Up Next
Are Expectations Too High for Alabama, Georgia, Texas and LSU?
Jul 22, 2026
John Ourand on ESPN Layoffs, World Cup, & More
2 hours ago
Warde Manuel To Step Down as Michigan AD
Jul 22, 2026
Albert Breer on if Seahawks Can Repeat, Teams Under Most Pressure, Surprise Contenders
42 minutes ago
Show More
Are Expectations Too High for Alabama, Georgia, Texas and LSU?
Jul 22, 2026
John Ourand on ESPN Layoffs, World Cup, & More
2 hours ago
Warde Manuel To Step Down as Michigan AD
Jul 22, 2026
Albert Breer on if Seahawks Can Repeat, Teams Under Most Pressure, Surprise Contenders
42 minutes ago
Did LeBron Just Give the NBA a Hint About His Next Team?
Jul 22, 2026
Albert Breer: Mahomes Ready for Camp, 2024 QB Class, Mayfield and Jackson’s Contracts
Jul 21, 2026
Albert Breer on Possible Extensions for Jonathan Taylor & Christian Gonzalez, Training Camp Preview
Jul 22, 2026
Extend CJ Stroud or Wait for Loaded 2027 QB Class?
Feb 25, 2026
Tom Verducci Explains What Makes Konnor Griffin’s Swing Elite
Feb 27, 2026
UFC Middleweight Reinier de Ridder Calls for Major Weight Cutting Reform
Mar 5, 2026
The Biggest WINNERS of NFL Free Agency
Mar 10, 2026
Welcome to The Pit: College Basketball’s Loudest Underground Arena
Mar 11, 2026
Transcript
This next one is another one that I think that struck a chord with some people.
The Bengals were also not on my list of teams to win the Super Bowl.
Um, they are all in though, right?
I mean, you trade the number 10 overall pick for Dexter Lawrence.
You spend money in free agency.
And I think that anybody who knows Mike Brown knows his affinity for Joe Burrow.
I've seen it up close and personal.
I know what Joe Burrow means to this franchise and what creating success for Joe Burrow, uh, the pressure that everyone feels to do this.
Um, Cincinnati, I, you know, I think that they're probably in theory, the most all in.
Would you say that just based on if you just outside of the Rams, right?
But just based on their offseason specific offseason behavior, they are probably the team that is like we are most evidently pushing our chips to the center of the table.
I mean, it's hard to argue with what the Rams did, you know , um, and we've talked about the Niners and the age and how that makes them naturally all in, but yeah, I mean they're in that category and I think it's I think like their offseason is.
Basically responding to what, what the narrative has been the last couple of years, which is if they can just be competent on defense, their offense is good enough to carry the day so long as Joe Burrows stays healthy, right?
Like I think that's the long and short of it.
And so going and getting Dexter Lawrence from the Giants, going and getting Boe Mafe from the Seahawks, going and getting Brian Cook from the, from the Chiefs, like, uh, you know, you, you, you, you see it, and it's like, OK, like if they, if that, Comes together.
And then, you know, guys like Demetrius Knight and Shamar Stewart, if those guys take a step.
Um, You know, you're starting to talk, like, look at it like, OK, this is a team that has been at a Super Bowl level.
When Joe Burrow is playing pretty consistently on offense.
And I, I know people like to assign the wins and losses to the quarterbacks like they're playing, you know, one on one basketball.
The reality is like, Joe Burrow has been every bit the player he was in 21, um when he got to the Super Bowl, and, and in 22, when he got to an AFC championship game.
Um, it's just health has gotten in the way of it.
And at times, the offensive line has failed him, and more often than not, the defense has failed him since then, you know, and so, can they keep those things in order?
I, I like where they're at from an offensive line standpoint.
And then, you know, really, so much of it's gonna come down to, to what happens on defense and, you know, some of it's gonna be, The, you know, additions that they bring in from the outside and some of it's gonna be developing some of the young guys that they have.
But, I mean, if Al Golden can field the 15th-best defense in football, It seems like it stands to reason they're gonna be a really dangerous team, you know, not just during the regular season, but in the playoffs.
Uh, as a Notre Dame fan, I wish that Al Golden could have fielded the 15th best defense for one play against Ohio State, but that's neither here nor there.
Um, you know, we all, we all have our.
Ohio State was throwing to a pretty, pretty, Ohio State was throwing to a pretty good player on that one play that you're talking about, so I'm not sure there's much they could have done about that.
We'll see.
Uh, right, we don't know.
Um, uh, these things are all speculative until, uh, until these guys are in an NFL uniform.
Uh, but you're right, and I think that I want you to tell me this because here's my problem, and I'm admitting it, and that's part of the, that's, that's the power, right?
I'm admitting that I have a problem.
I get fixated on certain aspects of team building.
Offensively, and then if a team doesn't have that, I almost disqualify them in my mind from being successful.
And the reason that I struggle over and over and over again with the Cincinnati Bengals is not because of the quarterback who is generationally brilliant.
Ja'Marr Chase might be the best wide receiver in the NFL, uh, him or Justin Jefferson, it's probably a toss-up depending on who you ask.
It's everything else.
And, you know, this is gonna be a big season for Amarius Mimms, obviously, but I'm talking about like, when the Bengals just need to grind it out.
Is Chase Brown enough?
Is Drew Sample and Mike Jazecky enough to provide that kind of oomph on the, uh, you know, as an extra blocker, as an H-back or something out of the backfield.
That's the one thing I just don't feel like they have, but I want you to tell me why I'm wrong and that I shouldn't give a shit and that it doesn't matter.
I think they're thin and like you're right, like, so like Mims is somebody that like when they drafted him, I, I still remember the first summer I was like this guy's gonna be all pro, you know, and then he got hurt that rookie year and and it like hasn't quite come together for him, but I think the ceiling is still really high with him.
I'd say the same for, you know, Drew Sample.
I'd say the same for Chase Brown.
Like I think.
There's, there's a ceiling for them to chase.
I also think like the guys around them make things that much easier for them.
Um, but you're right, like they're thin.
And so if they have an injury at tackle, that's a problem.
If they have an injury, if Chase Brown goes down, that's a problem.
So, I, I think there is that piece of it too where they're relatively thin.
Now, like Burrows shown an ability over the years to kind of make up for that.
And I I think a lot of like what we saw this offseason was, and, and, and, you know, you can even go to the Orlando Brown contract with this, like, it, a lot of it comes back to We need to show Joe Burrow that we're doing everything we can to put him in a position to get back to the Super Bowl.
And You know, I think there is a little, I mean, well, I'd say well-placed paranoia in that organization about like, is there gonna come a point when Joe's not gonna be happy here anymore.
And I think it's pushed them to do some things like the Dexter Lawrence, like the Dexter Lawrence trade where like that, that, that seemed to be completely out of character.
Um, you know, but it also, I think, Sort of illustrates where the issue has been of late.
This is a team that's traditionally drafted pretty well, and they're sort of coming out of a little slump now, which has left them bare at some of these spots.
Yeah, I mean, and, and again, I'm not like a, like Chase Brown has gotten better every year, right?
I mean, and he's gotten better with more attempts.
And so I don't want to sound like the kind of guy who, I mean, like he caught 70 balls for 440 yards and 5 touchdowns, like he scored 11 touchdowns last year, right?
Rushed for over 1000 yards.
So, I don't wanna sound like I'm saying that it's impossible for this guy to carry an offense.
I'm just saying if you looked at Seattle a year ago, even if you looked at New England a year ago, Um, to some degree, if you looked at Denver a year ago, like I'm trying to think of all the teams that made the Final Four, the Final 8, like there were layers upon layers of options on offense, and the teams that didn't make it, Houston, for example, is like, OK, you know, beyond.
Woody Marks, you know, like, beyond the guys who, you know, are gonna help the offense, what do you have in place to kind of grind out those yards and to try to grind out those must-have first downs late in the season?
That's always been my historical concern with Cincinnati.
If you can guarantee me that Joe Burrow and Chase and, and, and Ja'Marr Chase stay healthy and T.
Higgins stay healthy for a whole season, if you're saying 1717, 17, I'm all in on this, right?
Because that, that group of guys can put up 35 points a game by themselves, um, you know, with whatever, 8 other guys on the field.
Um, but I, I, that, that's the question, and it's sort of one of those that's, it's hard because you can't answer it before training camp.
This is up to the gods.
This is up to the webbing in the MetLife Stadium turf, you know, like this is up to, uh, some things that are just kind of out of our control, you know.
Yeah.
Welcome back, MetLife Stadium turf.
No one really missed you , but it's good to have you back.
I bet the players are just like, can you just keep, just keep the grass, keep it.
Well, that's what kills me like, like it's not even like just that like it's how aggressively these stadiums were removing the turf, were removing the grass, you know what I mean?
Like there were a couple of them where it was literally like within 12 hours of the last World Cup game being played there.
It was like we don't even wanna, like, we don't even wanna open up the discussion that we keep this stuff.
It is out of here.
If I were Giants players, I would have had to sleep in.
Like the second the Argentina game's over, you just get a tent and you just walk down there and you plop your butt onto that grass and you sleep there until the start of the season and just say, please just keep it here.
Do not bring the death turf back.
Oh my God, it's claimed so many, uh, great knees, uh, and ACLs in our time.
