Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - BENGALS SQUAD SHOW: Can the Bengals WIN THE SUPER BOWL in 2026? The window is CLOSING

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

The Bengals have en elite quarterback and an elite wide receiver duo. In addition, regardless of how you view him, Zac Taylor played a large role in the Bengals going to Super Bowl LVI. With all of them in place going into 2026, can the Bengals recapture their 2021 magic and not only get to the Super Bow, but win the Super Bowl in 2026? Alex Frank, Jake Liscow, and Coach Art Valero discuss that poignant question. Believe it or not, next season may be one of their last chances to get to and win the Super Bowl. It's not just internally, it's also the landscape of the NFL. Alex dives into a key difference between the AFC and NFC and why it be a troublesome reality of the Bengals. Mike McCarthy is going to be the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach in 2026. Alex, Jake, and Art discuss if this is a good hire and what it means for the Bengals in rebuilding their defense this offseason. Finally, the guys break down their key takeaways from Conference Championship Sunday and give their initial thoughts on Super Bowl LX. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax For a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Rocket Money Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON FanDuel If you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty. PrizePicks Download the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LO... Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. Robinhood Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm 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/lockedonnfl. 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.

I'm Alex Frank and the Bengals have Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and T. Higgins. So, Jake Liscoe, it should be that simple. The Bengals can win the Super Bowl in 2026 with those players, right? As long as Joe Burroughs around, they've got a chance to win. That's how parity works in the NFL when you have an elite quarterback. But Coach Valero in the AFC, when your windows open, you better take advantage of your opportunity. We'll get to Coach Valero in just a second. This is Bengals Squad on the lockdown Bengals YouTube channel.

and the Lockdown Podcast Network. Today, it's the Bengals Squad, everything Cincinnati Bengals every week. Breaking down all the big hits and game-changing plays from the Queen City, the way only the Lockdown Podcast Network can. From the jungle to the playoffs, the Bengals Squad Show starts now. Indeed it does. Welcome to the Bengals Squad Show on the Lockdown Mangles YouTube channel and the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day.

I'm Alex Frank, joined by Jake Liska. I'll get Coach Arvallaro back here in just a second. It is Tuesday, January 27th of 20206. And, well, there's a lot of white and a lot of snow and a lot of cold in Cincinnati. But where Jake Lisco is, it's not that. So we got a great show coming up for you today. And Coach Valero, when he gets on here, you'll see he's in a very much warmer location than I am in right now.

So the Bengals obviously are playing in the Super Bowl this year. We wish they were. We thought they could at the start of the season. that did not end up happening. But the Bengals do have Joe Borough. They do have Jamar Chase and they have T. Higgins. So Jake Liskos, I asked you in the open, it's that simple, right? You got those guys and the Bengals could win the Super Bowl next year, right?

It is that simple. It is that simple. Yeah, straight up. The answer is yes. Now, do a lot of things have to happen between now and the end of March and now in the end of April and now in the end of August? And now in the end of the year, yeah, a lot of things have to happen. But in the NFL, when you have an elite quarterback and you have an elite core of players

and the Bengals do have that core on offense, yeah, they can win the Super Bowl. Yeah, a lot of things need to happen. The defense needs to be a whole lot better. They need to acquire a lot of talents and a lot of guys need to develop. Of course, 99% of the time you have a Super Bowl team the previous year that would be saying those things, notwithstanding the dynasties that we've seen from the. the Chiefs and the Patriots. And what we saw this year is the ultimate design of parity in the NFL, where there are a number

of mechanisms every single year that give teams the opportunity to remake themselves in the draft, in free agency, by changing the coaching staff, by adapting to trends around the NFL. But underneath all of that, when you have Joe Burjamar Chase as your starting point and other developmental and building block pieces on this team outside of just those three superstars, of course they have a chance to win the Super Bowl. It's just do they do everything else they need to do to really put themselves firmly in that conversation. It's what's going to separate them from a wide open AFC, Coach Valero, if you can hear us,

you can chime in here. So, okay. Oh, we got him. That's good. That's good. He is enjoying life in Southern California as he has been for this entire month of January. So that's good. So, Coach, I got to ask you this because in the AFC, and we're going to get to this in segment three, the AFC has been ruled by a select few group of teams, a select few teams in the last, we'll call it 25 years.

When your window's open, you better capitalize on it. And that's why there's a lot of pressure on this Bengals front office and team to win the Super Bowl just next year. Well, you know what? I mean, that's absolutely true. That window is so small. I mean, it is, you have to seek why the iron's hot. You have to puncture it and go after it while it is. And that means staying ahead of the rest of the league.

And just look at the last 10 years. Six of the 10 Super Bowl champs have all been AFC teams. They take advantage of the situation they were in. Unfortunately, the same team is. is not now repeating and coming back into it. You know, watching the AFC championship on Sunday, and I made this comparison when the Bengals played the Patriots going into week 12. I said, and I tweeted this, I said Drake May equals Joe Burrow.

When I watch Drake May, I see Joe Burrow. And I think, man, the Bengals have missed out so much the last three years. And then you see people tweeting these stats about how Joe Burroughs won the most playoff games. of any AFC North quarterback since he was drafted in 2020. And we all know the last three years, excuse me, have been this missed opportunity after missed opportunity, after missed opportunity. But it makes it even more frustrating when you see teams like Seattle and New

England who both entered this season at 60 to one odds to win the Super Bowl. And now they're playing in Super Bowl 60. And it makes you think in that regard, all right, the Bengals can do it next year. if these two teams can do it, right? Well, as we're saying, this puts more of an onus on the Bengals front office to do what the, as coach, you said, the other front offices in the NFL have done, and that is get ahead of trends so you can be best in position to not only make the Super

Bowl just next year, but have sustained success, which is what a lot of Bengals fans thought we were getting after 2021. You know what? I mean, everybody's on paper. Right now, there's only two teams. that are undefeated. You know, everybody else for 26es are undefeated. So it's a startover period. Do the Bengals have a chance to make the Super Bowl? Sure, like the other 30 teams that are still watching these people play. But there's an awful lot of work to do. And there's an awful lot of

work to do in from the coaching staff standpoint of staying ahead of trends, keeping up the date, finding out what they have and going on and from the front office, especially them. Then there are no excuses of why you can't win. But potential, it's only what's written down on paper. Jake? Yeah, I was just going to make a joke. Tell me what teams are 61 to 1 next year. If the two teams over 60 to 1 this year playing at Super Bowl 60, tell me what teams are 61 to 1 next year.

Give me those two teams. And it seems like it's as simple as that. We don't have the color conspiracy anymore because they put too many colors in the Super Bowl logo this year. So we can't just use the colors on the Super Bowl logo. We've got to look at the odds apparently and find the 61 to one teams next year. But you know what we do have? I don't know if you guys saw this.

So the graphic that the NFL's Twitter account put out at the start of the season where they have one player from each of the 32 teams all staring at Levi's Stadium, Sam Darnold and Drake May are in the front of it. So whoever they put in the front next year on like the left side of it, that's who we have to pick to go to the Super Bowl. So if you're, go ahead. It's the guys you have to squint to see at the very front, the names of their hiding because, yeah, they're at the front.

They're closest to the stadium. But they're the hardest names to read in that picture. They're the farthest from the focus. Look, the Patriots were one of the worst teams in the NFL last year. Drake May has been terrible in these playoffs. And it goes to show you the importance of having. an overall team. It goes to show you the importance of being able to sustain, play, when you go play some of the teams that make you play in a rock fight football game, the Houston Texans defense,

the Denver Broncos defense, and the defense he's about to face him the Super Bowl, the Seattle Seahawks defense. It's hard to win in the NFL consistently. It's hard to play at that level consistently in the NFL. Joe Burrow made the Super Bowl after taking nine sacks in a single game and winning that playoff game. Every team is trying to do it. It's a zero-sum game in the NFL, right? That's why, along with the parity measures that are in place in the NFL, it is, along with the marketing machine of the NFL,

the most watched television in the U.S. period. It has the best fans, the most rabid fans in the country. And that's because every year there's a chance for every team. The Patriots, like I said, last year, one of the worst teams in the NFL, the Bengals a year before they went to the Super Bowl, one of the worst teams in the NFL that lost their rookie quarterback, Joe Burrow, to an ACL injury. And then they make it the next year.

So there's something to be said for second year quarterbacks that are good, for sure. There's also something to be said for the dynacies that we've seen in the past that were all led by elite quarterback play, which means when you have an elite quarterback, you have a chance every year. And what we're seeing this year tells you, it just kind of underlines again how much of a team sport it is, right? Like the quarterback can get you there. but Joe Flacco caught a heater and won the Ravens a Super Bowl on an otherwise good team,

but Flacco played above his pay grade for those games. When you have a quarterback that gets hot, you can win if you have a good enough team around him. It's just easier to get hot when you're already a really good quarterback like Joe Burr. Coach, 23 years ago yesterday, your Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Super Bowl 37. As you told me yesterday, a special group of men that team was led to Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by John Gruden, led by Monty Kiffin, you, Rod Marinelli, Mike Tomlin, Brad Johnson, Derek Brooks, Dexter Jackson, all those guys. But the season before, the Buccaneers were 9 and 7. John Gruden comes in, and the very next season, 12 and 4, NFC South Champions, number two seed in the NFC.

You go into Philly, you beat the breaks off the Eagles in the NFC championship game. You beat the breaks off MVP Rich Gannon and the Oakland Raiders, the then Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl 37. to what Jake, you're saying, coach, every team right now, they're starting over, but the goal is the same in a wide open NFL to win the Super Bowl. And as CJ Usama said four years ago, why not us? You know what? That is so true. Why not us?

And why can't we do it? You know what? The incredible thing is, is as you go through free agency, the draft, and you start OTAs and Miningham, you're going to hear a lot of people. chirping. That's nonsense. Wait until the camp starts. Let's see how you come out. Let's see who gets hurt. And if you're going to get injured, get injured early so you can finish the season strong and then continue to go out. But in the meantime, if you have people that are injured, you have to have quality, quality backups in there to where you don't skip a beat. You know,

you hear every coach say it. Next man up. All right. Who is that next man? The have to go out and get him on the spot because what you have in the building may not be good enough to allow you to survive until your guys get back. Well, you know this as well as anybody because you lived in an O2. The Buccaneer said Tony Dungey. Tony Dungey's a great head coach. She's one of the greatest head coaches of this century. Well, they moved on from him. And then the Raiders said, well, we're going to move on from John Gruden despite coming off two straight division titles and the AFC championship in 2000. So you get what the Raiders decided to give up. He comes to Tampa Bay, and within the first season, you guys are hoisting the Lombardi

trophy in San Diego, California. So it just is a matter of do you believe in the guys that are in the room? And as you said, it's all talk right now. Zach Taylor can talk all he wants. And I don't know when the next time we're going to hear from Zach Taylor is probably at the combine and then the NFL draft. But Zach Taylor can say all he wants. Back it up.

Because as we talk about with a guy like Joe Borough at quarterback, who despite being injury prone, has taken a team. Jake, you said it. He was sacked nine times against Tennessee and still won the playoff game. I was rewatching that game last week. I'm still amazed at how he even survived the game, let alone win, lead the Bengals to a win, and then the AFC championship, you're down 18. You come back from that. The Bengals have a legitimate stud a superstar, a quarterback, and the last three years, yes, he's been injury prone. That's been unfortunate. But you had him in 24. And you mentioned the Patriots, Jake, you know, win those down in the trenches,

dirty physical games. The Bengals lost that game in week one last year, and they were chasing it the entire rest of the season, and they missed the playoffs as a result. The Patriots, even when they were down, showed the Bengals the blueprint of how to win games like that, and we saw it in the AFC championship on Sunday. Go ahead. So what's the question, Alex? Sorry. Oh, sorry. The point I'm making is I'm agreeing with you. The Bengals since 2024 have not been able to win the tough, low scoring, physical games that the Patriots beat them in in week one and 24. Oh, sure. I mean, there's a couple things going on with that Patriots game. That's a game. The Bengals have no business losing. But there's no doubt that the Bengals need to get more physical, especially on on the defensive side of the ball. We saw them take strides as an office. offensive line. And that's where a lot of the physicality comes on offense. And can they find

somebody that can be the Eric All-style tight end? I think that'll be a topic of conversation this off-season at some point as well. The tight end that isn't just a highly specialized blocker-only kind of player who, you know, you can put them at fullback as well for Drew Sample and Cam Grady or the receiving-only tight end that really can't play in line the Mike Keseki and Tanner Hudson part of the tight end depth chart. So I think that'll be a topic at some point as well. But on the defensive side of the ball. Yeah, I mean, you look at the free agents out there this year, and we're getting to that point of the offseason, right, where we're getting the top 50 free agents or top 100 free agents, whatever it is from PFF, and soon we'll have contract projections,

and soon we'll have the annual ranking project that James and I work on every year where we tier all the free agents and all these things. And we look at, you know, what the Bengals financial limitations are, Paul Dana Jr. putting out his offseason mock sheet that every year drives me crazy, but is a good way to kind of get a feel for how the Bengals see their resources. But yeah, they absolutely need to be more physical on the defensive side of the ball. I can't see Gino Stone throwing a shoulder into a guy and bouncing off of him anymore, right? Like, that's a clear area for improvement. I can't see linebackers going under every single block and running themselves out of a play

in every single perimeter run or screenplay. I can't watch that for another season. That'll drive me crazy. And I don't think anybody in Cincinnati wants to watch that for another season. So finding guys that can take on blocks, finding guys that can wrap up, finding guys that can win in the trenches, absolutely a top prerogative for this front office to tackle this off season. And in fact, that's what we've been talking about all week on lockdown Bengals is tackling the priorities for the Bengals to attack this free agency and draft in 2026 to acquire talent. Coch your Seattle Seahawks going to the Super Bowl this year. And Jake, you're talking about guys that can fly around and tackle.

When I watch the Seattle Seahawks defense, that is exactly what they are doing. You know what? That game was a pleasure to watch. Two champs just slugging it out. And you know what is crazy about it is they scored the amount of points they scored on both offenses. But yet the defenses continue to rally to the football. They continue to play well. They had stable rotations in their system.

And you know what? The players felt like they were very comfortable with the scheme that was asked of them. Now, there is a brand new defensive staff, basically, coming in, teaching them, making it simple for them, and allowing them to go out and play. And to tell you what, it was a pleasure on both sides. Yeah, it was. We'll talk about that in segment four. our reactions to Sunday's conference championship games and how they relate to the Bengals.

But the thing again is you saw, you mentioned the Seahawks defensive coaching staff, knew from 24 when Mike McDonald got there. The Seahawks front office gave him a lot of tools to work with a lot of resources. And again, that puts the honest on Duke Tobin and this Bengals front office. Speaking of which, we'll talk about how the balance of power in the AFC versus the NFC, one stark difference that I wrote about on my substack earlier this week, we'll talk about that as relates to the Bengals. and my biggest fear in all of that.

We'll do that next coming up on the Bengals Squad Show. Hey, it's Matt Derry from the Lockdown Lions podcast. The people I love depend on me. If I'm gone, the financial responsibilities don't disappear. I didn't want my family figuring things out during the hardest moment of their lives. That's why I knew only one place to go. I chose life insurance through my friends at Ethos. Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy.

100% online. the quote in seconds, apply in minutes, and get same-day coverage. There's no medical exam. You just answer a few simple health questions. You can get up to $3 million in coverage. Some policies are as low as $30 a month. I love the folks at Ethos. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos now by going to ethos.com slash

Lockdown NFL. In as little as 10 minutes, you can get the free quote and up to $3 million in coverage at ethos.com slash lockdown NFL. that is, ETHOS.com slash lockdown NFL. Ethos.com slash lockdown NFL application times and rates may vary. All right. Thank you, bad. Always enjoy listening to checking out his show.

And we thank you for tuning into this edition of the Bengals Squad show, part of the Lockdown Bengals podcast and the Lockdown Podcasts. And the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day, the number one sports podcast, number in America and the world for more on how to become a member of the newly established every day or club. Visit lockdownpodcast.com. We are, of course, on Bengals Squad, the twice a week, law-in-form conversational supplement to the lockdown Bengals podcast daily hosted by

Jake Liscoe and James Rapine. You can check them out on our YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcast. Back on Bengals Squad with Jake Lisco and Coach Art Valero. I'm Alex Frank. So one of the big takeaways for me in the conference championship weekend. And it's something I thought about the week leading up to it with the Patriots. and Broncos basically turning back the clock to 2015, 2013, and any other time they've met in the playoffs,

which was the fifth time this century on Sunday in which they did. So for me, it's this. You look at the AFC and you look at since Coach the Super Bowl, your Buccaneers won in 2002. And in the last 23 seasons, the quarterbacks that have been in the Super Bowl and the AFC have been Tom Brady eight times. It's been Patrick Bollums five times.

That's 13 right there. And then you think about guys like Ben Rathesberger who went to three Super Bowls. You think about Joe Burrow, Joe Flacco, and then now Drake May. That's only a select few, though. And Peyton Manning also went to four. I completely forgot about him. Excuse me. That's only a select few quarterbacks.

So my point is when your window's open, you better capitalize on it. And that's why two things. One, losing Super Bowl 56 of the Rams hurts more now because, My fear is twofold that the Patriots are back once again. Hope you enjoy them being irrelevant because they're not that now. And number two is that the Bengals Super Bowl in 2021 may turn out to be both for them and the AFC an exception. Jake Liscoe, is that a fear of yours?

I don't know if the Patriots are why that is a fear of mine. I don't know that I think that we're entering a new Patriots. I see, maybe we are. Maybe we can look back on this in three years and Drake May will be a perennial MVP candidate. And I'll be wrong about that. Maybe the chiefs don't bounce back. Maybe Andy Reid is too long in the tooth to keep up with what's going on in the NFL at this point. Maybe.

I don't know. I'll believe that when I see it in a couple of years here. I still think Patrick Mahomes is probably at the top of the AFC. I still think Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson should be competing every year, I expect, especially with this news that Joe Brady's looking to hire Jim Leonard for his defensive coordinator in Buffalo. I think Jim Leonard is a great coach. And I was wondering what the difference was going to be in promoting Joe Brady to head coach. That's one way to make a difference as you go after the young up and coming.

And I think quite smart defensive mind in Jim Leonard to try to reshape your defense after you lose Sean McDermott. On the other hand, you got the chargers out there bringing in. Mike McDaniel pairing him with the quarterback that's been really good in the regular season in the past in Justin Herbert. So really I think that there's just a lot of really good quarterbacks in the AFC. So it'll be really interesting to see if somebody can manage to emerge as dynastic in that period when quarterback talent in the AFC is just so high. While on the other hand, it seems like roster talent overall might be more concentrated at the

top of the NFC, at least this year. And that tends to change. from year to year, but will be a fascinating dynamic to watch. As I think we alluded to this last week, we have our first defensive-minded head coach Super Bowl matchup, and who knows how long, we're going to get our first defensive-minded head coach winning a Super Bowl since Bill Belichick won.

So a big year for trends to potentially be shifting, or we'll see, looking back, this is a one-year blip or not. I think it's 2016, the first defensive coach matchup in a Super Bowl since 2016, what was Bill Belichick of the Patriots and Dan. and Quinn of the Falcons. Coach, I know you were touching on that. In the NFC, the top of the NFC, it's about roster construction, not necessarily just the quarterbacks. The AFC, since Jim Kelly went to four straight Super Bowls, and since John Elway and the Broncos broke the NFC's 13-game winning streak into Super Bowl, the AFC has been ruled by great quarterbacks. Manning, Brady,

Burrough, Mahomes. You can throw any other, Drake May now, Joe Flacco, and, other scouts with Super Bowl Big Ben. In the NFC, and you know this having coached in it, it's about roster construction. When you worry it with the buccaneers and the Seahawks, did it feel like every single year, if you got a good roster, hey, we got a chance here. Oh, without a doubt.

You know what? You win games on offense. You win championships on defense. And ultimately, if you can stick together on defense, play sound football, stay healthy. and you enter the playoffs hot because of your offense. Shoot, you got a great chance because now it's best against best. And just like in baseball, man, good pitching, always beats good hitting all the time.

Yeah. Here's the stat that floor me on Monday. Since 1990, the AFC has been represented by 15 different quarterbacks in the Super Bowl. The NFC has been represented by 28 different quarterbacks. So that right there tells me, okay, in the AFC, you got to have the premier quarterback. Well, the Bengals have that. They have them. And then you got Jamar Chase and T. Higgins.

And you can think about all the great wide receivers that have come through the AFC on Super Bowl teams. Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison, players like that. So the Bengals have the right pieces in place. and it has gotten them to the Super Bowl. It has gotten them to the AFC championship. So when Duke Tobin says, we've done it before, yes, you have. But again, can you do it and sustain that success? That is where Bengals fans are frustrated because they really felt after 21 that, okay,

the Patriots dynasty was over. Joe Burrow had slayed Mahomes and Arrowhead. Now the Bengals were here to step. four years later, I don't know. And that's the concern that I have. I think there is a possibility, obviously, that all that's true. I also always caution on recency bias and drawing too many conclusions from one game or one season or looking backward to try to project forward, especially with how much the game changes.

So when we cite all of these historical trends, it's important to remember that this is just what has happened and doesn't necessarily mean that's what will happen. And that's the same thing that you get when you ask anybody for financial advice, right? It's like, well, yeah, the market tends to go up 7% per year over time. That doesn't necessarily mean that it always well. And it certainly doesn't mean that it will in short periods of time. And that's kind of the beauty of the NFL that I was alluding to earlier.

You get this, all of these parity mechanisms through the draft and free agency and the salary cap and all of these things that give every team a chance to do it every year. And I see the fans out there that say stuff like how they're never going to win it with the family in charge. And you know what? You may be right. Maybe Bengals ownership is part of that group of owners that just aren't with it enough to get out of the way and put the resources where they need to be to actually win a championship in the NFL. Could be that that's the case. But you see time and time again that a new team is winning a Super Bowl or a new team is doing.

something for the first time. And just because we have all of the rich history that the NFL has to offer and all of these trends that you're talking about doesn't necessarily mean that's what's going to happen in the future. And when you look at the landscape of things across the NFL and you dig a little bit deeper, I don't know that it necessarily is predictive because like I talked about, yeah, AFC is still very quarterback dominated for sure. But that doesn't mean that one is necessarily going to emerge as a dynasty the way that we saw with Tom Brady and the Patriots. The salary cap allows you to rebuild in just one season. That's great.

That's why the NFL is the best league of the four major leagues in the country. Because you can go from worst to first in one season like the Bengals did in 2021. The problem is this. And this is where the Bengals come into play here. The Patriots, the Broncos, and the Steelers, they have combined, and this is astounding. 28 Super Bowl appearances in 60 Super Bowls. That's almost 50% amongst three teams out of 32. Like, that is unheard of.

But again, you want to know why they're in the Super Bowl constantly? Because they're well-run organizations. Coach the Buccaneers, when you guys won the Super Bowl in 2002, did it feel like you guys were perceived differently as an organization until you guys won the Super Bowl? You know what? When we went in, no one knew. No one talked about it.

You know, internally, John came out and he challenged everybody, both offensively and defensively and special teams. And, you know, he gave the players praise when they needed praise. But we never even talked about it. We only talked about winning the division. We'll see what ends up happening at the end of it. And then once we got into the playoffs, it was an entirely new season. Then everything picked up the pace because those veterans.

on the team, their leadership ability was very, very strong as we started to go. We knew we could do something special with that defense. And it was a matter of special teams and offensively, we had to catch up to them. And ended up, hey, worked out great. You know, the one thing that I will say is if you look at, and I hate to keep beating a dead horse, since Duke Tobin took over, you know, what they have? five pro bowl players. One of them was a fourth round pick. One of them was a two round, a second round pick, and the other ones were all ones. How about later in the draft like Pico was?

How about later on? Are you saying that right now, and their only pro bowl defensive or free agent that came in didn't play this year? And it's remarkable how many pro bowl players you can have. And how you create that is by winning, then the good players stand out and they get voted in by the fans and by the other players in the league. Or you be Shadur Sanders and then you get to go to the pro bono. Oh my gosh. Oh my that that's a whole other. You know, and I say to that, I say, what happened to Trevor Lawrence? Oh, Joe Burrow. Yeah. I mean, are you kidding me? Trevor Lawrence had an outstanding season. And it's, you know, you have 4,000-yard passer against a MDP.

Oh, and he threw the ball to the other team bet more than he did score touchdowns. It's crazy. So, you know, it's wild what the NFL is. And you wonder why the Pro Bowl ratings are going downhill. I was going to make one other actual point that wasn't a joke real quick. Just as ours talking about the very. avenues to find pro bowlers and finding success outside of the early part of the draft. That's how teams maintain success.

You talk about sustained success in the NFL. Sure, you have the quarterback, but when you have the quarterback, the quarterback's getting paid. The way to sustain a strong roster is to do it through the draft. And the only way to do that is by hitting outside of the first draft. You look at how the Rams or the Seahawks, John Schneider, fantastic GM of the Seattle Seahawks, managing to put together Super Bowl teams without spending a top five pick on a quarterback time and time again, as our friend of the Lockdown Bengals show, Andre Perota, pointed out on Twitter,

the way the Rams got back and put this roster together was by hitting on Pooka Nakua on day three and hitting on Kobe Bryant, not Kobe Bryant on day three and finding all of these contributors to their team in the fourth round, fifth round, sixth round. I mean, they had two straight drafts where they found pro bowl level players

and had no picks in the first two rounds or maybe one pick, Kobe Turner. Maybe it was the only one. I don't remember exactly now. I don't have it in front of me, but the point is that when you can find,

one, they had a ton of picks. They accumulated a ton of day three picks. And when you take all those swings, you're going to find some diamonds in the rough at some point. And so it's just a different way of maximizing your resources, getting aggressive and going out

and getting Devante Adams, finding the way to acquire Matt Stafford to get to the Super Bowl in the first place and making that bold move at quarterback. And those are the things that you need to see the Bengals do and more consistently hit on in the draft on day three in particular. If you're looking at sustaining success in the NFL, because like we mentioned with all those parity mechanisms in place, it gets harder and harder to do unless you are finding more consistent success than the Bengals have had, especially later in the draft. Yeah, and I'll add two other names to that list, Jay. J. Kiron Williams at running back. And then they also went out and got Emmanuel Forbes from Washington.

And you look at what those guys are doing? I mean, that's why the Rams were able to rebuild quickly. And now they were like 10 yards away from going back to the Super Bowl on that fourth down. So yeah, that's what it is about. Can you find those guys, as you guys are mentioning, can you find those guys in those middle rounds that are Pro Bowl caliber players or at the very least, not just another guy on your defense? or your offense because that's where you build depth.

That's where you build your team to handle the war of attrition that the NFL is. That way in the event that, God forbid, Amarius Mims goes down. You have a right tackle in place or God forbid one of your better defensive players like DJ Turner goes down. You have a third round corner that, oh, this guy flashed in training camp. Let's see what he can do because that's where ultimately championships are going to be won. They're won by depth. And when you have that coach, you can create your own luck because there is some luck involved

they're winning championships, but you have to create it. And the way you do that is you execute the fundamentals and you're a well-run organization. Exactly. You know what? In the immortal words of Coach Dungey, you know what? It's not the top 10. It's the bottom 43 that wins championships. And those unsung heroes that are fighting for a job, that are giving you everything they have. and, you know, they are excited about being in the National Football League and contributing. That's your football team. And that's how you develop that long-term success that Jake was talking about. And you need those guys.

And then you need to reevaluate them year two, year three, find out, hey, do you want them or is there somebody better? And then you go out there and you plug them into the system and you let it go. The AFC, and to that point, the AFC, the AFC. FFC has become a conference where it's not just about the quarterbacks because the Bengals, the Chiefs, and the Ravens all missed the playoffs this year. When the Bengals went to the Super Bowl, that was the height of this incredible quarterback play from Burrow and Allen, Mahomes, and Lamar. Now we're seeing other quarterbacks like Drake May, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert,

maybe to a degree, C.J. Stroud. But you know what else those teams have? is they have really strong rosters. So the AFC is now becoming what the NFC has been for the better part of the last 30 years. So the Bengals have made all their moves to surround Joe Borough with enough talent. That's fine. Now surrounding them with a team that can win. And that is going to be a big theme of our conversations on this show on Lockdown Bengals

throughout the off season. Coming up, there's news surrounding the Bengals in the AFC North, plus a name that's been heavily linked to Joe Borough and Jamar Chase for almost a decade. Now will be the head coach for another premier quarterback in the AFC. You may have seen that earlier today. We'll get into it of what it means for the Bengals coming up next right here on the Bengals Squad Show. Today's edition of the Bengals Squad Show is brought to you by Game Time. There's nothing like being in an NBA arena, the crowd, the energy, the moment.

Getting tickets, though, well, that part hasn't always been so simple. That's why game time has become the go-to app for scoring tickets fast. Without the hassle, it puts the advantage back where it belongs with the fans. So pull up the game time, Matt, picking up coming NBA game like the Lakers' Knicks game on Sunday night, the debut of Sunday night basketball on NBC, and you can have your tickets locked in within minutes. Plus, I love seeing the all-in price up front, so there's no surprise fees at checkout. Being able to see the view from the C before buying made the decision easy, zone deal stood out because you can choose the section, Game time picks the seats and you save great last minute options too with NBA tickets showing up at solid prices.

Everything feels quick, intuitive, and stress free from start to finish. Take the guess we're kind of buying NBA tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. That's code L-O-C-E-D-O-N for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. And remember, it's gametime.com. Today's edition of Lockdown, or excuse me, Bengals Squad, is brought to you also by FanDuel. It's the last call for football on FanDuel.

One final Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday on February 8th, one last kickoff, the final chance to get in on the action before the NFL season officially comes to a close. This is Super Bowl 60, and Fan Duel is making sure you're right in the middle of it with a special offer just in time for the biggest game of the year. Whether you're picking the favor, riding with the underdog, or building one last same game parlay, This is the game everyone's been waiting for. And if you're the Seattle Seahawks, well, you've been waiting 11 years in one week. This is where predictions turn into play. Stats turn into storylines and every snap feels bigger. It's the perfect way to cap off the season and make the Super Bowl even more exciting from kickoff to the final whistle.

If you're a new customer, bet just $5 to get $200 in bonus bets if you win, make it count. Because after the Super Bowl, well, the NFL season's over. last call for football and fan duel an official sports book partner of super bowl 60 visit fan duel.com to get started look you want to talk about jokes i just made a the ultimate joke towards the seattle seahawks unfortunately uh it's because 11 years and one week will have separated super bowl 49 and super bowl 60 and uh it's a sore subject for seattle seahawks fans I was living in Seattle when they threw the ball in the one yard line. I was watching that game with Seattle fans in Seattle.

That was a tough day for them. Coach, what do you remember about that? Oh, an incredible finish, you know, just like Jake. I mean, you're driving down, you're getting to that point. You know, who knows what was being thought? Who knows what was being called? but you say that's one of the biggest Super Bowl snafus in my lifetime, which has been the entire run of the Super Bowls.

So that's crazy. You think about where the NFL was at the time, too, the Seahawks on the doorstep of winning their second straight, and the Patriots, I mean, they hadn't won a Super Bowl at that point in 10 years. And so one dynasty or potential budding dynasty ended. Another dynasty was reborn, re-ignited, and the Patriots went on to win two more in the next four seasons. That conversation for a later date or segment,

the Pittsburgh Steelers have hired a new head, have hired, excuse me, a new head coach and Mike McCarthy. Jake Liscoe from a Bengals perspective, how do you view this higher and are you nervous about the Bengals rebuilding their defense now with Mike McCarthy and offensive play caller in the division? I think Mike McCarthy is going to be a pretty similar overall big picture head coach to Mike Tomlin,

not in the same methods at all, like a totally different approach to get there to similar results. But Mike McCarthy has been a really good regular season coach. In fact, the Mike McCarthy-Shon-Paeton comparisons statistically is really close. Both guys are 500 in the playoffs. They've coached roughly the same amount. I think the exact same amount of seasons actually as head coaches and have a winning percentage in the regular season of like 630 versus 608.

And so I found that one to be interesting as I looked at it. But Mike McCarthy is a guy that should have that offense functioning, I think, at a pretty high level. Mike McCarthy offenses, despite what you might think about Mike McCarthy in general, have been very productive across this time in the NFL. And he's been a good regular season coach. Now, do I think that that has a significant change for the Bengals year over year? I think it challenges you in a little bit of a different way, perhaps.

I mean, if you can get more out of that offense and we'll see what they do at quarterback, that's a big question that needs to be answered. That is certainly a bigger question than who's coaching that team and get similar results out of the defense. Then, yeah, maybe Pittsburgh is a little bit more of a thorn in your side, but Pittsburgh was already a thorn in the Bengals side. That was already a difficult matchup for the Bengals every year. The AFC North just continues to present challenges for this team. and really all teams kind of do for each other.

Like this is not a division where you have teams going 0 and 6 and another team going 6 and 0. Like it's not the the AFC South, the way that the AFC South often would shake out that way where there'd be one team at the top, often the Colts and a bunch of other teams that aren't even competitive. That's just not how this division is played out. And so for me it doesn't move the needle a ton,

but I do think that it will change the texture and the details of how those games and matchups go. because of the different approaches and different strengths of Mike McCarthy versus Mike Tom. So the Bengals went three and three in the division last year. The Ravens went, I believe, two and four. They were swept by Pittsburgh. They split with the Bengals. And then, oh, no, they went three and three.

They swept the Browns. The Steelers went, I believe, four and two. And then the Browns somehow went two and four. Okay. So the Bengals were among the better records in the AFC North. All right. And that's generally what the division records have looked like for the last two years. There's a four and two.

There's a couple of three and threes. And there's a two and four. Except in 2020, 2020, the Bengals were one and five. And the Steelers were five and one that year. But generally, you go back to 2022. Every single team in the division is three and three. You go back to 2021 when the Bengals won the division. They were four and two.

The Steelers were four and two. The Bengals were six and oh in the division once. in my memory? 2009. Yeah, I mean, it's generally a division where these teams give each other problems unless there's serious injuries piling up. Coach, I think about, when I think about this higher, I think, okay, the Steelers are making this higher

because they're trying to build their team to be able to win the division, but then also be able to win in the playoffs. And hopefully McCarthy being the offensive play card that he is, that's going to, or I should say Pittsburgh is hoping that's what's going to be for them. But again, if you're the Bengals, this just puts that incentive on rebuilding your defense. Because, yes, you've made moves in the previous off-season to compete with Mahomes and Josh Allen in the AFC. But you've still got to win your division, as Joe Burrough said, to get to the playoffs. Then you go from there.

Well, you know what, and I think in the division, they turn around, they beat each other up to where everybody's always three and three. You know, you're going to split. If you can pull off and be as physical as the Baltimore's as the Pittsburgh's and then play up to your potential, you know, against Cleveland, it's handed to you. But you have to make sure that you have those bodies in place to be able to play that style. It's a, you know, on the East Coast part of it, they're very, very physical, you know, and they won on defense. And now they kind of shifted to offensively.

It's going to be interesting to see how that thing unfolds. Yeah, but I hope that what I hope doesn't happen is that makes Mike Brown in this front office, Duke Tobin, think, oh, we got to go offense, offense, offense, because Steve us are trying to do that. No, they're doing that because they needed that. If you're, you have to focus on what your needs are, then focus, because then if you get to the draft and you've solidified your defense and free agency, you can go BPA best player available.

Now, that's in the AFC North. Joe Brady, who's been heavily linked to Joe Barrow and Mar Chase, because he was the passing game coordinator at LSU in 2019, when the LSU had arguably the greatest season in college football history. He's now the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. A lot of people were hoping, hey, maybe Joe Brady comes to be the head coach, offensive coordinator. Well, it's not happening.

Jake, are we going to look back on this next year, maybe a few years down the road and say, if Bengals had an opportunity to go get Joe Brady, they decided to stay status quo. That's possible. My initial reaction to the Joe Brady hire was like, I don't get it. Like, what does this do for you?

Like, yeah, maybe Joe Brady is the great offensive leader that you need. But he's already there. They were already getting a lot out of the offense. And the critical hires for Joe Brady will be on the defensive side of the ball. If Jim Leonard is a hire there, I like that higher. I think he's a great up-and-coming coordinator who has a chance to be a great coach. And then I really wonder what they do to replace Aaron Kromer. And I wonder how much of that run game success in Buffalo is to do with Aaron Kromer being an awesome coach.

And he reportedly retired a couple days after the bills lost in their playoff run. And how much of that was Joe Brady's innovation? Because Joe Brady's background, obviously, comes from Sean Payton. He comes from the Saints and all those passing game concepts that Sean Peyton ran with Breeze and now you've got a very different beast going on in Buffalo. So it's going to be very interesting to see how he builds out that run game again and how much of that was Joe Brady's craftsmanship and how much of that was Aaron Cromer leading the charge there in the Bill's run game.

I'd like to Jim Leonard hire. And I think it's possible that we look back and say, man, they could have gotten Jim Leonard and Joe Brady in 2026. That's possible. I mean, that's the way I feel about Ben Johnson. and I think that the Bengals should have been in in a big way on Ben Johnson last year. And James Rupin, my co-host on Lockdown Bengals, and I don't know if this was even realistic at all,

should have been in a big way on Mike Frable. And obviously those guys have had pretty successful in years. It's hard to say, man. I think it's always tough to project how these guys are going to do as head coaches. I thought Brian Callahan was a really good coach. And all my conversations I ever had with Brian Callahan, I thought he was a really bright guy, didn't go well for him. in Tennessee. It's really hard sometimes to say how first time head coaches will perform in that

role because it's just so different from anything they've done to that point. Coach, I saw you shaking your head there at the beginnings, but you have been one that has said on this show several times, don't let a guy like Joe Brady leave the building. Well, the Buffalo Bills did it. They promoted him to head coach. But at the same time, I think we're trying to balance here. if you have an opportunity, what Jake, you're saying, with the Bengals, if you have an opportunity to move off someone who's good, maybe not going to win you a Super Bowl, and you can make a can't miss hire, you do it.

How do you balance those two things? Well, you know what? I think it's difficult. I think the first thing that you need to look at in both the McCarthy hire as well as the Brady hire is, for their current quarterbacks, it doesn't affect them. The system stays the same. And in Aaron Rogers' case, a majority of his great years were in Green Bay with Mike McCarthy.

Now, I know that there was, you know, they split the sheets and everything else went about it. But I tell you what, he's going to come back to a system that he's very familiar with, even though it's one year. I hear everybody talking about, you know, he's a great teacher of quarterbacks. Well, who's the other guys? Who is that quarterback other than Aaron Rogers that you have in the building? So you're either going to draft one and train him. So when Aaron's gone, he knows the same system. But in Buffalo, all of a sudden, you got Joe Brady, who now Josh,

Josh Allen and probably had a lot to deal with it. He was crushed because he thought the whole thing was going to empower. and all of a sudden he's got his comfort zone back in as Zach has with Joe with Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow is saving Zach's job because of the system being the same because they're all system quarterbacks. I've been saying that since 2020 that Joe Burrow makes Zach Taylor's job easier. All Zach Taylor has to do. And Zach Taylor knows football.

Zach Taylor knows offensive football. He comes from Sean McPa's coaching tree. so that much is, you know, enough to make me believe in him and was when he was hired in 2019. But Joe Burrow makes Zach Taylor's job easy enough to the point where he just doesn't have to screw up. He just has to let Joe Burrow Cook call plays to Jamar and Chase D. Higgins. But again, it goes back to if you're not going to make a change, if you're going to remain status quo, that's fine as we talk about, but you have to evolve. You have to evolve your offense.

Utilize the tight ends more. You've got all these tools that you have. and maybe just maybe. And I know Jake, you talked about this with James on lockdown angles last week. Maybe just maybe. If Dan pitcher is staying, maybe let him call plays. See what you can do. Yeah, we'll see about that.

I don't think that's just coming. I know that's something that you've talked about quite a bit, Alex. I still remain unconvinced that would make a huge difference. I think that Dan will probably get opportunities to continue to do that in the preseason. I know for a fact that the Bengals have had plays called from their offensive coordinators through Zach Taylor and passed on their game day collaborative play calling process. But I don't think we're going to get that change this year. And it'll come down to finding ways to continue to push the envelope.

And the way the Bengals did that last year was in the run game and some of their under center game. But then when things get hard, and it's because they have Joe Burrow, and he's one of the guys that can live doing it the hard way and live in shotgun, dropback, passing situations and do it at a high level down in and down out. That's what they go back to. That's what they fall back on. It's just a matter of how well can they stay ahead of things and control the script so they don't have to make Joe Burrow play on hard mode for the entire game. And I also worry that you get a little bit too reliant on controlling the game and playing with the lead for the entire time for those sorts of things to happen. But it's all going to come back to

really, how much can they do on the defensive side of the ball? Can they find? the next Ray Hendrickson. Can they find a guy that's going to help these linebackers come along or help them be used in a way that is more in line with their strengths? Can they find a significant, significant upgrade on Gino Stone at some point in the soft season? Can they find those defensive playmakers that they need? That's really ultimately what it will boil down to more to me than anything to do with who's calling the plays for this Bengals offense, which is very much built for how Joe Burrow wants plays to be called no matter who is calling the place. It'll be great, too.

Is like Drake May on that third and six run that cleansed the AFC championship, I said to myself after that play, why don't you call that play for Joe Burrow? You know he likes to use his legs. I'm okay with not running Joe Burrow into a bunch of defenders on a, you know, we got a saving from us a little bit too. That's fair. That's fair.

We'll get into that play and our other reactions. from Championship Sunday as we continue right here on the Bengals Squad show. Super Bowl 60 is, what, 12 days away from now? And, you know, with the big game coming up, there's no better way to stay locked in into every moment with prize picks. The Daily Fantasy app where it always feels good to be right. With football season coming down to its final stretch, now it's the perfect time to close it out strong.

Price picks makes watching the game even more exciting by letting you build simple lineups around player projections. no drafts, no waiting, just football action all the way through the playoffs. Price picks is incredibly easy to get started, pick two or more players and choose more or less on their projections. Favorite feature for me, the early payouts, which you can cash out if a player gets off to a hot start. And I love being able to mix stars from different teams and build lineups that fit how I watch the game.

Plus, there's a new social fee, which makes it fun to follow friends, share lineups, and get inspiration from other players. sounds like a collaborative effort. Download the Price Picks app today and use Code Locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's Code Locked on NFL for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup price picks. It's good to be right. Well, it's a fun time for Coach Arvallero.

As we mentioned earlier in the show, his Seattle Seahawks are going back to the Super Bowl. He was a coach there in 2009, 2010. So coach, congratulations to, you know, your former boss, John Schneider, executive at the year. Mike McDonald, in his second season, has that Seahawks team rolling into the Super Bowl. And, boy, I tell you what, when you see how much that fan base reveres the Seahawks, man, it's special to watch from afar. Not sure, coach. Coach, can you hear us here?

I can't hear me. I can hear Alex. I can hear Jake. I just can't hear Alex. Oh, he'll be a fun technical problem. So Alex was congratulating you on your former employer, John Schneider and the Seahawks, going back to the Super Bowl and asking for your thoughts on Mike McDonald's return to, or Mike McDonald bringing the Seahawks back to the Super Bowl.

You know what I tell you what? And Alex and I talked about it this week. I reached out to John and he was he was not only excited, but very gracious and very humble like he normally is. and you know what he does an outstanding job he's learned from the best and he just continues to know to understand and to look under every rock him and his staff has put together he's had an incredible run of guys that have gone through his system in the front office that have had GM interviews and have been hired as GMs and I think that it's about the control of whatever is going on.

And you know what? It separated him from Pete Carroll this time. And I think it was outstanding for him. So John Schneider, and this is what's such an interesting stat, John Schneider is the first GM in NFL history to reach multiple Super Bowls. This is according to Jordan Schultz, with the same organization, while having a new head coach and no players from his previous Super Bowl team. 11 years later, and the Seahawks looked like this well-oiled machine once again.

As for the Bengals and what it means, it just goes to show you how building through the draft and hitting on those mid-delayed round picks like the Seahawks have done so many times in recent seasons, that's what's going to get you to competing for the Super Bowl every single season. You also need to put a complete team together. That's the other thing, right? Like they go out there, they make another big. big change of quarterback. And I'm not saying Sam Darnold's going to be the next Matthew Stafford.

I think Matt Stafford had a whole lot more success before he landed with the Rams as a quarterback than Sam Darnold did. But talking about parallels between these two teams and the NFC West and what a grueling, grueling division that's going to be. I do not envy the guy that takes a job head coaching the Arizona Cardinals in that division. But following that L.A. Rams similar path, yeah, we got to make a change of quarterback here. build the offense around him, Clint Kubiak, we'll see if he gets a job or not here. He probably should.

And building that team, that complete team around him, finding a guy that is a great scheme fit for you, and Nickyman-Wry, who transforms that defense in certain ways. And the two defensive tackles, going out and getting Leonard Williams to pair with Byron Murphy, the way they've built that team top to bottom, just a really impressive, and something Schneider has always done. He always uses every single avenue and asset and pathboard team building available to you and has been creative in doing it and has done a really admirable job of building a team that is Super Bowl worthy this year. Now, Washington, go ahead, coach. No, you know, Jake's exactly right. I mean, that is the key, in my opinion, is to know those hidden gems, to find them, to find how their system fits and putting them in so.

allows them be a good player, become a great player in a system that fits them and fits all these other players around them. And I think that's the key. What system are you running? What system do the Bengals want to run on defense? They've constantly turned it over, and that's hard. That's hard. Very, very difficult when you're constantly changing. Look at the Dallas Cowboys. They don't know what they want to be. They don't. And you and I, coach, we're talking about this during the game on Sunday. And we talked about this earlier in the show. And the way the game unfolded, look at how many just big time hits and just the physicality on both sides of the ball there were in that game. I mean, Jackson Smith and Jigba, who was becoming a star right before our eyes, he has this big catch right

before halftime. He gets popped by K.M. Curl holds on to the ball. So these guys understand how to play through contact. They understand how to play within the physicality of the game. There was emotions riding high on both sides. The ball was reading an article from Michael Silver in the Athletic, one of my all-time favorite writers. And he was, you know, detailing how there was a skirmish between the two coaching staffs over Cooper Cup because the Rams let him go after last season. and Seattle on Sunday Cooper Cup, he makes three big plays, and now he's going back to the Super Bowl and his former team, the Rams, they're not.

You know, that's it, exactly. I mean, that's what everybody's kind of worried about. You know, who is that guy? How does he fit? What do you need? Go get him. Yeah, Seattle's done that, and the Rams have done that too. AFC championship game, aside from the Snow Globe in the second half,

which was kind of amusing to watch, what was your guys' biggest takeaway from that game? man the Patriots and the AFC I just remained frustrated that the Bengals couldn't put a better team together this year the opportunities in the AFC this is a very funny tweet that I was reading as we were discussing the NFC championship game this is from a fellow named Brandon Anderson

going through the Patriot schedule and I don't know if a quarterback has ever played as badly as Rick May has played in these three games leading into the Super Bowl he'll need to play a whole heck of a lot better if they're going to win this game but the Patriot schedule Week 1 they played against a team who fired their coach Week 2 they played against the team who fired their coach

Week 3 they played against the team who fired their coach You're detecting a trend here yet Week 4 they played against the team in the NFC South Week 5 they played against the team who fired their coach Week 6 they played against the NFC South Week 7 they played against the team who fired their coach Week 8 they played against the team who fired their coach Also true of week 9 and week 10

They played against the team in the NFC South And week 11 they played the Jets who kept Aaron Glenn, who has fired all of his coaches. In week 12, they played the Bengals. Uh-oh. In week 13, they played a team who fired their head coach. Before they played them. Who fired their head coach.

In week 16, they played a team who fired their head coach. In week 17, they played the Jets again. And in week 18, they played against a team who fired their head coach. Look, the Patriots have a great head coach, and their defense has played some really good football for them in the playoffs. They're getting into rock fights. They're going to need it to be another. rock fight. But I just, man, the Seahawks are a different beast than the Denver Broncos

and Jared Stedom. So we'll see how the game goes. As of today, and I'm prepared to be surprised, this game in some ways does remind me of when the Bengals went to play the Rams. In fact, the Rams opened his four and a half point favorites, I believe, that year. And the Seahawks opened his four and a half point favorites over the Patriots. It reminds me a little bit of not a whole lot of people giving the Bengals much of a chance in that game. So maybe Drake May goes out there and this defense for the Patriots goes out there and surprises us and they get to Sam Donald and Sam Darnold turns to do a pumpkin again. Maybe that's how it goes.

Maybe that's how the Patriots get themselves into this game. But on paper, this does not look like a matchup that should be particularly close. Seattle right now, four and a half point favorites on fan duel, as you alluded to, Jake, Coach, I'm going to ask you straight up. Is this Seattle team better than the one in 2013 that whitewash Peyton Manning and the Broncos in the Super Bowl? I think they're playing better as a football team. I think special teams defensively, offensively, I believe they are.

I think back in 13, you know what, you had the legions of doom, you had those guys that defensively they were a different animal. Offensively, I mean, other than Russell Wilson and, you know, they really didn't have the dynamics that I believe that they have this year. Yeah, Jake, when you talk about, and coach, that's a great point, when you talk about, you know, people saying that the Bengals need to,

or the Brown family needs to sell the team, et cetera. Now, here's what you need to do. You need to do what the Seattle Seahawks did in 2002, which has moved to the NFC, because since then they've won four Super Bowls. Go to the NFC, there's more opportunity there. I don't know that I remember that the Seahawks were in the AFC.

They were. That is before my. football memory begins apparently or right around the beginning of my football memory because my football memory really goes back to when the Bengals hired Marvin Lewis and when that happened, I could tell you that I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to things happening outside of Cincinnati in the NFL. So a good history lesson for me there today. I mean, coach is that. I'm I'm the old guy in the group. I remember when they flipped, when there was realignment and they went to the West and it was like, okay, they shook some things up because

you got to remember back then it was the Rams, the Falcons, I think it was Arizona at that time, but they were scattered all over the place. And this kind of brought them all back together. Yeah, seriously. I mean, that's what the Bengals need to do. Go to the NFC West. There's a reason that quarterbacks in the NFC that have been to the Super Bowl include Jake Delome, Donovan McNabb, Matt Hasselbeck, Rex Grossman for crying out loud. Rock Purdy, Jalen Hurtes has been to two. Matt Ryan, Cam Newton, Nick Foles, who won one. Jeff Hottsteadler, who won one.

Mark Griffin, who won one. Again, it's that balance of power, the AFC versus the NFC. And the Bengals have a stud at quarterback. Imagine Joe Burrow and the Bengals, they were in the NFC. There, maybe that's when he needs to happen this offseason. Yeah, just call up our old buddy Roger Goodell and get them to flip up the conferences, and off we go. Here's what you should do.

You call up Roger Goodell and have him flip a coin. If it comes up whatever, the Bengals go to the NFC. I mean, there's the coin flip a game right there and have Joe Mixon be there to preside over it. Well, you know what? I think if they went to the NFC, they're going to be in the NFC North. And now they got Minnesota, Green Bay, and Chicago. Fun fact, the Bengals have never won a row game in Minnesota. Hey, and that's the weather.

Well, you wouldn't have to play outside. And, uh, wow. never thought we'd get to this point on this show, but I tell you, that's what makes this fun. Gentlemen, always great to be with you on Tuesdays. Coach, you and I are back on Fridays. Jake, you're on assignment Friday. Always great talking to you.

This is the first Sunday without football since I don't remember when it's been too long, but we'll get through it. We got Super Bowl highlights marathon on NFL network. You got basketball on. We'll be okay. So Jake, always great having you on. Coach you and I are back on Friday. Thank you, as always, for everybody for tuning in on this rather chilly Tuesday in Cincinnati.

Not as chilly where Jake is and definitely not where Coach Valero is, but that's okay. For more on how to become a member of the Everydayer Club at the Lockdown Podcast Network, visit Lockdown Podcast.com slash Everydayer, where among other benefits, you will get access to the members only Discord. Lockdown Bengals is the daily podcast host by Jake Liskon James Serpian. Bengals Squad is the twice a week long form conversational supplement. to Lockdown Bengals. Thank you for tuned in today. I'm Alex Frank at Frank underscore Nettie. Jake Lisco at Jake Liscoe and coach Art Valera, 45-year coaching veteran. Thank you

for listening. Have a great rest of your day. Stay warm, stay safe, wherever you are, and we will talk to you on Friday afternoon right here on the Bengals Squad Show.