FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. explains why Aaron Rodgers must start season strong over Joe Burrow
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where I’m looking good, I’m feeling good. I’m not looking as good as the two ladies sitting on the set with me, but it ain’t no surprise that I think I’m looking better than the notorious Damian Woody right here. You understand what I’m saying? I know. I know. Listen, did I not tell you about showing up here? I am the only one that’s allowed to show up without a tie. We gonna talk about this. Outside of that, I’m in a very good mood. Molly should be as well. I’ve been in studio all week long. We know that makes her happy and that’s what really really matters most. The first station’s in the hands. That’s right. Oh, Stephen A. Your presence truly is a gift. Good morning everybody. Welcome to First Take. Thank you for being with us. Damen Woody, Courtney Cronin SA. I’m Molly Karen. You do got to say that like hanging with us though. You do got to say that like you mean it. Okay. It’s always a pleasure. None of that. She didn’t sound that convincing to me. D C D, how are you? I’m great. Good to see you. Thank you for having me. Is he Is he acting like that because of the suit he’s wearing? Cuz I feel like he smells like a lot and doing the most always. Okay. Cuz I feel like the suit is enhancing that right now. You clean. I give you that. You clean. Thank you. You make it to Would it be okay if I start the show? I have permission. Okay, awesome. Thank you. We are four weeks until the NFL season kicks off. Preseason starts tonight. Joe Burl will be in action against the Eagles, hoping to get his squad off to a faster start than normal. The Bengals won their final five games of the season a year ago, but fell short of making the playoffs for the second year in a row. In six seasons under Zack Taylor, the Bengals have gone 1 and 11 in the first two weeks of the season. Cincy will start the year on the road in Cleveland against the Browns before hosting the Jaguars for their home opener. That’s in week two. Meanwhile, the veteran Aaron Rogers is also open to playing in the preseason opener with his new team when the Steelers face the Jaguars this Saturday. Rogers says he and Tomlin will have that conversation. Okay, Mr. Smith, who needs to get off to a faster start? Is it Joe Burrow and those Bengals or Aaron Rogers and your Steelers? I’m going to say it’s it’s it’s Aaron. It’s Aaron Rogers and the Steelers simply because there’s so many question marks, so much trepidation about them being up in the on the offensive side of the ball. With TJ Watt there, we believe in them. We believe what they bring to the table defensively, offensively is the question mark right now because of him, because of how he’s looked the last couple of years or so or how he’s looked, you know, in the last year of Green Bay, I’m not going to hold the first year in New York Jets against him, he’s got injured on the fourth play of the game towards Achilles. So, we know that. But bottom line is that his last couple of years in Green Bay playoff falters and then last year with the New York Jets, despite 28 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, nearly 4,000 yards passing, it was still considered an underachieving year for him. So with him being plus 40, 41 years of age and everybody asking these questions about him, I would say it needs to be him. The only thing that I want to say about Joe Burrow is this. You know that one and 11 number is real. And I am one, just in case you didn’t see me saying this, Courtney, I know this man has seen me saying this. I think there needs to be an investigation into the coaching staff for the Cincinnati Bengals. What the hell are you doing in the off season and during the preeason that you can’t start out the first couple of weeks of a season winning the game with Joe Burrow as your quarterback with Jamar Chase T. Higgins as your wide outs over these last several years? One and 11, 0 and3 last year. I’m just looking at them 0 and2 and five of the six seasons under head coach. That’s how they started. Why? Why is it that you don’t start playing football until midepptember when training camp starts in July when you got OTAAS before that? What the hell is going on in Cincinnati that consistently despite this talent and this great quarterback, you can’t win games to start off the season? They better start off. But I’m looking at them and I’m looking at how explosive we expect their offense to be. And I’d say the answer to this question, despite what I just said about Cincinnati, still has to be Aaron Rogers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah. the investigation you’re talking about is going to happen if they start out 0 and2 because those calls for Zack Taylor’s job that is naturally what the conversation will devolve into and I think that they’ve started to do some sort of soularching because back in the spring it was Jamar Chase who had this like fun moment with reporters he like grabbed somebody’s notebook and started asking questions well why do you guys think we start out slow might we need to play in the preseason and I know that starters don’t usually clamor to do that but you got to give Cincinnati some credit for trying to do something a little different than they’ve done in years past. If you don’t beat Cleveland, if you don’t beat Jacksonville 0 and2 going on the road Denver, Minnesota, then you’ve got Green Bay and Detroit in the next two games after that. Your season’s over at that point. They can’t afford to waste another career year from Joe Burrow, another career year from Jamar Chase. T Higgins had a careerhigh in touchdowns. You’ve backto-back 17 and a half sack seasons from Trey Hendrickson. If like if things are going to be different, why not started making it different now in the preseason? Why not start the approach differently? Because clearly whatever they’re doing the last couple years since 2022 isn’t working. Injuries obviously a factor in there with Burrow and dealing with the CO stuff and then dealing with some of the injuries he’s had in the preseason. Jamar Chase not being in camp for a lot of last year uh while he was waiting the new contract. All of that is null and void. So, if you start out 0 and2 now, if you start out 0 and three and it gets real bad, then they’re looking at the coaching staff saying, “Well, something’s got to change because we’ve been doing the same thing year after year after year and it’s not working for us.” Yeah. And I think you hinted towards why I lean towards Joe Burrow is because, think about this. Every year since Joe Burrow’s been in the league, there’s always been something. He’s had the knee, okay? He’s had the calf injury. He’s had the appendix. He’s had some type of injury or medical situation that’s kind of hindered him throughout training camp. That is not the case this year. He’s come in. He’s fully healthy. All of his guys, you know, Jamar Chase, T Higgins, they’re not dealing with contractual things. They’re not injured. Everyone is fully locked in and ready to go. Now, we know what the situation is with Trey Henderson. They got a new defensive coordinator, Al Gooen. The Cincinnati Bengals, particularly Joe Burl and offense, need to hit the ground running because we don’t know what this defense is going to be like in Cincinnati. It’s probably going to be it’s it’s probably going to be shootouts in Cincinnati because their defense, quite honestly, it’s been atrocious. They’re going to need to be highowered. And if you’re Cincinnati, those first two games are very winnable games. You cannot, again, you you stated the the uh the record 1 and 11. You cannot start the season losing two winnable games early on if you’re the Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow. Well, listen, here’s the numbers right here, right? Let’s go by the numbers because Joe Burrow is 18 and5 combined in the month of December and January. He’s 8 and2 in the month of January, including 5-2 in the postseason. This is what we know about Joe Burrow. This is what he brings to the table. But the greatness of Joe Burrow, the greatness of of Jamal Chase, no question there’s a debate between him and Justin Jefferson as to who’s the best wide receiver in football. Okay, we know what this brother brings to the table. The Cincinnati Bengals since Joe Burrow arrived is 7 10 and one in the month of September. Three games under 500, 10 and 10 in the month of October. So even though we brought up the first two weeks, you can make a legitimate argument because of the offensive firepower that they’ve had, you haven’t really shown up for the first two months as a coaching staff. What the hell are you doing? I I’m I’m I’m dead serious about this. You football is your job with the players. What are we talking about? Trying to talk about keeping yourself in peak condition, working on your skill set, doing what you can to elevate your quality of play, etc., etc. What the hell are you doing as coaches? I’m looking at Zack Taylor, the head coach for the Cincinnati Bengals. I’m looking at this coaching staff. What the hell are you doing? If I’m the owner, I want to know what’s going on in April, May, June prior to training camp in July. What are you doing that we can’t win games with the talent that we have in the month of September and October? We’re climbing uphill. We won five games straight to end the season last year and still missed the playoffs. Hey, you know what? Still miss the playoffs. And I’m glad you brought that up, Stephen A. Remember last year, week one, they lost
