October 23, 2026 • 9 mins
Robert Weintraub writes a weekly Bengals column for Cincinnati Magazine. He joined us to discuss the team he writes about.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Robert Weintraub is with us, right? It's a weekly Bengals
column for Cincinnati Magazine. You can read it at CincinnatiMagazine.com.
Do you feel better now that Trey Hendrickson has forgiven you?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, I'm reminded of the movie Almost Famous where there's
an exchange. Girl says, the mom.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Says, I forgive you. And the girl says, I never apologized.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Why is he forgiving us?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
We should be in the business of forgiving.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Trey's the guy who left us high and dry demanding
for big money five minutes after signing contracts and going
to our travel.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Come on. Trey, look in the mirror a little bit, buddy.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
All right. You write that the Baltimore Ravens have used
16 different offensive line combinations. So I have two questions. One,
over the course of a six-game stretch, mathematically, do you
know how many offensive line combinations are possible? Number two,
is this offensive line, which has been in flux, chum
for the Bengals' defensive front?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I was told there would be no math. Let's see.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
17 times five carry the two 400 billion. I'm not sure,
but it's a lot in 16 through six games.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's certainly a lot for Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And that's, you know, part of why they traded for
cam Juergens kind of panic traded a little bit, a
guy who is already in the concussion protocol and hasn't
really been the same player since he was back before
the super bowl run. for Philadelphia. That's what they're hoping for.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Think about the two big.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Moves of the off season and literally in this case,
Dexter come into Dexter Lawrence coming to Cincinnati, obviously, and
Tyler Linder bound leaving Baltimore for Las Vegas. And when
those two moves happen, you immediately thought to yourself, Oh, well,
when they play, Cincinnati is going to have that advantage
in the middle of the field for once against Baltimore. And,
(01:53):
you know, now's the time to prove it.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Certainly Juergens being in there, it gives them the ability
to take a vague Ioni, their number one pick guard.
Who's been playing center kind of by, you know, because
they had nobody else to do it. He goes back
to his natural position. He's a little limpy. So is
there other guard John Simpson? I think overall, you know,
this is a chance to prove that the Bengals are
(02:17):
can control the line of scrimmage for once against Baltimore.
And that goes for the, the ends against their tackles.
And overall, you know, Baltimore still wants to run the football,
obviously with Derek Henry, and they want to do it
up the middle. First and foremost, that a lot's been
made about Cincinnati, not being able to defend perimeter runs
by me as well.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
And that's true.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
But first and foremost, you've got to make them run
wide before they can even attempt that. This is a
good opportunity for Cincinnati to prove that it's a different day.
You can run up the middle against us.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
If you want to take your chances wide, we'll give
you that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
But we've got to control the game up front and
win the battle of our defensive line against your offensive line.
That's going to go a long way toward determining the
result on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Let's talk about Trey Hendrickson, not so much from the
perspective of him offering forgiveness, but what havoc he may wreak.
How imposing is Trey Hendrickson at this stage in his career?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well, he's still good, no doubt about that. I think
a large part of the reason the Bengals were not
that interested in resigning him was because they didn't know
how many games he'd really be playing as he aged
into his thirties. And we've seen that already in Baltimore.
He missed a couple of games with a broken finger. So,
you know, in that sense, the Bengals were right, but
when he's on the field, he's still a guy who
(03:33):
creates a lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And, you know, you have to.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Imagine not only will he be motivated against Cincinnati, but
he's going to know that he has the advantage going
up against Orlando Brown on that left side of the
bank law offense. So, you know, you have to expect
him to, to, do some things on Sunday. He's going
to get some pressure on the, on Joe burrow. On
the other hand, you know, he's not a good run
defender since that he knows that very well. They've seen
(03:58):
it up close all those years and they're going to
want to run the ball in his direction. And, you know,
at the end of the day, it's probably going to
be a bit of a both sides will declare victory.
Hendrickson will get his pressures.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
He might get a sack. I think Joe Burrow will
be aware of him.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
At all times and they'll do what they have to
do to mitigate his pass rush presence.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And I also think they'll be able to run the
ball in that direction.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And Hendrickson does like to loop around in his pass rushes.
They can cut inside of that and make some big
extended plays as Burrow has wanted to do. So at
the end of the day, I think Both teams will
declare a victory in that specific matchup, but obviously whoever
wins the game will.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Get the crow the loudest.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Robert Weintraub is with us, writes a Bengals column for
Cincinnati Magazine. You can read it at CincinnatiMagazine.com. If this
is a normal game where, you know, one team isn't
blowing out the other and there's not a major rush
of injuries, especially in the offensive backfield, if this is
a normal game and there's, I don't know, 20 to
25 carries for the Bengals to distribute among their running backs,
(05:01):
how do you think that plays out?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Speaker 3 I think Taj Brooks gets all 25. Speaker
0 The Taj Brooks breakout game been on ice and
they're bringing up coming out of the buy.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Going to use Taj Brooks.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Speaker 3 Talk about a tendency breaker.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah. Well, listen, obviously.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It's trending a little bit more towards the magic P
Ryan given chase Brown struggles so far to begin the season.
I think also when you have a defense like Baltimore,
which is very physical, they have not even Matt, if
we came back in.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
There, we can have it in the middle of the field.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
He's their version of Dexter Lawrence, Trenton Simpson, and Roquan Smith,
good inside linebackers who are very physical. You kind of
want to match that physicality with.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Your own fire, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And that, that would lean towards a P Ryan getting
a few more carries than normal. I don't think he'll
necessarily to me, it's more about the touches than the,
than the and the snaps as well, not necessarily who
gets more carries. Obviously, that is so, as you pointed out,
game script dependent and situation dependent. If Cincinnati winds up
(06:07):
in a third and short, you're going to see a
lot of P. Ryan in the game more than you
might otherwise. I also think Bengals have, generally speaking, had
their better success against Baltimore in the past by having
a heavy pass-run ratio. Think back to 2024 when they
scored a ton of points against the Ravens. And that
was up near 71 game, close to 80% pass run.
(06:27):
And in that scenario, you're going to see chase Brown
a lot more on the field.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
He's the better receiver.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
He's the better route runner. Peter, I don't get in
there as well. I mean, he's a good blocker and
they trust his hands too, but you know, in that sense,
I think you'll see it drift a little bit more
toward Brown than you might. Otherwise, if it's purely a
carries scenario, it might be close to 50, 50 touches though, you.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Know, maybe more like 60, 40 or even.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
More for Brown.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Does the winner of this game on Sunday take the
AFC North?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Well, you know, I hate to put so much on
such an early season game.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
It does feel weighty.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
No question about it. It's kind of like angles don't win,
go three and three. And then you started asking yourself,
What was that big off season.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Make overall about? What was it all for? We really
changed anything.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Around here, but saying that, you know, there's still such
a long way to go.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
There's a lot of wins ahead. Cincinnati schedule.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Obviously anything could change with injuries at, you know, a
snap of a finger. I think back to 2022, the
Bengals lost an early season game in Baltimore. The Ravens
kicked the last second field goal. Cincinnati wanted to be
four and four and they were, you know, sort of
like a super bowl hangover.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
It seems just not as good. They are who we
thought they were. And then what they do, they reel off.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
10 wins in a row, win the division and get
right back to the brink of the super bowl and
be the Ravens in the playoffs along the way. So,
you know, there's still so much that lying ahead. I, I,
I hesitate to put all of it on Sunday's game,
but saying that, yeah, it's an important one for Cincinnati,
especially I think. prove that they can, you know, they're,
(07:58):
they're back in the mix the way they were in
those halcyon days, 21 and 22 prove that they really
are a different team. After all these new acquisitions on defense,
especially in the way they win, if they do would
be certainly important as well. It's one thing to win
another 35, 34 type game, but if they can really
shut down Lamar and Baltimore, That would go a long
(08:19):
way toward, you know, the confidence in the locker room feeling, yeah,
this might be just our year and it's time for us.
We're the big dogs, as Joe Burrow once famously said. And,
you know, I have Death to the Ravens tattooed on
my back, so I'm certainly looking for that in any
capacity to beat them and take advantage of the AFC North.
And hopefully it does start Sunday at 1 o'clock in
Charm City.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Do you have tattoos that correlate to the other AFC
North teams tattooed elsewhere on your body?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, I have, uh, I hate the sewers with the
white hot intensity of a thousand suns.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's a, that goes up and down my arm.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
And then I just have a, you know, a dog
with a unfriendly face, you know, just tattooed on the
instep of my ankle. I don't want to look at
that ever, but yes, I, I, my body art correlates
to the three hated arch rivals in the division.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And, uh, You know, I don't think I'm alone.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I think most fans out there certainly have thought about that,
if not actually done it.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, no, we're on the same page. I haven't gone
to the extent that you have, but you never know.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
You never know.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I might have a couple drinks tonight, be at a
tattoo parlor by the time the sun comes up.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Let your freak flag fly, Mo. Come on.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I'll do my best. Thank you, as always.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Go Bengals. Talk to you next week.
Robert Weintraub is with us, right? It's a weekly Bengals
column for Cincinnati Magazine. You can read it at CincinnatiMagazine.com.
Do you feel better now that Trey Hendrickson has forgiven you?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, I'm reminded of the movie Almost Famous where there's
an exchange. Girl says, the mom.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Says, I forgive you. And the girl says, I never apologized.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Why is he forgiving us?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
We should be in the business of forgiving.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Trey's the guy who left us high and dry demanding
for big money five minutes after signing contracts and going
to our travel.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Come on. Trey, look in the mirror a little bit, buddy.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
All right. You write that the Baltimore Ravens have used
16 different offensive line combinations. So I have two questions. One,
over the course of a six-game stretch, mathematically, do you
know how many offensive line combinations are possible? Number two,
is this offensive line, which has been in flux, chum
for the Bengals' defensive front?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I was told there would be no math. Let's see.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
17 times five carry the two 400 billion. I'm not sure,
but it's a lot in 16 through six games.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's certainly a lot for Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And that's, you know, part of why they traded for
cam Juergens kind of panic traded a little bit, a
guy who is already in the concussion protocol and hasn't
really been the same player since he was back before
the super bowl run. for Philadelphia. That's what they're hoping for.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Think about the two big.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Moves of the off season and literally in this case,
Dexter come into Dexter Lawrence coming to Cincinnati, obviously, and
Tyler Linder bound leaving Baltimore for Las Vegas. And when
those two moves happen, you immediately thought to yourself, Oh, well,
when they play, Cincinnati is going to have that advantage
in the middle of the field for once against Baltimore. And,
(01:53):
you know, now's the time to prove it.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Certainly Juergens being in there, it gives them the ability
to take a vague Ioni, their number one pick guard.
Who's been playing center kind of by, you know, because
they had nobody else to do it. He goes back
to his natural position. He's a little limpy. So is
there other guard John Simpson? I think overall, you know,
this is a chance to prove that the Bengals are
(02:17):
can control the line of scrimmage for once against Baltimore.
And that goes for the, the ends against their tackles.
And overall, you know, Baltimore still wants to run the football,
obviously with Derek Henry, and they want to do it
up the middle. First and foremost, that a lot's been
made about Cincinnati, not being able to defend perimeter runs
by me as well.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
And that's true.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
But first and foremost, you've got to make them run
wide before they can even attempt that. This is a
good opportunity for Cincinnati to prove that it's a different day.
You can run up the middle against us.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
If you want to take your chances wide, we'll give
you that opportunity.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
But we've got to control the game up front and
win the battle of our defensive line against your offensive line.
That's going to go a long way toward determining the
result on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Let's talk about Trey Hendrickson, not so much from the
perspective of him offering forgiveness, but what havoc he may wreak.
How imposing is Trey Hendrickson at this stage in his career?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well, he's still good, no doubt about that. I think
a large part of the reason the Bengals were not
that interested in resigning him was because they didn't know
how many games he'd really be playing as he aged
into his thirties. And we've seen that already in Baltimore.
He missed a couple of games with a broken finger. So,
you know, in that sense, the Bengals were right, but
when he's on the field, he's still a guy who
(03:33):
creates a lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And, you know, you have to.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Imagine not only will he be motivated against Cincinnati, but
he's going to know that he has the advantage going
up against Orlando Brown on that left side of the
bank law offense. So, you know, you have to expect
him to, to, do some things on Sunday. He's going
to get some pressure on the, on Joe burrow. On
the other hand, you know, he's not a good run
defender since that he knows that very well. They've seen
(03:58):
it up close all those years and they're going to
want to run the ball in his direction. And, you know,
at the end of the day, it's probably going to
be a bit of a both sides will declare victory.
Hendrickson will get his pressures.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
He might get a sack. I think Joe Burrow will
be aware of him.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
At all times and they'll do what they have to
do to mitigate his pass rush presence.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And I also think they'll be able to run the
ball in that direction.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And Hendrickson does like to loop around in his pass rushes.
They can cut inside of that and make some big
extended plays as Burrow has wanted to do. So at
the end of the day, I think Both teams will
declare a victory in that specific matchup, but obviously whoever
wins the game will.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Get the crow the loudest.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Robert Weintraub is with us, writes a Bengals column for
Cincinnati Magazine. You can read it at CincinnatiMagazine.com. If this
is a normal game where, you know, one team isn't
blowing out the other and there's not a major rush
of injuries, especially in the offensive backfield, if this is
a normal game and there's, I don't know, 20 to
25 carries for the Bengals to distribute among their running backs,
(05:01):
how do you think that plays out?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Speaker 3 I think Taj Brooks gets all 25. Speaker
0 The Taj Brooks breakout game been on ice and
they're bringing up coming out of the buy.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Going to use Taj Brooks.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Speaker 3 Talk about a tendency breaker.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah. Well, listen, obviously.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It's trending a little bit more towards the magic P
Ryan given chase Brown struggles so far to begin the season.
I think also when you have a defense like Baltimore,
which is very physical, they have not even Matt, if
we came back in.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
There, we can have it in the middle of the field.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
He's their version of Dexter Lawrence, Trenton Simpson, and Roquan Smith,
good inside linebackers who are very physical. You kind of
want to match that physicality with.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Your own fire, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
And that, that would lean towards a P Ryan getting
a few more carries than normal. I don't think he'll
necessarily to me, it's more about the touches than the,
than the and the snaps as well, not necessarily who
gets more carries. Obviously, that is so, as you pointed out,
game script dependent and situation dependent. If Cincinnati winds up
(06:07):
in a third and short, you're going to see a
lot of P. Ryan in the game more than you
might otherwise. I also think Bengals have, generally speaking, had
their better success against Baltimore in the past by having
a heavy pass-run ratio. Think back to 2024 when they
scored a ton of points against the Ravens. And that
was up near 71 game, close to 80% pass run.
(06:27):
And in that scenario, you're going to see chase Brown
a lot more on the field.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
He's the better receiver.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
He's the better route runner. Peter, I don't get in
there as well. I mean, he's a good blocker and
they trust his hands too, but you know, in that sense,
I think you'll see it drift a little bit more
toward Brown than you might. Otherwise, if it's purely a
carries scenario, it might be close to 50, 50 touches though, you.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Know, maybe more like 60, 40 or even.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
More for Brown.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Does the winner of this game on Sunday take the
AFC North?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Well, you know, I hate to put so much on
such an early season game.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
It does feel weighty.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
No question about it. It's kind of like angles don't win,
go three and three. And then you started asking yourself,
What was that big off season.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Make overall about? What was it all for? We really
changed anything.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Around here, but saying that, you know, there's still such
a long way to go.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
There's a lot of wins ahead. Cincinnati schedule.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Obviously anything could change with injuries at, you know, a
snap of a finger. I think back to 2022, the
Bengals lost an early season game in Baltimore. The Ravens
kicked the last second field goal. Cincinnati wanted to be
four and four and they were, you know, sort of
like a super bowl hangover.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
It seems just not as good. They are who we
thought they were. And then what they do, they reel off.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
10 wins in a row, win the division and get
right back to the brink of the super bowl and
be the Ravens in the playoffs along the way. So,
you know, there's still so much that lying ahead. I, I,
I hesitate to put all of it on Sunday's game,
but saying that, yeah, it's an important one for Cincinnati,
especially I think. prove that they can, you know, they're,
(07:58):
they're back in the mix the way they were in
those halcyon days, 21 and 22 prove that they really
are a different team. After all these new acquisitions on defense,
especially in the way they win, if they do would
be certainly important as well. It's one thing to win
another 35, 34 type game, but if they can really
shut down Lamar and Baltimore, That would go a long
(08:19):
way toward, you know, the confidence in the locker room feeling, yeah,
this might be just our year and it's time for us.
We're the big dogs, as Joe Burrow once famously said. And,
you know, I have Death to the Ravens tattooed on
my back, so I'm certainly looking for that in any
capacity to beat them and take advantage of the AFC North.
And hopefully it does start Sunday at 1 o'clock in
Charm City.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Do you have tattoos that correlate to the other AFC
North teams tattooed elsewhere on your body?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, I have, uh, I hate the sewers with the
white hot intensity of a thousand suns.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's a, that goes up and down my arm.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
And then I just have a, you know, a dog
with a unfriendly face, you know, just tattooed on the
instep of my ankle. I don't want to look at
that ever, but yes, I, I, my body art correlates
to the three hated arch rivals in the division.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And, uh, You know, I don't think I'm alone.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I think most fans out there certainly have thought about that,
if not actually done it.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, no, we're on the same page. I haven't gone
to the extent that you have, but you never know.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
You never know.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I might have a couple drinks tonight, be at a
tattoo parlor by the time the sun comes up.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Let your freak flag fly, Mo. Come on.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I'll do my best. Thank you, as always.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Go Bengals. Talk to you next week.
Mo Egger News
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