KSR - NFL Cover Zero: NFL Draft Choices and Bengals OT Orlando Brown Jr.

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

Matt Jones and Billy are getting ready for the opening night of the NFL Draft.  How much coverage will you be watching?  Matt shares his experiences with Mel Kiper Jr. and what kind of Draft show he enjoys.  What advice does Matt have for Fernando Mendoza while doing interviews?  Plus, we look back to our time at the Super Bowl and a discussion with Bengals OT Orlando Brown! NFL Cover Zero returns on Monday with the Official NFL Cover Zero Draft Preview!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and I-Heart podcast. Welcome, everybody. It is Cover Zero. We are one week away from the NFL draft, Matt Jones and Billy are sports. The NFL draft is next Thursday night in Pittsburgh, Mendoza, Francisco Mendoza, to be the first pick and then, you know, after that, it's up in the air.

Lots of excitement. Are you looking forward to the draft bill? I am looking to see where the quarterbacks go after Mendoza, right? Ty Simpson. I'm looking at the SEC network right now. You're being to worry about Ty Simpson? Yeah, I got to know where he's going to go. Where do you think Ty Simpson needs to go.

Probably like early second round. I don't think he's a first round talent. Not sure on team, but I... People didn't think in Alabama. Ty Simpson was good. Well, that's the draft, Matt. And same with... Same with what?

Nussmeyer at LSU, constantly getting badgered. But it'd be interesting to see if Alabama and LSU there are two quarterbacks who received constant criticism and turmoil will maybe be the second and third quarterback chosen. Yeah, and I lock in for that first day of the draft. I'm kind of in and out. What do you do?

I sit down in front of the TV if I'm not there. Is that locked in? Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm definitely locked in. It's locked in to say I sit down in front of the television. Well, I get in the recliner. I mean, a lot of people do that. Well, true.

But I get in the recliner and don't move. Like, it's a, I've got to see everything that's happening. As opposed to what? Well, maybe you're in and out. Maybe you got a second screen on. Do you watch, do you watch the ESPN feed? Do you watch the ABC feed or do you watch the NFL network feed? I'm an ABC guy.

I like the features. Wait, me, you like the one for women. Well, I mean, they make that for people's mothers. Well, I mean, then count me in that group. because I like the back stories, like seeing the family, things like that. You like to see like how they're doing as a family. Yeah. I can get Steve Mariucci on the NFL network any day of the week.

But like the Kirkhurt Street. And who else is on it? Nick Saban. Saban had done it in the past. But when I see that, when I feel it's like they highlight the tragedy in everyone's life, you're a very pro-tragedy. Well, it's good storylines, you know, for our cover zero podcast. You never know what you're going to learn.

Mel Kuiper Jr. I've seen enough of him for a while. What are you talking about? Mel Kiper Jr. is an American treasure. Yeah, well, he's great. No, he's great at analysis. There's no doubt about it in that hair. He eats, so I've worked with him a couple times.

He eats a meal at the same time of day. Oh, really? Is it the same meal? Well, he has, it's a certain kind of cake. I can't remember what it is, but there is some cake that he eats every single day at 4.30. Like a slice of it. And I think it's this thing.

He has it every single day at the exact same time of day. He's a very like regimented person, as you can see by the hair here. He's kept the hair the same for 40 some plus years. So you don't want to see Mel Kuiper? I mean, to me, the draft is Mel Kuiper. No, no, that's not the draft to me, Matt. I really liked the COVID year when we got a glimpse into the families and like the So basically you just want a reality show.

Yeah, that's what the draft is to me. All right. Well, I do think there are levels. I think you have ABC is the most family-oriented. Watch it with your girlfriend. She'll go, oh, that's sweet. NFL Network is for the nerds, right? The ones that are out there going, well, I know, 40 time.

When you match it up with a 3-4 defense, that's not going like there's that. And then I think the ESPN is kind of somewhere in the middle, right? It's a little bit rock and roll, but a little bit country. I would agree with that, yeah. Which one are you going to do ESPN. I need a little analysis. I need to see them, you know, it used to be all the game tape for the SEC players was against Kentucky, and I always enjoyed that. Not so much anymore, but then I like a combination.

I can't do the NFL network because it's too serious. A lot of, you know, everybody's really like all that. And then the ABC one, I don't know, I don't want to cry. It feels like everyone's crying. I really enjoy watching the girlfriends and the mother's fight for airtime. But that's more, I think, of an ESPN thing. Normally, they're showing that. And then I also enjoy the suits.

I think it's bad. Mendoza's not going, though. Yeah, I agree. I don't like that. Number one pick. Yeah, I mean, you need to be there. The draft is essentially you, especially now since you're like Mr. I don't know.

I think he's a odd kid. Is he? You didn't think he was odd in his interviews? Like he was, I feel like he would. A little dorky. I feel like he would stare at me too much. He just looks directly into the camera. You know, when you go on television, they teach you, do not look directly into the camera.

Oh, I've never heard that, that tip. Well, I mean, it's a little different if you're on TV. But if, like, if you're going to be, if you're, if I'm interviewing you, they will tell you don't look at the. camera. Look at me. Okay. Right. Now, when you're a news report, like when you're a news reporter, you look at the camera. But like when you're being interviewed, and Mendoza doesn't follow that rule, he doesn't

look at the person who's asking questions. He looks directly into the camera. Well, that would be creepy if he was staring into my soul. I'm not seeing me. Does this. No, I'm going to have to go back and see this. Go look at the post games he did throughout the playoff run. He looks directly into the camera.

And I'm like, stop staring at me. It would be. So for that reason, I can't get biased. to miss my quarterback. What about Pavia? You think he finds a home? You couldn't pay me to pick Pavia. Oh.

Well, first of all, if you're going to pick Pavia, it means going to be your third QB. You don't want that. You don't want that distraction. Distraction. It's the same thing, the same issue that Tibo had, very different. I mean, Tibo was not an arrogant, but like you couldn't have him as your third quarterback because of how much attention he gets. So if you're going to have Pavi on your team, then he's going to have to be your starter,

and nobody wants him to be a starter. I remember Tebow went to the Jets. He was a tight end and still all the cameras were on him. And he also, is it right? He doesn't have an agent or whatever. He's going to do it himself. Who is that? Pavia.

I'm not sure about that. I feel like he said something like, come on, dude. Stop. Well, Lamar did the same thing, right? Yeah, and I think that's a mistake. But at least Lamar's really good. You know. Big difference.

So, no, I'm out on, I would not pick Pavia. Now, we were at the Super Bowl. A couple, you know, a few weeks ago, we did a lot of interviews. And the one that we've kind of been holding because Billy is selfish is Orlando Brown Jr. This may have been the best interview we did, right? Yeah, especially on day three. That was such an interesting day. Yeah, because he came in.

He does work in Cincinnati. We talked about Skyline Chile. One of your favorites. I don't understand why everyone doesn't embrace it. I mean, don't you like the idea that the city has unique? food to the city. To be known for, yeah. But then for some reason with Cincinnati, everybody says, oh, that's terrible.

Well, maybe they just don't like it. Like, it is possible that it can be a part of your city and you just don't like it. Yeah. Well, they're wrong because since Skyline's very good and it's good to hear Orlando talk about it. And so this was like one of the most pleasant guys does a lot of charity work. And for Bingles fans, I know specifically you've been asking for it. So we decided right here before the draft, we, we would play Orlando Brown Jr.

All right, happy to be joined now from the Cincinnati Beagle, just up the road from us. Yeah, far. The Cincinnati Beagles, Orlando Brown Jr. I'm sure you get a lot of football questions. Since you're in Cincinnati, I'm going to give you some Cincinnati questions. I like that. Let's start with, do you like Skyline?

I do. I do. You know, I'm not a big fan of the spaghetti necessarily. You like the chili, though? I do like the chili. I can eat the chili with some crackers. and some cheese, but just got to give it to me on a hot dog, we're good to go. So you do the hot dog with the stringy cheese?

100%. Hot sauce is good. Are you pro hot sauce? I'm pro hot sauce, but I don't really need it. I'm not, yeah, I just give me the Skyline chili, some onions, mustard, some cheese on that hot dog. I'm good to go. I'm feeling endorsement, Skyline. I can, it can work.

Now, I don't know how to say this nicely, but we've had this conversation. You drive into Cincinnati for people elsewhere. You cross the bridge from northern Kentucky. And the Bengals practice facility is under the interstate. Yes, it is. It's very strange. It's weird that the practice facility is like under a bridge. Now, it's very nice, but it is under the interstate.

Isn't that kind of strange? I love it, though. It's like I've played in Baltimore where our facility and stadium was 30 minutes apart. You practice in the suburbs. And then in Kansas City, the stadium and the facility are pretty much in the same property so you're right there but you're not around much the thing about Cincinnati that's so cool is I drive in I drive downtown every day for work like I don't know something about that is just cool to me no it is very cool but you do like I've often wondered if I was driving down the

interstate and just threw a cup out my window yeah would I take Jamar Chase out for the year yeah you might you might I mean you'd be surprised everything I you hear all kind of stuff people driving by yelling stuff honking their horns it's pretty cool yeah we all work with someone that's just really cool and hard to be around. Like Billy. Like, he has an aura that's hard to think. Look at it. You can see. It's tough. Yeah, let's go, man.

Is Burrow like that. Like, what we see on social media, what we get of his fans, is that like that all the time? Is he really just Joe cool? Yeah, he is, man. He is. And to me, that's what makes a great player greatest. He's the same guy every day.

As intense as he is on Sundays, he's that intense in a walk through in April. And, you know, that breeds success, man. He's always chasing perfection. When you, you weren't on the team when he died, hair blonde. I was. I was. Did you know, I would have looked at him and gone, I mean, you're

all right? Well, he talked about it. You know, he talked about it that offseason when I was over at his home. And I didn't really even know what he meant. I was it, frosted tips or something. I can't remember what he was trying to say. It was, yeah. Yeah, but he went full slim shading.

I mean, to each his own, man. It was a good look. He wore it well. He swagged it out well for a while there. Will it happen again? Probably, you know, him. What did you do with the fossil he gave you? Wasn't that the thing? He like gave the line fossils? Yeah, he's giving me two incredible gifts, man. He's giving me

the fossil this year. I got a crazy 80,000 year old cave bear skull. Normal? Hang on just a second. I thought you meant fossil like that maybe that was a brand of luxury watch. I didn't know. It was an actual... Prehistoric. He gave them

rocks. Yes, he gave us like prehistoric fossils. And I got a huge cave bear skull. It's really cool. But I mean, you're seeing other ones like, Dak Prescott's getting guys motorcycles, and Pat Mahomes had everything you could think of. I think he gave them refrigerators,

and then you're like, well, here's my rock. Man, I like it. I don't know. I think it's cool. I think it's special. Even last year with the swords, man. He gave a swords last year. I need you to look me in the eye.

Yeah, I got swords. Are you telling me you wanted to have that old rock over like a new Rolex? I'm going to be honest, man. Like, like from, it's like that's the benefit of having. rich friends, you get cool stuff. You know what I mean?

Like, I've never thought about buying myself a fossil, but this fossil is worth thousands of dollars, and I don't have it forever. So I don't know. You think you're going to watch. Yeah, I'm good, man. I go get my own road like you. You don't have your own fossil. That you do.

Now I do because of Joey B, man. That's exactly right. Fair enough. I know legacy is important to you and your father and everything that he did. But was it always football for you? or was there anything else that you, Orlando Brown Jr. would have been doing? Football, man. It was always football for me. You know, I would tell you, I probably made the commitment to the sport at the age of 13.

You know, my dad didn't want me to play. It took a lot for me to convince him to let me play. But yeah, man, I love football, man. I love it. It's always been there. And it's something I enjoy. But I got a real passion and love for it. But you, when you say your dad didn't want you to play, there wasn't a part of you that was like, yeah, dad played. want to be, well, you're a pianist, right? Did you want to do that when you were young? Yeah, well, you know, I started learning to play the piano when I bought my home in Sinci. And, I mean, I'm not great. Like, and there isn't any songs that I could tell you if you put me in front of a crowd. I feel comfortable playing yet. I've just been learning.

Do you have someone giving you paniano lessons? Just YouTube and iPad apps, but, but yeah. I'm disappointed. I thought you would have like some, like me, a little old lady in town who would You know how cool that would be? No, no, I haven't gone that far. But, you know, I think the next instrument I do want to learn is the guitar. So I'll definitely probably need somebody for that. I think you should get. Mrs. Hopkins taught me. And I feel like she could teach you. She's still alive. Yeah. Ms. Gwynette taught my sister. I could get Ms. Gwinnett if Ms. Hopkins is not available. Give me easier their numbers, man. Yeah. I mean, they're just in Kentucky. Now, you were the 2026

Cincinnati, Cincinnati? How do you say it? Cincinnati. In the year. Cincinnati of the year. I don't know who else has won that. award but I've met many people from Cincinnati that ain't going to win that award so that had to be a good honor yeah no special man you know I do a lot of work with type 1 diabetes and not to get extremely sentimental but my brother was diagnosed with type 1 at 8 years old I was 9 years old when we found out both of my grandparents struggled from him my dad passed away of keto acidosis which is a form of a diabetic coma and so my bed one of my best friends mark andrews is a type 1 diabetic that I got to know him in college early. And so I spent a lot of time around it. And I know

the impact that it has on people and families. And so for me, it gives me the opportunity to be able to present a positive light centered around it. It's an autoimmune disease. So it can always be confusing for a lot of families, man. And for me, it's just important to be able to let people know they're not alone. You've protected Joe Burrow. You also protected Joe Flacco over the course of the year. What was it, what was like that changed to have like an elderly man come and join the team? It was great. It was great. You know, my first three starts in this league were with Joe Flacco.

And so in Baltimore, which is crazy to say, man. Come full circle. It's called Come Full Circle. So it was really cool, man, having them come in. I think my favorite part about Flack coming in was he obviously came in that Tuesday or Wednesday had to play on a Sunday. Yes. And the funny part is, obviously, he can't know the whole system by game day. So he's in the huddle, and, you know, some quarterbacks have their microphones and their helmet louder.

Some have it lower. Like, Joey B's help. Mike isn't too loud in his ear. Like, he likes it lower. That's why you always see him covering his ears. Flack, I feel like has it pretty loud. And so I could hear Zach talking to him, and the play call would be coming in in the huddle. And he just, he said a formation and he goes, Jamar, what do you want to run?

T, what do you want? All right, we're calling that on one. On one. Run that on one. And that was my favorite part about having him was it was backyard football. It had to be simple, right? Yeah, exactly. Now, I also have the opinion, and I've said it many times on this show.

I think Cincinnati has the drunkenest fans in the NFL on game day. Yeah. And I still stand by that. You've been in Baltimore. Yeah. Drunk fans. Yeah, Kansas City. Drunk fans.

How do you think Cincinnati, how do you think Cincinnati competes? I love our energy. I've played in our stadium as a fan, as a opposing player. I've played in Kansas City as an opposing player. I've played in Baltimore as an opposing player. And, you know, obviously Arrowhead is a different beast. Like Arrowhead, I think it's Looming Field in Seattle. Is that their name of their field?

I think it's pretty, those are pretty crazy. But Cincinnati, man, Paycourt Stadium gets rocking. Like, I mean, when we played there and when I was in Kansas City, my last year in 22, it was rocking. It was so loud. I mean, it was crazy. I mean, our fan base there, they love their football. I remember a game this year where it was rocking

and then it wasn't rocking which was the Bears against the Vingles I'm a Bears fan I'm a Bears fan that might have been the craziest game I've ever seen in my life was it like that for you that's probably my most disappointed loss

as a pro is that right yeah I mean man I've I've been playing football what you say eight years in the NFL four years in college four in high school one year middle school I've never recovered an onside kick. I've never recovered an onside kick and scored.

You know what I mean? We scored in two minutes. It was mapped out for us to go out there and win that game. And, you know, unfortunately, man, for whatever reason, we lost it. But that was the hardest loss. I think I've had to do it as a pro. And along those lines, I mean, I know

you know they're given full effort. Oh, yeah. But it has to be tough for your offense with the struggles that the defense has had. Yeah. How do you keep the team camaraderie without getting frustrated at the fact you guys just keep putting up points and then they'll give them up? Yeah, well, to me, you know, I think it comes down to a few different plays there in that situation. Like even in that game, I gave up a sack fumble and that had an effect on the game. You know what I mean?

Just imagine if we get that first down and we still had the ball in that possession, maybe we got another three points and we're not having to score another touchdown there in two minute and we can run the clock out and kick a field goal and win the game. So it comes down to a bunch of different things, man. I don't want everyone to point fingers and say, you know, it was just our defense need to show up. You know, there's always plays that when you look back on the course of a game, it's always something you can point the finger at to the man in the mirror and say I could have did that better. Well, Orlando, I have had a good time with you. Last thing, favorite ride at Kings Island. Man, I've never even been.

You're not getting on a ride at King. Look at this man. You think he's getting on a ride. I wish I could. The last ride I got on, I think, was a bad. Batman or Superman and six flags in Atlanta. I was in high school, I think 11th grade. So are you too big for this?

I'm too big, man. My feet hit the ground on the bottom. That's the last roller coaster. You would go five miles per hour. That is true. Legitimately. Yeah, we're legitimately. You might slow the beast down a little bit.

Have you met L.E. Day, La Cruz? I have. I have. His first, it was, bro, crazy. His first game that he was, that he played as a red when they brought him up was they had us at the batting practice at the band. So it was crazy. I'm like, who was this six foot seven skinny guy?

They're like, hey, this dude's next. But got a lot of swag. Oh, he's different. He is different. Orlando Brown, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate you guys.

We will be back on Monday with our official cover zero draft preview. Are you excited about that? I am. It'll be fun to get everybody together to do a full show again. Yes. So be looking for that on Monday. Enjoy your week. This has been NFL Cover Zero.

Zero. NFL cover zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and IHeart podcast. For more podcasts from IHeart Radio, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.