Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - ¡Bengals en España! Joe Burrow, Bengals Head to Spain for Huge International Showcase
Episode Date: May 12, 2026The Cincinnati Bengals are playing their first international game since 2019, as the NFL tabbed Joe Burrow's club for its Week 9 Madrid game against the Atlanta Falcons. Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase's sta...r power were a big part of their selection for the NFL's second game in Spain, so Jake Liscow and James Rapien break down what the international exposure means for the 2026 Bengals, and how Burrow feels this offseason's moves have them primed to represent the league abroad. Plus, Andrei Iosivas' post-workout locker room comments stood out as he enters a contract year with Colbie Young entering the picture as competition for WR3 snaps. Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengals Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Find 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/id1159723162 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajs Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAg Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Square If you’re starting a business, or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to $200 off Square hardware at https://square.com/go/LockedOnNFL. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. Rocket Money Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join athttp://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. 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.
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Joe Burrow got his wish and the Bengals are going to Spain.
We get our first look at a Bengals international game in 2026.
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 Lockdown Bengals podcast.
He's Janjapine. I'm Jake Liscoe and the Bengals are going abroad.
We finally got the details on the Bengals international game for 2026.
And it is in Madrid at the third largest stadium, James, in Europe,
where Real Madrid plays their home games.
Capacity above 80,000 people just went through a major renovation.
Exciting stuff for the Bengals.
And with the schedule coming out in full on Thursday,
the Bengals in week nine will be in Madrid for a road game.
It's a road game.
It doesn't count as a home game.
If you're worried about that, if you didn't know that that was impossible for the Bengals this year,
this will be a road game at Atlanta in week nine.
And the Bengals get to go abroad for the first time in quite a while.
Yeah, quite a while, first time in Joe Burroughs career.
And look, it's exciting.
And it's exciting for a bunch of reasons.
One, you mentioned it, the fact that it's a road game.
And so now you don't have to deal with Mercedes-Benz Stadium,
which is loud, is one of the better stadiums in the league.
And yeah, to me, you couple that with Joe Burrow getting his wish and everything that we're going to react to there.
There's a lot of exciting reasons to be excited about this season.
But I do think that this is one of them.
And for those wondering, it's a 9.30 a.m. Eastern kick on Sunday, which means that Jake Liscoe is going to have to wake up so, so early.
And that is a hidden, a hidden gem for me because my man, you got to wake up early, early, early to watch Joey B. and company.
Yeah, it's going to be a 6.30 a.m. start, but it won't be like the game that I had to watch in Europe, the primetime game when I was in Europe a couple of years ago.
We don't need to talk about the specific game. It wasn't a good time for either of us. But that was the middle of the night for me, like a 4.30 a.m. start.
this at least is like 3.30 a.m.
This at least is like a normal morning time.
Yeah.
Yeah, 6.30 a.m. for you now, right?
Yeah, it's early, but like relatively normal.
Yeah, correct.
You wake up an hour or two earlier than normal on a Sunday and you roll with it.
And then you're going to have your whole day.
That's what I'm looking forward to.
That's what I think is going to be interesting is I'm going to have that West Coast life
for that Sunday, especially if I don't go to Madrid for it.
But it's really, really exciting.
and Zach Taylor did talk on Tuesday about it,
and not about this specifically,
but yours truly asked around it,
because there was some birds chirping,
that there was a possibility of them going international
and playing overseas,
and here's what Zach said about that possibility.
It's been a while, yeah.
We'll see how it goes, open to it,
you know, especially this year since it would be a road game for us.
I'm all for giving up a, you know,
a hostile atmosphere, you know, here in the States and going abroad.
So we'll see how it plays out.
It'd be great.
You know, it's a great opportunity to promote the game internationally.
We have a tremendous team with a lot of high-end talent that I think, you know,
to take center stage in the world would be exciting for everybody to promote the Bengals brand
internationally.
I think is awesome.
I think that that's something that would be fun to do.
So if they like to put us out there this year, then I'm all for it and be blessed.
I'm all for it.
It'll be a blast.
Well, a couple hours later is when it was announced.
So Zach Taylor, get ready.
This is the first time.
I mean, they played in 2017 in London.
2019 they went back.
And that was against the Rams, an ugly, ugly game after tying a couple years prior.
And so now Joe Burrow hoping to guide the Bengals to their first international win.
When do you think we start to see some of the division games go international?
It's one of my questions.
Like a lot of times for the Bengals exclusively, they've been cross-conference games where they're going and playing an NFC opponent over there.
The least stake-heavy games in terms of like playoff implications that you can have.
And I don't mind that.
I think that's a good thing, I think.
Like imagine giving up a home division game, right?
And the bugaboo that would come with that.
So, you know, I get why the approach is the way it is.
But I wonder, maybe it's happened in other divisions.
We don't pay a ton of attention to the international schedule because of Bengals have.
haven't been part of it for a while, but they are this year.
So now we're paying attention to it once again.
And Mike North, the guy that always does all the interviews about planning the schedule
and all these things.
His title is vice president for broadcast planning.
There you go.
The NFL.
Mike North, that guy, that schedule guy.
Yeah.
I mean, does anyone out there care about the vice president for broadcast planning?
They know Mike North is the schedule guy, right?
I'm trying to relate to the people here, James.
And he told bengals.com at last month's NFL meeting
that the Bengals were on the radar for an overseas assignment
because they've, quote, got one of those fan bases
thanks in large part to the quarterback that resonates in Europe
and across the planet.
Peter Schrager followed that up with a tweet today
that said the NFL looks at Madrid and Spain as a whole
as a major growth market told last year's first,
game in Spain, I think, Barcelona was a huge success.
Selecting the Bengals to be the team that goes there and faces of Falcons, who have it as a
home game, is a statement on the belief in Cincinnati and Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase
as two of the faces of the NFL.
Yeah, it's pretty clear that the Bengals are, they're on another level because of the two guys
they have.
And Jamar, Jamar is, it's almost.
sneaky because he's overshadowed by the bro shadow but jamar's one of the biggest superstars in the
game and he does some of the streaming stuff and he's got the gritty and how popular is the gritty
and that's a big part of it is number one's dancing in the end zone and he's doing the gritty so it makes
it extremely extremely popular because of a fortnight right like that's where it's in the game
oh you're you're talking about the dance yeah yeah the dance yeah the day yeah the yeah the
the dance and then people trace it back to Jamar.
It's got to be part of it, right?
No doubt, no doubt.
And that's it is the dance has become much bigger than just a touchdown celebration, right?
It's just part of culture to a certain degree.
And then Joe is the most famous Cincinnati athlete of all time.
And so when you, like already, like he could go wherever you fly to Pluto or do whatever he wants.
It doesn't matter.
He's still the most famous Cincinnati athlete of all time.
And it's partially because he played in the social media era.
it's partially because he's just a start.
He's awesome at what he does.
And so when you have that, there's going to be that power.
And part of why the Bengals haven't played an international game
in the Joe Burrow era until now is because teams want that home game
with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase coming to town.
They want that.
They have to have that.
In Atlanta, well, sorry, Atlanta.
It is not happening.
Sorry, Jesse Bates.
You've got to go fly to reunite with Joey B and Jamar Chase.
The Bengals going to Madrid does fulfill a desire for Joe Burrow as well.
Joe Burrow talked to Jeff Hobson of Bengals.com as well about the trip abroad and what it
means to him.
The Bengals brought back an old Instagram reel or story rather from Joe Burrow.
Do you remember when this was when Burrow put up the story?
It was last year, Bengals Falcons, Madrid.
Yep, last year.
And so that quickly, last year, I believe he talked about that on the mic and posted that on his, on his Instagram.
And, well, it was just foreshadowing.
How did it wrong?
Just early.
How did he know?
Joe Burrow knows things.
Coming up next, let's talk about what this means to Joe Burrow.
The mayor of Madrid.
I believe it was the mayor of Madrid or something came out and said that the Bengals were going to play that.
That's what it was.
Right.
That's what it was.
It's been a while, man.
It all bleeds together after a while.
I honestly filter out so much of that sort of stuff that there's no chance I was going
to remember that.
Like I remembered after they posted the picture that he did post that on social media.
Same.
So much of this stuff filters out of my brain.
Just not something that I pay a whole lot of attention to.
But Joe Burrow does.
And he does care about this sort of thing.
He's talked about it before.
He talked about it with Jeff Hobson.
Like I said, of bengals.com.
So coming up next we'll talk about what Joe Burrow had to say is he's in Cincinnati.
They're getting through their.
off-season program. You did a little bit of throwing today, a lot of conditioning work on the field
that was open to the media. And so the Joe Burrow part of the show, the Joe Burrow part of this,
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Let's keep things rolling with Joey B, the Joe Burrow portion.
And I think naturally we thought, yeah, Joe Burroughs going to be excited about this.
Why wouldn't he be excited about this?
And dropping a few quotes to Jeff Hobson and Bengals.com about his excitement.
And the first one that stands out, it's a big one.
The game has a lot of room to grow.
Burrow told Jeff Hobson, just like basketball did in the 80s and 90s.
The Bulls kind of spearheaded that, made it global.
And hopefully the Bengals can do the same thing.
over the next couple of years for the NFL.
How big would that be?
I mean, if that's the case, well, one, you're going to have to win championships.
Two, you need to have star power.
Well, the Bengals do have the star power.
Like Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase, the only duo that is greater is Mahomes Kelsey.
And the Kelsey factor is because of everything with Taylor.
But like outside of that, like star power-wise, Burrow and Chase are right there.
and probably above anyone else that I can think of from a one-two teammate scale.
Like that doesn't mean that Chase is two in every duo or every first and second most popular.
But if you look at Burrow and then you look at Chase, they're up there.
So I don't know if they're going to be 90s bulls.
I think that's a bit much, but I understand what he's saying.
And yeah, go to Madrid, win and start winning playoff games and getting to the playoffs
and being one of the best teams in the league.
and we'll talk about their star being even brighter.
Yeah, it's a high bar.
That's an impossible bar.
Yeah.
The Bulls won a lot of championships in those years.
And Michael Jordan was a phenomenal.
Six out of eight?
Is that what Broge is guaranteed?
Is that what you're saying?
Under his off.
I mean, that's what you're asking.
I mean, Joe's going to have to take a year to go play baseball in the middle there.
And come back and win three more.
But the shoe was also a big deal there.
The marketability of basketball shoes in that era was obviously massive.
I mean, we have movies about it in the last couple of years talking about the sneaker phenomenon.
And that obviously is a big part of American culture now and I think international culture too.
But when you talk about the Bengals being the team in Joe's mind, and again, the NFL has been playing abroad.
It's not like this is a new thing for the NFL in general, but for Joe it is.
And so he's thinking about this is a new thing for him and the opportunity that he's
he sees it as in his international appeal.
And, you know, there's some talk about America's team and that often being associated
with the Dallas Cowboys.
Well, how about being the international team?
I mean, that would be a heck of a thing for Joe Burroughs, Bengals, to achieve for the humble
city of Cincinnati on the international stage.
Yeah, it would.
And it's just a fun opportunity.
It is.
And on one hand, I'm shocked.
it took this long.
Like when I think back, because now I'm like reflecting, like they,
they couldn't have found a time.
Like first year's COVID.
That's probably the year.
They also probably didn't want to make the Bengals go 2017,
2019, and 2020.
Like, that's a lot.
I mean,
there's some teams to do it every year.
No doubt.
But I just think that was part of it.
Had they known what the Bengals were going to develop into in 21,
they probably do that then and kind of jumpstart things.
But then it was kind of a train taking off.
And by that Super Bowl run, it was like, oh, my goodness.
Like, this is, these guys are different.
And Joe Star and Jamar Star just kept rising and growing.
And so, yeah, they were going to have to do it.
I think that another international game is coming next year.
And so that'll be on the horizon.
And it'll be one of the Bengals home games this time around.
But for this one, it's cool.
And it gets Joe Burrow out there, gets Jamar out there.
And I know Joe's excited.
He's a big travel guy, big travel guy, Jake.
and I know a lot of people.
He's going to big cities?
A lot of people have taken note of that.
Oh, yeah, a lot of people have taken note of that.
And so he's going to get those frequent flyer miles, no doubt.
I don't think he has to worry about those full disclosure.
He's apparently not been to Spain.
So this will be his first time in Spain, which is kind of neat.
And he gets to go to Madrid, center.
Capital of Spain?
I don't know.
Is it the capital of the country?
I shouldn't say that out loud because I'm just going to betray my lack of
European capital city knowledge.
Yeah.
There we go.
At least we got that right.
Didn't embarrass ourselves that way today.
Don't group us together.
Yeah, here we go.
Don't group us there.
Come on.
It's a royal we, James.
You never heard of that one?
But he,
of course, grew his international star
by going to things like
the fashion week and then met Gala
and these sorts of things.
It does make him and by proxy
his team more marketable.
I do feel.
for fans because there are going to be Bengals fans in the Atlanta area that we're excited to go to this game when they see that you get Atlanta hosting the Bengals this year and it was an easy opportunity or people that are even nearby.
I'm sure this was something that maybe like LSU fans who follow Burrow to Cincinnati who were in Louisiana had circled as an easier to access game for Joe Burrow visibility this year.
Joe Burrow Jbar Chase this year.
but instead it's an international travel kind of destination game
that folks will have the opportunity to go explore Spain.
But Burrow also told Jeff Hobson, and this is the other quote,
they're probably going to unpack a little bit more this week,
that he thinks that the work the Bengals did this off season
makes them more suited now than ever to go on the international stage.
The faces look a little bit different.
Joe Burrough said the bodies are a bit different about here.
The vibes are high.
There's energy emanating throughout.
You can feel it.
We still have to go out and execute and perform.
Keep getting better throughout the offseason.
But with the guys, we have in here.
We have everything we need.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's why when there's this speculation about Joe's future,
with all the star power and all the international trips and all these things,
he's still going to be the guy at his core,
which is football player, hard worker, coach's son, and thinking he can win regardless.
And so if he feels like he really, like, instead of like, oh, I'm going to overcome this,
if he's like, oh, well, we have the talent.
Imagine what that locker room feels.
When they feel that Joe Burrow for the first time in three years feels like, oh, like we have enough.
We are good enough.
And now we got to go do it.
That's a much different thing than, man, I'm playing like an MVP.
and we're four and eight and we just let Russell Wilson.
What miss tackles?
Jermaine Pratt and Russell Wilson do what they did, dime us up by throwing little
five-yard BS knots.
I mean, I don't even want to relive it.
I don't know why I went back there.
But you get my point.
It's like he's been through it a bit and there's been injuries and they probably
make the playoffs in 2003.
Had he not had the wrist, 24, the best ball of his career and they can't stop a cold
or a nosebleed or anything.
And then last year, injury was part of it,
but they just weren't good enough.
And I think that's the other element.
This year, it feels and he feels like they're good enough,
which is just going to have a huge impact.
And did.
I was in the locker room today.
The vibes are good.
There is belief.
There is an energy.
And that's great.
And you want to feel like you have a real shot.
And it's not, oh, we have a real shot just because we have Joe Burrow.
So we have a real shot because we have a lot of dogs.
We have a lot of talent.
And also we have Joe Burrow and that helps.
And I think that's more so the feel right now.
Yeah, we've talked about the revitalizing effect, the jolt of energy that Dexter
Lawrence Landing in Cincinnati was as the guys got back into the building for team
conditioning in the beginning of the offseason program, Joe Burrow feeling that now that he is
present.
Also enjoyed Orlando Brown's quote and a good reminder about how this.
could have an impact on the schedule.
So we'll hit Orlando Brown's quote
when he was talking to Jeff Hobson again from Bengals.com
about this game.
And some of the other notes
is if Bengals had an open practice
or open practice of the week.
Zach Taylor talked to the media
and that was quickly overshadowed
by the international game announcement.
But Andre Yosevash had some interesting remarks
at his locker in particular
that we'll want to cover today.
We'll do those things coming up next.
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Typically when you get an international game, at least in the past, you've had the opportunity
to take a buy in the week after that game. And that's probably going to be the case.
but it is apparently not guaranteed, I learned today, James.
This is apparently a change or maybe not a change,
but when the Detroit Lions team president was speaking with media
about their international game this year,
he said that it's not guaranteed to get a by week
around your international game.
And some of that is because of, you know,
maybe there's a short week before.
And so you have that mini buy coming off Thursday night football
before you go abroad.
But Peter Rakowski pointed out that when the Packers elected,
because it used to be a choice, like you had the choice to opt into a buy.
When the Packers elected not to take a buy after their international game,
they were in a rut for a month afterward.
So that'll be an interesting thing to watch when we look at the schedule.
Orlando Brown noted that the buy is something we'll probably end up getting.
It's a plus for the things we want to accomplish this season.
He also said it's nice that it's an NFC opponent.
We talked about that a little bit earlier where neither of the teams are too familiar with one another,
although Kevin Sopansky is a head coach, obviously, of the Falcons,
and he does know about the Bengals.
But the by week factor here will be interesting to watch.
I am assuming that means that we're going to see a week 10 buy for the Cincinnati Bengals.
And in the Zach Taylor era, their by weeks have almost exclusively been between week nine and week 12,
with one exception when they had a week seven buy a couple of years ago.
Week 10 buy is a good place for it to be.
And if that is a little bonus of taking a trip to Spain, in early November, it will be November 8th.
that is a nice little scheduling quirk that we're learning about potentially if we're,
if we're penciling in that by week in week 10.
For sure.
The week 10 by, I think the Bengals will be in on that, knowing what I know, how they operate,
all those things.
They'll say, hey, smack dab in the middle coming off of that.
And we'll come back.
And now you have weeks 11 through 18 where you may really make a run at this thing.
And hopefully they get off to a hot start and all of those things.
and we're talking about one of the best teams in the AFC going into that Madrid matchup.
But it would make sense for a bunch of reasons.
And here's the other reason it would make sense.
And I really hope they do it from a logistical standpoint.
Because whether it's the players or certainly the fans, all the fans making that trip,
maybe you can't get out there a week ahead of time.
And you have the buy.
And then it's just like, all right, well, we take some time.
We can relax.
get there later in the week and just not have to sweat.
And you can just pick and choose.
And it obviously would be good for the media that are traveling to because then you can
take some time.
A couple of years ago, the beauty of the L.A. Chargers game wasn't the game itself.
They stunk that game and rallied and nearly won.
But the buy was right after.
So guess who got to soak up a little L.A. son before he came back to Cincinnati.
All right.
So this would be that on Roids in Madrid.
So I selfishly for my media colleagues hope that the buy is there because it would help.
But it would also just take, I think take pressure off of everyone because that's a really long flight back win or lose if you have another game that following week because you have to jump on preparation, all of those things.
And there will be some jet lag.
Even on those private jets, you're going to feel a bit different than if you're flying a couple hundred miles.
Jet lag does not save you from that time zone or private jet doesn't save you from that time zone change.
No.
Jet lag is a real thing that it behooves you to avoid if you are a professional athlete who needs to execute at a high level with feats of strength and athleticism.
That's what football players have to do.
Someone who's pretty good at feats of strength and athleticism is Andre Yosevash James.
We've talked about his off-season workout cut-ups that we've seen recently.
He was present and accounted for in the Bengals locker room today.
Didn't sound like he's had a great time with social media, and I'm smiling,
but it is a pretty serious topic, to be honest.
He is also in store for him this year is a bit of a receiver battle.
They've again drafted a receiver.
Kobe Young this time he noted that previously they drafted Jermaine Burton.
And they've drafted wide receivers who could threaten his playing time in the past.
And he will be dealing with that this year, in addition to it being a contract year for him and dealing with honestly, absolutely vile behavior from folks on social media directing some pretty nasty comments his way after some drops last year.
And look, you're allowed to be upset with a football player on your favorite team when there are mistakes made.
But making it personal the way that it was last year for him.
pretty disappointing to hear him talk about that.
So hopefully we don't see too much of that ever again for any player in the NFL.
Yeah, for sure.
Here's the downside.
And it sucks.
It's the reality.
And you're going to have critics.
And when you screw up, you're going to have people that are really, really loud that are actually really, really small.
And I haven't talked to Andre about this.
I watched the video.
I was in the locker room.
I was not in the scrum around him when he made these comments.
I talked to him after.
And I think that this is part of the maturity element.
I give, I'll give guys.
I feel like I have a pretty good relationship with Andre.
And he wouldn't argue with that.
But I like to give guys that I have a good rapport with, like,
you're going to score a touchdown this week.
Are you going to have this or that?
And I brought up catches.
He's like, I'm not worried about that.
And I do that because that's what I would want.
I would want that too.
Like in my head, that's what I would set.
And I think as long as he works hard, it's going to pay off.
It's really easy to be bullish on Andre regardless.
I told him, I was like, if nine's healthy, that ball's going to be thrown all over the damn field, man.
Like, there will be opportunities.
And I looked back, part of this was the Colby Young research, which I think is interesting.
Like Tyler Boyd would have 60, 70 catches, would get you.
650 to 850 yards with Jamar with tea.
And so that's what I think we almost decided.
Like there's not enough balls to go around.
Well, of course there is.
Of course there will be.
But he needs to handle his business.
And I will say that I think he has.
He definitely looks different.
This is my first time seeing a lot of the guys.
And from Andre's physical standpoint, I think he's leaner.
But it's not like he's smaller.
He's just leaner, which has a real.
receiver, why does that matter? Well, he should be faster. And I don't think he lost any strength
based on just looking at him. It doesn't look like again, lean or not smaller. And there's a big
difference there. So if that's the case, well, then he's going to be able to go out there and do his
thing and then get paid. And the writing is on the wall. Like he's going to have to go elsewhere,
most likely to get paid. We knew that long before Colby Young was drafted. And that's probably
the scenario. So, yeah, I mean, I, you.
It's hard.
The only advice I would say is, one, either stay off social media or don't let it get to you because you're going to get it being in the public eye, especially if you screw up.
If I say the wrong name, there's going to be comments about it, right?
And when you're Andre, you, same thing.
There are people that hate me or hate you or dislike you or love me or hate.
And that's a very small percentage compared to what Andre is dealing with on the stage he is and what these pro athletes deal with.
So it sucks, but it's unfortunately part of the job.
And so, yeah, hopefully he doesn't let it eat at him too much.
I think he had that on his chest all off season, probably.
Wanted to get it off his chest, got it off his chest.
And so hopefully he can move on and have a really productive fourth season.
Yeah, there will be competition at that spot.
And if you're a competitor, he said he's been dealing with this, his whole time he's been there.
He feels like he's been fighting for this job every single year he's been on the Cincinnati Bengals.
And he'll do that again this year.
And there will be competition for targets like you're saying, James.
This is a team that throws the ball to everybody between Mike Gaseki and whatever other tight ends step up and start getting targets this year with the potential return of Eric Hall and my bullishness on Jack injuries, which is premature because we're not even to training camp, right?
And so I just like him as a prospect.
But to go along with that, Chase Brown was – Chase Brown was second on the team in targets last year, I believe.
I was just looking at it earlier today.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Particularly close.
And so the ball will go to a variety of guys and Andre will get his chance.
is and has all the tools, right?
And I think he's well liked in the building.
Hopefully the noise doesn't get to him too much.
Hopefully people stop doing that because making it personal for whatever reason is just, I don't know.
That's low behavior.
It doesn't make sense.
It doesn't make sense.
Loud small voices.
I like that way of putting it.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're allowed to be critical.
I think that's fair game.
But when you make it personal, I don't.
Chase Brown was third in targets.
T.
T.
T.
T.
I meant to say third.
I meant to say behind T and Jemar.
That's what I was thinking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, so.
But look, the, like if five people tweeted us and say, man, that is the worst show in the world.
And by the way, there are more than five people that feel that way.
We can't let that.
man, we are the work.
Like, let's completely tear it down.
And Andre doesn't need to.
He's a good player.
Did he have some screwups last year?
Sure.
The team sucked.
All right, they were six and 11.
It wasn't just Andre who was screwing up.
And that's why there's a lot of things that went wrong.
A lot.
And Andre is not number one, two, or close to that on the list.
Does he need to get better?
Absolutely.
Does he need to compete?
Absolutely.
And hopefully that fire is lit.
Because if it is, then one,
the Bengals are going to get a really good version of
And two, he will get paid.
And that was that was sort of my message to him.
We didn't get to really talk.
But I, you know, it was kind of in passing.
But that's, so I said, man, you're going to get targets.
If you get targets, guess what?
That money's coming next March.
And we'll, of course, be keeping an eye on Andreosovash throughout training camp
as in addition to all of these other players that are going to have narratives emerged
around them.
Samar Stewart gave up sugar.
Something we're not going to get to today.
Gave up sugar in an effort to start to remake.
his body a little bit.
And in his words, shed baby fat.
And I'm thinking about Shamar Stewart as an athlete and baby fat on him and bad
weight on him.
And it's pretty hard to fathom at the level of explosiveness that, you know, like the
freakiness that he brings to the table.
But hey, if he can do it, everybody has, has room to find those ways.
And there will be stories about all these guys we'll be talking about between now
and September.
I thought you had one more thing to say.
we can end the show there i was just going to say i'm not giving up sugar breaking news go ahead yeah i mean
sounds miserable uh that'll do it for this episode of the lockdown bengals podcast until next
time thanks for listening today and have a good one
