Cincy 360 with Austin Elmore and Drew Westerheide -- 7/18/25

The Usual Suspects Charlie Goldsmith and Tommy G stop by on this Friday edition of the show! Austin and Drew also discuss the Reds 2nd half, the TJ Watt extension, Open Updates, and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Skyline Chile. Since he three sixty about Cincinnati
from Cincinnati, sponsored in part by Skyline Chile. Stop by
Skyline Chili for a three way or cheez coney today.
Feeling good, It's Skyline time. This is ESPN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati Sports Station BI.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hello, welcome in there, it is right there.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Who really wants to work today? Rainy day?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
You kind of just want to cozy up, take a nap.
I struggled to get out of bed this morning. I
don't know about you. Crank it up. Since he three

(00:52):
sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty high, Hello and welcome in.
My name is Austin Elmore. Happy to be with you
for the next three hours today. We'll turn things over
to mo Egger from three to six this afternoon, and
then at the end of this week we turn the
page towards football.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Football rookies report to training camp tomorrow. Well probably not
all of them, but rookies are supposed to report to
training camp tomorrow for the Cincinnati Bengals. They still have
two unsigned. Hopefully by the end of the day they
have two signed. I think one will be I don't

(01:32):
know about the other one. We'll talk about that, we'll
talk about Trey Hendrickson. We're gonna be joined by our
normal Friday lineup at one o'clock, Charlie Goldsmith from Fox nineteen,
Charlie's Chalkboard, the Power Stacks Podcast. Chuck is Everywhere and
the Chuckster. The Chuckster is in New York as he

(01:53):
gets set to cover the Red Legs and the Metropolitans
tonight at City Field, the beginning of the second half
unofficial second half of the regular season for the Red Legs.
We'll talk to Charlie about that, end about his All
Star Game experience. We'll have talkbacks at one point twenty.
We'll give away a SINCI shirts gift card after that,
and at two pm two pm, we'll talk to Tom Galairter,

(02:15):
the voice of FC Cincinnati. Tough stretch here for a
Cincinnati three games in eight days. They had the loss
to Columbus on Saturday, they beat Miami on Wednesday, and
now they go out to Real Salt Lake against a
really good Real Salt Lake team who is hot, well
I shouldn't say they're really good, but they're hot right now.

(02:36):
Is Real salt Lake and hopefully FC Cincinnati can finish
out this road trip, and I guess start this road trip,
finish out this stretch on a high note because they
now have to fly across the country to Utah. So
we'll talk about that. We'll talk to MO for quick
hits and locks of the night, we'll preview what's coming
up tonight, which is the return of Red's Baseball, and

(02:59):
we'll also talk about well, the top stories in the
sports world. You know last night yesterday, I didn't even
realize this until after the fact. Yesterday was one of
those days where nothing happens outside of the open going
on at Royal Point, rush Over in Northern Ireland. There
was no football. There was bat There was summer league basketball,

(03:21):
but I don't know if we count that as basketball.
Like there was nothing going on, and uh, Thankfully the
NFL has given us a lot to talk about, most
notably TJ.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Watt.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
TJ Watt signs a three year, one hundred and twenty
three million dollar extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday afternoon,
making him the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history.
His forty one million dollars just edges out Jamar Chase
just edges out Miles Garrett.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
We'll talk about that.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
We'll also get updates from that Open because our golf experts,
our resident golf guy, Drew wester Heidi is back on
the board again today. Drew, how are you doing? What's
the early before we get to the full update, Like,
how are things looking over there in royal Port, Rush today?

Speaker 4 (04:13):
It's been quite the day so far. A lot of
red numbers, a lot of guys going low. Scottie Scheffler
is on the move.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Okay, well there's a shock, right That's about the least
surprising news ever. Is this the most left handers that
have ever been in a tournament before? Because I swear
every time I look at the TV there's a left
hander shooting.

Speaker 5 (04:31):
Well.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
I think there's a lot of lefties that play on
the DP World Tour, which was formerly the European Tour.
A lot of them play this tournament as well. And
a lefty, a former Open champion, Brian Harmon, at the
top of the leader board, shot six hundred today, So
it's starting to heat up over there in Northern Ireland.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Do they call them South Pauls for golf too? I think?

Speaker 5 (04:51):
So?

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Okay, let's see why they wouldn't Yeah, I wouldn't say
I didn't know. There's so much golf terminology that I
don't know all that much about. Let's first start with
the Reds. Though the Reds are back in action tonight,
I don't know, like, are you excited to watch the
Reds tonight?

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Dro I'd say I'm anxious to watch our ds tonight. Yes.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
I kind of got the feeling of like, can we
like just can we have the weekend, like pick this
up on Monday. Yeah, Like, I'm like, I don't know
that we have to watch them tonight as the game.
Do we have to keep playing baseball right now?

Speaker 6 (05:23):
Like?

Speaker 7 (05:24):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (05:24):
I think maybe it's because, you know, despite the fact
that they went four and three in that last homestand
didn't really inspire a whole lot of confidence, Yeah, heading
into the break. But we've seen it before where the
Reds are extremely hot going into the All Star break
and then they come back and they lose like seven
of their first ten.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
That's also true.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
So maybe the kind of flipping the script a little bit,
maybe they'll have a nice little, you know, four and two,
five and one road trip here over the Mets and
the Nationals before they come back to Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
We always joke on this show that Lance McAllister is
our unofficial statistician, yes, because we just read the stats
that he tweets all the time, and he did post
one the other day about the Cleveland Guardians in the
years that Terry Francona was the manager, have a much
much better win percentage after the All Star Break than

(06:17):
they do prior to the All Star break, So hopefully
that trend continues for the Reds. In the first half
in Francona's ten seasons in Cleveland, he had a five
to twenty nine win percentage. In the second half of
those ten seasons in Cleveland, he had a five to

(06:38):
seventy one win percentage.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Which is a.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's a plus seven so eighty five and a half
win pace in the first half, a ninety two and
a half win pace in the second half, so about
seven games better ish in the second half during his
time in Cleveland. That would be nice if the Reds
are able to continue that coming up this second half
of this season. It's gonna be Nickelodolo on the mound

(07:06):
tonight for Cincinnati. He has a win loss record, which
doesn't matter, of six and six with a three point
three to eight earned run average. He's a left hander,
and I do like that the Reds are gonna separate
the lefties in the rotation in the second half because
sometimes when you have lefties pitching back to back, you
can be a little bit easier on opposing teams. They

(07:27):
can kind of get a little bit more used to
that now. Terry Francona has said in the past that
he likes it when he has multiple lefties in a
series because of what it forces a manager to do.
Because so many teams now play matchups, they play numbers,
they have guys that can't hit left handers, so it
just kind of forces you to maybe take a guy

(07:48):
out of your lineup for a majority of a game
or whatever it might be, much like teams have attacked
the Reds with left handers. He likes it when you
have back to back guys to maybe stifle one of
the better hitters or just the things that it makes
the manager do over the course of a series. But
the Reds are going to kind of separate them, not
necessarily back to back days. So it'll be Nicolodolo going tonight,

(08:11):
and then I believe it's Andrew Abbott on Sunday, if
I'm not mistaken, but the Mets have not yet announced
a starting pitcher for this series starting tonight. I would
imagine that will come at some point today. We're also
hoping for some injury updates that might not happen until
the end of the show. I'm not sure if we're
gonna get any of those between now and the end

(08:32):
of the show, but hopefully there is something that we
can update you on, whether that be Hunter Green or
Rhet Louder or anybody who might be a little bit
banged up for the Red Legs right now with our
Postman Law injury report coming up in.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Just a little bit.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
As far as the rest of the wild Card teams
are concerned, and excuse me while I take a drink.
I feel so much better, but you know, sometimes the
throat is still coming after me a little bit. But
the Cubs, Pirates, Nationals excuse me, the Cubs, Pirates, Cardinals
and Brewers, the NL Central teams. Here's who they have

(09:11):
this weekend. The Cubs are hosting the Boston Red Sox,
who went into the All Star Break on fire, so
hopefully they can continue that. The Pirates are hosting the
Chicago White Sox. I'm sure that game will get a
lot of numbers this weekend. The Cardinals are in Arizona
to take on the Diamondbacks and the Brewers are in
Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers. Meanwhile, the other

(09:35):
wild card teams, the Padres, are in DC to take
on the Nats. The Giants are north of the border
in Toronto. The d Backs, as I mentioned, are hosting
Saint Louis, and the Phillies are at the Los Angle.
Excuse me hosting the Los Angeles Angels just as a
refresher when it comes to the wild card. Right now,

(09:56):
the Reds are two and a half games back of
the Padres in that wild card race. They are a
game behind Saint Louis. Saint Louis is fifty one and
forty six. They are two games back of San Francisco.
San Francisco is the first team out and the Mets,
who are the Reds opponent this weekend, have a two

(10:17):
and a half game lead over San Diego for the
final wild card spot. So could be some moving and
shaking going up going on this weekend, especially with Saint
Louis and Arizona playing the Reds and the Mets playing
and San Francisco, who's all of a sudden playing one
of the best teams in baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays,
who although they went they lost two in a row

(10:39):
going into the break, have won seven of their last
ten are now thirteen games over five hundred, fourteen games
over five hundred actually, and a top the American League East.
So should be an interesting weekend of baseball. Lodolo from
my count I could be wrong on this, but I
was trying to look it up before the show. Nick Lodolo,

(11:00):
he hasn't faced the Mets in like three years, and
he's only faced five Mets in the past. Pete Alonzo,
Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nemo, and Tyrone Taylor. Alonzo, Lindor,
and Nemo are all hitless against Lodolo in their careers.

(11:20):
That is a combined oh for six are those guys
or oh for seven?

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Excuse me?

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Tyrone Taylor does have a home run off of him
in six played appearances, and Jeff McNeil is one for
one off of Nick Lodolo in his career.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
So those are some of the numbers.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
But as far as I can tell Lodolo hasn't faced
the Mets since twenty twenty two, so it certainly has
been a while. Uh for those guys. Five one, three, seven, nine,
fifteen thirty is the phone number. Phone lines are going
to be open the entire show. Of course, we'll talk
to our guests and do our talk becks or giveaways
and all that, but uh, we are keeping the phone
lines open for the entire show. Drew, Uh, are you

(11:59):
have you How many talkbacks did we save yesterday?

Speaker 5 (12:02):
Drew?

Speaker 3 (12:02):
We have two in the hopper. Two in the hopper.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Okay, so it's certainly still attainable today if you leave
a talkback to get your Sinsey Shirts gift card. Speaking
of giveaways, I don't know, this isn't really a transition,
but we have a revived Fitness Systems dot Com pole question.
I don't know why I said speaking of anything. It's Friday.
Just let me go. Yeah, sponsorships, Yeah yeah. A Revivedfitness

(12:29):
Systems dot Com poll question presented by Revived Fitness Systems
dot Com and coach PJ.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Street.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
How long of an extension would you give Trey Hendrickson
if you were the Bengals? One year, two years, three years,
or do not extend him? That's the question. You can
vote at Audio Moore at ESPN fifteen thirty at Drew
BW Drew, how would you answer that question?

Speaker 3 (12:54):
I go two years? Okay, well, I would go two years.
He's thirty one.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
I think those two years you could get still high
level to elite production from him. That third year is
where things could get pretty dicey with where he is
from an age standpoint, and Trey has stayed pretty healthy
throughout his tenure here in Cincinnati, So I think I
would go two years there.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
What about you?

Speaker 2 (13:19):
My idea would be two years as well. I more
kind of light lean towards the idea of one year,
so that it's this year and next year and then
everyone's done after that, because at that point you think
you maybe know what's going on with Shamar Stewart, you
have an answer on Miles Murphy, maybe you have invested
in Joseph Osai, maybe you've drafted another guy by then.

(13:42):
I don't know, but I think I want to believe
that Trey is just going to continue this level of
production the entire time. And while I think Trey is
a really good player, I don't know that he's a
player at the level of the rest of these other
guys that you would want to continue to invest in
long term.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Just don't know if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
And I've kind of been on the side of the
Bengals this entire time when it comes to Trey, and
I know that's not a shock for a lot of people,
but you know, I think TJ. Watt is kind of
the perfect example of why. And I can explain that
a little bit more coming up in the next segment.
I want to hear from you though, on that question.
One year, two years, three years. Let me know right now,

(14:24):
fifty percent of people say two years they would give
Trey an extension, twenty nine percent say three years, twelve
percent say just one, and eight and a half percent
say do not extend Trey Hendrickson. It's been kind of
a crazy offseason the way that this has worked out,

(14:45):
with the non quarterback contracts, with the average annual value
per year, the dollar amount per year, it's it's pretty
ridiculous when you look at some of the numbers. And
I'm curious to get to you, Drew when we come
back from the break of the Cleveland perspective of this
because I saw some Cleveland people making fun of TJ.
Watt yesterday, which I thought was pretty funny. We'll talk

(15:06):
about all that. We'll talk about Trey and Moore. This
is since he three to sixty hour one, brought to
you by Skyline Chile on the Home of the Bengals,
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (15:15):
Now your chance to win it way down it jells
for another one for Scheffler.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
That's our call today, Scottie Scheffler burying one at the
one hundred and fifty third Open at Royal Port Rush.
I've struggled to say that this week. I don't know why,
but Royal Port Rush. Uh, you know what, Drew, Let's
do this right now. Let's you know, since that was
the call to day, let's just get right into our

(15:49):
open update here at twelve twenty on ESPN fifteen thirty.
With that we go out to the course. Our golf
correspondent Drew Western heiding, Well, we just.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
Played the call of Scotti Scheffler's birdie on six and
guess what he's got another great look at one on
seven to get to one back of the lead held
by Brian Harmon and Hal Tung Lee of China Lee
is through fifteen four under on the day, so he
and Harmon in the lead at eight under. Your boy,
Matt Fitzpatrick came in tough six under par through nine.

(16:21):
Rasmus Hoyguard a good round this morning of three under.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
He's at five.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
Tier o'hatton as well today five under par, and Robert
McIntyre at five under, as well as Harris English and
Chris got her Up firing up the leaderboard. He won
last week. What did you just say? Chris got her up?
When did he do that? He is on thirteen, he
is six under, best round on the course right now.
He barely knows her He barely does. He won last

(16:48):
week at the Scottish Open, so he's continuing his fine form.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Chris got her up? Got her up? Is that a
real name? That is a real name.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
That's a fun game we could play on this show.
Golfer or relief pitcher?

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we might have to work on that
for the final hour.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
Rory McElroy t thirteen with a two under sixty nine
today three under par. John Rahm at three under as well.
A lot of red numbers today, a lot of good
scoring conditions.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
What's Brian Harmon Right now, you said.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Brian Harmon is eight under par for the championship. Carter
sixty five this morning? Correct, tell me sixty five today
for Brian Harmon, the twenty twenty three Open champion.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
How far under is Scotty at the moment?

Speaker 4 (17:33):
Scotty is now seven under par for the tournament, four
under par on his.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Day four on the day.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
Okay, he is just birdie the seventh hole for his
third straight birdie of the round.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Scotty is coming okay, all right, good to know.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
That's your update on the Open, the one and fifty
third from Royal Port, Rush in Northern Ireland. So the
story of the day yesterday was TJ. Watt getting this
extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers, And to be honest, I
kind of laughed when I saw it. I was like,
what they're given buddy? Three years, one hundred and twenty

(18:14):
three million dollars. They're giving him forty one million dollars
in average per year. That seems like a lot of
money for a guy who has dealt with injuries. He's
been undoubtedly productive, except last year the final two hundred
ish snaps of the season. He kind of disappeared, and

(18:37):
it just made me wonder are they paying him for
what he has done or paying him for what he
will do? And that's kind of the thing that the
teams fall into a trap with Sometimes it's like, Okay, yeah,
this is a great player and he means a lot
to us, but is it about what he's going to
do moving forward or is it about what he has

(19:00):
done in the past. They've already paid him a ton
of money before. Previously in his career, they signed him
to a four year, one hundred and twelve million dollar
contract that averaged twenty eight million a year. Do you
think that over the next three he's going to match
the same production that you've seen from him over the

(19:20):
last three I think it's hard to say that.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
And TJ.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Watt is a dude that has battled with injuries in
the past. You also have other good young defensive players
like Alex Heighsmith and maybe like Derek Klerman who they've
just drafted, that are going to have an impact on
this team.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
I just don't know if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
For the Steelers, And it does feel like it was
a little bit petty in the sense of like, oh, yeah,
I want one million dollar more than Miles Garrett. Now
I've already talked about how I lost pretty much all
the respect I had for Miles Garrett because of the
way he handled things in Cleveland and talked about how
he wants to be a winner and he wants to

(20:03):
win Super Bowls, and I didn't come to the NFL
to go from Campton to Cleveland. And then the Browns
were like, dude, we'll give you forty million dollars and
He's like, I love it here, I believe in the plan.
That's clown behavior. But I lost a lot of respect
for Miles. But I do appreciate somebody getting after the bag.
And I'm not gonna say TJ. Watt shouldn't get as

(20:23):
much money as he can.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
He should.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
I mean, shoot, this contract alone, like surpasses his brother
JJ's career earnings, which is just amazing. How money in
the NFL cont titties to rise. But I look at
Pittsburgh and I'm like, this dude is getting older. He's
been injured a lot. He'd been injured a lot more
than Trey Hendrickson has. He's been injured a lot more
than Miles Garrett has. And you're gonna invest three more

(20:46):
years at this amount of money into him, I'm thinking,
go right ahead. They I understand TJ has been a
menace to the Bengals. He's been a problem, He's been
a thorn in the side to a lot of people.
And you know, over the last couple of years, he
has thirty sacks and Trey Henderson has thirty five. Like
I get there, they're relatively comparable. And I will say

(21:08):
I think TJ is a much more complete player than
Trey Hendrickson is. I might say he's much more of
a complete player than Miles Garrett is. Maybe, But to me,
looking at at that moving forward for the Steelers, this
is the type of deal that could blow up in
their face because of the fact that this dude disappeared

(21:31):
this year. He's getting older, he has been hurt in
the past. Think back to that final game of the season,
the Week eighteen game where the Bengals were there on
a Saturday night in Pittsburgh and they were just trying
to sneak into the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
TJ.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Watt did nothing in that game, going up against that
Bengals offensive line and the Steelers, I mean they roughed
him up. They roughed Joe Burrow up a little bit
in that game. They if you watched quarterback Joe said,
I thought I broke my neck in that game. TJ
Watt did nothing. He was a ghost. You couldn't find

(22:10):
TJ with a surge warrant. And now for just looking
at this strictly from a Pittsburgh's perspective, right, not even
thinking about from the Bengals. You've invested into this, dude.
You've got Aaron Rodgers for one year. You know that
you've invested into Jalen Ramsey. Now you traded away Minka,

(22:32):
which was a questionable decision in and of itself. You're
getting You still have Cam Hayward, who I love Cam Hayward.
He's probably my favorite Steeler ever, which you know, I's
never a word I thought i'd say. But Cam Hayward
is getting older. You still don't have a quarterback like, Yes,

(22:53):
Rogers is a beast and has been a beast in
the past. Do we think Rogers is gonna play at
a level well enough to get Pittsburgh into the playoffs
this year?

Speaker 3 (23:01):
With all the people in the AFC.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
That are going to be that good, do you feel
like Rogers takes you over the top. No, probably not. Okay,
So next year he's already said he's done after this year.
And with Rogers, you never know, he'll probably try to
be like Brett fav But let's say Rogers doesn't play
next year, who's your quarterback? Then if Pittsburgh wins anywhere
from seven to nine games this year, they're not close

(23:24):
enough to get another quarterback. Your boy, Will Howard, Will Howard,
I love Will Howard. I don't know that he's ready
to be in an NFL quarterback. That'd be great if
he was for him personally. Then you see that Aaron
Rodgers is going to take him under his wing this year,
Well that's bad news for Will Howard. Will's gonna have
a beard down to his chest by the time that's over.

(23:45):
He's probably in a jungle right now eating mushrooms. But like,
that's the thing. Like to me, I'm like looking around, like, okay,
go ahead, sign TJ. Watt to that type of deal.
What's crazy is this offseason the amount of deals for
non quarterbacks with the highest ap y of NFL history.
There's been already this year five non quarterbacks highest paid

(24:09):
players in NFL history. It started March fifth, Max Crosby
with the Raiders goes to thirty five point five ap Y.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
That's good. It's good chunk of change right there. That's
good coin.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Then on March fourteenth, Miles Garrett signs that deal with Cleveland,
making him the highest paid non quarterback at forty million APY.
Just a couple of days later, Jamar Chase at forty
point two five million dollars gets his deal. In between that,

(24:46):
you had Daniel Hunter from Houston edge Rusher at thirty
five point six million dollars, so just ahead of Crosby,
just below Garrett. Garrett is just below Chase, and then
TJ yesterday at forty one ap y. That's ridiculous.

Speaker 7 (25:06):
You know what.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Best of luck to the Steelers. I'm not like, I
just I'm not a believer in that. I think that
edge Rushers. Who is it we were talking to recently
about like the depth of wide receivers moving forward and
how it was I think it was Mike and La
was talking about that conversation yhere about how in today's

(25:29):
NFL wide receivers are a dime a dozen because of
the way that they are taught coming up through high
school and college and the way that the offenses are
and the trends, like you can get good receivers often,
I think we're gonna be reaching that point with edge
rushers too. Like, sure, there's gonna be like freaks like

(25:49):
Miles Garrett that you can't pass up. Right, Like those
guys are gonna go in the first round. They're gonna
be unreal, the Micah Parsons type of athletes that undeniable.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
But you're also going.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
To get really good pass rushers in rounds two and
three as well, because that's where the game has shifted
yeap to get after the quarterback.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
Right, And it felt like this draft was kind of
the first wave of those kinds of edge rushers. So
I feel like a lot of teams grabbed edg rushers
in the late first or like mid second, early third
that they like that these teams are counting on to
play and I think they and I think they will
be good players. You know, well, they they won't be
you know, Miles Garrett or you know, like you talked about,

(26:34):
but they can be serviceable, productive edge rushers for good teams.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
And I think also the idea of having multiple guys
on your roster that can do that and being able
to to kind of supplement. Okay, well, here's a wide
receiver and he's going to go into free agency and
make a ton of money. But we got a kid
coming up from so and so that is going to
come in and immediately, you know, fill that void. No,
much like the Bengals with you know, Tyler Boyd goes

(27:03):
and they bring up Andre Josevash. It's maybe not the
best comparison, but you see what I'm saying, and I
think teams are gonna try to do that as well
with edge rushers, especially if the prices continue to go
up this high, which again changes, you know, switches the
magnifying glass to how do the Bengals handle this with
Trey Hendrickson and are they willing to say, Okay, yeah,

(27:25):
Miles Murphy still not one hundred percent proven, josepho size
on a prove it deal. The depth outside of that
certainly is a question mark. And who the hell knows
what's gonna happen with Shamar Stewart. We aren't really in
a position to say we'll move on from Trey after
this year, you know, like they've kind of because those

(27:46):
players haven't worked out as much, or because maybe in
Ana Rumo's system they didn't get as much playing time,
or he didn't put as much trust in them. They
haven't developed at the rate you'd like to develop them.
This year becomes crucial in their develop meant to figure
out what exactly you have moving forward with them. We'll
take a break, we'll come back. How does TJ. Watt

(28:08):
affect Trey Hendrickson? That's next, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Hey Alexa, what's going on in the NFL?

Speaker 4 (28:14):
Getting ESPN fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
CINC three sixty On ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.
I'm Austin Olmore, Tone Pike, Tony Pike. Back on Wednesday.

(28:39):
Training camp gets underway on Wednesday. We will be live
from Bengals training camp, and by we I mean Tony
and Mo from ten am until noon. Looking forward to
that first day the Bengals get on the field at
the practice fields adjacent to pay Corpse Stadium. Talking about
the TJ. Watt extension three years, one hundred and twenty

(29:01):
three million, one h eight guaranteed in ap y A
forty one for TJ. Watt getting that extension, Drew let
me ask you, because you're a Browns fan, God love you. Ye,
what are people in Cleveland saying about this TJ Watt
extension because there's like a little bit of a rivalry
between TJ and Miles because of the defensive player of

(29:23):
the year nonsense.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
Well, I think a lot of Browns fans and I
didn't really listen or read too much coverage of it
from the Cleveland perspective, but I think a lot of
it is kind of echoes what you were talking about
in the previous segment and how it feels like the
Steelers are going all in with a flawed roster and
a flawed you know, idea of just how far away

(29:46):
they are from a super Bowl and if they.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
Are going to go that go the distance.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
And as you said, a lot of the teams in
the AFC are really really good, and I would take
them ahead of the Steelers. And I said to you
yesterday when during most show, I said, that's a lot
of money to go nine to eight. Yeah, and so
it'll be interesting to see. But from you know, I
think Miles Garrett is the better player. I'm obviously biased

(30:16):
in that fact, but so we're getting Miles Garrett Cheaper,
and you know you said how you kind of lost
a little respect for Miles gart I did too, you know,
I kind of felt the same way he always he
always talked about how he wanted to be the leader
in the locker room.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
He's not the leader in that locker room. He's not.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
He's the highest paid player, he's the best player on
the team, but he is by no means the leader
of the Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
I don't know if they really have one.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
Maybe Joel Patonio, who's probably going into his final season
with the Browns, so basically the guard version of Joe
Thomas for Browns fans. So it'll be interesting to see
what how it goes with that and how it goes
with the Steelers. I just I don't It didn't really
move the needle for me. As well as the moves
of bringing Aaron Rodgers and Jalen Ramsey and losing Minka

(31:03):
Fitzpatrick and bringing DK Metcalf, It didn't really move the
needle on how I view the Steelers going into the season.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, I'm right there with you, And you know that's
the thing, like, yeah, they have I think you described
it well, like they have a bit of a flawed roster,
and they're kind of hoping to just get the most
out of Aaron Rodgers as possible, But even then asking
him to come into you know, at the age that
he is, with a new offensive system, you move on

(31:32):
from Nase Harris, you got new wide receivers, your offensive
line wasn't great last year. I just feel like that's
a lot of change to expect it to just work overnight. Yeah,
and you know, maybe with them they'll have a chance
in the second half. I mean, last year, their schedule
in the second half was as hard as any teams
in the history of the National Football League. But still,

(31:53):
you know they're gonna play a second play schedule this year.
It's not gonna be, you know, any easier for them.
They're gonna play basically the same schedule they did a
year ago in terms of the quality of opponents. So yeah,
I still think the Bengals are a better team than them.
I don't know if the Bengals are better than Baltimore.
I don't think that the Steelers are heads and shoulders

(32:15):
above the Bengals. But does how does what affect the
negotiations with Trey That's that's the big question, right, I
don't think ultimately financially it changes anything like, Yeah, if
the Bengals would were to have gotten this done in February,
right after the Super Bowl, maybe they'd get him at

(32:37):
an even thirty million dollars a year. And now maybe
it's gonna be thirty three, right, Maybe maybe it's that
much of a difference, which over the course of a
three year extension is nine million dollars. That's not that
much money in the grand scheme of things. But ultimately,
the big issue here is that he was given a
three year extension.

Speaker 5 (32:57):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
That has always been the sticking point between the Bengals
and Trey is the length of the deal. And I've
talked about this before. I don't really understand the idea
of Trey saying he needs security for the long term.
You've been in the NFL for a long time. You've
signed multiple one year contract extensions that was your doing.
You know how this game works. You've made millions and

(33:20):
millions and millions and millions of dollars. Moving across the
country or going somewhere else is not nearly as hard
for you as it is on the average person. And
in the National Football league. You know that anything can
change any given moment. So is he wanting guaranteed money?
Shirt Absolutely, And I don't know that that's a sticking
point either. The Bengals are probably willing to give him

(33:43):
a decent chunk of guaranteed money and probably willing to
get up to twenty seven to thirty million dollars worth
per year quote unquote in that guaranteed money. But are
they going to do it for more than two years?
Are they gonna do it for more than a year.
The Bengals have this little part that nobody's talking about,

(34:07):
this little card that they can play that nobody's talking about.
You give him, let's say again, if he doesn't show
up by week ten, week eleven, then his contract tolls
to next year, and we do this whole thing over again.
Trey's not gonna do that. He's gonna show up. He's

(34:29):
gonna play even if he doesn't get the deal that
he wants. You know what can happen. The Bengals can
tag him next year. And if they tag him next year,
then guess what, He's gonna be making a lot of money,
a lot of money because what and Garrett and Hunter

(34:50):
and Crosby have all reset that market yep. And the
Bengals have the space to be able to do that
if they need to. And Burrows contract was structured to
be able to restructure easily to do that if they
need to.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
So the Bengals have that ace in their pocket.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
That's like, all right, we don't know if this dude's
going to be able to continue to play at this level.
We'll try to do something with him. Maybe we'll give
him some I don't know, but we want him to
play on the deal this year that we've given him,
and we'll see what happens. And if so, we're going
to franchise tag it. I know Trey probably doesn't want
to hear this, but when you're franchise tag, that's a

(35:29):
lot of money and you get all of it, yep.
And so if you do come out in this season
and you play at the level that you expect to
play at, and yes, you're only making a sixteen million
dollar base salary, but you play like you expect to play,
and you help the Bengals and they go back to
the super Bowl or whatever incentives you might have or

(35:49):
who knows what you a are more justified in asking
for a contract extension again and b are probably gonna
get franchise tagged and make that money, and it essentially
works as a two year extension like what you would
sign right now, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
To me, I'm.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Weary for all the reasons I just said about TJ Watt,
I'm hesitant about moving forward with Trey in the same sense.
I think Trey is a better all I think TJ
is a better all around player. I think Miles is
a better all around player. I think Max and Micah
and Hunter are better all around players. Trey's really really

(36:34):
good at this one thing. It doesn't impact the game
nearly as much and the other parts of his game
that those guys do. And that's not to say he's
not valuable.

Speaker 5 (36:43):
He is.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
And again, it doesn't come back to the money.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
I think he would be happy at thirty million, which
could say, okay, if you're the Bengals, why not give
him two years sixty million dollars and make it fully guaranteed.
I bet Trey would sign that right now, But if
he wants three, I don't know about that. And things
just got harder because of what TJ watch has signed.

Speaker 4 (37:08):
Yep, and I think the two biggest teams affected by
this deal that Watt just signed are the Bengals with
Hendrickson and the Cowboys with Parsons. Yeah, because that contract
is coming to roost very very soon. And now you know,
Parsons is probably gonna want that highest paid non quarterback
you know, title for himself. So Jerry Jones probably did

(37:32):
not like seeing that news come across the wire yesterday.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, and you know, I don't think Trey is a
threat to choose that, but yeah, as far as the
Cowboys are concerned, I mean, he's probably looking for forty five, right,
I would assume, especially because he's still young and like
this is his big deal.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
I'll tell you what, I get.

Speaker 8 (37:51):
Tired of hearing from Micah Parsons, though I think we
all do that.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
There's an old quote out there from Abraham Lincoln that says,
I'm gonna butcher this, but basically, it's like, it's better
to keep your mouth shut and let people think you're
a fool, then open your mouth and remove all doubt. Yep,
pretty much nailed it. That's Micah Parsons correct, And it's

(38:19):
so funny. He's like he's having these serious conversations on
his podcast about his contract, and he's wearing one of
those big hats like a like a basketball jersey. Just
looks like a clown. That dude, says some off the
wall stuff. Man, But he did go to Penn State,
so it kind of makes sense.

Speaker 5 (38:35):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
We've got time for a phone call. Let's go to Florida.
Let's see what Dave's got on his mind. What's up,
Dave Otti?

Speaker 9 (38:43):
Thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 10 (38:44):
Man.

Speaker 9 (38:44):
How you doing.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
I'm hanging in there. How are you?

Speaker 11 (38:47):
I'm good. I'm good.

Speaker 9 (38:48):
So comment on the Steelers. First of all, you know,
keep keep signing the all jarifsall team, go get your
AP cards, because that's exactly what they've done with Rams
and what and Aaron Rodgers. You know, we'll see if
for Rams even played the full year. So I don't
really care about what the Steelers are doing. They suck anyway,

(39:10):
as far as Trey goes.

Speaker 10 (39:12):
If I'm the Bengals, I'm saying, okay, Tree, here you go,
sixty five seventy million, two year guarantee money.

Speaker 9 (39:19):
Play with it, or don't and show up and play
for sixteen million and be done with it. I mean,
the guy is a one trick pony. All he can
do is, you know, go get the passer he is.
You know, NFL Network has been playing all these replay
games of you know, a comeback Player of the Year Joe,
and you sitting and I sit there and watch him

(39:39):
because I want to sit there and just kind of watch.
And you never see Hendrickson make any plays in the
big games. And it was all the big games that
they played in. So he's a one trick pony. Give
him a seventy mil sixty five two years. If he
doesn't like it, then sit out the whole year and
get nothing, and you'll get less money.

Speaker 10 (40:00):
And the other comment is, didn't ESPN just come out
with their ranking system of defensive ends the last couple
of days.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
They did We've done by reporters.

Speaker 9 (40:09):
And scouts and gms. And he was behind Parsons, he
was behind Garrett, he was behind Crosby, he's Ryan Watt.
I think he ranked at six.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, sorry, Trey.

Speaker 10 (40:20):
I'm looking at that ranking and saying, you know, this
is what the league thinks of me. And I'm not
where I think I should where I think I am.
This is where the league is. And so you know
that's kind of where I stand with him. I'm done
with him.

Speaker 9 (40:36):
I'm over the every year I need more money, I
need this, And you know that's kind of where I stand.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Yeah, Dave, I agree with you, and thank you for
the phone call.

Speaker 12 (40:44):
Man.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
I really appreciate it, and you're right.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Yeah, there's sixth I think in that list, And if
Trey doesn't know by now how the league values him,
I don't know what else they can do to show
him like it. On that list of like how the coaches,
scouts and executives ranked players, it shows you the highest
ranking he was given and the lowest ranking he was given.

(41:07):
There were players or there were coaches, executives and scouts
that had him unranked among the top ten edge rushers
in the NFL. Think about that, and again, it doesn't
come down to money. It comes down to length. I
don't fault the Bengals for looking around and saying, all right,

(41:30):
I don't want to know. I don't know if we
want to be tied to this for as long as
we are. But then on the other hand, I look
around and say, it's Schamarge Stewart. It's like, who's going
to be more of a headache over the next several years.
Who's going to be the bigger risk over the next
several years. Is it Shamar or is it Trey? Right
now I'm thinking it's It's it's gonna be Chamar. So

(41:51):
maybe it is worth it to just say, all right,
let's give let's find a way here with Trey. There's
another wild card we got to talk about when we
come back ESP. Fifteen thirty. Wise, you know, there's another
wild card yet to be played in the Trey Hendrickson situation.

(42:13):
We talked about the Bengals maybe having the ace up
their sleeve of the franchise tag. What about the ace
up the sleeve of one Joseph Lee Burrow, the starting quarterback.
You know, we've talked before about how when Joe speaks,
mountains seemed to move in this organization, those being Jamar,

(42:34):
Chase t Higgins, Mike Giseki, among others. Well, Joe hasn't
really been as stand on the table and shout and
scream and holler about Trey as he has the other
guys in the past. And part of it is, well,
we haven't seen Joe that much. Now, Joe, we'll hear
from next week as training camp gets underway at some point.

(42:55):
But the last time he talked, he said, this is
a distraction. And Joe is to me a pretty no
nonsense type of guy in terms of let's focus on winning,
Let's be a winning team, let's be a winning organization,
Let's take care of our guys, Let's do things the
right way. Moe often refers to Joe as the Bengals

(43:21):
president because of the power that he wields not only
with his arm but with his words. The next step
in the development of the Trey Hendrickson situation, and maybe
even the Shamar Stewart situation, is to have Joe Burrow
come out and say this needs to get cleaned up.

(43:44):
Whether that's talking to Trey and saying Trey needs to
show up in practice or talking to the Bengals and saying,
you guys need to take care of this so that
we can focus on winning football. I don't know that
Joe cares that much if Shamar Stewart is there. I
don't know if he cares that much as Demetrious no
is there, but I would imagine he cares quite a
bit whether or not Trey Henderson's there. And the next stage,

(44:06):
the next thing, the next lever that could be pulled
is Joe Burrow saying, hey, get this done now, because
we are just a couple of days away from going
into training camp with what with yet another massive distraction
looming over to overhead.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
It's ridiculous. Now.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
I don't expect Trey and Schamar and Dimitrios to all
three be done by the time practice starts on Wednesday,
but I would like to have at least two of
the three done by the time practice starts on Wednesday.
Right now, we're looking at probably one of the three
done by the time practice starts on Wednesday, with two
massive distractions hanging overhead as practice gets underway for the

(44:54):
twenty twenty five Bengals. When we come back, we'll talk
to Charlie Goldsmith. Charlie's in New York following the Reds
covering them. Just got back from Atlanta where he was
at the All Star Game, home run derby and more.
We'll talk to Charlie next. This is Cincy three to sixty,
Home of the Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 13 (45:12):
Ucky Cincinnati, Make us the number one pre set on
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iHeartRadio ad free never sounded so good. ESPN fifteen thirty
E Shirts Cincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored
in part by Cincy Shirts Cincy Shirts All Cincy, all Day.

(45:32):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yes, indeed it is Hi, Hello, and welcome in to
our number three of Cincy three sixty here on ESPN
fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
My name is Austin Elmore.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
We have this conversation every Friday at this time, and
I'm definitely looking forward to it this week. Like especially
looking forward to this week because of all the great
stuff that came from Charlie's time down in Atlanta, covering
the All Star Game and the Reds and their impact
and all the different angles that you could find at

(46:12):
the All Star Game. It seemed to be a pretty
fun experience. And Charlie joins us. Now, Charlie, are you
recovered from Atlanta?

Speaker 11 (46:20):
I am. I am in New York now and it
feels equally as hot. But no, it's a great trip.
It's been a great week. These are the kind of
fun stories that you you get into this to tell.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
In the first place, What did you learn, like, what
was something that maybe took you by surprise because you
go in there with a plan of the different things
you want to talk about and what you want to cover,
but seemingly there's always a left turn somewhere.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
Where was the left turn? And what did you learn?

Speaker 11 (46:45):
It's funny because it's like I made my plan for
the stories I want to do and what questions and
then ask what people. I wrote that in my big
green notebook, which if you've been in a clubhouse or
a locker room with me and you're listening, you know
what I'm talking about. And I wrote at the top
of it, stick to the syllabus or stick to the
to the plan basically, So I because there's so much,
because that's the thing. It's kind of like a super

(47:07):
Bowl in that way, So you have to come in
very finely pointed of where you kind of want your
flashlight to point, because again, there's everything now. But one
thing that really caught me by surprise, the story I
wasn't surprised by, but wasn't necessarily expecting, was just how
active and vocal and energetic and enthusiastic Ellie was during

(47:28):
the home run derby. He was on two teams, he
was the ultimate hype man. That was the one story
that kind of made it onto my radar that I
wasn't again preparing for expecting, and that was probably like,
that's probably the thing I'll remember from this All Star
week from a Red perspective, how much Ellie was having fun.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
And it looked like, you know, overall, just everybody was
having a lot of fun. But how cool of an
experience was that for Andrew Abbott and for his family
and for him to pitch and perform the way he
did in the All Star Game.

Speaker 11 (48:00):
He was a guy I had a lot of fun
watching as well. He was a I mean, what's the
best word, like a social magnet or whatever you want
to say. He was talking to pictures. There you go.
He was talking to pictures, he was talking to position players,
he was just chatting everyone up. And you know that
he has this relaxed, easygoing nature about him, and I
think that's someone that that's something that a lot of

(48:21):
different kind of friends picked up on. Like he was
spending time with Paul Schemes, with Kyla schwarb or with
Ellie and some of the guys Ellie knew really well,
and then he pitched really well. Like I said this
Andrew after the game. It was just a very Andrew
Abbot performance to announce to the national world this is
what Andrew Abbitt looks like, and that's what it felt
like as well. So he definitely, he definitely got a

(48:43):
lot out of it.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
Now, this is a little bit of inside baseball here,
but I've been told in the past that the food
options in the press box in Atlanta are not great.
Did they right that wrong at the All Star Game?

Speaker 11 (48:58):
So we I'm never gonna complain, right, that's a stance
like I never complained about media food. I never complained
about access. They didn't feed us. They gave us twenty
dollars concessions vouchers. Okay, there were a lot of haggling
moving pieces around behind the scenes. That that made it

(49:18):
interesting and kept us on our toes, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Yeah, that's just a random thought that I had right
there as as we go out of the All Star
Game and into the second half. Before we do that though,
the swing off? What did you think of the swing off?
I was highly entertained by that.

Speaker 11 (49:36):
Man. It was fun. It was really really fun. Like
I think I tweeted this in a moment too, Like
what we saw was one of the game's best power
hitters put the team on his back and do something
magical to end it isn't that what we all wanted
to see anyway? Now, I don't want this to be
a regular thing at all whatsoever during the regular season,
but every team has one or two games a year

(49:59):
that gets into extra innings where you can tell if
you follow we've team closely and kind of read the manager,
you can tell that the manager kind of would rather
just get out of the game than you know, even
that would be a wish priority, even over winning the name.
But you can't lose the game unknobly in a not
noble way. You can't just put a position player out

(50:20):
there because that thinks. So it so like my idea,
like I tied into my other big pet peeve, which
is I hate when managers have to put pitchers in
such a bad spot that then multiple guys lose their jobs,
you know, lose the big league jobs. So what if
it's after the tenth inning both teams have used at

(50:41):
least seven or eight relievers to your bullpens basically fried,
then you have the option to do a swing off
homer and Derby to end it. I think that might
fix two issues. It would still be very rare. You
could talk me out of that as well, but that
was my idea.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Loosely related, do you think there should be a run
role in Major League based?

Speaker 11 (51:00):
Well, no, because a part and I know there's nothing
noble about pitching a position player, but just truly quitting,
it's just like, I mean, I don't know if you've
seen Friday Night, Like, you know, the coach gets the
job at the new school, which is rebuilding in the
first game so bad they have to quit, and then

(51:20):
the players are mad because the coach quit, and then
the coach has to apologize the team and they burn
their old jerseys to signify that whatever just happened was dead.
But like that's like you don't want to lose in
an ignoble way, Like that's real. So you know, Homer
and swing off late next grin, this is a noble
way to win or lose without burning pitchers. But but no,
I don't want to see a resal.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
The Reds have decided to uh start the second half
with Nicolodolo, Nick Martinez and Andrew Abbott. If I'm not mistaken,
what goes into the decision to how they want to
position the starting rotation as they start this stretch of
the season.

Speaker 11 (51:58):
Yeah, what I was told was this specifically was Mets
have a number of good lefties, and the Reds wanted
to line up their lefties so obviously Lodolo and Abbot.
And then part two of that was they wanted to
give Chase Burns as long of a rest as possible.
Get used to me saying that, and again, Chase Burns
is gonna have a very nice rookie season down the
stretch here, I think, but you're in the the inning

(52:22):
management portion of this ad in an extra off day here,
keep them on a short pitch count there. So once
you knew you had Burns in Game five and you
wanted to have Lodolo an Abbot and two of the
first three, the rest just sorted itself out.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
When it comes to the trade deadline at the end
of this month, do you think that the Reds view
it as like there's a certain number of games out
we have to be, or a number of games over
five hundred we have to be, Like what determines their aggression.
Do you think over the next couple of weeks I think.

Speaker 11 (52:54):
It'll be the deals. Like, for example, the Reds could
go and I'm just being exagged here the Reds to
own whatever between now and the deadline. But then this
year's version of Scott Rowland is available with multiple years
of team control, Well then yeah, they'd still be just
as aggressive to get the Scott Roland type if it
felt like you could help them in twenty six or
you know, they went eleven straight, but you know they

(53:17):
won't say Aohano Suarez. But the Yankees and the Cubs
just outfit them for Suarez because they have even more
desperate needs at third base. This is a lot I'm
going to repeat with the Suirez thing, and I think
it's a good line, Like sure, Swarz would be a
great fit for the Reds. The Yankees might be about
to be calling up jam or Candelario to be their
third baseman. Like a lot of teams have a lot

(53:38):
of problems, and a lot of teams canon will be
more aggressive than the Reds. So like my line on
Nick Crawl has always been like he's done some good
work around the margins, but and and kind of in
the mid range too, like Martinez, Hey, stuff like that.
Gavin Lux At the end of the day, what I
kind of want to see is, and I know Benson
hasn't been a smashing success, but more will Benson trades.

(53:59):
The Reds went out, they found a guy, They pointed
to that guy, and they said, we like him, what
can we do to get him? And they traded prospects
to get him. They could have traded it off their offer.
Any type of move like that where they see a guy,
they say I like that, I would like that, and
they just go get it. It's those types of moves
that really stand out to me, and those are the

(54:20):
types of moves that I'm I'm trying to look for
right now.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
The number one thing that has to happen in the
second half if the Reds want to make the playoffs
is what.

Speaker 11 (54:32):
You know. The obvious one is the right handed bats
and the number two hitter and the number four hitter
and all that kind of stuff. What was really kind
of sticking in my crawl from the stretch of uninspired
baseball that the Reds played from a results standpoint in Boston.
You talk about the Philly series was fine from a
play standpoint, but they still lost that and they coming
back home against the Marlins was their starters just weren't

(54:54):
pitching deep enough in the games. Their starters weren't leading
them to wins. Now, starting pitch is the strength of
the team, but like the passing game is the strength
of Bengals. And if Joe Burrow is just playing okay, solid,
you know, it's not gonna it's not gonna cut it.
So the rotation has been solid, But I think what
is most realistic and most attainable was that the rotation

(55:16):
as a whole levels up. And if that happens, that
takes a lot off your bullpen, that takes a lot
of pressure off the lineup. That just helps everyone take
a deep breast even going into a game, Like what
if they're like all right, you know, like man, Nick
Martinez is on like he was in September of last season,
pitching at a number two starter level, like yeah, we're
gonna win this game, Like for for Martinez, for Singer,

(55:37):
for Burns to an extent, for Lodolo, who I'm buying
stock in continuing to elevate and then kind of meet
Andrew Rabbit at that level, That to me is the
clearest path.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Talking with Charlie Goldsmith, Charlie's Chalkboard and of course on
Fox nineteen as well and the Power Stacks podcast with
Brian Gezenschlaw. We've seen in the in recent games kind
of Noel Vi Marte will start and then late in
the game Santiago Espinal will replace him. Defensively, how do
you balance developing Marte as a young player but also

(56:12):
prioritizing winning Now.

Speaker 11 (56:16):
I would say this has been like I've learned a
lot about carry Francona through like this last week managing
Marte because he is i mean clearly pulling in for defense.
It's a winning the day oriented move. Now they're still
playing the long game in terms of they're still playing Marte.
They're obviously the back and help them. They've had developmental

(56:39):
oriented decisions with like how they've managed, you know, like
case Burns for example. I could probably think of some
others if he gave me a bit more time. But
they've made development oriented moves. But once you get in
it kind of the band aids off. And maybe even
one kind of on a similar ideas Marte was the
way that you know, they've just kind of thrown Blin

(57:01):
Richardson into the deep end a high leverage spots and
they're picking them every other day and they're like, all right,
you know, go get them, go get them kids. And
that's a move they're making because he gives them their
best shot to win the game, not necessarily easing a
young guy into high leverage opportunity. So it is a
theme of winning the day. Francona backs that up. But ultimately,

(57:22):
by far, the best version of this Red team has
Nolova Markett playing nine innings. I don't understand how you
have enough confidence for him to play six but not nine,
Like he can't throw. Just put him in triple A
so he can figure out the throwing. But that's another
huge storyline they have to figure out this week because
if they don't trust the Loova market to play seven,

(57:43):
then does that number get to four? And all of
a sudden, are you needing a third basement for sure
at the deadline. So that's a big storyline for the
next two weeks.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
Is it fair to say that outside of Elie de
la Cruz, Noelvie Marte might have the highest ceiling among
this young core.

Speaker 11 (57:59):
I mean he was there player in August. In September
of twenty twenty three, I'm still a Matt McClain guy,
Like I still think McLain's going to make multiple All
Star teams. But just in terms of the damage Markta
can do still plays a premium position because I think
an athletic third basement has become that. I mean, the
ceiling certainly is there.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
I know we don't know a bunch about a bunch
of high school players like the Reds drafted, But what
was the big takeaway from the Reds draft class over
the last week or so?

Speaker 11 (58:31):
It was an upside class. You know, you look at
the picks. You got a seventeen year old short stuff
who their selling point was this guy they believe could
have been the number one pick next year. Kind of
like an a Mari's Men's type projection there that they're
making their number two pick out of high school. They're
betting on like this guy like knows how to pitch
Mason Morris. But it's about getting that next year and

(58:51):
training and developing from a stuff standpoint, because if the
stuff takes up even one notch, like that's really really
something that's like a top one hundred prospect. Their next
pick at Arkansas was kind of like a grand Mashcraft
type with kind of a big, kind of overwhelming bowling
ball type stuff. So like he is the ability to
kind of tap into that upside with the arsenal he has.

(59:12):
I've heard from multiple people who I really trust, kind
of outside the Red that Mason Neville, their fourth round pick,
was their favorite one. I mean, he's a true center
fielder who led the I think led the nation in
home runs last season, So I mean that's tools you
can work with. They got two guys coming up, Tom John,
they got the University of South Florida's quarterback. Like, they
got a lot of athletes who can be dynamic, who

(59:35):
have to take that step from a consistency standpoint. But but,
and I talked to the Red scouting director about this too.
It was very much an upside class for the Rights.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
Looking ahead to today, are we expected to get any
injury updates on Hunter Green? I know he posted a
video over the weekend of him throwing what looked like
a bullpen in Arizona. Is that expected today to get
an update on him?

Speaker 11 (01:00:03):
We'll definitely ask what the update's going to be. You know,
this has been an ongoing process and what the update's
going to be compared to what hopefully some things have
changed and developed in the last five days. But this is,
like like I said on the show last week, the
word I'm reporting here is this has been a very
confusing process. And that's not saying anything about Hunter, but

(01:00:24):
that's just what the process has been. So I'm not
gonna start really where I can predict right now when
the next kind of big, big filestone is for hunder Green.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Before I let you go, I want to ask you
a Bengals question. What was your reaction to TJ Watt's
extension and how does that in your mind affect the
Trey Hendrickson negotiations.

Speaker 11 (01:00:44):
Well, it shouldn't. I've you know, I've been very clear
over the last several months about how much of a
gap I view there is between Hendrickson and between Watt.
Now what taking a shorter term deal was the most
notable part of this to me? Obviously the AAV was there,
but it was a shorter term deal Hendrickson, I'll put
in a similar campus Hunt of Green, a confusing approach

(01:01:06):
to a situation. Not speaking about Green, but but the
word confusing is the similarity with Hendrickson there and in
a similar spot where I truly think Trey's going to
lake up one day and say all right, I'm playing,
or all right, I'm gonna make this even more difficult
than I had to or already was. So it's kind
of predicting Trey's psyche more than anything. Is I mean,

(01:01:28):
there is something to a kitty Blackburn said, was is
he willing to be happy at a certain price. We'll see,
and we'll be seeing for the next six weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
How many bagels have you had since you've been in
New York?

Speaker 11 (01:01:40):
You know, just one? I did get something new, you know,
I love locks. But they had something called pastrami pastrami salmon,
which is like salmon that's prepared like pastrami with you know,
different spices. It's kind of thicker. It's not more cooked,
but it kind of feels more more baked. And that
was really good.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
All right, Good to know. We look forward to your
reviews of your food while you're on the road. Have
a great weekend, enjoy the Big Apple. Thanks for making
some time for me today. Charlie that is Charlie Goldsmith
Fox nineteen, Charlie's Chalkboard, the Power Stacks Podcast, and so
much more. We'll take a break. We'll come back. When

(01:02:22):
we do, we'll take your talkbacks. After that, we'll decide
on a winner for a Cincy Shirts gift card. Followed that,
followed up by Tommy g joining the program at two o'clock.
A little bit later on Moegger for quick hits as well.
Plus phone lines open five one, three, seven, nine, fifteen thirty.

(01:02:42):
You can tweet it me at Audiomore. You still got
a lot to get to between now and three o'clock
on ESPN and fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
Thirty Now your chance to win one thousand dollars. Enter
this nationwide keyword on our website, Bills. That's Bills.

Speaker 11 (01:02:58):
Enter it now.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
Hey, Alexa carries on on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
To talkbacks on since he three sixty Welcome in sinc.

(01:03:38):
The Shirts gift card up for grabs. We've got two
in the hopper and we've got one more chance for
you to win.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
Right now.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
Tap that little microphone next to the play button on
the iHeartRadio app where you're on the ESPN fifteen to
thirty page.

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
Leave us a message, Drew. Let's get them started.

Speaker 14 (01:03:57):
Well, I guess to ask the price for Trey Hender
and contracts one up a little bit with the TJ.

Speaker 5 (01:04:02):
Watt signing.

Speaker 14 (01:04:03):
I know some people say, well, no, it's gonna want more.
But see, here's the thing. Also, you quoted this many times.
Trey is a one trick pony. Granted he does that
trick very well. But Watt, Parsons, Garrett and Crosby, these
guys are game wreckers and game disruptors. Trey is not. Yeah, yeah,

(01:04:29):
And why do I say he's not.

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
Well, I'll tell you this.

Speaker 14 (01:04:33):
Offensive coordinators are game planning around guys like Watt, Parsons, Crosby, Garrett.
I don't know too many offensive coordinators that Trey Henderson
keeps up at night take care and who they are.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
I don't know if I would say that.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
I think especially, I think he's up at the top
of the list when offensive coordinators start game planning for
the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
Correct, because there's nobody else on the Bengals right, like,
so he is the only guy you have to account for,
so which partially makes what he's done more impressive, right
to an extent. But also you're right, it's like, if
we can keep this guy at Bay, then will be okay.
And I always think that The game that always comes

(01:05:16):
back to me is the game against the Eagles. Fred Johnson,
who Bengals fans know well, was the starting left tackle
for the Eagles that day. He erased Trey Hendrickson. And
I also think back to the Raiders game when they
were going up against a terrible offensive line in the
Raiders and Trey had like five sacks. That's what I

(01:05:41):
you know what I mean, I know what you mean.

Speaker 15 (01:05:44):
Hello, this is former President Ronald Reagan. And well, I
don't envy anyone who finds themselves across the negotiating table
from Mike Brown or Katie Blackburn. No, the only place
worse to find yourself would be on the jumbo tron.

Speaker 5 (01:05:59):
A cold plague.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Oh my gosh, yesterday was one of the best days
in the history of Twitter.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
Yes, and like what even close. It's a true adage.
It's every day there's a main character on Twitter and
you do not want to be those. Yeah, there were
two of them yesterday, but those two lovebirds at the
Coldplay concert were definitely the main character.

Speaker 2 (01:06:22):
The funniest thing, too, is I've seen like three statements
and they're all fake, but people just run with them
like they're real.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
God, Lee, it's awesome.

Speaker 16 (01:06:30):
I just wanted to ask the callers and the Bengal
fans out there, is the are you guys tired of
having like negative storylines going into Spring camp every year?
Flick spring training? Like a couple of years ago, it
was Burrow and his injury? Is it going to be healthy?
Then it was the the are you going to extend
the wide receiver? And then it was going to be
the Higgins thing, and then it was the Chase thing,
and now it's the Hendrickson thing. Is wouldn't it be nice, though,

(01:06:52):
for you guys to actually have one spring camp without
anything that's like a great cloud covering you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
Yes, I would love nothing more than to sit up
here and talk about football. I want to talk about coverages.
I want to talk about man beaters. I want to
talk about zone beaters. I want to talk about hole shots.
I want to talk about gap scheme, I want to
talk about zone runs. I want to talk about difference
between what Justin Roscotti did last year, what Justini Scotti
might do this year, and the impact of Dan Pitcher

(01:07:22):
on the run game and how Chase Brown could be impactful.
And I would love to talk about all that stuff.
I just don't think we don't get to.

Speaker 4 (01:07:30):
The quiet offseason is pretty hard to attain for any
NFL team, though, Wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Tennessee Titans, who's talking about them? They had the number
one pick. You haven't heard from them in six months?

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
Let me rephrase, then, a team with high expectations rarely
quiet offseason.

Speaker 3 (01:07:46):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
And and you know we've said in the past, like
in this era of Bengals football and the way that
players are treated and the way the personalities of younger
players continue to come to the league, this is gonna
happen constantly. Yeah, I mean we're seeing it with Terry
mc learn in Washington. We're seeing it with Michah Parsons
in Dallas. We saw it with t J. Watt and Pittsburgh.
We saw it with Miles in Cleveland. We've seen it

(01:08:07):
repeatedly this offseason already. So yeah, to an extent, it
is pretty normal. But there are a few teams that
kind of you know, why did Titans? Why do they
still exist?

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
Who knows?

Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
But that you're right, you want to talk about the
most under the radar team nobody talks about. He talks
about the Tennessee Titan, even the Jaguars they're building.

Speaker 3 (01:08:28):
They're building a stadium and nobody's talking about it. It's
gonna be sweet stadium.

Speaker 10 (01:08:32):
I know.

Speaker 17 (01:08:35):
Hey, Yaudi's Perry up in Westchester. I wanted to give
you kudos on the outstanding job you did all week long.
Thank you very entertaining.

Speaker 15 (01:08:46):
You towed the line.

Speaker 3 (01:08:48):
Well played, my man.

Speaker 17 (01:08:50):
I'm want to call this message anything goes Friday, because
how letty get off to typical sports beat?

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
All right? This week the World Series of Poker happened.

Speaker 5 (01:08:59):
It was awesome to watch. Did you check it out?
And do you and the boys play poker?

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
I have a couple of friends that are big poker players.
I haven't played poker in a long time. I didn't
see I saw a couple of clips on social media,
but I did not watch much of the World Series
of Poker.

Speaker 5 (01:09:16):
Did you?

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
I like you saw clips, kind of checked in and
out if it was on you know, a stream. A
lot of it's streams now as opposed to being on television,
so I dipped in and out of some streams. I
enjoy watching poker, you know, Can I get the chance?
It's a very fascinating game. I don't play. I'd like
to play. I don't play a lot, and it's not
something I do if I go to the casino, if

(01:09:37):
I'm playing poker, I'm having some going to a buddy's
or a friend's house and we're just gonna have Ara County,
probably have a couple of cold ones and you know,
play some cards.

Speaker 5 (01:09:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
I mean, I know Mincey was in it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
He's just a complete buffoon, so you know, watching him
a little bit is interesting. But Perry, thank you for
the nice words. I feel like I have sucked this week,
so it was nice to hear that. I appreciate that.

Speaker 18 (01:10:02):
So in honor of list season, I'd like to present
a list of the top three things the Bengals could
spend thirty million dollars on other than trying to win
Super Bowl. Okay, Number three form a ring of dishonor
beginning with pac Man Jones and Carl pick Ends. Number two,
they could spend it on four point five million bowls
of mock turtle soup. Yes, and number one five hundred

(01:10:24):
years worth of salary of an in house escalator repair person.

Speaker 2 (01:10:28):
Hey, I think those escalators got fixed. Well, bake news
for now, I'm pretty sure that was like a part
of the even before the lease got redone. I think
it was one of the things they already fixed. Somebody
had to double check me on that. But does escalators.
That's at one point last year they had somebody that

(01:10:49):
would like they would only let like twenty people on
at a time, so you would like step in front
of the entrance and you would have to wait and
wait and wait and wait, and then he'd let you
on and be like twenty at a time, and they
do it again. Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
It's been a while since I've been to a game
at pay Corps, but I remember. I think they were
like completely out of commission the game that I went to.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
They used to break down every game. Yeah, and it's
not surprising though.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
Hopefully I hope for everybody's sake that those things are
fixed and they work for every home game.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
So when I was working there, dude, I was at
every home game for like six years, and the amount
of the amount of people like, oh my gosh, it
was unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (01:11:27):
Good times.

Speaker 5 (01:11:28):
EP fifteen. Oh wait, he's gone.

Speaker 19 (01:11:30):
Hey the MWG what though, I man, I've been thinking
about this TJ.

Speaker 5 (01:11:36):
Watt contract.

Speaker 19 (01:11:38):
I think the big difference between Trey and the other
guys is Trey is a series wrecker. Those other guys
are game wreckers. I'm glad the Bengals are playing hardball.
I hope they settle somewhere just north of thirty and
he plays football for the Bengals the next couple of years.

Speaker 5 (01:11:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11:56):
Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Ultimately, though, with this, you know, we can talk about
it more in the third hour after we talk to Tommy.
But like what you do after this all comes to
an end is what is going to determine whether or
not you're right and wrong?

Speaker 20 (01:12:14):
Nah, Tony, this is peg Lake Pete returning your call. Yes,
you can use the coupon on the back of your
receipt from the Dackery Deck to save twenty percent on
this weekend's ocean cruise.

Speaker 3 (01:12:28):
You'll be delighted to know that entertainment on the cruise will.

Speaker 20 (01:12:32):
Be provided by ringside rick Yuccino and his wrestling monkeys,
entertainment for everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:12:40):
A good time will be had by all. That's something
that interest you. That was terrible.

Speaker 21 (01:12:47):
Hey, guys, it's been a light week in sports, so
I just got a few random thoughts. First off, is
FCC a better team with den K out of the
starting eleven?

Speaker 11 (01:12:55):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:12:55):
Boy?

Speaker 21 (01:12:56):
Is that Wednesday? That may have been the best the
attack looked all season and won by three goals. Yeah,
he's among the league leaders in goals scored, But is
he a good team player? They look more complete without
him in my opinion, Hey guys, why the golfer wear
two pairs of socks in casey gets a hole in one?
Casey got a hole in one, let's go.

Speaker 4 (01:13:17):
Bill Simmons coined the term the Ewing theory when the
I believe it is in two thousand when the Knicks
made the finals and Ewing got hurt and they started
playing better, And there are a lot of Ewing theory candidates,
And it looks like that's kind of the road that
he's going.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
There is that.

Speaker 4 (01:13:32):
Denk maybe a Ewing theory candidate? I don't I don't
agree with it, but.

Speaker 2 (01:13:37):
There are some people that say, just from a team standpoint,
they looked a lot better playing as a team on Wednesday.
That's just because of who was on the other side.

Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
Well, and from the sound of it from his post,
it sounds like he's gonna miss a few games, so
we'll get a h get a better idea of how
that works.

Speaker 21 (01:13:56):
All right, Red second half starts tonight. Seems like the
first half went by real fast. It did, perhaps faster
than the speed of sound. Looking forward to getting Tony
back next week. Hope we had a fun time in.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
Para Para para.

Speaker 21 (01:14:11):
Anyways, just heading out to a concert with my really
good work friend. Everyone have a wonderful weekend. Viva Levita baby.

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
Oh my gosh, who was that was that? It was
Yits That's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:14:25):
That was Yeah, there was.

Speaker 4 (01:14:26):
I don't think there was any name attached to that one,
but that good. We may have to throw that one
into the Yeah, I think we may need to throw
that one into the hopper.

Speaker 7 (01:14:35):
Hey, if it crawled does something this year, maybe instead
of get crawled, we can say stick that in your crawl.

Speaker 5 (01:14:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
We have a whiteboard at my apartment on the fridge
and it's updated with the Reds record every day and
some sort of little comment, and since beginning of the
All Star break it has said fifty and forty seven
and underneath it my roommate wrote, make a move, move
crawl daddy.

Speaker 3 (01:15:01):
There we go every day. Hey, guys, how you doing
this Friday?

Speaker 5 (01:15:06):
This is Ryan.

Speaker 4 (01:15:08):
I'm actually out in Sycamore Park in Claremont County.

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
Hell yeah. Anyway, have you guys seen Slapfest? And if
and if so, what channel is that on?

Speaker 5 (01:15:19):
Can you guys let me know? I can't find it?

Speaker 3 (01:15:22):
That's that stuff is so hilarious Slapfest. Do you know
what that is?

Speaker 22 (01:15:28):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:15:29):
I got nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:15:30):
So you and I were at the same concert last weekend.
We were at the country concert Hickory Hill Lakes, Fort Larami, Ohio.
Did you go up there's a the MIC's Hard like
tent trailer thing. Did you go up there?

Speaker 3 (01:15:45):
I did not?

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
All right, So that's where we hang out because we
got a lot of friends up there, and they have
like these Mike's Hard girls. You know, they're just scantily
clad and oh yes, they're promoting stuff and taking pictures
and everything. And they were doing this thing where they
would bring out a shot of Mike's Hard and they
would sit on a stool and the man would get

(01:16:07):
down on his knees in front of these women and
they would like put the shot like they would give
him the shot, and then they would spray him with
water and smack him in the face. I watched like
fifty of these happen, and guys just kept lining up

(01:16:28):
to take a shot of Mike's hard get soaked with
water and get smacked in the face by these beautiful women.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
Would you ever do that? Absolutely not. It was kind
of funny. My friends are like, do it, do it?

Speaker 2 (01:16:42):
I'm like, no, No, I don't want to get smacked
in the face.

Speaker 3 (01:16:46):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
I don't care how good looking she is. I don't
want to get smacked. No, you didn't have to pay.

Speaker 3 (01:16:51):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:16:52):
They were like it was complimentary, but it's it's a
shot of Mike's hard liminade. It's not like it's a
shot of something you know, strong, actually hard.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
Yeah, wow, that's incredible.

Speaker 5 (01:17:01):
No, I was.

Speaker 3 (01:17:02):
I was kind of hoping you'd Mosy over there. I
was unaware of that. No, thanks, that's not my speed.

Speaker 22 (01:17:09):
Shine Break without the park time, man, Shine Break without
the park time, or a week of shows Allo in
the studio, gonna do it up even if he's on
his own. Aut he knows what we like, keep improving that.

(01:17:29):
He doesn't need old Tony Pig shine Bright without the
park time, And I'm just playing Tony.

Speaker 5 (01:17:36):
You know I love you.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
I believe it was a play on shine bright like
diamonds Rihanna, so points for creativity.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
I guess, hey, Nick Crawl, sign you Hennio Suarez today,
Goret today. Now he did sign him. He's still on
that deal, correct place for another that's in.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
My mind when I learned that, isn't that crazy? When
I learned that this year that he's still playing on
the Reds contract.

Speaker 3 (01:18:07):
Otter Ryan B.

Speaker 6 (01:18:09):
Yellow spraying what up dog formal announcements for TVs. I've
retired forty seven at least for a little while.

Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
We'll see if any updates.

Speaker 6 (01:18:17):
Come on any lists or anything like that. Talkback here
to say WWE time in the world of sports broadcasting
and Ohio State fans for years who have complained about
Desmond Howard being on college game Day, Hey, guess what,
you won the national championship.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
Here's your reward.

Speaker 2 (01:18:34):
You get to listen to Dave Portnoy every Saturday. Okay, though,
hear me out Portnoy and Urban.

Speaker 3 (01:18:41):
That's going to be a great eighteen week long match.
Will be fun.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
Yes, it will, because I don't think Urban's gonna take
anything from him, and I think Dave is great at
pushing buttons.

Speaker 5 (01:18:52):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
And you know, I think Brady Quinn's a sneaky wild
card in there.

Speaker 3 (01:18:57):
But I am kind of fascinating to see how this goes.
I think Urban.

Speaker 2 (01:19:02):
And and Dave Portnoy will like be grudgingly like each other.

Speaker 3 (01:19:07):
Yeah, and that will make for good TV. So we
shall see Brian v Double nip.

Speaker 6 (01:19:14):
Sure, you know this isn't gonna help everybody with the
whole Buckeye fans are conceited take. But you know, it
really is hilarious to see these major news networks completely
making their content decisions based on what they know is
going to drive engagement. You know, just like we know right,
good engagement, bad engagement. The views are exactly the same. Hey,
let's get a Buckeye hater on both of the major

(01:19:35):
college football shows. Help drive numbers, help drive the rivalry.
It just makes sense. Bucky Nation moves the needle we do, and.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
They are I mean, yeah, true, they are the needle
in college football.

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
I'd argue there is something I learned in this business
that took me way, way, way too long to learn,
and that is that it does not matter if you're good.
It matters if you make money, yep, And that's kind
of the case. You see you saw it a lot
with the NBA coverage in the finals and in the playoffs.
You see it a little bit with college sports. I mean,

(01:20:09):
I'm not a huge DES guy. I think DES has
gotten better over the years. But it's gonna be really
great when all these sanctions come down on Michigan and
they take away that title and all that stuff happens.

Speaker 3 (01:20:20):
Because then what are they going to say?

Speaker 2 (01:20:22):
Well, but he's right, Ohio State fans are sensitive and
there's a lot of them, and that's how it's gonna work.

Speaker 23 (01:20:31):
Hey, this is Reggie aka Bigan Brian. I just want
to give a shout out my brother. I was down
at Sycamore Park last weekend with the boy and we
were fishing, wading in the water, and man, we had
a hell of a time. We caught some sunfish down there.
But uh, you ever been to Roadside Park. It's right
by the prison, but it's it's.

Speaker 5 (01:20:50):
A good time.

Speaker 23 (01:20:51):
You get in there and that freaking creek turns into
a damn river, but it's not that deep and there's
some fish in there, brother, all right, fish.

Speaker 5 (01:20:59):
On, all right?

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
What was it John b That says, keep fishing, never stop.
I used to be a big fisherman back in the day.
I did when I was little. Okay, you're not You're
not baiting hooks anymore. No, I could not tell you
the last time. I don't have the patience fishing. Yeah,
I don't think I do either.

Speaker 12 (01:21:17):
All right, last one, Hey, Audie, since it is lifts season,
we're gonna do a start bench cut raw from That
at the Museum, Valentine from The Kingsman and Chip Douglas
from The Cable Guy, Start bench cutting.

Speaker 3 (01:21:34):
Who's Who's raw from the Night at the Museum? Who's that?
I don't know. I don't I didn't know, and I
don't know any of those.

Speaker 2 (01:21:39):
I've never seen The Kingsman or The Cable Guy. You
should know better, dude, I don't watch movies.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
Start bench cut in the order that he gave them.

Speaker 2 (01:21:48):
Yeah, I guess I'll start Night at the Museum. I've
at least seen that movie, so I'll start that one,
all right, I think, all right them, we'll take a break.
We'll come back when we do, will play the hoppered
talkbacks and choose a talkback of the week winner of
a Cincy Shirts gift card. That's next on ESPN fifteen thirty.

(01:22:13):
Sincy three sixty ESPN fifteen thirty. Fifteen minutes from right now,
Tommy g the Voice of the Orange and Blue FC Cincinnati,
stops by recap the big win over Miami, what they
righted after a wrong in Columbus, in preview their trip
to Real Salt Lake to take on RSL coming up

(01:22:35):
tomorrow night. That's a nine to thirty kickoff here on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Tommy, we'll have to call alongside Kevin McCloskey.
Will check in with Tommy when we come back. But
first it's time to give away a Sincy Shirts gift card.
We have how many drew? How many in the hopper?

Speaker 3 (01:22:53):
If three in the hopper, three in the hopper. Okay,
let's hear the first one.

Speaker 14 (01:22:56):
First one, No talkbacks and a hopper, No talkbacks in
the hopper.

Speaker 11 (01:23:01):
You here in that car.

Speaker 14 (01:23:01):
Austin said, there's no talkbacks in a hopper this week?

Speaker 11 (01:23:05):
What are you thinking about that?

Speaker 5 (01:23:06):
Herbert?

Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
Where people.

Speaker 15 (01:23:09):
King going up there?

Speaker 17 (01:23:11):
You just head on over to trash Man Town.

Speaker 14 (01:23:14):
They help you get your hey performers gone.

Speaker 4 (01:23:17):
I think that one's going to be pretty tough to top.
It's like truth be told, Kevin with incredible range.

Speaker 3 (01:23:23):
There. All right, here's our second.

Speaker 24 (01:23:27):
Hey Austin, you're doing a great job holding down the
fort this week. Kate from Montgomery. I must say I
was very amused and was actually chuckling that you had
a call from someone asking for more information about what
Shamar Stewart was asking for. I honestly didn't think there
was any Bengals fan within one hundred mile radius of

(01:23:48):
the river that didn't know what he was asking for.

Speaker 11 (01:23:54):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:23:56):
Yeah, I had to pick my jaw up off the
floor when we got that call yesterday.

Speaker 21 (01:23:59):
And our third and final, all right, Red second half
starts tonight. Seems like the first half went by real fast,
perhaps faster than the speed of sound. Looking forward to
getting Tony back next week. Hope we had a fun
time in Para Para Paradise. Anyways, Just heading out to
a concert with my really good work friend. Everyone, have

(01:24:21):
a wonderful weekend.

Speaker 15 (01:24:23):
Viva Lvita baby.

Speaker 3 (01:24:25):
That's good.

Speaker 5 (01:24:26):
That's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:24:27):
Good about those are all Coldplay songs and cold Play
of course the concert where Andy Byron and what's her face?
Kristen Cabot, We're just going government names. We're caught appearing
to cheat. But my vote goes to Kevin.

Speaker 3 (01:24:44):
Agreed.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
Agreed, Kevin in Northern Kentucky, our winner of this week's
with this week's Cincy Shirts gift card. Kevin, we will
reach out and get your information. I believe you won
one a couple of months ago, so we may be
able to just make that a smooth transition. So Kevin,
congratulations on winning our talkback of the week. We do

(01:25:05):
have time for a phone call, so let's take a
phone call. Let's go out to Mike in La. Mike
wants to talk edge rushers. Mike, what's going on?

Speaker 7 (01:25:15):
Hey, pal, Happy Friday, and you've got a weekend coming up.

Speaker 5 (01:25:18):
That you deserve.

Speaker 3 (01:25:19):
Thank you man.

Speaker 7 (01:25:21):
You gotta do the Reds postgame.

Speaker 3 (01:25:24):
Yes, I will be I have a postgame on Sunday.

Speaker 7 (01:25:27):
Okay, I'll be listening. Thanks buddy. Hey, I was thinking
about these edge rushers, and you know that there's three
guys I don't hear much about, and I wanted to
hear your opinion, and they're all pretty highly paid. And
I went back looking at a little bit of a
video on these guys. The guy from the from the Patriots,
Montel Williams or Monty Williams, and then the other Williams,

(01:25:51):
Leonard Williams out of San Diego or Seattle, and then
Danielle Hunter, the guy from from Denver. These guys are
all top ten highly paid. So I've seen a couple
of them playoff and on what do you think of
those three guys that don't get much notoriety.

Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
Yeah, I mean with Milton Williams, I think so you're
talking about with the Patriots, I think he just got
there from the Eagles. So him and Leonard Williams are
both like interior guys. Three technique dudes that can rush
the passer and they're very versatile. Like they can they
can stop the run, they're good side to side, they

(01:26:27):
can get up field. That's what's made them a lot
of money. So from from my perspective, those guys from
the inside, being able to rush the passer is what
makes makes them valuable and collapse that pocket a little bit.
As far as Daniel Hunter is concerned, I was a
little surprised he got as much money as he did
from the Houston Texans, But I mean he's right up there,

(01:26:50):
thirty six and a half million dollars. He's been a steady,
productive player for a long time, mostly in Minnesota. But yeah,
I mean I think I think he's just one of
those guys where they can afford him while CJ. Stroud's
on a rookie contract and he can be a big
part of their defense. Still only thirty years old, he's
got a lot of NFL experience.

Speaker 7 (01:27:12):
Another quickie, do you think that Nico Collins deserves to
be top five? Especially with Tank Dell out and all
the pressure on him. He's a hell of a receiver,
is Nico would Collins?

Speaker 2 (01:27:25):
Yeah, he's He's a great receiver that offense though, like Houston,
I don't know about them, man, because their offensive line
is in shambles and CJ's had a shoulder injury and
he's not great and mixing was not great last year,
and then he got a bad offensive line in front
of you. I mean, with Tank Dell being out, I mean,
Nico Collins is, it's not gonna be easy for him

(01:27:46):
this year. So I think he can be that guy,
But I don't know if he is. I don't think
he's a top five guy.

Speaker 7 (01:27:54):
Okay, all right, Well that's all I had.

Speaker 3 (01:27:56):
Thanks A great one, Mike, Thank you, man, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:27:59):
On top of that, I won't say much nice things
about a Michigan man, even though I do think Nico
Collins is a halfway decent fella.

Speaker 3 (01:28:08):
Actual, speaking of a Michigan man, it was tough. Last night.

Speaker 2 (01:28:11):
I was watching the final episode of Quarterback and when
the Lions lose in the playoffs and they're walking up
the tunnel, Jared Goff, it's kind of like hitting him
that the game is over, and he walks past one
of his offensive linemen, Graham Glass, now, who is a
Michigan dude, and Graham just kind of leans into Jared

(01:28:32):
and he's like, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, and
he can barely walk up the tunnel and it's just
that was that emotional moment of how much that really hurt.

Speaker 15 (01:28:44):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
Quarterback is a great television man. Got me fired up,
got me fired up for football season coming up.

Speaker 3 (01:28:52):
Yeah, I've been I've been saving. I've been saving that.
So when do you begin? I'll probably start.

Speaker 4 (01:28:58):
Watching it once training, like you know, camp starts getting
fired up a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:29:02):
What else have you what else have you been watching? Currently?

Speaker 4 (01:29:05):
Me and my lady friend have been watching How I
Met Your Mother Comfort show. Sure, she's never watched it
all the way through, so we've been, uh, we've been
grinding through that.

Speaker 3 (01:29:15):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:29:16):
And other than that, you know, I've been working a
lot since I since last weekend when we were at
the concert, so I haven't had a whole lot of
free time. But Quarterback is high up on my list
of things to watch here in the coming week.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
Well, I'm assuming you're a full swing guy as well,
very much. Yes, yeah, which I mean, that's that's great
television as well. It's kind of you know, main it's
almost the exact same thing as Quarterback, it is. I
was a little worried about golfers.

Speaker 4 (01:29:38):
I was a little worried about it at first because
it's like, how you know, because some of these golfers
they aren't the most interesting people, if I'm being honest,
but they do a really good job of kind of
pulling out the personality and a lot they do a
good job of choosing which golfers to highlight to right,
and you know, that's kind of half the battle.

Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
Which even when it's the same guys, it doesn't really
feel stale.

Speaker 4 (01:29:58):
Right exactly, And I feel like quarter back. Really nailed
their cast for this year with Burrow and Golf as
the newer guys, and then kind of seeing a different
side of Cousins from you know, for my guy. Like
I said, I haven't watched it all the way through,
but it feels like they kind of got it right
with this year.

Speaker 3 (01:30:14):
I've seen nothing but good things.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
Aga that was tough to watch too, a little bit
Cousins in the way that that season kind of fell
apart for him, and then the scenes about him getting
benched by Raheem Morris and all that was that was
kind of difficult. Well, but yeah, three guys in three
different stages of life. You know, Cousins is married with
children and a veteran, and Goff and his girlfriend just
got married and they at the end they're they're just

(01:30:36):
about to have a kid. I think they just had
their daughter last week. And then Burrow, who is still
young and doesn't have that part of his life yet
but has his parents and his parents are still really involved.
It was it was cool to kind of see the
juxtaposition of those those three. While we have a couple
of minutes here, we'll make this the last segment before

(01:30:56):
we go to Tommy, can we have an open update?

Speaker 3 (01:31:00):
Eight at the Royal Port Rush and fifty third? What
do we got? What do we got? Your boy?

Speaker 4 (01:31:07):
Matt Fitzpatrick has climbed to the top of the leader boarder.

Speaker 3 (01:31:12):
He has birdied four consecutive holes.

Speaker 4 (01:31:14):
That boy, Matt ten, eleven, twelve and thirteen all made
birdie to get him to ten under par.

Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
But he is bogey the fourteenth. He is an Open champion,
he is not an Open show.

Speaker 4 (01:31:24):
He is a US so the US correct as I said,
Brian Harmon and hawtong Lee still at eight under. Scotty
Scheffler kind of got caught in neutral there after his
hot streak in the front nine. He's at seven under,
but still very much involved in. You know, no one
else really making moves right now. A lot of the
guys who are on the leaderboard are already in the clubhouse.

(01:31:45):
So the US Open Champion JJ spawn starting to make
a move. He's at three under for the tournament, five
under for the day, so he's vaulted himself into tide
for twelfth. So you know, still some still some golf
to be played today, but it's looking like Matt Fitzpatrick,
Brian Harmon, Scotty Scheffler, how toong Lee, Rasmus Hoyguard and
Tyroll Hatton and Robert McIntyre will kind of be your

(01:32:08):
main characters heading into Moving day at the Open Championship.

Speaker 2 (01:32:12):
Incredible stuff. I am rooting hard for Matt Fitzpatrick to
be the Open champion. Him and Rory. That's really the
only two I care about as far as I'm concer.
Scotty's won enough. But also would be funny if a
guy named got her up one Open Championship.

Speaker 4 (01:32:27):
He has vaulted himself to five under car so he's
involved here six under today. So a great round from
him to get involved and make himself a viable option
here this weekend at the Open. If Scotty wins, he
will be one major away from the Grand Slam.

Speaker 2 (01:32:45):
Okay, all right, Scotty Scheffler certainly trying to hunt down
the great Rory McElroy. He'll never be able to escape
Rory Shaft. I'm kidding everybody. I'm kidding, all right. That's
our Open update. When we come back a little bit
later on, we'll do a Postman Law injury report. Even
though they're there's no injuries to report on. We're hoping
that that happens. Between now and then, we'll also check
in on our Revivefitnesssystems dot com poll question. We'll check

(01:33:07):
in with Moe Egger for quick hits, and coming up next,
we'll talk a little soccer, some soccer, some Orange and Blue,
some FC Cincinnati with the voice of the Orange and
Blue Tom glairder he joins us. Next Hour two of
Cincy three to sixty and Talkbacks has been brought to
you by Cincy Shirts on the Hole of the Bengals
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:33:26):
From the Baker Heating.

Speaker 1 (01:33:27):
This is Pinstation eastco Subs since e three to sixty
of Bout Cincinnati from Cincinnati, spontered in part by Pinstation
East Coast Subs. Handcrafted hot grilled subs, fresh cut fries
and lemonade. It's all about good taste. Pennstation East Coast
Subs order online today. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati

(01:33:48):
Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
Hi, Hello, welcome in our number three of Cincy three
sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty. My name's Austin Elmore. On
a Friday, our number three. You know what time it is?
You know we talked to our guy Tommy g the
voice of the Orange and Blue, who, after a rough
weekend last weekend, rebounded with a big win on Wednesday.

(01:34:11):
So I know Tommy is in good spirits, not just
because they won, but also because Tommy is about to
board a plane to go to Utah. What a week
for Tommy G. Hi, Tommy, this has been a roller coaster.
Let me tell you, Austin, how are you good?

Speaker 5 (01:34:26):
To see you? Glad to be.

Speaker 25 (01:34:27):
Here with you and get this chat in before I
head out to Salt Lake City, one of the probably
underrated visits on the MLS circuit. Only the second time
that we've been out there. But let me tell you something.
Roller coaster of a week from Columbus to Sunday night,
My guy, Matt asking me questions, Matt, what's up?

Speaker 5 (01:34:46):
We appreciate you tuning in. Yes, every week everybody.

Speaker 25 (01:34:49):
Was asking questions on Sunday, they got a whole lot
of answers on Wednesday. We're off on the plane, late
late trip, late game Saturday.

Speaker 5 (01:34:57):
I mean, this is what it's all about right here.

Speaker 2 (01:35:00):
So what went wrong Saturday that they fixed for Wednesday?

Speaker 5 (01:35:05):
Man?

Speaker 25 (01:35:06):
What a what a dream start? Right first five minutes
and you know in my gut. It almost felt like
fools gold a little bit right. It's uh, you get
two touchdowns an NFL game in the first five minutes,
you have fourteen to nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:35:19):
You're like, man, something, something's off right.

Speaker 25 (01:35:22):
And I don't want to say it's like taking the
foot off the gas, but it's almost like adjusting the
game plan at two nil. And that wasn't Pat's planned
and he was upset. If you listened to our broadcast
at halftime, he would really upset. Obviously, the match was
tied at that point with two leg goals from Columbus,
but he said, you know, the problem was the guys
had abandoned the game plan and weren't following you know

(01:35:45):
what the recipe was that worked so well in the
first two minutes, and it people may be a little
bit decided to become individuals at that moment and not
work as a team.

Speaker 5 (01:35:54):
And listen, Columbus is a very good.

Speaker 25 (01:35:56):
Opponent and one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference,
one of the best teams in Major League Soccer, and
they don't panic, right, I think that's the difference. And
I think, well, if Nancy does such a good job
at keeping that team calm, cool, collected. There was no panic,
no massive changes a half. They just stayed the course
and f C cinsaty Is some ways did not. And
there were some self inflicted wounds there certainly, and the

(01:36:18):
Miles Robinson own goal obviously frustrating. So I think there
were some preventable moments where the team could have been
much better and were not, and therefore you kind of
let that result slip away, which you know, stung all
that bit more considering the way that it started.

Speaker 2 (01:36:38):
And then you rebound to Miami and you come out
and beat them three nothing, and they are a good
team and they certainly have one of the best players
in the world. But for whatever reason, the last two
times they've come to TQL Stadium, FC Cincinnati has been dominant.
Is it just yeah, playing up to the competition. Is
it playing a little bit angry because of the way

(01:37:00):
things happened with Columbus was a perfect storm? Why were
they so dominant in that game against Miami?

Speaker 25 (01:37:05):
Well, look, Austen, and I think it starts with with
the focus and playing as a team. And that was
the first thing that Pat told us after the game.
He said, tonight we played like a team, and it
was it was a very pointed statement and it was accurate.

Speaker 5 (01:37:20):
Right.

Speaker 25 (01:37:20):
They were down Kevin Dank who was hurting that Columbus match,
and that's something we didn't even talk about, but I
thought dan k looked off well. Come to find out
that he got hurt about the nineteenth minute, so sure
he was off. He was battling to an injury and
hasn't really been injured much in his career, so it
was a bit of an odd, you know, situation as
he tried to figure out could he go. They they
had some subs ready at one point to get him off.
In the first half. He battled through it, but obviously

(01:37:42):
didn't look sharp and in his few opportunities, which he
didn't get many in the game, but in his few,
you know, he didn't look great. So uh, you know,
I think that, you know, you turn around and you're like, oh,
now you just lost a guy who has twelve goals
against a really good Miami team. And Miami showed up
red hot. You know, italygue play. They were rolling along
and Lionel Messi had a brace and five straight matches,

(01:38:04):
so ten goals in the five league matches coming in
to that match, and I think the team did everything
that they needed to and they followed the game plan
to a t and there was no panic, no forcing plays,
and that's what you can't do against Miami.

Speaker 5 (01:38:18):
You know, if you try, they're gonna dare.

Speaker 25 (01:38:20):
You to get into that high press and dare you
to open space for them, and dare you to open
space for their number ten. Lionel Messi and f Ccincinnti
didn't fall for it, and they kind of were patient
and waited, and that's what you have to do. It
doesn't make it the most exciting game in the world, no,
because both teams are going to kind of sit back

(01:38:40):
a little bit and control the ball, and there's a
lot of passes, but I think the number was at
half the ninety one percent passing accuracy for Cincinnati, which
is fantastic. You know, the best team in the league
is Columbus of passing and their season average is eighty
nine percent. So Cincinnati at that point through forty five
minutes were eclipsing it. But they did all the little
things well and when the ball and up with Liono Messi,

(01:39:01):
you know, Pavel Buca was there and Brian and Numa
were there and other defenders were there to not give
him the space. He had a couple of looks and
when he did, Roman Celtano was was razor sharp and
made the saves. So I think in many ways, it
was the perfect storm of everything for Cincinnati, rebounding and
feeling really good about themselves and.

Speaker 5 (01:39:22):
Not dwelling on that loss.

Speaker 25 (01:39:24):
And Matt me Oska talked about the meeting on Monday,
you know, when they went through the film as a
tough meeting, and you know, I asked Pat about that.
He said, well, yeah, of course it's could be tough
after you lose the way you do to Columbus, But
he was happy about the response he got from his team,
and I thought they played really well as a unit.
And you know, to Pat's message, when when you play
together as a team and follow the instructions and the

(01:39:46):
game plan that you're handed by your coaches, you're gonna
put yourself in a position to be successful. It doesn't
all work, but man, you can have a lot better
chance to walk away with three points.

Speaker 5 (01:39:54):
And that's what we saw on Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (01:39:55):
Talking with the voice of FC Cincinnati, Tom Gallaerter and
how big of a lift is it mentally, because if
you lose a game like you did to Columbus and
then you turn around and play Ben Poorley or a
tough one against Miami, who you mentioned was red hot,
then things feel like they could snowball and you lose,
you know, some some ground in the standings. But they
were able to play as well as they did and

(01:40:17):
play together, as you mentioned, What does that do for
a team mentally? What kind of lift is that for them?
As we are kind of in the dog days of
the schedule a little bit here in July.

Speaker 25 (01:40:28):
No, I think it's it's fair to call that this
match to them all against Salt Lake will be you know,
third match in eight days. You you're at the two
third mark of the season. So I think it's fair
to say down the home stretch in the Eastern Conferences
just bonkers right now, you know, in the top four
or five slots, with the way that these teams are
gonna fight each other. And Miami has three games in
hand on everybody above them as Miami sits down there

(01:40:51):
in fifth place, so they're certainly gonna be looking to
make up some points as they push through this thing.
So I think, yeah, certainly it's a big confidence boost.
You know, after that lost to Columbus, you got to
look at the big picture of things, and the team
has won five of six matches and and now they
got a tough trip out west right one of the

(01:41:12):
longer trips. I think it's the third longest trip of
the year. They got Portland l A coming up later
on in the season. That'll be bigger trips, but you know,
big big trip out the Salt Lake. And it's a team
that's that's hot right now, but they've been up and
down a bit this season. And then you go back
to Miami and you know those guys are gonna be
looking for revenge. I mean, they were not happy Messi
busquets Suarez. They didn't even shake hands. They were right

(01:41:34):
up the tunnel, final whistle, they were gone. Nobody got
to shake hands anything like that with those guys. So
you know, they obviously were not happy with the way
they performed in that match. And it's gonna they're gonna
be looking for revenge. And both these teams will be,
you know, not coming off a midweek game when they
play again down there for Lauderdale. So yeah, it is

(01:41:55):
it's a little bit of a tough stretch, but I
think you got to look at the big picture. Remember, Okay, yeah,
that Columbus games stunk and it wasn't what anybody wanted.
But out of these these last six games, you've done
really well and gotten five wins, and therefore you're in
the position you are in the Eastern Conference and in
Major League Soccer.

Speaker 5 (01:42:13):
I think it's good to keep the perspective.

Speaker 25 (01:42:15):
You know, the League's Cup break is coming up, so
it's really two big road games where support get results
and stay on pace with everybody around you and the
table to make sure when you come out of League's
Cup in August tenth, you're you're in the right position
for the home stretch.

Speaker 2 (01:42:31):
Well, going into this game against Salt late you talked
about how you know Miami had come in red hot. Well,
Rial's pretty hot right now at the moment as well.
I believe winners are for their last five. How do
you prevent a letdown or how do you prevent you know,
maybe the hangover from two big games against your rival
in Columbus and then Messi and Inner Miami. How do
you prevent the letdown when you go across the country

(01:42:54):
to take on real Salt Lake on Saturday.

Speaker 11 (01:42:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 25 (01:42:58):
Well, the good news first is that this team is
in very well on the road this season. Seven wins
on the road is most in Major League Soccer, so
I think that's a good sign to start with.

Speaker 5 (01:43:08):
And those three.

Speaker 25 (01:43:10):
Road wins in June when the team was away from
TQL Stadium, so you know they carry a three match
road wins streak into this game.

Speaker 5 (01:43:17):
So let's start there. That's good ourselves. Not an easy
place to play.

Speaker 25 (01:43:21):
You'll be at some altitude up there in Salt Lake City,
so you got to take that into account. And it's
your third match in eight days. You're a little thin,
you know. Kevin Denk is out, Yu Yakuba remains out. No,
it'll being a wolbodo, So you have some injuries that
make your options a little thinner. I'll be really interested
to see when when Past fills out that lineup card tomorrow,

(01:43:42):
exactly what this starting eleven looks like. Kevin and I
talked about it a little bit in our last segment
on a postgame show, and you can't. I don't think
you can start the same lineup that he started on
Wednesday night. I think some guys are gonna need some rest.
Who exactly that is where the options are because you're
sitting in the midfield.

Speaker 5 (01:44:02):
If you Yakubo is available, will be a little bit different.

Speaker 25 (01:44:04):
But uh, you know Brian Nung up the book after
starting in probably you know, is their opportunity to rotating
your back line a little bit? Maybe, you know, does
Alvis Powell get a start somewhere? You know that that's
certainly as possible. But Ka Kamara played downing minutes against
Columbus and sixty against Arzona. He's forty years old. You know,
he's like Tony d So you know that's a lot.

(01:44:28):
Can he start again? You know, a lot of that
probably you know was was talked about with the trainers
and and the athletes yesterday during their recovery day. And
I make you see and you know, I think that
we'll learn more. But it's the same boat for for ourself. Listen,
they they are are playing the third match in eight
days as well. They were out west playing at Portland

(01:44:50):
on Wednesday, so they had some traveling there, but they
get the benefit of being at home. So now I
think it is uh, there's a lot of factors that
will come into play here. But but the team should
be feeling good, both in their form as of late
and their form on the road this season.

Speaker 2 (01:45:05):
What do we know about Kevin Denkay's injury? You mentioned
it earlier in the length of time that he will
be out. Is there any clarification on that? I know
he posted on social media yesterday that that he was
going to be out for a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:45:17):
What do we know?

Speaker 11 (01:45:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 25 (01:45:20):
I mean Pat called it a couple of weeks when
we talked on Wednesday, but said that, you know, they
were winning on some more information and to see how
these first couple of days rehab went to be able
to better.

Speaker 5 (01:45:32):
Assess exactly how long he is out.

Speaker 25 (01:45:35):
So I think that certainly just qualifies him, you know,
from tomorrow and then probably next week at Miami would
be under that umbrella of.

Speaker 5 (01:45:42):
A couple of weeks.

Speaker 25 (01:45:44):
After that, you know, you go in the League's Cup.
So do you probably hold him out of League Cup?
Which stinks, you know, that's not a competition you're trying
to win. But you probably have to hold Kevin out
of League's Cup and then look ahead to that August
tenth date. It could be in my mind and listen,
not a doctor, uh rarely pretend to be one, you know,

(01:46:04):
and and obviously Pat will provide us all more information
on that as we move forward. But my guess is
you know that that they're probably targeting that August tenth
returned the league play and and then you have him
there for that home stretch and hopefully he's healthy and
ready to go and continue to contribute. Because his twelve
goals certainly be missed with double bounds. Waylay did a

(01:46:25):
fantastic job filling in and scored the game winning goal
was third of the season. So everybody has to step
up and that that's gonna be different folks. Obviously, the
transfer window will open up with today's the eighteenth, so
that opens up on Thursday, and they already get to one,
you know, wide player ender signed you know, out of Venezuela,

(01:46:47):
so he'll be coming in as soon as his paperwork
is is cleared up and it's eligible as soon as
that Miami game next week. And then certainly Chris Albright
working on finding other guys, and I want to be
surprised if there's another attacking player in the mix, and
you know, some some depth in the midfield as well.

Speaker 2 (01:47:02):
You talk about everybody has to step up, Tommy. How's
your form right now? Where are you at mentally, physically,
emotionally and spiritually as you get set for the third
match in eight days?

Speaker 25 (01:47:12):
You know, I'm I'm you gotta dig deep, No big dee,
you gotta go ninety minutes every night.

Speaker 5 (01:47:17):
There's no there's no time off.

Speaker 3 (01:47:20):
You gotta go more like one hundred.

Speaker 5 (01:47:24):
Yeah, well you're.

Speaker 25 (01:47:25):
Right, I mean really really one hundred and eighties. You know,
for us it's three hours. So I'm going three hours
every night. So it's the usual. You know, yesterday was
a recovery day from the voice. You got plenty of
losages and tea and and then you can even hear
now what we're fifteen minutes or so in the our chat,
and uh, you know it's gonna wear down.

Speaker 3 (01:47:44):
You're getting stronger.

Speaker 5 (01:47:46):
Okay, well I appreciate that. I appreciate that.

Speaker 25 (01:47:48):
But yes, you know we're we're in the you know,
across the midpoint of the season. I gotta I gotta
be ready for these types of situations. And you better
believe tomorrow night I'll be ready to rock.

Speaker 2 (01:47:58):
What do we know about Salt Lake as far as
is you know, like the the night before dinner or
like pregame, like what what are you gonna get into
in Utah anything?

Speaker 25 (01:48:06):
It's pretty good from a dinner scene.

Speaker 5 (01:48:09):
We had a great meal last year.

Speaker 25 (01:48:11):
I got to look it up, and or not last year,
but last time we were there, which is twenty twenty
two September, so it's really three years ago since we've
been there.

Speaker 5 (01:48:17):
I got to look it up. We had a great meal.
I'm not trying to make my way.

Speaker 25 (01:48:20):
Over there with with Kevin tonight, so maybe I'll do
that on the plane here momentarily once I get off
with you.

Speaker 5 (01:48:25):
But uh, I don't I don't remember what the restaurant
was called. We had, We had a great meal. Someone
trying to chase that down.

Speaker 25 (01:48:31):
Then I got a rest man, like you said, we
gotta gotta take care of ourselves here and make sure
that the voice is ready for tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (01:48:38):
But I do recall the hotel where we stay.

Speaker 25 (01:48:41):
Had an unbelievable breakfast.

Speaker 5 (01:48:43):
And I'm a big, big breakfast guy.

Speaker 25 (01:48:45):
Okay, I think I want to say the last time
I was ordered two breakfasts, I'm not looking at my
photos photo.

Speaker 5 (01:48:52):
I want to say I got two breakfast He was
that good? Well, these are the things that I look
forward to.

Speaker 2 (01:48:57):
I hope that you'll post a photo of your breakfast
and tag us. I would really appreciate that for you. Yeah,
I love stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (01:49:05):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:49:06):
You can hear Tommy and Kevin on the call tomorrow
night right here on ESPN fifteen thirty. Tommy Safe travels.
Thanks for the time. Rest up on that voice. I
appreciate it. Bro Hey, Hey, good stuff, Austin. Maybe one
of these weeks coming we'll rejoin us on the show.

Speaker 5 (01:49:22):
Baby, I'm we're gonna keep get some wings and keep
this thing rolling.

Speaker 2 (01:49:25):
That's right, all right, Tommy g the voice of FC
Cincinnati joining us on this Friday. Coming up later on
hour number three, mo Eggar for quick kits, and we
will wrap up the week looking ahead to next week
with Bengals training camp, the Red's back in action, the
deadline looming. There's so much going on a day after
nothing going on. This is since E three to sixty.

(01:49:48):
Hour three brought to you by Penn Station on the
Home of the Bengals, in the Home of FC Cincinnati,
ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:49:55):
Now your chance to act on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati
Sports Welcome back, since he three sixty on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:50:10):
I'm Austin Elmore, twenty minutes from right now. Mullegar quick hits, Locks,
Noe quick hits. I keep doing that. Old habits die hard.
There's no locks. That doesn't exist anymore anyways, Moe's in
three to six this afternoon. I believe Kelsey Conway is
going to be in studio with Moe talking a little

(01:50:31):
bit of Bengals. So interested to see what Kelsey has
to say. I know she's been at the forefront of
a lot of the Shamar Stuart reporting and looking forward
to that as we get ready for Bengals training camp
coming up next week. And tomorrow is the day that
rookies are to report. And here's the thing. If you

(01:50:53):
don't have a contract, you can't report. So Schamar Stewart
can't just show up. He's not under contract. Demetrius Knight
Junior can't just show up. He's not under contract. The
deals need to be done today or tomorrow morning if

(01:51:14):
you want to be able to come in and report
to training camp. Now we've seen slowly but surely more
of the second round pick deals are trickling. In my
expectation is that Demetrius Knight Junior signs his deal by
the end of today so that he can show up
to training camp tomorrow. My expectation is that it will

(01:51:39):
continue to get dragged out between the Bengals and Shamar Stewart,
which in and of itself is the issue with Trey Hendrickson,
because you can stand your ground about how you feel
about Trey as a player and whether he's a game
wrecker or whether he's an all around player, whether he's
a guy that is worthy of top flight money like

(01:52:00):
the other guys that we've talked about today. You can
have those opinions, and you can have you know, the
plot of land that you stand on, and you plant
your flag about your opinion on Trey Hendrickson, and if
that's going to be that you don't want to give
him a long term contract extension and that you want

(01:52:20):
him to play out on play out this current deal,
or if you want him to play on a deal
that is maybe just an extra year similar to what
you've given before, closer to twenty eight to thirty million dollars.
You're acknowledging that you have a plan that will be
better in the long term than Trey would be. That's

(01:52:43):
what you're doing when you say I don't want to
invest in Trey long term, you're telling your fans and
yourself and your team because we have players that we
think can replace him, either at a cheaper cost or
in some way, shape or form. The Bengals have repeatedly

(01:53:05):
done this in the past and yet failed to replace
those players. They tried to replace Jesse Bates with Nick Scott.
Nick Scott was one of the worst players I've ever
seen play for the Cincinnati Bengals. They still haven't replaced
DJ Reader. Who are they going to replace Trey Henderson with. Sure,

(01:53:31):
there's potential in that room, and I think a lot
of people like the skill set of Joseph Osai. I
think a lot of people like what Miles Murphy could be.
But those are unproven guys in the NFL. Osai is
on a one year prove it deal to the rest

(01:53:53):
of the NFL so he can go and get paid,
so he's not immediately a part of the future. Murphy
still has a couple of years left on his deal,
but you don't really know what he is beyond that.
You've got Cedric Johnson, you got cam Sample was coming
off a devastating knee injury.

Speaker 3 (01:54:11):
What are your other options? Really?

Speaker 2 (01:54:13):
If you're the Bengals, you look around at what you
got and then all of a sudden, Shamar Stewart does
it look like he's gonna be here at least anytime soon?
And who's to say what things are going to be
like between Shamar and the Bengals whenever contracts come up

(01:54:33):
in the future, and if he's actually worthy or a
part of the long term plans. As much as I
would love to say, all right, Trey's gonna be here
for this year and then by the end of this year,
we'll know that Miles Murphy and Joseph Osai and who
they are and what they're going to be, But the

(01:54:53):
reality is we don't. And the reality is, over the
course of the history of this franchise, they have failed
to have replacements for the guys that they allowed to
walk for whatever reason, whether it's age or injury or money,
you will ultimately these decisions are ultimately measured by the

(01:55:15):
plan you have in replace in place to replace these players.

Speaker 3 (01:55:22):
That's what it comes down to. Do you have faith
in the Bengals to do that?

Speaker 11 (01:55:31):
Do you.

Speaker 2 (01:55:33):
I would love to be over the moon excited about
the opportunity that Miles Murphy is gonna get this year,
and I am looking forward to seeing how he handles it.
But I'm not at the front of the line saying
Miles Murphy is gonna have fifteen sacks this year and
next year in the year after that. Can he benefit

(01:55:53):
from a new coach?

Speaker 3 (01:55:54):
Sure? Can he benefit from a new system? Sure?

Speaker 2 (01:55:58):
Still, though we don't know. So the Bengals have to
look around and say, okay, well, Schamar might be an issue.
Joseph Is contract is up after this year, and Miles
we have no clue about. So more than anything, let's
get Trey in the building. Let's get Trey taken care of,

(01:56:18):
and at least we know what we're going to get
from him, more than any of these other guys for
the next two to three seasons. That's like the bare minimum.
And on top of that, you have the cap space
to be able to do that, like you have the flexibility.

Speaker 3 (01:56:36):
I've said this before.

Speaker 2 (01:56:37):
The Bengals deserve credit for the way that they've set
up their cap right now, the way they've structured the
deals with Burrow, Higgins and Chase and because of the
fact that there are some unproven guys in the recent drafts,
they have the flexibility moving forward to be able to
take some risks.

Speaker 3 (01:56:56):
That's why they drafted Shamar Stewart.

Speaker 2 (01:57:01):
If you look at Trey and you're like a two
year deal, that's a risk, Well, okay, You've put yourself
in a position where you can afford to take some risks.
So take one now. Because this is a super Bowl
window that we're talking about. This is a legitimate chance
for this organization that we're talking about, And all it

(01:57:24):
does is continue to turn the volume up on the narrative,
especially with what's going on with Stuart, that you care
more about contracts than winning. Whether or not that's true,
that becomes the narrative, at least nationally, because of your
inability to put the differences aside and put winning at

(01:57:47):
the front. At some point, you know, narratives exist for
a reason.

Speaker 5 (01:57:54):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:57:57):
The Bengals are called stubborn and frugal and every other
possible name you could name for a reason because historically,
time and time again, they've chosen that path over paths
that make more sense towards winning football games. And the
Bengals have had success at doing that several times. They've
also failed many times as well, And so I look

(01:58:21):
at this as a situation for this franchise, being a
little bit in the this is like a crossroads for
the organization. They've shown over the last five years, in
my opinion, that they are in aggressive pursuit of a
championship up until now. Now I'm starting to question it. Now,

(01:58:48):
I'm starting to be worried. Now I'm wondering. I don't
know what the plan here is. I could see it previously,
I can't see it right now. And that's the scary part.
It's scary to me, not only for what I do
for a living, but because I'm a Bengals fan. And
you would think it's scary to the people in the

(01:59:10):
locker room, because the message that was sent last year
in the locker room was like, dude, they don't believe
in Jamar, like he's he's incredible, Like what are we doing?
And then Jamar comes out and does that and they
make makes them look silly and they pay a lot

(01:59:31):
more money than they would have. At what point did
the Bengals learn from their past mistakes get out ahead
of that. Because I've said it before. They're smart people
in there.

Speaker 3 (01:59:42):
They are. They're very smart people.

Speaker 2 (01:59:45):
They know how this works, and it just feels like
at times they're more willing to take the more difficult road.
But I don't really know the purpose of doing so,
because it doesn't save you money, it doesn't create goodwill

(02:00:09):
within the locker room, it doesn't help you win football games,
it doesn't help you connect with your fan base, it
doesn't help you from a pr standpoint.

Speaker 3 (02:00:20):
What does it do? That's my thing.

Speaker 2 (02:00:25):
We'll get an update on the revived Fitness Systems dot
Com pole question, which is about Trey Henderson when we
come back ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 8 (02:00:31):
Loweger reality is they're probably not good enough.

Speaker 20 (02:00:35):
He dissects the local sports scene, but not consistent enough,
the way up fourth.

Speaker 24 (02:00:39):
Grader dissects across not reliably Lowegger.

Speaker 3 (02:00:42):
Today at three on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (02:00:45):
Thirty, fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (02:00:56):
That hour three is since E three sixty rolling right
along here on ESPN thirty. My name's Austin Nomore. Thank
you for being here with me today and all week.
I certainly have had better weeks of radio. Just a
lot going on on and off the air and I
apologize for maybe not being at my best, but I

(02:01:17):
did give everything I have all week long. I'm gonna
be here solo as well on Monday and Tuesday, and
hopefully after a bit of a relaxing weekend, I'll be
able to come back a little bit closer to one
hundred percent and a little bit juiced up as we
go into training camp coming up next Wednesday. We are
going to be live at training camp ten times over

(02:01:39):
the course of the next month or so. Tony and
Mo will be out there from ten to noon, and
we are going to hear from everybody over the course
the next couple weeks. We'll hear from Burrow, We'll hear
from Zach Taylor, Jamar Chase is gonna meet with the media.
That's all gonna happen next week, and look forward to
bringing that to you.

Speaker 3 (02:01:58):
As we do.

Speaker 2 (02:01:58):
We really pride ourselves and our ability to cover this
team and being the flagship of the Bengals. Nothing gets
me more excited for football season, so very much looking
forward to that. We'll get to our Revive Fitness Systems
dot Com poll question in just a minute, but first
I did want to update you on the Bengals just
made things official and kind of reformatted their personnel and

(02:02:22):
scouting department. Made that official today. According to Jeff Hobson,
this was a post on Bengals dot com. They have
changed the titles of three of their top executives, Steven Ratissevic,
Mike Potts, and Trey Brown. They've changed their titles. The
previous titles for Steven Radisevic and Mike Potts were Directors

(02:02:45):
of Scouting and for Trey Brown it was Senior Personnel Executive.
All three of them have had their titles changed to
assistant general manager, so Potts, Ratisevic, and Brown all have
their timeitles changed to assistant general Manager. They also upgraded

(02:03:06):
the title of Andrew Johnson, who's been a longtime scout
and he goes from scout to Scouting Executive. They've also
made it official with new scouts Josh Hinch and Tyler
Ramsey being brought on board, and they also have Trey
Labounty who is officially now titled a scouting I want

(02:03:27):
to get this correct, give me a second scouting research analyst,
Trey Labouni, Josh Hinch is a scout, Tyler Ramsey is
a scout. Andrew Johnson Scouting executive Trey Brown, Mike Potts,
Stephen Radissevik assistant general managers. They of course all report
to Duke Tobin, so Bengals doing some reformatting of that

(02:03:49):
part of the organization. Revivefitnessystems dot Com Poll question presented
by Revivefitnessystems dot Com and coach Pjstreet. How long of
an extension would you give Trey Hendrickson if you were
the Bengals right now? Fifty four percent say two years,
twenty five percent say three, twelve percent say one year,

(02:04:10):
and nine percent say do not extend him. Yeah, I
think if it were me in an ideal world, I'd
give the guy a two year extension, which would mean
he's here this year and two more years after that.
And the main reason for that being I don't know
what's coming down the pipe. I don't know what Shamar
Stewart's going to be, I don't know what Miles Murphy is,

(02:04:33):
I don't know if Joseph Osi is going to be here.
I think there are some things to like about Cedric Johnson,
but I would I'm far from putting all my eggs
in his basket. I need to see more. Without a doubt,
and so because of that, I look around and say, well,
we haven't really put ourselves in a position here to

(02:04:56):
be ready to seamlessly transition from Trey Hendrickson. We know
who he is, we know how he prepares, we know
that he's been healthy. We're in a spot where we
can take a risk.

Speaker 3 (02:05:07):
Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (02:05:10):
And I have been on the side of the Bengals
this entire time, and from a principal standpoint, I still am.
But I'm now at the point where, Okay, training camp
has begun and we've got to start focusing on winning
football games. Because the story of the off season is
not you know, Higgins and Chase and Hendrickson and Stewart.

(02:05:30):
The story of the off season is can these guys
actually start a season fast? And if they do, the
sky's the limit, right, That's what it's supposed to be.
That's what this is supposed to be about. And again,
I think this, if anything, the way that they have
screwed up this entire offseason, at least with these two guys,

(02:05:53):
it takes some of the pressure off of Zach Taylor
because you know, Zach has nothing to do with this,
and Zach has nothing to do with the fact they
didn't spend thirty million dollars that they could have gone
up to the cap. And you know, Zach Baby ultimately
might have to answer for the hiring of Al Golden.
Whether that works or doesn't work, I get it. But still,

(02:06:15):
I mean, I don't know that he probably feels as
supported by his bosses as he would like to be,
and I would imagine the players feel the same way.
I'm at the point now you've had months and months
and months to get this done. It hasn't happened, It
isn't working. Who's what's wrong with just closing up shop

(02:06:37):
and trying again next year, because right now the priority
now has to be how do we win as many
football games as possible? That has to be the priority.
I talk often about wanting to be an aggressive pursuit
of a championship, and sometimes that means putting your hands
up and saying all right, I was wrong, or all right,

(02:06:58):
I need a change, or all right, let's do something differently.
While I understand the premise and for the most part,
agree with what the Bengals have decided to do or
not do, I do think we've reached a point now
with training camp about the start where you got to
wash your hands of it and put the team in
front of anything else and put winning and make winning

(02:07:21):
the top priority. You have an opportunity to squash any
narrative right now, to end all those conversations and put
winning at the top of the priority list.

Speaker 3 (02:07:34):
I hope they do it. When we come back.

Speaker 2 (02:07:37):
Moegger for Quick Hits and Locks of the Night will
preview his show as well. This is since he three
to sixty on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (02:07:43):
Thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station. It's time
for since E three sixty Quick Hits on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (02:07:54):
Yes, it is for the final time. This week we
have quick Hits in the studio with Mo Hi Mo.

Speaker 3 (02:08:01):
For a second, I thought you were going to say
for the final time ever.

Speaker 2 (02:08:04):
I'm well, you never know, you never know, you never know,
prbably closer than we all think.

Speaker 3 (02:08:09):
How are you? I'm wonderful. How about yourself?

Speaker 2 (02:08:12):
You know what?

Speaker 3 (02:08:12):
I'm feeling a lot better? Good? What do you have
coming up on your show? This after?

Speaker 8 (02:08:16):
Chelsea Conway is going to join us. I like Kelsey Khan.
How do you not love Kelsey Conway? She's gonna be
with us in studio for the four o'clock hour. Nice
and yes, we're gonna have to talk about Shamar Stewart
and Trey Hendrickson and Demetrius and we have to do that.
But there's a long list of like interesting things that
will start to unfold beginning on Wednesday that we're gonna
ask Chelsea about. So we're looking forward to that. What

(02:08:38):
about Kelsey, We're gonna ask her about herself. You said, Chelsea,
Did I say, Chelsea? Are you thinking about soccer?

Speaker 5 (02:08:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:08:44):
I ah, soccer is always on my brain.

Speaker 8 (02:08:46):
Speaking of soccer, Max Brentos MLS season past, Apple TV
is calling FC Cincinnati versus Real salt Lake. He's gonna
join us at five twenty All it's not Real salt Lake,
All salt Lake, Lawrence Real salt Lake. Today we have that.

(02:09:07):
We'll look ahead to Reds and Mets sixty five game
dash to the postseason. We're gonna be talking about how
insanely low our standards are here when it comes to
the local professional baseball team and so much more.

Speaker 3 (02:09:20):
TJ. Watts signed a big contract extension.

Speaker 8 (02:09:23):
Does that highest paid non quarterback in the NFL? Is
that verbiage we ever used before this year.

Speaker 3 (02:09:30):
I don't think so. I have the list.

Speaker 2 (02:09:32):
It's happened five times already this offseason, gotten that title.
Does that affect Trey Hendrickson? Should it affect Trey Hendrickson?

Speaker 8 (02:09:42):
It can't not affect him, and he's not gonna get
what TJ.

Speaker 3 (02:09:48):
Watt got.

Speaker 8 (02:09:48):
But it's it's just another example of the market going
up at Edge Rusher. It's that the market had already exploded.
I just feel like though the Bengals kind of opera
on their own island, so they're sort of nonplused by
anything that happens around them. So I'm guessing there's a
slight impact just in terms of maybe ultimately what Trey

(02:10:09):
is going to settle for, maybe if he's if he's
not digging in for I'm gonna be the highest paid guy,
which he has said he's not. Does that bump his
asking price up just to Tad It wouldn't surprise me.
But I feel like the Bengals are unmoved by anything
that happens around the NFL.

Speaker 2 (02:10:26):
Yeah, I mean I think there's uh and that's case
after case of case of that happening are Yeah, I
imagine you're about to say it's not always a bad thing.

Speaker 8 (02:10:34):
No, that's not always a criticism. At times it can be,
but that's I just I feel like the Bengals really
do just sort of operate on an island and we
do what we do and we're not that moved by
what everybody else does.

Speaker 2 (02:10:47):
The point that I was making before you came in here,
and I know it's a point you've made in the past,
is if you're going to do something like this, you
better have a plan that works to replace them.

Speaker 5 (02:10:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:10:56):
They haven't done that a lot. Yeah, with the course
of their and you don't look in the rest of
the defensive lineman and say, okay, those are the guys
that are gonna replace Trey in the aggregate.

Speaker 8 (02:11:07):
Yeah, that's kind of the problem with what they've done
in recent years. Like we can we can talk about, well, boy,
they sure miss Jesse Bates. They sure miss Jesse Bates
because their plan to replace them didn't work. Good players
are gonna get away. It's just an ature of the Beasts.
Good players are going to leave, other teams are going
to value them. The Bengals track record in recent years
is not one of the plan being executed well to

(02:11:29):
replace the player who leaves. It's kind of why they
had to keep t Higgins, I guess to a degree,
but you're right. I mean when they drafted Miles Murphy,
a lot of us thought that by now Miles Murphy
would be in the Trey Hendrickson role, right as like
the guy, you know, the guy at edge. That doesn't
mean the tray's not on the team hasn't worked. I

(02:11:49):
know Joseph Osai had his moments last year, hasn't worked,
and Miles murphy hasn't worked at all. Shamar Stewart's not practicing.
It's that's the thing, right, Like I think if you said,
you know what, they're going to move on from trade
at the end of the season. But I'll tell you
what that Miles Murphy guy's coming off are really good
twenty twenty four and Shamar Stewart's practicing. I mean, I

(02:12:12):
think you might feel a little bit better. But right,
I think that's the thing they get beat up on for,
you know, letting players get away. You know, even going
back as far as Andrew Whitworth nearly a decade ago,
like the plan to replace him, Yep, you saw it
coming two.

Speaker 3 (02:12:26):
Years before they let him walk. It was Cedric goabwahe
yep didn't work.

Speaker 2 (02:12:29):
Yeah, you are on Twitter and I have been for
a long.

Speaker 3 (02:12:34):
Time since May of two thousand and nine.

Speaker 2 (02:12:36):
Where same, Where does yesterday with the Cold Play ceo
cheating on his wife rank among the greatest days in
the history of Twitter?

Speaker 8 (02:12:45):
It was awesome, Yet it was frustrating because everybody made
all the jokes I wanted to make right.

Speaker 2 (02:12:51):
Yeah, And I just saw one where you know, it
says me and me is the man? Yeah, and it
had Skyline Chili on the woman's face. I'm like, yeah,
that's perfect, That's exactly what it is.

Speaker 8 (02:13:00):
So it's it's not unlike the day they elected a
new pope, an American pope, which was a great Like
Twitter can be miserable, but what keeps me coming back
are days like that. Yes, I was my buddy and
I we were driving to Chicago for a Red's Cub
series and we were talking about that, and then we
were talking about like our favorite all time days on Twitter.

Speaker 3 (02:13:20):
You know what mine was? What's that?

Speaker 8 (02:13:22):
Do you remember balloon Boy? Balloon Boy, there was like
a little kid that got stuck in a hot air
balloon and it ended up being okay, which is why
it's funny. And this was like I remember this kind
of the early days of Twitter, Like there was rumors that,
like this guy had a hot air balloon in his
backyard and it like captured his kid.

Speaker 3 (02:13:45):
I do not remember this at all. Google Balloon, Boyalloon.
That was my favorite all time day on Twitter.

Speaker 2 (02:13:50):
Have you ever heard the story of how Twitter became
incredibly popular? No, there was a story about this. I
think it was written in the New York Times years ago.
But it was that plane that Sullenberger landed in the
hostel livery yeah. Yeah, so that was twenty eleven or no,
it was like two thousand and nine or whatever, I
forget what. It was very early on on twit, yeah,

(02:14:11):
very early.

Speaker 3 (02:14:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:14:13):
And the guy there was one man who had a
Twitter account on the faery that was going out there
to rescue those people, and he posted a picture of
the plane from twenty feet away, right, And everybody saw
that picture, and then news agencies started having to cite Twitter,
and everyone started going to Twitter because of that moment

(02:14:33):
and that picture that that guy took on that faery.
So in the explosion of Twitter.

Speaker 8 (02:14:37):
Ever since, yesterday on Twitter was a banner day, and
yesterday's are like people who are like, I'm getting rid
of my account because of all, Like, first of all,
don't follow stupid people and filter out the stuff you
don't want to see. But there are days like yesterday
that make it so fun. Now it to me it
made me think of have you ever gone to like
a Reds game with a woman.

Speaker 3 (02:14:58):
That you're not dating? Uh huh? Don't you always have
a kiss cam plan?

Speaker 5 (02:15:02):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (02:15:03):
Right, yes, that has to be talking.

Speaker 8 (02:15:04):
You have to talk about like, hey this, we gotta
do something funny, like we're not gonna kiss. I don't
think we're not gonna kiss. We gotta do something. We're
just gonna stare this bump. What are we gonna do?
I have said this to women that I've gone to
games with and they're like, what are you talking about?
I'm not gonna kiss you. It was like I know that, yes,
but if they if they show us, the expectation is
going to be that we do kiss. We can't just stare, right,

(02:15:26):
we gotta do something something funny. That couple should have
had a plane. I'm going to guess they had been
to that venue before, right, it was the Patriots Stadium stadium, right,
I gotta imagine they had to know kiss cam's a possibility.
First of all, let's not wrap our arms around each
other if we're not, you know, if we're not, we're
not comfortable with other people seeing that, correct, Like, why

(02:15:48):
would you go in public and do that? So, boy,
you gotta have a plan. But yeah, yesterday on Twitter
we did the topic during COVID of events you wish
Twitter would have been around number Tonic Number one on
the list for me. Number number two on the list
for me. Actually number one is the OJ Bronco Chase
course would have been incredible.

Speaker 9 (02:16:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (02:16:05):
Number two is the night that Mike Tyson bit off
of Vander Holyfields. Can you imagine Twitter that night?

Speaker 2 (02:16:10):
Yes, unbelievable. Yes, yeah, one of my favorites. I just
thought of the night that we got Ben Lauden. That
was one of the great Twitter night That was on
a Sunday night, late night Sunday. It was like a
Sunday night baseball game. That was really cool.

Speaker 5 (02:16:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:16:22):
I got one, Okay Drew when Chris Paul and Blake
Griffin basically held DeAndre Jordan hostage at his house. Yes,
so he couldn't sign with the Mavericks. I remember that
one malice in the palace Twitter was not around for him.
Would have been because the the high and mighty people,
the holier than now the oh I can't believe this people.

Speaker 2 (02:16:43):
When Jordan said he was going to play baseball, that
they would clowned him.

Speaker 8 (02:16:47):
Or like the night I mean I remember it the
night Jordan retired after throwing out the first pitch of
the playoff series with the White Sox and then in
the middle of the game, I remember Pat O'Brien or
Jim I don't remember which one was, like, hey, Michael
Jordans are the first pitch White Sox are playing in
the playoffs. Oh and MJ's retiring. Twitter that night would
have been incredible Twitter that night for certain nights. But yeah,

(02:17:10):
yesterday was great. But like I had nothing new to add.
I know, like everybody took all the good jokes, I know,
commentary to add. That frustrates me. Yeah, it brought us
together though. That was one of those moments in this
like fracture time that we're in where we can't agree
on anything and we're fighting over Epstein and all hell's
breaking loose and there's a big, beautiful bill. What we

(02:17:34):
could all agree on was the Coldplay couple was worth
making fun of.

Speaker 2 (02:17:39):
Yes they were, And we can all agree that we're
looking forward to listening to Mogger on Twitter. So awesome, fantastic. Yes,
Moagger is next. Thank you Drew for producing. Thank you
everyone for listening this week. Back at It on Monday
on ESPN fifteen thirty

Speaker 13 (02:17:55):
Why Cincinnati make us the number one pre set on
your car radio and on the Free Knew It Improved
Heart Radio app Free never sounded so good, ESPN fifteen
thirty three,