00:00And guess what?
00:01If I was another team, I would call about Joe too.
00:03Of course, why wouldn't you?
00:05That's not going to happen.
00:06But what does need to happen and what's realistic and what should happen is the Bengals should
00:10add to their roster.
00:12I was certainly hoping they felt like last year, last offseason was a failure.
00:17You go get TJ Slayton, you go get Oren Burks, and that's really it from an outside addition,
00:23an external free agent aspect of that element on defense.
00:27That can't be enough.
00:28That can't be enough.
00:30And it certainly wasn't enough last year.
00:31We saw it.
00:32The results saw it in the games that they lost down to the wire where the defense could have
00:36gotten stops.
00:37It was on full display all season long.
00:40And so the Bengals, that needs to change this year.
00:43How does that change?
00:44Well, it changes with spending.
00:46And Ian Rappaport said something really encouraging on NFL Network on Sunday.
00:49He said, quote, I do expect the Bengals to take his words, i.e.
00:53Joe Burrow's words, and kind of use it to spur them on a little bit and really spend this
00:57offseason.
00:58Now, Burrow was clear talking at the Pro Bowl.
01:00He likes Cincinnati, saying that during the press conference, he just kind of had a bad
01:04day.
01:05Those are allowed sometimes, even at press conferences.
01:07But I expect the Bengals to enhance and support everything Joe Burrow does to spend probably
01:12more on the defense than anything else.
01:14It's noteworthy because they know.
01:18They know, they know, they know, they know, they know.
01:20Ian wouldn't be reporting this if they didn't know.
01:23All right.
01:23And so now we'll see what happens.
01:26But it should be a hell of a month from now.
01:28Well, when this legal tampering period opens, we better be firing on all cylinders here
01:33on Cincinnati Bengals Talk, where we're doing emergency videos and doing all of the things
01:36that come with that.
01:38I asked Joe Burrow last month about free agency, and we've played the clip a few times.
01:43I'll just read it.
01:44He said, that's of paramount importance.
01:45You have to identify where you're weak and figure out a way to be strong in that area.
01:50That's the NFL year in and year out.
01:52Sometimes it works out.
01:52Sometimes it doesn't.
01:53You have to attack that period with intent to get better.
01:56There's no doubt about that.
01:58And I think that's it.
01:59That's how modern teams are built.
02:01Seattle, noteworthy free agents.
02:03Obviously, Sam Donald, but plenty of free agents and trades made up that defense.
02:08Same thing goes for New England.
02:10The two teams in Super Bowl 60.
02:11If the Bengals want to get to Super Bowl 61, guess what they're going to have to do?
02:15They're going to have to spend in free agency.
02:18I think they know that.
02:19I think they're prepared to do that.
02:20They better do it.
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