January 29, 2025 • 17 mins
Sam Bruchhaus of Sumer Sports joined us from the Senior Bowl to talk about some early NFL Draft storylines, and some critical Bengals offseason decisions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chance to win one thousand dollars entered this nationwide keyword
on our website.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Credit.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
That's credit enter it now?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
All right? Sure, I agree that it's five after five
ESPN fifteen thirty Edge and thank you so much for
joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Thrilled that you're here. It's been busy.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Reds have acquired a good left the believer, Taylor Rodgers
from the San Francisco Giants.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It's it's not.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Often you see the Reds acquiring a guy in a
salary dump from another team, gonna take on eleven to
twelve million dollars in salary. More on that coming up,
and just a bit lots more on the bear count
loss last night. You see losing at Utah perhaps in
the game that was more frustrating than the blowout on
Saturday against BYU Zavier. Getting said for a big test
(00:44):
tonight and a big opportunity on the road against Creighton
will do that both teams coming up at five point forty,
and learn more about Eric all the Bengals tight end
and what he is going to be dealing with as
he misses all of twenty twenty five with another nie
and the hopes that the fairfield product can get on
the field in twenty twenty six. Meanwhile, amid all of this,
(01:07):
the draft process, which is long, is getting underway officially
this week with the Senior Bowl, and we're gonna chat
with Kelsey Conway tomorrow because she's obviously had a chance
to talk with folks like Duke Tobin. But I wanted
to set the tone with one of the folks from
Sumer Sports, Sam Brookhouse, who has been on this show before,
(01:30):
is Inmobile and is with us right now.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Sam. It's good to have you. Thank you for sitting
through my long intro. What's up?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
All good? Appreciate you for having me. I'm reporting live
from Mobile for you.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I appreciate you doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So you know, obviously there is so much information that
folks like yourself are going to gather in the coming weeks.
You know, the combine is still a few weeks away,
obviously pro days. You know all the different metrics that
teams are gonna use. But just from I guess the
starting line here as we begin this process, where is
(02:05):
this draft in your opinion at least, going to be deepest.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I think the deepest portion of it will be the
edge rushing position, and that's what has proven out at
the Senior Bowl. You look at guys at the top
like Michael Williams, guys at the top like obdol Carter.
Those are people in discussion for top ten picks, but
you go down the consensus big board, including guys from
small schools like Mike Green from Marshall. There's also a
(02:31):
great Central Arkansas product that a lot of people like
at the Senior Bowl today and even into you know,
around the hundreds where a guy like Josiah Stewart, a
big name from Michigan, fits and I really liked his
performance at the Super Bowl. I think at the Senior Bowl,
I think the edge position is probably where it's deepest
this year.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
All right, So I'll make this about what the Bengals
have because one of the more interesting dynamics. You know
that you saw the Bengals defense last year, right, it
was terrible. They had one good player, Trey Hendrickson. Trey
Hendrickson is going to be thirty one by the end
of next season. He's up for Defensive Player of the Year.
They're probably not going to extend him. And so I
think there's an argument that you know what ad draft
(03:10):
capital Trey Trey Hendrickson. There's obviously an argument that says,
are you nuts He's your one really good player. The
caveat is it is a really good class when it
comes to edge rushers. So how should that inform what
they do or don't do with Trey Hendrickson.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I think it all comes down to how they view
this team and also how they approach the offense. Higgins
being a free agent really changes stuff of how they
approach this team, and the extension talks with Jamar Chase
that we were talking about, you know, last summer, really
will change their approach for this So I think if
(03:49):
they're still all in as they kind of were this
year they doubled down, they didn't deal with Trey Hendrickson
or t Higgins at the deadline, I think you probably
stick with Trey who had a defensive player year. Taiki
Year last year is a mentally effective and productive and
has been for many many years, even going back to
his years in New Orleans. I think you probably stick there.
But we have also seen the Bengals take the strategy
(04:11):
of keep the player in the short term draft behind him.
We saw them do that with Jesse Bates, which you
know has had varying success, and we saw them, you know,
try to do that to varying success as well at
the wide receiver position with Ti Higgins, with andre Yoshibas
and Jermaine Burton in the later rounds. I think that
all is part of the calculus. But I do think
(04:32):
that they will be able to get a quality edge rusher,
whether that's Day one or Day two, regardless of the.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Approach, is this a Is this going to be a
good draft on the offensive line, specifically on the interior.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
It's certainly looking like it. One of our favorite players
from the Senior Bowl, who's you know, a little not
well known from North Dakota State, Grayable. He's had an
excellent Senior Bowl. Really showed great blocking against some very
highly rated defensive linemen like Walter Nolan out of Ole Myth.
There's also some great tackles and some swing guys. Kelvin
Banks right now as a guy who's charted to go
(05:11):
in the middle of the first round, I think he
could bump up depending on what the Patriots want to
do around Drake May for example. But he played guard
and played tackle and at Summer sports dot Com, we
have some good research done by my colleague Quinn MacLean
about how valuable swing offensive lineman can be to teams
like the Bengals who have been successful on offense just
need to plug a little hole, a couple holes and
(05:34):
they're able to get a guy who can play multiple
positions be very effective. So it is a pretty good
draft for offensive line this year, particularly when you're looking
at names like Kelvin Banks, and you're looking at some
guys like Arianta Ursies who's had an excellent Singer Bowl
as well at the tackle position too.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I'm going to ask you a question that if you chose,
you could spend the next forty nine minutes answering, because
they do have such a long to do list this offseason.
But you know, the last time we had you on,
we were talking about Jamar Chase, and because time is
a flat circle, we'll still talking about Jamar Chase. The
t Higgins thing, if you will, has changed because of
some of the things that Joe Burrow had to say
(06:14):
about him toward the end of the season. I asked
you about Trey Hendrickson. They're going to have money to spend. Obviously,
the draft is going to be very important to this
team as it relates to their defense. If if you're
a Duke Tobin and you are about to embark on
a very important offseason, give me an idea of the
things that you would like to accomplish and the direction
(06:36):
you're going to go. As it relates to some of
their key decisions. Like t Higgins, I.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Think you have to shore up to positions. The first
and the most important is the cornerback position. Unfortunately, though,
as I've been doing, you know, prep for Radio row
in the Super Bowl, looking across the market for our
free agency approaches, this is not a unique need. There's
a lot of teams around the league, you know, at
the cornerback position, and there's not really a standout outside
(07:03):
of Will Johnson and of course Travis Hunter, who frankly
could address any needs for the Bengals this year as well,
but probably won't get to that level unless the Bengals
decide to trade up, which they don't historically do that
fill that need at cornerback. I was keeping a close
eye out both of the Shrine and Singer Bowl for
anyone who could pop up. A lot of people like
Kobe Bryant out of Kansas today. I like Quincy Riley
(07:26):
out of Louisville, but there hasn't been a breakaway top
corner from any of these games. And Will Johnson's the
other guy who's at the top from Michigan who we
haven't seen play in any All Star Games yet. And
I think the second item that they definitely have to
shore up is t Higgins. What they're going to do
with him if they decide to let him go, it's
basically going to be Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase against
(07:49):
the world. Te Higgins was able to eat up a
lot of target share, and he was able to be
immensely effective in the red zone, particularly when it came
to the tested catches that Joe Burrow trusted him to make.
I don't know if andre Yoshi Bass I don't know
if Jermaine Burton or any of the tight ends could
fill that, especially with like you just said about Eric Hall,
(08:09):
the young tight end. They're going to have to get
another pass catcher for Burrow. I think that's the second
item which is on the list, less so than the defense,
less so than the qurnerback position, certainly, but it's a
place where decisions must be made and we'll see how
we approach it both in free agency and the draft.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
So you mentioned an area of the team that was
not good last year.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It got better at the end of the season, mostly
because they played bad quarterbacks. But you know, they've they've
invested a lot of draft capital in the secondary, and
there's players like Cam Taylor, britt And and Dax Hill
and DJ Turner and then Josh Newton, Like we're talking
like day one, Day two, guys that just last year
didn't work out Jordan Battle at the safety position. I
(08:50):
think there's there's maybe a school of thoughts that says,
you've you've got to you've got to devote a lot
of resources to the defensive line, both inside and out,
the offensive line other the team, and so.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
You know, maybe you're kind of willing to run.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
It back with some of these guys in the secondary,
especially with the new defensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Is there are there one or two players.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
In that unit that you go, you know what, maybe
they haven't gotten the results they're looking for yet, but
they're worth investing in and staying patient with.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
With the new DC in twenty twenty five, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Gonna be interesting to see how they approach it. I
will note al Golden obviously now the defense coordinator there
in Cincinnati. He did an excellent job of building up
those DBS. And there's this interesting slotting door moment not
to go on a tangent here where LSU formerly known
as DBU, could have had Marcus Freeman at the defensive
(09:43):
coordinator years ago. He goes on to Notre Dame, ends
up being the head coach, and then has better DBS
than LSU. All of a sudden, they have guys who
are going in the front half, and Al Golden was
a major part of that. And I think if that
is the goal to develop those guys, especially the young
guy that they brought into replaced guys like Jesse Bates
who was an All Pro years ago, I think Alcohol
(10:05):
is probably going to be the guy to be able
to do it. It'll be interesting to see how they
approach it, given that seems to be the style that
he likes to play, really leaning on dvs to make plays.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Uh yeah, And you know again, there's like I could
look at that collection of DB's and go, man, really
disappointed last year. I could also look at them and
go but they've put a lot into those players. They
drafted him early for a reason they've got other areas.
You know, let's let's just see if let's just see
if a different you know, DC and another year of
(10:38):
experience could yield better results with that group of corners. Sam,
I know you're swamp man. A lot going on down there.
We would do it again, I'm sure more than once
this offseason.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Thank you for the time.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Same here, Sam brookowse Sumer Sports at the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
It is happening right now.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Practices then obviously the game this week, and you've you've
heard us talk about the mockoff season. Paul Danner Junior
joins me on Tuesdays the Athletic dot Com and we
talk about this exercise that he puts his readers through,
and you can go to the piece that he wrote
at the Athletic dot Com and you can do it yourself.
It's an Excel spreadsheet or a Google doc spreadsheet and
(11:19):
you can you can you can do It's sort of
a dumbed down version if you will, of what your
boss might do, or you might do it your work
with with your budget right where you have to make
decisions and these are some of the decisions the Bengals
are going to have to make and you can, you know,
use drop down menus to extend certain players like t Higgins.
You could remove players, cut them, you could trade Trey Hendrickson,
(11:43):
and you really get a sense of of how, number one,
how many things they have to accomplish this offseason, but
also how difficult some of these decisions are, and also
how much money they have to spend, and how much
money they can give themselves to spend if they choose
(12:04):
to be pretty heartless here and Paul and I talked
about this, not just on our show yesterday, but his
podcast this morning, the Growler Podcast, and we went in
great detail. Jay Morrison was with us two and we
each had our own spreadsheet. I'll have you listen to
that if you want to find out exactly what we did.
But one thing that I did is I cut seven players.
(12:26):
If you think of the history of the Bengals, I
remember when the Bengals cut George I Loca.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I think it was George I.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Lokan Brandon Lafel maybe in the same offseason, but both
those players were cut with years left on their deal.
I think with George it was two and with Brandon
it was two. As well years left on their deal,
and it was. It's pretty shocking because typically, like you
sign a three year, four year contract with the Bengals,
you're there for three or four years. Historically speaking, they
(12:54):
had never been the sort of team that bailed from
a contract before its expiration, and they've since shown a.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Willingness to do this.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
What I did is with this exercise here I cut
Sam Hubbard, Sheldon Rankins, Alex Kappa, Geno Stone, Jermaine Pratt,
Cordell Volson, and Zach Moss. Now you might argue Sam
Hubbard is worth bringing back, though not at nine and
a half million dollars, and maybe Genostone is worth bringing
back because he did play better at the end of
(13:23):
the year. You do have a new defensive coordinator. But
like we talked about what the Bengals have to spend,
and the financial chunk that t Higgins would be occupying
if you extend, if you signed him, and if you
kept Trey Hendrickson, the financial chunk that he would occupy.
By cutting loose, the seven players that I cut loose,
(13:45):
I had like ninety five million dollars to spend, and
then if you trade Trey Hendrickson, you add sixteen mil
to that, or then if you don't sign t Higgins,
you have a lot of money to add to that.
Like there's there's a level of financial flexibility the Bengals
can achieve if they are willing to do what historically
you don't identify them with doing, which is just makes
(14:07):
some cruel, cold heartless cuts. In some cases the players
who haven't meant that much to this team, like Sheldon
Rankins and Zach Moss, and in some cases the players
who have meant a lot to this team, like Sam Hubbard,
and to a degree like Jermaine Pratt. So go do
the exercise the Athletic dot com and Paul will thank you,
(14:28):
and so will I.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Nineteen minutes after.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Five o'clock, the Eric all news is it sucks, and
I don't have a more responsible way of putting in.
It sucks for Eric, it sucks for the team. A
weird sort of dynamic here where he had surgery after
suffering an ACL tear in college and then had the
ACL tear in the NFL, had surgery for that, but
(14:51):
now needs surgery to go fix stuff from the previous
surgery from when he was in Iowa. So we're gonna
chat with doctor Adam Metzler from Wortho Cinci about what
life ahead for Eric here in just a few minutes.
The UC game last night was I spent the first
hour talking about it. Wes Miller sounded defeated after the
game last night, and I guess you could you could
(15:13):
understand why last night was not about effort. It was
about frankly basketball IQ. I saw a team that last
night in the game that was kind of there for
the taking, continue to shoot itself in the foot with
physical mistakes, bad shooting, but also some metal mistakes that
(15:34):
are frustrating as a fan, and I'm sure very much
so as a coach. And like, this is no longer
a team that's going through a bad stretch. It's it's
no longer a team that's just putting up with some
of those games that happened during the course of a season.
They've now lost seven out of nine games. It's just
not a very good team right now. And it kills
me to say that. Keing and Nicholson coming up on
(15:55):
that from Bearcat Journal in just about twenty minutes and
Rick brooring on the Musketeers.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Xavier is good.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You might not be willing to go there, yet you
will be I think if they win tonight in Omaha
against Creighton Rick.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
On that topic and more.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Coming up in just about twenty five minutes as well,
we do have a poll question on X thanks to
our friends at United Heartland Insurance. Whether it's your home,
your car, your business, especially your business, United Heartland Insurance
can help you when it comes to your insurance uhi
NS dot com United Heartland Insurance. The Reds off season
(16:33):
has been awesome, pretty good, mildly disappointing, or a disaster.
Taylor Rodgers is a good, good acquisition. Maid's Reds made Reds.
Red's made a trade with the Giants to acquire Taylor Rodgers,
a good lefty reliever they badly needed bullpen help. Vote
now at Moeger. I'm not going awesome. I'm also not
(16:54):
going mildly disappointing. I'm going pretty good, pretty good. They've
had a pretty good off not great, not one that
makes me feel like this team is the favorite to
win the National League Central, but a pretty good offseason.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Whether that's good enough obviously, time will tell.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It's twenty two minutes after five o'clock on Moegor. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen
thirty traffic.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
From the UC Health Traffic Center.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Expect more at uce health, more clinical trials, more treatment
options for personalized care, more chances to get you back
to being You visit ucehealth dot com. On southbound seventy
one it's an accident blocking the ramp lane before Reading Road.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Police are there on the scene.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Traffic stop and go from Martin Luther King Junior Drive.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
A fifteen minute delay in southbound seventy one seventy five.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Accident on the Collector ramp to Donaldson Road. I'm at
ezelic with traffic this
Chance to win one thousand dollars entered this nationwide keyword
on our website.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Credit.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
That's credit enter it now?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
All right? Sure, I agree that it's five after five
ESPN fifteen thirty Edge and thank you so much for
joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Thrilled that you're here. It's been busy.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Reds have acquired a good left the believer, Taylor Rodgers
from the San Francisco Giants.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
It's it's not.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Often you see the Reds acquiring a guy in a
salary dump from another team, gonna take on eleven to
twelve million dollars in salary. More on that coming up,
and just a bit lots more on the bear count
loss last night. You see losing at Utah perhaps in
the game that was more frustrating than the blowout on
Saturday against BYU Zavier. Getting said for a big test
(00:44):
tonight and a big opportunity on the road against Creighton
will do that both teams coming up at five point forty,
and learn more about Eric all the Bengals tight end
and what he is going to be dealing with as
he misses all of twenty twenty five with another nie
and the hopes that the fairfield product can get on
the field in twenty twenty six. Meanwhile, amid all of this,
(01:07):
the draft process, which is long, is getting underway officially
this week with the Senior Bowl, and we're gonna chat
with Kelsey Conway tomorrow because she's obviously had a chance
to talk with folks like Duke Tobin. But I wanted
to set the tone with one of the folks from
Sumer Sports, Sam Brookhouse, who has been on this show before,
(01:30):
is Inmobile and is with us right now.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Sam. It's good to have you. Thank you for sitting
through my long intro. What's up?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
All good? Appreciate you for having me. I'm reporting live
from Mobile for you.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I appreciate you doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So you know, obviously there is so much information that
folks like yourself are going to gather in the coming weeks.
You know, the combine is still a few weeks away,
obviously pro days. You know all the different metrics that
teams are gonna use. But just from I guess the
starting line here as we begin this process, where is
(02:05):
this draft in your opinion at least, going to be deepest.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I think the deepest portion of it will be the
edge rushing position, and that's what has proven out at
the Senior Bowl. You look at guys at the top
like Michael Williams, guys at the top like obdol Carter.
Those are people in discussion for top ten picks, but
you go down the consensus big board, including guys from
small schools like Mike Green from Marshall. There's also a
(02:31):
great Central Arkansas product that a lot of people like
at the Senior Bowl today and even into you know,
around the hundreds where a guy like Josiah Stewart, a
big name from Michigan, fits and I really liked his
performance at the Super Bowl. I think at the Senior Bowl,
I think the edge position is probably where it's deepest
this year.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
All right, So I'll make this about what the Bengals
have because one of the more interesting dynamics. You know
that you saw the Bengals defense last year, right, it
was terrible. They had one good player, Trey Hendrickson. Trey
Hendrickson is going to be thirty one by the end
of next season. He's up for Defensive Player of the Year.
They're probably not going to extend him. And so I
think there's an argument that you know what ad draft
(03:10):
capital Trey Trey Hendrickson. There's obviously an argument that says,
are you nuts He's your one really good player. The
caveat is it is a really good class when it
comes to edge rushers. So how should that inform what
they do or don't do with Trey Hendrickson.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I think it all comes down to how they view
this team and also how they approach the offense. Higgins
being a free agent really changes stuff of how they
approach this team, and the extension talks with Jamar Chase
that we were talking about, you know, last summer, really
will change their approach for this So I think if
(03:49):
they're still all in as they kind of were this
year they doubled down, they didn't deal with Trey Hendrickson
or t Higgins at the deadline, I think you probably
stick with Trey who had a defensive player year. Taiki
Year last year is a mentally effective and productive and
has been for many many years, even going back to
his years in New Orleans. I think you probably stick there.
But we have also seen the Bengals take the strategy
(04:11):
of keep the player in the short term draft behind him.
We saw them do that with Jesse Bates, which you
know has had varying success, and we saw them, you know,
try to do that to varying success as well at
the wide receiver position with Ti Higgins, with andre Yoshibas
and Jermaine Burton in the later rounds. I think that
all is part of the calculus. But I do think
(04:32):
that they will be able to get a quality edge rusher,
whether that's Day one or Day two, regardless of the.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Approach, is this a Is this going to be a
good draft on the offensive line, specifically on the interior.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
It's certainly looking like it. One of our favorite players
from the Senior Bowl, who's you know, a little not
well known from North Dakota State, Grayable. He's had an
excellent Senior Bowl. Really showed great blocking against some very
highly rated defensive linemen like Walter Nolan out of Ole Myth.
There's also some great tackles and some swing guys. Kelvin
Banks right now as a guy who's charted to go
(05:11):
in the middle of the first round, I think he
could bump up depending on what the Patriots want to
do around Drake May for example. But he played guard
and played tackle and at Summer sports dot Com, we
have some good research done by my colleague Quinn MacLean
about how valuable swing offensive lineman can be to teams
like the Bengals who have been successful on offense just
need to plug a little hole, a couple holes and
(05:34):
they're able to get a guy who can play multiple
positions be very effective. So it is a pretty good
draft for offensive line this year, particularly when you're looking
at names like Kelvin Banks, and you're looking at some
guys like Arianta Ursies who's had an excellent Singer Bowl
as well at the tackle position too.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I'm going to ask you a question that if you chose,
you could spend the next forty nine minutes answering, because
they do have such a long to do list this offseason.
But you know, the last time we had you on,
we were talking about Jamar Chase, and because time is
a flat circle, we'll still talking about Jamar Chase. The
t Higgins thing, if you will, has changed because of
some of the things that Joe Burrow had to say
(06:14):
about him toward the end of the season. I asked
you about Trey Hendrickson. They're going to have money to spend. Obviously,
the draft is going to be very important to this
team as it relates to their defense. If if you're
a Duke Tobin and you are about to embark on
a very important offseason, give me an idea of the
things that you would like to accomplish and the direction
(06:36):
you're going to go. As it relates to some of
their key decisions. Like t Higgins, I.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Think you have to shore up to positions. The first
and the most important is the cornerback position. Unfortunately, though,
as I've been doing, you know, prep for Radio row
in the Super Bowl, looking across the market for our
free agency approaches, this is not a unique need. There's
a lot of teams around the league, you know, at
the cornerback position, and there's not really a standout outside
(07:03):
of Will Johnson and of course Travis Hunter, who frankly
could address any needs for the Bengals this year as well,
but probably won't get to that level unless the Bengals
decide to trade up, which they don't historically do that
fill that need at cornerback. I was keeping a close
eye out both of the Shrine and Singer Bowl for
anyone who could pop up. A lot of people like
Kobe Bryant out of Kansas today. I like Quincy Riley
(07:26):
out of Louisville, but there hasn't been a breakaway top
corner from any of these games. And Will Johnson's the
other guy who's at the top from Michigan who we
haven't seen play in any All Star Games yet. And
I think the second item that they definitely have to
shore up is t Higgins. What they're going to do
with him if they decide to let him go, it's
basically going to be Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase against
(07:49):
the world. Te Higgins was able to eat up a
lot of target share, and he was able to be
immensely effective in the red zone, particularly when it came
to the tested catches that Joe Burrow trusted him to make.
I don't know if andre Yoshi Bass I don't know
if Jermaine Burton or any of the tight ends could
fill that, especially with like you just said about Eric Hall,
(08:09):
the young tight end. They're going to have to get
another pass catcher for Burrow. I think that's the second
item which is on the list, less so than the defense,
less so than the qurnerback position, certainly, but it's a
place where decisions must be made and we'll see how
we approach it both in free agency and the draft.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
So you mentioned an area of the team that was
not good last year.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It got better at the end of the season, mostly
because they played bad quarterbacks. But you know, they've they've
invested a lot of draft capital in the secondary, and
there's players like Cam Taylor, britt And and Dax Hill
and DJ Turner and then Josh Newton, Like we're talking
like day one, Day two, guys that just last year
didn't work out Jordan Battle at the safety position. I
(08:50):
think there's there's maybe a school of thoughts that says,
you've you've got to you've got to devote a lot
of resources to the defensive line, both inside and out,
the offensive line other the team, and so.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
You know, maybe you're kind of willing to run.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
It back with some of these guys in the secondary,
especially with the new defensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Is there are there one or two players.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
In that unit that you go, you know what, maybe
they haven't gotten the results they're looking for yet, but
they're worth investing in and staying patient with.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
With the new DC in twenty twenty five, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Gonna be interesting to see how they approach it. I
will note al Golden obviously now the defense coordinator there
in Cincinnati. He did an excellent job of building up
those DBS. And there's this interesting slotting door moment not
to go on a tangent here where LSU formerly known
as DBU, could have had Marcus Freeman at the defensive
(09:43):
coordinator years ago. He goes on to Notre Dame, ends
up being the head coach, and then has better DBS
than LSU. All of a sudden, they have guys who
are going in the front half, and Al Golden was
a major part of that. And I think if that
is the goal to develop those guys, especially the young
guy that they brought into replaced guys like Jesse Bates
who was an All Pro years ago, I think Alcohol
(10:05):
is probably going to be the guy to be able
to do it. It'll be interesting to see how they
approach it, given that seems to be the style that
he likes to play, really leaning on dvs to make plays.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Uh yeah, And you know again, there's like I could
look at that collection of DB's and go, man, really
disappointed last year. I could also look at them and
go but they've put a lot into those players. They
drafted him early for a reason they've got other areas.
You know, let's let's just see if let's just see
if a different you know, DC and another year of
(10:38):
experience could yield better results with that group of corners. Sam,
I know you're swamp man. A lot going on down there.
We would do it again, I'm sure more than once
this offseason.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Thank you for the time.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Same here, Sam brookowse Sumer Sports at the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
It is happening right now.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Practices then obviously the game this week, and you've you've
heard us talk about the mockoff season. Paul Danner Junior
joins me on Tuesdays the Athletic dot Com and we
talk about this exercise that he puts his readers through,
and you can go to the piece that he wrote
at the Athletic dot Com and you can do it yourself.
It's an Excel spreadsheet or a Google doc spreadsheet and
(11:19):
you can you can you can do It's sort of
a dumbed down version if you will, of what your
boss might do, or you might do it your work
with with your budget right where you have to make
decisions and these are some of the decisions the Bengals
are going to have to make and you can, you know,
use drop down menus to extend certain players like t Higgins.
You could remove players, cut them, you could trade Trey Hendrickson,
(11:43):
and you really get a sense of of how, number one,
how many things they have to accomplish this offseason, but
also how difficult some of these decisions are, and also
how much money they have to spend, and how much
money they can give themselves to spend if they choose
(12:04):
to be pretty heartless here and Paul and I talked
about this, not just on our show yesterday, but his
podcast this morning, the Growler Podcast, and we went in
great detail. Jay Morrison was with us two and we
each had our own spreadsheet. I'll have you listen to
that if you want to find out exactly what we did.
But one thing that I did is I cut seven players.
(12:26):
If you think of the history of the Bengals, I
remember when the Bengals cut George I Loca.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I think it was George I.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Lokan Brandon Lafel maybe in the same offseason, but both
those players were cut with years left on their deal.
I think with George it was two and with Brandon
it was two. As well years left on their deal,
and it was. It's pretty shocking because typically, like you
sign a three year, four year contract with the Bengals,
you're there for three or four years. Historically speaking, they
(12:54):
had never been the sort of team that bailed from
a contract before its expiration, and they've since shown a.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Willingness to do this.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
What I did is with this exercise here I cut
Sam Hubbard, Sheldon Rankins, Alex Kappa, Geno Stone, Jermaine Pratt,
Cordell Volson, and Zach Moss. Now you might argue Sam
Hubbard is worth bringing back, though not at nine and
a half million dollars, and maybe Genostone is worth bringing
back because he did play better at the end of
(13:23):
the year. You do have a new defensive coordinator. But
like we talked about what the Bengals have to spend,
and the financial chunk that t Higgins would be occupying
if you extend, if you signed him, and if you
kept Trey Hendrickson, the financial chunk that he would occupy.
By cutting loose, the seven players that I cut loose,
(13:45):
I had like ninety five million dollars to spend, and
then if you trade Trey Hendrickson, you add sixteen mil
to that, or then if you don't sign t Higgins,
you have a lot of money to add to that.
Like there's there's a level of financial flexibility the Bengals
can achieve if they are willing to do what historically
you don't identify them with doing, which is just makes
(14:07):
some cruel, cold heartless cuts. In some cases the players
who haven't meant that much to this team, like Sheldon
Rankins and Zach Moss, and in some cases the players
who have meant a lot to this team, like Sam Hubbard,
and to a degree like Jermaine Pratt. So go do
the exercise the Athletic dot com and Paul will thank you,
(14:28):
and so will I.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Nineteen minutes after.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Five o'clock, the Eric all news is it sucks, and
I don't have a more responsible way of putting in.
It sucks for Eric, it sucks for the team. A
weird sort of dynamic here where he had surgery after
suffering an ACL tear in college and then had the
ACL tear in the NFL, had surgery for that, but
(14:51):
now needs surgery to go fix stuff from the previous
surgery from when he was in Iowa. So we're gonna
chat with doctor Adam Metzler from Wortho Cinci about what
life ahead for Eric here in just a few minutes.
The UC game last night was I spent the first
hour talking about it. Wes Miller sounded defeated after the
game last night, and I guess you could you could
(15:13):
understand why last night was not about effort. It was
about frankly basketball IQ. I saw a team that last
night in the game that was kind of there for
the taking, continue to shoot itself in the foot with
physical mistakes, bad shooting, but also some metal mistakes that
(15:34):
are frustrating as a fan, and I'm sure very much
so as a coach. And like, this is no longer
a team that's going through a bad stretch. It's it's
no longer a team that's just putting up with some
of those games that happened during the course of a season.
They've now lost seven out of nine games. It's just
not a very good team right now. And it kills
me to say that. Keing and Nicholson coming up on
(15:55):
that from Bearcat Journal in just about twenty minutes and
Rick brooring on the Musketeers.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Xavier is good.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You might not be willing to go there, yet you
will be I think if they win tonight in Omaha
against Creighton Rick.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
On that topic and more.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Coming up in just about twenty five minutes as well,
we do have a poll question on X thanks to
our friends at United Heartland Insurance. Whether it's your home,
your car, your business, especially your business, United Heartland Insurance
can help you when it comes to your insurance uhi
NS dot com United Heartland Insurance. The Reds off season
(16:33):
has been awesome, pretty good, mildly disappointing, or a disaster.
Taylor Rodgers is a good, good acquisition. Maid's Reds made Reds.
Red's made a trade with the Giants to acquire Taylor Rodgers,
a good lefty reliever they badly needed bullpen help. Vote
now at Moeger. I'm not going awesome. I'm also not
(16:54):
going mildly disappointing. I'm going pretty good, pretty good. They've
had a pretty good off not great, not one that
makes me feel like this team is the favorite to
win the National League Central, but a pretty good offseason.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Whether that's good enough obviously, time will tell.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It's twenty two minutes after five o'clock on Moegor. This
is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen
thirty traffic.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
From the UC Health Traffic Center.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Expect more at uce health, more clinical trials, more treatment
options for personalized care, more chances to get you back
to being You visit ucehealth dot com. On southbound seventy
one it's an accident blocking the ramp lane before Reading Road.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Police are there on the scene.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Traffic stop and go from Martin Luther King Junior Drive.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
A fifteen minute delay in southbound seventy one seventy five.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Accident on the Collector ramp to Donaldson Road. I'm at
ezelic with traffic this
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