Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Amarius Mims has a minor pec strain, and the coaching staff rewarded Jermaine Burton with better practice opportunities

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

Amarius Mims has a mild pec strain, so the guys break down the impact and discuss how Trent Brown performed in his first 11-on-11 work in training camp. That was the bad news - the good news is that Jermaine Burton, Dax Hill, and Matt Lee got their reward and got onto the field earlier in practice on Monday. We break down the outlook as those players look to stack good performances and make their claim to higher positions on the depth chart. For your next listen, check out the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. Get daily insight to the best Fantasy draft strategies so you can win your league this season. Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON and add a big win to your summer bucket list!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We've got some good news and we've got some bad news. Marius Mims is going to miss a few weeks, but the guys have played well on Saturday are earning more opportunities in practice. We'll get into all of that today. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network,

your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Lusco. He's your host, James Serpene. We're part of the Lockdown podcast network covering your team every day. Thanks to all of you out there who make us your first listen and all the everyday. Shout out to the regulars. If you're new to the show, you can subscribe on YouTube and everywhere else you get your podcast.

Shout out to all the new subscribers on YouTube. We've seen a little spike, unsurprisingly, with Bengals football back. Today, we're going to catch you up on roster battles and how those are shaping up in practice after preseason game one. And unfortunately, we have to delay that conversation. because Zach Taylor told us that Amarius Mims has a peck strain. He called it minor. He called it not very severe.

You used the word several, read the definition out of the dictionary. And that's where we will start today's show, sponsored by LinkedIn jobs who can help you find the candidates you want to talk to for your small business faster at LinkedIn.com slash lockdown NFL where you can post your job for free, terms and conditions apply. And James, let's get the bad news out of the way first. Amarius Mim is going to miss a little bit of time with a peck strain by the sounds of it. Pretty minor injury should be fine, should be back relatively soon.

But what a bummer after the camp he's had that he's going to miss a couple of preseason games and the next few weeks of practices. Yeah, it sucks. I'll say it like I said it before we started recording. It sucks. I'm not going to pull any punches here because Amarius Mims was playing really well. And you watch and then you go back and I'm sure you did. And our good buddy, Joe Goodberry, put the cut up together, made it real easy. every single play of Amarius Mims on Twitter, boom,

watch every single play. And it's like, man, this dude, but he might mess around and start. And I think the plane all along was to be able to bring him along slowly and let him learn and teach him. And then this happens. And I don't know when. It's really confusing because Amarius talked after the game,

was smiling. The Bengals on Sunday posted a clip of Amari's talking afterwards. And it was because it was one heck of a debut. And that's what sucks is you got a taste of what Amarius Mims could bring to this offensive line room. So what he could bring to this passing game, to what he could bring to Joe Burrow in this offense. And what we saw in camp, what we saw in practice, translated to a game.

Was it against backups? Sure. But it translated. Wasn't too bright for him. He knew what he was doing. He executed it. and so to have this, it might just be a little bump in the road. And that's how probably the Bengals are approaching it, how Omarius is approaching it,

but it still sucks. So my instant reaction was surprise. And now that it set in a few hours ago when Zach sat up here at Paycourt Stadium and gave us the news, it sucks because I think he had a real shot to push for a starting job. And I'm not sure anyone realistically thought he would beat out Trent Brown before camp started. Even if you hoped he would, I'm not sure you expected it. And it was getting to that point. Jack Taylor even admitted today that he was going to get first team reps in practice,

even with Trent back. And obviously that didn't happen because he's injured. Yeah, I will give myself a small pat on the back that I thought after the draft pick, I thought he should compete for the starting job. I thought that would be a real competition. But until Trent Brown showed up to camp not ready to go, it kind of felt like Trump Brown would have gotten those first team reps early in camp if he was ready to go.

But he wasn't. And then men took those reps. He sees the opportunity. He ran with it. And he looked like the player that was ready to play in the NFL. He looked like you would hope a first round tackle would look. And his physical tools are obviously sky's limit kind of physical tools. So you're right. It is a huge bummer. The silver lining is that it is a minor injury. Zach wouldn't rule out men starting in week one. So I guess we shouldn't entirely rule that out either. This doesn't necessarily mean Trent Brown is your week one started. This doesn't necessarily have significant down roster impacts, although we well discuss those and circle back to what's going on down roster on the offensive line a little

bit later in the show. And the other nice thing about it is that Trent Brown is very experienced and you have a really good idea of who he is. And while we would both, I think, like to have seen the Bengals make more moves in this off season leading into training camp, bring in a few more solid veteran pieces to back up other key positions, like on the interior defensive line, perhaps on the interior offensive line, whatever you want to point out, cornerback maybe. They did on the offensive line. They double dipped in the offseasoner by tackle with a premier draft pick

with a free agent that had starting capability, and now that is paying dividends. Hopefully the lesson learned from this for the Bengals is, oh, we could apply this to other positions. We could have signed Colias Campbell. And we'd feel way better about our defensive tackle room or whatever. But the good news is that the next guy up is Trent Brown. And you could feel a lot worse about that if it was another player instead of Trent Brown.

Sure. No doubt. Because even after Saturday, if you would have interviewed me at like 11 a.m. before I came down to the stadium, I would have said Trent Brown was still the favorite. I would have. Now, I think it's close, but I think they're extremely comfortable with Trent Brown. And we can get to him and how he looked in practice today's first team reps coming up in just a bit. But it's just losing Mims, even if it's for a little bit, is such a setback because of how he was rolling and how he was understanding things.

But I will say this. I just praised him for how he played. And I think a lot of people, you included, share the same thought. But I asked him about that. hey, how'd you think you played? And I tweeted out the video. It's on YouTube too, but he was like, oh, there was a ton that I want to improve on. There were things, I'm sure a lot of people thought that I played well. And he was like, oh, I need to work on my hand technique here, my hand placement, and he went into multiple different things, and also said that he thinks he can still get better

and improve even when he's not practicing over these couple of weeks, just mentally understanding things, probably wrapping things out still. I mean, he's not. He can still move his feet. He could still do things like that. So I do think that there are, there's hope that he's going to be able to continue to get better. Because that's what you don't want. You don't want this injury to stunt his growth because he was on such an upward trajectory. And there was never really a bump in the road.

And this is the first bump in the road. But it does feel like he has the right mindset and approach going into it, which is what you need. If you're going to overcome this and not only overcome it for your career, but overcome it to have a productive rookie season. Yeah, I wonder how much of a setback at will. be because the mindset is so he talked about it as locker you were there the perfectionism the hand placement that he wants to work on the sets that weren't perfect in his mind that weren't exactly how he wanted them to be and talking about past sets he can work on those things with a with a peck injury a relatively minor peck injury he was out there watching today but i wonder how quickly he will

get onto the rehab field or well be able to do certain drills that he wants to work on to continue to to hone his craft. And I think the mindset is great. That is something that Zach has praised, that Joe has praised, Joe Burrow has praise, that is, I think, pretty apparent anytime he's talked to you guys in the locker room. And so I do wonder just how significant it will be versus how much he'll be able to overcome this. Like I said, Zach wouldn't roll out him starting in week one. How did Trent look today, though, getting back to that topic, you teased it earlier,

Trent Brown getting his first 11-on-11 team work in Bengals training camp on Monday. How'd that go? It went well. I thought he looked pretty darn good. He looked strong. He looked hard to move. Obviously, he's not the fastest guy in the world, but was active as a run blocker. I saw him move multiple times across the line like you'd expect.

And so I think it's a good first day. I really do. And they're taking it slow with him. I wouldn't anticipate him doing a ton tomorrow, especially if they plan on him getting, and I'm sure he will, especially now, on Thursday against the Bears in that joint practice. Yeah, I think Trent checked off that box. Now, did he get beat a couple times? I'm pretty sure. So I got him at least once.

A lot of people probably saw that. But he faced a lot of Miles Murphy. And I think Miles is like, man, I finally figure out Mims a bit. And I started having a little success against Mims. And now I'm going to deal with this bigger man. who might not be as athletic as Amarius, but he's more experienced. So overall, I think Trent, big step in the right direction today. It's just a shame that it comes on a day when the Bengals lose Mims

because today would have been the competition, day one, Jake. And we've been robbed of that at least a little bit. Yeah, we won't get the direct competition, but of course the coaches can compare how Marius Mims fared in his practice reps and game reps to how Trent Brown performs over the next week or so. I do think that's a better match. for Osai. I think Osai is primed to have a really good year

rushing around guys who can't move as well as him. So from a matchup perspective, there's that. But we have a lot more to get to in this practice. A lot of players really stood out for the right reasons in that preseason game. And the next step for them was what would happen to the practice rotations. And they went about as well as I think you could have hoped for.

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Eligible items only, exclusions apply. eBay guaranteed fit only available to U.S. customers. James, let's get to some of that good news now. We got the Amarius Mim stuff out of the way. And a number of those players that we thought stood out for the right reasons in preseason game number one,

were elevated in their status in practice as well. And let's start. We'll just go down the list of rookies here to Jermaine Burton, the Bengals' third round picket wide receiver, who had more opportunity in practice on Monday. For the first time, I believe, in quite a while anyway, not all off-season, but at least for training camp recently. He was catching passes from Joe Burrow and individual work

and worked in with the twos and with the ones. wasn't relegated to the later parts of practice in 11 on 11 waiting for passes from, you know, down roster quarterbacks primarily Logan Woodside he was working with. So while there were some receivers absent today, and we can talk about the nuance here, they could still have him working with Logan Woodside if that was their intent. But they instead elevated him a little bit. He got to work with quarterbacks who were definitely going to be on the roster this year for the Bengals. and he was rewarded for his late game efforts with some earlier practice naps.

He did, or he was, and he caught a touchdown from Joe Burrow in team drills, first one, I believe, in team drills. So there is a first. I tweeted out that clip. And it is, it's good to see. I don't know that it changes the depth chart a ton. We know Charlie Jones is out, avoided serious injury, but is week to week. Trent and Irwin didn't practice today.

And T. Higgins was limited. And yet at the same time, to your point, it's relevant because they still need guys to catch passes from Logan Woodside. They could have just bumped them up slightly and kept him with Jake Browning, which he took plenty of reps with Jake Browning. But, you know, guys like Kendrick Pryor and Chedric Jackson, Andre Yosebosch, those guys were still practicing with Joe Burrow. And yet they found, and they have been throughout camp, by the way. But today they found time for Burton as well. And I think that is noteworthy, to your point. And in catching passes from Joe, trying to get on the same page as Joe, that's huge.

Because Burton does something that really no one else outside of Jamar does. And you could include T, but he wins a different way. But that downfield ability, like even if that's all he brings you this year, like, you take it all day long. So it was good to see that. I do think, though, does it continue? It's how does Jermaine respond? And I do think, by the way, post-game Saturday, he was really focused on proving himself. And so this was a step in the right direction.

And obviously, I'll have Tuesday's practice. But then that joint practice in this upcoming preseason game, those are two opportunities for Germain to keep going, keep stacking, and get closer and closer to this rotation, which I do think it will be a rotation at wide receiver three. Yeah, I guess I'll ask you this question then. That's a good segue because people were asking on Twitter about this. How much do you think wide receiver three is a real competition right now? Because to me, it still feels like Yosevaush's head and shoulders ahead of the competitors for that job. He continues to be the guy working in the slot with the first team. Before we were talking on the show today, you talked about Burroughs trust in Yosevash,

which I'll let you speak to as well. But with Charlie Jones injury being less severe than we feared, the week-to-week status on the bang knee and the slow but surely we're seeing an elevation here for Jermaine Burton after preseason game number one. If that continues, we've talked all offseason about a rotation coming here. And we weren't necessarily even anticipating Yosevash being part of that. What's your feel on that situation now? Well, I think Yoshi is obviously going to get a ton of playing time. But Trent Norwood started on Saturday.

Trenton Irwin is going to be a big part of it. And so do I think Andre is the favorite or the guy who's going to get the most snaps? I don't even know if he's going to start because it could be Irwin, but get the most snaps in that rotation? Absolutely. But I do think it's going to be a rotation. I don't think that Irwin is just completely cast aside. And that's before we get to a Charlie Jones or a Jermaine Burton.

And what I think Burton, his opportunity or his chance is to show, hey, You got to find a way to get me on the field. It might be 20% of the snaps, but you've got to find a way. Maybe it means move Jamar inside and put him in the slot, but you have to find a way. And that's what I think some of these young guys that were talking about, when they go out there and do what they did on Saturday night, the coaches give them another look. And that was fun to me today because the ins and outs of training camp,

the day and day out. Before the game, we kind of saw the same rotations for a question. some time. And to see the mix today, to see the reaction today, I think it's big. We can continue with my guy, Dax Hill, who got a ton of reps guarding T. Higgins, and T. Higgins climbed the ladder on him in the end zone, was able to catch a ball that Dax knocked away, probably a half second too late from it being an incomplete. T. did call it a drop in the locker room. So that's interesting. It is interesting, right? But it's really close. I think it would have been ruled a touchdown. Anyways, Andre Yosabashi, he had a pass break up there on him, but he was getting reps with

Cam Taylor, Brent, and Mike Hill with the number ones, and with Gino Stone. And it's like, all right, well, let's give it a second look. And a lot of guys can change the way they're viewed if they follow up Saturday with a good day today. I thought Dax was good today. I thought Jermaine was too, but again, that's my naked eye and not the coaching staff. But then you follow it up with this week. This week is pretty darn big, I think, for a lot of these guys that we're discussing.

Yeah, up and down the roster, too. Like we're talking about guys trying to crack rotational roles or starting positions. It's also relevant down the roster. We're not going to get to all those guys today, but certainly relevant for those guys fighting for roster spots, trying to show that they can be special teams, contributors, whatever it is. I will say that there's one play. It was a Shedric Jackson touchdown on a blown coverage. That might have been on Dax.

I believe it probably was on Dax. It looked like Mike Hilton was passing off. Kendrick Pryor to the next guy in the zone. Dax kind of followed his guy over the middle. Maybe that's just a structural problem with the coverage. Maybe Mike Hilton did make a mistake there. They were talking after the play. You could see them walking back and resetting and having a conversation after the play.

But outside of that, there were also those stronger plays for Dax where he's like in a great position, contesting T. Higgins, who's just going to beat some corner sometimes, high pointing a ball. He's very good at that, obviously, and the past breakup on Yoshi. He does need to capitalize on this week, though. He needs to maintain that performance and needs to carry into the next game. Today, could have, for all we know, Ben, okay, Dax, you had a great game. We'll give you an opportunity with the ones today, but we're still going to rotate. I would expect them to continue to rotate DJ Turner and Dax Hill as they try to work that out.

Oh, I think the competition is, yeah, I think the competition is far. from over. I think it's. Dax played his way back into the conversation. In the conversation, it kind of ended for a lot of people. It looks pretty over. It really did. And then now it's like a huge week to see, does this actually continue into the third week of the preseason?

But that's the beauty of games, is they just have a ton of weight and in joint practices. And when it matters. Like practice, of course, you want to see it in practice all the time. but their second best player hasn't practiced all camp, and no one in the building seems that worried, right? Practice is still practice. And so, yeah, hopefully, hopefully we see both of these guys.

And Turner had a near interception with the second team today, where he reached out, almost had it, was going up against Cole Burgess, deep down field, and it would have been a super athletic play. And it went through his hands deep down field. It would have been a hard catch, but almost had it. We'll continue the conversation with other guys earning more practice opportunities with some great news on Matt Lee, which excites these podcasters, I would say.

And what's going on with the tackle rotations is the Bengals try to sort out their backups on the offensive line. We'll finish the show there coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn isn't just a job board. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals that you can't find anywhere else, even those who aren't actively searching for a new job, but might be open to the perfect role. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users

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Working his way into the rotation with the twos, getting snaps at center, with the second team after he put together, a very admirable performance was just as you would expect him to be to finish that game against Tampa, James, and boy do I hope we see him with the twos this week. Get him that opportunity against a higher level of competition. Find out if he can be your center of the, well, let's not get the center of the future.

Back up center this year. Let me be hype. Come on. Very exciting stuff for Matt Lee. For sure. And he looked good. He looked good. Look like he belonged.

There were no obvious losses or a false start penalty or holding penalty, 79, 15 years. Oh, wait. I'm just kidding. Man, catching strays. Catching straight. More on 79. We're going to get there, too. It's not even that stray.

No, it's not. It was a tease. I turned it into a tease as I poke fun at that because, good Lord. Four of eight penalties, by the way, on 79. But Matt Lee really looks the part. Really good anchor for his size today going with running with the twos. Like I didn't notice him getting run over or pushed over. And you could say, oh, well, the Bengals defensive tackles, whatever.

He's still playing NFL guys. Like that matters when you're advancing. I mean, you were here. You didn't really see him in team drills much at all when you were here. And so for him to move up today, it's exactly what we thought could happen. And Trey Hill played guard. And that's Trey Hill's path is to be good enough at guard that it really forces their hand.

And Matt Lee's path is to be clearly head and shoulders better than Trey Hill at center. And I think a lot of people would have looked at what happened on Saturday night and said that, yes, he was. But again, and it's a theme here, whether it's Burton, whether it stacks, it doesn't matter. You've got to go do it again. And so this is a big week. Today was a big day for him. And hopefully it can continue because you're right.

hitting on a seventh rounder like that, that could be your backup center and be someone that you could potentially rely on, you would take that all day long. Yeah. And not only do they have to continue and carry it into another week from a consistency perspective, you also have to see him do it against a higher level of competition and see these guys do it against a higher level of competition instead of guys that we don't think are going to be on NFL rosters. And great to build that confidence and build those first steps and earn that opportunity

to go show you can do it and be like, okay, yeah, those guys were clearly head and shoulders ahead of their competition in that game. And we're very good in that game, but now you've got to go do it against guys that are going to stick on NFL rosters, or at least practice squads, right? Like players that are going to stick around in the NFL and season playing time. And that is the big next step there. And then they have questions along the offensive line that they're trying to answer today as well. So say, Matt Lee wins your backup center job.

You got Trent Brown and Amarius Mims for your starting and backup tackle positions. Either way, you've got a swing tackle they're built in with those guys. And then you're trying to figure out the other one or two guys they want to keep on the offensive line, probably two if they could have it their way. And there were some other changes, James, today with that second team offensive line rotation after Jackson Carman had a very, what's the word I want to use here? Let's just call it unfortunate game against Tampa to start his preseason. Holding 79 offense.

He just got caught. Did you hear that? That's kind of how the official said. Holding 79 offense. There's two. All right. I'm not going to go through it before you guys said that. But yes, it dropped down the order.

And he should. He should. Honestly, if they charted him out there, can't do it. Because you look at it now, the third right tackle is probably playing against the Bears on Saturday as the start. Right. In fact, he is. I can say that.

He is. And so, like, that's a tough position to be in, right? And that being said, they tried Cody Ford out, the right tackle.

And then they went out, went with Jackson Kirkland at left tackle. And as you were describing that, you were like, all right, well, they'll probably keep two more. right you keep the the starting five plus amarius mims we'll just put him on the outside looking in right now

and and then after that let's say it's matt lee well then who are your other two i think cody fort is a lock by the way yep and i and i think as of today i would say jackson kirklin because if he gives them some some kind of tackle flex in the ability to play guard just a little bit of tackle flex because he would be their fourth, fifth tackle, because it would be your two starters, then it would be whichever of Amarius and Trent, then it would probably be Cody Ford, I think, and then your fifth guy would be, yeah, and then maybe you can live with that. No doubt. And he's your backup, one of your backup guards.

So he's serving as a multi-purpose player there if you need him. And who knows if they're all, I'm not saying they're all going to be active, but, you know, eight is usually the number. but that's kind of the path. And what Trey Hill needs to do is show that he's a better guard than Jackson Kirkland. I think that that's kind of where we're at. And if you're Carmen, you just got to show that you're just better. Like, it is an uphill battle right now.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but by God, you better have a couple of weeks, a couple of really great weeks. I am so sick of it. I'm not saying you, right? Like, I get it. But, I mean, we didn't think he was good when they picked him. I mean, you could go back and listen back then. I don't think we were on YouTube yet, but you could go back and listen. And that was being said.

So, yeah, I mean, and even then, he's been underwhelming for where my expectations were. And then to come in as a fourth-year player not stand out at all, it's a contract year, by the way. Like Osai is in the same position. where he's got a lot to prove, it's got some physical traits, hasn't stayed healthy. Like Carmen,

it's not the health issue. It's just been a motivation issue, clearly. And there are other guys that are trying to make this team that I think are motivated. And whether it's interior guys, whether it's guys like Cody Ford and Jackson Kirkland or others, Deonté Smith. I think there are a lot of guys trying to make this team.

Deonti Smith remains injured. Is that correct? So that is why we can see. He's ramping up a little. bit, but yeah, I mean, I think he's on the outside look again right now, for sure. Yeah. I mean, he just can't stay healthy throughout his NFL career. It's been the issue.

What about guys down roster? Are we going to see more opportunities for Devin Cochran? Is he going to get any work at Guard? I wonder, he's maybe a little bit too big, too upright to play inside, but had an admirable game in preseason game number one. He's been with the team for a while now, and he's been kicking around since 2022. I don't know. I'm grasping the straws here. Real quick.

Smith, they'd do individual drills today. So he didn't new team. But he is progressing. He was limited in practice. So there's a step in the right direction. But trying to find that last guy on the offensive line might take some time. Maybe it is Jackson Kirkland. He's a guy they like a lot.

I think he needs to play better. I still have the same reservations there that I have before. He was a really good player until he had all those injuries in college. This was a guy that could have been a day one, day two pick, probably day two pick, before his knee injuries really robbed him of a lot of his movement ability to the point where we're now talking about him as guard with some backup backup tackle flex. But you would like to see one of those guys emerge. I do think that I feel a little bit better about their depth still than I have in years past.

if Matt Lee can be a true good backup center, if Cody Ford can be a backup in multiple positions, just because Amarious Mims and Trent Brown give them depth of tackle they haven't had in the past. But Amarius Mim's suffering an injury when he did. Trump Brown's history still gives you a little bit of nerves there. And so it's just going back to what I said earlier, where they made the move for Trent Brown,

if they would have also made the move for the Dalton-Risner type of interior life, lineman, well, we're probably not having this conversation and wringing our hands over, who's that last lineman going to be because we would know who it would be because I spent the money on the veteran. Yeah, I think it's going to be easy to say that a couple times, right? And you just hope that the guys that they're banking on get healthy. You know, if Mims is healthy, then we don't think about it. I mean, there's a scenario where you could have argued signed Bechtin, too.

He's playing guard for the Eagles right now. You bring him a Kai Bechton, didn't work out visit-wise. and a few days later, Trump Brown signed. But could you imagine if they had signed Beckton, Brown, and then drafted Mims? I mean, that's a lot of beef. And I mean, he went to the Eagles for like three or four million bucks. Like, it was similar to the Trent Brown deal. So I think a little more than Trent Brown.

But point is the point. And so it's, it is worth noting, though, that I do feel better about tackle than I have in years past because they're just better. Orlando Brown Jr. is better than what's the time. they had in Jonah. And Trent Brown is better than what they had in Jonah for this offense. And Amarius Mims has a chance to be the best of the three. And that's pretty reasonable. And even though I think Jonah was better than a lot of people think in Cincinnati, he's certainly not as physically as imposing or as dominant as these two dudes, three dudes.

Probably a better stylistic fit too, right? For the kind of drop back passing offense, the Bengals want to run. We'll have more, some down roster thoughts perhaps. We'd didn't get to the punters yet. We've got to get back to that punter battle and any other practice takeaways for you tomorrow before the Bengals travel up to Chicago on Wednesday. Thanks for making Lockdown Bengals your first listen today. You can go check out the Lockdown Fantasy Football Podcast if you need a second listen and you want to stay on the football train and on the Locked On Network. That's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. However, until next time, thanks for listening, Ho-Day, and have a good one.

Thank you.