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