Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Are the Bengals dragging their feet in their DC search? Is Al Golden the favorite?

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

As the Cincinnati Bengals continue to search for their next defensive coordinator, Jake Liscow and James Rapien dive into the list of candidates to search for a favorite and break down the timeline in today's mailbag episode. DC candidates will have a lot of the same questions you asked: who are the cornerstone players on defense to build around, and will that include Trey Hendrickson? What's the free agency plan and what kind of resources are available? The guys break down those questions and more in this episode!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!Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert—who’s ready to take your taxes off your plate, so you can focus on your day.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.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As we wait for the Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator search to conclude, do we have a preference? And are there cornerstones for that incoming DC to build around? Let's break it down. 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 Liskow. He's your host, James Rapine, and we are.

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$1.5 at prizepicks.com slash locked on NFL with promo code locked on NFL. James today we dive back into a mailbag. This is the first time we've done a mailbag in about a month. And we had a tour and conclusion to the season to get through where the Bengals were pushing and pushing and falling short of the playoffs. And now we get to get back into a mailbag. And we're going to start with, as is appropriate, questions about this defensive coordinator search that continues for the Cincinnati Bengals. And there's two prongs here.

One is Chaston Scott asking which of these three, or you can write in, I'm going to editorialize that myself. You can write in if you don't want one of these three. But which of these three would you pick as Bengals defensive coordinator if it were up to you listing Patrick Graham, Al Golden, and Matt Eberflus as options? and another question that we sort of skirted around earlier this week from Harold Moskowitz. Why is it taking so long for the Bengals to pick at D.C.? Cleveland replaces offensive coordinator in less than a week. So a couple of defensive coordinator topics here, James, as we wait for the Bengals to get going on this DC search or finish.

Yeah, I think Al Golden would be the people's favorite. And I think Matt Eberflus is probably a quick second there. I do wonder, and part of my logic is just trying to talk to people in the league and what they think, who they think is a good coach that would fit what the Bengals are looking for, right? Why is Lou Aniromo not here anymore? And it's a couple of things. It's obviously he didn't play the young guys, but they need a guy that can develop the young guys that can help them along that is willing to put them out there even though they might be running with their hair on fire a little bit. and getting the most out of young guys that they're certainly going to continue to add in the draft in April. And at the same time, maximize and have answers and be able to do some of the good things that Lou did over the past six years and certainly when the Bengals were good.

So I love the idea of NFL experience. To me, it doesn't have to be defensive coordinator experience. I think that's a plus, but it isn't like a requirement. I'm not hell bent on that. Like if you loved Lou and there's still a lot of people in the fan base that thinks that Lou got a raw deal, fine. He wasn't a defensive coordinator before coming to Cincinnati and they didn't have a lot of talent early on and it was rough and he figured it out and they figured it out. But with that said, I think of those, I want to start with those three and obviously we can write in others and I'll mention some other names. But I think that Patrick Graham might be the best out of the first out of those three.

the three. And I think there's, without a doubt, if you rank them based on how Bengals fans are feeling that are really following the search, he would be third out of that group. I think it would be Al Golden first. Matt Iber Fluse, a close second, and then Patrick Graham was like four percent of the vote. I think the first two would get a ton of votes. But I have not closed the door on Patrick Graham, just asking around the league. And so I'm higher on him than others. I get the Al Golden possibility. certainly understand Matt Iberflus as well and what he was able to do as a defensive coordinator in Indianapolis.

And so I'm usually of the strong belief and the strong take. And I can't get all the way there, Jake, with this, because I don't have all of the information. Like there are other guys I like as well. I like Tosh LaPoy out of Oregon a lot. And a lot of people are going to say, oh, well, Ohio State kicked the crap out of them.

Why would you ever? I think he's a guy that could get a defensive coordinator job in the NFL and you look up in two years in the like, oh, that was a no-brainer type hire. Well, look what he did to that defense. Look how he transformed it. Just because Oregon loses a bowl game doesn't mean I'm ruling him out. But I

do think that they can go in a lot of different directions, and I don't feel like it's this guy or bust. And the sad part is, I haven't mentioned Robert Sala. I haven't mentioned some of those big names we were talking about early on because it just doesn't feel like they're in the mix.

Well, and Wake Martindale, speaking of a big name, a name we discussed yesterday. Later, Paul Dayner Jr. followed up with someone and posted that he is not in contention. He is... A leak of his own. So that's probably that on Martindale from the sounds of things. But you mentioned the candidates that the Bengals have had rumored interest in. And that is why these guys are listed here, Patrick Graham and Matt Iberfus. One, we don't know if Matt Eberflus is actually a candidate. He is supposedly involved. And that doesn't necessarily mean that he was interviewed.

We know that the Bengals interviewed Patrick Graham. We do not know if Patrick Graham is still a candidate. There is certainly a possibility that the Bengals were waiting to talk to some guys that are still coaching. And Al Golden is on that list. That's why I think a lot of fans go there. But it also could be one of those Rams coaches that is still involved in the playoff run going on in L.A., whether it's Aubrey Pleasant, Steve Plinkscale. It could be that the Bengals were waiting to talk to Jim Leonard.

And these are all guys that I would hold. and highest team too. It could be a Philly coach. It could be Christian Parker, the defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator for the Eagles that is a prospective DC higher as well. So there could be any number of candidates that the Bengals are still waiting to talk to as well. If I were looking at those three names as to which I would pick as DC, I kind of am with you that I don't have a strong preference between those three guys. I would say when talking about Iberfluse, you said that you think he is a second to Al Golden. Could be true.

I haven't done a certain. Maybe first. Well, I was going to say it might even be a little bit lower than you think because when Aberflus first came up as a topic, a lot of the feedback that I saw on social media when I posted about it was don't want anything to do with him, saw what happened in Chicago. But as we've discussed, there's a big difference between being a head coach

and a coordinator when you don't have to make, you know, game management decisions. You just have to coordinate a defense. Those are different responsibilities, and Iberflue certainly struggled with the game management bit in Chicago quite a bit. The other part of this that I found interesting to talk about at this point is why is it taking so long?

Because I don't think it's taking so long. You look around the league, and maybe this is because of the Bengals, and Paul Danaer has, to mention him for the second time in a segment here, has been on a circuit lately, and he's been repeating a line that I want to get your take on James, but no one in the NFL has made a move on a D.C. yet. There's been a head coach

hired in New England, Mike Frabble. Cleveland has made some coaching moves. They promoted an internal coach to be their OC under Kevin Sifansky, who's still running that offense. A bit of a bigger hire when you're in Cincinnati, you're talking about the D.C. job. But what I find interesting, James, is that Paul is saying that the D.C. market is waiting for the Bengals. If it's a guy the Bengals have interest in, he believes, and I find this to be compelling, that the Bengals are the most desirable DC job on the market this year. And so where we often wait for dominoes to fall in the free agent market and the coaching market, he thinks the Bengals are that domino on the DC market this year. What do you think of that? I think you can certainly make that case.

I do. I think at the same time, I'm not sure that. That's what's holding things up. I think when you look around and you see Atlanta starting to make moves and the Colts, obviously making moves. And by moves, I mean interviews and Luan Arumo interviewing for both of those jobs. I think it takes time and there's a lot of head coaching vacancies. Like you can't go all in on Robert Sala right now because, heck, he might be interviewing for another head coaching job.

It looks like he was mentioned for another one interviewed with Jack. In Carlsendville, the Raiders, and then I felt like I saw another one this morning. But regardless, like, teams are interested. And so it just sometimes these things take a little bit of time. I don't know. I mean, the Bengals, it's an appealing job. Like I'm not saying it's not, but it, I would have my questions for the Bengals. And maybe, and I know we have more questions to get to.

But like, let's say that I was interviewing, I'm Jim Leonard, and they call me and they want to bring me in for an interview. I would have some questions. So let me tell you what those questions are, see if you agree with that. We'll get into that coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandall. Fandall is America's number one sports book. Why? Well, it's because they're going to have all of the props, all of the odds, all of the parlay options that you want, whether it's same game parley's, whether it's live betting, every single NFL game, college football playoff game. Fandle makes the playoffs even more exciting. And right now, New customers can bet $5 and get $300,300.000. That's new, Jake. Let's go. 300 bucks in bonus bets if you win your first bet. That's $300 to keep the action going all playoff season long. Just visit fandle.com to join today and get started with $300 in bonus bets. That's $300 in bonus bets at fandle. Make this playoff season unforgettable with Fandle, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL.

All right, Jake, if I was interviewing for the Bengals defensive coordinator job, what do you think my first question would be? How much are you paying me? I don't know. Where are you going with this? Are you going to pay Trey Hendrickson? That's my first question. Am I getting a happy Trey Hendrickson or am I not? That's the first one.

And then the second one shortly after that, assuming that's a good answer, or even if it's not, I mean, I would still finish the interview. Where is Zach Taylor's, how safe? is he? How, where are we at here with that? You're probably asking Zach Taylor that question. I don't think he's only being interviewed. And I, that's fine. I would say, Zach, how comfort's the wrong word, but how much do you believe or how secure do you think you are in your current position? And I would say, and the reason I'm asking that is I don't want to move my family across the country. if nine months from now, 11 months from now, a year from now, what we're talking about a head coaching search can being conducted

and not just a defensive coordinator search. So I think those are two huge questions. There's a bunch of little minutia things that will be asked. There's two are two huge questions. And the answers to those certainly impact whether or not it is the most appealing job, the most appealing, at least defensive coordinator opening. Yeah, I think that the premise is pretty, simple. It's Joe Burrow on the other side and that offense is going to win you a lot of games if you can field a decent defense. And if you can game plan for the elite quarterbacks in the NFL, which is part of the question here, right? The Bengals are trying to thread this needle of a guy that can lead the defense against the good quarterbacks of the AFC, the way Luana Rumo did in the playoffs in recent years, but can also do some of the things that we haven't seen in terms of bringing up talent and catering the defense to the personnel you have and all these things that we've been talking about for the last week. That's the premise of why the Bengals.

as DC job is attractive. You're not going to get a good answer out of Zach's job stability, right? Maybe you have a chance to talk with ownership about that, but the answer that you're going to get is going to be that they believe in Zach Taylor and you're going to have to piece together for yourself how far that belief goes. Is it a one-year thing? Is it a two-year thing? Do you have at least two years, right, before you have to figure it out again?

Or is the seat that hot? And that's something that that candidate is going to have to, piece together on their own. The Trey Henderson question, I think, is very interesting. And beyond that, my next question, if we're starting with personnel and things that I think that I could get an answer to is, I like these players. And this is something the Bengals should be asking, a potential DC higher too, is what players, what veterans that are on the market this year do you think could be key pieces to this defensive transition? And that could be a safety, that could be a linebacker, that could be on the defensive line, could even be a cornerback, although I do think that there's a chance

that they go young at Corner, given the draft investment there in recent years and potentially another draft pick, who knows, whether they go that route this year or not. Depends on probably some recovery questions. But those are some of my questions if I were in incoming D.C. is looking at personnel. Because when you look at this defense and this does feed into our next question. And I don't know if you heard me, James. The other head coach opportunity for Robert Salon was Dallas. Oh, Dallas.

That was it. Yeah, Dallas was, yeah, yeah. I tried to interject there at a moment, but I know that it's sometimes difficult to get those in. But that does feed into our other question here. Our next question, which is from Andrew Godder. And the DC that's coming into coach, the Bengals is going to ask this question.

So are Bengals fans. It's safe to assume, writes Andrew, that there's going to be a shakeup in personnel on the defense this offseason. Who are the quarterstone pieces that you can build around on that defense? is that including Trey Hendrickson, do we think that extension gets done? What are your thoughts there? Well, that's why I'm asking.

Because it's one thing to say, all right, come in, revamp this a bit, give us an injection here, get the most out of our young guys. And it's another thing to say, all right, hey, by the way, Trey Hendrickson's either going to be pissed off playing on the final year of his contract,

probably doesn't show up until maybe the start of camp, maybe even later than that. It could certainly do that. It could get ugly. that realm, made to ban a trade, or we're just going to trade him. Right. And none of those feel great. Yeah.

But as far as Cornerstones go, it sucks that Dax Hill got hurt because I think we may be having a different conversation about him had he had a fully healthy third season. Outside of Trey Hendrickson, though, who you're banking on? Because a lot of the veterans that you thought were Cornerstones a few years ago, Jermaine Pratt, I don't think he's necessarily going to be here. Logan Wilson, coming off of surgery,

and I think he's still a good player, but sheesh. You know, he's going to start. I don't mean that, but man, you just, you need more. And there's really not much else.

You can't say it about Miles Murphy. You can't say it about Cam Taylor Britt. You can't say it about Sam Hubbard's of the world because he's, bye-bye, right? So it's tough. It really is tough when you think of cornerstones. Maybe Jordan Battle,

but he's not there yet. I don't think I'm building around Jordan battle. So that's what was really frustrating about 2024 and will continue to be. It's not just that you miss the playoffs. You have no, you have a bunch of questions and really no answers on defense. It's one of the reasons that you look at this offseason and we look at these players that are potential extension candidates or re-sign candidates. And then the follow question is, where else are there?

they spending money, especially if they make the expected cuts. And I just wrote about this. It's up at Bengals, S.I. You don't even know where it is. I don't know where it is. Bengalstalk.com. You and names.

You and names. URLs, you know, if they're not, if they're not frequently in my life. But you look at the money they have to spend this year and it's like, where are they spending it? If they're not spending it on T.T. and Jvartan, even if they are, they should have a lot more money to spend and a lot more cash. face to fill. And you look at who their best players were in 2024. You have an all pro and Trey Hendrickson.

You have an all pro. The Bengals haven't had all pros. You have an all pro in Trey Hendrickson who led the league in Sacks, who was an awesome pass rusher, who continues to be a highly productive and awesome pass rusher. That obviously is a priority. But let's say they get that extension done. Your next best players were probably Mike Hilton, Logan Wilson, B.J. Hill in some order. Free agent, injured free agent.

And Logan should be back and fine. Sure. He should be fine. But B.J. Hill, free agent, don't expect him back. Mike Hilton, free agent, there's certainly an argument to bring him back, but I don't really expect him back right now. The way that his usage has changed over the years, it doesn't seem like that as a trajectory for the Bengals to bring him back, even though he does a lot of things really well.

And then is, is DJ Turner a cornerstone player? Is Dax Hill a cornerstone player? Is Cam Taylor Britt a cornerstone player? You mentioned, you mentioned Miles Murphy hasn't really gotten there. Jordan Battle. Is he a cornerstone player? Are any of these rookies from last year cornerstone players? No, is the answer. Like the best case you can make might be DJ Turner, being a guy that you can build around in that secondary. But he's really a CB2, I think. So not to mean any disrespect, I think he's a good player, but as far as build arounds is Trey Hendrickson and question marks.

Maybe you argue Logan Wilson is the second guy. But it's tough to find those pieces on this defense right now. And that's why if you're trying to impress the Bengals, by the way, there might be a defensive coordinator candidate that's listening to Locked on Bengals right now, like let me try to get every ounce of fine you're preparing for your interview have a plan with how you're going to maximize those guys what do you like about them what do you not like about them how can you make them work because the bengals aren't going to just fire everyone they're not just going to get

rid of every defensive player and the one good thing terrell austin's under fire right now but the one good thing he did and he's the steeler's defensive coordinator but when he was the bengal's defensive coordinator for like six months or whatever it was in 2018 as he came in and he said hey we need to get better at free safety. And that led to the drafting of Jesse Bates. So how can you maximize these young guys? There's one and see which guys can be cornerstones. Two, what's your plan in what area do you really need to address? Obviously, we expect it to be defensive line. How do you get that right guy in the draft that can help you right away? Those are two questions that the defensive coordinator candidates will have to ask and probably whoever they hire

will have to answer and answer well. We'll continue the conversation with the Bengals defense and more of your mailbag questions coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Rocket Money. Rocket Money is going to help you find any subscriptions you forgot about. Look, it's the new year and it's real easy to forget about what you're paying for subscriptions-wise. Maybe it's TV subscriptions. Maybe it's financial apps. Maybe it's any of these different things. Maybe it's a football app. Well, Rocket Money made it easy to. to track all of these different subscriptions down. It's like having a personal assistant for your finances. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel unwanted subscriptions. It monitors your spending helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Rocket Money has over 500, or you have 500 million users and has saved a total of 500 million

in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals. faster with RocketMoney. Go to RocketMoney.com slash Locked On today. That's RocketMoney.com slash a locked on rocketmoney. com slash locked on. Funny you should mention draft picks, which direction the Bengals go,

who the Bengals will fire, quote unquote, or cut in NFL terminology on defense, because those are the last two questions. We're going to hit in the mailbag. The next one we're going to go to is Matthew Heck, who asks, who do you think will be, the Bengals cap casualties in 2025.

Ooh. All right. Well, I hinted at him earlier. I should have waited. Sam Hubbard, could he come back on a one year, $2 million deal or something? Maybe,

but Sam Hubbard definitely isn't coming back at his current number. I would say, Jermaine Pratt, gone. Gino Stone, gone. Zach Moss, gone. Who am I forgetting?

I'm forgetting more. Sheldon Rankins is a big. Sheldon Rankin's obviously gone. Sorry, he's been gone in my head for about. about eight months. Kappa. It's like three months.

And then Alex Kappa. So there you go. Those are your six for sure that I would look at and say, yeah. So Kappa Rankin, those are your big ones. Gino Stone, Jermaine Pratt. I think that those are kind of the mid-level where you could go one way or another, but I think that they'll go that way. Zach Moss with the injury, I don't see why they would bring him back.

And then Sam Hubbard, it's just a huge number. And what he's giving you, I just, there's no chance they bring them back at that number. And that not only saves the Bengals a ton of cap space, but it would also save the Bengals a ton of cash. And they could use that cash then to turn around and pay these guys that need extensions. And then they'll still have a bunch of cap space left over to,

yeah, they're not paying me the way that I'm writing about them. Then they could also use that cap space to fill in the rest of the roster throughout free agency. Where did you write about them again? Bengals talk, is that right? I don't know. The Sheldon Rake. The Bengans cut would save, well saved, the Bengals, $10.5 million in cash.

It would save them $8.6 million in cap space. The Sam Hubbard cut, prospectively, would save the Bengals $9.5 million in cap space and $9.5 million, roughly in cash. Alex Cap, another $8 million cash. Gino Stone, $6.5 million cash. Jermaine Pratt, $5.6 million in cash. Zach Moss, $3.5 million in cash. That's a lot of money. And it could take the Bengals cap space number all the way up to $89 million if they were to make all of these moves.

And that's up from $47 million if they don't make those moves. And it frees up a bunch of cash, like I said. And the extensions, hypothetically, for Jemar Chase, for T. Higgins, for T. Hedrickson, should not significantly increase their cap number in 2025. So if there were a year to go out in free agency and spend some extra money more than they normally do, to fill out the roster with a ton of resources to do so, this will be a year where the Bengals could find another impact-free agent class. This doesn't get to the draft.

What we'll get there for our last question? They need to draft better. Don't get me wrong. The way they've drafted leaves us in a situation where, as we look ahead on this roster, you have questions that are consistently, who do they have to pay? they'll eventually potentially face this question for a guy like Chase Brown.

Do they pay the running back question again? They'll have to eventually likely pay Amarious Mims the way his career started, the way he expected to go. That's another one. Is there any other player on this team right now that you think is going to command big money in the near future? If Dax Hill has an awesome year, maybe Dax, if they choose to enter that resigning conversation for Dax.

Maybe if you get another one of these corners, but those are a bunch of maybes. There's no other clear like, yep, this guy's on the trajectory of T. Higgins. He's going to be somebody you're going to have to pay premium money to. That doesn't exist on this team right now. So while this is an opportunity to find that solid group of free agents to bolster the team again, if the Bengals are willing to spend a little bit more money than normal, well, they also need to get it right in the draft. And that's another conversation entirely.

Well, yeah, absolutely they do. get impact players. You said that earlier this week, and I think that's it. Stop focusing on positions. You're about to ask me about a position thing. I want the impact. I want a guy that matters. I want a guy that matters in September, October, November, December, January, and their goal should be to be playing in February. And it's hard to find those guys, and so you can't limit yourself to positions. But go ahead. Ask the position question, because I know it's coming. Yeah, our last question from Vienna, Jeff, 60, on Twitter. At picks 17, the Bengals' top edge rusher and defensive tackle on their board are available.

How do you break the tie? Well, it'll be whoever's higher on their board. There's one, two, it better be who's highest on their board, and not because they're worried about this position or that position. And that's what I would default to. Now, if it's those two guys, and you're talking. about the top defensive tackle and the top defensive end, that's great. That is because it fits neat, if it's the best player available, all of those things like, that's what you want. That's the

hope is that everything slides and it falls in your, falls the right direction, in the right direction. This is kind of dependent on Trey. It is, as weird as it sounds. As long as you're confident that Trey is on the team, well, then defensive tackle is certainly, I would say where you go. Having an impact defensive tackle in this league, like the collagic cancies of the world, right? How valuable has he been to Tampa Bay, even though PFF hates him? Like I just, I think that those type of players really make a get, the Byron Murphy, right? We talked a lot about him last year. Maybe that type of guy falls to 17. And if so, why wouldn't you go after him? Because we've seen what those impact defensive tackles can do

to Joe Burrow and can do to this offense. And it's a headache. It's a nightmare for these high-end quarterbacks. It's really hard to find the instant impact players at defensive tackle is the one caveat all thrown there. At some point, you have to draft there. The Beggles history would say 100% they're picking the edge player here, by the way. They are not interested in using their first round pick on defensive tackle since what year was it, James?

1994 on defensive tackle. Yeah. And outside of Miles Murphy, they hadn't used one on an edge since Justin Smith, but Justin Smith obviously kicked inside and they should have probably put him inside much more. So what the point is is they don't really draft defensive linemen in the first round period. And Miles Murphy to this point isn't going to be a guy that says, oh, we need to do this more, I would say. Yeah, the Nolan Smith performance that we have seen recently and we'll continue to watch in the playoffs, we'll continue to be a specter there.

But Miles Murphy still has a chance to develop. He is what? No doubt. He's younger than Nolan Smith? He's 23 right now, I believe. 22. Maybe he's only a year younger. He's going into his age 23 season.

Got it. So the other factor here, obviously, is this is going to be a big contingent on free agency. Not only Trey Hendricksson, but do the Bengals choose to make a move to bring in an impact, edge rusher to pair with Trey or an impact interior defensive lineman to anchor that unit. Is it a Milton Williams splash in free agency, for example? Speaking of Eagles, a 26-year-old who's going to be going into a second contract, who's been a solid player for the Eagles throughout his

tenure and was a player that we like going back to the draft four years ago. Is it a splash on OSA from Dallas, interior defensive lineman, whose name I still haven't learned how to pronounce the last name. And I apologize and I will learn it if the Bengals certainly get to that point, probably learn it before them. But there are a couple of guys out there at the interior position in this free agent class. It looked like they could anchor you on the defensive interior along with looking for growth from Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jackson and potentially depth pieces next year. But then you're really just replacing BJ Hill. And so it probably takes more than that.

But I think the answer to this question does depend a little bit on what they do in free agency and how they spend this money. Yeah, I want them to be in a position where if they don't get a defensive lineman in the first round for sure, but in the first three rounds, I don't want to reach. I don't want to be talking about, and I know McKinley Jackson ended the season well, do we have any doubt that he would have been there, round four, round five? I don't want to be talking about, oh, well, they, they, they, they, They really felt like they had to get a receiver.

And so then they went with, like, be in a position where you don't have to reach. We're a broken record on that one. We've been saying this for years. Yep. Get to the draft without having things that you need immediate starters or contributors for. Yeah. And then find the impact players wherever they fit in. Simple on paper, right?

Simple. It might be hard to actually execute. Yeah. And it's a very simple concept, no doubt. Simple idea. That's going to do it for this episode. of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Appreciate everybody for sending questions.

And until next time, thanks for listening. Hootay. Have a good.