Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - BENGALS SQUAD SHOW: Zac Taylor RETURNING? in 2026, Joe Burrow THINKING about "a lot of things."

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

With the bombshell report that Zac Taylor has not one, but two years left on his contract, it's fair to think Taylor will be back as the Bengals' head coach in 2026. Alex Frank, Jake Liscow, and Art Valero discuss how much validity there is to this report about Taylor's contract and if it means he will be back for an eighth season as the Bengals head coach in 2026. If he is, what plan does he need to get the Bengals back to Super Bowl contention? Then there's Joe Burrow's comments he made on Wednesday, when asked if he thinks he'll be here for his whole career. Burrow responded by saying "you think about a lot of things." What could Burrow mean by those comments? How worried should Bengals fans be about their quarterback? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rocket Money Take control of your finances and cancel your unwanted subscriptions with Rocket Money. Go to https://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON today. Aura Frames For a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting https://AuraFrames.com to get $35 off Aura’s best-selling Carver Mat frames - named #1 by Wirecutter - by using promo code LOCKEDON at checkout. FanDuel If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. 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 LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. 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) 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 if you thought it was a sure thing or a likable thing that Zach Taylor was going to be gone in 2026, well, there's a new contract that might make things complicated for Zach Taylor's prospects in 2026, Jake, let's go. Yeah, it'll be a shock if the Bengals moved on from Zach Taylor and this coaching staff with two years left on their deal as opposed to the one that we thought was left for Zach. And coach, that means only one thing. More pressure on ownership to build a more competent team around their franchise quarterback Joe Burrow. Oh, absolutely. And basically what they're telling you as the fan is, are you ready for what's coming or are you ready for what's gone? Is the status quo good or what do we need to do to continue to build a championship and bring it home to Cincinnati? Zach Taylor says he has a plan to return the Bengals to championship status. We'll discuss what that plan could include and much more coming up on 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. Welcome to the Bengals Squad Show. show. We are live on the lockdown Bengals YouTube channel and the lockdown podcast. Network, the number one sports podcast, network in America and the world, your team every day. Today's episode of Bengals Squad is brought to you by Price Fix. Download the Price Fix app today

and used code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. I'm Alex Frank at Frankie underscore Natty on Twitter. He's Jake Lisco at Jake Liscoe at Jake Liscoe on Twitter. Coach Ard-Vallero at Arthur Valero 54 on Twitter. This is the Bengals Squad. Twice a week, supplemental to lockdown mangos, law-in-form conversational show on the Cincinnati Bengals. And boy, there are plenty of news surrounding the Bengals to get to on this show. Jake and James have been covering it all week on lockdown mangles. Zach Taylor and the bombshell reporting from the Athletics Paul Dana Jr. That Zach Taylor does not have just one year left in his contract.

He has two. And that kind of complicates things as to whether or not he will be returning for 2026, given the way the Bengals operate, it's fair to assume that it could be that he returns next season. But Jake, let's go, is that a certainty or is that a formality that he's going to be the Bengals head coach for an eighth season in 2026, even with the failures of this season? Yeah, I think the word you use could is more generous than the word I would use, given the Bengals history with head coaches and the contract situation for Zach. We also know that Al Golden is under contract for the duration of Zach Taylor's contract.

So Golden in sync with Taylor, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Dan Pitcher's contract was updated last offseason to also run alongside Zach Taylor's contract. And I think a lot of people actually have a much more favorable opinion of Dan Pitcher than most of the coaches on this staff right now. fewer to polls public opinion, and I did poll public opinion this week, and something like 1,600 out of 1,900 people that responded to that poll are interested in seeing the coaching staff overhauled, and those people, I think, will be disappointed. I had reason to think that the Bengals could consider this move on the coaching staff. If the season finishes the way that it could finish, the season's gone the way it's gone, I would make an argument to this front office that the way they finish these last

last three games shouldn't actually move the needle for you in terms of your decision making with this coaching staff because these games, you're out of playoff contention. Yeah, maybe you can get the team to win, but you're playing against other teams that also have no playoff aspirations. You're playing against a Miami team that you can make an argument as tanking by pulling to a Tongue Vailoa from their starting lineup releasing Matthew Judon. So there's a lot going on there, but given the Bengals history with Marvin Lewis and even before Marvin Lewis in the 90s, given the Bengals proclivity to not want to pay coaches who are not working for them, I would use a word stronger than could.

I would be pretty surprised at this point if Zach Taylor and the staff are not back for 2026, both between the contract situation, the way Zach has talked in the last two weeks in his press conferences, and the Bengals history of how they hold on to coaches, right or wrong, longer than their fan base tends to want that to happen. You're absolutely right. And the difference between, and Zach Taylor talked about this on Wednesday, when it comes to the way this season is gone. He says he feels right now very similarly to how we felt in 2020 when the Bengals were just, they were sitting on just two wins going into their week 15 Monday night game against the Steelers. They beat the Steelers who were leading the AFC North.

They beat the Texans on the road. And they got those two wins, which a lot of people, I think, kind of understood, okay, Zach Taylor's going to be here. in 21, which he was. Mike Brown famously said, we remain bullish on the foundation that Zach Taylor is building. Next year, we were earn our stripes. And to their credit, they did. They went to the Super Bowl.

But this is a much different situation. You're coming off three seasons without making the playoffs with your franchise quarterback and Joe Burrow. I don't care if he's been injured in two of those seasons or not. You're basically saying to the fans and look, this is the other problem too. The front office, they don't speak during the regular season. There was that tense back and forth exchange between Zach Taylor and Mike Petralia of CLNS Media yesterday. When Mike basically told Zach, we would talk to ownership about this contract that you're asking us to, but we don't get to during the season.

Zach goes, well, I'm sorry. But that's the problem, coach, is that this front office, which they don't have to talk during the regular season, but by them not and only talking when they absolutely have to throughout the year, that is a testament to the severe lack of transparency that is prevalent from this organization. Is that how you see it? Absolutely. You know what? I mean, it comes down to it is fans want to know. Their only avenue to get information is through the media.

And if you have ownership and front office people that are unwilling to talk, especially through the season and the only mouthpiece is somebody who's had an opportunity to build it, but yet it's not built. It leaves a whole lot of doubt. And that transparency doesn't go far because eventually they're going to start to show it through their attendance and through the merchandise sales and everything else. And basically in today's modern day, hey, those. move on and grab themselves another team.

Yeah, and that's the unfortunate thing. And do I see that happening with a lot of Bengals fans? No, but I think it's interesting that a lot of fans right now have a lot of apathy towards the organization more so than ever. And I say more so than ever, even then before 2021 or 22, because they know this organization, or I'm sorry, Joe Burrow is capable of leading the Bengals to uncharted territory and unprecedented heights. We saw it in those back-to-back AFC championship seasons.

But until something changes in the organization, I just feel like, unfortunately, Charlie Clippert had this last night on Twitter. What Joe Burrow said yesterday, and we're going to get to that, this could be either when the Joe Borough era gets back on track, or it could be the signaling of this could go off the rails. And I don't think any of us would have thought that three years ago. But Jake, if Zach Taylor does indeed have a plan to get this team back to championship status,

and I've seen him build a championship program and culture from the ground up, that's fine. But can you do it again with the massive expectations with your franchise quarterback, now knowing who he is, and also a fan base that is going to give you probably minimal support, if anything. Like, if you're putting yourself in Zach Taylor's shoes, Jake, what is your step one in this plan to get the Bengals back to championship contenders? I don't know that it starts with Zach Taylor is the thing. I'm sure there are things that he will revisit in his program and try to do differently. And right or wrong, the Cincinnati Bengals involve their coaching staff in the talent acquisition process.

and they need to do better in that category. And that's why I say, I don't know that it starts with Zach Taylor because part of this problem is ownership last year in the first week of free agency. They signed T.J. Slate and they sign Oren Burks, fine. But then they spend the rest of the week trying to get deals done with T. Higgins and Jemar Chase,

it should already be done. Like if you're going to do those deals, you cannot get to free agency and still have those deals hanging over your head. So when you ask, what can Zach do? Pressure the front office to give him what he needs. in terms of personnel. That's where I would start.

And I think that Joe Burrow has echoed some of this as well. And I know we're going to talk about Burroughs comments later on. But I don't really know where you can go as a coaching staff when you just don't have the guys. And I think I said that on this show a couple of weeks ago. I don't think Al Golden took this job expecting for this to be the amount of resources he had available to him on the defensive side of the ball. I think he expected to have a few more veterans than he has. And the Bengals have this habit of every year getting to the draft with a pressing dire need.

And unfortunately, in the last two years, that pressing dire need that the Bengals have felt themselves entering the draft with has been a weakness of the draft class. Last year, it was linebacker. And they doubled it because they feel like they desperately need linebackers. It wasn't a strong linebacker class. two years ago, they desperately need defensive tackles. They double dip, not a good defensive tackle class. And that sort of practice from the front office, I think, is more under scrutiny for me

than the coaching staff. I think that from a coaching staff perspective, you need to evaluate your message or approach, figure out if you can find a way to get a jolt into this team. I think that's where a lot of the conversation around finding a new coaching staff comes from is perhaps a message is no longer resonated. perhaps there needs to be some different way to organize and motivate. Because outside of play calling and game management, what else can we really expect to be different?

These are all good coaches. These are NFL coaches. These are the best of the best at what they do in the world. And sometimes it doesn't work. I think Brian Callahan, for example, is a good coach. He's a good football coach. Didn't work for him in Tennessee for a multitude of reasons. It doesn't mean he's a bad coach.

And so I think that it's really hard to figure all that out. One thing that you could talk about if you're Zach Taylor is maybe a little bit more in the way of resources for game day management. I still think that there are some issues around his division of labor on game day between being a head coach and calling plays. It doesn't seem like he wants to give up play calling. That will probably be a conversation at some point, again, just in terms of head coach responsibilities and division of labor there. but it's really hard for me to answer the question as to what the coaching staff can do when I feel like so much of the problem goes above the coaching staff's head, not to absolve the coaching staff and the way this season has gone.

Zach said it himself that where they are this season lies at his feet. But there's so much that needs to change beyond that too. There is. And it's yet again, here we are talking about the Bengals front office being the problem. And yet just when you thought after the. the 2022 season that the Bengals were headed in the right direction. They were going to be contenders for a long period of time with Joe Borough and Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, here we are again.

And the same issues have come up that came up before this Arab Bengals football coach. When you're a coach on a staff in an organization, how frustrating is it for the entire coaching staff, particularly the head coach, to come into work knowing that the front office may not be putting the adequate resources in front of them to compete. Extremely. I mean, very, very difficult situation to be in. When you step in the building, you only have one focus, and that is putting your players in the best position to play and win and to have success.

And we as position coaches, I mean, every player in your position room probably makes more money than you do. So your job is to get them to where they can make even more and get that generational wealth amongst themselves. Now, if you're not getting any help from above, you realize that. You can go in every week, check the boards in the personnel office, find out what veterans are available. If you have history with those veterans, and then you can sell them, find out if there are they available what's their issue what's the problem let's seek to go find them but when just like the organization here if your only mouthpiece is the head coach you have nowhere else to turn to go and ask those questions ownership is not they're not

able to answer your questions and they refuse to during the course of the season, so you get that very short window after the season to find out what direction your new team is going to go in. And it's frustrating for those players, for those coaches, for the fans, for that matter, and for the advertisers. They don't know. It is beyond frustrating when you don't know what exactly is going on 100% at the time within the organization as a fan, in my case, that you, it's just beyond frustrating when you commit so much time and money to the team that you root for. And yet they're not telling you what they're going to do.

They say actions speak louder than words. Unfortunately for the Bengals, that their lack of actions speak louder than words. Joe Burrough spoke yesterday. He says, or when he was asked by Paul Dana Jr., if he can see. a scenario where there's any point in this career where he's not with the Bengals. And he said, you think about a lot of things. And we got a lot of things to talk about that when we return right here on the Bengals Squad show. Today's edition of Bengals Squad is brought to you by Price Picks.

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Cincinnati Bengals, Jake Liscoe with us during the week. Coach Arfieler with us during the week and on game days. I'm Alex Frank with you on both shows as well. So Joe Burrow spoke yesterday and once again made some comments that have been circulating the new cycles throughout sports media. He's been heavily talked on ESPN, NFL network. And yesterday the big comment he made that when viral was when asked about if he could see a scenario where he is not in Cincinnati at any point during his career, not 2026, but at any point in his career, he said, in quote, you think about a lot of things, end quote. Jake, let's go.

When you heard that, your first reaction was what? I think about a lot of things. Doesn't mean I want them all to happen, man. I think about, man, what if I drop my phone in the phone screen cracked? I'm not trying to crack my phone screen. I think about buying a new car. I'm not actively car shopping. I think about, man, what if I was a Rams guy?

And this came up on lockdown Bengals today. I'm not going to be a Rams guy. I'm here. I'm covering the Bengals. This is what I do. You think about a lot of things. So there's a couple ways this can go. First, you could take it in the least charitable interpretation you want,

which is like, yeah, I mean, if this thing doesn't get right, I'm at some point not closed off to going to another team if I don't think I can win here. That's absolutely something that Joe Burrow could mean by that. It could also mean Joe Burrough is a pretty cerebral guy. He's answering questions honestly. I do think he knows what he's saying here. So I don't think it's quite this simple. But it could just mean, yeah, I've thought about it.

Of course I've thought about it. And Paul Danaer's follow-up question invoked Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, both of whom played for multiple teams in their NFL career. There was not a follow-up question that asked, ideally, would you play in Cincinnati for your whole career? that question wasn't asked. We didn't get to hear his answer to that question. He could have volunteered that himself, but if perhaps Joe Burroughs' intention in his comments was to say, yeah, I've thought about a lot of things.

If things don't get better here, yeah, I'd be open to playing for another team. If he wants to send that message upstairs, he's allowed to do that. In that same press conference, he said that he has a lot of confidence in the coaching staff. So we can take that for what it's worth or not what it's worth. He said that his availability has been a problem and acknowledge that when he's not available,

then how upset can he really be if he's not there to make his own mark on wins and losses, which has obviously been the case a lot this year. It was not the case last year. Last year remains uniquely frustrating in that regard, but then he missed a lot of time the year before as well. He acknowledged his own role in being available and talked about that, being a big focus for him is making sure that he can stay available and do what he can to be as healthy as possible going forth. He also talked about the need for things to change. And he said it

maybe isn't hiring new people. Maybe it's the same people. But what we've been doing hasn't been working. Something needs to change. That is a very clear message that says, hey, what we're doing isn't good enough. This is not meeting the standard. And I do think that long term, if those changes don't happen, maybe it's when T's contract expires and Jamar's contract expires. If they haven't found a way to figure things out by then, I do think there's a timer on this thing. Joe Burroughs' patience is not eternal and it shouldn't be. But I don't think that alarm bells are going off for me in the immediate term. The Bengals have to answer here, but Joe Burrow isn't asking out today. That, that doesn't seem close to reality to me.

I agree with you, and I don't think he is. He said he absolutely cannot see a scenario where he's not the Bengals quarterback in 2026. So that's reassuring. But you mentioned the fact that when he says there needs to be changes to the way we've done things because they have not worked the last three seasons, that's a very direct message, as you said, to the front office. Hey, what we have done has not been working.

And that's why these last three games do matter. think even for Zach Taylor and Al Golden. Coach is a member of the coaching staff. When you hear your quarterback say, I've been thinking about it, you think about a lot of things, and then you hear what we've been doing the last three years has not worked. How do you take that? Being in the building, you too are aware of what has gone on in the last three years. And I'm sure all those coaches, they've thought about a lot of things too.

You know, what is the length of my contract? Do I need to get out of here? Do I need to go and move on? But right now, you know, just within the last two weeks, as an example, you know, Joe goes out and he says, he answers questions that are very open-ended. It's almost as if there are, you know, he might be trying to gear him towards management, but is management listening? And are they giving them an answer back?

I mean, they're quiet. And so within the context of the questions that are asked, no one seems to be following up except for about two or three days later, Joe will say what he really meant. Yeah. You know, when the speculation out there is all of a sudden, oh, you, myself, Mike, Jake, you know, we all have. have our own thoughts about what he meant.

And all of a sudden, when those come to Stu, then all of a sudden now the clarification, well, no, it really wasn't Mike. And then he leaves it at that. And those follow-up questions are big. And they need to know. And that's the transparency part of it. There's nothing coming out of ownership.

There's only open-ended questions, you know, whether they are very systematically thought out and presented and you're only affecting one person. Well, don't say it in public. Go talk to the one person. And let's see what comes out of it. And then you can go ahead as the face of the organization, here are your grievances of what needs to have happened.

Yeah. Things the last three years haven't worked out. Joe, what are your suggestions? Leak them through your agent. Do something. But right now you've got a whole bunch of people. sitting on their hands, and nothing's done, but we've got three games left, and let's hopefully we can win one.

For what it's worth, I think those conversations are happening behind the scenes, and there is a history of them happening in the organization, so we'll see maybe the communication hasn't been as robust this year as he's used to. He was asked about changes like that, and would he like to be informed, would he like to be part of the process? He said that he would like to be looped in, but he understands that his role is not to be the general manager of the Cincinnati Bengals. And last year, there was a bit of a different approach, right?

It was, we need to bring back T, we need to extend Jamar, we need to bring back Mike G, we need to extend Trey Hendrickson. And he was very clear about some goals for the front office, which they went about in their own way and sort of got done, right, in their own way, the way the bengals do business. But we'll see what Burroughs approach is for Radio Row. maybe he doesn't go on the speaking tour to advocate his plan again publicly this offseason. It'll be interesting to see how it's different. But even Duke Tobin said he has a meeting with Joe every year, and it might be more than one meeting.

But there is some dialogue there between the Bengals director of player personnel and their star quarterback. I think there is that awareness that Joe Burrow can be a resource to them in terms of team building, that he has opinions that matter. and I think that that is at least somewhat understood by some in the building, but then there's a competing force of the way the Bengals do things, right? And some of those things are just slow, slow, slow to change. And you can't be that way when you have a quarterback like Joe Burrow. And I think that's what frustrates a lot of fans is because the first three seasons of his career,

it looked like this organization was starting not to be that way. They were getting out in front of problems. And yeah, some of it was still reactionary. The reaction to the Super Bowl was, okay, we need a better offensive line. What are they doing for a next month? They went out and signed three starting offensive linemen for the next season. But you look at the last three years, their approaching free agency has not been what it was in those two off seasons in 21 in 22. They went out and, you know, instead of trying to sign high prize free agents, kind of went more middle of the road, bottom feeder type.

players don't mean to, you know, criticize certain players that maybe are, you know, not as high prized as, let's say, or Linda Brown Jr. or Lyle L.L. Collins or Trey Hendrickson. So that's where Joe Borough is saying. We need to get back to what worked for us in 21 and 22. The problem now is the Bengals organization has been in the spotlight more than it has ever been. And when I say the Bengals organization, I mean the front office. They're under the spotlight. They're under scrutiny more than they've ever been nationally because of Joe Burrow, because of how good they have looked. But unfortunately, if they don't change their ways, as Paul Dana Jr. said, they're just going to be a tantalizing irrelevant footnote in NFL history. And Joe Barrow doesn't

want that. But I wonder if they are still able to after the last three seasons, Burroughs injuries, missing the playoffs last year. See, that kind of creates this dark cloud over what's occurred at Paycor Stadium in the last two weeks with what Borough and Taylor have been saying and the reports out on Taylor's contract, if they had just made the playoffs last year and Burrow played at an MVP level, then this season would have been not, I'm not saying it would have been easier to stomach, it's not, but at least you would have said, okay, three of the last four years, we made the playoffs, our quarterbacks played at an MVP level. The problem now is you have three straight years with no playoff appearances. Can you get free agents to come play for

you like Joe Burrow was able to do in 2021. I'm not sure if this franchise is going to be able to do that even with Joe borrow if you keep a guy like Zach Taylor. And that's why even after the report of Taylor's contract, I still think because I didn't like the way Zach Taylor handled those questions yesterday. I thought it came off as very standoffish. And he's the spokesperson for the Bengals front office. That's what he is.

And we're talking about. I could very easily see if these three games go south and you. you clearly see, like we saw last Sunday, that this team has quit on Zach Taylor, there could be a change in head coach. I get the two-year contract thing. I get the history. I also get that there are higher standards in this organization because of what they achieved in 21 and 22. And I think Zach Taylor may be held to those. The other thing, and pardon if I'm going on a tangent here, is let's not forget this thing. Mike Brown is now 90 years old. I think that is a factor into the decision-making process when it comes to anything this off-season because he wants to win.

If fans can say that he doesn't care about winning, I've never believed that because he's been around football all his life. He's the son of a head of a head coach owner, one of the legendary figures in the NFL Paul Brown. I think he, I think that could be a deciding factor. And I'm not trying to be morbid here, but he's like, I'm 90 years old. Like, I want to make sure I see the best of this franchise. That could impact decisions that can make. made. Do you guys feel that sentiment? I think that Mike is who he is and you don't make many changes in your 90s. I don't know that for sure. But I think Mike is very much who he is.

I wouldn't necessarily expect him to suddenly become desperate. If anything, you can see the opposite. I do think that if the last three games are disastrous and if it just looks terrible, then you could certainly consider that things would open up that conversation a little bit more with ownership. They're playing against three backup quarterbacks here. Quinn Ewers is starting his first game for a Miami team that appears to be tanking against Shadur Sanders, who's only played one decent football game this year against the Raiders. And Jacoby Brissette's been good, but the Cardinals are one in whatever. They've won one game since they started two and oh, which,

isn't too dissimilar from the Bengals. But if you have Joe Burrow out there, a quarterback, and you lay a couple more eggs, you go get blanked again or score seven points or 10 points or whatever it is, and your offense looks terrible and your defense can't slow down

these backup level quarterbacks, yeah, if it looks terrible, I think there's a conversation. I think their expectation is that they're going to win these three games. I think that's ownership's expectation here. And if that's the case, even if they go two and one.

I mean, you can go back to Shula for this history with the Bengals. They really care about the way these teams finish, even if they are eliminated from the playoffs, even if there aren't playoff implications on the line. They put so much stock into this stuff that if they win a couple of these games, that's probably enough. Art, what do you think? Well, you know what?

I mean, it goes back to, yeah, you can finish great. And ownership wants you to finish the, season great because they have something to build on for next year. You know, we can get rid of some guys, we can draft people, we can get free agents that are going to be, you know, unrestricted this summer, you know, and they can kind of dangle that carrot out in front of you with a strong finish. But unfortunately, when you're all of a sudden, everybody else has sat through the other 14 games and see the real truth of what the team is and what you've done to build this up.

And yeah, granted, your star quarterback has been injured for a majority of this season. Those are great. But are they going to fill it? And if you finish well, you also have to look at it and say, you know what? We just won three games. Now that puts us at seven wins. we're no longer drafting in the top 10. We're now drafting, you know, around 20th or 17th.

Your choices get a little limited. And it's built that way for just that. Now, you never want to just quit. Now, the coaches won't quit. The head coach won't quit. The team shouldn't quit because that's not in their DNA. And it's up to the front office to cure that.

You know, there's one thought that I was thinking about every team that I've been on, whether it be Tampa Bay, Tennessee, St. Louis, when they were the Rams, or Seattle, after each contest, the ownership

or flat with the GM met with the head coach. And we never knew what was being talked about. We only heard it after the fact in staff meetings, but that was kind of the marching orders of what's going to be said after that. And I don't know what's been said. You know, only Zach and the people that participate in those meetings,

but it's not, you know, we talked about it the other day. I mean, you know, the coach speak that comes out, okay, take it for what it's worth. You know, it's, you know, you're dodging bullets. Yeah. And that's why these last. three games do matter. Because if you do go out and let's say win them, then you can look at the other progress that has been made this season. Offensive line has been better. Running game has been better. Defense has made some strides over the last three games. But if this team, Jake, as you

mentioned, if they go out and lay eggs these next three games and it looks like this team is quit, then I, listen, I think major change could be coming. And if it doesn't, it's just going to go back to the point, then what does, how much really does this franchise care about its reputation and its fans? Well, here's how you know this team isn't quitting. Joe Borough is playing on Sunday. Should he be, though? We discussed that. Plus, get a first look at the Miami Dolphins next on the Bengals squad show. Joe Burrow is playing on Sunday, even though the Bengals are eliminated from playoff contention. He has started each of the last three games, one and two. He's now, two and three this season.

Actually, he's three and two, excuse me, this season in his starts. Unfortunately, the Bengals, as I mentioned, they can't get into the playoffs. They've been eliminated. So is this the right decision? James Rapine, who will be on this show much more during the off season, has vehemently said he should, or the Bengals should not be playing Joe Burrow. Jake Liscoe, where are you on this? Are the Bengals making the right decision playing their franchise quarterback in the last three

regular season games, albeit with nothing to play for as far as the playoffs. I'm just curious. Where did James say that he shouldn't be playing? He said this on a Cincinnati Bengals talk video that he did with Tony Pike recently. So he does not think that Joe Burrough should be playing. Jake, what about you? I see no reason to sit him for the next couple of weeks in particular if he's healthy. These are teams that should not have significant threats to the past.

These are two of the worst pass rushes in the league. I think a little bit differently about the Miles Garrett game in week 18. It is also your home finale. It's your season finale. It's against a division rival. So, I mean, he is going to play if he's healthy. We all know that. Should he play?

I mean, what difference does it really make outside of it gives you a chance to show what you think you are if you're this team, this coaching staff, these players on offense. And so I don't feel like I have a terribly strong opinion here. I generally think that healthy football players should play football. And that's the big question, right? He's dealing with a knee injury of some sort this week. He's been full go at practice so far as far as we know. It doesn't seem like a major issue, something that he would play through any other season we would expect. So I don't have a terribly strong opinion here, to be honest. I think if he wants to play, it's at the end of the world needs to be safe.

If he does get hurt, that's obviously catastrophic. But you know, you also can't live in fear of getting hurt when you play the sport. And that's something that is discussed quite a bit by players too. You know, he's a football player. He wants to play. The quote he had yesterday was he feels like everyone wants him to not play football and he's fighting everybody. He's a ball player.

He just wants to play. And I'm sympathetic to that argument. Well, Joe Burroughs very smart. He understands what's being said. about him playing, even though the Bengals record is what it is. But at the same time, if you do sit him, that basically makes him, that makes the season a wash for him. He barely even played.

And then you're going to start all over again next training camp. Well, does he have the reps? Does he have, you know, this and this? And then you worry about getting off to a fast start, regardless of what this team, coaching staff and the organization look like. Like, if Joe Burrow wants to play, he should play. but it's hard for me, and I'm not saying I'm against this. I'm actually for Joe Burrow playing.

It's hard for me to look at what the commanders are doing with Jaden Daniels, who like Joe Burrow. He's hurt. He's hurt. If he's hurt, then it's a different conversation. He's not hurt. That's true. But he, although he did come up on the injury report this week with a minor knee injury,

even though he practiced in full. So how much is it really going to matter? You just worry, as a fan, you worry, okay, we've seen this happen before, it could happen again. Unfortunately, that is a worry. And if it does, I don't even want to know what the state of the organization would be like, given what has happened this week. But coach, when you have your franchise quarterback at 4 and 10 starting on Sunday,

what does that say or what should that say to the rest of his teammates, that he's still going out there and being the leader of this team? To compete, to compete, and to compete to win. and I'm here for the long haul, and I want to make sure, even though it didn't go out and go the way we planned it to go, nor did my season end up being the way it was. I'm still here. I'm standing, and I'm standing with you for us to go out and to compete all three games, and don't worry about what you have no control over, which is the injury aspect of the game. Don't, I mean, that'll happen if it does happen. And if you're playing full speed and you're playing hard, those things don't happen.

It's when you ease up and you're just trying to get through to sudden catastrophic happen. And so I, you know, let him wing it. Let him spin it up and down the field. And again, with the exception of, you know, Miles Garrett at the end, you know, and if you have to play Miles, Garrett and work on chipping and keeping the tight hand and doing those things to keep him healthy, so be it. But let the kid go out there and compete and show his teammates. We're here to win.

I'm not going through the motions. I'm sorry. I just don't know of an example of a healthy stars just not playing. That's the other thing. Because they're like when has this happened? Everyone out there who the fans that think this. maybe there are examples of this that I'm not aware of. But I can't think of examples of times when star players who are healthy

have just not played just because their teams eliminated. Like if there's questions about the players and their place on the team like Tua, right? If Joe Burrow is Tua and you're like, well, you know what? Maybe Tua isn't our long-term answer. Maybe we need a different quarterback. Then fine, bench him. But Burrow is the long-term future of this team and he's healthy.

So I just don't know that I really get it. I don't know that it would be precedented. Maybe the Bengals should do this unprecedented thing, but it goes to the antithesis, as coach is saying, of the way these guys are wired, the competitors that they are, the competitors that everyone involved in a national football league team should be. I think if you start to think about it,

and even from wherever that idea came from, that's not how it should be going. I think that's just an energy leak. These kids, they signed on 17 plus games. And they've got a contract, and they've got an obligation to their teammates to play, go play. I think that brings to mind two things. Number one is Brett Farr, in 2005,

the Packers were like, they were a dismal, four and 12. They had like three wins in December, and yet he still started every single game. You can look at the years where the New Orleans Saints were eliminated from playoff contention. all Drew Breeze out there. And then you go to 2020, where if Joe Burrow hadn't gotten injured against Washington in week 11, the Bengals would have had two or three wins going into week 12.

So you were just going to sit him because you were eliminated from playoff contention? No, that's how this organization and this coaching staff think. They want to win games. Not just them, though. This is the NFL. Like, guys don't sit if they're healthy and performing. It's just not a thing that happens in the NFL. There is too much on the line.

and there's too much pride. Coach, you've been in locker rooms. There's too much pride on the line to just sit when you're eliminated from playoff contention. Every game matters. You can put stuff on tape. And that's what Joe Borough wants to do. And he knows, okay, if we win these next three games, we build some momentum going into next season. Whether that means we make changes or not, I still believe they will because Joe Burroughs saying it. You at least have something to build on going into the off season.

let's change some of the ways we've been doing business over the last three years, and let's get back to building teams like we did earlier on in my career. The good thing is, and Jake, you've talked about this, and James has outlined this as well, is that Burroughs contract kind of goes down in terms of how much it's kicked in to the salary cap situation. So you have a little more flexibility than with your quarterback making as much money as he is. And that's why these games still matter.

you want to go into the offseason on as much as you can of an upward trajectory. I know there are fans out there who are going to say tank. I am never one of those fans. Like there's never a game that I want the Bengals to lose, which brings to mind the Miami Dolphins. The Bengals play them on Sunday. Jake, did you know that this is six years? Sunday is six years to the day that the Bengals lost in Miami to clinch the number one pick

to draft Joe Burrow. There were Bengals fans that did. not want them to win so they could get the number one overall pick. What do you remember about that time? Yeah, I was one of them. Can't win that game. And boy, did they come close. That was a wild game.

I remember, well, not I remember. It was very interesting to hear Joe talk about that game this week and his awareness of it at the time that he was aware of the implications of that game for his future because he had a pretty good idea that he was a good chance to go number one at that point in time. And then that game came up in their meetings that week and LSU team meetings that week for situational football because there's so many situational football pieces of, or examples rather in that game that they could look at as a team afterwards.

So I did think that was interesting this week. Coach, you've coached in Florida. What advantage does playing in the sunshine state in warm weather give to a team that plays their year round this time of year? and let's just say all year in general. Oh, you know what? If they go out and they're wearing their lighter colored jerseys, that means it's warm.

And the great thing about playing later in Florida is offensively, from that standpoint, is the ball is because there's always a little bit of humidity. So the ball is a little bit more tackified, right? It's a little stickier. You come up here and all of a sudden now you're playing in the cold weather, and that ball gets slick. So you always have that into your component. You're also bringing somebody who's playing in an indoor practicing.

It's 70 degrees, and all of a sudden you're walking out there, and it's 80. And it'll wear you down after the course of a game as long as you continue to go. It's being in the state of Florida at this time of year, everybody looks on the schedule and says, who you know what we're getting out of Cincinnati for a weekend that's great we're going to play outside great grass uh nice weather outside it's going to be warm don't have to pack that parka um because i'm just getting on and off the plane there's just so many advantages the playing in that warm weather there's a reason why with the exception of the uh the met life super bowl that all those Super Bowl games in February are played in warm weather places

or indoors. Temperature is supposed to be in about the low 80s to mid 80s on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium. Jake Liscoe, the first thing that stands out to you about the Miami Dolphins is what? They're playing Quinn Ewers. Are they tanking? Like, do they, I don't know. What's going on with this franchise? I get the two, it was bad.

They just won four games in a row. And now they're benching their quarterback, cutting Matthew Judeon. They're eliminated from the playoffs officially. And suddenly they're making all these changes. And we know they have a history with Brian Flores of trying to tank before and Flores resisting it, going out there winning games leading to a fracture between him and the front office. Wouldn't be surprising if this is them trying to tank actively. I don't really know that anything should scare you in this game outside of a few weapons on the Dolphins' offense.

They've got a great center. They've got a great running back who's really fast. Darren Waller's having a Renaissance season and Jalen Waddle is really fast. those guys should be problems for you. I worry about the Dolphins run game. I think Mike Big Daniel is still a creative and good head coach, especially when it comes to getting into things that are given this defense problems. I don't expect the defense to necessarily have a great day,

but you should be able to confuse Quinn Ewers a few times. And if you can't, that's an indictment on you as a defense with Quinn Ewer is making his first start. But there's a lot of misdirection in this offense, a lot of speed in this offense, a lot of play action. in this offense. So I'm pretty interested in what's going on on the defensive side of the ball here, how they stand up to a backup quarterback that has some good skill players and a couple of good offensive linemen that can make this run game go. But on the other side, this Miami defense should

not be posing significant problems to this Bengals offense. I thought that should have been the case last week. Last week was incredibly disappointing for this offense against the Baltimore Ravens. It should be a week where the offense shows up. And if they don't, that's where we revisit those conversations we're having early. Yes. They're laying eggs against these kinds of teams. Then there's a real problem that goes deeper than we could have really thought. And we'll get into that because you're right.

If the Bengals offense does not show up on Sunday for which coaches you mentioned with the conditions in South Florida, they should, especially if T. Higgins clears concussion protocol and plays on Sunday. We'll talk about how the Bengals can have better success against the backup quarterback. I can't believe we have to talk about that. but we do. And we'll put a final bow on this preview and today's show when we come back right here on the Bengals Squad show. Just looking at some stats on the Miami Dolphins. They're 23rd or yeah, 23rd in the NFL in points per game, 21.1. They're 16th in points allowed at 23.1. They also ranked 25th in yards, total yards, this season. This is not a great Miami team by any means. I've had

conversations with many of my friends who are NFL fans. And the consensus around the dolphins is, since they've scored 70 points against Denver in week three, two years ago, they really have not been the same offensive team. It's looked clunky at times. It's looked uneven. You don't know about the future with Mike McDaniel down there, their fourth year head coach. So it's the team that Jake, like you're saying, are they tanking by benching to a He has a league high 15 interceptions, but he was completing 67.7% of his passes,

was playing a little better. The Dolphins had won four straight games before losing at Pittsburgh on Monday night football. But the big thing for me about this game is, can the Bengals finally make a backup quarterback uncomfortable? Coach, you were on our post game after the Steelers game a few weeks ago when we talked about how in the world to Mason Rudolph look so comfortable against the Bengals defense. So when you look at Quinn Ewers, making his first career start, if you're the Bengals defense, what's the number one thing your Al Golden's telling his guys or should be telling his guys going into this matchup? Stay the course, put in a few more disguises for the young man. Sugar the linebackers up and back, but don't forget.

Don't just sugar him up, but bring it and give him some pressure and make him think about what is doing. And, you know, hopefully he can turn, he'll throw the ball to us on two or three occasions. And if that's the case, hey, then we've, we've completed our goal. But you know that I don't even believe that they're, if they're on that defensive side of the ball and they're in a group meeting and they even give it any thought as to whether Tua or the new kid is playing behind it, they're in the wrong ballpark. They're thinking the wrong way. That should be nothing even close to enter their mind.

Doing their job on the game plan that is had hand should be the first and foremost thing in their minds. You know, we hear we have talked about Al Gold in the season and the word vanilla because it feels like he's been trying to simplify this defense because of the struggles it has had. Jake Liscoe, I get the sense that this is a game. You don't want to show anything vanilla. you want to show us much exotic as many exotic looks as you can, as coach is mentioning with disguising, your coverages, your blitzes. This is the game to do that, not keep everything simple, right? Yeah, I think that's what they've been doing for the last few weeks, too,

and they had a little bit of success with it at first. I thought that they had success with it early against Drake May and the Patriots a few weeks ago. I thought they had success with it early against the bills, and they got those couple of stops. They had success with it, obviously. against the Ravens, Lamar Jackson making a lot of mistakes in that game the first time they played.

And then the tape was kind of out there. And we've had the conversation, Art a couple weeks ago about other teams have filmed too. We've had that conversation. And I think we have a few weeks now here of having seen other teams have the tape now on how the Bengals are attacking them and what disguises are showing,

what pressures they're showing. The Ravens appeared to have a bead on one of the Bengal Zero looks last week, scored a touchdown on it. A couple of weeks ago in the Bill's game, we talked about left tackle Dion Dawkins having to tip off to where the pressure was coming from and not giving him the ability to play that snap a little bit differently and play that snap in a way that caused him to create conflict for Cedric Johnson, who should have been and was effectively unblocked on that play.

So I do think that they've been trying. Alex to spice things up to show more disguise, to be less vanilla, to be less simple, and to complexify, complexify. That is not a word. To make more complex this defense in the last few weeks hasn't really made much of a difference. And some of that is, I think, on golden figuring out where to pull the trigger, how to apply these pressures and not just call them because they worked the week before. And we'll see how that goes this week. And when he chooses to draw those up, against Quinn yours because they're they're making plays out of these things they're getting a few plays but the lapses are still there too i think the word you're looking for there by the way is

complicate but uh well complexify will also suffice anyway complexify yeah yeah yeah that's a good that's a good that's a good that's a good one okay hey maybe a maybe complexify should be the word of the year not six seven anyway so guys let's let's be honest the reason why the bengals had success against the ravens and won and they haven't won their last two games against the bills and the ravens again it's because they were able to stop the run on Thanksgiving night. They're going to have to do that on Sunday against Devon A. Chan, who has 1186 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. This is a team that wants to run you out off the field, right?

They're a speed team. They have speed. I know Tyree kills out for the season, but they still have Jalen Waddle, who's averaging 14.2 yards per reception this season. You look at Darren Waller, who's averaging 12.2. So you're going to have to key on him because we talked about Bengals tight ends this season, or Bengals' linebackers and their defense against tight ends. It's been historically bad. So coach for me, when I look at this matchup, it's as simple as stop the run, make them beat you on the outside. And yes, you're putting your corners, DJ Turner, Dax Hill, whomever. You're going to put them in positions to where they have to make plays.

But you'd rather have that than just the dolphins run the football right down your throats. And Quinn Ewer is just think and dunk to Darren Waller and Jalen Waddle. Make it hard for them by stopping the run. Is that where you're at? You know, that's first and foremost. And what is it? Very few, and Mike's no different than any other play caller. Would you prefer slow death by allowing them to run the ball, you know, 35 times a game?

Or is fast death okay because you're always in it? You know what I mean? And most play callers, they're not going to stay with the run too long. They will run it and they'll get a couple of first downs and then all of a sudden they can't help themselves. And they'll start to throw it and they'll force the ball. And next thing you know, they're punning or they're kicking field goals. That's okay. I think that if we can get a couple of turnovers, if the Bengals can get a couple of turnovers,

first stop the run, stop the. the tight end and you can always double the white out. You can always bracket him. You can always play too high to his side, play quarter quarter halves and do whatever. But I think that the first thing that they have to do is they have to stop the run. And that's slow death, make them one dimensional. Then you can tee off. Then you can go ahead with those exotic blitzes on second and long and third downs and have fun with it. Look, the theme here we've been talking about is make it complicated for Quinn Neuers, the Dolphins backup quarterback, because there is something too, and I've had a lot

of conversations with people earlier this week, you can say these games if you win, they don't mean anything because you're playing backup quarterbacks, but given this franchise's history against backup quarterbacks going all the way back, to Brett Favre in 92 coming in for Don McCowski. That's why these games matter. And if you can play a good, if you can have good defense performances, you can build on that and then figure out what changes you need to make in the

offseason. Jake, let's go your final thoughts before we close the show here today. Yeah, I have really high expectations for this team down the stretch. If this coaching staff is going to be run back and they're just going to try to make changes to their approach this off season, you better get results against these teams that have no playoff life. If you look like crap again and you continue to lay eggs, those conversations need to be happening at Paycor. So in that sense, there is something for this team to play for and against these teams and this level of competition, the expectations remain high for me

if the Bengals want to go into this with the approach that is, we think we're close. We think we just need some more players, we're going to run it back with most of this team. So really high expectations for me down the stretch here. And coach, it is interesting to think about Joe Burrow and this team playing in a week 16 game where they don't have anything to play for as far as the playoffs. But it goes to the point that I'm sure you talked or John Bruden talked about or Pete Carroll talked about. It does not matter what you're playing for as far as the playoffs.

You are playing to win the game on Sunday. And that's why every game. matters in the National Football League. True. Very, very true. And for all of those players that are in the locker room, it's about winning as a team and your self-pride of your self-worth. There's nothing worse than, you know, being somebody else's, you know, step stool on their way to achieving their goal.

And even though these teams are no longer, you know, the coaches are fighting. They're the opposing coaches are fighting for their lives. So they're going to put together great game plans. Now, okay, it's our to us to stop it. You know, Kevin in Cleveland, I mean, he's fighting for his life. Yeah. Mike in Miami, he's fighting for his life. Jonathan, he's fighting for his life.

They can say, and they may not be on the hot seat today, but if they get beat by a Cincinnati team who should also be fighting for their their coaching lives, that says a lot. And, you know, we had mentioned it last week about, you know, the one thing you do is you may get beat, but don't get embarrassed. And by not giving it everything you have, you get embarrassed. That's a great point that you end with there. The fact that you're facing three teams in your last three games who also have head coaches that are, let's just call it, on the hot.

Mike McDaniel may be on his way out in Miami. Jonathan Gannon and Arizona may be on his way out. And then Kevin Stefanski maybe on his way out in Cleveland. Jake Lisco at Jake Lisco on Twitter, Art Valero at Arthur Valera 54 on Twitter. I'm Alex Frank at Frankie underscore Natty on Twitter. Thank you for watching and listening to this edition of the Bengals Squad Show. It is part of the lockdown podcast network, the number one sports podcast, in America and the world, your team every day.

Coach, we will see you back on Sunday after the game time to be determined because I will be at the game and not sure how long it will take to get back from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens to Miami Beach. Jake, we'll see you hopefully sometime next week. We'll have the schedule for you as we gear into Christmas week next week. Mike Santagin will be with Coach and me on Sunday's show. Don't forget to check out Jake and James on lockdown Bengals as they preview the Bengals and the Dolphins matchup. That is on the lockdown Bengals YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcast. For Jake Liscoe and Coach Art Valero, I'm Alex Frank. Thank you for watching and listening to the Bengals Squad Show.

Part of the lockdown Bengals and the locked on podcast network, the number one sports podcast network in America and the world, your team every day.