,

you know, you don't want to steve penalties. You don't want to see turnovers, you want to see drops, You don't want to see any of those kind of things.

But then when he gives a guy a little bit of shake you know, in space on like a little bubble screen and takes it sixty yards like, oh my gosh, not many guys in this world can do that, or just flat runs by somebody you know and secure as the football in a big play that way, he does provide, you know, what they've been looking for since Marvin Jones, a guy on the other side of the field to stretch the field opposite AJ, so you know, can't always

tilt it and roll it toward AJ. You have to think about the other guy and hopefully he his biggest thing. Just like a lot of football players, strive for his consistency. And his graph is too you know, there's too many peaks and valleys in it. And if he can, if he can keep the keep the needle up toward that high end of his graph. He's not going to be there every snap do something like oh my god, I mean,

nobody does that. But if he can get there a higher percentage of the time than he's doing now, he could be something special. We are off to Buffalo on Saturday. Will you join me again at my favorite chicken wing place in the city of Buffalo. As a native of that area, Dan, your your opinion proved to be solid gold. I think a return trip is in order. Brow Gabriel's Gate is the place and Horden Lapham will be crushing

it on Saturday night. Look forward to it. Same here, Buffalo's most famous chicken wing establishment is the anchor bar where buffalo style wings were supposedly invented. But as Lap mentioned, I grew up in Western New York and I swear by Gabriel's Gate on Allen Street Intown Buffalo. They are awesome. Next Sunday's game in Buffalo starts at four o'clock. And if you missed the news, the Bengals will not be facing aj mccaron, who suffered his shoulder injury last week.

The Bills have announced that rookie Josh Allen, the seventh pick and this year's draft, will get his first preseason

start at quarterback. Now time for this week's fun facts segment, as we get to know the person under the pads, in this case, twenty four year old Moritz bo Ringer, a six four, two hundred forty three pound tight end who is a sixth round draft pick by the Minnesota Vikings in twenty sixteen, when he made history by becoming the first European player to be drafted without playing any

college football in the US. Time for some fun facts with Bengals tight end Moritz bo Ringer, a native of Stuttgart, Germany, who is with the Bengals this year as part of the NFL's International Player Pathway program. Let's turn the clock back, Moritz, how does a kid growing up in Germany become interested

in American football? I played soccer growing up, like most guys in Germany do, and then at some point I just saw a random video on YouTube by Adrian Peterson and I kind of liked what I saw and I just looked at what it is, and yeah, try to find a club in Germany. And luckily we had football in Germany, so I just joining the club in my hometown and yeah, basically that's where it all started. What was that club team? Like, how often did you practice?

And how sophisticated was it in comparison to what kids are exposed to here? We have like we had like a chowing team with another city because we just didn't have enough guys. So we just like practiced, I don't know, like once or toys a week and then maybe two times a month we drove to the other city and practice with them. So it was hard in the beginning. We're doing fun facts with Bengals tight end Morris Bowringer. You eventually played in the German Football League for this

Wabbish Hall Unicorns, if I'm saying that correctly. How popular is that league? Are the games televised? Did they get spectators? Tell me a little bit about the German Football League. I don't know, like the games get like around two three thousand people. It's not on TV now, but they're trying to get at least the highlights of the games on TV and then the final to Jane Bowl, that's what that's on TV. So it's kind of if you want to get in the game, so you give me

on TV. And you played in the German Bowl, kind of the Super Bowl of European football. Yeah, exactly, it's that's a big, bigger game. It's probably like twelve thousand people come to that game and it's in Bolin in the Capitol. So that was a nice experience. We're visiting with Mart's bow ringer. NFL teams are always looking for undiscovered talent, and after you had great statistics in the German Football League, you got an invitation to come to the US and go through a pro day where you

work out in front of NFL scouts. What was it like to you getting that call, getting that invitation to go through a pro day? Yeah, at first I didn't really believe it because the guy who contacted me first roll me on Facebook and ask me for my number and then just call into you want to come to the United States, And I was like, Okay, I'm not sure if that's like good joke or something, but in the end it was all real. So you come to

the US. You did a workout at Florida University and you had great numbers of four four and the forty yard dash, a thirty nine in vertical leap, and you're a big guy. Your life changed from that workout, didn't it. Yeah, it was pretty crazy off of that, like especially all the media coverage I got, and it was just almost overwhelming. But it was also good because I wanted to play football in the highest level and that gave me a

chance to do it. Teams got interested as a result of that workout, and you eventually got drafted in the sixth round two years ago by the Minnesota Vikings. Did that make you a big celebrity back in Germany? I get recognized from time to time, but it's not like I can't go outside and do anything. It's like I still can do what I normally do. You're drafted by

the Vikings. You go to their camp and I can only imagine how intimidating it must have been where you're one of ninety guys, but they've been playing American style football their whole lives and you have very limited exposure to it back in Germany. Was it a little bit scary? I wasn't used to like a professional sport. I think

that was the biggest challenge. Like people who grow up like go through the whole system and they like get slowly introduced to the whole what it takes to be an NFL professional player, And yeah, I just got thrown in there and I had to learn everything real fast. Were there really basic football terms or what we would consider to be basic football terms that you had never heard before and you're trying to pick it up in the NFL. No, it was more than like the complexity

of the playbook. It was just more than I was used to and there was more details on everything in the roads had to be really clean. In Germany, I just could use the way Atlantics and just dominated with that. So in twenty sixteen, you spent a year on the Vikings practice squad, playing for Mike Zimmer, a former Bengals assistant coach. What was that year like? How much did you learn in that year on the practice squad? It was definitely a great chance to learn a lot about

football and how the NFL works too. I just enjoyed being there and just experienced the whole thing. A few more fun facts with Bengals tight end more its bow ringer. So the NFL has started this International Players Pathway program, and basically the way it works just by random the

four teams in the AFC North were selected. Each team was assigned an international player and that player could possibly make the fifty three man roster or if not, the team's get an exemption so that that player can stay on the practice squad for the year. So you are more or less assured of being with the Bengals for

the upcoming year. What do you hope to get out of this season because I changed pocisions, I just try to get the whole tight end thing and yeah, just get better at that, get better at blocking, and just try to learn as much as they can. Yeah. I don't know if I even mentioned it. You are a wide receiver back home in Germany. That's what you played with the Vikings and now the Bengals are converting you

to tight end. Yeah, it was just new in the beginning, and the whole terminology too, like the whole blocking schemes. But yeah, I'm getting used to it. So it's not rocket science. It's just got to block the right guy. It might be tougher than rocket science. Weren't you studying mechanical engineering back home exactly, so you're obviously a good student in addition to being an excellent athlete. Yeah, that's

what I did most of the time. I was studying first and football was just on the side for fun. So okay, final fun fact for Moretz Bowringer, the Bengals tight end. Cincinnati has a great German heritage. We have an October Fest every year. There's a popular German language school. The over the Rhine neighborhood was built by German immigrants. Have you become familiar with all of these German ties

in the city of Cincinnati. Yeah, I've seen some stuff, and I've seen the Hope Boy host in Newport and I went to the see Cincinnati game and had like some fang club in him stud that was a fang club. So yeah, there's a Lofer Jone stuff you should fit right in. Yeah, very good. We appreciate your time. Best of luck this year. I hope to make some catches

in the preseason. Yeah, thank you. Bo Ringer had one catch for four yards in the Dallas game, and while he won't make the fifty three man roster to begin this season, he is sure to be on the prac to squad since all four teams in the AFC North get to carry an extra practice squad player this year as part of the new International Player Pathway program. That's going to do it for this edition of the podcast.

If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play and give it a rating or leave a comment. Your feedback has been great and five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth podcast