Hi, get everybody.
I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast. The this is what you need, I'll give you what you need. Addition, as I discussed what the Bengals need to do to reclaim the AFC North and ultimately return to the Super Bowl with Robert Weintraub, who covers the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine and one of the best NFL
analytics websites ftnfantasy dot com. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by Pai Core, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider.
Of the Bengals.
Now here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since the Best Photos of twenty twenty three. At the top ofthe Bengals dot com home page, one of the categories you can click is Photos, which connects you to a wide variety of photo galleries. If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to check out
the one titled best of twenty twenty three season. Team photographer Ryan Meyer has selected the top photos he took during the past season, and his work is amazing. Some of my favorites include Joe Burrow on one knee firing an imaginary arrow into the sky, the upper torso of Trey Hendrickson emerging from smoke to take the field before a game, and Cam Taylor Britt dancing in the locker room after a Bengals victory. There are more than two
hundred photos in all, and Ryan's work is spectacular. Be sure to check out the best foot Photos of twenty twenty three. Now time to get to this week's guest. Robert Weintraub covers the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine and wrote the Bengals season preview chapter for this year's edition of the FTN Football Almanac formerly known as The Football Outsiders Almanac. Robert writes about the team honestly and critically, but it's worth pointing out that he is a diehard Bengals fan.
Robert you wrote about the roller coaster ride that was this past season on a weekly basis for Cincinnati Magazine. This is a Bengals podcast. So let's start with the positives. What were they in your view this year?
There were any I'm trying to remember off the top of my head if there were any. Yeah, you know, obviously, it started on such a funk with Joe's injury in training camp and then sort of seemed to have all these hairpin turns of optimism and pepsimism sometimes.
You know, in this quarter.
It was such a bizarre season, and so much of it wrapped around Joe's overall health and then of course when he went out. I thought that was one of the main positives, the development of Jake Browning and the way the team rallied around him in a lot of ways, the way they showed that they're not just a quarterback, in an all pro quarterback level quarterback who could you know, carry the team on his back. They had quite a bit to offer there, just beyond what Joe could offer.
So I think that was one of the main developments.
But overall, I think you have to say it was mostly a negative season just because of the expectations and because of what we see going on, not just in the Greater AFC, but in the AFC North. Anytime the rest of the division makes the playoffs and you're the one team excluded, even with a winning record, that that feels bad. And you know, it felt good to see the Browns lose their game and the Steelers lose their game. In some ways, that was the old positives of the season.
But I think overall we just assume flush twenty twenty three down the memory hole and begin a fresh in twenty twenty four with a healthy Joe Burro playing seventeen games plus a few more hopefully in the postseason, as we've gotten used to. It's hard to believe, but we've gotten so used to playoff, deep, playoff runs in Cincinnati that when they don't happen for whatever reason, you really left with a sour taste in your mouth. And you know,
in some ways that's a positive too. It's just the bar has been raised on what a successful season is in Cincinnati, and that can be nothing but good. The expectations are higher, and after so many years of really low expectations in Cincinnati, the idea that a season where you just missed the playoffs despite a winning record is viewed as a really kind of a terrible disappointment overall, kind of a good thing if you can look at it from the glass half full method of looking at things.
I think that's probably how most Bengals fans would look at it. Maybe the one other thing I would throw in is that they managed to have a winning record despite burrows injuries against statistically the most difficult schedule ever of all time.
If you can believe it.
Yes, the numbers that we'd crunch at what used to be Football Outsiders and is now Ftnfantasy dot Com, So go to that web address for all your advanced statistical needs. I'll spare you the way.
It went down in terms of the name changed, but.
Indeed it was the most difficult schedule ever played in since DVOA, which is the efficiency stat that we use, has been tabulated going back to the early eighties, So that should tell you. I mean, obviously, we mentioned just a minute ago that three teams in the division made the playoffs, and Baltimore in particular had a historic season. Playing them twice obviously was something that tipped the scales and the difficult schedule apartment for sure.
And you know, you look back at those games.
Burrow was semi healthy in one and they lost by three points and were ahead when he went out for the season, and the other. It's not like you can come away with those games and think that the Ravens were some kind of.
Way better than the Bengals.
Obviously, if Burrow had played and been healthy in both those games, you like their chances. So despite playing that extremely difficult schedule all the way through, and of course that included the forty nine Ers who they defeated handily, and the Steelers and the Browns who had good seasons
dboa wise, four games there. Yeah, Bengals were obviously, you know, all those games, and that just tells you, like you said, they came away with a nine to eight record, they lost their quarterback, they showed development in certain other areas, and they had.
To play such a difficult schedule.
The only issue is, of course, those three teams in the division aren't going anywhere. We'll see how that plays out next year. But nevertheless, you have to like their chances going forward, assuming that Burrow was healthy.
Robert.
It's very interesting because in the FTN Football Almanac prior to the season you wrote about the Bengals building a team that could beat Kansas City, specifically could beat Kansas City to get to the Super Bowl. Did that make it harder or does that make it harder to beat Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Yeah, I think there is a bit of a taking your eye off the ball that was right in front of you, so to speak, in sinsais.
It's hard to blame them when you go.
To the championship game twice in a row against the same team and you see that their team is obviously built in a similar way with the superstar quarterback, trying to get a young fleet defense that doesn't cost a lot of money and fill in around that. You know, from there, it made sense for them to maybe not explicitly, but you know, implicitly try and do the same thing and kind of attack what they saw against Kansas City. They figured that was going to be the team they'd
run up against. There was obviously healthy respect, I think for the other three divisional teams, but in a way, they wound up at least this season, kind of building a team that was a little light in the loafers, shall we say, didn't have enough rear end perhaps for the division that they're in, and I think if they had to do it over again, they might have adjusted the way they built certain aspects of the defense slightly.
I mean, there's only so much you can do, and you have guys on the roster that you were expecting to fill those roles that maybe didn't step up enough or got hurt. You know, things happened in the NFL.
But I think there'll probably be a bit of a readjustment this season or this offseason in terms of let's go back to doing what you know Marvin Lewis always did first and foremost, shall we say, which was build your team to win your division first, compete against those six games, and then you know, whatever happens after that will take that as it comes. But I do think they'll try and look, you know, at the Ravens and the Browns a particular, and say they ran over us this year.
How do we avoid that? In twenty twenty.
Four, Visiting with Robert Weintrauve writes about the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter or x if you have embraced the name change at Rob Wine w E I n let's talk about the five game stretch where Joe Burrow is healthy and the Bengals went four and one. We're pretty dominant, and their wins over San Francisco and Buffalo. I tend to think that those were the real Bengals, But in those games where their weakness is just temporarily hidden.
Yeah, I mean to a point, you know, I mean, I think that's the case. Anytime you have a team operating at all cylinders so to speak, or tina looks really good because of what you expect. In this case, their offense and Joe Burrow. Yeah, that's what they do. I mean, that's what a great quarterback does. He masquerades other elements of your team that might not be as strong because the other team is so busy trying to deal with what they The Bengals did so well. I mean,
it sounds like that's a negative. Yeah, masquerades some of their some of their flaws. But that's kind of the point. I mean, you know, especially after Joe gets this big money, there's always going to be an element of the team that isn't one hundred percent or where you want it to be. It's not a game changing at every single unit on the field. That's just not possible. So you know,
you build to your strengths. In this case, Joe Burrow, and as you saw, let's say, in the forty nine ers game, you know, they dominated the game through their passing attack, and because they were so effective at it, that opened.
Up other areas.
It made their areas of quote unquote weakness, you know, kind of less so because the forty nine ers were chasing the game in a lot of ways, they had a much better tackling game and a much better sort of defensive defense against the pass in that game than they ordinarily would, especially you know, in the fourth quarter when they needed it. You know, the forig nine ers
may play those games. They did in that game, they threw for a lot of yards, brought perty played very well, but as you say, you didn't really think about that aspect of the game because he made a couple of mistakes, and he did so because he was playing in a way he wasn't accustomed to, playing from behind, chasing the game, chasing Joe Burrow. That's the way the Bengals want to play. So yeah, the answer to the question is yes, but
that's by design. Unfortunately, of course, when your quarterback then gets hurt or you know, as we saw before, those truly healthy games plays in unlimited capacity. Obviously, those fulls come to the ford not so easy to disguise, and then you have problems and you have to adjust your game plan and kind of seek out victories as best you can. Jake Browning in a couple of those games masked flaws in the same way that Burrow did, you know, especially against the Vikings.
So you know, it's kind of the way.
Of the NFL roster building, Tawe roster building. I guess he'd say, that's kind of what you have to do. Play to your strength, maximize it and working around the portions of your team that are not so good and hope that the other team is you know, behind and can't take advantage of what you don't do as well.
Let's talk defense. What do the analytics like DVOA tell us about the Bengals defensive woes and what needs to be fixed.
Yeah, the analytics meet the eye test. I think you'd say they played pretty poorly, especially against the run, but also in a lot of areas against the past. One thing that was curious was that they were actually top ten against number one wide receivers in the past and played well against should say they were thirteenth against number one and top ten against number three receivers, thirty second in the league against number two wide receivers, which shows
you that the depth was not there. Chido Ouzias, you know, come back from injury was obviously an issue. Injuries to cam Britt, you know, that obviously played a huge role in that because the depth with effected after that and just you know, the communications issues of having such a young secondary played itself out in a way that other teams took advantage of the matchups where they found it. They were also poor against defending tight ends, extremely poor.
So tight ends did a number as it's happened in the past against Cincinnati, and.
Their run defense was poor.
They'd actually had a fairly strong pass rush, especially in what we call adjusted sack rate. They actually were top ten better than Pittsburgh, better than Cleveland. Teams that are, you know, supposed to have this all dominant pass rush. I think overall, though, the pressure rates kind of brought them back toward those teams, which is why you saw, you know, when Trey Hendrickson basically wasn't storming the quarterback and getting to him. They were lacking in that area.
They still require, you know, more consistent pass rush or at least pressure not necessarily sacks, but pressure from other elements of that front four in the passing game and.
Then the running game.
Even with DJ Reader at full out out there was it was a disaster in a lot of ways. It was bad upfront, and they're the Evan statistics which we separate into the line play versus open field and second level yards.
Bad across the board.
The tackling was poor after being so good really in the back half of twenty one and all of twenty twenty two, it took a step backward. Hard to really put, you know, a pinpoint on why that happened exactly other than young players, lack of practice time, and just you know, sort of the way the game's unfolded, and something.
To do with their opposition.
So I think they'll be a real sort of come to Jesus moment in the offseason. Luen Rumo is going to get back to basics, get these guys tackling again, and you know, just that aspect that improved so much from Cincinnati from twenty twenty and twenty twenty one into the playoff run, and then in twenty twenty two.
You know, they didn't do.
A lot different in those years schematically at all. What they did do was tackle more efficiently and much more effectively. If they can get back to that level of tackling with a little bit more beef inside, and we'll see what happens with DJ Reader and or his replacement, you know that could that'll be a real area they'll shine a spotlight on, I think, defensively and look to get since the night back to where they were at least approach where they were in twenty to twenty two.
I thought Jordan Battle had a very solid rookie year. The Bengals certainly are not about to give up on Dax's hill. Can we assume that that will be a much better safety duo with a year of experience in NFL coaching under their belt.
Yeah, I don't think there's any way it can't be, you know, I mean, barring injury. You see it all over the league. Young players go up and down. That's just the nature of it. The defense they were asked to play was very complicated. Part of the reason they drafted Jordan Battle, which was something of a surprise given some of their other needs at the time in the draft last year, was that they thought that he.
Could handle it.
He's obviously still that alabamda Alabama under the master Nick Saban, and he showed that he could. It wasn't that he's such a you know, more gifted football player than Nick Scott or other guys out there, but you know, he can comprehend what's needed on a play to play level, and he understands where he needs to be, where he needs to be. Visa VIA's teammates is you know, not
necessarily under his control. And that's the kind of thing that really has to improve, and I think it only can improve with more reps under their belt and communication passing off receivers, knowing where to be and telling the other guys in the secondary in the back seven who to guard and where to be on the field during any given play.
You know, these are the kind things that are just experience.
It's just playing and playing and playing. And he kind of had to be thrown into the fire and take your lumps. That's just kind of how it works in the NFL. Very few guys come in and are instant stars that have no you know, no improvement required, no seasoning required.
They're just that great.
Battle was a good, you know, good story and played very well for a third rounder.
But you know he made mistakes too.
So it's just a question of getting those guys more time together. There's no point in pulling the plug on them, either one of him or Hill or even Nick Scott. Really, you could upgrade as your third safety if you want, but you know that that might be not the best place to put your dollars in free agency. If you're looking to upgrade the rest of the team, I think they'll just need to, you know, to get into the film room, and no reach guy is meant to be.
And I think that's where we saw, you know, the lack of Jesse Bates, of course, but Von Bell in particular, just as a leader and somebody who knew exactly where to go and more important, where to tell the other guys where to go, even at after the snap or right at the snap. You saw it a lot with Bell pointing and telling guys, you're coming.
Here, here's what they're trying to do.
Don't let them do it, you know, with hand signals and barking at his teammates. They missed Vaughan quite a bit, and I think, you know, there's no reason to think that Battle can't develop into a Von Bell like player now that he's had a year under his belt and can take on that same role. I think that's why they drafted him, and I think he had a very promising step in that direction as a rookie.
So the Bengals' biggest defensive need is what.
Well, I think the obvious is when you say biggest, because literally and figuratively, it's that run stepper inside. Assuming DJ Reader is not available. Not a Bengal who knows what the status will be given.
Is unfortunate injury.
He really hates to see an injury and that he's had already once in his career and so difficult to come back from, especially as he pushes thirty.
And you know, it's just that kind of leg.
Injury is difficult for anybody, much less somebody who weighs three hundred plus pounds. So we shall see what we shall see in DJ's case, but I think they'll definitely be looking at somebody else to help, you know, buck up the interior run defense first and foremost, even with
Reader there, it suffered guy. They really need a three tech and a sort of nose tackle slash zero tech guy to be able to handle two blockers at once, penetrate upfield, get some pressure on the quarterback, make plays in the backfield.
The Bengals were.
Terrible in both stuffed what we call it FtM fancy stuffed, which is basically stopping short yardage and also making the plays for negative yards against the run. They were terrible in both of that, and that a lot of times comes down to not having penetrators up front. I think they'll definitely look to improve on that, either in the draft or free agency or both. Perhaps, you know, it comes down to how you're gonna approach that. You want
to get somebody in free agencies. Don't put yourself in a position where you have to get a guy like that in the draft, especially picking a eighteenth.
It's a little dodgy.
Who's going to be left You never know for sure, and you never want to put yourself in a position where you have to go for a certain position in the draft obviously, so I think they'll look to a guy like at Grover Stewart, maybe of Indianapolis Tiger Tart who had some issues in Tennessee before signing out with
the Texans late in the year. Some AFC South guys there or some of the other possibilities throughout the league, but guys who they know can occupy space and up those interior run numbers that they were still porous at last season.
Still to come with Robert what the Bengals should do with t. Higgins and if they need to upgrade the tight end position. But first, a quick reminder that the Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by Paid Corps, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business, and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is
the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. Our guest is Robert Weintraub, who writes about the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine and other publications. Let's turn to offense. Joe Mixon had more than fourteen hundred combined rushing and receiving yards. He scored twelve touchdowns. He never fumbles. I can tell you from being in the locker room that he is a leader and that is a significant factor. Should he be the Bengals number one running back in twenty twenty four, Well.
Let me put it this way. I definitely think he should be on the Bengals, Yes, and he should be their starter.
At least.
You can make a strong argument that he could give up some of his carries and let it be much more of a democratic backfield than it was this year. Not that Joe was the ones sain't give me it off to me, I know it's a coach's decision, but the idea that they're looking to upgrade to Derrick Henry or Sequon Barkley, I hear all kinds of names out there, is to me ridiculous. I mean mixing, especially for the
money they paid him. Had an outstanding year if you match his numbers up our advanced numbers up against say Derek Henry, mixing his way on top. And a lot of that is because he had an excellent year catching passes coming out of the backfield, which is something that's really always been a strong part of his game and
has been somewhat underutilized in Cincinnati. Part of The reason is, obviously they have such a plethora of pass catchers that may change in the near future, and holding on to a guy like Mixon who's an excellent receiver, still makes all the sense in the world. So I think you'll see I for one, think Joe should definitely stay, and I definitely think that Chase Brown should get more love.
Obviously, he had his rookie, he.
Was injured, There's a lot of reasons why he didn't kind of break through until near the end of the season, but you could definitely see in our charts where again the open field and second level yards, which for a lot of the season were very low, in the bottom third of the league for Cincinnati, in large part because mixing for all his good traits is not really a breakaway threat.
Once Brown was.
Introduced and got into the game, got into the offense, those numbers went way up, and they wound up finishing in the in the mid teens, in the middle of.
The pack there. So clearly he had an effect.
If they can stay healthy and be a one two punch from the beginning of the year and even get a third back in there, I think if this is what some of the more successful running teams in the league. Show is that you can never have too many running backs. And if your line is strong enough and you know it blocks in the scheme, that is, you know, very favorable. As I guess you would say, to multiple backs and multiple kinds of backs, you know, get.
Somebody else in there.
You want to upgrade on a Travon Williams, I can. I can see that happening, and I think they will draft a running back for sure at some point.
But to me, the the mix and.
Brown combination was plenty good enough to go back to in twenty twenty four for sure.
What should they do with T Higgins? What will they do with T? Higgins?
Uh?
Well, I think in near term the answers are one and the same. He will be franchised, and they should franchise him. They have a ear control at a manageable cost. You don't give that up. You want to sign them theoretically to a long term deal and keep him happy, but you know, maybe that's.
Not in the best interest of the team.
You never really know for sure. Obviously he had some injuries this year. We go back to the AJ Green situation. Maybe toward the tail end of his career, when it was like, well, we should reward him, give him a long term contract when you know Joe Burrow's rookie year, and they said, no, let's just franchise and keep him
for the one year. See how it plays out. Turned out he wasn't really you know, worthy of the long term deal after that, and you know, it's not exactly the same T. He's a lot younger, obviously, but things happen. Maybe T gets, you know, another season where his injury hit and you decide that we can't spend that kind of money on a second receiver with Jamar Chase obviously coming up for a rich extension and you want to
put the money somewhere else. It's difficult to say. It's not that Tea doesn't deserve it, but I think in this case, another year Tea and A managed fixed costs that you know what's going to have.
You know, you have him in the.
Fold, and that way you don't have to worry about finding another number two receiver of his quality, which is very hard to find despite the fact there's so many receivers coming into the league every year who who were good or you know how the potential for being outstanding. I think in this case, the right thing to do
and what the Bengals do are the same. They will franchise See and keep them around for twenty twenty four for sure, and then you know, kind of worry about the future, push it down the road a little bit, which is fine for the time being.
You retweeted something last week that caught my eye. The last eight playoff teams had something in common stellar tight end play. Do the Bengal need Stellar tight end play?
Yeah?
Is that retweeted or re exed? What is the totology?
Sure?
Redisseminated, Yes, exactly.
I put it out there after hearing it from someone else.
I think let's put it that way.
Yeah, I don't think there's any question they need an upgrade. Stellar is in the ivy beholder. I suppose you know they It was just fine in twenty twenty two with Hayden Hurst. I don't know if i'd call him stellar, but it was good enough for what they had and
what they needed. You can make the argument with the offense kind of reframing itself, perhaps away from concentrating on such a three wide out attack with the likely departure of Tyler Boyd, that you want to get a tight end who is better and you know, puts more stress on the defense in ways that we haven't seen in Cincinnati in sometime.
You know, brock Bauers is not going to last till number eighteen.
Sorry for all those people fantasizing about that, but seems highly unlikely. And the Bengals aren't going to trade up for him either. I would doubt so in that sense. I think they will go after somebody in free agency, perhaps like adult and Schultz, who was a target last year and decided to go to Houston. He's still a free agent. You know, they got him on a one year deal. If he wants to stay with the Texans. There's plenty of other guys out there. Hunter Henry in
New England leaps to mind. No a fan perhaps who's been somewhat you know, underwhelming, but has an extreme amount of talent. You know, I think that there's no question that they what they want to do is have a better pass catching threat. Now, what they did have last year was, you know, a way to work both Tanner, Hudson Andrew Sample into the attack and they found ways to do it.
I think that spoke highly for Brian Callahan.
Who congratulations to him now the head coach of the Tennessee Titans, and much deserved.
And I think that caught the eye of a lot.
Of people around the league, is you know, they managed to take a couple of guys who you know didn't have much profile and much experience in doing things positively for an off let's say, in Hudson and Sample, and made them both work in ways that helped the offense down the stretch. With a backup quarterback in there, and Dan Pitcher obviously taking over for Brian is the natural
choice and nothing's going to change in that respect. So you know, I don't think they need to necessarily rework how they run their offense entirely if they get in somebody who threatens the defense down the seam a little bit more than the guys they have last year, but they desperate that sort of downfield element of attack more
so than what they had last year. And with a quarterback like Joe Burrow, who's so accurate and can really make a player like that, you know, better than he actually is, for lack of a better phrase, you know, you find somebody like a Hunter Henry or Dalton Shaltz, and then you really got something there where offenses will be hard pressed to stop all their threats when they're all on the field.
Let's assume another team throws a bunch of money at Jonah Williams to be the starting left or right backle on that other team. Should the Bengals next right tackle be a high draft pick or an affordable free agent?
Well, that's a great question in terms of you know who's available and for what costs, and we don't know that yet.
For sure.
I go back to the point I made earlier where you don't want to go into the draft saying oh, we definitely want to draft a tackle at number eighteen and we're just going to take the.
Best one left.
Seldom winds up working out well for your Team's how you wind up with Billy Price.
No offense against Billy Price. But that's what happened.
They desperately need a center, and they drafted one who is not worthy of that draft status.
And that could happen.
I mean in eighteen you're in sort of a no man's land there if they were, you know, picking eighth or something, if Jake Browning couldn't play and they wound up at a top ten pick, and you can sort of guarantee yourself one of those elite tackles coming out this year in the draft. That would be a different conversation. But because that's not the case, you don't know if tale Waga, who's you know? You always want the Polynesian guys on your team, don't get me wrong, But you
don't know if he's going to be there. You don't know what level of player is going to be there. I think they'll probably, assuming they do lose Jonah, which we don't know for sure yet, either, they'll look to replace him in free agency, at least to a point where you have somebody you know can come in and play. I think, you know, they like Cody Ford, but I think they want to go a little bit better than that.
Maybe Mike on Whenue of the Patriots is a little too good or will wind up being a little too pricey for them.
That remains to be seen.
Somebody in between, like a Germaine Olano.
I can't even say his name, thank you.
Yeah, I breezed through the Polynesian name, but I had trouble with Jermaine and sorry about that, buddy. But somebody like that who not only is you know quality enough to play, but it isn't going to break the bank, but also has position versatility and can play on both sides of the line. I think somebody like that makes sense.
And then obviously if there's somebody like in the draft, either in the first round or later, you bring somebody in there and groom him to become the starter sooner or later at right tackle, assuming again that Jonah does depart.
One more topic about the Bengals and then one question about you. The Bengals topic is this. We mentioned Brian Callahan moving on to Tennessee and Dan Pitcher getting promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. There's a chance for a restart of sorts. Is there anything obvious the Bengals should be thinking about with this change?
Well, I think what it's less about like just you know, running the ball more or you know, kind of dedicating themselves to the run more. And I think you know that that all that kind of thing that the fans like to talk about in terms of run pass ratio often comes down to the game script, the opponent, who you know, what's going on at that particular, who's healthy, who's not. It's very easy to sit here and say, oh, yeah, Dan Pitcher is going to come in and try.
And run the ball more. But who really knows what's going to happen.
I think what they but I do think there's a way to make the team. And I don't want to say this to make it sound like Joe Burrow is not worthy of doing this, because he certainly can.
But you want to make it.
So that every game doesn't rely so much on Joe Burrow's excellence. And you know when twenty twenty two last year they were so good down the stretch, especially, they didn't rely on Burrow to do it all all the time.
And I think, you know, it.
Becomes a crutch with teams with great players at quarterback that it's you know, we got Joe, let's let.
Him figure it out.
And like you were saying before about masking what you don't do well, I think what you want to do is, especially on offense, gave yourself in a situation where you do so many things well that the teams that the opposing defense really has no option that works for them, and you always wind up in a city situation where you're either you know, in a lead in the second half or you know right there, you're never playing from behind, You're never relying so much on Burrow and his talents
to bail you out of things you want to get in a situation all the time where you know we can do it if we need to. Joe's obviously good enough. But let's let some of the other guys, Let's en some of the other areas of attack carry the weight here. Let's let more of a short passing game. Let's let
the running game dictate how defenses play us. And I think going under center more, which they started to do before and after, you know, before and around Burrow's injury, and certainly when you saw Jake Browning come in certain elements of the attack under center rather than the preferred shotgun method that Burrow obviously is great at and prefers. But I think they'll work in a lot more of the under center, which allows them to kind of run,
run or pass out of similar formations. Puts a lot more stress on the defense and gives them a lot more things to guess at, and it just makes so much of your offense work better and uh and look better. And I think that's what you'll probably see, at least,
you know, depending on Dan Pitcher's thoughts about that. I don't really know for sure, but I think that's what the Bengals are trending toward before Burrow got hurt, and you know, kind of used Jake Browning's games as proof of concept that it really can work with a guy who's less limited as a passer than Burrow, but you know, could move unlike Joe in some of those games, and could you know, put defenses under different kinds of stresses than Burrow can. I think that's what they want to
work toward going forward. And obviously, if they need to rely on Joe just to bail us out of a game late with his magic right arm, they always have that in the back in their back pocket.
But you don't want to rely on that so much.
He continues to ooze awesomeness out of every pore. Certainly, you have famously said, all right, we've got a few minutes left, and I want to talk about your labor of love, the NYC one thousand. Now, I grew up in New York State, in Lakewood, New York. And when some people hear that, they assume that I grew up close to New York City, that's not the case. Lakewood is closer to Cincinnati than it is to Manhattan. My family had three acres and two barns, so I grew
up in a very rural environment. And yet I love the NYC one thousand because it's great sports writing. Explain for people that have no idea what I'm talking about your project, the NYC one.
Thousand, A labor of love might undersell it. It's a herculean labor of love. Perhaps a labor of insanity, we shall see. But yes, I have a sub stack, and it's dedicated to counting down the top one thousand games, matches, races, of all sporting events of every stripe in the history of New York City. Now the conceit has had to have actually happened in New York City or the greater New York City area. So you know, Super Bowl three involving the Jets playing the Colts in Miami, a famous game,
but that doesn't count. It has to happen in New York, where I am from. I grew I was born in the city and grew up just outside it, so that's that's my hometown. You and I of course share the Syracuse connection, so we have that Central New York, but Syracuse doesn't count either. It has to be in New York City. And yeah, I just got into it because I just, I don't know, I've always been enamored of obviously sports and sports history.
A big fan of the New York.
Teams, Bengals being the wille exception, and you know, I just I'd like to start reading about things that happened not just before I was born, but way before I was born. And a lot of what we think of is just pure sports history actually conflates with actual history, for lack of a better word, and certainly municipal history.
And if you're interested at all in what New York has gone through as a city in developing, you know, low these many years from you from an almost pastoral background to where they were in the late eighteen hundreds post Civil War, when sports began in New York. All the way through, it's you know, rise and rise to
the number one city in the world. Sports has really mirrored that and you see that in the in the in the action that's taken place there, and so many not just great games with great athletes, great figures of all stripes who have come through and have performed in these you know, magical palaces that they that they have in New York Yankee Stadium, in Madison Square Garden and
various others. So I took it upon myself. I started with I thought I would just do one hundred perhaps, and then it realized, you know.
If you're going to do this, do it right.
And it seemed me that a thousand was exactly the round number I needed. So I have a six point scoring method, you know, kind of determining the importance of the game, the drama involved, the historical figures involved, whether or not it you know, registered outside of New York, these kind of things, and then I write a short
you know, essay about each game. Does don't go into super detail necessarily, but it gives me a chance not only to go back in time with the reader and and you know, kind of talk about some of the interesting tidbits, but also you know, bring forth some of the great writers in particular who covered these games in the golden era of newspapers and magazines, you know, as we've seen with the recent death of Sports Illustrated and
the written media, print media in general, physical print media anyway, it's really a lost art and something that I particularly am, having been a long time obviously fan of Sports Illustrated in particular, feel terrible about. So the more I can, you know, kind of do my part to remind people of what great stuff that not just Sports Illustrated, but all the New York newspaper writers brought to the enjoyment
of the events by their coverage. That's a big part of it too, So I try and get that in there well and bring to light some long forgotten and maybe some you know, not so recently forgotten games and events that took place in New York. It's just a lot of fun and hopefully a lot of fun for people who read it.
It is a lot of fun to read. I'm having a great time, and we're only in the eight hundreds, so there's a long way to go and a lot left to enjoy. We're about to run out of time on this zoom call, so I will make sure that folks know how they can get the NYC one thousand. Robert. I always appreciate your time, Thanks for the insight, and look forward to talking Bangles again sometime soon.
Anytime for you.
Dan.
You know that, buddy, Thanks so much.
If you would like to check out the NYC one thousand and you really should do a search for NYC one thousand substack. That will take you to a page where you can sign up for a free subscription and have the latest stories sent directly to your inbox. Or if you say no thanks to a subscription, you'll be taken to the homepage where you can find all of the stories that Robert has written so far. They really
are quite remarkable. And if you're interested in finding analytical content about the Bengals and the NFL, the data that used to be found at Football Outsiders can now be
found at Ftnfantasy dot com. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, brought to you by Paycore, Proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider, by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider.
Of the Bengals.
If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment. That helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast