5-11-26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show Hr 2

5-11-26 - The Mo Egger Radio Show Hr 2

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mullag or ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for listening today. Hopefully
you're having an awesome, awesome Monday, which you are if
you are outside. ESPN is doing Power rankings of rosters
at the Bengals at number sixteen, which feels right ish.

(00:25):
More on that coming up in a bit, because there's
a big variable on this team that we have to
talk about and spend some time in the conversation I
had with a couple of dudes in Pittsburgh in in
just a few minutes. We started with the Reds and
the outstanding pitching they got this weekend, or I guess
on Saturday and Sunday, starting with Chase Burns against Houston,

(00:45):
the second consecutive start he has made with his team
up against a wall. The previous day, the Astros beat
the Reds ten zip, the second consecutive start that Chase
Burns has made with his team having lost by ten
runs exactly ten runs the night before, and for the
second consecutive start, he was terrific. Now, Unfortunately, in the

(01:07):
first of those starts, the Reds didn't score any runs
and they lost the game. They scored just enough on Saturday.
That's got a really good pitching performance yesterday from Andrew Abban.
They've gotten some clean bullpen innings as well, which, you know,
let's be honest, you talk about like X factors and variables.
The first four weeks of the season, it felt like
with the bullpen as a whole, Tito had a real

(01:28):
weapon at his disposal, and then for about two weeks
it felt like he had a ticking time bomb at
his disposal. The last couple of games it has been
a weapon, and they're sort of going closer by committee,
and I guess that's fine for now. But if the
performances we saw from that group over the first four

(01:49):
weeks become the performances we say we see in the
coming weeks, then who knows? Who knows? I do think
from an offensive perspective, and we talked about this at
the top of the show. Tino making some lineup changes,
showing some flexibility, not working as often with both McClain
and Hayes in the starting lineup, which is a decision

(02:11):
that makes sense. One of the more frustrating things in
sports is when a problem becomes a problem, or I
should say it becomes a bigger problem because it was
already a problem. Like the Bengals last season had terrible
safety play. What was frustrating about that was, on top

(02:33):
of just watching the safeties, specifically, Ginostone performed poorly in
real time. His play was problematic the year before, and
instead of just saying, you know what, we're going to
find somebody different, find somebody better, find somebody who can
handle the basics of making a tackle, they doubled down
on him. They kind of acknowledged ginos Stone wasn't very

(02:54):
good in twenty twenty four by asking him to take
a pay raise in twenty two twenty five. One of
the things that was frustrating about the season, and you
could make this about the defense as a whole. In
twenty twenty four, they were wretched. It got so frustrating
last year watching some of the same players who were
part of that wretched defense in twenty twenty four be

(03:16):
a part of an even more wretched defense in twenty
twenty five. Every team has weaknesses, every team has deficiencies,
but it's frustrating when deficiencies continue from one season to
the next, or when lingering offseason questions end up being
answered unfortunately in the affirmative, which for the Reds this

(03:37):
offseason was are they going to hit enough? Are they
really really good as good as they need to be?
In center field? TJ. Friedel, who had a tough second
half of the season last year. What about corner outfield?
Have they done enough? Have they done enough? Just by
adding JJ Bleday now JJ Blday has really helped this team.

(03:58):
It will be interesting to see what happens when he
stops getting fastballs, because historically he's not great at hitting
breaking balls. But all right, beyond that, questions about the
corner rolfield spots this offseason have continued into the season.
They have continued into May of this season. The Matt
McClain thing, like, we sure we're doing this with Matt

(04:19):
McClain again, and we okay, is is this really something
we're gonna try? Or is there any chance he goes
back to being the guy he was in twenty twenty three.
Watching Matt McClain struggle this season is not a surprise.
Watching him go through what he has gone offensively is frustrating,
it's troubling, it's sad at times. And again, maybe by
the end of the year he proves that his slow

(04:41):
start was nothing more than just simply a slow start.
But has anybody stunn that Matt McClain is struggling offensively?
Nobody who watched him last year said answer yes. Same
with Key Brian Hayes. Key Brian Hayes, you'd say, well,
he was unlucky early in the season, and there's statistically
some validity to that, But over the course of the

(05:02):
last few weeks, the home run at Wrigley Field last
week notwithstanding, when you Watchkee Brian Hayes, when you look
at his numbers, they may be an extreme example of
a bad hitter going through a rough first six seven weeks,
but nobody is surprised by that. Nobody is surprised when
you look at the outfield and you see the lack
of overall production they've gotten from certain positions, specifically in center,

(05:24):
one of the corner spots, and so that's what's frustrating.
And then you know, you come back to the question
we ask back in February, which was are they sure
they have done enough? Are we sure they have done
enough to make this team better? We were asking that
in February. In March, and right now from an offensive perspective,
it feels like we have an answer. The answer is no.

(05:45):
The fact that we thought the answer might be no
in February and have reasonable confirmation in May that the
answer is no makes you wonder what they were doing
in the front office. Makes you wonder what moves could
they have made that they didn't or why didn't they
make more? Eleven after four o'clock. I'm rooting for Brendan Soresby,

(06:08):
and maybe I am in the minority here among UC fans.
I'm rooting for Brendan Soresby if he has gone as
far to admit I have a gambling addiction problem. I
know what addiction can do to people. I want Brendan
to get the help that he needs, and I want

(06:29):
him to go on to have a successful life. And
I would say that if he was here as the
quarterback at you See. I say that now that he's not,
it does nobody any good for him to not get
his issues rectified. And because I'm a human being, him
jumping to Texas Tech as a UC fan didn't bother

(06:51):
me that much. He chased the coin, he chased the
green Okay, fine, but I would find it extraordinarily to
have a young man basically crap away an opportunity to
make the kind of coin he could have gotten, and
I guess I have to say could conceivably. I guess
still get by. I'm playing quarterback at Texas Tech, like

(07:13):
I am rooting for him when he was here. I
didn't love him as a QB, but I thought he
was a good guy, fun to talk to, did a
lot of things behind the scenes to get players to
come to U see a lot of really good leadership
qualities there. Like I don't root against people. I really
don't root against really young people. You don't want somebody
to develop a pattern of behavior that destroys their chances

(07:38):
of having the most productive and happiest life they could.
So maybe I'm in the minority here. I hope I'm not.
I'm rooting for Brendan Sorosby, and not so much as
a football player, just as a guy. If he's got
a gambling problem, it doesn't do anybody good for him
to not get that fixed, So I hope he does
as a quarterback. I keep asking this, what is everybody

(08:04):
else seeing that I am not? Earlier today, I was
asked to go on a Pittsburgh radio station, which was fun.
One of the co hosts, a buddy of mine Andrew Philippony,
who appears on this show whenever the Bengals play the Steelers,
and he asked me to come on to talk about
Brendan Soorsby. And the reason is Pittsburgh Steelers have some

(08:25):
quarterback uncertainty, which they've had for a very long time.
Now now Aaron Rodgers has been in Pittsburgh, I guess,
and his agent and the Steelers are working with each other,
and it feels like the smart money is on Aaron
Rodgers being the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers in twenty
twenty six, which, if you're a Bengals fan, I don't
know how that scares you at all. Is Aaron Rodgers

(08:47):
still capable of delivering great moments and winning some games? Yes?
Can you win a championship with him? It doesn't feel
like the answer is yes. But they had me on
to talk about Brendan Soorsby from the perspective of maybe
this Steelers using a supplemental first round pick on the
former UC quarterback. And the reason they wanted to have
me on is like, all right, you watched the guy

(09:08):
and you look, I'm not an expert, I'm not an evaluator.
I don't pretend to be an expert. All I could
do is tell you what I see and then try
to talk to as many experts as possible. But they
wanted me to come out and talk about Brendan Sorosby
because they are talking there about whether or not it
would make sense for the Steelers to use a supplemental
pick on Brendan Sorosby with the idea of possibly him

(09:31):
being the starting quarterback in twenty twenty six. Which you
talk about something that is a Bengals fan you should
be rooting for. It's that. So they had me on
to talk about this and had me on using a
quote from somebody that suggested that Brendan Sorosby is viewed
by some in the NFL as an early first round talent. Now,

(09:56):
when we found out he's staying in college, and then
when we found out that he's going to Texas Tech,
him staying in college always made a lot of sense
because he could use more reps, more game experience, more coaching,
more seasoning, and then maybe if he gets those things
and that stuff is translated into him having a great
year with the Red Raiders, maybe he does go in

(10:19):
the first round, and maybe he ends up playing to
the level of first round draft choice and has a
lot of success, makes a lot of money, and wins
a lot of games in the NFL, and the team
that drafts him is so happy to have him that
they give him a long term contract. That possibility, I
guess existed. But if you've paid attention to the discussion
around Brendan Sorosby, and I'm focusing this on football here,

(10:41):
not the gambling, not who knew what the football here.
I watched every snap of that dude's college career, some
of which were really good. In the first half of
the season. This past year, he was terrific twenty seven touchdowns,
five turnovers, that long stretch where he he had a
turnover Week one, then didn't have another turnover until their

(11:03):
ninth game of the season. Did a great job pretending
the football was a reason why they jumped out to
a seven and one start. He was also a reason
why they lost their last four games. He was the
reason why they lost the Nebraska I didn't watch Brendon
Sorosby through the lens of God. This guy's a bad
player or a dude. I don't want back. I wish
he was back, but I never watched him from the

(11:24):
perspective of, wow, here we have a guy who could
one day have his name called on the Thursday of
the NFL Draft. So these guys had me on to
ask me this, and I'm like, guys, I gotta be
honest with you. Like I like Brendan Hoope gets his
act together, Hooby gets his life straightened out. If the
plan is for him to be the quarterback in Pittsburgh,

(11:45):
whether it's playing behind Aaron Rodgers and waiting a year
or him having to play like meaningful snaps in twenty
twenty six, guys, good luck, and not that he with
more seasoning, even at the professional level, can't be a
really good player. But the more I hear these evaluations
of Brendan Sorosby, the more outsize they seem, and the

(12:10):
more I wonder, is everybody talking about the same guy
that I watch play for two seasons that you see
And again, I cannot emphasize this enough. Nobody's saying he
was a bad player. Twenty seven tds, five turnovers helped
him win some games, really tough, good with his legs,
but on a team that this past season had a
terrific offensive line and some really good skill players. I

(12:34):
saw him throw for sixty nine yards against Nebraska. Really
good quarterbacks were allowed to have bad games. And that
was Week one in Kansas City, and so you thought, Okay,
now the season is gonna unfold and he's gonna have
even better games than that. And he had some had
a comeback against Kansas and Lawrence where they convert on
a fourth down play and ultimately end up winning the game.

(12:56):
He had a game where he threw five touchdown passes
against Northwestern State. But when the games got hard, I
didn't see a guy who I thought one day is
going to be a really good NFL quarterback. So I
told those guys in Pittsburgh, like, I'm not sure what
I missed. I'm not sure what I'm missing when it
comes to Brendan Soresby. It's not the first time I've
asked it here, but I'll ask it again. What did

(13:18):
I miss when I watched Brendan Soorsby? Five point three
seven four nine fifteen thirty is our number? Eight six
six seven oh two three seven seven six.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
We spent some time last week on on Sal Stuart.
We spent a lot of time this year on Sal Stuart.
The Athletic last week threw cold water over the suggestion
that the Reds should get a deal done with Sal Stuart.
Not so much the suggestion, but the possibility or likelihood
of it happening. And I don't know that everybody is

(13:56):
looking at this from the same perspective or the correct perspective.
So I'll try to steer everybody's sight to the right place.
Coming up a little bit later on Plus Brennanman and
Jones on Baseball and are the Bengals sixteenth one publication
says yes, We'll get to that next on ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Traffic from the UC Help Traffic Center get moved.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
This is ESPN fifteen to thirty and Jones on Baseball
is coming up, and just about thirty minutes. I think
I have babbled long enough. Let's talk to other folks. Mike,
go ahead, and you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well, thank you so much for the leadoff spot. Real quick,
where where do you think we honestly stand with these
two linebackers we've got mo? Or is it just too
early to tell?

Speaker 1 (14:59):
I think you have have to acknowledge that neither guy
was thrust into a very good situation. I think you
have to acknowledge that players do improve because of experience,
and I think you have to acknowledge that there is
a great amount of peril in a season like this
in trusting two players at a position where you acquired

(15:19):
and nobody else who can help them.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
That sounds pretty damn empty to me.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, it's very iffy, right, it's very iffy.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
The only thing is, I mean, I understood this year.
You're not going to revamp the entire defense in one year.
I don't why not, Well, I don't know, because they
always cried poor, right.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah, I mean I don't think there's been any crying
of poverty. Like I mean, adding all linebacker isn't revamping
your entire defense. It's it's adding players at positions where
you were deficient last year. And by the way, they
also haven't added a slot corner, a veteran's slock corner.
You could you could talk about, you know, Nickel needing

(16:01):
one of those guys too, But with linebacker in particular,
Like when when this offseason started, we went through the
list of players who would make sense and pretty much
all of them. Did you know you were you were?
You were? You were not looking for the most expensive linebacker.
You were looking for somebody, And you also weren't looking
to cut Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter. You were looking

(16:23):
to give someone to them in the room that can
help them bring out the most in them and give
the Bengals somebody who has proven at a position where
the lack of experience caught up to him last year.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
But what happened to Bobby Wagner.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
The Bobby Wagner idea still out there.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
I don't get. I mean that sounds ideal to go.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah, you know that I read this weekend that there
are rumors that he may go back to Seattle. When
I when I've talked with people, they have shot down
the the possibility instantly, and what they cite is the age.
And what I will bring back at them is Bbby
Wagner played at the level last year at the age
of thirty six that was far superior to Barrett Carter
and Demetrius Knight. And I am willing to put up

(17:07):
with whatever loss of raw production from Bobby Wagner that
I would get if it can bring out a little
bit More and Carter and Knight because they're learning from
the dude. I would do it yesterday. I would bring
in Bobby Wagner.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
So you would have been a proponent more towards bringing
in a season veteran than a rookie.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Well, of course, yeah, I mean I wanted a player
that Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight could attach themselves to
because they didn't have that last year. Like you can admit,
as frustrating as it was watching those two players, neither
guy was thrust into a very enviable situation right The
defense around him stunk on the field in the final

(17:50):
two thirds of the season. They had no one to
lean on but each other. Logan Wilson, didn't you know,
make it to Halloween. I mean, there was a lot there,
and you certainly have to ignore knowledge that players often
get better from what they were as rookies. But to
have no safety in that with a veteran guy, and
to not give those guys someone that they can learn
from and what has otherwise been a pretty productive offseason,

(18:13):
the absence of that is doesn't make a lot of
sense to me.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Switching subjects to the NBA. When he got his money's worth, buddy,
He got his money's worth. Ricky ma'horne never used to
give money the flowers Verden. He he got him good too.
And it was kind of funny. He seemed to not

(18:40):
know what the hell was going on. He was just
playing done with the language barrier or something that somebody
had to translate to him that he was kicked out
as a game. Yeah, did you catch that?

Speaker 1 (18:50):
I did? And uh, he's not going to be suspended
for Game five, So he'll be on the floor for
the Spurs when they host Minnesota in the tiebreaking game
of the series.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Now, if that had happened in the fourth quarter with
four minutes wept, I think they might have suspended in
the game.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Maybe. Yeah, it's a fair point. I think if that
happens toward the end of a game, especially had the
game been decided, I think there's a very real chance
the league would have said, look, you didn't miss anything
of consequence, and now you will. You're gonna have to
miss the entire next game, all right, So who do
you like?

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Then? I know you gotta go. Who do you like? Cleveland? Detroit?

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Cleveland has not won a game on the road. They're
gonna have to win one on the road. I don't
believe they will. I don't trust James Harden showing up
the way he did in Game three three more times
in the series. I think Detroit wins, and I think
they close it out in five.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, I mean the other day, right at the end
of the game, he just takes over and goes.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
He's entirely capable of doing that. He just doesn't do
it in the postseason often enough.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
So he's got some kind of problem. I don't know
what it is.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
I don't think that. I don't think that. I don't
think that Cavs team has enough toughness to win a
series like this.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
No, probably don't. They probably don't. I Who did you
like better back in the day, Pearl Monroe or Walt Fraser.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Well, I wasn't alive to watch either, but but you've
seen Walt. Walt Fraser's performance in the Willis Reed game
is iconic.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Mm hmmm. The pearl was smooth? What this pearl was
so smooth? And a few two more guys, did you
remember Andrew Tony with the Sixers?

Speaker 1 (20:26):
I remember him toward the end of his career when
he was befelled by bad feet.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, with Southwest Louis, he had one of the he
he and Bernard King still to this day have the
most beautiful shots I've seen, and maybe Rick Berry those
and Rick Barry. I told Austin and uh Tony the
other day, they didn't know Rick Barry shot underhanded.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
They didn't know Rick Berry shot his free throws granny style.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
No, they didn't, And they knew Wilt did, but they
didn't know Rick Barry. And Rick Barry's probably top five
all time free throw shoot there.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
There's a documentary that came out maybe two months ago
about the ABA, and Rick Berry is a big part
of it for obvious reasons. And he talks at this age,
at the age that he is now, he still talks
about the benefits of shooting his free throws underhanded and
how he wishes, certainly like Mitchell Robinson of the Knicks,
who shoots at a forty percent clip. He still talks

(21:19):
about how players like that could benefit from shooting granny style.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
So Shack should have tried it himself, maybe because he
was horrible. I got it. I know you got to go.
Thanks them all. I appreciate you, but.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Right, I appreciate the phone call. I think the question
about the Bengals linebackers is a fair one. ESPN says
the Bengals have the sixteenth best roster in the NFL.
I have one question about the roster, not so much
the rankings, but one about the roster that is this
team's biggest variable. We'll do that after sports headlines next
on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic, the EN fifteen thirty
Cincinnati sports station.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Sports headlines, excuse me our service at Kelsey Chevrolee, home
of lifetime power train protection and guarantee credit approval from
their family to yours life kelseyshow dot com. Off day
for the Reds Nationals here tomorrow, first of a three
games set against DC. Brady Singer is going to pitch
against Miles Michaelists six forty tomorrow, sixty on Wednesday, and

(22:23):
then a day game on Thursday afternoon. All of the
action on seven hundred wl W. What else do we have?
Off night for the Florence Yawls. No big Bengals news
today and the NBA tonight. Two games. You got the Calves,
you got the Pistons. Game four in Cleveland Calves won
Game three. It's two to one Detroit and game four

(22:46):
in LA between the Thunder and Lakers with OKC up
three games to none. What else do we have hockey tonight?
It's one playoff game NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Wild and
Avalanche in Minneapolis, with Colorado leading that series two games
to one. Anything you may have missed on this show

(23:07):
you can go find on the iHeartRadio app, or you
could just go on my page, but would like them
when you go to the iHeartRadio app, which, by the way,
you could also set us as a preset podcast of
this show are a service of Long Necks Sports Grill.
I gave the wrong attribution to this before, I believe,
but Theathletic dot Com ranks all thirty two rosters following

(23:30):
the twenty twenty six NFL Draft, with the Los Angeles
Rams ranked number one and the Baltimore Ravens ranked number
one in the AFC North eighth overall, Cincinnati at number sixteen,
and then Pittsburgh at number twenty one, with the Browns

(23:52):
four up from the bottom. And I haven't done this
exercise where I've ranked every NFL roster, and I'm not
going to the explanation. The blurb about the Bengals reads
as following Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and t Higgins make
for a pretty good starting point. The problem is you
can't win a Super Bowl with three players. The rest

(24:14):
of Cincinnati's offense grades out is below average, and its
defense isn't much better. Even after trading for defensive tackle
decks for Lawrence, the Bengals still have concerns that edge
rusher and linebacker. The secondary is actually better than most
would think, but the Bengals desperately need to find ways
to get after quarterbacks and to keep Burrow upright. There's
two large variables here. One is the pass rush. The

(24:37):
high end of the Bengals pass rush is insane, but
there's legitimate questions how much is Shamar Stewart gon to
help this year. You could easily convince me and most
others that there's a world where Shamar Stewart ends up
having a very good second NFL season, And there's a
world where Miles Murphy's ascension continues. And there's a world

(24:58):
where Boye Mafe is better scheme fit in Cincinnati than
he was his last year in Seattle. And there's a
world where cashes Hall ends up having a terrific rookie season,
and there's a world where Dexter lawrence Mere presence in
the middle of that defensive line, on top of Jonathan Allen,
on top of what they have at that position, gives
them a really formidable defensive front. There's also a world

(25:20):
where Dexter Lawrence the New York Giants twenty twenty five
version is what we see in twenty twenty six, and
maybe a slightly worse version, or Shamar Stewart the light
bulb doesn't come on, or the second half of the
season for Miles Murphy was an outlier, or boy A
Mafe Seattle got out in front of moving on from
him because the lack of just sack production in Seattle

(25:41):
told a larger story that, unfortunately Bengals fans are going
to become familiar with. And there's also different versions of
those stories that could play out. But the upside of
the Bengals pass rush is insane to think about, but
it's still very unproven. The largest variable on the entire team, though,
is the offensive line, isn't it. This is easily and

(26:06):
it's almost not even a fair comparison easily the most
stability the Bengals have enjoyed from one year to the
next on the offensive line in a decade, Like you'd
probably have to go back twenty fifteen to twenty sixteen.
Twenty fifteen they had a great offensive line pretty much
brought back everybody. For twenty sixteen that units started to regress.

(26:28):
But you have to go back a decade, right, The
most amount of stability they've had at the offensive line
group since Joe Burrow became the starting quarterback, the most
amount of stability they've had on the offensive line, I
believe since Zach Taylor became the head coach. They did
the easy thing and brought back Dalton Reisner. That was
not just the easy thing, it was the right thing.
And beyond that, we haven't talked a lot about the

(26:50):
five starters, probably the best offensive line that Joe Burrow
has had. In fact, there's not even really a probably
with it. But is that as much of a statement
about what they have as it is a statement about
what they haven't had? Like, is this a legitimately good
offensive line by reasonable NFL standards? It's a good offensive

(27:14):
line by recent and even not so recent Bengals standards,
like we keep saying it because I believe it, like
it's it's the best offensive line the Bengals have had
with Joe Burrow is the starting quarterback. But that's that's
not exactly the highest bar to clear one of the
best offensive lines in the NFL. That's a high bar
to clear. The variables here are are pretty pretty interesting.

(27:40):
And the variance I think is also pretty interesting because
Amrius Mims, if you believe he's trending towards stardom and
many do, within year three is a huge season. It
would be totally unsurprising to find that by the end
of the season a Marius Mims is one of the
best players at his position in the sport. Be unsurprising

(28:00):
to see Dylan Fairchild have a big year two leap,
which is I think pretty important. And it would be
unsurprising if Dalton Reisner continued his steady play, and if
Orlando Brown continued his steady play, and if at the
age of thirty three, Ted Carris provided some steady play
on the inside at center. But it would also be

(28:23):
unsurprising if maybe Orlando Brown lost a notch or two,
maybe same for Ted Carris, perhaps maybe even the same
for Dalton Reisner. One of the things about last year
that was so frustrating, and there were obviously a long
list of things that were frustrating about last season, is

(28:44):
it kind of felt like they wasted really good offensive
line health. Like the top to bottom as NFL offensive
lines go, they really had great stability last year and
health was a big reason why from one year to
the next. Of times, it doesn't necessarly carry over now
they've addressed it. Connor Loo feels like he's going to
be a terrific player. Does really feel like the Bengals

(29:06):
got to steal and Brian Parker. You love the versatility,
You obviously love the fact that he's a local guy.
It's not that they did not address the offensive line,
but coming into the draft, offensive line depth it was
really thin. Have they done enough to address it? Like
that group to me is like the biggest X factor

(29:26):
of the entire team. A you got to keep Joe
Burrow upright be you want to completely maximize what you
have on the offensive side of the ball, which, let's
be honest. As as cool as it is that they've
done all the work they've done on defense, the meal
ticket for this franchise is still throwing the football using Joe,

(29:47):
using Jamar, using t That gets amplified if they put
the quarterback behind a great offensive line, Could this unit achieve?
That might not be likely, but I do believe it's
It's in play. So is significant regression, either because of health, luck,
or certain players hitting a point in their career where

(30:10):
they start to decline and maybe even individually fall off
a cliff. Feels like there's a world where the Bengals
have an offensive line that's like legitimately pretty good, not
league best, not one of the best five units in
the league, but like a group that we maybe even
never talk about week to week. It also does feel

(30:30):
like it's realistic that we look back on how we
talked about this offensive line this offseason and kind of
chuckle because this group ends up regressing significantly. I think
we all feel like defensively, they're just bound to be better.
It's hard to imagine them being any worse. And the
mere fact that they've swapped out players at a lot
of different positions and invested heavily in that side of

(30:51):
the ball and used a bunch of draft choices, like
there's going to be a payoff there. How big is
the payoff is a fair question. Your guess is as
good as mine. X factor on this team. For me,
the one unit where the variance seems to be widest
is on the offensive line. Now, I don't know about you.
Pretty encouraged by how that group played toward the end

(31:12):
of the season last year, Frill. They bought Reisner back,
and it feels like, for the first time in quite
a while, like it's not gonna be just the abject
weakness that Bengals offensive line play has been for such
a long time. But there is a variance there. There's
a wide gap between what they could be on the
good side and what they could be on the not
so good side. We'll see if they come close to

(31:34):
either extreme. Thirteen away from five o'clock Reds win two
out of three might not have felt like it. They
got absolutely destroyed on Friday. Bounce back because the Chase
Burns on Saturday bounce back in large part because of
Andrew Abbott yesterday, a winning Reds weekend, and some real
good things from the manager's office coming up in the

(31:56):
five o'clock hour on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
From the uc help which is just a few minutes away.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. My Leger, we might have
one of the two stars of Brendaman and Jones on
Baseball in this show next week. And you know what,
we might as well just get the other while we're
at it, but we may do. We may have one
of the stars of that show on this show next week.

(32:27):
Speaking of shows, be there Thursday night the annual schedule
release show. We're broadcasting from Dickman, same place we did
the Draft show. In fact, same place and same lineup.
We are on the air from six until midnight on Thursday.
The first two hours Lance and Rocky and then Tony
Pike and I together like a mini version of the
Tony Inmo Football Show. And then to put a stamp

(32:51):
on things, so to speak, Austin Elmore and the chickstart
Chick Leadowick. They'll do ten to midnight, six hours schedule release.
Schedule's gonna come out. We'll talk about it from every
conceivable angle, bunch of different Bengals related topics to explore
on Thursday. And it truly is and I've said this
for years it's very easy to get cynical about making
a big deal over the exact schedule for every team

(33:15):
coming out. I understand it. But if you're not the
person who hates everything, then I think you understand why
it's such a fun night for everybody involved. And so
if you're that, like you know, just built in Cynic's cool.
If you're not there, everybody else join us. Dickman's in
fort right, It's going to be a blast. Show will
air six to midnight, seven hundred WLW, plenty of parking,

(33:36):
tons of room. Don't forget Dickman's is a twenty one
and over establishment. I want you to look at the
Reds roster as constructed right now, look at the forty man,
and then I want you to think about the year
twenty twenty nine. Let's get ahead of ourselves in the
five o'clock hour. But first let's do Brendiman and Jones

(33:59):
on Bay Spall on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station,