Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - BENGALS MAKING MOVES: Depth Looks GREAT... Except OT3! Cody Ford A Surprise Monday Cut

Starting point is 00:00:00 Roster cuts are just a week away. The Bengals are deeper than they've been in years, but there's still one big question they need to tackle, and that's after they made a cut. That was a bit of a surprise on Monday. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:00:27 your team every day. What are Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. He's Joe Goodberry. I'm Jake Lisk. And after preseason game number two, the Bengals roster looks fairly settled. The roster battles that we've been tracking throughout training camp seem like they have their victors in place with a few exceptions.

Starting point is 00:00:49 And we'll talk about those exceptions today. We'll talk about the offensive tackle three job that still seems very much in the air and what the general status of the Bengals offensive line depth is. Because Joe, right before we started recording, we were looking at this thing. We were talking about the quality depth on this Bengals roster this year, which is a bit of a contrast to previous years. And we can talk about specific examples of that as we work our way through this roster and look at some of who the key backups are. But some of the positions that we thought might have battles in this preseason or showed signs of some battles, perhaps early in training camp, seem to be completely settled for a couple of starting jobs that we were looking at and have been tracking a little bit over the last few weeks.

Starting point is 00:01:34 it's interesting that as I'm watching these other teams in preseason, and I like to watch preseason. So, you know, I'm paying attention. And they're like, yeah, this left tackle job is open for the Bears, let's say. Or corner number two, or who's going to be the strong safety this year? Who's going to be the other defensive tackle next to Jeffrey Simmons, right, just giving you arbitrary examples. And then you get to the Bengals and there are no starting positions up for grabs. And we can say this now pretty confidently, although like we tried to say, a wide receiver three, slot corner, are these going to be battles? Is Colby Young going to get into that rotation?

Starting point is 00:02:10 Mitch Tinsley, Dante Myers, and then at slot corners, Jaseer Taylor, Braylon Lux, well, we see Dax kick back inside with Ticario Davis on the boundary. We thought up all of these things that could potentially be battles. But preseason game number two, the starters did not play. And Andre Yosuvash and Jalen Davis did not play. They were starters with the rest of them on the bench, on the sidelines. Those battles, if they were even ever battles, which we could probably say right now, they weren't, I have been decided.

Starting point is 00:02:41 And those are your two starters at those positions. I think there was some competition in the spring camps, the mini camp, your OTAs and everything. And after maybe the first week of training camp, it was more or less a shut case. The wide receiver one is interesting because we saw Colby Young and Mitchell Tensley working in with the ones and it led us to at some point, thank me. in particular. I won't put words in your mouth, Joe. No, I did too. I think that there might be some sort of sub package roles in mind for these guys,

Starting point is 00:03:11 where we saw a specific way that we saw Mitch Tinsley showing up in practice reps, and a specific way that we saw Kobe Young showing up in practice reps. And then Dante Myers kept stealing the show every single day in camp and probably solidifying his spot on the roster. Now, is he going to play in preseason game number three? I bet Dante Myers is still going to play in preseason game number three. But as we look forward when we get to the initial 53 man roster, and we try to play that who's going to be an active game because you get 48 game day active. If you have eight offensive linemen up, if you only have seven offensive linemen up, you only get 47 game day

Starting point is 00:03:49 active. So that was a rule that changed a couple of years ago. But with a 53 man roster, typically you need to find five guys inactive. I actually went back and looked at 2025. The Bengals only had seven offensive linemen up. So they had to have a six guy inactive for week, one last year against the Brown. So it can happen. They have done that before as well. So five or six guys could be inactive. But if it's six, those guys are definitely going to be in the offensive line. So a lot of roster gymnastics jargon for you there. But when you look at this roster, I don't see a single starting spot that is is open for competition. As you mentioned, Joe. And the big difference this year that I alluded to at the top of the show is to me, the quality

Starting point is 00:04:33 depth that the Bengals have at a number of positions. You look at the guys that got un-status and didn't play in preseason game number two as well. You got Joe Flacco, Kyle Dugger, Orrin Berks. All those guys didn't play. And I would categorize Flacco and Dugger a little bit differently from Berks, but Berks is going to be a key special teamer for this team. And we'll be very likely still in the role of being the first linebacker off the bench. But looking across this roster, Joe, comparing to previous years, the depth at many positions, not all of them, but many positions feel significantly improved. Yeah, think about that.

Starting point is 00:05:09 The starters that did not play that aren't actually starters. I mean, look at the defensive tackle room, Dexter Lawrence, Jonathan Allen, right? If you want to say those are the starters. And we've been saying it's a three, four defense. So you want to put T.J. Slaten or B.J. Hill in there. Either way, that's four veterans that did not play. And then Chris Shankan just played six snaps and they got them out of there pretty quickly.

Starting point is 00:05:29 So pretty much tells you who their top five defensive tax. are right now as much as we wanted to see that maybe be a battle of sorts and maybe Landon Robinson will get in there. But my point is it's not just the 11 on the offense and defense. It went past the 11. It went to Kyle Dugger. It went to Warren Berks and T.J. Slayton and B.J. Hill, right? These are guys that are going to play and rotate in. And that's true also for the number three wide receiver spot. Even though I agree, I think Myers will play. I think Colby Young will play. I think Mitch Tinsley will play in this final preseason game. but the way they used them, we watched the tape,

Starting point is 00:06:05 is they were given them pretty much the same routes and same blocking assignments as each other and saying who wants to take these jobs, who wants these to increase their snap share, who wants a piece of the pie, if there's any split at wide receiver three, and gave them all the opportunity to prove themselves. And I think they all had plays in that last preseason game versus the Bears.

Starting point is 00:06:25 If you were going to nitpick anything about this wide receiver room, it would be blocking ability. And so they were continuing, obviously spamming the same kind of run play that we were looking at on tape yesterday. For those of you that were with us on YouTube and we were live streaming it on Joe's channel, we saw the wide receiver motion in repeatedly and try to dig a guy out, attached to the line of scrimmage, essentially. And we saw that for all three of these guys.

Starting point is 00:06:51 And even Charlie Jones, four of these guys that were. That's exactly what I was going to say for a job. Yeah, even Charlie Jones got in there and he fought. And that was probably the most physical play we've seen other than him trying to truck a guy on the sideline, which again, Charlie Jones looks like he's fighting for a spot. Again, that was another thing. We talked about maybe Kishon Williams and Charlie Jones for the return man and maybe there would be a battle there.

Starting point is 00:07:12 And then it was maybe Dante Myers can do it also to this point now where I said after the preseason game that I think it's Myers over Charlie Jones. We'll see if that actually holds true once the final preseason game comes. And we've got some depth battles now. We've got defensive tackle six to talk about. We got one of their note that I wanted to make sure we point out before we get to the depth battles was Cassius Howell didn't play either. And that could be because he had a small injury against the bears in that joint practice. He talked about that there was something small for him. He continued to practice. So nothing major there. Zach Taylor's comments were a little bit murky about it, though. Zach Taylor said he's gotten a ton of reps and we just decided not to run him out there. So it's possible that they're very pleased with what they've seen from Cassius Howe feel like they've gotten enough work for me. him in the preseason between joint practice and preseason game number one that they didn't

Starting point is 00:08:06 need to see anymore. And he was in that same bucket as some of these other guys, the Kyle Duggers and Joe Flackos, with a very different path to get there, just that maybe they don't need to see any more there, especially with Samar Stewart's recovering. He's on rehab fields over the last week trying to get back for week one. Remember rookie Joseph Osai having a great preseason right in summer and then gets hurt in preseason and we're like, you're going to need that guy. And I think they did in 2021. They could have used them down the stretch. But that means that's 16, I'm counting as you were talking, 16 defensive starters or at least primary backups also mixed in there that did not play in that game. Death is good on this roster. They are strong. And in previous years,

Starting point is 00:08:47 I didn't like the idea of wide receiver six getting into the game or cornerback six getting into the game. That's likely Dante Myers or Kobe Young. That's likely to Carrillo Davis. Like these are good prospects that I actually want to see play at some point. It feels so much stronger. The depth feels actually good this year. And sometimes it's hard to gauge that. Sometimes it's like, yeah, this is, is this the deepest team? There's all these questions that kind of feel funny to me because they keep getting repeated.

Starting point is 00:09:16 And how do you really know on paper and evaluating these guys? But then you see it through preseason. You go, yeah, it might be good call for the people that started that question really early in the spring because this roster does look good. One of the best examples of this is a wide receiver position right now where you might have questions about Andre Yosevach of wide receiver three. That has been a common refrain from Bengals fans throughout this preseason. But the guys that we've talked about as practice squatters in recent years, the Kendrick Pryors and the Jordan Moore, right, from Duke, the guys that were on the practice

Starting point is 00:09:50 squad last year, like, those guys are barely getting on the field. Noah Thomas has hype to get on the team for some fans. As I've seen in my replies on social media for the last couple of He's made some pretty impressive plays throughout the preseason, one of them in preseason game number two. And we're talking about Charlie Jones potentially being off the roster, very much on the roster bubble, who's been the return man for this team for years going into a contract year. But that's just a difference in depth at the wide receiver position this year compared to previous years. And it's not just a wide receiver position. And there is one key depth spot that we are not.

Starting point is 00:10:29 super thrilled about either. So we can continue the discussion on some of these depth spots, including offensive tackle three coming up next. Support for today's episode is brought to you by Odu. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where Odo comes in. Odo is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform, from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, everything works in one place, helping your team move faster,

Starting point is 00:11:05 stay organized, and focused on growing the business instead of managing software, because the best organizations know that success isn't just about talent, it's about having everyone working toward the same goal. And that's true in sports, just like it is in business. As preseason is ending, it's time to gear up and have all of these things. ironed out before the regular season. And if you want to win, you're going to win because operations matter. And that's why you should get Odu. Try for free today at Odo.com slash locked on. That's O'D OO.O. dot com slash locked on. Take the biggest battle, and these are all depth battles now at this point,

Starting point is 00:11:43 but they're important. You're going to need these guys probably at some point throughout this season. Hopefully it's for minimal time, especially at this position we're going to talk about. Hopefully it's, you know, we never see this guy ever. Well, offensive tackle number, three probably leads to the discussion of all these battles. I think some had been decided and we'll get to that. But the red flag still currently when I look at this roster is that swing tackle. Who could step in at left or right tackle for you if a Marius Mims has to go down? We've seen Mims. He was pretty healthy last year, but we've seen him misdrives. We've seen him have moments. So he's arguing with Frank Pollock on the sideline about coming in and out of the game.

Starting point is 00:12:21 We need that guy to be able to play. Orlando Brown Jr. is having issues. He doesn't look as sharp this preseason. It was two drives in the first game. Hopefully he's better than that. But still, there's a lot of conversation there. I think people are really nervous about what this offensive tackle three swing position looks like. And I think if we were to bet on one spot, the Bengals look and make a claim or sign a guy late, it would be a swing tackle. We got breaking news right in the middle of us recording this episode.

Starting point is 00:12:50 So you haven't seen this before, but we're inserting this after the fact, after the rest of this episode was recorded. So if we talk about Cody Ford later in this episode, it doesn't make sense. That's why. But Cody Ford got cut by the Cincinnati Bengals. Zach Taylor saying they're giving him a head start to find another team out of respect after he dropped out of the tackle competition. That's what they were telling us last week when he kicked into guard, didn't avail himself well enough at guard to make a case for the roster there.

Starting point is 00:13:15 So while the Bengals are searching for swing tackle and that's going to be a lot of what we're discussing after this in this episode. It will not be Cody Ford, a surprising move, Joe, in an off season where the Bengals have made a number of moves that have surprised us. I did not think they were going to move on from Cody Ford. And not as quick as they did, right? I kept thinking that, yeah, you've got to cut forward. You keep Jalen Rivers.

Starting point is 00:13:36 If you're going to keep a guy that he just has not looked good, he has not progressed. And I think the signs were been there of them being unhappy, asking him to lose weight this offseason, moving him from the tackle competition and putting him at guard this past week. Well, we read that as maybe they want to give Jalen Rivers a shot. Now in hindsight, it was that Cody Ford. lost the swing tackle position and then did not look good at guard either.

Starting point is 00:13:59 And I think at that point, why keep the guy around if you're not going to keep him on the roster, let him get its opportunity elsewhere if he gets one. And so long, Cody Ford. So forgive any references to Cody Ford that are going to come up over the next 20-ish minutes of this podcast. We do reference him a few times, but just keep in mind, we didn't know he was cut when we recorded. So with that said, we'll get back into the rest of the pre-recorded before this little insert episode of locked on bangles.

Starting point is 00:14:27 Yeah, we also talked about running back three, and I do have some thoughts about that that we will circle back to here. But as I'm looking at my color-coded depth chart here, that is like, okay, these guys are on the bubble. The only position where there is a direct backup to a starter where the Bengals have a guy that I think is or should be on the bubble is offensive tackle three. And I think Jaylon Rivers and Cody Ford both are in some. way, shape, or form on the bubble. Right now you're looking at your starting five offensive

Starting point is 00:14:57 linemen, Conor Lou and Brian Parker, six and seven in terms of roster security. Like those guys are making the team, no doubt about it. They've done everything that they needed to do to show that they can be quality backups and potential develop into future starters for this team in this preseason. Conor Lou doing as much as he can, coming back from that injury, haven't gotten to see as much from him, obviously. But the next guy based on performance is probably Andrew Bayer or sorry, Jacob Bayer. I got some looking at the roster. Well, I'm trying to say names is a mistake.

Starting point is 00:15:29 Yeah, looking at Andrew Coker, whose name is not in this conversation. Jacob Bayer, it's probably the next best guy, but he might be a center only. Maybe he's just an emergency guard. And I hope that he gets an extended run at guard in this third preseason game to see if he can be that guy. But if that's the case and you're looking for just one guy to be OT3, like we're at the point where we're talking about can Javon Foster do enough? to win that job. And the tape for him isn't perfect either. There's some technical

Starting point is 00:15:58 recurring issues that look like they show up on tape for him with the footwork and the posture with which he carries himself in his past sets that would make me nervous as an offensive line coach looking at him to be your first guy off the bench. And like Zach Taylor said, in his postgame presser, you need that got to be able to go into the game and not dramatically change what you're calling the game. You got to be able to keep doing what you want to do on offense when you need to insert the substitute of tackle. And right now, I'm not sure they have it. I'm not sure there's a clean answer out there unless they're willing to spend more

Starting point is 00:16:32 on one of the veteran free agents is still out there than I think that they probably want to spend or they find a trade partner. It's tricky right now. And I don't know what you're going to learn in this final preseason week. You might learn like your least bad option here, but no one can really separate themselves with just a week left. of the preseason. Yeah, and we've seen the Bengals haphazardly try to make adjustments here with, okay, Cody Ford, you go to guard. Let's see Jaylon Rivers back at tackle. You know, we moved

Starting point is 00:17:02 them from tackle to guard last year. Rivers, you go back there. They started with Andrew Coker, looking like he was in direct competition with Cody Ford. And then he's coming after Javon Foster now. So I think they're searching. I think they're looking at this. And I think we're going to see, we're going to talk about what we'd like to see in the final preseason. season game in a future episode. I would love to see Brian Parker get some reps. But also with these guys just got to be put at tackle, don't put forward at guard. Let Connor Lou start at center, put Jacob Bayer and Brian Parker at guard and then, you know, put Cody Ford at tackle. Let's see if he can hold up for a full half. I think we know the answer, but we still should

Starting point is 00:17:40 want to see these things on tape before you're one step away from that guy starting for you. And I think that's the biggest fear for me for this roster that I feel pretty good about is that if you have to insert Foster, Rivers, Ford, you would have to dramatically change your offense. You would have to protect those guys. You would have to chip. You would have to give them help. You would have to get the ball out quickly. And they've done it before.

Starting point is 00:18:04 We've seen this team go to the Super Bowl with some bad players, right? Isaiah Prince would not be making this roster either. Akima Deni... Yeah, Akimid Energy would not be making this roster either. I think there's quite a few players that they have played that would. didn't make it. Trey Hopkins wanted either. But now I'm going.

Starting point is 00:18:19 That old line was bad. My point is I don't want one position to sink a otherwise very strong, very deep championship caliber roster. And this one is highlighted big time as this could sink your roster and sink your opportunity. Yeah, it's something that we've talked about over the last week. We'll continue to talk about until the regular season comes around unless they make a significant move here. And even if they do make a move at this point for one of the veterans out there, maybe it's

Starting point is 00:18:45 even Jonah Williams, old friend. maybe they bring him back. We don't know what his status is coming off that injury, how ready he's going to be. And he would know the offense. At least there's that. Like he's familiar with the terminology. So like there's another reason that that one could make sense.

Starting point is 00:18:59 If you needed another reason that that one could make sense, if Joan is your first tackle at the bench, he's played both positions in Zach Taylor's offense. And so that should hypothetically be a really smooth transition. The other one that we talked about, Joe, as potential spot where the Bengals could make a waiver claim, because I think everybody is very aware of OT3. And we'll see what shakes out.

Starting point is 00:19:21 Actually, before we do that, of the guys on the roster, who do you feel best about at OT3 right now if you had to pick one of the guys on the roster? I'm going to say Jalen Rivers because I want to believe that his upside is still there, that his size and power and length can at least get you through some bad moments or make it harder to beat him. You got to be to, you got to go around him. You can't really go through him. We haven't seen them lose that way, right? It's mostly hand usage and athleticism.

Starting point is 00:19:50 Yeah, I think as we were talking about it, I landed in the same place based on Javon Foster's apparent technical stuff that I would still want to see cleaned up, just the posture of his past sets, very straight up, the footwork choppy, not necessarily covering as much ground as you would like to see. But Jaylon Rivers is unathletic. He's just maybe the most powerful. Like he has something that you can hang your hat on as a trait,

Starting point is 00:20:12 and we talked about it on the live stream yesterday. Would you rather have the punching issues that we see with Cody Ford, where it's just not really impacting defensive players? Would you rather have the footwork issues and the slow foot speed issues that you have with Jalen Rivers? And at least Rivers gives you a tool to work with. And the rest where he looks solid, he looks solid. He just has some disaster refs. The one spot here that I keep pushing off,

Starting point is 00:20:40 and now I'm just going to highlight here really quick, Todd Brooks running back three, where you could have seen us thinking about they could use some improvement there. That's still the case to some degree. I do want to throw in one other thought here, Joe, which is that he was the other kick returner out there for the first team on kick return. So if they don't go into the season with Charlie Jones, it could be Dante Myers and Taj Brooks back there to return kicks on opening kickoff. He was also the backup pumper protector, right, behind what was we assumed Kyle Dugger. He didn't play. And then it was Taj Brooks. Todd Brooks also had a tackle on a punt.

Starting point is 00:21:15 And a really good game in pass protection. Great call, right. Not even considering what he has to do on offense because that is the concern, right? If someone goes down, Tage is going to have to plan on offense. He was very good in best protection. Also had a decent run out of draw up the middle and caught a pass that went for 20 yards, it felt like. But yeah, a good day overall for Tage Brooks.

Starting point is 00:21:35 I don't feel great about running back three. Still, I feel a little bit better about Tage than I did. if you would have asked me three weeks ago, I'd have been like, I'm not sure this guy can play. And we'll get to the battles that have been decided, I think through two preseason games, because I think some have been. And if you're,

Starting point is 00:21:52 if you don't think they are, I think when we bring them up here in a second, you'll get an idea coming up next. Support for today's episode of Lockdown Bengals comes from Indeed, sponsored jobs. When workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire, Indeed, sponsored jobs helps connect employers with candidates who match specific needs,

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Starting point is 00:23:12 sponsored jobs. Joe, there are some depth battles that I think are mostly still decided. I mentioned, like, based on my color coding, there's only really roster bubbles on the offensive line right now. You can make an argument that

Starting point is 00:23:28 maybe the Bengals will want to keep a fifth linebacker. I don't know who they're cutting to make room for that fifth linebacker. So pretty much everyone to me after Swayzy Bozeman, who I think is solidified linebacker for for the most part could be seen on the roster bubble, although Bozeman could still be in some competition in this game. I would say that that's not entirely open and shut. But that's not the case for some of these other roster battles that we've been talking about Joe, where several of these positions really do look like they've shaken themselves out. Yeah, they do. Let's start defensive tackle number six. We weren't sure if they'd even keep six. And we don't know 100%. But if we say the top five are

Starting point is 00:24:05 decided, and we talked about that in the first segment, number six, Landon Robinson has had a standout preseason where it's not just been as a past rusher. He's collected three sacks. He has six pressures. He's also had some good run defense plays and stops, some nice hustle plays. Honestly, he looks like a guy worthy of developing and seeing how far you can take his smaller size, right? because we know that's the issue with Landon Robinson. But I think the Bengals would like to roster him and see how much they can squeeze out of him. And then you go to cornerback six. And they typically carry six.

Starting point is 00:24:39 And it's a competition between Josh Newton, Jaseer Taylor, Raylan Lux doesn't really seem like a competition at all. I think Jaseer Taylor has secured that spot as the primary backup slot guy and a core special teamer. He's always been a special teamer around the league. So I think he's got the leg up on that one, which means Josh Newton is. is likely cut when we get to that day. And then safety four. If you had any concerns with that, I think we're looking at very similar players in PJ Jules, Dejohn Anthony, and Russ Yeast. But I will say, if you're going to break the ties, and we're going to talk about this a lot, and people kind of, I feel like they roll their eyes. But special teams is important for these final

Starting point is 00:25:20 spots. And that's where PJ Jules is an absolute psycho and a pleasure to watch. And I was going to say that about linebacker. Like, yeah, Swayzee Boseman, maybe number four, but I feel really good about four through six. And if that's Shaka Hayward, if that's Joe Giles Harris, because if you're not watching the special teams film, guys, these guys are fantastic at it. And I know we always want these guys that can develop into a starter like a Landon Robinson, but you don't have the luxury of having an inactive number five linebacker if you're going to carry them, right? There's not a prospect worthy on this roster right now, like a Landon Robinson. So go with the guys that can play on special teams and make plays for you.

Starting point is 00:25:55 So I think I feel better about linebacker than some do. Yeah, I think that's why we land on Landon Robinson for DT6, Jack Andrews for tight end five, instead of keeping a fifth linebacker. Because while that guy might be active for special teams, really activating five linebackers, so three of them can play special teams for you for the entire game, over keeping a guy that could develop into a future starter for you. And the Bengals like to keep their draft picks. We've talked about their history there with the injuries and Landon Robinson. I do think Landon Robinson's spot feels safer to me intuitively than Jack Endry's spot, just because, he's a draft pick because of the upside because of the plays he's made but howard cross has also taken a step at defensive tackle this year and wouldn't be shocking at all to see the bengals

Starting point is 00:26:37 try to keep him around on the practice squad or to see the bengals try to swing a trade at one of these spots where they could deal from depth could they try to find a trade partner for charlie jones we just saw buried running back get traded from the san francisco 49ers to a now very far from his peak Dion Jones. But an experienced linebacker from the New Orleans States, they signed him two weeks ago, which is why that trade is so funny for funny to me.

Starting point is 00:27:03 They signed Dion Jones two weeks ago, and then they trade him for a depth running back two weeks later. But you could see a player for player trade there. But yeah, I agree with you. The one other name at linebacker that we should mention, because he has had a pretty strong preseason is Liam Anderson. And I would also say that

Starting point is 00:27:19 Shaaka Hayward, just in terms of what I've seen on special teams, has executed of a little bit better on special teams, at least in week two of the preseason, than Joe Giles Harris, who's also dealing with something of an injury there. So when we're talking about this last roster spot, we're talking about guys that when we talk about special teams mattering, we're talking about guys that are probably going to be inactive. Is PJ Jules a better football player than Jack Andrews or Landon Robinson? I think pretty much every Bengals fan would say probably not.

Starting point is 00:27:48 They're more excited to watch Landon Robinson play football or Jack Andrews play football than PJ Jules. but PJ Jules is, as we've alluded to, I think several times here, a pretty darn excellent special teamer. Like the way he plays with his hair on fire, the aggression with which he plays, you point him at a ball carrier, he knows his responsibility.

Starting point is 00:28:09 He can play with his hair on fire there. So if PJ Jules is like a key special teamer for you, and he's active on game day ahead of a Jack Andrews or Landon Robinson, even if you're more excited about those guys, that's why special teams matters. And that's why you can keep an injuries and a land of Robinson. The inactive list does help with having developmental prospects that you want to keep on your roster, but you don't necessarily need to insert them into the lineup right away.

Starting point is 00:28:34 And I think both Robinson and injuries will be inactive if we start to project that for the early portion of the season. But as you were saying that, I started to think, you know how much the wide receiver and tight end room have grown? Like if Kishon Williams and Charlie Jones don't make the roster this year, these are guys that run the roster last year. Cam Grandy has been on the roster for two years now. And we're talking about he's cut and likely on the practice squad.

Starting point is 00:28:58 I don't think another team's going to pick him up, although I wouldn't be absolutely shocked because it's hard to find the 255, 260 pound or 65 blocking capable tight ends. Plus, he did have a long snapping play in that preseason game. He's got some versatility. Not to, you know, say that Cam Grandy's great. I don't want to go down that path. I would much rather keep a jack entries because if that guy,

Starting point is 00:29:20 has to be inactive, give me the guy that has the high upside. So that's our point on why we bring up the inactive list so much. Ticario Davis is probably inactive week one. He's a guy you're developing. I thought he looked great in that Bears game. So maybe he isn't. But are you activating Ticario over DJ Ivy? I don't think so. I think Ivy has won that cornerback four spot and would be the first guy off. And then we said, just here Taylor has been a core special teamer throughout his NFL career. So, you know, it is something to project. Because I think when teams get together and do this cut and they do the conversation, they have all the position coaches in there. They pretty much rank who they like at these positions. But then you have input from Darren Simmons because these are

Starting point is 00:30:06 our active guys on Sunday. And if we can only have 47 or 48 of them, depending on how you want to align it, and then the practice squad third quarterback, which we didn't mention also very strong, deep room, Josh Johnson. Anyway, when you get to this, it is important to build the 48 more than it is, or maybe equally as important to build the 53 man roster. Both are important because you're going to have different active and inactive in different weeks,

Starting point is 00:30:33 depending on the competition you're playing. Maybe there are some weeks. Maybe against Baltimore, they're going to want the extra depth at defensive tackle, for example, because they're expecting a much heavier run game. Maybe that's also true against Atlanta and Bijon Robinson. Maybe they're going to want more depth, on the defensive front, then they're going to want at, say, corner.

Starting point is 00:30:50 Maybe they're not as worried about corner that week or whatever it might be where you see slightly different changes from week to week sometimes for enactives. But if we're looking at enactions right now for week one, this is a bigger conversation that we'll get to after the cutdown. If we're projecting it right now based on what we think the 53 looks like, you're probably looking at Jack Andrews, Colby Young, Landon Robinson, being among the guys and maybe even Takario Davis, being among the guys that are inactive in week one specifically.

Starting point is 00:31:19 That's not necessarily going to be the case for the entire season. But if Dante Myers is going to be a return man, and they don't yet think Colby Young has a full enough grasp of the playbook, that could be the direction they go with wide receiver in particular, because I think that's the one that would shock people the most out of all these guys. The other ones that we're talking about here is just like, there's just not snaps for all these players, which is also true for your six wide receiver most of the time.

Starting point is 00:31:44 So maybe 0-9, too. If Bayer does make it over, you know, two tackles as depth, is Connor Lue ready to go as the backup center? That one, you know, they may give them extra time. But yeah, it could be very interesting if like a lot of the rookies that we have seen play very, very well this preseason. And we're excited about like this rookie class that we actually think is like good and exciting and could be key pieces in the future, they might all be enacted.

Starting point is 00:32:10 And that's, yeah, except for cash sound. And that's okay. this is typical for how it goes they get eased into it once that week one comes i mean the playbook is in the game plaything everything is so much more in depth than what we're seeing in preseason and these guys need time i will say this as well one future topic we can we can get through here is like sure the roster is set and we know who the starters are we feel good about the depth for the most part there are a couple starting spots where we still have some questions we haven't really talked about that in a while. That's another place where you can look at waiver claims. Like even if you

Starting point is 00:32:47 really like the depth at a spot, maybe you don't love a starter at a spot. I don't think the Bengals feel this way about Andre Yoseva. I think fans do. I think fans would still like to see them have a greater challenge to Yoseva. I think that will come from a guy that's already on the roster. But this is a great topic though, Jake. I almost said like who is the worst starter on offense and people can leave the comment. We shouldn't answer this. But that goes into that future episode. Yeah. I mean, let it let us know. Like who if you can make one, waiver claim to improve a starter on either side of the ball. Let us know of the comments.

Starting point is 00:33:17 We will probably talk about that in an episode this week. I have my idea of what I think will be targeted and it is not Andre Yoseva. So let us know of the comments, the waiver claim you think could most improve the Bengals starters. And I never really ask for this. But if you're here at the very end of this video and you like the lockdown Bengals podcast, you might as well hit the subscribe button on YouTube. And you get the follow button wherever you get your podcast.

Starting point is 00:33:41 We'll be with you all season. here on lockdown Bengals, including this week leading into the final preseason game. And I had to look this up during the episode because of how meaningful this game is against the Philadelphia Eagles. Did you know this other than this one this week? It is not the Colts. We are, we've been betrayed. It's always the Colts. It's usually the Colts.

Starting point is 00:34:00 That's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening. Hootay and have a good.

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