July 30, 2025 • 14 mins
Robert Weintraub wrote the Bengals chapter of this year's FTN Football Almanac, which is an incredibly valuable resource.
He joined us on ESPN1530.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
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Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
He joined us on ESPN1530.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cincinnati's sports station, ESPN fifteen thirty, five oh five, ESPN
fifteen thirty Mone Hagger, that's the Nicelo Vultra five o'clock.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Happy hour on. It's been a busy, kind of chaotic day.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Red's had a new third baseman who's really good at
playing third base, Key Brian Hayes. They traded Sammy Staffura
shortstop prospect. They no longer have too many shortstops, I guess,
and Taylor Rodgers, who was awesome when there was nobody
on base, but terrible when there were men on base.
Those guys are off to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Key Brian Hayes is coming to Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
He'll join the team tomorrow when they open up that
series against the Braves. Key Brian Hayes has awesome defensively.
He has been way below league average with the bat.
You'll hear what Terry Francona had to say about the
new acquisition coming up here in just a bit. Trey
Hendrickson has ended his hold out. He has kind of
started his hold in. He was at practice today, but
(00:55):
he wasn't practicing. Uh, we've talked about Trey, I was
gonna say, we've talked about Trey for months on end.
You'll hear again what he had to say earlier today
coming up in just a little bit. I am confused
by what the Reds did with Kei Brian Hayes, and
we'll explain why in about thirty minutes. But I'm never
confused when we chat with our next guest. We talk
(01:16):
with him every week during the season because he writes
a Bengals column for Cincinnati Magazine. He is also the
best contributor to the FTN Preseason Almanac, which this has
been a publication that we have talked about and referenced
on this show for years, going back to what it
was published by Football Outsiders. I tweeted out a link
(01:37):
and you can get the almanac, which is incredibly thorough,
very comprehensive, and most years the Bengals chapter is authored
by our buddy Robert Weintraub, who is with us now.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Long intro, how's it going?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, it was a long intro, but our long regional
nightmare is over. Moo. We're back together once again after
a long summer, in particular long in terms of contract talk.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
I'm sure for you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, you know, we loved it. I mean, between Shamar
Stewart and Trey Hendrickson. We are going to put them
in the ESPN fifteen thirty Ring of Honor.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
It's better than talking.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Reds every single day, right, I don't know, man, the
Reds are interesting. They just their big trade deadline acquisition
was a guy that can't hit, which doesn't make any sense.
But we'll get to that a little bit. Let's talk
about the Bengals. You're right about Al Golden, and the
one thing we have heard about Al since they hired
him to be the defensive coordinator is he's going to
(02:33):
emphasize linebacker. You refer to his quote linebacker infatuation. They
drafted a linebacker in the second round, which is something
you typically don't expect the Bengals to do. They've emphasized
a position this offseason that you typically don't see the
Bengals emphasize. So tell me how this is going to work.
How does his emphasis of that position help shape what
(02:55):
the Al Golden defense is going to look like?
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Right?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, maybe first that shit to do a little promotion,
and that the upcoming issue of Cincinnati Magazine, which should
hit the news stands in a couple of weeks. I
guess I actually do interview al go talk to him
a little bit, introduce him a little bit, you know,
not too in depth like we get on the football
talk necessarily, but just to get a kind of big
picture of what he's all about. And you're right, linebacker
(03:19):
play is both his specialty.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
And not particularly one that the Bengals have emphasized. But
I feel like that's partially.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
You know, a league trend, not just the Bengals. When
the league went to mostly base three wide receivers, the
defense has had to follow with five defensive backs. And
now that you know, the running the ball has become
maybe back in fashion a little bit more, and certainly
in the AFC North, it's always a priority, right. I
think Golden's, as you say, linebacker infatuation.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Maybe it's just a crush.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I'm not sure, but he's he's gonna play three linebackers
more up and then we've seen in a long time,
and he's gonna get some guys in here who can
actually both tackle and maybe cover some tight ends for
once and hit pretty hard, and the Bengals haven't.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Had that in a while.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
They continue he gets targeted by enemy passers at the
tight end position more than any other team, and you know,
I think you'll see the preset being if your linebackers
are fast, your defense is fast. We saw that with
the Ravens when they brought in Rokwan Smith. And I'm
not saying Demetrius he was going to have that same effect,
but he definitely wanted to improve the speed at that position.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
It was a place that was probably easiest.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
For him to conceive of making an immediate impact through
the draft in the middle rounds. And you know, listen,
I think it's fair to say that it's not necessarily
the guys we wanted to pick that where they were
picked necessarily, but time will tell, and they definitely feel
the need, so you can understand why.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
And he obviously feels that's an important position. And you know,
he certainly was at Notre Dame where he had great success.
So hopefully it'll translate to the NFL.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
He's got to try al does he's got to try
to achieve better results using a group of players in
the secondary that helped get last year's defensive coordinator fire No.
At the same time, there's a lot of guys, you
know back there they've used early round draft choices on
or have prioritized in free agency like Geno Stone, and
so I think it's unsurprising that they're giving those players
(05:17):
a chance in this system. I do think it's at
least a little surprising that they did nothing in terms
of outside acquisition, either via the draft or free agency.
And so I can't help it ask like they couldn't
have added at least one more guy, even at safety.
They couldn't have added at least one guy to that mix,
which is still so unproven.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Hey, you sound like my mother. They couldn't have added
another dB. It would have been so odd.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, well, you know, like you say, first of all,
I think you know, we're still early. There's still time
they may do that. I don't especially if God forbid,
somebody gets hurt. I think that's certainly a possibility. And
I think again going back to Al Golden Is, he's
looking around saying, well, there's probably not really that many
difference makers that they could have gotten. Certainly in free agency,
we've invested a lot in these guys.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
As you said, you know, first and two seconds, I
was trying to think back how many times in.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
The last decade or fifteen years as a team invested
that kind of draft capital in a single position, and
they all went bad and none of them got a
second contract. You know, it's probably not that often. I'd
hate to see this be a trendsetter. So you like
to think that they'll come back and achieve what they can.
There's there's a real variance. As I wrote in the Almanac,
they could all sort of come of age and be
(06:30):
excellent together. They can all fall apart like they did
last year again, and the defense and the whole team
will suffer because of it as well. Certainly they could
have you know, they could have drafted one they I
think we'll look at Malachi Starks in Baltimore and compare
him to Shamar Stewart over the next few years and
wonder if maybe.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
That was not the right pick.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
But you know, overall, I think the point is the
easiest thing and the most kind of you know, straightforward
thing for Al Golden to do is to take what
he had prove himself different than and you know, train
up these guys. They're all young, they're all you know,
so have shown they can play in this league, and
it's just a matter of getting them to the point
(07:09):
where they can be baseline good.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
You know, it's funny.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
The secondary actually in terms of yards per attempt given
up last year.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Was middle of the league. Wasn't that bad. It was
the big plays that killed them, the touchdown passes. And so,
you know, as we always talk in the show, the
margins are really small.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Get these guys to make a handful more plays in
big situations. Suddenly they look a lot better than you know,
they looked last year.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
And as we.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Think of them, and we won't be worrying about, you know,
potentially adding it better and to be the fifty B
or the third safety as much as we are right now.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Robert Wintrump is with us author the Bengals chapter and
more in the FTN Football Aminac twenty twenty five, which
you could order now at Ftnfantasy dot Com. Same question,
different position group. They couldn't have added one more guard.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Now you're my grandmother? What's going on? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Here I feel a little a bit more legit than
I do perhaps in the in the defensive backfield, you know,
I mean, you're going in with a rookie and a
guy you have a lot of faith in, and potentially
at least in Dylan Fairchild at one side, and Lucas Patrick,
who ran who's you know, I feel that about him.
It's sort of similarly as I did about Trent Brown
when we were doing this this particular hit a year ago.
(08:22):
Lucas Patrick has missed what seventeen games over the last
three years.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
He's already a bit nicked up. He's not a guy
who's you're gonna confuse.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
With an all guard a time soon, even at his best,
and going into the season relying on hims particularly so heavily,
where the backup to him would just be a melee
of mediocrities like Cody Ford.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
It's just it's it's playing with fire. And again, there's
still time.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
They still might, you know, send up the bat signal
to a branded chair for something like that if they
need to. They certainly don't think they want to, however,
but it's it's risking a lot position where they just
feel like they continually can get by with sort of
you know, a Mendoza line player. Hopefully Fairchild takes a
step forward and gives them higher than that, higher than
(09:11):
a sort of replacement level, you know, action at the
guard position. But it's you're asking a lot of a
rookie and a journeyman at that position.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
All right. One more, you're right that the Bengals are
quote roughly the same by DVA.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
That made me cringe. Should it have made me cringe?
Speaker 4 (09:31):
You're such a pessimist mode.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
No not, That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I open this thinking Robert's gonna have them winning the
AFC North, and it's like.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
No, no, Well, you have to remember I wrote in
there quite a bit about how and we all know
this to be true. The Bengals season last year, the
defining stat to me was that they spend more time tied, yeah,
than any other team in the league. Everything was on
such a coin flip, and everything fell on the wrong.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Side of the fence until late in the season.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
You know, you just flip the results in two of
the three games against the Ravens and Kansas.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
City, which ended in such ridiculous and excruciating that ways,
they win eleven games, they probably win the division. Who
knows what.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
They do in the playoffs, and we're thinking, oh, roughly
the same by dv Awa.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
That's actually pretty good. You know.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
We think of last year in that sense as the outlier. Okay,
Burrow played the whole season. He was awesome, and they
missed the playoffs. But if you look at his career
so far, kind of holistically throw out his rookie year.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Obviously the outlier was.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Really twenty twenty two, when they were really good and
very complete at every position, and obviously they fell one
game short of the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
And speaking of excruciating losses, that's enough about that.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
But you know, every other year they've sort of been
in the same ballpark, roughly the same as in DVOA
as they are now, And it just goes to show that,
you know, dv AWA doesn't always and necessarily exactly translate
into wins and into the narrative as to how we
feel about the team. Like I say, this very easy chance,
(10:59):
with these exact same numbers in efficiency that the Bengals
could win eleven or twelve games, win the division, and
we look at it as an awesome year compared to
last year's disaster.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
But really it wasn't all that different under the hood.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
So I don't think of it as as a particular
you know, dark Cloud to think that they're roughly the
same by DDUA.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
I just think, you know, we need to have some of.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
The things that went against us last year and so
heavily against the team last year.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Only a few of those fall on the opposite side
of defense.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
We think about things much differently, and you know, listen,
if they don't, Zach Taylor's probably getting fired and have
a whole different team coming into twenty twenty six, and
who knows what we're looking at.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
But you know, I.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Wouldn't take the fact that they have a similar outlook
for this year as they did last year.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
I think we all knew that anyway.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
We have the same quarterback, most of the same people
on the team, as we alluded to, the main guy
who's different as the defensive coordinator, which is not.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Heavily affected by our efficiency stats. So you know, I
don't look at it particularly as a negative.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
They just have to win some of these close games,
and you can say that about a lot of teams
in the NFL, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
For for the uninitiated, when it comes to the Almanac,
why should folks get it?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Well, you did a nice little introduction to give us
that it's it's really thorough writing. It seems like it's
going to be a lot about math, but really it's
a lot about funny takes.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
A lot of film.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Analysis that back up the numbers. There's a lot of fantasy,
a ton of fantasy stuff. We break down pretty much
every skill player not only by you know, their statistics,
but also by their fantasy worth.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
And you know, it's just a way to get.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yourself sorted for a season that is a little bit different,
a little bit more wry. If you will w r
y or you uninitiated and uh, you know your vote devotee,
I should ask you the same question. It's easy for
me to promote it. I contributed to the thing. But
you know, why do you like it?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Because I like it because it combines smart analysis with
writing that a dumb guy like me can understand.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
There you go, and I'm a dumb guy, So it
works out perfectly, all right for you.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Mo, that's right, it's out to shape it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It's smart analysis dumbed down for an idiot like myself.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And that's that's a win in my book.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
The Homer Simpson Football Off five Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You could order it now at Ftnfantasy dot com. We'll
be looking for the al Golden piece in Cincinnati Magazine
and we'll chat every week once the season gets here.
Cannot wait, Thank you as.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Always absolutely looking forward to it. We should be a
great year.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Likewise, that's our guy, Robert Wintrop again Ftnfantasy dot Com.
We'll take a look at FC Cincinnati's competition in the
League's Cup. We've got key Brian Hayes to discuss what
Nick Crawl is doing. Why this doesn't make a ton
of sense to me, Trey Hendrickson's return. There's a lot
to get to and some phone calls between now and
six on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.
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From the UC Health Traffic Center.
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U SE Help's Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical
obesity care and expertise.
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That's nine three nine two two sixty three.
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Clifton Avenue closed off from an accident in both directions
between Warner and Lyon Street westbound seventy four at two
seventy five, the Coal Rain split accident. They're blocking the
right lane right now, up to a ten minute delay.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Back from Rybolt. I'm at Ezelic with track
Cincinnati's sports station, ESPN fifteen thirty, five oh five, ESPN
fifteen thirty Mone Hagger, that's the Nicelo Vultra five o'clock.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Happy hour on. It's been a busy, kind of chaotic day.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Red's had a new third baseman who's really good at
playing third base, Key Brian Hayes. They traded Sammy Staffura
shortstop prospect. They no longer have too many shortstops, I guess,
and Taylor Rodgers, who was awesome when there was nobody
on base, but terrible when there were men on base.
Those guys are off to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Key Brian Hayes is coming to Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
He'll join the team tomorrow when they open up that
series against the Braves. Key Brian Hayes has awesome defensively.
He has been way below league average with the bat.
You'll hear what Terry Francona had to say about the
new acquisition coming up here in just a bit. Trey
Hendrickson has ended his hold out. He has kind of
started his hold in. He was at practice today, but
(00:55):
he wasn't practicing. Uh, we've talked about Trey, I was
gonna say, we've talked about Trey for months on end.
You'll hear again what he had to say earlier today
coming up in just a little bit. I am confused
by what the Reds did with Kei Brian Hayes, and
we'll explain why in about thirty minutes. But I'm never
confused when we chat with our next guest. We talk
(01:16):
with him every week during the season because he writes
a Bengals column for Cincinnati Magazine. He is also the
best contributor to the FTN Preseason Almanac, which this has
been a publication that we have talked about and referenced
on this show for years, going back to what it
was published by Football Outsiders. I tweeted out a link
(01:37):
and you can get the almanac, which is incredibly thorough,
very comprehensive, and most years the Bengals chapter is authored
by our buddy Robert Weintraub, who is with us now.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Long intro, how's it going?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, it was a long intro, but our long regional
nightmare is over. Moo. We're back together once again after
a long summer, in particular long in terms of contract talk.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
I'm sure for you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, you know, we loved it. I mean, between Shamar
Stewart and Trey Hendrickson. We are going to put them
in the ESPN fifteen thirty Ring of Honor.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
It's better than talking.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Reds every single day, right, I don't know, man, the
Reds are interesting. They just their big trade deadline acquisition
was a guy that can't hit, which doesn't make any sense.
But we'll get to that a little bit. Let's talk
about the Bengals. You're right about Al Golden, and the
one thing we have heard about Al since they hired
him to be the defensive coordinator is he's going to
(02:33):
emphasize linebacker. You refer to his quote linebacker infatuation. They
drafted a linebacker in the second round, which is something
you typically don't expect the Bengals to do. They've emphasized
a position this offseason that you typically don't see the
Bengals emphasize. So tell me how this is going to work.
How does his emphasis of that position help shape what
(02:55):
the Al Golden defense is going to look like?
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Right?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, maybe first that shit to do a little promotion,
and that the upcoming issue of Cincinnati Magazine, which should
hit the news stands in a couple of weeks. I
guess I actually do interview al go talk to him
a little bit, introduce him a little bit, you know,
not too in depth like we get on the football
talk necessarily, but just to get a kind of big
picture of what he's all about. And you're right, linebacker
(03:19):
play is both his specialty.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
And not particularly one that the Bengals have emphasized. But
I feel like that's partially.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
You know, a league trend, not just the Bengals. When
the league went to mostly base three wide receivers, the
defense has had to follow with five defensive backs. And
now that you know, the running the ball has become
maybe back in fashion a little bit more, and certainly
in the AFC North, it's always a priority, right. I
think Golden's, as you say, linebacker infatuation.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Maybe it's just a crush.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I'm not sure, but he's he's gonna play three linebackers
more up and then we've seen in a long time,
and he's gonna get some guys in here who can
actually both tackle and maybe cover some tight ends for
once and hit pretty hard, and the Bengals haven't.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Had that in a while.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
They continue he gets targeted by enemy passers at the
tight end position more than any other team, and you know,
I think you'll see the preset being if your linebackers
are fast, your defense is fast. We saw that with
the Ravens when they brought in Rokwan Smith. And I'm
not saying Demetrius he was going to have that same effect,
but he definitely wanted to improve the speed at that position.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
It was a place that was probably easiest.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
For him to conceive of making an immediate impact through
the draft in the middle rounds. And you know, listen,
I think it's fair to say that it's not necessarily
the guys we wanted to pick that where they were
picked necessarily, but time will tell, and they definitely feel
the need, so you can understand why.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
And he obviously feels that's an important position. And you know,
he certainly was at Notre Dame where he had great success.
So hopefully it'll translate to the NFL.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
He's got to try al does he's got to try
to achieve better results using a group of players in
the secondary that helped get last year's defensive coordinator fire No.
At the same time, there's a lot of guys, you
know back there they've used early round draft choices on
or have prioritized in free agency like Geno Stone, and
so I think it's unsurprising that they're giving those players
(05:17):
a chance in this system. I do think it's at
least a little surprising that they did nothing in terms
of outside acquisition, either via the draft or free agency.
And so I can't help it ask like they couldn't
have added at least one more guy, even at safety.
They couldn't have added at least one guy to that mix,
which is still so unproven.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Hey, you sound like my mother. They couldn't have added
another dB. It would have been so odd.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, well, you know, like you say, first of all,
I think you know, we're still early. There's still time
they may do that. I don't especially if God forbid,
somebody gets hurt. I think that's certainly a possibility. And
I think again going back to Al Golden Is, he's
looking around saying, well, there's probably not really that many
difference makers that they could have gotten. Certainly in free agency,
we've invested a lot in these guys.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
As you said, you know, first and two seconds, I
was trying to think back how many times in.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
The last decade or fifteen years as a team invested
that kind of draft capital in a single position, and
they all went bad and none of them got a
second contract. You know, it's probably not that often. I'd
hate to see this be a trendsetter. So you like
to think that they'll come back and achieve what they can.
There's there's a real variance. As I wrote in the Almanac,
they could all sort of come of age and be
(06:30):
excellent together. They can all fall apart like they did
last year again, and the defense and the whole team
will suffer because of it as well. Certainly they could
have you know, they could have drafted one they I
think we'll look at Malachi Starks in Baltimore and compare
him to Shamar Stewart over the next few years and
wonder if maybe.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
That was not the right pick.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
But you know, overall, I think the point is the
easiest thing and the most kind of you know, straightforward
thing for Al Golden to do is to take what
he had prove himself different than and you know, train
up these guys. They're all young, they're all you know,
so have shown they can play in this league, and
it's just a matter of getting them to the point
(07:09):
where they can be baseline good.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
You know, it's funny.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
The secondary actually in terms of yards per attempt given
up last year.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Was middle of the league. Wasn't that bad. It was
the big plays that killed them, the touchdown passes. And so,
you know, as we always talk in the show, the
margins are really small.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Get these guys to make a handful more plays in
big situations. Suddenly they look a lot better than you know,
they looked last year.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
And as we.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Think of them, and we won't be worrying about, you know,
potentially adding it better and to be the fifty B
or the third safety as much as we are right now.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Robert Wintrump is with us author the Bengals chapter and
more in the FTN Football Aminac twenty twenty five, which
you could order now at Ftnfantasy dot Com. Same question,
different position group. They couldn't have added one more guard.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Now you're my grandmother? What's going on? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Here I feel a little a bit more legit than
I do perhaps in the in the defensive backfield, you know,
I mean, you're going in with a rookie and a
guy you have a lot of faith in, and potentially
at least in Dylan Fairchild at one side, and Lucas Patrick,
who ran who's you know, I feel that about him.
It's sort of similarly as I did about Trent Brown
when we were doing this this particular hit a year ago.
(08:22):
Lucas Patrick has missed what seventeen games over the last
three years.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
He's already a bit nicked up. He's not a guy
who's you're gonna confuse.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
With an all guard a time soon, even at his best,
and going into the season relying on hims particularly so heavily,
where the backup to him would just be a melee
of mediocrities like Cody Ford.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
It's just it's it's playing with fire. And again, there's
still time.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
They still might, you know, send up the bat signal
to a branded chair for something like that if they
need to. They certainly don't think they want to, however,
but it's it's risking a lot position where they just
feel like they continually can get by with sort of
you know, a Mendoza line player. Hopefully Fairchild takes a
step forward and gives them higher than that, higher than
(09:11):
a sort of replacement level, you know, action at the
guard position. But it's you're asking a lot of a
rookie and a journeyman at that position.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
That's for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
All right. One more, you're right that the Bengals are
quote roughly the same by DVA.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
That made me cringe. Should it have made me cringe?
Speaker 4 (09:31):
You're such a pessimist mode.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
No not, That's the thing.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I open this thinking Robert's gonna have them winning the
AFC North, and it's like.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
No, no, Well, you have to remember I wrote in
there quite a bit about how and we all know
this to be true. The Bengals season last year, the
defining stat to me was that they spend more time tied, yeah,
than any other team in the league. Everything was on
such a coin flip, and everything fell on the wrong.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Side of the fence until late in the season.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
You know, you just flip the results in two of
the three games against the Ravens and Kansas.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
City, which ended in such ridiculous and excruciating that ways,
they win eleven games, they probably win the division. Who
knows what.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
They do in the playoffs, and we're thinking, oh, roughly
the same by dv Awa.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
That's actually pretty good. You know.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
We think of last year in that sense as the outlier. Okay,
Burrow played the whole season. He was awesome, and they
missed the playoffs. But if you look at his career
so far, kind of holistically throw out his rookie year.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Obviously the outlier was.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Really twenty twenty two, when they were really good and
very complete at every position, and obviously they fell one
game short of the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
And speaking of excruciating losses, that's enough about that.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
But you know, every other year they've sort of been
in the same ballpark, roughly the same as in DVOA
as they are now, And it just goes to show that,
you know, dv AWA doesn't always and necessarily exactly translate
into wins and into the narrative as to how we
feel about the team. Like I say, this very easy chance,
(10:59):
with these exact same numbers in efficiency that the Bengals
could win eleven or twelve games, win the division, and
we look at it as an awesome year compared to
last year's disaster.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
But really it wasn't all that different under the hood.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
So I don't think of it as as a particular
you know, dark Cloud to think that they're roughly the
same by DDUA.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
I just think, you know, we need to have some of.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
The things that went against us last year and so
heavily against the team last year.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Only a few of those fall on the opposite side
of defense.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
We think about things much differently, and you know, listen,
if they don't, Zach Taylor's probably getting fired and have
a whole different team coming into twenty twenty six, and
who knows what we're looking at.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
But you know, I.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Wouldn't take the fact that they have a similar outlook
for this year as they did last year.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
I think we all knew that anyway.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
We have the same quarterback, most of the same people
on the team, as we alluded to, the main guy
who's different as the defensive coordinator, which is not.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Heavily affected by our efficiency stats. So you know, I
don't look at it particularly as a negative.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
They just have to win some of these close games,
and you can say that about a lot of teams
in the NFL, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
For for the uninitiated, when it comes to the Almanac,
why should folks get it?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Well, you did a nice little introduction to give us
that it's it's really thorough writing. It seems like it's
going to be a lot about math, but really it's
a lot about funny takes.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
A lot of film.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Analysis that back up the numbers. There's a lot of fantasy,
a ton of fantasy stuff. We break down pretty much
every skill player not only by you know, their statistics,
but also by their fantasy worth.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
And you know, it's just a way to get.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yourself sorted for a season that is a little bit different,
a little bit more wry. If you will w r
y or you uninitiated and uh, you know your vote devotee,
I should ask you the same question. It's easy for
me to promote it. I contributed to the thing. But
you know, why do you like it?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Because I like it because it combines smart analysis with
writing that a dumb guy like me can understand.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
There you go, and I'm a dumb guy, So it
works out perfectly, all right for you.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Mo, that's right, it's out to shape it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It's smart analysis dumbed down for an idiot like myself.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And that's that's a win in my book.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
The Homer Simpson Football Off five Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You could order it now at Ftnfantasy dot com. We'll
be looking for the al Golden piece in Cincinnati Magazine
and we'll chat every week once the season gets here.
Cannot wait, Thank you as.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Always absolutely looking forward to it. We should be a
great year.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Likewise, that's our guy, Robert Wintrop again Ftnfantasy dot Com.
We'll take a look at FC Cincinnati's competition in the
League's Cup. We've got key Brian Hayes to discuss what
Nick Crawl is doing. Why this doesn't make a ton
of sense to me, Trey Hendrickson's return. There's a lot
to get to and some phone calls between now and
six on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
From the UC Health Traffic Center.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
U SE Help's Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical
obesity care and expertise.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Call five one three nine three nine two two sixty three.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
That's nine three nine two two sixty three.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Clifton Avenue closed off from an accident in both directions
between Warner and Lyon Street westbound seventy four at two
seventy five, the Coal Rain split accident. They're blocking the
right lane right now, up to a ten minute delay.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Back from Rybolt. I'm at Ezelic with track
Mo Egger News
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