The Mo Egger Radio Show -- 7/17/25

Mo is guest free on this Thursday edition of the show! He discusses FC Cincinnati's dominant performance over Miami, The Reds 2nd half, Trey Hendrickson, and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Bonus bonus baby, what's up? Mallegger ESPN fifteen thirty Thank
you for listening. Hope you're having like the most awesome
Thursday of your life. Awesome Thursday? Right? It is Thursday? Yes,
yes it is. We got to show a preview on
Twitter thanks to Emery Federal Credit Union, your credit union
with heart since nineteen thirty nine. Make sure you go

(00:24):
to EMORYFCU dot org. By the way, EMORYFCU dot org
is where you could also register to play in the
Emery Federal Credit Union Golf Outing, which is gonna be
at four Bridges Country Club a month from tomorrow. The
proceeds benefits Cincinnati Children's Charities. And uh, it's gonna be

(00:44):
It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be awesome. It was
last year, it will be this year. Maybe maybe your
foursom can beat mine. We will see. It's gonna be
a fun time. Nonetheless, EMORYFCU dot org. I have a
new way of ranking NFL quarterbacks because we're in list season,
right list season, we're listing stuff top one hundred players

(01:05):
in the NFL, top ten quarterbacks, top ten players at
every single position. I have a new way of ranking
QBS because the discourse at times can be absolutely fatiguing.
We are going to get to that here in just
a bit. Let's give credit where it's due to FC Cincinnati.
We had Danny Higginbotham on our show yesterday. We had

(01:27):
Bradley Wright Phillips on our show on Tuesday, both from
MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Danny called the match
last night and I told him, man like the air
came out of the balloon on Saturday night. The FC
Cincinnati on Saturday came into that match against Columbus, huge
rivalry game, they had won four straight games. They sit
through a weather delay, they get off to a one

(01:47):
nothing lead in the first minute, throw up by two
two zip after five minutes, and just completely and totally
let the game get away. And it was amplified by
the fact that it is FC Cincinnati's biggest rival, and
it was implified by the fact that Cincinnati's biggest rival
has come back to beat FC Cincinnati before when the
Orange and Blue have had an early to nothing lead,

(02:08):
including the most painful loss in franchise history in my opinion,
the Eastern Conference Final loss two years ago. And so
it just maybe not fair. It just it felt like
the air came out of the balloon on Saturday night,
and my question was, can FC Cincinnati blow the air
back in. They did a complete, thorough and dominant performance

(02:29):
against Lionel Messi and Miami last night. They get a
huge three points. There are a game out of the
top spot in the Eastern Conference. They are a game
behind or I'm sorry, a point behind Philadelphia, who's like
never gonna lose in the race for the top spot
on the Eastern Conference. They hold their ground in the
race for the Supporter Shield. A vander makes a huge

(02:53):
step toward winning the Major League Soccer MVP Award, which
it has kind of felt like in recent weeks. Maybe
it still is. Messis to lose more than anything. They
move on, they bounce back. They get us to stop
talking about Saturday. Here's Pat Noonan after the match.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Because we played like a team and guys made the
right passes at the right time for the most part. Yes,
there were some moments in the first half. We discussed that,
but when you simplify the game and you move and
play as a team, we're good and I think we
saw a lot more of that tonight and.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Getting three goals. Just it's not about who's scoring, it's
how do we attack the goal together?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
And I think tonight we did that Nigga way.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
That's Pat Noonan talking on the postgame show last night
on ESPN fifteen thirty FC Cincinnati dominates Miami three zip.
A huge win, great atmosphere and a lot of star
power in that game. Lionel Messi had come in having
scored multiple goals in an MLS record five consecutive games.

(03:56):
He didn't score one last night. Evander had a brace.
Pat Noonan's done a great job. It's interesting we have
struck on this show. We've struck a really nice relationship
with the people at Major League Soccer and Apple TV,
and they're kind enough most weeks to give us one

(04:16):
of the announcers. Maybe it's a play by play person,
maybe it's a color analyst, perhaps it's somebody in the studio.
And I love talking with them all. They're all very
generous with their time, very accommodating, and over the last
couple of years, every time we talk about the next game,
the next match, without prompting, someone will talk effusively about
Pat noon and the job he does with this team

(04:38):
and Chris Albright and the job he does with this team.
This is the best coach general manager combination in the city. Frankly,
I'm not sure it's all that close. And like you know,
we talk all the time about specifically the Bengals, gotta
weed through the noise, got to survive the noise. Man,
you may not follow FC Cincinnati all that closely. And
I'm the first to admit when it comes to how

(05:00):
I feel about certain sports, soccer is a little bit
lower in the total poll. But it was hard to
ignore this offseason, all the noise around FC Cincinnati, with
players not coming to preseason training, to the way the
Lucho Acosta time in Cincinnati came to an end, adding
players on the fly. They've had to deal with a
lot of injuries, players off playing for their own countries,

(05:22):
like a lot of noise, a lot of stuff. And look, man,
maybe this team they have this year is not as
good as the one two years ago. There are people
who followed that team from a better standpoint of tactical
knowledge than me who would say the team two years
ago was better. And that's fine, But this team dealt

(05:43):
with and maybe some of it was on their own
doing it was self inflicted. This team dealt with a
lot of noise, distractions, a lot of stuff, and they're
a point out of the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
They are contenders to win the MLS Cup, they are
contenders to win the Supporter Shield. That is coaching, and

(06:08):
it's also an example of having an effective front office.
Like I said this to Austin on Sincy three sixty
and Austin, like many knows a ton more about soccer
than I do, but it it feels like when they
bring in a player from outside. They brought in forty

(06:29):
year old Kai Kamara, who has played for pretty much everybody.
That guy, like almost instantly looks like he fits right in.
There's something about the culture of that franchise. There's something
about how that franchise has the ability to identify the
right guys, and how they have a coach who's capable
of moving on from gut punch losses, integrating players from

(06:53):
outside with dudes who are already here, and figuring out
ways to stay afloat when there's a lot of stuff
going on. Now, maybe for an NFL team, having a
lot of stuff going on brings more attention than for
a major league soccer franchise. I'll certainly grant you that.
But we talk about this all the time, specifically with
the Bengals, and the Bengals have a lot of really

(07:14):
good things going for him. I think Zach Taylor's a
decent coach, Joe Burrow is the best quarterback in the sport.
They've got some things going for him. But we hear
all the time about well, they have a hard time
overcoming distractions. Maybe Chris Albright and Pat Noonan should consult
them seriously, like how do you get your team ready
when there's a lot of stuff swirling around it. It

(07:37):
is something the Bengals have failed to do in recent years.
It's something that at times it feels like FC Cincinnati
is good at Two years ago, FC Cincinnati won the
Supporter Shield and came this close to playing for a
championship in the playoffs before losing it home. And I
remember that year. One of the things we often talked
about with guests we would get on this show is

(07:57):
how if FC Cincinnati lays a clunker one Saturday, it
doesn't carry over to the next. FC Cincinnati had a
tough stretch in late May early June, but you know
that game on Saturday. It would have been I think
all most reasonable to expect there to be some sort
of hangover. There wasn't. That Obviously says something about the

(08:18):
character of the players. Obviously says something about the quality
of the players, says something about the coach, says something
about the organization. And those things can be borrowed by
other organizations and other coaches. Fourteen minutes after three o'clock.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
We are.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
We are. It's a bit of a Thursday after the
All Star Game tradition. It's kind of unintentional, but somewhat intentional. Uh,
we're guest free today. It's just you and I. Five
point three seven four nine fifteen thirty and eight six
six seven h two three seven seven six. The second half,
proverbial second half of the season starts for the Reds tomorrow.

(08:57):
I think we are gearing up for maybe the most
critical sixty five game stretch that the Reds have gone
through since twenty thirteen. It starts tomorrow in New York.
Red's beginning a six game road trip, first of three
against the Mets. We're gonna get to that coming up
in the four o'clock hour. I have advice for any

(09:18):
stand up comedian. I a little bit later on, I've
got the question that I've not heard anybody ask about
the twenty twenty five Bengals. Will do that in a bit.
I've got a question for Shamar Stewart and I have
a new way of ranking quarterbacks. It's a very simple
way of ranking quarterbacks. Actually, I think I might have

(09:38):
two ways of ranking quarterbacks, and I'll let you pick
which one you like the most. Next on ESPN fifteen
third Free iHeartRadio is a chat with our guy, Aaron
Layton from Jess Baseball, who is quickly becoming a I've
noticed a fan favorite of folks who listened to this show.
If you missed him yesterday, he kind of went through

(09:59):
the entire Red's draft class. Listen to that on the
iHeartRadio app. It's also on my page at ESPN fifteen
to thirty dot com. Podcast of this show are a
service of Long Neck Sports Grill with three locations in
northern Kentucky. Ain't gonna be many places better to post
up on a nice summer night this weekend. If you're
watching the Reds, if you're watching the British Open, which

(10:20):
I call the British Open by the way, if it
really if you're not watching anything and just want to
hang out with your friends or by yourself, good along. Next,
you got Wilder, you got Hebren, you got rich Wood.
We have list season in the NFL, and during list
season in the NFL, people who write about the league
and talk about the league still need to come up

(10:41):
with content, and we're in a sort of barren place
on the sports calendar. I think today there's like literally
no major professional sports leagues that have games going on.
The wnbas that it's all Star break. The obviously Major
League Baseball is winding down, it's all Star break. I'm
not sure there are Vegas Summer League games. I can't

(11:04):
say that I care all that much. Not a lot
going on. So people who cover the league, and really
a lot of people who do what I do for
a living, they occupy the time and they fill the
gap by coming up with lists. Right, we've seen these lists,
rankings lists. This is when the NFL does their Top

(11:25):
one hundred, which T Higgins is a part of for
the first time, which is great number seventy seven, I believe,
or lists of coaches on the hot seat or overrated
or underrated NFL teams. Mike Jones from The Athletic calls
the Bengals overrated. I disagree. I also don't think they're underrated.
We'll get to that later. On Top ten quarterbacks quarterback tiers,

(11:48):
top ten in every position, endless lists this time of year.
ESPN dot Com Jeremy Fowler compiled a list of the
top ten NFL quarterbacks based on feedback from people around
the league. Based on that feedback, he had Joe Burrow
at number three. And of course, you know that that
triggers a lot of debate, and then some of that

(12:11):
debate turns in turns into a vitriol and people screaming
at each other. And typically when people start screaming at
each other, I I kind of tune out, Like I
like a good, healthy debate. But when we start screaming
at each other, like we don't do that on this show,
I kind of go, Okay, you guys yell at each other.
I'm gonna do something fun. Like getting screamed at is

(12:32):
not fun and sports are supposed to be fun. So
I've been I've been trying to think of like a
more simple way to rank quarterbacks that like, if you
want to tell me Joe Burrow is the third best
quarterback in the NFL? Like, fine, okay, cool, that's good,
having the third best quarterback in the league. I can
win a super Bowl with that. That's good. And you
know it'd be one thing. It would be absurd if

(12:54):
you're like, you know, Joe Burrows like the twenty first
best quarterback in the league. Well, obviously that's moronic. But
if you want to say he's third, fine. If you
want to say he's fourth, fine, I don't care that much.
Here's what I do care about. Can you have a
conversation about who the best quarterback in the league is

(13:17):
without mentioning Joe Burrow's name? If you're a Bengals fan,
that's really all that matters. Whether he's the best or
second best or third best irrelevant to me. I gotta
be honest with you. I love the NFL. I love
this era of quarterbacks that we are in. I think
if you're a football fan, this is an awesome place

(13:40):
to be with so many really good quarterbacks. Some have
more to prove than others. Some have been heavy on
individual accolades and not so much team accolades or team
accomplishment some you know, there's a lot of talent, but
we're still waiting to see him put it all together.
We want to see him win more of that sort
of thing. I think we are in a good place.

(14:01):
I've been following this league for a while now I
know what it's like to watch the product when there
aren't enough good quarterbacks. I think at the high end
we have a lot of really fun to watch qbs.
So here's how I do it. Here's I think this
is the way to do it. In fact, I'll give
you two ways to do it, and you could take
your pick. I think we should get out of the

(14:21):
business of ranking them one through thirty two or one
through sixty four. I think there are two types of
qbs in this sport. One is the guys that you
have to include in a conversation as to who the
best is. And if you have one of those guys,
awesome Bengals have one of those guys, you cannot You

(14:45):
cannot have a conversation about who the best quarterback in
the sport is without at least somebody mentioning Joe Burrow
and vetting out his case. Again, you may not think
he's the best in the sport. But if I say
he is, you're gonna laugh at me. It's not like
I'm saying Russell Wilson's the best in the sport. That'll

(15:08):
get you laughed at. It's not like you're saying that
right now, Caleb Williams is the best in the sport.
That'll get you laughed at. Saying Joe Burrow is the
best in the sport is not gonna get you laughed at.
There's a difference between disagreeing with someone and laughing at them.
It's not gonna get you laughed at. So to me,
it's very simple, who are the quarterbacks that if we

(15:29):
are gonna do this and talk about who the best
in the league is, who the quarterbacks that must be
in that conversation. The rest of them, whether they're the fourteenth, paster,
seventeenth past, twenty second best irrelevant. Maybe your team doesn't
absolutely have to have one of those guys, but if

(15:50):
they do, you're typically starting from a place of relevance.
Like even the Bengals this year, they're starting from a place.
We can debate how much they've set themselves up for
success this offseason, and we can debate whether they've taken
the right approach and free agency and rebuilding their defense
or not rebuilding their defense. We could talk about the
value of what they're doing with their first round pick,

(16:13):
what may happen if their second round pick doesn't come
to camp on time. The approach with Trey Hendrickson. They're
starting from a place of relevance. They have a guy
at the sport's most important position that you have to
include in any conversation about who the best in the
league is. I just want to rank them that way.
Who are those guys? Are there four of them? Are

(16:34):
there eight of them? Are there two of them? Well,
there's more than two. I don't know if there's eight,
whatever the number is. Joe Burrow is on that list.
We can do it that way, or we can do
it the way that I used to remember when Andy
Dalton was here. Of course you do, and we would
joke on this show about the the Andy Dalton face.

(16:57):
I did this exercise once and like Andy, we all do.
We appreciate Andy at for a certain moment in time.
Andy was pretty much exactly what this franchise needed. One
of those guys we all root to have success in
the role that he's in.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Now.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
And by the way, if he were to ever come
back to the Bengals and back up Joe Burrow, that's
not bad. But we would always talk about the Andy
Dalton face. And I did this one day. I said, like,
wherever you are right now, at work, at home, whatever,
go up to people and ask how do you feel
about Andy Dalton? And I said, I'd be willing to
bet that most of the time, if not all, the

(17:31):
answer you get is preceded by a face, Like somebody
will make a face before they give the answer. Think
of it now, put it in your brain right, like
how do you feel about Andy Dalton? And then they
kind of go like they win, or they look like
they sat in something, or they look like they're smelling
something really od odorous, And it's not good if you

(17:53):
have to Like in everyday life, typically if you ask
somebody something and they make a face before the answer,
the answer is probably not that great. Like if you
go to your boss and ask for a raise, if
they make a face first, you're in for a tough negotiation.
If you go to your boss and ask for a
raise and they don't make a face, well you might
have a better shot. So we would do this, we

(18:14):
would call it the Andy Dalton face, the face that
people make before they give their assessment of Andy Dalton.
So if you don't want to rank it the first
way that I outline, let's rank them this way. Who
are the quarterbacks that when you ask someone about them,
you don't have to make a face. If you ask
any Bengals fan about Joe Burrow, there's no face. There
might be a face about whether or not they can

(18:34):
keep them up right, put them behind a good offensive line,
continue to waste his talent. And there's a handful of
quarterbacks like that. Even as somewhat pedestrian as Patrick Mahomes
was last year by his standards, not a great season statistically,
at least, when you talk about Patrick Mahomes, nobody makes
a face. And so as long as you have one

(18:56):
of those guys that when you're asked about, no face
has to be made, you've got one of the best
in the sport. And if you have one of the
best in the sport, you're starting from a priest a
place of relevance. Doesn't matter who's third, first, seventh, tenth, eleventh.
Let's stop doing it that way. Let's do it my way.
If you're a stand up comedian, I have advice Next.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
PM, fifteen thirty at iHeartRadio station.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Sports headlines are service at Kelsey Chevrolet, home of the
right time powertrain protection and guarantee credit approval from their
family too, yours for life at Kelsey chev dot com. Uh.
The All Star Break is winding down. Today's last day
red start the second half of the season, first of
three in New York against the Mets. Nicoledolo will get

(19:42):
the ball for Cincinnati, coming off a very good start
his last outing. He'll face TBD New York Mets Hurler TVD.
You think of all the great pitchers the Mets have had,
you a Tom sever and Doc Goodin and David Cone
and John Matt Lack, and you know, Mike Hampton that
one year TBD is one of the absolute best, maybe
better than everybody they've had except for Tom sever FC

(20:06):
Cincinnati a winner last night. You know what that means.
It means honors for FC Cincinnati's Pat Noonan and Evander
who have been named to MLS Team of the Match
Day for Match Day number twenty five. Congratulations to both
Bengals training camp. Don't forget starts in six days and
that's awesome. Don't forget. On top of the start of
Bengals training camp, we have the launch of the Tony

(20:29):
and Mode Training Camp Show, which is gonna be starting
on the twenty third. It's gonna be at training camp
ten different days, so you know, obviously the Bengals have
during training camp, they have days off, and they have
week night games and travel for him, and so we're
not gonna be on every day, but basically when the
Bengals are practicing during the week through mid August, we

(20:52):
will be there at ten am Tony and I and
then Tony will stick around to do since he three
to sixty from Bengals training camp, I will drive to
Kenwood and sit in the seat that I'm sitting in
right now and do my show from three to six.
So instead of six hours of local programming, we have eight.
It's going to be a lot of fun. Starting on
July the twenty third, the empty time in the sports

(21:13):
calendar for many gets filled by the SP's. And I'll
be honest with you, because I always am I am
typically not that interested. There are moments I am interested in,
you know, I think it's cool that Oscar Robertson was
given the Arthur Ash Award for Courage deservedly. So I

(21:36):
think above and beyond Oscar Robertson's contributions to the NBA,
just in terms of helping players eventually attain free agency,
you could give Oscar Robertson the Award for courage for
the hell he had to deal with as a black
man playing college basketball in the late nineteen fifties, and

(21:59):
so I I wanted to see that. The awards themselves,
I've never really understood, like in sports, the cool thing
is we have scoreboards, and we have championships, and we
have finals, and like, we have things that determine who
the best are. An award show to determine who is
the best of the best, which then becomes subjective, is

(22:19):
just I don't watch award show. I watch the Grammys
because the performances are cool. Shane Gillis, whose show Tires
is hilarious on Netflix, was the MC last night, and
I thought his monologue was pretty funny. There were some
jokes that didn't hit. I think that is the worst
room to play in if you're a stand up comic,

(22:40):
If you get asked to do the SPS, I hope
it pays a well, because you're gonna bomb, because that
is a room filled with people who are either humorless
or who have never been made fun of. I love sports,
but I'm the first to admit high level leads are

(23:00):
not necessarily used to being poked at, not necessarily used
to being joke fodder. A lot of folks who are
used to being worshiped, a lot of people who don't
have senses of humor, who have a sense of humor
about themselves, what they've accomplished and to a degree, what
they haven't. And so I've watched people debate Shane Gillis

(23:21):
monologue on social media. First of all, he's a stand
up comedian. His job is to tell jokes. If you're
gonna laugh at the jokes, you have to maybe allow
yourself to be a little bit offended or perhaps offended
on behalf of who the target of the joke is.
Without that, why have stand up comedy that room last night?
If you took the monologue, and I'm not gonna play it,

(23:41):
but if you took the monologue and put it in
a comedy club, it would do well. Put it in
that large room filled with people who are not used
to being made fun of. Gonna bomb. He bombed last
night in the room he bombed on TV. I thought
a good number of the jokes were pretty funny. Again,
we're in this day and age where everybody can't wait

(24:03):
to be offended, and so you know, certainly last night
on social media, no no shortage of people who were
pretending outrage because they were offended by a stand up
comedian's joke. I'm old enough to remember when we weren't
offended by a stand up comedian's joke. There was nothing
to be offended by last night. It's comedy. Comedy in
that room, though, goes over like a lead balloon, because

(24:25):
it's a lot of people who don't have senses of
humor about them or who do not have a sense
of humor about themselves. That's the best way to put it.
It's not senses of humor, right, So so there you go.
By the way, We've gotten a ton of mileage this
week off Shamar Stuart and uh, it's it's been interesting

(24:47):
this week. We've I've gotten a lot of We've got
a lot of phone calls about Shamar Stewart And there
was a part of me that's like, all right, is
there anything really new to say? I know that Cover
three podcast kind of to Hornet's nets, so to speak.
When it comes to Shamar Stewart whether or not he
goes back to college, which is probably not gonna happen.
And you know, my take on it has been like,

(25:10):
at this point, just take the l if you're really really,
if you really really want to play for the Cincinnati Bengals,
sign the contract, do it under their terms. Let's get started.
Begin your pro career, start your relationship with the Bengals
off better than you have so far. Get to training camp,
get caught up on what you might have missed, and

(25:31):
get yourself prepared to help in the first game of
the season and have a great rookie year. Prove the
Bengals got it right by taking you, Prove the narrative
is wrong that you can't finish plays, and then go
have a great NFL career, and you know, dictate the
terms of your second contract if you end up getting one.

(25:52):
There's been pushback to that. We kind of addressed that yesterday.
Let me just let me ask this. So last month
at mini camp, Shamar Stewart said something to the effect
of they're more interested in winning negotiations than football games. Now,

(26:12):
chances are he got that from somebody, because that has
been said about the Bengals for years. I remember being
a kid hearing my dad and grandfather say that they'd
rather win negotiations than football games. Because there was a
stretch where like every year, whoever they took in the
first round held out. Obviously a different era, different type
of CBA. Chamar Stuart got that from somebody, and a

(26:35):
lot of people nodded along, right, because it's a narrative
about the Bengals that has been around for years, more
interested in winning negotiations than football games. So here we are.
Camp starts in less than a week. Shamar Stewart has
not signed his deal. Do not sign his way for
allowing him to participate during mini camp and OTAs. And

(26:55):
your guess is as good as mine as to when
this is going to have a resolution. Maybe it has
a quest, Maybe it has a quick one. Because the
Bengals change their position and say, look, Schamar signed this deal.
It's the garden variety contract for a first round draft choice.
We just want you here. Maybe they do that, It
would be uncharacteristic of them. If they did. But maybe

(27:17):
they do that, and maybe Shamar Stewart caves, which is
what he should do, frankly, and he shows up and
he practices, and he has a great NFL career, and
this is not a thing. Maybe this gets resolved during
training camp. Here's what I would ask Shamar Stewart. You
said about the Bengals that they're more interested in winning
at the negotiating table than winning football games. Right now,

(27:41):
less than a week before the start of camp, aren't
you demonstrating to us that you're more interested in winning
at the negotiating table than playing football. It's a fair question, right,
That's a fair question. Correct. You're more interested and staring
down the Bengals, not setting a precedent getting your way,

(28:04):
than you are playing football, winning at football, and being
a great NFL player in year one. We're not holding
out over the exact salary here. We're holding out over
language that could void guarantees. The guarantees are already there.

(28:26):
We have I have been critical of the Bengals for
doing this with Shamar Stewart, but like I feel like
the ball is now in his court. Even if you
don't agree with the position, the Bengals have been taking
and frankly, I haven't like they're not budging. It's better
for them to have the guy in camp. At the
end of the day, Dude, sign the contract, show up,

(28:49):
admit defeat, go have a great rookie season. If you're
not willing to do that, I then can ask, are
you really more interested in winning on the field this year,
both from an individual and a team perspective, than you
are beating the Bengals at this negotiation? Game number one?

(29:12):
How is that not a question? Number two? How is
the answer to that question not? Yeah, you know what,
I'd rather beat the Bengals at this negotiation than show
up and win on the field. Obviously there's time here.
Camp doesn't start until Thursday, but rookies report on Saturday.
Season's going to be here before you know it. We

(29:35):
all sort of chuckled and laughed, and some nodded along
and said, yes, Jamar Stewart's saying what many have said
about the Bengals, which makes it right. I can't help
but throw the question back at Shamar at this point,
are you more interested in beating the Bengals in a
negotiation than you are winning on the field? Right now,

(29:58):
and maybe this changes. Right now, it feels like the
answer is yes. Five point three seven nine, fifteen thirty
is our phone number. The second half of the season
starts for the Reds. This is immensely important. It's important.
I think it's important for the relationship between this fan
this this fan base, and this franchise. Hey, it's really

(30:20):
important for Nick Krawl. It might be really important for
Terry Francone as well. We're gonna get to all that
here coming up in the four o'clock hour. I we
don't do politics on this show as a As a rule,
we don't do politics on this show. But apparently there's
going to be an executive order signed by the President
that restricts what college athletes can make in nil. I

(30:43):
get a question. I got a question. I always do.
I'll ask it in the four o'clock hour on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. Reds play the Mets tomorrow
in New York City. Nick Lidolo is going to start
for the Reds. I think it's great the players get

(31:04):
an extra day. Like, you know, when most of us
were kids, the All Star break was three days, and
so now for the players who participate in the All
Star Game, they get a little bit, they get more
of a break. You know, it used to be play
the game on Tuesday, and then those players would have
to rush back and maybe do a workout on Wednesday,
then resume the season on Thursday. It's not that way now.

(31:24):
But well, four days. And I'm the guy that lobbied,
and I still think this would be best for the
sport if they had a five day All Star break
and kind of made the Futures Game a standalone event,
and made the MLB Draft a little bit more of
a standalone event. And then you know, worked with the
National Baseball Hall of Fame to do their induction ceremonies
on Friday night. But still four days, especially when your

(31:46):
team is in it, and well the Reds are, They're
still in it. They're still in it. You know. I
read yesterday that according to one computer model, they have
about twelve and a half percent chance of making the postseason,
which doing it unscientifically feels sort of right. This is

(32:09):
it's obviously a huge next twelve games. What they do
between now in July thirty first is going to go
a long way toward determining what they do on July
thirty first. We have been talking about buying and selling
at the deadline really since before the season even started,
and so if they come out of the break and
win nine out of twelve, it's pretty clear what they
should do right, like enhance your chances of winning, go

(32:31):
get help, Go find somebody at the deadline that can
help in any number of areas. And if they fall
flat on their face, and let's say they lose nine
out of twelve, that I think the case is going
to be made, and probably successfully, that they should not
really be that aggressive in buying and perhaps sell off
the pieces that they have. Let's be honest, with the

(32:53):
way this team has played all season long, the most
likely outcome is that they neither take off and go
on a run or that they totally crater. And so
my guess is on July thirty first, you're gonna have
some who make the clear case that they should be buyers,
and you're gonna have some who go, look, no matter

(33:15):
what they do, they're just simply not good enough. One
guy's not gonna make that much of a difference. And
so to a degree, what you're rooting for over the
next twelve games is for them to achieve some degree
of clarity. I think these next sixty what sixty five
games are enormous. I think the next two and a
half months are huge for this franchise because I think,

(33:39):
and maybe this is just me, they're gonna have a
real hard time with a lot of fans if at
the end of this season they're on the outside looking in.
Like I think, a non playoff year is gonna be
tangible proof for a lot lot of people that the

(34:02):
plan is just simply not working. A plan that was
hatched years ago, that two years ago we all thought
was going to start to yield meaningful results by twenty
twenty five. If we get to the end of September
and this team is on the outside looking in and
we're still talking about, you know, another year without advancing

(34:23):
in the postseason, I think the relationship between the fan
base and the club, which was repaired to a degree
at least two years ago, is is going to be
at least partially fractured. More on that coming up at
four h five on ESPN fifteen thirty. All right, Bill's

(34:44):
he said, Bills, He said, four oh four, this is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Thanks for joining us today hopefully having
an awesome and I do mean awesome Thursday afternoon. I
almost said Friday, We're not there. Yeah. By the way, tomorrow,
our friend Kelsey Conway is going to spend time in
the four o'clock hour with this in studio, an hour

(35:07):
with Kelsey and me and talking about the Bengals and
looking ahead to next week and training camp and her
answering my dumb questions. I do have a little bit
later on a question. One of the one of my
favorite tropes in all of sports, and I think sometimes
it applies to this business is someone will say like,

(35:27):
here's the thing that nobody is talking about, and usually
it's like, yeah, actually a lot of people are talking
about that, or here's the question that nobody is asking.
I think a lot of people are asking that question.
There's a question I haven't heard anybody ask since March,
as it relates to the Bengals upcoming season. I'll tell

(35:48):
you what that question is coming up in just about
forty minutes plus Brenneman and Jones on baseball as well,
you know on the Reds here. My take on Monday
was the first half of the season was a reflection
of what they what we thought the Reds were gonna be.

(36:09):
We thought this team was gonna be okay. We thought
most of us thought this team was gonna finish somewhere
reasonably around five hundred, maybe a game or two below,
maybe a game or two above. I really, I don't
think there were many folks, and maybe you did, but
I don't really think there were many people who at
least expressed a confidence in the Reds winning close to
ninety games. I also don't recall that many people who said,

(36:32):
you know what, the Reds are gonna lose ninety games.
I think most of us thought this team was gonna
be okay. I think most of us thought this team
was gonna have decent starting pitching. The starting pitching has
been decent, at times much much better than decent. And
I think most of us thought this team was gonna
have it struggles offensively, not be one of the worst
offensive teams in the sport, but at best be you know,

(36:54):
somewhere middle of the pack. And for the most part,
that's where they've been. They haven't gone on any like
prolow long winning streak. Their longest winning streak is five.
They haven't gone on any you know, just season killing
losing streak. Their longest losing streak has been four games.
They have been at times this year as many as

(37:16):
four games over five hundred. They have been at times
this year four games under five hundred. They've been okay,
treading water at times, slightly above average, at times slightly
below average all season long. If that's what they are
the rest of the way, they're not going to be
a playoff team. And if they're not a playoff team,

(37:39):
I think it's going to be really hard for either
the Reds as a franchise or for the people who
carry their water for them to claim that the plan
is working. With the Reds, we're always talking about plans, right,
always talking about what's the plan, And we've criticized that,

(38:00):
justifiably so at times for either not having a plan
or having a plan and then you know, dramatically pivoting
to another plan not sticking to it. Plans are great.
For a plan to be considered one that is working,
you need tangible results. The only tangible result that's going

(38:24):
to matter to anybody by the end of this season
is are you a playoff team? Are you a playoff team?
I don't think most will care. That's maybe not the
best way to put it. I don't think most will
hold it against the franchise. If they got to the
postseason and then got bounced in the wildcard round, there's

(38:46):
randomness to it. It would be a nice step to
get there, But you know, getting there when they haven't
made the postseason in a full year, a full one
hundred and sixty two game year since twenty thirteen, I
think would be looked at as a success now. Maybe
a different story next year, maybe a different story of
the year after that. But for any plan to be

(39:07):
considered a success, you you need tangible results. I think
that that's true in any business. You could you could
come to your boss with a plan of how you're
gonna get your numbers up, and it's all well and good.
Until the numbers are up. It's just a plan. It's
just it's kind of an abstract. What matters are the
tangible results. I think the next two and a half

(39:29):
months for this franchise are pivotal. I think they're huge
for the relationship the Reds have with this fan base,
with this city. I think they're huge for Nick Krawl.
I think they might be enormous for Terry Francona, because
while I think some have talked irresponsibly about whether or
not he's gonna want to stay here beyond this season,

(39:49):
he is a guy who has retired once. He's not
a manager who has anything left to accomplish. From a
human being perspective, obviously you have to con the possibility
that this guy would go, you know what, plans not working.
I'm out. I don't think that's gonna happen, but you
never know. But for you know, we've been hearing about

(40:11):
and talking about and watching the unfolding of this plan
now for years. And I've made the point before that
the direction the Reds have chosen to go in was
something that they started at the end of the twenty
twenty season. Twenty twenty season was obviously the COVID year,
sixty games made, the playoffs played, two games, didn't score

(40:33):
a run, and after that Dick Williams left, which told
you the Titanic is hitting the iceberg and this guy's
jumping off. What do they do that offseason they gave
away Rice el Iglesias, didn't add to their team. The
writing was on the wall, and since then, obviously trading
away Nick trading away Heinio Suarez, not resigning Nick Castianas

(40:58):
trading away Sonny Gray. That you say, you could say
hadn't merit then you might say have merit now. But
that's what they did. And they were going in this
clear direction of you know, rebuild, tear down, rebuild, build
from within, accumulate talent, use the farm system, get younger
players from other franchises. And they lost one hundred games

(41:19):
in twenty twenty two. Since then, we know what happened
in twenty three, we know what happened in twenty four,
we know what has happened this year. But the point being,
this plan has been in place for like over a
half a decade now, and the entire time they've been
pleading patients, and the entire time, I think a lot
of fans have been patient. Some kind of threw up
their hands in twenty twenty two, understandably, so they lost

(41:40):
one hundred games. Those many of those people came back
to the party in twenty twenty three. Okay, fine, it
feels like the plan is working. I think you're gonna
lose a lot of those folks. If we're sitting here
in October and the plan hasn't worked yet. I think
for the next two and a half months, you have
a lot of folks who are looking at their relationship
with this club in terms of interest, maybe in terms

(42:01):
of some degree of financial investment, looking at it going okay,
you got me, I'm paying attention. Let's see what you
do with the deadline. Let's see what you do with
the team. Let's see what some of these players are doing.
Let's see if the twenty twenty five Reds can do
something to prove in a very concrete way that the

(42:22):
plan is working. In the absence of that, I believe
you're gonna have a hard time coming at people going
you know what, we're good? Hey, you know what we're good.
And this Baseball operations department, spearheaded by Nick Krawl, needs
to remain untouched. He's the guy what we're doing is working.

(42:46):
After a while, you can't say what we're doing is
working if there aren't tangible results that matter, and you know,
finishing eighty one and eighty one or finishing slightly above
five hundred and hey, we played some meaningful ball games
in September. It's not gonna cut it. Frankly, it's not
gonna cut it with me now. I'm never gonna lose interest.

(43:08):
I'm never gonna stop going, I'm never gonna stop talking
about him. But I really have a hard time believing
that I'll spend much time this offseason talking about how, yes,
this is working, have faith, have confidence if there's not
something concrete to point to. And so I think this

(43:28):
is a really, really pivotal next two and a half
months for this franchise. I think this trade deadline is
really pivotal for this front office. At some point, you
have to show results, at some point, what you have
asked fans to wait through, what you have pleaded for
patients through. There's got to be a payoff, And you

(43:53):
might go, yeah, but you know what if the payoff
is next year, okay, do you think most are gonna
go along with that? Just wait a little bit longer
in order for this to happen. Man, Like you know,
Christian and Karnassi on strand, we've talked about a bunch.
I don't know how many more chances that guy is
gonna get. I don't know how many more chances that
guy should get. You hate it because he's been hurt,

(44:15):
He hasn't yet played in a full big league season.
But come on, man, like, is is that a guy?
Is that your first baseman moving forward? Matt McClain, who's
not been demoted, Christian and Karnasi on Strand has the
next two and a half months for Matt McClain. Is
it going to be more of the same. There's like
still a lot of areas of this team, still a

(44:36):
lot of players on this team that you just either
don't know about or that you're starting to have suspicions about.
Ces is one of them, and that's putting it mildly.
There's still a lot about this like Hunter Green a man.
I love Hunter Green, but we're still wondering is he
ever going to be able to consistently stay healthy through

(44:57):
a full big league season. He has yet to do it.
And the guy has been a part of the Cincinnati
Reds franchise since twenty seventeen. We know what the stuff
looks like when he's healthy, and you don't you know,
not to pick on any one of these guys, but
there's still so much that's unknown. If that continues to
be the case by the end of the season, then

(45:18):
they're on the outside looking in. And so you know,
we can talk about Nick Crawl and Brad Metter in
the front office and trade deadline and all that, and
all those things are worth discussing. There have to be
players on this team who simply do more, play better,
and let you know more about them. If we get
to the end of the season and they're on the

(45:39):
outside looking in, not only are they gonna have a
hard time, I think convincing a lot of people that
the plan is working, I think they're gonna have some
really tough decisions to make about players who have been
looked at as cornerstones of this franchise now for a while.
So these the next two and a half months are enormous,

(46:02):
and they they can get to the postseason. I mean
were for two and a half out of the wildcard.
But the way the homestand went, even though they won
more than they lost, was sobering. And that was preceded
by that road trip to Boston and Philadelphia which just
seemed to take all the air out of the balloon.

(46:23):
From that stretch they had played through most of June
with So we'll see, but this at some point, if
if you're going to say here's what we're doing, here's
how we're going to operate. Here's what our methodology is
going to be, Here's what our strategy is. Okay, it

(46:45):
ultimately has to deliver a payoff. I don't think you
could expect most people to continue to wait for the
payoff if it doesn't come this October. Your comments are
welcome at five point three seven four nine, fifteen thirty
and eight sixty six seven oh two three seven seven six.
The Athletic dot Com has a writer who says the
Bengals are among the NFL's overrated teams. I disagree. I

(47:10):
don't think the Bengals are overrated. I'm not sure they're
underrated either. That coming up here in just a bit,
And the one question, of course, that nobody has been
asking about the Bengals. As the preseason draws closer and
I've read more today about how college football is being ruined,
I'm still trying to figure out who it's being ruined for.
That coming up in just about twenty minutes on ESPN

(47:33):
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station at TJ. Watt is now
the highest paid non quarterback in NFL history. He has
achieved that status for the second time in his career.
He has reached an agreement with the Pittsburgh Steelers on
a three year, one hundred and twenty three million dollar extension.
This includes one hundred and eight mil fully guaranteed. The

(47:53):
forty one million per year average is the highest of
any non quarterback in NFL history. Congratulations to A TJ. Watt.
Jamar Chase own that title for what four months, which
is pretty damn good. So the TJ Watt TJ Watt
is if you look at his raw sack numbers last year,

(48:15):
they came down. Now he was named Pro Football Focuses
Run Defender of the Year for how good he was
against the run. Any side by side comparison of him
versus Trey Hendrickson has to include the fact that Trey
against the run isn't great. Advanced metrics would tell you
as much. TJ. Watt very good against the run. His
overall pass rush production was down now still pretty good.

(48:37):
Eleven and a half sacks is obviously nothing to sneeze at.
Fewer quarterback hits player who's going to be thirty one
by the end of the season. And so we've been
watching the edge rusher market evolve. It resets at least
to a slight degree yet again. Now, if you look
at the highest paid non quarterbacks in the NFL, TJ
Watt is atop the list. Miles Garrett own that title

(49:00):
for about five minutes. He's just below him at forty mil.
Danielle Hunter, who is the player that I think most
have looked at and talking about what a Trey Hendrickson
deal might look like, is next on the list. Then
Max Crosby at Nick Bosa at thirty four. So if
you look at the top four, I'm sorry, the top
eight highest paid non qbs in the NFL, I'm counting

(49:22):
that right, Yeah, top eight highest paid non quarterbacks in
the NFL. Four are edge rushers. None of them led
the NFL in sacks last season. Then, so I guess
the question becomes, does this make it easier or more
difficult for the Bengals to sign Trey Hendrickson? And I

(49:43):
don't know the answer. You know my take on this,
and chances are if you listen to the show, you've
heard me say this. My take on this is, I
believe there's room for these two parties to be reasonable
and come to a compromise. If the Bengals are being reasonable,
they look at the offer that they've made to him,

(50:04):
which is reportedly twenty eight mil per year, and they
get why that's not enough, not with the number going
that's going to uh, the money going to Nick Boser,
Daniel Hunter or Miles Garrett or TJ. Wytt, not with
how the market has been reset. I think if you
are in charge of the Bengals, if you're Troy Blackburn,
Katie Blackburn, if you're Mike Brown, I think if you're

(50:27):
being reasonable that might be the key word here. If
you're being reasonable, you understand why twenty eight mill is
not going to work, and then the other side of
that is and might take all along has been. If
you're Trey Hendrickson and you're being reasonable, you can understand

(50:47):
why the Bengals look at you as a depreciating asset,
one that they don't want to make the highest paid
in the league. Right now, the highest paid guy in
the league is getting forty one one on average. Bengals
have reportedly offered twenty eight. There's room there, there's room
in the middle. I guess the question is does the TJ.

(51:11):
Watt deal make Trey Hendrickson dig in even more?

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Now?

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Trey has said he's not necessarily looking to be the
highest paid guy. And again, that Daniel Hunter contract thirty
five point six is kind of right there in the middle,
right right between forty one for TJ. Watt and the
twenty eight the Bengals have reportedly offered. But what I
want to know is, and I don't have the answer.

(51:38):
I don't think any of us are going to get it.
Does TJ Watt, who is going to be thirty one
by the end of the season, does TJ Watt getting
his deal make it more or less likely that Trey
Hendrickson lowers his asking price, so to speak. We'll see,

(52:00):
We'll see, but a domino has fallen, And for what
it's worth, Trey is not the only edge rusher who's
looking to get extended this offseason. Aiden Hutchinson, who obviously
got hurt last year with Lions, Micah Parsons and Trey
Hendrickson are the three players who make up that trio.
But we'll see. But the TJ Watt thing, you know,

(52:21):
I'd read earlier this week that the Steelers had done
some looking into what his trade value might be. That
doesn't necessarily mean they were dangling him, but they, you know,
were kind of poking around to see what teams might
be interested in giving. We had been talking about Trey
Hendrickson maybe being traded, which seems like is guaranteed to
pretty much not happen. Now TJ. Watt has been talked about,

(52:43):
I think a little bit more frequently as somebody who
could maybe be moved. We'll see. I've heard people, and
I think Austin talked about this earlier today on since
he three sixty. I've heard folks who have expressed some
degree of optimism that this is going to get done
between now and the start of training camp, or at
least now when and when you know, the first few

(53:03):
days of training camp are over, and we'll see. I
kind of don't give the Bengals the benefit of the
doubt here, just because we've seen some contract issues that
we have felt before could get resolved and should get resolved,
that end up lasting for a long time, where the
deal either doesn't get done, or it gets done well

(53:26):
after the fact, or it gets done right before the
season begins. We'll see. But TJ. Watckett's his deal three years,
one hundred and twenty three mil, highest paid non quarterback
in the National Football League. There you go twenty six
minutes after four o'clock, I'll get a break in, we'll
take some phone calls. We'll talk about the Bengals not
being overrated, and I just I want to know who

(53:47):
college football is being ruined for next some Kelsey Chevroligh
home of lifetime power train protection and guarantee credit approval
from their family to yours for life. Kelsey Evander named
MLS Player of the Match Day presented by Mikhaeloibultra for
Match Day twenty five. The announcement comes after the league

(54:09):
announced earlier today that Evander and head coach Pat noonan
Team of the Match Day honors after last night's dominant
three nothing victory over Miami. Evander wins his second Player
of the Match Day honor this season, the fourth of
his MLS career. He had a brace, he had. Now,
I'm gonna be painfully honest with you, Okay. It was
this year that I learned what a brace was, now

(54:31):
what a hat trick was. Didn't know there was such
a thing as a brace. Fifth multi goal of the
game this season matched the single season club record set
by Brenner in twenty twenty two. FC Cincinnati wins last night. TJ.
Watt is the new highest paid non quarterback in the
NFL three years, one twenty three from the Steelers one

(54:51):
to eight guaranteed. Bengals training camp starts on next Wednesday.
On next Wednesday, he said yes. On next Wednesday, final
off day for the Reds of the All Star Break.
They're in New York. First of a six game road trip.
Three game series with the Mets begins tomorrow night in Queens.
Seven to ten. First pitch Nick Lidola will throw for
Cincinnati That game and all the other ones can be

(55:14):
heard live on seven hundred WLW. I have babbled long enough.
Let's let other people have a turn on a myriad
of issues. Brendanvan and Jones on Baseball by the way,
coming up in just about twenty minutes. Dave, I like
on the screen, old fashioned Dave in the car. Dave,
you're on ESPN fifteen thirty. How's it going?

Speaker 4 (55:36):
That's going all right?

Speaker 2 (55:36):
No?

Speaker 4 (55:36):
How you doing?

Speaker 1 (55:37):
I'm good? What's up?

Speaker 4 (55:39):
All right? So a couple of things. One is so
as it pertains a TJ. Watt. I think the real
question that nobody is asking about his statistics, how many
braces does he ask.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Brace would be a two SAT game? Right?

Speaker 4 (55:56):
Well? Maybe? And the other question is you said how many?
You said what is? You said what his tackles were?
You said what his sacs were? But according to the Bengals,
those are not the important stats. I want to know
his pressure.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
Well, his hits were down last year. He went from
thirty six hits in twenty twenty three to twenty seven
last year. I could tell you that.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
Okay, okay, well I just was curious, but I had
another question. I got a baseball question for you. Please, sorry,
So you become Nick Krawl right now? Are you? Are
you buying, selling or doing nothing?

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Right now? If I'm buying, I might have to be
more aggressive than i'd like to be. But I want
to add to this team and I want to take
a stab at getting to the postseason because I think
it's doable.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
Som Yeah, yes, I thought that was your going to
be your answer. But so then it's I'm curious who specifically,
what player or players do you think they should go get.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
I love the idea that was originally floated by Jeff
Passen of ESPN of Steven Kwan. Now, at face value,
a lot of folks are going to say, well, wait
a minute, you need a thumper, and you do Euhanio
Suarez is being talked about a lot. I don't think
the Diamondbacks are going to be in it. My guess
is they sell. If I can have a eu Haanio Suarez,

(57:21):
I'll figure out what to do with Noelve Marte. But
I think when you look at the issues the Reds
have had in the two hole, I don't think you
can turn your nose up getting better just getting on
base at finding somebody who with TJ. Friedel, you could
put at the top of the batting order that just
has more guys on base when Ellie comes up. You
know a lot of folks watch the game on Friday
where Austin Hayes did not protect Ellie Dela Cruz, and

(57:44):
you know they walked them for it, or walked them
three times, and he struck out for it, and it
was an awful night for Austin Hayes. And it's fair
to wonder did they have a guy behind Ellie Dela
Cruz who can protect him. I'd like to better protect
him by having more traffic on bases in front of him,
which then makes Ellie Dela Cruz, even more difficult to pitch,
more difficult to intentionally walk. The production they're they're not

(58:05):
getting from the two hole this year has been the
most alarming thing about what this team hasn't done offensively.
And so the Stephen Kuan thing for me was kind
of interesting. And I feel like, just because he's not
a thumper, not a you know, he can hit the
ball out of the ballpark, but not a home run hitter,
I don't know if the asking price is gonna be
as high as it might be for a dude like

(58:26):
a Uhaneo Suarez. Plus with Stephen Kwan, you would get
him next year because he's not due to be a
free agent.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
Okay, yeah, no, too good, too good pickups. I appreciate it.
Thanks for the counsel.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Yeah, I do. I do my best. I'm certainly among
the appreciate the phone call. I I appreciate the phone call.
And I certainly do understand why many are gonna look
at you know, need somebody who can hit the ball
out of the ballpark. I I view the Reds this

(58:59):
year as offensively, the major deficiency has been in the
two hole. You know, what does this offense look like?
If if Matt McLean's production this year is what it
was two years ago, He's best player on the team,
and you know they slid him down to the eighth spot.
He hit ninth occasionally. Felt like it might have been

(59:20):
a correlation between that and him starting to hit a
little bit more and then earning a chance to hit
second again. I will look this up, maybe during a break,
but I've got to think that the Reds two hole
production has been among the worst, at least in the
National League. And so yeah, everybody wants a guy who
could hit thirty home runs a Johanio Suarez can I

(59:43):
think his hand is going to be okay. He got
hit by a pitch the other night in the All
Star Game, which was scary for him. And you know,
we know what he can do. We've seen him before,
and he's a popular player. He's a likable player, and
he's a guy who can hit it out of the yard.
He's having a very good year with the Diamondbacks. But
I'm I don't know how you could be closed to
any possible suggestion. And what I love the most is

(01:00:05):
the idea of getting somebody who can help you next year.
A Trevor Bauer type deal. Now, when the Reds acquired
Trevor Bauer, they were not in the hunt. They acquired
him for the end of the twenty nineteen season and
then had him on the staff in twenty twenty. And
you know, this is no statement about what's happened to
Trevor Bauer since, but he was awesome for the Reds

(01:00:28):
that year. He won the Cy Young Who knows what
it would have been like had they played the full season,
but still, but they made a move for a guy
that was under team control beyond that season. So I
guess what I'm kind of curious is to whether or
not they can find somebody who helps upgrade the offense
who's not gonna walk at the end of this year.
A Uhaneo Suarez is gonna walk at the end of
this year. Now, to get somebody who's under team control

(01:00:51):
for a while, you might have to give up a lot.
I think there's a difference between give up a lot
and mortgaging the future. You know, we did this two
years ago, right, it was we don't want to give
up too much. You don't want to mortgage your future.
You don't want to sacrifice long term, you don't want
to screw up the plan. And my response to that was,

(01:01:14):
and two years later I have not gotten an answer,
was what deal is out there that has you totally
derailing your plan moving forward? Because if you make one
trade and suddenly you have no chance of winning down
the road, then to me, your organization stinks like one
trade is going to totally screw it up. I don't

(01:01:36):
believe that. So I think there's a difference between giving
up a lot and giving up something of value and
screwing your team up long term. I don't view giving
up a lot as the same as screwing up your
team long term. You know, we talk about the reds though.
We want them to be bold, and we want them
to be aggressive. And so to me, aggressive isn't do

(01:01:56):
it on July thirty first, it's do it now. But
doing a deal now means you probably have to jump
to the front of the line. And if you jump
to the front of the line, you probably have to
be willing to pay the most. Is Nick Krag going
to be willing to do that? It feels like the
answer is no, because he has said time and again,
we're waiting. We're waiting. We want to see where we
are that kind of thing, which would suggest, if you

(01:02:19):
take him at his word, that they're most likely to
act on July thirty first if they do it all.
But this is look, you can make a case they
need a bullpen arm. You could very easily make a
case they don't have enough starting pitching depth. When's Hunter
Green going to come back? What do you do with
Chase Burns? We had a caller on this show earlier

(01:02:39):
this week who suggested, when Hunter Green comes back, you
kind of go one to two, Chase Burns and Hunter
Green in the same game. One guy pitches half, the
other guy pitches the other. I think there's some validity
to that. I also think there's some flaws in that plan.
But you can make a case. You know, you hear
it all the time. You never have enough starting pitching.
You can make a case they need starting pitcher. We'll see,

(01:03:05):
we'll see. But to me, like their biggest issue offensively is, yes,
I wish they had another guy we all do who
you could just write down in a full season for
thirty home runs and maybe Cees was supposed to be
that guy. But the lack of production from the second
spot of the batting order I would love to find somebody,

(01:03:27):
and maybe it becomes Matt McClain in the second half.
I would love to find somebody who can get on
on a consistent basis behind TJ Friedel and give Ellie
de la Cruz more RBI opportunities. If you are insisting
on hitting Ellie third, and we've made the argument he
should hit even higher. But if you're gonna insist on
him hitting third and you want other teams to walk

(01:03:48):
him less frequently, put more guys on base in front
of them. That falls on the second hole. Obviously, TJ.
Friedel dropped off a little bit toward the end of
the first half, but for the most has had a
very good season. Give me a one two of TJ
and somebody who can get on base, then let's see
what the offense looks like. Uh five, fifteen thirty, Mike,

(01:04:13):
go ahead, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
Thank you, mo. How's the day going.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Day is going great? How about yourself?

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
Pretty good? Pretty good? Got some new hardware today, It's
even better. I'll tell you this modern technology is incredible.
It really is.

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
Okay, I uh, as far as my leg goes. But
the quarterback rating thing Uh, I don't think it really.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
Makes much difference. I mean, you know, it's such a
subjective thing. I mean, uh, I know Pat Holmes is
is a dog right now until somebody dethrones him. He's
not as far as his uh, his uh creativity as

(01:05:01):
a quarterback and the way he can kind of make
things happen. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
Patrick Patrick Mahomes is terrific. Last year, he wasn't by
his standards that good. Now, if you were starting an
NFL franchise, or if I were starting an NFL franchise
and either one of us were handed Patrick Mahomes, we
would do cartwheels, right, we would do somersaults. But I

(01:05:26):
do think it's fair when you evaluate these quarterbacks. You know,
if you want to do the let's rank combined number thing,
I think it's fair to put Patrick Mahomes a wrong
slight wrung behind players who were simply better last year.
But if you're using my criteria, which is just ask,
can you have a conversation about who the best quarterback
in the league is without mentioning this guy? That applies

(01:05:48):
to Patrick Mahomes, because while last season he wasn't by
his standards great. You cannot have a conversation about who
the best quarterback in the league is without putting Patrick
Mahomes in the mix.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
Yeah, and Joe's right there.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
I mean it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:05):
This is such a you know, little tiny tidbits of
how good these guys are, of the top four or
five of them. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:06:14):
I have never been a big Lamar Jackson fan. I
just I just think his his his predominance has been
attributed to his ability to run the football as a passer.
I just he's not Joe Burrow and he's not Patrick Mahomes,
but he is, you know, dangerous in that regard.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
Hey, well, I'll tell you what though. I mean, forty
one to four td to pick ratio. Led the league
in touchdown in a touchdown percentage like Lamar Jackson has
do I think as a passer for the ball, he's
Joe Burrow. As a passer of the balls, he Patrick Mahomes. No,
he has improved leaps and bounds. Led the league in

(01:06:56):
passer rating last year, led the league in QBR, led
the league in net yards per attend like we saw
it against the Bengals twice last year. Lamar Jackson as
a thrower is far far better than you're giving him
credit for, and frankly, far better than a lot of
us thought he was going to be when he first
entered the league. He has become more than capable. And

(01:07:18):
I'm putting it mildly with his arm.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
Can I switch to will you allow me two things?
Shamar Stewart and uh.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
I got like three minutes. If you can get them
both in, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
Tamar Stewart. Okay, I tried to do a little research
on this. So if he says, I've read rich Bengals,
screw you, I'm going to go back to Texas, And
I now know he can't get an nil money if
he goes back. He can't unless they do it under
the table. So he and when he if he comes
back and thinks, well, I'll show them and he comes back,

(01:07:52):
the Bengals still have his rights next year. Yes, and
so so I don't know. Does he hate Cincinnati, Ohio
so bad that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
He well, I don't. I don't think we have to
dive too deep into the weeds in relation to him
going back to college, because that doesn't seem like something
that's likely. Though I will admit you can't ignore the
possibility because of how absurd this has been. I think, though,
it is totally reasonable to wonder does the guy really
want to play for the Cincinnati Bengals. Because he's not,

(01:08:25):
and and because he's he's he's doing what none of
the other thirty one first round draft choices are doing.
He is deciding to engage the Bengals in a staring
contest a week before training camp. And I can't help
but believe that if he had a real burning desire
to play for the Cincinnati Bengals, that he would just
go up and and throw his hands up and sign
the deal and play here and show up for camp

(01:08:47):
day one.

Speaker 3 (01:08:49):
You talk about a head scratcher, and only only the
Bengals can create these situations. I swear to God Baseball.
I'm looking at We're two and a half back to
the back in the Wildcards. I'm looking at pitching staff,
the r as. The Giants are third in the league,
padres six in the league. Milwaukee's goin't gonna catch Milwaukee.

(01:09:13):
Milwaukee's eighth in the league. Pittsburgh's even ahead of us.
Right now, we're eighteenth in the league. In the r A,
I just keep thinking mot it's going to be hard.
Plus the other factor is these other teams. The Cubs,
they got Tucker, they got a couple of other I
can't think of superstar names on the top of my head. Yeah,

(01:09:34):
and the Padres have Machado and that young phenom center field.
But you see what I'm saying, those some of those
teams have some solid, proven superstars and we don't. And
this is what makes it, I think, really hard for
us to uh to catch other than the Carter.

Speaker 1 (01:09:55):
Yeah, very reasonable. I think they I frankly think that
the Cardinals are gonna fall apart here in the second
half min Thanks for the phone call. Very reasonable. It's
it's they're not catching Milwaukee. They're certainly not catching the Cubs.
Can they catch the New York Mets, San Diego Padres,
San Francisco Giants. They get a shot against the Mets

(01:10:18):
this weekend? Very fair points Brendman and Jones on Baseball's
next Hunter Green, even though it's not called the d
L anymore. I have not yet thrown my pole question
out there. I will do it here during the break
at Mogar. Thanks to United Heartland Insurance. If you don't
know what you're paying for insurance premiums. Why not check
it out, see what you're paying, and then see if

(01:10:41):
the folks that United Heartland Insurance can do better. I
bet they can learn more at u hi ns dot com.
Brendanman and Jones on baseball is next on ESPN fifteen
thirty Day Here we Go five O five, ESPN fifteen
thirty Moleger, appreciate you listening. By the way, if this
was brought up just a short while ago, you know,

(01:11:01):
earlier this week the Cover three podcast, it was speculated
that maybe Shamar Stewart's going to go back and play
college football for Texas A and M. And our friend
Kelsey Conway, who's going to be in studio with us
tomorrow issued a clarification that Shamar Stewart has been working
out at Texas A and M. He isn't practicing with

(01:11:21):
the team, and there's a major difference. Players do this
all the time. They'll work out get ready for the
season at the school they went to and in some
cases just a school in the area. There's a major
difference between that and practicing with the team. The head
coach at Texas Tech is Mike Elko, who squashed any

(01:11:42):
speculation today about whether Shamar Stewart is going to come
back and try to play college football. According to Benbaby
of ESPN dot Com, Elko told ESPN Shay Cornett quote,
there's no intention of Schamar to play for the Aggies
this year, but he has been around. He's very comfortable
in our program, really likes what we do training wise.

(01:12:05):
He's been training getting ready for his season this year
with the Bengals. We wish him the best. So if
that's the thing, if it's, oh, he's gonna go back
and play college football again. Like this story has been
so absurd that once you reach a certain level of absurdity,
you can't count out anything. It did, It did already

(01:12:28):
feel very unlikely. It feels even less likely with the
head coach at Texas A and M saying what he
said earlier today. The big NFL news of the day
is TJ. Watt. TJ Watt gonna be thirty one by
the end of the season. TJ. Watt one of the
elite edge rushers in the NFL. TJ. Watt is better
against the run than Trey Hendrickson is, and maybe that's

(01:12:50):
where the two the two players split, But anyway, TJ.
Watt has been looking for a contract extension from the
Pittsburgh Steelers. He has gotten one, one that will make
him the highest paid non quarterback in the NFL three
years one, twenty three, one oh eight guaranteed forty one
mill on average annual value. I do not know if

(01:13:13):
this is going to compel the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson
to come closer, but in an off season where I
think this is the first off season where we have
talked often about the highest paid non quarterback in the NFL.
And by the way, I think that's going to become
part of our our our year in, year out vocabulary.
It's being used again. And in a year where the

(01:13:35):
edge rusher market has exploded, it's exploded even further. Uh
not insanely so. Miles Garrett got forty TJ. Wackett's forty one.
What this does for Trey Hendrickson, Your guess is as
good as mine. I think what we're all rooting for
here is for the two sides to find some common

(01:13:56):
ground where you you hope that there is some room
between the twenty eight the Bengals have reportedly offered and
now the forty one that TJ. Watt has signed for
and again we talked about this a little bit last hour.
Danielle Hunter is at thirty six and a half. That's
kind of right there in the middle, right there in
the sweet spot between twenty eight and forty one. Will

(01:14:19):
see if between now and the start of camp some
progress can be made. I've heard people, including people who
I think know a lot about how this works, who
have expressed some skepticism that the Trey Hendrickson thing is
going to have a resolution before next week or before
the end of next week, and hopefully that's the case.

(01:14:42):
I'm just we've watched some contractual things in recent years
that have dragged out longer than they should drag out.
This has already with Trey, dragged out longer than you
could argue it should. We'll see if that becomes the
latest to drag out and further and seep into the
beginning of training camp. Your thoughts on those developments are welcome.

(01:15:07):
At five point three, seven, four nine fifteen thirty FC
Cincinnati wins last night. By the way, it's worth mentioning
it is the Mikeelob Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour. Thanks
to Michelob Ultra, superior light beer, superior taste. Posting up
on a Thursday night enjoying Ice Cold mic Ultra. Why
not you're an FC Cincinnati fan enjoining Ice Cold Mick

(01:15:29):
Ultra because that team played great last night. Dominant performance
over Inner Miami. A front row seat for Evander to
have another brace, another two goal game, player of the
match day, a front row seat enjoyed by Lionel Messi.
Who if if you knew nothing about either team last
night and he said, pick the player who right now

(01:15:51):
is the face of the league, I don't think you
would say a guy who is considered one of the
world's most popular athletes. I think you'd be talking about Evander.
A thorough dominant performance and one that was badly needed
for a few different reasons. Mechanically speaking, FC Cincinnati is
trying to be the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

(01:16:12):
FC Cincinnati would love another supporter shield, But emotionally it's
something that this team has often been really good at
in the pat noon and era. The loss on Saturday
night was a gut punch, and it was a gut
punch at phase value. It's hard right you lose it
home to a team that's chasing you in the conference,
in the supporter shield race. It's a rivalry. You lose

(01:16:33):
it home to them. That stinks you lose to them,
though following what is for this franchise a painfully familiar script,
and it felt like more than just one loss early
to nothing lead. They lose four to two. There's an
own goal in there that makes it three to two Columbus.
And we talked yesterday with Danny Higginbotham from Apple TV

(01:16:54):
on but part of an MLS season season pass. He
called the match last night and we talked about like
in that game and felt like a lot of the
air came out of the balloon because FC Cincinnati had
played so well coming into that game last night. What
has been a hallmark often over the last couple of
years of the pat Noonan regime has been if FC

(01:17:15):
Cincinnati lays a stinker on Saturday, they let it go
and they play even better the following Saturday. They don't
let losses fester. There was no hangover effect. They were
dominant last night and a big six point swing between
them and Inner Miami. FC Cincinnati with a big win
last night, they have achieved at least what they have

(01:17:37):
achieved to this point in the season. We talk all
the time about like the Bengals specifically, fingering out ways
to work through the noise, figuring out ways to work
through distraction. It's probably gonna be something next week, right
whether it's Shamar Stewart, whether it's Demetrius Night. And what's happening,
by the way, right now in the NFL with essentially

(01:17:58):
all their second rounders now looking for guaranteed money is interesting.
The Houston Texans and Cleveland Browns, I'm sure made a
lot of other NFL teams pissed off when they decided
to give full guaranteed money to their second round picks,
and so now get a whole lot of second round
picks going I want mine, and I'm sure getting some
union pressure to hold out for full guaranteed money. We'll

(01:18:20):
see if that impacts Demetrius Knight. But whether it's Demetrius
Knight or Shamar Stewart or the Trey Hendrickson thing, we're
probably gonna be spending a lot of time at the
outset of training camp talking about distractions and talking about
things that don't have all that much to do with
winning on the field this year, and you could argue,
I guess one of the reasons why the Bengals have

(01:18:42):
gone off to such slow starts in recent seasons is
there's just way too much off field noise, way too
much uncertainty, way too many distractions. It's not the same
NFL teams are covered differently. There's more media, there's more conjecture,
just more people around. But still in recent years have
not been very good at working through uncertainty and winning

(01:19:05):
in spite of it. At least early in the season.
FC Cincinnati had an offseason defined by uncertainty. And while
they've had their tough stretches, still a team that dealt
with a lot of kind of off season and preseason
training upheaval, that also traded away a guy that two
years ago one league MVP. They have still figured out

(01:19:28):
a way to put themselves squarely in the race for
the top spot in the entire league. Chris Albright and
Pat Noonan should consult other sports teams how to do
something similar. Fourteen minutes after five o'clock, we've done some
red stuff today as well, and you know, we were
talking with our guy Mike before the top of the hour.

(01:19:48):
I think it's unfortunate man, you could. You could look
at the standings and make the case that the Reds
are in the hunt. You could also look at them
versus some of the teams they're going to be chasing down,
and well, you don't feel all that confident. You could
also look at their track record against some of the
teams they're gonna be playing. They have been not good
this year against teams in the National League Central. In

(01:20:10):
the second half of the season, they're gonna have to
be better against the Cubs and the Cardinals and the Brewers.
And by the way, they're gonna have to figure out
ways to accelerate their pace. Right now, they're on an
eighty three and a half win pace. That ain't gonna
be good enough. So they're gonna have to pick up
the pace while playing against the league's toughest schedule in

(01:20:31):
the second half of the season, starting tomorrow night with
three in New York against the Mets, The Reds between
now and the end of the season have six with
the Dodgers, including three at the end of the month here.
They have seven with the Chicago Cubs. They have six
with Milwaukee. They have three more with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Those games are here. They have three with Toronto. They

(01:20:54):
have six against the New York Mets. Now, yeah, man,
they do have series against Washington, including next week. The
Nationals aren't very good. They've got seven with the Pirates.
The Pirates have very good starting pitching, they can't hit
worth a lick. Still have a series with the should
still be in Oakland A's They've got a series with
the Angels. But if you look, they have what sixty

(01:21:17):
five games to go six plus seven, that's nineteen plus
twenty two, twenty thirty. One of those sixty five games
are against the Dodgers, the Cubs, the Brewers, the Phillies,
the Blue Jays of the Mets, so lots of factors
work against them. I do think we talked before. I

(01:21:38):
think this is a really huge next sixty five games
for the Reds because I think most are going to
judge them on one thing. Are you or are you
not going to make the postseason? Are you or are
you not? A playoff team? And if the Reds aren't,
it's going to be hard, I think to convince people
that the plan is working. I also feel like they've

(01:21:59):
they've got a chance to do a little bit of
a rebrand here with the trade deadline two weeks away.
The Reds brand is for better or for worse, right
or wrong. The Reds brand is they're a franchise that's
just not going to be that aggressive. They want to win,
they won't go to the end of the earth to win.

(01:22:21):
They've got an opportunity to make their team better. They've
also got an opportunity for a little bit of a
rebrand here, or at least a little bit of an
opportunity to cut into the narrative and cut into the brand,
which is the Reds aren't going to go for it
even when they should. They're not going to go for it.
They're not gonna go to the end of the earth

(01:22:41):
to try to win. They're not going to be aggressive.
They're going to stand and watch at the deadline with
some form of aggression, some form of aggressiveness. They've got
a chance to cut into that just a little bit.
But I will acknowledge to you that even if they
acquire somebody to address one of their many needs, it

(01:23:03):
is probably still going to be really hard to look
at their chances of making the postseason and feel great
about them because of the quality of competition they play
their track record against some of the best teams in
the division, and the quality of the opponents they're trying
to chase down by the way, and I said I
was going to do this last hour. Somebody brought up, like,
you know, addressing needs, and my take was, you know too,

(01:23:26):
hole hitter is important. A lot of folks have talked
about Steven Kwan maybe being out there, Cleveland Guardians player
who's under team control. I think we're all really holding
out hope that Matt McClain has a better last two
and a half months. It's almost hard impossible, I should say,
for it to be worse. I looked this up and

(01:23:46):
understanding that the two hole this year has not solely
been occupied by Matt McClain. Santiago Espinal's hit there a
little bit, but it's been mostly occupied by Matt McClain.
The Reds two hole hitters have an OPS this year
of two ninety one, that's fourth worst in baseball. The

(01:24:08):
Reds two hole hitters this season combined have the second
worst batting average in baseball. The Reds two hole hitters
this year have the twenty ninth best OPS in baseball.
Yes they need a thumper, Yes, you could use a
guy who's a home run threat man. Setting the table

(01:24:29):
at the top of the order has been something that TJ.
Friedel has done a pretty good job of. Whoever has
been batting second has done the exact opposite. That must change,
whether a change has come, whether the change comes via trade,
or the change comes because somebody on the team like
Matt McClain starts to perform better. It is impossible, impossible

(01:24:53):
to imagine the Reds offensively being dramatically better if their
two hole production continues to be among them leagues worst.
I think that is almost inarguable. Nineteen minutes after five
o'clock five point three, seven four nine, fifteen thirty is
our number eight sixty six seven oh two three seven
seven six. We referenced this yesterday the list of the

(01:25:17):
NFL's overrated and underrated teams. The Bengals were listed as overrated.
I don't buy it next Russian. It's on Twitter at Molager.
Thanks to our friends and yours at United Heartland Insurance.
Whether it's your car, your boat, your your house, life business,
your commercial fleet, United Heartland Insurance can ensure that you're

(01:25:41):
not paying too much for insurance. Check out Uhi ns
dot com. I asked this simple question, and I'll explain
why I'm asking it here in just a little bit.
But it's it's a simple one, and I know what
the results are going to be. Have college sports been ruined?
Vote now at Muegger. Although I'm looking at the first

(01:26:04):
handful of people who have voted and I'm pleasantly surprised
by the results, my guess is those rest results aren't
gonna hold. We will see more on that here coming
up in just about ten minutes. By the way, don't
forget Tony and Moo training camp show July twenty third,
starting at ten am.

Speaker 3 (01:26:25):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
We love the Athletic dot com. So the Athletic dot
Com has an NFL writer by the name of Mike
Jones who lists the NFL's overrated and underrated teams. He
lists the Bengals as one of the NFL's overrated teams,
along with the Detroit Lion, San Francisco forty nine ers,

(01:26:48):
and Buffalo Bills. I'll read what he wrote. I'll read
part of what he wrote. Cincinnati both a great offensive
trio and Joe Burrow and is recently handsomely and compensated
receivers and Jamar Chason t Higgins. But winning meaningful games
in this league requires a strong defense, and that's where
the question begins in Cincinnati. And then he goes on

(01:27:08):
to right about what the Bengals haven't haven't done with
their defense overrated. Now, I don't know who's doing the
rating here, which means I don't know who's doing the
over rating here. I think the Bengals are properly rated,

(01:27:28):
and I look at two metrics. One is far far
less scientific than the other. I believe if you said
to most NFL fans, and in fact, I think even
the most Bengals fans name the team that is most
likely to come out of the AFC and go to
the Super Bowl, most aren't gonna say the Bengals. Most

(01:27:53):
are gonna look at the trio of teams Baltimore, Buffalo,
and Kansas City. You obviously will find folks who believe
the Bengals are going to get there. I think the
Bengals are going to be a playoff team. It's hard
for me to say super Bowl because I haven't seen
the defense yet. Neither of us have. We haven't seen
the offensive line yet. By the way, Evan McPherson for

(01:28:17):
a team that played in a lot of close games
last year. Dude was six for twelve kicks from forty plus.
If you can't make those, he's just another kicker. I
think they're properly rated. I think most of you him
as a playoff team. They're in that like next rung.

(01:28:38):
If you look at Vegas odds to get to the
Super Bowl, that the clearcut three favorites are Buffalo, Baltimore
in Kansas City makes total sense. And then there's a
bit of a gap, and then there's the Bengals in
a handful of other teams as well. I believe when
it comes to both Vegas and when it comes to

(01:29:00):
how we talk about this league, I feel like the
Bengals are properly rated. I think they're viewed as an
interesting team team that certainly has a genuine chance to
make the postseason, but then has a lingering question that
is just too pressing right now for most to consider.

(01:29:23):
Like you know what, they're in that mix. They're right
there with the teams that are odds on favorites to
get to the Super Bowl out of the AFC. Now,
the consensus can change its mind if over the first
four or five weeks the defense is playing lights out constantly,
you know, being a reason why the team is winning,
getting after quarterbacks, creating turnovers, etc. Then I feel like

(01:29:44):
the consensus is going to change. But I actually think
the Bengals for the most part, are very properly rated,
both in terms of how we talk about Like. I
don't think you can find an analyst or one of
these people who scream about football on TV that won't
acknowledge Bengals defense is a major question mark. And by

(01:30:06):
the way, how is it not. I mean, I could
be as optimistic as anybody about Joe Burrow and company,
but I have no idea if the defense is going
to be dramatically better, slightly better, or just as bad.
No clue. A whole lot of dudes from that defense
that were here last year don't know all that much
about Al Golden because they haven't seen what a professional

(01:30:28):
football defense coordinated by him looks like. Everybody acknowledges that.
Everybody acknowledges the team's difficulty in putting together good offensive lines.
Who's ignoring that. I don't think they're overrated. I also
don't like I don't think they're underrated either. You know

(01:30:51):
anybody who thinks Bengal's gonna win six games this year?
Vegas is looking at him that way. Vegas has an
over under depending on which book you use, over under
nine and a half or ten and a half. Yet
the Super Bowl odds aren't great. Last checked, it was
one thousand to win the AFC, much much higher than Baltimore,

(01:31:14):
Kansas City, or Buffalo. In fact, I do this every
single day. I can't find anybody who is overrating or underrating.
The underrating is no chance of making the playoffs, probably
gonna finish, maybe in last place. We're talking about seven

(01:31:34):
win potential. I can't find anybody who believes that. I
can't find anybody, Vegas or otherwise who views this team
as one of the favorites in the conference. I don't
know if there's a team in the NFL right now that,
quite frankly, is more properly rated than the Bengals. Sports

(01:31:54):
headlines and we'll get to our poll question because I
need to know something next. Kelsey Chevrolet home of lifetime
powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family to
yours for life. Kelsey chev dot Com not a lot
going on. TJ. Watt and the Steelers agree to a
contract extension three years, one hundred and twenty three mil,

(01:32:15):
makes him the highest paid non quarterback in the NFL
edge rusher market. Reset Trey Hendrickson is still waiting to
sign a contract. He's under contract for this year. I
think that's wor it gets lost in the flood sometimes.
Texas A and M head coach Mike Elko says, no,
Chamar Stewart's not going to come back and play for
US Final Day, the All Star Break for the Reds,

(01:32:37):
They're in Queen's tomorrow night take on the Mets, first
of three. Nicola Doola will start the second half of
the season on the hill for Cincinnati. E Vander named
Man of the Match Day. That is not what they
call it. That is not what they don't call a
Man of the Match Day and MLS Player of the
Match Day presented by Michelobultra for Match Day twenty five

(01:32:59):
for his performance in last night's FC Cincinnati victory over
Enter Miami Bengals training camp by the way, starting in
six days. Chances are you know that we are stoked.
On ESPN fifteen thirty, We're gonna enhance our training camp
coverage with the Tonian Mode Training Camp Show, so starting
on the twenty third and running not every day during

(01:33:22):
training camp because obviously there are days during training camp
where the Bengals are off or where they're traveling to
a preseason game or playing a preseason game. But it
adds up to ten different shows starting next Thursday through
mid August, where we're gonna do two hours from Bengals
training camp in the morning live on ESPN fifteen thirty

(01:33:43):
from ten to noon, and then Tony is gonna stick
around and do Sincy three to sixty from Bengals training
camp from noon to three. I'll be here from my
regular show from three to six, but extended and expanded
Bengals training camp coverage on the Tonian Mode Training Camp
Show beginning on the twenty third. I'm gonna tread lightly

(01:34:03):
when I do this. There are reports that the President
of the United States could sign an executive order to
usher in national standards for NIL across college athletics. Now
this made headlines earlier today. I was watching Pete Dammel
on ESPN kind of kind of cool everybody down, and

(01:34:25):
he said, look, nobody's really expecting this to happen anytime soon,
if at all. So it's not imminent, but it's it's
something that has been floated out there before. Now. I
will admit to you that I struggle with this because
I believe in free markets and I think everybody should
get every time they can, and I don't believe in
anything that puts a cap on what people can earn.

(01:34:47):
At the same time, like I certainly can understand, like
you know, there does need to be at least some
degree of regulation in college sports. At the same time,
whenever I hear people talk about, well, there's haves and
have not in college sports, We've had them since college
sports began to exist. Here's what's interesting to me. It's

(01:35:09):
because I watched people talk about this on social media.
I listened to Dan Patrick have a conversation about this.
Right I listen to the Dan Patrick Show. They staged
a conversation about this weeks ago when it was first
floated that there might be an executive order that puts
restrictions on what athletes can get in nil money. I

(01:35:32):
hear and see people rationalize this by saying college sports
are being ruined, College football is being ruined, college basketball
is being ruined. I wonder, who are they being ruined for?
Paul question I have right now has this pretty much
at about fifty to fifty at moegar thanks to United

(01:35:54):
Heartland Insurance. Who are they being ruined for?

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:35:57):
You might go, well, USMO fans. In my way of thinking,
something is being ruined if people stop watching it. There
are some TV shows that I loved and then the
writers will kind of ruin it with bad storylines, or
a cast member will leave or whatever it is, and

(01:36:17):
it's like shows ruined. I'm not going to watch anymore.
The NCAA tournament this year was the most watched in decades.
The National championship game this season was the most watched
in decades. I'm not dumb enough to think that gambling
doesn't have something to do with that, but still people
are consuming that particular sporting event in record numbers. College

(01:36:41):
football ratings this past season were through the roof. We
have never had more people talking about their team competing
for a championship because of the expanded college football Playoff.
It's one of the few areas where expansion I think
works because it makes people feel like their team has
access to the championship event. Ratings for the playoffs were good.

(01:37:06):
Ratings for college football this year was awesome. So if
it's being ruined for fans, well, they're still showing up.
The arenas are full, stadiums are full, the TV ratings
are great. Within the sports themselves, it feels like everybody's
getting money. Coaches salaries have never been higher, Administrators salaries

(01:37:28):
have never been higher. Players are getting paid, many of them,
not all quite handsomely. Who's it being ruined for?

Speaker 5 (01:37:39):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:37:39):
This is one of those that I ask, and I
genuinely want to know. There are aspects of how college
sports work now that I love compared to how things
used to be in college sports. And there are some
things that I'm not nuts about, like conference realignment. But
I think those who want to see some sort of

(01:38:01):
government intervention, which you know, to me, like, as a
free markets guy, I don't love any kind of government intervention.
That's that's a statement about sports but also nonsports. But
proponents of this will say, like something has to be done.
College sports are being ruined on some level. I hear
or see this written or said all the time. College

(01:38:24):
football is being ruined. Who's being ruined for? It's not
being ruined for the participants. It's not being ruined for
the coaches. It's not being ruined for the schools. College
football is the second biggest sport in this country. Like
it's It has surpassed the NBA, it has surpassed Major
League Baseball. It's gone from what used to be a

(01:38:45):
real kind of regional thing that folks talked about in
you know, non NFL cities or in rural areas or
in the South, to like it's the second biggest sport
in this country. The salaries within are exploding. Interest from
the outside has exploded. Every streaming service or TV network
wants an opportunity to carry games. Tons of good inventory there.

(01:39:10):
INSTAA tournament has never been more popular from a ratings perspective.
So if it's being ruined, it has to be fixed.
Who does it have to be fixed for? Just why?
I ask the question because I always I hear it.
And by the way, fifty two point one of you
say yes, I thought the number would be closed to
seventy five. I'm left to assume that whenever somebody says

(01:39:33):
college sports are being ruined, they just don't like the
fact that kids are getting paid. They know that's not
easy to say, so instead they'll just say something like, oh,
it's being ruined. See sixteen away from six o'clock. I
briefly brought something up earlier this hour that I think

(01:39:55):
should be talked about a little bit more on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. I don't know. I don't
know the answer to that one. Who got promoted ten
away from sex. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Tomorrow. In
the show, we'll get set for the second half of

(01:40:16):
the season. Reds and Mets start a three game set,
beginning of a six game road trip for the Reds
and a huge next twelve games. Also, our friend Kelsey
Conway from The Inquiry is going to spend an hour
with us in studio previewing training camp, talking about some
of the and look, yeah, there's Shamar Stewart, there's Trent Hendrickson,
Demetrius Knight. But there's some stuff that's got to be

(01:40:39):
sorted out or maybe some questions that can start to
be answered once the team hits the field next week.
And you know, Al Golden's got to fix the defense
with a whole lot of names that are familiar, and
the offensive line play there's been some skepticism expressed by
some really smart people that the Bengals are going to
have a good offensive line that's got to start to

(01:41:01):
be sorted out. And I'll admit this man. In recent
years during training camp, you know, we've had our guy
Tony down there, and on many occasions he is reported back, Hey,
the offensive line is struggling. And as much as people
don't like to hear that, well, what has happened for
most of these seasons. The offensive line hasn't been great.
With two new guards, assuming that Cordell Volson is not

(01:41:25):
does not earn a starting spot, can this offensive line
be dramatically better than it has been? I think this
one is interesting and I referenced this a little earlier
in the show. Last season, you kind of forget that
Evan McPherson did not have a good year. Money Mack

(01:41:45):
was in many respects, just another kicker. If you look
at his numbers, especially from d from forty yards an
out Evan mcpheerson last year was six for twelve, three
for seven from fifty plus. He was fine on pats.

(01:42:10):
He was automatic from inside forty Every NFL kicker is
Evan McPherson was drafted because he's not just a field
goal kicker. He's a weapon, and he's a guy that
can change how you call plays. He's a guy who
could change how you manage the end of halves or
how you manage even the end of regulation. He's a weapon.

(01:42:33):
And you know what, if you remember when he got drafted,
we talked about the Ravens and Justin Tucker and how
how many times we had seen the Bengals play the
Baltimore Ravens, where the Ravens have a guy, a weapon
who can make kicks from fifty beyond, and so there
are situations where they might have to take on some
risk going forward on fourth or you know what, we
got a guy who can make a kick, we're good,

(01:42:54):
or hey, we might normally punt here, but we don't
have to because we got a guy who can make
a kick. We had watched the do that with Justin
Tucker for years, and the thought was the Bengals can
do that with Evan McPherson, and his first couple of
years in the league, that's exactly what happened. You know,
his first two seasons in the NFL, just look at
fifty plus I'm not even talking about like the game

(01:43:14):
winning kicks or the kicks in the postseason. Just in
the regular season he was fourteen for sixteen fifty plus,
fourteen for sixteen fifty plus. And then you know, obviously,
and it's where he got the nickname money Mack. In
the postseason, made some of the biggest kicks in the
history of the franchise. If he's not making long kicks,

(01:43:37):
he's just another kicker. He's not a weapon, he's not
money Mack. Now, he dealt with an injury last year.
We know how it ended his season, and so that's
obviously something that has to be factored into the equation
as well. But let's facete it. The Bengals are probably
going to play in a lot of close games this
year because it's the NFL. Most games are close. We
talk all the time about how they have to win

(01:43:58):
games in the margins. We've heard excuses about how well
new operation with a different punter, and you know, that's
kind of been evolving over the years, because you know,
it's taken some time to get settled at punter since
Evans first season in the NFL. And because of that,
you know, Ryan Rico is the holder now and whatever.

(01:44:19):
The kicking for the Cincinnati Bengals last season left a
lot to be desired, and so I think it is
completely in bounds to wonder does that significantly improve this year.
When I say significantly, I'm not talking about making thirty
two yard field goals. We're talking about making the long ones,
the ones at the end of a half where all right,
you know it's either throw a hail Mary or make

(01:44:41):
a kick or try a kick, or the ones where
instead of keeping the offense on the field on fourth
and six close to midfield, we're gonna put our field
goal kicker out there and he's gonna get his points.
It's not just about Evan McPherson making a higher percentage
of field goals. It's Evan McPherson giving the Bengals a
weapon and some some one who kind of looms over

(01:45:01):
everything as they call plays. Is he a guy that's
gonna make the sort of kicks that can win or
lose games? And last year it felt like, instead of
being a weapon, he was just another kicker. I don't
know that We're gonna get a lot of great answers
as it relates to that question. Once camp begins, but
it's one that we're gonna ask and it's one that's
got to be given a good answer once the game's

(01:45:23):
for real actually start, and we'll throw that at Kelsey
Conway and see what he has to say as we
talk tomorrow and look ahead to Bengals training camp, which
again begins on Thursday. Podcasts of this show are available
on the iHeartRadio app. Speaking of the Bengals, speaking of
our long conversations, our friend Paul Danner Junior was with
us earlier this week. If you miss that, it's available

(01:45:46):
right now on the iHeartRadio app. Also on my page
at the ESPN fifteen to thirty dot com. Good stuff
with Aaron Layton from jess Baseball dot com as well.
He went down the pretty much all the Reds draft
picks who matter and more. Listen to that now on
the iHeartRadio app. Make sure you preset ESPN fifteen thirty,
Make sure you preset The Moegger Show. Make sure you

(01:46:08):
preset since three p sixty as well. Make sure you're
here tomorrow at three oh five. We look forward to that.
By the way, podcast of this show a service of
long neck sports Grill michelob Ultra five o'clock Happy Hour,
a service of Michelobultra. Thanks to Drew Wester Heidi four
producing today, and thanks to you for listening. Have an
unbelievable Thursday night. This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports

(01:46:30):
Station