Bengals NFL Trade Deadline Reaction | Enter the Jungle

Bengals NFL Trade Deadline Reaction | Enter the Jungle

The NFL trade deadline is in the books. Did the Bengals get it right by holding on to Trey Hendrickson, or should they have done more than just trading Logan Wilson? We’ll react to all of it, plus hear from multiple Bengals players and much, much more right now on Ena the Jungle. [Music] Hi again everyone and welcome in to Enter the Jungle. He’s Andrew Fox Miller. I’m James Orin. You can catch us every single Tuesday right here on the YouTube channel Cincinnati Bengals. Talk weekly on FanDuel Sports Network. And we are proudly brought to you by FanDuel, America’s number one sports book. Also check out Garage Beer, which got to be honest, watching this Bengals season, watching this Bengals defense, you got to have a couple garage beers. It’s it’s just uh it’s going to help you get through it and also make uh watching the Bengals score a bunch of points but still lose uh enjoyable. Yeah. A couple a couple couple a couple of trades maybe. But no, we got one. We got one. Yeah, we we we got one. And we’re going to react to the Logan Wilson deal. You’re going to hear from Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter coming up in just a few minutes here on Enter the Jungle. But I don’t think that’s the story, Andrew. I don’t I I think the story is the fact that the Bengals only made one move. The fact that the Bengals had a lot of guys I I mean, we talked about it on the channel, multiple videos on the channel, a lot of guys that they could have moved, contract year guys, guys that have been benched, kind of disgruntled, want a change of scenery, all of those things. They didn’t trade Cam Taylor Britain. They didn’t move a contract like BJ Hills who much much like Logan Wilson. It feels like that’s gonna feel like a a rough deal given where he is and he’s kind of in the way of a young player and and guys like Joseph Osai, all those guys like they you could have moved some of them. But the big fish, the one that everyone thought, all right, well you might be able to get a lot for him is Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals did not trade Trey Hendrickson. He’s the NFL sack leader last season, second in defensive player of the year voting. Was an allp prodefensive end last year, 17 and a half sacks in two straight years. This year has four sacks. He’s dealing with the hip in uh issue. I think he’s going to be fine. I think he’ll play against Pittsburgh, but you’re three and six. You had every opportunity to pay him this off season. You decided not to. And now you have a chance to trade him at the deadline in a very active deadline across the league and the Bengals hold on to him. Was this the right move? Was this the wrong move? Your thoughts on the Bengals keeping Trey Hendricks? All right, so let’s get this out of the way. First of all, I think I’m my audio levels are low, so I’m going to have to fix this after the fact, but let’s get this out of the way. If I were running an NFL, what’s that? Coming up short. You’re coming up short like the Bengals at the deadline. You’re right. I I I can tell. I can hear it. I’m trying to mess with it now. Yeah. Let’s get this out of the way. If I were running an NFL team, James, I would be terrible, terrible at quitting mid-season. Terrible. And I’m not thinking about like next season or the season after that. Like, if there is a mathematical chance that I can make it to the postseason, I’m not selling or at least I’m not I’m not seeking buyers. I’ll listen to offers, of course. I realize this defense has been awful. Wow. But I still think I’d have difficulty selling my best player on that awful defense. I just would I like I’d probably need you, James, to be the push to my pool, if that makes sense. So clearly, now let’s look at it from the lens of this Bengals front office. Either one, this team believes, as Zack Taylor has repeated over and over and over again, that they have the coaches and the personnel they want, and they believe they can win as is. or two, other teams just simply weren’t offering the Bengals what their asking price was. They just weren’t. There’s there’s also the idea, of course, that Cincinnati could come to their like some agreement with Trey and keep, you know, him beyond the 2025 season, whether that’s through a proper extension or a franchise tag. Okay. Yeah, man. We are just Yeah. Keep going. Maybe it’s a little bit of all the above. That’s how I think they’re thinking. Uhhuh. And if they really believe that, I understand why they’re not doing it. What I don’t understand though is why they did nothing to help this defense that has been awful. If you’re not going to move, Trey, why aren’t you going to say, “Well, this is our philosophy. We’re sticking to this. So, let’s add to help what has been historically awful. Make up your mind.” That’s where I’m sitting. Sure, that makes sense. Making up your mind. And you should make up your mind in reality where you’re three and six. You’ve given up 86 points in the past two games despite scoring 80 points. You’re 0 and2. You’ve had the best, literally the best offense in the NFL for the past month with Joe Flacco at quarterback. 40-year-old Joe Flacco. He threw for a career-high 470 yards the other day with a an AC joint sprain and you get a loss from it. And I could I could totally hear the argument, oh well, they would have won with Trey. Fine. But you didn’t. And now you’re three and six. And you probably could have gotten a second round pick and then some. And that that’s where it’s tough for me. It’s like I get it. You don’t punt on the season. You’re not punting on the season. You went and you got Joe Flacco and you made a run at it and you’re soft point of your schedule and you’re still three and six. You’re still one and six without Joe Burrow. Like what what what more evidence do you need? They still can’t tackle. They still can’t tackle. Like I I I don’t know what like I I totally would have sold at the deadline and sold pieces that clearly can’t play. And I don’t mean that to be mean, but it’s true. Like if you can’t tackle Colston Lovelin in the open field, well, guess what? That’s a you problem. That’s not an Al Golden problem. That’s not a Duke Tobin problem. No, that’s a you problem. And so the Bengals safeties, we talked about them for how long offse during the offseason? I talked about them forever and I said I wouldn’t keep Gino Stone at that cap number. By the way, that’s another guy I would have tried to move at the deadline. Maybe they did and there was no offers. It’s not personal, but plays like that are why it should be impossible. Pat Frier, there should have never been a scenario where he scored the touchdown that he did that 68 yard for Aaron Rogers on Thursday Night Football and yet he did. There should have been no scenario where Colston Lovelin scored and yet he did. those things can’t happen. And so that’s what’s frustrating for me is I look at it and I’m like, even if Trey Hendrickson was in on that play, he’s not getting there that fast. It wasn’t that quick of a I mean, they blitzed on that play. It it it wasn’t that long of a developing play. And maybe he does make a difference at some point in that game. Fine. Totally buy that. But this defense is so flawed. The coaches, they’re paid to coach. They’re not going to throw their guys under the bus. I also asked Al Golden like, “Hey, you have you have a teaching point for Jordan?” It’s like, “You just got to get him to the ground. There’s no teaching point.” Like, that’s what they teach in in pee-wee football. You got to tackle them. And so, if this defense can’t tackle h how are you going to sell me on, well, when Trey comes back, they’re going to make a That’s how you end up mediocre. Like, that’s how you end up seven and 10. I didn’t want that. I don’t want to talk about seven and 10 or eight and nine or nine and eight for a third straight year. You know what I wanted to talk about? Either a five and four team that should have added and made a run and been in position to make a run or a three and six team that was prepared to to face reality when it comes to Trey Hendrickson because history tells us they’re not willing to pay him. History tells us that that that’s not the case. It’d be different if I thought, oh well, Trey’s going to play well and he’s going to be a big part of what they’re doing moving forward. I said it before the deadline. When the Bengals get back to the Super Bowl, and at some point they will, do you think number 91 is gonna say that number 91 jersey is gonna have Hendrickson on the back with a Super Bowl patch? Like, do you envision Trey Hendrickson playing in a Bengals un playing for the Bengals in a Super Bowl again? And the answer is probably no. I think that’s a really tough path, tough thing to wrap your head around. Is that happening? So, if the answer is no, why wouldn’t you try uh to to maximize what you could get for him? And that’s probably a second round pick. and then some kind of sweetener player or late round pick. I don’t know. I don’t know what they’re thinking. I don’t And it there’s a loyalty factor with this team. Certainly a stubbornness and sometimes those cross paths many times those cross paths with this organization. Logan Wilson, no problem. We’ll move on from you. And I get that we’re talking about two completely different players here. I understand too. Yeah. Yep. captain praised by Al Golden heading into the season. Yeah. Benched obviously Trey Hendrickerson not benched. But as far as leadership in the locker room, I’m not criticizing the Logan Wilson. We’ll talk about that in a bit here, but I’m not criticizing that per se. I’m just saying that what what is it then? Because to your point, it has to be it has to be that they truly believe that this is like they thought going into the season having Trey Henderson makes all the difference and it is going to make them competitive and give them a shot at the postseason this season. That’s the only and it might not be that, but that’s the only thing that I can wrap my head around is what they’re thinking. That’s it. Well, well, I I think the way they’re built, they were thinking we’re going to score a bunch of points. We’re going to score in bunches. We’ll have the lead. We’re gonna have a young team, but Trey Hendrickson will get after the passer. Shamar Stewart will be disruptive. Joseph Osai and BJ Hill, like these guys will be reliable enough. And it just it’s been so bad because they can’t tackle. They can’t do the basic things. I was talking to a a former I don’t want to say who, someone involved in the NFL. I don’t even want to hint at it because then people will speculate. A and I was like, “What is going on with the tackling?” And he’s like, “You know what?” And it’s no it’s no one that’s on the staff or was on the staff or in the building or anything. It’s like sometimes bad players are just inconsistent tacklers and you can drill it and drill it and drill it and they’re just bad players and they’re going to be inconsistent when it comes to tackling and and to us it’s such a basic thing. I’m not saying it’s not hard but it is simple. Simple and hard are far different. I’m not saying it’s easy to tackle Colston Lovelin, but when you’re a starting safety in the NFL and you and your running mate are right there, you better tackle him. you better get them down on the ground, especially when the game’s on the line and you’ve had these issues for the past three months and dating back to last year and it’s all you heard. Like at some at some point it’s personal and and and you should play you should be offended like if I’m Gino Stone it I would be offended that people view me the way they do in Cincinnati because I was really good in Baltimore and that will not be his legacy here if it ends like this. Jordan Battle, same thing. Like I think after his rookie year a lot of people felt like man Jordan battle and then Lou brings in Vaughn and it’s weird and it’s awkward and then this was his year and it’s quickly even though he’s had some bright moments he has three interceptions. He has interceptions and all three Bengals wins and it’s it’s been too inconsistent. And I do think you bring up a good point about Logan and that’s where we’ll go next because the Bengals traded Logan Wilson for a seventh round pick. If I would have told you that at the combine when Al Golden is just praising Logan Wilson and it feels like they’re gonna build around him and he’s a big piece of what they’re doing moving forward, it would have felt insane. And yet here we are. We’ll discuss Logan Wilson. We’ll discuss the move to trade him to Dallas and if the Bengals got it right coming up next. Welcome in. That’s 12 minutes. Andrew, welcome in to a live trade deadline edition of Enter the Jungle. I’m James RP and he’s Andrew Fox Miller. We’re recording this for FanDuel, so we’ll uh take our little breaks and say hey to you in between. We’ll get to some live questions here on YouTube after the show. We have about 10 minutes of recording time left. You’re going to hear from Demetrius Knight here, Barrett Carter here. Uh as well, uh we also have plenty of thoughts on the Logan deal. I I didn’t know we were going to go that long on Trey, but it’s true. I know. I mean, what are they what are they doing, man? Actually, real quick, I’m going to do a quick fix on my mic. do do your audio mic. Yeah, man. Take it easy over there. Andrew has all these fancy things. And I have nice like, you know, I have a nice Sony camera and but he has these really fancy things and it looks great when it’s working, but a lot of times it doesn’t work right. He’s got to tinker and uh Oh, look. I’m I’m getting static now. Like what? There you go. Now it’s gone. Look at that. Look at that. It’s just unbelievable. You got to tinker. If only the Bengals would tinker with their roster like you tinker with your mic. It would be It would be Still getting static. Yeah, a little bit. Not stat. It’s like white noise. Static was the wrong word. Hang on. Yeah, it’s fine. It’s not bad. It’s low. It’s really low. Really low. I I hear you, but I hear static, too. Yeah. Or the white noise. All right. I’m listen back here. Answer while we got a quick break. Yeah, we we’ll be talking about that one. have traded only for a player like Quinton Williams who cares about draft picks, especially defensive draft picks. I mean, who cares about picks? Like, Trey’s 31. What do you mean who cares about picks? Like, at some point, you need to go that route. Who cares about picks? They got nothing for Jesse Bates, even though it was very clear that he was walking. And so, they should have paid him, but if you’re not going to pay him, and you know you’re not going to pay him, well, then you should get something for him. And that’s my point. And maybe they do end up paying him. I think it’s going down the the rabbit hole of franchise tag again. And that’s uh that’s rough. Drew’s lying to you. You you are. Yeah, but it’s on record. That’s all that matters. Yeah, I guess. Oh my god. Uh it’s on record. Just like Let me check my mic. Go ahead for We need a I still got the white noise, brother. I mean, I’m about to take a nap for real. All right, let me listen back. It’s a little Let me listen. I can take out the background noise, but it’s probably going to take out my Why do you need that? I can just lower You want me to lower my mic? No. There you go. You sound great. Well, yeah, cuz I took out the background noise. Yeah, but you still sound great. You don’t need background noise. All right. You just You were booming. Do you need your own soundtrack here? I I’ll I’ll turn me down a little bit. Turn me down a little bit. Okay. Now, it’s time to turn me up. Logan Wilson has been traded. Welcome back into No, I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. I’m not going to do that to you. I’m not going to do that to you. You ready? I’m ready. All right. We’re 12 minutes now. We only have 10 left and then we’re gonna get to all these questions. You sure you’re all right? Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Okay. It’s unbelievable. I don’t know what’s going This is what happens. I can just work the magic in post and then when we’re live, I got to do it in real time. It’s a whole another animal. James, magic. You turn that camera on, you make magic. That’s it. That’s the philosophy I live by. All right. Three. Welcome back into End of the Jungle. I’m James Peen. He is Andrew Fox Miller. And it’s time to break down this Logan Wilson trade. It’s a well, it was a shocker, I think, to some that the Bengals only got a a seventh round pick back. The Bengals sent Logan Wilson to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2026 seventh round pick. It is the Giants seventh round pick. So, it’s a bit earlier uh than well maybe than the Cowboys will pick. We’ll see what happens with the Giants and Cowboys, but you get my point here. So, Andrew, they send Logan Wilson to Dallas. Not a shocker. We talked about that plenty. I’m going to get into the weeds a little bit with the salary cap part of it. Real quick, and then I’m going to get your reaction. They freed up 2.684 million in cap room and cash this year. I would expect them to roll that over combined with the 2.55 million in cap space they free up in 2026. What does that mean? Basically, $5.2 million in cap savings with this move. there’s still uh some dead cap hits that they’re going to have to uh eat because of Logan Wilson’s contract extension prior to the 2023 season. Something they would have done anyway. What are your thoughts? Too much, too little? We’re going to get to our our poll question as well coming up in a second, but your thoughts on Logan Wilson getting traded to the Dallas Cowboys for a seventh round pick? Well, we can assume it was the best offer they had gotten if they took it. It it seemed inevitable that something was going to happen if you’re not going to play him. Mhm. It’s this whole It’s really what we’re talking about to a certain degree with Trey Hendrickson, but trade the vet, start the rookies, trust the process. We’ve seen it in sports. We’ve seen it in business, you know, anywhere. You’ve probably worked at a place where this has happened at some level, right? Like we let go some of our experienced staff. We’re in a growth phase. You know, everyone give this some time. The board’s concerned with legging profits and this is all just a necessary transition. All that, right? you’re you’re you’re focusing on development and everyone will continue to wait on results. I guess we’re all just going to continue to do that. You can’t like it’s it’s this whole mentality of you can’t judge me today because we’re on the ground floor of this new plan, this new vision. And look, I’m not criticizing the move per se. I’d probably I’d probably take the same approach if I’m Zach Taylor at this point because you’re staring at whatever this defense is and you just don’t want to maybe I don’t want to call out what I’m seeing and you just need to move on. And that was the one thing they did with Logan Wilson. I would have loved more, but it didn’t seem like you were going to play him. Here we are. So, from where they were at, this is the right move. Totally fine with the compensation. You shed the deal because the alternative at this point today before they made the move and we’re obviously doing the show on Tuesday. The trade happened Tuesday morning. Is the alternative would have been keep Logan Wilson on the roster, cut him this off season, and then it’s a six plus million dollar dead cap hit in 2026. You don’t have a seventh round pick to show for it. So, you free up cap space, a little over 5 million. You get an asset. It’s not much, but an asset for him. Fine. I’m fine with that. Here’s my issue. If the plan was to bench him, I would have been Duke. If I was Duke Tobin, I would have called Zack and been like, “Hey, Zack, let’s hold off on benching him for a month. Let’s wait until the buy. Let’s play Logan Wilson. I get it. If he gets hurt, we’re rolling the dice a little bit. But but if he stays healthy and he performs relatively well, maybe we get more than nothing because they basically got nothing. That’s why people are frustrated. Let’s get to I put a poll out on on X at James or Peen and got get to those results. Like a lot of people are disappointed. DRF 42.7% of you gave it a DRF, 38.3% gave it a C, 15.9% of B, 3.1% at A. I I graded it for BengalsTalk.com. I gave it a B minus because I understand the process. I understand why they did it now. I don’t like the path to doing it now. Like, did Barrett Carter grow so much over the past month that now he’s set up to be an AllPro? Like, probably not. Like, you could have just slid him in in Pittsburgh and had Logan Wilson play till now. And if he had done that and not played on special teams where he did tweak his calf, by the way, which caused him to not play this week, it was on a special teams play. If that didn’t happen, well then maybe we’re talking about a fifth round pick or a fourth round pick swap or something that has more value than a seventh round pick. And and so that part I get why people are disappointed. Sure. Yeah. I mean, if nothing else, I guess in the end I I By the way, you said B minus. I would I’m probably there. I maybe say C. I’m neutral. I I feel like look, you weren’t going to play him for right or wrong. You weren’t. Yeah. And to your point with Barak Carter, these young linebackers, it’s almost kind of similar to Trey in that I almost feel as though they had their mind made up. They weren’t doing anything about him regardless of the outcome of the season, regardless of where they are now in the by-week. And maybe the same goes for Logan Wilson. Now granted, he got that going. He requested the trade. Had he not done that, I don’t know if it would have happened, but they did it. And I think mentally, like regardless of development, regardless of how these young linebackers are doing, it’s like they just had it in their head like, “We’re moving on no matter what. We’re going to stick to our guns.” Again, stubbornness for better or worse. That’s what they stuck with regardless. Yeah, it’s it’s tough. And it’s tough because maybe Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter are the future. Once upon a time, it was Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt taking their lumps. The expectations were different, though. It felt different. at in 2020 versus what it did uh this year entering this year for sure. Here’s what Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter had to say in the locker room on Tuesday following Logan being dealt to the Cowboys. Definitely sucks cuz that’s the first person you get a a young Demetrius Knight gets a message from draft night. And it’s like, man, that’s that’s Logan Wilson sending me a text message saying, you know, welcome welcome home. The day I got drafted, Logan was the first person to text me. This is including family, friends, random people. Logan was the first text I received. He showed me what it looks like, what it what it means to be great in all areas. And I I hate to see him go. It’s super sad cuz he’s been a great here for his whole career. And second I got here, he took me in like a little brother. So, u that that bond isn’t going anywhere. He walked in the training room to say bye to everyone. And then I like So, it kind of just happened naturally. Um, but you know, I went over to him and hugged him and you know, told him I loved him and you know, he he expressed to me that like his phone is always open with like and I’m always he’s always a phone call away and he’s always going to keep pouring into me. So, as I continue to go through this rookie year, still going to continue to message him and ask him things. still got a guy like OB here to that I can bounce questions off of. But a guy like Logan who has a ton of, you know, input, you know, being in games, being in situations like this, knowing how to persevere in situations like this, and coming out on the other side on top. Um, that’s a guy that I’m going to keep in in my corner for, you know, forever. I’m just forever grateful for, you know, the bond that we have and just the the love that we have. just he was essential an essential part of my growth, my development. So, um that’s a special guy, special place for me. Nothing better than love for a brother. So, continue to be there for him just like he was there for me and Barrett and everyone on defense. So, I will say this about those two because they’re taking their lumps right now, but they’re very likable. I do think that they have a a ton of they have the upside because they work really really hard and they’re high character people and so I’m hope I hope they do hit that upside and the Bengals are right about them but it’s tough to bench Logan Wilson what five games into the year. It was after that Detroit game and go with Barrett Carter because it tanked his value and now Logan Wilson is headed to Dallas. We’ll uh continue the conversation including a trade deadline hypothetical because who doesn’t level those? Of course I do. We’ll do that and much much more coming up next. We’re going to have to be quick here, Andrew. Yep. Yeah, very quick for the FanDuel copy. You’ll definitely have to trim that. Barrett and Demetrius, I agree, Tom. I wanted and we we had to wrap that segment, but yeah, I mean that you could talk about him leaving and and not starting and but you heard it right there. That’s I feel like that’s where what that was my takeaway from that is you’ve got someone that has not only experience that but can actually back it up on the field right now for for the most part and it’s almost like you’re you’re leaving before the the literally they’re not developed enough and and that will come with time with or without Logan but man I have to imagine it really helps to have him around in that locker room if nothing else and I wonder the Bengals are aware of that so how much does it help like I think Demetri and Barrett are awesome dudes that wouldn’t throw a guy under the bus anyway. And I’m not saying Logan was bad to them. That’s not what I’m saying. But how much of a leader was I I I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that. Obviously Barrett and Demetrius are going to say he was an awesome leader and he helped them a ton and hopefully he did and hopefully it really rubbed off on them fast, right? But, uh, you know, I I I do know Logan was going through it a bit over the past couple of weeks, and I I wanted him to get traded for him personally because I think he now he’s gets it gets his answer. All right. Is he done? Is he not? Yeah. You know, I I don’t think he’s done. Like, I think him and Barrett played pretty similar. Like, Logan’s probably playing better than than Barrett right now and better certainly better than Demetrius right now. But I I I don’t think it was like crazy far off where Logan was this game wrecker and these these rookies are replacing him. You know what I mean? Like I think it was pretty closer than that and that’s why they made the move for sure. And for those that are in the comments, just want to reiterate, we’ve got a couple really short, really, really short segments we’re going to do. And I’ve seen the questions a lot of things about Florio, a lot of things about Duke Tobin. We will address those. I’ve got them queued up. Trust me. Goodness gracious. Yeah. All right. I’d rather read 20 minutes on FanDuel and talk about Florida, but we will. We will. I promise we will because I know you guys are interested. I wrote about it today for banglestock.com because I knew you guys were interested about it and uh and so we will certainly get to it here. Uh two quick segments. We’re going to go these backtoback really fast and then we’ll get to your questions. That way we can get to your questions really fast. Yep. Uh all right. We’re just going to go AFC North odds here just so you know. That’s fine. It’ll be really quick. I I’ll come in, do the read, and uh and then get to the odds, get your reaction very, very quick, and then bounce. Cool. Yep. All right. Welcome back to Enter the Jungle. He’s Andrew Fox Miller. I’m James Rupine and it’s time to take a look at the AFC North odds as the Bengals chances, well, they’re dropping at 3 and six, and so are their odds. We’ll get to them coming up in just a second. 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Call 1800 gambler or visit rghelp.com. Call 1888789-77777 or visit ccpg.org Connecticut. Visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinemma.org or call 80032750 for 247 support. Massachusetts or call 18778NY or text hopey in New York. And let’s dive in, Andrew, to these odds because well, the Bengals, it’s no shock they’re third here. Minus 145 for the Ravens, plus 145 for the Steelers, plus700 for the Bengals. Look, it’s not happening. They’re not winning the North. And they have a match up with Pittsburgh. I guess you could convince yourself that that they’re going to get right back in it. Maybe they sweep the Ravens. You’re not sweeping the Ravens. You’re not going to beat Pittsburgh again if you can’t tackle. And I’m just asking for a tackle now because they tried to give that Pittsburgh game away. Joe Flacco saved the day. Joe Flacco tried to save the day again against the Bears. It was a little too early in that scenario. And uh the Bengals are where they are right now. I am not confident. A few weeks ago, I thought they were sneaky in the North. Now I I I’m not buying those uh those long odds. I mean, if they’re not going to win, James, shouldn’t we be making like even more money if it were to happen? I’m just saying. The Logan Wilson trade didn’t move the needle. Okay, here’s what I’m thinking. I agree. Yeah. Uh I don’t like, by the way, that Dallas has very similar odds. And then what did they do? They went and made some aggressive moves, we could say, on their current season. Mhm. I don’t know. Just going to throw that out there. Just throwing that out there. No doubt. No, I I I was totally down for the Bengals to to add to their defense with a player that could be around for a long time. I don’t blame them for not giving up a first round pick for Quinnon Williams. I would have done a couple twos, maybe a trade tra, you know, I you know me, I I’m ready to wheel and deal at any point. The Bengals didn’t and uh we we’ll see how it plays out. Definitely not feeling confident about their chances in the North. But what’s one move that you wish they would have made at the trade deadline? That’s next. Welcome back to En Jungle. He’s Andrew Fox Miller. I’m James Renee. The trade deadline is over. It’s passed. No more trades, no more moves, no more hypothetical scenarios, which is a real big bummer for me. What’s one deal you wish the Bengals would have made? Are we going to go specific player or just any highle move here? Because I have a lot of thoughts. One of each if you want to go that route. Go ahead. I mean, honestly, I would have closely mimicked what Dallas did. Speaking of, I mean, I don’t know that I love a first and a second. Granted, it’s a 2027 first, I think, right, that they gave for Quinnon Williams, but I would have I would have been very aggressive with that conversation. If I were the Bengals, I would have loved some just pass rush. How do we get it? Interior defensive lineman that can actually rush the passer. Sign me up. I like that. Yeah, I get it. I do. I I think defense defense defense. I would have offered like a a sec like two twos for Quinn and Williams. I I would have been in on a a firstrounder for Jeffrey Simmons before this week. Here’s what completely derailed this for me. Losing backto-back games. Yeah. At five and four, I would have said bye bye bye. At four and five, I still you could have convinced me to buy in the North, but at three and six, it’s just it feels so much different now. It’s where you’re Exactly. And so I love those moves. I couldn’t necessarily get behind them. I I think we’re going to look back and say, man, they should have traded Trey Hendrickson and they should have gotten a two plus and instead it’s going to drag out and it’s going to be this franchise tag and it’s going to be this drama-filled uncomfortable spot. Maybe not, but that’s my fear. And so, not because I don’t want Trey around, not because I don’t think he could still play. I don’t want to go through another offseason of Trey drama for for the trades of our lives meme. And uh and so that uh that’s the the big regret for me. If if it was one move, there’s a bunch I would have made, of course. But that’s going to do it for us. If you’re looking for more on the Bengals, make sure you check out the YouTube channel Cincinnati Bengals talk. And until next time for Andrew Fox Miller, I’m James Rapin. Thank you so much for watching and listening to Enter the Jungle. Look at that. Boom. Nailed it. Let’s go. It’s not a hot mic. We’re talking to everybody. Don’t you worry. Everybody loves that. They’re like, “Oh, you know, you should be I was getting DMs one time like, “Do you guys know that you’re still live?” Like, “Yeah, I know. If they were four and five or five and four, I would have hit up everybody I knew with it that has been with involved in the Titans organization, which is pretty clearly, you know, there’s obvious ties like, hey, Jeffrey Simmons worth it. Is Jeffrey Simmons still got it?” Because that would have been one. Quinn Williams would have been one for sure. I I think Dallas got desperate. Yeah. And gave up more. Like I don’t think anyone else was close to offering that for Quinon Williams. I think two twos is probably the max. And you could argue Andrew like a 2027 first is close to a a 2026 second. You have to wait another year, but that’s still a first round pick. Like if you’re the Bengals, I I wouldn’t give up a 2027 first because you just don’t know where you’re going to be. That’s that’s really that’s NBA level like future stuff that I know the Bengals wouldn’t do. Plus, it’s 2026 is obviously steep, but at least you have some some if your scouting department especially is doing their job, you have some idea of what the draft class is going to look like and what positions of need, players that you’re actually targeting, so on and so forth. I know it can change drastically between November and April. I get that. But at least you’re closer to it. You have some idea. 2027, who knows? Um, that’s it. And I don’t want to go down that hypothetical road, but like there’s a lot of things that could happen, obviously. So, I kic fuzzy here with a a Mike Santaga type question here. All right. 452 defense doesn’t work when your defensive tackles are as bad as the Bengals are. Great defensive tackles are a necessity to run Al Golden’s defense. Sure. Yeah. I I mean, I get that. Yeah. I I that’s why Al I think was so excited to get BJ Hill back is because he’s like proof of it. But yeah, they haven’t overcome DJ Reer. I was talking to someone inside League circles this week and I was like, man, DJ and Jesse are just lingering and he was like, yeah, the DJ one is huge because it completely changes how they can play defense. And uh that’s what sucks man is like if you just pay DJ who didn’t make he made less than Sheldon Rankkins and he’s coming off the injury but like no one would have blamed you if it’s a Gino situation where like he’s just not the same. No one’s going to be like man you paid DJ Reer, right? Can’t like I’m I’m mad that you did that. Like instead you pay BJ Hill another contract. like I was so out of out of the norm for them and I mean three years 30 million and and in the moment I was like oh okay that makes sense and then like right after I’m like wait no it doesn’t because you have the same defensive line now that you had with a nose tackle now with TJ Sllayton it just well and sometimes it makes sense in that moment but then they don’t respond to the outcome of what they do or don’t do and that’s that’s probably at times the bigger issue whether it’s spending whether it’s just backfilling what they’ve lost And that’s that’s always honestly, especially in this era of Bengals, the Zack Taylor era, we’ll just call it that. But certainly this era of defense and drafting and development, every player that walks out, I as a Bengals fan, I would be and I will be nervous that they won’t have an answer for the person that walked out the door, even if they’re average. I’m Yeah. Real quick, um I’m not pretending I wasn’t reading something. You uh you have two factor authentication on your on your ex, right? Yeah. Okay, good. Make sure you do. I Everybody I know is getting hacked. Really? Everybody I know is getting hacked. Yeah. And they’ll DM you. Anybody if you get this DM, do not click it. Hey, can you show some love real quick and vote um on Spotify and Google, I’m one of the few blah blah blah blah blah. No, no, no. It’s it’s fake. Like if someone’s asking you to vote for something, it is fake. I’ve had I don’t want to name names. Like multiple media members DM me. Make sure you have two two-factor authentication and it’s not just media people. Like people are just getting crushed with that. Anyways, well I do James. Let me share my screen and show you. No. Uh you do though, right? Like you use an authenticator. Yes. Something. Okay. Please do. Don’t need you like ah my ex is hacked. I don’t have access to anything. And I damn sure don’t need them. Anyways, uh yeah. I’m sorry. I’m responding to a something in the chat here. So let’s get a few other things popped up. Let’s get this one out of the way. I know it’s been a hot topic. I’ve just been sitting on it. Tom Jones had mentioned it, but I’ve seen many others. Question, James. Uh, more news on Tobin about Florio. Is it clickbait? I’m going to I’m going to read the the quote. I’m pulling up the quote now. I wrote about it at banglesalk.com. It isn’t clickbait. Just to be clear, it’s not clickbait. It he was in the middle of it would be like the middle of the show we just did. I gave an opinion or a thought. That’s all it is. So, it’s not a report. It’s an opinion. It’s speculation. And this is what Mike said. He said, “The front office is constantly evaluating everyone. Players who will be back or not be back, which is normal for every team. Coaches who will be back or not be back. Normal for every team. There’s this bubbling up now that Duke Tobin defacto GM is going to be out. We’ll see. Maybe during the by-week, maybe soon. Our heads are going to roll in Cincinnati. This is unacceptable because it’s largely unprecedented how bad the defense is.” And so, could heads roll in Cincinnati? Sure. Like, don’t you feel it? I feel it. I feel that there’s pressure on this entire coaching staff right now. I think that there’s pressure on the organization. I think they felt that and that’s why they traded for Joe Flacco. And I think they felt that going into uh this stretch here. And that’s why it was so underwhelming. I think everyone in the building viewed that three-game stretch after the Flacco trade and you go to Green Bay 5 days later, it’s like, “All right, we have Thursday night against Pittsburgh and then two home games against the Jets and the Bears. let’s go two and one or three and 0. And and if you can do that, you can catch your breath at the buy and make a decision at the deadline and then make a a real run at this thing. And they’ve been so bad that it’s like, oh my goodness, like how how have they gotten here? How has this happened? Especially after winning that Steelers game. So, here’s what I know about the Bengals. They’re not going to act emotionally with anything. They don’t act with emotion. They aren’t going to react to Twitter. They’re not going to react to what I’m saying or what anybody’s saying. They’re going to to take a breath and look at it and look at the situation. And so, yeah, I think seats are warming up, but this idea that like Duke’s out. Well, I I I just I don’t think they’re there internally at all. And that doesn’t even include the fact that he’s been around as long as he has, how close he is with the family, how much they believe in him, all of those things. I just mean results based. I don’t think they’re there. They’re not there with Zack. They’re certainly not there without Golden. They’re not there with this coaching staff. And I think that would happen probably before Duke would happen. Maybe not. Maybe I’m off on that. But uh no, this is not a report from Duke from Mike Florio and Duke Tobin. What he’s saying though is that things are unacceptable. And maybe he’s hearing chirping on social media. Maybe there’s some chirping behind the scenes. I don’t think that’s coming from Por Stadium. I don’t I I don’t think that he’s getting much if anything from Por. Now, could something happen if it continues to go like this? Something will happen if it continues to go like this, and it should. But the Bengals aren’t going to, for lack of a better phrase, shoot from the hip at the by-week and make ground sweeping changes because they’ve lost a couple of games. I know it’s painful and I know it puts them out of it, but I just that’s never how they’ve reacted to things like this and I don’t think that’s how they’re going to react. Now, trying to think of how to ask you this as a follow-up without putting you too much on the spot. Is it a is there is there a possibility if you were is there any possibility that Bengals front office Mike Brown they evaluate this situation they like Zach so much as a coach they’re putting all their faith in him and they’re exploring options we’ll say as an alternative to the current approach that they have with Duke Tobin. I’m not trying to get this out there as like a like a report on your end or anything. That’s why I’m trying to watch how I’m asking this question. Do you see a scenario where they’re more bought in on Zack and the culture so on and so forth and they’re willing to go all in on that side of things versus top down or sorry versus other way around? But yeah, you’re saying you’re saying could Zack outlive Duke? Yeah. Could they choose that one that over the other? Is that is that a possibility in your mind? Okay. here. I’m I You don’t have to elaborate if you want. No, like No, like possibility like anything’s possible, right? Yeah. Okay. There’s a non-zero chance. I get that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But like that’s so tough for me to to say and be like confident in because All right. Like who do you think built the 2020 and 2021 defenses and rosters? Like if you’re going to rip them for now, also look at who decided not to pay Jesse Bates. Would Duke Tobin say we don’t need to pay Jesse Bates, right? Or would he say, “Okay, we’re not paying Jesse Bates. Let’s get Dax Hill.” Which didn’t align necessarily with what Lou did. when in reality the Bengals would have the best safety tandem in the league the past few years in my opinion had Jesse Bates and Dax Hill just played together. Had they moved Von Bell after that Super Bowl run as weird as that sounds as and I know that sounds crazy but had they just plugged Dax in with Jesse Bates I think they would have been just awesome at safety. And so that’s what’s so hard for me to do is to like dissect, all right, well, this is a Duke pick versus this is a Lou pick versus this is an Al pick versus this is a Zack pick. This is a a Lou decision to sign this safety. Did Did Lou really want Gino Stone or did the front office think Gino Stone would help do what Jesse Bates did enough to help? You know, like who who’s to blame with all this stuff? And I sound like an owl right now. like like owl because I keep saying who who, but I just don’t know all of the answers to them. Yeah. What I do know is there’s no scenario where you pick Demetrius Knight over Tate Ratlage. I do know that Jackson Karman never should have been picked period by this team. I I I do know that Germaine Burton never should have been picked by this team. And there’s a reason why pre-draft even way back then whether it was here or on lockdown, we were not talking about Jackson Karman. We were not talking about Germaine Burton. We we very very little bit on McKinley Jackson and part of that is because they could have could have should have would have just kept DJ Reer and then you don’t need McKinley Jackson. So that’s what’s tough is I don’t know where to put the blame and so they all deserve the blame and it’s small enough to where and collaborative enough to where I I don’t necessarily think that Zach can come out scot-free and last year he he was he went to them clearly and was like hey Lou I need him gone I need Frank gone I need this guy g like we need to make these changes to my staff and it’s going to be better. what hasn’t been better. And so everyone says, “Oh, well, this is an indictment on the front office.” Fine. But you got to understand that Zach was the one who said, “This is what we need to do. This is the plan.” And so I I think Zach is in hot water. I think his seat was hot last year. And so what he would need to convey is, hey, if Joe had just stayed healthy, which is really hard to do because Joe Flacco’s balling, right? If Joe would have just stayed healthy, our plan would have worked. It would have I don’t know. I I just it’s such a layered question and I it’s a much longer answer than you were thinking that I was going to give probably, but there’s just so many layers to it and I don’t have the answers and there’s like three people on the planet probably less than that that that can actually give you the answers. Like Zach can’t give you all those answers. Duke can’t give you all those answers. Like maybe Mike, like if Mike and Katie and Troy if they sat down with us and we gave them truth serum, maybe we get the answers from that. But maybe it’s even lower than that. Maybe it’s just Mike because if they fire Zack or if they made a move with Duke or they’re making any of these big moves, Mike is signing off on them still. I promise you. It doesn’t mean that he’s handling all the back and forth and all that, but he’s still signing off on them because he’s still the team president and you got to run those big moves by him. And that that doesn’t mean he handles the dayto-day, but uh you know, when it when it comes to those type of changes, of course, Mike has input. Yeah, I mean you by the way you mentioned there’s a lot 2021 season around that time frame. I mean they spent on defense impact players and I’m not even saying they necessarily needed to repeat that this past offseason but imagine if they had not brought back the same players. I don’t know. Anyway, free agency, they’ve had some higher highs in that area and they’re and they certainly could be better there, too, of course, but drafting and developing will be continue to be the theme until we start seeing some results, I suppose. Well, honestly, on defense, they need to it needs to be from all areas. They need to be active in free agency. They should have been active in the trade market. They’re going to need to continue to be active in the trade market. It’s so bad. Yeah. Like, I wish Minka Fitzpatrick was younger. like the the Dolphins mentioned him as like a trade like he’s just too like can’t do it. But like let’s say like like when Minka when the Steelers traded for Minka when was that? 2019 I think 2018 2019 when the Steelers traded him and that was like a shock. That’s the type of deal I wish I would have thought of that pre pre- trade trade deadline. That’s the type of deal the Bengals should do like and be interested in is like this bonafide stud that you’re just getting and and and can hit the ground running with. Like they need those kind of pieces to build around and they just they don’t have them. Like when you think of the Bengals defense, who are you thinking of as a playmaker? Hopefully DJ Turner, he’s like Spider-Man out there. Dax Hill has had his ups and downs. I think he’s a solid starter. And I I’m not including Trey Hendrickson because it goes without saying, but outside of those two guys, I don’t really I don’t think playmaker with anyone. And Jordan Battle has three interceptions, but he’s left more plays out there than he’s made. And so you can’t get the playmaker tag when when that’s the case. Yeah. Oh man, it’s going to be an interesting free agency. Really interesting. Oh man is going to be right because you’re going to say you’re going to hear me saying, “Oh man, you guys better be making moves.” I mean, it’s we got to completely reload and revamp, right? People are going to say, “Is Duke the one to do it?” I don’t know. Is this coaching staff the one to do it? Like, there’s just so many uncertain, you know, it it’s a lot up in the air right now. A lot. Actually, I do want to mention the around the league and how it pertains to the Bengals. Speaking of the Colts making crazy moves against Sauce Garden, Louisa, can you imagine? Say whatever you want about him or like whatever his whether it was his time to leave Cincinnati or whether you think he should have never left. Either way, it doesn’t even matter. He’s got to be loving his situation right now. The Colts orchestrated an aggressive trade that landed him an elite DB. He could have he could have retired as a Bengals coach and never experienced something like that. It’s crazy. Yeah. I hate it. I hate it. No, I love it for Lou. I hate it because th you know that’s how I would operate. Like it’s a lot to give up. But but if you look at what if you look at Sauce’s contract and what they owe him, it’s like so friendly that you’re like, “Oh, let’s just roll, baby.” Like it’s like he’s I what was it like 14 million per year? Like they’re they’re not paying him a lot. It’s wild like the average salary because of the way the bonuses are. And I and I didn’t look at all of it because I don’t cover the Colts uh or the Jets, but pretty good value there. Now, I think the Jets got a hall like to get those picks. It means the Colts are all in on Daniel Jones. They’re all in on this year. They’re all in on the the next couple of years. But the other thing here with the Colts, why do you think Daniel Jones has thrived so much? That that guy Tyler Warren is a freaking G. Okay. It’s awesome. So, there’s value in having a tight end. I’ve I’ve been on like the tight end train for the past like three years. And you It’s not like they did nothing. What were you comparing that to the Bengals? It’s not like I mean, yes, an upgrade at rookie drafted developed tight end, but guess I like the Noah Fant situation there, you know. I don’t know. You trading Shamar Stewart for Tyler Warren right now? Oh, yeah. But that’s that’s that’s a different it’s in a bubble because because in in in February when I said, “Oh, well be open to tight end,” people were like, “No, they cannot take that position.” Oh, okay. Well, that’s where this is coming from. That Yeah, that’s just stupid. That’s my point is like, no, get a guy that can help you, right? If if if they would have taken Malachi Starks and he was really good at safety, who cares if it’s not a valuable position? He would help you at safety. If they get a tight end and he really helps you, who cares? Get a guy who can help you. And hopefully Shamar Stewart can help them. I I’m not there yet because you know he’s and he’s hurt again I think and it rough rough situation but man oh man from what he did during camp and what I saw in camp to what he hasn’t done on the field it it’s a wild different like I thought he was going to make an impact right away not necessarily a bunch of sacks but just be like this Tasmanian devil chaos creator and there’s been no chaos yeah but we could and we’ll keep talk this will be the same cycle of conversation every regular season, off seasonason, especially in the offseason when you talk about, oh, people are mad at you, a tight end. The issue is and so much that that they shouldn’t be going after an offensive skill player, let’s say, in the first round. The issue is that we don’t we can’t rely on this team to properly address their needs in free agency. And I know that just h that you got to do it right. Draft the player, not the position. I get it. But when you’re left with a team that isn’t filling the positions in free agency, I understand where the the gripe is coming from with and then you take a 25-year-old linebacker in the second round over Okay, here we go. I know. No, but like that’s what happens cuz then you need to fill the lineback like if you needed a linebacker and you felt that way, right? Well, then one I mean there’s so many things they should have done differently at linebacker to be honest with you. I mean just they messed it up. I mean, and that doesn’t mean Demetrius and Barrett won’t be good, but to get you get nothing for Germaine Pratt, you get a a seventh for Logan, and you spend two relatively high picks on linebackers, plus you sign Orin Burks. Like, it’s just a lot a lot of resources there, and and what are you where are you at? Like, it it’s not like you’re like, “Oh, well, the Bengals linebackers are set now.” Like, you’re hoping they are, but it doesn’t feel that way today. I wanted to comment on this and we’ve been kind of circling the the saying the same thing. I get that. But yeah, I I see a lot of comments from people on social media and even in our comments here on YouTube where people are saying, “Well, we can’t we can’t trade what’s the point of trading Trey Hendrickson for picks when they don’t draft well. What’s the point of, you know, moving this player and not get and getting 70 picks if they can’t do anything with, you know, 69 of them?” Like, I get it. But you’re also left with a team in my opinion that is clearly not doing I just said it enough in free agency to address the need. So what you’re left with is the draft. So you just got to go with a numbers game at some point. I’m with you. I don’t feel excited when I if I hear that they’re getting a second or a third or a fourth. I’m not thrilled about it. I’m glad they got something if that were to ever happen in a trade. But at the end of the day, if I believed that they would address a need in free agency, then yeah, I’d be with you. But it works both ways. So you either rack up on the one currency that they can appreciate which is pure numbers that they can add to their roster and somehow try to develop or what like do better in free agency. They’re both difficult asks but at least you know for sure you’re getting draft picks. So yeah, I it’s wild because I think their worst draft that they’ve had at least round three on they had 10 picks la last year, not 25 and 24. And so they take Mims totally on board with that. Chris Jenkins, I think he’s fine. Maybe not great, but fine. After that, let me read these to you. Germaine Burton, huge risk. McKinley Jackson, huge risk. Eric all, love the talent, but obviously injury history, huge risk. Josh Newton, clearly hasn’t worked out as well as they want. love his mentality. We’ll see. Tanner McGlaughlin out on the team. Cedric Johnson may be their second best defensive end. That may be a hit. Dejan Anthony miss Matt Lee. Everybody on social media including myself likes him more than the team does clearly. Like it’s the 10 picks. They didn’t move up. That was the draft they moved up. Move up, right? And you get like the Burton and McKinley picks are just burning holes. And we didn’t talk about either of those guys for a reason. like the McKinley pick. That was like the perfect time, the perfect time to take an interior offensive lineman. The the Germaine Burton pick, my guy Troy Franklin was right there. What are they asking Burton to do? Run in straight lines. Guess what Troy Franklin’s really good at? Running in straight lines. They thought Burton was going to be this doit all guy that could line up everywhere. And that was their vision. And my goodness, has it not worked. I mean, it is Oh, it is bad. So, yeah. I mean, the the drafting part, I get it. You know, I do I uh but like Miles Murphy was a huge risk at the time when they took him and it’s it hasn’t worked out yet. And I like Miles as a person for sure and I think he’s a good dude. It just hasn’t worked production-wise and and that sucks. It does. I mean, he has four and a half sacks right now. He has the same amount of sacks as Chris Jenkins, just to give you an idea, right? Drafted a year year before defensive end versus defensive tackle. They have the same amount of sacks. just to give you an idea of where those guys are at. Code Red Omega, uh, VIP sweet member. By the way, I wanted to point this out cuz I seen a few comments saying, you know, it’s sad. As long as the Browns own this team, nothing changes. I wish I could believe they’ll fix it, but I don’t. That’s probably about the most teetering on not having an opinion one way or another about how you feel much how much you feel the Browns may care. I’m I’m calling this one out because simply I I still stand by like we’ll call it I don’t know devil’s advocate for lack of a better term I’m gonna go at this with but I truly believe they they they really care about the team. They really care about winning and they are doing what they believe is best. I do think that one thing they probably could do a better job at, I suppose, from what I’ve seen is maybe trying some new things, trying some different approaches, maybe being a little bit more aggressive at times. That’s just my personal thought about it from what I’ve seen other teams do and what’s worked for other teams and what hasn’t worked for this team. But at the end of the day, I do think that they truly care. They’re truly trying. They’re just trying in their way and it just we’re seeing the results for now. They’re definitely trying. Like they trade they trade they’ve made three trades in a year in season and they hadn’t really done that ever. You know, they add Joe Flacco. Like that’s so bold for them. Now I get it, right? These other teams are go going crazy and all those things. I get it. that that’s why I hesitate to like rip Duke to shreds or rip Zach to shreds or rip Al to shreds cuz like I don’t know what ownership is saying no to that those guys want right and I know ownership was the one that was like all right well we’re negotiating with Jesse you think anyone in the building didn’t want Jesse like from a personnel standpoint of course you did like people wanted DJ Reer the coaching staff wanted DJ Reer and so to not have that and to pivot that’s is what it you know so that’s what’s tough it’s what’s tough about all of it is is we don’t know it’s not like a traditional organization where this person’s making all the decisions right and and Duke is taking a lot of the blame now and that’s fine but like I don’t think Duke was the one pounding the table for Jackson Karman and I know I’m going far back but like that pick cost them a Super Bowl I believe that like that pick was so bad and so out of left field and I think we have a good idea of who kind of came in out of the shadows to to make that pick, but that just can’t happen and and it did and and it cost them. So, how many times does that happen with someone else in the organization when they have these draft room debates and it’s close between the linebacker and the guard and and and how does it go? Like I I don’t know. And so that’s what’s really tough to to look at. Here’s what I do know. They need to be aggressive. They need to do far more than they did last year in free agency moving forward. Like I don’t care that you’re paying T. Like you don’t get a break from free agency because you’re paying other guys. It’s it’s the NFL. You have to get better. You have to find pieces that work. You have to find pieces that help you. Not Gino Stone and Nick Scott. Not Sheldon Rankkins because he had a few sacks against you and man oh man, he had the press conference of the year after he got sacked or after he got signed. I speak freely. I thought this dude was going to come in here with an attitude and just be awesome and it was the opposite. He was awful. So, you’re going to have to do your homework. Germaine Burton, I can’t believe I still can’t believe they picked him. And it could it has it couldn’t have gone worse. Oh, by the way, Zack Taylor couldn’t believe it either, if you remember the his reaction in the war room. We never talked about him. I breathe the draft there. Like I there’s no one in at Payor media-wise every day that looks at the draft stuff as much as I do that time of year. Yeah. Like I I I crash course it from like February on. You know that. And and I start to have these text. We didn’t talk about Germaine once because we just didn’t think that they would be in on him, right? And uh I forget the Twitter. Someone messaged me like, “Hey, they’re in on Germaine Burton.” And I’m like, “Get the get out of here.” It was like three weeks before the draft. Like, “No way.” Yeah. And so I didn’t even pay pay any attention to it. And then the day of the draft it was like or the day of the what the second round or second and third rounds, day two, it’s like Germaine. Germaine. And freaking it was Germaine. That person’s right, man. I’m never going to forget it. Um, but yeah, I uh and I’m not trying to be mean to Germaine, but it hasn’t worked. So, it’s not it’s not breaking news or anything, you know. Yeah. And and to your point, I do want to mention really quickly, too, like we don’t know what goes on with this organization behind closed doors. And I know that right now people are mad. I know that people want people to lose their jobs. I understand the feeling as a fan because you’re not getting the results that you want. You’re not seeing it. But if you’ve ever worked anywhere, I’m sure that you’ve had to do something in terms of a job and perform to a certain level. And there are some things that are just out of your control because others that you depend on or perhaps that you report to aren’t doing what they should be doing. And you don’t know where that ends sometimes if you don’t have visibility into that organization. Like even James who is, you know, media insider, whatever word you want to use, it’s not like he has that level of access. There’s a reason why, but ultimately it’s tough. So, what did you say, Katie? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And if that’s the case, get her on right now. But the but at the end of the day, yeah, I’m not saying not to not be frustrated or to want a change. That’s perfectly fine. I’m all on board with shaking things up. Let’s change some things up. Mike, I can’t sit here and tell you for sure where exactly it begins. Mike, you only got offered a fourth round pick for Trey. Mike Brown. No, I’m just kidding. All right, I’ll stop. I’ll stop. No, you’re right. It’s and and the thing is is usually you can get hunches and info without people telling you directly and and you can if you study the patterns enough. That’s why the Burton thing was a surprise. That’s why some of these things have kind of thrown me off in recent years. Like it’s like the the BJ Hill contract is is such a surprise because it’s the third contract. Yeah. You you’d be like, “Ah, well, that’s it. That ship is has sailed. It’s run its course. They did this with DJ. They’ve done this with a lot of guys. They’re kind of doing it with Trey.” And I I think I I’m pretty sure what the coaching staff looked at it and maybe Al Golden was like, “Hey, we need something there that we know we can depend on.” And that was probably it, right? And I don’t know that, but that’s my educated guess. And um so that’s why it’s tough to put blame on anywhere. And by the way, BJ Hill is playing fine. I’m not knocking him, but I I think at where they’re at, it’s like, all right, well, you’re you’re paying significant money to a a fine player, but you need playmakers. And with the way they operate, it almost hamstrings. they’re kind of hamstrung with how much they can use, how many resources they can use to go get those playmakers they need because they’re paying a solid starter in BJ Hill, if that makes sense. So, he’s taking criticism from me, but it’s really not criticism. It’s just where they’re at, how they operate, knowing that. So, guess what their record is all time? The Bengals record all played as a played Hold on. Yep. Yep. Yep. They’ve played 896 games. They’ve played 896 regular season games. I was looking up their draft history just so I could have everybody in front of me. Sure. And their win loss record is on there. 896 games. Guess their win loss record. We’ll end on this. I’m going to say wins because I’m not doing the math of subtraction here, but I’m going to say 384. Wow. You just think they’re that bad of a franchise. They’re 406. Oh, that was close. 406485 and five. 406485 and five. So there’s 79 games under 500. 79. There you go. Quit living in the past. We We got the future on this roster. James’ defense is the future. What do you think Zack Taylor’s record is? Oh, I’ I’ve known it. I’ve kept tabs, but I haven’t checked in a while. Um, I know at one point I knew what it was with Burrow, without Burrow, and Yeah, I I need the game total. Fine. 108 games. Regular 108 games. Yeah. 49 wins. Shut up. What? He’s 49 58 and one. That’s ridicul. You What are you doing? I swear to God, Zack Taylor stalker. Like, what’s wrong with you? No, it’s like when you look at the jelly beans in the jar and you kind of like eyeball it and you just do gut reaction. Yeah. Okay. How many times have you guessed the jelly beans in the jar? Like that’s ridiculous. Wherever the opportunity presents itself, James, I mean. All right. All right. Dentist lobbies. I don’t know. What’s his playoff record? What’s his playoff record? Five, four, three. I haven’t thought about playoffs. This one’s easy for me. I mean, it should be easy. I just don’t I got to start Never thought about postseason record. He’s only Yeah. lost five and two. He’s five and two. He’s great. Yeah. I was going to say I’m trying to think about how many actual games were played also light years ago. Like I remember in that uh cuz that was the Germaine Pratt yelling at Joseph O just don’t hit him out of bounds and then being at Arrowhead and looking up like the way the media room is. Yeah. Like I had to look like directly up at Joe Burrow to get him like if if you pulled up the the postgame press. Like it’s like my my tripod’s like flipped up and like looking up Joe’s nose basically. And um remember asking him about the the trash talk and the uh the rivalry and all that stuff. And I was like, man, this is the best rivalry in the NFL. This is just going to continue. And then 23 happens and then 24 happens. Now 25 happens and it just feels like it’s Yep. I mean, that feels like forever ago. That feels like so long ago. It really does. It It’s a It does feel like a different era. Like, there was It was just It It could be categorized as such. It does. For sure. It does. And so, that’s that’s what they’re fighting at Payor Stadium. We’re obviously going to have you covered every step of the way. Plenty of ideas here during the buy. So, please hit that subscribe button on YouTube if you’re watching. And uh maybe we’ll do a member stream soon. We should do that. We’re overdue. I see some members in here. I appreciate it. Helps. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. check out our our our members only. We promise we have some stuff in store. It was weird with the the game Sunday, the by-week, so Monday suddenly became huge because it’s the last time you’re you’re going to talk to Zach and talk to some of these players and then deadline Tuesday. It’s been a weird weird stretch. So, we’ll uh we’ll get back into a groove here, especially with members as well. All right. All right. For Andrew, I’m James. Thanks for watching. We’ll talk to you soon. Thanks, everyone. Thanks.

The Cincinnati Bengals saw the NFL Trade Deadline pass at 4pm on Tuesday — and we’re going LIVE!
James Rapien and Andrew Fox Miller discuss the Logan Wilson trade and give their instant reactions and analysis of any other moves (or lack of moves). Plus, a discussion about what it means for the Bengals moving forward.

00:00:00 Trey Hendrickson Stays – Right move?
00:15:30 Logan Wilson to Dallas Cowboys
00:27:57 AFC North Odds
00:29:51 What SHOULD Bengals have done before deadline?
00:32:02 Q&A Chat

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