Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Amarius Mims Primed For HUGE 2026 Breakout: Will Other Bengals Join Him?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Marius Mims is primed for a breakout 2026 for the Cincinnati Bengals. But who could join him? Let's search for breakout candidates for the 2026 Bengals. 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. He's James Rapine. I'm Jake Liscoe. We are locked on Bengals.

Starting point is 00:00:34 and as the Bengals are having their one open practice of the week today, as we're recording this episode, we're going to talk about some breakout candidates for this team in 2026. The obvious one that we are going to start with, James Rapine, is Amarius Mims. We will get to looking over the rest of the roster, talking about some of the other breakout candidates on both sides of the ball. But the way that Amarius Mims finished the season last year,

Starting point is 00:01:01 the development that we saw from him, comes into the NFL as this inexperienced player out of Georgia with all the tools in the world. And the Bengals lying after they drafted him was essentially, look, if this guy had played more, there's no chance that we were going to be able to pick him in the middle of the first round. And that was always the vision for Amarious Mons.

Starting point is 00:01:23 And it looks like he is fulfilling that vision the way he finished 2026. And if he carries that into 2025, and if he carries that into 2026, well look yeah this guy could be really really good yeah for sure he could be awesome and you look at his pre-draft all the evaluations and i just pulled up lance airlines because i was curious and it said we'll become a good starter within two years well he did that he was a good starter last year and the comp was donovan smith and i think that's interesting i think mims has a really high ceiling and

Starting point is 00:02:00 that's it is if you can get him to get close to that ceiling well what is he and what he is is a pro bowl offensive tackle the best offensive tackle the Bengals have had fence Andrew Whitworth and the best right tackle they've had since Willie Anderson and I don't throw those things around loosely but like that's when you draft him 18th overall that's what you're thinking you're getting is a guy that can be a mainstay at right tackle for the bulk of the Joe Burrow era, for the meat of the Joe Burrow era. And that's what it looks like he can be. And I love his mindset.

Starting point is 00:02:41 I love his attitude. I love that he was so vocal from a keeping Dalton Reisner standpoint. The presence vocally has started to match what he is from a physical standpoint. And so naturally, you look at his first two years and how he progressed early on as a rookie. to the end of his rookie year and then from year one to year two and I think it is natural to expect him to make an even

Starting point is 00:03:07 to take another jump and if he makes that jump we are going to be talking about a pro bowl and we are going to be talking about a guy that can be one of the best at his position because of all the physical gifts and the thing that I've learned about Amarius isn't just the physical stuff it's the mental side I think he's gotten stronger

Starting point is 00:03:24 mentally I think he's become a leader by actions and words and certainly someone that has benefited lining up opposite Orlando Brown Jr. And beside Dalton Reisner, the chemistry of those two guys and the communication, those two guys developed on the last part of the schedule is really where you started to see in Mario's Mims, take that next step and be a much more consistent player. And I think that Dalton Riser is a big part of that.

Starting point is 00:03:48 I think that's part of why the advocacy was there for Marius Mims to bring Dalton Rizner back. If you go look at PFF grades, again, not to be all end all, but you look at PFF grades from week 13 to the end of the season when Joe B. Borough returned to the lineup against the Baltimore Ravens until the end of the season. Marius Mims was the ninth highest-graded overall tackle for pro football focus behind guys like Tristan Wirthes and Brian O'Neill and Garrett Bulls and Pene Soule and Darnall Wright, some of the others that were in that conversation. And Darnal-Rite, obviously, a guy that we talked about as a Bengals draft target as well,

Starting point is 00:04:22 will be one of the competitors for Marius Mims in the next, say, 10 years, say his NFL career there goes another 10 years. For some of these honors, he's in the NFC right now, so we'll be competing with Amarius for Pro Bowl spots, but for potential all-pro spots, he'll be one of them. Tristan Wirf's obviously will be one. He's moving to left tackle or move to left tackle. NFC teams that I'm not totally up to date on,

Starting point is 00:04:47 but Tristan Worse is awesome too. Point is Amarius Mims hit that next level in those games after Joe Burr returned, Dalton Reiser was in the lineup, and he played like a top 10 tackle in the entire. higher NFL and he was doing that at 23 years old, turned 23 last October, turns 24 this October, this guy is still a baby by NFL standards. And that's why you can pretty easily talk about for an offensive line, especially another 10 years for a guy who's 6, 7, 340 and starting to play incredibly well at just 23 years old after he had that abbreviated college career where

Starting point is 00:05:27 he wasn't on the field as much as teams would have liked to have seen him on the field at Georgia. And that's it is like the knocks are like coming out of the draft were experience, not being able to see it consistently all of those things. Well, the only way to answer that is to play. And he has played and he has grown. And that's what's good to see is the development is there. He thrived with Scott Peters. And you look at a guy now with 30 starts under his belt

Starting point is 00:05:58 with 1887 offensive snaps under his belt. He's been there, done. That was on the field, by the way, for 95% of the Bengals' offensive snaps last year. And one of the things I think that I was certainly worried about is, all right, well, he didn't play a ton of Georgia. And when he did play, he would get nicked up. Would he be willing and would he be capable of playing through injuries

Starting point is 00:06:22 when those Knicks do come. And I think that was even a question throughout his rookie year going into that second year. And last year, I think he got better at that, playing at less than 100%, doing the things that you need to do where if you're an offensive alignment and you're less than 100%, well, unless you're 45% or injured to the point where you can't play,

Starting point is 00:06:41 you need to find a way to get out there. And he did. That's part of the mental side of it, I think, as much as it is the physical. I'm not playing at my full, potential right now because of this physical ailment, here's how I can work around that. And that's what the great to do. And if you told me that he joins Burrow and Jamar and T and Joe Flacco as a pro bowler on this offense this year, wouldn't shock me one bit.

Starting point is 00:07:09 And I don't mean fake Pro Bowl. I mean real Pro Bowl, right? Is a guy who plays at that level. And if they do that, it's going to help this offense and it's going to make this offense that much bad. I mean, if they can start just like consistently running behind Amarius Mims and what we saw from Dalton Riser last year under Scott Peters in the best run blocking tape that Dalton Riser is potentially ever put out in his career or arguably debatably ever put out in his career and you make that into a strength of your team and the run game success that they found down the stretch last year as well and they're able to continue to iterate on that. Mario Svens is going to be a huge part of that because that's always been that the next step for him is, figuring out how to use that massive frame of his and exert his will on the man across from him on the line of scrimmage or climbing to the second level and using those traits to line a guy up and just throw him to the ground because he can and has done that, has the capability to do that, has the power to do that, the size to do that. And at times, and, you know, we've talked about this with Mike Santagot in the past when we've done film review talks with with him about Amaria Spence. he's looked kind of like a lost deer on run reps,

Starting point is 00:08:20 like not sure exactly where the landmark is, not sure exactly where he's supposed to be, how he's supposed to do it. And that's coming along. And so that marriage with Scott Peters, I think, is really thriving for Marius Menz. And Peter's a guy that we really praised over the course of the season with the progress we saw from the offensive line.

Starting point is 00:08:38 That on the whole needs to carry over into 2026, but Marius Mons could very well be the leader of the team. this unit for the foreseeable future and as a guy that we're going to be talking about as an extension candidate. I'm so bullish on Marius Mends, the step that he can take this year. Some of the other guys that we're going to talk about, I think are going to be like, well, well, you can see the path or here's a potential breakout guy. If I'm predicting a breakout guy, and the reason we're starting with Amarius Mims is that he's the most likely. He's the guy that's already started to do it. You've seen it for the last handful of games.

Starting point is 00:09:17 for the Bengals last year, when Joe Burrow returned to the lineup, when Dalton Riser was in the lineup, when they found that combination on the offensive line that they're going to start this season with, that they want to start this season with, you started to see the ascent from MIMS, and now you just need to see it go into a full season this year and the potential through the roof with this guy. Coming up next, James, though, let's talk about some of the other potential breakout candidates on this roster and who they might be, who might join Amarius Mims in the near future as guys that take the next step, take a leap for the Cincinnati Bengals. That's next. The NHL playoffs are here and that means you're talking about a Las Vegas Golden Knights

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Starting point is 00:10:51 NHL and get 15% off your ED treatment. That's RUGIET.com slash locked on NHL for 15% off. Ruggiette, performance medicine for MET. You know, I was thinking, Jake, breakout candidates and a guy that was ascending toward the end of last year, a guy that is extension eligible and someone that I think a lot of people are sold on, but the sample size is smaller than Mimzes, E.J. Turner. Could he be a breakout candidate? Would you consider that or not? And it's more of a question than not, because I could totally see, like if he continues to ascend

Starting point is 00:11:33 and there's an all pro this year, and he goes from no pro bowl, even though you could argue he should have been a pro bowler, to an all pro, which theoretically I think some will believe could happen. It's a pretty big jump and that is a breakout and that does change things, even though I think there are a lot of people that believe he's in that category already as a cover corn. Yeah, when I was thinking about breakout candidates, I considered DJ Turner and then I kind of decided that he's already sort of done it. It's close, right? Yeah, it's close. It's an interesting discussion for sure. There is another step to be had there. There is the consistency that you could find from DJ Turner.

Starting point is 00:12:12 Like he had some really good games last year, but even down the stretch, he also had some games where he didn't play to the standard that he established for himself earlier in the year. Like obviously the Green Bay and Pittsburgh games in back-to-back weeks where he had all those past breakups covering Romeo Dobbs and the Green Bay Packers, wide receivers, and then had that interception covering D.K. Metcalf the next week. It was like, okay, yeah, DJ Turner's here. And he had some other games that were pretty good, too.

Starting point is 00:12:40 And he racked up the on-ball production, the past break-ups last year throughout the season, finishes the year with 13 past break-ups. And like I said, four of those come against Green Bay and Jordan Love and mostly Romeo Dobbs for the Green Bay Packers, if I recall correctly, in week six. And then it wasn't as consistently at that level. And it's hard to play at that level every week. Don't get me wrong. Like, you're not going to rack up four past breakups or highlight interceptions every week.

Starting point is 00:13:09 Like, that's just not what you're going to do, especially when the Bengals put that responsibility on his plate. But is there a Pro Bowl next step for DJ Turner where, yeah, he very well could have made it into a Pro Bowl last year? I think if he had been a little bit more consistent, if he had a little bit more early season production, if he had sustained it a little bit better in a couple of big games down the stretch, then he probably makes a Pro Bowl last year. But maybe it's just like the Bengals defense was dreadful. so nobody was really considering any Bengals defender last year. He's a candidate in terms of the next step, breakout, like the guy that has taken a breakout step,

Starting point is 00:13:49 like he's been consistently better every year. But he can stay on the field for the full season and put himself squarely in that, like, I'm that dude, I'm covering your number one every week conversation. And you're just going to, like, go away from me in most matchups. Like, you're not going to throw my way. that is something the Bengals haven't had, man, when's the last time the Bengals had a corner that other teams just avoided?

Starting point is 00:14:15 I can't even really remember. It's back in the Leon Hall era, probably, but... Even then, it wasn't like that, right? And so, yeah, that's where I think you could say, all right, well, he's a breakout candidate, and this is the past too bad. And it makes sense. It does. And so I'm glad I mentioned him.

Starting point is 00:14:37 I'm glad that you're kind of on the same pages. me where it's like, uh, sort of, kind of sort of, right? The other ones, I'm just looking at

Starting point is 00:14:44 this defense, I think a big one that they're betting on is Boye-Mafei, is betting on him being a breakout candidate, someone that they invested a ton of money in,

Starting point is 00:14:53 the sack production, not there. There are a lot of people that are like, oh, well, through sacks and that's what you pay? Well, yeah, because they're paying

Starting point is 00:15:00 for what he's going to do, not what he did. And so we'll see, but that's one that they are invested in him breaking out. Now, breaking out's relative. I don't necessarily

Starting point is 00:15:08 think they expect them to be a pro bowler or have 15 sacks, but do they expect him to be a real dog on the edge as a pass rush or against the run? I think so. And so breakout candidates wise, I think he's up there. Yeah, I think this is one where it's pretty similar to when they got Trey Hendrickson, except Trey had the sack production and not the underlying data to back it up. And when you look at the underlying data for Boia Maffa, like the pass rush win rate data, the pressure productivity for Boye Amafé over the course of his career, that's there. It hasn't necessarily translated to sacks. That's something that you heard his former head coach, Mike McDonald,

Starting point is 00:15:42 talked about when I think it was Kelsey Conway talked to him at the owner's meetings. In Orlando, there was a question about, like, what's the next step for Boyamafe? And one of the things that McDonald talked about was, yeah, he could finish a little bit better, but the pressure production is there. And it has been there throughout his career. He's been a good pass rusher with the ability to stay on the field in run downs. And that shifted for him. He played less against the run last year for Seattle.

Starting point is 00:16:08 than he had a little bit earlier in his career. 2023 is a season that you would circle if you're looking for that level of production. But smack in the middle of his prime, if there is a next step to be had as a featured pass rusher for Boy A. Mafe, that would obviously be a huge hit for the Bengals. When I think about this edge rusher group, though, James, there are so many players in this group that can put the category of breakout candidates. Miles Murphy started to take a step last year.

Starting point is 00:16:39 Is there another step coming for Murphy this year? Samar Stewart, the standard for a breakout for Samar Stewart a little bit different than the standard for a breakout for Miles Murphy. For Miles Murphy, you're talking about can he get to a nine-sack season? Can he crack double digits? That would be a huge breakout for him. For Samar Stewart, five sacks and consistency on the field would be a huge breakout for Samar Stewart compared to what we saw from him as an injury disrupted.

Starting point is 00:17:06 rookie season. So all around this edge rusher room, I think you have breakout candidates everywhere. And they kind of fit into yesterday's wild card conversation too, where we talked yesterday about the guys that like, man, not necessarily expecting it, but if somebody here surprises us, that would be a huge boon to this defense. But like one of these guys, and I think Mafay is probably the right one to pinpoint. I think Miles Murphy would be the next one. If you were ranking them an order of probability on the Bengals edge rusher group in terms of taking that next step and finding a little bit more consistency

Starting point is 00:17:45 and more production over the course of the season. Yeah. What if Shamar becomes their number two, Pat? What if it's Maffa and Shamar? Like last year during training camp, there was no reason to think that Shamar would be able to outplay Miles, like with what he showed. He got hurt. I get it.

Starting point is 00:18:07 You think back to week one though, like you started to see some of Shamar Stewart. And so does he take that leap? Like he's similar to Amarius in the sense that he is a physical freak and you need it to translate. And there's the sack production everyone's going to look at when he was in college. And I really thank goodness he got a sack at the end of last season because that would have been hanging over his head.

Starting point is 00:18:28 Like I was thinking about that. I was starting to think like, man, don't get a sack. And it's all the sack production and all those things, all the discussion around it, but I know he's feeling good health-wise. I know they're going to use him everywhere. They're going to kick him inside and do that and roll with him that way because they like what he can bring from that standpoint. But if Shamar can break out, that's the guy under contract, obviously, for a bunch of years

Starting point is 00:18:52 after this, it's not a Miles Murphy situation. You would really love for him to make it obvious that, hey, like for Amarius Mims, we know his fifth-year option is getting picked up. There's no discussion. you want Shamar to put himself put himself in that position even though it's a year ahead of time it's a year before you even need to have that discussion

Starting point is 00:19:10 and that conversation it would be great to know that going into his third season much like we do with Amaria so is there a long way to go? Absolutely because of what he did slash didn't do slash was injured as a rookie but Shamar is

Starting point is 00:19:27 every bit of a breakout candidate and someone that you look at and if he can give them what they think he can give them, then it would go a long way for sure. And it would help everything out so much and help round out a room that certainly needs it. So I think he's high on the list, not just because of what he's capable of doing,

Starting point is 00:19:48 but because what it would mean for the rest of the defense of Shamar Stewart is one of their best offenders. And 22 years old. I'll wrap up with one thought on Shamar Stewart. We'll find our last couple of breaks. breakout candidates here. We're going back to the offensive line for another one as well here. We'll continue to talk. Breakout candidates for the 2026 Bengals to finish this show coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Square. Look, when you're running a business, you want to make sure that everything is buttoned up and in place and running smooth.

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Starting point is 00:20:59 Square is going to help you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to $200 off Square hardware at square.com slash go slash locked on NFL. That's SQUA-R-E dot com slash G-O-L locked-on NFL. Square.com slash go-slash Locked on NFL, run your business smarter with Square. I wanted to wrap up a couple more thoughts here on Shamar Stewart, because the reason that he fits as a breakout candidate is the year where you typically look for the biggest jump is year one to year two in the NFL,

Starting point is 00:21:34 and then year two to year three in the NFL. And then after that, you expect smaller leaps year over year. You expect some incremental improvements probably from years four to seven for the guys that are sticking around the NFL that long. For the guys aren't like the three-year average NFL career, like the guys that are pretty good NFL players, the first round picks of the world like Shamar Stewart. If you're going to see a leap from them, and this would all, also go for the Bengals linebackers this year that we discussed yesterday as the biggest X factor for the team.

Starting point is 00:22:03 Like the biggest leaps come from year one to year two. And Shamar Stewart is still very young, like I said, played his entire rookie season at most of his rookie season at 21 years old, turned 22 last November. And we'll play most of this year at 22 will turn 23 in November. Like a very young player with a lot of room to grow. Technically, a lot of room to grow from the mental aspect of the game year two in the season. system should help year two as a pro should help an offseason where we know that he trained with some prominent defensive line pass rush coaches to refine his pass rush arsenal that and staying on the field having the consistent exposure to the game got to stay healthy players can't

Starting point is 00:22:46 control that they can they can he was healthy in college there weren't injury concerns with stewart there weren't medical flags as far as we knew coming out so staying on the field obviously would be a huge difference as well because that's the only way that you're going to rack up that production. But the year one to year two aspect of it, the age part here, the consistency in the system, these are all things that I think makes from our Stewart a good call out, James, on that group of edge rushers

Starting point is 00:23:15 where there's just a bunch of guys there that we're trying to see what that's going to look like. And it's a deep room. There are a lot of contributors in that room. And that part of it is exciting for this team. but if you're trying to pinpoint the couple of guys, it's interesting that there are a few breakout candidates there, Boya and Mafe,

Starting point is 00:23:33 because it'll have a bigger opportunity, a more featured role, and Shemar Stewart for that expected rookie to a second year progression for a guy with that toolkit. Yeah, and I think the last one on defense that I would consider breakout, and I guess you could make the same thing for Daxo that you would DJ, but I'm not going to go there. Could Jordan Battle break out?

Starting point is 00:23:54 Could Jordan Battle be like, Jordan Bell or Vaughn Battle or however you want to say it and like take that step is that step enough would that be considered to break out all I know is I think of Jordan battle and I think of two things inconsistent in Splash Place so if he could be consistent and Brian Cook rubs off on him because Brian Cook is Mr. Consistent then I think we could see a scenario where he does all the things he's done from a stat counting perspective but is just much better from a mistackle perspective and makes the plays and we're not like all right well what's the heck is going on with 27 on that player that play and just from a watchability standpoint is is far more consistent to me that's

Starting point is 00:24:37 why jordan battle is more x-factor than breakout candidate like i don't see the trend for battle necessarily like he was better last year but this is in the part of his career where incremental improvements are more of what i'm expecting from battle yeah like he's not going to become a pro bowler yeah i would be pretty surprised and like i don't really see that on the card for him i think he could be a good player and this isn't intended to be a shot at Jordan battle. Like I think he's fine. I think he's a solid safety and can continue to be a solid safety with some improvements that can get him to be an above average safety.

Starting point is 00:25:06 But I think that kind of the way his career is gone has been up and down really since his rookie season where he showed a tremendous amount of potential. It's a different system. We'll see what the impact is of Brian Cook and Kyle Dugger being around a couple of guys that have, you know, been around for a while, I've done it at a high level. But to me, when I'm thinking, like, breakout candidates, he doesn't quite fit the criteria for me. Just like, in terms of, like, being able to predict it. You're saying he's Andre Yosabovat, right? And, like, we kind of know what he is.

Starting point is 00:25:39 Like, is Andre a breakout candidate? Or do we kind of know what he's going to be in the NFL to a degree? Like, yeah, like, yeah, the comparison in terms of like, we kind of know what he is. I think that is the similarity. Yeah, not necessarily comparing the quality. Yeah. No, you just kind of know, right? Okay, so there we go. Because we're not labeling Andre Yosevash as a breakout player,

Starting point is 00:26:01 even though I think he could have a career a year. I think there are two different things. And that's why Dylan Fairchild could be a breakout player, is he could be someone that was solid in year one. You look at the analytics, you look at all those things. And for a rookie guard, it's like, all right, can he build on that? Can he take the leap and make the leap? because if so, we could be talking similar to Amarius Mims from a Pro Bowl standpoint,

Starting point is 00:26:28 from a 10-year starter standpoint, all of those things. And so I think Dylan Fairchild certainly on the list of breakout. Yeah, Dylan Fairchild is the other guy that I was thinking about when we were talking about at Marius Mints all the way back 25 minutes ago at the beginning of the episode as the guy that could take that similar trajectory. He's not the same, you know, very, very young age as Amarius coming into the league. He was a year older, I believe. He's a half year younger than Amarius,

Starting point is 00:26:55 and he's only got one year in the NFL under his belt where Amaris has two. But the development that we saw from Dylan Fairchild, I think he and Amarius really took to Scott Peters, and he became more consistent as a season, went along, had a couple of tough games early on in the season. But honestly, also had a promising start. Like early, like first couple weeks was pretty promising. The Jake Browning games, not so good for Dylan Fairchild.

Starting point is 00:27:25 Joe Flacco gets in there. Things start to stabilize a little bit. He comes back from an injury and it's easy to forget. I had mostly forgotten that he missed a couple weeks with injury early last year. And as soon as he recovered from that injury, he was pretty darn good for the rest of the year. Like pretty darn solid, the entire rest of the way. And if you're getting that from a rookie who has that background, who seems to have all the tools you can ask for. I'm expecting a pretty big step from Dylan Fairchild this year. Similar to Shamar,

Starting point is 00:27:57 similar to Amarius in terms of like second year leap and a guy that like Amarius showed you some things as a rookie that you would expect him to be, yeah, he's going to take a step in year two. So I would expect him to go from like solid baseline, which is more than you can expect typically for a third round starter at guard, third round rookie starter to above average player at left guard this year and he's right up there with Amarius for me, James, in terms of likelihood of breakout. Yeah, I totally agree. I think the other one, the other ones that we have to mention going into year two,

Starting point is 00:28:32 it's Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight and to do one of them break out and become that, even if we don't expect it, even if it's more in the hopefully become a solid starter type role, well, it's fair to mention because if one does break out, if one does reach the heights that we haven't necessarily seen or we don't expect, then. man, what would it mean? So as much as it's Fairchild and it's Stewart and for draft position or what they've done on the field at the NFL level, while we look at those guys, Knight and Cardish should at least be mentioned.

Starting point is 00:29:04 Yeah, I mean, if we're going to mention, and we talked about a lot of these guys yesterday. So this is where it goes hand in hand. If you didn't see yesterday's episode on X Factor's, you can check that out. The Everydayers out there. You saw that one. And if you're looking for an ad-free version, by the way, you want to join the Everydayer Club officially. Check out Lockdownbengles.

Starting point is 00:29:20 Dot supercast.com for access to an ad free version of this podcast comes with a seven-day free trial and access to a Discord channel with other Lockdown Bengals every dayers. But if we're going to talk about some of these X-factor kind of guys, then yeah, you throw the linebackers into the mix too. They're like unexpected, but boy, that would be incredible if they took a massive leap kind of players. And that's why we talked about those guys so much yesterday in that context. and I think that definitely applies to Demetrius Knight and Bear Carter. But we know not all of you are every day, or so we can absolutely, James, rightly, bring those guys up again here.

Starting point is 00:29:56 And I think that a lot of the guys who we talked about yesterday as potential X factors fit that category of like, yeah, we're not really expecting it. I wouldn't necessarily call it likely the way that I would with some of these other guys we've talked about, particularly in Marius and Dylan. But if they did, it would be a huge, huge. boost for this team's prospects. And that's why I spent a lot of time talking about him yesterday, James. Well, no doubt.

Starting point is 00:30:22 No doubt about it. And that's it is I think you mention it just in case because if Barrett Carter's a pro bowler and we don't mention it during breakout, well, that's a problem. And I've said the word pro bowler a lot. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I'm never going to say never, especially with two guys that, you know, give them credit. I think they work their butts off and I think they have the right mindset and they want to get better. And usually those kind of people from just strict people standpoint are

Starting point is 00:30:50 are worth betting on now. It's much different when you're trying to be one of the 50 best at your position in the world. And ideally one of the 32 best. If you're a starter in the league, you want to be one of the best starters in the league. So the bar is pretty high. I get it. But yeah, we'll see if they can take a leap even if they don't break out, so to speak. is it a breakout if Dexter Lawrence just returns to 2023? I thought about it. Well, is it a breakout if he's like even better than that, right? And it's like, is, can Jonathan Allen break out again?

Starting point is 00:31:26 Yeah, I don't think Jonathan Allen can't. I think, I think, I think that Dex Lawrence has already broken out. I think that that's why you can't, yeah, well, 12 sacks would be a breakout. That'd be like a late, late career, like, flash in the pan breakout. Yeah, that would count, I think. But like opposite. or next to Dexter like I like if you told me he got nine sacks I 12's high but if you told me he got nine sacks I wouldn't be flabbergasted I think 12 would be a breakout nine would

Starting point is 00:31:51 be like a nice return before yeah like he's kind of done I don't know if he's ever gotten to nine but he's definitely never gotten to 12 and so 12 would be a breakout but uh that that's going to do it jane's I think he's gotten the nine he got the nine and 21 yeah I thought he got to nine yeah but never 12 that's that's a lot for a defensive tackle man I know we saw it with Gino Wackens, and we've seen it with guys like Dexter racking up the pressures, but I don't know,

Starting point is 00:32:18 Dexter's never gotten to 12 sacks either. But we saw like Aaron Donald and those kinds of players. This is a lot for defensive tackle. We'll wrap up there with this conversation on breakout players and breakout candidates for the 2026 Cincinnati Bengals. Until next time, thanks for listening. Ho-Day and have a good.

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