Bengals Schedule Prediction: What to Expect in 2025

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

I am your host, Anthony Anderson. And alongside me today, at the time of recording, it is Mother's Day. And we, well, before I first say anything, for those of you Bengals fans out there that happen to be moms, happy Mother's Day. So without further ado We're down at a co-host today Because Tyler had to work But I think you all always enjoy When The always Infamous But never duplicated The one The only The Lonely Shunny Otherwise known as well as, Ever Doom Will, what's going on, man?

Well, as you alluded to Yes, it is A bittersweet day for me Happy Mother's Day for everybody out there Listening.

I've been able to get most of my Mother's Days You know, get most of my Mother's Days Out the way, there's still a few You know, some scragglers hanging around here, I'm sending messages Calling, I'm like, well I guess they're probably out and about It is still You should be up and doing some stuff Hanging with the fam if you can You know get out of the house Beautiful weather out today Oh yeah without question, So Good day For this episode I thought we would This is not really Nothing at

least that I would deem to be like Crazy like Pressing. To talk about as far as The bangles As far as the bangles are concerned So I figured what we would do Not to do it in a form of, we talk about a multitude of topics. We do it in a form of, like, for instance, a lot of people, a lot of Bengals fans are surprisingly, like, in that, like, worked up about the fact that Shamar Stewart, I guess, ended up deciding that he wasn't going to participate in rookie minicamp.

He just kind of sat out, which, I don't know. You tell me, like... Because there's multiple articles that have come out and talked about it. But why don't you give some of your early thoughts on that? Because, like, I'm not that concerned about it. Because when it comes time to report for camp, his ass better be there. It's plain and simple. Well, as we talk off air, Anthony, and I mentioned that more than half the rookies haven't signed their deals yet.

Yeah, I think you said I think you said from like the top five If I'm not mistaken, The top five have not Oh, they're not.

6-10 half I was like, oh wow 12-15 half And we've had Jesse We've had Friend of the show, Jesse James Taylor, And he's even said I think he mentioned it in the last episode Where, They There are some negotiations that can be taken With the rookie With the rookie scale contracts You can't change the amount But you can change how much of the money Is given and when Right because roughly picks 20 through 16 they roughly They roughly will make about the same amount Of money,

It can't change it Yeah so it's like At the end of the day It really Would not be in the best interest of Shamar to try to try to sit out rookie minicamp. I mean, not rookie minicamp, but like when it comes time to report for training camp, it would defeat the purpose for him to sit out. So it's like I really wouldn't get too crazy concerned about it. Mainly just for the fact that at the end of the day, it's rookie minicamp.

I understand that it's important because, hey, of getting the new guys coming in, getting them introduced to the system, letting them get... Helping them to get acclimated. But where are you? Man, I just don't get it. Here's where I'm at with that. Because Samara Stewart and Demetrius Knight didn't participate in any drills, right? But they were there. Yeah, they were there. They just was, you know, at home, chilling. No, they were there.

They were working. Look, they're working through their contracts right now. That's what Zach Taylor said. That's what I thought. I understand he said that. And just because they're working through their contracts, it does not mean that they won't report for camp. I would say at this point, you tell me, I would be more worried if they got closer to training camp and they weren't there. Let me read a quote that Samar Stewart said. Go ahead. On this very topic.

Go ahead. It addressed the situation, which I didn't see at first, but then, you know, he said, and I quote, I just decided not to sign those papers. I hate being on the sideline looking at everybody else do work, and then when he asked him does he envision signing the papers before Monday he said I quote I would hope so I would love to be a part of the team and he also added well you know everything else it's just not you know he's doing everything else just not the on field stuff so.

You pretty much just took it right out of my it right out of my mouth it's one that boils down to and I think a lot of people take the, take the whole thing of them sitting out Caleb Williams did this shit last year if I'm not mistaken didn't he I think it was down to the wire before he signed I think him and Roman Junze did that if I'm not mistaken, And the thing is this, okay, I mean, as long as they're physically there and they're taking part of everything else, just not the physical,

on-the-field stuff, well, these papers, you heard what he said, and he hopes to sign them by what? Monday. Or before Monday. You might even get them done today. You might get them done sometime today. They might get done sometime tomorrow. And this whole story is the much-to-do-about-nothing drama again, right? because I tend to have to pour water on these fires a lot, I see.

Dude, you're saying pretty much what I'm thinking. I got to pour water on fire every couple of weeks about this, that, and the other and something else and why we haven't done this and, you know, and some are saying, well, okay, well, I don't know. I spent a whole bunch of money doing that. Look, we went over the sheriff's stuff, right? Doesn't matter if he's had him now or after. He's not showing up. Because, you know, That'd be another story. Oh, he signed him.

He ain't showing up. We knew this. Most of us with some kind of, you know, insight or just two pair, you know, a pair of ears focused on the right things. You listen, the sheriff clearly made this known, you know, yes, you can sign me, but you won't be getting me until I feel like I want to show up. He's old. I've got to give him. Look, he's earned some of that. Anybody been in the league over like seven, eight years? They've earned the right for some of this.

No, you're not wrong. They put their bite on the line. And normally if you play for one team or two, three teams, look, that means you put your service for more than one, you know, for more than one master, as we say, right? If you want me to put it in doom turns, right? You can serve more than one master, just not at the same time. No, you're not wrong. And the most important thing, how do you feel? How do you feel? Does he feel healthy?

I don't know. See, because no one has said anything, how she feels, right? We don't know. He could be really banged up, boogered up. He could really just be, you know, not wanting to come in and do a physical and do all this stuff, and we find some stuff. Maybe he was trying to get over. Because some teams, if you come in and do the physical, they find anything other than what you knew, you know, what you stated to them, and what they thought. They were already cut you.

Yeah, now, wait a minute. Now, wait a minute. You didn't tell me you, you know, you pulled half your toenail off on your baby toe, right? Does it hurt? No, not really. Damn it, but it's still gone, though. I can see it. And I'm like, I'll wear socks. It's all right. I'll pull on some damn socks. It's all right, you know? No, no, I get that. And that's why, like, for me, I'm looking at it in the perspective of the kid was just drafting. Yeah.

Now, and some people are saying that, hey, he's trying to get more money. Like, no, the rookie weight scale is set. He can't do it. He can't. If you don't believe us, go to, matter of fact, if you don't believe us, go back.

Yeah. yeah matter of fact hold on let me go into let me go into because i'm on my ipad pro we're doing this live from my ipad pro oh so yeah this is right out his mouth because we remember we talked about this yeah and this is the man that hey he works it and he lives it so what he does this is why it's always a pleasure to have him on whether i agree 100 or not doesn't matter yeah go to them Yeah, go to the May 2nd episode if you follow the show.

You just got to go one, two, three, four episodes back. Literally, you can go ahead and listen to that. That whole episode was really great.

So yeah it's like he's literally literally that's but yeah he he even said like the rookie wave scales are set there's really then you can't negotiate more money you're not able to negotiate more money till year four when it's after they've completed the three years year four they could start negotiating a new an extension and like i make and like i mentioned the picks are the the The scale is set by pick, by the number that you picked in the draft.

So, yes, Walter Nolan will make a little bit more than Samar Stewart because he's picked one spot ahead, yes. And not by mud. Not mud, but he will make a little bit more, a little bit. But if we want to, you know, we can – I think we can kind of, you know, we can kind of structure it differently. Is that correct? If I remember correctly, yeah. That's what I was under the understanding of. They can still kind of mess with the structure a little bit. They're less waiting to give them.

But they can't change the amount. They can move money around within that. They'll say, hey, if they want to front load some of it, they can move the money around in the contract.

But as far as doing back when, as far as doing it like back before I say what like 2011, where they where shit you had fucking rookies holding out and they ain't played a goddamn down yet shit them days are long gone yeah no they made it to where no you don't play, motherfucker you don't play that's what I'm going to say I was definitely not going to come out of college and not get no money I can't figure that one out I'm going to pay I'm going to play whatever you

pay me because the pick that I was drafted and even if i think i deserve more money you just play you know you do have to play, up to the rebel you play after the level first round pick no one's gonna you don't have to you don't have to bang bang on the table very hard you know on on on what the next move should be with your next contract like they'll be itching the sign after year three because obviously each year, if you get to the last year, it gets more expensive. We know that.

Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. I know that. Yeah, that's good. When you're the biggest free agent on the team, though, that's a bonus. It's a bonus on your, you know, for that player. Like, if you're the top free agent and the rest of the team has, like, smaller free agents to bring back, look, most teams don't want to lose their big fish to somebody else. Not normally. Not normally. You got a top five player on your team.

If you notice, they don't get, you know, they don't just get the free agency a lot. Either get the trade. Yeah, like, for instance, T. Higgins. Yep.

Initially we thought and i think initially it was a good chance that it was going to happen initially but i think when the bangles really sat down and looked at it and you had the likes of joe burrow their core their star quarterback making it known like dude y'all really get y'all are fucking up y'all gotta try to fucking keep keep my guy i think had he not have said something i I think there's a chance I think they would have let him walk,

but I'm also looking at it in the sense of in today's world, like you said, if you're the number one, if you're anywhere in the top five of free agents, you got to be a fool to let that. It says more about you as an organization if you let that player walk, unless it's under a certain extenuating circumstance.

Like you took like you took the medicals like they got injured in a contract year you took a look at the medicals and you that might have been a little ripped for your blood with the money that they were wanting, to retain him let's take Nick Chubb for example. Yeah because he was one of the top five on the team yeah I'm talking about as far as top three agents but I get the premise of where you're going. I get the premise of where you're going, but do continue.

Not even top five free agents total. If you're the top five player on your team, there's no reason for you to be no. There's no reason for you to let that guy go unless it's got to be some other than football. Because that just don't make sense to me. The best free agents is the one on your team. So there is a reason why. There's a reason that he's on your team. So would you say the same thing? So would you link that to Jesse Bates in this

case? Because you know there's going to be a small section of our listener base. That might cut you on that. Okay. Who was our free agent that year that we also brought back? Who was the free agent that we brought in? Right. Who was the free agent that we brought back? Orlando Brown is who we brought in that year. See, there you go. Orlando Brown. Orlando Brown.

Bringing them in means more than keeping Jesse Bates. Because all I've heard still, even more so than, oh, we said you have Jesse Bates. No, we need to protect Joe Burrow. They've been saying that ever since we went to the Super Bowl. Yeah. They've been saying that ever since. I'm like, you didn't say that. I think that they still.

We need to protect Joe Burrow. I'm like, wow, I know this. But hell, you have people still sitting there saying that we needed to, when we would make offensive line moves, oh, they're not doing enough to protect Joe. I'm like, you can't have a full line of all, like, the top at every position on the offensive line. You're not going to, that's not realistic. You need, at least your book, you at least need good, great to elite play from your tackles. Good, good, average to good is.

What's the word I'm looking for unless you get into the word and every time I say this Will crashes out just a little bit every time unless you get into unless you're an expert like Howie Roseman at cap gymnastics, I do agree with Will's point that you do have to. The reason why the Eagles O-line is so good is because they have to which about every year so many years. They're shuffling out a bunch of talent off of defense and getting a whole new crop of talent coming in.

But you know what they did on the offensive line? They drafted them. Yeah, most of those guys are guys they drafted. Who drafted them? Yeah, most of those guys are guys they drafted. I tell everybody all the time, like, listen, listen, I will always take an offensive player over a defensive player every time. If it means me bringing in a guy at a position that is more important, And left tackle is damn near the second most important position on the fucking offense.

Besides the quarterback. Damn right. Damn right. Quarterbacks one. Left tackle got to be two. It got to be. It has to be. And then it trickles down from there. Then you can name anybody else you want. Okay, I get that. Number one receiver. Okay, right tackle. Running back. Okay, yeah. But you can't tell me left tackle ain't important if your quarterback right-handed. You can't tell me that at all. That's always been the case. That's not going to change.

My thing is this. Would you rather not have Orlando Brown and have Jesse Bates back? I don't. I don't know who the hell would have started left tackle. Who? Joe Williams. As well. Probably. He probably would have. He probably would have. And we've seen how that ends up in the end.

And his issue with moving to Ragtaco for some reason which I don't understand why it was such an issue it's like going from it's like, okay you got I don't know you got a how can I put this you have a you have a car it runs perfectly fine it's new, it got all the bells and wiggles whistles and all this and that. But you got a chance to get a Benz for not too much more than what you pay for this car. You're probably going to get the Benz. Because it's not putting you out.

You still got the car. Nobody said you had to get rid of this car that runs fine. But you got the Benz too. You don't have to run the Benz into the ground. Go regular cars for that. Because of the maintenance and the upkeep. You can't get mad because there's something better coming in. Like positions in the NFL, people are too sensitive. They act like, well, I'm the best at my position. No, we can go find somebody better. You can always go find somebody better. It might take a while.

But there's always somebody better. It might take a very long time to get to that point. But you can't trend like, well, just because I'm a starter and I'm established, no, but you're established at a level that we need better from, and it wasn't like Jonah was off to that team he wasn't off the team until he was off the team he would have never been off the team personally he wouldn't have.

He'd still be here would he be starting, I don't know, maybe, maybe not maybe, maybe not but to kick up a lot of dust like Atlanta Brown wasn't better than you here's the problem, he was always better than you We just freaking played against them. Ask Trey Henderson how good Orlando Brown is, right? He knows. We played him three fucking times, did we not? In one year's holiday. All three times. Orlando Brown, Logan, Trey Hampton. I'm just saying. Ask him how good he is.

Ask him who would he rather pass for us against. Jonah Williams or Orlando Brown? It's going to take Jonah Williams every time. Oh, give me Jonah Williams every time. I can do something here. Be true, man. Don't get me wrong. They want to go up against the best talent. They want to go up against the best of the best. But, hell, if they got a quick and easy path to the quarterback, so they're going to take it every time.

I think deep down it don't make no difference, really. They're going to try to kill whoever across them. They would rather be – I would rather be easier, personally. I don't understand why. I ain't faced the best. No, no, because you're lucky for success. It goes down. That's just a fact. That's just a fact of what it is. When you face the best at the position that is directly opposed from you, your success rate goes down. Guess what? The lesser the talent your success rate goes up a little bit.

Anybody can still get beat. It doesn't make no difference. Anybody can still get beat by anybody. I think the likelihood of that is like when so like when if we had a better understanding of we know for sure Jesse Biggs is really going to outprice himself. Well maybe we could have actually done something to you know to lessen that blow. Well, if he had $16 million, I'm trying to figure out why would we not be able to give him that? Because I don't see why we couldn't have.

Just not $20 million a year. That was more... That was enough to where like... He was really about to be in the top two, three in safeties. I'm like, okay, but you haven't proven that you really are. Well, care about what other fans of you think. As a fan of Jesse Bates, I mean, I never saw Adam as a top two safety in the league. I think Adam's highest three in three safeties, which makes him about five or six in the league total.

I'm like, well, that's almost $20 million, but not really. That's right around what you got. And now this is coming up to, this isn't the last year, right? This is the next to last year or this is the last year? Do you remember? For what? For Perry? Jesse Bates. It's got to be the next to last. This ain't the last. Yeah, he's got one more year after this year. One more. Oh, but, yeah, they can get rid of him, though, after this year, though, right?

Well, actually, they'd probably get rid of him now if they really want to push the issue. Well, they're not. They're not going to get rid of him now. They're definitely not going to do that. I'm just saying, like, put it this way, most teams, a good portion of teams, I'm not saying all, but there's a good portion of teams, they might give you, say, a five-year, let's just say $300 million contract, although that's probably not far off with the quarterback position soon.

But anyway, as far as a fully guaranteed contract come out, that's not happening again. Especially, especially when O'Bates is getting close to 30. That has to be said, by the way. Yeah, he won't, no, he will probably end up happening. He will either, I don't know that he'll retire, but he might just sign another short-term contract somewhere else. But, uh. If you're looking at a contract like his, yeah, that is, what's the word?

No, that's just saying a whole lot. You can come back if you want to. I don't care. Here's the thing. I think there's certain positions, though, that the Bengals, I think, would want to stay younger at. I think the secondary is one of those positions. That's not true. You can't go with that. That's not true. The game would never bring nobody back. That was the case. We just proved we'll bring Ron Bell back. I'm not even sure why still, because you didn't do what I thought they said

they were going to do. We're going to use him as a mentor. No, just don't worry about it. It didn't happen. He got majorly hurt. Like a major injury. He's out a long time. At least Jesse would probably be able to play a little bit. Start? No. Don't start. My point. Right? Fool me once, right? No, you wouldn't be wrong. No, you would not be wrong at all. Then, you know, Jesse Bates come back as the veteran, right? That's apropos, right?

Him and all his playoff years with the Falcons. Wait, wait, no. No. I forgot. That didn't happen. All his playoff years with the Falcons. All his playoff years with the Falcons. That's right. That didn't happen. No. So what else is... So I'm trying to think of what... Another interesting thing that we could talk about. Matter of fact, I got one. The NFL schedule release comes up Thursday. Let's do an interesting exercise. And I want to get your... This is just a prediction.

Schedule prediction so we're going to start it off with the fact that let's see I'm typing it up right now, alright so it's week one who do you predict the Bengals, let's you and I both look at their schedule let's predict we can have a little fun with this week one Bengals season, Bengals take on Do you say that Do you say that they do a road game Or do you say it's a Home game.

Okay It should be done Cause you got the first nine You got the first We got nine home games this year So I think an interesting thing, To do These are, Probably a role game Because in 2021 we started at home 2022, Then do you start off the road Here's what I'm going to predict And you tell me if you think this will be a good matchup 2021 Bengals road Go on the road to face the Browns, Or are you against that? I'm never against playing the Browns because we won't beat them. Twice.

All right. So do you say, because that's very rare, I think in the entire history of the Bengals franchise, usually if they open up on the road, they come straight home and play a home game.

I'm going to predict the first home game to be against the Jaguars Okay Do you have any objections to that or do you want to Add to that Well, I don't think we'll start off with two, I don't believe we'll start off with two division games right away Yeah, I don't think so either myself I think with the Week three, I'm going to say they do two weeks at home I think week three, I'm going to go Ravens. Where are you at?

I think our division games will be spaced out a little bit. So you think they'll be spaced out a little more? Yeah. All right. Well, then in that case, that would either leave the Jets, the Patriots, the Bears, the Cardinals, or the Lions. Take your pick.

So rule-wise Could be Because traditionally, I'm with you I think we usually always play the Steelers Closer to the middle of the season, What happened last year is It took a while to play Division games It took a while It took to week like 7 I mean week 5 Five and then seven, And then you know the Steelers Were right after the bye week And then the last week So that was weeks 13 and 18. So right now we're just setting up the order in which we think we're going to go.

As far as the exact dates, that'll be something that we won't know until the start. So. So, here's what I'm thinking. Because I see your point on that. Let's go Patriots. Let's go Patriots home week three. Patriots, yeah. Because it's going to be early with the Patriots. I don't think we play them late this time. It's going to be early. Not the first game. Not, you know, not first or second. But not the first home game like last year. It'll be early, though.

It'll be because, you know, early in the season, right, with both teams healthy, you know, Both teams are going to be thought of a little differently than last year. Right? You know, they predict 10 and a half wins, you know. Now that Drake makes in there and better, you know, trying to do better on the offense as far as they're concerned. Right? So it's week four. We got the first three out of the way. Week four. We got to throw in a road game.

Electing either. I'm electing I'm electing that we go either Ravens that we go Ravens but I'm also open to suggestions so do continue, well this is where the next two or three weeks is where the division game against the Ravens will lie because it always is a little bit earlier than later it's not close to the usually the Raven the Ravens and the Browns we usually play one of them early like one early one, one, one, one before we play one early usually one closer to bye and we definitely

play after the bye we play at least two or three of them within the first three weeks yeah, that's where we have our road games you know our traveling road games so the road game, for the road game that I'm thinking I'm thinking let's do Ravens or do you either do Ravens or we'll do Cleveland? We also had the Steelers, and we also had the Bills, Broncos, Dolphins, Packers, and Vikings. Packers would probably be one I could see us playing early, too.

I'd see maybe playing them early, but closer to the bye. But would you say week four, or would you say week five? Would you say the fourth or fifth game? No, not Packers. Not that early. One of these two or three weeks here has to be it's going to be a division game, it's either a division game or a big game so it's either going to be the Ravens or the Bills I'm not sure which one.

Here's what I'm thinking, let's do Ravens because it makes sense when you really put it in the when you really put it in the perspective and I'm thinking along the lines of what you're thinking as well. We played the Browns already. Correct. Right. Yes. Okay. We're going to do bills week five. And that, and shout out to my shout out to my former boss, rich, rich Partino, long time bills fan.

If you ever want to really get it, do you, if you want to go back just for, just for kicks, go back a number of episodes to the 2023 season, the bills, the build week when we played them on Sunday night, you can actually get a little bit of an idea of Rich as giving his thoughts on the... Yeah, giving his thoughts. So shout out to him. He was a hell of a guy to work for. And we beat him. Yeah, we did. All right. So six game.

Game six. If we look at how this is going How this is going, You got two weeks on the road I think they come back home So We've already had the Browns in For a home game We've already had the. Patriots No that was wrong No Patriots are home Another home game Yeah Okay.

We did two weeks on home at home then do a road game so like i said this is just we're predicting the order we're we're predicting who we did the order this is just an early prediction hey, because this is a unique exercise that we can do to decide on because like i said we're less than a week away i thought this would be an interesting exercise so week six usually any time that they do two weeks on the road you don't usually do more than two

weeks on the road most NFL teams occasionally you might see one that gets a third but coming home we've already played the Bills I mean not the yeah we've already coming home we've already played the Jaguars and Patriots, and we've been on the road against the Browns the Ravens and the Bills, coming home these are the ones that I see as a potential, because I think usually anytime you play a division rival usually they space it out at least two, three weeks.

So the way I think so that would either leave us, you could go ahead and throw the second Cleveland game in there maybe another one that you could turn around and do which would be an interesting matchup would be to go ahead and throw in the Jets. I think the Jets is second half. Okay. So because we know we don't play a whole division. We play half. We usually play half but 23 we damn near played the whole division all at once. Right.

But this in other words you think that was just a weird coincidence. Yeah. They fucked up. Let me call it with it. No they fucked up. You don't play. All right. So with that case, that would either leave the Browns, the Ravens, or the Steelers, or the Bears, Cardinals, or Lions. I could see our second half being weaker than the first half. First half's going to be. I would think it would, and put it this way, here's what I'm calling.

What's going to end up happening. I think the Lions are going to play closer to the back half. Yep, they're going to be down there with the Steelers. It's going to piss me off. Yeah, they're going to be closer to the back half. So for this one, I'm going to go between the Bears and the Bears, the Cardinals, or if we're looking at it... The Bears is a good choice. Yeah, well, I'm thinking Bears. Bears home.

The Bears would be a good choice at home And again this is our collaborative, Yes Schedule prediction This is our collaborative Schedule prediction, So the way I want to do this I know we just Came back home and Played the Bears, But I'm feeling I'm feeling an inklings They're saying hey we need to go back out on the road Well that's going to be I think.

My choice with that Is going to be between the Broncos, the Dolphins The Packers or the Vikings I could see, So wait, so wait, you said I could see us having to travel A little bit with these two games Is it two road games in a row? We just did Like the way we've got it set up so far We've already had two road games so far So do you want I can see where they turn around And come home and then go back on the road two more weeks, because that has happened.

That happened, well, no. That didn't happen last year, per se. No, it did. Not where we had to travel far. But the trip to Baltimore, that's not far. Going to play the Chargers, that is far. That's why I think Arizona is going to be closer to the bye week. But Arizona's home. Oh, well, not Arizona. I mean, Green Bay, sorry. Do logistics in my head, you know, which is, it's not real far, but I mean, you know, because I think ain't Denver the farthest trip we have.

So what we're going to do, and I'm looking at this now, because if we do a similar thing how they did it last year, last year you had week one against the Patriots at home, then week two on the road against the Chiefs.

Week three at home against the Commanders, week four on the road against the Against the Panthers Week 5 at the Ravens Week 6 and 7 on the road Against the Giants And the goddamn, Browns Which isn't really a far road game at all Not for us So what we need to do, So what you could do Because If everything goes according To what they're thinking Some speculations They got the Browns the Browns, the Steelers, they got the Browns, scheduled to play in London.

They've got the Dolphins scheduled to play in Spain. I may be wrong on this, but I could have sworn I thought that the Steelers were scheduled to play in Germany. I could be wrong. If I am wrong, that's why I'm putting a disclaimer on that.

So what So what do you think Dolphins Dolphins away, So we're going Dolphins That makes sense though Cause I know They're definitely not gonna screw us like they did the fucking Steelers last year, Putting all the damn division games In the end that was stupid Alright so what we're gonna do is I'm gonna put I'm gonna predict our Bye week to be in week eight Eight.

So I think coming off the bye week that is where I think we play the Steelers in week nine what do you think, it would be either the Steelers it would be either the Steelers Cardinals, I'd say Steelers Ravens Cardinals is this home or away yeah I say let's do it home if it's home it's not the Steelers we're not doing that again I don't think. It'll be somebody else, Dan. All right, Dan. We've already put the Bears in. Bears are off the board. So the only ones that are available,

you could go ahead and do Cleveland, Baltimore, the Jets. Probably. Would they want to do it right after the bye? Because I guess I assume that it'll be the bye for them too. Maybe. What, for Baltimore? Maybe it'll be their bye week too. Maybe. Maybe. Because most of the time, you know, we got a bye week. We all got a bye week, but not all the time. Not all the time. So, like I said, this is just a prediction that we're going to say the bye weeks in week eight.

So, what did it? Because Cleveland bye week was week 10 last year. And ours is week 11, if I'm not mistaken. I mean 12. So. Which is weird that you got a division that don't have the same bye week. But we did. So we got Browns, Ravens Jets Cardinals Lions.

Since you say Steelers you want towards the back You're thinking towards the back, So these are the I was thinking Steelers But you pretty much said hell no Well no they won't They wouldn't You think they would two seasons in a row Make us play the Steelers outside of the Bowie Right off the Bowie at home. There's no exact science to this. This is just a fun exercise. But, you know, they do know. They are aware of these things.

And they're less likely to repeat the exact same, you know, great situation. But we will have to play them twice, obviously. I'm going to say at this point, let's just do Cardinals. Cardinals, okay. Cardinals. That way, the whole podcast isn't us trying to figure out. Yeah, you get the gist. Cardinals home. Week 10. Usually, and I'm using last year's schedule as an example.

I'm going to say And if it's me I think this is the first I think this is If we do two weeks at home We have to go ahead and throw in the Ravens But I've got a unique, Conundrum that I think Would be Interesting I say let's throw in This is about the time Where I think you would either face The Packers Or, Vikings or the Steelers? I was thinking Packers or Steelers myself. I was definitely thinking one of those too. Let's go Packers this time. Because that's a road game.

We're going to do another away game. Why don't we make that one Steelers? Clearly about the time we played them. Yeah, because it's about They're about due Yeah, about due for a good whooping They're due for a good whooping too Podcast, Listeners, Steelers fans, right? Yeah, we're going to put that as a Rare game We'll give them a whooping too.

For sure I think this is the point where You got to You got to have them You got to have, This is a point where I think They come home to play the Browns Unless you're against that Then again I know you You're never against A good old Browns beating, I love playing the Browns They suck. You know the funniest thing is they know it And the fans just They just refuse to admit that they suck I'm like I don't understand When we So I would admit it.

So with that being said, I'm looking at the schedule. You're the Browns. If we're going to do a second home home game that in the same week, I say, let's make it Jets. Okay. They also suck. They do. They do suck. They do. Falka, you know, and they fall, you know. So far, we've had our first home divisional game. Yeah. Just want the listeners to know that, you know, when I say a team sucks, it's not always their fault, you know. All right. So let me look at the schedule, how we got it.

All right. For week 14, I'm going to go with the Minnesota Vikings. Wonderful. All right. So no objections.

Wonderful damn it that that that is scary that i'm not getting any kind of objections for you wonderful because while they don't suck right bikers don't suck they may be a little bit overrated i like playing teams just overrated i really do and i understand but you know when you come from you know when you come from where that is the roller coaster ride that is there, Seasons and it's a rollercoaster ride, It's 100% But it's not really a good rollercoaster Alright so I'm going to say

Right now Would you say week 15 would be a good time to either Go Steelers, Steelers at home Ravens at home, Or Do you want to or do you say Lions Because We've got the Steelers already on We've got an away game for the Steelers already set for week 11. Yeah. Or if you want, I can read back all of them and you tell me what you think. I can see... Look, I can see... Minnesota. We played Minnesota. I could see them sending us, you know, playing.

But we go to Minnesota. They don't come to us. We go to them. Them and Green Bay, we're going to them this year. Yes. So I don't see them in the end of the year sending us out a bunch since Detroit has to come here, right? Yeah. Detroit comes here. All I have to do is just remember the last time that we played these teams and where we played them, which I remember. It was in Detroit, and you know, I won't even say what happened. They got thumped. That's all. I mean, it was 34-0 in this quarter.

I don't know. I guess they got thumped. I wouldn't say. They scored some points that they can't. Okay, like that. Alright, so... Is the Baltimore game at home? We've got a Baltimore game set for away in week four. Okay. Okay, so that Baltimore game is home now. The second one? Yep. So you want to do home and then one more away and then finish out at home?

Yeah, so the home game is going to go some of the semblance of Minnesota, Minnesota, Baltimore, no, Minnesota, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and then whoever else we got left all right so here's here's how here's how i'm looking at it and this is what i this is what i'm what i've put in to predict in my prediction and because this just seems to make the most sense because you want to try to have a fair amount of uh home games away games and then predict where the bye week is somewhere in there.

So, as of right now, week one for the prediction, we got the Bengals go on the road to play the Browns. Week two, they come home to play the Jacksonville Jaguars. We get to see the debut of one Mr. Travis Hunter. Week three, they come home Week 3, they're still at home to play the dreaded New England Patriots, which we owe them. We owe them badly. Well, yeah, you're right. If it was the Tom Brady year, yeah, I'd give that to you.

Well, week 4, they go back on the road to play the Baltimore Ravens in M&T Bank Stadium. Week 5 You play The Buffalo Bills You go to see the Buffalo Bills And the reigning MVP One Mr. Josh Allen. Week 6, you come home to play the Bears. Yeah, to play the Chicago Bears. Week 7, and this is where I thought it up, that if you're going to go on the road, you might as well go ahead and have your bye week shortly after.

If you're going to go on the road, especially if you're going, if that is a game that lends up in Spain like a lot of people are predicting, you go ahead and have your bye week for week 8. So Bengals go play the Dolphins away week 8 is the bye week 9 coming off the bye week is, against the Arizona Cardinals at home week 10 and 11 both on the road against the Packers and Steelers, week 12 week 12 is always a good game for you especially if they win because

it's the Browns What do we expect? Thump. So, yes. Week 13, we play the rookie head coach, one Mr. Aaron Glenn, with Justin Fields at the helm for quarterback. Week 14. He's about to get out there and play corner. Anyway. No, tell Aaron Glenn to get his jersey ready.

Week 14 Week 14 The Bengals go on the road to Play the Minnesota Vikings Week 15 they come back home To play the, Detroit Lions And get a visit From one Mr. Dan Campbell And The Detroit Lions 16 One of your last home games The next to last home game against the Baltimore Ravens. You go on the road to play the Denver Broncos And this time we go to Go pay a visit to Sean Payton And one Mr. Bo Nix And then we've got the Steelers finishing out At week 18 At home.

So what do you think? What do you think? You think that's a decent schedule or would you move things around a little bit? I think it's a decent schedule. It has lots of twists and turns, lots of danger, as they say. Well, but mainly your danger is like, I see your point. It gets closer to the middle of the schedule. I love it, though.

Love danger. I want it to be, you know, I want it to be difficult, you know, because the funny thing is people thought last year's schedule was a, was a powder cake schedule. Well, cause no, cause what happened was once we started, once we were losing games, right? Folks really kind of overblown the fact that we were losing games and not looking how we were losing these games.

Like we're just getting blown out. I can understand, you know, pitching the tent and say, well, we can try again next year. But I'm like, no, that's not the attitude of our quarterback. You know, our quarterback is one that he's pissed even though he threw five touchdowns, right? Because he strives for perfection, which is what we all should strive for. I mean, I want my team to be perfect.

You know, are they going to be perfect? No. I know they're not going to be but I want them to try to be I want to win every game by I don't know 100 points will we no of course not 100 to nothing, 100 to nothing isn't that my normal you know against the Browns we might be able to accomplish that I don't know, they kind of suck I mean I don't even need to be nice or nope I was called to tell, I was told and taught to tell the truth. They suck. Period. Ain't no way of getting around this.

Right? There's no reason to try to make, you know, I don't need to make them feel no better. They know. See, they know they suck. That's the thing. They know they suck. No, you're not. I know they suck, too. But you just love saying they suck because you hate them i love saying they suck when they suck it's only when they actually do, I've never said, well, you know, you know, they still suck. No, they don't.

You know, when they made the playoffs, I gave them all the credit, you know, that I thought they deserved. But obviously there was one fan that thought they deserved. I don't know. I don't know what he thought, actually. No idea. It was a very strange interaction I had with a Cleveland Browns fan. I actually will Was that the one that I was there for? Yeah It was that guy I was like but I I understand being you know Being all in on your team Sure But I mean This guy was He was quite.

Braggadocious Not even that He was overconfident in something that happened, You know He was overconfident because they beat They went if I'm not mistaken they beat the Titans I mean the Texans at home, without the kid without the kid even I'm like wait but, you can't say that that doesn't matter because it actually is the most important reason why I don't have you beaten them again.

And he was saying it was easy I'm like what easy the Braves don't do nothing easy nothing right simple, moves right simple simple, you have a quarterback you don't alienate the damn quarterback you don't alienate the quarterback, well make your message that I'm sorry you're not our guy wait a minute here's one thing I know about that whether Beckham Mayfield was their guy or not he did something he did something, that no other quarterback was

able to do up to that point not just get in the playoffs, he won a game, I guess that's not enough right, Anthony? When we waited 31 years to win a game right? They fucking get one and get rid of the quarterback I'm like we won one ship we immortalized ours you know why? Because he won another one Guys, they don't even have the damn sense to realize it. What he did is something that... You can't say here's the thing, they can't say they used to winning playoff games, right? Yeah.

So I'm like, so why would you not why would you not look at that in a better light? In the light that it should have been looked for. I don't care if I look, it doesn't matter whether you wanted to draft another guy or not. Whether you want to know the quarterback or not. The thing is every quarterback that you thought about drafting or looking at free agency, you really only went one route. It left themselves no way out of this situation outside of pretty much.

Sean Watson, if he ain't as good as he was, you guys are screwed. To me, they still were screwed, even if he was. I truly believe they were screwed no matter what. And here's why. What was the one thing I kept mentioning while all this was going on, Anthony?

What was it that you kept mentioning? in about the time watching what's the one thing i kept saying about the time watching, trading for her means what though what does it mean what's the one thing when you trade for a player you want to be able to do do what you got him for play play right play, if you're not going to play right then what in the are you trading for it for.

Sorry what the fuck are you praying for a quarterback who's not going to play I want anyone in the chat, put him in the chat and anyone that's listening to this somebody pray I mean that explained to me Anthony because I don't understand because I'm like I knew he wasn't going to play, they knew he wasn't going to play they transferred him anyway I'm like wait don't you need him to play you just you didn't want the quarterback They want to play out a game for you, Fine He's not your guy Okay,

That's fine Everybody's entitled to You know You're always entitled to Do things your way when you're in charge Right Yeah But damn, Damn The one thing I'm going to do Make sure, When I make a trade That the guy's not Injured or suspended Because that means what He ain't playing What, I won't even talk about the guaranteed contract part. We know what that is, right? We know what that is. I would say that's not even the worst part of it. That was icing on the cake for me.

That's like getting ice cream, right? Pretty cool. Your favorite ice cream. Mine is strawberry, right? And then dropping it on the ground. Instead of going back and getting another scoop of ice cream Or maybe a different one You pick that one up and you eat it And everybody's like, Right, that's what I'm saying What the fuck Not only did he not play You guaranteed a contract Why, for not playing? You guaranteed him a contract Why, because he's not playing for you? I'm confused I'm so confused.

It's called desperation That can't be desperation. Desperation is when you make a move that makes, it usually makes some kind of sense. A desperate move can't make no sense at all, anywhere around. Like, this doesn't make no sense no matter what. It's one part desperation. I can't even. The other part's stupidity. At least that's how I'm envisioning it, but. Yeah, I can't even make sense of it. As a sensible man. No, you're not wrong, man. I'm not good with you.

I think very logically, and I got nothing for this. Nothing. There's nothing you can add to that. Even when I first heard it, I'm trying to make sense of it. It made absolutely no sense. I understand that they needed a quarterback. Well, I can't lie and say that they didn't necessarily need a quarterback. You know, I can't say what I thought For sure that I thought You know, now you do know this I am not Someone that you would say would be the biggest fan of Baker Mayfield, right?

Yeah But He kind of grew on me a little bit You know He kind of grew on me a little bit. I'm just saying It took It took for him to get away from Cleveland And for them not. Not to give a shit about him to think that for them to think that they were so much better without him I'm like well okay.

That ain't that ain't necessarily true now if Deshaun Watson would have been, Deshaun Watson guess what Rick Romarefield was still better than him that's the problem no matter how good, right no matter how good this kid played right right, He still was better. He still played better in the years. Not the first year when they got rid of him because he bounced around. Once he got his foot in the door somewhere, right? Once he got out of Carolina, right? He got out of Carolina with Tampa Bay.

Once he got out of that, I'm like, okay. Now he knows he's going to play. Tom Brady's not looking over his shoulder. He can just be free. He can just let it rip. They won him and let it rip. And let it rip he did. And I'm thinking, well, damn, me not being the biggest fan of Baker Murphy, damn, he looks pretty damn good and competent. But some of that had to do with him getting out of Cleveland.

Yeah, so. But, no, I just realized, yeah, we've been on for a little over an hour, almost an hour and 15 minutes.

Like this was mainly just us Just kind of like Doing a little round table Slash schedule prediction Ordeal, Do you have anything else that you want to do Talk about Because right now we're in the period Where as far as football news There's not much coming through I know I don't want to make this a whole, Poop on the Browns Some people might actually enjoy that but you know i i can't i can do this a lot as as someone once said right i can do this all day well

i just thought of something i just thought of something do you because one of the last times we did this one of the last times we did this episode it was actually pretty well received, do you want to tell a granny story. Do you tell a granny story from the from uh from you from the bangles or whatever granny story you could think of before we close the show out, Oh, you know what? I do have a granny story. I'm going to tell the granny story of the first time she left.

The first time she left? Yep. I've got to hear this. The very first time she left a football game early. And I think, I don't know if she does this often or not, or maybe, maybe not, because, you know, I used to think she beat the track. You know, I was younger than, you know. But the first time I went with her and she left Not the first time she left early The first time I went with her Went with her.

The thing is I'm trying to Totally remember the game Itself I remember the game that we were at Let's see This was, Okay I'm trying to set the scene here Because I know what year it was in 93, It was a bad year too It was a bad year I was trying to remember what game it was If I'm not mistaken Wasn't that John Copeland's rookie year? Yeah Was it in 93?

Yeah it was I remember a game I'm just trying to get everything together here So this was week 11 And this was Week 11, November 14th 1993 We played the Houston Oilers, And this was This was This was one This was probably Probably one of the better, Better Houston Other years That they had They were They were really good This year we were Three We were three and thirteen, I think they were Twelve and four Twelve and four If not for like Moon missing a couple games Right,

Because he won He was ten and four That year On the season Good old commander Cody Carlson Came in and won The other two games It's okay Let me Let's paint the picture Paint the scene, This is November game it wasn't. What's the word I'm looking for? It wasn't like A terrible weather game Really? You know? Good attendance The game started off First quarter I don't know why I had any optimism But I just did back then Probably because I was what?

Let's see 15, 16 years old Almost out of high school I had Don't get me wrong My optimism was waning. Optimism was waning Waning So You know it's Not much happening in the first quarter Right It's like Not much happening You know, Then they scored a touchdown I think it was Curtis Duncan I'm not mistaken Right They had a long drive And we stalled out Which happened way too often Right It happened way too often in 93 92, 92, 93, right? 94, as, you know.

Then all of a sudden, here's what happened. The unfortunate part, here's what happened. We start turning the ball over, which we did a lot. The funny thing is, they actually turned the ball over four times to two, but we turned the ball over at the wrong time in the second quarter. And they scored again. It was 14-0. And then I think we fumbled again. And guess what? They scored again. I was like, fuck, it's 21 nothing. I look over. I look over. This is like midway through the second quarter.

I'm thinking about what I want to eat for, you know, because, you know, 15, 16, I know my way home and this, you know, I wasn't, you know, it wasn't like, you know, I stayed with my grandmother then, you know, high school. You know, I wasn't lost. I knew, you know, had money. You know, I was going to ask, you know, did you want something from the concession day? It's about to be close to halftime. It's 21 nothing. We looking around.

I think if she grabbing her bag and stuff you know her purse to go get some vending machine because she i mean out there she would go and leave, early like two minutes before halftime right she beat the crowd she literally start doing that, like like at the two minute warning she would be in the concession scene she'd be there ordering her food and on the way back where folks are trying to line up and anthony you can attend Yeah.

Because you go trying to line up for a fucking concession stand, especially for them goddamn chicken fingers they serve at Peckor Stadium, which are pretty good. Yes, yes. But shit, they ain't good enough for me to sit goddamn three fucking hours waiting on the goddamn things. Because what would happen would be you would miss part of third quarter. Yeah, I hate doing that. Yes, you'd miss part of third quarter trying to get back. So I'm looking up and I'm thinking she's going to the set stand.

She's like, well, baby, I'm going home. I'm like, what? What? We're just going home I know it's back I know we're getting our butt our butt kicked, but you know and here I'm thinking well it's only 21-0 which is stupid excuse me now I think back now what the fuck am I talking about why would I say oh it's only 21-0 well guess what happened guess what they did, as she was leaving they scored again.

He ain't done nothing at half and I'm sitting there and everybody's like is Granny gone if I didn't hear her say she's leaving she's going home and she's just the first time she said I'm going home to watch a real game, I'm like well you know what this is a big offended I am and it kind of made me mad a little bit I understood what she meant I was like damn Granny, I can't even lie Yeah, you couldn't even be mad at her. You couldn't be mad because she's right.

She was wrong. I had an argument with that. Right? I couldn't be mad because she was right. She was right. In any game they showed opposite odds, you know, would be better than this ass-whipping we did. 28-0. At home. On TV. It was on TV. I called. I called home and my mother, you know, my mother. And my mother was there at the house. And she, you know, she didn't want to go to the game. She said we was going to get her ass kicked. She was right. She was right.

No, she was right. She didn't say that a lot. When she thought we were going to get her ass kicked, we usually did. Because she knew Warren Moon. I'm like, damn, I know Warren Moon, too. Even my father said it. He kind of like, you know, because I popped him a couple days before that, that Friday. And he was kind of like, I don't know, man, I'm getting the pass rush. And I'm like, yeah, I know.

We're in the shoot. We face him. We didn't face him. but correct me if i'm wrong though warren moon because i remember watching a watching a football idea football life documentary because since we're season ticket holders that hey that's one of the things that we get is nfl plus so we've been we've been fortunate enough that i've been able to go back and watch some of this stuff and i'm a i'm a very in watching warren moon the hell was it with the fact that every time he,

he would throw the ball his, like that his throwing motion made like some kind of zipping sound. Yeah yeah it did when the ball came out of his hand it had a shot, It was like, damn. Hey, that lets you know you're throwing. Look, when I say somebody slaying that thing, that's what I mean. That's what I mean. He get back to the top of his drop. And once he hit that back step and do that little hop, I'm like, somebody got to get him off his spot.

I mean, you ain't got necessarily sacking. Sacking would be great. Hurting would be even better. You know, put him out for the game, not permanently, just out for our game. So we got a chance to win.

While Warren Moon was I think he was He was 23 of 31 with four touchdowns All in the first half by the way If I'm not mistaken Yeah All in the first half And I'm like well darn At least I got a chance to see them all I think, Well no no they weren't all in the first half It was three, I take it back it was one in the third quarter Which made it, Three Five to nothing And I'm just sitting there like What the hell's going on here We're down 35 to nothing at home.

It's on TV. They probably wish they hadn't put the shit on TV. Fucking David Klingler, right? David Klingler. How do you say it? Fucking David Klingler. No, no. He was 4 of 17. How's that possible? This motherfucker was 4 of 17 for 34 yards. Then they put in Jay Schrader. He was 4 of 11 for 46 yards. I'm like, oh, okay. 10 yards to completion. Wish you would have completed more practice. Not that we would have won. He did lead us to a field goal, you know, to save the embarrassment.

The scores, you know, we traded field goals into the third to make it a respectable 38-3, right? And I'm sitting there to the bitter end like, I can't believe, one, this bad quarterback play, which I don't think we've ever had. No, there's never been a game that I've watched on TV or physically was at where the quarterback played so bad. No. That wasn't the most embarrassed I was at a game but come on, the quarterbacks were 8 8 for 28 and I'm thinking.

I don't know I don't know what else we can do I mean, we gotta go with one of them two guys, I'd go with none of them, I guess I'd play 10 on 11, I guess, without a quarterback fuck just snap it to the running back who cares?

4 of 17 Anthony, that's impossible and it wasn't that the pressure was so high he just couldn't hit the broad side of his ass, not the broad side of a barn and the funny thing is this is his worst game he ever had and the same thing i was there to see it so a lot of people say well david clinton was the worst quarterback we ever had i'm like no he's just the worst quarterback i've seen in person yeah and i love because you and me talked off the record and we were able to.

Actually that would Actually that would lead into our Next maybe that could be our next Episode sure sure I would Totally enjoy that Yeah we just talk just horrible Quarterback play in Bengals history because For every time folks will say You know David Klingler Kenny Smith I got worse, Well I got worse than that but You know, They're the high profile ones the ones that we spent a first round pick on yeah a very high the number one when

you pick a quarterback within the top five you kind of want him to not be, you know totally over his head but some of that has to some of that is our doing you know some of that I put up squarely on the coaching staff, I put squarely on like did you really really do your homework, on him you know I question that No that goes without saying That goes without saying I think what it boils down to Because like every year You have that one draft pick It doesn't It doesn't

happen with just the Bengals Every team has had it, Where everybody says Oh this is a can't miss it Where you got assholes Like god damn Mel Kuyper. Talking about Oh, this is a can't-miss prospect. It'd be a fool not to take him with your first overall pick. Exactly. Happening? Shadira Sanders. He says, there's better fooling him. Goddamn Mal Kuyper fucking crashed out like a motherfucker. Don't get me wrong. I actually like Shadira Sanders.

I don't know that Cleveland's going to be his long-term home or that he'll get a second contract. I think what's going to end up happening, he'll probably be... If he makes the 53-man or the practice squad, I think he gets traded out the next year. Because there's going to be a quarterback. There's going to be a team that's going to need a quarterback. And that's what I think ends up happening. But I ain't going to lie. The granny story, man, that was funny as hell.

Well, no, I did. I thought she'd go to the bathroom or to the concessionaire. Because when she grabbed, you know, she grabbed her purse. That's no big deal. She had her purse, you know, a little jacket.

And I'm like wait a minute something different granted you don't grab every damn thing and I am it ain't like she need to grab nothing but her first I will be here cause I was about to get up myself, and go beat the crowd cause I know everybody's about to rush you know that's not about to rush to the touchdown we down 28 nothing well it was 21 nothing and they had the ball again cause we fumbled hell.

Hell wasn't it the fucking brand, My first year as a season ticket holder What gets a fucking Hell, fuck you series anyway my fucking so for those of you that may have heard my fucking home pod has a mind of its own so anyway, shut the fuck up anyway you do you remember because you were at that game with me, because as soon as I went on and put my name in and had a season ticket holder you and me basically said from then on we were gonna split the bill well to make a long story short,

What ended up happening was we went to the fucking Panthers game in 2022. That was a fucking slaughter. I mean, beyond slaughter. Well, I think I got up. I said, I'm getting up to go. I said, hey, I'm going to go. I'm going to go grab something to eat. You're like, oh, you're going to leave? I'm like, no, I'm not leaving. I'm just going to get something to eat. Then I said, he's like, but why? I'm like, you see that scoreboard there?

I said it's only going to get worse and oh my god it did wasn't it like 42, 24 some old bullshit yep, some of that, and Baker came out to some extent just doing what we're supposed to, in 1999 I was trying to just figure out as to why we didn't try to take a quarterback with more experience. Plan. Not the quarterback that was the oldest. Because the, Like, okay, he's the oldest in age, but he has the least experience as far as, like, playing.

That was his only year of playing in big-time college football. I'm like... Yeah, and then wasn't it, was it his rookie, was it Akili Smith rookie year, or was it his, uh, one of the years afterwards? That, uh, I guess he got his bell rung so fucking bad, his ass was fucking trying to line up under the guard instead of lining up under the center? I think so. I mean, don't get me wrong. I mean, I knew, and I knew. I hate to say that I knew, but I did. I knew.

I knew that the Browns and Eagles were not going to take Kelly Smith. And this is 1999. You know, the board's open. But 1999, there was a lot of quarterbacks drafted in the first round. And no, you're not wrong. And I couldn't figure out. Like I said, I couldn't figure out, like, okay. The way our year went in 1998, right? Don't that tell you that, you know, we picked it in the top five again. We're pretty bad. The last time we did this, we picked wrong. A quarterback.

And Klingler had experience. But it was experience in something that, you know, in an offense that I didn't. I knew we wouldn't run. I don't lie. I'm going to lie and say we probably should not have. We should have at least tried to implement some run and shoot shit in there. I thought we should have. At least that would have made it more comfortable. That's my thing. You got to make, because you got to make the damn kid comfortable. Somewhat. You got to be comfortable.

Nah, you're not long. Weird to say, dude. Shit, if we had the first pick, we took Tim Couch, that wouldn't have worked either. Shit, you damn right. It might have worked there. Look, well, Tim Couch is better than Killy Smith now. Wait a minute. Better than Killy Smith, but that's because he's also, he also, you know, but, you know, didn't try to acquiesce to him either. You know, he played in a gimmicky Howl Mummy, you know, right?

Howl Mummy? Yeah, Howl Mummy. You remember Howl Mummy? He was the head coach at Kentucky. They slung that thing. They slung that thing. I was. I put it this way. I was about to fucking start laughing. I was like, Howl Mummy, what the fuck? And then I thought back to Jim Bob Cooter. Don't stop. I'd rather have Jim Bob Cooter quarterback than Achilles' man. God damn. What do you mean? He got some experience. I'm just saying, anytime I hear the word Jim Bob Cooter, I can't help.

That's my mind going in the gutter. Shit. I can't help but turn around and fucking laugh. I won't even lie. I might have took a flyer on K.M. McNown. I watched them play for four years, violently. I didn't think he was going to be any good with the Bears. I didn't think the Bears was any good. It wasn't even about who they picked the quarterback. It's the rest of the shit. But what we had or what we didn't have, right, it's the lack thereof.

If you look at the 98 Bengals and the 99 Bengals, I mean, shit. Outside of taking like Tom Brady, Joe Montana, I don't think it, I guess it probably wouldn't have made no damn difference. Right? Wouldn't have made no difference. Wouldn't have been that much damn better, but I get what you're saying. It'd have been a little bit different. Don't get me wrong. Oh, yeah. A little different, but we would, see, like I said, we wasn't quite bad enough, right?

Again, we wasn't quite bad enough. And yeah, I was at that Tampa Bay game in 98. We lost 35 or nothing. I was there. It's fucking, it's fucking making fun of us. Yeah. It certainly was. I'd make fun of myself. Like, we suck. It's okay. Yeah. You ain't got to make fun of us. We make fun of ourselves. But I'm going to say this.

I think It's always a pleasure to get to sit there And just talk this shit Talk all this bullshit that we talk, But I'm almost a short ring and left at halftime In that game too Yeah I just don't remember I probably did.

Yeah no I get that With that being said I'm thinking this is probably a good spot To go ahead and close out the show, So with that being said We want to thank you guys the listeners for taking the time out of your day to listen to this show because hey we do this because we love we one we love football and two we love talking about the cincinnati bangles, we did a little bit of a talk about some of the shit that's going on a little more at depth with the shamar stewart and

demetrius knight stuff and basically there's no need to worry their shit's gonna get taken care of it's just some light little detail work that they gotta do to the rookie contract because apparently they want a little more money to come out of all that. With that being said, we appreciate you guys taking the time to listen. If this is your first time listening, welcome.

We hope you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed it, hit that, on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on because we're on most major podcast platforms. Because, hey, that helps us get pushed up the algorithm. And most of all, it helps you guys get notified when new episodes drop. So with that being said, if you want to follow the social media accounts, you can follow us at the Facebook page at Rule the Jungle and the X page at Rule the Jungle 9.

And also, too, if you want to follow our missing co-host, Tyler Bowles, you can follow him at TylerHooday54. You can follow me at AAnderson78, as well as Instagram at AnthonyAnderson535. Will, what do you got for him? Well, I will have another granny story next episode. And I want you to try to remind me, Anthony, not necessarily of that. Just mention the granny story the first time we switched seats because I was kind of superstitious about this.

The first time me and granny actually switched seats. Yeah, we can say that for the next one. I remember who we played. I remember who sat next to me. It's funny who it was too, but we'll get to that. Yeah, because we did that shit in 2023 when we first moved down to the South End's zone. I try not to switch seats. I do. I really do, Anthony. I ain't going to lie to you. Because always something weird happens when I do it.

So. And I feel like it's my fault. So you guys can follow me on Instagram at Appleton756. And you can follow me on Twitter slash X, right? William at Godifredoom9. That's William at Godifredoom9. All righty. So with that being said, we hope you enjoyed this episode with the schedule prediction. And we also wanted to touch on the Shemar Stewart situation, kind of like letting the rest of the fan base know if you're concerned about it, no need to be. This is stuff that happens.

It will likely be. It'll likely be.