8/26/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

It's Cut down day, who made the final 53 man roster for the Bengals. Mo Egger and Paul Dehner on that and Trey Hendrickson getting a new deal. Plus the Reds struggle in game 1 against the Dodgers and Elly De La Cruz makes another error.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, what's up to afternoon? Malagor ESPN fifteen Arty.
Thank you for listening. Hopefully you're having an unbelievable Tuesday.
We are stoked because we're basically outside on a gorgeous
Tuesday afternoon. We are posting up at Oakley Greens. We
cannot thank the folks at Oakley Greens enough. We're having
us today and every single Tuesday if you haven't been

(00:23):
here yet. First of all, extraordinarily easy to get to.
Located in Oakley Station, right behind the movies, tons of
on site parking, tons of free on site parking. The
TV setup is perfect, whether you're thinking about a Bengals
game day, whether you're thinking about UC versus Nebraska on
Thursday night, they'll have a watch party for that obviously,

(00:44):
Ohio State and Texas on Saturday as well. It's the
kickoff weekend of college football. You can watch every game
here at Oakley Greens. The staff is unbelievable. They have
two bars inside and out, great food, miniature golf close
to Paul Danner Junior's house.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Oh my, I know that, like you really wanted to
talk about I want to talk about Oakley Greens. Okay,
I want to thank them personally. Yeah, because I appreciate
all the places that we've gone to as we've done
these Tuesday shows.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
We've we've been everywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes, we've done everywhere, but never have we been in
my neighborhood at one of my favorite places right literally,
bring my kids up here all the time. They're always
playing on the playground. I sit, have drinks, watch whatever
the games are, and it makes it one of my
favorite places, right around the corner from my house. God
bless you for giving me home games.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well, what I like about this place in terms of
like doing the show is, first of all, it's uh,
it's not that far from the radio station. Second, I
got my grocery shopping done before I came here. Oh,
there's a Kroger right there. There is a Kroger.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
It's everything right here. Yeah, my kids where my kids
used to go to daycares.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Over here you can go.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
You have many different places that you can get chicken,
and many different places where you can work out, all
in one complex.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, we've got it all for We've got a place
here that you can grab a cold one, you can
play mini golf, you could watch sports, you could have dinner,
you can get ice cream, you can bring your family.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Sometimes you run into Tony Pike in the bunker room.
That's happened to me before.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
You can't you Tony just hang We.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Were hanging out in there and all of a sudden,
Tony Pike and all his crew came in, invaded, and
they were renting out that room one day.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
So we're so stoked to be here. Hopefully you join
us one Tuesday between now and the end of the season.
And it's great for a day like this where the
weather is perfect, but when things get colder later in
the football season, we'll be able to go inside and
the inside setup is going to be awesome as well.
There are only a few things to discuss. We're fifty
four minutes away from finding out about what the Bengals

(02:43):
fifty three man roster looks like for at least a
few minutes.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Sure, Yeah, I mean that's just it. I don't know
how much I get it. You want to be excited
for some of the guys that'll be like I made it,
yeah and there, but you wanna be like not yet.
Still another site or two to make sure that you
get through. But there's definitely gonna be a few decisions
that are hanging out.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
There that we don't know yet. All right, we're gonna
get to all that. We got to start with Trey
Hendrickson obviously. Yeah, I like this. I like this for me, Yeah,
I like this as a fan. You know, you wrote
about who wins? You needed a podcast on this. He
wrote about why we got here, and the overriding message
was the Bengals clearly didn't have any interest in Trey
Hendrickson in twenty twenty six. I will be honest with you,

(03:28):
I don't care about the twenty twenty six Bengals. Yeah,
I care about the twenty twenty five version that Al
Golden has to fix the defense on, and now he knows.
Even if you were skeptical that Trey was ever going
to miss a game, this isn't hanging over. It's not
even hanging over next week. It's not hanging over this week.
It's not gonna loom over the preparation for the Cleveland Browns.

(03:48):
I will worry about the twenty twenty six Bengals the
minute this year's team has played its last down. So
I don't care. I just wanted with so many things
unsettled with this team. I wanted one thing to get settled.
This got settled, at least for this year. That's that's
one hundred percent true. And that's that's the winner.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
I mean, that was kind of when we talk about
winners and losers, if the winners are.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
The twenty twenty five Bengals.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
And that's all that the Bengals front office really cared
much about right now because they needed two things.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
They needed.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
They needed Trey in here because they just don't have
answers right now, and they needed time to find other
answers in the long run, and they have both of
those now. And they didn't They did not want to
give Trey the one thing that he wanted. He wanted
security beyond this year. He wanted guaranteed money in year two.
And what was consistent from the very first day to

(04:40):
yesterday was the Bengals had no interest in that. They
weren't gonna do that, and the plan maybe they wanted
to look like they did and and I think that.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
They made a kind of an attempt check sort of
not really, I mean.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
They because they're because they would have easily they could
have easily done it if they if they would have
taken some money or a real deal in the first
two years or guaranteed whatever.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
They could have done that right, they didn't, and that's fine.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
The thing is, though, you have to think about this
year's team and next year's team. This the time for
Schamar to learn about, Shamar Stewart to learn about I
guess Miles Murphy to learn about next year in free.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Agency, next year's draft. You can fix all of that.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
But you what you couldn't do was sit here and
say we're just gonna have Trey be mad or they're
not willing to care about beyond the age thing mattered
too much for them to go and give that second
your money. So what you get is this, You get
a team that is saying, we're gonna kind of do
what we've done before with.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
These types of situations.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
We're gonna force the franchise tag and somebody we're gonna
just kind of assume they're gonna walk to free agency,
like t Higgins even though he didn't. Jonah Williams is
gonna play out this last year, Jamar Chase, We're not
gonna get the deal done. We'll get you next year, though, Buddy,
and those situations have largely worked out pretty well. And
I think that in a situation now where they're gonna
get a very even by blackout Trey Sanders, a very

(06:06):
angry man coming off the edge awsom for your quarterbacks, right,
so you get a super motivated Trey Hendrickson in his
last year here. I think they feel like this maybe
quietly is what they were trying to kind of bully
him into all along with something that looked like this.
And he gets fourteen million dollars. Yeah, so that's good.
That's that's that's the price they pay to get the

(06:29):
security of the Bengals saying one year only, fine by me. Yeah,
Trey gets they had the money.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Trey gets a consolation prize of basically they double his salary.
He can call himself among the highest paid defensive players
in the sport for this coming season if he wants,
you know, among as a general sort of open that
to term, I guess. But he My thing was, can
we just get this done? So I know he's gonna
play against the Browns and so they they they at

(06:57):
least have last year's best defensive player on the While
I have no faith in Al Golden's defense in the
first game based on what I saw in training camp
in the preseason, like, can we just get so My
view was simplistic and limited, and I will admit that,
but I feel like I feel like that's where most
fans are. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, the thing is they're gonna need while the rest
of it gets figured out. Okay, So whatever happens defensively
in these first few weeks or first month, or however
long it's gonna take for them to figure out what
their level actually is, they're gonna need their stars to
carry them on offense and trade a close games. Yep,

(07:39):
that's what it's gonna have to look like until the
rest of that finds its way. And they've won a
lot of games with that formula in the past, sure,
And so I think that you can look at that
and say, the defense can be good enough, the offense
can get us leads, Trey can put it away at
the end or help put it away at the end,
and that can get you to the point that's really

(07:59):
gonna matter in terms of this team super Bowl aspirations
is on November third, How good is this defense?

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Right?

Speaker 2 (08:08):
But to get to that point and not be in
a hole like people are familiar with in recent years,
is gonna be the key, and I think one of
the biggest things you're getting and getting this trade thing
done and getting him in here.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
My first thought was this could be viewed as a
one year contract with a one year option because of
the franchise tag. You didn't in your piece today for
the Athletic. Didn't just throw cold water on that. You
took it and dunked it in the toilet. Well, I
just gave it a swirling.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
I did.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
I did.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Maybe that was aggressive, but the idea of the Bengals
giving a franchise tag that appears like it'll land in
the thirty eight range one year thirty eight when we
consider what they just negotiated, and he'll only be a
year older, and how out on twenty twenty six Trey
Hendrickson they have been this whole year. Now there's a

(08:57):
chance if Trey goes out and sets the SAX record
and has twenty two sacks and it shows no signs
of slowing down, I'm sure there's a world where they
consider it. I don't see it. I just you know,
they continue to bet on the cliff coming and following.
In fairness, the history of thirty plus year old Edge

(09:19):
rushers and not wanting to go that direction. I believe
I see it the same way. I wouldn't want anything
to do with that. That can change, I guess, But
that's a big that's a big dollar figure, and it
goes against everything that they've kind of been about throughout
this entire offseason with him.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
There has been reporting in recent weeks that the Bengals
have started to listen to trade offers for Trey. That
made no sense to me, because that doesn't really help
you this year unless you get a a player who's
comparable to Trey Hendrickson in good luck with that. Understanding
that this has how it ended, many have said they
should have traded him back in March. Is that still

(09:59):
a way of looking at it? Would would that have
been the preferable outcome compared to what the outcome actually
ended up being.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
In my opinion, Yes, I've stated this since March. I
mean I remember you asking me about writing they should
trade Trey Hendrickson in February. It was that was the
method to get I thought, to get the most out
of the Al Golden rebuild, knowing that you weren't going
to go to an extension. The idea of just pouring

(10:26):
thirty million dollars, you know, into Trey Henderson. What's what
would have been worth?

Speaker 1 (10:31):
More?

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Like, what could you have made a better team with
thirty million dollars plus let's say a second round pick,
thirty million in free agency an and a Day two
pick or having Trey hendrickson for this year And that's
counting the longevity you get out of the free agency
spend and the and draft pick. I considering the direction

(10:52):
they were going and rebuild it that they've done and
getting young and counting on a bunch of young players,
and that being Al Golden's thing, to me, that was
probably a way to fix more of the holes that
we're talking about right now. Okay, we're talking about guard,
We're talking about safety, we're talking about defensive tackle, we're
talking all of these things.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Were talking about edge.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Sure, you could have checked off three of those boxes
with ten million dollar players and thrown a second round
pick at it now and you feel like you have
a little bit more of the complete roster that you're
looking for. I understand wanting to make Trey happy. I
understand the idea of Trey is a great player, and
you just can't find those guys and the Super Bowl

(11:31):
window and Burrows saying sign Trey and all of that stuff,
and I understand how it lands here. What I said
at the time, and I still think feels the same,
is the proactive GM, the one that looks forward, the
one that is able to spin the next generation of
the teams properly. Are the ones that execute those types
of moves with a little bit more forward vision and

(11:52):
less of a one year band aid and see in
a few months. It just felt like that was the
opportunity to make that move and really be aggressive to
covering up all the holes that existed on this roster
like they were. They're so top heavy, and it leaves
them You just how do you not watch the preseason

(12:12):
and some of the stuff we've seen at camp and
not say, man, feels like depth might cutch up to
this team at some point.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, I mean, it feels like they are finishing up
an incomplete offseason that could have been made more complete
with maybe one more.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Pick, which is weird to say when we consider where
this started with Joe Burrow putting four boxes on the
wall and then checking all of them.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Right, so, but it's just when you do that one,
it got done in a way that left.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Everybody not feeling great about themselves, right right.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
And then two, doing that meant that there were a
bunch of other smaller ones that all feel like a
much bigger box now together. And and that's kind of
the you know, the concern of the.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Deal got finalized what yesterday afternoon? Yeah? Has Trey started
to complain about it yet? It's been about twenty four hours,
not long. I don't know. We'll talk to him. We
haven't talked to him yet.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
He seemed very happy in the website piece, so maybe
that's so. At least the initial happiness is still there.
We'll see how he feels about it.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
On uh, I noticed and correct me if I'm wrong.
They tweeted out a picture of Trey like on the
field playing the game. There was no picture of him
smiling signing the contract. Yeah, I know, which is significant.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
We had a bet on our podcast for people to
send in what date the wall pick will be released?
Released the pick of the guy in front of the
wall signing with a smile, And I don't know if
Trey was like, look I didn't. I've been getting clowned
on that one a little bit.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah, for a while. We still have been hanging in
our studio back in ken Was.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
So, so perhaps just send out a picture of me
and say we've revised his contract and call it a day.
I don't know, So I'm waiting to see because they
are there are bets hanging in the balance that people
sent in to try to collect on depending on what
happens with that that photo being put out or not.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
So what I'm I'm watching closely. The last order of
business though, as it relates to Trey, is it going
to be a captain? What a surprise that would be
if he was captain. I think this was like one
of the sticking points, right, guy wants to be a captain.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Maybe maybe that's the one thing that got slipped into
the contract.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Must have se on chests so he was bought it, okay,
But I mean he was around. By everybody's accounts, he
was hands on and helpful and working with the other
guys on the defense. So maybe maybe there's some captaincy
vibes coming off of that.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
I've always wanted to see the others receiving votes category
and the captain vote. I just want to see some
of the extras that get thrown. That's why whenever it's
like you see one vote for like.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Cow Fullerton, how'd they get them? Oh, you know the
one vote on the end.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
I kind of want to just I'd love to see
the full vote laid out in front of me.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Hockey, like Trey would show up and in hockey and
they have captains and they have the assistant captain, they
put an A on his chest. We could do that
in football. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Also receiving votes AARV you and then it has the
number of stars is how many also votes you received?
Like I got three?

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Well, I'm already excited. I've blocked out segments for February.
Hopefully it's February when we start to talk about Trey
on the tag. On the tag, Yeah, it's gonna be great. Yeah,
it will not be great. It is nineteen minutes after
three o'clock. We're broadcasting from Oakley. Green's hanging out on
a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon. Zach Taylor's gonna talk a little
bit later on. We'll have that for you. Also, we'll

(15:30):
go to link in Nebraska coming up in about an hour.
You see is getting set to play the corn Huskers
on Thursday night. And we've got the Reds and Dodgers
to talk about as well. Paul Dayner Junior covers the
Bengals for the Athletic dot Com and his podcast, The
Growler Podcast is available as they say where you get
your podcasts, including YouTube. They have the Trey Hendrickson thing

(15:51):
covered front and back. Bengals will pair the roster down
to fifty three coming up in just about forty minutes.
Paul and I. We'll talk about that when we come
back on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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(16:31):
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Speaker 7 (16:40):
This report is sponsored by Taco Bell Now the talk
of four minutes.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
For three o'clock. This is ESPN fifteen thirty. We are
broadcasting today and every Tuesday at Oakley Greens in Oakley
Station and a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon to be here. We
are here till six o'clock. If you can't be with
us today, come on out and join us one of
these tuesdays. We're here every week from three to six.
Very easy to get to, tons free on site, and

(17:08):
very convenient parking. Paul Danner Juniors here from the Athletic
dot com and the Growler Podcast. We're thirty five minutes
away from finding out what the next version of the
Bengals fifty three man roster is going to look like.
Many of the cuts have already sort of trickled out.
Has anything surprising happened so far?

Speaker 2 (17:26):
I mean, I think we have to start at the
most important, and that is the long snapper battle has
been settled. Yes, surprise, yes, Will Wagner.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
How about that the.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Undrafted rookie out of Michigan's plants cal adamitis. I have
a feeling that if they can, they will be trying
to keep cal around right just in case there are hiccups.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
How do you feel about this? Not great? I don't
feel great, not great at all.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
I understand that there was some issue with cal last year,
reason that there's competition in camp. That was very pointed
that said, it's just bringing another variable that you don't
know about and changing the operation again. For Evan McPherson
in games, I mean, Will Wagner played at Michigan. He

(18:16):
did this job in front of one hundred thousand people
and in all the biggest stages. I'm okay, like I
get it. I don't think he's gonna be rattled in
front of the dog Pound necessarily, but it is gonna
be his first time out there. It is gonna be
the first time that he is snapped. If it's the
game winner, if it's sixteen fourteen Browns with three seconds

(18:37):
left and you're lining up from forty eight, and what
is it gonna be? The thing that's gonna be on
your mind. Probably not the kicker. It's probably gonna be Oh,
how is the rookie snapper gonna do it? You don't
want to be thinking like that.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
And he may be fine, sure, Like there's plenty of.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Times where this works out. Fine, he's fine, and obviously
they felt like he was the better player. I just
would when we hear so much about out the operation
constantly changing for Evan and needing to have confidence and
trusting that is a big part of his getting back
in the in the swing of things. It's like then
you're changing it again. But obviously he did really well

(19:16):
in camp, he did really well in the preseason games.
They like where Evan's at and Will Wagner was a
part of that, so perhaps you have to trust it
to a certain extent.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
But makes me a little squirrely. I read your projection
of what the fifty three man would look like and
with the caveat that that is very likely to change
between today at four o'clock and maybe by tomorrow. But
when you broke down long snaper, I'd read that thinking, Okay,
it was a tie. So the tiebreaker is familiarity in
continuity where there hasn't been a lot of that in
that particular group for a while.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, and I guess it wasn't a tie. Yeah, maybe
there was a couple of snaps. They felt like they
saw that Cow wasn't quite as you know, on points
as Will Wagner was, and so they went that way.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
So what's the frustrating to me, and I think to
a lot of people, is four o'clock today they have
to go shopping for a guard and a safety and
maybe other position defensive tackle, defensive tackle. I could have
said that the day of the season ended last year.
That's right, they've got to go shopping for guard, safety,
and defensive tackle. The next season is twelve days away,

(20:19):
and they've got to go shopping for a guard, safety,
and defensive tackle. Injury has affected this, but I don't
think that drastically. I think had injury not affected those positions,
we would still be saying the same thing.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, I mean, and this is kind of this is
exactly what I was referring to in the thirty million
dollar Trey Henderson conversation, is you could have ten million
dollar players in those spots if you wanted to.

Speaker 6 (20:42):
No.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
I think that, Yeah, there is some injury element, but
it's also some what's naturally going to happen. They never
saw development from any of the people that were kind
of thrown into that mix. I remember us often talking
about the royal rumbleick guard and all these players who's
gonna rise up. No one really did like outside of
Dylan Fairchild, Yes, there's one player who showed up and

(21:06):
took a job. Everybody else kind of just stood around
and shrugged a little bit and and didn't really do
that much to impress. Maybe you're starting to see something
from Jalen Rivers, you know. But outside of that, yeah,
there's nothing really happened there. And you can say the
same thing at defensive tackle. Some of the bodies that
they threw at it in there, and and maybe Howard

(21:29):
Cross makes this team, but they need to upgrade that.
You know, McKinley Jackson has fallen into a doghouse.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
It seems like a lot.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
He's played a lot. On Saturday, I said, if you're
out there in the fourth quarter of that game, you
are not feeling good about where they how they view you.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
I was, I'll be honest with you. As the game
went on, my attention started to drift, and then I
heard Mike Watts calling the game and he mentioned, I'm like, whoa, yeah, whoa,
My guy's still in there in the fourth quarner. It was.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
It was my number one question after the game was
what was going to do? Was he needed to go
prove us that he can give consistency, and they wanted
to see him give them consistency in the.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Fourth quarter of the third preseason game.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
If that tells you how they felt about what's going
on there. But but that's my point. That's the same thing.
It's it's Jackson and and it's and it's I guess
Howard Cross and the kid, the dude they brought in
Brian and Agent and then at safety, somebody gotta step
up Tyson Anderson, Dejon Anthony, well, Dejon Anthony's kind of
been in the doghouse a little bit now he's got
this hamstring injury, and we'll see what happens with whatever

(22:26):
they do. There's just all of these spots when they
kind of were just throwing a.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Bunch of stuff at the wall.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Nothing stuck, it fell to the ground, and so that
they're kind of still trying to throw more stuff at
the wall. And I'm gonna guess that they're gonna try
to do some of that by noon tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
The big loser, I think is gonna be cook Sporting
Goods because I was gonna buy the des Rider jersey
and then after the pick six, I sort of took
that money and stashed it away. For something else. The
guy Dez didn't help himself, and he didn't help himself.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
It hadn't been the best camp and uh and it
certainly wasn't. He didn't like have a late charge. Oh no,
that that picked six.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
I think that was his NFL dream kind of going
the other way. Unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
Loved as nice guy. Sure certainly did unbelievable things for
the UC program. Nothing but good things to say about him.
But yeah, it looks like that that was gonna be it.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
I I was watching it, and I said, I was
watching it with my wife, and I go, like, this
is probably it. I'm kind of glad that this is it. Yeah,
and look, if he has a football future somewhere else,
go for it. But I'm as weird as it sounds,
and as poorly as he played, I thought it was
cool to watch him be the starting quarterback of the

(23:38):
Bengals on the game that didn't count. I know that's
really stupid. I know it's hokey, but it's like if
it had to end, okay, fine, and it does again
tries to continue his NFL career, then you know, God
bless him. But better there than like with the Green
Bay Packers or something. I don't know, but that's just
how I felt, or like, you know, on like the
Panthers practice school or something. Yeah, but it wasn't good. No,

(24:03):
So four o'clock today and then they go shopping for safety, guard,
defensive tackle, practice squad, quarterback, anybody else, any other position.
I'm curious to see, you know, corner. The corner is good.
I think they're a fine linebacker. They actually maybe have
extra linebackers, right, you know. I think they really like

(24:25):
Shaka and so whether he stays or whatever happened, Joe
Giles Harris is kind of the veteran there.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
They've reworked that room so much. They like where it's at.
I mean, they really you know, defensive tackle, safety, I
think corner they feel okay, they're gonna have Ivy and
Marco Wilson and then DJ Turner Josh Newton. Curious to
see who ends up kind of being viewed as the
starter there. Turner has been on the side with a
little bit of injury, So assuming he comes back, who

(24:54):
do they think is the other besides Cam and Dax
Hill will be important. They'll all eventually play, but I'm
curious to see where they have that viewed.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
We've seen both. I think he is.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
I think he's the last receiver on the roster. I
think he got he got passed over by Mitch Tinsley.
I think they feel like they can count on Mitch Tinsley.
This is the ultimate trust right now, and not that
they you know, Burton is somebody that hasn't been doing
all the right things, but Mitch has come in and
always done the right things, and he's made plays for

(25:33):
Joe Burrow and he's he's the one that Joe is
talking up and all that stuff. So I think when
it comes down to it, I think he's He's Burton
sitting there in the back. He's dealing with whatever. We'll
see this knee injury that reaggravated in the last preseason game.
How seriously they view that will be something that will
learn over the next couple of days. But you know,

(25:55):
I think he's going to have more time where I
think this is going to be a good How does
he handle this right? Does he handle this the right way?
Does he stay after stay in his books? Is he
breaking hard on whatever he's asked to do in practice,
whether it's scout team or whatever he's doing. How does
he handle maybe this potentially being a little bit of disappointment,
depending what happens between now and the active list coming

(26:19):
out in Cleveland.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Hangtig, there's one more topic we have to discuss. We'll
do that when we come back. Paul Danner Junior. I
feel like you're saving something big. It's not big at all. Okay,
you should know what surprise. This is not a surprise. Okay,
I think, Paul, you should know what's coming. Okay, all right,
just jogg through all the different things that have happened
with this franchise just over the last week.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
Okay, this is you should see this coming to the
Moeger Award, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
No, that's been decided. Mitchell Tinsley won that two weeks ago.
Paul Danner Junior's with this. We're broadcasting from Oakley Greens today.
It's twenty five from four Sports Headlines are next on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Since he three sixty with Tony Pike, do we want
to move on?

Speaker 8 (26:59):
Keep going?

Speaker 3 (26:59):
And Boston Elmore?

Speaker 1 (27:01):
I think you should continue.

Speaker 7 (27:02):
Let me keep going there Sincy three sixty tomorrow, which
twelve noons on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic.

Speaker 6 (27:14):
From the UC Health Traffic Center. Trust the same team
for your care that keeps the UC Bearcats on the field.
Count on uce Health Orthopedics and sports Medicine no matter
the injury visit you Seehealth dot com crews have now
cleared out that accident on Main Street over at River
Hills Drive. However, southbound seventy one seventy five, it's an

(27:35):
accident on the off ramp to US forty two in Florence.
The right lane blocked on the ramp northbound seventy one.
Slow traffic Smith edwards to Stewart. I'm at ezelic with
traffic one.

Speaker 9 (27:46):
Covers the Bengals, Like ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Sports ut launch or service at Kelson Chevron Life home
of Lifetime powertrain protestionally guarantee credit approval from their family
to yours for life Kelsey dot Com. Bengals will cut
their roster down to fifty three in twenty minutes. Many
of the cuts are out. The big news William Wagner
will be the team's long snapper at least as the
four o'clock today, cal Latamitas will be cut. Anybody else,

(28:14):
anybody else I should care about.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
I saw that. I know Charlie Clifford had that. Cam
Grandy is on the team for now. That fifth tight
end the spot heels like one of those that the
next day he ends up moving. Note to a PS
potentially got they had, But they did keep five tight
ends last year, so it's not totally out of the question.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
They really like Cam.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
I they just think, yeah, you know, there's only so
many spots on the active roster.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Bengals and Browns A week from Sunday Live on ESPN
fifteen thirty, Reds and Dodgers again tonight. Cincinnati losing last
night seven zip to fallow two and a half games
behind the Mets and the chase for the last wild card.
Nick Martinez and Clayton Kershaw on the Hill tonight, ten
to ten. Your first pitch on seven hundred WLWV twenty
twenty six MLB schedule is out. Reds will open up

(29:00):
and home against the Boston Red Sox on March twenty
sixth of next year. We're broadcasting from Oakley Greens. Paul
Danner Juniors with us for another few minutes. We've talked
about the roster, We've discussed Trey Hendricks, and now we
have to talk about I think the biggest story of
the last week, and that is the fact that when
the Bengals invited boomeris Ice and the comeback for this
year's Ring of Honor weekend, they offered him two complimentary tickets,

(29:24):
told Tom he had by the end of the week
to respond in RSVP, and then basically said, if you
want to join us, you're going to have to pay
your own way airfare and lodging your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
I am just happy that I didn't have to write
anything about this right, because there was only one thing too.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Write, What are you doing right?

Speaker 2 (29:46):
I mean, what are we doing here when I think
that a defense mechanism that the Bengals organization has is
to being called cheap? And obviously we know that they
don't like that. Who would is often pointing out, but
the cap we pay to the cap right, cash right,
and we pay the players and we that, to those

(30:09):
that really know, is not what that argument is about.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
It's stuff like this.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
It's stuff like this that that doesn't cost millions of
dollars or what you know, to to go and pay
play all that. It's not about that it's stuff like this.
It's it's this is what you're supposed to do if
you're a real organization is bring people in. And if
you want to have the ring of arm, you want
to have the weekend, you want to have the activities

(30:35):
you want to have that day, well, treat these people
that are part of that main part like they.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Matter, like they are first class.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
And this is just that to me is more when
people talk about that, this is the stuff that. It's
more that, to me is what it should should more
be about and less about how much they pay to
their you know, quarterback or receiver or Trey Hendrickson or whatever.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
For me, it was simple as a fan. Do you
like to say, you know what, I root for a
franchise that does stuff like this first class all the way?
Or I don't. Yeah, I mean, that's that's what it is.

Speaker 5 (31:12):
I was.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
I said this to you off air. I was surprised
by the number of people who said, you know, Boomer
could afford it. That's not what this is about. It's
you either do for things first class all the way,
and if you do, then stuff like that is covered.
Stuff like that is taken care of. In the absence
of that, it's not first class all the way. It
could still be nice, it could still be special, it
could still be meaningful. Boomer could still come and I'm

(31:35):
sure Dave Lapham and Lamar Paris will appreciate his presence.
But then you can't say first class all the way
if you're gonna defend them for telling Boomer is gonna
pay for his hotel and his airplane? Right.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
I do believe they did come back around and pay
for Boomer's airfare and hotel and all.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
That's nice, Allegian Frontier. Don't know, don't know it, wrote
wrote thirty one A not sure, not sure for the
carry on Boomer. Sorry, you know, look I don't, I don't.
I don't know anything about that. Don't have to share
a room with like Corey Dillon or do all the
others to double up. I like that, But you're gonna

(32:16):
have to double up with Ken Anderson. Okay, yeah we got.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
We actually kind of converted one of the locker room
corner of the locker room the training room. Yeah there,
we threw a couple of air mattresses down.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Yeah you do that. No, I I you know, I just.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
It's you can't step on the rake like this, you know,
because it's it's an easy like. This isn't the hard stuff, right,
this is the and it's it's not the expensive stuff.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
It's not the It really isn't.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
It's it's if you're gonna do this stuff, there's a
there's an obvious easy way to do it.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
But you know, well, my thing was also like boomers
size and once laid down in front of a bus. Yeah,
you knew what you were getting in the during the
eighty seven player strike. Yeah, this this was a guy
who wasn't going to be afraid to go to war
with you, No, in a public forum, which he has.
That's just it.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
That's the other thing I feel like, even if it's
it's hard to defend, even if you take out the
public relations aspect, that this man has a national radio and.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
You knew that this is exactly what what what could
happen is to fight with Al Michael's on Monday night football.
So one of the reasons I love him is zero
blanks given man.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
No, absolutely not. And and that's apparent here. And I'm
sure if you're the Bengals, you're like, come on, did
you have to. But yeah, this is what you open
yourself up to when it goes like that. I don't know,
so I want to. I want to see if Corey
ever found that email.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
That's not what I know.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
I do believe that they did email Corey, but I
don't Maybe it went to spam.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
We'll see you next Tuesday. We'll have a game to discuss.
What game is that? The next game? I thought playing football?
Oh yeah, yeah, we do that too, of course. Yeah,
I want to. I thought we would talk about a game.
That's That's what I want to start talking about. That's
more fun. But I mean, there will be a football
game for us to spend a little time on on

(34:06):
top of whatever's making Tray mad and roster cuts.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
And talk about who we like on Mason Graham Versus
Lucas Patrick matcha.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Okay, yeah, sign me up for Yes a pretty good
place to start, all right. Paul Dayner Junior covering the
Bengals for at the Athletic dot Com. Make sure you
catch the growl or podcast. Tony Pike is going to
join us for a season preview report. We're broadcasting from
Oakley Greens Oakley Station. Come on out and see us
This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 10 (34:36):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty traffic from the.

Speaker 6 (34:41):
UC Health Traffic Center. Trust the same team for your
care that keeps the UC Bearcats on the field. Count
on UCE Health Orthopedics and sports Medicine no matter the injury,
visit seehealth dot com. Crews have now cleared out that
accident on Main Street over at River Hills Drive. However,
south seventy one, seventy five, it's an accident on the

(35:03):
off ramp to US forty two in Florence. The right
lane blocked on the ramp northbound seventy one. Slow traffic,
Smith Edwards to Stewart on that ezelk with traffic.

Speaker 8 (35:12):
This report, Hey Alexa, who's out for the season?

Speaker 3 (35:17):
Getting ESPN fifteen thirty from iHeartRadio.

Speaker 9 (35:21):
Which is the season preview report. Don't for you by
kemba credit you'd yet on your official home of the
Cincinnati Bengals. ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Broadcasting from Oakley Greens. All the sports, all the time
at Oakley Greens. Tony Pike joins us for a season
preview report. We do these once an hour, and so
we have four forty five and five forty five to
talk about what the Bengals have done with their roster
cutting it down to fifty three. Let's spend a few
more minutes on Trey Hendrickson. Given that the outcome is

(35:57):
what it is right where he gets a raise, but
he doesn't get an extension. He'll play for the team
in twenty twenty five. The hold in is over. Is
this a preferable outcome to treating him prior to this
year's draft?

Speaker 11 (36:11):
Yeah, because the hold up for the Bengals all along
has been not wanting to pay him past this year
because of the question of getting older. And if you're
the Bengals, yes, you do pay a premium for Trey Hendrickson,
but he's not in the top five from a yearly
earning standpoint of edge rusher. So you have the defending
sack champion in the NFL not even being paid in

(36:31):
the top five for a per season salary. And I
think you're gonna get Trey Hendrickson with a little bit
of a chip on the shoulder, and it gives you
the bargaining power if you want to go back to
the table and negotiate, if you want to slap a
franchise tag on him. If he falls off this year
and you want to move on from him, you can
do that too. I think it covers all the grounds.
If you're the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Would you entertain franchise tagging him for twenty twenty six?

Speaker 11 (36:56):
I would have to see what it looked like this year,
because if they were hesitant because of the age this offseason,
I would imagine they would be even more hesitant of
that going into the next year. So I would look
at it production based. That's going to be a healthy
what thirty eight, thirty nine, maybe even forty million dollar
franchise tag, which is substantially higher. But I think you
cross that bridge when you get there. I think for

(37:18):
right now, it still gives you financial flexibility that you
can go make some more moves, and it does give
the message of hey, we're all in to win this
year with Trey Hendrickson and the rest of this roster.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, at the end of the day, I'll be honest
with you, I don't care about the twenty twenty six
Bengals right now. I wanted their best defensive player on
the field. While Al Golden is trying to figure out
how to make this defense better, which is probably going
to take some time. I wanted Trey Hendrickson to be
that ship that he could play week one.

Speaker 11 (37:47):
Yeah, and I'm more interested now, MO. You know, does
Trey Hendrickson want to stay in the same spot or
was that lou An Arumo that wanted him in the
same spot? Because if not, will Al Golden line him
up opposite? Going to move him inside like we see
a lot of the other premier pass rushers in the NFL.
I want to see what the usage looks like for
a defense that was very based, that was very vanilla,

(38:08):
that has not shown much of Trey Hendrickson moving around?
Does Trey want to do that? And can now find
a way to utilize that that makes this defense have
an extra layer that you got to prepare for.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Uh, could not agree more. Tony will chat again coming
up at four to forty five. Thanks so much, all right,
moll Tony Pike Season preview reports every hour three forty five,
four forty five, and five forty five. Don't forget a
week from Sunday, we have the Bengals and Browns on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Kickoff will be at one o'clock. Our
pregame coverage will begin at nine to oh five. That

(38:41):
is a road game for the Bengals. So if you're
already thinking ahead to the seventh Oakley Greens and you
don't have to wait until then. If you're a Bearcat fan,
you see in Nebraska from Kansas City on Thursday night,
it's going to be a blast here at Oakley Greens.
TVs all over the place, and then that kind of
kicks off a huge college football weekend. And let's face it,

(39:02):
with conference realignment, with the College Football Playoff, which college
football weekends aren't huge. Got Ohio State and Texas at
noon on Saturday, no better place to watch than Oakley Greens.
And if if you want to make a whole day
and night of it, Notre Dame in Miami. That is
going to be on Sunday evening at seven thirty. So
a full weekend of college football here at Oakley Greens.

(39:25):
And as you make plans for the Bengals season, make
sure you keep Oakley Greens in mind. And I think
what I love most about this place is family friendly
until Friday and Saturday at nine o'clock and then they
kick the kids out, So it's perfect, right hang out
with it, have somebody come pick if Grandma come pick
up the kids. Stay at Oakley Greens. Have a good time.

(39:46):
You cannot beat it. We'll have the official paaradown of
the roster coming up here in just a bit. We'll
go to link in Nebraska at for twenty talk you
see Nebraska. Scott Sadafield talked earlier today. Zach Taylor's going
to talk just a bit. We'll have both for you,
and we'll talk about what happened last night in Los Angeles,
a seven nothing Reds lost to the Dodgers as well.

(40:07):
All that between now and six at Oakley Greens on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
Is ESPN fifteen thirty four.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Oh four ESPN fifteen to thirty mo Egards, thank you
so much for joining us. Okully, you're having the coolest
Tuesday of all time. I don't know if it's cooler
in ours. We're broadcasting today from Oakley Greens, and we
are so thrilled that Oakley Greens is having us out
not yesterday, but every Tuesday for the rest of the
year and beyond. If you have not been to Oakley

(40:41):
Greens been open for maybe a little bit over a year,
and this place is awesome. We came out the first
time almost a year ago. My wife and daughter and
I came for dinner the night for the first day
of school, just to play some mini golfets some ice cream,
and we fell in love with this place. And it's
family friendly. But you know, you could also hang out

(41:04):
here with your buddies and watch football. We've talked about
you see Nebraska on Thursday at the Ohio State game
on Saturday, Bengals games, with the opener against the Browns
coming up a week from Sunday, and so much more.
If you haven't been here, you've got to check it out.
The parking is free, there's tons of room. You can
be inside, you can be outside. You could play cornhole,

(41:25):
you could play arcade games, you could play mini golf,
or you could just post up and drink. That's the
cool thing. There's lots to do here, but you don't
have to do any of it. So come on out
check out Oakley Greens and we love to see you
here one Tuesday afternoon. Tony's gonna join us again. Coming
up in four forty five. We have Brendman and Jones
on baseball. We do have to spend some time on

(41:46):
last night's Red's Dodgers game, which went south poorly for
Hunter Green and his teammates. Cincinnati is two and a
half out of the last wildcard. We'll also go to Lincoln,
Nebraska coming up in just about fifteen minutes. Talked about
the corn Huskers, who provide the opposition for UC in
Kansas City on Thursday night. Many of the Bengals roster
cuts have already been made public through one form or another,

(42:11):
whether it's reporting or a player's agent tweeting that kind
of thing. But right at four o'clock, actually at four
oh one, the Bengals did send the list of roster moves,
and I will read them for you because I believe
in providing up to date, current and accurate information. Two
players go on IR Dejon Anthony, who injured his hamstring

(42:32):
in the game on Saturday against Indianapolis. He goes on IR.
Same for Cedric Johnson. Both those players designated for return
Eric All, who I hope to God we get a
chance to see Eric All at least get an opportunity
to play in the NFL in twenty twenty six. He
has been placed on the pup list with that knee issue.

(42:55):
They have terminated the contracts of three vested veterans, so
these players are all free agent Gary Brightwell, Jalen Davis,
and Joe Giles Harris, and they have waived nineteen players
starting with cal Adamitas. Now, I'm not going to tell
you that I was deeply invested in the Bengals long
snapper battle. William Wagner wins it watching preseason games. I

(43:19):
didn't feel like one guy was significantly better than the other.
We were there for ten different training camp practices. It's
not like I felt like one guy was significantly better
than the other. I also I didn't pay that close attention.
You typically don't pay close attention to the long snapper
unless he makes a mistake. Neither guy really made a mistake.

(43:39):
I'll tell you this. This is gonna be worth paying
attention to, though, because the kicking game last year for
the Bengals, Evan McPherson wasn't great. He was very good
in the preseason, he was very good in the training
camp practice as I saw, you know, when he entered
the NFL. And I remember talking about this with Shane Graham,
who coached Evan McPherson in college, and we talked about

(44:01):
the fact that Evan as a rookie was going to
get a chance to be a part of the same
kicking operation that Shane Grant had been a part of
his last season in Cincinnati, which was Clark Harris and
Kevin Huber. And since then, it's been a little bit
of a revolving door, right. They've had different plutters, from
Kevin Hubert and Drew Chrisman to the Brad Robbins experiment.

(44:22):
Now Ryan Rico. Ryan Rico seems to be a guy
who has a chance to be around for a while.
They've had a change at long snapper from Clark Harris
to cal Adamitas, and this kind of felt like with
cal coming back, this was the first time that they
could enjoy some continuity for a while, and now they
throw a wrench into that. William Wager may be the
greatest long snapper of all time. I don't know, but

(44:45):
you can't tell me that's not going to be something
you pay attention to. The first time that there's a
big field goal attempt, or maybe even the first time
there's a big situation for you know, Ryan Rico to
drop a punt like inside the five yard line. We
will see, but a little bit of a surprise. I
think cal Adamitus gets cut. My guess is they try
to find a way for him to be on the

(45:06):
practice squad. Other players who were waived Devin Cochrane, Andrew
Coker and Caleb Eddie En Raymond Johnson the third Jalen
Key Jackson, Kirkland, Braylon Lux, Jamoy Mays who obviously played
last season at the University of Cincinnati. Tanner McLaughlin the
other tight end they took in the twenty twenty four draft.

(45:26):
He has been waived. Seth McLaughlin from Ohio State has
been waived. Kendall Milton, who played well on Saturday. Jordan Moore,
a guy who was kind of the darling of training
camp last year. Mumah john Manna the linebacker. He has
been waved. Kendrick Pryor des Ritter, who we've talked about
a lot. I love Dez. I certainly hope if he
wants to continue his pro football career he finds an opportunity.

(45:50):
He did not help himself during the preseason here. Isaiah
Thomas gets waived. Cordell Vohlsen waved slash injured and Isaiah Williams,
the wide receiver, gets waived. All NFL players eligible to
be signed to a practice squad. Players who are a
waived must clear waivers first. Bengals plan to announce tomorrow
a practice squad of up to sixteen players. So four

(46:12):
o'clock today is coming gone, and now the Bengals got
to go shopping and it is certainly within the realm
of possibility that they find players who could help. And
I know this is something we've talked about now here
for a while. But whether you are the Bengals who
have a chance to be pretty good, the Philadelphia Eagles,
so I think we all agree will be pretty good,

(46:32):
or a team that's likely to be awful like the
Saints or the Titans or the Cleveland Browns. Regardless, there
are now like over one thousand players out there that
you can claim off waivers. You should always be looking
for upgrades every single day of the year. An NFL
GM personnel head should be should be looking to find

(46:55):
upgrades make the team better. And maybe they're in ways
that are reflected in overall depth. Maybe a huge gaping
hole has been uncovered during training camp. Maybe you're desperate
because there's been a bunch of injuries at one position
and now you need a guy. Every team should be
looking for players who can help, and god knows, there

(47:15):
is a very, very long list of players who have
been cut by NFL teams that end up getting picked
off of waivers and then help their new team almost instantly.
And maybe that happens here. But you cannot claim that
it's not deeply frustrating that with twelve days to go

(47:36):
before the first game, we are talking about the Bengals
needing to go shopping to find players at the same
positions that we said they had to go shopping to
find back in January. It's deeply frustrating. It's deeply frustrating,
and injuries have been a factor. Injuries haven't been the

(47:58):
only factor, Let's be honest. Training camp practices began on
July twenty third. On July twenty third, Tony and I
did a show from Bengals training camp and we were
talking about what they might be able to find on
cutown cutdown Day. Then that was over a month ago,
over a month ago, before preseason games, before training camp practices,

(48:19):
before injuries, before some players had a chance to impress,
and before some players had a chance to make bad impressions,
we were talking about what might the Bengals be able
to get after roster cuts on August twenty sixth, and
we were talking about the same positions. So the plan,
at least to this point, for safety and for guard

(48:41):
and maybe for defensive tackle hasn't worked. The plan should
never be let's find solutions on cutdown day. The plan
for an off season and for training camp should be Hey,
on cutdown day, let's see if there's somebody who makes sense.
Not OMG, we need a safety, OMG, we might need
a guard, OMG, we might need a defensive tackle. And

(49:04):
so because of this this Tree Hendrickson thing, which holy
hell we've beaten to death, I am okay with this resolution.
I am okay with the resolution that the Bengals and
Tray have come to, and I think if you're a
Bengals fan you should as well. It is completely reasonable
to believe that in twenty twenty six, Trey is not

(49:26):
going to be the player he was in twenty twenty three,
in twenty twenty four, and that's why the Bengals have
to this point basically, not basically, they have shown a reluctance,
and that's a general way of putting it, a reluctance
to invest in him in twenty twenty six. But he's
probably still gonna be pretty good in twenty twenty five.
You could use this season to see what he could

(49:46):
still do, make an assessment. Maybe a tag him, probably not.
Perhaps you'll offer him another long term contract, maybe he
hits free agency. Who knows. What we do know is
this the Bengals gave Trey permission to shop himself in
a trade prior to the draft. We also know the
Bengals only had six draft picks. We also know that

(50:08):
right now we look at a team that needs players
at a lot of different positions. Again, guard, safety, defensive tackle.
You can maybe make the argument for others, but those
are the ones that are most glaring, and frankly, I
think safety and guard may be a little bit more
than defensive tackle, but certainly you would include defensive tackle

(50:30):
in the discussion. So, knowing that, knowing that they didn't
go ahead and sign Trey long term, I can't help
but believe, and you're welcome to disagree. At five one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty, I can't help, but believe that a better
outcome would have been Trey getting traded not last week,

(50:51):
but back in March, back in April, because at the
very least, there would have been a draft pick that
they could have possibly used to find a player who
plays a position that they now have to go shopping
for eleven or twelve days before the first game. That
doesn't mean Trey can't be very good for the Bengals

(51:11):
this year. We all expect him to once they didn't
trade him, and once the draft came and went trading him,
the idea was silly. Like last week when we saw, hey,
they're listening to offers, It's like, for what, for what
that's going to help you this year? But like you know,
you certainly would have had a hard time filling Tray's
shoes had you traded him. But they did take Shamar Stewart.

(51:34):
For what it's worth, they could have saved that money
and invested it in free agency and at the very
least had another pick to use for a player who
could help them for twenty twenty five but also helped
them for the years that they had no interest in
Trey Hendrickson being on the team for so relative to

(51:58):
how we've talked about Trey in recent weeks. This outcome
I think is fine relative to maybe what they could
have gotten done before the draft, knowing that they didn't
get something done long term and that it is at
least right now unlikely the Trey's going to be helping
the team in twenty twenty six. I wish they would
have flipped them, save the money and used to pick

(52:18):
on somebody who can help the team in twenty twenty
six and might fill a hole where they have to
fill using players who have gotten cut Today at Muleger
on Twitter. Thanks to Delta Dental, Delts Dental is building healthy, smart,
vibrant communities for all good. At Delta Dental, oh dot com,
we are broadcasting from Oakley Greens. We are here until

(52:41):
six o'clock. You'll hear Zach Taylor on the Bengals roster
cuts coming up in the five o'clock hour. You also
hear Scott Saderfield on UC season open. Are the Bearcats
taking on Nebraska? What's the mood in Lincoln? Are they
taking this game for granted? Are they overlooking the Bearcats?
Does anybody there give Cincinnati a puncher's chance? We'll head

(53:02):
there next when we come back. We're at Oakley Greens
on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati's esp I'm
at for four ESPN fifteen thirty Moegger, Tony Pike in
twenty minutes on the Bengals plus Brenhaman and Jones on baseball. Big,
big opportunity for the Bearcats on Thursday night, you know,

(53:24):
for a lot of different reasons, not the least of
which is an opportunity for Scott Saderfield to just re
energize the fan base. Cincinnati playing in Kansas City against Nebraska.
It's a nine o'clock kickoff on seven hundred wl WS.
Steven Sipple is a senior writer for Husker Online. He
is one of the hosts of Early Break on ninety

(53:45):
three seven. The Ticket was kind enough to have me
on his show last week and even kinder to join
us and talk about this game. It's good to have you, Stephen.
How are you.

Speaker 6 (53:55):
Mo?

Speaker 12 (53:55):
It's the least I can do after your appearance on
our show. I appreciated that it was great give us
a lot of information. I turned it into a column
as a matter of fact, so thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
I just read that. And by the way, I still
have not met anybody who's going to Kansas City, so
you know, I've I've been searching. I've been searching. Maybe
we'll run into some Bearcat fans when we get there tomorrow.
In every first game, no matter who you're playing, especially
in this day and age, there's things you want to
learn about a football team. What's at the top of
that list for corn Huskers fans?

Speaker 12 (54:26):
Okay, there's a lot. I mean, I think the foremost
thing is can they how will they hold up against
the run? Though I mean Nebraska lost. I'd say four
pretty good front seven players like free down line and
then sort of a stand up linebacker that played on
the line. Ty Robinson was the fourth round.

Speaker 8 (54:49):
Pick of the Eagle.

Speaker 12 (54:50):
He led that bunch.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
He was good.

Speaker 12 (54:52):
He was a good player. I mean legit probably actually
was going to be a third rounder and a trade
push that trade push his kick back. So he basically
is the third rounder. So that that's what everybody's wondering about.
That's why he's asking about it on our show the
other day. Can Pror and Tylie Walker in the in

(55:15):
the Cincinnati offensive line moved that lunch. Hey, hey, Mo,
people moved him last year. Now even those guys got moved,
So people are kind of wondering about it.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
What does the next step look like for Dylan Royola?

Speaker 12 (55:36):
Just a lot goes into that conversation. A lot of
it though, is what what's next? Is they needed to
put stuff around it. He's so blessed physically. You'll understand
when you see him mop. I mean, he's he's like,
he's stick him out on most any team you're gonna
you're gonna stay. Yeah, he looks like the best guy

(55:56):
out there. He's gotta he's got a big arm. I
guess the next thing though, to answer your question, is
probably needs to run it a little bit more. You know,
in this day and age in college football, you seldom
see a guy he's just a pocket guy and doesn't
move out of there very much, and he's capable of it.
He's not you know, he doesn't have a lot of speed,

(56:19):
but he's got functional football speed and like stores be
like your guy. He's a big guy. You know, he's
sixty two six three two thirty and he's athletics. So
if I were Cincinnati fan, I watched for that, I
think that I'm not really talking designed runs, but when
there's an opportunity to scramble, he'll get up field and

(56:40):
he'll look pretty good.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Year three for Scott Saderfield here in Cincinnati, and there's,
as you might imagine, a fair amount of pressure on him.
And look, he took over for a guy who took
him to the College Football Playoff. They've moved into the
Big twelve, so there's been a little bit of a
learning curve there, but there's there's sort of a put
up or shut up field for Scott Sadderfield. Hear a
lot about year three from for Matt rule Right ten

(57:03):
and four his third season the Temple eleven and three
his third season at Baylor before jumping to the NFL.
So I know everybody's expecting this bump. Walk me through
the first two years. How has his job performance been received.

Speaker 12 (57:18):
I'd say pretty well. I mean, the first year was
five and seven, pretty nondescript about what was about what
people expected five and seven. The second year was a
bumpy ride, and it was it was disappointing in some ways,
but they did. I mean, they hadn't been to a

(57:38):
they hadn't been to a bowl game, so I know
it sounds weird to people out there, But Nebraska hadn't
been to a bowl game. Twenty sixteen, they finally broke
that streak, got to the It was a Pinstripe Bowl.
It wasn't that you, I mean, it wasn't on many
people's radar, but they got a win, and that got
him to seven and six, and he could now he

(58:01):
can sell progress. There's just a fine line in sort
of sadder field rule discussion, who's got more pressure If
rule loses that game to Boston College and they go
six and seven, people are pretty just gruggled here. But
just that one win ghet the seven and six, winning
a bowl game, breaking the bow streak and then winning

(58:22):
changed a lot, and it did. That's how it's kind
of a results business. And maybe I shouldn't be that surprised,
but I'm still sort of surprised sometimes how much one
win can mean in the grand team. So he doesn't
have he's got some row here, he's got some leeway,
but you know, it changes fast, and a place like Nebraska, MO.

(58:44):
The best way I can put it is every game
is big if you lose it. That's the way it
kind of works here, Like it still works that way,
every game is a colossal game in people's minds. If
you lose it, I don't think beating Cincinnati, people aren't
going to be freaking out over joyed. They'll be mostly relieved.
But if Nebraska were to lose this game, oh yeah,

(59:05):
it gets big. Then it gets big.

Speaker 4 (59:07):
It gets big.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
If if they reach every expectation and have the best
year possible. I guess the the easier way would would
would be to ask, like, what's their ceiling, What's what's
the best case for this team in twenty twenty five?

Speaker 12 (59:23):
Ken, I think it's a ten. I mean, you know
how it goes. I mean, you could say about any
team undefeated, but that's not it's not realistic here. It's
because they got to play ten State on the road.
It's just hard to go from seven to eleven. I mean,
I think that Ken looks like a ceiling here with
the with Nebraska's limitations, I'd say limitations up front on defense.

(59:47):
They they're not great at running back. They have a
pretty good starter, but behind him is a lot of
unknown young guys. So I think Ken, I think Ken
is the ceiling maybe gets you in the playoffs.

Speaker 11 (59:58):
That's the thing.

Speaker 12 (59:59):
Ten My just get you in. I'm not predicting Keen,
but I have predicted nine, so I think that. Hey, No,
I think they're pretty good. I mean, I think you're
gonna see a pretty good Nebraska team, particularly on offense.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
What does this crowd look like? It's gonna be pro
Husker again, I know nobody from here is going, or
I know nobody from here who is going. Uh. Linking
to Kansas City is about three and a half hours.
It's a big alumni base, I'm sure in that part
of the country, Like, is this one people are traveling too?
Is this you know, corn Huskers Nebraska alums in Kansas City?

(01:00:36):
What's the composition like on Thursday at Arrowhead. Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:00:40):
I don't want to sell like a Homer at all.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
No, I not.

Speaker 12 (01:00:42):
I'm not that guy. But you're going I'm not. Anybody
who knows me knows I'm I'm I'm about it. Cynicals,
it gets but here you're going this get ready, it's
gonna be wild. It's gonna be loud, and it'll be passed.
When Nebraska sits on a takeover, it gets pretty wild.

(01:01:04):
It's you know, Memorial Stadium different, It'll it'll be a
louder crowd than in Lincoln. I know it sounds odd
that there's a season there's a lot of season ticket
holders that are you know, they're in their sixties and
seventies and eighties, so the crowd's not always really rocket
in Lincoln. I imagine it's going to be rocket. It'll

(01:01:25):
be quiet. It'll be quiet at team. It'll be tough.
Now I'll get I don't help Nebraska.

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
It can't.

Speaker 12 (01:01:31):
I definitely won't hurt them. And you know, since since
these offense, I hope Batterfield, your coach, has the presence
of mind to plan accordingly. But it's going to be loud.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
I was badly, badly disappointed for a lot of different
reasons during the pandemic because they were supposed to play
you see in Lincoln in twenty twenty. That that game
has been moved to twenty thirty three. I'll be there
for that in eight years, and uh, we'll have to
talk because I can't wait to go to Lincoln for
the first time. First things for Cincinnati and Nebraska in

(01:02:04):
Kansas City. Steve and I appreciate the at the time, man,
thank you so much.

Speaker 12 (01:02:09):
Hey Moe, thank you for the time.

Speaker 11 (01:02:10):
I see.

Speaker 12 (01:02:10):
I'll make sure I introduced myself in Kansas City.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Okay, let's make that happen. I look forward to it,
all right, it feel it. You're the man. Steven Sipple,
Husker online and co host of The Early Break. I
was on his show with his two co hosts on
ninety three seven The Ticket in Lincoln. That was a
fun conversation, and uh, I've learned a lot about Nebraska.
Listener to those guys you see in Nebraska on Thursday night.

(01:02:34):
No better place to watch that game than right here
at Oakley Greens. Let's make an admission about somebody we
all love. Next on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 10 (01:02:45):
Thirty, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the UC.

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Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet, Home of
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family to yours for Life, Kelsey chev dot Com. So,
the Bengals have cut their roster down to fifty three.
This is not the final fifty three man roster, as

(01:03:52):
you all know, but I'll still give you the cuts. Nonetheless,
Dejon Anthony and Cedric Johnson go on the injury list,
Eric Auges on the pup list, Gary Brightwell, Jalen Davis,
and Joe Giles Harris have their contracts terminated. They are
now free agents. These nineteen players have been waived caladamight As,
Devin Cochrane, Andrew Coker, Caleb Eddie, En Raymond Johnson the Third,

(01:04:13):
Jalen Key, Jackson, Kirkland Braylan Lux, Jamoy Mays, Tanner McLaughlin,
Seth McLaughlin, Kendall Milton, Jordan Moore, Muma, John Meda, Kendrick Pryor,
des Ritter, Isaiah Thomas Cordell Volson and Isaiah Williams the
roster down to fifty three. We'll see what the Bengals
add on the waiver wire. Reds and Dodgers Tonight, game

(01:04:34):
two of that three game series. Nick Martinez will get
the ball for Cincinnati against Clayton Kershaw. Ten to ten
is Tonight's first pitch on a seven hundred wl W. Cincinnati,
losing that ballgame last night, falls to two and a
half behind the Mets in the hunt for the last wildcard.
New York takes on Philadelphia tonight. Opening Day twenty twenty

(01:04:56):
six will be held on March twenty six. Next year,
Reds will be hosting the Boston Red Sox. I think,
and I can't say for sure. This is easy to
look up. I believe this will be the second time
that they've had an opener against an American League team.
I know twenty thirteen that was against the Angels because
I remember when Ryan Ludwig hurt his shoulder at third

(01:05:18):
base sliding in. I think this is their first inter
league opener since then. Reds and Red Sox March twenty sixth,
twenty twenty six, the Florence Yawls Tonight are on the
road against Evansville. We'll have some poll up questions. Briefly
on the ball game last night, Reds and Dodgers. Thread's

(01:05:40):
got three hits, like they gave up seven runs. Hunter
Green Anti pag has hit a home run off Hunter
Green in the third inning and then hit a home
run off Hunter Green in the fifth inning, unlike the
exact same pitch, which was frustrating. He didn't have it
last night. He didn't have a good night. Fine the

(01:06:01):
Reds offense, which is prone to spells of dormancy. I'm
not sure dormancy is a word. They got three hits
last night. Not good, not all that surprising. A bad night,
it happens. Two and a half is not insurmountable. I know,
even though they play the Mets, play the Mets, not
this coming weekend, but the weekend after. I don't think

(01:06:23):
you want to screw around and let this get to
like four and a half. I think that's the point
where you start to really kind of look at the
amount of games out, the amount of games back, and
the amount of games remaining, and the math kind of
gets a little bit dicey. Two and a half. I
don't want to say I'm not concerned because I said

(01:06:43):
last week that I didn't feel like the Reds were
gonna collapse because I don't think the starting pitching will
let it. I feel not quite as certain about that
because of their offensive inefficiencies or deficiencies I should say
they're offensive deficiencies. But also it has just felt recently
like the bullpen has kind of built on a house

(01:07:04):
of cards between you know, guys who are overworked, guys
who are inexperienced, or maybe guys who are simply miscast.
But anyway, they lose the ball game last night, Hunter
Green not being very good and the Reds offense putting
zero runs on the board are the reasons why. But
Ellie dela Cruz made an error last night that helped

(01:07:25):
the Dodgers break it open in the sixth inning, and
there were two errors on the play. This was in
the sixth inning with them down, with the Reds down
three to nothing, two run score on a ball that
goes through Ellie de la Cruz's legs and then Austin
Hayes flings the ball to Santa Barbara from left field

(01:07:46):
and it goes from three to nothing to five nothing.
Ellie Dela Cruz has made twenty errors. Ellie Dela Cruz
is a marvelous talent. He is a very good player.
He is, for my money, the face of the franchise.
He is, for my money, their best hitter. A number
of statistics will bear this out. He is a guy

(01:08:07):
that I still believe has a chance to be a
perennial All Star. He's already been an All Star twice.
Threads are in the postseason hunt in large part because
of Elie Dela Cruz. I think he is better than
a replacement level player at his position in the batting order,
and to a degree, at his position in the field.

(01:08:28):
We love Ellie Dela Cruz. I love watching Ellie Dela Cruz.
I don't know how you don't, but when a ball
is hit to him, I start to feel weird. He's
not reliable. We've talked a lot this season about how
when a ball is hit to him and he goes
to make the throw, you hold your breath. I don't
know how you don't. And this is something I said

(01:08:51):
and many have expressed well before. He made that error
in the ninth inning against the Brewers on a play
that would have ended the game. This isn't aiming last
night on Ellie de la Cruz. It's using another somewhat
high profile example to point out I think two things. One.
I think, if you're a Reds fan when a ball

(01:09:11):
is at too Elie dela Cruz, while you acknowledge he
may do something awesome, you are in that moment filled
with anxiety. Number two, until he no longer is an
unreliable shortstop, He's never gonna be in that strata of
player that we want him to be. Multiple things can
be true. Wonderful talent, works hard, seems like he's a

(01:09:34):
great teammate. I think a tough batter to retire like
we could. I have three legal pads in front of
me that I use for this show. I can jot down,
you know, a positive attribute and go on and on
and on about it on every paper in front of me,
on every piece of every pad of paper in front
of me. But as a shortstop, he leaves a lot

(01:09:54):
to be desired man, and so we keep waiting for
Ellie to kind of join that just next that next
group of upper tier players. I don't think you can
when you make as many errors as he does. It's
twenty this season at a position that's hard to play,
but at a position that's really important, and look like

(01:10:14):
he's capable of doing the awesome. We've seen it. We've
seen it a lot over the course of the last
you know, parts of three seasons. And you may believe,
and this is completely fair, that you know, all he
needs is more time to iron out some of those
rough edges in his game, and you may believe he's
better cast playing somewhere else. The truth right now, though,

(01:10:35):
is we don't know, Like it's completely reasonable to go,
you know what, until he's better at short stop, I'm
always gonna wonder if he's better off playing somewhere else.
And it's also completely reasonable to go, like, you know what,
the dude does so many good things at times at
shortstop that you just want to let him put those
errors behind him. Fine right now, though, when the ball
is hit to him, I prepare for anything. I prepare

(01:10:58):
for any outcome with any player at any position, even
the best of the best. Errors are gonna happen. Right
I grew up idolizing Barry Larkin. I can recite for
you some of the errors he made. They're surprising when
they do, but for the most part, when they happen,
you're kind of surprised. When they happen. With Ellie de
la Cruz, you're not. That is, to me, at least

(01:11:20):
in sports, one of the definitions of lack of reliability.
When the ball is hit your way, I expect you
to make the play. If I don't, you're not reliable.
And if you're not reliable, you're just not there yet.
This doesn't mean Elie dela Cruz stinks. That doesn't mean
that Ellie Delacruz should instantly be moved to center field,

(01:11:42):
or that he's overrated or any of that stuff. It
means he's got to get better at shortstop. It means
they need a short stop who can be counted on
to not screw up in the field as often as
Ellie does. I say that is one of his biggest fans.
I say that as some who is shot down the
idea of moving him right to centerfield. But he's gotta

(01:12:05):
be better when the ball is hit his way. I
have no idea what to expect. He may make the
greatest play I've ever seen. He may throw a bullet
to first base. He may throw it halfway up the net.
It may kick off his glove. He may make a
stunning one handed pickup and a throw on the run.
Like you have no idea when a ball is hit
to a player in the field. I need to have

(01:12:26):
a decent idea of what's gonna happen. That's not the
case with Elie de la Cruz. I know what happens.
When we talk with Tony Pike, we get smarter because
Tony knows a lot about football. He joins us. Next,
we're at Oakley Greens on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 10 (01:12:39):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 9 (01:13:16):
Review report brought to you by Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg on
your official home of the Cincinnati Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
All right, Tony, the Bengals have cut the roster down
to fifty three. I'm not sure there are any major surprises.
I do think what they did at long snapper is
a mild surprise.

Speaker 11 (01:13:39):
Yeah, you know, I think we go back to the
first day we were at training, CAMPO or William Wagnan
was the first one on the practice field, and I
think I think he set a tone from that day
on of what camp was going to be. But yes,
just because at that position it feels like you need
to vastly outperform whoever has already been the starter, because

(01:14:00):
the snap and the hold and the kick and all
that operation is so particular that he had to show
way much more upside to be given that job. So yeah,
I mean, while it's a it's a position not many
people talk about, it is a position of need and valuing.
The Bengals obviously valued him.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
I'm not sure anything else really stood out to me
when you saw the list of players who were cut.
How about you.

Speaker 11 (01:14:23):
The only other thing? And Paul Danner Junior hit on
this as well. The offensive line. I think by the
moves they've made tell you enough about what they felt
about the depth on the offensive line. Now, Zach Taylor
spoke very highly today of Jalen Rivers and improving. He
also said that he thinks the starting guard is on
the roster, which is a little worrisome for me. But
I do think in looking how the old line shook

(01:14:46):
itself out, that you're probably going to find this team
scouring the waiver wires here.

Speaker 1 (01:14:52):
Yeah, we'll talk about what the are going to go
shopping for coming up at five point forty. Tony looking
forward to that. Thanks so much. Tony joins us for
season preview reports three forty five, four forty five, and
five forty five Bengals and Browns a week from Sunday
live on ESPN fifteen thirty. And of course you could
watch that came from here at Oakley Greens Brenneman and

(01:15:15):
Jones on Baseball is next?

Speaker 5 (01:15:18):
Need better sleep this Labor Day weekend?

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Yeah, your chance at one thousand dollars in a trip
to our Rheart Radio Music Festival. Text the nationwide keyword
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Speaker 7 (01:15:35):
That's Vegas to two hundred, two hundred four fifteen thirty.

Speaker 9 (01:15:40):
Oh, guess what day it is?

Speaker 1 (01:15:43):
Guess what day it is?

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
DOC Tuesday, not for to today, It's Oakley Grease Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (01:15:54):
Because we're at Oakley Greens and it's Tuesday. It is
the Nickelo Ultra by the Plod Pappy Hour. Thanks make
Ultra superior, taste, superior life here. You know, they they
serve miculture here. So if one were to feel compelled
to help me enjoy the Michelo Ultral five o'clock happy

(01:16:14):
Hour here at Oakley Greens, I'd be more than willing
to take them up on that. We thank mic culture.
We thank the folks at Oakley Greens. All the sports,
all the time, all at Oakley Greens. Over thirty TVs.
We are. We're sitting outside but undercover, and you know,
like this has been a really hot summer. I love
the hot weather during the summer, but I don't know

(01:16:36):
that I want to sit outside baking in it without
something over me. We're undercover, so if it heats up again,
we'll be good. This is an awesome place. It's great
for families. It's it's great for you know, bring a
bring a date to Oakley Greens, play some mini golf.
One of my first dates with my wife, we played
mini golf and went to the batting cage. They don't
have a batting cage here, but they do have a

(01:16:58):
mini golf. They've got core and awesome plays to watch games,
you can rent a cabana. They've got live music on Fridays.
They've got fair Away few tonight starting at seven o'clock.
Team trivia, Family Feud style. You can't beat it here
at to Oakley Greens. And one of the best things
about it is it's located at Oakley Station. Chances are

(01:17:19):
you know this area. The parking is free and plentiful,
and that is not always the case. So check out
Oakley Greens. They're all over social media. These folks are awesome.
Love coming here and so excited to do our show.
Every single Tuesday, a lot going on. You'll hear both
Zach Taylor and Scott Saderfield coming up in Under in

(01:17:41):
just under thirty minutes. You see is getting set to
play Nebraska on Thursday. Game you can watch at Oakley
Greens and the Bengals have cut their roster down to
fifty three. We talked about this a little bit last hour.
I feel like the one mild surprise is they take
William Wagner over cal out of minus at long snapper,

(01:18:02):
which is not obviously a position that you talk about
a ton. As we watched three preseason games, I don't
recall anybody making a big deal about what was happening
at long snapper. Nonetheless, you know there's another continuity break there,
and that has been a position where there's that has
been a group the field goal unit. There's been some
turnover with holder and long snapper just since Evan McPherson

(01:18:24):
entered the NFL. And we'll see how that affects the
Bengals early in the year. Maybe not at all. The
Trey Hendrickson thing got done yesterday. We have three pole
questions on Twitter at mulleger Our poll questions come your
way thanks to United Heartland Insurance. You need insurance, so
why not pay as little as possible for good insurance?

(01:18:47):
United Heartland Insurance can help you do that. Check out
uhi ns dot com. So here's the first. I got
three of them today. The first pole question is about
the Trey Hendrickson outcome. Now, the Trey Hendrickson outcome I'm
fine with. I'm more than okay with what the Bengals
have done with Trey Hendrickson. First of all, we know

(01:19:08):
he's gonna play Week one, So I think a lot
of us, as this is unfolded, we've we've wondered about
that week leading up to the Browns game. Right, so
much emphasis on starting fast, so much emphasis on not
starting zero to one. Is there gonna be another thing
looming over their preparation? Now I was not gonna give

(01:19:29):
them that as an excuse, but is there gonna be
a thing that looms over their preparation for that game,
at least as it relates to Trey Hendrickson. The answer
is no. I never believed he was gonna sit out.
I think, like many, I thought money was gonna talk.
And at the end of the day, even if he
didn't get a pay raise, even if he didn't get

(01:19:50):
a new contract, he wasn't gonna turn down you know,
close to nine hundred thousand dollars in game checks to
miss the first game. That said, now we know he's
gonna play the first Trey Hendrickson, is I think different
enough that you might argue, well, you know what, watch
you could still hold out. Chances are that's not gonna happen.
The Bengals basic premise this entire time has been that

(01:20:13):
in twenty twenty six, we're not sure that Trey is
gonna still be the player that he was in twenty
twenty three. In twenty twenty four, there is a non
zero chance, as awesome as Trey has been, and I
think he's the greatest free agent signing in the history
of the franchise, as awesome as he has been, there's
a non zero chance that next season twenty twenty six,

(01:20:39):
you will see a pretty significant productivity drop from the
player he has been. That's plausible, it's it's it's it's plausible,
and it's no knock one Trey the person, the player
that he has been. It's no slap at what he
has meant to this franchise. Like he obviously can still

(01:20:59):
be effective player at that point. But the Bengals basic
premise this entire time has been, we don't want to
pay top dollar for Trey and guarantee the money for
twenty six during a season in which he's gonna turn
thirty two, because we feel there's a very good chance
that by then the production is gonna drop. That's completely plausible,

(01:21:21):
completely plausible. Trey. The beauty of sports is he has
a chance to prove the Bengals wrong. But we'll see
I have never disagreed with that basic premise. So now,
guess what. The Bengals aren't on the hook for twenty
twenty six. They may regret that they may still have
Trey here in twenty twenty six. They may sign him
as a free agent next offseason, they may franchise tag him.

(01:21:44):
There's a whole slew of options, and god knows we're
gonna talk about it. Number One, I did not disagree
with their basic position that this guy in twenty twenty
six is no longer gonna be the player that he
was in twenty twenty three in twenty twenty four, and
so we don't want to guarantee that money, and we
don't want to pay top of market value for him.
Number Two, I care about the twenty twenty five Bengals.

(01:22:07):
This is a huge year for Zach Taylor. It's a
season in which they're supposed to be in their Super
Bowl window. It's the season in which they're going to
try to win the title with Al Golden trying to
figure out the defense on the fly. That's not his fault,
but like there's no other way to put it. He
may have dumbed it down to the point that like
a kindergartener could get the defense and how it works.

(01:22:30):
But the reality is there's a lot of guys on
that defense who either didn't play well last year or
played so poorly they got benched, or didn't play a lot,
or have little experience. Like there's a lot of guys
on that defense that haven't proven that much in the NFL.
Trey Hendrickson is the one proven player if you believe
and this is also plausible if you believe that by

(01:22:51):
the middle of the season, Al Golden will have the
secondary playing well and the corners that they have chosen
to run it back with are going to justify the
Bengals faith in them, and the safety play is going
to be markedly improved. And this defense, which is supposed
to emphasize linebacker, is going to bring out the best
in Logan Wilson and Demetrius Knight as a twenty five

(01:23:14):
year old rookie is going to be you know, one
of the better I was gonna say, young but better
new linebackers in the NFL. If you believe those things
are gonna happen, probably not gonna happen until late October
early November. So who do I have in the interim.
I've got Trey Hendrickson. I've got trade to close out games.
I've got trade to do what he does. I've got

(01:23:37):
trade to help continue to hopefully bring along Shamar Stewart, who,
from what most of us saw watching him in the
preseason and from what I saw watching him in training camp,
certainly looks like he's got the potential to be disruptive
as a rookie. This, the way this has gone down
for the Bengals, is great for the twenty twenty five Bengals.

(01:23:57):
We'll see what it means for the twenty twenty six Bengals. Frankly,
I don't care about the twenty twenty six Bengals right now.
So it's a long winded way to tell you My
poll question is I've got three of them. The first one,
which Trey Hendrickson outcome would have been preferable. The outcome
that happened were Trey signs for one year or then
trading him prior to the twenty twenty five draft vote

(01:24:20):
now at Muegger. The other one is about the marricats
UC's posted total is six and a half wins. I
look today at thanduel dot com. Remember this is a
wager question, So this is like, you've got money, you
got to go over under. Where are you putting your money?

(01:24:40):
The pretty overwhelming majority of you are putting your money
on the under under six and a half wins. Now,
it's not the world's most challenging schedule. At first glance.
This assessment could change by you know, the end of
the month, by the end of September, But at first glance,
it appears to be an easy ish Big twelve schedule

(01:25:01):
where it feels like they missed the best three teams
they played Nebraska. Let's be honest, Nebraska has been a
middle of the pack Big Ten team for a couple
of years. I know everybody's expecting this big matt Rule leap.
It's a game that the Huskers are favored to win.
It's not like when they've played early in the season
at places like Ohio State and Michigan at the same time.

(01:25:24):
They won five games last year as as much improvement
as they did show early in the season they won
five games. It's a coach that not a lot of
people have faith in. It's a quarterback who is as
good as he has looked by all accounts during fall
camp at the end of the season last year appeared
to be really gun shy. I understand the under I

(01:25:44):
really do vote now at Moegger and the other ones
about La Dela Cruz. And it's a simple question. When
the ball is hit to L do you start to
feel anxious? And if the answer for you is no,
then you're able to cope in ways that I am not.

(01:26:05):
Most of the time he makes the play. He fails
to make the play often enough though, that when the
ball is hit his way, at least for me, I
have no idea what to expect. And if I have
no idea what to expect, I feel unease, I feel anxious.
This is not pinning last night's loss on Ellie Dela Cruz.

(01:26:25):
If the Reds missed the postseason, Elie Dela Cruz is
not going to be very high on the list of
reasons why they didn't, although you know, I think it's
worth exploring, Like WHYNG the summer long power drought. Indeed,
how good of an offensive player can he be? But
as a shortstop? While you have a lot of people
who will still say publicly that they believe he is

(01:26:47):
best suited to play the outfield. As long as he
makes errors with the frequency that he does, those questions
are not going to go away. Neither will my unease
when the ball is hit his way. Vote now the
major of you say yes. When the ball is hit
to Elie de la Cruz, you begin to feel anxious.
Ad Lowegar again thanks to United Heartland Insurance. Five one, three,

(01:27:12):
seven four nine, fifteen thirty and eight sixty six, seven
oh two, three seven seven six are our phone numbers.
We have room for you. We'll also hear from both
Zach Taylor and Scott Sadderfield and one more chat with
our guy, Tony Pike coming up between now and six
o'clock from Oakley Greens on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 10 (01:27:29):
Cincinnati Sports Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:27:35):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:27:38):
Trust the same team for your care that keeps the
UC Bearcats on the field. Count on U see Health,
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the city, keep in mind seventy one northbound is closed
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(01:28:01):
one is at North Bend Road. Police are there on scene.
And Ribolt an accident at Old Rye bolt On. That
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Speaker 1 (01:28:10):
One after five. It's this is esp ON fifteen thirty.
It's the Mike Alttle Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour from
Oakley Green here in Oakley. We are here till six o'clock.
You'll hear Zach Taylor and Scott Sadderfield in just a
few minutes. You know. Oakley Green's sister bar is Covington
Yard in Covington. That's what I love about these places.

(01:28:33):
There's no ambiguity about where they are. Like it's nobody
says where's Oakley. It's in Oakley and Covington Yards and Covington.
Covington's opening up a jungle pop up bar, which is
it's only going to be two weeks. That actually starts
on Thursday and runs through the eleventh of September. But
the Firehouse at Covington Yard, they are turning it into

(01:28:54):
a bar experience. There's going to be Jungled inspired decors
and the teas and different jungle themed cocktails, all sorts
of stuff leading onto the season, and all that's going
to kick off on Thursday night. So check that out
in Covington. And I'm not speaking out a turn here
because the people who run Oakley Greens also run that
awesome establishment. Been to Covington Yard many times and enjoy

(01:29:18):
posting up there. So your phone calls in just a
second five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty cut
down day, I have not I've not had a chance
to look at every team's cuts. That's just not something
I've had time to do. I'll be honest with you.
It's not something I have a ton of interest in.

(01:29:40):
Something that I've asked often over the last week has
been for a team that is supposedly in its Super
Bowl window, doesn't it feel like there's just a few
too many things that are unsettled? And number one, that's

(01:30:01):
why I think the Trey Hendrickson thing is okay. You
might not love how it got settled. You might not
love the actual result of the back and forth, the
months of back and forth. You might believe the Bengals
should give Trey Hendrickson a fully guaranteed contract for the
rest of the decade. But it's at least been settled.

(01:30:23):
It's been settled as it relates to the twenty twenty
five Bengals. Now, I'm gonna guess we spend more time
talking about Trey and his future in free agency and
maybe the franchise tag, But for now it's been settled.
So all right, on that list of stuff that just
seemed to be unsettled, you can cross that off. That said,
it felt like that list was way too long. So

(01:30:47):
now it's been cut down day right, four o'clock, roster
down to fifty three. Everybody else has gotten their roster
down to fifty three. Bengals are going shopping. I will
simply ask you this, When you're a team that could
using the waiver wire conceivably fine players to start Week

(01:31:13):
one at multiple positions, are you really a Super Bowl contender.
That's not to say that the Bengals are going to
find a starting safety on the waiver wire, or that
the Bengals are going to find a starting guard on
the waiver wire or a three technique. But I also

(01:31:34):
don't think it's that much of a stretch to say, God,
you know what, there could be a player who's better
than I don't know, Jordan Battle, or there could be
a player who is better than Lucas Patrick or Jalen Rivers,
or there could be a player who is better than
one of their three techniques. Doesn't it feel like number

(01:31:58):
one there's a little bit too much of an emphasis
on the Bengals perusing the waiver wire when we have
been talking about that for over a month, And isn't
it troubling that the waiver wire could conceivably it's plausible
that this can happen where the waiver wire yields options

(01:32:19):
at certain positions that could be better than the options
the Bengals already have at those positions. We'll see Man
five point three seven, fifteen thirty. I had ron he
dropped off, Mike. Go ahead, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty, Mike,
what's up?

Speaker 4 (01:32:39):
So the Bengals are going to pick up somebody else's trash, right,
that's what their plan is right now?

Speaker 1 (01:32:45):
Yeah? Yeah, all right?

Speaker 4 (01:32:48):
Good?

Speaker 1 (01:32:48):
Well, every every team picks. Every team picks up the
trash like every every team, every team peruises the waiver wire.
It it feels like it's it's more of a it's
more of a need. Waiver wire guys are more of
a need for this team than they should be, because
the same positions we were talking about when the offseason

(01:33:09):
started are the positions we're talking about now.

Speaker 4 (01:33:12):
Yeah, one quickie with you. You know you got your
kind of long shuts. You like to play sometimes prop
that's what I don't prop that nothing. I didn't think
you did either, But I guess I like the Texans
this year. I think they're going to come back and
they have a big year. I really do. They had
seven they were seven and five and one possession games.

(01:33:34):
Last year they were four and two in the games
three points or less. They got as good a defense
as there is in the NFL with a basically all
pro secondary. And I think Stroud's going to come back.
I like him at plus thirty five hundred. That's on
the Super Bowl. I like him twelve to one on

(01:33:57):
to win the AFC.

Speaker 1 (01:34:00):
On you know what's interesting. I don't disagree with you
now for what it's worth, I know people here when
they hear the Texans, they think Joe Mixon for those
who don't know, Joe is starting the season on the
non football injury list. It's remarkable a year ago, at
this time, I'm not sure there was a team that
got more preseason buzz than the Houston Texans. I was

(01:34:20):
sitting here at Oakley Greens and they have ESPN News on,
and when I sat down to do the show, I
was watching without the sound. CJ. Stroud was doing an
interview and I think it was with their college show.
I think he was talking about Ohio State, and I
thought to myself, like, there's a name I've heard no
one talk about this offseason that last year people couldn't
stop talking about. I think their defense is okay. I'm

(01:34:41):
not sure how well they're going to run the ball.
They're in a division where they should be better than
everybody else. Like people forget the Texans. You know, well,
they didn't live up to the hype. They won a
playoff game last year for a second straight year. I
think there's great value there. We're on the same page. Mike.

Speaker 4 (01:34:58):
That's pretty on you. So that's you made me a
lot of money. Mooll Over several years, and I still
wish you had your tick on thing. But obviously you
need a sponsor. Maybe I should do that anyway, That
would be an honor. Actually, I got a quick, quick, quick.

(01:35:20):
Now i'll get to the residents. You'll give me the time.
What is the definition of whip.

Speaker 1 (01:35:26):
Walks and hits per innings pitched?

Speaker 4 (01:35:31):
Exactly? Walks and hits divided by any's pitch. I hear
so many guys throw that term around. I asked about
four or five guys the last few days.

Speaker 12 (01:35:39):
You know what with this?

Speaker 4 (01:35:40):
Oh yeah, I mean the guy's a pretty good pitcher
or not. But what does it mean? Doesn't take into
account unearned runs, doesn't take into account home runs, doesn't
You know what I'm saying. But it is a very
viable way to rank a pitcher.

Speaker 1 (01:35:56):
Yeah, I think it's one of the most I think
it's one of the most effective ones because if you
are if you're below one, that that means, on average,
in an inning, you're not giving up a base runner
via walker a hit. You know Austin Elmore and I
who I know you love. We went back and forth
on Emelio Pagan earlier this season and Emelia Pagan, you know,

(01:36:17):
had had a couple of pour outings against the Milwaukee Brewers,
but there was a stretch where he and many were
complaining about the fact that even though he was getting
to save, even though he was, you know, finishing off
at Red's victory, he was still giving up too many
base runners. And I said, well, at the time, his
whip was zero point eight six 'y three, which is

(01:36:38):
better than any but one season that Mariano Rivera had.
And number one, I wasn't comparing Amelio Pagan to Mariano Rivera.
I was applying context. And the pushback I got was yeah,
big deal. And my my point was, well, wait a minute,
you're complaining that Amelia Pagan gives up too many base
runners statistically, I'm showing you the the the contrary. Actually,

(01:36:59):
he gives up less than one base runner per inning,
and he basically pitches one inning per appearance. So that
is the metric in that regard that matters most.

Speaker 4 (01:37:11):
Yes, so he made a full of the guy and
or he made a full of himself one or the other.
Regarding the reds Uh, well, Pegne I was the only
thing I might worry about Pegan. He's got seven well,
it's not seven five blorn saves this year. I was
looking at Edwin or e er Is two almost three Pegan.
I was looking at Edwin Dios because this is the

(01:37:34):
team we've got to worry about, right, And he's one
point sixty five with two blown saves, so he's a
better closer, uh in the course of the season. So
I just worried Mo because Soto, Alonso, lynd Or Nemo
these bats are gonna start. And it was evident last
night they couldn't see in that slump they were in.

(01:37:55):
I mean, he was just preposterous.

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
Yeah. You know, the Reds this season, they're their longest
winning streak, correct me, if I'm correct me if I'm wrong,
is five games. Is is their longest winning streak this season,
And and and maybe and maybe that changes. Their Their
longest winning streak is five games and they've done it
three different times. Now. If the Reds, when you have

(01:38:20):
thirty games to go, if you could put together a
five game winning streak, that that that's good. That can
make a difference. Five games in the thirty game window
is pretty good. But we have we have seen them,
to their credit avoid you know, the long losing streak.
Their longest losing streak is four, but they haven't gone
on that long run because their offensive deficiencies. The Mets,

(01:38:42):
I think, feel like a team that is more likely
to put together a stretch where they win nine out
of ten because of all those games you just mentioned.
You mentioned Emiliop I'll be honest with you, Mike, the
ninth inning is the least of my concerns. I trust
Ameliopagon to get the job done in the ninth inning.
For the most part. Where I feel like they're on

(01:39:02):
really shaky ground is two things. Number One, they don't
have enough home run power and so they have to
hit enough to catch and pass the New York Mets
when offensively, they oftentimes need three hits to score one run.
More than anything, though, what they're doing in the seventh
or eighth inning from the bullpen just has felt shaky,

(01:39:24):
either because of overuse, inexperience, or maybe just guys who
are miscast being used in high leverage situations. I worry
about getting the game to Amelio Pagan more than I
worry about Amelio Pagan.

Speaker 4 (01:39:40):
And Barlow. That poor guy, his arm's got to be
ready to fall off.

Speaker 1 (01:39:45):
Yeah, I mean Scott's.

Speaker 4 (01:39:47):
My hat's off to Barlow. That's one tough guy.

Speaker 1 (01:39:51):
Yeah, Scott Barlow, Tony Santien, I mean they've they have
right now. Tony Santien is second in games pitched in
the entire sport with sixty five and Scott Barlow's right
behind him at sixty four.

Speaker 4 (01:40:09):
Wow, you can't keep that up. I mean, you just can't.
If you got another just one more second. So so
you got she handed last night. I can't. And they
always say, well the dogs they buy all their players, No.

Speaker 8 (01:40:22):
They don't.

Speaker 4 (01:40:23):
And the key hand came up through their farm system.
He's a good pitcher. He had an exceptionally good night
last night. Hunter got tagged by another guy who came
up through their farm system, Andy pa Has And that's
just how the game ended up going. The error by
by Ellie was inconsequential actually by that point, but it
was kind of whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
I don't know though, because they inconsequential. The game goes
from three to nothing and you've got a shot to
five nothing and it's over, Like I mean, if that's
a double playball, I mean, if Ellie makes that play,
Look they didn't, they probably still lose. But I don't
think that's inconsequential at all. They've lost the games, the

(01:41:08):
two most recent starts by their best starting pitchers they've lost,
which is a tough one to swallow. And it puts
a little bit more pressure on Nick Martinez, and it
puts a little bit more pressure tomorrow on Nick Lodolo.
And look, it's it's getting late or it's getting late. Man,
They've got thirty games to go. Two and a half
games is not insurmountable. It could be a game and

(01:41:28):
a half by tonight. But you just don't want to
dig such a hole that you look at it and
you go, okay, it's you know, it's three and a
half with twenty five to play, or it's four and
a half with twenty six to play, Like you don't.
You don't want to do that. And so you know,
they have a lot of tough games in front of them,
this series with the Dodgers, they still have to play
the Cubs, they still have a series again with Milwaukee.

(01:41:50):
The Mets come here, Saint Louis comes here, which is
not going to be easy. I'm I'm a little bit
more concerned than I've been in recent weeks. I will
admit that, Mike, I gotta run man.

Speaker 4 (01:42:00):
Thank you, Yeah, Austin said today real quick. Austin said, well,
I want them to just win it out right and
not get a back door in. I don't care how
they get in. Just get in. Do you care how
they get in? I don't care how they get in.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
I don't even know what that means, Like, what is
what is getting in the back door going to look like?
If the Reds are playing in the postseason, I will
not care how they get there, completely irrelevant. Uh, It's
it's like getting the Oakley Greens, Mike, I don't care
how I get here. I just want to get here.
I feel the same way about the postseason. Thank you

(01:42:33):
for the phone call. Zach Taylor talked just a short
while ago, Scott Saderfield before him. You'll hear them both,
not at the same time, but in the same segment. Next,
We're at Oakley Greens on ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:42:46):
Station, Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:42:51):
Traffic from the UC Health of Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:42:54):
Trust the same team for your care that keeps the
UC Bearcats on the field. Count on UCE Health or
Pedison Sports medicine no matter the injury visit you seehealth
dot com. For those of you heading northbound into the city,
keep in mind northbound seventy one is closed off from
a truck fire. This right around the mile marker forty seven, Coleraine.

(01:43:15):
Another accident that's over at North Bend and on Ribolt
an accident at Old Ribolt that he's sound like with
traffic this report the.

Speaker 1 (01:43:23):
Firm services Kelsey sha re my home of lifetime? How
agree protection to guarantee credit approval the family to yours
for life Kelsey chef dot com. Do I have to three?
That whole is to players the Bengals have cut? Do
you think to buy now? If you care about who
the Bengals cut today, don't you already know? Do you
really need me to tell you? At this point the

(01:43:45):
Morans say, Mark and Lisa Moran say yes, I need
to hear the entire list of players the Bengals have
let go. This is because you're you're you're dancing on
their professional graves. All right, here we go. De Jon
Anthony and Said Johnson have been placed on ir. Eric
Hall goes on the pup list, Gary Brightwell, Jalen Davis,

(01:44:07):
and Joe Jo. I had a teacher in high school
named Gary Brightwell. He was a drafting teacher. Not the
same guy, Joe Giles Harris. He has been at his
contract terminated. Those guys are free agents. Bengals have waived
these guys cal ademitas, which means they keep William Wagner
to be the long snapper, Devin Cochrane, Andrew Coker, Caleb Eddien,
Raymond Johnson the Third, Jalen Key, Jackson, Kirkland, Braylan Lux,

(01:44:30):
Jamoy Mays, Tanner, McLaughlin, Seth McLaughlin, Kendall Moore or Kendall Milton,
Jordan Moore, Mumma, John Meda, Kendrick Pryor, Desmond Ritter, Isaiah Thomas, Cordel,
Wohlson and Isaiah Williams have been waived injury settlement for Cordelvolson, Tanner, McLaughlin,
and Caleb Eddien. Bengals and Browns a week from Sunday

(01:44:51):
Live on ESPN fifteen thirty Reds and Dodgers Tonight at
Dodgers Stadium. Nick Martinez and Clayton Kershaw, Cincinnati two and
a half behind the Mets. York plays Philly tonight, Opening
Day twenty twenty six. The twenty twenty six MLB schedule
came out today. The opener at GABP against the Boston
Red Sox for the first time on March twenty sixth,

(01:45:11):
and the Florence Yaws on the road tonight. And I
already threw away a piece of paper that mentioned where
they were gonna be. They're gonna be in Evansville taking
on the Otters the Evansville I read a great story
on ESPN last week about the filming of A League
of their Own and how Madonna went to war with
Evansville even though she stayed there because Madonna was in

(01:45:33):
that film. Yeah, there been in Evansville. Let's hear from
Zach Taylor. Cut down day, Zach met with the Pro
Football media here in town. Here is Zach answering questions
about the current status of the offensive.

Speaker 12 (01:45:46):
Line backup tackle right now.

Speaker 13 (01:45:50):
Yeah, I wouldn't say ready to make any announcement there,
but still feel good about where we're at. Jal And
I think has only gotten better as camp has gone on.
And you know, he's worked mostly at right guard here recently,
so I think that's for right now. That's been a
great place for him, and so we'll just continue to
assessable right through the week and then maybe make more
declarations as the week gets by.

Speaker 6 (01:46:10):
Us.

Speaker 1 (01:46:12):
By tight ends, it looked like Granby and Hudson just
flat out played well enough to make it.

Speaker 13 (01:46:19):
Yeah, they both earned a spot. You know, they both
have value on our team, and we feel like we
can utilize those guys in different ways. And so again,
I thought both those guys had really good camps for us,
good preseason games, and are in the opportunity to be
on the fifty three and so excited to have both
those guys.

Speaker 5 (01:46:35):
Zach, do you feel like you've got your starting right
guard on the roster currently?

Speaker 13 (01:46:39):
Yeah, I feel good about the progress those guys have
made and are confidence and all those guys that have
been in their competing and so we'll just see how
it shakes out.

Speaker 1 (01:46:48):
There's Zach Taylor talking about the offensive line. Now here
he is discussing the Trey Hendrickson deal getting done.

Speaker 13 (01:46:55):
Yeah. I think it's just a great peace of mind,
not only for us, but for him to know what
the situation is.

Speaker 8 (01:47:02):
We're good to go.

Speaker 13 (01:47:04):
And so now you know, he's obviously been around a lot,
particularly you know, after practice yesterday today, getting ready to go. Now,
he's been in the meetings all along, you know, and
he's been a guy who's really been showing up early
for the meetings and had questions and so he's been
mentally preparing all along for that. I think now it's
just okay. Solidifies it that we're ready to go, and
so look forward to getting him on the practice field.

(01:47:28):
I don't know if our scout team tackles yet, know
what they're in for, but but it'll be good to
get him out there and get him to work this
week and then we can get into our Cleveland prep
next week.

Speaker 4 (01:47:37):
So he hasn't practiced yet.

Speaker 13 (01:47:38):
Correct, he has not practiced yet.

Speaker 1 (01:47:41):
Now, Zach Taylor talking about the Trey Hendrickson thing. Bengals
and Browns a week from Sunday on ESPN fifteen thirty.
More closer than that is going to be Thursday night,
U see versus Nebraska, a game that you could watch
here to Oakley Greens. It's year three for Scott Saderfield,

(01:48:03):
it's year three for Matt Rule and Lincoln College football
is needless to say different. Week one has always been
difficult for coaches to navigate. Add to it, you know,
you're playing a bigger name opponent, not an FCSFO. And
then all the uncertainty that comes with so much roster turnovers.
So coach Saderfield, I called him coach Sadderfield, like he's

(01:48:24):
my coach. Scott Saderfield was asked how difficult it is
to navigate all the uncertainty and trying to figure out
what you're gonna see week one.

Speaker 8 (01:48:34):
Yeah, I mean I think it's certainly very difficult.

Speaker 14 (01:48:37):
And you know, hent Swaw, we didn't even do a
preseason voting, you know, ranking order in the Big twelve.

Speaker 8 (01:48:43):
I mean, every team has got so many new faces.

Speaker 14 (01:48:46):
You know, probably on average, I would say, you know,
low twenties per every team in the country. Obviously some
are in the mid forties, but a lot of people
are gonna be around that twenty mark. And I think
and then now and also when you open up a
season against a team that made some changes at coordinator,
you know, we have a new special teams coordinator. The
defensive coordinator was there, but he wasn't calling the defense.
And you know, Dana Hogerson was there. He called the

(01:49:08):
last part of the season. So there's a lot of
things that are some unknowns as you head into the game,
and and then you talk about Nebraska, I think ten
starters return at Brett Nebraska, so you know there's a
lot of half their line up as new starters. And
so yeah, there's a lot of newness when when this
is first the part of the game. So I think
one thing that you do in early in the game,
I think probably for both sides, is you got to

(01:49:29):
get a feel for what they're doing, you know, on
all three phases, how are they doing things? And then
we have to make adjustments off of that. So that'll
be critical once we get into this game.

Speaker 1 (01:49:38):
Nebraska is a six and a half point favored against
the Bearcats. I'm sure there's going to be more people
weigh in with their picks for this game. I have
not seen anybody who is picking Cincinnati to win. I
don't know that I'm gonna see anybody who is picking
Cincinnati to win. So Scott Saderfield was asked about the
countryanimously unanimously easy for me to say, choosing the court

(01:49:59):
and Huskers to win the game.

Speaker 14 (01:50:01):
Yeah, I mean, obviously gonna take any kind of motivation
you can you can get, you know, and our guys
know that not many people will pick us to win
this game. They don't really know what we have inside
this building, you know, only we do from from practice
against each other and how we've been able to train
all summer and to come into camp. So you know,
our guys have a lot to prove, you know. And

(01:50:21):
I think about and even guys that have played a lot.
I mean, I think that guy like le Dante Corleone,
I mean, he's got a lot of prove this year,
you know, and guy a Joe Roory came back for
a reason.

Speaker 13 (01:50:29):
You know.

Speaker 14 (01:50:29):
So we have a lot of guys in this in
this building, whether they're returning starters or guys that just
got here, they have a lot to prove. And I think,
you know, what better way to prove it against the
team that maybe not many people are picking us against.

Speaker 8 (01:50:41):
I mean, so there's definitely motivation there.

Speaker 6 (01:50:43):
You go.

Speaker 1 (01:50:44):
Scott's Ciderfield earlier today. By the way, the first Scott
Sadderfield show of the year is tonight at eight o'clock
on seven hundred w l W. We are broadcasting from
Oakley Greens and will chat with Tony Pike one more
time when we come back on ESPN fifteen thirty. Since
Atti Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:51:00):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:51:05):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center.

Speaker 6 (01:51:08):
Trust the same team for your care that keeps the
UC Bearcats on the field. Count on uce Health, Orthopedics
and sports Medicine no matter the injury. Visit seehealth dot com.
For those of you coming into town from the south,
keep in mind northbound seventy one is closed off from
a truck fire. This is between the Carrollton and MARKLN
Damn exit. You're going to want to seek an alternate

(01:51:30):
route to avoid that and another crash on eastbound two
seventy five after Lebanon Road. I'm at Ezelik with traffic
this report.

Speaker 13 (01:51:38):
He is sponsored by the International Hot Ride Association.

Speaker 9 (01:51:42):
This is the season preview report brought for you by
Skyline Hilly feeling good. It's Skyline dot on, your official
home of the Cincinnati Bengals, ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (01:51:56):
All right, one more time, Tony Pike season preview Report.
We're broadcasting from Oakley Green's. Bengals have cut their roster
down to fifty three. Now they got to go shopping. Tony.
Where is the biggest priority?

Speaker 11 (01:52:07):
I think offensive line jumps out the most because of
how much they let go on the offensive line, which
I think shows they don't have a lot of faith
in the depth that they have there. Offensive line has
always been from the time the off season started mowing.
You and I had our last Tony and Mo football show.
I said, you've got to go into this year better
on the offensive line. I don't think they're there yet.

(01:52:28):
That still remains the top priority, just out of shooting necessity.
You could also point at safety. With Dejon Anthony starting
the year on the injured list, You're gonna need to
find help there. Gino Stone has miss time during training
camp safety for me. Offensive line and I still think
what a massive opportunity Miles Murphy and Joseph Osi had
for this training camp with Hendrickson not there and everything

(01:52:51):
going on, everything else that was going on, and I
don't think either of them made the most of the opportunity.
So I wouldn't be opposed if they look for help
on the defensive line as well.

Speaker 1 (01:53:00):
Just you know, and I know this is something you
and I have talked about. It's so frustrating that so
many of these positions we talk about the Bengals needing
to address. We talked about them needing to address eight
months ago.

Speaker 11 (01:53:11):
Yeah, and here we are, and I know things are
going to change. They have eight offensive linemen on the roster.
They don't have a backup listed for Lucas Patrick. They
have Cody fod Jalen Rivers and not Lee. I don't
think you can rely on any of those guys long term.

Speaker 12 (01:53:28):
I don't know if you can rely on Lucas Patrick
long term.

Speaker 11 (01:53:30):
And the frustration is, as you just alluded to, these
are things we discussed and talked about last year that
they had to address if they want to take the
next step. And we're still here talking about that. There
is there's a level of frustration that accompanies at all.

Speaker 1 (01:53:45):
Right, Tony Pike back tomorrow with a season preview reports
at three forty five, four forty five, and five forty five.
I am not going to be hosting this show tomorrow.
I am off to Kansas City for the UC broadcast
on Tuesday night. I will be doing this show from
Arrowhead Stadium on a Thursday afternoon. And looking forward to

(01:54:07):
that is we dive into the Bearcats versus the corn
Huskers and so much more. Speaking of that game on
Thursday night. If you're thinking, man, that's gonna be a
lot of fun. It's the Thursday before Labor Day weekend.
Let's get the weekend started off right. Oakley Greens has
more than thirty TVs. No better place to post up
for Bearcats the corn Huskers. If you're an Ohio State

(01:54:30):
fan looking for a spot to watch the game against
Texas on Saturday, do it here. You can hang out outside,
you can hang out inside. You could play mini golf,
you could play cornhole, you could drink beer, you can
get something to eat. You can come out and join
us on Tuesday as well. Oakley Greens, we cannot thank
them enough for their hospitality and we look forward to

(01:54:51):
being back on Tuesday special. Thanks to Drew wester Heidi,
the official UD basketball correspondent to this show, for producing
on site. Our guy, Tarren, the birthday Boy, took off
yesterday to celebrate his birthday and I've yet to get
him a birthday gift, so I've got to figure that
out too. Thanks to Taron Back and Kenwood. Thanks to
the folks at Oakley Greens. I'll talk to you on
this show on Thursday afternoon from Kansas City. You have

(01:55:14):
a great night. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station,
run a business and