Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Franchise Focus: Cincinnati Bengals

Episode Date: July 23, 2022

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) invites Jake Liscow (@JakeLiscow) of Locked On Bengals to discuss the upcoming season for the Cincinnati Bengals. The Franchise Focus Podcast series is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy (@UnderdogFantasy). New users can sign up to Underdog using promo code FANTASYPTS for up to $100 in bonus cash on their first deposit. Visit fantasypoints.com/underdog for more info. The podcast series is also sponsored by Evan's Sports Cards & Collectibles (@evanscards). Follow @EvansCards on Twitter for weekly updates and card releases, Like on Facebook, and head to evanssportsnj.com for more info, including the always-updated eBay store. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome back to another franchise focus podcast here at FantasyPoint.com. My name is Joe Dolan, and today we're talking a worldwide team, a team that within like the course of 12, months. There's a term that the kids have now. I'm 35 years old by the time you're listening. Oh, no. By the time you're listening to this, I'll be 36 tomorrow. But there is a term that the kids have taught me back when I was teaching college. It's called a glow up. And I'm not sure there is a team that has had as significant a glow up in such a short amount of time as the Cincinnati Bengals have had over the last year plus. The Cincinnati Bengals are now a nationwide brand, the defending AFC champions, And heck, I know they're a nationwide brand because my guest today, Jake Liscoe, is the co-host of the Locked-on Bengals podcast.

And he is on the West Coast. And he is podcasting about the Bengals every day. You can follow him on Twitter at Jake Lisko. That's L-I-S-C-O-W. Again, he is the co-host of the Locked-on Bengals podcast. And it's a pleasure to have him carve out some time for us today. Jake, welcome to the show. It's cool to be a Bengals fan now.

It's kind of weird, but, you know, the new Units. uniforms gave them some swag. Joe Burrow gave us some swag. This is a hot team right now, man, and I don't see why I can't continue. Yeah, you give a lot of that credit to Joe Burrow, right, for reviving the brand, for bringing that swagger to the Cincinnati Bengals for being that guy. I don't see that it goes beyond that. The uniforms do help. Modernizing with the Ring of Honor, I think helps a little bit. Dude, the shoulder things in the AJ Green era uniforms were so bad.

They were. They weren't great. The weird side panels were weird and unnecessary. And I do think that there's definitely an improvement with the uniforms, but it's really Joe Burrow, right? Nobody would really care about the uniforms if they weren't winning and they weren't relevant. So I think that's the biggest part of it. Yeah. And look, look, I mean, we're at a point now with the Cincinnati Bengals where they've kind of had a stabilizing offseason. The day we're recording this, we're recording this on the 18th. This is being released on the 23rd, if you're listening. But the kind of big aspect of discussion for the Bengals in the past a week on Twitter has essentially been the white Bengal helmet, which I don't think they've officially revealed yet, but is coming. And the fact that Jamar Chase got utterly snubbed by the Madden ratings. I mean, he's not in the top 10 receivers. Disgusting, in my opinion. Yeah, there's some weird stuff with age for them.

Justin Jefferson was the same deal, right? Justin Jefferson last year was an 87. I mean, it was the same thing. They come into the league in the 70s. their second year, they go to an 87, I think, for both of them. And then so I think it's got to be an age thing, a years of performance thing for the Madden ratings adjusters. But that is something that just doesn't feel right to me. If you have a rookie at 21 years old who is one of the best receivers in the NFL by any metric, then I think you give him his due.

And then if he crashes in his second year and has a sophomore slump, then you can make the adjustments. but a little bit of conservatism, I think, from the Madden Raiders. How does he have a lower rating than Michael Thomas? Yeah, I mean, there's some questions. That's ridiculous. Anyway, we can probably go off on that because if I was starting a team with a wide receiver, Jamar Chase is either the first or second pick in the draft, like with Justin Jefferson. So anyway, well, there's be plenty of time to talk Madden ratings.

I'm sure you guys might hit it on the Locked-on Bengals podcast, but we're here to talk fantasy football, but we wouldn't be here, if not for Evans' sports cards and collectibles, the best place for cards, collectibles, autographs, and more. All of our memorabilia giveaways at Fantasy Points are from Evans, and Evans always has the latest boxes and releases from Panini, Upper Deck, Tops, and more. And it's not a super store. It's a family owned small business. You can go get to know the staff. They get to know what you're looking for. And it's really a great place to go and support. And if you're in the Philadelphia area, you can go in person. But if you're not in Philadelphia area, go to Evans Cards on Twitter at Evans Cards,

like Evans on Facebook and head to Evansportsnj.com for more info, including the always updated eBay store, which is how I look at Evans. That's Evansportsnj.com online and at Evans cards on Twitter and tell them that the guys from FantasyPoints.com sent you. Jake, to continue with the talk of Joe Burrow and how he's kind of revitalized this entire franchise, coming off the injury, he's now a second year removed from that injury. Where do the Bengals feel like this kid can go. I mean, because now he's got an improved offensive line, which you can argue is the reason they didn't win the Super Bowl.

As a matter of fact, I think you can make a really great argument that that's the reason they didn't win the Super Bowl. But where do they think the heights are with Burrow and this really exciting receiving court? I think there's got to be a feeling that if Joe Burrow doesn't get beat up the way he does all year, if he's feeling safer, for lack of a better word in the Super Bowl, feeling less battered, feeling less beaten down from the amount of hits he took, from the amount of putting the offense on his shoulders that he had to do last year, there's a chance that

that Super Bowl goes differently as well. It wasn't his best game. It wasn't his best performance, a cumulative effect of the year he had, I think, caught up to him a little bit. But I think that the ceiling is perceived to be certainly higher than it was last year in terms of things like converting first downs at a higher rate. Being better on first down itself, that was a problem. them for this team last year. And if you're better on first down, you're continuing more drives. And when this team did convert a first down on a drive, they were really, really efficient at scoring points on those drives. So it just took one first down to get the ball moving. And then they were a really high tier offense. One of the top five, as I recall, offenses in the league

after getting a first down. So the offensive line should help that. And that should help Joe Burrow and his efficiency numbers as well. One thing that I think stands out was the interceptions last he was really unlucky in that regard. And I think that it'll be a more pass-heavy offense this year, although there's also a great argument for just being a higher volume offense in general because of that offensive line improvement and how that should impact the running game and thus early downs and give Joe Burrow more opportunities. Yeah, let's go there.

I was going to ask something different, but we'll get to the Chase and Higgins. For fantasy purposes, the first Bengal drafted, well, is Jamar Chase, but also Joe Mixon's a first round pick. And there's a lot of people who are like, this is the year. This is the, Joe, Joe Mixon's been a really good NFL back, but he hasn't been like the guy who's taken over for fantasy, the way we see obviously Christian McCaffrey. And then like even like a Dalvin Cook type of guy who has those receiving chops.

There's a lot of thought out there that Lyle Collins coming in. All the moves that the Bengals have made along the offensive line this offseason will benefit Joe Mixon. Do you think there's merit to that? Absolutely. I think this is the best offensive line he's ever played behind, and he's getting another year in a scheme that he's very comfortable with. You go back to 2018, 2018, 2019, the last time Frank Pollock was in Cincinnati,

he's now back bringing that wide zone scheme back with him. 2018 was the last time that Pollock was in Cincinnati before his return in 2021. And in those two seasons, Joe Mixen averaged five yards per carry and had eight touchdowns in 2018 on a relatively low volume year. and then in 2021 had 1,200 yards and 13 touchdowns rushing and of course had some involvement in the passing game as well. I do think that his efficiency as a runner should be better. This is, again, by far the highest quality offensive line he's played behind with the additions of Collins, who you mentioned, Alex Kappa, who is a very good run blocker in his own right and has taken steps every year coming out of a small school

and taking that big leap to the NFL in Tampa and adding Ted Karris, another guy who's playing. played with Tom Brady, a versatile piece at center. These guys, plus Jonah Williams, who I expect to actually take a significant step at left tackle, should mean that the running game for the Bengals is more efficient and maybe higher volume. I'm a little bit hesitant to say higher volume, though, in general, because early in the year, Joe Mixing was a very high volume back as the Bengals were trying to ease Joe Burrow back into things. So the thing with Mixing that I think is tricky is the Bengals were bad in the Red Zone last year,

but Joe Mixen at 13 touchdowns. So how does that shake out from a regression perspective? I think that'll be interesting to see. But certainly should be more opportunity for Joe Mixen behind a better offensive line. And there's a lot of talent there. The one thing I will say that limits is outside, especially if you're in a PPR or half PPR league, is there doesn't seem to be a massive inclination to get him more involved

as a dedicated receiver. They're using him in screens. They're using him in checkdown situations. But there are some other guys on this team in the running back room in particular and the really good wide receivers they have that kind of limit his ceiling as a receiving back. So the Bengals here are actually, I'm looking right at ADP, which is average draft position. I know you mentioned PPR leagues, by the way. I know you're not huge into fantasy right now, but the Bengals are the only team that currently has three players being drafted in the

top two rounds of fantasy drafts via underdog fantasy ADP. That would be Jamar Chase, Joe Mixing, and then of course, T. Higgins. And just to give the people a little bit of a peak under, they know Higgins and Chase are good. But from your perspective, following the Bengals as closely as you do, how do they compare and contrast and how do they compliment one another? And do you think that they can go another year without really siphoning the production from each other?

I think that there are enough targets to go around. You got to remember also that T. Higgins was hurt last year, missed a few games. And if you include his playoff production, which gets him to closer to a full season workload, 18 games. He had 1,400 yards and 8 touchdowns, which, you know, you take one game off of that. Those are still really, really good numbers on 136 targets. And so from a target per game perspective, there was plenty there for T. Higgins, I thought.

He had 136 targets in 18 games to 158 for Jamar Chase in 21 games. Jamar playing just a little bit of the final game against, I think it was the Browns. No, yes, the Browns in week 18. He had a handful of snaps in that game to get a couple extra yards to set of Bengals record. But that being said, there's a very clear inclination for the Bengals to use T. Higgins in a big way. They like throwing to both of their outside receivers in high volume. And T. Higgins have plenty of games with nine or more targets, even when he was on the field with Jemar Chase, especially with Jemar Chase drawing a lot of attention and T. Higgins still being a really capable downfield receiver.

So I do think there's plenty of production there for T. Higgins. And Jamar Chase, it's hard to say anything, but the sky is the limit, right? With what he did to the league at 21, you expect a receiver to make a leap from year one to year two. That's very common. You expect more refinement in the game, a little bit more consistency, a little bit more acumen for the game of football that they're playing as a game slows down around them and they have more experience. And so, again, you can see room for regression for Jamar Chase and the deep touchdowns, for example, that don't tend to translate year to year. but you can also see something fighting that regression is, again, the improvements to the offensive line,

which should generally improve the efficiency of the Bengals offense and just him taking a leap in terms of skill and in terms of refinement to his game. So really like both of those guys, if they're healthy for fantasy purposes, but of course, if they're healthy as a caveat, you could say for any player. So obviously down the stretch last year and into the playoffs, a guy who kind of emerged and became a little bit of a go-to guy in big spots for Joe Burrow was C.J. Usama, the tight end. And hey, get your bad young fella.

He went out and got a contract with the New York Jets. And the Bengals, I guess that you can make an argument. They made an effort to replace them by going to get Hayden Hearst, but it wasn't, it was clearly not a focus move for them. Do you think Hayden Hurst can even replicate Usama's production in this offense? I don't know where exactly I come down on that. Because if you go back a couple years ago in Atlanta, when Hayden Hurst actually was a featured tight end that didn't

also have an offense that didn't share an offense with Mark Andrews, who's one of the best tight ends in the league, or Kyle Pitts, who's the next best wide receiver or receiving tight end in the league. Almost called him a wide receiver. It wouldn't even be that wrong, to be honest. But Haydenhurst is not that different in terms of skill set. Don't expect him to be the in-line blocking type tight end a ton, which may limit his ceiling for snaps in general.

But I do think that the receiving ceiling is pretty similar to where C.J. Usama was last you're maybe even a little bit higher. He might be a little bit better as a pure receiver. But I think that's really close. I would say that the Bengals did want Usama back. And I'm not sure where Hayden Hurst was in the plan A, B, and C. I think it was probably C. I think the Jets took a couple of guys from the Bengals that they were hoping to have in the

tight end room after Yuzama went. I think they were interested in Tyler Conklin. But I think that there's a very clear plan for Hayden Hurst and how he can be used. I don't know that he'll get quite to Yuzama's numbers because Yuzama, like you mentioned, down the stretch, became really good after the catch. And even throughout the season made some really big plays. But I think for either guy, you're looking at a fringe tight end with maybe a little bit more opportunity for Hearst because he's not sharing an offense like C.J.

Usama now is in New York with another tight end who's capable of producing on his own. And just for housekeeping purposes here, we know the offensive line was really, I mean, was by far the weakest unit on the. the Bengals last year. Did that mean they had to play somebody like Drew Sample, maybe more snaps than they would have liked to? I don't know. I think that they had Drew Sample on the field for specific things.

If you look at his snap breakdown and what the Bengals did when he was on the field, he's on the field, you know, 75% of the time, 70% of the time for running plays. He's out there to run block. And he was out there to pass block a handful of times too. When the Bengals did pass when he was on the field again, roughly, 25% a little bit more, maybe 30% of those snaps. He was in their pass blocking. So if they feel better about their offensive line holding up,

they won't feel like they have to keep tight ends into block as much. They'll feel more comfortable going empty and not having protection busts, although those will always happen in empty. And I do expect that to continue to be a part of the way a Joe Burrow offense runs because Joe Burrow likes it so much. But it might lead to less playing time for Drew Sample, especially if if Hayden Hurst is healthy and and more empty 11 personnel, three wide receivers, Hayden Hurst and a running back.

So this question that I've been wrapping up all the franchise focus podcasts with Jake is harder for some than others. And I think it's probably one of the hardest. The Bengals are probably one of the hardest of any team because in the fantasy industry or at least in my mind, we call them a narrow team. When they produce, you know where the production is coming from. So coming up with a fantasy sleeper on the Bengals might be a futile exercise. But if there is one, you mentioned Joe Mixin, they just don't seem inclined to really make him a featured part of the passing game.

Is there somebody in that backfield who might be, at least in certain packages of featured part of that passing game? Yeah, I mean, you're probably looking at the backfield if you're looking for a sleeper on this team, although there could be a wide receiver. It's just that the wide receiver four and five on the depth chart don't inspire a ton of confidence. So it's really hard to say. Oh, yeah, Mike Thomas, not that Mike Thomas, the other Mike Thomas will be the guy that you want to target in case one of Jamar Chase or T. Higgins deals with an injury this year. But Chris Evans is a guy that I would keep an eye on. An incredible athlete out of Michigan, a little bit older coming out, had some academic issues, academic disciplinary issues at Michigan. but by all accounts was really impressive in the draft process as far as how he handled that

and how he won over teams with his accountability and ownership of that incident. I think that the one thing for him is he has to again show a little bit more pass blocking prowess. I think when he had that opportunity to pass block last year, he was really good at it and has a lot of innate ability there. So again, from year one to year two, the game slowing down a little bit for him. does that make him more suited to processing and being a good pass blocker that earns him more opportunity as a past catcher? You go back to the Super Bowl, both Somaget Pirine and Chris Evans had some plays designed for them and made some plays. And Somaget Pirine certainly throughout the playoffs was clutch and in the regular season at times was clutch.

But to me, if you're looking for an upside sleeper, and I'm not sure I'm suggesting drafting either of these guys unless you're in a really deep league. I'm looking at Chris Evans, who tested, by the way, athletically similar to Jamar Chase, just plays a different position. And we all saw what Jamar Chase's athleticism did to the NFL. So the Bengals like him a lot as a receiver. You might see him. If one of those injuries happens that I talked about,

maybe he's the guy that starts to get some reps split out wide as well. The Bengals toyed with that idea last year, too. So if you're looking for upside for somebody deep on the Bengals team, I'm looking at Chris Evans. So you heard it here first on the fantasy points franchise focus. his podcast. If Jamar Chase gets hurt, Chris Evans is going to play wide receiver and put up 1,400 yards in this offense. There you go. Yep. You're going to quote me on that, huh? Exactly. No, obviously, we're not, but that shows you what kind of talent Chris Evan is and you guys

found out what kind of talent Jake Lisco is. He is the co-host of the Locked on Bengals podcast. Jake, I mean, this one was in a way, like, let's put it this way. This is by no means a knock on you at all. kind of boring. We kind of know who the Bengals are at this point. And if you've been covering the Bengals for a long time, kind of refreshing, I would have to think. Yeah, the most exciting thing about this team, I would say, is that the offensive line has improved. And from a fantasy perspective, from an inconsistent year to perspective, all the people that do regression analyses, there are a lot of things on the Bengals that scream. They could be a little bit worse in terms of fantasy production in 2020. But on the other side of that I think are a lot of factors that could buoy those guys and keep them as productive,

one of them being the improvements on the offensive line, which you go from one of the worst offensive lines in the league to a functional offensive line. That makes a big difference for your offense. The other one of those things is the first healthy, regular offseason for Joe Burrow and additional development for T. Higgins and Jemar Chase, both of whom were 21 when they came into the league and have been really productive in that time. So there's a lot to like on the Bengals, even if it's very well known, as you're suggesting. and I agree with.

I think that there are still some interesting things and some players to like on this team for fantasy football. So just really quickly, before we wrap it up, like how fired up were Bengals fans about the L. Collins signing? Like, they had to be like, when the Cowboys released him, they had to be like, bring him to Cincinnati and don't let him leave. Yeah, I mean, before the Cowboys released him, it was get the trade done so that they don't have to compete on the free agent market.

And then there was a lot of angst when he was in town because it took a few days for them to eventually come. to terms on that agreement, which turned out to be extremely team friendly for a top X, whatever you think, top 10, top 12, right tackle. I think Doug Farr just ranked him in the top 12 at tackles in general in the NFL. So obviously a huge improvement for the Bengals there. Jake, thank you so much for joining us here on the podcast. It's been wonderful. Follow him on Twitter at Jake LISCO at LISCO.

You can also follow his podcast at Lockdown Bengals. does a great job covering them. If you want to know about the Bengals, just listen to the podcast. Jake was fantastic. Thank you so much, man, for coming on. It was a pleasure having you. Yeah, it was great. Fun to talk about some fantasy sports.

All right. Thank you, everybody, for listening to this edition of the franchise focus podcast. We're going to take off on Sundays on the seventh day, Dolan rested. But we'll be back Monday for the final week of the franchise focus podcast series. As training camps open up, we'll start with the Chicago Bears and then wrap up next Saturday with the Arizona Cardinals. It's been great talking to everybody, and we'll be with you next. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform, and come join the roster at

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