4/30/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You win.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
A thousand dollars entered this nationwide Keward on our website.

Speaker 3 (00:04):
Win that's win enter it now.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Was the word win, win, win, win. That's that's the
word win. Well, that is not what the Reds are
going to do in this first game of today's a
day night doubleheader at GABP. Barring a miracle, it is
six nothing Cardinals. Reds are batting in the bottom of
the ninth inning. The sixth nothing score does not reflect
the work of Red starting pitcher Brady Singer, who was

(00:31):
pretty good today. Six innings of one run baseball does
not completely reflect the work of Taylor Rogers, who wasn't
awesome but got out of a jam in the seventh
doesn't reflect the work of Scott Barlow, who was okay
in the eighth inning. I did not give up a run.
This was a one nothing game going into the top
of the ninth inning when Alexis diz came on with

(00:52):
the directive, and that directive was give us a chance
to tie the game or win the game. In the
bottom of the ninth inning, Alexis d az Uh did
the exact opposite. He proceeded to give up five runs,
surrendering three homers in the process. The Reds and Cardinals
play Game two tonight at six forty, so we're not

(01:14):
quite at the time where the teams would be taking
batting practice during the afternoon for a typical six to
forty game, but pretty close. The Cardinals hitters who came
to the plate in the ninth inning looked like they
were getting in their afternoon licks in preparation of the nightcap.
Alexis d Az shelled today. Obviously that's not the only issue.
The Reds offense made. Miles Michaelis look really, really good

(01:37):
and three relievers. Since it's a six to nothing Saint
Louis the Reds today with just three hits, they trail
the Cardinals. They will play tonight looking for a split
in the doubleheader. We'll have instant reaction from a GABP.
We have to talk about what to do with Alexis Das,
we have to talk about what to do with Matt McClain,
and we have Chase Petty's big league debut tonight to

(02:00):
look forward to all that between now and six. Full
show Rundown is on Twitter right now. Go get it
at Moeger Thanks to Emery Federal Credit Union your Credit
Union with hard Sense nineteen thirty nine. Go to Emery
FCU dot org. Joe Goodbarry is gonna join us coming

(02:20):
up in just about fifteen minutes or so, Bengals Draft
analyst Bengals on the Brain. We talked with Joe before
the draft with the promise we were gonna call him
after the draft. The draft has happened, and so Joe
was gonna join us here in just a bit and
we'll get his thoughts on some of the players the
Bengals took. We'll get his thoughts on some of the
undrafted free agents the Bengals have signed, as well as

(02:41):
some of the positions the Bengals did not address in
the draft. Speaking of that, there's I think the consensus
has been that the Bengals draft class was eh. I
think that's the best way to put it. That is
the consensus. Now you can find who think it was
really good. We had a guy on the show yesterday,

(03:03):
Jordan Edwards sports Info Solutions, likes the class, likes the
players the Bengals took. Now, there are a couple of
different ways to look at the class. Right, you could
look at the class solely through the lens of who
are these players, What do they bring to the table,
Which of them can contribute immediately, What are their strengths
and weaknesses? Which ones are longer term projects, Which ones

(03:26):
may fit in a certain role now but have a
different role later. You could look at the draft simply
through the lens of the players, their attributes, their strengths,
what they bring to the table, and how they fit.
I think if you do that, you can be reasonably
pleased with the hall of players the Bengals got. But
you could also look at it to the lens of process.

(03:48):
You know, in the process of taking these players, did
they miss out on a chance to trade down to
get more picks, did they maximize the value of some
of the players they took by drafting them early than
they would have come off the board, or you know,
could they have gotten Demetrius Knight later and still flip
the pick forty nine for another draft pick somewhere else.

(04:10):
You could look at it through that lens. You could
look at it through the lens of the positions they
didn't address. It's troubling to me the Bengals were not
good at defensive tackle last year, and they really haven't
done that much to the position, especially when it comes
to getting a pass rush up the middle. Now, the
counter to that for a lot of people is, well,
they can take some of these defensive ends, especially on

(04:32):
passing downs, and line them up at three technique, And
there's some validity to that. Maybe you can do that,
But wouldn't you also, like you know a guy who
actually plays defensive tackle, The Bengals really didn't add one,
at least in terms of a defensive tackle whose strength
is rushing the passer. You can look at it through
that lens. I look at it through every single one

(04:52):
of those lenses, because I think every single one of
those lenses gives a unique perspective. Like there are the
players the Bengals have taken. Let's talk about their strengths
and weaknesses. By the way, Dylan Fairchild's college position coach
at Georgia is gonna join us at four twenty. We'll
look forward to that. We've talked a lot about, you know,
could the Bengals have added picks, and god knows, we
have talked about the fact that the Bengals took neither

(05:14):
a defensive tackle or a safety. Now you will find
people who have rushed to the Bengals defense. Some do
it because that's just their mo o, and that's fine,
but I think you have some who are willing to
give the Bengals the benefit of the doubt that I'm

(05:37):
not sure they deserve. The Bengals have missed the postseason
in the last two years, in part at least because
they haven't drafted well. So I'm sorry you haven't drafted well.

(05:58):
It's hard then for me to assume that after years
of you not drafting well, then suddenly you have, especially
when you have limited picks, especially when you know some
rather obvious team needs were not addressed. So if you're
hearing skepticism, if you're hearing cynicism, if you're hearing outright

(06:21):
anger at what the Bengals have done during the draft,
I don't think those things are aimed at the players.
Like I'm all in on Shamar Stewart, Let's go get
after the passer. The sacks will come. And I love
everything I'm hearing about Dylan Fairchild and Taj Brooks is
my favorite pick in this draft for the Bengals. Now,

(06:42):
I will also acknowledge I wish they would have taken
a defensive tackle somewhere. I don't know that taking two
offensive linemen was the play. I don't know that taking
two linebackers was the play when you had other needs.
That's nothing against Barrett Carter, That's that's nothing against anybody
the Bengals have taken in this draft. This front office

(07:06):
has earned skepticism. So when there are some things that
weren't done, and positions that weren't addressed, and some directions
that weren't taken, like trading down, like adding a pick,
like taking a defensive tackle, like taking a safety, that

(07:27):
just fuels already built in skepticism that if your Duke Tobin,
I'm sorry you have earned Trusting the Bengals in the
draft is like trusting me to tell you how good
these guys are. I'm not the guy to do that.
That's why we call Joe Goodbarry. That's why we call
our guy Jordan Edwards yesterday. It's why we called Ryan

(07:47):
Roberts on Monday. I'm not the guy to do that.
I can't tell you what they needed last year. I
can't tell you what they lacked last year, because I
watched the games and so did you. I can also
tell you the Bengals recent draft haven't been awesome. This
year's draft, we all agreed coming in has to be
pretty damn close to awesome. So, to be honest, you know,

(08:10):
pretty much anything they did, anything they could have done.
They they could have added picks and had like as
many as nine, They could have taken six different players.
They could have taken two defensive tackles. No matter what
they did, there was going to be a certain degree
of skepticism because of their recent history. But when you
take their recent history and you add to it positions
that they didn't address, and you add to it the

(08:32):
very real belief that they could have traded down and
maybe gotten players that are either comparable to the ones
the Bengals took or the actual players the Bengals took,
you're gonna have even more skepticism. The Cincinnati Bengals, despite
four consecutive winning seasons, despite doing some good things, despite

(08:53):
Duke Tobin having been the guy who put together the
twenty one and twenty two teams, they have earned skepticism
that only goes away, at least as it relates to
the draft. It only goes away when the draft classes
yield a lot of players, a lot of cornerstones, a
lot of guys worth investing in a second time. You know,

(09:13):
one of the reasons why it made sense to give
T Higgins his contract was there's nobody else to pay.
There was nobody else to sign. Why is that because
the Bengals haven't drafted well. So when you're the team
that hasn't drafted well and in the draft this year,
you leave positions unaddressed, You don't add picks when maybe
you could have, and you take some players that have

(09:33):
some question marks, not in terms of their character, of course,
but just in terms of production or age, or experience
or fit. Sorry, that built in skepticism is only going
to be amplified. That's how it works. You may be
willing to give the Bengals the benefit of the dell,

(09:54):
most of us are not. That's not because we're naturally
negative or pessimistic. I think if you've listen to me,
at least you know him.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Not.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
It's because the Bengals have not done a very good
job of well doing what they just did, which is
draft players and make decisions in the draft and make
decisions about who they're gonna take, but also what they're
not going to address and who they're not gonna take.
That's how it works. Quarter after three, by the way,
final a GABP six nothing, Mason win, two homers, two

(10:24):
walks of stolen base, first career multi home run game.
Alexis Alexis Daz absolute human gas can. Today they waste
a good start by Brady Singer, the Reds offense non existent.
Game two tonight into six point forty with Chase Petty
making his big league debut. We also have to talk
about not just Alexis Das, but look, we all like
Matt McClain. We all think Matt McLain might be really good.

(10:46):
Matt McLain is not helping this team right now, certainly
not helping this team batting second. We'll spend some time
on that here. In just a bit. You can send
a tweet during the show thanks to Delta Delta Dental
is building healthy, smart, vibrant communities for all good at
Delta Dental, oh dot com.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Sixteen minutes after three o'clock, Joe Goodberry is going to
talk draft with us next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Traffic from GABP coming up in just about fifteen to
twenty minutes one hour from now, the Georgia offensive line
coach Stacy Seals coach to Dylan Fairchild as well as
Marius Mims. That is in one hour. Joe Goodberry Bengals
on the Brain on YouTube recapping every Bengals draft choice.

(11:40):
Go watch it. Joe is with us. Give me one
word to describe this year's Bengals draft class.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Ooh man, there are a ton all right. One I
would say is risk. They took a lot of risk
with a lot of these players for different reasons, especially
to start off in the beginning portions. Everyone's going to
take some risk and accept some with the players in
the mid to late rounds, right, that's why they're still available.
Either they're not big enough, not fast enough, they played
at small schools, whatever it may be. From the top,

(12:07):
the Bengals took a production risk with Shamar Stewart, they
took an age risk with Metrius Knight, and then they
took a risk for an interior off of Theliman and
Villan Fairchild that I think needs a little bit of
technical rebuilding, and I think that's what Peters is here for.
But also in the data perspective, he didn't test athletically
before the draft, and it's typically not a good sign
for offensive.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Linemen Shamar Stewart specifically. Are we focusing a little bit
too much on the lack of sacks.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
I don't think we are. I think if you're drafting
a pass rusher, and I know he's more than that, right,
He's really good against the run, he's young, he's got
all the tools and the body you want from a
first round pick. But if you're drafting a guy in
the first round, I want him to be a pass rusher.
And typically what we see from college to the NFL
is production matters, especially at the defensive end. You want

(12:56):
them to be athletic, high end athletes and have to
be super athletes. And I guess what check number one
for schmer Sturt. We have that good he's young, Check two,
big school, big games, Check three, got the character, Check four.
The only thing he doesn't have is the production. So
we got a bucket of these guys, and we've got
a history of them, whether it's a dafe O way,

(13:16):
whether it's for Shaun Gary and even Toron Walker from
a couple of years ago that went number one to
the Jaguars and There's a whole host of others that
have been like this. When you have that elite athleticism
you can turn into and had a pretty high clip,
so I understand why teams do this. You do end
up being a quality player, quality starter in the NFL.
Not all of them reached the elite status or the

(13:40):
high end top twenty player, top fifteen player. At that position,
he's more than likely because of the production profile is
who he was in college. Maybe just a little bit
better at it, maybe he finishes more. He missed eight
tackles last two years that should have been sex. That
probably changes his production a big time. Half of those, right,

(14:00):
we probably feel better about it. Can you teach a
guy to finish? Can you teach him how to disengage
and turn those pressures into sex? They're gonna have their
handful in developing him, but at the very least gives
you a nice floor to start with.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
The number that stands out that Shamar Stewart has gone
out of his way to point out are the thirty
nine pressures. How do I contextualize that when I think
about what he may do his rookie season in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, you know, if they're any any anytime you get
over thirty pressures, that's notable, I think in a lot
of ways. But when we put it into the entire
draft class, I will say, yeah, his pressure rate is
much better than his sack rate. It still puts them
in about the fifty fourth percentile amongst edge defenders going
back over the last six years or so. So it's
not great. It's not amazing you get to seventy nine

(14:51):
total career pressures for his career. But you know, if
you look like Abdual Carterie at one hundred and fourteen,
James Pierce hundred and thirteen, Donovan Easeraku one hundred and four,
Princely Uman Miland one hundred and fifty four, or Eshton
Geloiti one fifty four. Uman Milan has one one hundred
and forty six career pressures. So these guys still had
a lot more pressures than Stuart did. Stuart to me,

(15:13):
if I were to classify him, he is a chaos creator,
and I think this defense needed us. I think we
talked about Derek Harmon this way when we talked originally
you need a chaos creator on your defensive line as
long as your other guys are cleaning it up, and
maybe this adds to more sacks for other players because
Stewart will create the quarterback to move out of the
pocket or step up or step to the side. He

(15:35):
won't collect it if he's exactly who he was the
Texas A and M, but his teammates will. So you
need these guys, But do you have to spend the
seventeenth pick on that type of player? It was my criticism.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
You mentioned Demetrius Knight's age twenty five, six year college
player for me, I guess what stands out is he
played for a long time in college, but there aren't
a ton of starters reps. Is is that a red
fly along with the fact that he is twenty five
years old and probably not a guy that you're really
thinking long term about. If you're thinking about, like all
right in the second round, you know you want those

(16:08):
guys to eventually sign second contracts. I maybe this is
a I don't know a wrong way of looking at it,
but I would imagine that's not going to happen, right.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
I would imagine it's not either, right if we're talking
about he's twenty nine years old when he hits free
agency the first time the Bengals with every free agency
we talk were like, hey, you know, the guy's twenty nine,
he's thirty or whatever. You're at that edge where the
Bengals won't sign them or won't commit long term. Now
they did a couple of times as free agency they
did with j Hill, so maybe it'll be different. But
at the same time, why we factor age so much?

(16:42):
And it has two sides to the sword here. Number one,
long term, Yes, when you get to that second contract,
the guy who's going to be a little bit older,
it's going to cut into the back half of his
career and maybe he won't have a fifteen year career
right because he's a little bit older coming out. But
the real issue I see from my experience watching draft
prospects when they're older, they tend to look really good

(17:05):
on tape, and because they're so much older, they're bigger,
they're stronger, they're they're full grown men at this point.
They I hear the same thing when when people say, oh, man,
he's so mature, he's a leader out there. Yeah, he's
a grown man. He should be. It's hard to compare
them to someone that are three, four, sometimes five years younger.
Than them on the field. So the one saving grace

(17:27):
though for Night, he did look really good on tape.
He actually had the highest take grade I gave of
all the prospects they drafted this year. So I really
like Night as well. But I tried to temper my expectations, like,
all right, yeah he is older like this, he should
look this good. The one thing is he was a
former quarterback and he only really played one year of
starting linebacker experience at a big program, So maybe there
is more for him to develop. Maybe he's not at

(17:49):
the you know, at the ceiling that he could be at.
It's tough to weigh that when you only get one
year of experience or high end experience, and he's also
going to be twenty five years old as a rookie.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Joe Goodbarry Bengals on the Brain on YouTube goes through
every pick and so I'm not going to ask you
about every single one, but I do want to. I
do want your thoughts on my favorite guy. Who is
the last guy they took ToJ Brooks knew it.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
I knew that was your guy.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
I was gonna try and I guess this before you
coulish that favorite because he should be so every year.
Rank I do a power rankings for subscribers on Twitter
where I power rank the whole rookie class, and like,
I think they have eight, ten or nineteen right now,
depending on how many these under undrafted guys signed. And
I was just starting to get like a preliminary Okay,
let me rank these guys like who can make an
impact their rookie year? And I had Schamar Stewart and

(18:38):
to Meetdris Night Dylan Fairchild is the top three of course,
right those guys are in line to potentially start and
make a lot of players play a lot of snaps.
And I thought, okay, who's next? Is it Barret Carter?
Is it Jalen Rivers?

Speaker 3 (18:48):
No?

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Actually, I think Taj Brooks has a chance to play
the most as a rookie because the Bengals don't really
have great depth at running back. Sure, they have two
veterans behind Chase Brown right now that they like, but
there's no reason why some fresh legs, very experienced TODJ.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Brooks.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
That's a bowling ball with knives glued to him. The
way he runs. He is so hard to tackle. They're
saying he played at two twenty five to two thirty.
It's like shades of Rudy Johnson at times at five
to nine when I'm watching Texas attack a lot of fun,
very fun player. If they needed some density, they needed
some power, and they need a guy that could break
a little of some tackles, run from the shotgun almost

(19:24):
ninety nine percent of the time. Hey, that's a great fit.
And he can pass pro tech. I think he's a
solid receiver in the passing game as well. I think TODJ.
Brooks has a good shot to be RB two. Maybe
it's not this year, maybe it's not right away, but
maybe towards the end of the year, maybe, you know,
during his rookie contract. And if the Bengals find RB
one and RB two in the fifth and sixth round, respectively,

(19:45):
between Chase Brown and TODG. Brook that's a great way
to recoup some value and say, hey, we're doing the
right things here and not spending high resources at running
back for a high output passing offense.

Speaker 5 (19:57):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Are you surprised and are you con concerned that they
did not address the three technique in this draft?

Speaker 2 (20:04):
I am, you know, I think three tech and safety
were both probably positions they wanted to draft and wanted
to address And I wonder if we felt the same
way as the draft was approaching, right as they kind
of shut down free agency. Well, you're not going to
be able to get everything. So what position are you
going to bypass? What position do you feel comfortable bypassing?

(20:24):
And they've drafted a lot of corners, safeties, and defensive
tackles recently, and maybe that was the logic, right of
you know, we have Chris Jenkins, we've got McKinley Jackson,
just spent a second and third round pick. We should
see a second year bump. Maybe they don't turn into
all pro players. Right, they're still defensive tackle number three
and four in the depth trat right now behind BJ

(20:45):
Hill and TJ. Slayton. But if they take a small
step in the right direction, that's big for the development
and for the depth of your defensive line. So maybe
you get to the rounds three and you say, all right,
is this guy that's available better than Chris Jenkins? No,
so why draft him? Right, he's not going to play
right away, he may be inactive. Go with the guys
we still have that we had high opinions on last year.

(21:07):
So that's the way I rationalized that I thought there
was some chances, and I think they wanted to get
a detackle it just it didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
The undrafted free agency class, which you are currently doing
work on, is there somebody that to this point has
stood out more than the others, more than.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
The others, because there's a handful that have so far,
you know, I'll run through some names that have been interesting.
Jordan Moore, the wide receiver from Duke Chakwan Loyal safety
from Rutgers. Howard Cross, defensive tackle from Notre Dame, the
only Notre Dame guy we got for Al Golden, which
is kind of interesting. I wondered if if we'd end
up with more, but they bypassed the Notre Dame guys
the entire draft. Steph McLaughlin from the center from Oho

(21:47):
State and then Caleb atn from the offensive tackle from BYU.
And I should mention because I got a guy a
special shout out to a guy on Twitter that follows me,
he says. Eric Gregory, the defensive tackle from Arkansas is
a stud. I haven't gotten to the film yet, but
I can if he's I mean, this guy's standing on
the table as they say this time of year for
Eric Gregory, but Jordan More to me, the wide receiver

(22:07):
from Duke, the Mingo's death that wide receiver right now.
Let's see if Jermaine Burton liked himself on fire or
does some you know, outrageous act in the preseason or
camp too. And if he doesn't, he's probably got a
roster spot. But who is the fifth guy? Who is
the sixth guy? Is it Charlie Jones? Still is it
Isaiah Williams? You know, can Jordan Moore crack that lineup?
I think he can And he's a good player, played

(22:28):
a lot of slot in at Duke, high output for production,
a decent enough athlete six six eight, good route runner,
makes some crazy catches. I mean you can watch his
highlights and he's got a bunch of announcers going, that's
the catch of the year, like four times in a year,
So you know, that's a good thing. I think he
could stick on the on the back half of the roster.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Joe, you're the best, uh. I know you have a
lot going on. I can't thank you enough. Will bother
you perhaps before training camp begins. I appreciate the time
as always, man, Thanks.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
So much sounds good, moll, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
You got a good Bary Bengals on the brain. On
YouTube watch it. He does a great deep dive into
all six picks made by the Bengals. Here in the
twenty twenty five draft Reds Lou's sig zip to the
Cardinals to the Cardinals the Reds loss six zip to
the Cardinals. I said you'll hear Terry Francona whether you
want to or not. Next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the UC.

Speaker 6 (23:27):
Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight Loss Center offers comprehensive
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(23:49):
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Speaker 3 (23:56):
At ees sports station ESPN fifteen three.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home of
lifetime power train protection and guaranteed credit approval from their
family to yours for life kelseyshow dot Com. Day Night
doubleheader a GABP today because of the rain out last night.
Reds lose the first game today six nothing to the Cardinals.

(24:23):
They waste a good start by Brady Singer, who went
six innings and gave up run. Reds managed just three
hits this afternoon. Alexis ds pitched the ninth inning. He
was atrocious, gave up five runs and that includes three homers.
The nightcap tonight starts at six point forty on a
seven hundred WLW. Chase Petty is going to start making

(24:44):
his big league debut Stephen Max a left He will
throw for Saint Louis. Jam Or Candelario, placed on the
ten day injured list with a lumbar spine strain retroactive
to Monday. Petty on the taxis for now. Cincinnati also
called up infielder Tyler Callahan. Tyler Callahan, who got in

(25:08):
the game today and was hitless in his two at
bats in his big league debut, starting in left field.
I think that's mostly in I got one other thing here,
Xavier is announced that they have signed seven foot center
Case and Westfall, who played this year Fear of God Athletics,
an affiliated overtime elite in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, averaged fifteen

(25:30):
points and over ten and a half rebounds during the
twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four season at Salita
High School, earning CHSAA Max Prep All State honors. So
there you go, seven foot or Case and Westfall now
a Xavier Musketeer. All right, reds lusig Zippa GABP the
series with the Cardinals now even at one apiece, the

(25:52):
five game winning streak is over. Here's Terry Francona after
today's game.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
What were the Cardinals able to do in attacking year
hitters today?

Speaker 7 (26:00):
I thought, I thought their guy he started he started
us out slow, either change up, slow, break the ball
and threw it for strikes consistently. And then we were
in the hole most of the day and he elevated
fastball to seem a fastball slider.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Basically just pitched.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Tough ninth inning.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Obviously, how will you dissect the ages out?

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Man?

Speaker 7 (26:24):
You're right, it was tough. You'd like to keep it
one nothing and give yourself a chance to make him
use their closer.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
And he got to two outs and.

Speaker 7 (26:32):
Then we just you know, it just was one. I
think it was slider, fastball, fastball that got hit pretty
hard and just didn't locate very well.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Brady Singer probably well not probably deserved better today.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
What you see from me, you know what?

Speaker 7 (26:45):
And he battled like crazy because I think I looked
up in the fifth inning and he was still fifty
to fifty strike the ball, but he'd only given up
the solo homer, and that's all he ended up giving up.
I said, I think that speaks a lot to his competitiveness.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
I almost had two long.

Speaker 7 (27:01):
God, I thought, you know what, both of them. And
then he hit the bolt a second right on the nose.
So the hope is he don't try to do more
because he's swinging about so well.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Looking at Dias this this whole season, has it been
more mechanics or has it been more mindset and approach struggles?
This season?

Speaker 7 (27:21):
How about today? Let's do it today? I don't know,
I mean, how do you know. I haven't even talked
to him about his mindset. He said he loves to pitch.
He just he just loves some pitches over the play.
I mean he hit a guy that started and he
left some pitches.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Over the plate.

Speaker 8 (27:36):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Terry Francona after the game Saday Reds lose six nothing
to the U Saint Louis Cardinals. There's an Alexis Dias issue,
which you know today. This was not a low leverage situation.
It might not have been a save opportunity. The Reds
were not winning the game, but it's a one nothing
game of the night, didn't. I mean the idea you
just heard Terry Francona say, the idea is for him

(27:58):
to hold him at once, so you give your off
a chance in the bottom of the ninth inning. That's
I'll be honest with you. I don't really care what
the official definition of high leverage is. That's a high
leverage innting. It's a one run game in the ninth
You've got one more chance to come to the plate.
If you give up a run, your chances of coming
back take a nose dive. So that's a high leverage situation.

(28:18):
So it's not like he has only been used in
lost causes. I thought he pitched in the game on
Saturday in Colorado, and I thought throw really well like that,
that was kind of at least close to vintage Alexis Das.
The game before that, he pitched in Miami against the
Marlins and was terrible. Now during that time frame there,

(28:41):
right around the time he pitched in that Monday game
in Miami, we talked about how it felt like he
was a long way from getting the closer job back.
Number one, Amelia Pegan has been more than fine Number two.
Once you get demoted and at times you're the first
guy in, which in that game in Miami, which they
lost six to three, that was the first game of

(29:04):
that series, Alexis Diaz was the first guy out of
the bullpen. Nicolodolo went five and two thirds. DZ came
in and that was where Miami, I think what stole
four bases on him in one inning. And we said
at the time that was a week and a half ago,
that when you go from closer to first guy in

(29:24):
and the results aren't dramatically better, you're closer to being
demoted than you are to getting your old job back.
The example I gave was Billy Hamilton. Billy Hamilton for
years was the leadoff hitter and then suddenly he was
batting ninth, and that was batting ninth back when the
pitcher still hit, so he was hitting after the pitcher.

(29:46):
My take was he's closer to being demoted or released
than he is to being the team's leadoff hitter. Again,
it's kind of the same thing with Alexis das I.
You know, he was asked about Terry was he was
asked about Alexiitias mindset. I thought it was interesting that
after he gave up the second home run, Terry Francona

(30:07):
basically said, screw it, you're pitching now. Logistically there's a
reason for that. They have another game tonight, right, so
you know you're trying not to burn yet another arm
when you have another game in like three hours, So that, yeah,
makes sense. They had already used a couple of relief pitchers,
Rogers and Barlow pitched the seventh and eighth, and so

(30:30):
you're using Diaz and obviously when he put him in
the game, the idea is to keep the Reds in it.
But once it kind of gets out of hand, which
it did with the three run homer, that made it
for nothing. Dude, I need you to get through the
ninth so I don't have to burn another arm and
maybe make that pitcher unavailable tonight. Now, the Reds did

(30:52):
have an off day yesterday because of the rain out,
and so you know, Scott Barlow pitched today. He certainly
can pitch tonight. Taylor Taylor Rodgers pitch today, He certainly
can pitch tonight. He threw twenty one pitches, most of
them not for strike, so we will see. At the
same time, man, there was I don't know what time

(31:13):
will tell if what we saw in the ninth inning
from Terry Francona and Alexis d Az is telling. Logistically,
it makes sense don't burn another pitcher when you got
a game tonight, in a game that's now lost. At
the same time, you know, there was sort of a hey,
oh boy, you're gonna have to get out of this.

(31:36):
That to me is the sort of thing you do
before you send a guy away. We will see, but
it's hard to have much confidence when Alexis DZ comes
into the game in any kind of high leverage situation.
The other thing today, and you don't want to pick
on any one hitter when you get shut out because
nobody did much of anything. But this is a team

(31:57):
that coming into this series have been hot offensively. Of course,
the numbers are a little bit skewed because they played
in Colorado in corus Field, but more than anything, against
an awful Rockies team, and their recent statistical output has
seemed larger, maybe than it really is, because of the
twenty two run game against the Baltimore Orioles. But if

(32:18):
you've paid attention to the Reds over the last couple
of weeks, you have seen a good offensive team, a
team that is hitting well. Matt McClain is not among
the Reds who are hitting well right now, zero for
four today, two more strikeouts he continues to when he
does make contact, and not make very hard contact. The

(32:41):
at bats aren't awesome. And if you look at him
over his last seven games, he has struck out ten
times eleven times, sorry, eleven times in his last I'm sorry,
that's even worse than that. I was gonna say eleven
times in his last seven starts. It's actually thirteen times

(33:01):
in his last eight starts, and only two walks mixed
in and only five hits mixed in. Like, the guy
is striking out a ton, he's not getting on base,
not getting any hits. Maybe the answer isn't demoting Matt McClain.

(33:26):
It can't be continuing to hit him leadoff. It cannot
pay to continue hitting him lead off. So I think
for most if I ask the question what do you
do with Alexis Diaz, it's going to be send him
to Louisville. If I ask what do you do with
Matt McClain, what's the answer there? Five point three, seven, four, nine,

(33:52):
fifteen thirty. Matt McClain is a big part of this organization,
one of the cornerstone around which they're going to try
to build. At the same time, the team is trying
to win right now, team is also kind of playing
shorthanded because well, for what it's worth, which right now

(34:14):
isn't much, you don't have jam Or Candelario. Austin Hayes
has been hobbled, they don't have Cees. They've got to
get Tyler Stevenson back very quickly. Here Matt McLean's not helping.
What do you do with Matt McLean currently now batting

(34:34):
one fifty four. The answer can't be just run him
in the two hole every single game. That doesn't make
a whole lot of sense, especially on a team where
you have some other guys who are swinging a pretty
hot bat right now, so he gets slid down the order.
If the lack of production persists, then what and among

(34:56):
the possibilities is something that back in March seemed all
most inconceivable or unimaginable, and that's taking a guy who
two years ago was the Red's best player and sending
him to Louisville. Understand and I think we all do.
This is not a year like so many prior to
it where the idea is to just put nine guys
out there and see if someone sticks. They're trying to

(35:19):
get to the playoffs this year. They're trying to win
a division this year. And if they're not going to
try to do that, then what's the point? Which means
there's added importance on every single game, and there's added
importance on everybody contributing every single game. You obviously understand,
we all do. Matt McClain needs time to develop. Matt
McClain is going to go through batting slumps. Nobody is

(35:40):
hitting the eject button on Matt McClain as a member
of this team and a big part of this team
moving forward. But small picture, you're trying to win games.
He ain't helping you, So what do you do? Eleven
away from four o'clock five point three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. In thirty minutes, the
Dylan Fairchild's offensive line coach at the University of Georgia

(36:02):
is going to join us. Stacy cereals he'll be with
us more on the Bengals and the draft and uh,
something you might not like when we talk about the
latest NFL draft phenomenon coming up on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 9 (36:16):
Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
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Speaker 1 (36:52):
OH Paul Dayner Junior was on it Theathletic dot Com,
The Growler Podcast, and he was terrific on the Bengals draft.
The class players they didn't take, uh, the positions they
did not address. If you missed it, go get it.
You know. Most outlets, and we read a bunch of

(37:12):
them read their grades on Monday. Most outlets have given
the Bengals kind of a C C grade, some of
B minus, some one of B. It's it's been hard
to find anybody who is giving the Bengals draft class
exceptionally positive reviews. In fact, the Athletic dot Com, when
they ranked one of their football writers ranked one through

(37:33):
thirty two best class all the way down to the worst.
They had the Bengals at twenty nine. Not great. So
I was looking. I was looking for an outlet that
views the Bengals draft class a little bit more favorably.
So I found one Sports Info Solutions. If you missed
our conversation with Jordan Edwards. Jordan is a senior draft

(37:56):
senior scouting analyst with Sports Information Solutions. We had him
on the show yesterday to kind of outline why Sports
Info Solutions is more bullish on the Bengals draft class.
Than most. If you missed that conversation and so much more,
and by demand, also our chat yesterday with a UC
volleyball coach, Danielle Atomich. Go find those interviews and so

(38:20):
much more on the iHeartRadio app. Could also get that
stuff on my page at ESPN fifteen to thirty dot com.
Podcast of this show a service of a longneck sports grill.
This weekend fun sports Weekend, Red's play NBA and NHL playoffs,
and of course it's Derby Weekend. Watch it all at
Longnecks and FC Cincinnati surging red hot FC Cincinnati, watch

(38:43):
it all at Longnecks, Wilder hebron or Richwood four minutes
away from four o'clock ESPN fifteen thirty reds low six
nothing today to the Saint Louis Cardinals, and in the
grand scheme of things, I guess maybe not that big
of a deal. The Alexis is a thing, and unfortunately
the Matt mcclaining is a thing. One thing that is

(39:05):
not a thing is the Brady Singer thing. Huh what
did I just say? Brady Singer was good today? Brady
Singer continues to be pretty damn good. We'll see if
that continues and see if the Reds can get one
tonight with Chase Petty making his big league debut, a
guy that was you might remember acquired for Sonny Gray

(39:25):
back in twenty twenty two, a trade that worked out
for both teams. With Sonny Gray pitching well in Minnesota,
made an All Star Game, made an All Star team,
i should say, and Chase Petty, who was Minnesota's first
round pick in twenty twenty one. Baseball America ranked him
third among Cincinnati prospects and among the back ten of
their overall top one hundred during the offseason. So Chase

(39:49):
Petty will pitch tonight for Cincinnati, making his big league debut,
and that'll be fun. We missed by we missed because
of the rain delay. We missed because of the rain.
Now at least the possibility of watching Sonny Gray pitch

(40:09):
versus Chase Petty, because Sonny Gray, the former Red, is
now what the Cardinals was going to pitch tomorrow. Because
of the rain delay. They did what the Cardinals did,
They slid everybody back, and so now Sonny won't pitch
Againt Cincinnati. He'll pitch the first game of Saint Louis
series at home against the New York Mets. Uh Dylan
Fairchild's college offensive line coach is going to join us.
Coming up at four to twenty today. More on the

(40:32):
Bengals draft class and I'm sorry, but I find the
NFL Draft prank calls funny. That's next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
Thirty, Cincinnati's sports station, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Here's a free plug for somebody. Charlie Goldsmith, who is
a regular on SINCY three to sixty formerly The Inquirer
in Cincinna dot com, has an awesome newsletter that shows
up right in your inbox. He writes today about Alexis
ds You should go. It's a free subscription, so you
don't have to pay. You don't have to. Just just

(41:06):
go subscribe Charlie's chalkboard and he outlines kind of at
the end that the Reds of Triple A right now
have some guys who just seem to be better options
than Alexis Das. This season should be mostly about using
the best twenty five. If the idea is for Alexis
DZ to pitch through his issues, wouldn't you rather him

(41:27):
do that at the minor league level? That in Cincinnati again,
I would I would dispute the assertion that today's outing
was not a high leverage outing. It's a one nothing
game of the ninth. That's high leverage. It's not high leverage.
It's not maybe as high as up one nothing in
the ninth. It might not be as high leverage as
up to one in the eighth, and you have two
to one and nobody out and you bring in a reliever.

(41:48):
But a one nothing game is not a seven to
nothing game. A one nothing game is not some like
out of hand hopeless cause where it's either Alexis das
or using a position player. So the rads with Alexis,
assuming he is healthy, the plan is for him to
just pitch through whatever he's dealing with here, which is fine,

(42:09):
that's you know how it works, unless there's an injury.
But if the idea is to have him just pitch
through whatever he is dealing with and still have him
pitch in situations where a game's outcome can be decided,
you got to send him to Louisville and just see
if if someone else is a better option. If you're

(42:33):
going to banish Alexis DS to simply lost causes, he's
only going to pitch in games whe the Reds are
up by a bunch or down by a bunch. First
of all, you're telling Terry frank ConA to kind of
manage shorthanded. Hey, here's a bullet you can't use unless
all the other bullets are used, or unless the game's
outcome is pretty much set in stone. If you give

(42:55):
a manager a pitcher, he ought to be able to
use that pitcher in high leverage situations. Do you trust
Alexis d as in high leverage situations? I do not.
They do want him to pitch through whatever he is
dealing with right now. Is Alexis d has a better
option than Zach Maxwell or Luis May, better option than
Joe losorsa better option than Albert Abreu, better option than

(43:19):
Sam Mall who's on a rehab assignment right now. The
answer I think right now is no, asking him to
pitch through what he's dealing with while hopefully not using
him in high leverage situations. He's got options. I still
certainly believe he has a lot of upside, can certainly
still be a big part of this team this year.

(43:41):
It's hard to feel comfortable using him right now. And
then the other one is Matt McClain. Dude, who doesn't
love Matt McClain right, Like, if you're a Reds fan,
he liked Matt McLain, twenty five years old, former first
round pick, and look, man, part of it is, we're
still talking about a very inexperienced player. Matt McClain has
played in I'll look it up here. I'm gonna guess
by now, like one hundred and ten big league baseball

(44:04):
games he played in ninety two years ago. Didn't play
it last year. So Matt McClain hasn't yet played a
full big league season. And so yeah, man, you account
for slumps and learning curves and the league figuring him out,
and he's now going to figure out how the league
has figured him out and figure out how to adjust.
Like there's a lot there. Nobody is giving up on

(44:25):
Matt McLain. I'm not sure right now the best idea
is to send him to Louisville. I just do know this.
Your better hitter should hit at the top of the order.
Matt McClain is not one of their better hitters. That
doesn't mean send him down, that doesn't mean bench them.
Although there's certainly validity to the idea that he shouldn't
be playing as much right now, but at the very least, man,

(44:46):
how can he hit him second he's hurting the team.
We'll see what his role is. I have not yet
seen the lineup for tonight. Maybe it's out there. We'll
find out. Coming up in just about twelve minutes, Stacy
Serels is going to join us, the University of Georgia
offensive line coach. We're going to talk with him about
Dylan Fairchild, whom the Bengals took with their third round

(45:09):
pick in this year's draft. And by the way, Stacy
Cerels obviously also coached Mamrius Mems. His actual coaching career
has seen him work with the likes of Andrew Whitworth,
Clint Bowling, and Willie Anderson like He's worked with a
lot of dudes who came to Cincinnati and different levels

(45:30):
obviously there have turned out to be quite good. I
was talking at the top of the show about the
Bengals and the draft and benefit of the doubt. My take,
and I really couldn't find anybody who disagreed with this
in the days leading up to the draft, was that

(45:54):
this draft will be the one that determines largely determines
whether or not the Bengals won a Super Bowl while
Joe Burrow is in his prime and under contract to
the Bengals. Like, if this class works, if Shamar Stewart
balls out, if Dylan Fairchild is the best guard Burrow
has ever played behind, if Demetrius Knight can make a

(46:16):
really big immediate impact, this team's got a shot man
That might not be anything anyone wants to admit during
the middle of what has been admittedly a pretty underwhelming
off season. But last I look, they're over under for
the season is ten and a half. They have short

(46:40):
odds to win the AFC North. They're not going to
be considered favorites to win the AFC. But if you
talk to anybody who follows the National Football League in
this country and you say to them, Bengals can make
a Super Bowl this year, you're not going to get
laughed at. They might not be the favorite, they might
not be the most likely team in their own division.

(47:00):
They've got a shot if this class works. And you
add to it one of the best quarterbacks in the
sport for my money, at least the best quarterback in
the sport. An offense that has a chance to be
really really good by the way, like they're running back
room now has a chance to be awesome. Taran told
me today we're gonna have Taj Brooks's running backs coach

(47:21):
at Texas Tech on that's my guy, not his running
backs coach, but Taj Brooks, like that guy can help.
That guy gives them a really interesting running back room.
And I spent three minutes on this on yesterday's show. Like,
imagine if like the light bulb comes on for Jamaine Burton,
plus you have Mi Kasiki, like the pieces on offense
are awesome. If this defense is merely okay, this team's

(47:43):
got more than a chance. And if this draft class
pays instant dividends, this team's got a chance. If it doesn't,
the ceiling is not as high, and then if they
fall short, don't you kind of wonder what Joe Burrow

(48:05):
was gonna say, Like I think, if you're being fair,
if you're being fair about the draft, you've tried to
learn as much as you can about the players the
Bengals selected. You might think you know a lot about
the players the Bengals have selected, and so you haven't
had to learn anymore, that's fine. But if you're being fair,

(48:30):
you've learned what you can about the players the Bengals
have taken. You're open minded about their ability to help
the team this year. You're maybe a little bit curious
about how they're gonna fit, or you're starting to think
about how they're gonna fit, But you have made a
mental note about what they didn't address, not just in

(48:51):
the draft, but this offseason, pass rushing, defensive tackle. They've
added no one to the secondary. If what they have
chosen to do works, Duke Tobin's got a chance to
be named executive at year again, and this team has
a chance to be awesome. But if you and I

(49:13):
are taking note, and I think most of us are,
if you and I are taking note about the positions
the Bengals have not been that aggressive with. Don't you
think Joe Burrow is as well? Like that's that's to me,
that's what looms, that's what hovers over this entire season.

(49:33):
There's the Trey Hendrickson thing, which is gonna continue to
be a thing. Like now we're to the point where
the question is, does Trey Hendrickson miss the first game?
Like that might sound silly, on April thirtieth. That's the question,
because he's probably not gonna come to camp day one.
My guess is he holds out. We'll see if he
shows up for preseason games. But and if he does, awesome.

(49:54):
Is he gonna miss football games? The count is he
gonna miss the game checks that come with him. So
that's that's a thing. And then there's camp battles and
jobs up for grabs and how do things shake out
it guard and all that stuff, plus how do all
the pieces fit defensively with al golden But on a
grand level, the guy who runs the team is Joe Burrow.

(50:15):
Like we say that kind of jokingly, but go back
to the T Higgins thing. What did Joe Burrow do?
Joe Burrow flexed muscle and flexed muscles successfully, unlike any
athlete in the history of this town, certainly unlike any
Bengals player. And last year, even before he started a
flex muscle, dude was not happy. We talked about this

(50:37):
all throughout November and December. Guy had a chip on
his shoulder. He was pissed, whether it was with his teammates,
his coaches, the front office, his life, whatever. So Joe
Burrow I'm sure has been paying close attention to what
the Bengals have done and haven't done. I'm sure he's
been paying close attention to who the Bengals have drafted.
We talked with Shamar Stewart last week. Joe Burrow met

(50:58):
him and talked to him for a few minutes at
the stadium, Which is cool. If you and I that
were taking note of what the Bengals haven't addressed. You
know Joe Burrow is, and you know that's going to
be in the back of his mind if what the
Bengals didn't do comes back to haunt them. So if
what they didn't do comes back to haunt them, and

(51:20):
Joe Burrow is taking mental notes and the team is
on the outside looking in, again, well, what do we
think that looks like and sounds like? What do we
think that's gonna look and sound like from Joe's perspective?
If another year is coming gone and Joe is either

(51:44):
not in the playoffs, or they're in the playoffs and
they lose early, or they're in the playoffs but they're
only just kind of there because you gotta have seven
and they're not legitimate championship contenders, what do we think happens.
Then that is to me what looms over the entire

(52:05):
twenty twenty five season, because it loomed over last year,
A pissed off Joe Burrow made the Bengals trade their
change their strategy as it relates to T Higgins. A
pissed off Joe Burrow made it known all throughout the
latter part of the season last year how unhappy he was.
I'm sure Joe pays very close attention to how the
Bengals have built this team, this year's roster. If what

(52:28):
the Bengals are doing doesn't work, what do we think
Joe Burrow is gonna do? Now? Some are going to
advance the conversation to go, well, you know, he could
do a Carson Palmer. I don't think he's gonna necessarily
do that. Carson Palmer flexed and you could argue it
didn't work because he didn't get what he wanted here,
But he flexed because he wanted the Bengals to make changes.

(52:51):
Joe Burrow this past year wanted the Bengals to make
changes to how they looked at T Higgins. If what
they're doing doesn't work, do we really think it's beyond
imagination that Joe Burrow won't want to see changes with
the people in charge of building a roster that falls short.

(53:12):
If it falls short, and if it falls short, chances
are one of the reasons will be what they didn't
do this offseason that I'm sure Joe Burrow is paying
attention to. Sixteen minutes after four o'clock, Your thoughts are welcome.
Five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty. Red's lost

(53:34):
six nothing to the Cardinals today. Tonight they play the
Cardinals again, because that's how doubleheaders work. Stacey Searles is
Georgia's offensive line coach. Former UC offensive line coach coached
Dylan Fairchild at Georgia the last three years. We'll talk
with him about one of the two new Bengals offensive linemen.
Next on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (54:00):
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Weight Loss Center offers comprehensive ob city care and advanced
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(54:20):
an accident east of Coleraine Avenue on Queen City Avenue.
Another crash at Ridgetop Way and Reading Road. A crash
at Norwood Lateral on that e Zelik with traffic, this reporter.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
This thing we like to do after the draft is
if we can try to get on some of these players.
Position coaches. Stacey Searles is the offensive line coach at
the University of Georgia. Has been in that capacity since
twenty twenty two, which means he coached Dylan Fairchild, the
Bengals third round pick. Also Marius Mems last year. Stacey
Seils a former UC assistant as well. It's good to

(54:53):
have you coach. How are you.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
Oh, I'm doing great, just that on the road recruiting,
trying to replace some of.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
These kids that we lost in draft.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Well, you got a couple of them, including Dylan Fairchild.
So you show up in Athens in twenty twenty two,
Dylan Fairchild is already there. What do you remember about
the first time you met him?

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Well, the first time I actually met Dylan was I
was at the University of North Carolina and I was
recruiting Georgia, and here's a two times state champion wrestler
that I was hoping Georgia would not go on and
he ended up signing with Georgia. When I show up
at Georgia, I'm really glad that he decided to sign
at Georgia. He is one tough kid, great kid, hard worker,

(55:35):
and you couldn't ask for a better player to coach.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
Put the film on for me. We're watching him as
a prospect. What are you pointing out to me?

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Well, the one thing is he's incredibly strong. He can
play with a bass, he can get movement, he can
finish people. Dylan, like I said, was a state champ wrestler,
so that as to his leverage and ability to move people.
But the best thing probably about dealing Fairchild is his toughness.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
He old school. If you ask him to run through
a brick wall, he'll do it. And that mentality is
what us office line coaches are looking for. And uh,
he'll do anything. A coach asking.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Where would you say you saw him grow the most
during the three years you had him in Athens.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
You know, like I said, his strength was really good
even coming out of high school. But he's such a
powerful young man. But he but he really he really
studied the game, understanding uh, our playbook things like that,
but his his the violence he plays with was outstanding.

(56:45):
I can remember normally, uh, places I've been before on
Mondays and Thursdays is sort of a short practice things
like that. We'd be out there on Monday and Thursday
and between our Tuesday Wednesday bloody Tuesday and hard Wednesday practice.
But on Monday and with you, he would come out
and run the counter and the collisions and and and
the violence he played with was unbelievable. And I'm like,

(57:09):
this kid's gonna be a player. And he order was
in a backup role, and he just kept showing his
toughness and and not afraid to throw his face in there.
And uh, you know, he he earned he earned the
starting position. In the last two years, he's been a
staple for us. You know.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
You you referenced something that has been talked about a
lot here, his wrestling background, and and you alluded to,
you know, the way that that can help when you're
playing his position. Can can you elaborate on it for me?
When you have an offensive lineman that has a wrestling background.
How does you how do you as a head coach
try to try to blend the two skill sets?

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Well, you know the one the advantage he has over
other guys. A lot of times guys don't have the
balance and body body control and able to bend, play
with leverage, move people. Uh, he's really strong with his hands,
and I think all that relates back to wrestling and
then for offensive line, and I wish they all played

(58:07):
all all wrestled, you know, they either need to are
there great skill guys that can move their feet and
play basketball, but but that it translates of being able
to get under people, get your hands inside, replace your hands.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
You know.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Play in the offensive line is all about, you know,
recovering from getting in a bad position. And I think
he does a good job of that.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
When when you're his position coach and uh, folks from
NFL teams reach out and go, look, you're gonna tell
us all the good stuff, And they asked for maybe
one thing that you would like to see him work on.
What do you mention?

Speaker 3 (58:41):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (58:42):
You know, sometimes he'd play out over his little little
hat heavy at times because he tries to play with
such recklessness, recklessness easy for me to say he he
tries to destroy people. You know, I talked about the
bias and sometimes he would play a little out of control,
you know. Getting in the NFL, I think he's going to,

(59:02):
you know, with coach Peters up there, is going to
do a great job of teaching how to play a
little more under control and still be violent. And that's
one thing he needs to do.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
So Dylan Fairchild comes to Cincinnati a year ago. A
Marius Mems is the first round pick. Obviously also someone
you coached. I know you're busy with your season during
the year, but the first year review for a Marius
Mims was awesome. I'm sure that's no surprise to you
at all.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Well, A marsh Mems of freaking nature. Anytime you've got
a guy at six eight and three forty and eighteen
percent body fat, they don't make guys like that, Okay,
So I knew he had go in the first round.
The other thing is he's he's really, really, really good
at the pass pro he you know, we'll start off
season in February, okay, and there's thousands of reps of

(59:52):
one on one pass we'll do through the year, and
at Georgia we go against really good players. You saw
the guys going in the first round, the guys at Philly,
and Mems will go against these guys and there would
be a handful of times that he might get beat
over from February to we finished the season in January
and the playoffs or national championship, and if he if

(01:00:15):
he is locked in, he don't get beat And that
was the thing that really impressed me with Mems. How
strong he is. He can he can set people down.
And that's the one thing, Dylan, you know, you put
those two guys beside each other, who knows where coach
will play them, But that would be a very powerful
side of the office.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Lide Well, and you and I were talking about this
off air. You've You've worked with a lot of guys
who went on to become Cincinnati Bengals throughout your career.
So if we could just do this every year, get
a Georgia guy, this, this this offensive line is going
to be like the best in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
We'll have a couple more next year. And I'm blessed.
I'm blessed to be at George and I'm blessed to
coach coach some really good guys and Dylan Fairshey's one
of my favorite all time.

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
That guy. You know. A quick story.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
He pops his calf against tennise O'Neill the week of
the Texas game. His calf and practice and Tuesday practice
and our practice is at Tuesday on Tuesday or or
bloody Tuesday. They're hard, and he pops his calf and
he hardly walked for a couple of days. And I'm like,
you're gonna be okay, he said, Coach, this is the
biggest my career. Said, there's no way I'm not playing
against Texas. They were number one in the country. We

(01:01:21):
were like number five. And he's like, I'm playing. So
we'll get out there in pre game and he's moving
around okay, and I'm like you okay, can you go?
He said, yeah, I can go, said I just can't run.
I said, dude, what I said, No, I can't run.
You got to run to play? Said no, coach, I'm fine.
So he every time we run the counter and then

(01:01:43):
call for him to pull, they would flip positions. The
two guards would flip positions. He's like, I can I
can douce block, I can move a down guy. But
I can't sprint and pull and block the corner. So
he's extremely tough. He'll play with pain and sixteen or seven,
how many I don't even know how many record seats
and games you guys play now, but that season is

(01:02:05):
very long. You've got you a tough guy that can
play through pain. Because it's a violent sport. Things are
going to happen, and he does have that toughness to
play through pain.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
That's that's our kind of guy. He'll do well here.
I cannot thank you enough for doing this much appreciated.
If they get another Georgia alignment next year, and I'm
kind of hoping they do, we're gonna bug you. Thanks
so much.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
Coach, good talking to you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
You got it. Stacy Cereals, the offensive line coach at
the University of Georgia, coaching Dylan Fairchild each of the
last three years in Athens, twenty eight after four o'clock
five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty is our
phone number. Brendanman and Jones on Baseball is coming up
in just about twenty five minutes on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:02:55):
From the UC Help Traffic Center. You see helps Weight
Loss Center offers comprehensible b city care in advanced surgical expertise.
Call five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three. Cruise have
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(01:03:16):
accident that before Sleepy Hollow Road and on Queen's City Avenue.
And it's another accident over at Ridge Top Way on
that Ezallik with traffic.

Speaker 5 (01:03:27):
This is an ESPN fifteen thirty Miami University. Meet your
New Bengals.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
The Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 5 (01:03:34):
Flect where today's students become tomorrow's leaders, presented by Skyline, Chili, Cininnati,
Drywall and a door in Window.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
Now here's Moegger. With their first round pick in the
twenty twenty five NFL Draft, the Bengals selected Texas A
and M edge rusher Shamar Stewart. Stewart was a third
team All SEC performer for the Aggies last season. At
six by five inches tall and two hundred sixty seven pounds,
he absolutely looks the part and there's no questioning his
raw physical traits. At the NFL scouting combine, Stewart ran

(01:04:08):
a four point five to nine forty yard dash, He
had a forty inch vertical and a ten feet eleven
inches broad jump. Athletically, Stuart has tons of upside. The
question is about his lack of production in college, where
Stuart had just one and a half sacks last season
and just four and a half across thirty seven games
in three seasons at Texas. A and M. Evaluators will

(01:04:29):
point out that the film shows a more disruptive player
than the sack totals will indicate, and they'll mention that
he led his team in pressures last season with thirty nine. Still,
the Bengals need better production from a player they're counting
on to help improve their pass rush. Get to know
new Bengals defensive end Shamar stud.

Speaker 5 (01:04:46):
Boe has more on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home
of the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
This report is paid for about it Kelsey Chevrolet Home
of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their
family to Yours for life Kelsey chef dot Com Reds
lose earlier today, Game one of the day night double
header at GABP six nothing the final score. Alexis Das
gave up five runs in the top of the night.

(01:05:15):
The think it look maybe the Reds lose anyway, but
they didn't have a chance to stage a comeback in
the ninth because Alexis Daz gave up three count them
three homers in his one inning of relief work. Miles
Michaelis and three Saint Louis relievers holding the Reds to
just three hits. Reds have seen their five game winning
streak gets snapped. Brady Singer pitched well six innings, gave

(01:05:39):
up a run. We do not count pitcher wins and
losses on this show, but if I did, I would
say he was a tough luck loser. But pitcher wins
and losses should not be a stat and so we
ignore that stat. Tonight, Cincinnati will give the ball to
a Chase Petty. He will make his big league debut tonight.
He was traded to Cincinnati in the Sunny deal from

(01:06:01):
Minnesota six forty. Tonight's first pitch on seven hundred WLW
towing the Rubbers, so to speak, for Saint Louis, will
be a Stephen Matts your starting lineup tonight against Steven Mattz.
Are you ready? I know you are. Now. What you
are listening to right now is me fumbling on the
internet to find the starting lineup. I have found it.

(01:06:22):
Here we go Freedom in center. McLain is dhing, but
he's still batting second. So here's what we're gonna do. Okay.
In fact, I want you to mark. I want you
to mark the tape. As we say in the business,
Matt McClain should not be batting second. I said that.
So tonight when he gets three hits and like has

(01:06:44):
a homer and a double in the two hole, you
could throw this back at me. Dela Cruz playing short,
Marte is at third, Steers at first, Espinall's playing second
base tonight, Gavin Lux and leftfield, Austin Wins behind the plate,
and Blake done in right time to take a look
at today's Postman Law injury report. It is delivered by

(01:07:05):
Postman Law. If you're injured, Postman delivers Jamer Candelario is
going on the injured list with a sore lower back.
He has been placed on the injured list. A couple
of other notes. Austin Hayes we mentioned yesterday, not in
the lineup in last night's game, or what would have

(01:07:26):
been last night's game before the game got banged with
that hamstring issue he tweaked at running the bases in
Sunday's game, and not in the lineup for the game today,
not in the lineup for the second game tonight. Tyler
Stevenson will catch nine more innings tonight and then he'll

(01:07:48):
play in Louisville's doubleheader tomorrow, and then the Reds will
make a decision on what to do with him. Also,
you probably knew this Christian and Carnassian strain has been
doing some baseball stuff. A hit on a tee or
hit off on Monday is gonna get another injection for
his lower back, and if that goes well, more aggressive
baseball activity is forthcoming. No target date has been announced.

(01:08:13):
That is today's Postman Law Injury report delivered by Postman Law.
If you're injured, call eight four to four Postman. And
by the way, the Jamber Candelario thing, if you're into
the clinical term lumbar spine strain, that's what he's dealing with,
a lumbar spine strain. Now you know, good stuff from

(01:08:37):
Stacy Cyrils. If you listen to that, you're probably firing
up about Dylan Fairchild. No Bengals draft picks were prank called, right,
so this has been a thing. Shador Sanders obviously got
a prank call on Friday during the draft from someone
not someone, the son of the Falcons defensive coordinator. This

(01:08:59):
twenty one year old kid who called Shador Sanders and
I guess pretended to be the Saints GM Mickey Loomis.
And now the Falcons have been fined. The defensive coordinator
has been fined, and I would imagine there have been
some difficult conversations between the defensive coordinator of the Falcons
and his son, his twenty one year old son, who
I guess got Shador Sanders off his dad's iPad and

(01:09:22):
prank called him. Jeff Ulbrich is the defensive coordinator of
the Falcons. So you probably saw this as when Viral
Sanders got a prank call on Friday while waiting to
see if his name was going to be called in
rounds two or three. Apparently, other players were also subject
to prank calls, although not related to this one. According

(01:09:44):
to the Associated Press, Tyler Warren Kyle McCord, Mason Graham,
Chase Lunt, Abdul Carter. I guess got a prank call
as well. No Bengals draft picks, at least none. None
of come out to say I got a prank call.
I'll be honest with you, man, and I'll apologize for
this in advance. So the Chador Sanders thing came and went,

(01:10:05):
and the Shador Sanders story was extraordinarily interesting and in
the weirdest quarterback room of all time. Shador Sanders with
the Cleveland Browns is also really interesting. I gotta be
honest with you, man, And maybe this is a generational thing.
I was kind of amused by it. I didn't think
the prank call itself was the funniest ever, but if

(01:10:30):
you're of a certain age, the prank call was kind
of a thing, especially as a teenager. Now this is
and again I'm kind of dating myself here. You know,
before caller, I d really before everybody had cell phones.
What bored teenager in the late eighties or early nineties,

(01:10:52):
or even going back before then, didn't amuse themselves and
their friends by making a prank call? Like I'm old
enough to remember the Jerky Boys I listened to those
cassettes and CDs religiously. Those guys got a movie, The
Jerky Boys, which if you don't know, and you can
find them on YouTube if you want, or I think

(01:11:14):
they're on the iHeartRadio app. We have the Jerky Boys
on the iHeartRadio app. Every track was a different prank call.
I love those guys. I grew up watching The Simpsons
laughing when Bart Simpson would make a prank phone call
to a bar. I fostered an already established interest in radio,

(01:11:37):
by the way radio where there are hundreds of Howard
Stern imitators doing prank phone calls. I developed a further
interest in radio by prank calling radio stations, including a
station I would go on to work for. I would

(01:11:58):
prank call shows I would go on to work on.
I watched crank anchors. So I'm sorry, I'm I I cannot.
I cannot pretend to clutch my pearls like so many are.
Oh my god, this Poorsche Door Sanders and all these

(01:12:18):
picks they had their they got prank phone calls. Now, look, man,
some stranger having your phone number. I get it. That's
not ideal, especially if you're a football player. Like, I
that's that's okay, that's that's that's part of the issue.
But the prank phone call part itself. It would be
extraordinarily disingenuous of me and thousands of others in my

(01:12:39):
age range to pretend to not be at least a
little amused by a prank phone call. Like, legitimately, if
you're over the age of forty, you mean to tell
me you and your buddies didn't prank somebody. Maybe it
was a girl you went to school with, Maybe it
was a teacher, can be a place sh ordered to

(01:13:03):
pizza from. There was a part of me, like my
heart was almost warmed because I'm like, all right, in
this day and age, who can do a prank call anymore? Right? Like,
you know, caller ID is everywhere. There's no more landlines.
Everybody's calling on a cell phone. Like there's a reason
why Star sixty seven was implemented. Chances are, if you're

(01:13:23):
twenty years old, you don't know what star sixty seven is.
Star sixty seven is what you use to get past
anybody who actually had a caller ID, And nobody really
had a caller ID, but if you did, you could
use stars six seven to hide your number. There was
a part of me when I saw that, like people
were still doing prank phone calls. My heart warmed. Now, look,

(01:13:44):
there's a difference between an innocuous prank and a threatening
call or a harassing call. And like I do understand
if you're a high profile athlete some rando having your
number is is not it's a little disconcerting. I'll acknowledge that.
But the prank phone call itself, come on, man, Like, legitimately,

(01:14:05):
if you're my age mid forties, let's say, there wasn't
a part of you that was like, damn, I remember
when like prank phone calls were kind of a thing.
So the whole industry built on prank phone calls. It's
called FM radio wacky Morning Guide doing prank phone calls.
There's a dude we had who won multiple Marconi's who's

(01:14:25):
in the Radio Hall of Fame, who had a bit
where one of his guys made prank phone calls. His
name's Gary Burbank, Like I had. I think they made
four four Jerky Boy CDs, and then I guess those
guys fell out of favor with each other. Crank Anchors
was a big show in my twenties. Come on, man,

(01:14:50):
Howard Stern's a billionaire largely on the strength of phony
phone calls. His staff still makes them a I'm gonna
clutch my pearls because some football players got pranked. Come on, man, really,
I can't do it, so I'm not gonna. Uh I

(01:15:11):
will through out there a poll question on Twitter at
Malegger thanks to a United Heartland insurance NFL draft prospects
easy for me to say, NFL draft prospects getting prank
called hilarious, mildly amusing, not really funny or reprehensible. Vote
who's voting? Reprehensible? They're out yourself? Who's all right? If
you're like, hey, not really funny, okay, reprehensible? Think of

(01:15:33):
all the truly reprehensible things happening in the world today
and a guy getting a prank phone call. I saw
people on social media suggesting, like the Falcon should have
draft picks taken away. Really, that's who says that? Who
says that with a straight face? Like when I started

(01:16:01):
in radio late nineties, I was a call screener. I
would get excited when somebody tried to prank call a
show that I was working on. Who's voting? Fourteen and
a half percent of you are voting reprehensible. I can't
believe it. I'm sorry, man, Like there's a whole there's

(01:16:25):
a lot of folks because you know, everything is an
outrage and everything, you know, it's not enough for a
lot of folks just to say, ah, that shouldn't have happened,
and the defensive coordinator of the Falcons maybe shouldn't have
left his iPad on what I don't know. Come on, man,
I just look. I'm an open book. I try to

(01:16:45):
be transparent. If I have a hard time jumping on
the outrage train, I'm gonna tell you I have a
hard time jumping on the outrage train. I am having
a hard time jumping on the on the outrage train
because between the ages of like eleven and seventeen, I
must have made five thousand prank phone calls. There are

(01:17:06):
hosts I work with now that I have prank phone called.
The number of receptionists and secretaries that I had conversations
with pretending to be somebody else, dozens of them. So
I can't. I can't do it, man, It can't jump
on the outrage stream. Sorry. Fourteen away from five, we

(01:17:27):
have folks waiting on hold. Five one three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty. We have a gym A Devin and Mike.
We have a local line open five one three seven
four nine, fifteen thirty. The prank call topic has taken.
Maybe these people are prank calling the show. Uh, well,
we do have to work and break in, but uh
we'll see if we get to some folks. On ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (01:17:45):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:17:50):
Traffic from the UC Helped Traffic Center, U SEE helps
weight loss Center offers comprehensible b city care and advance
surgical expertise. Call five one three nine three sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three cleared out
East found on two seventy five. That was on the
Combs hail Bridge East found on Dana Avenue. Accident is

(01:18:12):
blocking off the left lane at seventy one southbound Dixie Highway.
It's another accident before Sleepy Hollow Road on at Ezelac
with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
This report is sponsored by Macy's Backstage. We turn away
from five ESPN toteen thirty. Jim and Mason, we got
like two minutes. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:18:31):
Go ahead, Hey, mo, what are you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:18:34):
I'm awesome? What's up? Good hood?

Speaker 8 (01:18:36):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
I you totally changed my.

Speaker 10 (01:18:39):
Opinion on that whole frank hall thing.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
Because I thought it was kind of uncool.

Speaker 10 (01:18:44):
And now when I just listened to you, you brought
back some memories of stuff we did in college.

Speaker 2 (01:18:49):
We used to the.

Speaker 10 (01:18:50):
Old the old phone before cell phones and all that,
we used to have where you could call a number,
then you hit the tab button on the thing and then.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
You could cannes.

Speaker 8 (01:19:00):
Yes, so we would call like Chinese restaurants and we
would connect the two lines and we would listen and
prank call them and they'd be like, what do you
want to order?

Speaker 3 (01:19:09):
And I didn't call you called me, and it was.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
You know, we just got a huge laugh out of
that doing that kind of stuff. Yes and yeah, So
I think that.

Speaker 10 (01:19:18):
Was pretty funny that that actually had brought back a
lot of good memories.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
It did. It warmed my heart, Jim, thank you, It
warmed my heart. I appreciate the phone call, the fact
that somebody out there was still making a prank call. Now,
there's a difference between a prank call and a harassing call. Nobody,
you know, even even in my more immature days, did
not advocate for harassment. Nobody wants that, nobody wants anything threatening.
My grandmother lived next to the Taylor Mill Pharmacy right there.

(01:19:46):
If you know anything about Taylor Mill, Kenton County, right
off Taylor Mill Road, she was the first house. But
right when you turned in was the Taylor Mill Pharmacy,
which I think now is still a dance studio. It's
been that I think for like close to thirty years
Taylor Mill Pharmacy, and right next to the Tailor Mill
Pharmacy was a phone booth. And this is late eighties,

(01:20:08):
early nineties. And my grandmother lived right next to the
Tailor Mill pharmacy. And so the kids on the street
and I often bored out of our skulls. Would you
can go to a payphone and toll free numbers. It's
a free call. And all you did was gile one
eight hundred and then invents seven digits, and there was
a pretty good chance you were going to stumble on
something and then have a little fun. I know that's

(01:20:33):
not exactly what happened with Shadora Sanders and these other guys,
but again, man as a Jerky Boys fan, a Simpsons fan,
a Stern fan, a Crank Anchors fan, a radio fan.
Do you know how many fmdjs carved out careers based
on making prank phone calls? Brandonman and Jones on baseball? Next?

Speaker 10 (01:20:55):
Are you drowning?

Speaker 8 (01:20:56):
An IRS?

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
Text debt? One thousand dollars entered this nationwide keyword on
our website. Thank you. That's the bank you enter it now,
you can take that to the high. It's five oh five.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty onm Oegger. You're listening to
the michelob Ultra five o'clock. Happy allury A mick ultra

(01:21:17):
right now sounds awesome. If you're headed to the ballgame tonight,
have an ice cold micultra. If you're not headed to
the ballgame tonight, have an ice called mic ultra. It
doesn't matter if it rains tonight, enjoy an ice cold miculture.
If it does, I've lost track of the forecast. I
have no idea. I know it rained last night and

(01:21:39):
so there was no game anyway, enjoying ice cold mic culture.
No matter what you're doing, you needed an ice cold
mid culture in the ninth inning today, and this isn't
a discount what happened the previous eight innings. Red's lost
the first game of the unscheduled doubleheader today at GABP
six nothing the final score. I think, unfortunately, the story
is Alexis Diaz. Now, the red didn't score because they

(01:22:01):
didn't hit, and they hit into a big double play.
And Miles Michaelis was really good and give credit to him,
and Brady Singer pitched well but not well enough. And
it's one nothing game going into the ninth inning, and
then Alexis Daz just got crushed, gave up three homers.
I am not giving up on Alexis Das. Sending a
guy to the minor leagues is not giving up on him.

(01:22:23):
Giving up on him is punning him to another organization,
trading him, giving him his outright release, giving him his
walking papers, Sending someone to the minor leagues. I think
sometimes we talk so much about like demoting a guy
or sending a guy. It's like we're sending him to
prison for punishment. No, you're doing two things. One, you're
ensuring that the best twenty five or i'm sorry, best

(01:22:44):
twenty six players in the organization are on the roster.
The best twenty six major league ready guys are on
the roster number two. You're sending someone to Louisville, especially
a guy who has had some, in fact more than
just some big league success. You're sending them to Triple
A to iron out what they have to iron out.

(01:23:05):
Like Alexis d As is worth not giving up on.
Nobody should want to give up on him. It's not
unlike noelve Martine. Noelve Marte is crushing the ball right now.
He's doing even better, and he hit the ball hard
a bunch today. He's doing even better than he did
at the end of the twenty twenty three season. But
you know, he's stunk last year and he's stunk during

(01:23:27):
spring training. The idea behind sending him to Louisville wasn't
to punish him. It was to ensure that they're taking
the players north that represent the best major league team
collectively and for Noelve Marte to continue to get seasoning
and develop at a level where the results frankly don't matter.

(01:23:48):
If you're a hardcore Louisville Bats fan, don't get mad
at me for saying that Terry Francona has acknowledged Alexis
Das has to pitch through whatever he's dealing with. Okay, Hey, fine, awesome, great,
no issue with that. I hope he does. I just
don't think it makes sense for him to be pitching
through what he's dealing with at the expense of results

(01:24:13):
where it does matter. There are pictures in Louisville right now.
I mentioned Charlie Goldsmith's newsletter today and he mentions some
of them. Zach Maxwell, Luis May, Joe La Sorsa, Alberta Bray.
You is down there. Sam Mall is rehabbing right now.

(01:24:34):
I think all right now represent better options out of
the bullpen. Look, today was not a lost cause in
the ninth inning. This wasn't mop up duty. You cannot,
I'm sorry, man, you cannot, especially in this day and age,
especially when you have a small margin for error. You
can't have a guy on your team that you're only
gonna used in lopsided games. That's especially with pitture limits

(01:24:57):
right where you know you have to have a certain
number of pictures on your roster. You can't say to
a manager, hey, you can only use this guy if
the game is out of hand. Really, it's not realistic.
So I am not giving up on Alexis ds Nor
should you, nor should the Reds. But does it make
sense to have him continue to pitch through what he

(01:25:19):
is dealing with at the expense of results that matter?
The Reds may have gone down one, two, three in
the bottom of the ninth inning today, maybe that happens
and they lose the game one nothing, But they came
to the plate in the ninth inning with no chance
to win because Alexis Daz started a fire and then
kept throwing gas on it because he has to pitch

(01:25:40):
through stuff. I hope on the other end of this
is the guy who was an All Star two years ago,
but he's not closed to be in the closer. Emilio
Pegan's performance has as much to do with that as anything.
If you can only put him in games that are
lost causes, and again today wasn't. And you're gonna continue

(01:26:02):
to allow him to just work through it and he
has options, and there are some other guys who look
like they deserve promotion, How on earth do you have
Alexis Das on the big league roster tomorrow much less today?
Hopefully that changes. This is not be me being mean
spirited toward Alexis Das. It's I want him to figure

(01:26:26):
it out. I want him, I want him to figure
it out. You can't have him trying to figure it
out when it's coming at the expense of winning baseball
games in a year where you're trying to make the playoffs.
There is Alexis d As. I think the other guy
that we have to talk about, and we have today,

(01:26:46):
Matt McClain. Show me a Reds fan, and I'll show
you someone who really likes Matt McClain, who has huge,
huge hopes for Matt McClain. Arguably the best player on
the team too years ago, and by the way, I
would agree with that argument, a major part of what
they want to be A guy who certainly has a

(01:27:07):
chance to be a part of this team this year
and be an important part, a contributing part to this
team this year. I'm not I think you know this
about me if you have listened to this show for
any amount of time. I'm not the kind of person
who just you know, wants to break down the excruciating
details of lineup construction. But watch him right now and

(01:27:29):
ask yourself, should he be batting second? That's it? That's
it now, you could extend the argument and go, well, okay,
should he be starting? And okay, should he even be
on the team right now? And should he and Alexis
ds be on a bus together? I guess they wouldn't
need a bus because it's only two of them. Should
they carpool together and drive to Louisville together or fly

(01:27:50):
to wherever the Bats are playing, which I think this
weekend is in Memphis. H fair question. Again, Matt McClain
is a big part of this franchise. Matt McLain has
appeared in one hundred and ten big league games, not
even close to one full season. He's gonna have ups
and downs, and maybe the statistical dip he is dealing
with right now is exacerbated by the fact that it's

(01:28:11):
still pretty damn early in the season. So can we
just agree to this? Just start by hitting someone else second,
if for no other reason, just to maybe take a
little pressure off the guy, would be nice. He is
batting second tonight, though he is dhing. Twelve minutes after
five o'clock ESPN fifteen thirty. Chase Petty has set to
make his big league debut tonight. Tyler Callahan was also

(01:28:34):
called up he went over to today starting in left field.
Jam Or Candelario, the current whipping Boy batting a Buck thirteen,
is on the injured list with a lower back problem.
So we've spent some time today on Red's v cards,
some Bengals draft stuff too. We'll get to here in
a bit. You'll hear Joe Goodberry's interview at five forty
five I do have room for you at five one, three, seven, four, nine,

(01:28:56):
fifteen thirty. I spent some time last hour talking about
frank phone calls. Uh. You know, we live in a
world of Twitter trolls, people posing as people that are
not online. I view those folks as, in many cases,

(01:29:20):
far more dangerous than someone making a prank phone call.
Now again, I shouldn't have to make this distinction. There's
a large difference between a prank and a scam, or
a prank and harassment. Pranks amuse me, Harassment does not,
I think. I'm I think that's kind of implied here.

(01:29:45):
I find it funny though, that I see anonymous people
on Twitter criticizing my prank call take, and then if
you look at some of their accounts and see what
they say to people, it's kind of interesting. My only
point is this, This is a topic among people who
talk about sports for a living, a number of draft
picks being pranked during the draft, right, It would be

(01:30:07):
hypocritical of me as somebody who grew up listening to
I will listen to Jerky Boys, probably on the way home,
although there is a Reds game, as somebody who grew
up listening to jerky Boys, As somebody who loves crank anchors,
As somebody who works in radio, where literally thousands of
people have carved out careers by making prank phone calls.

(01:30:29):
As somebody who loved Bart Simpson as a kid. It
would be extraordinarily disingenuous of me to go on my
high horse and look down my nose and pretend to
be outraged at somebody making a prank phone call. That's hypocritical,
As someone who in his teenage years but probably spend

(01:30:52):
a little bit more time than he should making prank
phone calls, As somebody whose current vocation it didn't start
because of prank phone calls, but my interest in radio
was developed, if you will, by making prank phone calls
to radio stations. It would be disingenuous and hypocritical of

(01:31:15):
me to be one of those looking down my nose
outrage at the people making prank phone calls online. Twitter
troll mad at me, including me in the folks in
his timeline that he is harassing, and I'll assume it's see.
I'm gonna go ahead and assume that like ninety eight
percent of Twitter trolls are men. That just it just
seems that seems that seems fair, that's hypocritical, getting mad

(01:31:42):
at me from my prank phone call. Take a quarter
after five, your phone calls are coming up, and we've
talked about the draft in great detail this week. We
had a really good interview last hour with Georgia's offensive
line coach Will Podcast that put that on the iHeartRadio
app Staceys coached Dylan Fairchild and Marius Mims.

Speaker 6 (01:32:03):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
That was fun.

Speaker 3 (01:32:05):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
We we use the term benefit of the doubt here often.
I think many are giving the Bengals the benefit of
the doubt when they do not deserve it. And I
think you could like the players they took in the
draft and admit that you could do both at once.
We'll do that and hear from you coming up on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (01:32:22):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:32:28):
From the UC Helped Traffic Center. U See helps Weight
Loss Center offers comprehensiblebcity care and advanced surgical expertise. Call
five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.
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(01:32:49):
go from seventy one seventy five northbound on two seventy five.
It's an accident at the Eastgate exit on that Ezelek
with traffic.

Speaker 1 (01:32:58):
It's twenty two for five o'clock. This one sounds like
I'm getting shot by lasers. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.
By the way, if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram,
I'm giving away some soccer balls, some Skyline FC Cincinnati
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(01:33:21):
that I'm doing contests on the other apps. But but
I but I am. I'm trying to participate in the
other apps kind of Go at Mogger five point three
nine fifteen thirty. Bob, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon, Bob.
How are you?

Speaker 10 (01:33:37):
Paul Ager?

Speaker 8 (01:33:38):
Give me a full apart, Hi, Willie, I'm doing I'm
doing uh phone scams.

Speaker 1 (01:33:46):
I like it.

Speaker 3 (01:33:47):
I like it.

Speaker 10 (01:33:47):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:33:48):
Now wait a minute. There's a difference between a phone
prank and a phone scam scam. I'm trying to get
you to give me money. Nobody, nobody advocate, nobody is
cool with that.

Speaker 10 (01:33:57):
Oh, that is a pranctice. Okay, thanks, How you doing.

Speaker 1 (01:34:01):
Ma, I'm doing well, Bob? How about yourself?

Speaker 10 (01:34:05):
I'm good good.

Speaker 8 (01:34:06):
Hey, Hey, I happen to listen in on a call
you got and you have to excuse me. I don't
remember the day exactly, but Mike had called you and
you had gotten some nasty emails from him.

Speaker 1 (01:34:21):
What nasty subjective? I was having fun with Mike. They
were antagonized. He was giving me a hard time. They
were not nasty biassd taron.

Speaker 10 (01:34:30):
I said, what's Moe's email address? So I can send.

Speaker 1 (01:34:34):
It's Mo at ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. And if
you want to send me some nasty emails, I will
have to filter through the other ones to get to yours.

Speaker 8 (01:34:43):
Yeah, well one I could probably send today. With three
consecutive home runs.

Speaker 1 (01:34:48):
Apparently, Uh yeah, for Alexis ds look like batting practice.
The ball that Lars Newt bar hit could not have
been fatter. That was the second of the three homers. Uh,
Alexis Das was left in there. I think frankly, I
think David Bell would have pulled him after the second one.
Terry Francona basically said screw it, maybe in large part

(01:35:08):
because they had a game tonight, but uh, there are
a lot of managers who in that spot would have
taken Alexis Dz out. Francona made him wear it, and
I don't have a major issue with it.

Speaker 10 (01:35:19):
You know, Mo, if I were the Reds, perhaps the most.

Speaker 8 (01:35:23):
Concerning thing for me was being shut out by Miles Michaels.

Speaker 1 (01:35:29):
Yeah, there's something to be said about that, now, isn't there.

Speaker 8 (01:35:33):
He well, you know what, I think he pitched maybe
six score within he says, last.

Speaker 1 (01:35:38):
Downing against Atlanta.

Speaker 10 (01:35:39):
Yeah, that's a guy who at the Craig Deadline. I mean,
he's he is long gone. I mean there's there's no
question about that.

Speaker 1 (01:35:50):
You know what's interesting about him? And it was it
was brought up on the radio broadcast today. Miles Michael's
first start of the season was a disaster. He gave
up I think they said, eight runs in his first
his first outing or second outing against Boston. He has
not given up a home run this year, right, and

(01:36:10):
that's not insignificant, so good for him. He pitched well
his last start, he pitched well today. The few times
the Reds did anything close to threatening Miles Michael has
shut him down and the bullpen did the rest.

Speaker 8 (01:36:23):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, I guess, well, you
know what, as far as they're concerned, the better he
does and this first half the year, the better.

Speaker 10 (01:36:33):
For them, I guess. But hey, Mo, talk to me
a little bit if you can. What you know about
the UCF assistant coach signing that we recently have.

Speaker 1 (01:36:47):
Well, I can't tell you that I know a lot
about his assistant coach, Bona Fides, but I do know
that he has a great relationship with Giam the kid,
the seven footer that is also coming from Orlando. And
it might be a bit of a stretch to say
that it was a package deal, but it sure as

(01:37:08):
hell feels like one that I'm cool with.

Speaker 3 (01:37:13):
It.

Speaker 1 (01:37:13):
You know, that's fine. If that's what it takes to
get players, do what you gotta do to get players.

Speaker 10 (01:37:20):
Well, you know what it used to be.

Speaker 8 (01:37:22):
It took money to get players, and now that's okay yep.
So if it takes now getting assistant coaches who make money,
I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:37:31):
The reality isn't In this sport, there is a decades
old tradition tradition is not the right word, but a
decade's old practice of getting a player because you hired
his high school coach, or you found a job for
the high school coach, or if he comes from one program,
from from one program to years, hire an assistant like

(01:37:53):
that's if it's legal. I got no issue with it,
nor should anybody else.

Speaker 10 (01:37:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:38:00):
Yeah, and you know what no, I have to say
in looking so far at the guys that he's brought in,
it's at least body wise and probably even talent wise
to some degree, it looks like a big improupment Ober
last year.

Speaker 1 (01:38:21):
Yeah, the pieces have to fit, you know, I mean,
if you look at the players who have left the program,
Baylor and others certainly had no problem going after Dan
Skillings and Rick Patino and others certainly had no problem
going after Dylan Mitchell and Josh Reed ended up at
a Big ten school and so not exactly players who
step down a level which tells you something about their

(01:38:44):
individual talent. The idea for Wes Miller is make the
pieces fit better, and that didn't happen this year. Now,
you know, do they have better individual players than a
year ago. I think there's a lot to like about
some of the guys they have brought in. But I'm
more interested in how Wes Miller makes the pieces fit
this year than anything else, because, for whatever reason, last year,

(01:39:07):
he and his staff simply could not make the pieces fit.
And there, to me is what I wonder this year,
regardless of roster composition, regardless of where the players have
come from, and regardless of who else they get, I
want to know how this coach is going to make
the pieces fit better this year than last year.

Speaker 8 (01:39:27):
Hey, you know what, more to me, the big thing
is hiring the assistant coach he hired, is getting something
more out.

Speaker 10 (01:39:37):
Of the big Mans. Yes, which we got absolutely.

Speaker 8 (01:39:41):
I don't want to say nothing, but you know a
Zid was so limited and what he could do that
I think I think at least bringing this guy in,
who has, of course some NBA background, has got to help.

Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
Yeah, former top fifty recruit, you know with Z's I
was at that game at Utah Valley State where he
played against Cincinnati in the NIT a couple of years ago,
and I certainly was impressed by what I saw. But
from an offensive perspective, he could do one thing. He
could catch lobs. And I remembered two years ago before
he was made eligible, when you would hear like, man,

(01:40:21):
he's an awesome lob catcher. My response was, that's really neat.
He's gonna catch one or two a game at most.
The best lobb catcher in the last twenty years is
Giannis Antonokupo. He catches fewer than two lobs per game.
There's got to be something else he can do offensively.
I believe with Mustapha Chiam he can do more offensively

(01:40:41):
than catch lobbs. Lobs are fun, Lobs are neat. Lobbs
can't be the back bunt of your offense, certainly when
it comes to incorporating big guys. Hopefully next year is better, Bob.
I gonna run man, thank.

Speaker 8 (01:40:51):
You, Hey ma, I'm just gonna tell you one of
the best quotes I ever heard was you can't teach heys.

Speaker 1 (01:40:58):
Very true, very true, Bob. Thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:41:02):
More.

Speaker 1 (01:41:02):
Your phone calls are coming up. Sports headlines, we'll update
our poll question and more, and you'll hear Joe Goodbary
on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 4 (01:41:10):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from the UC Help
Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:41:18):
U S Help's Weight Loss Center offers comprehensive obcity care
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two six three northbound two seventy five. It is an
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using the exit and entrance ramps on the eastbound side

(01:41:38):
of two seventy five. It's the left lane block from
an accident between Turkey Foot and Road and Madison Pike.
On that Ezelik with trap.

Speaker 1 (01:41:46):
Sports headlines and service at Kelsey Chevrolet, home of lifetime
powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their family to
yours for life kelseyshev dot com Red's loss earlier. Today's
six zip to the Cardinals six decent innings better than
for Brady Singer, one disasters inning for Alexis Diaz and
no hitting by the Reds. Tonight, Chase Petty will make

(01:42:07):
his big League debut, acquired from the Twins in twenty
twenty two in exchange for Sonny Gray, Petty at the
time of his call of pitching for Louisville his last outing,
he threw six shutout innings six shutout innings his ERA
so far this season three point five to two six
forty Tonight on a seven hundred w l W Jamers

(01:42:29):
Candelario goes on the injured list with a sore lower back.
Tyler Callahan also up starting line up tonight. Friedel McLean
Is Dhing batting second, Dela Cruz, Marte Steer, Espinall's playing second,
luxon left Win and Wins plural wins, one guy s
not really plural. Austin wins and Blake Dunn in right field.

(01:42:54):
We got a few minutes here, Mike, go ahead. You're
on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 10 (01:43:00):
I love it when you were talking about the golden
years of the station when Burbank was on and Cunningham
was on from nine to twelve. Did you enter, were
you on the phone for him on that nine to ten.

Speaker 1 (01:43:13):
Show, not on the nine to midnight show often, although
I did when I was just out of college. I
filled in working the nine to midnight show, and there
were things discussed and a guest who appeared on that
show whose gimmick is probably not something I could talk

(01:43:34):
about in afternoon Drive.

Speaker 10 (01:43:37):
Okay, Burbank was the most fun though, him and Doc
that was classic radio to the day.

Speaker 1 (01:43:43):
I died hard to believe he has been retired for
eighteen years.

Speaker 10 (01:43:47):
Oh, I can't even believe it. But that's about as
long as you been on the air. I remember calling
you from West Virginia when the Royals were playing the.

Speaker 1 (01:43:56):
Giants in the twenty fourteen year old series twenty fourteen. Yeah,
Madison Bumgardner.

Speaker 10 (01:44:02):
Yeah, because you were on ESPN. You were doing ESPN
gigs on a national show. Then what happened? I thought you.
I thought you'd be up in Connecticut.

Speaker 1 (01:44:13):
I didn't like doing it. It wasn't fun. Oh okay, No,
I don't want to talk. I don't want to do
three hours on Lebron James every day.

Speaker 10 (01:44:20):
That sounds that.

Speaker 1 (01:44:22):
I'll be the very last show that I that I
did for them. Was shortly before the pandemic, and we
talked about it was a Lakers topic. Nothing against the Lakers,
Tarren loves Lakers. There were like a thousand other things
going on in sports, and it was like three hours
on the Lakers. I just like, I'm bored by this.
I don't care. What I like about the job that

(01:44:42):
I have here is I talk about things that I
care about. I don't care enough about the Dallas Cowboys
and the Green Bay Packers to want to talk about
them for hours on end.

Speaker 10 (01:44:54):
Yes, so you have more control of what you're doing now,
which is cool. Yeah, I love that interview with the
I love But when you get these college or high
school even coaches on that is a great idea to
get insight into these guys, whether going to UC or
DAG or coming up to the Bengals. I don't know
when you came up with that. I guess several years ago,
but it's a really cool idea.

Speaker 1 (01:45:15):
Well, you know, it's not exactly rocket science, and I'm
sure I'm not the only host who does it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:22):
I just.

Speaker 1 (01:45:24):
A head coach of a college program is not going
to have as close a relationship with all of the
players as the position coach does. Now things have changed
because there's so much movement in college football, both with
the players and the coaching staffs, that it's not as
easy to do. But years ago I thought like, let's

(01:45:47):
get some of these position coaches on who in many
cases were the lead recruiter on that player, and you know,
spent much more time with that player than the head
coach did. And so I've always felt like you can
learn a little bit more about the player. Look, they're
gonna say nice things. I mean we have we have
yet to interview a college coach who's been like I
didn't like working with him. He's a bum. He's going

(01:46:08):
to stink at the next level. But I do think
you could hear about these specific attributes that a player
brings to the table from a position coach more so
than you could hear those things coming from a program's
head coach.

Speaker 10 (01:46:22):
Well, you like the wrestling aspect, that was so cool,
the way the guy was talking about his ferocity and
he couldn't run but he could, he could pull, but
he could.

Speaker 2 (01:46:32):
It was so fun.

Speaker 10 (01:46:33):
I got to kick out, I got a discussion, I
got a big surgery to mom nervous as h E
double l about it.

Speaker 1 (01:46:41):
What time is your procedure tomorrow, nine o'clock, nine o'clock
in the morning.

Speaker 10 (01:46:47):
Yeah, I'll be in the ICU for about a week,
so I won't feel the call. But well, you'll be glad.
You'll be glad about that.

Speaker 1 (01:46:54):
But not at all, not at all. And I got
to run here. But I I want tomorrow to go well,
and I need you to send word in whatever way
you can and let us know how things went, because,
believe it or not, Mike, there are a lot of
people who ask about you and who enjoy your call,
and so I don't know the sports part of your

(01:47:16):
call is irrelevant to me. I want you to be okay,
So good luck tomorrow. We're going to be thinking of you.
And if you can figure out a way to let
us know how things go tomorrow, okay, I sure will.

Speaker 10 (01:47:28):
And Yoki, we had his twenty first triple double last night,
you guys in real I got one put public service
announcement very quick. Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the
end of the Vietnam War, which means a lot to
US Vietnam. That's so I just wanted to mention that
because nobody talks about it.

Speaker 1 (01:47:44):
Thank you mo all right, Mike, good luck tomorrow. We'll
be thinking about you. It's twenty minutes away from six o'clock.

Speaker 9 (01:47:49):
Joe Goodbury next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 6 (01:47:56):
From the UC helped traffic center you see helps weight
loss center offers comprehensible b city care and advanced surgical expertise.
Call five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.
That's nine three nine two two sixty three. Northbound two
seventy five is now reopened from an earlier accident at
State Route thirty two. Traffic, though, is still backed up

(01:48:17):
from five Mile Road, and another accident cleared out eastbound
two seventy five between Turkey Foot Road and Madison Pike
on that Ezelac with trap on the.

Speaker 1 (01:48:26):
Brain on YouTube, uh doing a deep dive in every
one of these six Bengals draft choices, kind enough to
join us, give me one word to describe this Bengals
draft lass ooh.

Speaker 2 (01:48:39):
Man, there are a ton all right. One I would
say is risk. They to a lot of risk with
a lot of these players for different reasons, especially to
start off in the beginning portions. Everyone's going to take
some risk and accept some with the players in the
mid to late rounds. Right, that's why they're still available.
Either they're not big enough, not fast enough, they played
at small schools, whatever it may be. From the top,

(01:48:59):
the Bengal took a production risk with Shamar Stewart, they
took an age risk with Demetrius Knight, and then they
took a risk for an interior off as the lineman
and Dyllan Fairchild that I think needs a little bit
of technical rebuilding and I think that's what Peters is
here for. But also in the data perspective, he didn't
test athletically before the draft, and it's typically not a
good sign for offensive.

Speaker 1 (01:49:19):
Linemen Shamar Stewart specifically. Are we focusing a little bit
too much on the lack of sacks.

Speaker 2 (01:49:27):
I don't think we are. I think if you're drafting
a pass rusher, and I know he's more than that, right,
He's really good against the run, he's young, he's got
all the tools and the body you want from a
first round pick. But if you're drafting a guy in
the first round, I want him to be a pass rusher.
And typically what we see from college to the NFL
is production matters. Especially at the defensive end. You want

(01:49:48):
them to be athletic, high end athletes and have to
be super athletes. And I guess what check number one
for schmer Stewart. We have that good he's young. Check two,
big school, big games, Check three, got the character, Check four.
The only thing he doesn't have is the production. So
we got a bucket of these guys, and we've got
a history of them, whether it's a dafe O way,

(01:50:09):
whether it's Rashaan Gary and even Toron Walker from a
couple of years ago. I went number one to the Jaguars,
and there's a whole host of others.

Speaker 3 (01:50:15):
That have been like this.

Speaker 2 (01:50:17):
When you have that elite athleticism, you can turn into
and had a pretty high clip, So I understand why
teams do this. You do end up being a quality player,
quality starter in the NFL. Not all of them reached
the elite status or the high end top twenty player,
top fifteen player at that position, He's more than likely

(01:50:38):
because of the production profile is who he was in college.
Maybe just a little bit better at it, maybe he
finishes more. He missed eight tackles last two years that
should have been sex That probably changes his production a
big time. If you see lions half of those, right,
we probably feel better about it. Can you teach a
guy to finish? Can you teach him how to disengage

(01:50:59):
and turn those pressures into sex. They're gonna have their
handsful in developing him, but at the very least gives
you a nice floor to start with.

Speaker 1 (01:51:08):
The number that stands out that Shamar Stewart has gone
out of his way to point out are the thirty
nine pressures. How do I contextualize that when I think
about what he may do his rookie season in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:51:21):
Yeah, you know, I they're any any anytime you get
over thirty pressures, that's notable, I think in a lot
of ways. But when we put it into the entire
draft class, I will say, yeah, his his pressure rate
is much better than his sack rate. It still puts
them in about the fifty fourth percentile amongst edge defenders
going back over the last six years or so. So
it's not great. It's not amazing you get to seventy

(01:51:43):
nine total career pressures for his career, but you know,
if you look like abdual Carteri at one hundred and fourteen,
James Pierce hundred and thirteen, Donovan Easeraku one hundred and forty,
Princely Uman Miland one hundred and fifty four, or Eshton
Geloiti one fifty four. Uman Milan has one one hundred
and forty six career pressures, So these guys still had
a lot more pressures than Stuart did. Stuart to me,

(01:52:05):
if I were to classify him, he is a chaos creator,
and I think this defense needed us. I think we
talked about Derek Harman this way when we talked originally
you need a chaos creator on your defensive line as
long as your other guys are cleaning it up. And
maybe this adds to more sacks for other players because
Stewart will create the quarterback to move out of the
pocket or step up or step to the side. He

(01:52:28):
won't collect it if he's exactly who he was the
Texas A and M, but his teammates will. So you
need these guys, But do you have to spend the
seventeenth pick on that type of player? It was my criticism.

Speaker 1 (01:52:39):
You mentioned Demetrius Knight's age twenty five, six year college
player For me, I guess what stands out is he
played for a long time in college, but there aren't
a ton of starters reps. Is Is that a red
flag along with the fact that he is twenty five
years old and probably not a guy that you're really
thinking long term about. If you're thinking about, like all
right in the second round, you know you want those

(01:53:01):
guys to eventually sign second contracts. I maybe this is
a I don't know a wrong way of looking at it,
but I would imagine that's not going to happen, right.

Speaker 2 (01:53:12):
I would imagine it's not either. Right if we're talking
about he's twenty nine years old when he hits free agency.
The first time, the Bengals with every free agency we
talk were like, hey, you know, the guy's twenty nine,
he's thirty or whatever. You're at that edge where the
Bengals won't sign them or won't commit long term. Now
they did a couple of times this free agency, they
did with Beja Hill, So maybe it'll be different. But
at the same time, why we factor age so much?

(01:53:34):
And it has two sides to the sword here. Number one,
long term, Yes, when you get to that second contract,
the guy's going to be a little bit older. It's
going to cut into the back half of his career,
and maybe he won't have a fifteen year career right
because he's a little bit older coming out. But the
real issue I see from my experience watching draft prospects
when they're older, they tend to look really good on tape,

(01:53:58):
and because they're so much older, they're bigger, they're stronger,
they're they're full grown men at this point. They I
hear the same thing when when people say, oh, man,
he's so mature, he's a leader out there. Yeah, he's
a grown man. He should be. It's hard to compare
them to someone that are three, four, sometimes five years
younger than them on the field. So the one saving

(01:54:19):
grace though for Night, he did look really good on tape.
He actually had the highest take grade I gave of
all the prospects they drafted this year. So I really
like Knight as well. But I tried to temper my expectations, like,
all right, yeah he is older like this, he should
look as good. The one thing is he was a
former quarterback and he only really played one year of
starting linebacker experience at a big program, So.

Speaker 3 (01:54:39):
Maybe there is more for him to develop.

Speaker 2 (01:54:41):
Maybe he's not at the you know, at the ceiling
that he could be at. It's tough to weigh that
when you only get one year of experience or high
end experience, and he's also going to be twenty five
years old as a rookie.

Speaker 1 (01:54:53):
Joe Goodbarry Bengals on the Brain on YouTube goes through
every pick and so I'm not going to ask you
about every single one, but I do want to. I
do want your thoughts on my favorite guy. Who was
the last guy they took ToJ Brooks knew it.

Speaker 2 (01:55:07):
I knew that was your guy. I was gonna try
and I guess this before you couldish that favent because
he should be so every year I rank, I do
a power ranking for subscribers on Twitter where I power
rank the whole rookie class, and like, I think they
have eighteen or nineteen right now, depending on how many
these under undrafted guys sign. And I was just starting
to get like a preliminary Okay, let me rank these
guys like who can make an impact their rookie year?

(01:55:29):
And I had Schamar Stewart and to Meetriss nine, Dylan
Pairtrald is the top three. Of course, right those guys
are in line to potentially start and make a lot
of players play a lot of snaps, and I thought, Okay,
who's next? Is it Barret Carter? Is it Jalen Rivers?

Speaker 6 (01:55:41):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:55:41):
Actually, I think Taj Brooks has a chance to play
the most as a rookie because the Bengals don't really
have great depth at running back. Sure they have two
veterans behind Chase Brown right now that they like, but
there's no reason why some fresh legs, very experienced Taj Brooks.
That's a bowling ball with knives blued toolhim. The way
he runs, he is so hard to tackle. They're saying

(01:56:01):
he played at two twenty five to two thirty. It's
like shades of Rudy Johnson at times at five to
nine when I'm watching Texas at Tech. A lot of fun,
very fun player. If they needed some density, they needed
some power, and they need a guy that could break
a little of some tackles, run from the shotgun almost
ninety nine percent of the time. Hey, that's a great fit.
And he can pass per tech. I think he's a
solid receiver in the passing game as well. I think

(01:56:24):
Todge Brooks has a good shot to be RB two.
Maybe it's not this year. Maybe it's not right away,
but maybe towards the end of the year, maybe, you know,
during his rookie contract. And if the Bengals find RB
one and RB two in the fifth and sixth round, respectively,
between Chase Brown and Todge Brook, that's a great way
to recoup some value and say, hey, we're doing the
right things here and not spending high resources at running

(01:56:46):
back for a high output passing offense.

Speaker 4 (01:56:49):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:56:50):
Are you surprised and are you concerned that they did
not address the three technique in this draft?

Speaker 2 (01:56:57):
I am, you know, I think three tech ends safety
or probably positions they wanted to draft and wanted to address.
And I wonder if we felt the same way as
the draft was approaching, right as they kind of shut
down free agency. Well, you're not gonna be able to
get everything, So what position are you going to bypass?
What position do you feel comfortable bypassing? And they've drafted

(01:57:17):
a lot of corners, safeties and defensive tackles recently, and
maybe that was the logic, right of you know, we
have Chris Jenkins, we've got McKinley Jackson, just spent a
second and third round pick. We should see a second
year bump. Maybe they don't turn into all pro players. Right,
there's still defensive tackle number three and four in the
depth trat right now behind DJ Hill and TJ. Slayton.

(01:57:39):
But if they take a small step in the right direction,
that's big for the development and for the depth of
your defensive line. So maybe you get to the rounds
three and you say, all right, is this guy that's
available better than Chris Jenkins? No, so why draft him?

Speaker 3 (01:57:53):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:57:53):
He's not going to play right away. They may be inactive.
Go with the guys we still have that we had
high opinions on last year. So that's the way I
rationalized that. I thought there was some chances, and I
think they wanted to get a detackle. It just it
didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (01:58:08):
The undrafted free agency class, which you are currently doing
work on, is there somebody that to this point has
stood out more than the others?

Speaker 2 (01:58:17):
More than the others, because there's a handful that have
so far. You know, I'll run through some names that
have been interesting. Jordan Moore, the wide receiver from Duke,
Chakwan Loyal safety from Rutgers, Howard Cross, defensive tackle from
Notre Dame. The only Notre Dame guy we got for
Al Golden, which is kind of interesting. I wondered if
if we'd end up with more, but they bypassed the
Notre Dame guys the entire draft. Seth McLaughlin from the

(01:58:38):
center from Oho State, and then Caleb Atn from the
offensive tackle from BYU. And I should mention because I
got a guy A special shout out to a guy
on Twitter that follows me, says Eric Gregory, the defensive
tackle from Arkansas is a stud. I haven't gotten to
the film yet, but I can't if he's I mean,
this guy's standing on the table as they say at
this time of year for Eric Gregory. But Jordan Moore

(01:58:58):
to me, the wide receiver from Duke the Mango's death
that wide receiver right now. Let's see if Jermain Burton
likes himself on fire, does some you know, outrageous act
in the preseason or camp too? And if he doesn't,
he's probably got a roster spot. But who is the
sixth guy? Who is the sixth guy? Is it Charlie
Jones still? Is that Isaiah Williams? You know, ken Jordan
Moore cracked that lineup. I think he can and he's

(01:59:20):
a good player. Played a lot of slot in at
Duke high output for production, decent enough athlete six six eight,
good rout runner, makes some crazy catches. I mean you
can watch his highlights and he's got a bunch of
announcers going, that's the catch of the year, like four
times in a year, so you know that's a good thing.
I think he could stick on the on the back
half of the roster.

Speaker 1 (01:59:40):
Joe, you're the best, uh. I know you have a
lot going on. I can't thank you enough. We'll bother
you perhaps before training camp begins. I appreciate the time
as always. Man, thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (01:59:50):
Sounds good, mol thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:59:52):
Joe, Thank you, Joe Goodbarry. Find him on YouTube Bengals
on the Brain doing a deep dive into all six
Bengals draft choices. Worth your time if you're a Bengals fan,
which chances are you are. We're done tomorrow on the show.
We're gonna come on right after or I guess right
when the Reds game is just about to go final
Red's Cardinals and more tomorrow at three ZHO five. Thanks

(02:00:15):
to A. Tarren Bland for producing and thanks to you
for listening, have an unbelievable night. This is ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 5 (02:00:28):
If you're fifty five and dock T Mobile has plans
built just for you.

Speaker 1 (02:00:32):
Two lines of unlimited for just thirty bucks alat

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