The Mo Egger Show -- 4/29/24

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What's up, good at Pronunamwegger.This is ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you
for listening. Hopefully you had aterrific weekend. It was gorgeous out.
We're finally getting good weekend weather,or at least we did this weekend,
and it's nice out today, sothat is good. I am delighted that
you are here. Joe Goodberry isgoing to be with us in fifteen minutes.

(00:20):
Bengals on the brain as good asthey come when it comes to breaking
down the draft. Excited for that. You know this was a draft.
I feel like for the first timein a while that the I want to
say that the jury is is out. Like most put whatever stock you want
into two grades, like we allacknowledge they're silly, and then we can't

(00:43):
wait to read what different grades areout there, like we will acknowledge that
it's kind of done to grade adraft in its immediate aftermath, and then
you know, if you're like me, and for the most part, I
hope you're not. You spent alarge chunk of your Sunday morning and maybe
some time today scouring the internet,as we say, to find out who

(01:03):
was giving the Bengals what marks,and for the most part, the marks
have been good. But I thinkfor the first time in a while,
there are maybe not so much concernsbut legitimate questions about the approach and ultimately
the players that they have chosen.And so we're gonna get into all that
with Joe coming up in just aboutfifteen minutes. We do this this week

(01:25):
every year, and this will happenover the course of the next couple of
days. The Bengals draft players andthe guys the people that I think are
usually best equipped to talk about themare their position coaches. It's funny with
the guys the Bengals have drafted,there's been a lot of movement among their
position coaches, and that'll be somethingthat we aim to do as the week
unfolds. We are going to goto Athens, Georgia and chat with a

(01:49):
guy by the name of Palmer Tom'sin just about one hour and get his
perspective. This guy has covered theGeorgia Bulldogs now for a while. Obviously,
the Bengals took hi Marius Mems,but they also took Jermaine Burton,
who started his college football career atGeorgia's. So all of that coming up
between now and six o'clock, we'llget into the Reds and an active weekend.

(02:10):
A good weekend for Hunter Green,a not so good weekend for the
Reds offense. Maybe aside from JonathanIndia, Roger Goodell wants an eighteenth regular
season game. I'm probably the onlyfootball fan that doesn't. I'll explain why
and so much more, by theway, on Twitter at moegar, on

(02:30):
X at moegar. Thanks to ourfriends at Delta Dental. Delta Dental is
building healthy, smart and vibrant communitiesfor all good a Delta DENTALOAH dot com
and the show preview videos also onx as well. Thanks to our friends
at Emory Federal Credit Union. Goto EMORYFCU dot org to find out how
you can become a member. Wetalked extensively about Amarus Mims on Friday.

(02:55):
I feel the same as I didon Friday. I think there's a difference
between a project and a guy whojust needs a little bit more seasoning and
a little bit more development. Itis funny, though you still hear you
heard this a lot on Friday,and you even heard it a little bit
in the run up to the draft. Well, the Bengals don't have a
very good track record of developing offensivelineman. I want to address that.

(03:17):
We'll do that a little bit lateron. Bengals took a wide receiver Jermaine
Burton. I don't have that muchinterest in doing a Zuppruder film examination of
the incident that he was involved inwhen he was at Alabama and he swats

(03:38):
a young lady in the face,which he did when she was running out
onto the field, and the obvioustake that a lot of people are gonna
have. I guess there's a couple, but one would be, look,
this is what you get when yourun out onto the field. I don't
really agree with that entirely, Butlook, I certainly don't believe that fans
belong on the field, especially inheated environments like the aftermath of an Alabama

(04:00):
Tennessee football game. That kid,I remember when that happened. He got
a lot of criticism. He reallydidn't get punished the criticism he got.
He earned. The criticism he gotin the draft process of his role in
that incident he earned. Should thatin itself have precluded the Bengals from taking
him, Well, clearly it didnot. Now somebody said this to me

(04:24):
today when I got to work.You know, you were the guy who
seven years ago didn't want the Bengalsto draft Joe Mixon and I did not.
Now, for the most part,Joe did what I asked in the
immediate aftermath of them taking him,which was make me feel good about this
and prove that the Bengals homework wasdiligent, and prove them right now.

(04:46):
Obviously a year ago at this timewe were talking about some off field Joe
Mixon incidents. I've got my thoughtson them. They're sort of irrelevant.
But on the field and for themost part, off Joe ended up making
me feel pretty good about the decisionto take him in the second round,
trading down to take him in thesecond round of the twenty seventeen draft,
even though I was thoroughly against it. Why was I against it? I

(05:11):
was against it because I didn't trustthat coaching regime. I didn't trust that
basic era of Bengals football to getit right. Now they got it right.
For the most part, they gotit right, and I have We've
had Kyle Caskey on this show abunch of times. He was the running
backs coach, we got Kyle onthe show right after they drafted Joe Mixon.
I've talked with Kyle privately about this, and he went through all the

(05:36):
work and time and effort and energythat went into vetting out Joe Mixon as
well as sizing up other options atthat same position, And so I came
to appreciate the work they put intochoosing to draft Joe Mixon. But going
into it, look, man,let's be honest, it was a coaching
staff, and it was sort ofan era that had become sometimes unfairly but

(05:59):
at times very fairly, known forbeing a little bit too willing to overlook
off field issues. You know.Look, that was still a regime that
had Vontes perfect to be fair andnever really got in trouble off the field,
but on the field couldn't control himself, and Adam Jones and then so
many guys before him. That wasan era of Bengals football. For all

(06:19):
of its high points, and therewere many where the franchise kind of became
known for a lack of discipline andfor having a lot of guys who just
seemed to not really get it.And so I was opposed to drafting Joe
because I didn't trust that regime.I'm giving this regime the benefit of the

(06:39):
doubt. Now, there obviously aresome common denominators, and one of them
is obviously the Mike Brown family orthe Brown family. One of them is
obviously Duke Tobin. But I trustthis group to have done its homework,
to have vetted this out as thoroughlyas possible. Zach Taylor talked about that
right after they took Jermaine Burton.I'll put some stock and what the kid

(07:00):
has said about the incident and howhe's grown and how he's evolved and how
he has matured. And so I'mputting faith in the current regime, the
coaches, the scouts, the personneldepartment, in the fact that I believe
that they have successfully or at leastthoroughly vetted this out, weighed the pros

(07:23):
and cons, weighed other wide receiveroptions, and if they're comfortable with what
they have learned about Jermaine Burton,then I'm going to be comfortable about drafting
Jermaine Burton. Maybe you agree,maybe you disagree. From a pure football
perspective. Good Barry and I aregoing to talk about this in just a
couple of minutes. But if youwant to have some fun, go to

(07:46):
YouTube and watch some of the dude'shighlights. The thing that's going to jump
off the page statistically is twenty anda half yards per reception. Add that
to what the Bengals shouldn't be ableto do offensively, and and you can
have a lot of fun letting yourimagination run wild. They also took a
defensive tackle in the third round inMcKinley Jackson from Texas A and M,

(08:09):
and the immediate reaction to that onFriday night was, Okay, Bengals need
players at this position. Bengals couldcould use some help on the interior of
the defensive line, They could usesome help against the run. But boy,
this is likely a player they couldhave drafted on Saturday. Some evaluators

(08:30):
had McKinley Jackson is a sixth rounder, and so that certainly does give you
pause. But I do think,especially if you're in a position like the
Bengals that say what you want aboutwhat they chose to do in the first
round, let's be honest, atleast for the short term, not a
ton of glaring holes right like youmight have wanted them to take a running

(08:52):
back this weekend. You might bewondering why they took two tight ends.
I tend to think those things arerelated. You might have wanted to see
them take an offensive line in,an interior offensive lineman a little bit earlier
in the draft. You are beingcompletely reasonable if you really wonder how good
this defense can be this year,this coming season relative to last year.
But I don't know that it's ateam that has this huge, massive,

(09:15):
gaping hole. I do think it'sbiggest concern or biggest question mark, is
stopping the run and getting a betterpass rush from the inside. And so
I do think there are times wherea need can justify a reach, and
I think this is one of thoseinstances. I'm not qualified to tell you

(09:37):
whether McKinley Jackson is deserving of athird round grade, a fourth round grade,
a sixth round grade, a firstround grade, or not being graded
at all. I don't know.That's why we're gonna get Joe Goodberry on
the show in just a couple ofminutes. But I do think there are
times when the need, and there'sa need here Bengals need interior defensive line
help. When the need could justifythe reach or the need could justify taking

(09:58):
another player at a different position thatyou might have higher on your board,
or that others have given a highergrade two. More on that coming up
in just a bit. If youhave any draft thoughts you want to share,
obviously five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen thirty and
eight sixty six, seven oh two, three seven seven six are open.

(10:20):
We are loaded today. By theway, we're broadcasting today from the Madewell
Restoration ESPN fifteen thirty studios. Asyou start to think of spring need anything
done around the house, make sureyou take a good look at the folks
at Madewell Restoration. Go to MaidwellRestoration dot com. Joe Goodberry Bengals on
the Brain on a thousand different Bengalsdraft related issues joins us next on ESPN

(10:46):
fifteen thirty hooping. We had onJoe Goodberry Bengals on the Brain thanks to
the first our media group on YouTube, and we had them on to preview
the draft and I said goodbye,and he goes, well, let's do
it after the draft and okayh twustmy arm. So Joe is here.
Let's start from a broad view thirtythousand feet what is for this draft in

(11:07):
particular for the Bengals. What isthe overarching theme for you? I think
the big thing is they took majorrisks, and every pick has some risks
to it, but what they didwas, Hey, we're going to bank
on a lot of these guys andif they hit their upside, this could
be a fantastic class in three years. I mean just from the top of
Arrius MEM's not having all the experienceand starts that you would typically want from

(11:30):
a first round pick, but allthe way down to third round Jermaine Burton,
his character flags and six schools andfour years, things like that,
but the tape is undeniable. Draftingnose tackle in the third round is typically
a risky selection because those guys area fifty to fifty lottery ticket at best.
And then Eric All with all ofhis injuries. You know, these

(11:50):
are good players, but if youare hoping that all of them pan out,
you're probably looking at coin flips thatdown the line at best. And
if that means a half of thempan out for you, hey they could
really good players. But I thinkthey took a lot of risk. All
right, So let's dive into someof these And I watched her show on
a Marius Mims. So for me, and I said this on Friday,
you could tell me if I'm anidiot. I think there's a difference between

(12:13):
a player who's a project and aplayer who needs more experience, some fine
tuning, needs the rough edges smoothedout. I don't view him as a
project. I know there's a relativelack of experience, but based on how
he did play when he was onthe field, I have a hard time
attaching that label to him. Whatdo you think? I completely agree with
this. The projects, to meare guys that either need to change something

(12:35):
significantly, need to be in adifferent scheme, need serious alterations to how
they play the game right, andthat those guys are the riskier of the
risky bunches. But Maria Sims justneeds snaps. He just needs time to
play. I think any mistake hemade was just him thinking too much of
like, you know, I'm notactually sure, am I supposed to get
to this guy? Do I climband help this guy? Do I get

(12:56):
to the linebacker here? Do Ipull out and go climbing at this corner?
So, especially in the run game, and you could tell he just
did not have the snaps to reallybe geled in with the rest of his
offensive linemen. So to me,the hardest part here is that the Bengals
have two good veteran starters at bothtackle spots. Now, Trent Brown may
deal with some injuries and it hasn'tbeen really available throughout his career, so

(13:18):
that's how Mims gets on the field. But man, I'd give him every
snap possible in training camp and OTAs, and then in preseason he should play
a bunch. In fact, inpreseason he should probably get most of his
experience that he's had including college.He's had ninety nine true pass sets total
in college. He may get closeto that in just three preseason games.
So Marius Mens should get a lotof the experience he needs before the season

(13:41):
actually starts. Now, you andI talked extensively about defensive tackles prior to
the draft. You mentioned they taketwo interior defensive linemen in rounds two and
three, the third round pick.They're a compensatory pick. A lot of
folks have labeled McKinley Jackson a reach. Is that your assessment? It's tough
because I feel like they needed anose tackle clearly and once to Andre Sweat

(14:05):
went off the board way earlier thanexpected, even with character issues. You
know, for the recent DWI,I was like kind of put on notice,
like, oh no, this couldstart a run and get people nervous
because there were only a couple maybethree total that you wanted, and then
there was maybe five others in thisclass. Say hey, i'll take'll
spend a sixth seventh round lottery tickingout in them and see if anything happens.
And the Bengals clearly at that pointsaid we want McKinley Jackson and we

(14:28):
wanted to develop him as our nosetackle. And McKinley Jackson thing is tough
because when you watch him on tape, actually had a higher tape grade from
myself than I did Chris Jenkins,because I thought Jackson, with his natural
leverage at six foot one, gotunderneath guards pretty consistently with good power first
step, his flashes are very verygood. It's just inconsistencies. Even though
he's a two time captain, hewas just I think they asked him to

(14:52):
do a little bit too much,and if he was a true nose tackle
for them, I thought that waswhen he was at his worst. To
me, he's like and Andrew Billingstype of nose tackle those guys that are
six to one. Sometimes, eventhough he's got the long arms, struggle
to find the ballcarrier and have visionin the backfield. So as they're trying
to stand up two guys and withstanda guard in a center double teaming,

(15:13):
they often lose the football and oftenlose where the play is going because they
don't have the heights to see it. I think that's where he struggles the
most. I wouldn't be surprised ifthey just with the McKinley Jackson pick have
to reshuffle how they play defense alittle bit, maybe not have a true
nose as much as they have andDJ Raider and more and go to more
of a one gap style defense,and I think would fit him and Chris
Jankins very well. They do.They stand a chance to be significantly better

(15:39):
defensively this year, just when youlook at the overall scope of the offseason,
because as we kind of turn ourattention toward the meat and potatoes of
training camp, I'm still I'm stillnot sure how good that unit's going to
be. Yeah, I agree withyou. I think the big upgrade is
the Gino Stone as the back halfsafety and getting Von Bell back, even
though I expect Jordan Battle to startthere, getting a veteran in that room

(16:02):
should should help the communication issues.Chino Stone is a good upgrade at safety,
you know. I think that's wheretheir big issues stemmed from. But
they also I would say, Ithink we talked about this throughout the year,
even when DJ Rider was in there. They were bad against the run,
right, so like, why dowe care so much if they lost
d J. Reader? Well,I thought they were mostly bad against the
run because that third and fourth defensivetackle that had to rotate in or was

(16:25):
absolutely terrible. Like Josh Tupau andZach Carter couldn't do a thing last year
to help you out. Every timethere was a big run, I'd look
at the look on the field,like, who is there on the defensive
line? Up Zach Carter Again,of course he's getting absolutely mauled on a
double team. Chris Jenkins is animmediate upgrade there, and I think mckimley
Jackson can at least be an upgradeto a Josh Tuppau even as a rookie.

(16:45):
But you do lose a DJ Reader, you replace it with the Sheldon
rankins. So you should be betteras a pass rusher inside, and they
needed that, and I didn't thinkthey got that in this class. Power
to knock them for like one thing, and they didn't get an interior offensive
lineman and they did to get morepass rush help on the inside other than
in the offseason getting Sheldon Rank Andso I think they can be different,
and sometimes different just helps you bebetter. But defensive rankings and output is

(17:07):
very volatile from season to season.You can go out there at the same
eleven players three years in a rowand end up with three different results.
Yeah, well, said Joe GoodbarryBengals on the Brain with us. You
mentioned Jermaine Burton, and yet thereare character concerns and those have been addressed.
If I am just looking at thestatistical profile, what jumps out is
twenty and a half yards per receptionthis past season in Alabama, eighteen over

(17:30):
the course of his four year collegefootball career. How does that translate to
being able to make a positive impactin the Cincinnati offense this year. Yeah.
So a big thing I thought theyneeded to get back on this offense
was a slot receiver that provided insideout versatility. It's one of the big
things with Tyler Boyd that kind ofhamstrung them just a little bit as he

(17:51):
had to be in the slot.And you can see a lot of number
one wide receivers in the NFL nowplay a significant portion of their snaps from
the slot, and it was hardto get chan in there when you had
Tyler Boyd on the field. SoI wanted them to get a guy that
can play outside and play inside.And the other part they needed to add
to this offense was a way tofind explosive plays once again, and Joe
Burrow said it, the coaches havesaid it. We've all said it,

(18:12):
because you know the twenty twenty oneyear of dropping bombs on every team and
then now you're sitting here and youknow the last two years and you can't
get anything downfield. Well, JermaineBurton is an answer to both of those
things. He has inside outside brastilitia. He plea did it at Alabama.
He's an explosive speed slot receiver thathas tremendous production downfield. Honestly, throw

(18:33):
on a highlight rail of Jermaine Burtonon YouTube, grab a drink, sit
back and have a good time becauseit is that fun to watch him play.
Great hands on a great and contestedsituations, great body, controlled downfield
and tracking the ball downfield, especiallyon the sidelines. Everything about him is
very, very very good on thefield. And he's going to a great
situation that's going to allow Chase toget into the SLI. He's gonna be

(18:56):
surrounded by veteran receivers. He's gonnahave r Walters is wide receiver coach Joe
Burrow to answer to and be heldaccountable for some of some things and make
sure he's he's on the up andup. But yeah, I think there's
a great position for him, andit's a potentially an upgrade for the Bengals.
And this is what Tyler boy isbeing a very good pick for them
and a very good player for theBengals for a long time. Getting different,

(19:18):
getting faster, getting more explosive,getting downfield, help with versatility from
ins that outside could be an upgrade. How does what they did at tight
end in this draft, taking two, which I think surprised a lot of
people, how does that reflect howthey deploy the position this year? Yeah,
that's interesting because I thought they hadthree solid veterans that they brought back
in the offseason was Micah Sacki,Tanner Hudson, and Andrew Sample on a

(19:41):
three year deal. So he's onlygot here past this season, and Tanner
Hudson didn't get a lot out there, so maybe he's still fighting for a
roster spot. But given that,I thought maybe one tech at tight end
what happened and when it was EricHall, a guy that on tape you
know for what he showed for itthe limited times he was out there.
I think he led Iowa and receivingyards and missed the next seven games,

(20:02):
the last seven games, So they'lltell you if you just watched a couple
of games he played, we'll seea guy that was completely their offense and
their passing offense and looks very verygood. But after a back injury that
Michigan wouldn't clear him for, andthen a knee injury this past year and
then he couldn't test, it putssome significant risk on him. And I
even saw Elbert Breer. I thinkafter the dress that he could end up

(20:22):
on the pup list or take ared shirt year this year because of the
injuries. Well, that would makesense then and you end up with Tanner
McLachlin as a Day three pick.Was a guy who's twenty five years old,
already as a rookie out of Canada, six years in college. But
on tape, I thought tannaer McLachlanwas a lot of fun, a lot
of vertical speed, makes guys miss, stretches the field, hard to tackle

(20:45):
and hard to bring down. Willjump over guys, spin over guys.
He's a good time to watch tooas well if you're looking for some offseason
fun highlights. But one of thoseguys. So if all ends up on
the pup list, Sintanna mclachlin's probablyare fourth. Maybe you go a little
bit lighter at running back. Dothey actually need to keep four running backs
this year with Chris Evan being thelast guy, and with how much Drew

(21:06):
Sample played h back and pass protectionfrom the backfield, Maybe you go heavy
at tight and go a little bitlighter at running back. So you just
answered my last question, which iswere you surprised or among those who were
surprised or slash disappointed that they didn'ttake a running back. I was very
disappointed. Yeah, I thought theyou know, it wasn't a great class.

(21:26):
But once you ended up with guysin the fourth and fifth round that
were still there that I thought werevery good. I was really hoping they
would be able to scoop one ofthem up and maybe prodrick estimate out of
their Dame would have been the pickand won a couple spots ahead of them
before they took Josh Newton. Butyeah, I was disappointed. I think
the running back room as a wholeis inexperienced. It doesn't have a long

(21:47):
track record. Even Zach Moss,who's presuming to be the running back one,
it's really only had an eight gamestretch in his career where he was
good, and he was really goodin that eight games last year. But
with Buffalo, you know, hestruggled get on the field. He's added
weight, dropped weight. I'm notsure if he's the big back they need.
Is a two fifteen while Chase Brownis two ten. The first time
they haven't had a two hundred andtwenty five plus pound back to handle the

(22:11):
load in a long time. AndI don't think they want that. They
don't want to belk out back.They want to have a rotation and a
committee. But once they get tonumber three trade on Williams and Chris Evans.
I'm not sure those guys make aroster on any of the team around
the league. Other teams seem thevalue that the depth at running back a
little bit more. So. Yeah, I was shocked, and now I'm
looking at it like, man,you know, I'm gonna be looking at

(22:32):
cut down day. I think whenwe get there in late August is a
maybe that position with Bengals cadada talent. You're doing a roster guide this summer,
Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, first start to put up that
book. But you know, wegoing to talk about Matt Lee though their
last pick. I would love todo. Let's go center from Miami.
Matt Lee is he? Is he? Like? Because I read someone said,
well, they didn't address the interiorof the offensive line. There's no

(22:56):
long term solution there. Do youthink Matt Lee istely loved Mattley. I
think he is a better in tieroffensive line prospect that like Jackson Carmen grated
lower for US, Deontay Smith.Wow, Trey Hill. If they haven't
drafted a guy this good and pastprotection in a long long time. When
you watch him and I didn't evenfocus on him. Originally, I was
watching Braden Fisk and Ruke Rororo andother defensive tackles, and I kept going,

(23:21):
who is this center from Miami.He's absolutely kicking their butts. And
then people are like, oh,yeah, he hasn't given up a sack
in his career Miami, and I'mlike, Okay, let me go back
and watch him. Fantastic. Hehonestly has a chance to be a starting
center down the line. He testedwell, he's athletic, he's got a
lot of experience. I'm really hopeful. Just don't cut him Bengals as a
rookie, you know they tend todo that sometimes with these late round picks.

(23:42):
Right, give him a year ortwo and let's see what he does.
All right. See, now you'vegiven me something to pay attention to
be on the usual once camp kidshere. You're always so generous with your
time. I love your work.I know you've been swamped man, so
I do appreciate it. Thank youas always, Thank you, Mom,
you guys. Joe Goodbarry Bengals onthe Brain with Joe Goodberry available on YouTube

(24:03):
thanks to First Star Media Group.It is a twenty five away from four
o'clock. Your phone calls are comingup. We're gonna go to Athens,
Georgia and talk about two Bengals draftchoices in thirty minutes. Lots of ground
to cover between now and six.I'm moegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati. Youfound Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. We're

(24:25):
way late. We're Saron's off today. We're breaking in a new guy producing
the show this afterrim So managing theclock might be a bit of an issue
sports headlines or a service of Kelsey'sChevrolet Home of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed
credit approval from their family to yoursfor life kelseyshev dot com Red's road trip

(24:48):
continues tonight. They're in San Diego, first of three against the Padres,
Nic Lodolo and writing Matt Waldron Artsand Nights Pitchers nine to forty this evening
on seven hundred WLW. The lineupisn't out yet, so there's nothing to
complain about. But I'm but I'msure momentarily as soon as it comes out,
you know, they're three hours behindis there in San Diego, So
it comes out a little bit laterwhen they're on the West coast, as

(25:11):
soon as it does well. Ifalthough I'll be honest, if Jamer Candelario
is in it, I'll complain.I don't care if he's betting first or
ninth. Jamber Candelario, not everyplayer that a team signs as a free
agent was a star. Now,there are some things he has been able

(25:33):
to do with the bat. Heled the league in doubles one year.
He's got some pop. But we'renot talking about an offensive player with an
incredibly high ceiling, and I'm pickingon him. The Rants have all sorts
of offensive issues. India has hita little bit better recently. Eli de
la Cruz is having a good season. Spencer Steer has cooled off. Pretty
much nobody else is hitting, soCandelario has a lot of company. But

(25:57):
you talk about somebody who over theweekend looked atrocious at the plate, including
yesterday and in big situations, tojam or Candelario. The ceiling, though,
just look look at the numbers.The ceiling's not that high. I
also think the floor is pretty low. We're looking at a guy closer to

(26:17):
the floor than the ceiling. Accordingto ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, who looks like
a cast member of Porky's. TheBengals and Trey hendricks Are they're going to
meet this week because Trey requested atrade and there were some people who thought
that might happen this weekend. Thosepeople are intimately unfamiliar with how the Bengals
operate, and so now there's goingto be a meeting of the minds,

(26:38):
a summit, if you will,and Trey Hendrickson is going to sit down
with the Bengals and talk. TravisKelcey has gotten a new contract from the
Chiefs, makes him the highest paidtight end of the sport. Jason Kelsey
is going to join Monday Night Countdownon ESPN and CBS booted boomeris Ison and

(26:59):
Phil Simms from the NFL today,which I would care about if it was
nineteen ninety And Luchouacosta named to aTeam of the Match Day for FC Cincinnati.
He is now the club's all timeleader and goals. His forty fourth
came on Saturday night. Corey Bairdnamed to the MLS Team of the Match
Day bench congratulations to him. Seventeenaway from four o'clock five point three seven,

(27:22):
four nine fifteen thirty is our phonenumber. Brian is calling us from
Eastgate. Brian, thanks for hangingon. How are you? I'm doing
pretty good? How you doing?Both? I have I've never been better,
Brian, literally in my entire life. This is the apex if you'd
have been better though, if theReds would have won two or three from
the Rangers the right, that wouldhave been nice both games there for the

(27:44):
taking Friday more so than yesterday,though obviously they had the time run a
scoring position in the ninth ning yesterday. Yeah, but anyway, I want
to talk about the first round trafficsfor the Bengals. Yeah, America,
Man, I was just wondering,does anybody take you know, kind of
quit wondering why? I guess thatthe jabs by Nick Saban and that,

(28:04):
and Marius didn't take much offense tothat what you said about how he's not
consistent enough? Did did a Marius? What was the question I was wondering,
did a Marius not take offense towhat Nick Saban had to say about
him after he got picked? Iguess not. I don't know. I
mean I appreciated Nick Saban's candor,you know, because I mean he even

(28:26):
said about about Jermaine Burton, aguy who played for him, like he's
he's gonna have to play better.He's gonna have he's gonna have to be
less emotional, you know, becausehe was asked about the thing with the
Tennessee student who ran out on thefield. And so I appreciate it.
When you watch the draft, it'sit's funny. I was watching Friday night.
My wife was in the room withme, and she wasn't paying very

(28:47):
close attention, but at one pointshe looked at me and said, are
any of these players not going tobe very good? And I said to
her, actually, most of themprobably won't be very good. She's like,
well, every time they pick aguy, the announcers talk about how
they are. So I appreciated NickSaban being willing to, you know,
not throw cold water over any pick, but at least present some cons or

(29:07):
present some things that could get inthat player's way. How much Amrius Simms
cares about Nick Saban, I don'tknow. He shouldn't care at all.
Like a Marius Simms has a prettysignificant he called him Sims. Amarius Mims
has a pretty significant undertaking in frontof him, where he has to learn
how to play professional football. He'sgoing to learn how to play offensive line
at this level. He's got tolearn the offense. He's going to integrate

(29:30):
himself with his teammates. He's gotto show that he is more a guy
who just needs refinement and less aproject. And whatever Nick Saban says,
or whatever any college coach says,specifically not his own, should be largely
irrelevant. Whatever Nick Saban says,it must be take you know, you
gotta be I guess sure, andlook, I mean Nick, Nick Saban

(29:55):
and Kirby Smart worked with each other. Amarus Mimms had a hard time getting
on the field, in large partbecause he was behind very good players.
Then he had the ankle issue.But he didn't play for a while,
not just because there were good playersin front of him. I'm sure there
were consistency issues or maybe technique issuesthat kept him from playing as much as

(30:18):
maybe a player drafted as high ashe was would typically play. Well,
we'll only find out who you know, agree that the Bangles kept this pick
right if if he you know,he takes a big impact in his first
year, I mean eight starts,and that Georgia is not that great.
But well no, but I mean, you know, again, there's lots

(30:41):
of reasons why only eight starts.One would be the program that he played
for, right. I mean,so in twenty twenty one, he doesn't
start a game, but he's playingbehind guys who made up an offensive line
that helped win a national title,and then something similar in twenty twenty two
when he does play, you know, by all accounts, he showed enough
to make you like this dude isworth investing a first round pick in.

(31:03):
But no, he hasn't played enough. I mean, so, now does
he make an immediate impact? Myguess is he plays. My guess is
the Bengals, at least at thestart of training camp talk about how it's
going to be an open competition.My guess is he is not the starting
right tackle week one. But I'mnot gonna Brian, thank you. I'm
not gonna judge the validity of apick based on what happens in the first

(31:23):
year. I think there's great follyin doing that. There are fair questions
about how NFL ready he is.But I keep coming back to this.
I put it on social media onFriday. I just talked about it with
Joe. We made it a segmenton Friday show. Here. I think
there's a difference between a project anda player who could just benefit from experience

(31:45):
and whose game needs rounding in theform who's got some rough edges that have
to be smoothed out. It feelslike that's what a Marius Mims is.
Also, I have now called hima Marius Sims twice. How many times
will that happen? Austin? Youhost a number of Bengals postgame radio shows?
Correct? Yes? Will you takea drink every time someone calls in

(32:06):
and refers to a Marius Simms?Yeah? Sure, because I've now done
it twice. As long as it'snot Pat Simms, that's what matters.
Very good, Amarus Mims. Icalled him Sims on Friday, I've called
him Sims today. I'm two fortwo. It is twelve minutes away from
four o'clock. By the way,how's it going learning how to produce this
show? It's fine. We're gonnago to Athens, Georgia and talk about

(32:29):
Amarus Mims at four oh five onESPN fifteen thirty. When employers like seven
hundred Wlwncintas choose TJ Anton it's sevenaway from four o'clock. Excuse me,
this is ESPN fifteen thirty. Bythe way, I have I've neglected to
mention at four thirty three today wehave a very big announcement, massive,

(32:53):
huge, enormous. Had there beenvocal there, I would have hit the
post thirty three life changing announcement onthis show. So make sure you're here.
Tell your co workers, tell yourkids, tell your spouse, tell
whoever. It's gonna be just it'sgonna be life changing, and I cannot

(33:15):
wait. At four thirty three Brendanmanand Jones on baseball, also about an
hour from right now, we sortof sifting through all the Bengals draft choices.
Here Eric All. Bengals took twotight ends. Eric All from Fairfield.
It's a local kid, which iskind of cool. I'll be honest
with you, whenever Iowa football wason TV this year, I quickly found

(33:38):
something else to watch. I don'tthink in the history of me as a
sports fan, I found anything moredifficult to watch on a consistent basis.
And this has really been the casefor years than Iowa football. At least
when the Hawkeyes had the ball.Eric All suffered a significant ne injury in
ACL tear. Last year on Wednesdayswe do the orthos See Injury Report,

(34:01):
and I don't know who we're gonnahave on on Wednesday, but whichever medical
expert we get, I want totalk about two significant injuries. One is
the ACL tear, which was sufferedback in October. Now by all accounts,
he is trending toward being able tobe on the field at the start
of training camp, but that's obviouslysomething we're going to be paying attention to.

(34:22):
The ACL taar came after our buddyDan Brugler put it as life changing
spinal surgery in twenty twenty two becausehe had a herniated disc. That feels
to me like two very big injuriesclose to each other that I think it's
fair to wonder number one, howmuch did that slide him down to the

(34:45):
fourth round, if at all.Number two, how much pause did that
give other teams? And how muchpause shouldn't have given the Bengals when assessing
his NFL bonuf. I don't know. What I do think is interesting is
to start to think about, youknow, folks wondering, well, how
are they going to use running backnow that they didn't draft running back,

(35:09):
and they have signed a couple ofguys as college free agents. I think
the answer is sort of multifaceted.Number One, this doesn't want to be
a running team. This coaching staffdoesn't want to be a running team.
Number Two, I think there aretimes where, maybe because of the tight
ends they have, you see onelineup in the backfield. I also think

(35:30):
it's interesting to think about, likewhat Mike Giseki's role could look like if
eric All stays healthy and is onthe field a bunch. I think there's
now a really fun competition at tightend, given the fact that they have
the dudes who were on the teamlast year minus Irvsmith. They've brought in

(35:52):
Giseki, they've drafted too, Likethat's going to be really fun. But
I also think it's a lot offun to just think about maybe how they
deploy Mike Kiseki if they plan onEric All being a big part of the
offense. We'll go to Athens,Georgia next four o'clock, ESPN fifteen thirty.
This report is sponsored by Indeed dotcom Need to Hire You Need Indeed

(36:15):
their end to N five. Thisis ESPN fifteen thirty on Moeger, thank
you so much for listening today,Brennanman and Jones on baseball a little bit
later on, I am probably theonly NFL fan who does not want an
eighteen game regular season. We'll explainwhy. And a Reds trend that needs
to get reversed soon that coming upin just about fifteen minutes plus, we

(36:37):
have a major announcement at four thirtythree. So the Bengals take Amarya Simms
the nineteenth overall, the eighteenth overallpick on Thursday night in the NFL Draft,
a tackle from Georgia also drafted,Jermaine Burton, who played for a
couple of seasons with the Bulldogs.My cousin. My cousin's married to a

(36:57):
guy who I think loves Georgia footballmore than any of us love any team
in any sport, with the exceptionof me and U see basketball. And
so I said to him, like, all right, who's your go to
guy for Georgia stuff? And hegoes his name is Palmer, Palmer Thoms,
and I said, okay, cool. So I look up Palmer read
his stuff and I find out theguy is like following me on Twitter.

(37:19):
So that's the guy. We're gonnaget on. So he's with us now,
he is with Dog's HQ. Bythe way, it's Georgia, so
it's Dawgs and he's with us totalk about Amara Simms and more. It's
good to have you that I callhim Sims again. Good God, I
am like I am turning into whoam I turning into? Austin? Somebody

(37:40):
you don't want to be? SomebodyI don't want to be. We're gonna
talk about a Marius Mims. I'vedone it three times now since Friday.
Hi Palmer, how are you?I'm doing well? And you know,
Amus Mims a Marius Sims either way, since he's getting a good football player,
well, getting a good football player, getting a big football player,

(38:00):
and getting someone who when I meethim face to face, I want to
make sure I get his his lastname right. Uh? So you covered
this dude when he was on thefield. What did he do? Yeah?
When he was on the field,he was an incredibly productive right tackle
for the Bulldogs. I mean,you know, like everybody knows, he's
you know, massive, six footeight three and forty pounds, but he

(38:22):
carries it so well, you know, almost looked like he could put on
a little bit more weight. Youknow, just one of those guys that
is a freak of nature in hisbuild and played that way when he was
on the field. You know,only started his eight career games that Georgia
missed, you know, playton sixthis past played in seven, started six
this past season, but dealt withan ankle injury there that kept him out

(38:45):
of the games that he was youknow, sidelined for, and so ultimately
it's a situation where you haven't seena ton of him, but when you
turn on the tape and what thetape that is out there, it's absolutely
incredible. How much of a revelationwas his performance against Ohio State and the
college football playoffs. Yeah, thatwas an interesting time for Georgia because you

(39:08):
know, Amarius had been somebody thatwas a key contributor for the Bulldogs all
season in twenty twenty two. Youknow, they've played regularly, played you
know, seven offensive linemen and rotatedand so Amarus was one of those that
was coming off the bench. Andyou know, you you asked Kirby Smart
about it, and you say,hey, I know he wasn't a starter

(39:30):
until that Ohio State game and Kirbywill stop you right there in your tracks
and say, hey, he wasa starter to us. We viewed him
as a starter. So he madethat first career start, but he was
a starter in the eyes of everybodyat Georgia. And you know, you
you turn on the tape from thatgame and he absolutely held his own.
He was not scared, you know, in any situation, you know,

(39:53):
and made it a very tough situationfor Georgia, tough choice. When they
were able to get Warren McClendon back, who was the original right tackle starter
who's now with the Los Angeles Rams, was picked by them last year,
he died a situation where it waslike, hey, this is a Marus
guy. He's almost too good tokeep off the field. I mean,

(40:15):
you know, they didn't want todeal with the transfer portal situation with him.
They had dealt with that after hisfreshman year in Athens, and it
wasn't that there wasn't a necessarily aclear starting spot for him, but they
had to make it known, heywe want you here. You are going
to play, and ultimately, youknow, the way that twenty twenty two
played out with him being a regularin the rotation and then ultimately starting George's

(40:38):
two biggest games of that season.Absolutely was a testament to you know,
the truth behind their statements. Hesuffered the ankle injury, came back,
and the sample size you know,once he came back wasn't huge because there
was a reinjury. But when hedid come back, was there any drop
off in his play? No?In fact, I would say, you
know, some of the best games, some of the best that he played

(41:00):
was against Tennessee after that injury.You turn on the film and it is
just, you know, he isconstantly holding his own and you know,
keep in mind, da've Tennessee there, They've got one of the top edge
rushers in the country for next year'sNFL draft, James Pearce. So the
fact that Amarius on a banged upankle, you know, had had had

(41:22):
that surgery in September, ended upmaking a return later in the season in
November. The fact that he wason a surgically repaired ankle and more than
holding his own against UH one ofthe top pass rushers in the country,
absolutely tells you everything that you needto know. And you know, ultimately,
I look at this Sincy situation andI think that he's going into a

(41:42):
great spot with you know, Orlandoand Trent Brown both there, He's gonna
have an opportunity to learn. Idon't I wouldn't rule out the potential of
him maybe playing some guard because Ithink that that is something that you look
at what he's really good at.He is a really, really really good
run blocker. You know, absolutelycan improve as a pass blockers. He's
certainly adequate as a pass blocker,and he's going to continue to get better

(42:06):
as he continues to get coached upand develops. But as a run blocker,
he's more than capable already. AndI think that with those two tackles
in place, you could put himat guard and he would be more than
you know, an adequate fit there. Palmer Thom's dogs a q HQ with
us. You know the weakness ifyou're looking at all the draft guides and
they'll say strengths and weakness is theobvious strength is his size, and the

(42:30):
weakness is the relative lack of experience. Beyond that, is there an area
where he has to get better?I just think ultimately it comes down to
I would say, adding on tothe strength is his athleticism. And that
goes hand in hand with the inexperienceis it is a it's a it's not

(42:51):
even a rawness. You know.I listened into what Zach Taylor had to
say, and he's you know,made sure to clarify he's not raw.
He's just an experience. But Ithink that that athleticism makes up for,
you know, a lack of theexperience there. So, you know,
I think he can improve as apass protector. I think he's really good
as a pass protector already. Hewouldn't have gone in the first round if

(43:13):
he wasn't. But I think thathe can prove there and ultimately, I
think that's an improvement that will comea with experience and be with more time
and development in his athletic body.The other player of the Bengals draft with
Georgia Tiz Jermaine Burton, who helpedhim win a national title, was second
on the team and receiving in thetwenty twenty one season. Then he goes

(43:35):
to Alabama and stays in the SEC. What stood out about his time in
Athens. Yeah, I think youlook back at his time and Athens starting
in that twenty twenty season as atrue freshman. He stepped right in and
made an impact. You know,was a very much a downfield threat for
Georgia. You know, dealt withsome injuries there during that twenty twenty one

(43:57):
season, so they didn't necessarily havehim as often as they would like.
That really resulted in the emergence ofLad mccauckey, who we saw go in
the second round for Georgia. Uhto the Chargers there. But you know,
I think that in in Jermaine,you've got a downfield threat. Well
Bama, I mean, you knowthat was their game this past season with

(44:20):
Jalen Milroe and you know his abilityto throw the deep ball very well.
Jermaine Burton was on the receiving endof several of those deep ball passes.
Uh. Leave Georgia just because theywere stocked at wide receiver. What happened
there? Yeah, I think youknow, you look at Georgia's system and
that twenty twenty one season, keepin mind, brock Bowers was a true
freshman that year, so they theyyou knew that Georgia was going to continue

(44:46):
to utilize the skill set, thevery unique skill set of brock Bowers,
and so a lot of targets weregonna go his way, you know,
And so I think that ultimately wewere talking about a situation where Georgia doesn't
necessarily feature one guy as much asthey utilize the skill sets of everybody.

(45:07):
And so Jermaine left for you know, what he considered to be greener pastures
where he might be a featured guy. Awesome insight, man, I do
appreciate you jumping on with us.Thanks so much. Absolutely, you got
it. That's Palmer Thom's Georgia beatwriter Dog's h Q on Amarus Mims.

(45:29):
You know, Austin on this show, we keep a cup that I have
to put money in every time Imentioned something like a pitcher's win total or
something like that. Yeah, we'regonna go double fine for every time I
refer to the Bengals first round draftchoice as Amarus Simms. Do you need
to like empty out the bucket oflike all the people with the last name
Sims that you know now to justkind of just like three of them,

(45:52):
right? So Pat Simms, huh, Phil Simms? Right, Maybe that's
what this is. I know aguy named Lance Sis. I think there
was a former Bengal dB Lashawn Simms. Maybe, Okay, Okay, So
for whatever reason, because I didthis on Friday as well, I called
him Amara Simms and I'm the guywho in the Bengals drafted Billy Price.

(46:13):
Said a lot of people are goingto call him Brian Price. Now,
Brian Price ended up being fired likefifteen games into the subsequent season, so
it never became an issue. ButI remember thinking to myself, oh my
god, I'm gonna call this dudeBrian Price. I don't know who was
worse at their job Billy Price.I was about to say more successful career,
Yeah, Billy or Brian. Imean Billy played last year in the

(46:36):
NFL. Yeah, Brian Price isthe pitching coach. I think he might
be with the Padres anyway. Uhyeah, I don't. I mean it's
we're not talking about some dude who'sgoing to struggle to make the team.
He was the eighteenth overall pick.I can't keep getting this wrong. There
is a musical artist called Mims.In my MS. It stands for music

(46:59):
is My Savior. Maybe that's somethingyou can use to remember music is,
I say, Mimes. He wrotea song called this is Why I'm Hot?
Okay, I help. I appreciateyou jumping in to tell me.
Because God loved Terran, you knowwhat he would have done. He would
have just made me, let mesound like a fool. Just you know,
we got this guy on, he'sjoining us, and here I am

(47:22):
calling the guys wrong. I didyell pretty loud in your ear. I
apologize, thank you, No,I trust me, trust me. I
could not appreciate it more. Iwill not get mad at you for doing
that, Amarus Mimes. In fact, had you said in my ear,
not on the air, hey,dumb bleep, it's Mimes, I wouldn't
have had a hard time with that. So from now on we'll tell n

(47:43):
is Tarran back tomorrow. I believehe is. We're expanding the fine Cup.
The fine cup goes for whenever Imention a picture's wind loss total,
which I haven't done in three years, or if I use a word that
on the air that you don't usein regular conversation, or now, if
I call a Mayorius mems Amarius Sims, I will have to throw a dollar
into the fine Cup. So you'rein charge of keeping track of that.

(48:07):
Today it is sixteen minutes after fouro'clock five one, three, seven,
four, nine, fifteen thirty andeight six six seven oh two three seven
seven six big, big announcement comingup in just about eighteen minutes. There
is a reds trend that has toreverse, and like every other football fan

(48:27):
is salivating at Roger Goodell suggesting,Hey, we're gonna have eighteen games here.
Not by the way, the currentCBA is not up for like six
years. So if it's gonna happenanytime soon, they're gonna have to like
revisit an existing CBA, and theplayers are gonna have something to say about
it. I don't want eighteen games, and there's one basic reason as to
why. I'll explain and we'll takesome phone calls. Next on ESPN fifteen

(48:50):
thirty, Cincinnati's esp Oh, yeah, I know this song. So this
is Mims. This is Mims.Sims music is my savior with the this
was their only hit memes. Yes, all right, this this song's kind
of annoying. I'm not gonna lieto him. I can't believe you know
it? Yeah, I mean Idon't know the words. I mean,
there's a guy who's seen Springsteen twentytimes twenty one this one. I know.

(49:15):
There's a parody of this. Thisis why Duke sucks, which I
like. All right, this isawful. Turn this off. I hope
Amarus Mems is better at football thanMimes is better at making music. We
haven't you could feel, you know, I'm just sort of isolated here in
this studio. But you know,there are times you have a genuine sense,

(49:37):
even when you're here, of what'sgoing on in the city. And
I can feel that there is atension in the air right now all throughout
Cincinnati is the queen city awaits ourbig announcement coming up in just about ten
minutes. It's it's going to bemassive. It's going to be immense.
Does it have anything to do withthe mock draft you've been working on?
What might tie to my big board? Okay, I've been working on my

(49:59):
twenty two twenty five big board.Last night I couldn't sleep. I got
to work on that. So Idon't know when it's gonna be a good
time to release my big board,but it's you know it'll be, but
it might be loosely tied to that, very loosely tied to that. We're
all gonna find out together coming upin just about ten minutes. You're one
of these guys, Austin. You'relike the football fans they show in beer

(50:22):
commercials, aren't you. No?I hate that. I like football.
Make all the football fans look likeidiots. Right, Well, you're one
of these guys like football fans andbeer commercials. If you said we're gonna
have a fifty eight game NFL regularseason, they would be okay with that.
You're one of these guys. Yeah, I mean, I'm okay with
it. You and Tony we're talkingabout Roger Goodell goes on the pat back

(50:43):
off the show and he's talking about, well, we won an eighteen game
regular season. We'd like some symmetryhere. We'd like to have you know,
I'm paraphrasing him here, but it'dbe nice to have nine home,
nine road. Now. He alsowants more international games, which I'm opposed
to, but fine, And thecarrot he's dangling in of all of us
is if we can have eighteen regularseason games, well, then we'll only

(51:05):
have two preseason games and the Mondayafter the super Bowl off and the Monday
after the super Bowl off. BecauseI guess for a lot of people in
this country, the super Bowl beingplayed at six point thirty at night,
leaves them completely unable to go towork the next day. I still want
to know what people are doing onSuper Bowl Sunday. That makes you know.
What you could do is take avacation day. That's what most people

(51:27):
do. I'm taking a vacation daythis this Friday. It's Oaks Day.
I don't cry that Oaks Day ison Friday. No, I want it
off. I take the day off. You know, you could do that
the Monday after the Super Bowl andby the way, those of us in
sports talk radio will still be working. So so Roger he's dangling that in
front of people. We're gonna havethe Monday after the Super Bowl off,
which I'm not entirely opposed to,and we're gonna have eighteen games and that's

(51:51):
that means only two preseason games.Now, there's a big part of me
that likes that because preseason football,let's call it what it is. It's
awful that fourth pre season game thatwent away a couple of years ago.
None of us miss it. Andyet I'm still opposed because, like,
injuries are always going to be apart of sports. If you have been

(52:13):
following the NBA playoffs, the playoffshave been dramatically shaped by injury. A
really good, fun, young Indianateam is up three to one on Milwaukee,
in large part because the Bucks' besttwo players didn't play last night.
The bucks best player hasn't played sofar in the postseason. Joe l Embiid
has been physically compromised in the nextPhilly series. The Knicks don't have Julius

(52:35):
Randall. Kawhi Leonard has missed time. Injury shapes every season, every championship.
I don't want more injuries to shapechampionships. So like we've we've done
this. Adding the seventeenth game,you're taking away a preseason game. Starters,
regular players aren't playing in the preseasonanyway, But we're adding a game

(52:58):
that counts, which means we're addinganother game where players are prone to suffering
an injury. Now you're willing tobite that bullet in the regular season,
because there's nothing more deflating than losinga key guy in a preseason game,
which is why we don't want players. We don't want Joe Burrow playing in
the preseason. And if he plays, just a handful of snaps and get
him out of harm's way. Butone more week of regular season games.

(53:23):
Even if we get the added byeweek that would push everything back to President's
Day weekend. One more regular seasongames increases the likelihood that injury is going
to shape even further who wins thechampionship. I'm not interested in that.

(53:44):
I kind of like it how itis. I like the fact that if
you go play an international game andthere's going to be more, you have
aid at home, eight on theroad, and if you don't, there's
a weird you know, imbalance ninehome nine road, and then it goes
the other way the following year.I kind of feel like, now it's
perfect. I feel like now,as much as I don't love preseason football,

(54:07):
the coaches do get just enough ofa preseason game evaluation tool that if
you take a game away, they'renot gonna have as much of We're not
dragged through that last preseason game.Uh. I think it's almost perfect.
An extra week. It does nothingmore but at injury. By the way,

(54:31):
look at the playoffs over the lastcouple of years and look at the
number of guys not available for them. We had a huge issue this past
season with quarterbacks suffering all sorts ofinjuries. I want all the best quarterbacks
playing in the postseason. I putthem in harm's way for another regular season
game, which I don't think there'sa huge appetite for to begin with.

(54:52):
I'm just increasing the likelihood the playoffsplay out without the best quarterbacks playing in
them. I want the best playerson the field in the playof we've added
a playoff game. I want thebest players. I want the quarterbacks who
I love to watch on the fieldin the postseason. Every regular season game
you add increases the likelihood that you'renot gonna have a key guy, a

(55:15):
quarterback specifically, but a key guyin the games that matter the most.
This sport is already shaped too muchby injury. Who wins the title,
who competes for the title is alreadyshaped too much by injury. We understand
that, we accept it. It'sa part of sports. That doesn't mean

(55:36):
we need more of it. Ithink the way things are set up right
now is pretty damn perfect. Idon't even have a huge appetite for it.
God, I need the Monday offafter the Super Bowl. Like we've
We've existed for a long time withpeople going to work today after Super Bowl
Sunday and it's okay, like we'llbe we'll be fine. And again like
if if you can't, if youcan't go to work the next day because

(55:59):
you watch the game until ten thirtyon a Sunday night and you drank too
much, we'll prepare ahead and takethe day off work the next day.
But I just more than anything,the eighteenth regular season game. It's just
another sixteen games, many of whichwill have some bearing on the postseason,

(56:19):
where now we have another injury andanother injury on top of an already long
list going into the postseason. I'lltake it. I'll watch it. We
all will. Some are gonna sayit's more games to gamble on. Most
of us will love having one lesspreseason game shove down our throats. But
I want the games that matter themost to have the best players on the
field. More regular season games lessensthat possibility, No, thank you.

(56:44):
Is there a scenario where the NFLbecomes too big for its own good?
Many would say it's already happened.Like I agree with what Mike Florio Pro
Football Talk rotes. At some pointit's we're gonna have twenty regular season games
and no preseason games, you know, too big I don't know. I
don't love I don't love the additionalinternational games because I feel like if we're

(57:06):
now going to come back to thepublic trough and as for more public money
for stadiums, at the very leasttaxpayers should get, you know, as
many regular season games as possible.Let's not ship one to London or Brazil
or Germany or Australia or wherever.But yeah, I mean some would say
it's already happened. I don't know. Look, there's none of us who

(57:27):
aren't gonna watch it. I justI want to protect the playoffs. The
NFL has the best postseason, it'srelatively quick, it's not been that watered
down by the added team per conference. I don't want more backup quarterbacks playing
in the playoffs. I don't wantmore really good players sitting in luxury suites
for playoff games because they can't playbecause they got to hurt in the regular
season. I just and we alreadyhave enough, okay, teams making the

(57:52):
playoffs. We do a good enoughjob of sifting through who's gonna make it.
And by the way, we're probablygonna get to eighteen games than eight
playoff teams. But I want thebest players on the field for the games
that matter the most. We gota big announcement coming up. You could
feel the tension in the building,you could feel the nervousness in the city.
We'll get to that after local sportsheadlines on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports

(58:15):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty. Trafficfrom the UC Health Traffic Center. The
experts at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute'sBrain Tumor Center offer patients access to leading
edge treatments and unmatched comprehensive care.Learn more at ucehealth dot com. Couple
of accidents in your way seventy fiveNorth at Mitchell Avenue. It's got the

(58:36):
right two lanes block your stop andgo from seventy four and there's a crash
on seventy one South between Northwood Lateraland Smith Edwards. I'm John Crawford with
traffic. This report is sponsored byMacy's Backstage. Mother's Day is coming up
and sports Headlines are a service ofKelsey Chevrolet Home of lifetime powertrain protection and

(58:57):
guaranteed credit approval from their family toyours for life kelseyshev dot com. Red's
continue their road trip they lost twoto three over the weekend in Arlington against
the Rangers. Cincinnati Reds are nowone in four this season in one run
games. They lose yesterday four tothree. They lost on Friday two to
one. Now it's early still,and it's a small sample size. The

(59:20):
Reds were really good in one rungames last year fifteen to ten so far
year to year that tends not torepeat. I don't think they're gonna play
two hundred baseball all season in onerun games, and maybe they don't have
to play six hundred baseball and onerun games, but they got to be
better. Perhaps tonight's game will bea one run tilt and the Reds will

(59:42):
win. Nick Lodolo and righty MattWaldron are tonight's pitchers. Nine to forty.
Tonight baseball on the West Coast onseven hundred WLW. Lucho Acosta named
to the Team of the Match dayafter scoring his forty fourth career goal for
FC Cincinnati. He is now theclub's all time I'm leader in goals,
passing Brandon Vasquez. Congratulations to aLucho. FC Cincinnati wins on Saturday night,

(01:00:07):
too to one over Colorado. JeremyFowler of ESPN says, the Bengals
and Trey Hendrickson are going to meetthis week. I guess to talk about
Trey's trade request and why it's notgonna happen. So we'll have maybe news
on that later this week. Ithink that's all I got for local sports
headlines. Are we ready for thebig announcement? I believe, and I

(01:00:30):
could be wrong about this. Ithink, with the exception of the COVID
year twenty twenty, that this isnow the twelfth I can look this up,
the twelfth consecutive year that we havedone this. It is the best
contest we do. And when Isay we, this company owns fourteen thousand

(01:00:52):
radio stations. The best contest ofthose fourteen thousand radio stations is the one
that we have just long lunched afew minutes ago. It's Mow your Lawn.
It's back. Listen to that,listen to that fake studio audience.
Mow your lawn is back. Now, mow your lawn. For the uninitiated

(01:01:14):
among you, well, this isa great contest. One lucky winner is
going to win a brand new lawnmowerthanks to our friends at Backsla Tractor in
Batavia a brand new lawnmower. Right, So that's that's pretty damn that's a
good prize. You'd be when somebodybrought a brand new lawnmower to your house.
You'd be thrilled. But wait,there's more, because not only do

(01:01:36):
you win the brand new lawnmower,you win tickets on the lawn mow your
lawn on the lawn to every Riverbendshow on the twenty twenty four calendar.
This year's calendar is absolutely packed.And so you win the lawnmower, think
about that. That's that's a greatprize, that's worth a fair amount of

(01:01:58):
money. And then you win ticketsto all the River Bend shows. Think
about the worth the cost of thatprize. That's pretty damn good. You're
gonna win both. And here's theeither the cool part or the annoying part
for you, depending on your perspective. You find out you're a winner,
and you're thinking, great, NowI gotta go out to Kenwood. I

(01:02:19):
gotta pick up the lawnmower. Maybethe lawnmower doesn't fit in your car,
and you've got to call your weirdbrother in law and borrow as truck,
which is always no, no,no, no, I will If you're
the winner, I will come overto your house, whether you like it
or not, and I will bringyou the lawnmower and all the river Bend
tickets. I think we still forthis contest, we break out the old

(01:02:40):
school, like paper card stock tickets. I'll bring this stuff to your house.
And I have made the same offerevery year. Only one person has
ever taken me up on it.If you're nice and if you provide beverages
refreshment, I will mow your lawn. Now, let's ensure that we're doing

(01:03:02):
it within reason. Here. Ifyou have like seventeen acres, I'm not
doing that. But if you've gotlike a normal lawn, all right,
yeah, I'll do it. I'min and I'll even take my shirt off.
So you might be thinking, God, how do I win this?
It's very simple. I've made iteasy. If you go. I got

(01:03:23):
a Twitter slash x. I gota Facebook, a professional Facebook page,
not my personal one, which isfrankly like a professional one. But anyway,
I have a Facebook and then Instagram. I don't do TikTok. Austin's
a TikTok guy. I don't doTikTok. You go to any one of

(01:03:44):
those platforms. I've got a linkright there, or you could just go
to ESPN fifteen thirty dot com lookfor the contest page. Sign up.
You don't have to pay anything.There's no registration fee, and we're going
to announce the winner on this showon the twenty fourth, the Friday before
Memorial Day. So that's pretty good. So you have some time, but

(01:04:05):
go ahead and get it done rightnow. I want to thank Baxla Tractor.
We love working with them. Ourfriends at Riverbend Music Center, we
love working with them. We dothis every single year. It is a
great contest. Over the years,we've had a chance to meet a lot
of cool people that we show up. We bring the lawnmower and usually they
don't ask me to leave immediately.Sometimes they do, but good luck.

(01:04:29):
And if you're like, man,I don't need a lawnmower, well guess
what what you do with the lawnmowerafter you win it? We couldn't care
less. We did deliver it oneyear to a guy who lived in an
apartment building and didn't have any grassto cut, and so he gifted it
and we said, nothing like hegave it to his dad for Father's Day.

(01:04:50):
Fine, whatever you do with thelawnmower, couldn't care less. Once
it's yours, it's yours, Sosign up today again. We'll announce the
winner on May the twenty fourth.I've got links all over social media and
also the contest page of ESPN fifteenthirty dot com and once more, thanks
to a Baxla tractor and Riverbend musiccenter, it is mow your lawn.

(01:05:11):
It's up and running right now.Good luck. It is nineteen away from
five o'clock. The Bengals took inthe first round of the draft an offensive
lineman, Amrius Mimes. Where's yourapplause button now, Austin Amrius Mims.
I got his name right, Gooh cool, you did the thing that
everybody does, right cool? Thankyou, baby steps man. Okay,

(01:05:36):
small victories. Now. The responsethat many have had to this is,
well, yeah, but they're notgood at developing offensive linemen. That may
be true, and there's a lotof validity to that argument, but is
that really a reason why the Bengalsshouldn't have taken him. We'll explore that
coming up at five oh five.I've got to get to a couple of

(01:05:58):
poll questions that I have yet toask. We'll do that on social media
as well. Brenniman and Jones onBaseball is coming up. We have a
lot of ground to cover as wespeak, and squeeze you in as well
at five, one, three,seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty.
It's eighteen away from five o'clock.This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports
from Brenneman and Jones on Baseball,and I know you can't wait for that.

(01:06:21):
We talked about the Reds kind ofrecent offensive issues, and I picked
on jam Or Candelario. You know, last week I said that I have
a take that one hundred percent ofmy audience should agree with, and I
think I think most did. Andthat take was it would be cool if

(01:06:47):
Hunter Green would pitch deeper into gamesand get through the sixth inning more frequently.
That is, I don't know howthat's arguable at all. I don't
know how that's remotely controversial. It'snot neither, is this one. I
wish Jamer Candelario would hit more.Like you know, you talk about one
player for like five or seven minutesand you get accused of picking on him.

(01:07:11):
The rets have a lot of guyswho just offensively this year haven't done
all that much. Spencer Steer hasslowed down. India obviously has hit better
recently, but for a while lookcompletely lost at the plate. There's no
one who right now statistically and we'rea month then, who's statistically their numbers
jump off the page. Ellie TaylorCruise is having a very good year.
Nobody else really is, but JamberCandelario, like I wasn't expecting all star

(01:07:36):
numbers. Those numbers are putrid andthe look at the plate has been equally
as bad. That's not controversial,by the way, Hunter Green on Saturday,
give me more of that. It'sinteresting his start prior to that,
he goes seven innings against the Phillies. He doesn't pitch terribly, but he

(01:07:56):
doesn't pitch well. It wasn't reallya quality start. But you know,
he wasn't really just knocked around theballpark. He wasn't very good the second
time around the batting order. Thegood was he went seven and he went
seven and didn't even throw a hundredpitches. He was efficient. The bad
was he gave up four runs.They wouldn't have won that game. That

(01:08:17):
night because Ranger Suarez was terrific,but they he had that start and I
got a whole lot of Well,he gave you seven innings, like if
he's going six or seven innings ona frequent basis, my money is on
the Reds having a very good chanceto win those games. My money is

(01:08:38):
on him pitching deep into the gamebecause he's pitched well enough to go deep
into the game. But he's alsobeen efficient. What I got on Saturday,
what the Reds got on Saturday wasterrific. Didn't strike out a thousand
guys. He looks locked in fromthe get go. He didn't screw around.
He threw strikes. He was alsoreally efficient. I think he had

(01:09:01):
what he had five swinging strikes onSaturday. If you look at all the
other starts, he's gotten a lotmore, but many more swings. And
Missus kind of downplayed that a littlebit. Uh. I don't love pitch
to contact, but he looked reallygood, had every pitch working seven innings,
ninety eight pitches. That's progress consecutivestarts where he's given them seven.

(01:09:28):
You can't have any issue with that. It was uncontroversial to suggest it would
be great if he would pitch deeperinto games. It's good that in his
last two times getting the ball hehas Brenvan and Jones on baseball coming up.
It's ten away from five o'clock ESPNfifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati's
ESPN fifteen thirty. Traffic from theUCLF Traffic Center. The experts at the

(01:09:53):
UC Gardener Neuroscience Institute's Brain Tumor Centeroffer patients access to leading edge treatments and
unmatched comprehensive care. More U seehealth dot com. Multiple accidents in the
way seventy one South after Northwood Lateral. It's got the right lane blocked.
Seventy five North approaching Mitchell Avenue.It's blocking the two right lanes. You're
stopping go from seventy four and seventyone north after Kyle's Lane. It's blocking

(01:10:14):
the left lane. You're off thepace from two seventy five. I'm John
Crawford with traffic this report. Yeah, yeah, what's up? Five after
five? I'm Mullleger. This isESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening
us the five o'clock Happy Hour.Thanks for our friends at Michelo of Ultra.
You know what was delightful yesterday sittingoutside listening to the ballgame, watching

(01:10:38):
the Knicks. No matter what youwere doing, maybe it may Mick Ultra
part of it. No matter whatyou're doing tonight, you're just getting off
work, grab a six pack anda culture. Sounds good right now.
UH have a lot to get totoday. We're sort of gonna go what

(01:10:59):
now as it relates to the Bengals, I have a question about today's big
NFL news and just one more thing, maybe for the last time, on
starting pitching length, which the Redsgot from Hunter Green on Saturday. Unfortunately,
they didn't get nearly enough of it. Although I thought Andrew Rabbit did
a good job yesterday when it lookedlike he ate long for this world,

(01:11:20):
he gave him. He gave himsome innings and gave him a chance to
mount a comeback, which they nearlydid. So that's that's good. It
didn't go their requisite six that werealways looking for. But relative to how
things looked in the first inning,I thought it was gonna be one of
those, you know, maybe hegets out of the second and now the
bullpen's got to get you, youknow, six seven innings, and instead

(01:11:44):
wasn't nearly as bad, and theyat least were competitive in the second half
of the ball game yesterday, failingto get the tying run across the plate
in the top of the ninth inning. The big news over the weekend,
obviously, the draft, and tonsof different draft angles. This a lot
of folks have said, and I'llside with it, a high risk,
high reward draft. Now, there'sa difference between the word each and the

(01:12:11):
word all right, Like sometimes we'llbe really hopeful about a team being really
good, like you know, theReds. We've done this before, where
it's like, well, if thisguy can stay healthy and this guy can
take a step forward, and ifif this guy is as good as advertised,
and then this guy lives up tohis baseball card, and it's like,

(01:12:32):
you know what, each one ofthose things could happen. Each one
of those things may happen. Whatare the odds of all of them happening?
The odds of all of these playerswho have question marks proving to be
quality NFL players at least at theoutset, let's be honest, not great.
And there are some legitimate questions here, Eric All, mainly a Michigan

(01:12:56):
tight end Austin, but obviously spentlast season in Iowa. Austin brought up
to me off air and may havebrought this up on since he three sixty,
he's being called an Iowa tight endIowas, I guess tight end you
as a Bearcat fan. I takethat personally. Dude played most of his
college ball at Michigan, but healso had a herniated disk major surgery,
had an ACL tear major surgery.You're taking a tight end and a gifted

(01:13:20):
one, a guy who puts somereally good stuff on tape. As awful
as that Iowa offense was to watch, eric All was productive. It's cool
that he's a local kid. Youknow, I lived in Fairfield for like
two years. But you know,there's there's some legitimate physical question marks here.

(01:13:40):
McKinley Jackson defensive tackle from Texas Aand M. There are a lot
of folks who look at his profileand say, you know what, that's
a dude you draft on Saturday.I'm okay with both. I'm okay with
eric All because I think it's sortof interesting if he does stay healthy and
I don't have access to his medicals, but to think of the variety of
things they could do with their tightends, Like is Mike is Sicky essentially

(01:14:02):
going to be the third wide receiverright now? It's a fair question.
I love what they've done at widereceiver with Jermaine Burton. Now there is
a character concern. You don't haveto go far to find the video.
Alabama's playing Tennessee Vall fans run outonto the field, There's a young lady,
and Jermaine Burton deliberately takes a swipebatter. He was forthcoming in his

(01:14:26):
response to questions about this, bothwhile he was at Alabama and while chatting
with local media this week. Iam deferring to the Bengals here. I
was asked today, well, youknow the Joe Mixon thing. You didn't
want the Bengals to draft him,and look, it worked out, But
I didn't trust the regime at thatpoint to make the right decision about guys

(01:14:48):
who have character questions. I didn't. Joe Mixon played well enough and for
the most part, behaved well enoughthat ultimately I think most of us walked
away feeling pretty good about Joe mixonexperience. But my hesitancy seven years ago
was based on I don't trust MarvinLewis, I don't trust this staff.
Now I have come to understand thework that went into taking Joe Mixon.

(01:15:12):
I believe the same amount of workand due diligence was done here with Jermaine
Burton. And from a football perspective, what jumps off the page when you
look at the statistical profile twenty anda half yards per reception last season.
An offense that already had the potentialto be potent, I think is certainly
more interesting and as a chance tostill be even better based on what they've

(01:15:36):
added in the draft and free agency. McKinley Jackson, who I started talking
about here a second ago. I'ma best player available guy. But when
you are a team that doesn't havea billion holes, and the Bengals are
a team that doesn't have a billionholes, I think it's okay to reach
a little bit if the one kindof not glaring need. But if the

(01:16:01):
need dictates it, they needed depthon the inside of that defensive line.
Danner put this on social media andI think put it in as a post
draft piece. Look, the realityis free agency was not that fruitful as
it relates to the interior of thedefensive line. Sheldon Rankins is a nice
addition. If I get the SheldonRankins who played against the Bengals for the

(01:16:23):
Texans last year, he might beGeno Atkins two point zero. But in
essence, it's a wash lose.DJ Reader gained Sheldon Rankins, and that's
it. So I understand the needfor depth and the need for options necessitating
a bit of a reach. Iget that. That makes sense to me
because I don't know that you're neglectingto plug an area where you can go,

(01:16:47):
Oh my god, there's a glaringneed here. I think it's interesting
that they didn't take a running back. I tend to think though, that
by the time we see how theyuse their personnel, it's gonna make sense
as to why they didn't take arunning back. And they did sign a
couple as college free agents. TheAmius Mims thing, and I haven't said
his name wrong in an hour.The Amirius Mims thing we talked about extensively

(01:17:12):
on Friday. You will hear folkswho say, I don't think this is
gonna work because the Bengals have abad track record when it comes to developing
offensive lineman. Now I'm the guywho says, let's not call Amarius Mims
a project, because I think aproject is the example I used on Friday,

(01:17:38):
Jason Shirley. Remember the first timethe Bengals were on hard knocks,
they had a defensive lineman named JasonShirley who couldn't play a lick, but
they wanted to give him a chanceto make the team. They had a
bit of a shortage on the offensiveline, and so he changed positions and
they had to start from scratch andteach him how to play the offensive line,
play on the offensive line. That'sa project. I've watched college basketball

(01:18:02):
players, big college basketball players whoyou could tell have never played against kids
their size. They've always been toweringover everybody, and so they don't know
how to play in the post,or they don't know how to play against
kids who are of equal size andtalents or even bigger. Those are projects.

(01:18:24):
You have to teach them the rawskills, the basics. You have
to almost start from scratch. That'snot a Marius Mimes. I've read two
dozen evaluations of Amarus Mims. I'vealso said his last name correctly three times
this hour. I haven't read anythingthat would suggest that he needs to be
taught the fundamentals of offensive line play. If that was the case, he

(01:18:45):
wouldn't have gone off the board ineither of the first two days. He
is a guy relatively short on experience. He is a guy whose skills might
need to be refined. He mightneed the rough edges smoothed out. He
just might need plain old experience andthe benefits that come with accumulating experience.
He's not a project, at leastin my opinion, and I think most

(01:19:09):
evaluators would share that. But surehe does need some developing. I guarantee
you if you cornered Frank Pollock,he would tell you, like, there
are some things we gotta work on. I could probably say that about every
player in this draft. But thewhole the Bengals don't develop offensive lineman thing

(01:19:30):
is Is that a reason why youshouldn't draft one. It might be a
reason for skepticism about the one theyhave drafted. But I guess what I
would say is have they ever hadwon this good I'm not an expert on
offensive line play, but have theyas in this regime, not the crew
that had Cedric Goboy, He notnot that bunch this regime. Have they

(01:19:56):
ever had a lineman this good todevelop. I mean, you know,
if you look at the people aregonna say Jackson Cartman, I hope the
light bulb is coming on for JacksonCarmen because it would be great. It
would be great for him. Itreally sort of feels like it's again,
put up a shut up time forJackson. He didn't get a chance to

(01:20:17):
really show what he could do onthe field last year because the Bengals were
remarkably healthy on the offensive line.Is Jackson Carmen's failure to establish himself as
a starting offensive lineman in the NFLmore a reflection of a bad student or
poor teaching. I don't know,man, I kind of put his inability

(01:20:41):
to establish himself as a quality offensivelineman on him. Now you could say,
well, the Bengals shouldn't have draftedhim, they shouldn't have traded down
to draft him, They should havetaken other players. Those are valid concerns.
But is there anybody who didn't viewAmarius Mims as a first rounder?
Is there anybody who didn't view himas a guy that any other team in
need of long term answers on theoffensive line would be interested in taking at

(01:21:04):
eighteen, Like, I don't thinkthey've reached here the other ones that this
regime has had to develop, Likelook at that twenty twenty one offensive line,
which by all accounts was a terribleO line. Well, the two
homegrown guys on that line that weren'tJoanah Williams were a chemadenergy who was a

(01:21:25):
sixth round pick, very low ceiling, and Trey Hopkins, who's a cool
success story. Played for a longtime in the league. His last game
was the Super Bowl. He wasan undrafted guy. Even Joanah Williams.
Jonah Williams the last three years wasfine. At times you wanted more.

(01:21:49):
Sometimes you thought it's light bulb's comingon here. But he's also a guy
whose entry way into the NFL wasreally difficult. Let me think about it.
He gets drafted and then immediately getshurt, immediately didn't even get training
camp in twenty nineteen, miss isthe entire year. So now he's set
to go right, and then whathappens COVID So all right, his first

(01:22:14):
preseason didn't happen because of the injury, The second preseason didn't happen because of
COVID. His first NFL action camein Joe Burrow's first game in twenty twenty,
and so you know, his developmentwas dramatically stunted. He turned into
a capable offensive lineman. Arizona Cardinalscouldn't wait to pay him. But his

(01:22:34):
development, I think he would bethe first to tell you was hampered by
circumstances beyond anybody's control. Plus hegot hurt his first season and missed what
the last six to seven games,So all right, they haven't been great
at developing offensive lineman recently. Theyalso have kind of stopped trying to develop

(01:22:56):
offensive lineman recently. Two off seasonsago, they signed three guys in free
agency and they signed them to play. Last year, they signed a left
tackle they weren't developing, Orlando Brown. Also, Cordell Volson played pretty well
at the end of the season lastyear. Is Cordell Volson better right now
than he was when they drafted himand when when he won the starting left

(01:23:18):
guard competition from Jackson Carmen. Ithink the answer is yes. I'm not
entirely sure he should go unchallenged duringtraining camp, but I think there's been
development with Cordell Volson. So Ithink the whole they don't. They don't
develop offensive lineman thing. You gotto put it in the proper context.
The last few years, they've kindof gotten out of the business of developing

(01:23:40):
starting offensive lineman because they've signed abunch uh. They signed guys to be
finished products. The one guy theyhave drafted the last couple of years is
a starting left guard, will probablybe the starting left guard this year.
I think they misfire drafting Jackson Carmen. I'm gonna say his lack of development
is more a reflection of him thananything else. Jonah Williams proved to be

(01:24:01):
okay, but is his career couldnot have started more poorly for reasons that
have nothing to do with him orthe Bengals. I don't think they've drafted
a guy as good as Amarus Mims. Knock on wood, no injury,
knock on wood, no pandemic.I'm not gonna hold against what they're doing

(01:24:24):
with him, and I'm not gonnahold against him the fact that they've got
this poor track record. The trackrecord has to be put in its proper
context. So do I think AmriusMems can succeed? Sure? Might he
fail. That could happen, ButI'm not gonna hold against I'm not gonna
judge Amarius Mims and his ability todevelop into a quality offensive lineman. I'm

(01:24:45):
not gonna. I'm not gonna.I'm not gonna use the past informing the
opinion about what a Marius Mims mightbe able to do. I don't think
that's fair to do. I don'tthink it's fair to do to him,
a guy who's played well when he'shad a chance to play. And I
don't think it's really fair due tothe Bengals the whole, they don't develop
offensive lineman thing. Forget the oldregime, this current regime. Have they
had a guy this good? Andhaven't there been mitigating circumstances? Also,

(01:25:11):
like, how do we know JacksonCarmen didn't develop more last season in practice?
We don't know because he didn't playbecause the Bengals were insanely healthy.
I know I gave you a lotthere to react to, But go ahead,
five, one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty.
Should we hold the well they don'tdevelop offensive lineman thing against him?
When we talk about Amarius Mims andhis upside, I have not called him

(01:25:34):
Amarus Sims in almost an hour andfifteen minutes at Moegger on Twitter. Thanks
to our friends at Delta Dental,you'll hear a conversation with Joe Goodberry coming
up in twenty minutes, one ortwo things on the Reds and today's big
NFL news on ESPN fifteen thirty CincinnatiSports Station Cincinnati's esp Just about fifty five

(01:25:57):
minutes ago, we launched this year'smoe Long Contest. I've pinned it at
the top of my x feed andit's on the other socials too. I
put it on my MySpace page,and it's also in the contest page of
ESPN fifteen thirty dot com. Oneof the things I love. I love
when stuff like this happens. Iput out there on on Twitter. Hey,

(01:26:19):
big announcement coming up at four thirtythree and at two twenty this afternoon.
A friend of mine text me andgoes, so, what's the big
announcement? Listen to the show.It's the ammoor Long Contest. Thanks to
a Backslid tractor and Riverbend Music Center, We're announcing the winner on May twenty

(01:26:40):
fourth. Just fyi, May twentyfour, right before Austin's big birthday celebration
at the ballpark. That's right,I'm coming to that. I'm gonna be
I'm coming. I got tickets thatnight. Heck you Red's Dodgers Friday Byer
Memorial Day. Hell yeah, We'regonna have a special announcement on sincey three
sixty tomorrow about that day. Sowhat's the big announcement. Wouldn't you like

(01:27:00):
to know? I'm coming to thegame. We're bringing on Amrius Simms to
announce it. Now. See,there are people listening right now who aren't
with this before, who think you'rea moron for calling him a Maria Simms.
I'm going to do that four hundredand seventeen times between now and the
end of this coming football season.There's been a couple of times where I've

(01:27:23):
wanted to like step in and say, hey, you said his name wrong
about anybody else, and then justsay, oh, you said McKinley Simms,
just to try to mess with youa little bit, but you were
too locked in. Did I callhim McKinley Simms, No, you do.
I was gonna say that you did. McKinley. Jackson's tough because he
has two last names. Yeah,I'm gonna call him mac jack He sounds

(01:27:44):
like a former president sort of doesuh. Chris in Alexandria, You're on
ESPN fifteen thirty. Congratulations, what'sup? Well, thank you, mo.
I've been listening to you forever.It is the first time I've ever
had you're talking. Well, it'sgreat to have you. What took you
so long? Well, I'm athree I'm a since e three sixty guy.

(01:28:06):
I've been listening to you since beforethat show. But that just tends
to be when I have a littlebreak in my day that I can interact
and be on hold a little longer. So it's a better show too.
Go ahead. Well, I lovethe point you're making. I got to
tell you before I tell you whatI want to talk about. I'm trying
to find this Amarus Sims guy,and I know your long context on your

(01:28:27):
MySpace page, and I'm really strugglinghere to get any information. Well,
maybe tonight you'll have some time todo the the the amount of internet digging
you need. The my space deepguys. Sure somewhere out there is my
MySpace page from two thousand and three, and if anybody can find it,
you can't hold it against me.We're all floating along I hope the song

(01:28:50):
that I have on my cover pageisn't embarrassing, I assure you. Hey,
anyways, I love the point you'remaking about the quote Project guys.
You said something last week that reallyresonated with me. This isn't Marcus Hunt.
This isn't a guy that started playingfootball a year ago, and it's

(01:29:10):
from a country where, you know, they don't have American football as prevalently
as we do. When they interviewedhim, he said, yeah, my
dad got me started when I wassix years old. I love football.
I've been playing since I was sixyears old, you know. To the
point of the tape, Yeah,he hasn't had as many snaps as other
people. But you know, I'velooked at the tape a little bit.

(01:29:31):
I know the Bengals coaches have,and I think one of the things that
they say they didn't just fall inlove with a guy because he has elite
size and they think they can teachhim football. He knows how to play
football, you know, And Ithink that there is a high feeling for
him and he's walking into a reallygood situation. He's not walking into a
situation where there's a writer left tacklethat's six' one two ninety eight, and

(01:29:57):
you know, relying solely on theirathleticis he's following guys that are built just
like him that can show him howto play. And if he's teachable,
and if he's coachable, I'd saywe've got more of a chance at the
upside than the basement. Your pointabout I think I think your point about
Cordel Moolson is really good. Yeah, I think it falls more on Jackson

(01:30:18):
Carmen. His development. You cansee it when he plays, you know,
you can see it, you cantell. And I think with Bolson,
you know, he's a sophomore,last year, second year player.
They have developed him. And Ithink your your main point that I'm trying
to get to here is they haven'treally had a guy. This coaching staff
in particular has not had a guy. And I think they've got a guy

(01:30:41):
now, and I don't know.I think that he's in a really good
spot. And I think that everybodylooks at eight starts and they think,
oh man, we got another projectplayer. But to to what you said
earlier and I'll shut up, isthat put it in context. This guy
can play football for real, andhe deserved to be drafted and you can
coach his side and athleticism, andthey were gonna miss out on that.

(01:31:02):
He was gonna go somewhere else.And that's just how I feel about it.
Well, and when he did play, I mean, look, I'm
no expert on crunching the tape ofan offensive lineman, but I could look
at certain things that would suggest heknows the fundamentals. He didn't get called
for a false start, he didn'tget called for holding, and he didn't
give up a sack. No,that's a very basic, rudimentary way of

(01:31:24):
looking at it. Surely those numberswould have changed had he played more.
But that's pretty good in that tinysample size. What do we what drives
us nuts about offensive lineman when theygive up a sack or when they commit
a stupid penalty. If I couldstart from a place where the guy isn't
doing those things, in particular thepenalties, that's a really good place to

(01:31:45):
begin. And you mentioned something thatI think is important. What there are
a lot of projected tackles in thisleague who are getting started that would love
to have the reservoir of knowledge thatTrent Brown and Orlando Brown bring to the
table. And assuming those guys aregoing to be willing to work with the
young guy, perhaps Trent Brown ina competition, but still willing to impart

(01:32:06):
some degree of knowledge that is sucha great benefit to a guy like Amarus
Mims. I totally agree. Ithink there's more to be seen here.
I think, you know, there'san exciting future. I'd like to see
our tackles now stay a little healthyso that he's not coming in week two.
Yeah, you know, but Ithink we're on a good path and

(01:32:29):
I trust, I do trust thecoaching staff. I do. But like
you said last week, we won'tknow for four years. So we got
to be patient. Got to bepatient. And look what greater thank you
Chris for the phone call, Whatgreater entry way than you know? Give
him a chance to compete. Ifhe's not the starter, that's fine,
Give him a chance to learn,give him a chance to ingratiate himself in

(01:32:49):
the offense. My guess is AmarusMims is going to play for the Bengals
at some point this year. Oneof my two big fears about this season
is Number one, I'm still notsure how good they're going to be on
the defensive side. Number two,last year, they had no injuries on
the offensive line. Seventeen games,same five starters every single game. That's

(01:33:11):
probably not gonna happen this year.So, all right, they have two
tackles, who gets hurt? Howbad is it? And how does Amarus
Mims do once he's called upon?But I just don't think there's been a
situation like this. You know,with Cedric Gubway, he there were injuries
and then there were also very legitimatequestions about how much does this guy like
football? Like legit questions Since then, you know, and again this current

(01:33:39):
regime, this current offensive line coach, has there been anyone to work with
like Amarius Mims. Even Jonah Williams, they were gonna throw him to the
Wolves in twenty nineteen at left tackle. They didn't because he got hurt.
It's been nothing like this. Somy guess is this works. It's twenty
five away from six o'clock. Thisis ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports stations,

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