Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - BENGALS SQUAD SHOW: SPLASHES in FREE AGENCY make for a GREAT, BOLD Day 1, could MORE be COMING?

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

The Cincinnati Bengals made splashes at two key positions on their defense in Day 1 of free agency.  Alex Frank, Coach Art Valero and Jake Liscow react to the Bengals signing safety Bryan Cook and edge rusher Boye Mafe to help rebuild their defense.  What makes these two signings great isn't even their play on the field. It's something else, and that something is even better than their production levels.  Could the Bengals be in for more splashes on Day 2? If they sign somebody, the guys will pivot and react to it.  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!  TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.  Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast.  Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.  FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.  5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at 5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon.  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 Cincinnati Bengals. They made some big swings on day one a free agency. But coach, in the wise words of Kobe Bryant, the job is not finished. Oh, absolutely. I tell you what, they picked up two great picks. And now it's a matter of finishing the job. There's still a lot of free agents that are out there that they can help. And that really comes to sets it up for their whole draft.

kind of the draft angles if they're going to end up taken. Three letters, BPA. The road to there continues, including on this edition of the Bengals Squad Show. 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 locked on podcast network can. From the jungle to the playoffs, the Bengals Squad Show starts now.

Yes, it does. Welcome to the Bengals Squad Show live on lockdown Bengals and the lockdown podcast, network, your team. Every day, we are the number one sports podcast, network in America and the world. I'm Alex Frank. He's coach, Art Valero. You may notice coached in a different location. That's because he is now, and we want to congratulate him, the running backs coach of the Orlando Storm of the United Football League. So coach back into what he has done for 45 years. We, uh, We thank you, Coach, for taking some time to come on the show today. We are fired up to be with you. I tell you what, this is a great, great time for you. Jake, let's go joining us here shortly. Coach, kind of take us in before we get to some Bengals Free Agency News, kind of take us into what life is like for you right now in this latest coaching gig for you. Well, hey, let me just tell you about what life is like.

it gets better and best, right? I've done this seemingly like my whole life. So when I received the call, I said, when do you need be there and I win? Whether it's talking about football or actually coaching it, teaching the game, yeah, I can't tell you that some people like football

and some people love football. And I'm one of those that loves the game, loves to be around young people. And it's just, hey, you can never be too young. Now, as far as the Bengals are concerned, I think they did, they hit a home run with the two picks. You know, the two choices they signed on as free agents. I think the cook, Claire, and we talked about this earlier, Alex, it was either one of those two Cincinnati safeties that were available. If they could get them, then that allows them not to necessarily be early in the draft.

trying to seek out a great young safety. They've got a veteran who's relatively young, who's got great range, is not afraid to stick his head into piles and to make great tackles. And I think that the cook young man is, he's going to solidify that secondary. Yes, he will.

And I want to welcome in Jake Liscoe to the stage. He is a busy man these. days with our let me fix that echo there jake welcome to the show hope you are doing well uh just kind of give us your thoughts on uh i know you uh boys them last night on lockdown bangles with james rippin but uh kind of give your thoughts on the bengals day one in free agency and what should we expect the rest of this week and the free agency frenzy yeah i think it was a good start but it's it's a start right and that's where i think we need to see this and the expectations remain high that they'll go get a starting linebacker and probably add another defensive

lineman. But that doesn't mean that it's not a really strong start. I'm really excited that they went out and got Brian Cook and Boye and Mafe. I think Mafei was one of my favorite targets on the edge in free agency after probably Jalen Phillips, but Jalen Phillips went out and got $30 million. And so at that point, if you wanted to go with a bit of a cheaper option, who still has some upsides, similar age, and a pretty good three-down profile, Boyer, is the next guy. Adafé O'A would have been a great option if they were looking for that pure pass rusher type. That's more of his game. But Mafei being a three-down player is a fairly exciting addition to me. And I do think that there's pass rush outside. I think a lot of fans are maybe looking at the two sacks he had last year.

And that's something that we're going to dig into over the course of the next couple of weeks on lockdown Bengals and get into his tape and how his role changed when Mike McDonald arrived in Seattle. Meanwhile, Brian Cook was by most accounts, the top free agent safety available, certainly of those that actually made it to the market. And, I mean, it's tackling, right? How many times have we talked about tackling in the last six months, way more than I would like to. I'll tell you that for sure. And Brian Cook should be the polar opposite as a tackler at safety than Gino Stone. As far as what's next, day two has been a pretty quiet day for the Bengals in the last six years in free agent. So we'll see if there is another move coming today in the last few years.

It was Mike Keseki a couple of years ago on day two of the tampering period, i.e. Tuesday, that the Bengals agreed to terms with Mike Kiske. And then you have to go all the way back to Mike Hilton and Chidobe, Abuziere. For the last time, the Bengals did some notable day two deals. And so we'll see if there's anything coming today, but I would certainly think this week, they're still looking to add at the bare, bare minimum, a linebacker, probably another player on the defensive way. And again, I'll preface this.

If any news breaks while we are live for this next hour, we will pivot. And we will talk about who the Bengals potentially signed. Jake, and I know you've been very busy these last few days, 24 hours, 48 hours. So if you need a dip, Hugh obviously can go do that. But coach, I'm going to go back to you because Jake brings up, boy, Mafei, didn't have a lot of sacks last year, only 20 in his four seasons with the Seahawks. For me, what I tell fans is look at who he played next to on that Seahawks defensive line, Leonard Williams and Ocina Nowu Knewsu. I think you have to look at that and say, now, Maffa's coming to the Bengals where he's going to be the guy on the defensive line when it comes to edge rushing.

I think that that should get fans excited. Without a doubt, I think that what he brings and when they announce that he's an edge guy, the first thing that comes to everybody's mind, is he's a true pass rusher. But this young man has done a outstanding job stopping the run in his career. So he's like Jake can talk about it. He's a three-down player. And you don't have to run in and get necessarily a pass-rushing specialist. But it also leaves the door open that in the draft, you could go get that cat.

Because you've got somebody that's very, very stout right now against the pass and has shown that he's got that ability in it. Now, they were so loaded in Seattle with defensive linemen. It's like, pick your poison. Who would you rather go against? And if I was in the NFC North, I'd say, who would you rather go against? The guys of Bengals have or the guy that Baltimore now has? That's a tough call.

But if you got two of them, you're even better yet. Jake, I know you turned your mic on. do you want to add to that? Because I think the one thing that I think people may be worried that with Shamar Stewart and his low production coming out of college, they're worried that's going to be the same thing for Boy Amafay. I don't think so. Yeah, I was actually just trying to find the Seattle Blitz rate for 2025 because I think

one of the things that happened with Boye Amafé is that he went into a defense where his role changed. One, he became a bit of a role player. And it's a little bit similar that there's some parallels with Trey Hendrickson's role in New Orleans with Boya Maffa's role before he arrives in Cincinnati. Trey Hendrickson for The Saints was more of a designated pass rusher type of player. They were hiding him from run downs. That's not the case with Maffay. But it was a rotational role for Maffay on that defense because as we've mentioned, they have so many guys that they can throw at you up front with to Marcus Lawrence and Nuwosu on the edge.

Maffey and Derek Hull, also on the edge. I mean, that is a four deep, strong pass rushing rotation with two butt kickers in the middle in Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy as well. So they have all of this going on. And despite that, they have Nick and Mean Worry blitzing 72 times. Drake Thomas, blitzing 80 times. Ernest Jones blitzing 68 times.

So quite a lot of blitzing from their linebackers and from Nickyman Worry, their overhang slot guy as well to go with a few corner blitzes that they mix in there. Devin Witherspoon, 28 pass rushing snaps last year and another linebacker for the Seahawks Tyrese Knight with 21 past rushing reps. So the reason I bring all this up is when you're that loaded on the front, as you alluded to Alex, and you're sending blitzes, the role for Maffei went from before Mike McDonald, maybe you're going to try to win.

You're going to be the winner. you're going to try to get your one-on-one, you're going to try to beat the tackle and get to the quarterback yourself to, well, now maybe you're trying to flush the quarterback into the pressure. Maybe your role now isn't as much, I need to go get the quarterback myself, but it's now I want to set up the pass rush to force the quarterback to step into my linebacker in the B gap on the other side of the line of scrimmage or something like that. You're seeing that changing role for him, and when he comes to Cincinnati now, you might get some of that, and he's going to be experienced in a.

couple of different schemes and different pass rushing styles, but he's probably going to be asked to do more winning on his own. And if you go back to the last time he was asked to do that, which was before Mike McDonald's arrival, so 2023, his past rush win rate was a career high. That's his nine-sack season, I think. And his true pass set past rush win rate that season over 20 percent, that's a very respectable number and better than anyone besides Ray Hendrickson on the Bengals in the last few years. So 12 sacks in his first two seasons before Mike McDonald got this Seattle. He had 16 quarterback kids in that 20-23 season, as you alluded to. So again, you just have to remember the role that he played the last two seasons. He was still very effective. When you look at

the way he played in the Super Bowl and in the playoffs for the Seattle Seahawks, he was a big reason why they were able to get to quarterbacks like Drake May and Brock Purdy and Matthew Stafford and even Brock Purdy in the regular season. I mean, you look at the Seahawks defense coach and you know this, having coached in Seattle, the last two or last year when they played San Francisco, Francisco twice in two weeks. They played them in back-to-back games by week in between. They held them to a combined nine points. And that's an offense with Christian McCaffrey and George Kiddell and Brock Purdy and Jewan Jennings. So the Bengals bolstering their defense, they went after players that played on championship caliber defenses. And you're seeing why,

because they weren't just great players on those defenses, but they played next to or behind other great players. And that really matters. Absolutely. You know what? They bring a mentality. They bring a certain amount of leadership. I mean, great leaders. They know how to win. They know how to practice. They know how to go about their business. They know how to be pros. And I think that really lacked last year with the Bengals all the way around because like, you know, like we had talked about before, a majority of their captains were either hurt and not playing. and or got suspended for a game. And I think these guys bring that level of leadership ability to each of those, to the defense to really allow those young kids to mature the way that they're supposed to mature. Yeah, that's a great segue into our next topic of conversation, because we're going to talk about why the two signings yesterday goes back to the plan a few years ago

that got the Bengals to Super Bowl 56. We will get into that conversation coming up next on the Bengal Squad Show. Today's edition of the Bengal Squad Show is brought to you by TurboTax. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is, well, a lot. Trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth and wondering if they really get your situation. Well, this year, you're getting a major upgrade. Into with TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide.

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It may take a little bit for us to officially learn how to pronounce his name, but I think we got a good understanding of that, courtesy of her good friend, Paul Daner Jr., Boye Mafe. So we'll remember that. The big thing, though, with these two signings, guys, for me is this. And Jake, you remember this in 20. one coach, you may remember this too. When the Bengals rebuilt their defense in the 21 free agency period, they didn't just go out and get good players just to get good players.

They were very intentional and purposeful about the players they were bringing in. Leaders, captains, winners, guys who had won before with their previous teams. And it goes back to what they did offensively, drafting Burrow, Chase, Higgins. When they rebuilt their offensive line, they signed players who had won Super Bowls with their previous teams. Now they're doing that on the defensive side of the ball. The two players they signed yesterday are both former Super Bowl champions. And I can't stress enough how important that is for the Bengals rebuilding their defense. Yeah, big dedicated effort to go get guys with recent playoff experience with Super Bowl experience.

And both of these players bring that. Brian Cook in particular should be a strong communicator in the secondary in addition to everything he does. during a live play, he should be helpful in making sure everyone is lined up in the right spot coming from a Steve Spagnolo defense. He should have seen plenty and plenty of complexity. Steve Spagnolo certainly specializes in complicated and bespoke playoff game plans, much in the same way that Lou Anarumo did for the Bengals in their two playoff runs in 2021 and 2022. Brian Cook, no stranger to those ideas.

and so he should land with very likely to me strong leadership capabilities, especially in the back end of that defense. I'm less familiar with Maffei's leadership resume, as it were, but certainly has the experience, right? He has four years, two years in a really strong program that Mike McDonald put together, obviously just as coming off a Super Bowl is an ascending player, in my opinion. So I have less strong opinions about Maffei in a leadership. still strong opinions about him as a player,

but Cook is a guy that I think should be helpful to come along with the praise that we heard for Jordan Battles communication and his growing saviness from the coaching staff. If that is real, you have a couple of safeties now at the back end that should be very much providing that veteran presence. Again, I want to underline that there's more work for this team to do. These two signings aren't everything that we need to see this team do to get this defense in the right direction,

but it's a great start. And so going to that leadership point, Alex, Brian Cook really fits the mold. No question about that. And coach, when you have players like that, that really helps a young defense come around. And I can't tell you how indispensable that's going to be for guys on this team currently.

You know what, without a doubt, 100%. You know, like Jacob just talked about, it's a great start. I'm hoping this isn't the end. for the fans and for the team itself. You know what? There's still some guys they need to get. They can add a defensive tackle inside linebackers

and with the same history and leadership ability and pedigree that the two that they did pick up. And then you'll say that, you know what, now they can go into the draft and take the best available player, whether it be offensively or defensively, because they've given the defense some, major puzzle pieces to trying to put this together. You know what? And I worked for Steve Spagnolo and there's nobody more. If you can run in his defense, everything else is easy because you're,

you have to do literally everything. And I think that that's why with Cook, I think they've got a real winner. I think they've got really somebody that's very, very special. Well, that's what I like most about this in addition to him being a former Super Bowl champion times too he won a Super Bowl in each of his first two seasons with Kansas City. Brian Cook played for arguably the best defensive coordinator of this generation in Steve Spagnolo. So he's going to bring a wealth of information to a defense that is in dire need of it, particularly Jake, as you mentioned, a guy like Jordan Battle. But here's a guy who has started 34 games of the last two regular seasons and then three games in the playoffs in 2024, 85 tackles last year, 78 tackles the year before that.

So you have a player who is ascending and coming into his own. And when it comes time to where he is going to spend the prime of his career, the Bengals were willing to break out their checkbooks and pay him good money to come back to Cincinnati where he played college football was a part of the Bearcats college football playoff team in 21. So it just made a lot of sense going into free agency. the fact that the Bengals were able to pay the money that they did to get him, to acquire him. Coach, you talk about it all the time. The Bengals have to be in a position where they are going to buy a team and build a defense that is championship caliber.

This move right here, albeit it's just a start. It's, hey, we are doing this. We're doing what we say we are going to do. And that's a big thing. Oh, you know, you look around the league. and just the guys that were very, very aggressive and all in and free agency, like Carolina, they know that window does not stay open very long. And as big as it is, it can close in a hurry.

And when you're all in, you need to be all in and go. And you know what? Joe Burrell's not getting any younger. He is getting better. But you've got to surround him with some other good teammates, both offensively and defensively and in special teams where a lot of those young players need to contribute the most and not be asked to fill all those spots on defense. You can hide one.

It's tough to hide two or three. Very much so. And that's why there's more work to do, right? They've got to go address the second level. Linebacker pretty well picked over on day one of the negotiating period. And Leo Chenal, certainly a guy that we, have circled and discussed many, many times on lockdown Bengals over the last few weeks. I don't know if you have this plan today, Alex, but this report that occurred as we were

talking about 20 minutes ago, Jonathan Jones, who is a good NFL reporter, talking about Trey Hendrickson's market. This is fascinating to me. If for no other reason, then it's just interesting. Trey Hendrickson supposedly asking for prices that are. $10 million more than what teams are willing to pay. So according to Jonathan Jones, as of this morning, there were teams that he spoke to who said the gap between what

Trey Hendrickson wanted and what those teams were willing to pay him was close to $10 million per year. Now, obviously a few implications here. One is for potential compensatory picks. And again, this is a formula that the Bengals should largely be ignoring right now. I think they need to go out and make whatever moves they need to make to make the team better. maybe they're interested in a great

Dre Greenlaw kick of the tires as he was released and that wouldn't factor into the compensatory formula. But I just think it's fascinating that Jalen Phillips, who has also had injury issues in his career, but is younger, to be fair, is able to secure that $30 million bag and given it, there's a Carolina tax attached to that, right? But Trey Hendrickson really not seeing that market develop for him.

I just think is interesting and I'm sure that the folks at Paycor Stadium are feeling very vindicated right now and thinking like, yeah, you see, this is hard. This has not been an easy negotiation between these two parties and a fascinating little tidbit from Jonathan Jones there this afternoon. Coach, are you surprised when you hear that? Not at all. Not at all.

You know what? I look at it as if everybody in the NFL understands the the chaos that was around that. Nobody wants the circus. They don't want the circus to come to town and have everything outside the building going on. GMs and owners look at it and say, do we want to pay him a lot of money

and look what he's going to end up being the next time he wants to or he doesn't want to? And I think that a lot of people are staying away. And then if he's asking for so much more than what people will, are willing to pay, boy, you're going to price yourself right out of the market. I think the injury has really impacted his market as well. I think that if he had played last year and kept up the pace that he started this season with,

he probably finishes the season with 12 sacks, maybe more, and then his market probably exists. But sometimes you bet on yourself in the NFL and it works out. Jamar Chase earned himself more money by waiting an extra year. to sign an extension. Sometimes you bet on yourself in the NFL, and it doesn't work out. That's the nature of playing on one-year deals. That's why Trey Henderson wanted the security last year, and when the offers weren't up to snuff, he decided to just play on the one-year deal banking on himself. And unfortunately, I think that has for him, unfortunately for him, certainly, and maybe the Bengals, I think it's had an impact on his market here as that's developed over the course

a free agency. I had seen, go ahead, coach. No, I was going to say I agree totally. So I had seen that report that you were alluding to, Jake, from Jonathan Jones, right before he came on this show. And I can't say I'm surprised. I think Trey Henderson's going to run into a situation where the money that he is seeking at, you know, he's over 30 years old and he was injured last year. He's not going to get it. And I, for him, I'm thinking, I thought about this going into free agency. and as the, you know, free agency frenzies unfolded over the last 24 plus hours,

I'm sort of wondering if he's even going to get a deal anywhere. I genuinely do wonder that. And now what I hope that doesn't mean is if he doesn't get a deal that he's going to come back to Cincinnati. I don't think that's going to happen. But, I mean, yeah, I wouldn't think so either. That bridge has been burned. It's on the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

It's been burned and has sunk to the bottom of the ocean, fellas. That was not happening. Wow. Oh, my gosh. I didn't think we're going to go that deep, literally. Down to the bottom. I mean, the issue for Trey Hendrickson in negotiations throughout his time in Cincinnati, I know a lot of people are ragging on his agent.

It's pretty easy to do so. The one-year extension that he took in the first place, the way last off-season went to bet on himself, look, it doesn't, it's not a terrible idea to bet on yourself when you had the time you've had in Trey Hendrickson's career. But when it, when it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. And I think that's what Trey is dealing with now. Yeah, I agree with you. Coach had to run a practice, by the way. He's the running backs coach of the UFO's Orlando Storm. So we wish him a good practice today. I think what's interesting when it comes to going

back to the conversation with Brian Cook and boy, Maffa, Jake. For me, it's you look at the guys that Brian Cook played with on Kansas City's defense, Drenbeck, Duffee, Jailon, Watt. and Juan Thornhill. I mean, all those guys, McDuffie and Watson just got paid with the L.A. Rams. I mean, the Rams are completely remaking their secondary, probably because they're still having that mirrors of Jamar, Chase, and T. Higgins,

burning them in Super Bowl 56. And then you look at Boy Maffei on the Seah, we talked about who they played with, or he played with on the defensive line. But what he was able to do was really impactful for guys in their secondary, like Tarek Wollin, excuse me, and Devin Wetherpoon and Nickyman-Ware, you talked about him earlier.

So for me, you're seeing two guys, that played on two very good defenses. They come from those cultures. Excuse me, and the Bengals need that. They need a player in Brian Cook, who's like a Jesse Bates, like a guy that can get the back line of the defense organized.

They haven't had that since Bates walked. I'm not saying Brian Cook is Jesse Bates, but for me, it brings me shades of him, and that I think is going to be a huge advantage and a huge boost for the Bengals secondary. Yeah, I think they're very different players stylistically. And I think that Jesse Bates is probably still a better player. has been a better player throughout his career, but that doesn't mean that Brian Cook isn't the

best they could have done this offseason. I think he was the best option for them available. And so you have to give them some kudos for getting the deal done with what I think was the best safety available. I really like the camcourl fit and potentially Nick Cross could have been a fit if it didn't work out with Brian Cook. But I do think that he was pretty clearly the best available. We do our big free agency sheet every year with Joe Goodberry, James Rapine, myself and Mike Santagena. And he was clearly the best safety for us. And Boye-Mafé was clearly not including Trey Hendrickson, the third best pass rusher for us as a collective. And so when you get two guys in our top 20 free agents, we're not going to complain too much, right? As a collective.

And hopefully it's the shot in the arm to bring the level up on the defense. But with Maffa in particular, need to continue, and it just kind of highlights the need where he's coming from, highlights the need for the Bengals to continue to invest in their defensive line. And I don't think that this shuts the door on Caleb Downs or Ruben Bain, if either guys available to them at pick number 10 in the draft. If you were to add Ruben Bain to this group, you would be deep and strong at the edge rushing position. You'd have some versatility with Ruben Bain and with Shamar Stewart, the ability to kick

inside. but they lost Ray Hendrickson and Joseph Osai. And so they do need to continue to add in that room. And we're still looking for that interior juice. And when you compare it to where Maffa is coming from in Seattle, the depth that they had on that defensive line was so paramount. And it's not just the edge guys. And we talked about it.

They go four deep on the edge with quality players, quality pass rushers, who can do their job. It's part of why Maffa's playing time was contained a little bit in Seattle. And the two guys they have on the interior, are just phenomenal and they're deep there too. So kind of underscores what every team of the NFL is trying to do a lot of the time, which is to build depth and have waves and be able to stay fresh and continue to get after the quarterback and the Bengals obviously still have more work to do there in that category.

And as we talked about earlier, they'll continue to be active, I think here. We can talk about the cap situation and how much money they may still have left to spend if you're interested in that. And we'll have to see where they go here on day two because I can tell you for sure, they were sniffing around some linebackers yesterday. Didn't work out with a couple of those deals on day one. I do still think that they will be looking around there. And it's just a matter of who.

I don't know exactly who they're talking to today. But I do strongly believe that they still have interest in signing another linebacker and another defensive lineman at least. How did you feel when the Titans won the bidding war for, John Franklin Myers. And then as aforementioned, linebacker, Devin Lloyd, the Carolina Panthers, who had a very good day yesterday. How did you feel when those two teams outbid the Bengals for John Franklin Myers and

Devin Lloyd, respectively? I would have liked to have seen the Bengals probably do the Devin Lloyd deal. I feel like that's a deal that they could have gotten done. It's probably something that came down to the guarantees. Lloyd did not get, he was one of the few players yesterday that didn't get a deal that was above what we have projected for him. a lot of these deals came in well above projections. We talked about Jalen Phyllis.

We talked about Adafay OA. You mentioned John Franklin Myers. Those deals came in a healthy amount, you know, 20 to 30%, maybe even a little bit more ahead of above what we had them projected at for annual value per year and even in the guarantee category. And so the way the Bengals got the deals done with the two guys they did sign is they got guys that would agree to their deal. They have strong cash flow for both of these players.

Baye-Mafé, according to Ben Baby's report on Tuesday, getting about 48% of his entire contract value in the first year of that three-year deal, Brian Cook, according to the structure that we have seen is getting 45% of that value in the first year of that deal. So strong cash flow and effectively guaranteed year two, because these are going to be big signing bonuses and make a prohibitive for the Bengals to cut these players in year two. So while they're not doing true guarantees in terms of it's written into the contract, this money is guaranteed. they're still doing their thing that the Bengals have always done where they're doing practical guarantees.

But for some players, that's not good enough. And I think that's probably what happened with Devin Lloyd. I think that's probably what happened with John Franklin Myers because you compare the Franklin Myers deal to the Boye-Mafé deal. And they're similar besides the guarantees. I think the guarantees were the difference there. It's very easy to put together a story in your head that was, yeah, the Bengals were written out John Franklin Myers. and he went elsewhere, the Bengals quickly pivoted and focused on Boye-Mathé with that money immediately afterward and found a player more amenable to their structure.

And Brian Cook, obviously, might have been more amenable to that structure because he gets to come back to Cincinnati, where he played his high school and college football. And so I think that that's probably what it came down to with Devin Lloyd and with John Franklin Myers. And that will always be something that is frustrating about this team because you're effectively guaranteeing the money, you're just not contractually guaranteeing the money. And if that's the difference in you signing Devin Lloyd and not getting a linebacker that you really want, well, that that's something that I think is a bit of a thorn in the side. But we'll see what

direction they go. We're not closing the book, obviously, on free agency yet. There's plenty of time and plenty of players still out there. And if they don't make a satisfactory move, if they don't go get another guy to help on the defensive line, if they don't go get a linebacker that we think stabilizes that unit will be critical, but that hasn't happened yet. I would have done the Devin Lloyd deal to be totally honest with you, but again, I can see where it broke down for the Bengals most likely. I would have done it too. If DJ Reader is an option for the Bengals to bring back as a defensive tackle, would you be in favor of that? I would probably be in favor of that. I think DJ Vider is still a good player. It depends on what the contract's going to look like. It depends on

what the Bengals plan is for T.J. Slateon in that case, I would rather have a Logan Hall kind of player. I would rather maybe even take a swing on, well, maybe not rather. If they're going to get a couple of guys here, a couple of veterans, let's say, Jvonne Hargrave and DJ Reeder together, if they want to get a couple of guys on short-term deals that are toward the, the latter part of their careers, I still love DJ Reader as a human being. I think he's still got the run defense chops that he had when he was with the Bengals. But with those kinds of players, you never know where that age cliff is. I would be interested in both of those guys for very different reasons.

Hargrave, more of your third down. We're going to get after the passer kind of player who still has pass rushing juice. Even in his advanced age for the NFL, he's younger than me. So I shouldn't be talking about his age. But same for DJ Reeder, if they want to go the run defense. route, but I would look for another player there, period. And I know there's been a lot of talk about Jalen Carter as well, Alex. I don't know if those are waters.

The Bengals are ready to go swim in, but it's intriguing to say the least. And something that you should probably be considering. And if it's not Jalen Carter, maybe there's another team that you could get around to and start to kick the tires on some trade exploration if the free agent market doesn't have the the kind of fit that Al Gold and Jerry Montgomery are looking for because they've had interest in some Jerry Montgomery connections so far, and they haven't landed any of them to date. One final stat on Brian Cook, you may have seen this. Gino Stone had 23 missed tackles last season. Brian Cook at 22 in his four seasons combined with the Kansas City Chiefs.

One quick note, the Detroit Lions are signing Isaiah Pacheco, the former running back of the Kansas City Chiefs. That's an interesting signing there after they traded David Montgomery. to the Houston Texans. So how did Brian Cook and Boy Amafey impact the current players on the Bengals defense guys who still need to take a step forward and prove themselves? We'll get into that conversation next on the Bengals squad show. College basketball is nonstop right now. Look, it's champ week. There's big games. There's tight spreads. There's momentum swings every single night. From early tip-offs to late night West Coast shootouts got the West Coast Conference championship game tonight and nine o'clock. There's always action on the board. And right now,

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That's fanduil.com. Fanduil play your game. Interesting day of free agency, day one yesterday around the NFL, Jake, I think for me, the team that really stood out, and I'm not saying they stood out because of the right reasons. I actually kind of think they overpaid for some players, the Las Vegas Raiders. And they gave Tyler Lindelbaum $81 million, not all of it's guaranteed. They gave Nicobee Dean $50 million.

And they also signed Quay Walker. I'm not a huge fan of him personally. They had a very active day to say at the least. But I think back to the Bengals in 2020, when they signed DJ Reader and Von Bell, and there were those who said they overpaid for them. The Raiders have been so bad for so long that maybe they felt like they had to overpay

just to bring in some quality players to kind of get them back to at least competitive relevant status. Yeah, there's a bad team tax. The Raiders paid it. I think the Panthers paid it a little bit yesterday. for at least one of the deals. And the Panthers aren't as bad as the Raiders. Don't get me wrong.

But there's a bad team tax. And we've seen the Bengals have to pay that at times. And the Bengals also pay a no guaranteed money tax at times to make sure that some of these players will agree to their structures. But the Tyler Linderbom deal is, I don't even have words. I did a stream yesterday with Joe Goodberry for about five and a half, six hours for the first bit. a free agency. And when Linderbom signed, I thought there was a typo.

I thought they meant four years, not three years. He reset the center market by 50%. So by that, I mean, Fried Humphrey was making $18 million a year. And Tyler Linderbombs making 50% more than that, $9 million more than that,

$27 million per year. I mean, that's just a pretty unprecedented market spike, resetting the market. And even if you look at like inflation-adjusted things, like percentage of cap at the time of signing, huge reset for the center market. Typically, when you see guys resetting the market and making a couple more million dollars than the next highest paid is because the NFL cap has gone up. Everyone's making more money.

It's just inflation. Inflation occurs in the NFL as well. And say, for example, he, Linderbath, say for example, Creed Humphrey at the time got like 7% of the cheese cap. If you were to take 7% of the Raiders cap today, you would see that that is a bigger number because the cap is bigger, right? It's about $30 million higher. So 7% today is more than 7% last year.

But that deal really spiked my interest. That is an absolutely crazy, crazy deal for a market resetter for Tyler Linderbaum in particular. And look, they're trying to invest around a rookie quarterback contract that they know they've got coming. They're trying to get ahead of this. This is going to be a multi-year process for the Raiders. They have a ton of money to burn. And so that's where they're starting. And good for them.

We'll see if it works out. And the Raiders return to relevancy. I, for them, I hope they do. Now back to the Bengals, because if you want more Raiders stuff, just go listen to Lockdown Raiders and the Raiders Squatch. They do a good job, by the way.

So the thing about the Bengals defense last year that we talked about on this show a lot was, and you and James talked about on Lockdown Bengals, it's the fact that the Bengals defense was just so young. I mean, they didn't have. any veteran leaders. Hendrickson was heard, so he couldn't be it. Logan Wilson was released. He couldn't be it.

And then now you bring in Brian Cook and Boy Mafay. I can't tell you how vital that's going to be for guys like Jordan Battle. Guys who looked like they were making progress as the season unfolded. And then even up front, boy Mafay is going to be a tremendous asset, I believe, for Miles Murphy. And I'll even go as far as say, Shmar Stewart. Because I know a lot of people may be out on him, but he's only been in the NFL for one season. And the guys in the Bengals defense last year did not have the adequate resources to really develop throughout the course of the season. I mean, it was a lot of trial and error,

to put it nicely, I would say. But now there are veteran leaders on this defense, Jake, and I can't tell you how important that is. Yeah, I think veteran leadership is part of it. We talked about that. I think the role they play will be part of it as well. Boye-Maffei is going to be almost exclusively an outside rusher. I don't think he's going to kick inside much, if at all. He's not really done that in his career. And so you wonder where the roles are for the down roster defense events, in particular last year's first round picture,

Mark Stewart. And what does it mean for having Miles Murphy, who is ascending and drawing praise and leading to potential extension conversations, a fifth-year option conversations? And you have that to go along with the investment with Boye-Mafé and the first-round pick Shamar Stewart. Probably this means Shamar Stewart is going to play a little bit more inside. And when you talk about past rushing downs, he's going to play inside in a wide alignment, probably right over the tackle. And you'll have Mafe or you'll have Miles Murphy outside in a wide alignment. And

we'll see how they deploy those guys. But I think that is one of the schematic differences that you get right away with Mafe is that he and Miles are probably your outside guys on past rushing downs. And right now, if there's no one else added, it'll be Shamar Stewart and probably BJ Hill. Maybe they'll use Chris Jenkins a little bit in this role because they seem to like to, even though Jenkins hasn't shown a lot as a pass rusher yet. Maybe he can take a step in year three. And that's why we're still talking about the interior, right, and the need to go get another interior guy, another pass rusher.

But probably this solidifies Shamar Stewart's role a little bit in year two and points to the direction the Bengals want to go with him, which might be you're going to be more of, an interior pass rusher, we'll play you outside on base downs. And we'll see what progress is in store for Shamar Stewart as well, right? Because he's got all of the burst and straight line speed in the world and power in the world. Similar athletic profile to Boye Amafi, but more athletic in terms of straight line power burst. So maybe there are some lessons there from Boyer Amafi that can be imparted to the young developing Sharmaher Stewart as well. But look, you can never

invest too much in your defensive line. And so hopefully that puts some of the right direction. As far as the safety part of things, I do think it'll be interesting that to see how exactly Brian Cook has used alongside Jordan Battle. Both guys have played a lot of free safety. Both guys can be split field safeties if they want to do more two deep safety stuff. In the latter part of the year, they were playing a lot of single high safety. Brian Cook can do some of that for you as well. But again, he's not like Jesse Bates in that role. He's not as that. or instinctual quite as Jesse Bates. He doesn't have that read that he's going to know where the quarterback's going

before the quarterback necessarily knows where he's going quite as consistently as Jesse Bates. I just have a really high opinion of Jesse Bates. And so I think Brian Cook is really good, but I'm still very interested to see what direction they go at safety where, like what if they do end up drafting Caleb Dounce? How does that reshape the plan for them at safety? Because they're talking so high about Jordan Battle right now, and they did at the combine.

so many members of this Bengals front office and coaching staff. So that one will continue to be interesting. But at the baseline, we know that the tackling will be better at that point. I mean, you have one of the worst tackling safeties in the NFL to one of the best. And I think that for that alone, even if everything else is the same, that's a huge upgrade with the tackling issues this team has had in the last two years. Well, I don't think it's going to be the end. I mean, the two moves they made yesterday, I don't think they're the two biggest moves. You think back to last year on day one of free agency, the Bengals signed, T.J. Slayton and Orrin Berks.

And we all said, okay, fine, but this hopefully is going to be the step to bigger signings. No, it wasn't. Now, Jason Higgins gained extensions, yes, was big. But it was clear that Bengals did not view their defense as needing a lot of new players last year that they do this year. If there's anything that these two signings to me say about the Cincinnati Bengals, is the fact that they recognize their defense was nowhere near where it needs to be for this team to be championship caliber. And that letter that Mike Brown wrote to the fans the day after the last game of the regular season

where he mentions that Zach Taylor and Duke Tobin are the guys, the right guys to help get this team to championship contention again. Okay, great. Duke Tobin at the Combine, we have the resources to attack the off season in a big way. Okay, great. But they're backing it up, and that's the thing that matters. Now, with Brian. They started to, right?

There's more to do. Well, there is. No question about it. They started to, though. These are not, you know, Bengals-type deals. These are real big-boy free agency deals. Sorry to cut you off. Keep going.

No, no, no, you're fine. I think, too, what's interesting is, and you mentioned this earlier with Caleb Downs. He's not off the board for the Bengals. Just because you've done what you've done doesn't mean that Caleb Downs has not in play for you in the NFL draft. I think he is. I personally would like to see Caleb Downs next to Brian Cook. Now, what does it do for a guy like Jordan

Battle. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what the Bengals are going to do with Jordan Battle this off season. I could see them giving them an extension, picking up his fifth year option. I could see them not doing either of those things as well. I think Jordan Battle is a good player. I think he can be a good player, even better player, now that he has a guy like Brian Cook next to him. And that's what I think is interesting here. Because excuse me, when they signed Gino Stone in 2024, the Bengals thought, well, seven interceptions last year, certainly that can help Jordan battle. Wrong. And then this year, they're like, okay, we need to go get a guy that's more than just

interceptions. Brian Cook doesn't have that many interceptions. But what he does have is a high PFF grade. He has very low mistackle rate. I like those things. And you know he is ascending and he's going to spend the prime of his career in Cincinnati. That right there and how it relates to Jordan Battle, I think is a really, really good thing for the Bengals and why they signed Brian Cook.

You got a couple of players here. You mentioned the prime of their careers. You're getting both of these guys at 27 for three years. That's exactly where the Bengals like to play ball. 26, 27 will give you three or four years. And that's how the Bengals do things. That's how they've been doing things. So both of these guys accepting their structures

and really fitting the kinds of player archetypally that they like to go sign, the guys that are ascending for second contracts. both guys that really seem to fit the money that they got, they should help this team. And like we keep talking about, we'll see what's next. Yeah, I think that's the thing that is most exciting to me

because you're seeing them take big swings. They understand that they just can't sit on their hands this offseason. They're not close to winning the Super Bowl, getting back to the playoffs. They maybe thought that the last two off seasons after two straight nine and eight seasons. They went six and 11 last. year. And everything they thought was going to go right last season came back to blow up in their face. They knew they had to fix a ton this off season. They're off to a good start. No activity

so far today as we're doing this. And as you and James continue what you're doing over on lockdown Bengals and Cincinnati Bengals talk, there could be more news that comes today. I hope there is. And we'll talk about what moves we want to see them make. Plus who won day one in free agency. I have a surprise team that I think did. We'll get to that next right here on the Bengals Squad Show. I'm going to tell you, Jake, the one team that I think won yesterday in free agency. And it's not the Carolina Panthers. And it's not the Tennessee Titans either.

I'm going San Francisco. They sign one guy? Who else they signed? They signed one guy. I think they only signed one player. But for me, they're signing Mike Evans. Because you look at what's been going on in their division. They saw the Rams remake.

their secondary. They saw Jackson Smith and Jigba and Rashid shaheed torched them last year in the playoffs. They needed another wide receiver because Brandon Ayuk's not it, clearly. And they wasted a ton of money in him. But getting a guy like Mike Evans, not just a great player, but a guy who has not had any issues throughout his career, aside from Marshawn Latimore, and that's ancient history at this point, they get a guy who has been there done that he's been remarkably productive over his first 11 seasons 12 seasons excuse me I think they got a steal and I think when push comes to shove this upcoming season they will have won this first day of free agency I know it's one move but for me it's a very big one I think it's a good move for them I have a hard time pegging them as winners for one move but it might be the best individual move when you talk about a value per dollar kind of thing I don't know who else is really contending.

I mean, the Panthers signed two guys. And I think they paid a lot of money for Jalen Phillips. I like the Devin Lloyd deal. I do. But I think they paid a ton of money for Jalen Phillips. And hopefully he stays healthy for them. Most of the teams that were very active are not teams that should be contending this year.

There's always zero to heroes in the NFL. There will always be worse to first teams in the NFL. But the most active teams like the Raiders, the Saints. the Titans, like, I mean, they're trying to build around young quarterbacks, but these teams are not good teams. And so we'll see, dude, Daniel Bellinger and Cordale Flot and Wondale Robinson, all of all of, who is Brian Dables, former players and the Giants coming to the Titans?

Is that going to help? Is it going to help them to go get some of Robert Salas, old friends, and Jermaine Johnson and John Franklin Myers, maybe, but those guys weren't very successful as head coaches either. And there are various issues that weren't just their fault with those situations. But it was an interesting day. Again, the teams that were most active are not teams that you expect to be strong contenders. Which contenders were most active?

I mean, the chiefs lost guys, they brought in Kenneth Walker and Kyris Tonga and Aloi Gilman to replace the safety they lost, but they lost both of their corners. I think they were expecting to keep Jaylon Watson. And the Rams traded for one side of the other. essentially took both of the chiefs corners. Maybe you'd like the direction of the Rams have gone. I do so far. The Rams also brought in.

Is that it? They got a long snapper. They brought in a long snapper gone. But, yeah, I mean, they retained Cam Curl, who I would have been interested in for the Bengals. And the two big ones were adding Jalen Watson and Trent McDuffie for them. Houston got re-blankenship from Philadelphia, a big fan of that signing. They've had a good start, I think, to their office. season. The Eagles have, they're losing everybody. I mean, they lost a, they lost one player on

every level of their defense yesterday. Phillips up front. I do agree with you, Carolina, spent a little too much money on Jalen Phillips, especially given, uh, he had a, um, should be a good player if he's healthy. No, he had absolutely. Uh, Nacobie Dean, the Raiders, I think maybe overpaid for him, but very good when healthy like Jalen Phillips. And then read Blankenship, uh, you want to talk about a stalwart at safety. Houston got that to an already very tenacious defense. They also extended Sheldon Rankin's, former Cincinnati Bengals. Yeah. I think going back to the Bengals, obviously they need a linebacker.

They need a defensive tackle. I know Leo Chanel is the name being heavily mentioned. If not him, I go down the linebacker list and I go to Caden Ellis. I've always liked him with the Atlanta Falcons. I don't know, Jake, if you've thought about him a lot. Yeah, we've talked about Caden Ellis. There's a connection to Mike Hodges, the Bengals linebacker coach, well, but once you get past those two guys at linebacker, you're talking about guys that are

pretty long in the tooth, but you're hoping still have some juice left. You're talking about like Levante, David, Bobby Wagner kind of players that still can play Shaq Thompson. It can still play, but they've lost the step a little bit. And after that, like Matt Milano, who seems to be really on a negative trajectory. And then I'm not really sure where you go. Like, Germain Pratt is like Isaiah Simmons, Albanian Roberts. The options, Bobby Okayrackay would be a really interesting one, and Greg Raine Laude would be potentially interesting as some bounce back candidates. The options drive up pretty quick at linebacker, though.

That's why that's probably got to be next. I think there's a lot of guys left out there in the edge market who could be that additional piece for you on the defensive line. If they're looking for one more edge player, there are a few guys that are still interesting on the defensive interior. And that's what I'm looking at next. And again, day two of free agency so far has been really slow. like 11 minutes ago, we have a $2 million cornerback deal that all the national reporters are talking about because things are going that slow right now. And Aishon Robinson was just released by the Panthers. So, is that one that's going to be interesting?

I'm not sure. Should the Bengals go after him? I don't know. I would need to think about that one a little bit. I don't know that I entirely have gotten my head around where Aishon Robinson is at this point in his career. but the options are still out there that we're still out there last night. It's been a really slow day so far, and we might see it continue to be slow for a few more hours. We'll see if things pick up here and we'll see where things go.

It's been quiet on my end too. I'm not necessarily hearing a ton of ideas as to what exactly, specifically the next move might be. Hey, Sean Robinson, real quick. 30 years old turns 31 on March 21st. So that is in 11 days from now. He was on the Rams in 21. You may remember him. He was on their defensive line.

He may have gotten overlooked with Von Miller and Aaron Donald there as well. But could be an interesting debt piece if you make a bigger swing at defensive tackle. I know we've talked defense, defense, defense, and free agency. And obviously, they need to make more moves on that side of the ball. Should they make any free agent signings on the offensive side of the ball? Well, I like Charlie. Kohler and he went out and got $8 million a year, I think, from the rand, chargers, chargers. And so I'm still interested in a more versatile piece at tight end.

I've seen some people ask about a Conquo in various places. I don't think that that's exactly the fit that the Bengals should be looking for more of a receiving only kind of player, a bit smaller. And they have a couple of guys like that in Gaseki. And they brought Tanner Hudson back for better or for worse. they really like him. The quarterbacks really like him and trust him. And so I would still be interested in that depth piece at tight end.

I would still be interested in a swing tackle and upgrading the swing tackle spot where I really don't trust Cody Ford. You think about the edge rushers in this division. If they lose a tackle to an injury, I do not want Cody Ford to be out there dealing with the edge rusher quality in the AFC North. So if you can get better there, I would certainly welcome that. You're looking for an interior offensive line. piece as well and that could even be just a return of Lucas Patrick or a similar caliber player but I would be looking to move on from Cody Ford. I know he's very well liked in the building. I know that the players on the team really respect and enjoy Cody Ford's presence in the

locker room, but the on-field stuff from Cody Ford, despite how fun it was to watch him catch a pass last year and I enjoy that as much as anybody. I would be looking to make some improvements there and maybe they kick the tires on a wide receiver three or depth wide receiver piece. But again, that's pretty low priority to me. I think you could even explore that on day three in the draft where the Bengals have four picks right now. They don't have one in the fifth round, or sorry, five picks. They don't have one in the fifth round, but they have two six, two sevenths. That could let them move up a little bit if they need to somewhere in day three or get a little bit more diverse with what they're targeting for depth.

And so those are the things that I'm thinking about on offense. And the order of priority probably would be some swing tackle, tight end, potential wide receiver depth, and a backup interior lineman if they want to go that direction. And they want to bolster things with Jalen Rivers and Matt Lee being their only guys right now. Did you think Washington overpaid for O'DafoA? I think a little bit. But I also get it. he's one of the better he's probably after jaylon phillips he's probably the best young

pass rusher pure pass rusher available it's just that he's he's like trey hendricksen when he's coming from the saints he's just such a two-down player and such a late breakout and so how much of how much of oway is real oway and how much is like is this a one-hit wonder and i think some of that concern does exist for brian cook as well a bit of the one-hit wonder one-year wonder kind of contract year bump for Brian Cook. I'm less concerned about it there. Adafay O'A took a change of scenery to get into that Jesse Minter defense in Los Angeles to take that step. And they really hit him from the run game, both in Los Angeles and in Baltimore.

So for a designated pass rusher type of player, it is a lot of money. But if he does go on the Trey Hendrickson trajectory and he is that impactful as a past rusher, and he could be because it does seem like he's taking a step, then they'll probably be pretty happy with that contract in a few years. But it's a little bit more than I thought. But again, like, that's going to happen in free agency. And when you're talking about like a couple million dollars a year, probably not the end of the world for most teams.

What was your initial reaction to the Raven sending two first round picks for Max Crosby? Yeah, I think it's pretty annoying, right? It makes them better in the short term. I think Max Crosby is a good player. I'm glad that Amarius Mins exists for the Bengals. And I'm looking forward to that matchup. that'll be fun in some ways. As long as it's not primetime in Baltimore on Thursday night, it'll be fun.

Max Crosby has four career regular season sacks in three games against the Cincinnati Bengals. They all came when Ryan Finley was playing quarterback back in 2019. The Bengals have done a decent job against Max. He's had some injury issues of his own. And so the middle ground here, the probable reality of this thing is, what version of Max Crosby are they getting? Has he been slow? down by the injuries the last two years or will they get the pre-injury version of max crosbie i would bet

they'll get a pretty good year out of him at least this year uh i would bet he'll be very motivated and they will be very motivated to do everything they can to get the most out of him you can see that outcome but if if he does deal with injuries again if those injuries have started to slow him down we might look back on that one and say boy that's a lot to pay even if he's good i think it's a lot to pay but it doesn't matter how much you pay if you win. And that is what the move signifies for the Ravens. They're trying to get this thing this year. They're trying to make significant moves to help themselves this year.

They have a lot of work to do themselves, I think, on that team. And they're going to be trying to do it with the first year head coach. But they took a swing. And sometimes you take swings in the NFL and you see what kind of results you get. It's a big price to pay for a good player. and we'll see just how good Max Crosby is for the Ravens. And good thing that Bengals have all five starters in their offensive line from last year returning this season.

But I will say this about the Ravens, Jay, because I think what we're going to see is they're going to get a lot of hype once again this offseason. But I would remind everybody, Derek Henry is now 32 years old. He's a year older. Lamar Jackson was heard last year. He's also injury from. Max Crosby were mentioning he's injury from.

Ropwan Smith has lost a step from what he was a few years ago. You do have Kyle Hamilton. He do have Lamar Jackson, as I mentioned. But your offensive line is going to be different. You have a first year head coach, first year offensive coordinator. It is a big risk. But if it pays off, they will deserve credit. Obviously, we hope Amaris Mims and the Bengals' offensive line to keep him at bay when they play the Ravens twice in the regular season.

Yeah. Lamar's a good player. They're going to have to figure out that offensive line. I think that's going to be what they have left to do. They're going to restructure Lamar Jackson's contract to free up a bunch of cap space. And they'll have to figure the rest out. I think a big one to figure out is going to be Matt Abike, whether or not he's returning. He was training apparently recently.

There's some talk that it was a career ender for him. And that's a big one that we don't really know on the outside yet. If Matt of BK gets back, that's a huge shot in the arm for that roster. And we'll see how it all plays out. They have work to do too. I think a lot of these teams in the AFC North have quite a bit of work left to do here this offseason. We'll keep it here on the Bengals Squad show.

We got another episode Friday, Jake, you and James Lockdown Bengals, plenty of content coming out on that end. This week, Bengals squad the twice a week, long-form conversational supplement to the daily lockdown Bengals podcast that Jake Lisco hosts alongside James Rupin. We are the number one sports podcast, American America and the world, your team every day for more on how to become a member of the Everydayer Club.

This is a lockdown podcast.com slash every dayer. For Jake Lisco, at Jake Liscoe and Coach Arfalera earlier, who had a dip to go to practice with the UFL's or Storm training camp in Arlington, Texas. I'm Alex Frank and Frankie underscore 90. Have a great rest of your day. Have a great week. We'll talk to you Friday right here on the Mango Squad Show.

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