Mike Petraglia with Charlie Clifford -- 7/22/24

Trags talks Bengals media day with Charlie Clifford of WLWT

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
And a happy Monday afternoon to youall out there. My name is Mike
Petralia Trags, filling in on thisJuly twenty second for the one and only
Moegar Moeger Radio Show on Cincinnati's ESPNfifteen thirty. The number to call in
the event to express your opinion aboutthe twenty twenty four Bengals as they begin

(00:29):
training camp in a couple of days, or to get anything off your mind
is five to one three seven fournine fifteen thirty five one three seven four
nine fifteen thirty. I want tohear what's on your mind after an eventful,
if not productive weekend of certainly baseballand looking ahead to the Bengals camp,

(00:50):
which really kicked off in Earnest today. Well, we're gonna have Charlie
Clifford of WLWT Channel five here inCincinnati talk about what were some of the
nuggets he learned today from media Day, a couple of days before the Bengals
kick off their training camp down atpay Corps Stadium. We're also going to
be talking about the struggling Orange andBlue FC Cincinnati has dropped a couple of

(01:15):
games in a row, actually threein a row to underwhelming competition, I
would say, and that is unlikewhat we have been accustomed to over the
last several years here in Cincinnati.So we'll have Laurel Failure on from Queen
City Press. But also Laurel doesa fabulous job covering the Bengals for the
Dayton Daily News, so we'll haveher on to discuss what she learned from

(01:40):
mock Turtle Soup Day as we liketo call it on the inside of Media
Day down at pay Corps Stadium today. So we've got a lot lined up
for you today. I won't getinto my trials and tribulations of how I
had to get here, but letme give you this much. It had
a lot to do what happened,and on Friday, Thursday and Friday,

(02:01):
across the country, across the globefor that matter, it was difficult getting
a flight. I missed my flightthis morning in Philadelphia, so I wound
up doing planes, trains and automobilesto get here. But I am in
front of this microphone to serve thisloyal ESPN fifteen thirty audience in the great

(02:23):
city of Cincinnati. And with allof that out of the way, I
want to welcome my first guest.He never complains about anything. He's one
of the most mild mannered people Iknow. On the Cincinnati Sports Speed he
does a great job covering all thingsCincinnati sports for WLWT Channel five. Charlie

(02:43):
Clifford, Charlie, how are youdoing on this Monday afternoon? I bet
you're better than I am. Well, I'm glad he made it back and
I'm looking forward to hearing the fullstory tracks, which I expect Wednesday.
Sounds like it was a nightmare.I know, Charlie. Sometimes it's a
nightmare and sometimes it's just annoying.This was a little bit of both.

(03:07):
It was annoying to have to getbehind the steering wheel at three am and
drive straight through since, oh no, you left that part out and I
already pulled that out for everybody.And yeah, I'll take that white one
over there that looks good, giveme the keys. So it was a
white SUV as a matter of fact. But the lovely Debora Ann kept me

(03:30):
company, kept me awake, keptme alive so I could get here.
I was hoping against hope to makemock Turtle Soup Day down at pay Course
Stadium, get into the press conferences, wrap that up really quick, scoot
right up seventy one to the lovelyiHeart Studios here in Kenwood and get on
the air and have everything covered,all my bases covered. But the gods

(03:52):
were not kind to me in termsof at least covering the Bengals today.
But you know what, there's plentyof Bengals camp to go. Oh Bengals
campound hasn't even begune. And Ihad to keep telling myself, telling myself
that as I wanted to creep offthe seventy five eighty miles an hour,
I'm like, Mike Trags, justrelax. My inner trags got to me,

(04:13):
okay, And I was like,okay, just kil It'll be there,
easy, cowboy, easy, allright, enough of that. Uh
yeah, it wasn't today. Welllet's yeah, let's talk. Let's catch
up. And as you said,the good news is by Wednesday, this
stuff's kind of all old news,right. So I A, this is
a first class event by the Bengals. Very nice for mister Brown and his

(04:38):
family and the brass to go outof their way, and you know,
it is just a nice way tostart what is a marathon here ahead through
through the holidays, through January andthe number one takeaway today and it was
the first thing asked. His firstresponse, Joe Burrows cleared for contact.
So this now completes the re haveprocess with the risk ligament, asked Zach

(05:03):
Taylor directly. You know you willsee a normal practice day for Burrow on
Wednesday, and then as things rampup with obviously he can't hit the quarterback
at any time throughout the summer.But there were no lingering questions or oh
that something you know happen over thepast few weeks during this break. No,

(05:25):
all systems are go for Burrow.This is as good as the Bengals
could have hoped. After you know, the Thursday night, Week eleven in
Baltimore, I don't think this couldhave gone any better based on the velocity
we saw in the spring, andI think we were all kind of looking
at each other like, oh gosh. You know, unless you were told
that he's coming off season ending wristsurgery, you would not have known.

(05:46):
I mean, there were no trainingwheels in the spring, and that will
be the case again here in thesummer. And then the second most interesting
thing, you know is this JamarChase extension trags and I don't know what
your crystal ball says, but youknow, I asked Mike Brown, do
you table the negotiations until next yearor is this something that you know you're

(06:10):
open to keeping this dialogue going throughoutthe season, because Duke Tobin did say,
you know, yes, we havehad discussions about keeping Chase here long
term, which is no shock toanyone. And Mike, Mike, Mike
Brown did say, you know,while he won't close the door on anything
you know happening, you know thisseason, he did say, look,

(06:31):
the off season is a better timefor these types of things, and that
he does think it will take alittle while. But to call them all
Bengals fans, you know nerves,you say, we're you know, we're
willing to bend over backwards to getthis thing done. And he said,
you know, everyone knows this thingstarts with Joe and then Chase knows it,

(06:53):
and we know it. He's thesecond most important piece. So what
do you what's your pulse on arewe gonna be talking about this next summer?
Because I don't personally, I don'tsee an extension getting done here based
on what we know with what justhappened with justin Jefferson. I think it's
going to be a very similar timeline. Yes, I do think we're gonna

(07:15):
My initial thought is, yes,we're going to be talking about this into
next year. What I'm curious tosee is how this dynamic impacts T.
Higginson, whether or not they offerhim another franchise next year or if they
decide to trade him. Now.Look, I don't anticipate the Bengals going

(07:35):
south at all. Nobody does.I expect them to be a super Bowl
caliber team if Joe Burrow is onthe field. But and the Bengals have
always done an excellent job of signingthe players they value the most. That
is the one thing that indicates tome. It took a while to get
Joe Burrow done, but it gotdone. I think they are going to

(07:58):
find a way to get jamar Chadone. I really, I'm telling you
right now. You could tell methe deal gets done tomorrow, and I
really wouldn't be shocked. You couldtell me that it goes into next year
and impacts you know, T Higgins, and you know, maybe they don't
tag T Higgins next year. Iwouldn't be shocked by that. But my
instinct is this is going to bedragging out a little bit, and I

(08:22):
do think it will probably go intonext year. I have always believed this
about the Bengals. When they identifythe players they want to keep, they
usually do an outstanding job of keepingthem, almost always. And I think
Jamar Chase is somebody not only theBengals want to keep the front When I

(08:43):
say the Bengals, I mean thefront office obviously, but the but the
quarterback wants him around. And Ithink, you know, you don't sign
Joe Burrow and then let your topreceiver go. I just don't. And
given the dynamic, if I'm aBengal fan, I'm pretty compident that the
Bengals get Jamar Chase a long termdeal done. The length that's another story

(09:05):
altogether. I have no idea ifit's going to be three or four years.
You know, I had James rapenon a couple of weeks ago and
we had this conversation and he mentionedI thought this was interesting that it really
behooves the Bengals to do a longerterm deal, but Chase is more inclined

(09:28):
to do a shorter deal. Andthat's where yeah, and that's where I
think some of the negotiating is youknow, we're splitting hairs here, but
that's probably where a lot of thenegotiating is being done. It will be
interesting, as you and I knowthis spring, Chase came back for the
final week of the mandatory program andit was all smiles on the field.

(09:52):
Declined to speak with reporters politely.I think that was smart, right,
and now it's like, okay,well now it's the real deal. You
know, how does that? Howdoes he handle still? You know,
nothing's changed contractually, and you know, my sense is he knows. Okay,
justin Jefferson just set the bar here. This is the path and the

(10:15):
timeline it took. I'm probably ona similar path here. You know,
there's no reason for me to makesomething bigger out of this at this point
time. Uh. You know,I don't expect Jamar Chase to be,
you know, blowing off interview sessions. And what's your take on how he
now handles this? Knowing that,you know, I think an extension is

(10:39):
probably unlikely to get done, youknow, before there's some games being played
here. You know, I don'tthink he's going to blow off the media
indefinitely. Charlie I think he isgoing to, you know, obviously,
play the game. He's going toget asked about this contract, and he's
going to say the right things.He's not going to start a fire.
That's not Jamar's style. I don'tthink. Yeah, Jamar is definitely unabashed

(11:09):
when getting wanting to get certain feelingsout there, and you know, and
I think there was that fantasy forus. It's awesome. But there was
that moment last season, I thinktoward the end of the season where Jamar
acknowledged, you know, yeah,I want not only the cash the first
year, I want it the secondyear. And that was a window into

(11:31):
what Jamar is thinking and what JamarChase's side is thinking and the Bengals don't
know. That's where the Bengals andJamar Chase again have to do some negotiating
because what Jamar Chase wants in termsof guaranteed money over the first two years
is not something that the Bengals liketo do. And that again, that
is something that I think will getsolved in the long run. But I

(11:54):
do think Jamar Chase will eventually talkand you know, he'll be Jamar,
especially when it comes to talk aboutthe opposition, But when it comes to
the contract, I think he'll modifyhis approach a little bit. I want
to ask you about t Higgins,and it was interesting that Zach Taylor was
asked about t Higgins today signing histag and not dragging that out, and

(12:16):
Zach goes, it was appreciated,And I think those three words kind of
sum up Zach's true feelings and sentimentsabout Tea not playing the Jesse Bates game.
And you know, Jesse Bates wasa great teammate. He was a
terrific player, but you know hechose to drag it out into training camp,

(12:37):
into the preseason. Toward the endof the preseason. Of course,
in twenty twenty two, t Higginsnot doing that. I think when Zach
Taylor says it was appreciated, that'swhat he means by that. You're right,
and it makes sense. I mean, you don't have to be the
head coach of a football team tounderstand the anxiety that comes with oh gosh,

(12:58):
everyone in this locker room knows there'sthis story hovering over you know,
this training camp where one of ourbest players is in there, and there's
a psychological effect. Whether whatever yousay whatever answer you're given the media.
I mean this team is playing atan advantage now that they've both the Higgins
and the brief Trey Hendrickson situation,you know, are resolved going into daylin

(13:22):
a camp. I think coming offthe disappointment of last year, for everyone
that reports to that building every day, you know, in any role,
when Joe Burrow got hurt, youknow that there's obviously just there's a different
feeling walking in the door every daythan when he's healthy. So I think
to have that health situation patched up, to have Higgins on board, I

(13:43):
mean, Taylor did take it muchfurther than saying it's appreciated in the scrum
I was in, you know,saying, you know, he's been really
impressed with how he's handled this fromstart to finish, and he's not surprised
that, you know, he decidedto pretty much go team first year and
can get back. And you knowthere's another side of the corner folks saying,

(14:03):
oh, he's getting paid twenty twomillion to play you know one sure
that's not you know, so Ithink that for now it's water under the
bridge. Is it likely Haigan's lastseason here? I think so, but
you know, time will tell,and ultimately you're gonna have a super charged

(14:24):
core of this team that knows that, Okay, we had a good couple
cracks at it back to back years. Last year was what it was,
and now hey this is you know, I think they they know it's it's
their time and you know, whetherthe football gods things ALIGNE will find out.

(14:45):
But I expect to see a veryvery locked in group from day one,
starting on Wednesday. And you know, Higgins, as you know,
as most of Cincinnati knows, avery happy, go lucky, fun guy
to be not diva. So no, no, and and that is the
narrative, yes we can is nottrue. He cares about himself, he

(15:09):
wants to keep himself healthy, hewants to get paid, obviously, but
he is not the typical diva characterthat we see a lot or you know,
and we've seen a lot over thelast twenty years in the National Football
League. He's very much a teamplayer. Speaking with Charlie Clifford of Channel
five here in Cincinnati on the MowegerRadio program on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty,

(15:33):
this is Trags Mike Petralia filling intoday and tomorrow, for that matter,
Were you surprised at Duke Tobin,vice president or director of player personnel for
the Cincinnati Bengals, said no,we're probably not going to sign a veteran
corner. Were you in the inthe least bit surprised by that? You
know, I wasn't in that portionof the Uh. Well, he did

(15:56):
say yeah, yeah, and I'lltake your word for it. I'm I
think. Look, I think anunderrated piece of all of this is Josh
Newton, the guy they drafted outof TCU. I've heard from multiple people
inside the building that they really likethis guy. He's different. Now.

(16:17):
Is he gonna be an impact guyright away? Very rarely does that happen,
But I think they see a lotof things that that line up with
what Cam Taylor Britt has from anintangible standpoint. I think that's a big
part of that answer he gave toa quietly. And also, you have
two guys that want to play footballon Sundays and become full time starters,

(16:42):
and Dak Hill and DJ Turner andthat competition alone, I mean, they're
young enough you're not worried about,you know, in prolonged injury history with
either of those guys, I thinkto right off the bat, bring in
a corner. Again, It's like, what is that telling the rest of

(17:03):
the room, Oh, we reallydon't trust you guys? You know?
Is it a situation where somebody goesdown at camp and that that changes,
that changes the forecast? You're sure, but I think you have to give
you know, you're saying you believein these guys. You know you can

(17:26):
you can erase all those words veryquickly by bringing in someone. Okay,
he's he's had x amount of startsand six years ago he was a pro
bowler. You know, we knowthis league, it's a young man's league,
and a lot of times if youget a shot to play early in
the right system, you know,that's that makes your career. And if
you don't, you know, thenyou wind up like how many you know

(17:51):
who really never got a fair shot. So I think for turn Hill,
they both know this is my shotto carve out a role, and I
would expect both of them to beyou know, but I mean, this
is an opportunity of a lifetime forsure. So well that's my thought on
that answer. Yeah, And Ithink do essentially confirmed what you theorized right

(18:15):
there, Charlie. The quote is, we've got some new guys working in
there, and it will be excitingto see how they do. Do I
feel like we have an immediate needfor a veteran to make our team.
No, maybe if our numbers aredown and we need some help at camp.
But as we go, we'll determinethat. I feel good about it.
Right to your point, Charlie.And then let's go to Jordan Battle

(18:37):
and Von Bell. Because what isyour sense of how this shakes out?
I asked Lou, and I'm interestedto see what you think, because I
think Lou's going to go with theguy he trusts the most, and I
think right out of the gate hetrusts Von bellmore to communicate because that was
one of their big issues last year. Right. Do I think there's a

(19:00):
scenario where Von Bell and Jordan Battleand Geno Stone are on the field at
the same time. Maybe, ButI think I think it's going to start
out Von Bell and Geno Stone andthen they'll make some adjustment adjustments from there.
But you know, if if vonBell looks the least bit I don't

(19:21):
know, for lack of better words, slow, then maybe you could see
a change there, But to beginwith make sure everybody's on the same way,
same page communication wise, I thinkyou start with von Bell. I
am interested because I think again,I think people think very highly of Jordan

(19:42):
Ball over there, and I justdon't know, Oh, there's no question
about that. If he's going toprogress into the best player he can be,
you know, sitting on the bench, that's not going to be you
know, the best way to dothat. I'm very interested to see how
they shake that out. And you'reright, I mean a lot it is
if you're in a row and whatit does is it fosters competition, which

(20:03):
is what the Bengals desperately need inmy opinion this camp. And I've talked
to many reporters on the beat aboutthis and I think it's a great point.
I think there needs to be moreof an intense competition fostered in this
camp. When people ask what's thedifference, what's the change the Bengals are
going to make this camp from lastyear when they you know, a Burrow

(20:23):
injury aside, they didn't come outsharp. It is the competition and the
intensity out of the gate. Ithink that's where you're going to see a
difference. We have to wrap itup here, Charlie. It is three
twenty four on a Monday afternoon.I've been talking to Charlie Clifford of Channel
five in Cincinnati on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteenthirty working on any specific pack. Oh

(20:48):
by the way, by the way, I forgot to mention this before we
let you go. Terrific job onTim Crumrae. Loved the interview, loved
the package, and I think anyBengal fan I would appreciate what I'm about
to say. He is one ofthe two or three most intense, fierce
Bengals ever to put on the stripes. You agree, I mean, I

(21:11):
take your word as you know fact, and yes, I mean him and
his wife Cheryl could not be nicerpeople. He was recognized today, you
know, Mike Brown with some reallynice words. They're going to have a
big bash, you know, leadingup to that Monday night game week three.
I mean, this family is overthe moon. They are, you
know, they're trying to thank everybodywho went online and voted the Cowboy in

(21:33):
so definitely would love to pass thatalong for him and Cheryl and Cowboy up
Cincinnati. Let's go training camp,cowboy up. Indeed, all right,
he's Charlie Clifford of Channel five Cincinnati. Be sure to follow him on the
X. What's what's your ex?Address? Again? You're shar underscore,
Cliff and glad your back tracks.Get some get some rest and see you

(21:56):
Wednesday for having me on. Ihope to have as I hope to finish
out the next two and a halfhours strong. So we'll see how that
turns out. Charlie will see youon Wednesday. Bay Man, all right,
he is Charlie Clifford, Channel fiveCincinnati. You are listening to Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen