September 9, 2026 • 16 mins
Bengals legends Ken Anderson and Joe Walter join Mo at the Anthony Munoz Foundation Topgolf Tailgate.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bengals!
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Bengals fans have waited all offseason for football, and it's
finally here. Can the Orange and Blacks start the season
fast and steal the win? Or will our beloved Bengals
be swashbuckled by the Buccaneers? Coverage begins Sunday morning at
9 a.m. Stream for free on the new and improved
iHeartRadio app or on ESPN 1530, the official home of
(00:23):
the Cincinnati Bengals. It's the Bengals and Buccaneers.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yes, sir, sure is.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm Mo Egger. This is ESPN 1530. Thank you so
much for listening today. It is awesome to be out
and about here at the Anthony Munoz Foundation Topgolf Tailgate,
our ninth year. And it's always awesome to get a
chance to chat with legends like Anthony and like the
two men I'm on stage with right now. Bengals Ring
(00:53):
of Honor inductee, the great Ken Anderson, and somebody whose
name should one day be in that ring, Joe Walter.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Wow, thanks, man.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
You thought I was going to come heavy with a
barb or something, didn't you? I did.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I was waiting on it. I'm surprised.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah. No, I just knew season, knew me.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I don't believe that for a second.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
I listen to you every day. You haven't changed a bit.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
You know what? That's the scary thing is you do
listen because I'll get a text from you occasionally and
I'll be equally flattered and terrified. Because when somebody like
yourself weighs in on something I'm saying, it's like, oh boy,
what am I? Well, most of the time it's to
correct you.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yes. A lot of people like to do that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah. And then I go home, get more of that.
It's awesome to have you guys here. What is going on?
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Knob Lodge is here to support Anthony.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
He does such a great job in the city and
his foundation does wonderful work. I think you'll see a
lot of former guys out here today to help support
him because he does such great work.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
That's what I always love about you guys is whether
it's your alliance, whether it's anything that anybody else is
involved in, it feels like when one guy says, I
need you there, everybody shows up.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Joe's goodwill, golf out here.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Special Olympics back in the day. So yeah, we're all
a brotherhood. We're always there for each other, no matter
what it is.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Can you guys just tell stories about each other? Ken
and Joe, Joe and Ken.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
There's some we can't tell on air.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Okay. Well, give me one. Give me one that, like,
you almost couldn't tell on the air, but we can
get away with.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Well, I think there was one.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
It was my last year, and Joe's rookie year, and
Brian Blados was a rookie, and Bruce Reimer was a rookie,
and I said one day, I said, why don't you
guys come over to my house for dinner tonight? And
we stopped at a little bar on the way.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Home, and I remember Blades was up on the bar dancing.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
This is before dinner.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Oh, yeah. Okay. This is usually every day.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Kenny's inviting us over to dinner. Oh, this is great.
So we get to the house. I say, hey, listen,
before we eat, can you help me move some furniture?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
It wasn't just some.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
That's why you had them over.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes. It was a couple of roomfuls, and then all
we got was lasagna. Could have asked for a better meal.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Wow. quite gracious of you.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I mean, you're thinking I would have gotten steak and
potatoes and all that.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
I bought your beer.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
It was lasagna.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I bought your beer.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
And you guys stroke a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I believe it was Stouffer's lasagna.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I got to say a story that starts with an
offensive lineman dancing on the bar I thought would have
had a little bit of a better payoff than them
just moving furniture.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Again, there's some stories we can't tell. Okay.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Well, we'll podcast those, I guess.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Not put them on the air. What's fun about this
event is it's always on the first day of the
NFL season, and there's always excitement. The Bengals are back.
But I think what makes tonight even more fun is
we're so excited about what's going to happen starting on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Oh, no question.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
I mean, I think, you know, the tone was set
by Joe Burrow right after the season that things had
to change, and I think– I know as a former player,
I was shocked the way things changed. You know how
they signed both Jamar and Tee before last season. I
never thought I'd see the day the Bengals would trade
(04:15):
the 10th pick in the draft for a player.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And what a trade.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Oh, yeah. I think that's going to be one of
the key things as we look back on this year. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You don't associate them with bold, and you don't associate
them with going all in, and you don't associate them
with trading cheap labor, 10th overall pick, in exchange for
expensive labor like Dexter Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And that's especially after they picked up Allen and Cook, right?
And then they go and make this blockbuster trade. And
quite frankly, you look at that draft, and there really
wasn't anybody on that board worthy of that 10th round
draft pick, right, that we weren't going to have to
work with for two years or so to get him ready.
So that was a great pick and a great trade, and,
(05:00):
you know, it's going to do a lot for us
this year.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Well, you know this better than I.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
You know, you played on the outside at tackle, but
when you've got Dexter on the inside, one guy can't
block him. You've got to commit two, which means both
of your outside rushers are going to be singled up
unless they want to keep a tight end or a
back end or something like that. Right.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I think it's going to improve the outside pass rush
as well.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Oh, big time. And it's going to help the linebacker play.
You know, it's going to free those guys up as well. And,
you know, I don't think people really understand what a
big pickup this was getting Dexter. I mean, he's a
guy that's going to get two players every single play
of the game, right? And so that's going to be
a big deal for Allen, Moffay, Murphy. Shamar Stewart, if
(05:44):
he's getting in the game, it's going to do nothing
but help those other guys in the line. Plus, the
linebackers are going to be freed up.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And that was the thing about watching all those training
camp practices. Every day I felt so bad for Ted
Karras because they weren't helping him. And Ted's a good player.
And every day, Ted, by his own admission, was getting
worked by Dexter Lawrence. And I thought to myself, boy, Dex,
enjoy it now. Because come September, you're not going to
be getting many one-on-one opportunities.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
But you know the thing about that, too, is that's
helping the offensive line prepare for the season as well.
When you're Karis, you're Fairchild, and you're Reisner, thank you.
If you're those three guys and you're getting to work
against Dexter every day and you watch some of the
films and some of the practice films and the one-on-ones
(06:34):
and they're getting work, that's doing nothing but helping those
guys get ready for the season. Because they've gone against
the best of the best.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Would we consider you the second best right tackle in
Bengals history behind Willie?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, I'll say that.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Do you think Amarius Mims will cause you to slide
down the list?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I hope not, but I think so.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
His ceiling is absurd.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
He's really good.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
I mean, he's got a ways to go, but at
the end of the season last year, the offensive line
held up very well. Right. And that started and ended
with me with just watching Amarius Mims erase whoever he
was blocking.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Right, right. You know, he's just a young kid figuring
it out, too. I mean, he's only going into year three, right?
So the way he played last year and coming into
this year, he looks good. He looks fit and strong
as hell. And that kid has got just the ceiling
is so high for him. He could even surpass Willie.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
And I think the other thing that's going to help
the offensive line is it seems like they're going to
be committed to the run game a little bit more,
under center a little bit more, run the football play
action pass. Again, you know, it's hard for an offensive
line when, you know, 70 snaps a game, you know,
the quarterback's back in shotgun.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah. Yeah, we've talked about that before. You know, when
Burrow was in shotgun all the time, what are you
telling the defense? It's either going to be a pass
or a draw. What are they going to do? They're
going to pin their ears back and come at you, right? Yeah.
Going under center is going to do nothing but help.
I think it'll end up helping Burrow once he gets
comfortable with it because it's going to help the offensive line.
It's going to slow that defense down for that split second,
(08:14):
which is really all you need in this league. And,
you know, the linebackers have to hold. So that's going
to get your tight ends open a little bit more.
I think it's going to be a big, big deal
for us. But Burrow's got to get comfortable.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
The thought on that has always been, well, Burrow's not
comfortable under center. And like, you know, generation of QBs
who have played exclusively in the shotgun coming up, how
do you coach somebody to be comfortable operating under center?
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Well, I think it's pretty easy with him because I
think he's bought into it. You know, and he's got
such great attention to detail and preparation that that when
he makes up his mind that he's going to do something,
he's going to do it as well as anybody.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
So I think he's going to be very successful under center.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Do you think it helped having– Flacco here to do
all that under center that he did during the season
to actually see it?
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Yeah, I think so. To see that it can be successful.
You know, we can run the football. You know, we
can play action to get chunks down the field. I
think that's one of the things that they wanted to
come into this year with and get more explosive plays. And,
you know, one of the best ways to do it
is with play action.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I feel like with Joe Flacco, and heck, you could
have said this about Josh Johnson as well. You know, Joe's,
this is year seven. He has seen a lot. But
Joe Flacco has seen everything. How beneficial is it for
Joe to come off the field and just have a
guy like Joe Flacco, who nothing against Brandon Allen, Jacob Browning,
any of those other guys, but when you've got your
(09:33):
number two behind you, who knows his role but also
has seen everything in the NFL as sort of a
second coach on the sideline?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
No, I think it's very beneficial.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
You know, experience, you know, is hard to come by.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
And, you know, I was so excited when they signed
him back this offseason, you know, that he was going
to be the backup because– We know Joe has been
hurt in the past, and it's nice to have a
guy that you know can win football games sitting there,
and hopefully we don't need him.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
And that'll know the offense much better this.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Year, too.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
The Bengals' offensive line depth has been talked about a lot. Now,
I like what I saw from Brian Parker, playing on
the inside, played some guard, played some center. Connor Liu,
I think there's high hopes for him. If they have
to play a backup tackle, though, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's pretty scary, and I don't know who's better between
Hinton and Javon.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
You know, Javon was on the practice squad last year,
so I'm not really sure where that's going to fall
and how they're going to handle.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
If there's anything that's scary, that's the scariest part of
the offensive line right now is just that backup tackle.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I think it's the biggest question I have about the team,
which if that's the biggest question... Pretty good. Like who
the backup tackle is going to be?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Pretty good.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I asked Anthony about Ring of Honor. So let's start
with James Brooks. 40 years ago, he establishes a franchise
record for most yards from scrimmage in a season. You
played with him at the tail end of your career,
but you certainly watched him a lot. Give me some
James Brooks.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I mean, I think pound for pound. maybe the toughest
running back I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
And he was not a big guy, but he was
effective running inside the tackle.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
He had the speed to go outside.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
And he was a tremendous route runner, you know, as
a running back coming out of the backfield that you
had to really be aware of. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Like blocking for James?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Love blocking for him. And he'd tell you if you
didn't block for him, right? He was not scared of
the big men at all.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But just a tremendous running back. Great to watch. Couldn't
wait to watch him on film. and he would get
in your grill if he didn't like what you were doing.
I mean, he didn't hesitate.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Really?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah. Bob Trumpy, threw a ton of passes to him,
still franchise all-time leader in receiving yards and receptions by
a tight end.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I would say he was Gronk before Gronk. You know,
he was a 6'5 tight end who was a great
route runner, great hands. You could split him out and
run wide receiver routes with him. And he was a
very effective blocker on the end of the line of scrimmage.
So I think he was really ahead of his time.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Would he talk trash to you like James Brooks did?
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Well, you know, Bob was the kind of guy, you know,
back in those days it was different. You know, we
couldn't make a halftime adjustment until he and Coslett got
out of the shower smoking a cigarette.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Different day and age.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Every locker at Riverfront Stadium had an ashtray in front
of it.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
But, you know, Bob, for my entire career and still
to the day he passed away, he called me rookie.
Because I was always going to be the rookie in
his eyes.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
But was a tremendous champion of your candidacy for Canton,
which I've always appreciated.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Oh, no question.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
You know, and when you think not only what he
did on the field, but he was the first one
that had really had sports talk show in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
In fact, I remember it was going into his last year,
and he wanted to do that one night a week,
you know, on the off day. And Paul Brown says no.
And he says, well, there's nothing in my contract that
says I can't. I'm going to do it. So it's
season start, and the first show comes around. He said, Kenny,
will you be my first guest? He says, you're the
only guy they can't touch. So I was his first guest.
(13:28):
But then, you know, the predecessor to Kenny, what he
did here at LW with his call-in show. And then
his broadcasting at football ended up the number one announcer
for NBC. And then he was in the 18th tower
to NBC Golf.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
He did I don't know how many Ryder Cups.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
He did Olympics. He was a versatile wide receiver. And
I think he had that great voice because he was
a smoker.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
That deep.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Growly voice but he was uh really good and always
prepared of what he did.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah the smoking you know when when bob later in
his career would come in and do stuff and tape
stuff for the pre-game show i would have to tape
that stuff with him and sit in a room with
him and sometimes wait for like two and a half
hours for his coach to call in whether it was
like jeff fisher bill gower and the entire time he
would smoke and then i would go home and my
(14:24):
wife would say where the hell have you been You're
going to have to take your clothes off in the
garage before you come in smelling like that. So thanks, Bob.
Wonderful guy. I mean, it's just so kind to me
early in my career that I would always get a
kick out of it when he would come to the
radio station.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
Well, I remember when I retired and I was with KRC.
We were doing the games on the radio, and they
wanted me to do a sports call-in show. And, of course,
it was only an hour, but it was at the
same time Bob was on the air. And the first
person that called my show was Bob wishing.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Me good luck.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
So I'll never forget that. That's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
You think about that like lineage of Cincinnati sports talk
from Bob Trumpy to now idiots like me are filling
these seats. See, Joe, I'm letting you comment on that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I'm not going to answer. I'm going to stay away
from that because I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Just teach up.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
He kind of hit it on the head.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
He did. He called himself.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
There's no reason for me to talk about it. There's
nothing to elaborate on, is there? Gentlemen, I can't thank
you enough. It's awesome to share a stage with the
two of you. You both are always so kind to me.
I know Anthony.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Appreciates your support. Great to have you here.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Well, our pleasure.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
And like I say, just, you know, when you're on
the air, I will let you know when you've made
a mistake.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Well, no, because that's every day.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Well, no.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
The egregious ones.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Only the big ones.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
The truly dumb things I said. That's fine. There's a
long list of people in my life that you fit
in with who enjoy doing that. And you got that
one wrong, Mo. There's a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I'll do that every day before your show.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
He does.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, he does it in the office every day. It's
the sort of like pre-show morale boost you need when
you walk past where Joe sits and just let you
know how he feels about you.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Try to be good today.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Ken Anderson and Joe Walter, two Bengals legends here at
the Anthony Munoz Foundation Topgolf Tailgate. We are broadcasting until
6 o'clock. It's 20 after 4. I'm Mo Egger. This
is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic
from the UC Health Traffic Center.
Bengals!
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Bengals fans have waited all offseason for football, and it's
finally here. Can the Orange and Blacks start the season
fast and steal the win? Or will our beloved Bengals
be swashbuckled by the Buccaneers? Coverage begins Sunday morning at
9 a.m. Stream for free on the new and improved
iHeartRadio app or on ESPN 1530, the official home of
(00:23):
the Cincinnati Bengals. It's the Bengals and Buccaneers.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yes, sir, sure is.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm Mo Egger. This is ESPN 1530. Thank you so
much for listening today. It is awesome to be out
and about here at the Anthony Munoz Foundation Topgolf Tailgate,
our ninth year. And it's always awesome to get a
chance to chat with legends like Anthony and like the
two men I'm on stage with right now. Bengals Ring
(00:53):
of Honor inductee, the great Ken Anderson, and somebody whose
name should one day be in that ring, Joe Walter.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Wow, thanks, man.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
You thought I was going to come heavy with a
barb or something, didn't you? I did.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I was waiting on it. I'm surprised.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah. No, I just knew season, knew me.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I don't believe that for a second.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
I listen to you every day. You haven't changed a bit.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
You know what? That's the scary thing is you do
listen because I'll get a text from you occasionally and
I'll be equally flattered and terrified. Because when somebody like
yourself weighs in on something I'm saying, it's like, oh boy,
what am I? Well, most of the time it's to
correct you.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yes. A lot of people like to do that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah. And then I go home, get more of that.
It's awesome to have you guys here. What is going on?
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Knob Lodge is here to support Anthony.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
He does such a great job in the city and
his foundation does wonderful work. I think you'll see a
lot of former guys out here today to help support
him because he does such great work.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
That's what I always love about you guys is whether
it's your alliance, whether it's anything that anybody else is
involved in, it feels like when one guy says, I
need you there, everybody shows up.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Joe's goodwill, golf out here.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Special Olympics back in the day. So yeah, we're all
a brotherhood. We're always there for each other, no matter
what it is.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Can you guys just tell stories about each other? Ken
and Joe, Joe and Ken.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
There's some we can't tell on air.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Okay. Well, give me one. Give me one that, like,
you almost couldn't tell on the air, but we can
get away with.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Well, I think there was one.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
It was my last year, and Joe's rookie year, and
Brian Blados was a rookie, and Bruce Reimer was a rookie,
and I said one day, I said, why don't you
guys come over to my house for dinner tonight? And
we stopped at a little bar on the way.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Home, and I remember Blades was up on the bar dancing.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
This is before dinner.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Oh, yeah. Okay. This is usually every day.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Kenny's inviting us over to dinner. Oh, this is great.
So we get to the house. I say, hey, listen,
before we eat, can you help me move some furniture?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
It wasn't just some.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
That's why you had them over.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes. It was a couple of roomfuls, and then all
we got was lasagna. Could have asked for a better meal.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Wow. quite gracious of you.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I mean, you're thinking I would have gotten steak and
potatoes and all that.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
I bought your beer.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
It was lasagna.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I bought your beer.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
And you guys stroke a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I believe it was Stouffer's lasagna.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I got to say a story that starts with an
offensive lineman dancing on the bar I thought would have
had a little bit of a better payoff than them
just moving furniture.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Again, there's some stories we can't tell. Okay.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Well, we'll podcast those, I guess.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Not put them on the air. What's fun about this
event is it's always on the first day of the
NFL season, and there's always excitement. The Bengals are back.
But I think what makes tonight even more fun is
we're so excited about what's going to happen starting on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Oh, no question.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
I mean, I think, you know, the tone was set
by Joe Burrow right after the season that things had
to change, and I think– I know as a former player,
I was shocked the way things changed. You know how
they signed both Jamar and Tee before last season. I
never thought I'd see the day the Bengals would trade
(04:15):
the 10th pick in the draft for a player.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And what a trade.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Oh, yeah. I think that's going to be one of
the key things as we look back on this year. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You don't associate them with bold, and you don't associate
them with going all in, and you don't associate them
with trading cheap labor, 10th overall pick, in exchange for
expensive labor like Dexter Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And that's especially after they picked up Allen and Cook, right?
And then they go and make this blockbuster trade. And
quite frankly, you look at that draft, and there really
wasn't anybody on that board worthy of that 10th round
draft pick, right, that we weren't going to have to
work with for two years or so to get him ready.
So that was a great pick and a great trade, and,
(05:00):
you know, it's going to do a lot for us
this year.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Well, you know this better than I.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
You know, you played on the outside at tackle, but
when you've got Dexter on the inside, one guy can't
block him. You've got to commit two, which means both
of your outside rushers are going to be singled up
unless they want to keep a tight end or a
back end or something like that. Right.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I think it's going to improve the outside pass rush
as well.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Oh, big time. And it's going to help the linebacker play.
You know, it's going to free those guys up as well. And,
you know, I don't think people really understand what a
big pickup this was getting Dexter. I mean, he's a
guy that's going to get two players every single play
of the game, right? And so that's going to be
a big deal for Allen, Moffay, Murphy. Shamar Stewart, if
(05:44):
he's getting in the game, it's going to do nothing
but help those other guys in the line. Plus, the
linebackers are going to be freed up.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And that was the thing about watching all those training
camp practices. Every day I felt so bad for Ted
Karras because they weren't helping him. And Ted's a good player.
And every day, Ted, by his own admission, was getting
worked by Dexter Lawrence. And I thought to myself, boy, Dex,
enjoy it now. Because come September, you're not going to
be getting many one-on-one opportunities.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
But you know the thing about that, too, is that's
helping the offensive line prepare for the season as well.
When you're Karis, you're Fairchild, and you're Reisner, thank you.
If you're those three guys and you're getting to work
against Dexter every day and you watch some of the
films and some of the practice films and the one-on-ones
(06:34):
and they're getting work, that's doing nothing but helping those
guys get ready for the season. Because they've gone against
the best of the best.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Would we consider you the second best right tackle in
Bengals history behind Willie?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, I'll say that.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Do you think Amarius Mims will cause you to slide
down the list?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I hope not, but I think so.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
His ceiling is absurd.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
He's really good.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
I mean, he's got a ways to go, but at
the end of the season last year, the offensive line
held up very well. Right. And that started and ended
with me with just watching Amarius Mims erase whoever he
was blocking.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Right, right. You know, he's just a young kid figuring
it out, too. I mean, he's only going into year three, right?
So the way he played last year and coming into
this year, he looks good. He looks fit and strong
as hell. And that kid has got just the ceiling
is so high for him. He could even surpass Willie.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
And I think the other thing that's going to help
the offensive line is it seems like they're going to
be committed to the run game a little bit more,
under center a little bit more, run the football play
action pass. Again, you know, it's hard for an offensive
line when, you know, 70 snaps a game, you know,
the quarterback's back in shotgun.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah. Yeah, we've talked about that before. You know, when
Burrow was in shotgun all the time, what are you
telling the defense? It's either going to be a pass
or a draw. What are they going to do? They're
going to pin their ears back and come at you, right? Yeah.
Going under center is going to do nothing but help.
I think it'll end up helping Burrow once he gets
comfortable with it because it's going to help the offensive line.
It's going to slow that defense down for that split second,
(08:14):
which is really all you need in this league. And,
you know, the linebackers have to hold. So that's going
to get your tight ends open a little bit more.
I think it's going to be a big, big deal
for us. But Burrow's got to get comfortable.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
The thought on that has always been, well, Burrow's not
comfortable under center. And like, you know, generation of QBs
who have played exclusively in the shotgun coming up, how
do you coach somebody to be comfortable operating under center?
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Well, I think it's pretty easy with him because I
think he's bought into it. You know, and he's got
such great attention to detail and preparation that that when
he makes up his mind that he's going to do something,
he's going to do it as well as anybody.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
So I think he's going to be very successful under center.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Do you think it helped having– Flacco here to do
all that under center that he did during the season
to actually see it?
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Yeah, I think so. To see that it can be successful.
You know, we can run the football. You know, we
can play action to get chunks down the field. I
think that's one of the things that they wanted to
come into this year with and get more explosive plays. And,
you know, one of the best ways to do it
is with play action.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I feel like with Joe Flacco, and heck, you could
have said this about Josh Johnson as well. You know, Joe's,
this is year seven. He has seen a lot. But
Joe Flacco has seen everything. How beneficial is it for
Joe to come off the field and just have a
guy like Joe Flacco, who nothing against Brandon Allen, Jacob Browning,
any of those other guys, but when you've got your
(09:33):
number two behind you, who knows his role but also
has seen everything in the NFL as sort of a
second coach on the sideline?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
No, I think it's very beneficial.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
You know, experience, you know, is hard to come by.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
And, you know, I was so excited when they signed
him back this offseason, you know, that he was going
to be the backup because– We know Joe has been
hurt in the past, and it's nice to have a
guy that you know can win football games sitting there,
and hopefully we don't need him.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
And that'll know the offense much better this.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Year, too.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
The Bengals' offensive line depth has been talked about a lot. Now,
I like what I saw from Brian Parker, playing on
the inside, played some guard, played some center. Connor Liu,
I think there's high hopes for him. If they have
to play a backup tackle, though, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's pretty scary, and I don't know who's better between
Hinton and Javon.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
You know, Javon was on the practice squad last year,
so I'm not really sure where that's going to fall
and how they're going to handle.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
If there's anything that's scary, that's the scariest part of
the offensive line right now is just that backup tackle.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I think it's the biggest question I have about the team,
which if that's the biggest question... Pretty good. Like who
the backup tackle is going to be?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Pretty good.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I asked Anthony about Ring of Honor. So let's start
with James Brooks. 40 years ago, he establishes a franchise
record for most yards from scrimmage in a season. You
played with him at the tail end of your career,
but you certainly watched him a lot. Give me some
James Brooks.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I mean, I think pound for pound. maybe the toughest
running back I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
And he was not a big guy, but he was
effective running inside the tackle.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
He had the speed to go outside.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
And he was a tremendous route runner, you know, as
a running back coming out of the backfield that you
had to really be aware of. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Like blocking for James?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Love blocking for him. And he'd tell you if you
didn't block for him, right? He was not scared of
the big men at all.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But just a tremendous running back. Great to watch. Couldn't
wait to watch him on film. and he would get
in your grill if he didn't like what you were doing.
I mean, he didn't hesitate.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Really?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah. Bob Trumpy, threw a ton of passes to him,
still franchise all-time leader in receiving yards and receptions by
a tight end.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I would say he was Gronk before Gronk. You know,
he was a 6'5 tight end who was a great
route runner, great hands. You could split him out and
run wide receiver routes with him. And he was a
very effective blocker on the end of the line of scrimmage.
So I think he was really ahead of his time.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Would he talk trash to you like James Brooks did?
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Well, you know, Bob was the kind of guy, you know,
back in those days it was different. You know, we
couldn't make a halftime adjustment until he and Coslett got
out of the shower smoking a cigarette.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Different day and age.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Every locker at Riverfront Stadium had an ashtray in front
of it.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
But, you know, Bob, for my entire career and still
to the day he passed away, he called me rookie.
Because I was always going to be the rookie in
his eyes.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
But was a tremendous champion of your candidacy for Canton,
which I've always appreciated.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Oh, no question.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
You know, and when you think not only what he
did on the field, but he was the first one
that had really had sports talk show in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
In fact, I remember it was going into his last year,
and he wanted to do that one night a week,
you know, on the off day. And Paul Brown says no.
And he says, well, there's nothing in my contract that
says I can't. I'm going to do it. So it's
season start, and the first show comes around. He said, Kenny,
will you be my first guest? He says, you're the
only guy they can't touch. So I was his first guest.
(13:28):
But then, you know, the predecessor to Kenny, what he
did here at LW with his call-in show. And then
his broadcasting at football ended up the number one announcer
for NBC. And then he was in the 18th tower
to NBC Golf.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
He did I don't know how many Ryder Cups.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
He did Olympics. He was a versatile wide receiver. And
I think he had that great voice because he was
a smoker.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
That deep.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Growly voice but he was uh really good and always
prepared of what he did.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah the smoking you know when when bob later in
his career would come in and do stuff and tape
stuff for the pre-game show i would have to tape
that stuff with him and sit in a room with
him and sometimes wait for like two and a half
hours for his coach to call in whether it was
like jeff fisher bill gower and the entire time he
would smoke and then i would go home and my
(14:24):
wife would say where the hell have you been You're
going to have to take your clothes off in the
garage before you come in smelling like that. So thanks, Bob.
Wonderful guy. I mean, it's just so kind to me
early in my career that I would always get a
kick out of it when he would come to the
radio station.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
Well, I remember when I retired and I was with KRC.
We were doing the games on the radio, and they
wanted me to do a sports call-in show. And, of course,
it was only an hour, but it was at the
same time Bob was on the air. And the first
person that called my show was Bob wishing.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Me good luck.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
So I'll never forget that. That's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
You think about that like lineage of Cincinnati sports talk
from Bob Trumpy to now idiots like me are filling
these seats. See, Joe, I'm letting you comment on that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I'm not going to answer. I'm going to stay away
from that because I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Just teach up.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
He kind of hit it on the head.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
He did. He called himself.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
There's no reason for me to talk about it. There's
nothing to elaborate on, is there? Gentlemen, I can't thank
you enough. It's awesome to share a stage with the
two of you. You both are always so kind to me.
I know Anthony.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Appreciates your support. Great to have you here.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Well, our pleasure.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
And like I say, just, you know, when you're on
the air, I will let you know when you've made
a mistake.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Well, no, because that's every day.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Well, no.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
The egregious ones.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Only the big ones.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
The truly dumb things I said. That's fine. There's a
long list of people in my life that you fit
in with who enjoy doing that. And you got that
one wrong, Mo. There's a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I'll do that every day before your show.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
He does.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, he does it in the office every day. It's
the sort of like pre-show morale boost you need when
you walk past where Joe sits and just let you
know how he feels about you.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Try to be good today.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Ken Anderson and Joe Walter, two Bengals legends here at
the Anthony Munoz Foundation Topgolf Tailgate. We are broadcasting until
6 o'clock. It's 20 after 4. I'm Mo Egger. This
is ESPN 1530 Cincinnati Sports Station. Cincinnati's ESPN 1530. Traffic
from the UC Health Traffic Center.
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