Bengals Booth Podcast: Smooth Operator

quarterback to lead the Bengals to the super Bowl. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Prime Sport, the official fan, travel and hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. And 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 wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since Greater's Chunky Chunky Hippo ice Cream. The first round of the draft lasted for four hours and

at some point I needed a snack. Well, this week I sampled Greater's Chunky Chunky Hippo ice cream for the first time and It's unbelievable roasted peanuts and milk chocolate caramel truffles combined in sweet and creamy toffee ice cream. I think we have about a half a pint left and I have strategically stashed it in the back of the freezer. I'm looking forward to indulging again during the

second night of the draft. Now time for my conversation with Dave Lapham, as he joined me moments after round one ended. Lap We had the opportunity to take part in a virtual news conference with Joe Burrow a little while after he was drafted number one overall by Cincinnati, and I was reminded of his meeting with the Bengals at the scouting combine when one person in the room said it was the best one of those reviews they had ever taken part with in I felt the same

way watching his news conference with Cincinnati area reporters. You talk about impressive. He answered every question perfectly. He did, and uh, you know, I went to the combine for his press conference there same thing. I mean he I asked him, what what do you think your strength is? And he sat leadership, rallying people. He has innate people skills. You know. I mean, he's just one of those guys that gets it. He just people. People are gonna gravitate

toward him, They're gonna believe in him. Is he's special. He is extremely special. And uh seen him twice now and in both times not just a home run, a grand salami. I mean, he just he's something else. And by the time he talked to Cincinnati area reporters, he had probably done a million interviews. He was on a national report. I'm sure he did a news conference with the big wig, so to speak. So by the time he got around to all of us, he had to

be a little bit mentally fried. And yet he turned it on, recognizing that this was going to be the first impression that he made with people who'll be dealing with on a regular basis, his first impression with many Cincinnati fans, and those are the kinds of things you have to do if you are in that spot. There's

no doubt. I mean, I think you know, he's he grew up around the game, and you know, I'm sure he's heard his dad talk about you know, guys have handled themselves well and guys that didn't, and lessons to be learned from that. And and he I just think that his personality is that though I don't think he never has to put on any time of false air or anything else. All he has to be is Joe Burrow. And I mean it's it's just like I said before, his teammates at Ohio State. I think the world of

his teammates in high school. Think the world of them. You know, when when college kids travel to the national championship game in their own time to watch your old teammate win a national championship. That speaks volumes and uh, you know he impacts people. Uh and and I think you know he's gonna be when when you look at it, Dan, he's twenty three years old. He's not He's not like a twenty year old kid, you know, coming into the

National Football League. It's not like a twenty year old kid was going to a huddle with a bunch of thirty year old guys. He's twenty three years old, and the team, all these guys they signed in free agency, you know, are into just finishing their first contracts. So you know a lot of them are in their you know, mid to late twenties themselves. I mean, it's not like he's gonna you know, he's gonna be dealing with a bunch of you know, crusty, old veteran guys. Now he

still has to prove himself. I mean, he's he's the new guy, he's the young buck. But you know, I don't I don't think he's gonna have any difficulty whatsoever um being the leader of the pack. I think that's going to come very naturally and very easily to him. And I think he's going to do a hell of

a job. He was so good. He even nailed the question about Cincinnati style chili, which he famously blasted in an interview a year or two ago whenever that was, And when asked about it again today, he said, you know what, I have to give it another try. Maybe my taste buds have changed. That is a great answer

for that question. It is. And you know, and I asked him about Andy Dalton, you know, and and I thought he handled that perfectly, because that's that's going to be an awkward situation for both really, but they're both cut from the same cloth in terms of the type of human being they are, so I don't anticipate, you know, any issue there. In fact, you know, Andy and Joe Burrow have to interact whatsoever. And I think he handled

that well. He said, you know, I have no trouble with Andy Dalton in the quarterback room with you know, having a veteran guy to lean on, or I have no problem at all if that's not the case, and it's a bunch of young guys in the quarterback room, and I'll handle that as well. And I think that's that's the thing that you know people are talking about. Is it swagger? Is it earned confidence? Like you know,

like Zach was categorizing it. He does have one needed He definitely has an edge, But bottom line is he has supreme, I mean uber supreme people skills. He really does at a very young age. It's it's incredible to watch. So before we had the opportunity to talk to Joe Burrow, we did talk to Zach Taylor and also offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. What stood out from their media sessions with

Cincinnati reporters. His effectiveness, you know, under pressure is something that one pressure was something that the coaching staff took note of. I think there is no no question about that. I do think they feel they're going to be able to get him up to speed quickly. There's a lot of carry over with concepts offensive concepts that Joe Brady had installed down there at LA. I mean, like we talked about earlier in the week, Dan, you know, this is a pro style offense. This but I liked it.

I liked the term that I heard here um during the draft coverage spread and shred Joe Burrow and Joe Brady went down to LSU and said, we're gonna put five receivers out. There's gonna be five lineman blocking and Joe Burrow, you're gonna read it and get the ball out of your hand. You're gonna, you know, cite adjust the things you need to cite adjust to. You're gonna process the information quickly. And he spread those defenses out and uh and made them declare some things and shredded them.

There's no question about it. And he went from his junior year they did that like thirty two percent of the time. His senior year they did at eighty seven percent of the time. And that was the key that unlucked Joe Burrow. So there's no question. I think Zach feels, you know, pretty good about that. That's what he wants

to try to do. That's what that's you know, the passing game like that with the one back set and spreading the field with either tight ends or you know multiple a tight end or just all receivers, multiple receivers or even you know, going totally empty with the back out of the backfield. Uh, you know, in the slot or something as well. I mean, he gives him a lot of diversity, a lot of ways to attack in the passing game. And Joe Burrow can read it out. I mean he's uh, he can, he can diagnose. I

mean he's wired right. That's what Brian Callahan's I thought quote quote was interesting, wired right to diagnose the game. Uh, he's you know, he's always prepared. And you know I've asked him about Okay, there's preparation and then there's you know, uh, intelligent preparation and uh and basically efficient preparation. You know you can look at tape. And his answer was great right up when you asked that. Yeah, he really got

excited answer that Joe Burrow did. Yeah he did. You know, he said, you're right, he said, makes you can watch tape for five hours or what you learn, but if you do, if you have a system. If you have a U you know, a way you going to go about breaking down tape and in a process that you're going to go through. And he found a process when he was at LSU on a daily basis that he believes in. And that was something else that that Zach

talked about as well when they talked to him. You know, how did you go about getting ready for football games at LSU? And you know went through all of that was Zach. He didn't really describe it all with us, but he talked about that he had that process, and Zach I think obviously signed off on that mentally and said, we were expect you to do the same type of thing here in Cincinnati. I mean, I think he's a competitive learner. You know, he's he's a cutthroat competitor. He's

a competitive learner. He's a competitive problem solver when things break down on the field. I mean, he's he's going to be a lot of fun. I think for the coaches, it's gonna be like I remember talking to Tom Moore who's now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You know he's down there working with Tom Brady, but he was he was in Indianapolis with Peyton Manning and I up to know Tom Moore and his coaching in Pittsburgh, and Tom Moore said that Peyton Manning made him a better coach.

He said, Peyton Manning knew everything inside out and if I wasn't on my best, if I wasn't on my toes, he said, you know, Peyton was the smartest kid in the class, and he'd embarrassed me. So I think I think Joe Burrow is gonna he's gonna lift the whole boat. I think that's the kind of guy he's going to be. I think he's gonna be like Peyton man Tom Brady is the same way. You know coaches talk about Tom Brady.

You're going to a meeting with Tom Brady, man, he's gonna have all your eyes, daughter, and all your tea's crossed because he'll embarrass you. You know, he'll find something that if you if you were lax in an area that Tom Brady won't because takes pointed out. And Joe Burrow's got that kind of football IQ as well, and I think that just makes everybody better. I think it's going to be an interesting dynamic to uh, you know,

to witness with his development here in Cincinnati. You mentioned the LSU spread and shred offense, and early in the draft process, a lot of people suggested, well made. He is the product of Joe Brady's creativity and just about anybody could have put up big numbers in that offense. Maybe people looked at this backward the whole time. Maybe his junior year the offense was so lame that no quarterback was going to put up huge numbers. Yeah, I

think I think that he was. He was in part of the transition of I mean, the LSU offense under Less Miles, Our kid wasn't the work for it. Prehistoric might have been a better description. I mean it was. It was. He just thought, you know, Less, I'm going to line up with bigger, better people than you. I'm not going to try to fool anybody. I'm not gonna make it very uh you know, very sexy. I'm just gonna try to pound you with the Leonard Fournettes of

the world or whatever. And Alabam would always smoke him, you know, and and uh that coach I was like, you know, we're gonna we're gonna change that. Get to go get Joe Brady from the New Orleans Saints, incorporate some of the NFL style of offense, and he's got a very intelligent quarterback that picked it all up. And he was surrounded by good talent, obviously, but he was interesting. When I asked, Joe, you know, when did you realize that you guys might have a special season like he had?

His answer was interesting. Walking off the field after his junior year, walking off the field in the bowl game, he said, you know, he felt like they're on their way. A lot of guys were returning. He knew how hard they were going to work, but you know, he didn't he didn't realize that the crude gras was going to be Joe Brady and that was you know, that was repellent. They needed to take him right to the top. One more thought on Joe Burrow before he moved on to

round two. One other thing that Brian Callahan, the offensive coordinator coordinator, said that really caught my ear was that he's the most accurate college quarterback he has ever studied. The only other person that he mentioned in the same breath was Andrew Luck. Not a bad comp no question, no question about it. And you know, when you look

at it Um. It's interesting. You did a great interview with Boomers Shias and in Boomers Shias and said that, you know, there's some similarities with what you went on with Joe Burrow. And when we at Maryland, you know, we were running a you know, a veer offense at Maryland and it really didn't accentuate my talents. And uh, coach Ross comes in and puts in a pro style offense and now, I, you know, show the NFL what

kind of physical abilities I have. Well, same type of thing with Joe Burrow, and Joe Brady comes in and boom, you know there's and the other great quarterback in Bengalslore the two League MVPs Kenny Anderson. The similarities there. Kenny Anderson went to Augustana on a basketball scholarship. Kenny Anderson and Danish were high school teammates in basketball. Kenny was one all of a guard in basketball and he, you know, the basketball coach basically said, uh, you know, yeah, you

can go ahead and try out for football. The football coach that you know, we need you here. We heard you play quarterback. But his sport was in Joe Burrow was All State player of the year in basketball and football in high school. And you know he hits this in the three point contest during the Peach Bowl against Oklahoma. His team's getting smoked. He goes six P six from three point land when he shoots to win the thing. You know, there's that competitor streak once again in him.

But Kenny Anderson was an accurate shooter in basketball, accurate passer. I mean, you know, see the court in basketball, see the field in football. I mean, he's got a lot of analogies to two of the greatest quarterbacks that had tremendous careers for the Cincinnati Bengals with league MVPs is Joe Burrow can come close. That would be great. All right, Time to move on to Round two. Our dream linebackers

are not there. Kenneth Murray went twenty third to the Chargers, Patrick Queen went twenty eighth to the Ravens, and the guy that you had predicted on yesterday's podcast as a possibility to the Bengals for the third third overall pick actually went in Round one. Jordan Brooks twenty seventh overall to Seattle. So the linebackers at the top of the wish list are not there, Zack Bond is along with some great players at other positions. Yeah, Zach Bond is there.

But you know, I think thirty three might be a little rich. But the way the run was made, I mean, the three picks in a row, Jordan Brooks goes to Seattle, Patrick Queen goes to Baltimore, and Isaiah Wilson goes to Tennessee. So I'm thinking, all right, well, you know, the run on offensive tackles, that was pretty extraordinary. Six offensive tackles go in the first round, as many offensive tackles as wide receivers. You know, wide receivers supposed to be the deepest,

one of the deepest positions. Well, six tackles go in the first round. What's that tell you? Four quarterbacks go? You know, love does go. The Green Bay Packers trade to get Love, so that with quarterback went and uh, but you know, six receivers and six offensive went only one running back the last pick of the U of the draft the first round. But yeah, I mean, man, the work the runs came at different times, but the

linebacker position got get hit late on a run. And uh, I'm telling you right now, with with Wilson gone, it's like all right, who who's loves well? I got Josh Jones is there? The only the only knock I have on him? In my opinion, he's got short arms, you know, for a guy as big and tall as he is, he's kind of a little t Rex action. But um, you know you look at uh Gross Matos, the edge guy from Penn States. There a lot of people had

him in the first round. Uh Eponenza from Iowa. Uh is there Jalen Johnson, the cornerback you talked about Dan Jeff Glad he went late. But Chanal Mims Higgins. I mean, there's there's a lot of good football players there. But I think with all of these guys that are there at thirty three, I you know, I say move back.

I mean, if you have some of these guys, if they're on the Bengals list, if you've got a couple, you know, a couple of defensive lineman, an offensive lineman in three receivers, you know, you feel like there's five or six guys that are in the same type of category. You have them all kind of bunched up on your board.

Move back if somebody, if somebody really needs to address the position group more than you do particularly like at the wide receiver position or whatever whatever your call is, and they're going to give you some value and you can only go back four picks. You have six or five or six guys in your board that you feel comfortable with. Make that trade, do that deal. But you know where's the partner because you know the quarterback did go Love did go, you know, in the twenties to

the Green Bay Packs the twenty sixth overall pick. So who is the person that is when everybody resets their awards, like the Bengals are doing right now and trying to decide what they're gonna do. They're gonna keep that pick at thirty three or are they're gonna try to trade back? And you know what kind of phone calls will they be getting, if any. So it's going to be interesting to see. So you ran off a bunch of names, and I wrote down many of the same ones as

the highest rated players still available. I wrote down four wide receivers t Higgins from Clemson, Denzel Mims from Baylor who ran a four three eight at six three two hundred and five pounds, Laviska Tionalt from Colorado, and Michael Pittman from USC A couple of offensive linemans. You mentioned Josh Jones six six out of Houston. There's also Ezra Cleveland six six out of Boise State. Defensive ends Yetur Gross Mattos from Penn State had nine and a half

sacks last year. Aj Epenessa from Iowa eleven and a half sacks last year, ten and a half the year before, but he ran a five point oh four at the combine. That's kind of the knock on him. Zach Bonn outside linebackers, slash edge rusher from Wisconsin. The cornerbacks include Jalen Johnson from Utah and trey Von Diggs from Alabama, Stefan's younger brother. And then you've got a defensive tackle who's frequently been listed as a first round talent, Ross Blacklock from TCU

and Gallimore also from Oklahoma. I think, I think those two defensive tackles have some value, you know, in the in the early second round. So yeah, there's there's there's you know, more than a handful of guys, and how many of them, how far down the board did the Bengals have some of these guys or did they have some of them at the end of the first round, because you know, let's face it, there's always surprise picks

in the first round, and this draft no exception. I mean, I think people would would be surprised at this cornerback from Auburn. Uh, it's been no Henny or whatever he went. I mean that one I didn't I didn't have him necessarily rated. Uh you know rated at that point. I was surprised that Thomas went as early as he did. I wasn't surprised he was the first round guy go go number four in the draft to the New York Giants.

It's like, woof man, I you know, I think he's a solid player, but um, you know, there's there's always there's always a couple of a couple of draft picks and and and done in different orders than people had. I thought, you know, our net from from Ohio state. For him to go as high as he did to the Raiders was you know, was was pretty extraordinary. Rager going to the Philadelphia Eagles, you know, I think probably

surprised some people. He you know, he goes ahead of Jefferson, um, and you know, Murray sliding as far back as he slived, you know, so there's always everybody always has different different values on players. But you know, there there is I mean, there's there's edge people, there's defensive tackles. The offensive tackle position has picked over pretty well the best interior guy, Louise went Um. You know, it's it's what do you

What do you think? I mean, I don't think you go on a panic mode and say, all right, well we're going to take somebody. We have rated more in the late two early three, and honestly that's where I have Bond. But when the run happens, you know, maybe you say Jeans. You know, maybe we do take Bond at thirty three. I think you can trade back and still get Bond as well as trading back and still get you know, Jones and a lot of these a

lot of these other guys. But you never know. But if somebody says, all right, well I want to trade up because I really have him evaluated. And I don't know how the Bengals have evaluated how you know, on their board. But if a team calls us and they're like, we have to have Boom, whichever one of these players we've talked about, it is you trade back and hopefully

they're not back so far. You certainly don't trade back to the point where any of the five six seventy eight people you're talking about, you don't trade out of the four. You don't trade out in the thirties. You know, once you get into the forties, it's a different ballgame. You still stand in the thirties and picked up extra

draft picks. So I did a deep dive into the point value chart today for if they trade back in the second round, if they move back six picks, you're looking at a fourth rounder, So a second rounder and a fourth rounder. If the team has that combination, that's trying to trade with you. Right, if you go back like seven to thirteen, you can get into the bottom of the third round with the extra pick. Then fourteen to twenty, low twenties, you can get into the middle

of the third round. And then if the pick is at the end of the second round that you're getting, you could get a high third round pick to pair with it. That's strictly based on the points chart, and again the team the trading partner would have to have that combination to make the points work. Otherwise, if the second pick is one round, then you get another pick

thrown in as well. Yeah, and you know, you look at it and you say, all right, well, that's why when hit the hit the point with Brooks of Seattle, Queen with Baltimore, and Wilson with Tennessee. Any one of those three guys would have been great. And the Bengals were at thirty three and we're talking you know, uh, let's see, we're talking twenty five, twenty six and twenty

seven or something like that. I mean, they any all those guys almost got to where no, we're thinking, any one of those would be perfect to be super at thirty three. So other people pulled the trigger on him. But it's not like you were way out of the ballpark. It's like, you know, you had him raided there, and the others had him raided in the middle of the first round or whatever the case may be. So so I feel good about a lot of players we were talked about went, you know, in the area, but none

of them slid. If any one of those three had slid the thirty three boom, I think it would have been a slam dunk. Pick them, take them whoever. I can't believe Brooks went ahead a queen, that's a surprise as well. But you know in Seattle, Seattle knows what they're talking about. Seattle's historically had some pretty salty defenses.

And you know, Brooks has got a little bit of a shoulder issue, a nagging shoulder problem, and I thought, you know, in this era where you know you really can't have you doctors put their own hands on them, that you know, maybe he would slide a little bit because he was starting to show up in a lot of these mocked drafts and he's his tape is impressive. Now. The dude impacts football games, but it's it's interesting to me the queen slid as far as he did. That

was a little bit of surprise to me. I give you credit for Jordan Brooks because I looked at eight of what I would consider to be the most credible mock drafts. First thing this morning, from the most prominent draft experts, not a single one had Jordan Brooks list as a first round pick. You had him on our podcast yesterday is the first pick of the second round. And sure enough, as we pointed out, he went twenty

seventh overall to Seattle. Yeah, they looked at it. You know, six feet turning forty pounds, ran a four to five three you know, ran like you know, a safety, a fast safety, ran like a slow corner, you know. I mean at that carrying that body weight with thirty four thirty five inch arms, and I mean he impacted games now, his contact ratio is huge. So and then Queen, he can he can run LSU. LSU and Alabama, Man, those

two football teams they're gonna I'm sure. I'm sure it was a big recruiting night for both of them, locking up guys for not only this year, but years down the road. And every time there's in an NFL draft in LSU and Alabama started throwing a bunch of bodies out there in the first round. That's good for the overprooting process, no question. All right, If the Bengals don't trade down at the top of the second round and

you have to make a pick, who is it? I mean, I think I'd probably go with one of the receivers. I'd probably take the highest rated receiver on the board at that point in time that the Bengals you know have, and uh, I'd probably I probably leaned toward, you know, like a Shnal type guy. Um, I'd probably I'd probably go in that direction, either that or you know Josh Jones, if I'd say, all right, well he's not, he's not.

I don't think any of those guys, I think I think all of them would still be on the board past thirty three, or most of them. But if I had to pick one, I'd either pick probably is a lot of the offensive tackle um or I'd probably take you know, the receiver um point. You know what I mean.

It's it's almost like a flip of the really because one of those interior defensive tackles, one of those guys that wouldn't hurt you either, honestly, But I guess i'd probably I could probably either go I'd probably end up I'd probably end up taking one of those receivers. Where direction I go? How world about you? Well, since I had said on the previous podcast Jalen Johnson from Utah, I feel compelled to stick with him as my prediction.

But the guy that I now have kind of fallen in love with and want is one of those wide receivers, Denzel Mims. It's got the size six three two five, four three eight. You know, we all get seduced by great forty times when it comes to big, productive wide receivers. I talked to the broadcaster at Baylor who said nothing but great things about Denzel Mims. So I'm kind of infatuated with a notice on the prospect of adding Denzel Mims. But if I have to make the prediction, will stick

to my guns and go with Jalen Johnson. Yeah, and again, I don't think, you know, either pick would be like, oh man, that's that's a reach. That's a stretch, that's a reach, you know. I mean, I think I think that all the guys were talking about are in that range. You know. That's why in a perfect world, if somebody really has I gotta have this guy, and I gotta trade up, and I gotta do it. If somebody said, are you kidding me? Jones was a number one draft pick.

He was a first rounder. You know, he might have been toward the back end of the first round, but he's a first rounder and we are desperate. We we gotta we got to take care of the right tackle position. But like I said, you know, watching him, he's got really good feet. You know, he's he's getting himself a physician to make, you know, to block. So I mean, his footwork over overcomes I think some of that short arm deficiency, but poor That's the first thing I noticed was, Man,

he's got some short guns on him. There's no doubt. All right, buddy, your day one duties are finished, get some sleep, look forward to doing it again after round three, and what's your coach? We'll post a similar conversation after Friday night's draft coverage comes to an end. Last night, I had the opportunity to interview the first quarterback selected

in the nineteen eighty four draft. Believe it or not, that year, no quarterbacks were taken in the first round, but the Bengals landed a great one at number thirty eight overall. The pick is in, and now Joe Burrow will try to do what Ken Anderson and our guest Boomer as Siason did in leading the Bengals to the Super Bowl someday. Boomer, when you were drafted, you had a chip on your shoulder from lasting to the second route, even though you were the first quarterback pick that year.

Joe Burrow doesn't have that chip being taken number one overall, but he wasn't a highly touted recruit. He had to transfer from Ohio State to LSU to get his opportunity to play. Do you like his path to the NFL? I do as a matter of fact. You know, he's a kid who loves to play ball. He loves to play football, and that's the most important thing at our position. He's a smart kid. He learned under a pro style offense down in LSU the last two years, and he

really flourished his past season. You know, I have mixed emotions. I'm so happy for the Bengal fans, for the Bengals themselves, for Athens, Ohio, everything that comes along with the first pick. But I also haven't mixed the motion for Andy Dalton because Andy Dalton gave nine great years to the Cincinnati Bengals, unfortunately was unable to win a you know, a playoff game.

But you know, hopefully the Bengals will do him right and don't do what they did to me held on to me when David Klingler was drafted and I had to sit through an entire year of that. Now, Andy, he's going to be making sixteen million dollars if he does that here, so I think that would probably you know, take some of the edge off. But I just hope they do the right thing by Andy and move him out and let this become Joe Burrows team from day one,

because that's the way it has to be. I mean, today's day and age, these athletes are so gifted and want to be the guy in the locker room. And I think that's what the Bengals have to do. Now. They have to they have to move Andy Dalton. That's got to make that's gotta be like Hardy number one. But man, it's a great day for Cincinnati and for Athens, Ohio and Southeastern Ohio, Southwestern Ohio. This should be something that hopefully ten years from now we're talking about it.

We're talking about guy who's been in many Pro Bowls and hopefully a couple of Super Bowls. What do you think it means to the other guys in the locker room to get a player coming up the greatest season in college football history. I think it's great for them. I think there's going to be definitely an uptick in I think intensity. I would I would believe the amount of money that they spent on defense and free agency is gonna help. You know, maybe they'll go more offensive

players here in this draft. That's yet to be seen. But when you have a significant personality, like when Andrew luck first walked into the Colts locker room, when Peg Manning first walked into the Colts locker room. Now all of a sudden things, you know, Lamar Jackson walking into Baltimore, Ben Roethlisberger walking into Pittsburgh, Aaron Rodgers when he finally took over four, Brett Farr. But those are the personalities that you want, and I think Joe Burrow definitely has

that personality. You know, he's He's got a bigger personality than Carson Palmer, which is what I think this franchise needs right now. What advice you have for him? The easiest thing for me to say to him is just try not to do it all yourself. You got a lot of really good offensive players around you. Jonah Williams will be back at left tackle, Joe mix and Giovanni Bernard. You know, you got a j Green. You've got enough talent around you that has had a lot of success

that their you know, their relative positions. Let them do the heavy lifting. You just learn and study, and you become very verbose in your offense and how you decide and how you talk about defenses with Zach Taylor, and you'll just be fine. It's not all going to come in the first week. There's gonna be some growing pains and you're just gonna have to deal with it, just

like the rest of us did. And then all of a sudden that life will go off and you'll figure it out, and then you'll truly become the great quarterback that I think we all believe he will be as much as any player in franchise history. You had swagger, and your teammates sped off it. You see that quality in Joe Burrow, I do. He gave an interview a couple of weeks ago and talked about how he had and lost at any level, and that's exactly what the Bengals need. Not that Andy Dalton hasn't had a great

career in Cincinnati, he certainly has. You know, Joe burrows situation at LSU reminds me a lot of my situation in Maryland back in the eighties. When I first got there, we were running the beer offense and it was not good for a passing quarterback, if you will. And then two years left in my career there, Bobby Ross came in as the head coach and brought a pro style offense and then all of a sudden accentuated me as

an athlete. And I think that's exactly what Joe Brady, the offensive coordinator at LSU, did for Joe Burrow, and we saw him put up numbers that we've never seen any quarterback in the history of the college football. Does I think the swaggers there. I certainly think the ability is there, and I can't wait to see, you know, him wearing a Cincinnati Bengal uniform. The day after Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy, you had him on the CBS pregame show, you welcomed him to the family, you

gave him a Bengals helmet. Did he make an impression that day? He did, you know, much like Carson Palmer did back. I think in two thousand and two, I did the same thing to him, you know, And I always said what I was telling Joe that day, said, Joe, you know, Cincinnati's not a place for quarterbacks to go and die. As a matter of fact, quarterbacks flourished in Cincinnati. I did, Kenny Anderson did, Andy Dalton did, and so

did Carson Palmer. So whatever negativity you're hearing about the franchise. I think it's more perception than reality. I mean, it's a good place for quarterbacks to play, and quarterbacks have been very successful here, and even after nine years, Andy Dalton's had a really good career there in Cincinnati. And you know when you change coaches and now all of a sudden, you know it's going to have a negative effect, especially on the quarterback. And I think that's really what's

happened to Andy. So now Zach Taylor is going to get his guy, and I think it's going to be a good match. It's a young head coach with a young, up and coming quarterback who is certainly physically as gifted

as any quarterback Cincinnati's ever had. Get to remember, he was an All State point guard in Athens, and that tells me all I need to know about how he knows how to facilitate, how he sees the court, how he sees the field, and that's the way that he played at LSU and that's the way I would expect him to play from day one when against the Cincinnati If there's a knock, it's that he doesn't have a cannon. He doesn't have a John Elway or Patrick Mahomes arm.

How significant is that? Well? What about my arm? Dan? Was my arm okay back in the day? Not bad? Yeah, you know what, Kenny Anderson had a really I would say, if you want to talk about it on a level of strong to extra strong, Kenny had a strong arm. But what really separates quarterback is their accuracy and how they move in the pocket and how they create extra

space for themselves. Joe's athletic enough to do that. He didn't have to do it as much as a La Shoo, maybe as maybe Josh Allen had to do it at Wyoming where he was running for his life every game. But I think his arm is more than strong enough, and it'll be all predicated on timing and accuracy anyway. Joe Montana, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, was one of the most accurate quarterbacks, didn't have the

strongest of arm. I could said the same thing about Troy Aikman, So I would put this kind of ability arm ability in that category. Now, whether or not he turns into a Hall of Fame player, only time will tell. Thanks to the great boomer Assiah Sin and that's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by Prime Sport, the official fan, travel

and hospitality partner of the Cincinnati Bengals. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde. Thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.