Bengals Buzz: Injury Concerns & Fan Chatter

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

I am your host, Anthony Anderson. And alongside me is my co-host, my road dog. I think we all know who he is. He goes by many names. I think you all know who he is. He is the one, the only, the learning tree. Will Appleton. Or, as some people realize, remember, God Emperor Doom. What's going on, sir? Well, as we're itching, itching, itching, itching ever close to the you know, start of the season. To the season, you know.

We are, you know. I don't know if you're starting to get the, you know, the the butterflies and the, and the, you know, the angst. Yeah, I think we all are a little bit, but thank you. You and I, I want to get your thoughts because one of the things that we, you start hearing about, especially with organized team activities thing, you hear about what's going on with the team. How are they integrating with the new coaches that were brought in and things of that sort.

One of the things I want to get your thoughts on, I don't know if you've heard, they said, and I didn't get much information on it, it's probably nothing, especially with it being this early, they made a little bit of a thing about Geno, about Geno, about, not Geno Stone, but BJ Hill coming to organize team activities with a walking boot on. Did you hear about that? And where do you sit as far as in the grand scheme of things? Well, right now, it's an unspecified left foot injury.

And they said it's unclear if it will cause him to miss the OTAs later this month. So, I'll basically just be a day-to-day looking and hoping, you know. Yeah, that's pretty much what I got. I think right now, until they say definitively, like, say, hey, he's going to miss significant time, or, hey, he's going to miss OTAs, things of that sort, I'm kind of leaving my worry and my judgments for when the season starts. Because overall, BJ has been pretty durable, in my opinion. What do you think?

Yeah, I mean, outside of last year's freak injuries, him missing a little bit is how I missed. He's been in the lineup consistently. so it's like I I'm one of those people I don't really have anything too much to complain about or actually really anything to complain about at all because, if you look at it from a standpoint of hey is he in the lineup, it was announced and like you said right now this is an unspecified. Injury to his foot they also did mention that Charlie Jones didn't dress as

well. Was it just the one day that he didn't dress? And I really didn't hear too much about today. So. Yeah, I was still kind of looking at that for more than one day. I didn't see. I didn't see or anything more than one day, but. Okay, then yeah. And obviously, our fearless leader, Joe Furrow, returned back to practice because he missed the first several days going to the Met Gala. That's in New York, correct? Met Gala, yes. And he missed that because he got to attend that.

I know there's some fans out there making a big thing, and some of them make a big thing, and say, oh, we hope this doesn't cause us to have a slow start to the year. And I'm like, at some point, just get the fuck over it. Get the fuck out of that little guy. Hey, this motherfucker has been probably one of the main bright spots of this team. Hey, in the last several years, he's been boogered up and banged up with injury.

That is the fact that, hey, this is one year that he's not had to turn around and deal with trying to, because somebody asked me the other day, they said, do you think that, are you worried that this is going to carry over? I'm like, no, I'm not. Let him go have his fun. I'm more worried about, hey, is he going to be there for the first day of mandatory mini camps? And is he going to be there first day of training camp?

Because I think with Joe, the fact that so far, The only thing we've not had to worry about, and knock on wood, thank God, most of the main contracts that we have have been taken care of. We've only got one that we really have to worry about, but it's only because the person, the said player...

Is making a thing of it. Where are you at with some of that? Particularly like with Joe and like with Joe and going to the Met Gala. What do you think? Some of the people that are, some of the fans that are making a little bit of a stink about it. And I'm, I'm sure it was you, you, you're, you're on social media. Like I am, you, you see little things, people making things of it, people making things about him with the sports illustrator swimsuit model. I don't care.

But apparently there's people out there that are sick in the head and want to know, oh, who's Joe Berto dating? Well, I haven't seen heard of him dating anyone else. There's that one girl, Olivia Ponton or what I think is that they say is his rumored girlfriend, but at some point it's like, leave motherfuckers alone. Is that, you know, rumored or the young lady who I brought was his girl? Is that who that is? Is that a blonde? Yeah.

Or why first? You're talking about the blonde that was connected with the house that they say was at his house when his house got broken into? Yeah. Yeah, that's the one they keep mentioning. I'm like, I don't care. Makes no difference to me. As long as that man is throwing touchdowns and winning the Bengals games, that's all that matters to me. Well, that's what he does. What he does. And he's very good. He's the best in the league. I don't care or worry about nothing.

There's nothing for me to care or worry about. My thing is, hey, as long as he's there for the first day of the camp and no bullshit fucking happens, he don't turn around. And I also made a big thing about him wearing a calf sleeve while he was down with all the Met Gala stuff and all that. They were making a big thing of that. Game one. That's it. Whoever we open up against. Game one. Let's put us out there.

Put our best team out there. Looks like it's going to be So I mean I don't see any person, That's in danger of missing any time And the only The only two people that I would even Even put on that list I guess. Because I'm not It's not enough information See how long If you guys give me a Black Moth sighting Or Eric All sighting, Other than that We all know Eric pretty much. They've already said he's going to be out for this year anyway.

So, you know, they say that. And when we drafted him, he was injured. And nobody knew anything. And then all of a sudden, poof. Poof. Poof. So I don't see him play this year. I'm going to wait and see if he does. Because no matter what the injury is, it's never something I've not seen before. And I have seen Paul come from, come back from the very sane injury, very sane injury that he had, right?

It's an ACL, like they said, like they're mentioning, they're mentioning ACL, knee, okay, if that's, that's, okay. I don't expect him to actually be out the whole year. I actually don't. I mean, expect him to bust his butt and hard and get back and play because that's what he wants to do. I don't know why I don't know.

It's different to be held out But I also think it depends on the severity Of what was going on What's going on with them How bad was it And things of that sort, Because you get half What I've seen players do In less time.

Oh I agree I'm not saying that I'm not disagreeing With you in that respect I think, Right now unless we would hear something I'm not projecting, Eric all to Be there week one or be there At any point during the season If something happens and hey they Announce that hold on let me get This point in real quick if They announce something, And they say Hey he's gonna hey He's progressing along There's a chance he could

turn around And return this that And the other no that would be a welcome Surprise that would be very. What would be the reason to not be able to return within basically a year's time you know when they announce it there's different things that can happen with that, neither you nor I are medical professionals well like they ain't said it.

Well but that's why that's why we need to make sure that we at some point, like we have an agent contact, we need to get a medical, professional that specializes in sports medicine and orthopedics, stuff like that, that can explain some of those stuff. So to any of the listeners out there, hold on, let me get this one in real quick, and then the floor is all yours. So then this goes out to our listeners.

To any of you, if you guys know anybody that is a doctor that It specializes in orthopedics and sports medicine. You want to throw them our way? Hey, we're your guys. We would love to learn on this stuff because, hey, there's something that, hey, we can take away from this to be able to bring more information to you all. Hey, we would love to do that.

So, Will, I give you the floor. Okay, then I don't care about no doctor's opinion and that's not what I said. I don't care about it. I didn't say, oh, he's going to play week one. That's not what I said. Oh, no, no, no. I'm not saying that at all. I expect him to try to push to come back and play because that's what we do. That's what players do. That's exactly what they do. Now, I'm okay if we protect him from himself, right? Because to come back from a knee injury he had in college and play,

and I was just so happy. I was just so happy for him. Honestly, because I understand the hard work has to be done. I've done some physical therapy, but not to something viable like my knee or, you know, not to that extent. I did a little bit of ankle and actually had a totally jacked up broken finger that they sent me to rehabilitation for and it fucking, it's hurt. It hurt like hell too. My ankle was just, it's cracked. It's still got a crack in it. It never healed right.

You know, it's because I pushed it. So I understand this young man, you know, first off, you know, his heart, you know, my heart's out to him, you know, my heart's out to Zach Moss, because the neck injury is almost like a mystery. I can't get any information on it. I don't know. Anybody, they're not reporting how bad it is or what. Can he come back? We're still listed on the team. It's a big mystery. I'm wishing I'm putting down the air, which definitely can't hurt.

You manifest something like you want. I want Zach Moss, and I want Eric Hall, to be able to play at some point this year. That'd be great. Now, it could be in the Super Bowl. It could be in the playoffs. It could be the last Reds season game. Doesn't have to be the first game. No, it's okay. You know, we don't want them pushing it if it's something serious. But I want them to be able to come back. That's what I'm saying. And then waiting all the way next year, that's, you know, that's tough.

That, you know, because the kid is a good kid. And you'd see the excitement, like, in the fans. When we saw them out there, it was great. it was great both recognize them right we welcome them on part of this team and I'd love to see them just get out there because you know we've had some we've definitely had some luck there.

Our way towards tight end wise where injury just you know totally ruined a couple guys and I'm pulling for him 100%, you're a Bengals fan you should always pull for a guy like heck you and I both are, Shamar Stewart wasn't necessarily our first pick but we all pretty much have come to the agreement that hey we're all wanting to see the kid do well, we want to see the kid, we all want to see the kid do well, so, no, that, I agree with you, wholeheartedly in that respect.

And, no, every MCL, ACL, PCL, yeah, they're all different. Severities are different. And I think, like I said, because that's why I was saying, for those of us that, to have somebody on that, you get what I'm saying. Like I said, where we have a part of the show, Jesse James.

On to explain some of the business of intricacies of the NFL, to have somebody like a medical professional, whether it be somebody world-renowned like a James Andrews or someone like a Dr. Alatrass, which we've got to be pretty high up to get close to anybody like that. But who's to say that we can't dream and make that happen one day. But anyway, you and I both agree that we're both excited for going into this.

That this is the first sign that, hey, the first phase of football coming back. Because then next week, we've got the schedule reveal. That's another thing for us to look forward to. And you know, and I know, we all get excited about the schedule reveal because, hey, that's where, hey, if you find out, oh, man, we got a home Sunday night game against team such and such. Man, I need to make sure I request off from work or whatever the case may be.

Because you know me, with my current employer, that's what I do. I use up some of my time off to go do things like that, to be able to go to some of the primetime games.

But talking about that, which is actually kind of leading me into, we also had some contract restructions. Why don't you tell the listeners that may not know, because we're getting to this a little bit late, because we had some stuff come up yesterday that we couldn't report on it right away, or at least give our immediate thoughts right away. But why don't you share your thoughts, sir? Uh, well, I'm not totally surprised with any of the restructures.

I mean, did we exercise the team option fifth year on Dax Hill, too? We did. Yeah, which, of course, we would. I wasn't surprised by that. You know, that makes perfect sense. And the opposite, restructuring of Gino Stone, which I'm also not surprised because, you know, I knew when we surprisingly did not take a safety like I thought we might do. You know, I kind of figured that's kind of what it was leading to.

And that makes sense. The graph told me a lot about what we're going to do as far as re-signing and or necessarily releasing. What do you see going into that? Because it's funny how you worded that. What do you potentially see And then like I said These are your thoughts These aren't things that we have Any kind of inside track Or anything of that sort But these are just your honest thoughts From what you see, When you take interior.

You know You take interior type players Right Mm-hmm Took a running back Because we're not sure about Zach Moss That's what that told me. That told me that, like, okay, maybe it's something to that. I'm like, all right. So, in other words, you're saying even with it, in other words, you're elaborating if I understand you correctly. You're saying even with the restructure, there's no guarantee that, in your opinion, that Zach Moss is on the roster come week one.

Yeah, no, I'm not. Until I see him out there At any point You know I have to assume That he's injured Bad enough to worry He can't He can't He can't play, And if that's the case Then that's the case Like I said I'm wishing him well Now what we got now is A surplus Of offensive linemen Yeah. And that's one area you can never, kind of like with D-linemen, you can never have enough of. Never have enough.

I will never say, oh, we took too many linemen. So if anybody ever said that, especially if they say that on this podcast, somebody's smoking soccer. So we got a surplus of linemen offensively, and we got a surplus of linemen defensively. Yeah. We got a bunch of ants and my thing is Mark Stewart, he may be the tweener that we need no, do tell, do tell what are you saying?

Because while I thought Cam Sample was going to be this tweener that we had, because you know his run defense, it does travel inside and outside we did see Joseph Asai do a little bit of inside and outside, I think he's in Joseph Asai is I don't want to say he's in the lead for the left defense and spot. I think right now. The last I looked at it could have changed. They had him penciled in as the starter opposite track. It was the last that I read on it.

Could I be wrong? Yeah, I could always be wrong. I could have misread something but the last I checked and this was I think I want to say ESPN I looked it up I looked up the depth chart, And uh That was what I saw But do continue Because I like the general Spot in which this is going Well because I think that uh, Tadaro Slayton Or McKinley Jackson One of them is You mean TJ Slayton It's Tadaro That's his real name Oh okay I've heard TJ Slayton, I believe you I believe you.

We got his own name on here There you go, you're welcome I believe you I want to make sure that I, address him by his government address him by his government name you want me to give BJ Hill's no I'm not give everybody's government name it doesn't matter it matters but not right now I'm thinking Slayton and BJ Hill what's Jim Burrow's government name, well I know Joseph Lee Burrow.

You know I know the man, the thing I'm fucking, The thing is The thing is like we got We have some We got some spots Where, A lot of guys are Let's see how can I say this A lot of people are, Projecting one thing or another For, For Stewart And you know I think I'm okay with no matter where he ends up Playing, In other words in a similar position of where I'm at.

Yeah, I think he really, the way I was looking at it was probably, you know, I was probably looking at it maybe a little too shallowly. Hence the initial, the initial anger was not anger because of his play or what I thought he could or could not do. The anger was of the guys that we didn't take, that I was hoping to take. That's what it is, honestly. Because I was seeing something else. That was envisioning other players.

In other words, kind of like me, I was initially, and I'll be the first one to admit, I was on the walks of Nolan train wholeheartedly. You know that.

So, I know going forward, I know going forward, to be interested to see what this kid does but uh are you i know you don't necessarily want to talk about this because i know i think you're tired i know you're getting tired of i thought maybe a little bit about bobby gene hill junior there we go bj hill i thought it was bernard anyway you're probably right that you're probably right so yeah you are probably right because Why?

Because you are the learning tree, and I do acquiesce to you when it comes to— I would never call him Bobby Jean. No, I would not. I would not. Not even through his face. I wouldn't do it. So B.J. is fine. I know he's a junior, though. I remember they said something about this when the Giants drafted him. That he was a junior. I'm like, oh, I didn't even know that. In other words— It's like when they say B.J. Hill, the J really is junior.

Bobby Junior. while most people would usually say he should be Bobby Hill Jr. Right? That's what those people lost. In other words, right? He didn't want to be Bobby Hill. My boy, Bobby Bobby Hill Jr. You're like, damn it, Bobby. Dang, Bobby. Come here, Dale. I'm going to kick your ass. That's right. I'm sure he's had quite enough of that. Which actually makes sense You know No I get that But uh But no Speaking on that,

continue. There's a little, see, I believe his pass rush on the inside and his pass rush on the outside. I think, literally, his run defense as an end is stellar. His pass rush on the interior can be tapped into at times. Because we have a surplus of what? Defensive ends. Yeah. That can rush the passer. You know, we don't have a surplus of? Guys who can arrest the pass from the inside. Everything points to it. You can go by whatever you want, whatever metric, whatever stats.

Right? Henderson had 83 pressers last year. That's close, if not more than the rest of the defensive line total. Which is crazy. You wouldn't be wrong. But I'm starting to notice that CBS is starting to CBS Sports is starting to heat praise now.

Trying to heap some praise here on our team Right And do tell Because this I haven't seen this of late Because I know you know I've been busy here lately, They don't typically You know Now we have totally, Totally Almost put the bed The debate of the Top wide receiver duels They got us ranked number one finally Right Yeah. I think last year we wasn't number one. I think it was two or three, if I'm not mistaken.

Finally got us number one there. And they also have us as the non-playoff team that will contend. One of them, anyway. Well, I think we both. I think the both of us and I think the rest of the fan base expect it. Yeah. You know, the outside noise. And some of the fans, they're not as, you know. They're not as high on our team as I think they should be. And that's weird to me. Yeah, it is. No, I 100% get that. But I want to transition into this because there's some stuff that's come out

today. I know you and I both read a thing, and this was written by, actually, no, this was spoken on the Scoop City podcasts. That the athletic does and the host of that is former ESPN. Would you call her an analyst or not really? I mean, I'm going to stay reported, but in your opinion, would you look at her as an analyst? What is, I mean, I guess, I mean.

Well, we'll just say former ESPN reporter slash analyst, one Miss Diana, one Miss Diana Rossini, where she mentioned about there being good vibes in Cincinnati. She saw potential light at the end of the tunnel with the Trey Henderson contract drama.

But yet today it's now coming out and I think you're kind of where I'm at I'm getting to the point I'm getting tired of it because I think we all know at the end of the day, I would hate to see Trey sit out and not get paid because at the end of the day the Bengals hold all the cards, do I think the Bengals want to keep him long term yes I do but I also think they want to do it in a way that it makes sense for them that it makes sense for them. And the key is to find a...

At least what came out today, they're saying that Trey is prepared to not play on his current deal. And I'm looking and going, that doesn't make sense. Because correct me if I'm wrong, in most cases, say Trey would sit out the year. The Bengals would still... hold his contractual rights, correct or incorrect? So, yeah. I hope so. Well, we'll say yes for right now. Here's my thing sitting out a whole year. That doesn't look good for us in the league.

Especially for a potential suitor. You might get a team that look at Jesse Bates. It also doesn't make you a better player. I understand, and don't get me wrong, and I will say this to the listeners out there, please do not get it twisted. I would like to see Trey get a deal done. And after last week's episode, where Jesse elaborated that it can be done, where, say, they go ahead and go out and sign a guard, and they get the rookies signed, and they turn around and sign a rookie safety.

I mean, not a rookie safety, but a sign of veteran safety. And they manage to do all of that and not go over the count. They're saying it can't be done. And I'm blowing that saying that, hey, Jesse Wood, and you heard me even say verbatim with how the Bengals do business and how they do set their contracts up. Can it be done? Yeah. You remember me saying it that way? Yes. Here's the thing. How about you play for what you agreed to?

How about you be a man of your word and play for what you agreed to play for? Well, you did. I also don't I also don't think His agent really I think And I've heard I've heard countless members Of the fan base Say it too, I don't think his agent Necessarily did him any favors So And I understand him Wanting an extension And I I'm never going to say That hey He didn't deserve one.

And I'm sure we're not going to let you just roll off out into the wind and just want to sit out and just not play and think that's going to change. That's not going to change the environment. That's actually not going to work. Actually, the best thing you can do is actually just play. Don't worry about you. We all make bad decisions in life. This decision that he made wasn't a bad decision. It wasn't. If he'd have bet on himself totally, he would have asked for more. Funny.

You agree to the extension. How many times have you got to extend you and then you agree to it for whatever reason? It doesn't matter the reason. You know, I can't relate to this. I don't care if someone comes in and says, well, they deserve. No, no, listen, listen, listen.

Listen, I've never went into a job. I agreed or I agreed to their salary whatever they're going to give me I agree to this I agree to this give me this raise I'm agreeing to it, then when I perform better than what you know, I perform what I agree to now I want more money that's fine, but it's not going to happen like that and you can't sit out also you shouldn't do that Now it doesn't see it don't make you look good in the light that you need to be that you need to look good in.

You got a point and you're right. Don't do what those have done. That wasn't right. Like you were in your situation. And you're not wrong. You know, it doesn't, none of it. I'm trying to, I'm trying to remember the last time somebody sat out a whole year and it, and it works where the team that they were, the team that they sat out with paid them. Not they went somewhere else.

Well, the only thing that I can think of, where they maybe sat out, they didn't sit out the whole year, but they sat out initially. And it's like the first few games was I think it was that people ball that the crowd was doing. It was Emmett Smith. It was two games. They lost both. They came in and opened up that checkbook. And I gotta say, it's Emmett's fault. It's his fault. It's your fault that they lost those two games.

I mean think about it It's your fault Yeah yeah luckily the team was so good, From there that they would have Turned around and go win, The Super Bowl but you know what that could Have not happened it could have not Won and then then what boys you know You look really bad they didn't sit out The whole year I've never I've never seen where that works this Scenario isn't you know it isn't A good scenario, That scenario almost never Works it's a bad scenario for him. It ain't better for us.

You know, if we good enough, we good enough. You know, you take one guy away, there's still going to be 52 more. Matter of fact, no, there'll be 53. You take one guy away, we'll still have 53 men on the roster. And I'm sure all those guys are getting paid and all those guys got to have a lot of pride and say, damn it, you try to tell me I can't play. I've been waiting for this opportunity to play.

You don't want to Wally Pipp yourself. I mentioned in our all-time defensive list, Corey Bacon had the greatest season ever, right, was not even in the top, I don't think he was in the top 10 in a defensive player of the year right, he should have been, it's ridiculous but then I just gotta bring this up, just look at the next year what happened. No, he had two and a half sacks. And I'm like, wow, wait a minute. How do you have 20 plus sacks, one year and two the next?

What happened? And then that was it. That's it. That's it for his business career. That great year, astronomical year, and then like a year to definitely forget. I'll say we'd have made him the highest paid defensive player at that point. And then next year he would have gave me two and a half sacks. Do you know how much? Do you know how bad he's saying that he's not wanting? Yeah, Trey's, yeah, no, I get what you're saying.

The media would turn around and come in and say, oh, you realize how fucking stupid that was? Yeah. What are the Bengals doing? Yeah, and my thing with Trey is like, listen, you had time to strike when the iron was hot. You had time. When you got this, this extension should not have been, it should have been one year. There's no way I would have accepted that. There's no way you give me one year on top of this. Not a bad look. I need three to four years on this thing. It ain't going to get done.

Because if that's what you really want, then that's what you really ask for. If that's just what your agent wants, then you have to realize, like, all right, don't let your agent send you out of here when it could have probably been resolved. You know? Yeah. See, my thing with me, like, the biggest thing for me is If I'm in this spot and I'm in this position and I know that I want security and things of that nature, it is two ways of doing it. This is very difficult.

If you go and get the long term deal or you take a bigger gamble and do one year deals, which are one or two year deals, which is more dangerous. But then, I mean, you can't act as if like you're not seeing and playing with guys who've done this. You're playing with them. You're playing with guys who are on two-year deals all around you. They're all around you. They're all around you. And you're not wrong. If some of them could get long-term contracts, which you can,

Trey, you should have just already done it. I don't understand. You should have been before everybody else. I'd have jumped in at first and said, look, let's get this done now, two years ago.

Get it done. Let's not extend me one year. then I'm not happy because I'm not happy now because other folks have gotten money I said well that's kind of your fault though you could have jumped out and set the pace, no you wouldn't have got Miles Garrett money because that's ridiculous, I don't care about the market the market is not the market is not set, fairly not fair it's not like everyone is equal no everyone is not equal it's.

Equal and that's the nfl in a nutshell that's the nfl in a nutshell i don't care who thinks he's not equal he's not equal to that dude also we're in a better situation than those guys up there, that's why i'm like listen look you ain't talking but you come on you gotta do better than this now you gotta do better than this because i'm an outsider i'm outside of this situation i'm looking like nope this is kind of not good

this is not going correctly you know this is this is not the way to do this, I don't think, but you know, we let you go out there and see what you didn't get in trade and you didn't like it. Well, I mean, you should have just, you should have just curbed the damn thing. Not this year. Don't do it now when we're paying everybody, you know, right? Shit did it last year when we didn't pay, we didn't pay Jamar T last year at all, correct? Yeah. We paid T the franchise tag, right?

Yeah. I didn't play nothing. Damn Trey. I'm looking around like where was you at last year? Well, he tried. But here's the thing. He tried to do that last year. He demanded a trade. He said he'd trade me or I'd retire. What you should have said is, let's work the deal out. What do you mean to threaten us? What do you mean to threaten the organization? For what? And then you. Settle on this one-year extension, and now one year later, oh, that's not good enough.

But you agreed to it. I want, look, I want someone to come on our show and tell me that this man didn't agree to it. If he twists his arms to agree to it, no. He could have just said no. Well, here's the thing. Nobody's going to push you. Most of them would never retire even if you let them. Even if you pushed them to that point. Except Jim Brant. They didn't have to push him. He wanted to retire. So he did.

Barry Sanders Barry Sanders was just done he was just done he wasn't done as a football player he was done playing football which is different that's two different things it wasn't because he couldn't get no no no because no, could have asked Detroit for anything anything they gave it to him they'd have found a way they'd have got rid of half the team because you know it's very rare it's very rare when a player is, If this is true, I think if Barry had not have retired,

I don't think Emmitt would have sniffed being the all-time leading rusher. Man, I don't know. As talented as Emmitt Smith was. Hmm. Yes, Barry Sanders would have set the all-time record, sure. But my thing with Barry Sanders is how far would he have pushed that record, you know, past what it was? That's all. That's all. Would that have made Emmitt possibly play longer than he should? It might have. I think the only reason Emmitt played as long as he did was to take the record.

I don't know. I mean, he played because he thought he could play, though. He still thought he could play. And I think once he got the range, he wanted that record. He thought he could still play. Oh, no, I'm not disagreeing. And for the most part, he could still play. He wasn't totally like, you know, he wasn't out there and thinking like, I don't know, I think he should play. I think he should be out there.

He just had to go with the Cardinals, which, no, it's not a good look, but it is what it is.

Well I don't think I just don't think a rocket scientist did not know that that was not good luck I mean honestly I'll say this much even though Trey Henderson even though Trey Henderson, like for instance even though Trey Henderson was a originally was drafted by the Saints, nobody really acknowledged it was his time as a Saints because I don't think they knew how to use him and, basically, you get the general gift. I don't know. I don't think it was about not using them. How about he wasn't

the best fucking player? How about that? Do you give them credit that they had guys that were better than him, and they were. Where he sat here and he was the best guy on defense. Yeah. Yeah.

You don't sound too sure on that one. Yeah I guess so You really look at it He wasn't initially, The best player on defense Who did that title go to He wasn't the best When we acquired him He wasn't the best player on defense At that point, I'm saying who did that title go to I mean, Couldn't have went to Geno Because Geno ended up gotten getting released that's there I guess mean me I got found these sense but we well you hold me to the fire, I'm going to say you're the learning

tree Usually Usually you're the one challenging me on these statements, Now By the end of the year he was the best Player on defense when we got him he was not The best player he was not Thought of as the best player on defense But I'm saying who did that title go to, Very young Because we had a lot of great talent On team. Well First off first off everyone thought that Awuzie was the best free agent that we got. You can include him in there, but I don't think he was necessarily the...

Because he was really good before he got in. I'm not disagreeing there. He was really good, and he was thought of differently than Trey was. Trey was the third defensive end that came in past situations and did what he was supposed to do. The thing is, folks, was not sure if he could continue to do this as a full-time starter. I said, well, he did exactly the same thing as a full-time starter. Right? I think he had 13 sacks for the Saints last year. He had 14 for us in 2021.

But as far as the best player on defense, I mean, what? Jesse Bates is in this conversation? Still very good. I'll give you that. DJ Reader's definitely in this conversation. He definitely has to be in this conversation as the best player. Like upon him getting here. Now, by the end of the year, Trey Harrison was the best defense player. He was. But we didn't think of that. We didn't think of him as that. This ain't like last year, the year before, where he clearly, he's the best player.

Like, we were getting in the midst of a great season by Logan Wilson, right? True. True. Better seasons, right? That was, 21 was one of his better seasons. Yeah, I think 2022 was his best in my brain. I agree with you, that was one of his better seasons. Because 2020 was, it was tough on everybody that was here. And I think 2021 was Ogunjobi's best year, personally. I think that was his best year, too. And because after he left and went to Pittsburgh, he put up okay numbers.

He was he was okay with Cleveland. Wasn't great. No, he was great for us. He was great. He was better. He was better than I thought. Sam, hell, that might, this might have been Sam's best year, too. So we got to argue with like three or four guys with their best year for us, you know, at the same time, which really helped. It helped to take this. It helped to take this test off the offensive line. The injuries.

Oh, the injuries. Yeah, because they were Boogered up, banged up, everything in the play. They were destroyed. We didn't even, I dare say, you know, Jonah Williams, Quinn Spain. That was it. They were expected to play. Left tackle and left guard. And that was it. Trey Hopkins went out and did the best he could. I was hoping that he wouldn't have to play as much. You know. Ian Medinajay, Riley Reif, Isaiah Prince. But, you know, they did the best they could, I guess. I mean, you know.

Oh, and I will say this. That was CJ Uzama's best year, for sure. I don't know. Sure. Not mixing his best year, but, I mean, as far as scoring touchdowns. It was 13. He didn't get it done. 13. 13. 16. 16 touchdowns. Woo. 16 touchdowns for him. That was a 13 for Chase. Yeah. Yeah. Joe with a total of 36.

Yourself? No, you're not wrong. But overall, in your opinion, because looking at this team, and we're looking at the Trey Hendrickson situation, where I sit at it at this point, somebody's got to bend. Somebody's got to be willing to say, hey, let's sit down, let's get just crank out. Let's sit in a room and try to figure this out. But I also look at it in the sense that I'm looking at it from a business standpoint. And from a business standpoint, the Bengals hold all the cards.

Well, I think, I don't think and I'm sure Trey's been told this multiple times by probably various people, whether it be close friends family you name it, that the situation his agent let him down I think his agent is trying to make up for it are trying to make sure to get this deal and I just at this point I don't know we all know, how the Bengals are starting to negotiate you know you're not going to make them do anything that's just how it goes.

Here's my thing I mean we do know you know we do know there's one agent that gets things done for us right, now the other client bathers in March maybe you need to do that, do what he did when you have the literal best receiver in football and you had like the number one and number two best receiver in football, like you're kind of, I hate to say it he held up they held all the cards from the get go so the Bengals had to acquiesce a little had to bend a little bit,

Especially when Jamar said, when Rocky Arsena said, the deal, all right, we're cool, but hey, we're not completing the deal with Jamar without getting the deal done with the team. And what they do, they say, cool. And they made it. They sat down. They got it done. And hence why now I have to, some point before the season, buy a number five Tee Higgins jersey. And I will gladly put my money up. Why? Because I genuinely love this team. I genuinely love all the players that have played for us.

Have there been some that have let me down over the course of time? Because maybe they did something that I wasn't necessarily what I would call a fan in how they conducted business. Yeah, but I'm also of the point that I wasn't going to let it destroy me either.

But uh sometimes i just i just i think i sometimes we we get we we get into these kind of discussions and and and you get personal and you're in your fandom and you you care so much well you know what i care a little less i care less doesn't make any difference because because i put because with all the with.

The answers and or questions out there because you know gotta keep everything under wraps and they're not you know, can't tell nobody can't tell what's going on and this and that and the other no one can legitimately come out and train the team Katie Blackburn you know right no one came out and said look this is exactly where we're really at nope they won't do that that's fine they believe in keeping and I gotta speculate and just go by what I go about what I have,

but I'm not, I'm not so much, you know, I'm not so much into. Like, like picking sides because I'm definitely on nobody's side, not on Trey side or the Bingo side, doesn't matter. I will sit and wait and whatever happens happens. I mean, no matter what, whatever happens, guess, guess, guess who's not going to be swayed one way or another about what I want the team to do. Me. I don't care, but I don't care enough to where, you know, the care isn't it doesn't cloud my judgment.

It doesn't force me to say things that I don't want to say. It doesn't force me to go back and apologize for things I said because I said what I said about Teagan last year. I said and I said also that it would get done. I said, we're not going to trade him because I don't think that makes any sense. And you could say that. You went on record saying that. I said that. I'm like, look, trade them at a certain point doesn't make sense because you won't get back the value that's equal.

And nobody's going to give you more because nobody's going to give you more. And here's the thing. Like, if you just said last year, right, I'll bring this up just because it just happened.

If you just said last year right that a rival of ours, would send their best receiver right or a third round draft pick and a pick swap in that same year fifth round pick swap two of the Dallas Cowboys, straight up in other words in other words but if you'd have told me that I'd have said no that's ridiculous that's not enough.

Out there thinks that's enough they're probably Cowboys fans or they don't even care you know we don't care we got it, I'm like but Pittsburgh is that really enough though I don't know there's no telling I mean we're gonna find out, we're gonna find out and just to link that to one you know the quarterback they waiting on some were saying they did this Mr.

Green 19 yep yep yep they they did this with hopes of luring him to Pittsburgh. I said, well, you ain't got to lure him to Pittsburgh. Either he's coming or he's not coming. But he doesn't have to come out. That's the thing. He doesn't have to come. No, he doesn't. He's an old man. You want him to come and do all this minicamp stuff and all this, this, this, and the other. Wouldn't you kind of like him to be able to, like, make it for the whole season?

You know? I mean, you know, he's far older than your average free agent quarterback. Yeah, he's I think he's 41, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. He at that point where I'm like, listen, I look, sit your old ass down. No, no, no. If you got to carry him, you know, on a throne, you know, from the fucking clubhouse out there to the field, do it. Cause it's not like you any closer to any, you're not any closer than you were last year. Not any closer.

But I think they think, I think they think, and this is just in that respect. I think the Steelers think that they're Closer than they really At least in what it appears to say Some of us that.

Are either Fans of the division And have followed the team closely Their Their losses Their losses, As compared to The moves that they made To me They look like a push I wouldn't disagree, They pushed The drafts, well Their draft actually has to perform Pretty damn quickly Actually, some of them have to perform A little quicker than what you would Normally want from your draft With a team that did what?

Made the playoffs See, they're going about this Because They're worried about making the playoff Because they are worried about it And you're not wrong They went Derek Harmon, Jack Sawyer, Ia Black I remember him They went defense They had to get younger on defense That makes sense to me You know what they didn't really do?

They didn't address any They got Caleb Johnson That was good That's a good swap off for him and Harris Will Howard, that's a good swap off So in your opinion, Why do you think they traded George Pickett. Pickens because it's just easier. It's easier, they think. Like, if they don't get Aaron Rodgers, right, and he doesn't say he doesn't sign with them. Trading Pickens, to me, I thought they were going to do it last year, personally. I thought they'd do it last year.

But when they got DK Metcalf, I knew. I said, well, Pickens is the number two now, no matter what. No matter what he thinks or what, it doesn't make a difference.

No matter what. even if his perception of himself he's the number one he's not, I'm like okay but I thought he would still be very very useful if he just played but you know he just can't play you know that he can't shut the fuck up any little thing sets him off I'm like look you gotta do better than that and you've seen people in this uniform do better than that even when you know they wasn't getting the ball as much as they fought right,

But then think about what happens now when you go to another team where, okay, the pressure is a little different in Dallas. They expect to win the Super Bowl every year, no matter what. Even if the team don't look like it should. No matter who's on the team. Dallas Cowboys. In other words, it's our year. It's our year. Yep. Yep. They expect to win the Super Bowl. so they expect you to come in and basically be the Alvin Harper you know right the CeeDee Lamb's Michael Arnton.

He's going to catch 100 passes and you ain't and you shouldn't worry about it. Pickens is a better compliment to CeeDee Lamb than he is to the, you know. To B.J. Metcalf. I'm like you, I could see that. I could see that, but. He's a better person than Pickens. He is. He's a better person. Even when he don't play well like he did last year, not really. He's still almost at a thousand yards. Yeah, that's like with Jamar and T. He is an excellent compliment to Jamar.

Yes. putting them next to each other causes all kind of damn problems for the defense. And that opens up the tight end, running back, the other receiver on the other side, right? Just by putting those two next to each other, you have a guy who can get deep that led the league. I think he had 8, picking average like 18 yards a catch, which is tremendous. And C.E. Lamb is, now he's a regular 100-catch guy. happens because of the ability to play outside and attack. I like seconds.

Regular 100 catch guy down. I expect them I expect them over to catch 100 passes again. I'm already, you know, I expect you to be around there. Here's my thing. See, now that they've done this, this would help out the other Dallas receivers. Take a little pressure off of them, right? It was a hell of a lot of pressure on the ref to them guys. I'm like, I don't think they're good enough to, they ain't good enough to, you know, they ain't good enough to withstand it.

Now the offensive line will have quite as much pressure because, you know, they got pressure. If they put in the wrong spots now, you get it. You take this whole thing and you know, you got to pull the stopper out of the drain. It's pretty funny. No, I get that. If they don't put the off-must in the right spot, pull the stopper out of the drain. I guess Pittsburgh is this. Alright, Pittsburgh. This gives you freedom to go out and get a veteran receiver if you think you need to.

They already got Robert Woods, which helps a little bit. But, you know, you probably need, you know, It frees him up to try to do a little more. I'm a complimentary guy. I'm a complimentary guy that can still play. Now, the thing is this. If they don't get Aaron Rodgers, right, they may have to lean a little bit more on the running game. At least you have a target in Metcalf where he could play with an average quarterback

because he's still, you know, he's still DK Metcalf. He's still got the two tight ends. What they were thinking is okay we don't want to put Aaron Rodgers in there with Metcalf and Pickens you. To work with young wide receivers that that's why, you know, that's why he left Green Bay. Well, that was also Brady's issue when you really look at it, because a lot of people sat there and said that the Patriots could have listened to a thing and I think it was Peter King that brought it up.

It was a YouTube video where they brought up about New England doing terribly drafting wide receivers, and Peter King elaborated and said And that if you're completely honest, the whole reason why the why they sucked at picking wide receivers was not because they could not evaluate talent. They were Tom. Tom expected a lot. Does that make sense? I know he expected a lot. Why does he have to go? Well, but Tom was like Aaron. He didn't do well with younger receivers. That's his fault. And it is.

Well but he went to Tampa I'm like by the time he went to Tampa Mike Evans was a veteran was a multi-year veteran Godwin was already good.

Was already great he didn't make them no better than they were honestly he didn't make them no better than what they were well but they were already on the cusp, I think Brady just put them better they numbers are the same numbers they were already well but I'm just saying And adding Brady to what was already a good defense, they just lacked a quarterback as much as, don't get me wrong, I love Jameis at Florida State.

Anybody that listens to this podcast knows, and anybody that's known me for a long time knows, I am a Florida State Seminoles fan. And I loved Jameis when he was at Florida State. But I also acknowledge that.

Jameis was not what I would define as a he wasn't the guy that you were going to put that you were going to put, the mortgage the future of the team with you could but you had to build a team right you had to build it right, you got to build it right you got to build it better you can't build a team like you did you got Brady in there but Jameis is not going to work right it ain't going to work right the same it don't work right I mean I thought talent wise and guts and moxie and,

yeah, I mean, but it wasn't built. Plus, Jameis had a lot of bad habits. Plus, if you look at it from a quarterback purist standpoint, Jameis had a lot of bad habits. What? All right. The coaches, you got to pay credit for that. You got bad habits. Look, we don't stop you from those bad habits. The greats have bad habits.

Here's the thing. The coaches, just don't let them just, you know, don't let them just, they hold them accountable, which they have more accountable, which seemed like it wasn't held more accountable. Outside of like media, media, you know, media said, well, you know, oh, you might throw three interceptions, you might throw three picks. I'm like, this is true.

This is true. But if the coaching staff was holding more accountable than I throw three interceptions, we don't know when they're going to come. Because you never knew. Yeah, because that was the year. Boos Arian's first year with the team, was Jameis' last year with the team. Because he turned around and threw 30 touchdowns and 30 interceptions.

Which, I ain't going to lie. when I saw that that's impressive that's impressive that's an impressive stat, it's hard to throw 30 touchdowns and it's damn so hard to throw 30 touchdowns it's impossible to them here it's really hard to do that you know it's almost impossible to do that, not wrong that's where you can see.

There's good and bad and it's more good than bad the problem is damn it why every team you go to you know what the bad is, it's almost like most teams okay we'll make James the backup because we can take the good and the bad no if you just fix the bad guess what not only does he stay right where he is anyway in the middle of the pack that's always where he will no problem nothing wrong with that no problem, When people think their quarterback is higher than they are and better than they are.

No, you got to work on what he doesn't do well so you limit his mistakes. Sometimes mistakes on the field are mistakes because of scheme. Sometimes it's the player's habit. Sometimes it's offensive line. Sometimes, hey, can you give credit to the other team? Sometimes they get too over. I've got to give credit sometimes when I see a scheme defensively against us, that's pretty good. You know, it's pretty good. Yeah. What was one last year that you saw? For me, it was the Eagles game.

I thought the Patriots did a really good job defensively. Yeah, okay. That's another one. I didn't even think of that one. Because I was quite surprised. I was quite surprised how we were really bad on third down. In the first game, I said, look, this is the most important down. Third down. This is the whole last year, the year before. This was the problem last year before. And Joe's injury. It was third down. The thing is, we regressed even more. Now, we didn't stay going that way, thankfully.

But on the defense end, we allowed more third downs than we did the year before. And the year before. And definitely the year before. We allowed more third downs and fourth downs this year than we did in 2020. What did I tell you? What does that tell everybody? No, it says a lot. I think we'd allow more fourth downs than we did in 2020, 19, 18, 17. Yeah. We ain't never allowed that many fourth downs. At least I can remember.

But that's crazy that folks are that confident to go for it on fourth down. I don't care if it's fourth for one, fourth for two. You know, teams usually don't, seasons usually don't go in defense. Usually they give you credit. I'm like, all right, look, we ain't gonna totally disrespect them because anything can happen on 4th or 2nd, and we look foolish when you don't make it. You really do. And stopping a lot of them. Teams are making more than half easily.

I'm like, well, that's okay. I guess the numbers would say go for it. Oh, and the reason why I bring, the reason why, the only reason why I really brought up Pickens' trade to Dallas is because CBS Sports, right, almost instantly have dubbed C.L.A. Majoris Pickens the number three duo in the league. I said, wow, that's, okay.

I just don't know about that. That's an interesting proclamation I don't know about that Wait a minute, I don't know about that one, I'm with you on that, I'm agreeing I'm thinking Well then, okay, where do they have DK Metcalf and Pickens then? Where do they have that?

They didn't do this until the trade Well, but I also think it wouldn't have been much longer after that, they would have made a decision on them to, Well, the decision is to trade Pickens That's the decision, do it or don't And pretty much what they're saying is they didn't want a bunch of divas in there when Aaron Rodgers himself was already the biggest diva they would have on the team. I mean, he's the biggest diva he ain't even on the team. But he's linked to your team this whole time.

Vikings, Steelers, I heard a little bit of that. I've never expected him to go. I never expected Aaron Rodgers to go anywhere but the Steelers or the Vikings. I never expected anywhere else. I mean, I don't see it. Well, but the Vikings are already saying that they want the kid, McCarthy, to start. So? So what they're saying is, we're not going to sign Aaron Rodgers if he wants to come there? I still think you do it. You got to do it. Well. Because who else you got to ask that? Yeah.

J.J. McCartney? After McCarthy. You can be confident in J.J. McCartney. You drafted him. You better be confident. You're going to go down with the ship anyway. Trust me. You're going down with the ship when it is and or it goes downhill like I predicted it would. But I mean, you know, maybe the kid is Joe Montana. I don't know. I doubt it. But, you know, not from what I've seen. I don't think it. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

But maybe he's, you know, maybe he was just in a good situation where they ran the football and they did protect him. They protected him, Mr. O's. So they're protected. His throws wasn't the NFL of today's day, his throws. His throws was the NFL of maybe 10, 15 years ago. You know, they had those two running backs. They had the offensive line. They had the tight ends. Come on, right? You see them all come out. I get that.

That's their style of play. Their style of play wasn't three and four wide receivers and spread it and throw it all around and all that. Their offense was even more throwback than, say, most of the quarterbacks that came out the past five years. Like J.J. McCartney, if you went to the Ravens, I'd be like, wow, that's a great move. Great pick. He fits. Or even now, like San Diego, he fits there. He fits. Minnesota?

He's playing with the fourth best duo in the league as far as CBS Sports is concerned yeah so. Let me just run out the top five of them. I'll just say what he thought. You know, CBS Sports, you know, I cringe sometimes with some of their headlines. And it does make me happy to have to read the article. When the headline is so cringy, I'm like, what? I got to read this. What the hell? It makes you say, what the hell are you talking about now?

Top five duels. They got Puka Nakua and Devontae Adams, number five. Like I mentioned, Justin Jefferson and Addison, number four. That's fine. All of a sudden, in one day Right, right, one day This was today, too, they made this CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens jump up to number three Automatically, like overnight Just without ever playing it down You know, right A.J.

Brown and Devontae Smith, who was number one Last year I remember, because we were number two, and I was like, what You talking about And number one duo Jamar Chase and T. Higgins On the Bengals What a surprise we agree on something right which is rare.

I agree on the order and it's okay because remember I agree with them on a couple things I said non-playoff teams right remember I said the non-playoff teams that I thought would make the playoffs remember who I said 49ers right I said us they also agree with me they also said the 49ers I'm like yeah because if you think about it think about this, they had an injury-plagued season like, I don't know, like worse than ours.

And not of this year, of the last year. They had an injury season worse than that. Like, shoot, I'm not even sure who didn't get hurt for them last year. I'm like, wait a minute. If they got a fully functional team, which they almost never did at any point, like a fully functional team, they probably wouldn't have started off at 4-4. I got to believe that. I do. I believe that. I don't think they would have been 4-4. They might have won one or two games more.

And the losses were close. So I'm like, oh, okay. They're losing now because they don't quite have enough talent. It's not they're losing because, you know, they wouldn't lose the games because the teams were just so much better. In the second half, they continue to get hurt. I'm like, oh, this ain't bad. And that's where the whole shit just, yeah. That's where everything fell apart. No, that makes sense. They lost seven or nine games. That ain't the 49ers. We know that.

As much as I give them shit about not being able to finish and win the Super Bowl, which is true. It's true. It's true, right? And they were in the Super Bowl twice, right, and lost. They were in the championship game twice and lost, right? But they've won two NHL championships, too. So, I mean, you know, girl. They've seen a lot of success in 2020 to now. So, I expect them. You got Shanahan. You continue to keep the guys that are there there now. They got a pretty good

shot. I mean, the division isn't crazy. It's like ours. We got a shot every year that went in the division because we know who stands at the top. It's the most consistent team thus far, right? That's at the top. That's in the ratings. Yeah. Pittsburgh is consistently where? At the Mendoza line. At the Mendoza line. Look, they're the gatekeepers to the playoffs.

We finished with a better record than them, which the two years we did, we were in the playoffs the two years we did not we were not in the playoffs, no you're not wrong and they both were by one game so it's like okay if we're this close, and everybody else in the division has not got like they're not like 10 steps better both teams are slightly better and Pittsburgh is not better at all I think they need Aaron Rodgers, not that I think it's gonna like propel them to no no.

They want to not somehow have a losing season, right? They probably need a quarterback that can play for sure. Not at a super high level, because they don't have that quarterback, even with Aaron Rodgers. So I'm like, well, damn, Justin Fields played at a good enough level to win you games. No, it wasn't pretty. No, it wasn't lighting the scoreboards up, but they were winning. They were winning kind of the way I thought they should win games.

Came in, I'm like, okay, Justin Fields is done. He's done in Pittsburgh. I knew it then. I was like, well, he's done. I thought they would keep Russell Wilson. I knew they wasn't keeping Justin Fields. I'm like, look what you did to him. Look what you did to him. Look what you did to him when you pulled the wool over his eyes like that.

I need to throw this in there and I want to see get your thoughts because now that George Pickens is a Dallas Cowboy, Do you think Hickensburg still keeps his handle? I mean, if what I know about most fans is true, I'm going to say no. I'm going to say no. He's got to change it. He's not going to be a Cowboys fan. Right? Matter of fact, what I'm going to do, I'm going to send him a message. I'm going to ask him. I'm sure he probably won't even respond.

Because that's his MO. Kind of what they do. Yep. So, but no, I thought that was funny, but tell you, I don't, I don't, I don't think he's going to, yeah, we've been on a little over almost. Yeah. We've been on for almost an hour and a half. What do you think? I think we've covered quite a bit. Was there any other things that you, you could think of that you wanted to maybe touch on? Um, is there something else? Yeah. See, Pigginsbury, I don't even accept my damn follow on Instagram.

I think I saw him on Twitter too. So I don't know why. It just seemed like something stupid to do, right? In other words, like seeing a damn nap. To be a Cowboys fan. Because I know a lot of people when their favorite player get traded, right? They quickly jump shit. I mean, they're following their favorite player around. Well, I'm just a fan of Tom Brady or I'm just a fan of this guy. I'm like, really? Just a fan of him. In other words, like Tyler Bowes with LeBron?

Yeah. No, but that's a team of basketball is different because I always think people can get traded. Well, that's kind of an obvious thing, but I get what you're saying. There's very few people in basketball history that I'm like, no, no, no. I'll never get tricked. That's not true. That's not true.

What happened was that player was never, that player was never pushed to the fire and the team wasn't pushed to the brink of like, you know, being total laughing stocks where they couldn't rebuild the damn thing without getting rid of their best player. That's generally what happens. Dallas, eh. I mean, I ain't gonna even lie. I didn't think Dallas didn't necessarily did a bad move when they traded and Luka dodges for Anthony Davis.

I thought the key would be, obviously, well, could Luka get back in shape like he was last year in the playoffs? He did not because he wasn't. Wasn't in any shape that he should have been in. No, I didn't. I didn't expect Kyrie Irving to get injured, which people keep killing the trade. I'm like, you keep forgetting, like, bro, Kyrie Irving is high-regarded as you guys have LeBron James. Y'all had Kyrie Irving coming to L.A. too. That didn't happen.

It didn't happen. He went to Dallas. I'm like, Anthony Davis is a hell of a player. You guys are acting like they traded Luka Doncic for a bucket of votes here. I'm like, no, no, no. Like a backup dude with a scrub. I'm like, no, my dude was healthy. He's still really, really good. He's still one of the better big men in the league. And explain to me why that doesn't make sense. Because he'd be much happier there in Dallas because he don't have to play center.

Which he said he didn't want to do all the time. Especially in the playoffs. Because guarding bigger guys, right? Guarding the bigger guys, you know, where Anthony Davis checks in at about 250, right? Well, look at that, you know. That's different from guards, right, because he's so big. But they don't have guards covering. They got forwards and power forwards because he's so big. It's wrong. You guarding a Jokic, I mean, shit. It doesn't matter if you try to guard him

a little guy. That don't work. And if your biggest guy ain't as big as him, that also doesn't work. It's Jokic. It's Embiid. Jokic is about 270 and Embiid's about 285. I mean, good luck. I mean, good luck. You just got to hope that Embiid is hurt or he gets hurt, which that's really the only logical way, you know, right? The only logical way. AD's giving up about 35 pounds there. He's giving up about 20-plus pounds to Jokic. I'm like, yo, listen, look, I understand that. I get it.

I get it. There's big guys in this league, you know, in the pounding, in the pounding. Anthony Davis was a power forward the whole time. He's been in there. A lot of people think, well, you know, we can, you know, you know, 250 and I'm like yeah but he's not he's not a center and no he can't guard centers and no and no saying that that kind of thing is so I won't say it's false I won't say it's not true.

It's kind of like I haven't got to play different positions in the NFL right it's not that they can't it's not that it's impossible like it's like Travis Hunter playing cornerback and receiver not that it's impossible but over the course of 17 games, that's a tough thing to ask. No matter how, you know, because remember, Deion Sanders, he played both ways. He played special teams. He didn't play full-time offensively until 1995.

And even then, it wasn't full-time. It wasn't full-time. He played about, I don't know, about half the time on offense. But Full-time on defense. And some of the time I was supposed to. They got to get a man a break. Travis Hunter's young, and he thinks because he did it in college. I'm like, it's different though, Travis. It's different. I'm telling you. I'm trying to tell you. It's different. You're in a whole different caliber now. You're in a different caliber league. No, you're not wrong.

But, yeah, we're right at about a little over an hour and a half.

Are you like I said was there any other things you wanted to touch on or are you pretty much comfortable with closing the Apple show yeah I'm pretty much comfortable closing this baby I didn't want to get on a basketball tangent but you mentioned Tyler Bowles, you mentioned Tyler Bowles and his affinity for LeBron James no I get that no matter where LeBron goes it's fine you know a lot of my favorite players can flip around the league so you know so with that being said first off We want

to thank you guys for taking the time out of your day to listen to the podcast. We apologize about not having a show for you Wednesday. Hey, we had some stuff come up kind of short notice last minute that kind of caused everything to kind of go haywire as far as how that happened. As far as that, we will try to have a show for this weekend sometime. Not sure when, but we will try to have that done.

So, but with that being said, like I said, we thank you guys for taking the time out of your day to listen. If you're new, hey, we welcome. We hope you enjoyed. If you like what we presented to you today, we sincerely hope that, hey, you'll think about going ahead and hitting that follow button on whatever podcast platform you're listening to. That's where we're on most podcast platforms. So, if you want to keep...

Us oh before I forget because hey if you hit that, follow button hey that helps us out it also helps you out because hey it allows you to get notified when new episodes drop and it helps us by whatever podcast you're listening to this on hey the algorithm that recommends podcasts to you guys it'll help recommend podcasts like it'll help recommend us to other Bengals fans like yourselves.

If you want to follow us on the social medias, you can follow us on Facebook at RuleTheJungle, as well as the next page at RuleTheJungle9. Also, too, if you want to follow each of us individually, you can follow Tyler Bowles, our other co-host, at TylerHoonay54, for those of you who are regularly listening to the show.

And if you're a new Like I said if you're a new listener You want to go back a couple episodes and listen I think you'll like a lot of what Tyler has to offer So, With that being said if you want to follow me You can follow me on X at AAnderson78 As well as my Instagram account At AnthonyAnderson535 Will? And you can follow me on Instagram At Appleton756 And you can follow me on X slash Twitter, William at God Emperor Doom 9. Again, that's William at God Emperor Doom 9.

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