January 9, 2026 • 19 mins
Kelsey Conway of Cincinnati.com joined us to discuss Duke Tobin's season-ending press conference.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Dance. That's right, that's right.
No one cares one hour long press conferences like ESPN
fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Moegger. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you so much for listening. This is our first
Friday show since August. We have a lot to get
to Let's get right to it. The Duke Tobin press
(00:20):
conference ended about an hour ago. Kelsey Conway was there
covering the Bengals, covering Duke Tobin, covering the press conference
for The Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com. She has a
lot of work to do it, so I can't thank
her enough for joining us right out of the shoe, Kelsey,
it's awesome to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
How are you.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I'm great, how are you? Thanks so much for having
me on always.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's awesome to have you, all right.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The big takeaway from Duke Tobin's press conference for you was.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
What Bengals fans should prepare for more of the same.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Sadly kind of mine as well.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Right, because I heard I heard a lot of references
to successes of the past, as limited as they may be.
I didn't hear anything indicating reflection and using that reflection
to maybe pivot in a different direction philosophically or structurally
or from an urgency perspective. I walked away from it
(01:24):
thinking that if you went into that press conference as
a fan thinking, you know what, maybe we'll find out
that things are going to be done a little bit differently.
Here you walked away from that press conference disappointed.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
So I'm glad that I'm coming on to be able
to talk with you about this because we in the
last couple of years, you and I have had a
chance to talk about this on air when I've been
at the Senior Bowl with Duke, and the more I
thought about it after time had passed after the press conference,
the more I felt it was very similar to my
Q and A with him that I did Inmobile last year.
(01:58):
And the big takeaway, the two big takeaways that I
had is that Duke Hobin said he's frustrated. He feels
the fans disappointment. Nobody feels it more than him. He
wants to win all of that, but for two years
in a row now, he said the same thing to me.
He said he's down on the team's ability to finish games.
(02:19):
So he said that to me last year, I wrote
it in a story that was on the enquire and
he said it, saying it's press conference that the thing
that burked him most was the team's inability to finish
games in those one score games. And for that to
be his message two years in a row makes me
believe that he thinks that the roster is good enough
(02:41):
and that the reason that they're not winning those one
score games maybe isn't a talent acquisition issue. It's more
of a coaching mentality, a locker room mentality issue. And
to me, for that to be the same thing in
back to back years that he thinks is the issue
is a little concerning because it's all about do you
(03:03):
have enough good players to win those one score games?
And they don't, and they have it for two years
in a row. So I thought he would maybe take
a messaging point of you know, we're going to do
everything we can to build a championship caliber defense for
Joe Burrow, but he didn't say any of that. You know,
expect them to add they are going to add players
(03:24):
in free agency on defense. He said we need to
get better on defense, but he also said we're emerging
on defense, and you know, he talked on and on
about the talent on offense, and these are all the
same things he said to me last year. So I
walked away wondering what exactly will be different, And if
I think that, I would assume all the fans think that.
(03:44):
And he also said they're not going to add to
the scouting department. So there were multiple times for him
to say in point to certain things he's going to change,
and he didn't. So that leads me to believe, yes,
they might add a couple of more free agents on
defense this year, but if you're expecting sweeping changes in
the organization, I would just say temper your expectation to
(04:05):
the fans.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, I mean, it was exactly my takeaway from it.
And it's interesting, you know, I heard Duke talk about
on a number of occasions today the one score of games.
Excuse me, that the games that got away from them
late right where they blew or couldn't get back into
or tried to come back and couldn't finit whatever. It
was a lot of games they lost by not being
able to make plays late in the game. And I guess,
(04:29):
on one hand, you could say, well, that's the arrow,
that's the finger being pointed at the coaches. I kind
of go, he's pointing at the players, and Duke, those
are your players, right?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
No, for that to be the message point in back
to back years is very weird. And I would also
point to I asked him who has control over the
fifty three man roster, because obviously his title is director
of personnel, But you know enough about what's going on
with the Bengals in the front office the structure with
(05:00):
Mike Brown being involved that yes, Duke Cobin is in
charge of the roster, but there are things that Mike
Brown is still involved in and Zach Taylor is involved,
and so I just wanted to point blank ask him,
are you the one responsible for that roster of those
players that aren't making enough plays in one score games
that we're talking about? And he said, yes, well I
do get you know, say of where we go and
(05:23):
pointing us in the right direction. But he kept using
the term collaboration. And if there was a if there
would have been more of an opportunity to ask follow ups,
because there was plenty of reporters there, my question would
have been does too much collaboration? Could that be a
disadvantage of disadvantage for you and in you not having
(05:44):
a clear cut direction of this is exactly where we
need to go with an example of too many cooks
in the kitchen. And it doesn't seem like I didn't
leave the press conference to day knowing any more about
who exactly makes the final calls when it comes to
the Bengals roster. So with all of that to be said,
like I still leave with plenty of questions about how
(06:05):
things are being run in the Bengals front office. And
when you have that many questions, it's hard to believe
that success could be definitely on its way. They might
get lucky, but I don't think that there's going to
be a whole lot of things done differently to ensure
any Bengals fans that yes, they are going to be
better on defense this year.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So the part of the press conference that in that
regard specifically confused me is Duke was asked, and off
the top of my head, I don't remember who asked
the question, so my apologies for that, and I'm paraphrasing
the exchange, but he was asked at one point like, yeah,
there's collaboration, but at some point like there's got to
be the person who says, this is what we're doing. Right,
(06:46):
in any collaborative setting, there's someone who decides, once and
for all, here's what we're doing. And he kind of
shot that down and said, essentially like, well, it never
really gets to that. Well, yeah, it does. Someone someone
decide we're taking. And I think the example used was
a Marius Mims. Someone makes the final decision, we're gonna
take Shamar Stewart. Someone makes the final decision we're gonna
(07:09):
go with Ginos Stone and not sign a safety. And
so I walked away from it, just like you as
unclear as ever as to who has final say, because
he said, when it comes to having a final say, basically,
those situations don't arise.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
How is that the case, Well, those situations do arise.
I've talked to you about people off the record to
know that there are very much instances where the coaches
want this player and you know, personnel might not see
it that way. And there's also the factor of you
have to loop ownership in. Are they willing to just
shot the money for this player so that whole operation
(07:47):
doesn't I didn't get any clarity that I was hoping to,
And of course they're not gonna tell us everything, right,
They're allowed to keep some things in house. But I
was hoping that by asking that it would maybe clear
up something for the fans to wonder, you know, at
the end of this person is responsible for the roster,
and Duke did say I need to do a better
job of pointing us in the great direction in that aspect.
(08:09):
But the other main takeaway that I had was I
felt like, and I've felt this way for a couple
of years now, with the Bengals. In totality, I think
they too much live in the world of talking and
acting in a way that they're just stuck on the
fact that they were very successful for two years. And
he spoke a lot of times about I understand he
(08:32):
wants to show he has confidence in his scouting staff.
I get it, but he went out of his way
to kind of make comments to you know, alluding to
the same scouting staff that made that great free agent
class in twenty twenty one work. I just think that
there's too much talk and the way that they operate
about what happened with the Bengals when they got really
(08:54):
lucky in that twenty one and twenty to twenty two seasons,
and I left thinking, how are we still talking about
twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, Like they're so
far removed from that. It just left me wondering, like,
is it still the whole We did this one time,
so we can do it again. Like I still just
(09:15):
think overall, the Bengals still live in a world too
much where just because they did it those two years
doesn't mean that you can't approach, you know, the ensuing
years that same way. You have to change, you have
to evolve, And I feel like they kind of still
live in the days where they were really successful those
two years and they think that kind of absolved a
lot of their issues, And I just I'm just not
(09:36):
sure that that that's the right approach because every other
NFL team operates every year the new league year. What
are we going to do to go win another championship?
They're not still talking about the super Bowl that they
lost four years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, I feel like twenty twenty one in twenty twenty two,
as awesome as they were, they we frame them as
if they're the norm, and the reality is this Cincinnati
Bengals have missed the postseason in eight out of their
last ten years. Duke Tobin has been in place for
all of those ten years. So those two seasons, as
awesome as they were and as much as they should
(10:11):
represent the norm, they're the outlier. And I'm with you,
and I I hear fans do it. I heard Duke
Tobin do it today, leaning a lot on twenty twenty one.
In twenty twenty two, I guess here's another question that
I have, and I'm I don't know that you're going
to have an answer to this, But Duke talked about
there's no comfort here, right, There's no comfort with his job,
There's no comfort in the organization. There's no comfort even
(10:33):
if you won a Super Bowl. Well, it's one thing
to say that, it's something else to trot out the
same people from one year to the next when the
previous year was a failure and to kind of double
down on a lot of the same things that you
have done that have led to the failures of the
last three seasons.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Did you kind of walk away with the same impression
one percent?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And my other thought on that is, okay, if there's
no comfort here. The two main questions that I didn't
get a chance to ask, which I will make sure
I get asked. I will ask him at the combine
or other areas, is if there is no comfort here,
and Zach Taylor will be the one that everybody talks
about if they underperform next year, does he get fired
(11:15):
if there's no comfort here? Duke saying that to me
puts him very much on the same radar as Zach
in terms of your if next year, when you're looking
at everything, who's to blame? If if they're going to
point the finger at Zach, if there's no comfort and
everybody's accountable on the same level, then wouldn't that mean
that Duke Tobin would also be one that if Zac's
gonna go, how could you make an argument that he shouldn't.
(11:37):
So I think him saying that today was interesting because
I do think that there is a level of comfort
inside the Bengals organization and I think that that is
what Joe Burrow is wanting to change. That's why he
says we need to change something. We've gotten too comfortable
here doing the same thing over and over again. So
for him to say that was interesting. And the other
(11:59):
main thing that I wanted to ask him that I
didn't get a chance to ask him, because you know,
he wanted us to all know that his scouting staff
found Joe Flacco, which I saw that you posted on
x You caught on to him saying that a bunch.
But I wanted to ask, do you think that you
should be examined by the front office the same way
(12:20):
Zach is on a year to year basis in terms
of wins and losses. And I wanted to see how
he answered that. But I didn't get a chance to
ask that. But those were two of the main things
that I wanted to ask that I didn't get a
chance to today.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
All Right, two more because I know you have to
do your job and I appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
At at the top of the show.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Right after that press conference, Duke was asked about contract
issues that have dragged on right and have been perhaps
distractions and have gotten contentious, and he kind of he
kind of knocked that down right, like, well, you know,
we don't negotiate against the person, and you know we
got deal done.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And I guess here's my.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Question this offseason, it would be awesome if the Bengals
didn't have anything like that.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Now they only control that so much.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I get it, but among all the players that they
want to resign or could resign, who represents the best
chance of being another one of these long drawn out
negotiating soap operas that have dominated the discourse when it
comes to the Bengals in the off season for so
many years.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Oh, that's easy Chase Brown. Because I talked to Chase
before the end of the season and I said, do
you want an extension this offseason? And he said, you know,
I don't know yet, because yes, it would be great
to have the long term security. There's also still more
(13:51):
money to be left on the table potentially if he
has another awesome season, right And I know who chases
agent is. He's a tough, high profile agent, and I
could just be I could see that going where if
the Bengals offer isn't you know, high enough for Chasing
in his agent right now for that to kind of
(14:13):
put a sour taste in his mouth and and then
maybe force him to want to do what Jamar did
and you know, play out that final year and say, look,
I'm gonna make you pay me even more. I think
that one's the one that has a potential, not because
of anything to do with Chase Brown, his personality in
his agent as just he has a he has a
well seasoned agent who's good at getting his his players paid,
(14:38):
and I could see that being one where if it
doesn't go well to start, it could potentially be one
that that could get could get similar to the way
that some of these have dragged out in a way
that kind of gets ugly. So it'll all it'll be
all about the Bengals first offer to Chase to in
my opinion, to set the tempo for how that went goes.
(15:00):
I think the two corners will be easier than Chase Brown,
and that's also a tricky one because he's a running back,
so it's gonna be hard to see like the Bengals might.
It might be hard for the Bengals to figure out
the right value for him, and his agent's going to
make sure that he maximizes whatever you can get, and
that might result into Chase Brown playing in his final
(15:21):
season without a deal and betting on himself, and we'll
see where that one goes.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I also walked away from the press conference thinking that
if they're aggressive anywhere this offseason, it's going to be
an edge rusher or it's going to be a pass rusher.
Did you walk away with the same impression.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I guess not, because they had a similar You know,
Duke Tobin has said year after year, I really value
edge rusher's defensive line is really important to me. He
said all of that last year, and they didn't do
anything to fix the defensive line and free agency and
took a player in the first round who they knew
(15:59):
was it's going to be a project. He said. It's
very important to me. I like pass rush, but you know,
without really having been able to dig into available free
agent edge rushers, I don't Again, I'm tempering my expectations.
I think that they're going to add there, but I
also didn't think that they their big acquisition on the
(16:21):
edge of rusher market last year was going to be
Joseph Osize, So that one, he said it it's important
to him, but it's a really tricky one nail and
free agency, Like the Bengals totally nailed it with Traya Hendrickson,
It's going to be hard for them to find that
type of production from someone who is hitting the free
agency market that they're going to have to pay a
(16:42):
lot of money too. And it's just hard to see
based off the way things have gone the last couple
of years, see them go all out, all in on
one player to fix all their problems because they've got
so many. So I think those edge rushers cost a
lot of money, and I'm just not sure the Bengals
are going to have. Although they're in good cap space
shape you want, you well know that, but I just
think of edge rushers, they cost a lot of money
(17:05):
and they need multiple players on defense.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Uh, well said, I can't thank you enough. By the way,
one more ready for it?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Go?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
How about those Bearcats?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Should we just leave it there? Do we go to
commercial breaks? Now?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, I think we're gonna have to. Well, well, well
that's a discussion for another day. I can't thank you
enough now, you and a lot going on. Appreciate it.
We'll do it again soon.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Thanks so much, absolutely, thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
That's our friend Kelsey Conway covering the Bengals and the
Duke Tobin Mega Conference Mega Press Conference for the Cincinnati
Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I'm Muagar.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty twenty minutes after three o'clock show.
Preview video is up on Twitter at Moagar. Thanks to
share Facts Credit Union, you can become a member. You
should become a member just like me. Go to share
facts dot org. All right, we don't have another guest
until four o'clock. We're a guest heavy in the four
o'clock hour, so I've got open lines five one, three, seven, four, nine,
(18:11):
fifteen thirty. I don't know that there's a bigger overarching
takeaway from the Duke Tobin press conference as the one
Kelsey started our conversation by talking about we'll get to
that and yours coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati
Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight
Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise.
Call five one three, nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three southbound seventy
five after Norwood Laterala disabled vehicle off on the right shoulder.
Another disabled northbound seventy five in Ohio. That's between Sharon
(18:51):
Road and two seventy five, also on the right shoulder,
and slow traffic southbound seventy five from Freeman to Fort
Washington way I'm at he's that like with traffic.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
This report is
Like ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Dance. That's right, that's right.
No one cares one hour long press conferences like ESPN
fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Moegger. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thank you so much for listening. This is our first
Friday show since August. We have a lot to get
to Let's get right to it. The Duke Tobin press
(00:20):
conference ended about an hour ago. Kelsey Conway was there
covering the Bengals, covering Duke Tobin, covering the press conference
for The Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com. She has a
lot of work to do it, so I can't thank
her enough for joining us right out of the shoe, Kelsey,
it's awesome to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
How are you.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I'm great, how are you? Thanks so much for having
me on always.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's awesome to have you, all right.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
The big takeaway from Duke Tobin's press conference for you was.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
What Bengals fans should prepare for more of the same.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Sadly kind of mine as well.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Right, because I heard I heard a lot of references
to successes of the past, as limited as they may be.
I didn't hear anything indicating reflection and using that reflection
to maybe pivot in a different direction philosophically or structurally
or from an urgency perspective. I walked away from it
(01:24):
thinking that if you went into that press conference as
a fan thinking, you know what, maybe we'll find out
that things are going to be done a little bit differently.
Here you walked away from that press conference disappointed.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
So I'm glad that I'm coming on to be able
to talk with you about this because we in the
last couple of years, you and I have had a
chance to talk about this on air when I've been
at the Senior Bowl with Duke, and the more I
thought about it after time had passed after the press conference,
the more I felt it was very similar to my
Q and A with him that I did Inmobile last year.
(01:58):
And the big takeaway, the two big takeaways that I
had is that Duke Hobin said he's frustrated. He feels
the fans disappointment. Nobody feels it more than him. He
wants to win all of that, but for two years
in a row now, he said the same thing to me.
He said he's down on the team's ability to finish games.
(02:19):
So he said that to me last year, I wrote
it in a story that was on the enquire and
he said it, saying it's press conference that the thing
that burked him most was the team's inability to finish
games in those one score games. And for that to
be his message two years in a row makes me
believe that he thinks that the roster is good enough
(02:41):
and that the reason that they're not winning those one
score games maybe isn't a talent acquisition issue. It's more
of a coaching mentality, a locker room mentality issue. And
to me, for that to be the same thing in
back to back years that he thinks is the issue
is a little concerning because it's all about do you
(03:03):
have enough good players to win those one score games?
And they don't, and they have it for two years
in a row. So I thought he would maybe take
a messaging point of you know, we're going to do
everything we can to build a championship caliber defense for
Joe Burrow, but he didn't say any of that. You know,
expect them to add they are going to add players
(03:24):
in free agency on defense. He said we need to
get better on defense, but he also said we're emerging
on defense, and you know, he talked on and on
about the talent on offense, and these are all the
same things he said to me last year. So I
walked away wondering what exactly will be different, And if
I think that, I would assume all the fans think that.
(03:44):
And he also said they're not going to add to
the scouting department. So there were multiple times for him
to say in point to certain things he's going to change,
and he didn't. So that leads me to believe, yes,
they might add a couple of more free agents on
defense this year, but if you're expecting sweeping changes in
the organization, I would just say temper your expectation to
(04:05):
the fans.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, I mean, it was exactly my takeaway from it.
And it's interesting, you know, I heard Duke talk about
on a number of occasions today the one score of games.
Excuse me, that the games that got away from them
late right where they blew or couldn't get back into
or tried to come back and couldn't finit whatever. It
was a lot of games they lost by not being
able to make plays late in the game. And I guess,
(04:29):
on one hand, you could say, well, that's the arrow,
that's the finger being pointed at the coaches. I kind
of go, he's pointing at the players, and Duke, those
are your players, right?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
No, for that to be the message point in back
to back years is very weird. And I would also
point to I asked him who has control over the
fifty three man roster, because obviously his title is director
of personnel, But you know enough about what's going on
with the Bengals in the front office the structure with
(05:00):
Mike Brown being involved that yes, Duke Cobin is in
charge of the roster, but there are things that Mike
Brown is still involved in and Zach Taylor is involved,
and so I just wanted to point blank ask him,
are you the one responsible for that roster of those
players that aren't making enough plays in one score games
that we're talking about? And he said, yes, well I
do get you know, say of where we go and
(05:23):
pointing us in the right direction. But he kept using
the term collaboration. And if there was a if there
would have been more of an opportunity to ask follow ups,
because there was plenty of reporters there, my question would
have been does too much collaboration? Could that be a
disadvantage of disadvantage for you and in you not having
(05:44):
a clear cut direction of this is exactly where we
need to go with an example of too many cooks
in the kitchen. And it doesn't seem like I didn't
leave the press conference to day knowing any more about
who exactly makes the final calls when it comes to
the Bengals roster. So with all of that to be said,
like I still leave with plenty of questions about how
(06:05):
things are being run in the Bengals front office. And
when you have that many questions, it's hard to believe
that success could be definitely on its way. They might
get lucky, but I don't think that there's going to
be a whole lot of things done differently to ensure
any Bengals fans that yes, they are going to be
better on defense this year.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So the part of the press conference that in that
regard specifically confused me is Duke was asked, and off
the top of my head, I don't remember who asked
the question, so my apologies for that, and I'm paraphrasing
the exchange, but he was asked at one point like, yeah,
there's collaboration, but at some point like there's got to
be the person who says, this is what we're doing. Right,
(06:46):
in any collaborative setting, there's someone who decides, once and
for all, here's what we're doing. And he kind of
shot that down and said, essentially like, well, it never
really gets to that. Well, yeah, it does. Someone someone
decide we're taking. And I think the example used was
a Marius Mims. Someone makes the final decision, we're gonna
take Shamar Stewart. Someone makes the final decision we're gonna
(07:09):
go with Ginos Stone and not sign a safety. And
so I walked away from it, just like you as
unclear as ever as to who has final say, because
he said, when it comes to having a final say, basically,
those situations don't arise.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
How is that the case, Well, those situations do arise.
I've talked to you about people off the record to
know that there are very much instances where the coaches
want this player and you know, personnel might not see
it that way. And there's also the factor of you
have to loop ownership in. Are they willing to just
shot the money for this player so that whole operation
(07:47):
doesn't I didn't get any clarity that I was hoping to,
And of course they're not gonna tell us everything, right,
They're allowed to keep some things in house. But I
was hoping that by asking that it would maybe clear
up something for the fans to wonder, you know, at
the end of this person is responsible for the roster,
and Duke did say I need to do a better
job of pointing us in the great direction in that aspect.
(08:09):
But the other main takeaway that I had was I
felt like, and I've felt this way for a couple
of years now, with the Bengals. In totality, I think
they too much live in the world of talking and
acting in a way that they're just stuck on the
fact that they were very successful for two years. And
he spoke a lot of times about I understand he
(08:32):
wants to show he has confidence in his scouting staff.
I get it, but he went out of his way
to kind of make comments to you know, alluding to
the same scouting staff that made that great free agent
class in twenty twenty one work. I just think that
there's too much talk and the way that they operate
about what happened with the Bengals when they got really
(08:54):
lucky in that twenty one and twenty to twenty two seasons,
and I left thinking, how are we still talking about
twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, Like they're so
far removed from that. It just left me wondering, like,
is it still the whole We did this one time,
so we can do it again. Like I still just
(09:15):
think overall, the Bengals still live in a world too
much where just because they did it those two years
doesn't mean that you can't approach, you know, the ensuing
years that same way. You have to change, you have
to evolve, And I feel like they kind of still
live in the days where they were really successful those
two years and they think that kind of absolved a
lot of their issues, And I just I'm just not
(09:36):
sure that that that's the right approach because every other
NFL team operates every year the new league year. What
are we going to do to go win another championship?
They're not still talking about the super Bowl that they
lost four years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, I feel like twenty twenty one in twenty twenty two,
as awesome as they were, they we frame them as
if they're the norm, and the reality is this Cincinnati
Bengals have missed the postseason in eight out of their
last ten years. Duke Tobin has been in place for
all of those ten years. So those two seasons, as
awesome as they were and as much as they should
(10:11):
represent the norm, they're the outlier. And I'm with you,
and I I hear fans do it. I heard Duke
Tobin do it today, leaning a lot on twenty twenty one.
In twenty twenty two, I guess here's another question that
I have, and I'm I don't know that you're going
to have an answer to this, But Duke talked about
there's no comfort here, right, There's no comfort with his job,
There's no comfort in the organization. There's no comfort even
(10:33):
if you won a Super Bowl. Well, it's one thing
to say that, it's something else to trot out the
same people from one year to the next when the
previous year was a failure and to kind of double
down on a lot of the same things that you
have done that have led to the failures of the
last three seasons.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Did you kind of walk away with the same impression
one percent?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And my other thought on that is, okay, if there's
no comfort here. The two main questions that I didn't
get a chance to ask, which I will make sure
I get asked. I will ask him at the combine
or other areas, is if there is no comfort here,
and Zach Taylor will be the one that everybody talks
about if they underperform next year, does he get fired
(11:15):
if there's no comfort here? Duke saying that to me
puts him very much on the same radar as Zach
in terms of your if next year, when you're looking
at everything, who's to blame? If if they're going to
point the finger at Zach, if there's no comfort and
everybody's accountable on the same level, then wouldn't that mean
that Duke Tobin would also be one that if Zac's
gonna go, how could you make an argument that he shouldn't.
(11:37):
So I think him saying that today was interesting because
I do think that there is a level of comfort
inside the Bengals organization and I think that that is
what Joe Burrow is wanting to change. That's why he
says we need to change something. We've gotten too comfortable
here doing the same thing over and over again. So
for him to say that was interesting. And the other
(11:59):
main thing that I wanted to ask him that I
didn't get a chance to ask him, because you know,
he wanted us to all know that his scouting staff
found Joe Flacco, which I saw that you posted on
x You caught on to him saying that a bunch.
But I wanted to ask, do you think that you
should be examined by the front office the same way
(12:20):
Zach is on a year to year basis in terms
of wins and losses. And I wanted to see how
he answered that. But I didn't get a chance to
ask that. But those were two of the main things
that I wanted to ask that I didn't get a
chance to today.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
All Right, two more because I know you have to
do your job and I appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
At at the top of the show.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Right after that press conference, Duke was asked about contract
issues that have dragged on right and have been perhaps
distractions and have gotten contentious, and he kind of he
kind of knocked that down right, like, well, you know,
we don't negotiate against the person, and you know we
got deal done.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And I guess here's my.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Question this offseason, it would be awesome if the Bengals
didn't have anything like that.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Now they only control that so much.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I get it, but among all the players that they
want to resign or could resign, who represents the best
chance of being another one of these long drawn out
negotiating soap operas that have dominated the discourse when it
comes to the Bengals in the off season for so
many years.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Oh, that's easy Chase Brown. Because I talked to Chase
before the end of the season and I said, do
you want an extension this offseason? And he said, you know,
I don't know yet, because yes, it would be great
to have the long term security. There's also still more
(13:51):
money to be left on the table potentially if he
has another awesome season, right And I know who chases
agent is. He's a tough, high profile agent, and I
could just be I could see that going where if
the Bengals offer isn't you know, high enough for Chasing
in his agent right now for that to kind of
(14:13):
put a sour taste in his mouth and and then
maybe force him to want to do what Jamar did
and you know, play out that final year and say, look,
I'm gonna make you pay me even more. I think
that one's the one that has a potential, not because
of anything to do with Chase Brown, his personality in
his agent as just he has a he has a
well seasoned agent who's good at getting his his players paid,
(14:38):
and I could see that being one where if it
doesn't go well to start, it could potentially be one
that that could get could get similar to the way
that some of these have dragged out in a way
that kind of gets ugly. So it'll all it'll be
all about the Bengals first offer to Chase to in
my opinion, to set the tempo for how that went goes.
(15:00):
I think the two corners will be easier than Chase Brown,
and that's also a tricky one because he's a running back,
so it's gonna be hard to see like the Bengals might.
It might be hard for the Bengals to figure out
the right value for him, and his agent's going to
make sure that he maximizes whatever you can get, and
that might result into Chase Brown playing in his final
(15:21):
season without a deal and betting on himself, and we'll
see where that one goes.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I also walked away from the press conference thinking that
if they're aggressive anywhere this offseason, it's going to be
an edge rusher or it's going to be a pass rusher.
Did you walk away with the same impression.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I guess not, because they had a similar You know,
Duke Tobin has said year after year, I really value
edge rusher's defensive line is really important to me. He
said all of that last year, and they didn't do
anything to fix the defensive line and free agency and
took a player in the first round who they knew
(15:59):
was it's going to be a project. He said. It's
very important to me. I like pass rush, but you know,
without really having been able to dig into available free
agent edge rushers, I don't Again, I'm tempering my expectations.
I think that they're going to add there, but I
also didn't think that they their big acquisition on the
(16:21):
edge of rusher market last year was going to be
Joseph Osize, So that one, he said it it's important
to him, but it's a really tricky one nail and
free agency, Like the Bengals totally nailed it with Traya Hendrickson,
It's going to be hard for them to find that
type of production from someone who is hitting the free
agency market that they're going to have to pay a
(16:42):
lot of money too. And it's just hard to see
based off the way things have gone the last couple
of years, see them go all out, all in on
one player to fix all their problems because they've got
so many. So I think those edge rushers cost a
lot of money, and I'm just not sure the Bengals
are going to have. Although they're in good cap space
shape you want, you well know that, but I just
think of edge rushers, they cost a lot of money
(17:05):
and they need multiple players on defense.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Uh, well said, I can't thank you enough. By the way,
one more ready for it?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Go?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
How about those Bearcats?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Should we just leave it there? Do we go to
commercial breaks? Now?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, I think we're gonna have to. Well, well, well
that's a discussion for another day. I can't thank you
enough now, you and a lot going on. Appreciate it.
We'll do it again soon.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Thanks so much, absolutely, thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
That's our friend Kelsey Conway covering the Bengals and the
Duke Tobin Mega Conference Mega Press Conference for the Cincinnati
Inquirer and Cincinnati dot Com.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I'm Muagar.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty twenty minutes after three o'clock show.
Preview video is up on Twitter at Moagar. Thanks to
share Facts Credit Union, you can become a member. You
should become a member just like me. Go to share
facts dot org. All right, we don't have another guest
until four o'clock. We're a guest heavy in the four
o'clock hour, so I've got open lines five one, three, seven, four, nine,
(18:11):
fifteen thirty. I don't know that there's a bigger overarching
takeaway from the Duke Tobin press conference as the one
Kelsey started our conversation by talking about we'll get to
that and yours coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati
Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight
Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise.
Call five one three, nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three southbound seventy
five after Norwood Laterala disabled vehicle off on the right shoulder.
Another disabled northbound seventy five in Ohio. That's between Sharon
(18:51):
Road and two seventy five, also on the right shoulder,
and slow traffic southbound seventy five from Freeman to Fort
Washington way I'm at he's that like with traffic.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
This report is
Mo Egger News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.