Who Dey Light: Calm before the storm

Oh

We got a real good show for you in Paul Dane or Mark Shallop's loop from list of questions to some run again

Inside her stories and flashlight that die-lock and respect the flags kick off the weekend. All right. It's a

rather show it's who they like

Welcome into another episode of the Growler podcast. This is who they light

I am Mark Shallop who as always with me Paul Dane or junior Paul. I can't tell you how excited I am to hear what flag you're flying your home

You're settled from the combine. What's the flag of choice today? Well, we're in the march. So it's a St. Patrick's Day flag season

Little leprechaun and it's pot of gold are out there right now staring at our street and make reminding everybody

It's not far off. I always St. Patrick's Day another one of those that probably runs a little longer than it should in flag

Season but that's all right. We support it here. I'm underwhelmed

I am underwhelmed by this completely. You don't have the lent flag out there or the march madness flag

It is too early for St. Patrick's Day. It's not that great of a holiday the lent flag

What is it like a like a fish sandwich? Yeah, in a beer, you know

There's nothing better than those like fish fries around Sincere where you're just getting hammered in a church

Basement for you know $3 drafts. That's a good time. You're supporting the church somehow, I guess

I don't know it's like a church festival for the winner

Sure, I mean, I mean, I do love to support all things church festival, but in this case

We just stick with the creepy leprechaun and all the green and off we go

But we are man, it is it's gonna be a fun week for us on this show

Yeah, but before we jump into next week. Let's quick if you know, you haven't listened to everything this week shame on you

But you can get caught up. There's been some good episodes out there

You know, I like to this stuff you did with the guys from the grid. I am greeting and you and Charlie had a great show on Monday

PD and Jay the return of Jay Morrison. How great was that?

I loved it most about that too was like and we didn't tell anybody to do this

It's not like we orchestrated it but just going through those YouTube comments on that episode and just seeing

Just dozens and dozen and they were all about Jay

It wasn't like you know most takes today's stunk

It was none of that stuff. It was just all love for Jay and that's what you like to see, you know with this big return

We'll get back to most take stinking soon enough, but there's plenty of time to attack

Plenty of times and me and me and take a break from taking shots at my at me. I appreciate that great to have Jay back

It was it was awesome. It was just it was just really

Comforting to be back and in that mix again, and I I certainly enjoyed it and

I'm glad that so many of you were as happy to have Jay back as I was and well

Yes, so next week though, man. We're we're all the way back. It's

Fire it is good night. Let's go. We nights are back. That's right. Four straight nights of walkouts

So at eight o'clock

Every night Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

We are going live

On the YouTube channel you can hop into the live stream

We're going to be reacting to what has gone on that day with the bangles

Pop on it. So make sure if you if you don't have the YouTube if you're not following go in there right now

Ring the bell get your notifications all of that because we'll be going live at eight o'clock Monday through Thursday

Reacting everything that happened all day or

Filling time talking about Charlie's eating habits and other things as we try to figure out how

To explain away a team not doing anything for days of the time, but we know this year won't be like that

It's not going to be like last year. We're not going to be talking about how many forks Charlie has in his apartment this year

Hopefully hopefully and maybe he's added forks and we can celebrate that, you know

There's a lot of different possibilities there, but it's it's going to be fun

We've got you covered for an hour every single night. We hope to have you guys pop in other people are going to be

Popping in from all over so we never know who's going to be there. You know the crew and

We'll have others that will be showing up and I'm excited about to see what develops and we hope that you will too

And we'll be taking questions on those and yeah, we monitor the chat pretty well now did we commit to a full hour for all of these shows

So I'm willing to say okay, I'm willing to commit

I mean you might have a night where something happens while we're there and you guys can handle the show

Why I have to write a like reaction piece where I can just write you and watch me write live

Which is probably about as exciting as some of last year's shows when nothing happened is

But yeah, I I think we we have the ability to rock an hour. Why not?

Well, it was a little open-ended last year

So we could have some that were like 40 minutes some might be over an hour and I think we can go until we run out of gas

I okay, and I feel like what we if we run out of gas at 40 minutes then yeah, so be it then we will start counting

Forks that Charlie's got. Yeah, he's got some cool spoons this year. Maybe gonna be late

He can tell us about or some you know Nickelodeon show that he's into yeah, I look forward all of that

But we we also have to figure out no last year. I

Believe it was Justin Simmons if the Bangles sign Justin Simmons Charlie was gonna chug a beer live

We've got so many emails about people wanting to know who's it gonna be this year? Who's the mystery player?

We got to wait for

We should probably pick that right before free agency start. I here's here's what I think as we come up with this here

Well, we're recording is that each of us

Should have a chug a beer player

So if there's you know, and I think that can be somebody that you don't think that they'll sign maybe I because I don't I don't know what the

Influence behind it should be are we trying to hit the chug a beer or or if you get the right one hit

You can choose someone to chug a beer so you don't have to do it yourself or you could choose yourself out of celebration

Is that what we do? I think it's you it's a guy that you don't necessarily think that they're gonna sign but isn't impossible

So there's still a chance and that then you would chug it yourself

I feel it gets a little convoluted if we're like ah my guy hit so I'm making Charlie the only fun thing about that would be if we all made

Charlie chug multiple beers. This is kind of where I'm going with this like I feel like

All right, you know what you won the over. This is I like it. I don't think Charlie listens to this show

So he will be ambushed by this anyway, so that's what's important

He's busy loading up takes for power stacks right now, but Charlie will be involved

I don't think he's gonna be able to be in every show next week because the reds have at least one night game next week

But that's okay

Charlie's Charlie will be hopping in on some of those most gonna hop in some wall being there

But we will know when he's gonna be there and so we can see if we can set it up where we make Charlie drink up here

What what player would you pick like I feel like it's got to be if I'm trying to hit

Yeah, I think I know I think Chanel should all would be my

Number one target where I think is if you are picking the player they're most likely to sign

He just feels like too natural of fit for what they want

I think he'll be in a reasonable enough price range

That they could attack it that spot make it happen and boom

I love it. I want to see that happen while we're live on the air and so he gets to do it day one

That's what we need to really start these shows off well as Charlie slam in a beer

Bengals get the linebacker they need to stabilize that room then we're off to a good start

Then you're off then you're off to a good start. Who's the one that you're gonna pick for him?

You know, it's tough because I wanted to go make a Fitzpatrick

I don't know that he qualifies just yet. So

Probably I would go with JFM to since we've given him so much hype and it's

It's that mold of Justin Simmons being sort of a long shot last year, but still a player that could have made sense for them

And I would like to see that happen as well

You would not be the only

Bangalos fan chugging a beer if they sign JFM. I can tell you that much there would be

Many beers deleted. I'm guessing in the greater Cincinnati area if that happens. That's for sure. It would be a

An aggressive move and maybe they do it. Maybe maybe this is the year they do it

It certainly would it certainly would hit them in the right spot if they could make that happen

But they got to get some juice. They got to get some firepower up there to replace tray Hendrixen and

You know, it's sad. It's sad that we're not gonna have trays of our lives anymore

We're moving on. We're progressing

Except for when he comes back to play in Cincinnati

But I will say this

You know before we jump to that I did want to ask you this

So right with all the tray Hendrixen drama that's been going on and I say drama loosely because it's not

Everything that's gone on with trays kind of unfolded the way that we've talked about for months on this show

It wasn't any thought of like keeping them tag and trade

You know seem like a long shot even if on paper. It seemed to make a lot of sense

But here's my question from it right last offseason Joe burrow goes down his whole list of once

Jamars and he tees and he Mike G is a need to the surprise of all of us and then in tray is a need

He was very vocal about that right and they kind of went step-by-step

This offseason we don't get that whole list

Necessarily we get jamar and we get T going around and saying oh what about Max Crosby?

What about Jeffrey Simmons? That's who we want at no point where they like oh, we got to keep tray in the mix

You know, we haven't heard that anywhere. Trent McDuffy gets traded this week right away Patrick

My home is dropping the damn on social media. It didn't feel like you know

We got any of that shock or surprise or desire for him to like stick around. So what should I read into that?

Whatever you want to read into that I

Everyone's tired of tray Hendrixen and they think it was just time it was for the best of everyone

I think that they move on is what that is is just

Trey was over it the bangles were over it. I think all the teammates were over it

um the fighting the you know and because it ended up hurting the team

you know and

And that's the one thing that everybody's just over. Yeah, it makes it makes sense. Trey's a good player like and if that would have worked out

um, you know, it maybe everybody feels differently about it now and it's louder

I just think it was just clearly beyond time to start over

With in regards to that money and that spot in the distribution of of how that room is put together and how the defense is put together and so

For that fact, I just think it was just everybody was just kind of in

Recognizing that it's it's time and and probably the past time

So do you think he's been telling guys that that he's not coming back because so many of these tray

Act issues. Yeah. Yeah

Yeah, so many of these other contract issues all the guys in the locker room seem to take the player side

They're like yeah, we know how it is dealing with this front office

You know go get your money go take care of your business and

You know in this case if they are getting tired of all of his antics and stuff and kind of the you know constant battles on that front

It's a little bit of a different tune

Yeah, I just everybody knew like I mean everybody knew that this was where this was gonna go

This is gonna end he want to play here anymore and the bangles. We're not gonna really want to have him back and

And that was that like and I think that has been known in the case for a long time and really was known before last

It was known when he signed that deal

Yeah, I mean when he signed the raise to just get more money for one year

I think everybody saw this that he was they just hoped he would come and ball out

For a year and then leave it didn't work out that way, but like that I think it's just

The writing has so long been on the wall that I don't think it even really registers

With those that understand the situation well that

Oh, yeah, I guess this is the moment where it's officially over

Yeah, and it does sort of it did feel that way with the deal last year that it was gonna be one

But there was part of me that's like if he does have another defensive player of the year type season

Then maybe you do tag him and you force him to play on that we go through the whole dance again

But then you know obviously things unfolded the way they did yeah

I don't get and I know I shouldn't get mad about this

But of course we set as we've gone over on this show

It's not been a surprise how it unfolded except outside of Cincinnati apparently because it forced a whole nother round with the national media narratives about the team being

You know dumb or cheap and just letting guys get away and it's like how do they not see the same story that like everyone else is known that this was done

And you know guys were moving on and it wasn't gonna happen yet

They're acting like it's the end of the world again when honestly

It's probably not the worst thing that they don't have to keep dealing with this drama for another couple of years

Yeah, well, I mean the drama's part is partially their own is the bangles fault like I mean they created the drama by

Paying him or just trading him. It was like, you know, this all goes back to they're late to respond

But they're rightfully responding because it all just goes back to all of last year's stuff

With not trading him or extending him like just be definitive one way or the other

They're going through everything that they did and then because you did take the chance that he would walk without getting anything for him

And they didn't they didn't they could have traded him at the deadline and didn't they could have you know for what I mean

You know who knows and they clearly thought that maybe they could get him back

To play and they would not out of it and trade could be a part of something and that ended up not at all being the case

um

You know they had multiple times where they could have moved on and got something for him and this being the last possible one

And they didn't so I understand that reaction of how do they end up getting nothing for this guy

um

And that's true. They do have to wear that. It's part of how they botched it and now we're behind trays of our lives

Are you going to miss it? Is there a party that's going to miss seeing try at training camp in the hat

Just holding court and saying crazy stuff and yeah, I will not really miss that part watch

I you know it was plenty it did he did give us a lot of content and I appreciate that I did I did love him going out with one last

Final

Salvo one last glorious nugget and that was in his goodbye post

Having nickelback as the song that went with it and like the most tray thing ever just fantastic

It just kind of makes me only want to speak about him and nickelback lyrics

Going forward and that's why I had to I had I'd never used the uh nickelback

Uh meme generator before and I I pulled it out for this one

Look at this

I had to I had to do it

Uh, now we'll always have that you know, you know, what though like good on you for kind of getting that together

Because that was a banger of a tweet that that's a good meme. Thank you. You know, you really came through and a lot of people think

You know, oh guys, if you're aged, they're not going to be on top of the meme game and here you are

Shocking everybody with a yeah, I'm glad to know that doing anything relatively interesting is just shocking for everyone

I'm not here trying I at least I put the effort for all right, you did it

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What else we got going on here right now?

What, what do you got your eye on?

Well, I mean, this feels like,

this is sort of like when we get to the draft

because the season, the bangle season

was just over for so long.

And we've been talking forever about how important

for the agency is and we've had now two months plus

to essentially analyze what they need to do.

And we know they're going to attack for the agency

as a big part of their plan to fix his defense.

This is what it feels like when they don't make the playoffs

and you've been talking about the draft for four months.

That's what it feels.

But now we're finally there, like we're on the brink of it,

but it has that, can we please get to Monday at noon

already feel for me right now?

Where we've just done it so much,

like we've done every version of who the free agent fits are,

the mock off season sheets.

What would you pay?

How much, what are they going to do?

Where, like, what are the paths to screw it up?

Like we have just done it all.

I've had the final free agent fit story is up now.

So people can go read that at the athletic,

which is just ranking the most realistic.

It wasn't the best.

It wasn't, you know, these are the best guys available.

It was knowing what they know,

knowing who the players available are,

knowing what the how the Bengals are looking to approach this

free agency, who the most likely players are for them to add.

So if you have time and want to go look through that,

and it's kind of a little bit of a look back

to the 20 through 22 free agency seasons,

where they had success doing it a certain way.

A lot of these mid-tier free agents with a splash at the top

each time, whether it was Reader or Hendrickson or,

I guess, Lail Collins was kind of a little bit

in terms of where he was ranked, splash at the top,

and then some mid-tier guys, you know,

what would that look like this year?

And I think we were able to kind of pinpoint

a decent view of what that could be.

Is there any kind of desire in your part

as a sports reporter this time of year

to get into the eyeball emoji game

and really start doing that for engagement?

And just like, whoa, just heard about a big trade, you know,

eyeballs and get a bunch of pointless engagement on that.

No, I don't like that.

Well, I will say is everywhere.

I have eyeball, like I will do eyeball

and something crazy that happens every once in a while.

I mean, it has to be pretty massive,

like just blow you away stuff.

And then I always regret it.

I'm always like, why, I hate the eyeball emoji.

I am a, if something is stirring,

and I know something's coming,

but it's hard to pin down exactly yet.

I like the, I like the hold on to your butts meme

from Jurassic Park.

That's always been my favorite when something's coming.

And so if you see that from me,

know that there's something happening,

but we haven't totally pinned down the timing

or exact nature of what it is yet.

And I'm saying it's happening.

But that's as much as I'll do.

The rest of it, I just try to, yeah, report.

I love that everybody this time of year

has like four or five inside sources

that they just never tap into at any point during the season

or any other time during the year.

But during this one week, all of a sudden they are experts

and they've got sources, they've got emojis

and then so many people buy into this

and think it's real and they're like,

oh my gosh, there is a trade coming.

And then whatever happens,

you know, it's not even gonna be Bengals related,

but DJ Morgan gets traded for a second-round pick

and they're like, aha, see, my eyeball emoji thing was right.

I said that there was gonna be something happening today

and here it was.

There's always engagement to be had out there, Mark.

There's always engagement to be had out there somewhere.

So it can happen for anyone if you use your eyeball emojis

correctly.

I don't think that we're gonna get to be part

of any of those giant trades though

and that's what kind of bums me out because it does seem fun.

Yeah, it does not, I mean, does not appear that way.

Although if they went out there,

it did what Buffalo did and took on salary

and gave up a second-round pick for a 29-year-old DJ more,

you don't wanna be a part of those trades.

That's, that was weird, right?

It's a bad trade for, I mean,

the bills are desperate for receiver.

I get that.

There's a connection to Joe Brady with DJ Moore

when he was in Carolina and cool.

That's a thought.

It's just a lot to give up for a guy that we haven't really seen

be a guy in a while and who's getting older

and you're giving up a second-round pick in a draft

where you get a hell of a young receiver

in the second round, don't love that.

But, you know, the bills are just, they're desperate.

I mean, they're desperate to try to get weapons to Josh Allen

and, you know, teams do crazy stuff this time of year.

It's just, your teams are going for it, they're,

I much, you know, you'd much rather be the Rams

who traded for Trent McDuffy this week.

Yeah, absolutely.

Had a clear need, the biggest weakness on their team.

FM picks throwing away the first rounder again,

but they have two first rounders

so they can do what they want with them.

This is what we talked about.

When we talked about the Bengals maybe making a trade,

that this would be a year that maybe the most value

you would get out of your first round pick

would be acquiring a player

because there's not as many blue chip players in this draft.

This is kind of an example of that.

I mean, the Rams used a later pick in the first round

where it's not, you weren't gonna normally

get a blue player there anyway.

But still, to be making that move, it's very Ramsey,

but it's also a smart allocation of that resource

to fill your biggest need.

You're willing to pay the best corner

that you could sign in free agency

if you were trying to sign beyond that.

I mean, it's an all pro type player

at your biggest weakness for the equivalent

of a late first round pick.

I mean, yeah, that's a move that you make

versus what the bills did,

which I think leaves you feeling a little emptier.

I don't know that I necessarily get the Kansas City side

of it as much, but from their standpoint,

now, does this help us?

Cause I've been worried about them taking Bane or Downs

and now it feels like Kansas City has to take

either an offensive lineman or a corner, right?

Like a logical spot.

Yeah, I mean, I think if you get to nine now

and Bane's on the board and so is the lane or if they like

one of the other corners and like really like one

of the other corners, yeah, it could be they go

with the corner instead because they have now

a big need there.

Yeah, I mean, that can certainly impact that

where maybe there's another side of them at nine overall

that they would let somebody like Bane or Downs slip back

because they were feeling pressure to add that corner back.

Are you ready for a feel?

You'll grab out questions here.

Yeah, sure, let's do it.

All right, and as always, keep sending those questions

into the Growler podcast at gmail.com.

We got some great ones.

We'll kick it off with this one.

He says, first, I'd like to officially offer my condolences

to you guys at the end of Trays of Our Lives.

I hope you'll be able to cope with that loss.

I'm currently trying to enjoy this period of optimism

regarding the team before the front office

inevitably does something disappointing.

On that note, was there any indication

that they actually tried to find a partner

for a tag and trade for Tray?

I'm curious if there just wasn't a market for that

or if they were just tired of dealing with them.

So what do you think the story is there

with the tag and trade or lack thereof?

They tried.

I don't think it was a, we don't want to do this.

We're not really looking.

I think that there was an attempt there.

It just wasn't going to get worked out.

It doesn't happen a lot.

It does not happen a lot.

It does not happen a lot.

We don't even see a lot of tags a lot.

I mean, a lot of guys just get extended

before they get to this point.

Now, we've seen less tags period, much less tags and trades

just by the nature of guys are extending people.

The cap's going up.

Like you can afford people more often.

We're not seeing this lever used as much.

So that's part of it.

And also, I just, I kept saying it like,

and I don't know if people didn't want to hear it

or understand that like the motivation of Trehendrickson's camp

was to get to free agency.

That is the advantage of them.

That's how he gets paid the most money.

That's how he has a choice to pick his future

and whatever fits best for him.

So they were motivated to make that happen.

They were not motivated to help the bangles get something

on the way out.

And in fact, if there was probably any motivation,

it was probably the motivation to assure

that bangles didn't get something on the way out.

When you consider how everything went down

between these two sides.

And let's just not overlook that factor in this.

That's part of it.

Was it the only part?

No, there was lots of other stuff that goes into it.

But inevitably, you need cooperation.

And they've never had cooperation, those two sides.

It just has not gone well.

They don't like each other.

And so the idea that this is all

sudden going to be a kumbaya, let's get a deal done

for everyone was just never going to be the case.

I think I know how you're going to answer this.

But it is the last Trey Ema that we got.

And we're not going to be getting these going forward.

But this guy is like, this Grouppow

is arguing a little bit differently.

He's like, couldn't you argue that they did right by Trey?

They gave him a pay raise last year

when they didn't necessarily have to.

They didn't want to sign a long term

to an aging player with a risky injury.

And they didn't want to tag them.

So it was stuck with another one-year deal.

So they let them go to free agency so he could get his bag.

Do you think they did right by Trey Hendrickson at the end?

They did right to him by giving him the raise

when they didn't have to.

So I think in that way, they did do right by him.

But that's fine, but it's sort of a half measure.

I mean, it's not really, you're not really doing right.

He just wanted a long-term deal with security.

And you knew you weren't going to give it to him.

So really, doing right would be trading him

to somewhere that would do that for him.

They don't owe him that.

They didn't have, like, the teams don't owe it to the player

to go and do right so they can go get their money the way

that they want it, especially when you're offering

the guy $29 million.

We're not talking about a chump change there, but I get,

I mean, we've talked ad nauseam about what they should have done,

but I think they could have done right by him

by just being like, we're either going to give you

the full extension or trade you to somebody that will,

which is where we were last January 25

with him on Pat McAfee.

Like, that's how long that part's been in it.

But so I don't, I really like it.

I like it that it's like, well, you can't find a tagging trade.

That's us doing right by you.

You go ahead.

We're not even going to try and do it trade

because you deserve to go get paid.

Yeah, no, there was no.

I don't think Trey's feelings had anything to do with any of this.

They were just trying to find a way

to get something else out of their product.

All right, this next one is from Paul C.

He says, Paul, sorry to subject you to this

after enduring James or Pean and Indy,

but I was consuming a lot of analysis

after the Texans traded for David Montgomery.

And the narrative that there's a bit of a swing

of importance back to running back

with so many teams playing too high,

which the Bengals certainly see a lot of.

To be clear, I'd much rather have Caleb Downs,

Rubin Baines, Sonny Stiles, David Bailey,

but if all of them are gone

and Jeremiah Love is still there,

is there no scenario you'd do that?

Instead, you'd reach for woods

or take Shamar 2.0 and Falk.

I understand it's borderline negligence

to not take a defensive player at 10.

But if all those top guys are gone,

adding a running back that seems to be considered

truly elite on a rookie contract

that has the potential to be in the Gibbs mold

would be an incredible ad, would it not?

So you're right.

James and I did have many long conversations

about this in Indy and it was, they were fun.

They were spirited, spirited debates.

I would say, I'm never going to be a running back guy

in the, like I'm just not.

I don't care who it is.

In Jeremiah Love is, by some people's view

the best running back in this draft

and one of the best ones I've seen,

like in the Gibbs range, like all that's great.

That's great.

I'm just never going to be that.

I just don't believe in that.

I don't believe in the value of it here.

I don't believe in, you just see so many good

to great running backs that you find later.

You have one right now in Chase Brown

that has developed a great chemistry with Joe Burrow

and is a great player.

There, you have so many needs on defense.

Jesus just get your defense right.

Give it players to then use it,

not just on offense,

but on an offensive position

that you already have a great player at

that is maybe the least valuable

on your entire offensive.

I get the idea that with the two-eye shells,

and yeah, that's fine.

You're not going to sell me

that running back suddenly more valuable

to the point that I'm taking a running back in the top 10.

I understand the argument.

I'm just never going to be that guy

and definitely not with this team

in this moment in time.

This team at this moment in time

needs defensive help.

And you can't tell me they couldn't get

some defensive help that would be significant at 10.

I mean, if everyone is gone,

okay, maybe we're having different conversations.

By the way, this seems pretty moot

because I don't think Jeremiah loves

getting out of anywhere near top

to be anywhere near number 10.

Like he's going to be gone.

If he was there in the Bengals took him,

do you think Al Golden would just walk out

on this team at that point?

It's like, I can't handle this.

You're giving me nothing here.

Look at all these needs that we have

and I'm getting Jeremiah loves.

What are we doing here?

I mean, it would be a talker.

That's for sure.

It would be a talking point.

I was up and down and I'm not going to be sold on that.

And it's not disrespectful to Jeremiah love it all.

Oh, he's great.

Yes, I'm a noted in great player.

Like he looks to be a great player.

I'm just don't know that he helps you win enough games.

Like when you have what you currently have on offense,

you just have to send all of your resources

into this defense right now.

That's if they were in a living in the lap of luxury,

they just felt like they had this roster was full

and brimming with talent, old and young

and set for the future.

All right, we could start having that conversation.

I'm just not there.

And I'm just never really going to be there

with a running back.

I'm never going to be a guy who's behind

any running back early in a draft.

I'm just not.

I don't believe in it.

I mean, I'm just looking at some of these draft picks

like Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jacks

and some of these high picks that were just set on fire.

Like we're due for a hit on defense eventually.

You can't turn away from it now.

We're due for one of these guys to work out.

This next one, he says greetings guys.

Just watch the Ryzen or press conference.

Love all the positives he had to say about the organization.

My question is, does it ever feel like the Bengals front office

has a juggle and hide personality

when it comes to athletes in different money tiers?

We have lower tier cost guys who speak so highly

of the front office like Dalton did or Ted Carras.

Then you have higher tier guys over the years

like Jonah, Tray or even Jamar,

where you see or hear that frustration with the front office

due to the lack of communication or low wall offers.

Why is there such a difference in experiences

based on the apparent cost of the player?

I would point out the last few words

that were used in that question.

The cost of the player.

Yeah, the Bengals act a little bit differently

when the money gets up into the 20s and the 30s

and the 40s and the 55s.

Then they do when it's in the 6.

You know, I think they're willing to set a market

and find that their value in players

and they're just they're going to

fight specifically hard when you're talking about

their bigger contract guys.

Like they don't want to feel like they're wasting money on that

and I don't they don't really want to feel like

they're wasting money on anything.

But I think they do see value in certain guys

at lower level and I just think there's sometimes

the more average guy maybe has a little bit more appreciation

for this place because they can't go anywhere.

Maybe they and they do feel valued and appreciated here.

They like the culture like there's a lot of reasons

why people have like to hear they like playing.

If you like to have a chance to win,

there's a quarterback like they feel like they get treated right.

Yeah, I mean everybody there's plenty of mid level guys

that have not felt appreciated here

and have left on bad terms.

The same way there's been expensive guys

that have not have haggled and then signed and love it here

or haggled and left to much

to their dismay.

Like I just feel like at every level there's been some

we focus a lot on certain ones.

And a lot of times we focus a lot on the ones

that are the big expensive blowups that involve trade requests

and holdouts and hat watches.

And I get sort of the genesis of this question

because it is so many fans have certain opinions

about the front office.

So when they hear a guy like Ryzen or just saying

so many great things about all of those guys,

it's a little just joining I think for fans

that are following along.

And an NFL team has a lot more of those lower tier guys

and meet tier guys and you do your high profile guys.

Those guys aren't all happy with the front office

and ownership.

We saw that in the NFL PA grades.

They got pretty terrible ranking.

So it's not like they're all super thrilled with them

even if that's what they're saying on the day

that they signed that contract.

Yeah, I mean everybody feels like they have a worth

that they feel like they should get

and don't want it to feel like they're having to

haggle over everything and want to feel valued

and rewarded and it doesn't often go that way.

And I think that's the case a lot of places

but here it does tend to seem like it is a little,

it's extra harsh, you know?

And so there, but then, you know, the same way

we talked about this, you mentioned the grades

but like we talked about this last week.

It's like people were offended to hear

that players like the coaching staff, right?

Like, yeah, like there was a lot of players

really do like it here.

They like the way it operates here compared to other places

and you find a place that feel like you feel like fits you.

And there's value in that and you appreciate that.

It makes it you're happy at your work and that means a lot.

So I just, I just think that, you know, it's,

that's part of it.

Like certain guys find that they like the way it fits here

and then there's like, you know,

Sheldon Rankins never matched with him.

Like he, Sheldon Rankins wasn't the fit.

If with the Bengals, the Bengals weren't a fit with him

or but there's some guys that don't rise in who it was.

Everything came together nicely.

I just think I don't think it's necessarily

about tears or money necessarily.

It's just that's the way it goes, man.

So when you win, when you win, everybody's happy.

And they haven't won.

And so those are going to be more obvious.

And I think that is an important point

because it's not really just is it the front office acting

this way with this guy or that way with that guy.

But when you see these press conferences,

these guys are happy to be back with the coaches

that they like and the teammates that they like

and that stuff isn't front office stuff.

That's just guys that want to stay with certain people.

It was, I thought the craziest thing I heard

in the entire press conference was the one

when he was talking about Ted Carus

and just talking about how like I've never looked up

to anybody other than Jesus Christ until Ted Carus.

That's a pretty lofty group right there.

Jesus and Ted, like I respect no man except for the savior,

my savior of the world here and then my coworker.

Like those are two kind of very different positions

in your life, maybe.

So man, that is some high praise right there.

Yeah, Ted's got to be feeling pretty great.

I mean, no pressure Ted, don't let him down.

Accord, you know, what I've heard about

hanging out with Ted is it sounds like he's turned water

into wine more than a few times with some people.

So I'm in, I'm in for the next Ted outing.

We can, we can test that there.

All right, let's pull up this next one.

Okay, so this is a, you know, we've talked about trades

and we talked about, you know, some of that stuff.

But this is one that really kind of peaked my interest to.

He says the defensive interior is obviously

the most critical area to address this offseason.

But the draft is lacking blue chip prospects there.

It's pretty slim pickings for anybody

who fails to win the JFM lottery.

And even then, this isn't Milton Williams

we're talking about.

So shouldn't Duke Tobin be looking harder

for possible trade partners?

He might not land a stud, but he could at least

provide a deeper group than Al Golden

can then mix and match from.

Well, I mean, this is specifically a defensive tackle question.

And, you know, because they're, you know,

when you talk about the edge group in the draft

and in free agency, it's very deep.

So, you know, there's ways to go about that.

And that's why we've mentioned some of the guys

that are more hybrid players on the edge

that could help you inside and help you get by for a year.

Because there's just not a lot of options out there

in a defensive tackle, but you are right.

And that's why we have talked about

if you're gonna pull the big move,

it feels like it would be for a defensive tackle

if you could find a way to do it.

That's why we talked about along with T Higgins,

Jeffrey Simmons, why we talk about guys like,

could you find a way to pry Dexter Lawrence out of New York?

Could you, is there, you're looking for any way possible?

Those guys, you know, those teams

don't want to give those guys up

because they see what everybody else does.

There's not answers out there.

Like, there's, there's just, there's not.

And some years there are, and it exposes when you didn't go

into one of the deepest defensive tackle drafts

that we've seen in a long time last year.

And you instead took Demetrius Knight and Barrett Murder

and winning on the linebackers in a thin linebacker class.

It's just those things, when this stuff happens,

when you have years where it's thin somewhere,

it really exposes times that you didn't take advantage

of that position when you had opportunities to.

And last year is the prime example

when everybody was screaming past rushing defensive tackle,

everybody was screaming, look how deep this draft is

at defensive tackle.

And they came away with none.

They doubled back down on BJ Hill and Chris Jenkins

and they signed a run stuffing nose and TJ Slayton.

Like that error is not a one year error.

That is a multi year error

because stuff like this happens now

where you're up against it

and trying to find creative ways to fill the space

when it just isn't readily available.

And so yeah, that's, yes, you should be looking to trade

but guys aren't really looking to give up them.

They're the stars right now because everybody wants

a past rushing defensive tackle.

The reason that there aren't any good options in free agency

is the reason that you probably can't pull off a trade

for one because you can't give those guys up.

It's not like in DJ Moore just randomly

for a second round pick,

but it's a lot easier to get a receiver at this point

than getting one of these game changing

past rushing defensive tackles.

Like no one's giving those guys up.

Yeah, and yeah, I mean, making an aggressive move

to try to get a trade sounds great.

You gotta have, it's gotta go both ways

and you're gonna have to give up a lot

and it would mean sacrifice.

I don't know, yeah, a lot of other stuff.

Who would you give up in this?

Like it's gonna have to be a pretty good player

and that pick, right?

Like it's gonna be something you don't wanna give up.

I mean, we're talking and imagine like hypotheticals here.

I don't even know, I mean, yeah,

you're talking first round pick, plural probably.

If you're talking about a real guy, probably,

and then you gotta pay that player.

Yeah.

So, you know, the money that could go elsewhere doesn't.

Obviously, there's other stuff they could do.

They could be like all the rest of the teams

this week that have been restructuring their quarterbacks.

And obviously the bangles have not done that much

to everyone's dismay, but so yeah, there's ways around it,

but you know, there is a trade off in that.

A quick and much question here.

This one's from Bruce.

He says it was nice to see Jay back

and I enjoyed the discussion on the Dalton Ryzenary signing.

You said the whole building wanted him back

and I was curious if the floor or the ceiling

or the wall was more vocal about wanting him.

Seriously, why does every reporter in town

call it quote unquote the building when referring to the team?

Why not the team or the organization

or the club or the bangles?

Anything but the building from Bruce.

Man, he's very passionate about this cause

and I can't, like it's just so funny to me

that he sat down at his computer and was like,

this is my biggest gripe during free agency time

with the draft coming up.

It's just about how they talk about the building.

Yeah.

This is just a sign that there has been

too much time between the end of the season

and the start of free agency.

We just need something to happen

because if we're breaking down the use of the building,

I just feel like it's a way of specifying

that it's like the front office, the coaches, the scouts,

the players, the clubhouse people.

I mean, yeah, you could say the organization,

but I feel like the organization,

if I'm thinking, if we're gonna do this,

let's have this conversation.

If I'm gonna say the organization,

I think that makes me think of just the front office more so.

Like that leans more towards the front office than anybody.

If I'm gonna say the bangles,

I don't think that's like what part of the bangles?

Like what is that the bangles wanted them back?

That's too generic.

To me, it's a little too generic.

The team, everyone, you could say everyone,

but I guess that's also, I just feel like

it's a way of saying everybody that works at that place

wants this one thing.

And yeah, I get it.

It's, this is like when people give a hard time to someone

that's talking about an injury or the injury report

and says like he's got a knee

because that's how it gets referred to generically.

And slaying, oh, he's got a knee, I got an elbow, right?

Like, okay.

Yeah, a knee injury, all right.

It's fine.

I don't want to be too harsh on this either

because I don't want to discourage anybody

from emailing their creative complaints about your work to us.

Like I'm always open for that and discussing those,

but in this specific case,

this is gotta be an old guy, right?

Like to have this particular complaint,

Bruce is not a young man's name.

I don't know a lot of like 25 year old Bruce's, right?

Like this is probably somebody I'm guessing late 60s, early 70s.

Somebody's still cool enough to listen to podcasts.

So, 60s, you know?

But this is not a young man's complaint right here.

Do you ever, you know, we always have fun,

you go through the list of names in your kids' classes

and stuff like that.

You can see a load of a lot of the trends were

and like how parents got creative with a kid's name,

like how they spelled it.

Is that, is that Bryson with four R's, right?

Like, you know, you never know, like what you see,

can't tell you the last time I saw Bruce

around the elementary school class list.

Not gonna bother.

We kind of cool.

I think we should have a comeback for Bruce.

Like, bring it back.

Bruce, like, yeah, I would like him on my soccer team,

you know, it's probably a tough guy.

Yeah, he feels like he'd be the tough,

he definitely would be the tough guy that's been like

hitting the sleds out back since he was five years old.

Yeah, when you have a kid that has just a name

from a different era, it does sort of shock you a little bit.

Like, if you ever meet a seven year old Walter,

like it's gonna throw you off a little bit.

You're gonna look, what is this kid?

They're up there.

They're up there.

They're up there.

Yeah, absolutely.

When we appreciate your Bruce,

we appreciate everybody that sent in emails

to the growler podcast at gmail.com.

Growler bet this week was back.

That's the biggest thing.

We have a growler bet is back.

Jay's back, growler bets back.

Everything.

And what was it this week?

This week, so we have done this one in the past.

I like this one.

This is you send in your submission

to the growler podcast at gmail.com of the time

of the first major Bengals outside free agent agreement

being reported.

So the first time E and Rappaport,

or Adam Schaefter, says the Bengals are an agreement

with Leo Chanel, right?

And the time of that, if you can hit the exact time,

if you pick Monday,

it's gotta be within a 10 minute buffer.

If you pick Tuesday, you get a 20 minute buffer

and Wednesday, you get a 30 minute buffer.

So whoever is in that range and hits that number,

you would be the winner of the Bengals growler bet.

I think we deemed it greater's worthy.

Gonna be a greater shipper involved in that one

because everybody loves getting greater

on your graders on your front porch.

Absolutely.

A growl pal spot like this week,

we've talked about this before,

but we've got free throws for kids.

It's coming up.

Based on profit,

their big annual charity free throw shooting event

to support the families at Cincinnati Children's Hospital

and the Ronald McDonald House.

You can go to www.ftfk.org to sign up.

The event is March 21st at Lakota West High School

and there is a growl pal team.

Yes.

I sign up for it.

Yep.

I don't know.

I haven't checked.

So you growl pal is better.

Get going better.

Work on your technique and your form

and really rep us well in this March Manus event.

It's a great cause.

And if you get out there and you join the growl pal team

whoever hits the most free throws on the growl pal team

is, again, clearly greater's worthy.

And so we are putting that out there.

If you join that and you support this cause,

that's the ultimate way to say thank you for doing that.

If you hit the most free throws,

greater's worthy for you as well on that.

I mean, we're just trying to pay it forward

and say thank you in the right way.

And we don't even know if anyone signed up.

So it could be just you, the competition.

It could be you.

All here.

You just show up, hit some free throws

and you're going to walk away with some ice cream.

Yeah.

F-T-F-T-F-K dot org.

I tried.

It's hard to say.

It's hard to say.

It's hard to say.

It's a lot of letters.

We had a raccoon story this week, right?

Yeah.

Well, it's actually there was a raccoon story

like two weeks ago.

And it wasn't just any raccoon story, Mark.

It was local.

The raccoon story came was I.

I thought that we should do an emergency pod.

I had that thought.

This felt so on brand for us.

We got it sent to us by a bunch of people.

We know people over there.

That's right.

A raccoon was found, quote,

secretly living at local 12

to escape the cold.

How about that?

In a news station in Cincinnati, local 12,

they suspected they had a stowaway living inside their office

but were stunned to find the culprit.

Was a wily raccoon seeking an escape from the frigid temperatures?

Let's see.

He was, they weren't,

they weren't aware of the pest identity for a while.

Chief meteorologist John gum, shout out John gum.

Said but they weren't entirely surprised when one of the newsrooms,

engineers encountered the furry bandit during a late night shift.

That's not what you want work in the late night shift.

Absolutely not.

You're just going around and you're like, you know,

trying to get some paperwork done and all of a sudden you look down

when you're trying to throw a paper into the waste basket

and you see a raccoon.

Not good.

Said we suspected someone had broken into local 12

and had been secretly living inside the station

to escape the cold winter weather.

Now we have an ID on the perpetrator.

And then they sent the video of the raccoon.

Just looking at him sitting in the garbage can.

I don't know if that says anything good about local television

and where it's at in 2026 that they can have a raccoon sneak

into their station for an undetermined amount of days

and just hanging out there before he finally gets caught.

This was in 1998 that raccoon gets caught within the first hour

of being in the station.

But I still will do like morning TV sometimes in certain cities

and I've done it in Cincinnati and the people that work there are great.

It's just sort of a bummer when you go into these big stations

and they're like 85% empty.

You see all the empty cubicles and stuff like man.

This used to mean something.

Yeah.

No, that was like that when I worked at the inquirer.

The last few years, they've since moved out of where they were

because they didn't need all the space anymore.

It was really sad up there because you have a whole giant half

of this massive newsroom was just like chairs stacked on top of each other

on top of tables and empty spaces and rooms that used to occupy employees.

And now who knows maybe there's a raccoon in there.

Like there was a channel 12.

It does sound like a cartoon or you've got to like shoe away

a raccoon out of your studio before you can be your broadcast

because that's the state of local media these days.

Yeah.

I mean, honestly ratings bananza they put the raccoon on air.

Adam and the staff let him live there.

Put him on.

I mean, you got to feel like he's just even if you just had him like hanging out

in a cage in the background during your weather report.

You know, like I'm saying just so you can see him like it's like oh,

it's like it's like the like when they bring in the therapy dog.

It's the therapy raccoon.

It's like a therapy dog, but with much more biting and frightening sounds.

Now you're absolutely like you this is a good idea.

And what you've done on this show over two years,

it's just draw good ideas to many different groups.

A lot to the bangles,

puns for pizzas, the tech here is hot tub show.

Like you've thrown out good content ideas.

Having a raccoon in the studio for local television broadcast.

That's that's up there, man.

Yeah.

Maybe you get cowboy Cody in the mix.

And now you're telling me you wouldn't watch that every single night.

For their duo appearance at that point.

Like we're locked in cowboy Cody as who is just a rogue reporter out finding

and making news simultaneously is ratings gold.

I don't know why anybody hasn't hired that guy yet.

The cowboy Cody on the street throwing it back to the studio in the raccoon to do the weather.

Like that's just a match made in heaven right there.

Higher.

Maybe this is maybe this is what we do.

When we you know when we have special guest popping in on the free agency show next week,

we can just have the raccoon popping and put them in one of the squares on the screen, you know.

Yeah, maybe Charlie has to chuck two beers.

If we see any raccoons on our shows next week.

That's just the next real little.

So that way, you know,

if you or Jake can go catch one out in the wild and then all of a sudden you hold it up.

And then Charlie's going to be slamming beers on the show.

I'm holding a live raccoon by its neck.

Yeah, just to make Charlie agency has gone terribly awry again.

Yeah, we start bringing wild animals into the show.

It's going to be hopefully it's not like last year.

It's going to be fun.

There's going to be lots of news.

We're going to have a lot of fun.

People stop and buy.

I'm looking forward to it.

I'm also looking forward to going to St. Paul, Minnesota this weekend for standup comedy

at the laugh camp tickets are on sale.

Now see our cute funny bone March 13th and 14th.

Fayetteville, North Carolina, March 19th.

Williamsburg, Virginia, March 20th.

I'll be at the Bob and Tom opening day show and since the morning of March 26th.

Obviously everyone's going to be locked in for opening day that day.

And then I'll be at the Liberty funny bone March 27th and 28th.

And then coming through the Carolinas in April.

All those are on my website, Mark Shalafoo.com.

All right, make sure we check that out.

What do you got for dad life?

Dad life is kind of a tough one for me this week because my oldest daughter is turning 13 next week.

And there's just something mental about that change of like having a teenager for the first time that makes you feel like an old dad.

And she was getting things ready for her party.

And like she asked if she could get stuff together and said sure go ahead.

I thought she's going to put up decorations.

And she came back two minutes later and she was like,

do we have a cocktail shaker?

I was like, what are you doing?

What is this?

What prep are you doing for this party?

And she was like, I just want there to be some like fun mocktails that we could serve to everybody.

I'm like mocktails.

This is with your cousins and your aunts and uncles.

Like, what are you talking about?

I was ready for certain signs of getting older, like getting the first phone, which is going to happen here soon.

I was not ready for that leap from lemonade stand to bartender happening that fast.

I mean, you know, or she going to go by mixologist, you know, proper next level, you know, like let your kids dream.

Okay.

I'm going to have her making me old fashions in a snoopy cup here soon.

So we'll see.

We'll see.

I love that.

What do you got going on?

We.

This is kind of interesting.

So we have we had international night at the school, you know, where each classroom ends up kind of turned into a country.

And there's lots of information about that country.

They'll be playing music from there.

You'll have someone will have made some kind of food that's native to there.

And you, you know, the little kids have a little passport where they go around and get stamped and show off.

Show how many countries they've been to.

It's a great event.

Like it's really cool.

It's a cool way for, you know, kids to be involved in and like the student council.

Like my daughter's on student councils.

She was kind of helping with like the planning of it and stuff.

It's like cool for them to all have something that they can help put together.

Everything about it's great.

But, you know, we don't really.

There's no reason to talk about politics at a school event necessarily.

But, like, when we go around the corner and we have to walk into the Iran room.

It's like, yeah, I didn't think about that.

Everyone's kind of like, oh, what do we?

How do we handle this?

How do we just, can we just get in and out of here real quick?

And it was lovely.

Like it was, it was, it was just like every other one.

But it's like, I just, what do we do and say here?

Yeah, that's a tough one.

You can't be like, all right, kids, let's get out of here.

Let's go back to the Ukraine room for some fun and games to really feel better about things.

You know what?

You know what country I loved?

Switzerland.

It was great.

Even in this environment.

Even in the school.

I knew it was safe.

It was like a little safe space.

They had these lovely little chocolates.

You know, and I just, we got to hang out and we have to worry about any of the stuff going on in any of the countries.

Shout out to the Swiss.

Yeah, so much more laid back.

You stopped by the Venezuela room and somebody's getting yanked out of it all of a sudden.

It's like, we don't need this kind of energy.

Although I'm sure the rest of the, you know, Iran room was great.

And I'm sure that the presentation was awesome.

But I do understand the angst of, you know, having to deal with that.

Just just angst.

Disappoint.

I couldn't find the Italy room.

That's what I was looking for.

I was like, can I just, can I go to Italy?

Come on.

Come on.

You know, some pizzas, some happiness, you know, the good.

I just, I wanted to go to Italy and I couldn't find Italy.

But that's all right.

Because it's the boot.

It's so easy to find.

It was not easy to find.

And maybe I just, maybe there's wasn't one.

I don't know.

Not sure.

Yeah, you just went down the bummer wing of the school, I guess, and just got all the more controversial countries.

That's all right.

It was okay.

I had a great time.

It was a great event.

And thanks to everybody that helped put it on.

And thanks to everybody that listened to this show.

And we'll be listening to who day nights next week.

We're sorry.

Wait, Monday through Thursday, starting at eight o'clock on the YouTube channel.

Make sure you're tuning in.

We will be talking through everything that goes down in free agency.

And who knows, we might be talking live while stuff does go down.

You can watch me have to write a 250 word reaction while live on YouTube.

Just great viewership for everybody.

I guess I didn't think about that.

You guys are all covering the team.

So if there was news, that's just three boxes.

If you guys doing a reporter stuff and then me just hanging out, chilling with the people in the comments.

Hey, look back and forth.

Look, I know you've got, look, I know you can give me a tight 15 while we crank out a story.

Yeah, I'll start getting into the notebook here and just doing some riffs and some new jokes up here working it out with the comment section and really kind of developing some material.

Yeah, I don't see why not.

I think it's the perfect thing.

If we have to do that, we have to do that.

That's the beauty of the live show.

Exactly.

That's what happens.

That's what happens.

We don't know what's going to happen.

And you get to be a part of it because we do monitor the chat pretty well.

And we take questions.

We take comments.

So definitely make plans to hang out with us next week.

Looking forward to it.

All right.

Thanks everybody for watching and listening.

And we will talk to you next time.

Have a good one.

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