July 30, 2025 • 10 mins
Sam Bruchhaus of Sumer Sports joined us to discuss Trey Hendrickson, the Bengals' defense, and more.
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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 (00:02):
All right, it is twenty five from four. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. I'll do sports headlines in a few minutes.
I'll let you know the Reds and traded for key
Brian Hayes, who's good with the glove and can hit.
And also Trey Hendrickson was at practice, but he wasn't practicing.
Trey Hendrickson one of the topics of discussion on the
summer sports show. Our guy. Sam brook House is a
(00:23):
part of that along with Lindsay Rhoades, and they had
a show today where they talked about the Trey Hendrickson situation,
the twenty twenty five Bengals, and so much more. Sam
is a i'll call him a pseudo regular on our show,
and he joins us. Now, Sam, how's it going.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Man, I'm excited. Interesting that Trey was back at practice
today after you know, taking a little vacation down the Jacksonville.
It seems like for a little while the Bengals have
some interesting problems with him. But you know, it's good
that they have their offense together, and man does it's
still good to have some football to.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Talk about, No, no doubt about it. The Trey Hendrickson
thing has been interesting and got more interest today. From
where you sit, what do you make of how the
Bengals as an organization have handled this.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I think this is one of the most unique problems
and probably unique to the Bengals as well, that I've
seen in a very, very long time. Do you have
a defensive player of the Year caliber player who the
team really doesn't plan to build around long term because
despite his defensive player of the Year caliber season, they
(01:27):
weren't a very good defense. But then if you lose
that player, can you even field a winning team at
that point? And so it becomes there's so many things
to think about here, the consistency of Trey Hendrickson and
the consistency of the edge position more generally, the ability
to take over games of that position, the offense, and
how the money was spent. There's so many different facets
(01:49):
to this, but I think really what it's going to
come down to is if Trey Hendrickson and his representation
are able to either acquire a second year of guarantees
or if they denned to the Cincinnati Bengals will probably
with a greater signing bonus in to and just remain
that single year of guarantees on the first year of
the of the contract.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, I mean on my take all along in this
and god knows we've talked about it for months on end,
is I think the basic premise of both sides is
not incorrect. I understand the Bengals basic premise here, which
is Guy's probably a depreciating asset. Don't want to pay
in twenty twenty six or twenty twenty seven for twenty
twenty three and twenty twenty four production. He is going
(02:31):
to be thirty one years old. You know, he's a
terrific pass rusher, lacks a little bit against the run.
We want to pay him more, you know, Well, we're
not totally willing to guarantee the full value of the contract.
And Tray's perspective is, Dude, look at what's happened with
the edge rusher market, Look at what's happening with guaranteed
money in this sport. Look at your defense last year
with me on it. I'm the only good player you have.
(02:52):
I think that's the thing to me that makes this
so unique is it's not that hard to see the
logic of either.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Side, and you nailed it, And even from the analytics perspective.
You nailed it. Trey Hendrickson was one of the most
effective pass rushers, whether you're just looking at core sacks
and core pressures or whether you're getting down into the
tracking AI that we have at Suomer Sports and we
talked about on the Suomer Sports Show all the time.
(03:19):
He was just as effected there the I met the AI.
The question is is just does it make sense for
the Bengals team. I for one think that you know,
if you're twenty eighth in expected points added per play,
you're one of the worst efficiency defenses in the league.
It really doesn't matter much how far you bought him
out at that point, because you're going to have to
(03:40):
rely on the offense anyway. This is kind of the
opposite of what the Houston Texans did, saying the opposite
because the offense, their offensive line was atrocious last year
outside of Laramie Tunsel, they figured it couldn't got worse,
and they went ahead and traded Laramie Tunsel in the offseason.
I think it's kind of a similar situation to that,
other than the fact that it least for this year
(04:01):
and at least for his age thirty one season. Typically
we see that sacks and pressures. Pressures in particular are
a pretty sticky stat and that we can, for the
most part, assume that Trey Hendrickson will be a top
flight pass rusher in this league. Like you said, I
think both sides have a pretty good argument. I think
his age is probably the biggest item here for the
(04:23):
agent side, and obviously the guaranteed money in future years
is the biggest side for the Bengals. I do think
that there probably are some mechanisms, primarily in scooping up
that signing bonus, as they did for both Joe Burrow
and for Jamar Chase. I think that could be an
avenue that this can get solved. All in all, I
don't see him leaving the Bengals, but I do think
(04:43):
that this deal is going to be a little interesting
and probably a little shorter than Trey Hendrickson would like.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Does it get more interesting to you because the Shamar
Stewart thing had a quicker resolution than I think a
lot of people were expecting.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's an excellent question. Look at the mold of Shamar Stewart,
at least how it pertains to his play at Texas
A and M, and it feels as if he's there
to fill in that Sam Hubbard role, to be that
run anchor, and that's what he was really excellent at,
filling gaps. Not necessarily the most productive guy, as we've
talked about Trey Hendrickson is in the pass rush, but
(05:20):
a guy who will do his job and be able
to be an excellent and versatile edge player. So I
think that maybe it makes a small bit of difference.
And when you're talking about first round rookies, typically the
expectation is a little bit less, is a little bit
more than the reality. You can't expect that he immediately
(05:40):
will go out there and be even a Sam Hubbard
style player who has been a part of multiple great defenses.
You have to temper yourself to the reality. I don't
know how much the Shamar Stewart item really affects Trey Hendrickson,
especially given he's on a rookie contract, but it definitely
gives you a degree of relief that you have at
(06:00):
least a top flight talent to kind of backstop that
as things go awry.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Top to bottom. You know, if you and I would
have talked when the season ended and all right, they're
going to move on from their defensive coordinator hire Al Golden.
I think most of us expected there to be a
little bit more turnover on the defensive side of the ball.
Not that there weren't players that you're gonna, you know,
give another chance to with a new DC, not that
they haven't invested some early round draft choices and some
(06:27):
guys that they still feel have upside. But I do
feel like relative to how we were talking about, you know,
a defensive overhaul at the end of last year, that
never really materialized. They did sign some free agents, they
obviously were pretty heavy on defense in the draft, but
I think for a lot of us, the amount of
turnover wasn't what we expected. What do you make of
(06:49):
their approach just top to bottom defensively this offseason.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I think every year, going into the season, you have
to identify who is available and how that makes you better.
And this year the Bengals needed help at the edge
position with Sam Hubbard obviously outgoing Trey Hendrickson in a
weird contract situation, and the defensive backfield, particularly the cornerback position,
needed a lot of work. It's very difficult to get
(07:14):
those two positions settled in free agency. This typically isn't
a team that's gonna outlay a ton of draft capital
through trades. They really like to build through the draft.
I think that's why they settled on the draft and
when they really evaluated, you know how the history of
the league has gone. It's very difficult to completely rehab
(07:34):
a defense from the doldrums that they were in last
year into a top flight defense just by spending money.
I think that's why they looked at the scenario. They
looked at the offense, they looked at t Higgins, they
saw that they had kind of a one B tier
receiver just underneath kind of that, Jamar Chase, who they
also have and have also kept in a Bengals uniform.
(07:57):
Decided that reinvesting in t Higgins and some of the
pieces on that offense was the way to go and
put them in the best case to win given that
they have frankly two MVP candidates if it really gets
down to it, and we see Jamar Chase have a
career year in Jamar Chase and Joe burrow.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Well said, Sam, always awesome to have you man. We'll
do it again soon. The Suomer Sports show relaunched Awesome
Stuff as always.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah, please go subscribe to us on YouTube. We got
some beautiful new visuals up there. We talked to some
x gms, some x X coaches about what you can
really take away from these early days of training camp,
and man, I'm just excited for these early days of
training camp.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, it's great to have football back, no question, and
we love chatting with you periodically during the season. We'll
do we'll do it to man, thanks.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So much, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
It's Sam Brookhouse. The Suomer Sports Show is very very good.
He did today's episode with Lindsay Rhodes, who used to
be with the NFL Network. They talked extensively about the
Bengals and Trey Hendricks and I very quickly Sports Headlines
and Service of Kelsey Chevrolet. Red's have reportedly acquired key
Brian Hayes from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for reliever
(09:04):
Taylor Rogers and Sammy Stuffer Stuffer sorry uh. Meanwhile, the
Reds play the Dodgers tonight, final of a three game
finale of a three game series. Reds trying to avoid
getting swept. Nick Martinez will pitch show Hey Otani, who
went zero for five with five punchouts last night and
the Dodgers win. He pitches or starts pitching for he
(09:26):
is the starting pitcher for the Dodgers. I should say
I am screwing all of this up seven to ten
tonight on seven hundred WLW. Trey Hendrickson has ended his holdouts.
He is now conducting a hold in. He was at
practice today, he wasn't practicing. You'll hear what he had
to say coming up in the next hour. Zach Moss
was released by the team today. That's worth noting because well,
(09:49):
we had wondered how are they going to keep four
running backs, and yesterday we talked about them keeping four
running backs with one who broke his neck last year.
Unfortunately for Zach, he was that guy of luck to
him and his future endeavors. Bengals cut him today. Practice
tomorrow ten am, first preseason game against the Eagles A
week from tomorrow night. Tony Pike with a training camp
(10:10):
update next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight
Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise.
Call five win three nine three nine two two sixty
three that's nine three nine two two sixty three eastbound
State Route thirty two near Harold Road. It is an
accident right now. Up to a twenty five minute delay
(10:36):
back from Bauer Road two seventy five down to one
lane both directions due to repairs on the Carrol Cropper Bridge.
Traffic is slow on both sides. I'm at ezelic with
traffic this reporting
All right, it is twenty five from four. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. I'll do sports headlines in a few minutes.
I'll let you know the Reds and traded for key
Brian Hayes, who's good with the glove and can hit.
And also Trey Hendrickson was at practice, but he wasn't practicing.
Trey Hendrickson one of the topics of discussion on the
summer sports show. Our guy. Sam brook House is a
(00:23):
part of that along with Lindsay Rhoades, and they had
a show today where they talked about the Trey Hendrickson situation,
the twenty twenty five Bengals, and so much more. Sam
is a i'll call him a pseudo regular on our show,
and he joins us. Now, Sam, how's it going.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Man, I'm excited. Interesting that Trey was back at practice
today after you know, taking a little vacation down the Jacksonville.
It seems like for a little while the Bengals have
some interesting problems with him. But you know, it's good
that they have their offense together, and man does it's
still good to have some football to.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Talk about, No, no doubt about it. The Trey Hendrickson
thing has been interesting and got more interest today. From
where you sit, what do you make of how the
Bengals as an organization have handled this.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I think this is one of the most unique problems
and probably unique to the Bengals as well, that I've
seen in a very, very long time. Do you have
a defensive player of the Year caliber player who the
team really doesn't plan to build around long term because
despite his defensive player of the Year caliber season, they
(01:27):
weren't a very good defense. But then if you lose
that player, can you even field a winning team at
that point? And so it becomes there's so many things
to think about here, the consistency of Trey Hendrickson and
the consistency of the edge position more generally, the ability
to take over games of that position, the offense, and
how the money was spent. There's so many different facets
(01:49):
to this, but I think really what it's going to
come down to is if Trey Hendrickson and his representation
are able to either acquire a second year of guarantees
or if they denned to the Cincinnati Bengals will probably
with a greater signing bonus in to and just remain
that single year of guarantees on the first year of
the of the contract.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, I mean on my take all along in this
and god knows we've talked about it for months on end,
is I think the basic premise of both sides is
not incorrect. I understand the Bengals basic premise here, which
is Guy's probably a depreciating asset. Don't want to pay
in twenty twenty six or twenty twenty seven for twenty
twenty three and twenty twenty four production. He is going
(02:31):
to be thirty one years old. You know, he's a
terrific pass rusher, lacks a little bit against the run.
We want to pay him more, you know, Well, we're
not totally willing to guarantee the full value of the contract.
And Tray's perspective is, Dude, look at what's happened with
the edge rusher market, Look at what's happening with guaranteed
money in this sport. Look at your defense last year
with me on it. I'm the only good player you have.
(02:52):
I think that's the thing to me that makes this
so unique is it's not that hard to see the
logic of either.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Side, and you nailed it, And even from the analytics perspective.
You nailed it. Trey Hendrickson was one of the most
effective pass rushers, whether you're just looking at core sacks
and core pressures or whether you're getting down into the
tracking AI that we have at Suomer Sports and we
talked about on the Suomer Sports Show all the time.
(03:19):
He was just as effected there the I met the AI.
The question is is just does it make sense for
the Bengals team. I for one think that you know,
if you're twenty eighth in expected points added per play,
you're one of the worst efficiency defenses in the league.
It really doesn't matter much how far you bought him
out at that point, because you're going to have to
(03:40):
rely on the offense anyway. This is kind of the
opposite of what the Houston Texans did, saying the opposite
because the offense, their offensive line was atrocious last year
outside of Laramie Tunsel, they figured it couldn't got worse,
and they went ahead and traded Laramie Tunsel in the offseason.
I think it's kind of a similar situation to that,
other than the fact that it least for this year
(04:01):
and at least for his age thirty one season. Typically
we see that sacks and pressures. Pressures in particular are
a pretty sticky stat and that we can, for the
most part, assume that Trey Hendrickson will be a top
flight pass rusher in this league. Like you said, I
think both sides have a pretty good argument. I think
his age is probably the biggest item here for the
(04:23):
agent side, and obviously the guaranteed money in future years
is the biggest side for the Bengals. I do think
that there probably are some mechanisms, primarily in scooping up
that signing bonus, as they did for both Joe Burrow
and for Jamar Chase. I think that could be an
avenue that this can get solved. All in all, I
don't see him leaving the Bengals, but I do think
(04:43):
that this deal is going to be a little interesting
and probably a little shorter than Trey Hendrickson would like.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Does it get more interesting to you because the Shamar
Stewart thing had a quicker resolution than I think a
lot of people were expecting.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's an excellent question. Look at the mold of Shamar Stewart,
at least how it pertains to his play at Texas
A and M, and it feels as if he's there
to fill in that Sam Hubbard role, to be that
run anchor, and that's what he was really excellent at,
filling gaps. Not necessarily the most productive guy, as we've
talked about Trey Hendrickson is in the pass rush, but
(05:20):
a guy who will do his job and be able
to be an excellent and versatile edge player. So I
think that maybe it makes a small bit of difference.
And when you're talking about first round rookies, typically the
expectation is a little bit less, is a little bit
more than the reality. You can't expect that he immediately
(05:40):
will go out there and be even a Sam Hubbard
style player who has been a part of multiple great defenses.
You have to temper yourself to the reality. I don't
know how much the Shamar Stewart item really affects Trey Hendrickson,
especially given he's on a rookie contract, but it definitely
gives you a degree of relief that you have at
(06:00):
least a top flight talent to kind of backstop that
as things go awry.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Top to bottom. You know, if you and I would
have talked when the season ended and all right, they're
going to move on from their defensive coordinator hire Al Golden.
I think most of us expected there to be a
little bit more turnover on the defensive side of the ball.
Not that there weren't players that you're gonna, you know,
give another chance to with a new DC, not that
they haven't invested some early round draft choices and some
(06:27):
guys that they still feel have upside. But I do
feel like relative to how we were talking about, you know,
a defensive overhaul at the end of last year, that
never really materialized. They did sign some free agents, they
obviously were pretty heavy on defense in the draft, but
I think for a lot of us, the amount of
turnover wasn't what we expected. What do you make of
(06:49):
their approach just top to bottom defensively this offseason.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I think every year, going into the season, you have
to identify who is available and how that makes you better.
And this year the Bengals needed help at the edge
position with Sam Hubbard obviously outgoing Trey Hendrickson in a
weird contract situation, and the defensive backfield, particularly the cornerback position,
needed a lot of work. It's very difficult to get
(07:14):
those two positions settled in free agency. This typically isn't
a team that's gonna outlay a ton of draft capital
through trades. They really like to build through the draft.
I think that's why they settled on the draft and
when they really evaluated, you know how the history of
the league has gone. It's very difficult to completely rehab
(07:34):
a defense from the doldrums that they were in last
year into a top flight defense just by spending money.
I think that's why they looked at the scenario. They
looked at the offense, they looked at t Higgins, they
saw that they had kind of a one B tier
receiver just underneath kind of that, Jamar Chase, who they
also have and have also kept in a Bengals uniform.
(07:57):
Decided that reinvesting in t Higgins and some of the
pieces on that offense was the way to go and
put them in the best case to win given that
they have frankly two MVP candidates if it really gets
down to it, and we see Jamar Chase have a
career year in Jamar Chase and Joe burrow.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Well said, Sam, always awesome to have you man. We'll
do it again soon. The Suomer Sports show relaunched Awesome
Stuff as always.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah, please go subscribe to us on YouTube. We got
some beautiful new visuals up there. We talked to some
x gms, some x X coaches about what you can
really take away from these early days of training camp,
and man, I'm just excited for these early days of
training camp.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, it's great to have football back, no question, and
we love chatting with you periodically during the season. We'll
do we'll do it to man, thanks.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So much, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
It's Sam Brookhouse. The Suomer Sports Show is very very good.
He did today's episode with Lindsay Rhodes, who used to
be with the NFL Network. They talked extensively about the
Bengals and Trey Hendricks and I very quickly Sports Headlines
and Service of Kelsey Chevrolet. Red's have reportedly acquired key
Brian Hayes from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for reliever
(09:04):
Taylor Rogers and Sammy Stuffer Stuffer sorry uh. Meanwhile, the
Reds play the Dodgers tonight, final of a three game
finale of a three game series. Reds trying to avoid
getting swept. Nick Martinez will pitch show Hey Otani, who
went zero for five with five punchouts last night and
the Dodgers win. He pitches or starts pitching for he
(09:26):
is the starting pitcher for the Dodgers. I should say
I am screwing all of this up seven to ten
tonight on seven hundred WLW. Trey Hendrickson has ended his holdouts.
He is now conducting a hold in. He was at
practice today, he wasn't practicing. You'll hear what he had
to say coming up in the next hour. Zach Moss
was released by the team today. That's worth noting because well,
(09:49):
we had wondered how are they going to keep four
running backs, and yesterday we talked about them keeping four
running backs with one who broke his neck last year.
Unfortunately for Zach, he was that guy of luck to
him and his future endeavors. Bengals cut him today. Practice
tomorrow ten am, first preseason game against the Eagles A
week from tomorrow night. Tony Pike with a training camp
(10:10):
update next Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. UC Help's Weight
Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise.
Call five win three nine three nine two two sixty
three that's nine three nine two two sixty three eastbound
State Route thirty two near Harold Road. It is an
accident right now. Up to a twenty five minute delay
(10:36):
back from Bauer Road two seventy five down to one
lane both directions due to repairs on the Carrol Cropper Bridge.
Traffic is slow on both sides. I'm at ezelic with
traffic this reporting
Mo Egger News
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