Bengals Booth Podcast: Thinking Out Loud

the Bengals Booth podcast. The I'm Thinking out Loud addition, as Anthony Tresh from Pro Football Focus shares his thoughts and what the Bengal should do in free agency and the draft, and I'll give you a little teaser his plan does not include piney Sewell then after that, It's something I've done before when hosting radio shows on WLW called story Time with Dan, as I share an anecdote for my broadcasting career, in this case a story involving a Pro Football Hall of Famer who nearly caused me

to freeze to death. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light. Seltzer Refreshed the Game. 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 Itune, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since custom made wall calendars. For years, one of my sisters has been making personalized monthly wall

calendars through the online photography company shutterfly dot com. You basically share family photos with Shutterfly and they will make a very slick looking wall calendar. You can do so right now for less than twenty bucks. I recently had one made that hangs in our kitchen and we love it. So whether you are looking for a gift idea for the grandparents who or just want to showcase some of your favorite family photos, I highly recommend a custom made

wall calendar through shutterfly dot com. Now let's get to football. These days, it seems that everybody with access to the Internet puts out a mock draft, and chances are you already have a player that you would like to see the Bengal select number five overall. But forty three days before the draft, the official start of free agency begins.

That's a little more than a month away March seventeenth, and this week I reached out to Anthony Tresh from Pro Football Focus dot com, who has strong opinions on

who the Bengal should sign, draft and not draft. Anthony, you have written some interesting things about the Bengals in recent weeks, and we are going to cover some of those today, beginning with the comprehensive free agency preview that you published at the beginning of this week for all thirty two NFL teams, including top target in free agency, potential cuts, team needs, and your plan of action. I'm

going to begin by quoting you. You wrote, as great of a prospect as Piney Sewell is, he should not be in the Bengals plans this offseason. So Bengals fans, I'm sure would like you to explain why. Yeah, I mean, this is going to be a popular debate between now and April. I mean we've already had it with a lot of Bengals fans. But you know myself and a lot of my colleagues here at PFF view that you know the Cincinnati Bengals they have the cap space to

attack free agency in offensive line. I mean, there's some quality offensive linemen out there that not a lot of teams can afford because the cap, the salary cap is probably gonna go down around ten to twenty million when it's usually going up ten million. So there's a lot of teams in a bad situation with the Bengals are not one of them. They can afford these offensive linemen and they're going to get quality play right away. And then when you look at the NFL Draft and where

they're positioned. Penny School I mean, he's as sure as a bet as they possibly are. But you look at guys like Jamar Chase, who you know, we believe might be the best non quarterback prospect you've ever seen in that Chase Young type of category. From a wide receiver perspective, he's up there with Amari Cooper, Julio Jones. I mean, this guy has a chance to be an elite wide receiver number one. And when you look at the Bengals receiving unit, you know, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd they're great,

but they're more complimentary pieces. They're neither of them are really going to be that elite wide receiver one. You know, Jamar Chase has potential to do that. DeVonta Smith has its potential to do that. Gamen Wattle does too. You know, in all three of those guys are gonna one of them, I mean, some form of those three will be the available to Cincinnati at the fifth overall pick. And you know they really should take one of those wide receivers

over Pinna soool. I mean, when you look at the positional value, wide receivers just far more important than offensive tackle in you know, like I said, Cincinnati really does have the funds to make some moves. Whether it's a guy like Taylor Moton the right tackle to Carolina, or Joe Fiuniy a guard from New England. They can make some power plays in free agency, and we think we should They should do that at offensive line and then go wide receiver in the NFL Draft. We're talking to

Anthony Trash from Pro Football Focus. Should they prioritize tackle or guard if they do dive into free agency. I think, you know, the best option out there for them that they can really afford would be Joe Funi. And you know, it's going to be interesting to see what kind of direction the New England Patriots kind of go in this offseason, just because you know they're kind of flirting with going into that quarterback purgatory realm that they do go that

to run round. I think they should kind of liquidate their assets and kind of let everything go there. So you know, I think they have the chance to kind of outbid New England and you know, get him in an uncomfortable spot and land Joe Tuni. But also, like I said, Taylor Moton, he's another good option at tackle, So I don't don't think there's really a priority there.

But I think out of all of the offensive line that that's available, I think Funy if he does hit the open market, I think that should probably be the top priority because he is part away the best player at his respective position that'll probably be available for him. So in a previous podcast, I had mentioned Brandon Schurf is a possibility at guard. In your article about free agency, you brought up Darryl Williams as a possibility at tackle.

What about those guys? I would have loved to put Brandon Schurf in there, but I think he's more likely than not going to get paid by the Washington football team. I mean, they have a lot of cap space available to him, so I do think that's what's going to end up happening. The same with like Trip Williams. Even though they have Joe and Williams a tackle, He's probably gonna get paid by San Francisco. So I mean we're just kind of, you know, kind of weeding out some

of these guys there. Darryl Williams, I think he's kind of a less than ideal option at tackle just because of what we you know, he was great this past season, but in the years past not so much. So you know, I think, you know, if they can really get Taylor Moton and Joe Theory, I mean, those are the top two, you know, that's the top guard and tackle likely to hit the open market, with Schurf and Trent Williams not there, so I think those would be their best case scenarios.

After that, you know, it would be Darryl Williams at tackle. And then when we're talking offensive guards, man, it gets really really weak. You know, you had Matt Fyler there, who has you know, experienced playing tackle and guard. But even after that, I mean, we're looking at possible guys like Jermaine Effettie, and we all know how inconsistent he

has been throughout his NFL career. So I mean, they really should be hoping that a guy like Joe Dooney hits the open market and then just throw the bag at him because he's that's about the only quality option they really have. We're talking to Anthony Trash from Pro Football Focus. You can all them on Twitter at p f F Underscore. Anthony. You also cover internal free agents and your free agency guy. The Bengals have several the top two guys on the list are undoubtedly will Jackson

and Carl Lawson. Who should the priority be? And it has to be William Jackson just because of the positional value. And you know, I love Lawson. I think he's a very good passenger. I mean he had you know, he's almost a top ten pastor which are actually this past year when when you look at our wins upove replacement metric, which is a very popular win in baseball, and our data scientists, you know, they put their heads down, they grinded out this formula and they came up with it.

And props to him because it's one of the best things I've ever seen someone do that I worked with, you know, a kind of measures positional value. We've really found out some very interesting things with this. And you know, in the case of William Jackson versus Carl Lawson this past season, both players had great years, but William Jackson generated two and a half times more wins upove replacement.

Think Carl Lawson, did you know it's just all about coverage being more important than pass Russian I think you know that what they really need to prioritize here, so you know, when they're looking who to resign, you know, I think they need to go after William Jackson and prioritize that over Carl Lawson, and then after I think even before they look at Carl Lawson, they really need to address the slot corners be just because, you know, but it's interesting, just because you know, there's a lot

of available slot corners on the open market, but they're only going to get contracts, you know, annually worth about four to five you know million per year, even though they're one of the most valuable positions on the field. There's a lot of talented ones on the open market and they can get a pretty good one too for

a very decent price. So, you know, I think those are the kind of the two avenues they need to go down before they even think about Carl Lawson as much of a you know, a great player he is. Give us some slot corner names. First one that comes to mind, Desmond King, you know, Troy Hill of the Los Angeles Rams. I mean, these guys are out there too, you know, McKinsey, Alexander, you know, he's not a bad option.

You know, the LB. I think it's somewhere around of the top eleven highest grade slot corners and coverage over the last two seasons. Seven of those eleven are on the open market this season. You know, Troy Hill, Like I said, Desmond King, you know, they have Kawan Williams as San Francisco corner too. I mean, there's gonna be a lot of them available, and a lot of these teams can't afford them. You know, the Pittsburgh Steelers too,

with Mike Hilton Kim Sutton. There's going to be a very good market for these guys, and I think they're gonna be able to land a good one, just whether or not they kind of capitalize on the opportunity. We're talking to Anthony Trash from Pro Football Focus. You listed as their top two priorities in your guide offensive line and cornerback, and based on your Will Jackson versus Kyral Lawson decision, I guess I can understand why you didn't have defensive line listed as well. To me though, that

deserves to be right up there. Can they help themselves in free agency, Yeah, I mean they certainly can, but I don't think it's you know, a pressing need like offensive lining corner is for them, just like I said, because of the positional value thing with it too, and I would even put corner in, even wide receiver up there ahead of offensive line. You know, even though, of course the Bengals offensive line was one of the worst

in the NFL last season. You know, they do have two good pieces there with Jonah Williams and Trey Hopkins. You know, if they make those couple of moves in free agency like they can, you know, I think they can have a pretty good lineup set up, you know, for the twenty twenty one season without pain a school. But you know, the past rush maybe needs a little bit of help, especially if they can't bring back Coral Lawson, which I think they're going to end up doing anyway.

You know, I still think, you know, you got to attack the most important valuable positions and then kind of fill in after the fact in the attack the less valuable positions, you know, and get to that kind of contingent status. But I don't think they're quite there yet. All right, let's turn to the draft with Anthony Trash from Pro Football Focus. Jamar Chase is the ideal guy in your opinion. Let's say he's gone. If he's not

there at number five, what would you do? Yeah, I mean, still go wide receiver, you know, and this is a very interesting debate that myself and our two other draft guys, Austin gil and Mike Grinner, I've had with them countless time that they're big jail and Waddle over DeVonta Smith guys barely. But I think I would prefer Davonta Smith over jail and Waddle. And I think we're kind of splitting hairs when comparing me too. It just kind of picked your poison which kind of guy you want there?

You know, with DeVonta Smith, you know I would still take him over Pini. Sooled the only concern is his size. His speed I think is going to be fine, and I think some people are a little bit too concerned about it. But you know, when looking at his comparisons from an athleticism standpoint, in a frame standpoint, we've never really seen a player like DeVonta Smith, you know, translates to the NFL and have you know, great success. So

I think that's kind of the pushback on him. But you know, you look on him out in the field and you look at the tape. I mean, he does everything in the position at an extremely high level, from his route running, his release packages, ball skills especially. You know, he is going to be, in my opinion, a very good wide receiver at the NFL. And with Jaalen Waddle too. I mean, the guy has deep speed for days, and he's going to immediately be a premier deep threat and

you know, Joe Brow could certainly use that. I mean this past year, the deep ball was not good at all. I mean it was one of the worst in the NFL. But at the same time, you didn't really have a lot of time to throw that off as a line didn't help him. I think, you know, didn't really have

a lot of separators downfield. I think bringing in a guy, you know, whether that's Jail and Wilds, Mon Smith, Jamar Chase, I think any of those three could really help him take that next step forward and really kind of put him into that top ten, you know, type of quarterback that he looks like he's going to become. If they are unable to sign Taylor Molten or Daryl Williams, the top two tackles you have listed at that point, would

you take pinnay Sewel. Don't not take a pin Suel just because I mean, yeah, this is a I mean the Bengals are in a really good position. You know, the fact that this tackle class is so loaded is a big reason for that. I mean, I would have to say, I mean this draft is kind of interesting just because I think quarterbacks are very stack position. Wide receivers a stack position, and so is tackle. But then once out you look at any other position, it gets

very very bad. But you know, these are the positions they kind of need to address, and you know, where or picking in round two, there's going to be quality tackles there available to them. You know, whether it's you know, Leam Eichenberg of Notre Dame, Alex Leatherwood, He's he's going to be slipping down there. Sam Cosmi of Texas is available. I mean, all of these guys are great options to have, and I think they can address that in round two.

But the ideal scenario is, you know, kind of landing an established one in free agency that can come in right away. But even then, if they do land a guy like Moton, take Jamarche safe. Fifth. Overall, I still think taking a tackle in the second round is something they should do, just because you know, the offensive line was extremely bad. I think you just kind of keep swinging there and I think you can find pretty good

value there. But in round one, I still think you should take, you know, these elite level wide receiver prospects as a chance to really, you know, be a true elite wide receiver number one at the next level. Over Penny School. We're talking to Anthony Trash from Pro Football Focus. I highly recommend his guide to free agency that he published on Monday on the website. Another part of your team by team analysis is potential cuts and for the bank goals. The first two guys you have listed are

Geno Atkins and Bobby Hart. Are they no brainers in your opinion? For guys to cut to create space? This is always a tough one to gauge. I think Bobby Hart certainly is. I mean, he has not been the performer that you know many have been hoping for. UM. I would say he's probably the shirt shirts fire one. Do you know Atkins? You know, I think you know, he could still contribute at a high level, but he does have a pretty fast salary UM, So you know, never say never with some of these guys on what

they could do. I think Giovanni Bernard and CJ who's on I listed in there as well. Could be ones that could get looked at. Um. But you know, the Cincinnati Bengals are sent pretty well in cap space with around you know, thirty seven projected. He's thirty seven million projected, if that salary cap is around one hundred and eighty million has reported. Um. You know, in the promost teams, they would they have killed of being a position with that.

So you know that they could be you know, willing to bring some of these guys back and don't feel like they have to cut him. But you know, those four names are the ones that come to mind, Anthony. In addition to the Free agency Guide, you also recently ranked all thirty two draft classes from last year and ranked the Bengals twenty twenty class number one. What stood out about last year's rookie class for the Bengals, Yeah, I mean it's all about Joe Burrow and See Higgins.

I mean that those are those two are the sole reasons why they came in with that top sply I had really had no one, nothing to do with any any of the other guys they drafted after that, just because Joe Burrow before he got hurt, I mean, he was looking like he would have been our Rookie of the Year. He was already one of the more valuable

quarterbacks in the NFL. And like I said, he didn't really have the deep all there, but you look at the stable factors, you know, from the clean pocket, what was his you know, the negatively great throw rate on those non deep passes, and he was up there was some of the best in the NFL, you know, number number one, number two, number three, and some of those categories, the most important categories at the quarterback position, so you know, you really don't typically see that from a rookie, and

that really generated his value. In two, I mean you kind of you kind of got a free pass with Joe Burrow there at number one, just because he's as you know, as you never have a slam dunk with the first overall pick, especially at quarterback. Joe Burrow was looking like, you know, one of the surest picks at the first overall that we've ever really seen. So we knew that he was going to you know, kind of conte contribute and produce his value above expectation like he did.

And in two with te Higgins, I mean, this was a home run pick for them. I personally was not expecting him to pick te Higgins thirty third overall. You know, I expect him to go down some other avenues, but I absolutely love the pick. It was probably, you know, one of my five favorite picks of the draft at the time, just because you know, of the me that wide receiver, and you know, I think he is going to, like I said, developed into a quality, complimentary piece. I mean,

I really do like his ball skills. I thought he improved too. You know, he was great at the catchpoint at Clemson. He got better as the year progress and ended up one of you know, one of the higher graded rookie receivers in the NFL. Was actually the second most valuable you know, second round pick of the twenty twenty NFL Draft. So those two picks combined really produced above expectation and really really put themselves into that number

one overall spot. And you know, kind of looking at that, you know, it's kind of hard to wrape your head around just because they hit these two picks. But you know, this past year, we really didn't see too many rookie performers had great seasons. I mean, you know, Justin Herbert

and you know, Justin Jefferson, Chase Young. They all had great years, but when you're looking at the entire draft class compared to other years, we didn't really see a high rate of rookies kind of have success in your one, and you know COVID obviously I had an impact with that. So you know, having those two guys for Cincinnati, the Higgins and Joe Burrow, really exceed expectations right away, even though they did have locky expectations to start with, really

put them in that top spot. Who is the second round pick that you had ranked higher than Tea Oh, I think it might have been Antoine Winfield. I think it was him, if I recall correctly. I mean he was another one that we thought, you know, I mentioned earlier my five favorite picks in the NFL Draft. I think he was probably up there too. I remember writing an article about that, just because you know, we fought him as a first round pick and he slipped to

the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They're up being a valuable piece to him. So I'm pretty sure on the data in front of me, but I'm pretty sure it was the Antoine Winfield. If Burrow and Higgins were the biggest reasons why the beggar Bengals had the number one half class in your opinion, Did any of the other guys stand out? No, not really unfortunately, But I mean there's still time just because you look at the rookie year and it's very

it's not very predictive of future success. I mean we typically see for most positions, the second year kind of you get a better understanding of what kind of career of a young player is going to have in the long run. So it's way too early actually to call these guys. Any of these guys, you know, a bus are not a good pick just because it's that pivotal year two, and you know, I think after a year two is a good time to come back and reflect,

you know, on them. I want to get back to Burrow for a second, because by the traditional stats that we've looked at for years and years and years, passer rating, yards per attempt, things like that, Joe came in twenty fourth and passer rating twenty fifth and yards per attempt. Pro Football Focus had him graded much higher than that. And you referred to some of the stable metrics, some of the things that really project year to year to year.

Can you explain that a little bit better. When looking at those stable factors, you really want to isolate quarterback performance to clean pocket play, just because when you look at you know, performance from a clean pocket versus in a pressure pocket, you know, clean performance is way more stable your year. In pressure performance that's way more volatible.

And that's an interesting thing with Justin Herbert, you know, the other quarterback that had great success, the offensive rookie of the year, just because he had a lot of success when pressure that's not sustainable year to year. He really was not that good from a clean pocket. So I think we're going to see regressing from him. But I'm guy going off into changent there. But with Joe Burrow, he had the one of the lowest rates of quarterback

fault in completions from a clean pocket. I mean the pinpoint accuracy that we saw at else Hu, we saw routine lye with the Banls in his first ten games, and I mean the fact that he still finished sixteenth in war among quarterbacks despite missing you know, the second

half of the season is quite remarkable. So I mean, I think Joe Burrow is you know, as good as a rookie campaign that Justin Herbert and Justin Jefferson had I still think Joe Burrow is going to be the best rookie or the best player from the twenty twenty one or twenty twenty NFL draft class. You'll by far. I think he's going to be a star quarterback in the NFL that is possibly gonna hopefully lead Cincinnati to the super Bowl. We'll see someday in the years to combat.

I think he's the real deal and he's going to be a very special guy here for Cincinnati. I like the way you think. We're talking to Anthony Trash from Pro Football Focus. You also do a lot of college analysis. You recently published your top ten returning quarterbacks in college football. In addition, dude doing Bengals games, I broadcast University of Cincinnati games. You did not have my guy, Desmond Ritter in your top ten. Explain why? Yeah, I mean this

was the tough list to make up. You know, with Desmond Ritter, he obviously adds value with this mobility. The tools are off the charts, and that's what kind of you know, we were looking at the twenty twenty one NFL draft before he decided to come back. You know, he was kind of getting that mid round considerate just because he's a very potential base guy. Either the tools are there, it becomes about something special. But we just

have not seen that from Desmond Ritter. I mean this past year he had a sub seventy passing grade, which was he did that too back in twenty nineteen, and we were looking at those, like I mentioned earlier, the stable factors, the clean pocket passing grade, and he was just at the twenty fourth percentile in college football this past season. The downfield, you know, accuracy was very shoddy.

He had a high rate of uncatchable throws. Great, he really didn't put the ball on harm's way with his downfield passing when he did pull the trigger down there. But we just really didn't see him hit those throws at an extremely high rate like we wanted to from an accuracy standpoint, we didn't. And the negatively grade the throw rate was another concern, not isolating those those true dropback scenarios, taking away play actions, RPO screens, quick throws,

looking at throws from inside the pocket. The numbers just weren't that great. Four Desmond Ritter. So you know, I think Cincinnati's gonna have a great team next year. I think they're going to be be one of the better group of five teams again. You know, I love of my Gardener, the cornerback. I think he's going to be started at the NFL level eventually one day. But with Desmond Ritter, he did not crack the top ten, but

he is. He was in a conversation with some of the guys here I will say about so you and your colleagues at Pro Football Focus have been cranking out mock drafts about one a week. Most recently, Mike Renner has Jamar Chase going to the Bengals at number five. The week before that, Ben Lindsley Jamar Chase going to the Bengals at number five, the week before that, Steve Palazzolo Jamar Chase going to the Bengals at number five.

It seems like the gurus that you work with are in lockstep that if he's there, that's the guy to take to reunite with Joe Burrow. We're all in agreement here and that that doesn't happen often the PFF headquarters here, but uh, you know, we really do think that's the best fit for them. You know, with some of the guys you mentioned, there, all of them, besides Mike. Grinner's kind of you know what we would do if we

were in the shoes of the gym. But with Mike, he's kind of trying to predict and really does think that there's a good chance that they do reunite Joe Burrow with Jamar Chase, just because looking back at that twenty nineteen season, I mean, that was a special, very special duo. You know, it's up there with one of the best quarterback wide receiver duos we have ever seen

it in the history of college football. I mean, they still hold the PFF college record for this is going back seven seasons for the most deep passing touchdowns and completions in a single year. I mean, it was just kind of record sat our record chattering across the board from both of them. I mean, it was a very elite connection in tandem, and in replicating that in Cincinnati, I think they have a really good chance to do so. Just you know, given the projections that we have on

both guys, your projections for Piney Sewell are equally high. Really, I mean, the last time he played a couple of years ago, at the age of nineteen, I think he had the highest PFF grade for an offensive tackle. This is strictly a matter of position, importance and value. Basically, when you are projecting Chase over Paul right, yeah, I mean the Pinnasools player comparisons at the next level favorite

pretty well. Um if I recall correctly, his past protection numbers are kind of project him on the path of guys like David Pactiari intrumentally. I mean, it's going he's going to be a very good offensive tackle, but it's just all about you know, his maximum sealing him the value he can generate is a little bit different than what a guy like Jamar Chase can do for an offense. I mean, we do think Jamar Chase is a guy that can put you know, the Bengals over a hump

from a versus Pennai suol Is. You know, he's not going to be the guy that's going to add multiple wins to a team just him alone. Jamar Chase has the capability of doing that. Um. So it's just a strict matter of you know, positional value. Pinna Soool is a great, great player. He's going to be a great NFL player if the Bengals do end up you know, landing him. I wouldn't be you know, two matt or upset if I were, you know, a Bengals fan that's kind of listening to PFF and listening to what they

have to say. Um. But I do think the right decision at the end of the day is to take one of those three wide receiver prospects, just because I mean, they are three very good wide receiver prospects and any other year they'd be in the conversation for wide receiver one. So I mean, I think these guys are kind of can't miss too. So I do think because of the positional value, that's the way you should leave. So I am going to allow you to spend the Bengals money.

You have signed Taylor Moton and Joe Tuney as free agents. You have resigned Will Jackson. You have drafted Jamar Chase in the first round. So basically they followed your what to do blueprint for this offseason. How good can the Bengals be if they execute those moves? Are most of those moves, I think they can be a playoff team. Maybe it's going to be tough, maybe next year and year one, but I do think the year after that I think that would put them in that, you know,

the very competitive team status. You know, their division is a very interesting one, just because the Pittsburgh Steelers, I don't think they're going to be very good next year. Ben Roethlisberger is clearly declining in their their cap situations pretty bad as it is right now. But looking at the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens, I mean these two teams, I mean, Cleveland Browns are an offensive juggernaut in the making of Baltimore Ravens are still there. So there, it's

going to be a very competitive division. And for that reason, I'm not so sure they would put themselves into put out contention, you know, right away in your one, but I do think, you know, the year after, they would definitely be up there with all this talent they have. As I mentioned at the top, you've been putting out some very interesting material about the Bengals in the entire NFL of late. I've enjoyed reading it and looking at it. Anything coming up in the near future that you're working

on that we can look forward to. We've got all kinds of free agency stuff coming out in the coming days. Have our most overrated underrated free agents. Be sure to check that out over at PFF dot com. But the biggest thing we have is our NFL Draft Guide. Our guy, my Printer, who we've mentioned a few different times. I mean, he was just absolutely grinding this thing out for the

last couple of months. I think we're at two hundred and fifty player profiles with like three or four pages of data and analysis, you know, advanced scouting reports in there too, So it's only going to grow. I think he might actually hitting three hundred sure if he's going to sleep in the next couple of weeks. But yeah, i'd be sure to check that out over at PF dot com. It's available over there, Anthony, great stuff. Freely appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us today, of course,

thanks for having me. I downloaded the Pro Football Focus Draft Guide yesterday, and it's impressive since the PFF guys are so high on the idea of drafting LSU wide receiver Jamar Chase. Here are a few nuggets about him that I found interesting. Two years ago with Joe Brewit quarterback, Chase caught eighty four of the one hundred twenty one passes thrown his way. That's sixty nine percent. But here's what's really impressive. We're not talking about screens or easy completions.

The average distance of those passes was fourteen point three yards, and furthermore, Chase averaged eight point one yards after the catch. I have consistently been saying that if Piney Sewell is on the board at number five, he should be the Bengals first round pick. But I've to admit the gang at Pro Football Focus has me reconsidering. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now time for

an installment of story Time with Dan. This is something I started doing a few years ago when I hosted sports talk on WLW Radio. And here's the concept. I've been broadcasting in some way, shape or form since weaving My Magic on the student radio station at Syracuse University. I've had a wide variety of wonderful experiences on and off the air and some that weren't quite as wonderful. And I'm about to share one this week in story Time with Dan. It's my OJ Simpson story. Here goes.

I'm guessing that for many of you, Ken Anderson, Boome, Osiason, Chad John or AJ Green was your childhood sports hero, especially if you're a die hard Bengals fan. Well, I grew up a little bit south of Buffalo, and my childhood sports hero was OJ Simpson. The first NFL game I ever attended in person was a Monday night game in nineteen seventy three between the Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. That night, OJ st an NFL record at the time for carries in a game with thirty nine

and rushed for one hundred and fifty seven yards. It put him over one thousand yards for the season, and it was only Week seven that was the year that Oj became the first runner in NFL history to top the two thousand yard mark, and he did it in a fourteen game season. In any case, OJ Simpson was my guy. My bedroom walls were a Simpson shrine when I was a paper boy. As a kid, I ran from house to house pretending that I was the juice.

And when Buffalo traded him to San Francisco for five draft picks in nineteen seventy eight, it might have been the saddest day of my childhood. So now let's fast forward to adulthood and get to my O. J. Simpson story. In nineteen ninety four, the final year of the Bill's run of four strade trips to the Super Bowl, I was working as a TV sports anchor at WTVH five in Syracuse, and I covered a divisional playoff game in

Buffalo between the Bills and the Raiders. It's notable because it's the coldest weather game in Bill's history, and that's saying something. The temperature at kickoff was zero and the wind chill was minus thirty two. Not quite the Freezer Bowl, but definitely bone chilling. My TV station got three press passes for every Bill's home game, one for a reporter, one for a videographer, and one for a videographer's assistant who could help with the equipment. Well, that day, the

videographer's assistant was my girlfriend and now wife, Peg. It was legit. She did help us with the equipment, but she was mostly there to watch the game. When we got to the stadium, I told her there was no way she was going to stay outside in that minus thirty two degree winchill. So after we helped the photographer with his gear, me and Peg headed for the toasty comfort of the press box. But it was a playoff game and the press box was packed. Only people that

specifically had a press box seat could get in. So, being a gentleman or idiot, you make the call. I told Peg to use my pass for the warm press box and I would use the other pass and watch the game from the sideline. Bad move. I wasn't quite as crazy as Dave Lapham and his fellow offensive lineman going with short sleeves in the freezer bowl, but I

was dressed for going on TV. I had dressed shoes on, I didn't have an especially warm winter coat, and there's no way I was to make it through four quarters in those frigid conditions. So I went looking for a warm spot at field level where I could still follow the game, and I found one in the Bill's weight room.

The heat was on. There was a little black and white TV, and there was a small group of people sitting in front of that TV, the NBC Sports pregame show crew, consisting of a few former coaches and players, including you guessed it, my childhood hero OJ Simpson. Well, this was a dream come true. Not only had I found warmth and a TV, but I was about to watch an NFL playoff game, basically looking over the shoulder

of the guy I grew up idolizing. I was one of about three or four guys standing there, and as we watched the game, we could hear what OJ and the other analysts were talking about. And it wasn't strictly the game. Let's just say there was some locker room talk. Well. Right after he finished telling a story, noticed for the first time that they were a handful of strangers standing nearby,

including yours. Truly, Simpson wasn't pleased, so he summoned a security guy who asked us to leave the weight room and go back out onto the field. In short o, J Simpson forced me to watch the rest of that game outdoors in my TV clothes with a minus thirty two degree win chill. It's obviously not the worst thing he's ever been accused of doing, but it's not exactly what you're hoping for the first time you're in the

presence of your childhood hero. And that concludes this episode of story Time with Dan, and that's going to do it for this week's episode of The Bengals Booth podcast, 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 eric comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast