Bengals Booth Podcast: Time Has Come Today

and much more. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game, and here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since Dan Patrick's Interviews. Due to training camp, I'm usually not able to tune into Dan Patrick's radio show, but lately I've been listening to the

Best of Dan Patrick podcast on my ride home. The producers take the best segments from his three hour show and condense it to less than an hour on the podcast, and that's where his interviewing ability really shines. Dan does his homework and clearly comes in with a list of questions, but he's naturally curious, so he doesn't feel the need to stick to his list. He listens to his guests, ask great follow up questions, and his sense of humor puts those guests at ease. A few things for me

to keep in mind each week on this podcast. Now, let's get to football. The Bengals held their first padded practice on Tuesday, and when it was finished, offensive line coach Frank Pollock asked my broadcast partner Dave Lapham and Hall of Famer Anthony Munio's to address his group. He told them that lap and Anthony were part of one of the best offensive lines in franchise history and a key reason why the Banks got to the Super Bowl. He then said, that's the standard we are trying to reach.

When Anthony spoke to the current players, you could sense the respect and reverence that they have for the greatest Bengal of all time. I spoke to lap about that and the first few days of training camp. Anthony obviously in the Hall of Fame, and I mean perennial pro bowler twelve Pro Bowls in thirteen years or some such thing like that. That was crazy. You know, obviously I'm listening to him in of what he's got to say, and he's just, you know, he's just such a special guy,

special friend, special husband, special father, special grandfather. He's just he's he's solid gold and every every way you can be. And it's funny when we were talking about some of the things training camp and repetition of techniques and all that, just it just takes you right back there. It's it's it's truly amazing how when you go through something like that.

I'm sure guys in the military even more so, or guys you know in a police force or fire department over where you have to be codependent with guys you know next year from a physical standpoint and all the things that go along with it. I there's there's something

to that, there's something to that bond. And I remember Tiger Johnson telling me after I made the team as a rookie, he said, congratulations, young man, do this as long as you can, because he goes, you're gonna make relationships here that you'll never be able to duplicate in any other walk of life, and he was exactly right. Anthony began his address to the offensive line by saying, be coachable, whether in your first year or eleventh year, pay attention to the coach, and try to get better

every day. Yeah, I mean Anthony, that's that's a good example of his humbleness, you know, because he's playing at the highest level possible. But if somebody had a suggestion or a recommendation, it had merit to him. You know, he wouldn't necessarily do it all, but he'd experiment, try it, always looking to improve his game, never thinking he had arrived. Even as great as he was for as long a period of time as he was, never felt like he'd arrived.

And that's I think a key to his greatness. I think it's a key to anybody's greatness if they're at the top of their profession, whatever it may be. You know, never settled, never say you know, I've done it, I'm here because that's the end of the journey. You know, Anthony never wanted the journey to end. So we're basically a week into practice. They've had six sessions. Today was the first one in full pads by and large, the defense has been ahead of the offense. Why do you

think that's the case. Well, I think defense is a reactionary thing and the offense is more of a you know, a timing and a coordination of a multiple of things. But honestly, I just think the defense is executing their fulfilling their assignments extremely well, you know what I mean. I think they're playing with a lot of enthusiasm. When Pratt had his interception yesterday, it was like they won a playoff game. The guys reacted and everybody exploded off

the sideline. That's good to see. I mean it was, you know, still an unpadded practice, and uh they're they're taking it, you know that seriously. So um yeah, I think defensively, they I think they have a solid understanding of what Leu and Rouma wants and how he wants it done. He said that during OTAs he you know, really was aggressive with his installation, and their attention of that has been pretty good. They're doing quite a few

things and they're doing them pretty well. So I think, uh yeah, right now, the defense, I'd say they're stacking good practices together. You know, three or four in a row have been really really high level um defending between the twenties, red zone, low red zone, inside the ten yard line, first and goal stuff. I mean, they're they're plastering people, they're suffocating, they're they're doing a good job.

You know. For Joe, it's like when he's uh, when he can has time to set his feet and scope the field, there's coverage, and then it's times they're open players, but there's no time to set his so it's like pressure and coverage or complimenting each other. The defense is on a nice little role right now. For sure, Joe's moving around fine, scrambling left and right, rolling out whatever the past play calls for. Seems to have moments where

he's throwing the ball extremely well. But in the eleven and eleven sessions, he test is a tick off, and I think I think it's because, like we talked about how well the defense is playing, and you know, he's human, and I think he's pressing a little bit and he wants to do well. He wants to show his teammates. The need is not an issue. I'm back, I'm here,

I'm doing everything, and I'm doing everything well. And I think everybody watch him practice has such an expectation every throw is going to be a beautiful fifty yard touchdown pass. And so I'm not saying there's pressure. If there is, if he's feeling any pressure, it's self imposed, obviously, But I think he just he wants to do well and

he's competitor, and I think he's frustrated. And sometimes when that occurs, you know, you just start to press a little bit, and sometimes that's the worst thing you can do. If all eyes are on Burrow, they then go to Jamar Chase next. They always said checking out the first round draft pick in any season, And similarly, he's had moments where he's looked great, but he hasn't been dominant yet.

And I suppose I find myself wondering a little bit about the fact that he missed all of last year and maybe it's just going to take a little while to get back up to speed. Yeah, I think you know you can, you can make a case in a legitimate case that you know, opting out is a factor. Um, but I watched TUPO, and of course that's interior line players opposed to skill position a wide receiver, and he seems to be, you know, hold holding the Ford pretty

well inside as an interior defensive lineman. But yeah, I think I think, I think they're going to be fine. I mean, this is still very very early in training camp when when we look at team reps there's probably two sets of fifty or sixteen during the course of a practice, so, you know, a couple of practices and barely over sixty reps. But is it something you abnor, No, do you feel like you need to make adjustments and improve and get better? Hell, yes, there's no question about it.

And I think defensively they're riding. They're riding a nice little little high right now. I'm sure they're talking about it in the locker room and in everything that goes along with it. But you know, the practices they had up until today, Dan, I just I just look at that as a football conditioning, you know, and uh, it's it's good football conditioning. But now, putting pads on for the first time, I remember when every training camp I did this. This was the last day my body was

going to feel good until the Steveson was over. And hopefully that's February for this football team after the Super Bowl. But yeah, tomorrow morning, when they wake up they'll be a little sore. It's a good sore. You're back to playing football. But your body is adjusting, you know, and it'll it'll have to be adjusting now for the rest

of the season. With the full pads on, they did their first past rush drills where an individual offensive lineman is isolated one on one against an individual pass rush. Are a little bit unfair for the offensive lineman because the defensive guy has great latitude to go left and right, which you wouldn't have with a lot of traffic around. But I thought by and large, the starting offensive lineman or the guys that are expected to play a lot,

held up pretty well. I agree with you, Dan, you know, I think you know, people are like, oh jeez, he get pushed back five yards in that drill. It's almost impossible to wire you guy at the line of scrimmage and he doesn't move a muscle and moving in So that's just not gonna happen. They're gonna take an edge on you every once in a while, they're gonna try to bull rush. But you know, like you said, Interstate

seventy one and seventy five are both open. You got two lanes and they can utilize both of those lanes, and you know, then you get into pass protection with the garden tackle center garden tackle and the twists and stunts and all that. That's a different animal. That's a totally different scenario. They didn't do any of that kind of stuff today, but they'll get to that. But yeah,

I thought, I agree with you. I thought that, you know, the five guys that Frank has been working with probably the most, and I thought really at tackle they held up pretty well. Every once in a while there was a problem at the interior position where a guy get beaten quickly, pretty quickly and got off balance. You know, either you know, you know, leaned his shoulders or or you know, get his body out of total balance or whatever the case may be. So um, there's there's always

work to be done. But for a very first day of pass rush, it was yin and yang. There were some wins, there were some losses, just like you'd expect. The kicking battle has been closely watched at the end of practice. They did not attempt field goals at the end of practice on Tuesday. But unless he has a horrible preseason, I think Evan McPherson is just about a lock to be this team's kicker on opening day. Dan,

you've covered baseball for a long time. You know how the special hitters the ball sounds different coming off their bat. When the ball comes off this guy's foot, it has a different sound. You know. He just absolutely cranks the thing. I mean, the thud is just even more pronounced. It's it's unbelievable how hard he strikes the ball and how it just jumps, like the ball jumps off of a bat, and like the ball jumps off of this guy's foot, and he is he is explosive. I don't know if

it's it's overall strength, biomechanics, the leverage of it. Whatever he's got going on, it's going on very very well and very very powerful. There's no question about it. This team lost Will Jackson as a free agent. I have no idea how he's doing in camp for Washington, but they basically signed two guys for the same price, chittabey O Wouge and Mike Hilton. Boy, they both looked good

at this camp. Couldn't agree more, Dan, I mean, you go two for it's it's it's hard to beat, particularly when the two for two for one is playing like they are and and they're basically Cheeto is doing what Will Jackson did, maybe as well or maybe even better at this Now it's early, you know, first day of pads and all that, and then you get the best pressure guy at slot corner in the National Football League, and he's got he's got some juice to him, there's

no question. I mean, he's a guy that players are gravitating toward because he came from a great defensive football team and a team that has had overall success for many, many years, and that gives him some credibility. How does Riley reeflick? He looks He looks good. You know, he's battling a little bit of an ankle injury now. He twisted his ankle on the interception that Pratt had against Joe Barrow. Nothing serious, you know, He's just a little bit of a hitch and hiss. Get along. I think

he's going to be back sooner rather than later. But yeah, he's a he's a ten year of veteran that gets it, gets it in every possible way you can get it on and off the field, and he's going to be a stabilizing influence on and off the field. For this offensive line in this football team. I think all season long, Joe Mixon looks frisky like he can't wait for his

first regular season carry. That's a great, great word, great description. Yeah, it's like, uh, the first time you let the puppy out in the backyard, you know, and it's yeah, he's he's he's ready to he's ready to roll. And I would not I'm not sure. I might wrap him and suran rap and just make sure that he's there on the twelfth or opening day against the Minnesota Vikes because he's in great physical shape. He understands this running game,

and he's getting plenty of reps. He'll get every rep that he needs and uh, you know when they do thump drill in the team process, he's getting what he needs. Just don't bring him to the ground, and don't let anybody in the preseason bring him to the ground. You know, maybe maybe he may as Again I say this as a as a former player, but you want to go through and check all the boxes, Well, maybe he wants to have a box checked where he has a couple of three carries to get hit, get back up and

make sure that everything's good. Last thing hasn't have been nice at training camp to be able to get up close and personal and see the various trills from a few feet away as opposed to last year where we had to stand on the very periphery. Yeah, Dan, that's that's a great, a great point. And uh, you know, you can tell a lot by looking into a guy's eyes,

you know. And the thing you talked about at the end of practice with Anthony and I when I looked at those guys and when Anthony was talking and I looked at him and looked at them. Man, you talk about laser focus and just just you know, absorbing and living on every single word. That kind of stuff is powerful, you know. You see, you can tell if a message is being delivered. A coach can tell easier than zoom. You know, when you're you're in a meeting room with

guys and everything that goes along with it. Plus you know, just building relationships with teammates face to face. You gotta be able to do that. You gotta be able to shake that guy's hand, look in his eyes, see what he's all about. Appreciate this. Thank you, you're the best, sir. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. The foot All Outsiders Almanac went on sale a few weeks ago, and I purchased a copy the first day

it was available. I love it. There's a chapter on all thirty two teams featuring great statistical analysis, but more importantly, very entertaining writing. One of the writers is Robert Weintraub, and the name might sound familiar since he also writes about the Bengals for Cincinnati magazine. Robert, Before we get to this year's Football Outsiders Almanac, let's start with your thoughts on the team. Because you don't hide the fact that you are a Bengals fan at heart. What gives

you hope, what gives you concern? Well, yes, I am a Bengals fan, both at heart and deep in my soul. Then thank you, And you know, obviously my concerns are several fold, one being just kind of the last five years of futility and the fact that you know, there's not necessarily been a massive change except the quarterback. And that leads to my next particular concern, which is that you know we're we're all been kind of banking on the fact that Joe Burrow is fully healthy again. He

seems like he's okay. He's running around and training camp like he's you know, back to one hundred percent, But we'll never really know until he gets out there, faces a real pass rush, tries to avoid, you know, a three hundred pound man with evil intentions, trying to plant them back into the turf, or stepping up into the pocket with guys rolling around at his feet, that kind

of thing. And you know, I have every hope and I optimism that he'll be at least right back to normal, but there's always going to be in the back of his mind, and certainly in the back of all of our minds, you know, the worry that it's going to take a while and he won't quite be the special athlete, slash escape artist, slash udde man that we saw in the first Apple last season before the unfortunate injury, And you always have to be considering that in the back

of our minds it could happen again. This could happen again. So that's really the main thing. Otherwise, I'm fairly optimistic, certainly about the offense. I think the addition of Jamar. Chase is certainly going to bring an explosivelopment that's been missing the last couple of years. And you know, in terms of the offensive line, while I think you and I were both teams Sewell, you know, the offensive line is not going to be quite the drawback the anchor

maybe that it has been in recent years. It can be upgraded still, I believe, and they can improve, certainly with Frank Pollock there to shepherd the guys to shape. I have a great optimism about his capabilities. So it's, you know, kind of a guarded optimism, but it's it's also you know, a realistic realism that's tempered by the fact that I've been optimistic in this way the last

few years as well hasn't necessarily worked out. So before they before I really go and Overhaug of my optimism and my deep in my soul Bengal fandom, they have to prove it to me a little bit before I really jump right back in with both feet. Let's say fair enough. I think any Bengals fan can understand that. And more on Chase versus Sewell to come. But you wrote the Bengals chapter in last year's Almanact. Mike Tanyer wrote it this year and he didn't pull any punches.

Before we get to specifics about that chapter, how do those assignments work. Do you like to switch it up from year to year? Yeah, we uh, you know, bounce around. I usually stick with the AFC North just because of my familiarity to it. And you know, it's always good. It's generally speaking, a two out of every three year kind of deal with the Bengals, or you know, has been every other year in the last couple of years for me, just to give somebody else a chance to

you know, observe the team. I thought in this case, as you mentioned, Mike ten year this year, and it's good from the aspect of letting Bengal fans kind of know how the outside world sort of sees them, you know, how a neutral observer sees them. And as you say, he didn't pull any punches. So I did. The Cleveland Browns one of my teams this year, and in Cleveland

there's nothing but unbridled optimism there. And you know, something I've done in the past and did again this year was used the figures and the stats to throw a little cold water on those optimistic dreams. So it works

both ways. You know, I don't know that I'm overly optimistic or view the Bengals through rose colored glasses when I write about them for Football Outsiders, but perhaps somebody else coming in from a different perspective will and doesn't necessarily have the same history with the team that I have, will look at some of their moves in a different perspective and see them, in this case much more negatively, And people will probably accuse me of doing the same

for Cleveland and Pittsburgh as well, who I wrote about this year. So it's a good opportunity for everybody to switch around and sort of take other perspectives on teams that you don't get locked down and caught in the minutia every single year writing about the same team we are talking to. Robert Weintrauba writes about the NFL for Football Outsiders, He writes about the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine, and he is also the author of several books, including

The Divine Miss Marble, which comes out in paperback next week. Robert, most analytic or analytical websites, including Pro Football Focus, seem to think the Bengals got it right by choosing Jabar Chase instead of Pinney Sewell. As you mentioned earlier, we were both team Sewell prior to the draft. The Football Outsiders Almanac was very critical of that move in a nutshell why well, I think from that perspective it was and from mine too, It's less about the cape abilities

of the two players. I certainly believe that jo Mar Chase will be very good. I don't think anybody who's seen him play at LSU or you know, figure how him and Joe Burrow going to reconnect their unique chemistry and Cincinnati have any doubt that he's going to be a stud in the NFL. It's more about like a team building concept, especially for me. You know, what do you want to be as a team. The Bengals have historically had good wide receivers, high flying offenses, and you

know where's it gotten them. They've had good offensive lines in the past too, and when they've been really successful it's when they could bull the other teams and be an offensive line centric team that unlocked all the skill position guys. And you know, as we saw in years past. Over the last few years, the skill position guys tend to get injured. You know, your skill players come and go,

they wax and wayne. If you have an offensive line that is a healthy obviously, but be talented and works together as a cohesive unit and a strength of your team rather than you know, either a drawback or just kind of a middling part of your team. If it's a real strength of your team that can that can unlock your offense even if your skill guys are not so great or injured or you know, all the things

that happened during a season that you don't expect. And it's also just sort of a mindset of the team, a sort of you know, a loadstone, if you will, where you look at them and say, oh, yeah, that's a team that's going to come in here and pound us with their offensive line, and whether or not we know it's coming, we're not gonna be able to stop it. I think so in Cleveland last year, they made the sort of internal decision to become an offensive line cent

your team. They signed a guy who turned out to be an all protacle, they drafted another in the first round, and they basically said, we're going to run the ball, try and stop us, and most teams couldn't. And they were very effective as we saw, So you know, I kind of was jealous of that, I guess you say. And I've always thought that that's kind of the way it all outsiders, We've always had the precept they build from the inside, out from the trenches and then out

to the perimeter. And I think, generally speaking, football history has proven us correct. There have been exceptions, of course, and since then he has had good teams with you know, middling offensive lines, and they've got great teams with great offensive lines. I sort of wanted to get back to that. And drafting Sewell was regardless of him as a player personally. You know, he's obviously a great prospect, but there are others. But the idea was the focus with all intentions on

the offensive line. And when Mike wrote what he wrote in the chapter this year, it was less about Sewell himself than it was sort of the five year holistic look at the team and thinking, you know, while they have tried and have put some resources into the line, they could have done much more. And when you have and that' said like Joe Burrow, everything has to be evolve around protecting him. So I think that's where he

was coming from. That's certainly where I'm coming from. I think it's where you were coming from, and all of us Team Seoel types are coming from. But you know, we have Jamar Chase now, and there's certainly nothing wrong with him, and I think we can all get behind the fact that throwing the ball and having as many weapons as possible in the modern NFL is a good plan of attack as well. I just prefer to be more of a physical brand. Call me a throwback and

Neanderthal school, whatever you wanted to be. I like my football to be about burying the guy in front of me, not necessarily running around him. I kind of like Neanderthal. I think I'm going to refer the US and Neanderthal. I will say this about the Sewel versus Chase debate.

Prior to the draft, very much Team Sewel. But after the first round, when I looked at the remaining wide receivers left versus the remaining offensive lineman left, I do think that the package of Chase plus Carmen might be better for the Bengals than any package of Sewel plus the remaining wide receivers out there. I mean, that's a

fair assessment, and I certainly go that way myself. I guess what I would say is, if you have a quarterback the level of Joe Burrow, he can make any wide receiver that you were going to take in the second round look like a guy who maybe we don't know is going to be as good as say Jamar Chase or whoever whomever they could possibly have gotten. The idea is that when you have a guy that good,

you know he's going to do his magic. What you have to do to benefit him is, you know, keep him from the stuff that he has no control over. He has the control over getting the ball out to his receivers, and yes, Jamar Chase is going to help him in that respect and that respect, but the thing he has no control over is getting walloped from the blinds that or guys falling around his knees as we saw, and to me, that was the most important place to

go in terms of building the team. But you know, I don't disagree, and I certainly don't believe the Chase was a bad pick. It's more about a team kind As we said before, how do you build your team? What's your overall strategy? Where do you want your main resources to go? And I think in this case I would have gone offensive flot. We're talking to Robert Weintraub. You can follow them on Twitter at rob wine wi N.

This year's almanac is nearly five hundred pages long. In addition to some very entertaining writing about all thirty two teams, there's a ton of statistical data. Is there anything along those lines that you found especially revealing where the Bengals are concerned? There were a few things. I think I'd probably start with the defense, which we don't really talk about as much leading up to this in this offseason because everything was so much about Suell versus Chase and

how the offense should be built. You know, the defense obviously wasn't good and hasn't been good in a while, but in breaking the numbers down, we found that in the first quarter of games last year they were actually a top five defense by our efficiency numbers, which are called DVA. I won't get into the higher math, but basically it's all about a play per play kind of efficiency and how good are you from preventing the other team from getting first downs and getting moving the sticks

and keeping the ball. And then the first quarter of the Bengals were excellent. Problem was in the second through the fourth quarters they were thirty first in the league. Now, why does that happen? I mean, I think there's a combination of things. Is it the adjustments that were either made or not made by lu and Rumo and then the coaching staff? Is it a stamin of thing? I

personally come down on depth. I think we know that the Bengals were reduced to playing a lot of guys who barely knew where the bathrooms were in Paul Brown Stadium, much less you know the complexities of a stunt or a cloud coverage or anything like that. So you know, when you get down to using guys like that, it's

obviously going to be difficult. I think their approach this off season was to get not so much the top one through five guys sorted on your defense, but ten through sixteen, and so when the inevitable injuries come around, they'd be in better shape than they were last year.

They were running out guys who really had no business on an NFL field last year, and you know, with the addition of guys like you know, smaller level of guys Ricardo Allen, Eli Apple, guys like that who aren't you know, big names and aren't Hopefully you're going to

make a huge impact. But when the time comes and the you know, guys in front of them get injured, or they have to play laden games because other guys are tired, or just because of schematics, you have a guy who's who's an NFL VET, who knows what he's doing out there. So I thought the stats reveal sort of an interesting team building building concept in that sense on the defensive side, which I wasn't really aware of

during the season. Necessarily, Robert, as you mentioned, you wrote to Cleveland and Pittsburgh chapters this year in the Almanac, and the Browns chapter definitely surprised me because the data projects Cleveland to win one more game than Cincinnati and to finish behind ball More and Pittsburgh. What do those numbers say about the Browns? Well, a lot of things. First of all, you have to remember that the way we do projections for a season is sort of a range, right.

It's not saying they're definitely the Browns are definitely going to finish ten and seven or nine and eight, And boy, that's weird just still doing that for seventeenth game I

guess we'll all get used to it. But you know, basically what happens is we played the season out one million times via some supercomputer in a lab somewhere, and then, you know, using our numbers, we then assign ranges of probabilities for the overall results of these seasons, and basically, you know, we break it down by you know, zero to five wins being a terrible team, mediocre, six to eight, nine to eleven being a playoff contender, and then twelve

or more being a super Bowl contender. And yeah, the Browns the preponderance like seventy, we're in the six to eleven win range. Now, obviously eleven wins is a lot different than six, so you're talking about, you know, a decently wide variety there. But I think most people imagine that Browns are going to be a super Bowl contender and you know, twelve or more wins, and the numbers just aren't there a lot of the reasons why. First of all, last year was sort of a hollow eleven

and five season for them. They didn't even score more points than they gave up during the year. They were one of the worst teams by our numbers ever to finish eleven and five. They had unusually healthy offensive line. You know, I think they had seventy four out of eighty potential started games started by their five guys up runt, which is unusual and usually bounces back. They had a great number of turnovers, even though their defensive numbers were

not good. They were a bottom ten defense, but they were a top ten defense and forcing turnovers per drive. And that's also another stat that usually redounds the other way from year year. And you look at their team, I mean, they know, they knew in Cleveland that their defense was shotty last year, and they brought in a whole raft of new guys. They could have as many as nine new starters on their defensive side, and certainly you would imagine that'll take a while to work out.

Gets them cohesionly going on defense there. So and you know, it's not definite that they're even that much of a talent upgrade. It seems like they are, but we'll see. So, I mean, there's guarded optimism. There's reasons for them to be optimistic based them. Like we were talking earlier, you know, their basic principal last year in offense was we're going to run it down your throat and nobody could stop them. I don't know if that's going to change all that much.

Baker Mayfield certainly responded well to Kevin Stefanski's coaching and the way that they made him more comfortable in the pocket and got him outside the pocket where he's much more of a threat than he is really inside the pocket given his size and in accuracy concerns. So you know, there's certainly reason for them to believe that they'll be in the mix. Just maybe don't buy those Super Bowl

tickets just yet. Well, on the flip side, while the rest of the football world seems to think the Steelers are steeply declining, football outsiders doesn't necessarily see that make the case for Pittsburgh still being good. First of all, their defense is still really good, and we project them to be the number one defense again this season. I think they're on the seventy three games sax streak something

like that. They get death in bush back, you know they're still gonna be helping enemy quarterbacks girls, including Joe Burrow, and they have better prepare for that. I mean, you know, there's also the case, just from a Bengal fan, perspective. You know, wish casting Pittsburgh to be bad usually doesn't turn out very well for all of us. You know, we find up getting our faces planted in the turf

by their black and gold cleats. So let's just that part of it is like I don't want to come out and be thinking all the Steelers are going to stink this year because that that hardly ever turned to well for Cincinnati. But they have, you know, some elements that their team that are still going to work. Beside the defense, you know, the question is their depth. I think you'd see say it's safe to say their offensive line is as questionable, if not more so than Cincinnati's.

And you know, the running game was awful last year. They did draft Naja Harris, who hopes to be certainly an excellent addition to their backfield, but you know, running backs without an offensive line that's that's doing the job up front or are questionable picks in the first round. So I can understand the reticence around the nation to think that Pittsburgh is going to be the same old Steelers. We don't necessarily think that they're going to be the

same old Steelers either. We kind of put them in the same range as the Browns. They could win six, seven, eight games, or they could easily sneak a couple others, win nine or ten, get into the playoffs, and then you know it's right or die with Ben roethlis Burger. Is Ben Roethlisberger the same Ben Roethlisberger that's been plaguing us for these last couple of decades in Cincinnati? Or is he the guy that at the end of last year fall off a cliff. You know, that's not really

a question that the numbers can answer, per se. We forecast him to be somewhere in between. That's usually good enough at least with the Steelers, the rest of the pieces that they have, barring any huge injuries to the key guys like t. J. Watt, let's say, or Menca Fitzpatrick, you know, that should be enough to still get them in the playoff mix right there with the Browns and the Ravens and hopefully the Bengals. This should be a

good four team race. You know, we don't have the Bengals necessarily being a bad team in terms of our projections that it's just they have a much more wider range and many more possibilities of falling away than the other three teams because of their history. But you know, I think we all think, just based on the personnel, that they should have a fighting chance. It's they'll come down to the close games like it always does. The

last couple of years. The Bengals I've shown they can't win those, that's been the problem, whereas Pittsburgh has shown that they can. I think right there, that's the main difference in our projections, and you know it has to be proven on the field before our algorithms will really reflect that. You know, we don't. We don't truck We don't truck in in what we think will happen. We truck in what we've seen before. So that's really the main reason Pittsburgh ranks higher than both the Browns and

the Bengals, at least at this point. So you give the Bengals a thirty five percent chance of winning nine or more games and going to the playoffs, what has to go right for that to happen. Well, let's start up front. Obviously, you know, it goes without saying Joe has to play the entire seasons. That goes without saying. I think the other Joe Joe Mixon is in a similar boat. You know, without Joe Bernard backing him up, all of a sudden, the Bengals look a bit thin

in the backfield. And this is a guy Joe Mixon, who only played six games last season, and it's coming of a foot injury, not necessarily something you want to be dealing with as a running back. Based on your agility and your acceleration that kind of thing, we all think he'll be perfectly fine, but again we don't know that. So their health and overall health, which has been an illusive concept in Cincinnati for some time, that's obviously key number one. Nutrition in the NFL is the most important

factor really year after year. He saw just with Tampa Bay last year. I think what we also need to see is, as I mentioned before, and improving in those defensive numbers and specifically situational numbers. And I think they have to and they almost certainly have nowhere to go but up since they finished last in the league and

read its own offense last year. Those situational plays down deep, that's really where they really got injured last year, literally and figuratively when Burrow went down their red zone efficiency fell off a cliff, and you know, it's so much of football. We tend to think of it as, oh, you know, this team stinks because they only won five games or six games or whatever it is. But think about how many games in the last couple of years have come down to a play, two plays, one drive.

You know, it's really improving in those key situations. And I think that's what they we're thinking again, as I mentioned before, by improving the depth and having guys on the field and key situations that know what they're doing and aren't going to give up a key first down or not get open in the key situation on the offensive end, not miss a big block in this key situation. That's really what it comes down to for them. Unfortunately, they have improven that they can do that over the

last couple of years. And I don't know where Zach Taylor can say to himself, all right, we really have to stress late game, key game situations. We can practice as much as we want, but you kind of have to indom to prove that you can do it before you can get anywhere as a team. And you know, it's just going to have to be done on the field, and you know, for that thirty five percent number to be realized, they're going to have to show that they

can they can do it and do it consistently. Final question for Robert Weintraub, who writes about the NFL for Football Outsiders and the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine. You're working on a profile I'm my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. What inspired you to write about lap Obviously I'm in favor and when can we look forward to seeing that? Well, that'll be out relatively soon next month's issue of Cincinnati Magazine, indeed the September issue, I guess, coinciding with the beginning

of the NFL. Yeah, Dave, Well, you know, as you well know, he's a great guy and excellent at his craft and somebody who's, you know, kind of a key figure in Cincinnati and Cincinnati sports. But I just felt he was sort of own certainly his background. Everybody knows he plays for the Bengals, and he's been associated with a team for so long. It could have been shown

Oaxhall figure in stripes, if you will. But I know I didn't know very much about his background and what made him take his motivations, etc. And I figured I was as big a fan as anybody else out there, and if I didn't know much about him, there were probably a lot of people out there who felt likewise. So he just seemed like a natural subject for somebody who's been kind of hiding in playing sight all these years.

So I got a chance to hang out with him and talk to him, and he proved to be, you know, not just as nice as a guy as we all know he would be, but pretty deep and pretty feeling and had some interesting things to say about a variety of subjects. So hopefully you'll everybody out there will check it out and read about a guy who, you know, we all kind of take for granted lower these many years, but has obviously been a crucial part of the franchise

and the city of Cincinnati for so long. I can't wait. I'm sure it'll be a great read. And speaking of that, I mentioned earlier that the book he wrote last year, The Divine Miss Marble, is about to come out in paperback. For those who have never heard of Alice Marble, tell us a little bit about her. How is that possible, Dan, No one's heard of her? The truth as I had never heard of her until I kind of stumbled across

her name one day, so I don't blame anyone. She was the foremost female tennis player in the world in the years right before World War Two, the late mid to late nineteen thirties, had her career and dominance in the sport basically ended by the war, and then wound up being recruited to be an spionnage agent for the US and pretty US military during the war. And from

there many many interesting and questionable things proceeded. To have to beat the book to really get into why, but it's a place to say I became a detective as part of this story. I owned out reams and reams of information about a fascinating woman who went and had influence far beyond the tennis court in her life and really overcame immense obstacles to achieve what she did. So she's really a fascinating figure and I was really lucky to be able to write about her. So hopefully people

will take the opportunity to read about her. I know it's it's worthwhile. Robert, thanks so much for the time. I always appreciate it. Anytime, dam thank you appreciate it. That's going to do it. For this 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 share a comment that helps more Bengals fans

find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast