James Rapien and Mo Egger explain why Cincinnati Bengals Should Pursue New York Giants tight end Darren Waller at Trade Deadline
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 guy that you talked about on your show was Darren Waller. Yeah. And I, I think it's interesting.
00:06 Why does Waller stand out to you? Who else stands out? Because I love just getting different
00:11 perspectives because the Bengals have obvious needs and they have assets to, to address those
00:16 needs. Well, Waller stood out to me, just, you know, sort of like a lot of us did you take a
00:21 step back because the Bengals don't play and you watch everybody else. And you see Darren Waller
00:25 on a giants team that has no outside weapons that was playing with a backup quarterback that was
00:30 just consistently making plays. And he has a guy who's put up huge numbers. You don't need him to
00:34 put up the Raiders version of Darren Waller's numbers. You need him to put up Hayden Hearst
00:40 numbers. Could he do that in this offense with his profile, with his physical gifts? Of course
00:45 he could. I default to Darren Waller simply because of the position. Look, we spent the
00:51 entire month of March and half of the month of April, most of the month of April talking about
00:55 what the Bengals could do at tight end. They've gotten it wrong. Just call it what it is. By the
01:02 way, wouldn't Sam LaPorta look good in this offense right now, especially as you're watching
01:06 Miles Murphy play one more defensive snap than you. So that doesn't mean that Miles Murphy is
01:11 not going to be a very good player, but we went into the season going, okay, if they say goodbye
01:15 to Hayden Hearst, they're going to have to find a long-term solution at that position. Darren
01:20 Waller is 31 years old. He's not a long-term solution, but Irv Smith doesn't feel like the
01:24 short-term solution. And you could simply shrug your shoulders and go, well, hopefully he and
01:29 Joe get on the same page, or you can be proactive about it. I'm on the side of proactivity,
01:34 especially when you're in a window in which you can win. And then this off season, you could
01:38 rethink how much you value the position. So I start there. There are other names who have been
01:43 thrown around. Mike Kosicki's name has been thrown out there. Zach Hertz's name has been thrown out
01:52 there. Who's the, who am I forgetting? Hunter Henry's name has been thrown out there. Right.
01:57 So that's the one for me. Yeah. Final year of his deal. They can't complain about his contract.
02:02 Right. Just go get them. Yeah. Are, are all of those players better than what you have right
02:08 now? Yes. And you know, Hey, it's third and seven. It's the divisional round. They're in Baltimore
02:15 or they're in Kansas city or they're in Jacksonville and Joe's got to have it. And the tight
02:20 end runs the wrong route or the ball goes through his hands or they can't count on him to make a
02:24 play. We're just going to shrug our shoulders and go, hell, you know, that's just, you know what?
02:28 They don't trade for anybody. So forget trading for a tight end. I want the best possible players
02:32 on the field, especially in a year like this. And you know, again, you see more and more teams
02:37 hitting the eject button very quickly. Denver has Tennessee has the giant should the Cardinal
02:42 should the Patriots should those guys, those teams have tight ends or then there's the Samanche
02:48 P Ryan thing. And I'm certainly not the only person to talk about this, but you know, all,
02:52 all off season, we talked about two things. What are they going to do at running back
02:57 in relation to Joe Mixon? Well, they've leaned on him more and he's wearing down. Number two,
03:02 they've got to fill the Samanche P Ryan role. Well, they haven't. Chase Brown hasn't trade beyond
03:07 Williams. Hasn't Chris Evans. Hasn't you mean to tell me the Denver Broncos wouldn't be willing
03:12 to part with Samanche P Ryan for a late round pick and then problem solved. You fill the Samanche P
03:18 Ryan role with Samanche P Ryan. And what's funny to me is I get pushed back to that. Ah, you know,
03:23 I mean, it's Samanche P Ryan. Well, the dude was important enough to give the football to on third
03:27 and one with Aaron Donald on the other side of the line of scrimmage. They probably don't make
03:31 the super bowl without Samanche P Ryan two years ago. And suddenly we're going to be dismissive
03:35 about the suggestion that they should try to bring him back. And if it's not him,
03:39 do you mean to tell me the way they're using running backs right now is going to work for
03:44 a team that has super bowl hopes? I don't buy it. And so again, you could, you could sit there and
03:51 shrug your shoulders and simply hope for better results, or you can do everything you can to try
03:55 to achieve them. And for my money, and I know you agree that involves making a trade.