Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - How can the Bengals learn from 2024's Super Bowl teams?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals played the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2024. What lessons can they learn to help their chances in 2025 and going forward? You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liscoe. He's your host, James Rapine. We are locked on Bengals on the Locked on.

Starting point is 00:00:35 on Podcast Network, your team, every day. We're on YouTube. We're everywhere you get your podcast. So if you're new to the show, you can subscribe to make sure you don't miss anything related to the Cincinnati Bengals all offseason long and going into the regular season next year, of course. And for the everydayers out there, welcome back to the show. You're going to hear us talk about a team that somehow comes up on this show quite often

Starting point is 00:00:55 for an NFC team in the Philadelphia Eagles and some of the lessons of Bengals can take away from the way these teams came together in this run to the Super Bowl. and it'll be a little bit different, or maybe a lot of it different, for each of these teams and some of the things that Bengals can take away from them if they want to be more serious, perhaps, as a contender next year. Today's episode brought to you by Fandall, where new customers can get $150 in bonus bets if their first $5 bet wins.

Starting point is 00:01:23 That's Fandall. Check it out right now for a chance of that $150 in bonus bets and chains. An exercise that we like to do, I think we've done this every year, the Bengals haven't been in the Super Bowl, we've been doing this podcast, is to look at the teams that do make it to the Super Bowl, which has been a lot of the Chiefs, and one NFC team on a rotating basis, and look at how those teams were put together,

Starting point is 00:01:48 look at how those teams operate, and what the Bengals can learn from those teams when it comes to team building, talent acquisition, cap management, all of those topics. What stands out to you first when you look at these Super Bowl teams? Yeah, I think that the Bengals, from a blueprint standpoint, if you look at these two blueprints, the chiefs and what they've done and how they've done it, and the Eagles and how they've done it. And the Eagles have been really darn good now for, I mean, they've made three Super Bowls since 2017 with two different quarterbacks, multiple head coaches, a coordinator swaps, all these things that have changed. And they found their way back.

Starting point is 00:02:29 and it's because I look at their roster, and I think they have the best roster in football, just top to bottom. We're recording this before Super Bowl 59. The Chiefs very much could win the game, but the Eagles roster is just awesome. And I remember looking at it in week eight, like in depth before the Bengals played the Eagles,

Starting point is 00:02:49 and obviously that game was close, and then it got away from them. They lose 37, 17.17, the Eagles just roll them. It was the only blowout loss of the season, and it was here in Cincinnati. And you look at this roster, and they can match you at your strengths if you're the Bengals with their weapons. They have a quarterback that they believe in.

Starting point is 00:03:09 And then at the same time, you look at the trenches and what they have on that defense and how they can get pressure and the multiple first round picks on the interior, guys like Milton Williams, who you really liked pre-draft, Zach Bond, the linebacker, who was with the Saints for a bunch of years, not used properly. He comes to the Eagles, and Vic Fangio is making him a defensive player of the year candidate, right? So I think they're really good at evaluating.

Starting point is 00:03:39 They're not afraid to be aggressive when it comes to the draft and moving up to get the guy they want the quality over quantity, certainly drafting the right talent. I mean, just last year, getting two cornerbacks that are going to, and have played a big role in the, season this year and can be building blocks starting with quinyon Mitchell of course cooper de jean is the other one like that's a heck of a way to rebuild and jumpstart your cornerback

Starting point is 00:04:05 room and that was an issue for them last year so i i think they are not afraid to be aggressive and they will go get their needs address their needs wherever they are oh and of course they've paid their scars which i think is a big factor as well yeah i think when you're talking about the eagles and we've talked about this many times this year because there are parallels, even if the Bengals operate as opposite to the Eagles as you can in the NFL. There are some parallels about the paths for these teams.

Starting point is 00:04:38 And you talk about aggression with the Eagles. They are, I think, the most aggressive team in the NFL at talent acquisition, whether it is maneuvering in the draft, like you say, trading for players, acquiring scrap heat players, acquiring top-end players, and the AJ Brown trade of course, top of mind there.

Starting point is 00:04:56 And Sequin Barclay, I think being a huge example of that last year. Running backs don't matter. And then they go get the best one. And guess what? He matters a lot, right? Well, and it matters when you have a team built the way the Eagles are built. They also have embraced their identity, know what they are, have a massive investment in their offensive line, the best offensive line coach in the NFL and are committed to and consistently

Starting point is 00:05:22 run the ball very well. I think that that isn't necessarily a lesson that I would take away from the Eagles if I were the Bengals. I think you can learn that there are certain running backs that are worth paying if they do a certain thing for your offense. But I think that for the Eagles, specifically when it comes to Sequin, it's the cherry on top for that offense or the straw that breaks the camels back in a good way. Like the thing that pushes them over that hump is Seiquan in that offense

Starting point is 00:05:52 because of the way the offense works. But by and large, you look at the way that they've identified the things that can drive their team forward, the way they get out in front of contracts to extend players as often as possible, the way that they constantly draft so well. And yes, they have to make tough decisions about players that are leaving, Hassan Reddick most recently. But then they consistently have a stable of players in development and are so deep at so many positions that they aren't often feeling that pain.

Starting point is 00:06:22 of watching their good players go when it's time for those players to go. And it's typically not second contracts every now and then it is. They will have to make a very difficult decision because they have three good linemen. They spent premium resources on it or have performed in Jalen Carter, in Milton Williams, and why am I forgetting? I always forget one of them. The third defensive tackle. You do.

Starting point is 00:06:47 Jordan Davis. Looking at all these names. Jordan Davis. There you go. They have all these players that they have to make tough decisions about, but because they draft so well and are so aggressive in acquiring multiple solutions for problems, it never seems to get them down long. And part of that is also that the Eagles are willing to spend a ton of money on their roster. Go look at how their cap hits are lined up for 2025,

Starting point is 00:07:20 right now, and the base salaries of the top, like, 15 cap hits on this team are below $1.5 million because those contracts are fully prorated. They've taken all of that salary and thrown it all into pro-rated bonuses and are stretching that cap hit out over five years, over four years, as much as possible to minimize cap hits in the short term, knowing that the cap is going up in the future, knowing that they'll be able to deal with those cap hits in the future more easily or knowing that they'll just have to take it on the chin at some point. Like A.J. Brown, I think, has a $50 million dead cap hit in 2030. In 2030 in five years, they're going to take it on the chin with A.J. Brown's contract a little bit. Okay.

Starting point is 00:08:07 That's the cost of getting to the Super Bowl every now and then. Yeah. It's what you do when your title window is open. It's really, really hard. to get a roster as good as the Eagles have it right now. And you don't need, you don't need a roster as talented as there is to win the Super Bowl. Like up the bottom, it's top the bottom. You don't. I mean, it's a complete roster. I just look at it and it's like, man, there's just not many, not many weak points, right?

Starting point is 00:08:35 Guys like, like Mackay Beckton at Guard, like that's someone we're going to be talking about, Zach Bonn at linebacker, someone we would possibly be talking about free agency-wise that will be discussed a lot. Like Milton Williams, probably the biggest of any of their possible. free agents that we'll talk about on this podcast. They have all these guys and it's like, all right, well, will they be able to find a way to reload? And you think back, this is the team that drafted Jalen Rager ahead of T. Higgins, ahead of Justin Jefferson. And then you look, and it's like, oh, well, how are they able to write that wrong? Which is an all-time awful pick. Well, they trade for AJ Brown and they're aggressive and they go get Devante Smith. And it's just,

Starting point is 00:09:17 that's what they do. They'll get it wrong sometimes, but that aggressiveness element, if you keep the pedal down and you're smart evaluating these guys and you have really good evaluators and good coaches, you're able to make up for your mistake. So I think that's another thing that the Eagles do.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Meanwhile, the Chiefs may, by the time you listen to this, have done something the other NFL team is done. I do think there are some things that the Bengals can take away from the Chiefs. I don't think it's as natural to compare them to the Bengals like it is with the Eagles and the Bengals. So we'll get to the Chiefs. And we still have NFL honors as well coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by LinkedIn.

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Starting point is 00:10:35 No wonder. 72% of small businesses say LinkedIn helps them find high-quality hires. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash locked-on NFL. That's LinkedIn.com slash locked on NFL. That's LinkedIn.com slash locked on NFL to post your job for free terms and conditions apply. So as we try to summarize what the Bengals can take away from the Eagles, it is be more creative, largely, with the way that you maneuver in the draft, the way that you think about acquiring talent, the way you think about not just acquiring starters, but really building depth and doing that all over the roster in terms of contract structure. It's all of those things. I think that the one thing when I look at the Eagles that really stands out,

Starting point is 00:11:20 not just aggression, but creativity and aggression, because it requires creativity to approach team building the way the Eagles do. And to me, James, when you talk about the natural comparison, the Eagles are a pretty unnatural comparison to me for the Bengals. Well, there are some parallels that I alluded to earlier. The way that they manage their roster is so different from the Bengals that it's looking aspirationally to me as someone who wants to see the Bengals front office

Starting point is 00:11:49 improve at what the Eagles do. And then when I look at the Chiefs by comparison, I actually think of something that's a more alignable approach. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, before the Chiefs. As far as the Eagles, the reason it's parallel is because they're paying their quarterback $50 million. They have two receivers that they're paying.

Starting point is 00:12:05 Like there aren't many teams that have that situation. They have pass-rusters that they will pay or have paid. Like, it's very similar from that perspective, not necessarily the way they run things, but from a, oh my God, how are the Bengals going to afford all these guys? Well, the Eagles have afforded that, and then they paid the best running back in the league, and they're paying multiple offensive linemen and, and, and that's how. Yeah, they have a top end, tight end contract. They have two top end offensive line contracts.

Starting point is 00:12:36 Josh Sweat is going to be a free agent, and they're going to have to deal with that, but they're going to have top-end contracts for interior defensive linemen, at least one of them. They have Landon Dickerson who's getting paid. They're paying a lot of guys, is the point. And some analysis that we're working on right now that Neil Engelberger is actually heading up that I've been talking with him about in the last few days that not ready to talk about in its entirety yet is instead of looking at just cash spend in a current year or just cap spend in a current year, looking at how much average annual value a team can cram into its roster in a given year.

Starting point is 00:13:13 That tells you overall, not just how much cash we're spending this year, but how many big contracts do we have on the team this year that we fit into the picture? And I think that'll be interesting because it'll show like one thing that we talked about a little bit, James, is a Bengal spending a lot on mid-level players and not getting the return on an investment there super consistently and kind of being mid as a result of paying mid, for lack of a better way of putting that, sometimes it's hit with Mike Hilton or Trey Hendrickson and you get those really great values when you take that approach,

Starting point is 00:13:46 but then the other side of it is also that you get either average players or players that don't live up to those contracts, and then it kind of sinks you because when you have so many of those contracts, it adds up to a lot of spending. But let's talk about the chiefs here, James, and the similarities or the lessons of Bengals can, take away from the chiefs. Obviously, the big quarterback contract, a similarity there.

Starting point is 00:14:09 But when I look at the chiefs and the thing that they've done best, it's finding ways year-in, year-out with a great coaching staff to get the most out of players and to honestly crush a draft. And every team has mistakes in the draft. But the chiefs are in the Super Bowl right now because of their success drafting on the defensive side of the ball. with a great defensive coordinator. Yeah, that's it to me.

Starting point is 00:14:37 They have the best coach in the game in Andy Reed. You'd say the best quarterback, right? That's just most proven whatever. And he may get his tail kicked into the Eagles, but that's it. In the Bengals are similar in the quarterback standpoint, in the quarterback realm. I don't think Zach Taylor is Andy Reid.

Starting point is 00:14:55 And then on the other side, you're right. They had the best defensive coordinator. So you're already starting with, with three guys. That's a heck of a place to start. And they've drafted Trent McDuffie in 2022. And everyone throws George Carlis in there.

Starting point is 00:15:10 I think Carlophthous has been fine, but I don't think he's in the same category as McDuffie. Brian Cook has played a ton of time for them in that back end. They revamped the secondary. They go get Rishie Rice, who was really good for them early. But they haven't found, that's what I think is interesting.

Starting point is 00:15:24 A lot of people will say, look at the chiefs. You can trade tea. They're still kind of searching at receiver. Now, Xavier Worthy may go, for 300 yards in Super Bowl 59. But they've spent a lot of assets and money and time to try to get receiver right. And it's funny because it's almost like the Patriots.

Starting point is 00:15:43 The Patriots used to do this all the time where they would go after veterans, the Hollywood Brown types, and then they would draft the receiver, and then you'd look up and it would still be the same guys. And if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, it's probably going to be some Travis Kelsey, and it's going to be some of these tight ends and, you know, Watson and in different guys, that they use that you're like, really? Like, that's who they're leaning on. I mean, think about it.

Starting point is 00:16:05 Kareem Hunt's a big part of their plans, I would say, going into Super Bowl 59. So they just, they find ways to get enough out of their offense because of Andy Reed and Patrick Mahomes. And their defense, they've drafted really darn well. They have a lot of good pieces. And obviously, that starts with Chris Jones. He's just awesome.

Starting point is 00:16:22 So when you have that in the middle and a guy who can move around, it's one heck of a place to start. And they've done a great job of building around Chris Jones. on the defensive side of the ball. Let's say on the offensive side of the ball for a second because you're talking about these weapons. And the difference is to me that they've spent so much money on their offensive line.

Starting point is 00:16:43 And it hasn't always been successful. Juan Taylor's been better in his second year than his first year. And I think that everyone can agree that Joe Tuny has been a great investment for the Chiefs, one of the Bengals bulked at when he was in for the agency a few years ago. And then they hit on the draft picks, with Creed Humphrey and one that was staring the Bengals in the face. And Trey Smith, who's going to be a free agent this off season, we'll have to talk about the fit for Trey Smith with the Bengals' offense.

Starting point is 00:17:13 But in the wake of Tyree Kill, yeah, I mean, it's a first round draft pick. It's signing Hollywood Brown. It's trading for D'Andre Hopkins. And underlining all of that, when people talk about, oh, you know, Brady didn't have receivers even though he did. And Mahomes, they traded Tyreek. They haven't figured out receiver. He's had Kelsey the whole time.

Starting point is 00:17:33 And Kelsey is a receiver. I know he plays tight end. That's what's on the back of his, his football card or whatever. But the guy's a receiver who does a little bit of blocking sometimes. No doubt. That's what his role is. He's their number one.

Starting point is 00:17:48 Yeah. Yeah. And so the idea that you can just like scrap all your weapons, like that's always kind of been Travis Kelsey erasure, which is weird to me in the first place. but getting it right on the offensive line, getting a right, building the interior of an offensive line, valuing interior offensive linemen. They've struggled to tackle. Their left tackle situation, I mean, is Joe Tuny starting a left tackle in the Super Bowl?

Starting point is 00:18:13 I guess everyone listening to this might know that by now. I don't know what the plan is as we're recording this. But those investments on offense have paid off. And they keep trying at receiver. And they're not necessarily getting it right, but when they have the quarterback that they have that can make plays in the clutch. And I do think that Rice and Worthy are both good players. Rice obviously has the off the field and has come back with the injury. Like Worthy's a really good player.

Starting point is 00:18:39 Like I know there were people with the Bengals that when that pickman was like not shocked at all, like, yeah, that makes sense. Like I think I think the Bengals liked Worthy as a prospect. Not that they were picking him at 18. I'm not saying that. But I think they thought he was a good player. Like it works. It fits. And I think that's kind of the scary thing.

Starting point is 00:18:58 is like, what if, but like they've never, during this run, I think their best roster might have been two years ago. Not this past year or this season. Can you imagine if they do fix that and are more complete of a roster? Not that they're not a really good roster. They are, of course. But there's some obvious weaknesses that I see with this roster that I don't necessarily see with the Eagles, for example.

Starting point is 00:19:22 Yeah. And just talking about things you can take away. I mean, it's hard to take away. on like five draft picks on the defensive side of the ball on one draft, right? It's hard to isolate that. But the balance of that offense, the adaptability of the offense, and ideally you find your Steve Spagnola. That's really hard to do.

Starting point is 00:19:44 I don't know if Al Golden is that guy or not. I don't know if Al Golden, if he's successful in the Bengals defensive coordinator spot is going to be in line for head coaching jobs in the future. But if you can find that guy who can be a top-tier playoff defensive coordinator, and they had it in lieu, and then it didn't work out. But you get those results consistently throughout the year, and then you translate that into the playoffs. It's a place you want to live.

Starting point is 00:20:09 And I think that there are some things about the way the chiefs do business that are much more in line with the way the Bengals do business that you can't learn from, but a lot of their advantage comes down to that coaching staff. And I think that is something for the Bengals to bear our mind going forward as well. The NFL honors were a bit disappointing for Bengals fans last week. James, let's talk about those results and the one that did hit for the Bengals to finish the show coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandle, America's number one sportsbook.

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Starting point is 00:21:35 Make every moment more with Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. The NFL honors revealed a bunch of reward winners, James, from AP voters. Learned who all the AP voters were this year, which was eye-opening to me for some of those voters, to put it lightly. But one successful award campaign for AP voters, for the Cincinnati Bengals, and that is Joe Burrow for a comeback player of the year. Jamar Chase also winning the FedEx Ground Player of the Year, which now includes wide receivers.

Starting point is 00:22:08 So a couple of awards overall for the Bengals, and Joe Burrow taking that comeback player of the year award with 31 first place votes, beating out J.K. Dobbins, who had three first place votes and 22nd place votes, Sam Darnold, who had eight first place votes and a handful of votes down the ballot. I'm shaking my head for those listening. I don't know how Joe didn't get all 50. And I know this is me being picky. It's comeback player of the year. Did he or did he not have?

Starting point is 00:22:39 Do people forget he had this wrist injury that no other quarterback has ever had to his throwing hand? Honestly, the reaction I've seen from people is like, well, he had a wrist injury and then he was good again. He was good before. What do you mean? Come back. And they don't understand what the wrist injury actually was. So I do think that some people don't understand what the wrist injury was to answer your question. There are so many people nine months ago, 10 months ago, 11 months ago,

Starting point is 00:23:01 that were like, he's never going to be the same. Yeah. There's no way. Oh, my God, I can't believe. And we didn't know. I think that's what it was really, like, we didn't know if he would be the same. And the good news is he's not the same. He's better.

Starting point is 00:23:14 It's better this year. And there are things I think he can get even better at. So this one for me, there was at some point during the season, and it just got, one, it's an award. And sometimes you don't have time, especially if it's like, not the MVP. But I had been wanting to write that, well, duh, he's the comeback player of the year. I don't care what Sam Darnold does or any of these other guys. Like, Sam Darnal could be playing in the Super Bowl and he shouldn't have been comeback

Starting point is 00:23:35 player of the year over Joe Burrough. It doesn't matter. And I know it's a regular season award, but it's irrelevant to me. So I was kind of surprised it was as close. I know it wasn't that close as it was. Good for Joe for winning that. But I think the biggest shock, not as that Sequin Barkley won offensive player of the year. think that was kind of expected, and we could debate whether or not it should have been Jamar versus Saquan and all of those things. But no first place votes for the triple crown winner for offensive player of the year is wild to me. Because I think you could make a very, I'm an easy argument that Jamar was better than Saquan this year as a player. And more important

Starting point is 00:24:20 to what the Bengals did on offense than what the Eagles did on offense. Doesn't mean that Sequan wasn't awesome. That's not what I'm trying to say here. Watch he goes and runs for 300 yards in Super Bowl 59. But no first place votes is wild, Jake. I think both players are very important to their offense. I understand why Seacquam wins the award and all that stuff. But zero first place votes for Jamar is crazy. And Joe Goodberry went and looked at the previous Triple Crown winners to see how many first place votes they've received in an offensive player of the year running. And honestly, it seems like something the AP just doesn't respect all that much,

Starting point is 00:24:58 despite it being a rarererer than a 2,000-yard rusher. In 1990, Jerry Rice was a triple crown a winner. This is the first time it happened. He had five votes for offensive player of the year. Maybe they didn't really understand what it was at that point. 1990, this whole triple crown idea. Maybe it was new at the time. But this is consistent.

Starting point is 00:25:17 Sterling Sharp, zero votes for offensive player of the year. He did have some MVP votes. Steve Smith. one comeback player of the year in 2005, but had zero votes for offensive player of the year. Cooper Cup, one offensive player of the year in 2021. And he had a monster year, for sure, and was a huge story that year.

Starting point is 00:25:37 But this is the only offensive player of the year winner among Triple Crown winners. Jamar Chase, of course, zero first place votes for offensive player of the year. I have a couple thoughts on offensive player of the year. The first is quite obvious. Just get quarterbacks out of the award. the amount of votes that Lamar Jackson got for offensive player of the year that were just like,

Starting point is 00:25:56 ah, we didn't vote for you for MVP, so we're going to give you votes for offensive player of the year instead. Like, this is silly. Let's just acknowledge it. Let's just own it. It's been this way for so long. MVP is a quarterback award, 99% of the time. Just take the quarterbacks out of the offensive player of the year award. I think that makes the voting clear.

Starting point is 00:26:17 I agree with you because I could easily make the case for, Joe Burrow for offensive player. And he had votes. He was fifth. And fifth is crazy. To be quite frank, fifth is insane. Like, if he's in the running, how would he be fifth? Because it's weird, because people

Starting point is 00:26:35 treat quarterbacks so weird, especially for this award. Like, it's, you could make the case, and again, an easy one for Jamar, but you easily could say, oh, well, Joe should be offensive player in the year, head of Jamar. You could. Just saying. So,

Starting point is 00:26:51 So you're right. Like if quarterbacks are included, then it makes it really tough, especially if Josh Allen's winning MVP, because if Josh Allen's winning MVP, then you could easily say the most important non-Josh Allen players in the NFL to really high-end offenses were Lamar and Joe. And so, yeah, if you take them out, then it gets to the nuts and bolts, which to me, there would be only two options, Sequan and Jamar for offensive player of the year without quarterbacks.

Starting point is 00:27:20 Derek Henry would be the one that third to me. Third. And the way that the most votes went, there were 35 first place votes for Sequin, 25 second place votes for Jamar and 18 third place votes for Derek, Derek Henry. Those were like the top, the top votes at each place was Sequin, then Jamar, then Derek Henry. But like, I just don't understand why you don't get a single first place vote for Jamar Chase. It doesn't really make sense to me.

Starting point is 00:27:45 MVP, interesting, but not necessarily award an award. award that Joe Burrow was in the running for, you simply appear to need to make the playoffs in order to win this award if the Bengals had beaten the Ravens twice. Maybe Joe Burrow wins this award instead of losing to the Ravens twice and probably winning those games is a big reason that Joe Burrow wins the award if that is a counterfactual you go with. But instead, Joe finishing behind Seek Juan Barclay for MVP. And this is where the voting criteria gets gets really weird to me. Yeah. I mean, it's not even...

Starting point is 00:28:22 And Sequin's awesome. And again, may run for 300 in Super Bowl 59 and lead the Eagles to victory. So he may be Super Bowl MVP. There's not a world where he is more valuable. And that's what I think is so interesting. Do we realize what MVP means? Like, there aren't many players more valuable to their franchise than Joe Burrow is to the Bengals. and he's certainly not fifth this year when he led the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns. It's interesting.

Starting point is 00:28:53 I wasn't expecting him to win it. I know he wasn't expecting to win it. I did expect him to win comeback player of the year. I didn't expect, like everything that I thought would happen basically happened. I think the Josh Allen thing might surprise, might have surprised a decent amount of people, especially nationally. But the thing that's- In like 30 years, the second-team quarterback has beaten out the first-team quarterback for MVP. That was a shock, I think. That doesn't really make sense. Yeah. I, so a bunny, a little bunny,

Starting point is 00:29:22 a little rabbit told me like 10 minutes before that Josh was winning it. And so I didn't, I was just like, oh, okay. So then it happened. And then I was like, oh, well, I kind of knew it. It kind of spoiled it. So I think that might be part of it for me to be honest. Yeah, the sports books also seemed to know. There was a massive guilt in the odds shortly before or sometime that day before the award. Joe Burrow not winning FedEx Air Player of the Year also kind of silly, but most disappointing thing for me, honestly, about that day and the awards is Willie Anderson once again being left on the outside of the Hall of Fame. He automatically qualifies to be a finalist next year because he was one of the Final Seven that didn't get in, but I just don't understand

Starting point is 00:30:05 what we're doing with the Hall of Fame. Like, I understand that they're trying to make him more exclusive and everything, but like I really don't understand what they're doing with Willie Anderson. Yeah, and the wild part is, is when you look, there was more outrage, I would say, outside of the Cincinnati area for Eli Manning. And there was never a moment, like, fine, he won Super Bowls and he played with the Giants and, okay, he will probably get in. There's never a moment where Eli Manning was a better quarterback than Willie Anderson was a right tackle, if that makes sense. And I know it's hard to compare, but like if you did the rankings during their career, Willie Anderson, elite tackle.

Starting point is 00:30:47 Eli Manning, never an elite quarterback. Never, never. Really good. Franchise, clutch, a lot of things. And so that's just the one I'll pick out because he was considered the snub, like the national snubbed. Eli snubbed.

Starting point is 00:31:03 It's like, ah, was he? Was he really? Willie Anderson was snubbed because he was elite. And that's, there's a difference between an elite and very good. If I was to come up with another one, I would say Luke Keeckley, but that was elite of elite of elite. Yeah, Keeckley is going to get in. Yeah. He was he was on the ballot for the first time.

Starting point is 00:31:25 I just I just don't know like why they got to string this out for and players who are your Hall of Fame players. Gino is eligible and you know get ready. Yeah. Get ready, man. It's a guy who never talked to the media who spent his career in Cincinnati. The profile, his profile is just kind of, it's just low. He always keeps a low profile. That stuff matters.

Starting point is 00:31:49 And even though he was an elite player, it's like, oh, well, Eli Manning, Eli, Manning, like there was never a day where Eli Manning was better at his position than Gino Atkins was. They're just, you know, but it is what it is, man. And for Gino, at least he was on the all-decade team, those guys tend to get in. The APL-Decade team guys tend to get in. but look at the AP voters. The list of voters is out there. And hard to have a whole lot of confidence.

Starting point is 00:32:19 I mean, different from the Hall of Fame voters. I guess that is a big difference. But the AP voters, when you look at these AP awards, it's hard to have a whole lot of confidence in that process. Well, especially if those awards impacting who gets in and who doesn't. And they obviously do. They do.

Starting point is 00:32:35 They do. Well, by the time you listen to this, the 24 NFL season might be officially over, and that's the case. Hope you enjoyed it. We're into the off season. We've been in the off season for the Bengals. And we got the Combine next, but obviously plenty to talk about before we get to the Combine, some Radio Row takeaways, perhaps, that we'll get to this week with some guests who

Starting point is 00:33:04 were present at Radio Row. We'll see what we get to this week. But until then, thanks for listening to this episode. the locked on bengals podcast ho day and have a good one

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