June 12, 2025 • 22 mins
Tony and Austin talk Bengals and Shemar Stewart with Richard Skinner from Local12 on ESPN 1530!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Cincy Shirts since e three sixty about Cincinnati
from Cincinnati, sponsored in part by Cinci Shirts. Cinci Shirts,
All Cincy, all Day. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome back our two thanks to Cincy' shirts. Thank you
for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Let's
dive right into it, covering the Bengals in many other things.
For Local twelve is our guy Richard Skinner, who is
nice enough to join us to kick off the second hour. Here, Skinny,
(00:38):
what's going on?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Nothing? Why are we? Why are we doing it? When
thing going on is the US opening. I'm momenting taking
Shane Lowry on one of my sheets in a pool.
It has been.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You know, that's just why I wanted to CONNEC, because
it's such a slow week and there's not much going on,
just a mundane, mandatory mini camp. You know what's crazy
is you start the week and you're thinking, Okay, we
get to hear from Joe Burrow this week. That's always
a good thing. Is Trey going to show up? Is
Trey not going to show up? What's that going to
look like? And quite frankly, we've we've really talked nothing
(01:12):
about that this week because of the Shamar Stewart situation.
And before we even dive into the situation as a whole,
you've obviously been doing this for a long time. You've
been covering the Bengals for a long time. Is there
anything similar from a rookie standpoint that has left you
feeling the way you probably felt Tuesday after Shamar Stewart
spoken in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Well, you know, back in the day, wokie contracts were
negotiating negotiable. Now obviously you know tell you they're slotted, right.
I mean, the one thing everybody knows, both sides know
Shamar Stewart's going to make eighteen twenty eight million dollars.
Back in the day, though, they can negotiate anything. And
I mean to tell you when they used to have
things this is proven before your tal you to have
things called two a days, believes twice a day, and
(01:56):
you'd spend your time in between the two prizes. Is
back when they were at Wilmington and we had our
own little dorm room there as reporters, you'd spend your
time in between the practices, not just writing the practice,
but then calling the agents of the picks that weren't signed,
and those were always protracted, always long, always took forever.
So but this is a this is kind of a
new one now in the day and age of where
(02:16):
you know, everything's kind of setting stone. You're just waiting
for the guy above you who was slotted to sign,
and you sign and it just kind of trickles down
and yeah, maybe there's occasionally some haggling over the guarantees,
with those always get ironed out quickly. This isn't getting
iroed out, man. I mean, the Bengals aren't going to
blink and at the moment and the Piers Schamar's is
not going to blink. And I don't know how this
gets settled because it's over. It's over some guarantees when
(02:36):
he gets them, and you know, is there a possibility
if he does something nefarious that they can they can
avoid them, and he wants the exact same language that
Marius Mimms had in his contract last year, and getting
the guarantees exactly when Marius was gonna get them, and
barring that he's not gonna sign. I don't think and
you know, I don't know how this finally plays its
way out I just don't.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
There was a moment when he spoke Tuesday where Austin
I believe it he used the air quotes, yeah, and
when talking about the Bengals, and there was like a
three or four second pause from the media of what
just happened? Where do we go with this? From a
question standpoint, how was there any expectation when he was
speaking Tuesday that that really anything was gonna come about
(03:18):
this because obviously we haven't had much of a chance
to hear from him. And then just to see him
go on that ran I would, I would, I would
imagine is an incredible moment from a media standpoint when
you're covering this.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Guy, Well, let me let me give you this one.
So a lot of us from press conferences, we we
we share the quotes, we like split up the transcription
just because I don't want to know. Nobody wants to
do twenty minutes of Joe burrow By. So's like eight
or nine of us, ten of us sit there on
a daily basis, and for press conferences we dive him
up and occasionally, if you have to go talk to
a player, you'll say, hey, man, I'm not going to
be in for that. But you know, here's my here's
(03:50):
I'll I'll be able to get the audio and I'll
do my part. So I didn't go into Joe Burro
that day. I wanted to lock him because I had
to get another player. And I see Smart sitting there
by himself right and nobody's really talking to him, and
I thought, oh, I'm just gonna go up and ask,
and I said, So I went up. This was the
wave you guys saw, and I was in on that too,
was the second wave. I was there by myself for
about two minutes with him, and I walked up and
then she I said, hey man, you got a minute.
(04:11):
He goes, depends on what you're going to talk about.
I said, I think you know what I'm going to
talk about. And I asked him, and I got a
couple of quick a couple of short answers, and then
he went a little bit longer than answer when he
and he finally looked at him and goes, you know,
this is really stupid the way they're handling this. And
I went, okay, well there's my there's my money quote
for the moment. And then I finally asked him. I said,
you know, could this linger into camp, would you consider
(04:33):
not signing? He goes, Man, I'm gonna answer that, and
he goes, he goes, I'm done, okay, said appreciate your time,
and he gave me at least what I thought I
needed and he left, and so I felt bad, like
I skipped Joe in order. I really wasn't planning on
doing shamar by myself. And then I'm like, well, maybe
I'll try to share this because I'm a nice guy.
Well then, right as everybody was coming in from Joe's
press conference, he came back and sat at his locker
(04:53):
and he was approached by the by the whole group.
At that point, I initially wasn't gonna go over because
I'm already talked to him, like, yeah, I gotta go
back over and listen to some this. And I really
think that was the point of time after Targephy went
you know, I got more to say, and I need
to say it to a bigger, old answer. That's I
think why he came back to the locker room. I
think he really wanted his point out there.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It is, it's remarkable, but when you get into it,
and the hard thing is is that everything you're going
off is kind of what both sides are saying. We
don't know the details of what the contract says or
doesn't say, but as it relates to Shamar Stewart's side,
it it's almost divided a fan base because you have
fans that say, well, I'm I'm team Bengals here, you
(05:32):
have fans that say, well, I'm on Chamar's side, and
then you also have kind of where I'm at to say, well,
I don't agree with how the Bengals are doing it,
but I also don't agree with what Shamar did on Tuesday.
Where do you fall when when you look at this
situation as a whole on you know, if you got
to point the finger one way or the other.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
How do you do that? I'm pointing to the Bengals
mostly to be honest with you, I mean, why did
you pick this guy now to change language in the contract?
I know some other teams, you know, some other teams
have done sounded like the Bengals are the only ones
doing this. Some other teams have done some of the
language that they're trying to do to Schamar. But why
this guy now? And again, if he's balking this this
(06:12):
is probably intertwined was well with the Trey Henderson situation,
like you guys need me so get it done, and
they're looking and blinking and going, no, we're good. I mean,
if you don't want to sign, that's on you. And
so I do probably lean way more towards Schamar's side.
I don't think what he did Tuesday was all that nefarious.
I think what he did today just stirred the pot
(06:32):
to the point of, you know, this escalated it today
by him but not being.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
There when you look at what led to him being
drafted skinny, do you think that because my and again
it's all speculation, but I'm thinking, Okay, maybe something happened
when he got into town and the Bengals were a
little concerned, and maybe they felt they needed to add
these defaults because if you remember back, Shamar Stewart didn't
(06:57):
even remember meeting with the Bengals leading up to the
draft process. There was one meeting at the combine. He
didn't come into Cincinnati for a visit. Does that play
into this at all of maybe you look and say, Okay,
maybe the Bengals should have done a little bit more
of their homework when deciding who to draft.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, I don't, but but again, it's it's certainly a
point worth raising. I because the one thing, and I
think it's true. I mean, he has been here for everything,
he's been in meetings for redyunication, he's been on time
to everything, you know, so he hasn't been a red
flag guy to this point. So I don't I don't
think that's the case. I don't, but it's just it's
(07:34):
it's wild of why are you doing that? And like,
let's not forget this either to meet yours. Knight's not
signed now. He did sign a waiver that allowed him
to practice, and he did practice in in in the
Ota stuff in this week's mini camp, but he's he's
walking at the similar language in his contract and will
that get resolved by the time training camp hits too,
Because if it's not, then I'm gonna guess that he
(07:54):
may not participate. I would guess it does for him,
but I don't know. Man. It's why you're trying this
now is really beyond me. Why you pick this guy
this time to do it. Maybe they got word that
other teams were starting to do it and they felt
like they needed to be in the same boat. But again,
this may be completely different. If Trey Hendrickson is a
(08:14):
willing participant, if things are going good with him, that
you may tell the rookie, fine, dude, we're good. You
don't want to sign. That's on you. But they need him,
and they've blown because of language in a contract. Because again,
if it's eighteen point eight mil, that's not negotiable. Everybody
knows that's the figure. You go to any website, any place, sure,
that's the number. Eighteen. Play Bengals know that his side
knows that. If you're just haggling over one to pay guarantees,
(08:36):
what are we doing here when you need this guy
and you've blown now a bunch of chances for him
to get reps leading into training camp and if people
bought go out, it's just ota reps. I will tell
you this watching Jerry Montgomery, the defensive, the line coach,
coach the last couple of days during this stuff, he
was literally coaching guys up after almost every rep. So
(08:57):
don't tell me that the reps, the physical reps don't
don't matter. Maybe they don't matter for Trey Hendrickson, right,
he's done it before, he's got his pass rush moves down. Pat,
you're not gonna change him, nor do you have any
little reason to change him. But a young guy who
was drafted more on traits than on production, And do
you think you can coach up those traits into being
a productive player. You haven't got a chance to coach
(09:18):
him up at all, and you won't until training camp
if you even get to do it.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Then do you think that Schamar's camp is open at
all to negotiating, like what exactly triggers the defaults? Or
are they just saying remove that future default or the
future contract guarantees being voided altogether? We're not even gonna
discuss it.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I think they want the exact language up Marius Memsad
and barring that, I just don't think they come off
of it. And this is gonna be fascinating to watch
it play out. I know it sucks if you're a
fan of this stinx. I mean, you know, I'm watching
the defensive line the other day and I see Miles
Murphy and Joseph Osai and they playing a five man front,
and the fifth man was said with Johnson, I like said,
(10:03):
I think he's got a chance to be a nice
rotational piece. He's not Trey Henderson and he's not the
physical trades of Schamar Stewart, and so that's where you're
at right now. He was literally with the first team,
said Johnson is the fifth man on a five man
defensive front, and that kind of struck me. Again, I like,
said I do, and he think he's a good story,
and I think he does have some value on a
(10:24):
rotational basis perhaps or maybe ten snaps of game basis,
but not in there with the first unit on the
opening game that you need to win.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
At cleanly, Skinny, I wonder because to me, it's not
only the individual distractions, but it's the sum of those
as well. It's supposed to be a different off season feel,
it's supposed to be a faster start, and yet you
drafted a guy at seventeen to make an immediate impact.
Trey Hendrickson is still not signed. You have money available
(10:52):
to make that happen, and you have a first time
NFL defensive coordinator who's installing a new scheme, who's installing
a new playbook essentially with one hand tied behind his
back because they didn't overhaul this defense. When you look
at the sum of all of that together, how problematic
does that become for this defense, because right now, like
(11:13):
this is it. The next time this team gets together,
it's training camp and then the season starts. How problematic
do all of these things now become as a whole?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I think they become very problematic, and I'll throw the
other monkey wrench into it for me that I just
I'm still finding odd that they haven't done it is
bringing in a veteran safety to add to the mix,
you know, I mean, it wasn't like the two safeties
played great last year, right and behind them, you've got
a guy who's played eleven snaps in his career in
des On Anthony and another guy in Tysan Anderson who's
never played a defensive snap in a single NFL game.
(11:44):
So if something were to happen to the two starters
who didn't play very well last year, you're next man
up is a guy who's barely played in this league,
and I think that's extraordinarily problematic. So you want to
pile onto the problems. There's the problems as well, and
as we mentioned, Demetrius Knight's been lining up alongside Logan
will so with the ones, it's not etching the stone.
And Zach even made a point today if there's still
competition there. So I think somebody asked the question about,
(12:06):
you know, Demetrius being a starter, and that's probably the
right answer, even if he thinks he's going to be
the starter. But again, what if he doesn't sign his
contract by training camp and you're talking about that, So
you've got a level of safety where you're holding your
breath with two meg guys. Again, maybe he gets more
out of them. Blue a Rumo did at linebacker and
the guy you were projecting the start may not be available,
and you know your first round pick and your all
(12:28):
pro defensive end may not be there. That's a that's
a tough stought, no question when.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
When you look at the situations and how they're unfolding.
Mo talked about this yesterday on the show. Do you
envision at any point between now and camp the Bengals
getting together and saying it's just not worth it? Because
I know historically they don't allow themselves to get backed
into a corner. I know that they don't bend the knee.
I know that they don't move the line in the sand.
(12:53):
But is there any point and the next month where
you get together and say, man, it's just not worth
the distraction that this is causing. Let's just go back
to the language that we've used previously and use it
for Shamar Stewart. Let's get the Trey Hendrickson deal done.
Let's go into a camp, or we can worry just
about football and trying to get back to the super Bowl.
Is there any chance that they can get together and
(13:14):
say it's not worth it, Let's just let's give these
guys what they want.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
I can't remember where this line first came up, but
it's when we use a lot among ourselves in the
media group. I use it a lot too, And it
was came to a player years ago who I can't remember,
who wanted something, and it's a great Mike Brown response,
which was guess what so what? And I come back
to that every time, like in this regard of hey,
(13:41):
you know, we we'd like to get this thing done, Mike,
and you know, just you can just bend a little
bit there, and I can just hear him in my
mind going, guess what so what? I mean? They just
don't feel like they do bend And that's why we're
at these And that's the other part. Listen again, it's
if other teams are putting some of the language and
contracts now and it's starting to become a wave of
(14:04):
you know, trickling down to teams. Okay, I get that
part to some degree, but I hate to be that guy.
But I'll be that guy. The Bengals just don't get
the benefit of the doubt on this because of how
many times it feels like we're in this situation.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, you do you worry at all about what it
puts on the shoulders of Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow
because at the end of the day, they're the ones
that have to answer to it. You know, Zach had
to answer the questions today, Joe had to answer them
on On on Tuesday, and Joe talked about it is
a distraction with Trey Hendrickson and that wasn't even with
(14:36):
the Shamar Stewart stuff happening again. If you're Joe, you're
finally healthy, there's been no weird off season, you got
your guys signed, You're ready to just go play football,
and here you are again having to be the voice
having to answer the questions. Does it get to a
point where just it just wears them down.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I don't think with Joe because it is you know,
we speak to them pretty in frequent I mean, it'll
come up again if this is the situation in camp.
But I think once the season starts, if they're not around,
they're just not around. But I do I think to
that point it is. I know Zach tried to downplay
that today. It's more it's more you guys talking about
this stuff. It really, you know, people in the locker room.
(15:17):
I don't know, man, I think that stuff does permeate
in the locker room too. I will say, I guess
if you're looking for the silver lining positivity to this
is there are no distractions on the opposite side of
the ball where Joe Burrow and Gang play. That's, I
guess a good thing. And you know he's healthy, the
receiving core is healthy, and so that group can certainly
(15:40):
hit the ground running and maybe we watch just a
bunch of fifty to forty five games this year.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Are you are you at all concerned about the offensive
line as a whole still of where things are at
Lucas Patrick, Cody, Ford fair Child or Courtel Volson. Are
you at all still concerned about guard and knowing that
they're probably not going to address it between now in
(16:07):
training camp. But are you good what the offensive line
as a hole in where it is now or are
you still a little apprehensive about that?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah? I think we need to see him with the
pads on right. I you know, it's so hard to
tell in these kind of settings where you know you
don't have full pads on, there's not full contact and
all of that, how effective guys are so at the moment,
I would say no, because I do think I think
they are better at the guard spots than they were
last year. It'll have to play itself out. I like
(16:38):
the fact that you know it's a Patrick Ford competition,
the only game his hand handed dealing with Fairchild the
starting job. I do think when it all shakes out,
it will be dealing Fairchild at left guard Lucas Patrick
at right guard. Is it perfect? No, but it hasn't
been perfect for a while, and it wasn't perfect last
year and Joe Burrow still through for gazillion yards.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Have you sensed at all in the off season program
more urgency or a different vibe on the field, because
so much was made again of this offseason and finding
a way to start faster and Zach alluded to it
today with no joint practices and playing some guys more.
But have you sensed a little bit of a renewed energy,
(17:17):
an uptick in the urgency that has happened through this
training camp process.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
No, And I don't mean that in a negative way.
It just feels like the same to me. You know,
they do a lot of positions, real stuff and don't
get together for a lot of eleven all of the
stuff and us I forget and you know this too.
I mean, to collective bargaining agreement only allows you to
do so much from a physicality standpoint. You know. I
will give Zach the credit of, Hey, he's trying to
(17:44):
tweak some things. I mean, it may sound small, and
it probably is small, you know, going from the afternoon
practice to the morning practice. Will that'd be a positive?
The fact they aren't doing joint practices And he said, hey,
we get six fully padded practices between our preseason opener
and the next preseason game, and we're going to take
advantage of those to improve ourselves. And maybe that's a positive, Like, hey,
instead of worrying about going head to head with another
(18:06):
team and competing in a joint practice, you really have
six good practices to look at that opener and go, Okay,
where are strengths, where are weaknesses? What do we need
to fix? And we've got a little bit of time
here to fix them before we lace them up again.
I think, you know, trying to do some things like
that and doing some things internally are good. I think
he's trying. The fact that you mentioned it and he's
been open to playing starters in the preseason. He was
(18:28):
asked today, you know, could it be multiple games? And
he said, you will see taken on a game by
game basis. It could be two games, could be three games.
And so I do think and it may just be
a head nod to the fans, like I get you,
I hear you complaining about it. I'm gonna try to
do some different things and maybe that'll get you off
my back and you know, maybe miraculously we start two
to zero, because I do think there've been midigame, there's
been mitigating just girl circumstances almost every year that have
(18:50):
helped for those slow starts. Well, the good part is
he's seedless. He's as healthy as he's ever been at
this point, and that's a great thing. And hopefully it
stays that way, and I think that would go a
long way to the Bengals getting off to a fast start.
But I do think he recognized that even if I
make changes just for the just for change's sake, that
it needed to be done. So I'll give him some
credit for that, Skinny. It is.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
It's going to be a very interesting time now between
this and training camp and leading into training camp. What
is the easiest way to follow along with everything you'll
have going on between now and then?
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yep, just head to Local twelve dot com, slash sports
or catch me on the X at Local twelve.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Skinny, Skinny, you're the best man. If you're wondering, Shane
Lowry is not at this point going to get into
double digits, so it looks like he's gonna finish at
plus nine, so you at least have.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
That going for you. Yeah, that's not gonna make the weekend.
I don't feel that's not gonna That's not gonna help
me out. I'm gonna need four other players on my
five man sheet to do well. That's usually a big ass, Skinny.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
What would you shoot in eighteen at Oakmont?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
If I okay from the tips, no tips, I'd be
lucky to break one. I'd be lucky to break one
to twenty from the tips, and I'm probably like a
sixteen to eighteen handicap as it is. I just love
the game itself and I do like to play it.
So nowadays when I play, I usually play if I'm lucky,
you know, six thousand yards and I'm still shooting. I'm
(20:13):
still hoping to break nineties on those days. I can't
imagine from the tips on this particular course where I mean,
if if a guy like me hits it in the rough,
I might be in there for a month. Try and
hack that ball.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yards, I said last night, I'm shooting two hundred.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Oh, I'm not even try can set a score high enough.
I mean, there could be certainly holes that are fifteens
and eighteens, or like they used to do when my
daughter played high school golf and some girls weren't as
good as some other girls, and the move places to
play along. You'd sometimes just go it's it's called a
circle nine where you put a nine down on the
card and circle it and goes down as a ten.
I'd have a lot of circle nines on that card.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Man skinny Man, you're the best. Thanks so much for
your time. We'll talk again soon.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Take care.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, sir, that is a Richard Skinner of a local twelve.
Very very interesting stuff there from skinny to fall back
on as it relates to the Shamar Stewart situation as well.
Your talkbacks are next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports
Station thanks to Cincy Shirts.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
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Speaker 2 (21:17):
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This is Cincy Shirts since e three sixty about Cincinnati
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All Cincy, all Day. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports Station.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome back our two thanks to Cincy' shirts. Thank you
for listening on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Let's
dive right into it, covering the Bengals in many other things.
For Local twelve is our guy Richard Skinner, who is
nice enough to join us to kick off the second hour. Here, Skinny,
(00:38):
what's going on?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Nothing? Why are we? Why are we doing it? When
thing going on is the US opening. I'm momenting taking
Shane Lowry on one of my sheets in a pool.
It has been.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You know, that's just why I wanted to CONNEC, because
it's such a slow week and there's not much going on,
just a mundane, mandatory mini camp. You know what's crazy
is you start the week and you're thinking, Okay, we
get to hear from Joe Burrow this week. That's always
a good thing. Is Trey going to show up? Is
Trey not going to show up? What's that going to
look like? And quite frankly, we've we've really talked nothing
(01:12):
about that this week because of the Shamar Stewart situation.
And before we even dive into the situation as a whole,
you've obviously been doing this for a long time. You've
been covering the Bengals for a long time. Is there
anything similar from a rookie standpoint that has left you
feeling the way you probably felt Tuesday after Shamar Stewart
spoken in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Well, you know, back in the day, wokie contracts were
negotiating negotiable. Now obviously you know tell you they're slotted, right.
I mean, the one thing everybody knows, both sides know
Shamar Stewart's going to make eighteen twenty eight million dollars.
Back in the day, though, they can negotiate anything. And
I mean to tell you when they used to have
things this is proven before your tal you to have
things called two a days, believes twice a day, and
(01:56):
you'd spend your time in between the two prizes. Is
back when they were at Wilmington and we had our
own little dorm room there as reporters, you'd spend your
time in between the practices, not just writing the practice,
but then calling the agents of the picks that weren't signed,
and those were always protracted, always long, always took forever.
So but this is a this is kind of a
new one now in the day and age of where
(02:16):
you know, everything's kind of setting stone. You're just waiting
for the guy above you who was slotted to sign,
and you sign and it just kind of trickles down
and yeah, maybe there's occasionally some haggling over the guarantees,
with those always get ironed out quickly. This isn't getting
iroed out, man. I mean, the Bengals aren't going to
blink and at the moment and the Piers Schamar's is
not going to blink. And I don't know how this
gets settled because it's over. It's over some guarantees when
(02:36):
he gets them, and you know, is there a possibility
if he does something nefarious that they can they can
avoid them, and he wants the exact same language that
Marius Mimms had in his contract last year, and getting
the guarantees exactly when Marius was gonna get them, and
barring that he's not gonna sign. I don't think and
you know, I don't know how this finally plays its
way out I just don't.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
There was a moment when he spoke Tuesday where Austin
I believe it he used the air quotes, yeah, and
when talking about the Bengals, and there was like a
three or four second pause from the media of what
just happened? Where do we go with this? From a
question standpoint, how was there any expectation when he was
speaking Tuesday that that really anything was gonna come about
(03:18):
this because obviously we haven't had much of a chance
to hear from him. And then just to see him
go on that ran I would, I would, I would
imagine is an incredible moment from a media standpoint when
you're covering this.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Guy, Well, let me let me give you this one.
So a lot of us from press conferences, we we
we share the quotes, we like split up the transcription
just because I don't want to know. Nobody wants to
do twenty minutes of Joe burrow By. So's like eight
or nine of us, ten of us sit there on
a daily basis, and for press conferences we dive him
up and occasionally, if you have to go talk to
a player, you'll say, hey, man, I'm not going to
be in for that. But you know, here's my here's
(03:50):
I'll I'll be able to get the audio and I'll
do my part. So I didn't go into Joe Burro
that day. I wanted to lock him because I had
to get another player. And I see Smart sitting there
by himself right and nobody's really talking to him, and
I thought, oh, I'm just gonna go up and ask,
and I said, So I went up. This was the
wave you guys saw, and I was in on that too,
was the second wave. I was there by myself for
about two minutes with him, and I walked up and
then she I said, hey man, you got a minute.
(04:11):
He goes, depends on what you're going to talk about.
I said, I think you know what I'm going to
talk about. And I asked him, and I got a
couple of quick a couple of short answers, and then
he went a little bit longer than answer when he
and he finally looked at him and goes, you know,
this is really stupid the way they're handling this. And
I went, okay, well there's my there's my money quote
for the moment. And then I finally asked him. I said,
you know, could this linger into camp, would you consider
(04:33):
not signing? He goes, Man, I'm gonna answer that, and
he goes, he goes, I'm done, okay, said appreciate your time,
and he gave me at least what I thought I
needed and he left, and so I felt bad, like
I skipped Joe in order. I really wasn't planning on
doing shamar by myself. And then I'm like, well, maybe
I'll try to share this because I'm a nice guy.
Well then, right as everybody was coming in from Joe's
press conference, he came back and sat at his locker
(04:53):
and he was approached by the by the whole group.
At that point, I initially wasn't gonna go over because
I'm already talked to him, like, yeah, I gotta go
back over and listen to some this. And I really
think that was the point of time after Targephy went
you know, I got more to say, and I need
to say it to a bigger, old answer. That's I
think why he came back to the locker room. I
think he really wanted his point out there.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It is, it's remarkable, but when you get into it,
and the hard thing is is that everything you're going
off is kind of what both sides are saying. We
don't know the details of what the contract says or
doesn't say, but as it relates to Shamar Stewart's side,
it it's almost divided a fan base because you have
fans that say, well, I'm I'm team Bengals here, you
(05:32):
have fans that say, well, I'm on Chamar's side, and
then you also have kind of where I'm at to say, well,
I don't agree with how the Bengals are doing it,
but I also don't agree with what Shamar did on Tuesday.
Where do you fall when when you look at this
situation as a whole on you know, if you got
to point the finger one way or the other.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
How do you do that? I'm pointing to the Bengals
mostly to be honest with you, I mean, why did
you pick this guy now to change language in the contract?
I know some other teams, you know, some other teams
have done sounded like the Bengals are the only ones
doing this. Some other teams have done some of the
language that they're trying to do to Schamar. But why
this guy now? And again, if he's balking this this
(06:12):
is probably intertwined was well with the Trey Henderson situation,
like you guys need me so get it done, and
they're looking and blinking and going, no, we're good. I mean,
if you don't want to sign, that's on you. And
so I do probably lean way more towards Schamar's side.
I don't think what he did Tuesday was all that nefarious.
I think what he did today just stirred the pot
(06:32):
to the point of, you know, this escalated it today
by him but not being.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
There when you look at what led to him being
drafted skinny, do you think that because my and again
it's all speculation, but I'm thinking, Okay, maybe something happened
when he got into town and the Bengals were a
little concerned, and maybe they felt they needed to add
these defaults because if you remember back, Shamar Stewart didn't
(06:57):
even remember meeting with the Bengals leading up to the
draft process. There was one meeting at the combine. He
didn't come into Cincinnati for a visit. Does that play
into this at all of maybe you look and say, Okay,
maybe the Bengals should have done a little bit more
of their homework when deciding who to draft.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, I don't, but but again, it's it's certainly a
point worth raising. I because the one thing, and I
think it's true. I mean, he has been here for everything,
he's been in meetings for redyunication, he's been on time
to everything, you know, so he hasn't been a red
flag guy to this point. So I don't I don't
think that's the case. I don't, but it's just it's
(07:34):
it's wild of why are you doing that? And like,
let's not forget this either to meet yours. Knight's not
signed now. He did sign a waiver that allowed him
to practice, and he did practice in in in the
Ota stuff in this week's mini camp, but he's he's
walking at the similar language in his contract and will
that get resolved by the time training camp hits too,
Because if it's not, then I'm gonna guess that he
(07:54):
may not participate. I would guess it does for him,
but I don't know. Man. It's why you're trying this
now is really beyond me. Why you pick this guy
this time to do it. Maybe they got word that
other teams were starting to do it and they felt
like they needed to be in the same boat. But again,
this may be completely different. If Trey Hendrickson is a
(08:14):
willing participant, if things are going good with him, that
you may tell the rookie, fine, dude, we're good. You
don't want to sign. That's on you. But they need him,
and they've blown because of language in a contract. Because again,
if it's eighteen point eight mil, that's not negotiable. Everybody
knows that's the figure. You go to any website, any place, sure,
that's the number. Eighteen. Play Bengals know that his side
knows that. If you're just haggling over one to pay guarantees,
(08:36):
what are we doing here when you need this guy
and you've blown now a bunch of chances for him
to get reps leading into training camp and if people
bought go out, it's just ota reps. I will tell
you this watching Jerry Montgomery, the defensive, the line coach,
coach the last couple of days during this stuff, he
was literally coaching guys up after almost every rep. So
(08:57):
don't tell me that the reps, the physical reps don't
don't matter. Maybe they don't matter for Trey Hendrickson, right,
he's done it before, he's got his pass rush moves down. Pat,
you're not gonna change him, nor do you have any
little reason to change him. But a young guy who
was drafted more on traits than on production, And do
you think you can coach up those traits into being
a productive player. You haven't got a chance to coach
(09:18):
him up at all, and you won't until training camp
if you even get to do it.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Then do you think that Schamar's camp is open at
all to negotiating, like what exactly triggers the defaults? Or
are they just saying remove that future default or the
future contract guarantees being voided altogether? We're not even gonna
discuss it.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I think they want the exact language up Marius Memsad
and barring that, I just don't think they come off
of it. And this is gonna be fascinating to watch
it play out. I know it sucks if you're a
fan of this stinx. I mean, you know, I'm watching
the defensive line the other day and I see Miles
Murphy and Joseph Osai and they playing a five man front,
and the fifth man was said with Johnson, I like said,
(10:03):
I think he's got a chance to be a nice
rotational piece. He's not Trey Henderson and he's not the
physical trades of Schamar Stewart, and so that's where you're
at right now. He was literally with the first team,
said Johnson is the fifth man on a five man
defensive front, and that kind of struck me. Again, I like,
said I do, and he think he's a good story,
and I think he does have some value on a
(10:24):
rotational basis perhaps or maybe ten snaps of game basis,
but not in there with the first unit on the
opening game that you need to win.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
At cleanly, Skinny, I wonder because to me, it's not
only the individual distractions, but it's the sum of those
as well. It's supposed to be a different off season feel,
it's supposed to be a faster start, and yet you
drafted a guy at seventeen to make an immediate impact.
Trey Hendrickson is still not signed. You have money available
(10:52):
to make that happen, and you have a first time
NFL defensive coordinator who's installing a new scheme, who's installing
a new playbook essentially with one hand tied behind his
back because they didn't overhaul this defense. When you look
at the sum of all of that together, how problematic
does that become for this defense, because right now, like
(11:13):
this is it. The next time this team gets together,
it's training camp and then the season starts. How problematic
do all of these things now become as a whole?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I think they become very problematic, and I'll throw the
other monkey wrench into it for me that I just
I'm still finding odd that they haven't done it is
bringing in a veteran safety to add to the mix,
you know, I mean, it wasn't like the two safeties
played great last year, right and behind them, you've got
a guy who's played eleven snaps in his career in
des On Anthony and another guy in Tysan Anderson who's
never played a defensive snap in a single NFL game.
(11:44):
So if something were to happen to the two starters
who didn't play very well last year, you're next man
up is a guy who's barely played in this league,
and I think that's extraordinarily problematic. So you want to
pile onto the problems. There's the problems as well, and
as we mentioned, Demetrius Knight's been lining up alongside Logan
will so with the ones, it's not etching the stone.
And Zach even made a point today if there's still
competition there. So I think somebody asked the question about,
(12:06):
you know, Demetrius being a starter, and that's probably the
right answer, even if he thinks he's going to be
the starter. But again, what if he doesn't sign his
contract by training camp and you're talking about that, So
you've got a level of safety where you're holding your
breath with two meg guys. Again, maybe he gets more
out of them. Blue a Rumo did at linebacker and
the guy you were projecting the start may not be available,
and you know your first round pick and your all
(12:28):
pro defensive end may not be there. That's a that's
a tough stought, no question when.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
When you look at the situations and how they're unfolding.
Mo talked about this yesterday on the show. Do you
envision at any point between now and camp the Bengals
getting together and saying it's just not worth it? Because
I know historically they don't allow themselves to get backed
into a corner. I know that they don't bend the knee.
I know that they don't move the line in the sand.
(12:53):
But is there any point and the next month where
you get together and say, man, it's just not worth
the distraction that this is causing. Let's just go back
to the language that we've used previously and use it
for Shamar Stewart. Let's get the Trey Hendrickson deal done.
Let's go into a camp, or we can worry just
about football and trying to get back to the super Bowl.
Is there any chance that they can get together and
(13:14):
say it's not worth it, Let's just let's give these
guys what they want.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
I can't remember where this line first came up, but
it's when we use a lot among ourselves in the
media group. I use it a lot too, And it
was came to a player years ago who I can't remember,
who wanted something, and it's a great Mike Brown response,
which was guess what so what? And I come back
to that every time, like in this regard of hey,
(13:41):
you know, we we'd like to get this thing done, Mike,
and you know, just you can just bend a little
bit there, and I can just hear him in my
mind going, guess what so what? I mean? They just
don't feel like they do bend And that's why we're
at these And that's the other part. Listen again, it's
if other teams are putting some of the language and
contracts now and it's starting to become a wave of
(14:04):
you know, trickling down to teams. Okay, I get that
part to some degree, but I hate to be that guy.
But I'll be that guy. The Bengals just don't get
the benefit of the doubt on this because of how
many times it feels like we're in this situation.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, you do you worry at all about what it
puts on the shoulders of Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow
because at the end of the day, they're the ones
that have to answer to it. You know, Zach had
to answer the questions today, Joe had to answer them
on On on Tuesday, and Joe talked about it is
a distraction with Trey Hendrickson and that wasn't even with
(14:36):
the Shamar Stewart stuff happening again. If you're Joe, you're
finally healthy, there's been no weird off season, you got
your guys signed, You're ready to just go play football,
and here you are again having to be the voice
having to answer the questions. Does it get to a
point where just it just wears them down.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I don't think with Joe because it is you know,
we speak to them pretty in frequent I mean, it'll
come up again if this is the situation in camp.
But I think once the season starts, if they're not around,
they're just not around. But I do I think to
that point it is. I know Zach tried to downplay
that today. It's more it's more you guys talking about
this stuff. It really, you know, people in the locker room.
(15:17):
I don't know, man, I think that stuff does permeate
in the locker room too. I will say, I guess
if you're looking for the silver lining positivity to this
is there are no distractions on the opposite side of
the ball where Joe Burrow and Gang play. That's, I
guess a good thing. And you know he's healthy, the
receiving core is healthy, and so that group can certainly
(15:40):
hit the ground running and maybe we watch just a
bunch of fifty to forty five games this year.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Are you are you at all concerned about the offensive
line as a whole still of where things are at
Lucas Patrick, Cody, Ford fair Child or Courtel Volson. Are
you at all still concerned about guard and knowing that
they're probably not going to address it between now in
(16:07):
training camp. But are you good what the offensive line
as a hole in where it is now or are
you still a little apprehensive about that?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yeah? I think we need to see him with the
pads on right. I you know, it's so hard to
tell in these kind of settings where you know you
don't have full pads on, there's not full contact and
all of that, how effective guys are so at the moment,
I would say no, because I do think I think
they are better at the guard spots than they were
last year. It'll have to play itself out. I like
(16:38):
the fact that you know it's a Patrick Ford competition,
the only game his hand handed dealing with Fairchild the
starting job. I do think when it all shakes out,
it will be dealing Fairchild at left guard Lucas Patrick
at right guard. Is it perfect? No, but it hasn't
been perfect for a while, and it wasn't perfect last
year and Joe Burrow still through for gazillion yards.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Have you sensed at all in the off season program
more urgency or a different vibe on the field, because
so much was made again of this offseason and finding
a way to start faster and Zach alluded to it
today with no joint practices and playing some guys more.
But have you sensed a little bit of a renewed energy,
(17:17):
an uptick in the urgency that has happened through this
training camp process.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
No, And I don't mean that in a negative way.
It just feels like the same to me. You know,
they do a lot of positions, real stuff and don't
get together for a lot of eleven all of the
stuff and us I forget and you know this too.
I mean, to collective bargaining agreement only allows you to
do so much from a physicality standpoint. You know. I
will give Zach the credit of, Hey, he's trying to
(17:44):
tweak some things. I mean, it may sound small, and
it probably is small, you know, going from the afternoon
practice to the morning practice. Will that'd be a positive?
The fact they aren't doing joint practices And he said, hey,
we get six fully padded practices between our preseason opener
and the next preseason game, and we're going to take
advantage of those to improve ourselves. And maybe that's a positive, Like, hey,
instead of worrying about going head to head with another
(18:06):
team and competing in a joint practice, you really have
six good practices to look at that opener and go, Okay,
where are strengths, where are weaknesses? What do we need
to fix? And we've got a little bit of time
here to fix them before we lace them up again.
I think, you know, trying to do some things like
that and doing some things internally are good. I think
he's trying. The fact that you mentioned it and he's
been open to playing starters in the preseason. He was
(18:28):
asked today, you know, could it be multiple games? And
he said, you will see taken on a game by
game basis. It could be two games, could be three games.
And so I do think and it may just be
a head nod to the fans, like I get you,
I hear you complaining about it. I'm gonna try to
do some different things and maybe that'll get you off
my back and you know, maybe miraculously we start two
to zero, because I do think there've been midigame, there's
been mitigating just girl circumstances almost every year that have
(18:50):
helped for those slow starts. Well, the good part is
he's seedless. He's as healthy as he's ever been at
this point, and that's a great thing. And hopefully it
stays that way, and I think that would go a
long way to the Bengals getting off to a fast start.
But I do think he recognized that even if I
make changes just for the just for change's sake, that
it needed to be done. So I'll give him some
credit for that, Skinny. It is.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
It's going to be a very interesting time now between
this and training camp and leading into training camp. What
is the easiest way to follow along with everything you'll
have going on between now and then?
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Yep, just head to Local twelve dot com, slash sports
or catch me on the X at Local twelve.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Skinny, Skinny, you're the best man. If you're wondering, Shane
Lowry is not at this point going to get into
double digits, so it looks like he's gonna finish at
plus nine, so you at least have.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
That going for you. Yeah, that's not gonna make the weekend.
I don't feel that's not gonna That's not gonna help
me out. I'm gonna need four other players on my
five man sheet to do well. That's usually a big ass, Skinny.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
What would you shoot in eighteen at Oakmont?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
If I okay from the tips, no tips, I'd be
lucky to break one. I'd be lucky to break one
to twenty from the tips, and I'm probably like a
sixteen to eighteen handicap as it is. I just love
the game itself and I do like to play it.
So nowadays when I play, I usually play if I'm lucky,
you know, six thousand yards and I'm still shooting. I'm
(20:13):
still hoping to break nineties on those days. I can't
imagine from the tips on this particular course where I mean,
if if a guy like me hits it in the rough,
I might be in there for a month. Try and
hack that ball.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yards, I said last night, I'm shooting two hundred.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Oh, I'm not even try can set a score high enough.
I mean, there could be certainly holes that are fifteens
and eighteens, or like they used to do when my
daughter played high school golf and some girls weren't as
good as some other girls, and the move places to
play along. You'd sometimes just go it's it's called a
circle nine where you put a nine down on the
card and circle it and goes down as a ten.
I'd have a lot of circle nines on that card.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Man skinny Man, you're the best. Thanks so much for
your time. We'll talk again soon.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Take care.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, sir, that is a Richard Skinner of a local twelve.
Very very interesting stuff there from skinny to fall back
on as it relates to the Shamar Stewart situation as well.
Your talkbacks are next on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports
Station thanks to Cincy Shirts.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Hey Alexa, Who's Gonna Win It All?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
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