Are the Bengals' Owners Mismanaging the Team's Super Bowl Window?

Music. And we are back for another episode of the Rule the Jungle podcast.

I am your host, Anthony Anderson, and alongside me are both my co-hosts, one Mr. Private Bowles, and I think the otherwise infamously known as God Emperor, Will Appleton. What's going on, fellas?

I need to come up with a song for that one now. Well I don't think I don't think you know I don't think just you know, Unless you want me to just keep announcing you as the learning tree But anyway you're still the learning tree But I think we need some nicknames too Anthony I don't know listeners what do you think I asked you guys that did you want a nickname I don't need one, I don't need no nickname but anyway, Y'all want to take them Hey I'm good with that I don't know that I necessarily

need one So Anthony, from now on From this moment forward, Frank, I won't do it now I'll let you in on a quote That I'm going to say every time you say God Emperor Doom, Okay Right Doom possesses total mastery Of the diabolical There you go, that sums it up Okay.

Doom's total mastery of the diabolical So With that being said If you're reading the topic of tonight's podcast.

This has been a rather up and down offseason for the Cincinnati Bengals thus far obviously the up is being able is getting the news that we re-signed one T. Higgins and Jamar Chase but we've had a lot of I think what a lot of people would perceive is down as downs which would in case make people think are we is ownership really managing the team and committed to winning because i think a lot of people are saying so which the title of tonight's show is.

Are the Brown and Blackburn family mismanaging the Bengals organization? Because one phrase that has been pushed around a lot, and I think we all have heard it, where everybody's saying they want the Bengals to push all their chips in to get a Super Bowl. But here's the thing. What does that look like? So I want to start it off getting both you guys' takes.

Because I think some of what they're wanting to do, it seems like everybody's wanting us to mimic almost to a T what the Philadelphia Eagles did, which, don't get me wrong, the NFL is a copycat league, but I think the Eagles method does it.

It's one of those things, and feel free to tell me if you agree or disagree with this, is one of those things where I'm not sure that replicating that is going to work for everybody because you have to at least from what I see is that you would have to, everybody would have to be an ex, basically it would require a lot so.

There's two sides to this one is if it's not broke don't fix it obviously you know we as Bengals fans have been through a lot of a lot of bad years right nothing i don't think anything's as bad as the 90s i'll say that much yeah me and will were ones that got to live the 90s so it's like a part of me is and i'm not excusing it and i didn't i apologize for interjecting tyler but i just want to say like part of it is for those of us and i throw this out to the listeners as well

that had the privilege they had the, that grew up in the 90s and saw the teams that were being put on the field. We look at the teams that we got now, we're rather fortunate. But like two years of 9-8, am I happy with that? No, but I'm also not going to turn around and just basically say that throw out the Bengals should sell the team, this, that, and the other. But that's just the thing. But do continue, Tyler. So, yeah, so nothing I don't think will ever be as bad for us anyway.

As the 90s or you know until Joe Burrow retires or leaves the team I don't know right I don't think there would be anything as bad as what we experienced in the 90s that being said though as as to your question about what the Eagles have been doing so no I don't think we need to copy exactly like the exact blueprint that they've done and how they structure contracts you know how Howie Roseman you know conducts business and whatnot but that being said I do

feel like maybe a change is needed now what that change is i don't exactly know 100 sure we have in the past you know four or five years we we've renamed the stadium right we we named you know signed with paycor right you know we we named it from went from paul brown stadium to paycor in order to get more money you know obviously because you know joe burrow that's the joe burrow effect right Like.

He's bringing some change to this team that I don't think we would have seen if we didn't have him, to be honest. And I don't know if you guys would agree to that, but I know he's brought some sort of change to this team and to the city, right? And look at how much we've improved since, you know, in the last decade, two decades or whatever, since he's been with us, right?

You know, he's brought a lot of good, you know, things to this team. Kind of changed a little bit how they conduct business. Not all the way, but a little bit, you know. And especially, you know, we've made the playoffs, you know, of the last six years. We've made it twice now, right? Since Doc Taylor's been on definitely two AFC Championship games in a row, one Super Bowl appearance. And, you know, we haven't done that since the 80s. And we broke a playoff first,

right, 30-some years. That was with Burrow. And so, like, I guess what I'm trying to say is, no, we don't need to copy the Eagles. But some sort of change is needed. And we've made plenty of changes so far, but maybe a couple more, the way we either conduct business or structure contracts or something else, you know, that's maybe I'm not thinking of right now to maybe get us over the hump and, you know, maybe fans may not question that again. That's just what I think. Will, where are you at?

Oh, it's my turn now. Great. Yes, it's your turn. Boy, boy. Because I don't need to copy that fucking guy. Okay? I'm better than him. I'm better than him. 100. And his former psychic. I'm way better than him.

Let's get down to it. All those, anyone that says this, we need to copy the Eagles. I am struggling to figure out why I am friends with this. I'm struggling to figure out why I am a friend of yours to say something like that. Okay, first off, let's call a spade a spade. Okay. Did, is what the Eagles, so wait, so are they saying copying from 2017 Eagles to now? Or do they mean like 2021 to now? Because if you say 2021 to now, I guess it kind of worked because they won.

I think they're looking at the 2017. I think they're looking at it as a whole because if you, I'm not going to do that I get that I think what they're saying is something about the way they keep all their stars and pay their players I think that may be what they're talking about and I think that's where. We're getting at they do not keep all these stars that is a lie, I am still a learning tree. That's a lie. That, that, that, that. No, they do not do that. They do not. They do not do that.

Do they make bigger free agent splashes than, than us? Sure. Do those free agent splashes work? No, they don't work. They make trades too. Sure. Do those work? Some of them do. Most of them don't work. Here, here's the thing. Here's the thing. If you had me to switch with Philadelphia, I would not.

I would not switch Since 2021 To now, last year I would not switch with them I would not switch, They did do the one thing we haven't done But they've done All the things we've done too We've done the same thing We both lost the Super Bowl That we shouldn't Let's bring that up Is that why we should be them? No No I agree Did we sign our two receivers? Yeah, well they traded for one too We didn't do that, we drafted our Excuse me That's the way you.

That's what I said, that's the way you're supposed to do it We didn't trade to get somebody else to the receiver Because we couldn't draft well enough Wait, no, we drafted better than them too The only thing they've done That I would like to do Is fortify the offensive line, Everything else, I don't see it work It did not work It did not work, Carson Wentz, let's bring that up Let's bring that up So you draft a quarterback who's better than the quarterback you got now, right?

But you didn't want that. He didn't want to be a backup, and he shouldn't have been. He was the MVP of the league until he got hurt. Jalen Hurts, first playoff game, busted by Tom Brady and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, right? 35-15. Okay, we've never got beat that bad in the playoffs, right? We probably never will. Hello, Chiefs. Throw the Chiefs in there, right? Taking shots, get blown out. That don't happen to us. so you can say whatever you want.

Oh, matter of fact, and guess what happened? Two years later, after the Eagles choked the next year, too, two years later, guess what happened? They got beat again by the Bucs. Oh, that was Baker Mayfield. We'll never get beat by Baker Mayfield and the Bucs, by the way. I think that one was 31-19. I'm like, what's going on here? Why do we want to beat the Eagles? They kind of suck in the playoffs, right?

They suck. They choke in the playoffs, right? They just do a little better than the Niners, who are just choking the Super Bowl, I guess. Well, no, they're choking the championship games, too. We want to bring up the Niners, because now I'm happy to not be them. Okay, so prior – because you talk about Philadelphia, and you go back before that, do I want to say Chip Kelly? No, I want to leave that alone, right? Right? Let's leave that alone in Philadelphia. You want to bring up Philadelphia,

how we should do to you like Philadelphia. I don't want to do nothing like them. I don't even want to be compared to them. I understand they won the Super Bowl. Well, you know, hey, you go enough times, right?

Right? Well, you go enough times. because about time they had won one anyway they hadn't they were only three like us and now they're you know they've won two of the last three right that's called probability, the fact that we haven't had a losing season even without a healthy joe burrell two years ago still managed to be one game away from being in the playoffs just like last year despite being what we were one and four

right and then and dead and buried by everybody except me i said no it ain't over till the season's over as long as there's games to be played there's opportunities to make the playoff which I said was, the least of what we needed to do to me I understand that we went to the Super Bowl probably earlier than.

Anyone ever thought right anyone ever no one ever thought 2021 Bigelow's being this Super Bowl no not at all me neither but I hope though I didn't think we would but I wanted to, and each year that we haven't which is just the third one that we haven't, I mean, you know, just remember last year they wanted to fire Coach Taylor. Yeah, actually, it wasn't even halfway through the season when they were calling for Coach Taylor's head.

No, I'm talking about before we played it down last year. Before that, they wanted to fire him. We didn't make the playoffs. I'm like, wait, Joe got hurt. What are you talking about? We didn't fire the coach. But you also know that – you also do keep in mind that we do have a certain subsect of the fan base that just –. Again, I don't like saying this. I do. Because, hold on, hold on, let me get this point in.

I don't like saying this because I guess in my head, that's an easy way for the listeners that do listen to us, that could end up losing us, thinking that we're attacking other fans. That's never what we're intending. We call it factual.

We do think that we do I do think that there is a certain subsect of the fan base that tends to be rather irrational when it comes to concept of thought and how they, exercise their frustrations was last year extremely frustrating yes without question, do I think that we should have came out and had a much better record than we did without question Do I think it is ever okay to harass a player, let alone a coach's family? That's not okay. Not under any circumstances.

But I know, Tyler, I know you know, I think you heard about it too, about where people were sending messages to Coach Taylor's wife And like the kid was one of his kids was getting kind of messed with at school. Yeah, that's never okay. That's never okay. Not under any way, shape or form. But I also do acknowledge that us as fans have a right to how we feel. But I think that there's a right way and a wrong way to construct them.

Constructively exercise how we feel. But the thing I want to kind of get into is where a lot of things have been thrown out as of late. I wasn't finished. Go ahead. Go ahead. Get your point in. I definitely wasn't finished. I wasn't finished. Go ahead. I am not apologizing. I don't care if you think it's me attacking you or not. You can have an opinion. I never said you couldn't. I have the right to defend that, to go against that, to disagree with that, to tell you that I think it's stupid.

There. You can be sensitive all you want. You can think it's an attack. It is stupid.

It's illogical. Illogical means stupid. They mean the same damn thing. As someone who also... I love you, buddy. I love you, buddy. Also, someone who has physically seen half of the 80s as well. 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 81, 90, 91, 92 Go from there to now Listen, listen, listen, If anyone knows bad football, it's me And me Me And me I understand what you guys think of the 90s But you know what?

It hurts more when your team is good, Like the team that went to the Super Bowl that is virtually the same team that went to the Super Bowl and you can't figure out why they're 3-13. That's bad. If we ever get to that point, like say this year, we're 3-13, I won't say nothing. Or 3-4, whatever, do the math, whatever. 3-14, 4-1, whatever. No, I remember that year. That year, 19? That was like 19, that was 19. 1993. What? It's 91. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was 91. 91.

Year 90, we made the playoffs. 89, we should have made the playoffs. I think we missed that by like a percentage point. Like 9 and 7. I'm like, hey, guess what? That's almost the same record we had this year. Please, please explain to me what is wrong with y'all. Since when did y'all become these kind of fans that we detest? You sound like fans of other teams that I detest, that say illogical stuff. It's okay to say this if we were really bad.

So you're telling me hold on so wait a minute our team is so good that even when we play.

That's bad wait you guys standards are crazy I get I understand wanting to win every game but I understand also why we lose games, that's more important to me that's why I'm not down at all I'm not down at all I have every bit of high hope as I always had even before 2021, I have higher hopes now than I did then it's like it's kind of like we made the Super Bowl and even though the record has fluctuated since then my faith

in the team has actually grown higher because of the rest because I see the rest of the team the rest of the teams in our. Conference in our division and the teams that win the Super Bowl those are the teams I look at and say, well, next year, are they a viable threat when we're the same threat we were before? We're the exact same threat. The good thing for me is I don't care if the media knows it. I don't care if our fans know it. I don't even care if us, we know it.

The players on the other teams know it. Chris Jones, when you interview him, says, oh, no, the Bengals are the biggest threat to us. We know, I know this. Tyler, you and Anthony know this. Chris Jones knows this. Some of the other fans probably need to know this. The worst thing that could have happened would be to lose one of the three guys, which we haven't done. That's not been done yet.

Matter of fact, we've lost none of them. And I truly believe next year, with this year going into, right, I'm going to look out there and I'm going to see Joe Burrow. He's not going nowhere. Samar Chase, he's not going anywhere. Tee Higgins, he isn't going anywhere. and I'm sure line up and write in it'll be 91 Trey Henderson for the whole freaking year. That alone is 9-8 for me. That alone means we will at least be 9-8. That's the worst record we could possibly have, in my view. 9-8.

We've done it the last two years, and all type of stuff has happened. Heck, can you guys name the players? Name me a player that's played on the last two years' team that didn't get hurt. How about that? Who didn't miss a game? Can't name one. Ted Karras. That's about it. I can't even name one. Everyone has missed time and been down and been hurt or something. Something happens just about everybody.

One of these damn years, we got to have a healthy year. That's what I pray for. That's what I hope for. That's all I ask. I don't worry. I don't worry about management because remember, Anthony, Tyler, you guys remember the management in the 90s?

Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Do you guys remember the management before we got Joe, Which wasn't that long ago We mismanaged But it was the same But here's the thing It was the same management That we currently have I know They've gotten so much better Just like Tyler had said I don't even understand Why? Because they don't do everything That you want them to do As fans Maybe you need to Kind of just Wait and see.

We ain't never Stepped out there On the first day of free agency And just made a whole bunch Of damn crazy moves You know why? Nobody's disagreeing with you on that. But generally, I said this probably two years ago, two or three years ago. I think before the 22 season, we made a bunch of moves and all that. I said, well, look, the reason why we didn't go out and get Terry and Armstead is because it would have cost us the rest of the guys.

We'd have one lineman instead of three. I'm like, you guys don't understand that? You don't understand basic common sense is that when you're trying to fix an offensive line, we got three guys for sure that for sure should 100% be there that virtually almost no one we can get would replace them. Ted Karras, that's probably what? Three guys we can replace him with in the whole league, right? There's nobody in the draft I would take and put in front of Teddy Karras.

There's barely anybody I put in front of Landon Brown, draft or otherwise. And Mim should never go anywhere Mim should be there for the rest of his career If need be So if you're worried about two spots on the line, Just think back If you want to think back to 2021 Where we worried about the whole entire line Which What? Was bad And did what? Got us to the through vote Why? Why did it get us through? Because the ancillary players were what? Great, right? Yeah Guess what?

They still are If not better than they were then, right? What's others worry about? What's just worried about a guard? Because I think what it boils down to, I think what it boils down to, and I'm going to throw this in there, but I'm also going to state why the logic of what's being said.

A lot of people are looking at how the offensive line has been bad since before Joe got there. The offensive line since Joe got there has gotten better, but everybody still wants to refer. Hold on. Hold on. Everybody still wants to refer back to the fact that they're saying Joe's getting hit too much. Yeah. They're saying that Joe's getting hit too much and that Joe should, I think what it boils down to a lot of people are using the, the, I think a lot of fans want a O line, like what.

Like what Tom Brady had in new England through his, through most of his tenure in New England or like the Philadelphia Eagles, which we can get an offensive line like the New England Patriots? Hell yeah! Here's the thing, though. Here's the thing. We don't need an offensive line like the Philadelphia Eagles. We have a better quarterback!

We have a comparable quarterback to Tom Brady right now. We have a comparable quarterback in his prime playing as well as anyone's ever played in the history of this franchise. What more do you, what more do you want? What more do you want? Do you think that's why do they think that's the problem? That is not the problem. It should be what it boils down to. They're saying that Joe shouldn't be getting hit, hit like he is. Do I think he's getting been hit bad?

I don't know that I'd say bad, but I don't think that you, you you and i both know why he gets hit and it don't make no difference and a lot of reasons and the whole reason why he takes so many hits is because joe is the type of quarterback that he is always wanting to make a play sometimes that the detriment of it he he's always wanting to make a play and a lot of times that's to his detriment because he is but it's also

at the same time what is to his detriment it's also what makes him special it's also what makes him. So freaking yes yeah it makes him so as good as he is and here's the thing, ever since he got here the offense has changed more towards you know him throwing a ball more what do you think gonna happen, when you throw the ball more what y'all think gonna happen throw the ball more you don't get hit I don't care who you put it off I don't care I don't care.

Maybe if we Structured the offense a little Less on Having Joe stand in the pocket longer Yeah we might Lose some big plays but we also might lose our identity, In the end I said the key isn't How many times he gets hit How many times he gets hit when nobody blocked The free runner That's more important to me You can only hold him out ever so long anyway. It doesn't make no difference. It don't matter.

You pay the offensive guys. Guess what? They pay the defensive guys, too, to get after the quarterback when they know, well, he's going to be in the pocket. We're going to throw it. We don't care who we play. We paid this money just the way we're going to play. You guys, look, you fans got to get used to it. Yeah, our sacks was up, but our rushing numbers were down. I said that. I said that. The amount of runs per year went down. That's going to lead them to get hit more.

It's a better offensive line each year. And it's been better each year. Every year it's been better. Despite what you think of, you know, Cordero Volston and Kappa and Karras. Despite what you think about anybody on the line. We're throwing the ball more, right? Average. More points. We have weapons that say throw the ball, right? Chase and T. Higgins and Gusecki, and we paid all three of them, right? We didn't pay them the run block. How about that? We didn't pay them three the run block, okay?

We did not. We didn't pay the offensive line to run block, honestly. But looking at it, it's like everybody's making the big thing about the guards as well.

Because everybody's saying, oh, we should go everybody made a big thing about going and getting Tevin Jenkins, Tevin Jenkins got picked up by the Browns right now everybody's making a big thing about Will Hernandez, going and getting Will Hernandez and Brandon Scherf they're still out there yeah and would I would love to have them without question but I also think I also have this feeling and Tyler you feel free to cause you've been awfully quiet feel free to interject your thoughts,

I also got the feeling I think Scherf's taking his time. He's taking his sweet time. And there's also been reports out there that Scherf does not want to come in and have to worry about a guy behind him. I think he's also wanting to come in possibly on a multi-year deal. Your guy Tyler wants to play for us. Dalton Risner? Yes. Yes, I did see that. He called me out on Malik. TikTok yeah I thought I said Well see I forgot I gotta send stuff to you Not on The Twitter.

Yeah, send it on Twitter. On Twitter and not Instagram. And not Instagram. I barely check Instagram. You need to. I need to. And put things that I send you, the learning tree. Listen, I have like messages, I think, from my dad on there from like three months ago. I just don't work on there. I hope he's not listening to the show. Sorry. How about that? I hope he's not listening. Sorry, Dad. I don't know what's going on. Hey, don't feel bad. He doesn't respond back to me neither.

So, I mean, on the idea of Brandon Sheriff, though, I mean, you know, if we signed him, obviously he'd take over that guard spot immediately. I mean, unless they drafted somebody in the draft that they thought could take over day one, then he would obviously have a competition there. But, I mean, you know. He'd beat him. He'd beat him, too. But either Dalton Rizner or there's a new sheriff in town.

You know, either way. Which by the way I'm sure if we sign Brandon Sheriff they would mark the heck After that by the way Sure that would also mean That my idea of. Resigning Trey would have to wait till next year So does that mean If we do sign Brandon Sheriff That the, Hamilton County Sheriff's Department Does that mean they're going to like just take out the I In their name Maybe we need to sign We would need to sign Carl Lawson too That'd be great, Right? Come on, right?

Can you come in and rust a passer? I think you can still do that Can he do it on the level Or at least half the level of Trey Henderson? That's what I want to know I don't think he has to though That's not really important to be. Sam Hubbard Sam Hubbard won even like a 6 of Trey Henderson So that's why I'm asking But he wasn't out there to rust a passer though That's the problem That's the issue.

Wasn't supposed to do that. That's not his job. He was the best run defender that we had on the team. So why do you think that he should be getting 10-12 shots? He shouldn't. He's not. He can't. It's not what he's supposed to do.

I mean, he's rolled on the team. That's the issue. We have a new defensive coordinator. I'm sure he knows or should know, and it doesn't take a genius. It doesn't take anybody to know anything to know what the damn players could do. How is it that I know what they can do? But Lou doesn't. Are you telling me Lou, you don't know what it is? And these, you've been your guys for how long now? Yeah. It's a rundown and you got, you got Joseph aside and Murphy out there. Why?

That is, that is not what they do. Well, it's, it shouldn't be, there's no indication that that's what they can do. Well, and I don't, but it also goes further because I look at, uh, and I'm throwing this in there and I, I, You're hearing things getting thrown around about some of our own podcast friends have thrown this around. I don't know that I completely agree with it, but hey, that's the beautiful thing about this country.

Just as much as we have a right to our opinions, they have a right to theirs. About saying that things like ours is ownership squandering Joe's Super Bowl window. I... I'm looking at the record of the last two years. The circumstances of 2023 with the fact that Joe went down early in the year, but yet we still managed to stay in it. And looking at things and judging it off of how it had been, And I know for me, I don't know that I would throw that out there.

I just think that's a powerful statement that you have to have a lot of evidence behind. They're basically the whole thing about, oh, hey, the Bengals are cheap. Bengals don't pay their guys. So far, the ones that you could throw that to, you could throw that to Jesse Bates.

But you also have to look at what jesse bates was asking for the circumstances around that we were right i said we were right i know that also still makes me right on that too, i'm throwing that i'm not disagreeing there but you can also throw andrew whitworth into that conversation it was 40 you guys know all about that come on you know well but he left if i remember correctly he didn't turn 40 until until his final year with the final year with the

rams he was in he was heading towards his mid-30s i know but that that's water under breeze though we needed him to play guard people people people talk about whitworth at tackle no we didn't even play guard that's what you guys don't that's what you guys miss we needed him more there than at tackle we didn't need a left tackle see stop trying to change the narrative because you like Whitworth so much. I like him too.

Yeah, he played on the opposing team. Guess what? If their line wasn't so terrible, he wouldn't have played left tackle either for them. So sometimes you got to let somebody say something stupid and just leave it out there and not comment on it. I tried not to. I tried not to comment on it. Tyler, help me with this a little bit. If you can.

Tyler? Yeah, I'm here. What are you on Basically, Where I was going at of saying A lot of people think that ownership Is squandering, Joe's window Like for instance They're saying that, For many years Saying that the Bengals have been cheap When it comes to paying their guys And not re-signing their guys, And We've got to There's been some cases where that has been noted that they didn't resign certain players. So, okay, so on one hand, the part where they.

I think the way they go about doing the contracts, negotiations, and everything like that, could they improve a little bit in the area? I mean, sure. Why not? I think a lot of other teams in that aspect, too, probably could as well, us included. But, I mean, could they improve in that aspect? Sure.

Because I think most of it's all about the guaranteed money in the negotiations. I mean, you guys remember, we were close with Bates. that was the guaranteed money that brought him to Atlanta, you know, because the deals that we were offering him just about the same thing, right? Well, but the way we – Guaranteed money, $4 or $5 million. That's what I heard last. Yeah, but what – I mean, in that aspect – Nothing.

Okay, I guess. Like, now, squandering the team is like – I mean, 2021, we brought in a lot of keep people, right, in 2020 as well. Yeah, we spent a lot of money. Yeah. Now, have we missed on some? Sure, obviously everybody remembers Nick Scott. That doesn't have to do with it. But we've kind of squandered on some too. Now, some of these bigger name free agents, could the Bengals early on in free agency, or could they at least try?

I mean, from our perspective, it doesn't look like they're trying. Now, could they be? Possibly. I don't know that for sure. But the reports don't get out there typically that we're looking to sign, you know, Calais Campbell early on a free agency or, you know, just telling a name out there that he's not a free agent, but you know, we're not, you know, the reports aren't out there that, Hey, we're trying to sign, you know, AJ Brown or somebody like that. Like they're not out there now.

Could the Bengals, the internal be doing stuff? We don't know. But from our perspective, we, we, we're not seeing stuff. So I think that's, that's where a lot of it like comes from.

From perspectives of Bengals fans. And, you know, obviously, you know, we all go through –. Mindsets you know like that aspect as well now i don't think they're squandering the team i don't think so could they improve in in some aspects in regards to that absolutely 100 but i don't think they're squandering the team so because like i'm looking at uh somebody got to prove that to me that point that we're squandering anything you can say it that's fine that sounds good don't mean nothing to

me you ain't it's not proven and it's just not true if you look what happened every year we go and get free agents that actually financially make sense that work and you know this just came to mind too you know obviously Joe Burrow like I talked about earlier him you know trained like having the Joe Burrow effect as I call it like has brought a lot of you know changes to this team you know and as we talked about earlier this didn't happen really a whole lot in the Carson Palmer era

and he was supposed to be you know the, next guy, right? And he kept getting hurt. Obviously, the way he left. I think they're doing a lot more now than they used to do. That goes back to my point from the 90s and whatever. We're not in a dark time. It could be a lot worse. It could be 2-14 or 2-15. We'll never be 2-15 with number 9, Hunter.

No, I know. 100%. That's what I'm saying. It could be worse. You can get rid of everybody else and leave Joe out there with whoever you want will never be. Bad again. Like we were the year before we got him. Could you imagine him with a West Virginia Tavon Austin? It'd be fine. Just look. Do what you do best. You run very fast. You're very quick. You can catch the damn ball. I'll get you the ball and you can run. He can always do that.

But I know the big thing that everybody keeps referring back to is everybody wants to say how the offensive line has basically been god-awful. But we all know, has there been clearly, and I'm saying this as a former lineman myself, has there been cases where the offensive line has fucked up and missed a block? Oh yeah, without question. I will never deny that.

But there's been just as many cases of it not being completely on the offensive line, and it being that Joe held onto the ball too long instead of getting rid of it when he probably should have, and ergo Joe had to take a sack. And Joe came right out and said in interviews, I think we've all heard it. No, those couple sacks, no, those were on me.

I thought I saw something that I could make a play out of and ergo it resulted in me throwing a pick or ergo it resulted in me having to take a hit and take the sack. And even like Zach Taylor and Brian Callahan is another one, for instance, has sat there and said that, hey, as much as we try to get Joe to. A little more open to getting rid of the ball and to throwing the ball away when there's nothing.

Hey, at the same time, we acknowledge what he does because, hey, that's what makes him so great at what he does is being able to make something out of nothing. But where are you guys at with because I'm looking at, I'm even looking at the draft. Everybody's been very, very critical, and I think a lot of people do not want to see the Bengals just go with rookie guards, and they've not liked the comments that Zach Taylor made that they're saying right now that, hey, they're set on guard.

They're not looking to go pick up a guard in the draft, and that, they're saying that this is just an example of the ineptitude of where the franchise is at and not pushing all your chips in and things of that sort. The thing that we keep hearing continuously. Please allow me to I'm going to try to quickly throw this out there.

Okay, so here's my soapbox. Here's my dilemma. Here's my dilemma. We got two weaknesses on the team. And to me, that's like it. That's it. That's it. Two weaknesses. Not even two necessary weaknesses that can keep us from winning the Super Bowl.

Because I'm going to make this quick, I understand You may not like the guards That we have These are for the team and myself Okay, I get that I understand that You might want to improve that there The lack of a proven pass rusher, On the other side of Trey Henderson That's a problem That has been for, let's see, three years now Correct? Yeah I think it's not even just a pass rusher on the other side. I mean, an interior pass rusher. Just someone that plays one of the other three spots.

I don't care which one it is. That's why I'm not so much worried about the defensive player that we draft. Just have to be the right one. Just whichever one you draft, I guess I got to go with it. The thing is, I understand that folks would like to do free agent guards.

I'm not I'm not opposed to taking A rookie guard here and there They don't have to come in and start That's not the point My point is The biggest point with the offense defense line is this Is to have the depth, That if one of the five guys go down, That next guy to come in Is so overwhelmingly, Not talented That he's a problem That he's the issue for the rest of that game And the time that he plays so to me that's why when you see me do these my graphs and i say walter nolan is because,

whether it's walter nolan or bj hill or slayton or mckinley jackson or chris jenkins i'm not too much worried about any of those guys when they're in there and whatever combination. Say we start Volstyn and Ford or Lucas Patrick and whatever combination. Am I worried about the next guy that comes in? Are you worried about the next guy that comes in after those guys? Well, they're all about the same, right?

Yeah. Lucas Patrick, despite what anybody may think, he's not much better than Cody Ford and Volstyn anyway. Is he better? Probably. I'd say yes. Is he so overwhelmingly better? No. No. If we get rookie guards, say we got Booker from Alabama, right? And we plug him in there and we went to Luke's and Patrick because something happened to him. Would you be as more worried about that or worried the fact that the guys that we got on the team, we can't get a pass for us? What's more worrying?

Well, you worried about Joe when he just threw damn near 5,000 yards and 43 fucking touchdowns? 70% completion percentage. Wow, it really looks like the offensive line sucks to me, don't it?

No, actually it doesn't. look like this dude is is who i said he was and the line actually is way better than you guys give it credit for you guys are you guys really might need to just watch more watch more what happens don't worry about he got it because he threw it got it because he held it did the pass get caught yeah was it a touchdown yeah is joe hurt no he's telling him you better keep yeah you better bring more than that you better hit me every play and i'm

still gonna get you He's the killer The more important press In fact It's a defense, As bad as As bad as I heard All this year All this year Why is guard now Overtaking The, defense in the past for us, which to me is way more important than the offensive line. It always was. Here's the reason why. Our turnovers have went down since 2021.

That's why people think losing DJ Reader and Jesse Bates meant much. It really didn't mean the damn thing. It really was never the problem, and they were never the real reason why we won. You forgot the other guys around them all played fantastic now they're playing.

Because the talent is dropped last year Lou didn't play the young guys and we needed them because we didn't have, come on come on now do I need to name and mention the guys that started in the damn Washington Commanders game do we need to go there.

You might as well the fail a is that carter started that game that should never happen that that should never happen when i had both of those guys cut beginning of that year not even a whole month later they're starting now i know why because of injury injury right but dang i mean bj on rank is both hurt i I mean, wouldn't it help to have, right, more guys to turn to that are all right around the, you know, right? None so dramatically, you know, because I understand people like Impact.

They see other guys, other teams and whatnot. These guys in all these sacks and stuff like that. In the end, that doesn't matter if you don't get them at the right time. Even the amount of sacks, it's the amount of pressure at the right time when we need it the most. It ain't can you make a play when a play isn't there to be made? Can you make the play when we need you to make the play? I brought up our fourth down defense on the year. It's probably one of the worst years we ever had.

Teams went for a fourth down about as many times I've ever seen in one year. I think it was like they were like 15 or 26 or something crazy like that. 26, that's an awful lot of times for teams to be going for it on fourth down against what you would consider a down year, right? Right? I'll take a down year in 98. I told you, this is our ceiling. This is, right? This is the ceiling of the floor. This is the worst of the best.

This is one of the, these are two years where you say, well, damn, we didn't have a losing season and fans just flipped out. Why? We made the Super Bowl before we were supposed to. The next year, you saw what happened in Kansas City, right? We were, We were right there, right? We were there. We were good enough. We were the better team. We were at least as good as them. Yeah. As good as anybody else in the league, right? We got, what,

robbed of a game that, you know, okay, I get what happened. Me and Anthony were there. Tyler, you were there. You weren't there that Monday night against Buffalo, right? Are you talking about the one with? The more hammer? Yeah. Yeah, I was there. I was there. We were there, too. It's weird.

That changed the course of history, honestly. because I've never seen I've never like in my life seen a place going so bananas in the player intros and pregame and then the game starts and then all of a sudden like it goes from like 100 to 0 you could hear a pin drop like really quick I've never seen that before.

In a pitch black stadium where we all didn't know what to do oh that yeah that was the was that the yeah yeah yeah, that was the first one wasn't it yeah once the game just like Came to a halt. I knew the game would not continue. I'm like, it can't continue. It's been too damn long. In 10, 15 minutes, we're going to make a decision. No, you make the decision. From there, I knew, okay, since we're not going to replay the game. So now we're at an unnecessary disadvantage.

And the league itself said, you know what? We can't let these guys get there. We got to start selling tickets for Buffalo and Kansas City. What? Yep. And we got to make them. We got to flip a coin. even though we won the division to flip a coin to play a home or away wild card first round playoff game. We had to flip a coin. Like he shouldn't have played at home. And we just beat them. Right? And we just beat them. Because we were 12-4.

We just freaking beat them. 12-4 and we still had to flip a coin. That would have been that would have just told everybody what it was. You just need to realize that there's a lot of other factors as to why they, don't want us in the playoffs.

5-2 in the playoffs. We lost a Super Bowl in a championship. I mean, we've won some pretty tough games on the road where we were not favored. I don't think in any of them, were we? No, we were not. We were favored in none of the road games. None. Because we were not the higher seed in none of the road games. Technically, I don't even think we were favored in the one home game that we had with Raiders? Yeah, I don't think we were favored in that either. No, the Raiders.

We were favored in that one. No, we were favoring the Raiders. You sure? I'm pretty sure it went the other way, but I could be wrong. The Ravens game, on the other hand, I don't think so. I definitely don't remember. I would say no. I would say no, we wasn't. In the playoff game since we've had Joe Burham, I mean, I don't need to look at this, but I'm pretty sure the Raiders games, the Raider game, we was favorites. Pretty sure we were underdogs, Tennessee.

We were. That was terrible. Should have been, They had a better record though Tyler They had a better record, And they were home Kansas City And I'm pretty sure I don't remember the Super Bowl but I want to say we were Favored slightly there I don't know we were the favorite In the Super Bowl, But in the next We should have been they played at home The Ravens I'm pretty sure we were I want to say we were probably favorites.

We were definitely not favorite in Buffalo. I do remember that because I was pissed about it. Yeah, we were underdogs in Buffalo. And obviously going to Kansas City again, we were underdogs. I was upset because the way we played in the first quarter against them, in the same year, by the way, it did not lead to them beating us. I didn't see it. I'm like, no, I mean, they could play well at home and this than the other and folks said because it's snow. I'm like, it snows here too, stupid.

It snows here at Cincinnati too. What are you talking about? How could that be an advantage? Stop it. That is no advantage. Oh, yeah. Who was that? They said Snow. Snow's here, too. Hold on. Which player was that? I can't remember who the fuck he was. I don't remember neither. I don't remember neither. See, the thing is, we do a good job of shoveling this shit off the field, though. We do get it off the field for the most part.

Get it off our field, even though despite, you know, we've done great with that. Yeah. And my thing is, okay, like I mentioned earlier, with Joe missing, what, did he miss? Six games? Or seven? Was it six and a half? Right? Two years ago? And Jake Brown had to come in and he played as well as he could play. I mean, I can't, you know, kudos to Jake Brown, right? Are the fans mad about that? How? That had nothing to do with the offensive line, right?

Can't blame the offensive line on that. You got to assume that with Joe, we win a comparable amount of games, if not more, right? And my thing is this. Okay, last year, I mean, could Joe Burrow play any better? I certainly hope so. Yeah, he has such a terrible year, guys, right? I think at the end, though, but I think at the end, though, Terrible offense is a terrible offense. Do I think the offensive line is the ultimate decider in games?

I think it can be because that's the difference between a negative yards on a run or a 15, 20-yard bomb downfield that could potentially win the game. I think there's a lot that plays into it. I agree in one aspect Because obviously we all know the Phantom holding call right But on the final play of the game Y'all can find good for us to stop That Super Bowl.

Yeah no I'm not disagreeing Like I'm not disagreeing, But But that was But I'm just saying That's the ultimate We shouldn't have been behind anyway That's the point I'm gonna make I agree the phantom holding call was That should never know that that should never Yeah, I agree None of that should have happened, Here's the king. Here's the key. Here's my thing What why Why now all of a sudden when Clearly The player on the offensive line that played the worst is not on the team anymore,

The guy that had the worst season on the offensive line Is not on the team anymore Correct? Correct. Yeah, he had the worst year Of the offensive lineman Triple crown It happens We first got him, he didn't Right? Okay then See how quickly we turn How quickly as fans We love a guy until we don't Well guess what That's not me. I think injuries, though, truthfully, with Alex Kappa is what pretty much kind of brought him down. Sure, but fans, as fickles as they are, that doesn't matter.

They're not using logic. Logic says, if Joe Burrow gets better every year, what the hell is y'all talking about? What y'all talking about? What is y'all talking about?

When the defense is giving up 30 points Y'all talking about the offensive line There's something important More important than the defense Stopping people, But they do have to be healthy I did say that They're not healthy, Defense line is not healthy We don't even know what we got on the defensive line yet We still haven't really, really seen it Not really Not really, Not really.

Everybody wants to inject a rookie Right? Into this And make him the focus and savior. No. Nope. The guys that are already on the team are the guys that I said would be the most important guys. And they will be because they'll probably just play more, which I said they needed to do. That's the whole point. A lot of people, like you guys mentioned, a Jesse Bates and a DJ Reader, Ogun Joby played a bigger role than both of those guys in 2021.

You know what he served a role? You know why he served a bigger role than both of those two? Why is that? Because he kept BJ He'll off the field to rush the passer to get seven and a half sacks, which I'm not sure he can do when he starts because he hasn't done it. And I don't think he can. I don't think he can be that good. He's playing too much. I'm going with this? It's the little guys. It's all the little bitty guy.

Logan Wilson, did he not have four interceptions? Almost had five interceptions. He had four interceptions in like seven games. Guess what? We kind of missed him when he wasn't in there. But the defense is bad. I'm like, well, we are missing people. Shoot. Look, Anthony, look, I'm not at my best when I go to work and there's a bunch of people missing. I can't disagree. I would say I would say the same thing at my job. Yeah, we try as hard, don't we? Right, Tyler?

But you just got to look around and say, well, damn, who the hell are these guys? Right? We just don't have the familiar faces around you, right? You kind of got to try harder. But sometimes in trying harder, that's the problem. You'll try harder, and it won't work. Depth. I'd rather them all be the same than have two guys that's really good and the rest of the guys suck because inevitably we've seen on the offensive line that

has happened we got Karras, Kappa, Collins same year, correct? correct? Yeah at the end of the year how many of those end of the year? Karras, end of the year, he was fine Kappa, end of the year, he was fine Collins got hurt after 10 weeks what did we end up doing?

Struggling to find somebody to play tackle i'm like well see see i don't want that i don't i don't want that i understand folks want the big splashy move i try to tell you the biggest splashy moves doesn't always work i keep telling people brandon sheriff was way better as a rescue than he was at a jaguar but you guys don't you guys don't understand that i like brandon sheriff but i liked him better five years ago not now i liked him better when he first went to jacksonville not now.

There's a major injury in there too, by the way, that people want to gloss over. This is what you do. Remember, I said this ain't Madden. It's not. It don't work that way. You can't manipulate the roster like you think you can. Cap Gymnastics is great. I'm not a gymnastics dude. Whether it be physically or cap-wise, you got to pay the piper.

Eagles have to pay the piper. Because even Jesse Bates, not Jesse Bates, Jesse James Taylor, even alluded to it he said you can push the money down the road but eventually the bill does come due you gotta pay it on the road i'd rather not have to pay it down the road let's let's win the way we win now with the talent with that i guess you guys want more but you guys you guys don't don't realize that the more money we pay out for agent wise that's less money for a very upset right,

in that wants guessing more than $30 million a year even though he offered him $28 by what I've read.

You get more money to these guards right that means that's less money to give them this year and next year right even though yeah you wouldn't be far off so so i said this i said it a while ago the more money you give the guys that do deserve money the less guys you got to give the guys who ain't coming unless you give them some money and the thing is and the thing is at this point the only way to do so in other words you're saying at this point,

you're more in favor of because everybody because a lot of people feel like a lot of the fan base feels like the Brown family has mismanaged the Trey Hendrickson situation, and I just wonder why and a lot of people feel like that they're that they're mismanaging the, 318 guard situation in all honesty to me I don't know, here's my thing hold on let me slip this in real quick go ahead do I think that they should have maybe.

Because from what we hear that the way that they structured the contracts were rather, were their typical way that they construct contracts do I think that, the one regret like I'm not saying that we, shouldn't have I'm not going back on that we shouldn't have re-signed Chase and Higgins that'll never be the case I do think the only thing I would say in this case that I would have loved for them to have done instead was try to set it up in a way that would free up money which probably does mean,

maybe backloading and maybe doing backloading or a little bit of cap gymnastics to some extent. But at the end of the day, what's done is done is we're on that. Like, unless you go back and – hold on, let me finish with this. Unless you go back and tell Chase and Higgins that you're restructuring the contract –, they still get their money but.

Hey you have to kick that can down the road just a little bit more to sign, not even the best two guards available that doesn't make sense to me that doesn't make sense but hold on let me all right go ahead this is where I'm trying to lead, you entirely towards so you can say this so the fans can understand this okay like why, why go after Guards that aren't even, Right If we don't go after guards Oh I'm mad we didn't sign the best guard Available If we don't do it like that,

Let's go after the top guards that was available then I don't care if we don't sign Brandon Sheriff And fucking Hernandez, Not at this point You know Resigning Trey is more important than those guys And 100% Resigning T. Higgins and Jamar Chase was more important than re-signing Trey. And I said that. And going forward, that will always be the right move. I don't care how we had to do it.

The problem with Trey is, and it's the same thing I said last time we came to this table, you agreed to an extension. You did it twice. Maybe, maybe you're, you know, maybe somebody just told you wrong. That's all. Had you just not done that and said, no, I'm not agreeing to this extension because I want more money going forward. I'm like, why you just didn't wait and get more money going forward? You was never going anywhere. You were never a free agent.

When is Trey Henderson a free agent? Next year. Okay, then. What are we talking about then? What are we talking about then? We're talking about the same thing we were talking about with Jamar Tace. I said he ain't going nowhere. We're not trading him. Just like I said, we ain't trading You know why? It doesn't make sense No one will give us what I want Henderson, we sent These people out there to look for a trade and whatever What'd they come back with?

Part of the same thing we were offering Now Katie Blackburn, I wish she would Have said it a little differently though. It sounded almost like, you know, we offered you this and you don't want it. And that's almost what you could have gotten out there. And no one gave us a first round pick for you. And we said you look for a trade. And now you're this. What are you? What are you just? What's you? What's you upset about?

Are you upset with the extension that you signed? That's twice that you did that, that you didn't have to. That's not the Bengals fault, though, honestly. And me as a fan, I don't care.

He signed that shit. And he sided with a smile on his face again What am I supposed to say about that What you want me to say You want me to be unhappy for him making 20 million dollars a year Sorry you'll never get that one out of me, Sorry I'm definitely the wrong guy And the last guy On that note, Right as one who may never See a million dollars I'm never going to be I'm never going to be that guy I don't feel sorry for not a single soul in the whole league How could I,

As a regular person, how could I feel you agreed to it? Maybe you shouldn't have. Not my fault. If you want $30 million or more, four years, he should have just started off with that. 2023, he should have said that. We'd have said no. And then we'd have worked from there. Not each year have his advisor, you know, his team tell him, hey, you can get more. Look at this guy. Look what this guy's making. I'm like, yeah. When you look at Miles Garrett, y'all keep forgetting. Look at the rest of the

damn team. How much money did they make? Nothing. They don't make nothing. It's all going to Giles Garrett and Deshaun Watson. Look how that's working out, right? Do you see the Browns making a whole bunch of great freaking moves? Well, they can't, right? They can't. They cannot. Because everybody can't. They can't. Everybody's going to Giles Garrett, Deshaun Watson. One guy's going to play. One guy can't even play. Too bad. Is that what you want? Is that what you want?

What i want i want the other issues fixed i want the rest of the team right the team i need the team to be i don't need i can't worry about one guy here we got the most important player on the team joe burrow he ain't going nowhere that's important to me you gotta have a pecking order is trey the most important person on the defense yes but in this day and age when has the most important players on defense, won the Super Bowl. Somebody tell me when. What team?

What team? Tampa. Tampa? Not Tom Brady. No, I'm talking about Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, John Lewis. You know what? That's a foul. You went back 20 years. I'm talking about right now. I mean, right now. You didn't tell me how far, how goddamn far I can go back motherfuckers. shit. Wait, okay, here, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this, though. Okay, okay, okay. So she went back to there, right? Which is actually a good point of going back to, right?

Back then, did the defensive players make more money than the offensive players, even in 2000? Not typically, no. They still didn't. They still didn't. They never will. They never will. You know why? Because they never should. It's not that they're not important. They're vitally important. But to the league itself, right, to the owners, and 100% our team. Shift is an offensive team, right? We built it that way.

Why is everybody so worried about it still being that way? It's just more shifted towards that way. If all the guys on the defense that we lost were so fucking important. Just get rid of all the other guys that we kept. Because for every guy that we lost, we kept the important guys. We kept them. Most of them. Can't keep everybody. This isn't. But you want us to be more like Philadelphia who get rid of their guys. They don't care. Give a shit what you're doing. Look at Darius Slade.

They signed him from Detroit.

Right? And when his usefulness was up, they allowed him to walk. Is that what you want? Why? Because they won the Super Bowl finally? Is that why we should be like them? Why? Because they won the Super Bowl? Should we be like the Chiefs because they've been to the Super Bowl a lot? Should we be like the Patriots because they would do whatever they had to do to get to the Super Bowl? Is that what you want? It's not how I want it.

It's not how I want to do business. Yeah. You're talking about that same offensive and defensive line, Anthony? Guess what? As soon as you couldn't play, even if you could still play, they got rid of you. They didn't care. They didn't care. It didn't matter.

Dan Coppin, the center Patriots, Tom Brady Loved him, they didn't care They got rid of that, so he can still play He went on to play another three, four years At a really high level, they didn't care The defense guys, Richard Seymour And all that, Ty Law, right?

These guys were all-stars, big-time players As soon as they thought Well, we can change them out They got rid of them But we do it because it makes sense Because what, You guys, well, see what The fans want to do is to spend all our money, have no cap space at all. Well, we could do that. We see that doesn't work either. It doesn't work either. Right. That doesn't work.

You know, the percentage is low. Just because one team who use all these, you know, cap gymnastics win the Super Bowl in this era, right? And we're going to go with the Jalen Hurts era. If you say 2017, well, that doesn't count. They have like three players. Three or four players on that team played on this team. You can't do that. That's like talking about our Andy Dalton teams. Those teams have anything to do with teams now. They don't.

They're two totally different teams. Like, two totally ran differently, played differently. Our mindsets are different, right? Now, now, when clearly our team back then, yeah, they could make the playoffs five years in a row. Didn't have the confidence that they can win a championship in that time frame. I didn't have that, I don't have that same, you know, heightened expectations that I got now. So in Joe Burrow's three full years, right? He has 10-7, 12-4, and 9-8.

Well, okay. That's actually pretty good. He hasn't lost. He hasn't had a losing season yet.

And even the time when he was out, right? Not the first time he was out, right? Not going 20. The year didn't count for nothing. Nothing. And that was a bad team, too, by the way. Let me just remind people how bad that team was, and that is not nothing compared to this team now. That's nothing. The same players that played on that team that played on this one, it ain't but a handful of them. So those two different teams.

You want to take 2021 and out, fine, you can do that. But we've shaped this team differently. It's a younger defensive team. Therefore, they need more what? Continuity. Need more continuity. They're more talented. It's more of them, right?

Yeah. If I go back and look at that defensive team in 2021, I don't want none of those guys Come on I don't want none of those guys I don't know what y'all talk about I'm confused, Hell you sure about that Because you have fans that were wanting The Bengals to go back and get Larry O When he got released by the Steelers, Because he played really like Phenomenal for them right Okay alright No because they wanted to see You know how some Members of the fan base are Not all but some.

This is what they want them to do they want them to come back and not play well, right and not play well but take up a spot for someone who's supposed to play. Right not mentor come in and start, kind of like last year when I said if Battlewood had just started hold on, if Battlewood had just started as a rookie Nick Scott could have been where he was supposed to be which I said and I said that as soon as we get him.

So he is a good backup safety special teamer. He can't do that if he has to play. Guess what? He probably should have just not played. He didn't even play terrible. That's a fib. That's a lie. That's showing that you guys, you know, you see Tyler, like, you guys bring up Nick Scott, right? You bring up Nick Scott, right? Guess what? Nick Scott played better than half of the year that one Geno Stone had. He played better than he did for the first half of the year.

You know stone out look i almost was gonna say we need to cut him right now if we didn't change, because the way lou was playing him it was never happened that wasn't gonna work he was playing bad this guy never played that bad he just didn't he didn't make any plays, he didn't miss any tackles though i'll tell you that how about that there he didn't miss a bunch of tackles wasn't that fucking bad still better eli apple did that what you want you want to go back to that?

You want to go back to Wuzier, Mike Hilton and Eli Apple? Where everybody know where they're going? Hold on. Where everybody knows where they're going to throw the ball though, Tyler? You tell everybody. And they did. Eli Apple did have some good stretches though. Yes. But would Eli Apple even play on this team? Would Eli Apple even play on last year's team? I don't think so. I don't think so. Depth, maybe. He wouldn't have started, though. Depth, what? 7? 8?

9? Because everybody we had on the team at Corner Lashley is better than him. Josh Newton. Fig Newton. You thinking Eli Apple or Fig Newton? No. I'm just saying he could have came in for, like, you know, I'll tell you. I'm taking Fig Newton all day. I don't think he would have played at all. He ain't better than Cam Taylor Britt. He ain't better than Hilton. Of course he ain't. For some damn reason. Hilton was just the was the best slot corner in Bengals history, actually.

But that's, you know, my thing is this. My thing is this. My thing is this. You get, sometimes the fans have to be careful with holding on. Me and Anthony and Tyler, right? We love the feeling of 2021. We love the feeling. I understand the fans want that feeling.

Nobody ever said winning was easy. I just want to be in contention, as long as I know that we could be a playoff team you can't win a Super Bowl without making a playoff that's all I'm worried about getting to the playoff then whatever happens happens there's always luck at the draw.

That's the fun part for me after all these years of having an offseason where I almost didn't even want to, even look at anything that the Bengals did that many years where I didn't do no we're not good enough to even me even me worried about who the hell we signed or who we let go it don't matter, oh we picked Big Daddy number one I didn't care.

As a house they fan as i was big as a big daddy whoopsie fan though i didn't care that we took him because it didn't matter i i knew we still sucked we still did suck he didn't play well enough to where like i thought he would change the whole defense it sucked it took 15 big daddies if not more the team was not good it didn't matter i just knew i just knew picking that high i never want to do that again right i want to get used to picking in the 20s and 30s where the number one pick yeah we can

take a miles murphy and nobody give a shit if he ain't lauren taylor guess what he never was if you watch them play you it could it could tell you and what he was gonna probably be guess what we haven't played him enough to see if that's who we could probably be that's the problem and i think i think the problem is is that a lot of people got very impatient i think a lot of fans got impatient very early i think you and i spoke before right about the time that we,

start actually it was right before right when we right before we started the podcast, you and i had spoken will and said that because i had watched a few clemson games of him in there And both of us agreed that he was very raw, And that he was drafted purely off of potential. And is there anything wrong with that?

No Because at the time, we had just came off of two AFC championship appearances and a Super Bowl So it's like, you're thinking like that, you're thinking, oh hey, we got Hubbard and we got Hendrickson those guys can be able to play ahead and we'll have some design packages to work them in to get an experience, and sample and so I'm saying like okay listen listen unless the kid was going we already had a pretty stack we already had a pretty stack team that's why

I don't understand it's like did you not know the team did you not understand that, unless we were high enough in the first round, people keep forgetting that there's a point in the first round where, you know, at the end of the first round, those guys usually are okay. They usually are pretty good. But, because they're not necessarily held to the same, you know, they don't have the same pressure on them as the top 10, right?

The top 10 are, the top 10 generally in the draft every year are supposed to be the ones, the best players, the ones that produce, the highest rated and that is true that is typically the way that it's supposed to go the worst guests usually get, pick higher up on the pecking order but guess what unlike basketball. Necessarily in the best places for them. They don't always go to the team they supposed to go to or that they should. You know why? Because not every team takes the Raw's best player.

Sometimes they try to feel a need or sometimes they do allow the media and the fans to dictate who they think they should take. I'm like, yeah, I give these mock graphs and stuff who I think sometimes I do it who I think we should take, but more times than not, I'd take who I would take. Yeah. If I drafted this, which, you know what, I'm going to do the next one, I'm going to draft who I think the Bengals would take, not who I would take. And you'll see how different the draft is.

My draft is other than normal. No, I get that. And I understand it. You know, dang, this guy would fit our need. Well, yes, on our level, on their level. Because on the one hand, I think – and on the one hand, I understand where fans are going that they feel like the Bengals tend to kind of peg themselves into a certain hole every year, which to some cases that is true. But on the other hand, because like on the one hand, like with the guard situation, to go ahead and sign somebody.

To try to go ahead and sign somebody, like we don't know, to make an attempt to try to sign somebody would probably be in their best interest. But also, on the other hand, you do have to look at it in the sense that.

Some guys out there that there's been said reports i don't know how true they are that i've read that some of these guys that they're looking at like dalton reisner and people like that are not wanting to go in and basically already have a rookie clipping at their heels but they also know that But at the end of the day, this is the National Football League. The way these teams are, especially if you're at a certain point in your career, they're not going to sign you to a five or six-year deal.

And you're 32 years old, and there's no guarantee that, hey, your production is going to suddenly dip off. If not always the case, I think certain players like Witt was an outlier.

But that's neither here nor there but I think I think some of the, to sum it all up at least this is where I'm at do I think the Bengals do I think the Brown and Blackburn family have mismanaged the Bengals organization, I wouldn't say that they've mismanaged the organization I think some of their I think some of the ways in which they think because I think they have a very old school mentality which I don't think there's anything truly wrong with it,

but I think they still have to add some modernized approaches to it to try to keep up with the times which basically allow them to be able to still go after, certain free agents or be able to or be able to draft, yeah.

Savvy when it comes to how you draft and how you how you sign people but i don't think their approaches necessarily made them made that made their them horrible owners where you've seen some people say say that which ergo you hear a lot of well the brown family needs to sell the team and sell it to somebody who cares who cares about winning well whoever you say you sell the team, I don't know say you sell the team to Elon Musk that's been a popular name turned out nothing to do with that.

Nothing to do with that but I'm just saying say that happens, if Elon Musk don't see money coming out of Cincinnati and he wants to move the team to Austin Texas, he's going to move the team to Austin Texas and everybody keeps saying well but the Modell rule would keep them in Cincinnati that ain't necessarily true they can still do it, and also too it also depends on how deep their pockets are how deep are they willing to go to try to fight this so it can be set up to where,

I think the Modell rule was set to try to, make it it's not foolproof but it's supposed to it makes the process a lot longer than what it needs to be, or in most cases, what most cities would have to go through, like most teams would have to go through to get their team out of one city and get it to another city that they want to get it to. Do I think that they'll do that? I don't know, but I do think that. If the team was still playing like the 90s, do I want the team to move forward?

Do I want the team to try to continue to modernize? Yes. No questions asked. I will 100% say, please do that. And I'm saying that as a season ticket holder. To please continue to modernize. Please be willing to take risks and be willing to modernize. Be willing to dip your toe into the guaranteed waters.

Maybe be willing to dip your toe into uh exploring don't mean at least exploring experimenting, with some of the cap gymnastics that you see get done in the nfl doesn't mean that they have to do it for everybody but at least for the for the stars that you've developed and at least for the stars that you have that you know that hey if you leave you better have the fight you better have the a replacement in the building to be able to make that happen. I will 100% wholeheartedly say do that.

But I don't think that the team is necessarily mismanaged. People speak very fondly of one Mr. Paul Brown, and I want people to really think about this. You all speak very fondly of Paul Brown, and Paul Brown was a wonderful man, and he was a terrific head coach. But also, too, if you look through the annals of history. A lot of how Mike Brown and Katie Blackburn learned how to run a team, run a football team, who did they learn that from, Will?

That'd be Paul Brown, who was a great Cleveland Browns head coach. He was an okay Bengals coach and owner. I'm going to call it what it is.

But we're going to keep it a buck But we're going to keep it a buck A lot of the tactics A lot of the tactics and how they construct contracts And things of that sort Were probably things that Paul Brown, Put in front of them And showed them here's how you negotiate contracts Here's how you do this Here's how you do that And Paul Brown was a very stern negotiator if you don't believe me there are numerous books on the history of the NFL and there's numerous books

written about Paul Brown please feel free to check them out I've read a few myself. Feel free to check them out because they will detail it. They will detail certain aspects of, of that. I, I know, honestly, some of the things I've heard, I'd love to sit down and talk to Mike Brown and ask him about how, about that.

Just because, Hey, I, I'm a, you and you and me, we'll both are like NFL nuts that we would love to just learn more about the history of learn more about the history of the team and just history of the brown family as a whole there there isn't much more that i don't know though that's the thing there's a lot that i know that isn't you know that i don't bring up a lot because it's not relevant the stuff that i

know except for the topics you know i say topical it's a topic here's the thing here's the thing, why pay guards a lot of money why explain to me why this is my thing this is why i don't even i don't even bat an eye when i turn locked on bingles or i listen to bingles and bruise and we're talking about guards when i'm looking like stop it because the guards are never going to be important to me it's ridiculous it doesn't make any difference why pay a guard for three years, no, five years.

Seven million dollars what what are you talking about what are you talking about here we're not desperate we're not see this this is this is different if this team played in the 90s any year that you want to say outside of 90 out of 19 we would not be having these conversations would be in a much better light we'd be rejoicing we actually would be happy we won nine freaking games. I don't give a shit if we don't sign nobody.

I don't care. You're saying for you, you're saying for you, you're saying for yourself, you'd be okay with going in to the season with rookie guards. Start with two starting rookie guards. I'd be okay if we start Luka Patrick and fucking Volston again. Doesn't matter. Why would I not be okay with Volston starting or Cody Ford when they played last year? They played It wasn't the reason why we lost games But I don't I don't see where all this is a problem This is confusing to me.

What you guys want to try to score 35 points a game Guess what we're not gonna We're not going to, It's not important With the way we play it's not important You guys think it is You guys want it to be It's topical you gotta have something to talk about, I want to be Clear on this. I want to make this the last time that I, me personally, speak about guards. Because, hey, we signed Brandon Sherriff and then Hernandez, right? Yeah. And they don't work out.

And then next year, Trey leaves. Who do you think would be the first person to come in and say, well, I tried to tell you guys. That's going to be you. Next year, the most important player in the team is Trey Harrison being resigned. I'm giving a shit about nobody else on the team. Well, but here's the thing. What would end up happening to happen, I'm not sure the whole rule. Would the franchise tag apply to anybody on the roster, or does it only apply to players that were drafted by the team?

I don't know. I don't know. But that's a very good question But either way I get that But either way still. Contract is the bottom line anyway, right? That's the bottom line. That's kind of what we want to happen, right? Right? And who's to say, like you said, that sheriff doesn't still come anyway. Who's to say that? It makes sense when you get to that age, right? He ain't 24. He ain't 27. He ain't 28. He's in his 30s. He doesn't want to do the camp. He don't got to.

He doesn't have to the thing is okay, if we made this blast and sign him right away right right so we make this move that's isn't that less money for T and Chase yeah, that's my thing is like we saw look I said this offseason was an A because we re-signed the people that 100% have to no matter what but no matter how we got it done no matter how it looks going forward, your forward thinking is I just Looked it up to answer your question I mean to answer the question That

I have posed it says yes It says yes the franchise Tag can be applied to players who Were not drafted by the team but were Signed as free agents as long as they are Set to become unrestricted Free agents so, There you go You're going to say at this point if Trey puts Up another monster year he is Yeah he's going to get franchise Tagged and hopefully signed.

Hopefully signed one time one last time but see even with that being said, like I said we were in the 90s and we went 9 and 8 which to me is kind of 8 and 8 I guess you know right the same as going 8 and 8 right, 8 and 8 9 and 7 they're all the same to me 8 and 8 9 and 8 however you want to put it We didn't lose. We didn't have a losing season, despite how bad everybody thought everything was. I'm like, well, I mean...

You look at what was said earlier, before the last five games that we won in a row, by the way, you would think that didn't happen, right? Yeah. That's momentum. That's something that's actually not been talked about at all, which doesn't make sense to me. That's confusing to me. I'm confused by that. It's the reason why they have us winning 10 and a half games this year. That's the going right thing. That's what they've been predicting right now.

They didn't have wins right now. And I agree that's that's that's the floor That's I think that's the least That's nine ten is where We should always be, With things go wrong When things go halfway Right that's where the ten eleven Twelve wins come in thirteen right That's where that's where we should Live I'm okay with Those results don't want to win Every single game of course But realistically we We know that's that's not possible So basically So my thing is where are your expectations You

got to look inside yourself and think well Maybe I what the way I'm thinking isn't aligned with what Actually is happening you would Think we all every game This is actually Pretty good no other Bengals Team I've seen play Start off one and four Even win more than five games I don't think, I can't remember one do you Anthony Tyler No.

When the last time we start off that bad and win more than five games i don't remember i can't remember season usually because usually what happens we start off that bad it stayed that bad for a while right well i can remember three no we had two i know off the top of my head i remember two oh and eights we ain't that bad.

This decade we had 100 win 20 what 19 so so i ask everybody this you talk all this stuff and you say this and that and just remember 2019 remember 2020 it'll make you feel better about what's going on right now compared to the end so no i get that but uh with that 2020 2019 on the ship now they spent money remember property chicken franchise remember that anthony remember that time yeah i remember that it angers me it angers me hearing it i tried to tell you

don't let it anger you no more we both know that's the furthest from the truth now our own fans want us to be the overspenders how many times have we seen that not work we've seen it work just last year yes that doesn't necessarily mean success and it doesn't mean and it doesn't necessarily mean And yet you're trying on hard. Like I said, what you're doing is, hey, look, look at me. Look at me. I'm not comfortable with the moves I made last year. So I got to make more.

That's not what really good teams do. Really good teams don't have to make a bunch of damn moves. Guess what? We're one of those. You may not have known it. You heard it here first. 100%. They're both contenders. Playoff contenders. Yeah.

But with that being said, yeah, we've been on for almost an hour, 45 minutes I think you tell I think We've covered quite a bit What do you guys think, I mean I think so With that being said I think this is A good spot to go ahead and close out The show so with that being said Tyler Why don't you go ahead and close us out, Yeah absolutely so once again We thank everybody for listening to this episode Of the Rule of the Jungle podcast We definitely appreciate all the ones That

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