Bengals Booth Podcast: The New Year

Chase about overcoming a preseason case of butterfingers. And I'll talk to Jonah Williams, who hopes the bigger is better as he gets ready for his second season as the Bengals. Left tackle Dave Lapham and I will discuss the return of Joe Burrow and the absence of Trey Waynes. And finally, it's this week's Know the Faux segment as we discuss the Vikings with beat writer Chris Thomason from the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by

Bud Light. Seltzer Refreshed the Game and here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast as delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitch your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since Robert Weintraub's profile of lap for Cincinnati Magazine. Robert Wintroub has been a guest on this podcast before for his work on The

Football Outsider's Almanac. He also writes about the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine, and this month he's written a wonderful story about my broadcast partner, Dave Lapham. The title is Mister Bengal is Mister Beloved, and it captures why lap is such a great ambassador for the franchise. You can find the story online just go to Cincinnati Magazine dot com.

Now let's get to Sunday season opener. The return of Joe Burrow is obviously the headline, but the debut of his former college teammate Jamar Chase is not far behind. We are all eager to see if Chase will catch the ball now that the game's count. His preseason drops were a headscratch, sure, and I discussed it this week with one of the greatest wide receivers in team history. When wide receiver players the topic, our go to guy is the Bengal single season record holder for receptions, The

great TJ. Hushminzada TJ. It's no secret that Jamar Chase struggled with drops in the preseason. Do you think it's physical or mental? It's always mental. Yeah, yeah, it's always mental. But the key words you said was preseason, and so

you don't get many targets. They came over a course of three games, and so it's such a small sample size that if you think about it, if it was a regular season game, he probably would have had six to eight targets, and so you'll forget about the drop that he had in the game because he's probably gonna catch the rest of those. It's just a small sample size. It's it's one hundred percent mental. I mean, the only

thing I'm not concerned at all. I am concerned slightly with the lack of separation the drops that he did have. The guy, the dvs are right there. I mean, they're right on him, and so don't worry about the drops. He's gonna catch the ball and he's gonna drop more balls. Also, just just so people know that we're receivers, we're gonna drop the ball. It just happens. And it's always a lack of concentration for the most part. He needs to

just focus on creating separation, because it's the end. If you look at the LSU, he made a ton of contested catches, and the NFL guys are just better. So you're gonna still make them. You're just not gonna make as many. When you had a period where you dropped the ball, when did you know it was over? Oh,

when you stopped thinking about it. I mean, it's really crazy because I didn't really drop many balls early on, but I remember dropping the punt against the Steelers, and and then I believe it was a game or two after I must the other one and I'll never forget the balls being punted to me. And in my head, I'm thinking, you gotta catch it. You gotta catch you, you gotta catch it. Oh hell no, I'm letting it drop and I just let it bounce and it comes.

You come to the sideline and Darren sim and you gotta catch the ball, and I'm like, shut up, leave me alone. But in my mind, I was thinking about it, and so you know it's gone when you stop thinking about it and you just play. And so guarantee the first ball Jamar gets thrown to him in his mind, he's gonna think catch it, catch it, catch it. Yes, I caught that, excuse my language. And so it will be one of those things when he's not thinking about

it and it's not in your mind, it's gone. So if Jamar was on the other side of this connection, what would your advice be, Just play football, man, it happens we dropped the ball. You know you can play. Just play football, work on getting open, work on creating separation, and everything else will take care of herself. Our guest is former Pro Bowl receiver t J Hushmnzata. When I think of the best trio wide receivers in Bengals history, I think of you, Chad in the late Chris Henry.

How does this group compare in your opinion? Well, it's a little different. And I say it's a little different because me and Chad came in the same year, where as Tyler is years wise, is a lot older than t in Jamar. But Tyler can play, you know, and you would assume Tyler, if he's not the number one receiver game plan wise, he's the number one receiver on

that team. It was a little different with me and Chad being older, and then Chris being a young guy, whereas now with Tyler being an old guy and Tie and Jamar being a younger guy. But they do have the potential to be just as good or even better. It's just a matter of are they gonna keep Tyler there as contract I believe runs out in a couple of years if I'm not mistaken, and so it's a little different. Hopefully they can do the same things or better.

They have the pieces on offense, that's for sure. You have Joe and quarterback, you have mixing in the backfield to tight end zoom, and you got good up front. If they can get that cohesiveness, and I believe that's gonna be the biggest key, if they can jail and just keep Joe mentally Okay, physically he'll be fine, but it's the mental part of it for Joe that if they can keep them clean, they no street gonna get off. So Joe brows comeback is obviously the big story of

the season. And you're Carson Palmer's teammate in two thousand and six when he came back from his knee injury. You had your first one thousand yards season that year. When did you know that Carson was back to normal. It's so different the game today. You really can't hit a quarterback. You have to be very careful. But it's also it's still day and for Joe. For Joe, it's gonna be one hundred percent mental and you ran stories about him and training camp kind of nervous. That's normal,

that's to be expected. What I would do if I'm the Bengals, I'm coming out with the quick game. Ball out quick. He knows ball's out quick, so he's gonna relax. When we do work down the field. I'm going to max protect because the Vikings are a single high team, well, Mike Zimmer, they're a single high team, and so we max protect and we give Joe the mental confidence to know we're protected. And so if he knows that mentally, like yes, I'm getting the ball out quick, no problems.

Yes we got max protection, no problems. I believe mentally he can relax himself and understand that. With Carson, it was just a matter of he got hurt. For us, it was the playoffs, so he didn't have as long of a healing process that Joe did. And so for car Carson is just different man. He just different one it sucks you know that we weren't able to win more. But Carson it was just different. He was a different dude, big, fast, strong, through a very catchable ball, but he had a cannon

and Joe is similar. But mentally, I don't know the difference of the two because I haven't been around Joe enough. But you have been following him for a while because you have a couple of daughters to play softball at LSU. If you had to pick out one quality about Joe Burrow that you respect the most, what would that be? Competitiveness, his self, belief in himself. Joe trained out here with Jordan Palmer for the NFL Combine and so I was around Joe every day leading up to that process, and

that was a year of COVID. So the last day we worked out on there, for get it. We're in the way room. I'm like leading, when are you leaving? He is like, I think I gotta get out here tomorrow because they're gonna shut everything down. And that was

our last day. So I was around Joe five months pretty much, four days a week, and so it's just confidence and his belief in himself stands out more than anything do you expect the Bengals to be significantly better this year, and if so, why I expect him to be better significantly. I'm not sure if Joe had not tour his knee significantly. It's how he comes back. The Babies have a good team, and we talked about what they have offensively that is gonna be constant. They're gonna

be good on offense. Defensively, can they be better than what they were last year? And let's just be honest, that's not too hard to do. So they were bad last year, and so they need to improve defensively because they're in a division that's not easy. Baltimore is really good. You played them twice. The Browns are really good. You played them twice. And say what you want about the Steelers. They're gonna play defense and as long as Number seven

is under center, they're gonna throw the ball well. And so the Bengals defense needs to be better. I believe they will be, but significantly, I'm not sure because I don't know how Joe's gonna come back. I don't know how that cohesiveness on an offensive line is gonna work. But I do expect them to be improved, for sure. Always great to pick your brain. Appreciate the time. Hope

we get to do it again this season. I appreciate it, Thank you, And they will beat the Vikings, though this Sunday I will say that I do believe they're gonna start one and up. Bold prediction by the two thousand and seven Pro bowler who set the Bengals single season record that year with one hundred and twelve catches. Any season preview you read about the Bengals is likely to

follow this theme. They've got their franchise quarterback, they've rounded him with weapons, but have they done enough to improve the offensive line. Here's my take. The dependable Riley Reef will be a significant upgrade from the inconsistent Bobby Hart at right tackle, and the group as a whole will benefit from the return of an outstanding coach in Frank Pollock. But one of the biggest keys that hasn't been getting

enough attention is the development of Jonah Williams. He was the first offensive lineman taken in the twenty nineteen draft for a reason, and after two injury plague seasons, he's ready for year three. Jonah, you are noticeably bigger this year based on training camp and twenty snaps in preseason games. Can you tell if bigger is better and if so why? I think so. I feel good. And it's hard to tell if that's due to technique or if that's you know,

the weight and strength helping out. But I think it's definitely been a good thing to put on a little bit of weight. It's not a huge sample size, but you were involved in eleven passing snaps in the preseason games and did not allow any pressures. At least according to Pro Football Focus, you were blocking against Chase Young on several of those plays. How'd you feel you did?

I think I you know, I'm happy with how I played, but as a person who wants to get better, you know, that's what that's what we practiced for, and that's what the seasons for, you know. So I think I did well, but I'm looking to get a little bit better. It's your third season, but really it's your second because you were injured in year one. How much different do you feel going into this year than you did a year ago. I feel a lot of different. I feel a lot better.

You know, the game moves a little bit slower, as they say, I think that just takes a lot of game reps to start to get used to it. You know, playing in the NFL is a big challenge. So the more experience you have and the more comfortable we are going out there, you know, the more success you're likely gonna have. We're chatting with Jonah Williams. So when Frank Pollock was brought back as the offensive line coach in early January, did you guys talk over the phone? Did

you meet? How did you begin forming a relationship? Yeah? I was back here for a bit in the offseason, Um, you know, just getting my knee signed off on and checked out and everything like that. From from the end of the season. Um, you know, so I was able to see coach and talk and get a feel for how he operates, and you know what is you know what his attitude is like, and you know, really appreciate him as a coach and have enjoyed, you know, all

the time we spent together so far. In addition to having a new position coach, you've got a ten year vet on the opposite side of the offensive line and Riley reef is that almost like having another coach? It is, you know, Riley's Riley's played a lot of football, and he knows what he's talking about, and so it's good to hear that. You know, you have the coach perspective, and you know, obviously coach Pollack also played in the NFL for for a while, so you have that insight.

And then you have Riley who's played so long and you know, I'm playing next to Q and Eric Quinton and we have trade too, so playing next to a lot of guys in x who play a lot of football. So I think we're definitely an experience unit this year. Riley is roughly the same size as you are. He's not one of these six seven, three hundred and forty pound kind of guys. Does that make his information even

more helpful? I think so for sure. You know, I think there's similarities in our games, and you know, obviously, like you said, and the in terms of just pure size and that type of thing, we're pretty close. So I think that that it adds an element. You know, we kind of have the same toolbox. So if he says something works for him, then it's likely to work for me. I'm interested in your intel on a guy

on the opposite side of the ball. Trey Hendrickson, who came in as a free agent thirteen and a half sacks last year with the Saints to tie for second best in the NFL. You've had to block him a lot in training camp. What stands out? You know, he's a he's a great player, and I think the thing that stands out most is his speed, his upfield speed, his ability to get up field and put pressure on the tackle to you know, get depth so he can protect.

And also his motor. You know, he's a he's a guy who's going to keep on try and move swiping hands and even if you beat him on the first thing, he's going to keep on trying. And you know, I don't know how many snaps he's played, but it felt like every snap I was watching them in the preseason he was getting pressure. So, you know, it's been good battling with them all camp, and I think we've made each other better. The last time we saw you last

year on the field, it did not look good. I think most of us assumed that you had a torn acl or something of that magnitude when you went down in the Miami game two games after Joe Burrow's injury. Did you fear the worse at that time, I did, you know, I felt the same thing that you guys saw. I felt somebody flying into my knee from the side, and you know, felt some issues in my knees. So I was pretty pretty happy to hear that, you know, when the MRI results came back that it wasn't as

serious as I thought. So it allowed me to go into the off season rehabit and then for the vast majority of the off season, I've been one hundred percent training at full speed and I think that that's been, you know, beneficial to my growth this year. So you open against the Vikings and you're gonna be matched up against one of the NFL's premiere pass rushers and Denil Hunter. He missed last year with a neck injury, but before that, back to back seasons of fourteen and a half sacks.

You study these guys. What stands out about him? I think he's a He's a really balanced rusher. That's the first thing I noticed is he you know, he has a little bit of everything, and he's good everything he does. It's not just the speed guy. He's not just a power guy. He's not just a technique guy. He kind of you know, combines all of that, and he's a verse stul player, you know, and that's that's the NFL.

Every every single week pretty much, we're playing a premier pass rusher and so that's the challenge for this week is to is to handle him. And you know, I'm I feel good about the old lined room and I feel good going into practice that we're gonna, you know, do a good job. Last thing for Jonah Williams, you have been reunited with your high school quarterback from Fulsome High School near Sacramento, as the Bengals have added Jacob Browning to the practice squad. To small world, isn't it

It is? It's a tiny world, and it's cool to be practicing with him again for the first time since twenty fourteen. And you know, last time we practice together, we're undefeated, never lost the game while practicing together. So I think that's a good sign for the future. And I'm glad to have him on the team. I like the way you think best of like this season. I appreciate your time. Thank you. That's Jonah Williams. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light

and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now time to discuss some of the key storylines in Week one with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham Lap. It's going to be a very special day on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium. It marks the return of Joe Burrow, Yes the official Returney obviously played preseason snaps in the final preseason game, but this will be the one that counts. It will be forty two Sundays since his injury in Washington last year,

torn ACL, torn MCL, partially torn PCL. He's hardly the first quarterback to come back from an injury like this. Tom Brady tore his CL and MCL in two thousand and nine, had a passer rating of ninety six plus. The following year, Carson Palmer towards a CL and MCL in that playoff game that was a month and a half later than Joe Burrow. He came back in two thousand and six and averaged more yards per attempt than

any other year of his Bengals tenures. So and he ays do this, and he was MVP of the Pro Bowl that year. So he goes to the Pro Bowl and he's the best player there, So there is there are some examples of success stories for sure. And yeah, when you talk about ACLMCL and partial of the PCL, the terrible triad they call that. When you damage all three of those uh ligaments, it's extensive. There's no question

about it. And for Joe Burrow to grind through the rehab process like he has dan and to be where he is, he's pretty darn remarkable. Joe Burrows spoke to the Cincinnati media earlier today. He was asked the following question, does he think he's back to normal? I don't expect to be better, and I've put in a lot of work this offseason that you know, I'm excited to show

off as well as all of our guys have. You know, we're a much better football team that has prepared the way we need to and and understands how to win games now. I think. So I've I've seen more football I've seen I've had more refs against defenses that you know, maybe you hadn't seen before, and so I know what to get to when when I see those, and so it just comes with refs and I'm gonna get even more and I'm gonna you know, you try to improve you to year. Um, so I'm excited to go out

there and show everybody what I got. I think it's fair to say that Joe Burrow struggled for about the first week of training camp and then he settled in and he looked good. What are your expectations for Joe beginning with week one? Yeah, I think that that Joe Burrow has got one big box left to check, and that's taking the hit, and and he's He's talked about it, you know, a few times. So if a guy says I'm not thinking about that, it's hard to believe that

he wouldn't be. It's it's natural, it's it's human nature. So you don't as a as a former lineman, I certainly don't want to see him get hit. But if he does, for some reason get hit early in the game or whenever it happens in the game, I think that is the last big, final box to check and he gets up, does himself off, I think then he's off and running. But yeah, I hope Dan that the Bengals don't throw the ball forty times with Joe Burrow

in this football game. I hope that Joe Burrow throws twenty five, no more than thirty times in this football game. I hope they get a running game going and they can, you know, kind of ease Joe back into it a little bit. In today's football, twenty five thirty times is not a huge number, but he averaged over forty passes

per game, forty attempts a game as a rookie. That that's just I think it's it's too much to ask him to go out there and throw it forty times in this football unless they run any snaps and they run it forty times and throw it forty times, and they're they're just a machine offensively and they're scoring every possession. I find that hard to believe. Against Mike Zimmer's defensive football team, he's on record saying it's the worst defense

he've ever had last year. But he's got guys back from injury, he's got guys back from COVID, He's got you know, he's got some talent on that defensive football team, and he and Paul Gunther are back together. They were the inventors basically the double a gap blitz and all

the stuff you do with it. So there's a lot of pressure on the offensive line to recognize, communicate that, for Joe to make pre and post nap reeds properly because they're gonna be trying to disguise in the back end, and Harrison Smith, the safety five time Pro bowler, can

do that as well as anybody. So I would make sure that I get that running game going because in my opinion, Mike Zimmer is going to start the game with two safeties deep and so he can play back there and disguise, and he's gonna say front seven, I believe you can stop the run. We can handle them. I might even put six in the box something. We

can stop the run. It's up to the Bengals offensive line to change that and make him change what he's doing on the back end a little bit by running the football successfully and get get Mike Zimmer out of that. And Dan. I think one of the biggest things in this football game is in game adjustments. You know, you don't know exactly what you're going to see in an opener. These coaches had all this time to prepare for an opener.

They're going to do something that you have not prepped for, which coaching staff can make adjustments on the sideline in game adjustments based on their rules, applying to different formations, whatever the case may be, even though they haven't repped against it. Who can make the adjustments and take care of those kind of things during the course of the football game and the opening I was listening to a Vikings podcast earlier today where somebody referred to Mike Zimmer

as a third down defensive genius. Yes, what is it about Zim and making it so difficult for opponents on third down? It's that double A gap stuff. That's when he really goes crazy, you know, on third down. And double a gap means the A gap is the is the the space between the center and both guards center, right guard, center left guard. That's the A gap, and he walks guys up. Linebackers could be a linebacker in

the safety. He walks them up into the A gap and they can rush straight with defensive line rustrate, they can twist with the defensive tackles, they can super loop with defensive ends. There's all kinds of things they can do. They can drop one out, they can drop both out. There's there's a myriad of things, the myriad of different looks you can do, and it puts a lot of pressure on the offensive line and running backs and tight ends,

everybody involved in blitz pick up responsibility. And as bad as they were defensively, Dan that's one area where they were they were pretty good in third down, red zone, red zone, third down second in the NFL. They only allowed the opposition to for at thirty five point three percent of the time. Miami was number one. At thirty

five percent, they were number two. So even as as poor as they were, they were twenty ninth and points allowed, twenty seventh in yards allowed, That's that's unheard of from Mikes Zimmer. In twenty seventeen, they were first in both categories and they went to that big of a slide. But third down in the red zone and then third down overall, you know they were they were they were pretty good on third down, but in the red zone. They were dynamic on third down. And that's where his

you know, he's like a mad sciences. He's a chemist, you know, putting things together and coming up with different ways to try to attack you and pressure you. So that's where you have to be really good on third down and really good in the red zone, particularly on third down. In the red zone. All right, let's talk about another big story going into Sunday's game, and that involves rookie Jamar Chase. Will he hold onto the ball

when it's thrown to him by Joe Burrow. He dropped five passes in his final year at LSU eighty four catches, five drops in three preseason games one catch, four drops, so the ratio is not good. Here is Jamar Chase this week talking about the problems he had during the preseason holding it under the ball. I don't know. I don't want to blame it on me sitting sitting on my butt the whole year, but I mean it probably

has something to do with it. Of course, Um you know, it's a bigger ball adjustment, so you know, I don't want to make any excuses, but I just gotta be a pro and make the catch. The ball is different because it's bigger, of course. Another reason it is different because it doesn't have the white stripes on the side, so you can't see the ball coming in from the

tip of the point. So now you actually have to look for the strings on the ball at the top, which is a little hard to see because the whole ball is brown and then we have like six string that's brown, that's white. But for the most part, um, you know what I'm saying, You just gotta get used to it, find out what I'm comfortable with catching, how I'm catching it comfortable, and going from there to be on.

I think my drops come from me not looking the ball in by looking at bottin I mean like high point and watching it as soon as it hits the me looking away, me running before the catch. So stuff like that is me dropping it, and I did it a couple of times. My long term concern for Jamar Chase is nil. I'm not worried at all that eventually he'll hold onto the ball like he did at LSU and that aspect of his game will be fine. My short term concern for Jamar Chase is pretty high, just

because it is clearly still in his head. Until he reels off a few catches and doesn't have a problem with a drop, you can't help it be a little concerned. I agree with you, Dan. The thing is we saw drops in practice of training camp, and then it carried over into the game where like you said, five opportunities caught one drop four that's a big carryover and what you don't want to do is letting one mistake turn

into two, three or four, you know. And so now a little pattern developed for him in the preseason games. And now, like you say, he gets into his head a little bit, and now you start to press. And the one throw that Joe Burrow made to Jamar Chase is something I think they're gonna do quite a bit bubble screens because the lower body is so strong. You get him in space one on one, it's hard to bring that guy down. He's gonna get a lot of yards after catch. And I think in his mind he

was like, here it comes. The fans are going crazy, Joe Burrow's first pass. Joe and I lsu man, we're gonna I'm putting on a show. And then he peaks and he looks to see what the defensive back is and he doesn't secure the football. You can't do anything after the catch if you don't catch it. Got to catch the football. So you know, part of it is at some point every great player does have slumps as such, in terms of catching the ball or dropping the football.

And if this is a minor slump, it's good to have it happened when it did rather than the regular season. But my advice to him would be, don't overthink it. Don't overthink it, just go out there, react and play. And we both know Dan that in terms of catchable footballs, Joe Burrow throws about his catchable football is there as there is. It's not, you know, a duck. It's a tight spiral. It's it's got some RPMs on it, but it's not so hot that it's going to burn your

hands up. Joe Burrow throws a catchable football and he knows it, and he caught a ton of them in twenty nineteen with Joe Burrow, So do it again. All right, let's talk about the injury report. First point of the week came out earlier today. For the Bengals. Trey Waynes did not practice due to his hamstring injury. We already know that he will not play on Sunday. The news is better for rookie center Trey Hill, now number two on the depth chart at that position, behind Trey Hopkins.

He was a full participant in practice as he is back from his hip injury, and tight end Mitchell Wilcox, number three on the totem pole, is fully back from his concussion. That's good because if Trey Hill didn't snap, Dan, we watched the tryouts for some of the guards. Good. Yeah, it not not good. So Trey Hill, it's good that he's back as the backup center for sure. All right. For the Minnesota Vikings, they don't list anybody as not participating in practice. They had three guys who are limited.

Tight end Tyler Conklin with a hamstring injury. Now they've lost their number one tight end for the season or Smith right, Tyler Conklin number two on the totem pole. They just went out and got two guys this past week, so they could be starting completely new players at that position. Linebacker Anthony Barr, great player, has missed basically a month, didn't play in the preseason. He did practice a little bit today, so maybe he can make the dance on Sunday.

Rookie tackle Christian Derra Saw has been out with a groin injury. He was also limited at PRAC this today. So those are the big concerns for the Minnesota Vikings. And you know it's interesting. Darren Saw obviously the first round pick, and they drafted Wyatt big, big boy insided guard from the Ohio State Buckeyes in the third round. Wyatt Davis. Wyatt Davis, Yes, and neither one of them

are listed as starters at this point in time. So it's not just the Bengals that have young rookie lineman that are in backup positions and not starting at this point in time. The Minnesota Vikings earned the same boat. So at Trey Wayne's out, Eli Apple will apparently start in his spot. Darius Phillips also very capable of filling in. Yep. You know you'd love to have Trey Wayne's Obviously, you didn't get anything out of him last year after setting

him to a huge three year deal. Hopefully he's back, maybe as soon as next week. If not next week, maybe the week after that. But your cornerbacks are going to get injured at various points of the season. You hate it to be Week one, but you need depth at cornerback, and the Bengals tried desperately to improve their depth at that spot. They did. And you know the one that had the unbelievable camp in one him self

as spot as the depth corners, Jalen Davis. I mean, on a snap by snap basis, he proved that he was the best cover corner that he proved that he was the best special teams player necessarily at the cornerback position, with Brown and other guys back there. Not necessarily, but first and foremost, I mean, if an a cornerback is a huge position. If a guy goes down, you need to have depth with guys that can cover, because if they can't cover, you don't have to worry about your

punt team. You know, you don't have to worry about special teams. And when you say he proved he's the best cover corner, you're talking about the guys he was competing against to be on the roster. I'm not better than a Wouje or exactly exactly, he's the best of the guys that were trying to the back end of the roster the depth cornerback position. You know, those guys, it's all right, how many snaps were going to get from them at the line of scrimmage defensively and special teams?

And I'm sure it was a tough call. Tony Brown and others. You know, gives you a lot of special team snaps. But this guy showed that he's the best cover guy of that group that was trying to make that fifth cornerback situation with the Cincinnati Bengals. Last, but not least, time to take a closer look at the Vikings, who are coming off a very disappointing season. They opened one in five, rebounded to climbing to playoff contention at six and six, then dropped three in a row to

miss the postseason. Chris Thomason covers the team for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, and he joined Lapping Me on the Bengals Game Plan show. We started with what went wrong in Minnesota last year? The defense last year was a disaster, ranking twenty seventh in total defense. They were young, they lost a lot of veterans, while the offense it's pretty darn good. Fourth in total offense, best ranking in

sixteen years. So they spent a lot of time during the off season rejoeling the defense and the defense should be much better. But then the offense by the same token good regrets. I mean, they didn't bring back Cincinnati native Kyle Rudolph, they didn't bring back Riley Reese who's gone to Cincinnati. Another Cincinnati reference there, and Er Smith Junior.

The tight end is out for the season with knee injury, and Christian derren Saw, who they thought was going to be their starting left tackle, first round pick out of Virginia Tech, he's had a groin injury, so Rashad Hill, who's pretty much been a career reservant right tackle, is now they're starting left tackle. So there are certainly some

issues on offense, There's no doubt about it. The Minnesota Vikings under Mike Zimmer have made the playoffs in every odd numbered year, which is three times, and have missed and every even number year which is four times. Okay, it's an odd numbered year. If the Vikings don't make the playoffs and they missed the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time under Mike Zimmer, is he on

the hot seat? Is his job in jeopardy? Yeah? I think he would definitely be on the hot seat if they don't make the playoffs, because, as you noted, it would be the first time they missed in two straight years. Plus there's of course now seven teams in each conference making the playoffs, so it's easier to make it, and the Vikings expect to make the playoffs. But also you know, they Dimmer wanted the defense to Zimmer's baby, and they beaked it up. They gave him, you know, a lot

of players. So the defense should be much better. And even though I pointed out some pretensive shortcomings on offense, the defense should be much better. So it might be a case of, you know, if they don't win this year, it's like, well, we gave you the pieces. Chris Thomason from the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, he is our guest. You mentioned that a first round draft pick, Christian Derresaw, has been battling injury and it looked like he was going to be the left tackle from day one this year.

Is his replacement Rashad Hill a weak link on the offensive line and are there any other pending injury concerns that are kind of up in the air at this point? Yeah. I mean, obviously, left tackle is the glamour position on the offensive line, and it was manned capably by Riley Reefs for the previous four years. He didn't make any pro bowled, but he was steady above avert's left tackle.

So you're taking a guy. I mean, I expect with Shaw, Hill to be better than he has been previously, but this is a guy who was mostly deserve at right tackle, all of a sudden, starting at left tackle, that's a big responsibility. So yeah, that's going to be something to watch. As far as injuries, keep an eye on Anthony bar He had a knee injury and pretty much didn't practice for an entire month until he was limited today. And he missed the whole preseason and he returned after being

out for the last four teen games last year. I mean, they have been training with kids run to get his knee back in shape. I think he'll probably play on Sunday. But you know, here's a guy that hasn't played in a game in close to a year and hasn't even practiced much until today for a month. So the rusty, he might be Kirk Cousins kind of a lightning rod. Obviously your impression heat last year he throws ten interceptions.

The first six games, they go one in five. He throws three interceptions in the final ten they go six and four. But since two thou fifteen, he's the only quarterback with thirty five hundred yards or more passing in twenty five or more touchdowns passing. He's the only guy that's done it for six consecutive years Brady and Aaron Rodgers has done it five out of six years. So

what is your take on Kirk Cousins. Well, I mean, I think Kirk Cousins pretty much set at all before the two thousand and nineteen season, when he pretty you know, I had asked him about what he needs to do to get to the next level, and he's set, you know, five hundred quarterbacks pretty much. That kind of set it all.

And then that particular season he did lead the Vikings to the playoffs and they got a playoff victory over in New Orleans, So it looked like he was making strides after they missed the playoffs in the first year two thousand eighteen, but then last year they regressed. They were seven and nine. I mean, I think, you know, the major reason was the defense. But still during a one in five start last year, you mentioned the ten interceptions, and the Vikings started to play a lot better. Cousins

started to play a lot better of it. They never could dig themselves out of that hole. And you know, he pretty much is just a five and a quarterback. A lot of the stats that he has, I mean, he's beast up in games where they've trailed and he's picked up a lot of semi meeting the stats in the second half. But you know, now the seen rod has been for him kind of being the poster guy

of unvaccinated. I mean, I'm calling up to see Ann website and they're having just a general story about unvaccinated people in America and the photos that they collect for the CNN home page of the pitching Cousins. So that's what he's kind of started to become known for. Is not he vaccinated in the fact that he met five days while on the COVID reserve lists in late July in early August, and you know he's still has vaccinated. So obviously if he wouldn't this time this year that

it would really get controversial with Kirk Cousins. So defensively, Mike Zimmer calls the signals. His son Adam is one of the co coordinators, but Mike Zimmer makes the calls offensively. Gary Kubiak retires, his son Clint takes over. He's never called plays. Is there any concern about Clint Kubiak calling plays in his first NFL game? Yeah, I would definitely

think so. I mean, he's unproven, he's never called plays. Before, and you know, it's an adjustment for him, and even to the point where he started out the preseason being on the field calling him and then he moved up to the box like his father used to be, so he even switched in midstream there. So he's learning to adjust, you know, just where he's sitting during games. So yeah, there's no doubt that it was going to be a potential adjusting period. I mean, because he doesn't have anybody

to really help him out. I mean, a couple of years ago, Kevin's the fantasy now the Browns coach. He was relatively experienced as an offensive coordinator, but he had Gary Kubiak as an offensive advisor who was on the headset there and could help him out during games of that sort of thing. And of course Gary was the offensive coordinay last year. He didn't need any help. But you know, there's not too many folks to help clean out. So it's going to be interesting to see what happened.

Here's a quick reminder to join lapping me for the Bengals pep Rally show this Friday from three to six on ESPN fifteen thirty. That's going to do it for this episode of The Bengals Boothpiecast, brought to you by bud Light. Seltzer refreshed the game. 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 Howarden. Thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast