NFL Cover Zero: NFL Draft Choices and Bengals OT Orlando Brown Jr.

00:00:06
Speaker 1: NFL Covers Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and iHeart podcast. Welcome everybody. It is Cover zero. We are one week away from the NFL Draft. Matt Jones and Billy R Sports. The NFL Draft is next Thursday night in Pittsburgh. Mendoza Francisco. Mendoza looks to be the first pick and then you know, after that, it's up in the air. Lots of excitement. Are you looking forward to the draft? Bill?

00:00:46
Speaker 2: I am looking to see where the quarterbacks go after Mendoza, Right Ty Simpson? I'm looking at the SU worry.

00:00:54
Speaker 1: About Ty Simpson? Yeah? I got Ty Simpson needs to.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: Go, probably like early second round. I don't think he's a first round talent. Not sure on team.

00:01:02
Speaker 1: But I wouldn't make an Alabama Ty Simpson was good.

00:01:05
Speaker 2: Well, that's the draft, Matt.

00:01:07
Speaker 1: Everybody same with what Smier not Smyer at LSU constantly getting badgered. But it'd be interesting to see if Albama and LSU there are two quarterbacks who received constant criticism and turmoil, will maybe the second third quarterbacks chosen?

00:01:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I lock in for that first day at the draft. I'm kind of in and out.

00:01:30
Speaker 1: What do you do?

00:01:30
Speaker 2: I sit down in front of the TV if I'm not there?

00:01:33
Speaker 1: Is that locked in?

00:01:34
Speaker 2: Oh?

00:01:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh I'm definitely it's locked in. To say I sit down in front of the television, Well, I get a lot of people do that.

00:01:41
Speaker 2: Well, true, but I get in the recliner and don't move like it's a I've got to see everything that's happening supposed to what Well, and maybe you're in and out, maybe you're in your second.

00:01:51
Speaker 1: Do you watch do you watch the ESPN feed, do you watch the ABC feed? Or do you watch the NFL network feed.

00:01:59
Speaker 2: I'm an ABC guy.

00:02:00
Speaker 1: I like like one for women. Well, I mean they made for people's.

00:02:06
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, then count me in that group because I like the backstories, like seeing the family thing.

00:02:12
Speaker 1: You like to see like how they're how they're doing as a as a family. Yeah.

00:02:17
Speaker 2: I could get Steve Mariucci on the NFL network any day of the week. But like Street and uh, who else saw Saban had done it in the past.

00:02:27
Speaker 1: But when I see that, when I feel it's like they highlight the tragedy in everyone's life. You're very pro tragedy.

00:02:34
Speaker 2: Well, it's good storylines, you know, for our cover zero podcast. You never know what you're gonna learn. Mel kiper Jr. I've seen enough of him for a while.

00:02:43
Speaker 1: I mean talking about mel kiper Jr. Is an American treasure.

00:02:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, well he's great, No, he's he's he's great at analysis, There's no doubt about it.

00:02:51
Speaker 1: In that hair he eats, so I've worked with him a couple of times. He eats a meal at the same time of day.

00:02:57
Speaker 2: Oh really, is it the same meal?

00:02:59
Speaker 1: Well, he has it's a certain kind of cake. I can't remember what it is, but there is some cake that he eats every single day at four point thirty, like a slice of it, and I think it's this thing. He has it every single day at the exact same time of day. He's a very like regimented person, as you can see by the hair here. He's kept the hair the same for forty some plus years. So you don't want to see mel Kuiper. I mean, to me, the draft is mel kiper.

00:03:29
Speaker 2: No, No, that's not the draft to me, Matt, it's I really liked the COVID year when we got a glimpse into the families and like that clam.

00:03:38
Speaker 3: Basically, you just want a reality show. Yeah, that's what the draft does to me. All right, Well, I do think there are levels. I think you have. ABC is the most family oriented. Watch it with your girlfriend, she'll go, oh, that's sweet.

00:03:53
Speaker 1: NFL network is for the nerds, right, the ones that are out there going well forty time. When you match it up with a three four defense that's not going like that. There's that, And then I think the ESPN's kind of somewhere in the middle. It's a little bit rock and roll but a little bit country.

00:04:09
Speaker 2: I would agree with that. Yeah, which one are you gonna?

00:04:11
Speaker 1: I tend to do ESPN. I need a little analysis. I need to see them. You know. It used to be all the game tape for the SEC players was against Kentucky, and I always enjoyed that. Not so much anymore, but then I like, I like a combination. I can't do the NFL network because it's too too serious, a lot of you know, everybody's really like all that, and then the ABC one. I don't know, I don't want to cry. It feels like everyone's crying. I really enjoy watching the girlfriends and the mothers fight for airtime, but that's more I think of an ESPN thing normally they're showing that, and then I also enjoy the suits. I think it's bad Mendoz is not going though.

00:04:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't like that number one pick.

00:05:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you need to be there. The draft is essentially you, especially now since you're like, mister I think he's an odd kid, is he? You didn't think he was odd in his interviews like he was. I feel like he would. I feel like he would stare at me too much. He just looks directly into the camera. You know, when you go on television, they teach you do not look directly into the camera.

00:05:24
Speaker 2: Oh, I've never heard that that tip.

00:05:26
Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's a little different if you're on newscast, but if like if you're going to be if you're if I'm interviewing you, they will tell you don't look at the camera, look at me. Okay, right now, when you're a news report, Like when you're a news reporter, you look at the camera, but like when you're being interviewed, and Mendoza doesn't follow that, he doesn't look at the person who's asking questions. He looks directly into the camera.

00:05:48
Speaker 2: Well, that would be creepy if he stares this, No, I might have to go back and see this.

00:05:53
Speaker 1: Look at the post games he did throughout the playoff run. He looks directly into the camera, and I'm like, stop staring at me. I would be so for that reason, I can't get by his mind quarterback. What about Pavia?

00:06:07
Speaker 2: You think he finds a home?

00:06:09
Speaker 1: You couldn't pay me to pick Pavia. Oh well, first of all, if you're gonna pick Pavia, I mean he's gonna be your third QB. You don't want that. You don't want that distracts your action. It's the same thing, the same issue that t Bow had, very different. I mean t Bow was not a arrogant, but like, you couldn't have him as your third quarterback because of how much attention he gets. So if you're gonna have Pavi on your team, then he's gonna have to be your starter. And nobody wants him to be a starter.

00:06:35
Speaker 2: I remember Tibo went to the Jets. He was a tight end and still all the cameras around him.

00:06:40
Speaker 1: And he also, is it right he doesn't have an agent or whatever.

00:06:43
Speaker 4: He's gonna do it himself.

00:06:44
Speaker 2: Who is that Pavia? I'm not sure about that.

00:06:47
Speaker 1: I feel like he said something like that, come on, dude, stop.

00:06:50
Speaker 2: But Lamar did the same thing, right.

00:06:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that's a mistake. But at least moment Lamar is really good. You know, a big difference, So I know I'm out on I would not pick Pavi. Now. We were at the Super Bowl a couple you know, a few weeks ago, did a lot of interviews and the one that we've kind of been holding because Billy is selfish is Orlando Brown Junior. This may have been the best interview we did, right.

00:07:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially on day three that was such an interesting day.

00:07:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he came in. He does work in Cincinnati. We talked about Skyline.

00:07:38
Speaker 2: Chili, one of your favorites.

00:07:41
Speaker 1: I don't understand why everyone doesn't embrace it. I mean, don't you like the idea that the city has unique food to the city to be known for. Yeah, But then for some reason with Cincinnati, everybody says, oh, that's terrible.

00:07:54
Speaker 2: Well maybe they just don't like it, Like it is possible that it can be a part of your city and you just don't like it.

00:07:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well they're wrong because since Skyline's very good and it's good to hear Orlando talk about it. So this was like one of the most plant pleasant guys, does a lot of charity work and for Bengals fans, I know specifically you've been asking for it. So we decided right here before the draft we would we would play Orlando Brown Junior. A right happy to be joined now from the Cincinnati Budle just up the road from us, the Cincinnati Bingles. Orlando Brown Junior, alright, I could. I'm sure you get a lot of football questions since you're in Cincinnati. I'm gonna give you some Cincinnati I like that. Let's start with do you like Skyline?

00:08:40
Speaker 4: I do? I do?

00:08:42
Speaker 5: You know I'm not a big fan of the spaghetti necessarily chilli.

00:08:47
Speaker 4: I do like the chili.

00:08:48
Speaker 5: I could eat the chili with some crackers and some cheese, but just gonna give it to me on a hot dog.

00:08:52
Speaker 4: We're good to go.

00:08:53
Speaker 1: So you do the hot dog with the stringy cheese sauce is good?

00:08:56
Speaker 4: Are you pro hot? I'm pro hot sauce, but I don't really need it. I'm not.

00:09:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just just give me the Skyline chili, some onions, mustard, some cheese.

00:09:04
Speaker 4: On that hot dog. I'm good to go.

00:09:05
Speaker 1: I'm feeling it. Endorsements Goline, I can it can work. Now. I don't know how to say this nicely, but we've had this conversation. You're drive into Cincinnati for people elsewhere. You cross the bridge from northern Kentucky and the Bengals practice facility is under the interstate. Yes, it's very strange. It's weird that the practice facility is like under a bridge. Now, it's very nice, but it is under the interstate. Isn't that kind of strange? I love it, though.

00:09:36
Speaker 5: It's like I've been I've played in Baltimore, where our facility in stadium was thirty minutes apart. You practice in the suburbs, and then in Kansas City the stadium and the facility are pretty much in the same property, so you're right there, but you're not around much. The thing about Cincinnati that's so cool is I drive in. I drive downtown every day for work, Like I don't know. Something about that is just cool to me.

00:10:01
Speaker 1: No, it is very cool, but you do like I've often wondered if I was driving down the interstate just threw a cup out my window, would I take Jamar Chase out for the year.

00:10:10
Speaker 5: You might, You might. I mean you'd be surprised everything. You hear all kind of stuff. People driving by, yelling stuff, honking their horns. It's pretty cool. Yeah, we all work.

00:10:19
Speaker 1: With someone that's just really cool and hard to be around, like Billy, Like he has an aura that's hard game. Yeah, you can see it's tough.

00:10:25
Speaker 2: Is a burrow, Yeah, let's go, man, it's a burrow like that.

00:10:29
Speaker 1: But like what we see on social media when we get off as fans, is that like that all the time?

00:10:33
Speaker 4: Is he really just Joe cool? Yeah?

00:10:35
Speaker 5: He is, man, he is, And to me, that's what makes a great player great is he's the same guy every day, as.

00:10:40
Speaker 4: Intense as he is on Sundays.

00:10:42
Speaker 5: He's that intense in a walk through in April and you know that breeze success.

00:10:46
Speaker 4: Man, he's always chasing perfection.

00:10:47
Speaker 1: When you you weren't on the team. When he died his hair blond, I was, I was, that was you? So I would have looked at him and gone, I mean, all right, Well he talked.

00:10:56
Speaker 5: About it, you know, he talked about it that off season when I was over at his home, and honestly, I didn't really even know what he meant. I was it frosted tips or something. I can't remember what he was trying to say. It was yeah, yeah, but he went full.

00:11:09
Speaker 4: Slim shady like I mean, to each his own. Man. It was a good look. He wore Will.

00:11:15
Speaker 5: He swagged it out Will for a while there. Well it happened again, probably knowing him.

00:11:20
Speaker 4: What did you do with the fossil he gave you? Wasn't that the thing? He like gave it the line of fossils. Yeah, he's given me two incredible gifts. Man, He's given me the fossil.

00:11:28
Speaker 5: This year, I got a crazy eighty thousand year old cave bear skull.

00:11:34
Speaker 1: Normal, Yeah, hang on just a second, I thought you meant fossil like that. Maybe that was a brand of luxury watch.

00:11:39
Speaker 4: I know, like story. Yeah, he gave them rocks.

00:11:44
Speaker 5: Yes, he gave us like prehistoric fossils, and I got a huge cave bear skull.

00:11:49
Speaker 4: It's really cool.

00:11:50
Speaker 1: But the other ones like Dak Prescott's getting guys motorcycles and Pat Mahomes had everything you could think of.

00:11:55
Speaker 4: And he even gave him refrigerators. And then you're like, well here's my my rock. Man. I like it.

00:11:59
Speaker 5: I don't know, I think it's school. I think it's special, even last year with the swords man. He gave us swords last year.

00:12:05
Speaker 1: I need you to look me in the Yeah, yeah, I got So are you telling me you wanted to have that old rock over like our new Rolex?

00:12:13
Speaker 5: I'm gonna be honest, man, Like like from it's like that's the benefit of having rich friends.

00:12:20
Speaker 4: You get cool stuff, you know what I mean, Like like, I've never.

00:12:23
Speaker 5: Thought about buying myself a fossil, but this fossil is worth thousands of dollars.

00:12:28
Speaker 4: And I don't have it forever. So I'm not like, yeah, I'm good man, I go get my own Rolex.

00:12:34
Speaker 1: But you don't have your own fossil.

00:12:36
Speaker 5: Now you do?

00:12:36
Speaker 4: Now I do because of Joey b Man exactly, all right, fair enough.

00:12:41
Speaker 2: I know legacy is important to you and your and your father and everything that he did. But was it always football for you or was it was there anything else that you orlanda Brown junior would have been doing.

00:12:50
Speaker 4: Football? Man, it was always football for me.

00:12:52
Speaker 5: You know, I would tell you I probably made the commitment to the sport at the age of thirteen.

00:12:57
Speaker 4: You know.

00:12:57
Speaker 5: My dad didn't want me to play. It took a lot for me, really took convince him to let me play. But but yeah, man, I love I love football.

00:13:04
Speaker 4: Man, I love it.

00:13:05
Speaker 5: It's it's always been there and and uh it's something my enjoyed. But I got a real passion and love for it.

00:13:10
Speaker 4: But you when.

00:13:11
Speaker 1: You say your dad didn't want you to play, did you there wasn't a part of you that was like, yeah, dad played, I want to be Well, you're a pianist, right, did you want.

00:13:19
Speaker 4: To do that when you were young? Yeah?

00:13:21
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I started learning to play the piano when I bought my home and Cincy, And I mean, I'm not great like and there isn't any songs that I could tell you if you put me in front of a crowd, I feel comfortable playing.

00:13:31
Speaker 4: Yet do you have a teacher?

00:13:33
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:13:33
Speaker 5: Someone giving you pano this YouTube and I've had apps.

00:13:37
Speaker 4: But but yeah.

00:13:38
Speaker 1: I thought you would have like some like me, a little old lady in town who.

00:13:42
Speaker 4: You know how cool that would be? No, No, I haven't gone that far.

00:13:45
Speaker 5: But uh, you know, I think the next instrument I do want to learn is the guitar, So I'll definitely probably need somebody for that.

00:13:51
Speaker 1: I think you should get Missus Hopkins taught me, and I feel like she could teach you. She's still alive, taught my sister.

00:14:01
Speaker 4: Miss give me either their numbers many.

00:14:18
Speaker 1: Now you are the twenty twenty six Cincinnati Cincinnatonian.

00:14:23
Speaker 5: How do you say Cincinnatian Cincinnatian of the Year.

00:14:28
Speaker 1: I don't know who else has won that award, but I've met many people from Cincinnati.

00:14:32
Speaker 4: That ain't going to win that award.

00:14:34
Speaker 1: So that had to be a good artist.

00:14:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, it's special, man. You know.

00:14:37
Speaker 5: I do a lot of work with type one diabetes. And not to get extremely sentimental, but my brother was diagnosed with type one at eight years old.

00:14:45
Speaker 4: I was nine years old when we found out.

00:14:47
Speaker 5: Both of my grandparents struggle from and my dad passed away with keito asidosis, which is a form of a diabetic coma. And so one of my best friends, Mark Andrews, is a Type one diabetic that I got to know him in college early, and so I spent a lot of time around it, and I know the impact that it has on people and families, and so for me is me the opportunity to be able to present a positive light centered around it. It's an autoimmune disease, so it can always be confusing for a lot of families. Man, And uh, for me, it's just important to be able to let people know they're not alone.

00:15:17
Speaker 1: You you've protected Joe Burrow. You also protected Joe Flacco over the course of the year.

00:15:24
Speaker 4: What was it?

00:15:25
Speaker 1: What was like that change to have like an elderly man coming to join the league?

00:15:29
Speaker 4: Great, it was great.

00:15:30
Speaker 5: You know, my first three starts in this league were with Joe Flacco and so in Baltimore, which is which is crazy to say, Man's call come full circle and so, uh, it was really cool man having them come in. I think my favorite part about Flak coming in was he obviously came in that Tuesday or Wednesday, had to play on a Sunday, Yes, And uh, the funny part is obviously he can't know the whole system by by game day, so he's in the huddle and you know, some quarterbacks have their microphones and their helmet louder. Some have it lower, like Joey B's helped Mike isn't too loud in his ear like he likes it lower. That's why you always see him covering his ears.

00:16:06
Speaker 4: Flag. I feel like has it pretty loud?

00:16:08
Speaker 5: And so I could hear Zach talking to him and the play call will be coming in in a huddle and he just he say before Mason and he goes, Jamar, what do you want to run?

00:16:17
Speaker 4: Tee? What do you want? All right? We're calling that on one on one? Run that on one.

00:16:21
Speaker 5: And that was my favorite part about having him was it was backyard football.

00:16:23
Speaker 1: Man.

00:16:23
Speaker 4: It it had to be simple, yeah, exactly.

00:16:26
Speaker 1: Now.

00:16:26
Speaker 4: I also have.

00:16:27
Speaker 1: The opinion, and I've said it many times on this show, I think Cincinnati has the drunkest fans in the NFL on game day. Yeah, and I still stand by that. You've been in Baltimore, Yeah, drunk fans, Kansas City fans. How do you think Cincinnati? How do you think sixty Cincinnati competes. I love our energy.

00:16:49
Speaker 5: I've played in our stadium as a fan, as a fan, as a as an opposing player. I played in Kansas City as an opposing player. I'm playing in Baltimore as an opposing player. And you know, obviously Arrowhead is a different beast. Like Arrowhead, I think it is Looming Field in Seattle. Is that is that their name of their field? I think pretty that's those are pretty crazy. But Cincinnati man pay Court Stadium gets rocking. Like I mean, when we played there, and when I was in Kansas City my last year in twenty two, it was rocking.

00:17:17
Speaker 4: It was so loud. I mean it was crazy.

00:17:19
Speaker 5: I mean our fan base there, they love their football.

00:17:23
Speaker 1: I remember a game this year where it was rocking and then it wasn't rocking, which was the Bears against the Bengals.

00:17:31
Speaker 4: Right, I'm a Bears fan.

00:17:33
Speaker 1: That might have been the craziest game I've ever seen in my life. Was it like that?

00:17:38
Speaker 4: For you?

00:17:38
Speaker 5: That's probably my most disappointed loss as a pro, Is that right?

00:17:41
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:17:42
Speaker 5: I mean, man, I've I've been playing football, what you say, eight years in the NFL, four years in college, four in high school, one year in middle school. I've never recovered an onside kick. I've never recovered an onside kick and scored.

00:17:56
Speaker 4: You know what I mean? If we scored in two minutes, yeah, it was. It was.

00:18:01
Speaker 5: It was mapped out for us to go out there and win that game. And you know, unfortunately, man, for whatever reason, we lost it. But that was the hardest loss I think I've had to do it as a pro.

00:18:10
Speaker 1: And along those lines. I mean, I know, I know, you know they're given full effort. Oh yeah, but it has to be tough for your for your offense with the struggles that the defense has had. Yeah, how do you keep the team camaraderie without getting frustrated yet the fact you guys just keep putting up points and then they'll give them up.

00:18:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, to me, you know, I think it comes down to a few different plays there in that situation. Like even in that game, I gave up a sack fumble and that had an effect on the game, you know what I mean. Just imagine if we get that first down and we still had the ball in that possession, maybe we got another three points and we're not having to score another touchdown there in two minute, and we can run the cluck out and kick a field goal and win the game. So it comes down to a bunch of different things. Man, I don't ever want to point fingers and say, you know, it was just our defense need to show up. You know, there's always plays that when you look back on the course of a game, it's always something you could point the finger head to the man in the mirror and soack could have did that better.

00:19:04
Speaker 1: Well, Orlando, I have had a good time with you. Last thing, favorite ride at King's Island.

00:19:12
Speaker 4: Man, I've never even been. I'm not getting on the ride. Oh I get this man, Yeah on the ride. I can't. I wish I could.

00:19:18
Speaker 5: The last ride I got on, I think was a Batman or Superman and six Flags in Atlanta. I was in high school, I think eleventh grade. So you too big, too big man. My feet hit the ground on the bottom. That's the last roller coaster.

00:19:30
Speaker 4: We were going five miles per The Beast would go five miles per hour. Legitimately, yeah, we're legitally.

00:19:36
Speaker 1: You might slow the Beast down a little bit. If you met Elie day La Cruz.

00:19:39
Speaker 4: I have I have his first It was bro crazy.

00:19:42
Speaker 5: His first game that he was that he played as a Red when they brought him up was the They had us at the batting practice at the Banks, so it was it was crazy. I'm like, who is this six foot seven, skinny guy. They're like, hey, this dude's next but got a lot of swag. Oh he's different now, is he is different?

00:19:59
Speaker 4: Orlando Brown? Thank you very much, Thank you.

00:20:01
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.

00:20:02
Speaker 4: Appreciate you guys.

00:20:04
Speaker 1: We will be back on Monday with our official Cover zero draft. H Are you excited about that?

00:20:10
Speaker 2: I am. It'll be fun to get everybody together to do a full show again.

00:20:14
Speaker 1: Yes, so be looking for that on Monday.

00:20:17
Speaker 4: Enjoy your week.

00:20:18
Speaker 1: This has been NFL Cover Zero. NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and iHeart podcast. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.