Bengals Booth Podcast: This Is It

on that. Plus, now that the Bengals have clinched the number one pick in the draft, we'll share some thoughts on the quarterback that many people expect Cincinnati to select

Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow from LSU. And in this week's Know the Faux segment, we'll discuss the Browns and the future of first year head coach Freddie Kitchens with Zack Jackson, who covers the team for the Athletic All of that is straight ahead, but first, here's a quick reminder that you can add the latest edition of this podcast delivered rite to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean.

It's the greatest thing since board games. In this high tech you can do anything on your phone world, sometimes it's nice to play a traditional board game. This Christmas, my son received a game called Ticket to Ride as a gift. There's a board with a big map of the US, some plastic train cars and cards. That's it. No joystick, no WiFi required. It's an old school board game and it's awesome. And I don't just say that

because I dominated our family's first attempt to play. So here's to Monopoly, Scrabble, Munchkin, and all of the great board games out there that are awesome for the first few days after Christmas until they wind up in a closet until next Christmas. Now, let's get to Sunday's football game at Paul Brown Stadium. There's a real possibility that Andy Dalton will play in his one hundred and thirty seventh and final game in a Bengals uniform on Sunday.

It's not definite. He's under contract for one more season

at seventeen point five million dollars. And here are the possibilities. A. If the Bengals draft Joe Burrow or another quarterback Number one overall, they could keep Andy as a veteran mentor to help the rookies adjustment to the NFL B the Bengals select a QB number one overall and trade Dalton for a draft pick, which seems like the most likely outcome if they can get a good enough deal or see the Bengals could look at, say Chase Young is the only sure thing in the draft, and keep Dalton

for at least one more season as the starting quarterback. If Sunday's game is and he's last in Orange and black, he'll leave quite a legacy. He's completed more passes and thrown more tds than any other quarterback in franchise history, and if he leads the Bengals to a win on Sunday, he'll have the highest winning percentage of any Bengals quarterback to start at least twenty five games. If the team loses on Sunday, Andy will fall to number two behind

Ken Anderson. Andy and his wife jj have also been incredibly giving of their time and resources to needy families in the Cincinnati area through their foundation. Here's Andy on the potential of this being his final game as a Cincinnati Bengal. I understand the possibility of it. So I mean, I'll have to wait and see once the season's over and see see what happens. But it's obviously not my focus right now. Like I said, I understand the situation that that I'm in, and so I'm trying to go

out and play a game I could play. Like I said, I want to finish this thing all the right way. I want to finish this thing off of a win for this team, and um, so doing everything I can to make sure we play well on Sunday. Yes, it's not the end of my career. Obviously, there's been a lot of Uh, a lot of our life has been here in Cincinnati. And again, we don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen, and um, I have to wait and see after the season for

all that to get handled. But um, you know, a big part of our life has been here, and um you know we've made Cincinnati our home and uh, you know, we've grown up. My family's grown up together, JJ and I have. You know, it's been our whole merry life here like three kids. Like you said, so it's been the city has been a big part of our life. There's a lot of good people here in Cincinnati, and there's a lot of people that are willing to, you know,

to help others. And I think, uh, you know, kind of once we started our foundation and kind of started some of the things that that we've been doing, there's a lot of people that hopped on board just because they're they're willing to serve and willing to um, you know, give to those in need. And so I think there's an instant connection there. And then we're just trying to be as involved as we can and try to help out in so many different ways. And so, um, I think,

I just you can't do it by yourself. You have to have support from a lot of people. And we've had a lot of support from the city. That was the one thing that that we wanted to do when we first got here, is we want to make sure that we were all in, and we were. We've been all in too since the day since we got here, and hopefully people see that, you know, I've I've received a lot of support throughout throughout my years here, and um again, we'll have to wait and see how this

whole thing ends up. Badly enough, before Andy takes the field on Sunday, we could all be watching his successor on Saturday when LSU faces Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl, as Joe Burrow looks to lead the Tigers to the National Championship game against Ohio State or Clemson. This conversation with Dave Lapham, we start with the current favorite to be the number one pick in the twenty twenty NFL Draft. I am now thinking that I'm on the Joe Burrow train.

The Heisman Trophy winning quarterback out of LSU. He completed seventy eight percent of his passes this year through for nearly five thousand yards, forty eight touchdown passes, six interceptions. He's a leader. The intangibles are off the charts. The one negative when you talk to football people that have seen him is that they say he has what they describe as an average plus arm. That's what's said about

Joe Montana coming out. And note to Dame when he was drafting the third round, it was the arm strength was the question, not the football IQ, not the decision making. You know nothing from an intangible standpoint, but they were worried about his arm. And you know, when you talk to a lot of quarterbacks, quarterback coaches, people familiar with the position. The biggest thing is throwing with the anticipation

and accuracy. You have to be a straight a player and his accuracy, my gosh, in the SEC to be completing almost eighty percent of year passes man to shives and uh so he has to be throwing with some anticipation to have those kind of completion numbers. So I think he might be one of those straight a Guys's got to do a little bit more. Look, you know,

research into you know, how he plays. But the thing that every team that's having success now, not just the Jacksons of the world where there's you know, just one of those kind of guys, but quarterbacks that can extend and create plays and make it impossible for guys in the back end to cover long enough. The mahomes Is of the world, Aaron Rodgers, you know at his he's still doing it. Those guys that can do that get out of pocket and buy time, they're valuable in borrows athletic.

He can do it. I mean, he's he's shown that in the SEC's spun away from people. He's not afraid to, uh, you know, step up in the pocket, climbed the pocket, hit a rush lane that's vacated, get yards he's got. Probably. I bet people are going to be surprised to see his times at the combine, how fast he is, and what his shuttle is and all those kind of things, because this guy's an All state basketball player. I mean, you do basketball. You know the athletes that are on

basketball court. In my opinion, NBA players are the best athletes in the world and these guys are ridiculous, and you know, he's athletic, So I'm pretty much sold. I'm going to be very interested to see him Saturday night against Ohio State because all the people here in Ohio are going to be, you know, highly interested and keenly interested in that football game because they think sunrises and sets on Buckeyes offense, defense or whatever, see if the

defense can do anything with Joe Burrow. We don't know for sure how things are going to play out next year, but it certainly feels like there's a strong possibility that this is going to be Andy Dalton's last game at the Bengals uniform. Yeah, it does. And you know, I think he's handled everything with class. No surprise there when he was raised right, He's a man of faith and his faith is the strongest thing in his life, obviously, and he does things the right way. And honestly, he's

had a great career. I mean when you look at him leading the Bengal statistically in a lot of passing areas considering the quarterbacks that have been here, and I know it's different eras and throw the ball a heck of a lot more and all those things. But he's done a good job for this franchise on and off the football field. His foundation has had a huge impact here in the state of Ohio and in the state

of Texas as well. So he's done He's done a lot of really unbelievable things, and you know, it's it's it's a I'm sure it'll be bittersweet for him. And if they particularly if they go and beat the Cleveland Browns and he has a big game, and that that's what you hope for. You hope that goes out on

the highest note possible. And you know, like about a three touchdown, three hundred yard performance, no interception is Baker Mayfield has some turnovers, he doesn't, they win the football and potentially rides off into the sunset, you know, in a very very positive way. I hope that works out for him, and that would be the Hollywood script as such,

and I think he deserves that. So I'm hopeful that that it does turn out that way for him because he's given everything he's got, you know, to the organization. And I think he's as stunned as anybody that in training camp. Watching him operate in training camp when he had most of his bodies available to him, and even before that, no ta's and mini camps, I was like, man, this is gonna this offense fits and he Dalton skill set. AJ Green's gonna have a big year. I mean, all

these guys are gonna have play well. Man just unfolded. The football gods couldn't have been more cruel this year, for sure. It's funny how things have gone with him during his first five years, when they went to the playoffs every season. In that in that fifth year where he was a legitimate MVP candidate, it seemed like people were like, he's good, He's not good enough. And now that it appears that it might be winding down, there's a different feeling among Bengals fans. Well, we had it

pretty good. Yeah, it's careful what you wish for. You know, you don't really miss it until you really do miss it. You know, you don't really know what you have until you don't. All those things. Uh. Andy Dalton was amazing to me that when he first said when he lost his third game in a row one season as Bengal, it's like this new experience. But I've never lost there in a row at any level you sports, high school, college,

in the NFL. I'm like, wow, when you think about that, and any in all sports that you're participated in, Devon never lost three games in a row. That tells you that you know, it's not every single time. It can't be the team. You must be a factor in the in the formula that all those teams were winners. And Andy Dalton is a is a winner. I mean his makeup, his personality, the way he lives his life. He lives

his life as a winner, not a loser. Speaking of winning, what a win at the end of a what so far as a one and fourteen season really make much of a difference. It would in my mind, as you know, as a former player, particularly after a last week's game, to make the comeback they made and not to finish it. You'll never hear about it anymore. It doesn't go in the record book as biggest come from behind to tie

and losing overtime. It's the biggest come from behind victory and franchise history, it's not the biggest come from behind to almost win. It just it'll disappear except for the guys that played in it, and you know, people that were around to watch it and listen to it and hear about it and everything else. It's it's gonna historically, it won't have a legacy like it would in a record book. So not going to make a record book.

So you're you're kind of like you have a you know, a weird taste in your mouth that you did a lot of things well to turn a game that was lopsided into a game, but you didn't win that game. So I think if you can win a division game and snap to add ten game division losing streak franchise records twelve in a row, you're at ten. If you lose this one, you're in danger of tying the record in your first division contest next year. You would want

to eliminate that. You'd want to get a division win at home, you know, and in the season on a high note. And it is true the one thing you do remember in the offseason, you remember your last game first before anything else, and then you'll start remembering other games, but the last game is your most recent memory. So if you can go out with a win, you know, against a team that was on the cover of sports

illustration is supposed to be all this and that. And you don't want to be swept two years in a row by the Cleveland Browns. That hasn't happened for a while. So there's a lot of reasons you want to win this football game, and not to mention the most important building momentum for next year. You asked Jack Taylor question the other day about his biggest lessons in his first year is the Bengals head coach, and he talked about, we've hired good people, now I have to empower them.

Do you think that that's a really significant thing for him to have learned? I do you know, I think as a CEO's that's probably I think that was the best trait that Paul Brown had. In my mind, Paul Brown could have been president of the United States, could have been CEO of p and because he surrounded himself with good people that he felt could do their job, and then he let them do their job. So and then if you didn't do the job, he would not

hesitate to make a move and replace you. But he hired you with the intent of I believe in you, you believe in me, I'm going to let you do your job. So I do think that that's a big, big thing for Zach, you know, to think about and improve upon and all those sort of things, and for him to mention that as a lesson, I think it's a very positive thing. Zach and this staff will get to coach the Senior Bowl in a few weeks. How

helpful can that be? I think very you know, I mean, you can you can watch tape on on guys and you can, um you know, see the athletic abilities and everything, but you can't see the intangibles. You know, and you

can hear about them. But sometimes they can be jaundice one way or the other, depending on you know, a guy may have rubbed somebody the wrong way at a very high level and that now all of a sudden unfairly so, and so his label does whatever now if it's a consensus opinion, you know that's the way it is.

But um, there's nothing like getting firsthand evaluation that stuff and finding out what makes a guy tick and uh, you know, putting him in situations where you want to see how he's going to respond on the football field, off the football field, whatever those things may be. And um, you know you can you can learn a lot. You can learn a lot about not only the player, but the person. And I think that's the big key is, Um,

the player shows up on tape, the person doesn't. So I think I think getting that that hands on, um, you know, introduction and evaluation of people is huge. The Bengals placed AJ Green on injured reserve finally, so he's not on the roster for the final game of the season. What, in your mind is the best case scenario where his future is concerned. Well, that's a good question, Dan, I mean it's I guess. I guess that. I think his biggest deal right now is adjusting to that hundred percent.

That's a different hundred percent. So you know, from from the team's standpoint, you can understand, Well, if that's what you're struggling with. Mentally, we're going to have to see how you do adjust to that we're going to tag you. And AJ is not gonna like to be tagged, but I think you don't. He won't even have to dig

deep down. I think he's going to understand. He won't like it, but I think he's going to have an understanding of why they're they're, you know, going to be feeling that that's the way they have to approach it um And you know, I just hope, I just hope that at some point in time makes his own decisions. You hire agents, they work for you. You You don't work for them, so and you hire them to do their job, but you still hire them. So ultimately they're they're advisors

to you, they're they're consultants to you. There are all those kinds of things. But you make the decisions. So I wonder how as it all unfolds, the Aj Green that we all know and love. I wonder how how this is going to impact him, and there's decisions that

he makes down the road. If in fact, he does get tagged, which I think is probably going to happen to me, it seems like tagging him and trading him might be more realistic than tagging him and holding on to him for one more year and hoping that he plays well, and then resigning him. I don't know. I mean, the Bengals haven't shared their thoughts on that with any of us, but you could see a scenario where he's tagged and plays for another year and hopefully that sends

everything back in the right direction. Yeah, I mean, I just keep going back to the thing that the wise old Paul Brown said, you don't trade a guy until you have a guy you know they can do it at least as well or better. They don't. They don't, So in my mind, I tag him to see if you know things can be worked out. You know who knows that. I guess you're hoping against hope a little bit. But to trade him when you have nobody on your roster that is close to what he gave you when

he was AJ Green. That's the big thing. Nobody knows, you know, what is what's the new AJ Green? He doesn't know. He doesn't know what his new hundred percent is. So if he doesn't know, nobody else knows, that's for sure. So it is. It's a but even a even an eighty five percent AJ Green pretty damn special, because that guy is elite. I mean he he's is smooth and gifted and fluid an athlete has I've ever seen on any sport. Really, he does his job as effortlessly and easily.

He's one of those guys where, oh man, he looks makes it look so easy and you know it's not. But he is so gifted. He makes it look like rolling out of bed, and it's far from that. It's just the opposite of that. So I don't I don't necessarily move him unless I have to, because I don't have anybody that can give me what he can give me. When it's aj Green Underrated Story of the Year, it's Week seventeen, it's Game sixteen, Tyler Eiford, We're playing every

game this year. It is big, and I think, and this is something that AJ Green I think has to think about too, because the Bengals have Nick Cosgray is good. He knows what he's doing. And Nick Cosgray knows AJ Green's history, he knows his body. Look what he did for Tyler Eifford, many many rehabs. I mean, Tyler Eifford has spent more time with Dick Cosgary than any family member friend or anything. So to me, I honestly believe that part of your process when you're deciding, like Andrew,

we're worth in the Rams full court press on Tyler Eiffort. Well, the Rams don't know Tyler Eiffort's medical history. The Bengals and Nick Cosgray do. Aj To me, that would be a factor. They they these guys here in Cincinnati know everything that I've gone through and reasons that that has happened this way, and to turn you back on all of that, I think is a little bit of a tough thing to do. So to me, that's that's the edge the Bengals do get and and the tipebreak they

do get. Is that the history between the athlete and the and the rehab people, the training, all the you know, strength and conditions, everything that they were part of, I think is a factor. It would be for me, you know, and go somewhere and hey, how you doing so? And so you know, here's all my medical history. You know, all that is his pictures and all that. It's like the Senior Bowl. The pictures tell you one thing, but

you don't know. You haven't deal with the people like these guys have for years now for Tyler Eiffort and unfortunately years now, for not as many years, but years now for Aj Green. To me, there's something to that. And I don't know how big a factor it would be in AJ's decision making process, but I know it was a factor in Tyler's decision making process. You know.

He's phrased it as the Bengal stood by me in the tough times and they let me do the rehab and all that, and they paid me the whole time. Same thing with Aj Green and Tyler Eiffort decided to stay. Maybe Aj Green will look at it similarly to the way Tyler Eiffort looked at it. Sometimes for a guy, all it takes is an opportunity. Last week, Darius Phillips wound up getting a lot of snaps because Will Jackson hurt his shoulder. He had an interception and three pass

deflections after taking over at cornerback. They liked him, you know, as a cornerback, and they also liked his return skills and he's shown that right away. Darren Simmons really feels good about him back there returning kicks. At first, he was a little bit unsure about his hands, you know, securing the football the number one requirement. But man, he makes plays. The guy has got a nose for the football. He reads routes well, he gets his head turned to

find the football. He seems to not have issues in that regard. Two interceptions in an abbreviated season. I mean he hasn't played that many football games, a little bit more than half the season, if I'm not mistaken, And he's got more interceptions than any cornerback has on the team. He's got the two interceptions and Jesse Bates has three. So Darius Phillips, when opportunity knocked, he has taken advantage of his snaps. And one of his you know, interceptions,

was a huge play. I mean he took that sucker back twenty seven yards good field positions. So again, when he gets his hands on the ball, those return skills. You know, in my mind, at some point in time, he was probably pretty good running back at some level of football because he has great instincts in space. Two teams that have had very disappointing seasons will end the season on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium. We know about the Bengals one and fourteen. The Brown's a disappointment largely

because of the expectations going into this season. They were on the cover of Sports Illustrated. They were everybody's eight team. It seemed, well, they're gonna finish with a worse record this year than they did last year. They were seven eight and one last year. They're six and nine this year with one game to go, surprising a lot of people. But it just goes to show you the chemistry counts.

There's no doubt about that. By all accounts, Nick Chubb is quiet, professional, team oriented, So I think that it's not an accident that he's got fourteen hundred and fifty three rushing yards. He just shuts up and does his job over five yards to carry eight touchdowns. I bet with Baker Mayfield everybody else not Huddles Charpen. Come on, Baker, I want the ball. I want the ball. What's going on? You know? Landry pro bowler eightyone catches over thousand yards

five touchdowns. Odell Beckham Junior has been the center of many controversies. You know, Baker Mayfield calling throwing the training staff under the bus with respect to Baker, with respect to Odell Beckham Junior, an injury that was misdiagnosed and mistreated or whatever. I just think that too many big egos, you know, in that huddle. I think there's a tug

of war for the football and Baker Mayfield. I think therefore fields pressure to distribute to football equally amongst all parties instead of just reading things out and playing football. Bottom line is it's it's not working. You know. I remember in the best team I ever played on, in the huddle, we had great players. You know, you look as Isaac Curtis, as Kenny Anderson's Danny Ross. I mean, it's Chris Collinsworth. When it was third and eight, it wasn't like Kenny, I need the ball. It was like

what play we're gonna call? How are we going to get this first down? It wasn't about imy, It was about we us. And that's the way it's always going to be. With the teams that have great success, teams that struggle, it's im stuff. Last thing, how is Christmas with the grandkids? Phenomenal? Yeah? That was great. You know they're uh they're they're at the perfect age, the perfect age and uh yeah, so they met they talked with Santa and uh my granddaughter, you know, said, um, hell,

your your reindeer really don't like cookies, do they? Santa Claus was no, but I like cookies a lot, so had to be cookies. And then she said, well what about carrots for the reindeer? And he said that would be perfect. So c squared cookies and carrots and Grandpa take a bite out of one of those carrots to make it look realistic. Oh yeah, there were, there were,

There were signs made. Gabby, thanks very much for you know, the cookies and cart you know, Santa Santa wrote, wrote a nice little message, nice little sign left on the on the fireplace. Yeah, it was all good stuff. Down time for this week's No the Faux segment, as we take a closer look at the Cleveland brown It's a team that beat the Bengals twenty seven to nineteen just

three games ago. We're joined by Zach Jackson, who covers the Browns for The Athletic and expect Sunday's game at Paul Brown Stadium to be Freddie Kitchen's final game as Cleveland's head coach. Well, I know what it looks like, I know what it feels like. We do this every other year, and you know if we'd have had this conversation even at Thanksgiving, which isn't that long ago, right, it's Christmas. I just said no, like this is just

too much, too soon for a lot of people. A lot of little things went wrong, Like they're not going to do this again. Chasms have only owned the team for seven years and two months, right, but they're gonna do it. Freddie has not helped themselves at all. The game mismanagement, the overall presentation is awful, and it's just

one thing after another. He lost five games by double digit points, you know, absolutely blown out three times, and then just going back to less Sunday, the sequence where you just don't have any feel for the situation and you let the Ravens, the hottest team in the league, go from having a miserable half where you flowed them down and made them struggle like few teams have, taking control of the game and winning it. And that's just the kind of management that gets you beat and if not,

something that's going to be fixed. So yeah, I'll be shocked if Freddie's still the coach next Monday. Okay, as a follow up to that, there's rumor out there about Urban Meyer. You know, I don't know if urban Meyer's family would allow him to get back into coaching with his health the way it is and all the issues to go along with that. How about this off the waller,

Marvin Lewis completes his AFC North in Cleveland. He's coached everywhere else but Cleveland, and when you think about it, part of a successful run in Pittsburgh, won a Super Bowl in Baltimore as defense according to the best defense ever, fewest points allowed in the sixteen game, stretching with Cincinnati, five straight Division A, five straight playoff appearances, a team record seven playoffs in sixteen years. Would Mark and Lewis

be a potential candidate in Cleveland? Well, I think someone like Marvin would make sense. If Marvin's going to guys to be adults, right, you need somebody who's done it before. I mean, this is a pretty appealing job now with the way the quarterback has struggled, and you know, just some of the overall immaturity issues, some of the things you're going to have to tackle here. You know, it's

it's not a wonderful job. There are huge questions, and especially if you know they're firing guys in one year again. But yeah, you know, the Browns has just they have just not been adults, from head coach to player all year long. It's just been one side show, one distraction, one immature, slash, embarrassing or all the above thing after the other lap. And it goes back to last year when they finally won the games, but they acted like they'd won fifteen of them, you know, and it just

it kind of took off on that train. So you know, I won't be surprised if Marvin Get's interviews, I don't know, you know, where he is, what he's thinking, or or you know who all is going to be in the pool. As for urban Meyer, you know, urban Meyer's a football coach in a darn good one. Would he fit in the NFL um with, you know, because some of the things that he was best at an exceptional at in

college are just not an NFL thing. And specifically here in Cleveland, I'm not sure urban Meyer and Got Dorsey co exists, you know, just like I'm not sure Josh McDaniels and John Dorsey co exists. So you know, I think that kind of limits the pool, assuming there's an opening starting next week. So in your mind Baker and Mayfield's sophomore slump. To put it kindly, is it because of Baker Mayfield? Because of too many egos for him to appease in terms of wanting the football? There's only

one football, is it? Freddie Kitchens? Is it a combination of everything? Why is Baker Mayfield having the sophomore season he's having. Yeah, combination is the answer. He certainly takes to nurse some of the blands. There's just been no flow to the offense. You know, um route to get to get Baker going. Um. You know, Nick Chubb's gonna win the rushing title and might lead in attempts, but it still feels like they never really stuck to that.

And Bakers are really good and they play action in rpo quarterback, but they're just a whole year long, every drive, every quarter kind of felt this jointed. It never felt like the Brown said, Okay, this is what we're gonna do and this is what we're good at, and if and when teams stop it or just do it, then

then we strike at him. But going back to training camp, I'm telling you, guys, Bakers through some of the most beautiful deep passes that I had seen and I just thought, you know, once this offense does figure out if tiece things, they're gonna tack, But there has been no vertical tasking game. I mean, he's sitting at six yards per tempt underneath it,

I believe, and that just doesn't get it done. So I'm not totally writing him off because even in a small sample size that we have seen it, and we know that the reason the Browns picked him and believed in him is because of his accuracy and accuracy to

me is king you know in today's NFL. But he has not been accurate, He has not played with his normal level of confidence, and as much as anything else, just then this goes to the accuracy, you know, just the six and eight yard passes that are in the right place that gives the guy a chance to get more yardage, let alone a lot more yardage. Right, we know jameson O'Dell are the kind of guys they can take that ten yard pass and turn it into thirty or ninety or we've seen the number of times we've

seen it all year long. You can really count on one hand. We are visiting with Zack Jackson, he covers the Browns for the athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at Akron Jackson. The Browns have had a lot of head scratching things happen this year, from the Miles Garrett helmets swinging incident to the guy that got caught after death threats on Twitter. Explain this one to me Zach.

Last week in their loss to the Ravens, Sheldon richards And gets a fifteen yard penalty during an injury time out because he refused to leave the opponent's sideline when the officials told him too. Is that accurate? The six wain Cleveland Browns got two fifteen yard penalties off but Bell taunting after a routine catch and runs and one for yes, refusing to leave an area during an injury timeout they got. The Browns used the time out on fourth down before ultimately deciding to punt early in the

game and then late in the game. Yes, we're assessed the fifteen yard penalty during an injury timeout. It's the story of the year. You can't make it up. So Freddie got himself in a little pinch with the Pittsburgh started at sweater. Do you think he'll come to Cincinnati in a good Christmas sweater or what do you think he's gonna wear? Oh man, Yeah, it's we laugh because it's it's been that all along. I mean, this team is all on Instagram with how they dressed in their accessories,

their headphones and their watches and all these things. Then hewear's that T shirt? You know? I just laughed when we talked about it on the podcast. Like the Ravens are in this historic win streak and Lamar spotted in a T shirt that says nobody cares work harder? Right, the Browns are the disappointment of the league, and Freddie spotted at the movie theater where in a pen Bridge started a T shirt Like, what's the difference than organizations?

Will let's start there right right? Is the overwhelming feeling this year in Cleveland of opportunity lost? I mean, the Steelers lose Roethlisberger at the beginning of the season. The Bengals are in rebuild mode this year. There's obviously a lot of talent on the Browns, maybe not as much as people thought, But is that the vibe that they had a great opportunity and just botched it? Yeah? Absolutely, Dan, I mean they have arguably the win of the year.

They beat the Ravens sixteen point. You know in Baltimore, the Ravens fans left that game with eight minutes left. Order on the final score is yeah, yeah, and you're right, like that is one of the things we kind of do. The apocy is was there as much talent, but no doubt it's opportunity loss because the Steelers lost for Roethlisberger.

Even you know, going back three weeks to the second Brown Steelers, if the Browns just win that game, then they're in the wild card hunt and they lose the Duck Hodges, right, So yeah, yeah, they just like I said, they just never established that flow. And even when they started to play better in mid October through mid November,

which is when good teams get good. And that's fine, you lots of teams historically have erased slow or puzzling starts, right, they just never could get to that next step offensively. And I'll tell you this, even going back and I mentioned this earlier to the summer, when I saw I saw this coming a little bit, I didn't like to vibe. I didn't like the maturity yet like all that stuff.

I just thought, well, they're gonna have enough offense that they're gonna be able to steal a game or two along the way and then eventually they'll figure it out. But they haven't. You know, they have not. The Ravens have not lost in their stadium that day, and the Browns haven't won a road game since. And it's just that's what a mature team does, is you just go on the road and win. And they lost the Brandon Allen in Denver, who was making his first NFL start,

and they lost the Duck Hodges in Pittsburgh. And we all know Duck Hodges is an undrafted record. So watching tape getting ready for the first matchup with Cleveland, I thought, Baker Mayfield, like, I think your point about never established an identity is right on, because to me, it was like, Okay, well I got the bottle Landry, I better get it to Beckham because he's gonna be he's gonna be pissed if I don't job I get Oh, I better get

it to Hunt too. It's like, instead of just reading out plays and playing offense, he's like trying to you know, be the you know, the bargainer and divide a football four ways when there's only one football. It's like he seemed to be almost hindered by you know, too many, too many guys to try to get the football too. Is there anything to that? Yeah, I think a little bit,

But I just think it's missed opportunities. You know, the first three weeks that Hunt came back, they were averaging seven yards of play with those two on the field together, you know, because he and just don't see it anymore. And then teams adjusted and the story as they got too cute. They're playing them together because almost like they know that, but then they're splitting them out. Like Nick Chubb is one of the three most gifted running backs

in the league. What good is he doing over they're standing next to the Ravens sideline in a five wide formation? Are doing you know good? Put him in the backfield and give him the ball. You know. David Najoku, who is not a promising guy, but he is a first round player and his player that needed to develop has had a completely lost season. He had the injuries, and

now he's been a healthy scratch. Rashard Higgins, who is not a physically gifted receiver, but it is a really one with Baker Mayfield that they really developed in Baker's first training camp has fallen totally out of the rotation. He refused to own a game he played. He caught the winning touchdown when they beat Buffalo, which is obviously a good win, but he has not even played more than five offensive snap since then. So it's just when I say disjointed lap, I'm actually not doing it justice.

It's what you said with where the ball goes. It's what you said with where the ball is supposed to go. It's who's on the field, it's who's mad on the field,

it's just everything, and it's just been maddening. And so yeah, you just it comes back to the overall team of this is a last year, because even if they would have just been a little bit better offensively and established a couple of things, then they could be playing for the playoffs now and they'd be the type of team with those two running backs that could really play with

just about anybody in January. But instead it's just been off the field disasters and more disappointments and probably another coaching search. My final question for Zach Jackson, who covers the Browns for the Athletic Who and Who earlier in this interview, said he would not be surprised if Marvin Lewis got an interview to be the head coach of the Cleveland Browl. Yes, I remember correctly, Zach that you are on the Josh McDaniels bandwagon. Is that would that

be your first guy to talk to? Well? Yeah, I just think because he definitely likes Baker. I mean, Baker's on the record saying that he thought he would be drafted by the Patriots Matthew Brown. Josh is a Northeast Ohio native, and Josh has been a head coach before, and he knows he's only getting one more chance. And I just think that checks a lot of boxes. I mean, of all this, Odell say, ergo, you know what happens with these two running backs who are a year or

two up from their contracts. You know what is Miles Garrett's future, all this uncertainty. Baker's going to be here, right, You just drafted him number one two years ago. You need him to be good or you're going to be

screwed again. So I just think that guy, as I look at the list, is the one that I would sit down with try to hammer out whatever differences, try to figure out you know where he is and what he thinks about this team and see if you could make it work, because I think he would come in with an all weather offense, with an understanding of what it takes to help the quarterback get to the next level, and you know really probably also and still some discipline.

It's a team that for much of the year led the league and penalties by a wide margin. They've cleaned that up a little bit. But then we were just laughing about the fifteen yard or Durny injury time out. We laugh because we don't want to cry here. Finally, with Baker Mayfield, I mean, I know, I know the personality, the you know, the big personnel that fills a room as an attraction to Baker Mayfield, but when he threw the training staff under the bus, you know, with Beckham

and saying a little bit too much. Obviously, Josh McDaniel is used to Tom Brady, you know, like and do you think Josh McDaniel or whoever the next head coach is is going to sit down with Baker Mayfield and say, hey, bro, how about editing, how about a little zipper action? Yeah? I think so, I think, you know, I think it's all cute, and it's Baker is a wonderful story. Right, I've always been doubted and it's all great when it's

going well. Well, this is the first time Texas Tech that he's faced any adversity and it's all not so cute, right, And so yeah, I think he needs to grow up. I think organizationally, they need to grow up. And we'll see. I mean, this is about Baker Mayfield. This is about in twenty twenty, Baker Mayfield being better in Baker Mayfield being the right guy, because that gives whoever the coaches and whoever the other guys are who we all know in this league are very dispensable and there will be

tons to turn over. Baker's got to be the guy for the Browns will eventually get to where they're playing this game, to get to January and playing in January rather than having a coaching search every January, thanks to Zach Jackson. And that's going to do it for this episode of the podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe, And if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment. Those five

star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast.