Mike Petraglia in for Mo -- 7/23/24

Mike Petraglia talks Reds with John Sadak of Bally Sports, Bengals training camp talk with Richard Skinner of Channel 12 and James Rapien of Cincinnati Bengals Talk. All that and more on ESPN 1530.

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Hey, everybody, it is DragsMike Petralia in for Moegger for a second
straight day. This is a Tuesday, July twenty third. You're listening to
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty the Moegger Program. You want to call in make your
voice heard? Five one three,seven, four nine fifteen thirty five one

(00:29):
three seven four nine one five threezero. Got a lot on the docket
today as we want to talk CincinnatiReds right off the top. We'll be
doing that in a few moments withthe one and only play by play voice
on Balley Sports Cincinnati for the CincinnatiReds. That would be John Sadak.
We'll get to him in just afew moments. We'll also be talking Cincinnati

(00:52):
Bengals and haircuts at four h fivewith Richard Skinner of Local twelve. He'll
of course add his unique insight astraining camp sets to begin on Wednesday afternoon
down at pay Corps Stadium, andin the five o'clock hour, yep,
more Bengal talk. That will bewith James Rapine. He was on the
Tony Pike Show earlier this afternoon.We thought, what the heck, we'd

(01:15):
bring him back for a no encorein the five o'clock hours. So that's
what we have lined up between nowand then. We would love to hear
your voice. Love to hear yourcalls on what you think about the Reds,
Bengals, FCC, you see Xavier, whatever is on your mind.
The phone lines are open. Iwant to hear from you. Well,
as I promised, we want toget to John Sadak right off the top

(01:38):
here. He is the play byplay voice of the Cincinnati Reds on Valley
Sports Ohio. Had a great gameJohn last night to talk about and I
want to get your impressions on whatyou thought of what Luke Mayley had to
say to the team to get themfired up on the bus over to the
ballpark before the game yesterday. Well, good afternoon, Trags, Thanks for

(02:00):
having me, and yeah, Ithink you hit on the biggest storyline from
the game, obviously, Hunter Green, pitch great Will Benson had a huge
showing in his homecoming. Elie daLacruz continues to rock he's got a ten
game hit streak. But the tonecenter we found out after the game was
delivered by the injured backup catcher whohas been the leader of this team.

(02:22):
You know, he was the galvanizingforce in advance of that twelve game win
streak last year when the Reds reallyannounced themselves with their young wave of players,
And yeah, he held court onthe bus. There are three different
buses that take the team from theplane out of the airport to the hotel,
and one is the player's only bucksAnd it was Luke Melee that grabbed
the microphone. And according to thestories we've heard from other players about it,

(02:46):
the most notably Hunter Green, thatWill Benson, he basically said,
be you whatever you are, goout and do it. And he talked
about the need to address the elephantof the room, to be an adult,
to be a man, And yeah, trade deadline is coming. You
know, there are rumors about theReds being among teams that might try to
sell select pieces, not really bein cell mode, but the impending soon

(03:08):
to be free agent pitchers. Sothere is that cloud hanging over some of
the guys that are on the team. How long is this run going to
continue? And it certainly did help. I think that owner Bob Castellini came
down and gave a vote of confidenceto the team, saying that he and
ownership were with this team. Butthe resonating story from the players is that

(03:31):
Malely really connected with them, andwe saw the best of many of the
best REDS players against the top teamof the wild card spot right now in
the Braves at their place. Whenpeople have asked me, John who at
the beginning of the year, whois the best maybe biggest voice, best
leader, biggest voice on the team, I thought for a moment and I

(03:53):
thought, well, there's Jonathan India, There's Tyler Stevenson. Of course,
those are the two names naturally positionplayer that come first and foremost to mind.
There's Jake Fraley. He certainly bringsa leadership element to his style of
play. Then I thought, andI was like, maybe we need to
go outside the box. Maybe it'sa player that doesn't necessarily play every day,

(04:15):
isn't a frontline player per se.And I thought the way Luke Maley
addressed the media and addressed his teammateslast year and carrying over into this year
seemed like a natural fit to me. And that's why when I hear a
story like I did last night aboutwhat Melee was able to do in terms
of just reminding everybody what's at stake, and the whole message of be yourself.

(04:39):
I think that is great for thisteam going forward, whatever the results
may be leading up to the MLBtrade deadline of July thirtieth, whatever that
might be. I think what fanswant to see, and Lord knows we
have lots of fans Reds fans inRed's Country listening to this program, going
when are we going to see thereal Reds? Well, when you hear
a voice like Luke male a standup and deliver that, I think it

(05:02):
gives at least a glimmer of hope. Yeah, I would agree. I
mean, I think Luke is asuper smart, strong minded man, and
I think post is playing days whichI hope don't come anytime soon, but
whenever they do arrive, as theydo for everyone. He has all the
makings of being a major league GM, a major league manager, He could

(05:26):
be a broadcaster, He could dowhatever he wants to do, and I
think he would be successful at it. But I do think you hit on
what the real core story is tothis What is this Reds team? They
have been very Jekyl and Hyde allyear. They play their best against the
best, and so in some ways, you know, coming out guns blazing
against the Braves. Isn't that muchof a surprise. You know, they

(05:47):
do have series wins over the Yankees, over the Dodgers, over the Phillies
during the course of the year.The more alarming thing is how they played
against mediocre to poor teams. Youknow, how they played against the Tigers,
how they just played against the netNationals. And at some point you
need a greater sense of consistency.You know, they've been very feast or
famine with their offense. Their greatestweakness at this point is consistency in scoring.

(06:12):
When they win, they tend towin fairly convincingly. They put up
some large run totals, can reallygouge you certain Knights pitching staffs. But
then the next couple of nights insuccession they'll really struggle to just get guys
on base. And certainly a bigpart of that is the injuries, the
select injuries, the key players.The Braves are going through something similar right

(06:32):
now. You know, the Bravesare what double digit games over five hundred
and with Lopez er Sale, they'reall star starters in the Red Saw last
night we'll see tonight are on themound and they're a losing team with anybody
else pitching, and you know,when they lost to Kunya, there's been
a giant domino effect for a Braveteam that was forecast to be perhaps the
power in all of baseball is nowin a wild card spot. And that's

(06:55):
an example of the difference between thefranchises, the caliber of depth that each
has. The red depth is notnearly as deep, particularly at the high
minor level. Their greater minor leaguedepth right now is mostly an a ball
and it's going to take another atleast year, probably more realistically two to
three years for those guys to actualizetheir abilities and be able to come and

(07:16):
help this big league team. Soin the interim, the absence of Matt
McLain, the absence of TJ.Friedle loom much larger for Cincinnati than they
do for many of those other teams. But this is the time, man,
I mean, when the Reds comehome for the upcoming home stand,
that's the trade deadline. So thisroad trip is a huge influence on what
will be the near future of thetwenty twenty four Cincinnati Reds. You know

(07:40):
what I liked about last night's game, just watching it from start to finish.
The Reds got out to a quickstart. Maybe it was Luke Maley's
address to the team before the game. Maybe it was just Elie de la
Cruz getting out of the box witha triple, getting on third base with
less than two outs and seeing thefundamental baseball of driving in driving him in

(08:01):
with a sacrifice fly by jam orCandelaria. Whatever it was, the Reds
had that energy that you mentioned afew moments ago, and I think that's
the kind of thing that the Redsneed to show earlier in games. It
gave Hunter Green the lead, andeven though it's a one nothing lead,
it's different than being down to nothing, John, And that's what I think

(08:22):
a lot of fans want to seefrom this team, is early energy in
games. Yeah, I would agree. I think the biggest thing is early
results. Right, it's just whetherthere's convicted energy or not. I mean,
certainly it's it's fun when the teamis exuberant, and I celebrate that
and I love that too, Butto score a bad way to score there

(08:43):
is that because the other alarming trendis that they've been great in series openers.
You know, entering last night,only the Phillies were better than the
Reds and Braves and series openers.Now the Reds have a leg up on
the Braves in that regard. It'sthe games they're after in series where that
drop has come, and you know, and sometimes it can be the opposing
pitcher. I mean, they're goingto face Chris Daleton, the major league

(09:05):
leader and wins who's having a greatyear. He's top three in the National
League and strike out cra and Wi. He's having arguably the best season of
his really good major league career.But at the same time, everybody faces
everybody else's ace two. You know, it's you got to win the games
and the aggregate and the pitching hasbeen there for the Reds. Their starting

(09:26):
staff has been a strength and ismore than competitive enough to give this team
a chance to have a winning record. They have a very positive they're plus
over thirty something in run differential,and you know, by that map compared
to their peers and what baseball historyis, they should be a few games
over five hundred, and they're not. There are some reasons for that,

(09:48):
but ultimately everybody has reasons, right, everybody has potential excuses and they know
that, and I think that's whatLuke helped to address and hopefully that can
be start some of the emotional sparkthat maybe can help connect and resonate.
And what a great story that wouldbe if they finished this road trip strong
in Atlanta and Tampa and then comeback home in a good position, maybe

(10:11):
a game or two out of awildcard spot. Would you say, in
terms of the fundamentals that need toimprove, and we've heard that at nauseum,
I think I feel like, reallyfrom the beginning of the year,
but especially over the last two months, the fundamentals of the team have to
improve. Would you say it's abigger concern defensively, where I think you
mentioned on the broadcast last night they'resecond to last in overall defensive team rating.

(10:35):
Or would you say it's on thebase pass. I think it's both.
I think it's everything. I thinkwhen you're a team that struggles to
score consistently, the margins matter somuch more. You know, it just
every play matters. I don't knowthat I could necessarily say it depends game
to game. Certain games they lostbecause of a defensive lap, certain games

(10:58):
they might have lost because of abase running mistake. I do embrace and
I think it's right to embrace ingeneral being more aggressive and less aggressive on
the basis that's who this team is, that's who they were at their APEX
last year. But yeah, youcan't try to go to third on the
ground ball that's in front of you. You know, some of the contact
plays have burned them when you knowthe idea of contact is fine, and

(11:22):
you're gonna live with some failure asa result. But not all plays are
equal, not all plays are thesame, and that's fair. And defensively,
yeah, I mean, you know, Cowboy pointed out the double play
that wasn't turned on the ground ballup the middle. I think that's more
than fair. And yes, theirsecond worst than defensive run safe entering yesterday

(11:43):
in all the baseball. Some ofthat is also personnel, you know,
some of the players who are absent. TJ. Friedle was their war leader
last year for a reason. Partof that was in defense and center field,
which can help the defense in thecorner spots too, depending upon who
those players are. Matt McClain,they think Profiles is a gold glove second

(12:03):
basement. It certainly seems to havea special kinship and relationship with Elie de
la Cruz, so all those thingsdata. But yeah, yeah, of
course you want to clean all ofit up the best you can. You're
gonna make mistakes, that's gonna happen. Even major leaguers are not perfect.
But can and should it be better? Yeah, And I think the players

(12:24):
would embrace that too. I,you know, was watching with a lot
of interest and attention, as Itry to always do. John when Jim
Day was interviewing Matt McClain and inthe dugout and McLain being on the trip,
being with the team here in Atlanta, kept his expectations reasonably low.

(12:46):
He wants to, obviously, youknow, under you know, set the
expectations well below the table and overachieve, if you will. And in terms
of his left shoulder, where doyou think he is right now? Based
on what he had to tell JimDay last night, it seems like for
right now he's on track, onschedule for what the plan has been,

(13:07):
which is that he would start minorleague rehab games August twelfth. And yet
I would imagine he would need atleast a week and a half to maybe
two weeks of time in those rehabgames to be able to get up to
a point where he would be comfortableand it would be appropriate to put him
into major league games again. Sothat probably means that he would return in

(13:28):
a Red's uniform at some point lateAugust, possibly early September. It depends,
of course, and how his bodyresponds, how a swing responds.
I was encouraged by the fact thathe's taken some he was dry swinging last
week. In recent days, he'sbeen swinging at front flips, meaning just
underhand tossed from the coach, andthey're taking video of him during those swings,

(13:48):
and he's already noticing something Cowboy alludedto on the broadcast last night there's
going to be some unconscious compensation forwhatever is happening in the injured shoulder,
and Matt unprompted brought that up andsaid, yeah, he had noticed it,
and he made small tweaks, nothingmajor, to try to make sure

(14:11):
that he was a little truer withhis swings, and they try to make
sure that that over compensation didn't happen. So I think he's saying and doing
all the right things. To me, my biggest takeaway is just that he
is so driven to playing this year, and he independently brought up his oblique
issue that happened in late August lastyear that cost him a lot of that

(14:33):
stretch run And to me, thatwas one of the big dominos in last
year's run coming to a close,because I would contend that he was the
Red's best player last year. Hiscombination of hitting for average, for power,
his ability to run, his abilityto defend, his ability to help
them stay honest against left handed pitching. It's a big, big deal and
that opened the door for the WeelvieMarte. But at the same time,

(14:56):
the Reds are at their best whenMatt McLean is on the field in some
way, and I think he's heis driven to be back on the field.
He at one point said, youknow, regardless of what the team's
circumstances are, so whether in lateAugust they're in it, whether or not,
which you know, of course,can happen. We're talking about a

(15:16):
month from now, and a lotof things could happen between now and then.
He just wants to be on afield and compete and play baseball.
And you know, he's a baseballdude through and through. And I'm as
encouraged as you can be, butyou really don't know, and he doesn't
know until he builds up to thatpoint that he's playing in games. We'll
wrap up with this. John SadakaBallei Sports Cincinnati has the broadcast of the

(15:39):
Reds and Braves the middle game ofthree in Atlanta. I'll have that on
Valley Sports Cincinnati tonight the next fivegames of this road trip. How critical?
How important? In terms of whatNick Crawl is thinking as July thirtieth
approaches, I have to think enormous. I mean where they are when the

(16:00):
deadline hits is going to inform alot, not only in terms of what
they want to do, but alsowhat's the overall landscape. You know,
what are teams asking for and willingto give? Because I think ultimately any
GM at any time should always justbe looking to improve his team. And
you can improve a team in alot of ways. That can be by
adding a major league piece here.Now that can mean trading away from positions

(16:25):
of strength to help the organization,and I do think they need help in
the high miners and depth. Thatgap is still probably going to be there
for another year plus. It's notrealistic to think of most low and high
A guys graduating up to a majorleague level in less than a year and
a half two year scale of time. I think it's everything like that's the

(16:48):
latest you can know before the deadline, because it's going to come at the
end of the threat where they're at, and it's kind of put up for
shut up time to try to getas many wins as you can over the
short five game stretch all the road, all right, he is John Sadak,
John, thank you so much fortaking some time out during your very
busy pregame duties. I know you'reon your way to head to the clubhouse

(17:11):
and also talk with manager David Bell. So much appreciated, John, call
a good one again tonight. Iknow you will. Thank you, trag.
Thank you for having me appreciate it. You bet, that is John
Sadak. Ballei Sports Cincinnati will havea complete look ahead to tonight's game,
the middle game of three, asI said, at Truest Park in Atlanta,
before they wrap up this three city, nine game road trip in Saint

(17:36):
Petersburg against the Tampa Bay Rays thiscoming weekend. We'll have much more ahead
in this opening hour of the MowegerRadio program. I am Mike Petrolia trags
filling in on ESPN's fifteen thirty CincinnatiSports station. David Cruz rips thirst second,
Duval gaggers Cadelario going up to secondwave is on Dala Cruz the throne

(17:57):
of the play he is, that'son Candelarial claims third. It is three
nothing. That is John Sadak withthe call last night on Bally Sports Cincinnati.
Just had John on on this veryprogram, the Mowegor Radio program tracks
filling and had him on this programto open up the show. And I

(18:18):
thought it was appropriate because the Redsplayed I thought one of their best games
of the year last night. Allaround, they score early Elie de la
Cruz with not one, but tworuns scored in the opening three innings,
and the Reds really set the tone. Yes, there were a couple instances
where again the defense looked a littlesuspect and cowboy. Jeff Brantley brought that

(18:41):
up on the TV broadcast. Ifyou get a ground ball up the middle
with a runner on first in lessthan two outs, you need to be
able to turn that double play.And the Reds still aren't very good at
that, and they're not proficient atit is probably a better way of saying
it. They have to get betterat the little things. But last night,
all things that aside, last nightwas just one of their best all

(19:03):
around games of the year. Andthat play that we had in the clip
was probably, to me, thehighlight of the night. It wasn't Will
Benson going home and hitting that homerun and jogging around the bases. It
was, without question, Ellie dela Cruz scoring from first base on a
glorified single by Jamer Candelario. Andif you watch the replay, Adam Duvall

(19:29):
from right field has a cannon.It's one reason he's the bravest right fielder
fielder. He threw the ball onthe fly to the catcher Murphy, Sean
Murphy, and anybody else running thatrunner from third base rounding third and trying
to score is a dead duck.Not Ellie de la Cruz. He came
across standing and beat the throw prettyeasily on a single into the right field

(19:53):
corner. That just kind of demonstrateswhat we see day in and day out
from Ellie. He he gets aheadof steam and there's a play to be
made on the bases, and it'sa play to score. Nine times out
of ten, he's going to makethat play and score on that routine hit
to the outfield, and that's whatwe saw last night. That's what makes

(20:15):
him such an electric player. Yes, he's been thrown out a couple of
times this season going from first tothird or the balls in front of him,
and he still tries to advance tothird base when he's on second.
Fundamental issues like that still crop up. But I think if you're David Bell
and the Reds, there's no questionabout it, you exchange that and trade

(20:37):
that out for the energy that hebrings, the excitement, the electricity,
and the production. As John Sadaksaid, everything I said about the energy
and those intangibles, those are nightsyou've got to have production. The Reds
have not been producing enough, especiallyearly in games offensively, to give their
pitching staff, which has been outstanding, especially their starting rotation, give their

(21:00):
pictures a bit of a cushion.It changes the whole dynamic of the game,
and I think we need to seemore of that in the final sixty
games of the season, and certainlyfor the reds sake and for a lot
of the players on that team,especially the veterans. We need to see
more of that in the next fivegames, because, as John Sadak pointed
out, the next five days,next six days, five games going to

(21:22):
be absolutely crucial in terms of howNick Crawl and the Reds view the July
thirtieth trade deadline. It'll be veryinteresting, indeed, to see how that
turns out. Another reason last nightwas such a classic game for the Reds
to win. Hunter Green again oneof it, and we've said this on
a number of occasions, which isa good thing. One of his best

(21:45):
performances of the year. You couldthrow last night in there. Yes he
had three walks, Yes he hita batter in I believe it was the
second inning. But seven innings,two hits of scoreless baseball, three walks,
seven strikeouts, and really in completecommand. I will tell you I
do get a little concerned about FernandoCruz hitting a bit of a wall.

(22:07):
He's had a rough stretch obviously againstMiami Marlins, against the Tigers, he
had some difficulty over the weekend againstthe Nationals. Alexis Diaz came on last
night. He gave up a run, but in the end got the game
closed out. It was not asave situation, but still the Reds were
able to wrap up a four toone win. John Sadak also made the

(22:30):
point a couple of minutes ago thatthe Reds have been one of the best
teams in all of baseball twenty twoand eleven in series openers this year,
whereas the Atlanta Braves have that similarmark in series openers, they have about
twice as many series sweeps the Redsdo not, and the Reds have struggled

(22:53):
in the second game of series ken, the Reds maintained that momentum and beat
the a of the Atlanta staff tonight, and that would be Chris Sale.
He is thirteen and three as wehead into this start on July twenty third.
That game, of course, we'llbe on our sister station, the
flagship of the Cincinnati Red seven hundredWLW. Airtime is at six thirty over

(23:18):
on seven hundred WL six oh five, i should say, and game time
is at seven twenty down in Atlantaas it was last night. We'll be
back with more Reds talk and takeyour calls. We see one call lined
up. We'll get to you rightafter the break. You're listening to trags
filling in for Moegger on Cincinnati's ESPNfifteen thirty Cincy three sixty with Tony Pike.

(23:44):
If we want to move on,we'd have to keep going. And
Boston Elmore, I think you shouldcontinue. Let me keep going there Sincy
three sixty tomorrow, which twelve noonson ESPN fifteenth Sean McMahon. Look at
Sean doing me a solid by playingsome Jack and Diane. This isn't Jack

(24:07):
and Diane. This is help meout, Sean, Oh, it is
Jack and Diane. Okay, JohnCougar, Mellencamp, Mellencamp, right,
he was John. He had somany names. He went from John Cougar
to John Cougar, Mellencamp to JohnMellencamp. I couldn't keep it straight back
in the hazy, crazy days ofthe eighties. But that is from I

(24:29):
want to say pink houses. Isthat correct? Yes? I once here's
something a lot of people may ormay not Well, I'm sure they don't
know this about me. I wasa classic rock and roll DJ at the
student station in Villanova. That's howI started my career, not in sports
and not in news, but ratherin classic rock and roll. So when

(24:52):
Sean got on the talk back withme during the break and he said,
what kind of music do you listento? I said, hmm, well,
sick rock for sure, and thenseventies pop and then seventies disco.
And I don't necessarily merge pop withdisco. I think disco is its own
genre. And I'm getting into kenbrew territory here, But if you follow

(25:15):
what I'm saying, Sean, right, the three areas, three genres are
separated. Do you agree with that, Sehn, I would have to agree,
yeah. I would say they're alldifferent from one another. Pop.
I can see where people would conflatepop and hip hop, but if they're
different, pop would be Karen Carpenter, Neil Sedaka, stuff like that,

(25:37):
and nobody. I would guarantee thatninety five percent of our listeners if they're
not doing way, God forbid.Don't have any idea what I'm talking about
right now, but that is whatI grew up on and it's still very
near and dear to my heart.You know who I need to get to
because he's been so patient and heis listened to my gibber jabber for the

(25:59):
last two minutes. Jeff in Virginiahas a call a quick question about the
Bengals, And whenever I take acall like this, I just cross myself
and pray that I can answer it, because if I can't, I look
like a fool. Hi, JeffTrags, thanks for repping the alumni gear
today. I know you know thatdrives Tony out of his mind. I

(26:21):
do, and he is, aseverybody knows, a star of Wyoming High
or Reading High School, reading highSchool. And yeah, so I like
doing that. Any chance I candeliver a dig I will do so well.
For all the times we tell peopleyou went to Indian Hill and we
get the total side eye, it'sgood to hear you repping that definitely.
So any chance you guys are goingto do that pre season thing at fifty

(26:47):
West this year, you think,I think that's a decent possibility. I'm
sure that that is a better questionfor one Paul Daanner Junior. If he
is listening. I'm sure he couldanswer that better than I. But I
haven't heard that we're not doing it, So I would take that as a
good sign that probably fifty West willbe a good possibility. I see you
every year out there. I movedback to the hood by the way I'm

(27:12):
back in Kenwood, Jeff, Idon't know if you knew that. James
and I traded some barbs about theKenwood crew, definitely, so I did
have an understanding of that. Soyou know, the thing people never realize
is that Bill Walsh lived in theOld Town apartments right behind where you were
sitting when he was the offensive coordinatorfor the Bengals. Off Galbris Is that

(27:36):
right? No? No, no, on no, no no, it's
off Jamilla right behind you. TheOld Town's the little apartment in town.
Yes, I do, sorry aboutthat, Okay, I did not know
this. Okay, Well, AlMichaels lived in my neighborhood growing up,
so I y, yeah, Billssun Craig was part of our posse when

(27:56):
we were younger, back there,so long before any earning. Okay,
I'm going to ask you a questionYou've got to ask me. One I'm
going to ask you one ye,what is your expectation for the twenty twenty
four Cincinnati Bengals heading into training camptwelve to five, thirteen and four.

(28:17):
I think thirteen and four will ifone of those wins is against Kansas City,
that will absolutely get the Bengals homefield advantage, and I've said for
the last several seasons, that's whatthe Bengals need to be shooting for.
It's obviously they want to win thedivision. And I think last year,
if Burrow doesn't get hurt in theyou know, the four and one stretch
you saw before the Bengals lost athome to CJ. Stroud and the Houston

(28:41):
Texans, That five game stretch yousaw from Burrow is really what I think
you could project for the Bengals fora full season. And I think this
year you have a better defense thanthat five and that five game stretch.
You have a much better defensive personnelroster, and you have an improved offensive
roster. I think that you know, if everybody stays healthy, or most

(29:03):
of them stay healthy, and numbernine stays upright and can throw the ball
downfield, I think you're looking attwelve and five, thirteen and four as
a distinct possibility simply because they havea favorable schedule. They have a fourth
place schedule, and I think youknow, certainly their roster is deeper and
better than it was, and youstill have the continuity. I mentioned this

(29:26):
on the Area yesterday. This Bengalsroster or This Bengals coaching staff has been
able to stay together, with theexception of Brian Callahan going to Tennessee and
taking over the Titans program. TheBengals coaching staff knows what to expect and
the players know what to expect fromthe coaching staff. And I think that's
going to pretend very well for thetwenty twenty four Bengals appreciate it. Jest.

(29:49):
Yeah, I'll be in Kansas City. My Bengals question is is Burton
going to be able to play allthree spots? And where we see him
running Halo and some of the upthe Jamaar and Yoshi Van. I would
say, I don't know about thelast part of that question, but I
think definitely he can run all three. He can definitely run deep vertical,

(30:11):
we know that, and that's wherehe planned. I think that's where they
plan to start him. He canplay the X the Y. I don't
know about the slot. I don'tknow how much they're going to play him
inside simply because they have so manyoptions there and I think instead of just
experimenting, you know, wildly,and even in preseason, you only get
so many snaps in training camp.You only get so many snaps. The

(30:33):
snaps you do rep in training campin pre season, you want to get
those right if there's time left over, and they can get a Jermaine Burton
inside to see what he looks likerunning slot routes. But they have so
many other options with more experienced playerswho have run inside that I think they
would rather Jermaine Burton stick to theoutside deep in the field. What the

(30:56):
Bengals have not been able to dothe last couple of years is stretch the
field vertically. They haven't been ableto get outside the numbers, get downfield
outside so that the player, youknow, guys inside have more room to
work. And that's kind of theidea of getting a guy like Jermaine Burt
Jermaine Burton in on the roster sothat they can use him in different waves

(31:18):
outside the numbers. Great. Thanks, thanks, and thanks for all the
information as all as trags. Havea great day. Jeff. Hope to
see you soon. Hope to seeyou at fifty West. If you come
back up, please hunt me out. We'll do definitely see it, all
right, Jeff, take care allright. I think this is a good
time to take a break and wrapup the first hour of the Moegger Radio

(31:41):
Program with me Trags filling in.On this Tuesday, July twenty third,
we'll be back with more Reds andmaybe even some Bengals talk. Right after
this, you're listening Cincinnati's ESPN fifteenthirty Warren a second mass. Now is
the time tour featuring the Warranting.Yes, it is Trags feeling that seventies

(32:15):
disc Go Vibe filling in for moeEggar the Beaches love it. I almost
hit the post there, Sean.Nobody uses that term anyone more. By
the way, you know what hittingthe post is, Sean, I don't

(32:36):
know that I do. Okay.Hitting the post is when you queue up
a song in the non audioverbal portionof the song and you talk right up
to the very first word. That'shitting the post. Okay, I know
what you mean by that. Ididn't know that was That's that was a
way to describe it. Yes,yes, it is, indeed, I'm
gonna use Yeah, that was SaturdayNight Fever. How Deep is Your Love?

(33:01):
Yeah? How Deep is Your Love? I don't know what album that's
off of. I thought it wasSaturday Night Fever. My memory man,
it used to be great. Itused to be photograph whatever it is,
Yeah, photographic memory for the seventies. But it's slipping a little bit.
I'm getting a little bit older,and I have to concede to that.

(33:23):
But I appreciate you really being concernedabout my musical preferences and keeping me engaged
in this program. Not that talkingabout the Reds, Bengals, FCC,
Xavier UC doesn't otherwise keep me involvedin this program. Engaged in this program,
and the excitement of filling in forMoegger from three to six. Of

(33:45):
course, I'm engaged and excited aboutdoing that. But this is Cincinnati's ESPN
fifteen thirty. I think it's timeto move on. I moved back.
I should say to some baseball talkand look ahead to tonight's game. The
Cincinnati Reds playing Game two against theAtlanta Braves, going up against Chris Sale.

(34:07):
Are the Reds thirteen and three.I said last night that the Braves
were throwing their ace and in RinaldoLopez great er, but there's no I
need to correct myself. Almost twentyfour hours later, the true ace of
the twenty twenty four Braves has beenChris Sale. Thirteen and three two point

(34:29):
seven zero er one hundred and fortystrikeouts. I believe that leads all of
the National League in strikeouts this year. He's had a sensational year. And
you know, I cover the guywhen he was with the Red Sox,
covered him on those twenty eighteen WorldSeries champion Red Sox on that team,
and he had a starcross career inBoston. He didn't really ever truly hit

(34:53):
his stride. He did contribute tothat team, but he was never the
picture. I think the Red Soxthought that were getting for most of his
career because for a large part ofhis career in Boston he was injured.
He has absolutely rediscovered himself as aveteran, a thirty four year old veteran
in Atlanta, and he is lightingup baseball. He is certainly on a

(35:15):
short list of National League Cy Youngcandidates for this year. I would say
right now the leader in the clubhousefor that award in the National League.
The Reds are countering with Nick Martinez, the right hander. It's been one
of the more valuable pictures on theRed staff simply because of the ability to
bridge between the long relief role thathe's had to serve and the spots starter

(35:40):
role that he has had to serve. He is three and five with a
three point eight eight er. AndI say that and supporting that is Martinez
says. This will be his sixthstart of the season and his twenty ninth
appearance overall, So by my math, that would be twenty three relief appearances.

(36:00):
Tonight will be his sixth start ofthe year. Three and five,
three eighty eight e RA, fiftysix strikeouts. And here is the lineup
that will be opposing Chris Sale tonightfor the Reds. Leading off, Jonathan
India again. He's playing second base. Elie d la Cruz is the shortstop,
batting second. Spencer Steer at first, batting third, batting fourth,

(36:22):
cleanup spot Tyler Stevenson catching, playingcenter field and batting fifth. Is Stuart
Fairchild batting sixth and playing third baseis noel ve Marte batting seventh and playing
left field. He was a pinkhitter last night. Austin Slater batting eighth
and playing right field. Reese Hinescooled off a little bit since that sensational

(36:45):
start, but he's still slashing threepoint fifty three three eighty nine and nine
to seventy one. He is battingeighth, playing right field and the designated
hitter. I never thought at thebeginning of the year I would be saying
the following words. Batting ninth theDH Santiago Espinal, he's slashing two nineteen,
two sixty five and three twenty eight. Reds simply put, need to

(37:10):
win four out of the next fivegames. I think for Nick Crawl to
seriously consider this team as having anychance of getting on a run to make
leapfrog six teams that stand in frontof them in the wildcard chase. And
in the next hour we'll go overthe wildcard standings as they stand in the

(37:30):
National League. We'll even take alook at the American League because I know
there are a lot of Cleveland Guardianfans listening, and the Guardians again are
having a sensational year atop the AmericanLeague Central Division. But right now we're
talking about the Reds. We'll talkmore about the Reds in the next hour,
but leading off the next segment,we'll talk Bengals training camp opens tomorrow.

(37:52):
We'll have Richard Skinner on he ofcourse, of Local twelve, I'll
be with Skinny throughout the entire trainingcamp covering the Cincinnati Bengals for CLNS Sincy
dot com and look forward to talkingto Skinny here the music that means we're
heading up to the top of thehour. You're listening to Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen

(38:14):
thirty. This report at ESPN fifteenthirty. This will be a forty eight
yard try to send Cincinnati home withan overtime victory as a double digit punder
dog. Brad Robbin's ready to holdhell, Adamitas ready to snab. Adamitas

(38:36):
fires it back. Robins puts itdown. The kick is on its way.
It is good, baby not.My name is Mike Petralia Trags filling
in for Moeggar, entering our numbertwo of three on this Tuesday, July

(38:58):
twenty third. You're listening to Cincinnati'sESPN fifteen thirty. The call in line,
if you care to come at mewith Bengals, reds or any other
sporting comments is five to one threeseven four nine, fifteen thirty. Five
to one three seven four nine fifteenthirty. That was Dan Horde, along

(39:20):
with of course Dave Lapham, whoI think one day will be in the
Bengals Ring of Honor on the eastfacade of pay Corpse Stadium. But that
was the call of the game winningovertime field goal against the Jacksonville Jaguars last
year in early December, thirty fourto thirty one. The Bengals won that
game. It was probably, Iwould argue, the highlight of last year

(39:44):
in terms of the career of JakeBrowning. He had a tremendous clutch game
and we thought after that game,me and my next guest thought that the
Bengals were headed to the playoffs,and it didn't exactly turn out that way
with Jake Browning. My next guesswould be Skinny Richard Skinner of Local twelve
here in Cincinnati. Skinny, thanksfor taking time out on summer camp twenty

(40:08):
four, twenty twenty four. Eve. How you doing. You're getting ready?
I am I'm stealing myself for Ithink I'm just gonna go sit out
in me for the let you know, they can meet him anty for the
next three or four hours, justto get used to with what's coming.
Though, honestly, my compared tolast year, I remember our not training
camp practices were last year. Thiswork week's a bit of a walk in
the park. To be honest withyou, it is it's not nearly as

(40:30):
bad. And I had, asI told you earlier today off air,
I had Jay Morrison on the JungleWar of podcast and he and Paul Danner
Jr. Have these little stools,these cute inventions that they found on Amazon
and they will be I guess,displaying them and debuting them tomorrow at training

(40:52):
camp. He's trying to sell meon going out and getting one of those.
I call that soft, Mike Done, the oldest guy on the beat.
I'm not. I'm not using achair. I'll use the ground maybe
during breaks. I'm not using thechair. That's that's soft on Paul and
Jay's part in my opinion. Uh. Speaking of soft, how about to
talk about Joe Burrow's haircut? Whatdo you think of Joe Burrow's blonde crew

(41:15):
cut. I know I'm of thatdemographic that I we all listen, we
all need to get a haircut.Good for him? I mean it feels
like he's going to some like midlifecrisis at an early age with going on
the runway in Paris and the AllWhite Party and now the I mean,
do you do you my man,whatever your no kidding, Bigger, stronger,

(41:39):
blonder. That's what I tweeted,and I leave it at that,
those three words, and that's enoughfor me, and I want to get
onto football. While we let intothis segment, Skinny, with that highlight
from last year in Jacksonville, thatMonday night game, pretty uh improbable win,
i'd say for the Jake Browning ledCincinnati Bengals. Then they go on

(42:00):
and they beat the Minnesota Vikings inovertime. I have that miraculous fourth quarter
comeback and they you know, catchof the year T Higgins catching the ball
to tie the game, send thegame into overtime. And I remember after
that Minnesota game, given what happenedthe week before in Jacksonville, saying to
you, I think this team's goingto the playoffs. And then they went

(42:21):
to Pittsburgh and we were reminded thatthey didn't quite have the defense that it
took to get to the playoffs.And I think that's one of the key
themes in terms of the improvement thatneeds to be made from twenty twenty three
to twenty twenty four. Skinny,Yeah, I did too, I mean,
you know, with Jill Burrow atthe helm and certainly with the weapons

(42:43):
around him. You feel good aboutthis offense for sure. And you know
the big part of the defense.Last year, the whole team was given
up too many big plays and wedidn't spend a lot of time yesterday the
Meeta wunching Chalco with lou An Arulo, and unfortunately for him, it came
right as Mike Brown was done withan interview and he was next for us,
So we kind of kind of letglue go pretty quickly after a few
minutes. We'll get to it.So but but one of the questions what

(43:07):
it was about the big place fromlast year, and I think he feels
really good about you know, thenew safety canem in in uh In von
Bell and Gino Stone and I youknow, they feel better about the cornerback
spot than I need to be honestwith you, Mike. You know DJ
Turner flash last year kind of hitthe rookie wall. The moving back still

(43:27):
in the corner. They obviously believein him. I was taking it back
a little bit and a little bitsurprised when when when Duke Toad was asked
about, hey, would you lookto sign a veteran corner for at least
some depth and competition, and hesaid, no, that's not our plans
right now that I have a Yeah, i'd love to hear you know,
you know what, I just comeout right out and say, yeah,
we're looking for vector Hill. Butthey sounded pretty confident in the group they

(43:50):
had. I think what and youknow, I know Joe Daniman made this
point on the air with me yesterdayon these very era waves that they don't
want to start training camp with thosetwo players looking over their shoulders. It's
gonna be one or two, oneor the other of you guys, and
you're gonna win the spot, andthen we'll see how the season progresses.
If we have to go out andget somebody, we're gonna get somebody.

(44:13):
They do not want these guys lookingover their shoulders. Whether that's because they
believe in them, or they believethat psychologically they can't handle that, or
they're young players still. Even thoughDax Hill has been in the league,
I guess entering his third season,he's still a young player. DJ Turner's
entering his second season and didn't finishthe year particularly well last year. They

(44:37):
don't want them looking over their shoulders, so they're like, Okay, it's
for you guys to go out proveit to us who wins the battle.
We know who the other corner isand we have Josh Newton, and for
now that's good enough. Yeah.I just believe there's a ditrin out there
though, that you really think canhelp your football team. I'm not playing

(44:57):
the waiting game. I get thatpoint. I think it's a wrong point.
I'm not sure if I roll thedice with that, because to your
point, I mean, Josh Newton'sa rookie too, and so he's the
top backup at the other outside cornerspot. So you're gonna have really DJ
Turna made what was it eight starts, nine starts whatever it was last year.
Dax Hill has started one game atcorner in his career and that was
a slot corner as a rookie.You know, outside of Can Taylor,

(45:21):
Britain, you have no experience atthat position basically, And I just that's
a heck of a roll the dicefor a team that thinks of the Super
Bowl team. And again, andmaybe that does go back to that,
they have extreme commence. The DJTurner is gonna take a leap in year
two and the DAK still will makethis conversion because he's played it before in
college. Yeah, and I don'tthink Patrick Peterson, if I'm remembering or

(45:42):
recalling correctly, he's still a freeagent, right, He's Uh the Steelers.
I think there's a Yeah, Ithink there's a couple of main guys
that are still free agents. Well, but again, if you if you
wait and somebody plucks those two orthree guys off the marketplace, then then
then could you be stuck. Ijust would hate for him to get to
that again. I'm just surprised theythey have such youth at that spot,

(46:06):
and to me, I just Ijust think it's a all the dice and
and you know, maybe it comesup comes up perfect seven for him.
What about the defensive lines, Kinny, I think I'm pretty pleased with what
they've been able to do and prettysatisfied with how they've restructured the defensive line
with the departure of DJ Reader tothe Detroit Lions. You have got rookies

(46:29):
Chris Jenkins, Junior McKinley, Jackson. We'll see how McKinley plays. He
is a project. I understand hewas drafted in the fifth round. For
a reason, and they have theybrought in free agents Sheldon Rankins, who
you know, if he's rejuvenated andcan picture himself going up against the Bengals
like he did every every week,like he did with the Tennessee Titans last

(46:51):
year, or Houston Texans, Ishould say maybe he can be a really
productive player. I think they havea couple of answers in the middle of
that defensive line that gives them somedepth alongside BJ Hill. And the idea
here, skinny, is for themto take the burden off older players,
older interior players and really increase thenumber of reps and the rotation that lou

(47:17):
Ana Roumo can you demonstrate and deployalong the defensive line. Yeah, the
situation inside I think is as goodas it's been probably since the year Larry
Ogunjobi was here and BJ Hills servedas kind of a backup and they were
a nice rotational piece alongside DJ Reader. And I think that's that's that's the
goal is get some snaps off ofb J Hills played way too many snaps

(47:40):
the last two years, but he'splayed it by default because there's nobody better
to stick in there. You know. The two ends have played a lot
of snaps Trey, Trey Henderson andSam Hobart. You want them on the
field a lot, but you'd liketo give them a breather now and again.
And I think you'll see a lotmore snaps out of Miles Murphy this
year. We Lousiah Skinny. Soundslike Skinny might have dropped off there,

(48:07):
Sean. I guess we'll try toget him back on the air. But
to Skinny's point, I think MilesMurphy is somebody look at. And Joseph
Osaia, especially if the Bengals decideto use Osai on the inside a little
bit more. In terms of theirpass rush rotations on obvious passing downs,
the Bengals and lou Ana Rumo haveplenty of options, and I think that's

(48:29):
a very good thing. Ana Rumohas always loved to have versatility along the
defensive line because he wants to havethose rotations to keep guys fresh, especially
earlier in the air and where Skinnyis back with us. To your point
about Miles Murphy and maybe even Josephosaiplaying inside Skinny, those are two key

(48:51):
areas I think the Bengals could lookto have significant improvement this season. Yeah,
I think Blue Ruma has a chanceto do a lot of stuff with
subpack just pass our situations. Andto your point where we're talking about of
just keeping those guys fresh on theline, I think that's that's probably been
a factor in the defense as well, is having to play you know,
your starters more snaps than you'd liketo buy default And I think now you

(49:14):
know, McKinley Jackson's a different skillset than Chris Jenkins. You know,
showed rangings and a different skill setfor them, so you have a chance
to mix the massive skill sets insideas well. And to your point,
if Joseph O Saide can finally youknow, he finally comes healthy, Yeah,
if he can stay, if hecan stay that way and show something
camp to go along with Miles Murphy, I think you'll see who have more
confidence in giving those guys more snaps. To give Trey Hendrickson some playoff,

(49:37):
to give Sam Hubberts some playsoff,I mean you almost might. It wouldn't
be a fifty to fifty split ofsnaps, but you could almost have two
full platoons on that defensive line.And boy, that's that's a huge luxury
and that's what the Eagles really hadfor a for a couple of years.
They were so deep up front.They just bring guys in in the waves
on the defensive front. And they'vegot to they've got to have that depth

(49:58):
because the seventeen game NFL season,it's one of the biggest cliches in the
sport. But it's a war ofattrition, it truly is. And you
need to have really and you needto have bodies. And it's not only
having the bodies. You've got tohave quality body, productive bodies out there.
And you know, I remember BillBelichick always used to say, it's
one thing to have the guys inuniform out on the field. Are they

(50:21):
producing? Are are they worth havingout there? And I think you know,
with lou Ana Arumo back in twentytwenty one and twenty twenty two,
everybody he put out had long stretchesof productivity, and especially in that run
to end the year, that's whatreally mattered. It's great to have,
say you have depth on paper.It's great to have the out the hour

(50:43):
lads depth chart that I haven't rightin front of me. For the Bengals,
they all look great on paper.But can they produce over the course
of seventeen games. Yeah, Imean you remember the Seattle game this past
year where he went to the defensiveline and said, you guys are going
to win this game for us,and they were gassed. He knew they
were, but he knew that theywere the one's gonna have to do it.
Would it be nice at the endof the game if you're in a
rumor to go, all right,I got my starters fresh for this main

(51:07):
key series of the game, Nowgo win it. Force. What about
a Marius Mims potentially beating out TrentBrown for the starting right tackle position,
either to start the season or earlyon in the season. I think you
don't have it at some point.I don't know about how early. You
know. I just did a thingof five position camp battles and that's one

(51:28):
of them. And when you whenyou write this down, it does kind
of smack you in the face.You know, Trent Brown has ninety three
NFL starts, Amarius Mems has eightcollege starts, and again, certainly talented
kid. You know, they thinka lot of him. But I just
I mean, I think you wouldroll the dice with the experience, No
matter how talented Nims is. Butas you know, Mike, there is

(51:49):
an injury injury history with Trent Brown. So at some point it Marius Mims
is going to start, and maybehe shows enough. Again, maybe he
just blows everybody away in camp.And Zach Killer brought that point up to
tell him Trent Brown, hey,you know we're gonna sign you, but
we're probably gonna draft the tackle,when he said, bring it on.
I like the competition, so Ithink he brings up the best in both
of those guys. I wrote thisfor Sealing a c lnssince dot com,

(52:12):
and I feel free to laugh meout of town. I'm sure you'll do
plenty of that over the next fourto five weeks anyway. But Mims has
the potential to be the most athletictackle the Bengals have had since Anthony Munoz
came out of USC in nineteen eighty. Do you agree with that. I
think that's a fair point. Yeah. I mean the size is there,
like Anthony. I mean he's biggerthan Anthony actually, but in Anthony's era,

(52:34):
Anthony was a gargantuan, right,you know, guy's tackle, But
of course was a great athlete baseballplayer at USC and had great seat and
all those things. You know,Anthony was actually kind of five more hamper
than Nims was in a way becauseyou know, he didn't have a lot
of college balls under his belt becauseof the knee issue, and he was
dealing with it, you know,coming off with some knee surgery at a
time where you know, guys don'trecover like they do today. So that
was a bit of a red flagat the time. So, yeah,

(52:57):
Mims has in a lot of ways, we're going for that Anthony did coming
out of college. You know,we've spent so much time talking and analyzing
Joe Burrow's wrist. The fact thathe's been cleared for contact, I think
is certainly a fada complete. Ithink it's, you know, something that
was assumed going to be the casewhen we entered training camp. What is

(53:21):
the biggest thing Joe Burrow needs toshow you and show the coaching staff it's
Kenny before he takes a snap ina game preseason or not first eleven on
eleven or at least one of theearly eleven on eleven periods. Again,
they can't hit the quarterback, butthere's a live rush and things are happening
close to game speed as possible,and he picks out a target and it's

(53:43):
a tight window, and I wantto see him ripped the ball in that
tight window. That's when I thinkwe all know he'll be back. It
won't be a deep throw or anythinglike that. It'll be one of those
where he rips it into a windowand you go, oh wow, Okay,
that he's clearly back. I thinkthat's when you will know. And
maybe that's even when he will knowas well. Anything else you're looking at
come training camp, maybe the newkickoffs and how they're gonna look. Yeah,

(54:07):
that fascinates me. The last storyhe did come out of Ota.
I talked with Darren Simmons for aboutfifteen minutes, and he just always a
great, a great guy. Hebreaks things down, it really is.
He's a he's a tough now he'sgreat. I I you know, the
way we he's talked about it is, I think you're gonna see because there's
a thing called old landings. Thisis gonna get folks. Is you're gonna

(54:27):
have to get used to this becauseI'm still trying to get used to it
on the fly me as well.He doesn't think kicks will bounce on the
on the on the ground more thanthey and he made a point, he
said, handtime's irrelevant now because guyscan't run until they catch it, so
it doesn't matter what your hantime ison the kick. Do you think you'll
see different kickoffs? I did say, because now you know, if the
ball goes into the into the endzone, it could be a touchback and

(54:49):
it comes out to the thirty AndI said it while I said, I'm
only talking five more yards, andhe said, yeah, it wouldn't shock
me that. You know, we'reall excited about the new kickoff or more
returns. If coaching staffs don't go, how the heck with it, just
send the things through the end zone. Let's just just give them the five
yards in the heck with it?And you know, I'm curious to see
as And I think you made thispoint to me during OTAs the way team

(55:13):
well, the way a team likethe Bengals will have gut with an experienced
special teams coordinator, and Darren Simmonslooks at at it at the beginning of
the season versus how the season progresses, how teams are playing it, and
then how you might be able tolearn how you can dictate more field position
with it. That is something thatis certainly I would think going to evolve

(55:34):
over the course of the year.Yeah, he talked about even in OTAs
that he was looking at stuff fromnot just practice to practice or we do.
He's looking at stuff from rep torep of how things look, and
I think that's yeah. You know, you'll get some teams to be able
to see what other teams are doing, how it's working out, how much
are kickers being involved in tackles,because that's going to factor into this as
well. You know, if somehowthey think, oh gosh, Evan's going

(55:57):
to be involved in at least oneor two potential tackles in a game,
that just kick it through the endzone. We don't have to worry about
Evan trying to make attack or gettinghurt. So yeah, I think the
whole preseason you want to special teamscoordinators as you know, you know they
won't turn out all their tricks onthis thing and all the things they want
to do with it, but you'llsee enough and have enough evidence to decide
is is it just best to sendit to the end zone or no,
let's play field position, and youknow what, Evanton a guy with a

(56:20):
ball that bounces a couple of times, and then they got a field the
bounce as well. So I'm justfascinated by because it's new. It's just
something that's new and different and ina way strange. What was your lowest
round in the off season? Ishot in eighty six was the lowest I
got. I got a chance toplay with my oldest daughter and young youngest
daughter. We played together once ayear, usually around Father's Day, and

(56:44):
my oldest played in college. She'spregnant and she's having our first grandchild in
November, but she wanted to play, so we played back in June on
a very hot day. She tookher first swing and she says, oh
gosh, this is this is notgonna work. Well, she went out
and shoots the thirty eight and beatsspeech by under by two shots. So
I said, well, I meanyou still got it while you're pregnant.

(57:05):
I guess it's form over style,form over fashion, form over anything.
I think we learned that on thefootball field, which we will be watching
over the next four weeks, andwe'll learn that, and we certainly know
that on a golf course. Ihad the chance last Tuesday to go out
in the Links with Dan Horde andSteve Logan as a matter of fact,
former Bearcats legend, and I brokea hundred. I was happy with that.

(57:30):
It was a legitimate break. Itwas like I could have shot an
eighty nine, had I had abetter short game, had I not completely
butchered two part threes. But Iwas satisfied with that. Still Waters where
we played, and it was aterrific round, and it was a way
to give me some momentum going intotraining camp until yesterday's travel nightmare with getting

(57:53):
from Philly back here. But Ithink people heard enough of that yesterday.
Yeah, you're you're back, You'resafe, and you'll be at training can
tomorrow with your banana shirt on.Correct. I don't think it's going to
make a day one debut. I'vebeen told by the power that is not
powers, not plural but singular power. If you know what I mean,

(58:15):
you will not be wearing that untilat least week number two. If you
wear it at all, I'm like, okay, but wait, what's that.
I didn't wait for the view ofit, Mike. I will give
you heads up so you can haveyour phone camera ready to go house that
indeed, indeed all right. Heis Richard Skinner. He does a fabulous
job covering all things Cincinnati Bengals andalso the NFL for Local twelve dot com.

(58:38):
Be sure to follow him there,follow him on the X Skinny.
I really appreciate it, look forwardto seeing any of tomorrow. Absolutely might
take care. All right. Heis Richard Skinner, Local twelve here in
Cincinnati. We'll be back after thisbreak with more Bengals Talk. Will take
your calls as well. A fiveone, three, seven, four,
nine, fifteen thirty. Listening toCincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Little Tom Petty

(59:08):
here won't back down. Love itken Sean McMahon showing that he has exquisite
taste in the hybrid of classic rockand roll, seventies pop and disco.
Love it and it's acoustics. Sothis is something that I can comfortably talk

(59:29):
over into our next segment. Here, Tom Petty into Cincinnati Bengals Talk.
The training camp twenty twenty four openstomorrow. Bengals will practice on Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday. They haveSaturday off. It's back together weekend,
not on a Saturday this year,but on a Sunday and again back Together

(59:50):
weekend will not be inside the stadium, that's another change this year. It'll
be on the Kettering Health Practice fields. And then the first practice that is
truly open been to the general public. Important to understand this. That would
be Monday, July twenty ninth.That is open to the entire public.
The first several practices of training campare for season ticket holders and invited guests,

(01:00:14):
just so you know, you wantto be prepared not only for the
heat, but the logistics of goingto Bengals training camp twenty twenty four.
And speaking of which, we havea caller on the line, Scott from
Louisville. He has a question aboutdefensive depth as it specifically it looks like
based on the call screen, asit relates to linebackers. I'm curious about

(01:00:37):
what you have to say, Scott, because this is a subject that has
not been talked about hardly at allin the off season. Oh, good
afternoon, thank you. Yeah,that's one of the things. I know.
They talked about defensive depth and everything, and last year's performance at linebackers
were more of a They kind ofblamed it on the defensive backs. But

(01:00:59):
it seems like going into the campwith with Logan Wilson, Jermaine Pratt and
Gaither seems perilously thin as you mentionedearlier, especially in a war of attrition
situation, but only having those threelinebackers and really not having the traditional ro

(01:01:20):
Kwan Smith type playmaking thumper that reallythe Bengals haven't had since perfect Well.
I think that's there's a couple ofreasons here. I think partially because they
don't have that particular they don't havea Roquan Smith on their roster, and
instead of trying to go out andget a Roquan Smith, their attitude is
will build around the middle of ourdefense. They have one of the heaviest

(01:01:45):
linebackers in football, and Logan Wilson, he is an incredibly bright, instinctive,
downhill run stopping linebacker. Last yearhe was looking behind him. He
admitted this toward the end of theyear and after the season. He was
looking behind him self too much becausehe didn't necessarily trust what was going on
behind him. And if he doesn'thave that trust behind him there, he's

(01:02:07):
not going to play with instinct.And that's one of Logan Wilson's greatest strengths.
Jermaine Pratt, to me, isan interesting figure. Now. The
reason I bring up Jermaine Pratt andwhy it's interesting to me is what his
cap number is. His cap numbercoming into this year is seven point one
three million dollars. If they wereto cut him, and you know there's

(01:02:30):
always one or two cuts around theNFL on every team, essentially where a
veteran gets cut, the Bengals wouldsave in cap savings about three point eight
million dollars. If the Bengals decidethat they would rather go in a different
direction, maybe he is somebody thatif he doesn't look strong in camp,

(01:02:52):
you know, maybe they move onin a different direction. However, if
Jermaine Pratt is back to being JermainePratt of two years ago, I think
their linebackers will be just fine.A King Davis Gaither, as you said,
Uh, he is kind of ahybrid line He can play either weak
side or middle and that's fine.And Joe Bachi is Joe Bachi Shaka Hayward

(01:03:13):
is somebody to keep an eye on. He is a one of those guys
that could make an impression, uhand make the roster as a free agent
like he did last year. Butdoes that answer your question? It does?
It does that. It's a goodpoint about Logan Wilson, and especially
agreed exactly with what you say abouthim being the cerebral play caller. It's

(01:03:38):
just that just the the overall depthjust seems incredibly thin and a position that
they've kind of ignored for the lastcouple of years without wanting to add to
it now. Granted, I knowthey've had the defensive line issues and the
defensive back issues, but it justseems like that might be a position that

(01:03:59):
they really keep an eye on andtarget going in the next year, especially
with Pratt's cat number. And theother thing you should also keep in mind
is the Bengals really need There's somuch focus on stopping the run in the
AFC North, and I think theyaddress the defensive line to do that.
I think they want everybody behind theirdefensive line to be able to cover and
pass. You know, have goodpass coverage skills, and that's what they

(01:04:25):
really really focus on. And youknow, Jermaine Pratt for being a thumper,
he's not bad in past coverage.He really isn't. And Logan Wilson
I think he's one of the moreunderrated pass covering linebackers in the NFL,
and I think the Bengals feel thesame way about him. But look,
your point about the linebacker depth isa good one, King Davis. Gaither

(01:04:46):
is really the only established everyday playerthat they can point to with somebody in
terms of depth. And maybe itis a spot where come toward the end
of training camp, or if there'sa free ag out there who hasn't been
claimed, maybe they go in thatdirection. It'll be interesting to see Scott

(01:05:06):
well thanks, especially with the especiallywith the new kickoff rules. I know,
I guess defensive backs and the traditionaloutside linebacker type seem to be tailor
made for the coverage and that maybe what they look at. I think
that's also an excellent point, andthat's where you know, you kind of
try in years past to slip oneof these bigger linebacker types or certainly a

(01:05:30):
strong safety type on to the roster. That's how a lot of these rookies
make the team, Frankly, ora college pre agent, that's how they
make the rosters on special teams.So I'm curious to see how all of
that plays out and how the newkickoff rules impact rosters around the National Football
League. We've got to let yougo, Scott. We're up against a
break here, Thank you very much, and you're listening to Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen

(01:05:57):
thirty one. Mike Petralia trags seeon the other side for Cincinnati Higgins did
Chase go out to the left?Browning back to throw his pass for Higgins
at the end zone touchdown Bengals.A perfect throw from Jake Browning headed over
the shoulder catch for t Higgins forthe peg Beels touchdown. Dan Horde with

(01:06:25):
the call alongside Dave Lapham on theBengals radio network from last year, Sean,
what game was that? Ah?There we go. That was not
the game winning touchdown. I don'tbelieve right. That was a touchdown earlier
in the fourth quarter when they weredown seventeen to three. You remember,
Sean, I thank Shawn. Ivery vaguely remember. I think I was

(01:06:50):
even working this game, and Istill very vaguely remember. I will tell
you that that game was one ofthe more unpredictable or unlikely wins of the
year. It looked like the Bengalsin that game were dead in the water.
They were down seventeen to three.They didn't show any signs of life

(01:07:12):
early in the fourth quarter. Ibelieve that's the touchdown, and I got
the Bengals to within seventeen to ten. And then yes, and then of
course there was the catch of theyear, Jake Browning rolling out and finding
t Higgins on the corner and thenreaching behind himself with one hand and putting
it over the pylon. That catch, by the way, is right up

(01:07:34):
there with Odell Beckham Junior. Yes, touchdown. I don't think there's any
doubt about that. Odell Beckham Juniorprobably had the better catch difficulty in terms
of actually catching the ball with onehand falling down on the Sunday night football
game against Dallas, but in termsof completing the play and scoring a touchdown

(01:07:58):
when you needed it at the endof the game, with like thirty eight
seconds to go. To me,that T. Higgins catches right up there
in terms of all time great touchdownsin recent at least recent NFL lore.
You want to hear that one drags? Yeah, I would like to hear
it. As a matter of fact, if Dan hord is on the call,
Yeah, we got it. Pleaseforty eight seconds left in regulation.

(01:08:20):
On second and ten, Browning,scrambling right in trouble, throws it off
his back foot toward the end zone. T Higgins win to jump off the
football, hits a touchdown, anincredible catch by t Higgins, and the
Bengals have stored with thirty nine secondsto go. I can't believe what t

(01:08:43):
Higgins just did. I love thatcall by Dan. Look. I love
Dan hord As. It is tookme out golfing last Tuesday. That's one
reason I love the guy. Thatis a great call made of a clutch
touchdown that the Bengals needed. Iwas off a second, by the way,
thirty nine seconds ago last year inthe fourth quarter against Minnesota, and
I do remember this, Sean.I remember talking to Skinny after the game,

(01:09:08):
going, looks like we're going tothe playoffs, Skinny, because you
know, when Joe Burrow went downand week eleven against Baltimore on Thursday night,
we all looked at each other andthought, well, we're riding the
oh bit of the twenty twenty threeBengals. They're not going to make the
playoffs with a backup quarterback when somuch was vested in Joe Burrow well lo

(01:09:29):
and behold, the Bengals win thegame on Monday night against Jacksonville. They
come back, they win that miraculousgame at the end against the Minnesota Vikings,
and you're thinking, well, waita minute, maybe we didn't place
enough stock in Jake Browning. Andthen what happened to next week? Jake
Browning had a terrible game in Pittsburgh, of course, and then the defense

(01:09:54):
just Dax Hill had that forgettable playagainst the Steelers and allowed the whatever it
was, eighty three yard touchdown rightdown the middle and it was Katie bar
the door, and the Bengals reallynever recovered. Lost in Kansas City and
beat Cleveland in the season finale.But twenty twenty three Bengals were what they

(01:10:14):
were once Joe Burrow went down.They played very hard. They gave us
a few highlights like we just heardin the last couple of segments, but
they were not a playoff team.And they were not a playoff team because
of their defense. And I thinkthat's why I spent so much time with
Skinny talking about the defense, isbecause this defense had to get better,

(01:10:35):
it had to get more reliable onthe back end. I think they did
that, and that is the reasonthat I think a lot of Bengals fans
have hope for this year because thefront office went out and addressed so many
areas. They went out and gotGeno Stone as a free agent from Baltimore.
They went out and got Von Bellto compete with Jordan Battle to really

(01:10:58):
stiffing up the middle of that secondaryand the real communication spot in the middle
of the secondary as a safety.So von Bell knows what's going on.
I think Jordan Battle does too,but I don't think he had the command
of the defense that a guy likeVon Bell did. Excuse me coming back
into this system, and I think, you know, the combination of having

(01:11:20):
Von Bell and Jordan Battle and GenoStone back there and again, as I
said, it's a war of attrition, they're going to need all of these
players to produce at one time oranother during the course of the season.
But they also addressed the defensive line. There was so much hand ringing going
into the offseason last year, andI think for fair you know, good

(01:11:41):
reason. They were losing one oftheir best interior defensive tackle players in DJ
Reader. He was injured, butthey were also losing the impact that he
had inside that locker room. Willthey go out they get Sheldon Rankins of
thirty two year old veteran who's beenaround the NFL, who knows the tricks

(01:12:03):
of the trade in the trenches.They needed a guy like that. They
go out and get Chris Jenkins Junior. I think he could be one of
the biggest steals of the first threerounds by any NFL team. I think
he could have an immediate impact onthis Bengal defense. And then they go
out and draft McKinley Jackson in thethird round. I think I said fifth

(01:12:27):
round earlier when I was talking toSkinny. He is a third round draft
pick. And when you take alook at a guy drafted in the second
round and third round, usually thatmeans those teams expect these players to come
in and contribute pretty much right away. I certainly think Chris Jenkins Junior,
having played at Michigan on a nationalchampionship team in a National championship caliber team

(01:12:51):
for the last several seasons, ismore likely to come in and contribute at
a high level. But certainly McKinleyJackson, as a zero technique standard traditional
NOS tackle, he's going to havea role on this team as well.
So long story short, I thinkthe Bengals did a lot in the offseason
to address what I think was thebiggest reason they didn't make the playoffs last

(01:13:13):
year. And yes, people aregoing to say, well, that's because
Joe Burrow was hurt. Well,really, if you take a look at
it, the reason the Bengals didnot make the playoffs last year, as
we said, against Pittsburgh and KansasCity, their defense couldn't stop anybody.
They couldn't stop the Steelers really fromfirst quarter through the finish, and against
Kansas City they had the lead athalftime and could not stop and understandably so

(01:13:38):
Patrick Mahomes and that Kansas City offensein the second half, the defense just
failed them. I don't think that'llbe the case this year. I think
the Bengals will be in very goodposition to return to the playoffs. But
it's not about just returning to theplayoffs. They need to win the division.
I think we've said this time andtime and time again. They need

(01:14:00):
to make a run at the numberone overall seed. Back in the day
when there were two bye weeks ineach two buy seeds, the top two
teams got buys going into the playoffs. Back in those days of the NFL
playoffs, I'd say, Okay,you win the division, but you're not
the number one seed. Maybe thenumber one seed gets knocked off. In

(01:14:20):
this particular case, only the firstseed top seeds in each conference get bye
weeks. I think the bye weekplus home field advantage is what the Bengals
really should be shooting for. Thatwill increase their odds of making a Super
Bowl fifty nine this year in NewOrleans, and I think that's where a
lot of Bengal fans expect to become the second weekend in February. They

(01:14:45):
think all the stars are aligned forJoe Burrow and Jamar Chase to recreate the
twenty nineteen national championship for LSU.The buy YOUU Bengals, Go Bengals.
I think the Burrough Bengals in SuperBowl fifty nine. A lot of things
have to happen between now the openingof training camp and the end of the

(01:15:08):
season for the Bengals to get there. But I think the cards are on
the table. If they play themright, I think they can get there
to Super Bowl fifty nine. Butthat, of course, as they say,
is why you have training camp andwhy they play seventeen regular season games.
At the top of the hour,we'll have more Bengals Talk. I'm
bringing in James Rapine, he ofSI dot com and All Bengals Talk dot

(01:15:31):
com. He will join me afterthe top of the hour. We'll also
take your calls at five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty if you want to talkBengals. Reds are on the table
certainly as we look ahead to theirmatchup in Game two of the series against
the Atlanta Braves. Chris Sale onthe mound for Atlanta. He's thirteen and
three and the Reds are countering withNick Martinez. He is three and five

(01:15:56):
for the Cincinnati Reds. So comingup on the other side of the break,
Red's, Bengals, and whatever elsemight be on the table, we'll
get to it. You are listeningto the Moweger Radio program. My name
is Mike Petralia Trags. You're listeningto Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati's ESPN
fifteen thirty Traffic from the UC HealthTraffic Center. The future of care is

(01:16:20):
happening now through clinical trials and innovativetreatments that give patients a chance for better
outcomes. Visit UCHealth dot com.We have slow moving traffic that's causing a
ten minute delay if you're on southboundseventy one between Martin Luther King Junior Drive
and Fort Washington Way, and ifyou're traveling on southbound seventy five from Cooper
Avenue to the Ronald Reagan Highway,expect a couple minute delay there. Omnicle

(01:16:44):
with traffic PN fifteen thirty first inten Bengals from their own thirty seven for
roh Well Phase two mix in.He's gonna fling a deep down field for
Jamar Chase. He catches up andtakes it into the end zone. Touchdown
Bengals sixty three yards. The magicis back as Burrow throws its deep and

(01:17:12):
Chase takes it into the end zonefor the long touchdown. That was Dan
Horde along with Dave Lapham on theBengals radio network from last year October eighth,
to be specific, Week number five, Bengals needed to go to Arizona
get healthy. Joe Burrow literally hadto go out and get healthy, recovering

(01:17:32):
still from his strained left calf thathappened on the second day of training camp
last year, and he had agreat game, and that was one of
the biggest islet It was the biggesthigh LELYIGHTU clearly of a thirty four to
twenty win at State Farm Stadium overthe Arizona Cardinals. I got the Bengals
the two and three on the season. They would win their next three games,

(01:17:55):
a four game winning streak, andthen of course they lost at home
to Houston, and then the roofcaved in in week eleven, and we
know what happened the rest of theway. My name is Mike Petrallium.
You are listening to the Moeger RadioShow on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
I am heading into my final hourof three hours on this Tuesday,

(01:18:17):
July twenty third. Of course,tomorrow is the opening of a training camp
twenty twenty four for the Bengals downat pay Corps Stadium. I'll have you
covered on CELNS Sincy. Be sureto follow me on x at Trags tr
Ags, and also be sure tofollow my next guest and a very very

(01:18:40):
good friend and new daghbor, JamesRapine. I have all of your employers
and people that you work for writtendown so I don't screw it up.
Bengals Bengals Talk dot Com Locked onBengals, the only daily podcast covering the
Cincinnati and Enter the Jungle that canbe seen on YouTube. How are you

(01:19:02):
doing, James Rapeen? Look atthat you nailed it trags. Well,
last time was not so clean,so I had to clean that up and
I made the adjustments. And hey, we have breaking news, by the
way, and it's actually very significantnews. I know you reported it just
a few moments ago. I aswell. The Bengals have placed offensive tackle

(01:19:25):
Trent Brown on the active Non FootballInjury or as we like to call it,
NFI list. Brown, a tenthyear player, signed with the Bengals
as an unrestricted free agent in March. Looks like a Marius Mims is your
starting right tackle, at least tostart camp. What do you think,
James, Yeah, that's exactly whatthis looks like. And it's it's so

(01:19:48):
funny. You think back to whena Marius was drafted and how many people
were like, man, they needto get someone that can play right away.
Well, we said it. It'sit's nice to have some extra tackle
depths, and so I don't knowthe severity of the Trent Brown injury.
I assume it's something minor ish,right. We haven't heard anything about him

(01:20:13):
being hurt and off season training,so this could be just a few day
things where they want him to maybeget in a little better shape, or
maybe they want to take it slowwith him because he's dealing with some kind
of issue, so they can activatehim at any point. I'm not freaking
out about Trent Brown. At thesame time, I look at it and
I think it's good for a MariusMims to get out there and get valuable

(01:20:35):
starting reps early in camp. Imean, it could be as simple as
that. I mean the Bengals,certainly, I don't They're not going to
make up an injury, right,But if there is something even in terms
of being wrong with Trent Brown ona minor level, then go ahead and
take advantage of that and get aMarius Mims as many reps as you possibly

(01:20:56):
can. Because we have not seena Marius Mims in PAS. He hasn't
obviously done any run blocking yet becausethey don't allow that in OTA's in mini
camp. So let's see if MariusMarius Mims can take advantage of this and
go out there and show everybody whythe Bengals viewed him as a first round
talent. And we heard Zach onMonday discuss veteran and obviously we were focused

(01:21:24):
on Joe Burrow. But he's goingto take it slow with veterans. We
know what he is and he's aplayer's coach. If Trent is doing with
anything at all that they'll say,all right, well let's let's take it
slow with you because we could geta Marius rep. So not panicking,
still working to figure out what's wrongwith Trent, but you know when when
and if I figure it out,I'll certainly let everyone know. I'm sure

(01:21:47):
you will, James, there's nodoubt about that. Speaking with James try
and I want to know it's trainingcamp, season track. You've got to
find out the news, by theway, And I don't think you get
enough credit for all of the work, the legwork you do leading up to
the NFL Draft. You do anamazing amount of work there and I need
to give you your due props there. I know your head's going to be

(01:22:10):
the size of the Goodyear Blimp tomorrowwhen I see you. But you can
follow him on Bengals Talk Dot comhe is James Rapine. I think Amarus
Mims has a chance to be themost athletic first round tackle since Anthony Munoz.
I mean, obviously, those arehuge shoes to fill and he's got

(01:22:31):
a long, long, long wayto go. I mean, he's only
made eight starts in college for goodnesssakes. But the potential is there for
him to be an impact tackle rightout of the shoot, Oh, no
doubt, no doubt about it.I mean, whether it's looking at him,
whether it was the pre draft process, whether it's his personality, which

(01:22:55):
obviously we've gotten him a little bitin a couple in person interactions. I
think he has all of the thetraits needed to be a dominant NFL tackle,
and that's why the Bengals were soexcited to get him there at eighteen.
It's rare to find that type ofguy at any point in any draft,
and usually when they're there, theygo top five, top six,
and he fought at eighteen because heonly made eight starts at Georgia and so

(01:23:19):
the Bengals can potentially benefit from it. Now it's up to a Marius first
and foremost, and then obviously thiscoaching staff to get him in place to
have success as soon as this year. This is not a red shirt year
for a Marius, and I reallydo expect him to contribute at some point
this season. They're going to needhim, maybe as soon as week one,

(01:23:40):
certainly tomorrow he's going to be theirstarting right tackle when they do team
drows. What are your expectations forJoe Burrow heading into training camp? Not
pull your calf on the second day? Well, that's exactly right. I
think one He's got the best Harry'sever had. I would say that for
those of the listeners out there thatknow what I look like, I'm sure

(01:24:02):
they understand why I'm saying. I'mjust saying it's pretty similar. So as
far as expectations for him, Iexpect him play, yeah, he says
Hi. I expect him to playat the level that we expect him always.
But I do think that they're goingto take it take it easy on

(01:24:23):
him, and so do we seea full out two and a half hour
of practice tomorrow like we did lastyear on the first day of camp.
Maybe, but then I think thenext day might be a little lighter,
especially on Joe and how they balancethat, especially knowing now that he's going
to play in the preseason, andthe plan for him is to not only
participate in two of these I believetwo of these joint practices. I soon

(01:24:46):
will participate both days and then participatein the preseason as well. I think
they'll take it a bit slawer withhim. At the same time, I
still expect him when he is participatingto look like Joe Burrow, Dax Seller,
DJ Turner, Who you got cool? It's a question of camp.
Yeah, outside of Joe Burrow's health, that really is. That's the question

(01:25:06):
of camp. Who emerges in thatcornerback room. I think most of the
off season I just felt like andI like both guys a lot, and
I think both guys are really talented. But one guy played cornerback last year
in the NFL. One didn't.And so if you're DJ Turner, you
got to feel good about where you'reat. Meanwhile, Dak's Hill, I

(01:25:29):
think you should feel good because youare the prototypical corner. You look like
a corner, and so if yougo out there and you earn this job,
you're going to be more valuable inthe NFL than you ever were at
a safety at safety regardless of howwell you played. So I think both
guys have a lot to earn andthat's training camp battle number one. All
eyes on the corners, you know. Duke Tobin yesterday during media day was

(01:25:54):
asked about if there are veteran cornersout there, would the team be interested
in signing one. He said,no, probably not. I like what
we've got here. My read onthat, and this is really kind of
going deep in the weeds, butreading between the lines, I think the
attitude inside the walls of pay CorpseStadium is these young guys have got to

(01:26:15):
step forward. One's going to winthe battle at the cornerback position opposite Cam
Taylor brit And the other is goingto be If it's DJ Turner, Dax
Hill will probably back up not onlyan outside corner spot, he will back
up Mike Hilton as well. Andif it's Dax Hill who wins the battle,
then DJ Turner will probably have tosit and watch and learn and be

(01:26:39):
ready if he's called upon. Yeah. I think in a perfect world,
both of these guys are just awesomeand you're like, oh, well we
have three reliable outside corners. KamTaylor Bridge is obviously starting and then whoever
wins the starting job. But thatwould be the ideal scenario. To your
point, if DJ Turner wins it, Dax can still be that versatile piece

(01:27:01):
for you. I still think thathe's going to guard tight ends a decent
amount if he doesn't win that startingjob. He's a better one on one
cover player than Geno Stone. Theydidn't bring Genostone into to do that.
They want him to be that deepsafety. He's a better one on one
cover player at least in my opinion, than of Von Bell, who is

(01:27:21):
going to start. I'd be shockedif he didn't, And so I think
there's still going to be a rolefor Dax in that scenario. And the
same time, if DJ is thethird corner, of the third outside corner,
but he's still going to get onthe field as well, because you're
going to see plenty of four widereceiver sets or plenty of one tight end

(01:27:41):
three receiver sets, and maybe DAXXis on the tight end at time.
So I think these guys are bothgoing to contribute, and it's just figuring
out exactly how they fit together andwho the best guy is for that outside
job. Fascinated to see Mike Kisikiout there and how Dan Piccher in his
first year is offensive court Nader replacingBrian Callahan, who's of course now in

(01:28:02):
Tennessee as head coach. Fascinated tosee how damn picture uses Mike Kasicki.
Oh, I'm excited. I'm excitedto see Mike KASICKI. I think he's
he's the best tight end that JoeBurrow has had, and he at least
from a pass catching standpoint, whichlet's be honest, this team wants to

(01:28:24):
throw the ball all over the field. So the fact that you have someone
that can be the red zone threatthat he is Hayden Hurst wasn't that.
She's Azama wasn't that. And he'salso capable of threatening the second and third
levels of the defense. He's justan athlete that obviously is a really good

(01:28:45):
natural receiver of the football and he'sa willing blocker. He hasn't been asked
to do it a lot, butyou ask him and he is willing to,
So I think that'll be interesting.But yeah, definitely a going to
be a big part of this offense. And I think one of the many
guys, one of the many wildcards that could end up having a really
big year and have some pivotal placefor this Bengals team. I'm not going

(01:29:05):
to predict it, but there isthe possibility that we could have a third
punter in as many seasons for theBengals going into the season, if Austin
McNamara, the free agent out ofTexas Tech the plants Brad Robbins, who
Bengals spent a fifth rounder on him. I believe it was a fifth rounder
in twenty twenty three out of Michigan. How do you see that battle?

(01:29:29):
Do you see McNamara based on whatyou've read about him, talked to them
and talked to coaches about him.Do you think that's a legitimate battle right
there? Yeah, it's a legitimatebattle. I haven't talked to one on
one with McNamara yet. I knowhe's certainly thinking he've got a shot in
this competition. And I think alot of people listening are probably just going

(01:29:50):
to assume McNamara is going to winit. And in my warning disclaimer,
whatever you want to say, BradRobbins took all of those last year.
It's similar to what I said aboutDJ Turner. He was actually punning in
the NFL last year, so heknows what to expect, he knows the
challenges, and he was able toadjust all off season, and so I
was still given the edge. Hewas a great holder for Evan McPherson last

(01:30:13):
year. They knows she's there andso he knows what Darren Simmons is looking
for. At the same time,he's going to have to earn it.
And you have a guy in mattinNamara who is draftable by a lot of
draft analysts out there, who's onthis roster, and the reason he signed
in Cincinnati, you better believe theTragons because he thought he could win this
job. And so that is ifthat's not like training camp, Battle number

(01:30:35):
two is probably three or four.It's an important battle and it's one that
the Bengals have to get right becauseI'm sick of talking about punning issues.
I'm sure Darren Simmons is too.Yes, Miles Murphy, I think there's
been more positive buzz about him asa second year player than any Bengal I

(01:30:55):
can recall going into his second year, aside from Joe Burrow obviously, uh
and maybe Jamar Chase, but therehas been maybe, but certainly Miles Murphy
stands on the brink of what Ithink a lot of people are expecting to
be a breakout season as a firstrounder from twenty twenty three going into this
year. And you combine that withthe fact that Joseph Osai could be well.

(01:31:21):
Certainly is the healthiest he's been goinginto any year, uh in his
going on fourth year here with theBengals. But Osai could play on the
inside. I think those two playersare two players to keep a very close
eye on during training camp. Yeah, I agree with you. I think
Aside a tough one. Oside isa tough one to predict because of the

(01:31:44):
injuries, because of the death theyhave death at defensive end, and there
are a lot of guys there thatare battling for a few spots behind Trey
Henderson and Sam Hubbard. Obviously MilesMurphy is one of them, and so
can Osai stay off of the rosterbubble? Can Osai be part of that
rotation? Can he make an impact? I certainly think he's capable, but

(01:32:04):
he's got to go out there anddo it, stay healthy. We'll see
if he can do that. It'sa contract year for him as well,
so it's a big year for JOSEPHOsaid, meanwhile, you mentioned it the
Miles Murphy expectations train after last yearwhere he started to flash a little bit
at the end of the year.It's a natural progression. Yeah, expectations

(01:32:24):
are high. I expect him tonot only win that third defensive end job
and it not be a true competitionwith Joseph Osai because he should just be
better. And that's kind of whereI'm at. Expectations lie, but I
expect him to force the Bengals handsa little bit. When it comes to
Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard. Youwant a former first rounder going into year

(01:32:47):
two to force you to put himon the field to say, hey,
yeah, I get it. Wehave train and Sam, we're really confident
in these guys. Well, wegot to find more snaps for Miles and
I think that's that's the hope andto some degree, the expectation, and
we'll see if he can deliver onthat, because we know he's talented,
and we know that there was somedevelopment that he needed when he was dropping

(01:33:11):
out of Clemson. All right,So now we're a year in, so
hopefully we see that development and hestarts to get on the field more and
more. I'll wrap it up hereJames Rapine of Bengals Talk dot com talking
about the head coach, and Iwant to ask you if you think Zach
Taylor looks at training camp any differentlythan he did in years number one,

(01:33:31):
two and three. Having been whathe's been through, having been through what
he's been through with guys like JoeBurrow, Joseph Asagh, guys that get
hurt in training camp, do youthink he makes any major adjustments this year
in training camp? I mean,I think hole. I think it evolves

(01:33:54):
and evolved throughout the process, andyou look at what training camp was than
part of this is during the OVIDyears and the rules. I missed his
first training camp, but things thingshave evolved and they changed. And the
one thing that I was surprised aboutlast year is how long the first couple
of practices were. He was reallytrying to establish the set of tone for

(01:34:15):
camp, and I think he's knownfor the you know, the easy practices,
the player first, the light camp, and last year they really went
at it and it was a greatsession and another nine tenths of the session
before Joe went down, And soI do wonder how he balances that Tomorrow,
Thursday, Friday, three straight days. How do you do it?

(01:34:36):
I think that's going to be somethingthat bears washing. But yeah, it's
all throughout the process, and there'smore of a balance now than ever,
especially because we know, and I'mglad he revealed it, the plan to
play Joe Burrow, the plan toplay the starters in the preseason. Do
you take it easier on these guysand slowly guide them into the football waters.

(01:34:57):
Maybe that's the case as they rampup ahead a preseason game number one
on August tenth. I believe heis James for Paine does a fabulous job
covering the Cincinnati Bengals for Bengals Talkdot Com and SI Operation. By the
way, locked on Bengals podcast andEnter the Jungle on YouTube. Anything else

(01:35:17):
you want to promote James, No, you, Craig, You're going to
be a training camp too. Iam gonna. I can't wait to give
you a hug tomorrow, big hug. Hey. By the way, if
we see Joe Burrows start to growthe five o'clock, six o'clock, seven
o'clock shadow, then we really knowhe's been influenced by James for Pine.

(01:35:39):
The hair is one thing, andit looks just like you normally. I
don't have the facial hair. That'sthat's a new addition. He added.
The buzz cut. The blonde buzzcut facial hair was my off season edition.
All right, Well, if wesee it on him, I'm telling
you right now, I'm going tobe asking Joe Burrow anyway, James,

(01:36:00):
have a good one, get somerest tonight, look forward to seeing you
tomorrow. He is James Rapine ofBengals Talk dot Com. Does a fabulous
job of covering the Cincinnati Cincinnati Bengals, and he's a very good friend as
well. On the other side ofthis break, we're gonna talk some Cincinnati
Reds preview the game tonight in Atlantaagainst Chris Sale and the Atlanta Braves,

(01:36:24):
and we'll take your calls. Atfive, one, three, seven,
four, nine, fifteen thirty.You are listening to the Moegger Radio Show
for Tuesday, July twenty third.My name is Trags and this is ESPN
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.Swung on and here well by Benson looking
up as the rich food duval thatis going to be broad Will Benson Welcome

(01:36:47):
home, young man, native ofAtlanta, Georgia. He's got a big
crowd of family and friends here tonightand he is celebrating rounding the pieces after
that lone home run to right field. Chris Welsh with the call last night
on seven hundred WLW, the flagshipstation of the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds

(01:37:11):
will be back at action tonight againstChris Sale and the Atlanta Braves after they
ended a four game losing streak lastnight at Truest Park. They were able
to win that game four to one. Really a good game all the way
around. In our number one tokick off the program today, we were
talking with John Sadak, the playby play voice of the Reds on Balley

(01:37:34):
Sports Cincinnati, and he mentioned howthis Reds team really put everything together last
night and they needed one of thosegames from start to finish, and the
Reds were able to provide that lastnight and win that game. But really
it's a matter of putting consistent performancestogether. Of course, they lost the

(01:37:58):
three games coming out of the breakand they stand forty eight and fifty three
and they are four games behind thethird and final wildcard spot, the New
York Mets hold that at fifty oneand forty eight, they're not going to
catch Milwaukee Burgers. I think weall understand that they're nine and a half

(01:38:18):
games behind Milwaukee in the National LeagueCentral Division. If they can win,
they have five games remaining on thisnine game road trip. If they can
finish let's say four and one andfinish a road trip five and four and
salvage a winning trip, maybe thatinfluences Nick Krawl and Reds management to go

(01:38:40):
out and maybe not be aggressive buyersat the trade deadline, but maybe not
completely execute a fire sale at thetrade deadline. Though, if they do
go out and do that, howdo you feel Reds fans? If they
go out and sell off all oftheir veteran players and start pretty much all
over again getting ready for twenty twentyfive. I think a lot of Reds

(01:39:01):
fans would feel like, well,they weren't going to win this year anyway.
Too many injuries. You get MattMcClain back in August, and you've
lost Christian and Carnacion Strand for theyear. Those are two huge bats.
Obviously, TJ Friedel he could beback by the start of the Tampa Bay

(01:39:21):
Rays series in Saint Petersburg this weekend. But still they have not had the
core of their roster completely full andwhole for most of the season. And
when that happens, like it ornot, fundamentally bad baseball or not,
you're not going to win, andyou're not going to finish near the top

(01:39:44):
of your division. And that's reallywhat's happened to the Cincinnati Reds this year.
They've had a frustrating year and certainlyno consistency. And I think a
lot of Reds fans that have triedto become emotionally vested in this team this
year. That's what drives them nuts. They win seven in a row and

(01:40:04):
then they lose three in a row, they lose five of eight, let's
say, and they can't put consistentstretches together, and the Reds are going
to have to demonstrate for the finalsixty games what they haven't been able to
demonstrate in the first one hundred andtwo. That's a rare thing in baseball.

(01:40:25):
It does happen, and it happenedlast year with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
They found their groove at the endof the year. They were able to
eke in as the third wild cardand they made it all the way to
the World Series and against the oddsthey won in Philadelphia, beat the Phillies
heavily favored Phillies in the NLCS.Sure the Reds if they hover around five

(01:40:48):
hundred, they could make a run, get super hot at the end.
But is it likely based on whatwe've seen so far and have to say
no. But again, running downthe lineup tonight in case you missed it.
The Reds and Braves play at sevenforty tonight at Truis Ballpark seven twenty.

(01:41:08):
I said seven forty seven to twentyat Truest Park in Atlanta. It's
Nick Martinez three and five, threeeighty eight e R with fifty six strikeouts
on the air against has to bethe National League Cy Young leader in the
clubhouse thirteen and three, Chris Saletwo seventy ERA and one hundred and forty

(01:41:29):
strikeouts. Your lineup for the RedLegs. Jonathan India leads leads off.
He's batting two seventy five, threeseventy seven, four to twenty eight home
runs, forty RBIs. He's playingsecond base. Batting second playing shortstop is
Ellie Dala Cruz. He's got twobatting two fifty eight. I was seventeen
homers and forty four. RBIs SpencerSteer batting third, playing first base.

(01:41:55):
He's hitting thirty six year two thirtysix on the year, fifteen home runs
and a team leading sixty one.RBIs batting in the clean off spot tonight,
Tyler Stevenson. He's catching, battingtwo thirty eight with eleven home runs.
Stuart Fairchild is in the five hole, playing center field. He's hitting

(01:42:15):
two twenty nine. His average hascome up about twenty points in the last
month or so. And you knowwhat Stuart Fairchild is. Stuart Fairchild is
a good fourth or fifth outfielder ona team that has playoff aspirations. He
brings a lot of speed off thebench. He certainly brings defense. He's

(01:42:36):
shown that in many many games thisyear, robbing several guys home runs at
the fence. He has a lotof value. But I think he's been
overexposed a little bit this year againbecause guys like TJ. Friedel have spent
three different stints on the injured list. Batting sixth and playing third base is

(01:42:57):
noelve. Marte Austin Slater bats seventhand he plays left field. Reese Hines
is back in the lineup. Heis playing right field and batting a three
fifty. His slash numbers are stillvery high, three fifty three, three
eighty nine and slugging at nine seventyone, five home runs and eleven RBIs
in batting ninth. The DH isSantiago Espinal. So that's the lineup facing

(01:43:21):
Chris Sale tonight down at Truest Parkin Atlanta. It's five point forty here
on a Tuesday, July twenty thirdon Mike Petrolia Trags filling in for Moweger
on Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Whenwe come back, we'll wrap up this
three hour extravaganza, talking more Reds, talking more Bengals, the breaking news

(01:43:45):
on the eve of Bengals training camptwenty twenty four. And we'll take your
calls five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty, will
be right back. Hey, it'sMotweger Hit Secret Sports Card, A little
Wings, Little Paul McCartney and LindaMcCartney and Wings. I love this nineteen

(01:44:09):
seventy six, This much I knowsilly Love songs? Am I right?
Sean spot On? Yeah, thereyou go, Silly Love Songs nineteen seventy
six. I believe it hit numberone on the AT forty was Casey casem
I believe that hit number one.I you better look that up, Sean,

(01:44:30):
because I don't have that in frontof me and I don't feel like
losing my place with about eighty billiontabs open on my laptop, So Sean,
you look it up. By theway, a shout out, huge
shout out to Sean McMahon for whathe's done for me the last two days.
He's kept me smiling. Not thatTarren Bland doesn't, Okay, I
don't want anybody to namely Tarran listeningto this and go thanks a lot drags.

(01:44:55):
But what Sean has done for methe last two days been a long
couple of days for me. Alot of stuff going on in the personal
world, and we all do.We all have issues going on in our
personal lives. But Sean McMahon hasmade it a lot of fun, made
it a lot very easy to dothis program and fill in for Oegar.
By the way, Moth, thankyou for allowing me the privilege to fill

(01:45:16):
in for you the last couple ofdays. And I'm looking forward to covering
Bengals training camp. You can followall my coverage of course on Twitter x
at trags Trags. I have acolumn up on CLNS Media dot sorry CLNS
Sincy with a y dot com andthat is a twenty twenty four Cincinnati Bengals

(01:45:40):
primer for training camp. Twelve storylinesyou need to keep a close eye on.
And what's interesting is I'm going tohave to go back into that story,
into that column and update the TrentBrown versus a Marius Mims position battle
that I had rated at number four. And the reason I have to go
back in and update it the Bengalstoday, if he did not hear the

(01:46:01):
news broke within the last hour,have placed offensive tackle Trent Brown on the
active non football Injury list otherwise knownas the NFI. But he is active.
He could be activated anytime within thefirst couple of weeks of training camp,
but keep an eye on it.Brown, a tenth year player,
of course, signed a one yeardeal with the Bengals as an unrestricted free

(01:46:24):
agent in March, and then theBengals went out and drafted a Marius Mims
number eighteen overall first round pick asa right tackle. Now it looks like
a Marius Mims will be your startingright tackle at least to start camp.
Mims got the shadow reps because theydidn't put on pads and didn't have any

(01:46:45):
contact during OTAs and during mini campand off season practices, no pads are
permitted, so you don't really knowwhat a Marius Mims does when he engages
in the trenches. But now wemight get a little more look see at
a mar Arrius Mims once the padsgo on. And also for those who
don't know, the Bengals don't startright away in pads tomorrow when training camp

(01:47:09):
opens. They because of the collectivebargaining agreement with the NFL and the NFLPA,
they take about a week to sixdays before teams allow their players to
get in full pads and start hittingeach other with full force and going through
individual and team drills. Just soyou know, just so you know what

(01:47:29):
to expect. The first public practicethat is open to the general public is
next Monday, July twenty ninth.That'll be down at pay Corps Stadium.
So that's the Bengals news. TheReds again, they take on Chris Sale
thirteen and three Chris Sale tonight atTruest Park. Game time is at seven
twenty. You can hear that game, of course on our sister station,

(01:47:50):
the flagship longtime flagship station of theCincinnati Reds, the Big Ones, seven
hundred WLW. Last night, afterfor a four to one win, David
Bell had the chance to talk aboutsnapping a four game losing streak and how
this game could be maybe just maybethe kickstart to something bigger. I say,

(01:48:11):
tonight's success started with Hunters outing.Yeah, I mean that was I
wanted to be on the mountain night. He wanted to be a big guy
to be out there. You know, obviously they're all important games, but
coming off the weekend, it wasyou know, it was nice to get
a win, of course, andthe Hunter stepped up and just absolutely absolutely

(01:48:32):
wanted to be out there, anduh, you know, did everything that
you know, you get asked for. Tonight got ahead consistently all night.
That was really the key. Uh, good veloss, you know, his
fastball, of course, good goodslider mixed in some splits, but it
was more just a mindset of wantingto be the guy out there. When

(01:48:55):
times are tough throughout the game usuallyrely on leaders the players have made mention
of Luke Malee giving a little talkon the bus upon landing. Is it
I know you probably weren't there,privy too, but what does it mean
to have it and he's done thisbefore, to have a guy like that
to pick pieces up. Oh yeah, I mean it's uh yeah, hopefully
encouraged guys to step up if theyhave something to say to the teammates that

(01:49:19):
you know, it's always meaningful.I'm hearing from your teammates that care,
you know, and it's coming fromthe heart. So that does I wasn't
surprised to hear that. And youknow, there's a lot of those things
that go on, but a lotof times Luke is uh, you know,
at the front and center of alot of that. So he's a
great teammate. And that is DavidBell last night on Bally's Sports Cincinnati with

(01:49:45):
the postgame comments there to Jim Dayand I'm glad he pointed out. I'm
glad Jim asked David Bell about LukeMalee because Luke Malee brings so much more
to the table than just his onthe field production. And he is one
of the guys in the Red's clubhouse. He sits at the far end,
so you have to walk all theway down when you enter the clubhouse and

(01:50:09):
walk down and he's one of thelast lockers you see before you go into
the training room and the batting cagearea. You pass Luke Maleyan almost always
he has a smile on his face, but it's kind of a serious smile,
like he's there to do his job, all business, but he is
somebody clearly some of the players lookup to. And you know what,

(01:50:31):
when you think about moments that areiconic this season, for this particular twenty
twenty four Cincinnati Reds Ball Club himstaying in the game when he was injured
in New York and it looked likehe could barely make his way down the
first base line. He managed tostay in the game finish the game.
Because I don't know if he wascatching Andrew Rabbit or Hunter Green, I

(01:50:55):
forget, but that is the momentthat really stands out to me. That
is what Luke Malely is. Heis a gamer, but he puts his
money where his mouth is, andthat's why he can get up in front
of a busload of players, veteransand rookies and younger players, old and
young, alike and he is respectedand his words carry weight. And I

(01:51:17):
think that's the point that David Bellwas getting at there. Also after the
game, Hunter Green had a chanceto talk Hunter Green might be the Reds
MVP this year. I don't thinkthat's hyperbole. I think he is legitimately
having a breakout season in his thirdyear in MLB. Last night, seven
innings, two hits, scoreless baseball, three walks, seven strikeouts, in

(01:51:41):
command really from start to finish.And this was Hunter Green after the game
last night again on Ballet Sports Cincinnati. Well there he is stars here I
can start on the field. Sohow did just after it disappoints there the
weekend for the team? How importantthis? Yeah? First off, you

(01:52:04):
know, I'll keep this with withinthe clubhouse, but uh, you know,
Luke uh spoke to the team andwhat he said was was fantastic.
It was perfect timing, it wasprofessional, and we needed it. He's
been a leader all year, youknow, and it definitely motivated me,
I know, motivated the rest ofthe team. So when you have somebody

(01:52:25):
like that that cares a lot andputs himself, you know, in that
position to be a leader and topick the boys up is always important,
So I think that that was hugeleading into the beginning of this series and
hopefully into the rest of the season. Was that the meeting that came this
is this is a couple of daysago. Oh okay, looked at that
last year after the Pittsburgh real early. You guys got swept in Pittsburgh.

(01:52:49):
I remember that being like one ofthose things. I mean, it's great,
you know, we have we havemultiple leaders on the team, but
you know there's situations that arise whenwe have to check ourselves and we got
to get back on the horse.So Luke was I think was able to
do that and get the guys going. So hopefully we can continue the aggressiveness

(01:53:09):
and the confidence for the rest ofthe year. And that was Hunter Green
speaking on Ballei Sports Cincinnati. Wasby the way, CE Trent Rosecrans doing
a great job introing the audio andalso pointing out the fact that Luke mainly
did the same thing last year inPittsburgh, which indeed he did do a

(01:53:30):
c Trent Rosecrans does a great jobwith the athletic He was on Code reds
my podcast last week on seal onAsinc dot Com. It is time to
wrap up the third and final hourand wrap up this program a Moegger Radio
program with Trags filling in for Tuesday, July twenty third. I want to
thank all of the great guests thatwe had, John Sadak in the first

(01:53:50):
hour, Richard Skinner of Local twelvein the second hour, and my good
close friend James Rapine of Bengals Talkdot com wrapping things up here in the
third and final hour. I alsowant to thank a great shout out,
once again and seriously to Sean McMahonwho's done a terrific job running the controls,

(01:54:13):
getting all of the great audio thatyou've heard over the last couple of
days set up for me. He'smade sitting behind this microphone not only a
pleasure, but made it very easy, and I want to thank Moeger as
well for letting me sitting. Thishas been the Moeger Radio Program on ESPN
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station