TJ on Burrow interview

[3wt]

(02-12-2020, 05:13 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: How do I read the entire interview 3wt? I could only read the beginning and I couldn't scroll down.

I agree with you as usual BTW. I don't think we will get a Guard and a RT in FA but I do think we should get a Guard and a LB.

Think we will have to draft our RT of the future most likely. Which isn't a bad thing if we make the right pick somewhat early.

We do have a great opportunity with the first pick in each round. Just don't screw it up MB and company.

Sorry Nate.   Here you go.

And I agree with you we will probably not be able to sign all three free agents - though if they have traded Andy and Cordy away they will probably have the currency - even if they sign AJ long term.   But I'll save my ideas on that for another thread.

And if we were able to get Thuney and Littleton by overpaying them I'd be totally on board.  But then (in my humble opinion) we need at least a tackle and another fast and reliable wide receiver in the draft.

Anyway - 

Injured and out of work for the entire 2019 NFL regular season, former Bengals safety George Iloka decided to dip a toe into his future by starting The Gym Bag Podcast, a football-centric but not football-exclusive show.

Iloka was a go-to interview during his six seasons in Cincinnati because of how honestly and thoughtfully he answered questions, and he’s brought that same approach to his podcast.

The week leading up to the Super Bowl turned into a Bengals bashing on radio row, beginning with former quarterback Carson Palmer’s assertion that the franchise wasn’t committed to winning a Super Bowl. Palmer last played for the Bengals in 2010, two years before Iloka arrived as a fifth-round pick out of Boise State. So getting Iloka’s perspective on the topic, and so many more, made sense.

Living in Dallas, where he continues to rehab a shoulder injury, Iloka took a break from a special edition of his podcast to speak with The Athletic on Tuesday about a variety of subjects:

On the podcast, you speak about your career in the past tense sometimes. Do you consider yourself retired or are you going to try to play in 2020?

I know I do that sometimes, and I don’t know why. Sometimes I say former player and sometimes I say current player. I didn’t play last year, so I guess I am a former player in that regard. But I consider myself a free agent. I’m still trying to play in the NFL. I had surgery a few months ago after I hurt my shoulder in the preseason with the Cowboys and I know some teams were shying away from me because of that. Then it got so late in the season, I’m like let me just get this operated on so if I get a call this offseason I’ll be up and ready to go. I know I can still play and help a lot of teams out, but at this stage, those things are out of my control. But I will be ready when a team calls on my service.

Did you study communications at Boise State?

I actually started off in accounting. I think I did it for a semester and a half, but it got to a level of math where it was so hard that even while studying and seeing a tutor, I was just struggling to know it deep. But on top of that, I wasn’t even enjoying it. Like if it (were) easy, I just couldn’t see myself punching numbers behind a desk and doing other people’s taxes. So I changed my major to communications because I thought I could do more things in terms of what I wanted to do. I thought about sports marketing. But sports broadcasting didn’t come into my thoughts until three years ago when I started going to the NFL broadcasting boot camp in Bowling Green. That felt like something I wanted to do once I officially retired.

So how did the podcast come about?

When I was hurt and rehabbing during the season, I was like all right, I’m going to start doing a podcast and work my craft and build my content. Sports broadcasting still isn’t something I want to do full time right now. Whenever I officially retire, I’m going to enjoy my life. I did well for myself, so I don’t want to think about working until 10 o’clock at night. That’s not in my goals right now. In the future, maybe yes. So I started the podcast to get my reps, build my own content and get comfortable with it. It was fun doing that from the ground up. I do all my editing. I’m self-taught. It’s challenging, but it’s fun. I just finished another episode where I talked to Darqueze (Dennard). That was the first time I did an interview on the podcast. He talked about free agency and talks with the Bengals. He also talked about what went on last season and what he would do if he was the GM of the Cincinnati Bengals, outside of signing himself. It was actually a great interview. We went way longer than I thought. I’ll probably make it two parts and release it Thursday.

A strong topic leading up to the Super Bowl on radio row was the talk of the Bengals not being committed to winning Super Bowls. You guys won 54 games and went to the playoffs four times during your six seasons in Cincinnati. Do you think that criticism is warranted that the Bengals aren’t committed to winning Super Bowls?

Every team is committed to winning Super Bowls. Let me say that first and foremost. But I believe some teams are more committed than others. You have to ask yourself as a sportswriter or a fan or whoever, how committed is your organization and what does commitment look like? And don’t confuse results for commitment. All right? Two people can go into the gym. Let’s say I wake up every morning at 5 o’clock and work out for two hours and I stay in decent shape. And then there’s a person who goes to the gym twice a week but eats like shit and they’re shredded. That person doesn’t have more commitment just because his results happen to be better. Look, the NFL is first and foremost a business. And to have that kind of money to own a football team, they’re all smart in business to some degree. And the objective of a business is to make money. But the objective of a football team, in terms of the players and coaches – and the organizational standpoint – is to win the Super Bowl. Sometimes that doesn’t go hand in hand. So who makes decisions based more on winning a Super Bowl? And who makes decisions based more toward what makes the most money or saves the most money? Because sometimes those conflict. Certain teams will see a guy they can sign or a trade they can make and they’ll know in the long run it’s going to come back to bite them, but in the short term, this gives us the best chance of winning a Super Bowl. Some teams weigh that more than others. Some teams will pass on that move because it’s not the most cost-efficient or financially responsible decision. So everybody has to figure out with the team they root for, which way do they lean toward. That’s how you gauge the level of commitment, comparing it to other teams and how they make those kinds of decisions.

So basically you disagree with Carson Palmer saying he didn’t feel the Bengals were trying to win a Super Bowl?

If he said they’re not committed to winning, then I don’t agree with that. Every team is committed, the levels are just different.

There is more to commitment than just paying players. Did you feel like the Bengals showed commitment in terms of the facilities and all the little extra things done around the organization to try to make it one of the best?

Right, I was just going to say it’s not just about money. I’m not going to speak specifically to the Bengals being that I played there, I’m always cautious because I feel like people listening are just going to throw away my message because of that. When Carson Palmer says something, even if it’s 80 percent true, they’ll say, ‘No, that’s bullshit,’ because of maybe how he left and that history. So I just want to say this, commitment is not just player contracts. It’s other things. Some teams I’ve been on, they don’t cut no corners when it comes to anything. Now all of those things are not going to translate into wins or a Super Bowl because remember what I said, you don’t judge commitment by results. You judge commitment by effort. And effort can come in different forms. Money. Time. Energy. All of that. Commitment can also be resources that you provide to players or things you do to the facility to make it a better work environment, decisions you make with the coaching staff, within the organization. It’s not just players and salaries.

What would you say was the highlight of your six years with the Bengals?

Let me see. The highlight? I would say the game where we played the Falcons (a 24-10 win in Week 2 of 2014 and the only two-interception game of his career). I really could’ve had four picks, which is crazy, but I only had two. I should’ve had one on a jump ball with Julio (Jones) in the end zone and he yanked it out of my hands and it fell incomplete. And I think I dropped one, too, that really pissed me off. So that was a pretty cool game where I actually got some opportunities and some balls thrown my way. And then I would say every game against the Steelers. They were all fun for me because that was my kind of ball, a physical type of game. It brought the best out of the fans. Those games were really fun and exciting.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say the low point was the wild card loss to the Steelers in 2015 …

Absolutely. Easy. Because that year, I mean I know coulda, woulda, shoulda, but based off of how everything was going, I felt like we were coming in hot even though Andy (Dalton) was injured. AJ (McCarron) was playing pretty well. Every year your goal is to go the Super Bowl, and you know by Week 10, Week 12 what kind of team you are. Everything is still possible, but you realistically know what you are. That team that year, I honestly thought at the very least we were going to the AFC Championship game. If we did not make the AFC Championship, it was going to be an underachieving season. Honestly. And I wouldn’t have been surprised at all if we made the Super Bowl. But at the very least the AFC Championship. So to lose in the first round on the way we lost, it was very disappointing. But how we lost wasn’t a surprise. That’s what kind of plagued us that year. And I’m not talking about the fumble. People need to get over that. Jeremy (Hill) didn’t lose us that game. It was just like everything that we did wrong that we could’ve done better, from the first quarter to the third quarter to the fourth quarter, all of those little things we let slip through the cracks throughout the whole season, they finally caught up with us at the very worst moment. That was definitely the most disappointing loss with the Bengals for sure.

That game sits smack in the middle of a timeline where before it there are five straight playoff seasons and after it, four straight losing seasons, ending with the worst record in football in 2019. Do you think that loss and the inability to recover from it had something to do with where this franchise is today?

Nah. That’s not it. I’ll say this. Let me put my critical thinking cap on before I answer this question. Teams lose all the time, right? The Saints have had more disappointing losses than we had, in terms of the no-call on the pass interference and the Minneapolis Miracle. And they were able to bounce back. That’s not an excuse. I would say there was a string of decisions that led to where they’re at now. Decisions with the offseason and the draft that if you looked back now with hindsight, wouldn’t be made the same way. The first domino was Whit (letting offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth leave in free agency). That one was a head-scratcher to me. That was the first one to me. I’ll let everyone else do their own research and their own digging to look back and say they should have done this or that differently, what positions they went for in the draft, what coaches they had that left, and then ask yourself why it is what it is. Basically it all comes down to the draft. When we had the string of success with all those playoff runs, they did a great job. They’re hitting on their picks and things are panning out. But as you let guys go, you have to replenish. And we know they’re not a team to replenish in free agency. That’s their M.O. That’s fine, as long as you hit. If your lifeline is the draft and you miss a couple times, a key pick here, another pick there, it starts trickling down. Some of the same things that plagued them this year plagued them last year. I’m not there anymore so I’m not going to go too deep into their drafts, but no, that playoff loss is no excuse for where they are right now with four straight losing seasons.

One of the key players in that loss, of course, was Vontaze Burfict. As a former teammate and as a guy who never shied away from contact, do you feel the NFL has been fair in its handling of Vontaze?

No. I don’t think he should have been suspended for the whole year for that hit. But I guess they took into consideration his history. But to me, that hit alone should not have warranted the suspension he got. I’ll say this. I love and respect Vontaze Burfict. He’s always been himself and true to himself. You can take that how you want. I myself had a lot of crazy hits. Shawn (Williams), my boy, he’s a strong hitter. But when Vontaze does something, he gives off this perception. He just seems unapologetic so to say. So I think because of that demeanor, they try to throw the book at him. I don’t think he’s out there trying to hurt people. If he was more contrite after the fact, I don’t think it would be to this level of the way they’re coming down on him now. I saw more egregious hits where the guy didn’t get suspended at all, just fined. It was 10 times worse than Vontaze’s hit. But that guy was apologetic or whatever. Those are two things that hurt (Vontaze), his history and his unapologetic demeanor.

I’m curious with you living in Dallas and your former head coach Marvin Lewis interviewing with the Cowboys this offseason, do you think we’ll ever see him on an NFL sideline again?

I hope he gets an opportunity again. For sure. Because I thought he did well. Obviously, if you asked him there are things he would have done different. Every player would want to do something different from our time there, too. But I thought he did a good job with managing all the different kinds of players and characters on the team to help us focus and win and be a competitive team, especially in the AFC North. He understood that style of ball. I think he’s a good coach. He gets a bad rap as a player’s coach. He just approached it different. Every coach isn’t a rah-rah, yell a lot guy. I hope he gets another opportunity. I think he’ll do well if he gets another shot.

Maybe your answer to this last one would depend on whether you play again, but what in your mind is the single biggest issue that needs to be addressed in the new CBA?

The single biggest issue? Hmmm. Well, here’s something I threw out there on my podcast: I would propose that they remove the quarterback’s salary from the salary cap so that teams can pay the quarterback whatever they want. I feel like good teams get punished for drafting well and doing what you’re supposed to do. Teams that draft well don’t get rewarded for it. It’s actually a negative when it’s time to pay that quarterback. In eight of the last 10 seasons, the highest-paid quarterback was on a team that didn’t make the playoffs. So just remove the quarterback salary from the cap and let it stand on its own. Let’s face it, when it comes time to pay a star quarterback, he’s getting 30 or 40 percent of the salary cap. So a lot of other guys won’t get paid or will get asked to take a cut or will be released for one position when it’s a team sport. Like Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes is going to break the bank and be the highest-paid quarterback ever when it’s time to get paid. They’re essentially going to get punished for doing a good job and evaluating a player and drafting him. I don’t think that’s going to happen or even that it’s being talked about. It’s just something I came up with when I saw the stat about eight of the last 10 years when the highest-paid quarterback didn’t make the playoffs. I’m pretty sure fans want to see Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs for the next 10 years because he’s that great of a quarterback. I don’t know exactly how it would work. I didn’t end up getting that accounting degree. But we can come up with the numbers at a later date. And it will help a lot of teams, especially a team like the Bengals who wouldn’t have to worry about losing Joe Burrow four years from now.