Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Bengals to "Really Spend" this Offseason? Time to Prove It

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

Will the Cincinnati Bengals "REALLY SPEND" this offseason? The latest report from Ian Rapoport indicates that the front office knows they have to build around Joe Burrow and give him more support. Jake Liscow and James Rapien react to the news from Rapoport, what it could mean for the Bengals' offseason plans, plus they react to Super Bowl LX and what we can learn from the Seattle Seahawks!Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans.Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubJoin the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!TurboTaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.FanDuelThe Winter Games are on. And there’s no better way to follow them than with a bet on FanDuel. FanDuel - Play your game.IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/lockedonnfl.  FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We've been going on and on this podcast about how much work the Bengals have to do this off season. And now we have a report that says the Bengals are going to, quote, really spend this off season. Well, then, let's break it down. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day and the number one sports podcast network. He's James Rapine. I'm Jake Lisco, and we've had you covered here on lockdown Bengals for 10 years,

going all the way back to 2016. And that makes us your best one-stop shop for consistent daily Bengals news and analysis. We are here for you, even the day after the Super Bowl, even in the middle of June, even in the middle of OTAs, certainly in free agency in the draft. We got you covered here on lockdown Bengals for everything going on with this team and every move they made. Today, we dive into Ian Rappapur saying on NFL network before the Super Bowl that the Bengals are going to, quote, really spend this off season. We will get into the full context of that quote and dissect it a little bit and discuss whether or not we buy it. And obviously, the Super Bowl has played since the last time we recorded.

The everydayers heard us talk about some of these. Takeaways from the Super Bowl teams in yesterday's episode, and since then, the Super Bowl has occurred. We'll talk about some trends from the last couple of Super Bowls and how much the Bengals can do to get to the point where the Eagles and the Seahawks were the last couple of years. But, James, we start with a hopefully promising report from Ian Rappapour in today's episode, brought to the people by Fandul where, a reminder, the winter games are going. there's no better way to follow them than with a bet on fandle fan will play your game in rapivore said i expect the bengals to take joe burroughs words and use it to spur them on a little bit to really spend this off season now there's more to this quote that we can get into but when you saw this what were your first thoughts james besides you know they better you know going beyond that

did you do buy it you know yeah i do buy it and here's why i buy it because They know that the trade calls that are coming in on Joe Burrow that they're not going to entertain right now. And Joe Burroughs saying he's happy in Cincinnati. A lot of that is dependent on what they do or don't do, Jake. What they do or don't do from a free agent standpoint. I was thinking back last year in the off season. And I just remember, like, you're right, we're there for you in June and in May. And in the really the slow times, the fast times, the busy times, the night.

non-busy times. And guess what? We were really critical about what they didn't do. When they go get T.J. Slayton and Orrin Berks and Tray's dangling in the wind. And there's no external free agent addition on defense outside of those two guys really. Like, that's crazy. That's crazy because they sucked on defense in 2024. They sucked. We watched Joe Burrow, who could have been the MVP with the numbers he put up. And Jamar Chase win the triple crown. and by the way, should have gotten serious offensive player of the year consideration. We watched those guys do what they did.

T. Higgins had a career high, 10 touchdowns. We watched those guys do what they did, and they were four and eight after the first day of December. It's just insane. And I'm not trying to take you down poor memory lane here, but Joe Burrell remembers. And Joe Burrell remembers, and he remembers what happened last offseason.

In the Bengals, I get it. You're right. I do say they better a lot. Like when you said that, I was like, well, yeah, that sounds exactly like me. But for me, it's, I don't think Ian Rappaport says this without someone in the Bengals building saying, hey, we know we're going to address it, we're going to spend, we're going to build around Joe, because we know we can get back into contention if we do so.

Yeah, we'll see what the extent of this is, right? Because maybe really spending for the Bengals looks like, you know, regular off season for someone else. but maybe you can harken back to 2020 and 2021 when they actually spent some money on free agency. Mike Sandow at the Athletic wrote up an interesting piece following the Super Bowl and talked a little bit about the Patriots path. And I yesterday invoked a comparison of the 25 Patriots to the 21 Bengals where, you know,

second year quarterback and a bunch of free Asian additions. And what Sandow pointed out is that the Patriots spent more than the Bengals did in 2021. And part of that is because of Bengals free agents spending went back to 2020. But the Patriots, according to his write-up, I think spent like 35% of their cap on new free agents last year, where the Bengals spent 20% of their cap on new free agents in 2021, which is still like a fairly large chunk. But the Patriots spent more money to turn over the roster. And obviously Milton Williams was part of the reason they were in that game, as long as

as they were when their offense was sputtering. We'll get to that a little bit later, but the point is, is the spending levels. What does that look like for the Bengals this off season? This was the same conversation, by the way, where Ian Rappap, joined the chorus of national reporters shutting down Joe Burrough trade speculation. Hopefully we can stop talking about that at some point. It's such a nod story to us that every day. time this comes up, I'm kind of question, like, why does this need to come up again?

And I guess it drives clicks for their clips when they post them on social media. That's part of it. Not expected to go anywhere, said Rappaport, but the quote continued after the really spend. And I do want to dig into the really spend and what that could look like for the Bengals, but Burrow was clear talking during the pro bowl. He liked Cincinnati, saying basically during the press conference, he just kind of had a bad day. those are allowed, sometimes even to press conferences, and then this is a key part.

But I expect angles to enhance and support everything Joe Burrow does to spend probably more on defense than anything else. Now, that's what we expect, but that Rappapur is saying that now, I would assume does mean something like you said, right? This doesn't seem like something that Rappapur is just strictly speculating about because to go out on a limb, in early February and say, yeah, the Bengals are going to spend on that defense this year without any information indicating that that's what they're going to do, that would be the hottest of takes. Because even we are, I mean, we're sitting here saying like, yeah, they don't have internal guys to spend on and they have clear needs.

So they should spend. But even I, James, am still like, oh, we'll see. You know, we'll see what they do. I don't know if I trust him. But Rappaport is saying this on a national program. Yeah. It's, I don't think he said he would just, one, just say it because we expect it. I think that when you hear what Joe said, when you hear what Duke said, when you hear what

Zach has said, all eyes point to this. Now, Zach said, oh, yeah, we have enough talent because he has to. He's the coach. But when Joe said, no, we have good coaches. And he talks about getting new players. and in the quote that has really stuck with me is the borough quote, what I asked him about free agency. And he said it last month.

And I think it's important because it highlights a couple of things. One, you have to spend in free agency, and I'm going to read it in a second. You have to spend in free agency. But two, you're going to have some Shelton Rankinzes. You're going to have some Trey Waynes's. you can't not spend. Remember in 2020 after Wayne struggled, we were like, oh man, going in 2021, are they going to spend? Is it going to make them gun shy? DJ Reader had a quad. Trey Wayne's had that issue where he just, he gets hurt right away in the contract stuff and all

those things. Are they still going to be active in free agency? And they were. And so like the Gino Stones, the Sheldon Rankins is, who cares? Keep going. Keep pushing. And Joe Burrough said, that's a paramount importance referring to free agency. You have to identify where you week and find a way to be strong in that area. That's the NFL year in and year out. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't. You have to attack that period with the intent to get better.

Like perfect quote. I mean, this dude, perfect quote hits on everything really concise, more concise than I would have made it and yet doesn't throw his ownership under the bus. But I think that's pretty clear. Like they all viewed this roster and said, yeah, we just don't have enough talent. And that's why they're running it back with the coaching staff. That's why Joe said what he said. And so now they have to go get a lot.

And I mean a lot more talent. Yeah, I wonder what this looks like. And I know we've talked about what this could look like. And once again, we're not going to dive into specifics or anything today. We're not going to go through a whole mock off season or anything like that today. But we're getting closer. The season is done now, which means the combine is the next thing. That's in a couple of weeks.

I mean, I was listening to some of the Seahawks post-game interviews. And there was one quote that really stuck out to me that I want to reflect on as well from Julian Love as he was talking to talking to the media after the game. So we get to that as well. But how this looks, to what extent the Bengals go in on this free agency to try to stabilize their defense? I wonder about that. And it does tie into that quote. So we'll go to that conversation coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandle.

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Fandle, play your game. James, last year you talked about last offseason and how we were talking about this defense after they made. one addition in free agency at a start a level. And I like the Orenberg signing. That didn't work out. It's fine. Yeah, fine.

It's not hating on those guys. It's just not enough. Well, even that isn't necessarily a starter level signing, despite how he played for the Eagles. And a good reminder of a cautionary tale of players leaving absolutely stacked defenses if you're considering any of the players on this Seattle defense, for example, this offseason, or even the Eagles defense that are free agents. I'm thinking to Kobe Dean specifically there.

Those guys are, especially at the linebacker level, playing behind mammoth, awesome, defensive fronts. And maybe that extends to Boy Mafay as well. Maybe not. But we were sold by we, I mean, the collective Bengals media, Bengals fans, everyone was sold this idea from the Bengals of like, we're going to bring out Golden Inn. We're going to fix our development. We're going to fix the way we teach this thing to young players. and yeah, we're probably objectively,

and I wonder if they would even acknowledge us. We're getting probably a little bit worse in terms of specialty game planning against quality quarterbacks and for playoff game plans. Like, we're not even there yet with How Golden to find out how well he handles that part of the job. But we're going to get better with development and with connecting with young players.

And that's what we were sold with How Golden last year. That's all well and good, but what stood out to me is Julian Love was asked by Doug Farrar postgame about like, what enables you guys to run the scheme you run? Like what is it, what really is it that makes the Seahawks defense, the Seahawks defense? Part of this is Mike McDonald. I think he is obviously one of the best coaches in the NFL. I thought this since he was giving Joe Burrow migraines as a defensive coordinator

for the Baltimore Ravens, and I was desperate to see him leave the division. And Julian Love credited his head coach, obviously, but Love's answer was, that it was talent. It's talent on that defense. They have talent in the trenches. They have talent at linebacker. They have talent at corner. They are just chock full of talent everywhere.

The Bengals aren't there and asked two rookies to play linebacker a bunch and just didn't do enough to add talent. So that's what we're talking about this off season is how much talent can the Bengals accumulate on defense? That's part of the trend. We're going to talk about a little bit later, too. And I wonder how well equipped they are to do this, how well equipped they are to identify talent and use all of the different avenues available to do it. Because Duke Tobin, even when he's hot,

even when he's putting together good rosters, is not John Schneider. He is not Howie Roseman. He's not out there wheeling in the trade market and scouring every unturned stone. So I wonder how far they can get. I wonder to what extent they do spend to try to make this happen. And those are the questions that we will be watching for this off season.

Yeah. Talent, talent, talent. You can't, one, it's just so hard to win these games. And they go down to the wire. And it's one or two plays usually, unless you're Drake maybe, who just had the worst playoff run ever for a quarterback that made it to the Super Bowl, I feel like. I mean, he was awful throughout the playoffs. And despite that, they were so.

talented and so deep in New England that they were able to overcome that and overcome some really good defenses obviously Seattle is a different animal but you can't have enough you can't have enough and I wish the Bengals like you referenced earlier in the pod the 2021 Bengals didn't spend as much as much as the 25 Patriots they had just done one more move one more guard maybe they don't feel feel the need to do the Jackson Carmen, you know, like it. And it's not hindsight. Like every single year, every single year we've been doing this podcast. We're like, all right, they got to make one more move.

Just just one more. I mean, last year is more than one. But it's like, all right, they have the money to do one more little thing. And then we just keep waiting for it. And it doesn't tend to land. Yeah, it doesn't. And they need to get back to that. Whatever that is, they need to get to 2021 and then so.

Because they haven't done it. that's the other thing that I just want to remind them specifically. You haven't done it. You didn't do it in 21. You didn't do it in 2022. Like those weren't good enough. It wasn't good enough. It was good.

It's a hell of a lot better than it is now. But it still wasn't good enough to get it done. And so until you get it done, you have to push and do more. And hopefully they do because the talent part of it, it can come together quick, especially when you have Joe Burrow. Like, if you have Joe Burrow and 86% of the talent that the Seahawks have on your roster, on their roster, would you say? Not 86.

86. Correct. Yeah. You're probably beating Sam Darnold. Like, he completed 50% of his passes, Jake. Like, that's crazy. And they controlled the game the whole game. So they did, no doubt.

But if it's 86% of the talent or 81, it's got to be over 80. But you get my point is like, they already have Joe. It's a hell of a spot to start. And people are going to say, oh, well, he needs to be healthy and stuff. Sure. You need to be able to win some games if he doesn't stay healthy. If he does get nicked up. Because I think he was ready to go in December.

And a lot of this unhappiness going back to what we were talking about 15 minutes ago, a lot of that, I think was him rehabbing his butt off and then just not having a shot. I do. in that realization and coming to grips with that, that sucks. That's probably the worst and far worse than what 2024 was for him where things just kind of weren't going their way and he was putting up numbers and they made a run late. Like I think 25 was much more challenging when he came to that realization.

Like I did all this and we don't even have a chance. And so you have to have a team talented enough that can win games without nine because then when nine's there, you're going to be one of the better teams in the league. Well, and it's something we've talked about even when he is there, like the need to be able to win when he's not having an A plus day,

which most of his days are a, a plus days, right? Like, when he has that one-off game, can you overcome it? Can you overcome a deflected pick six against the Cleveland Browns? Oh, you can't? You can't beat the Browns in week 18?

I mean, it was bad luck. The Bengals office. was moving the ball that day. I thought Joe was playing pretty well. But man, you can't beat the Cleveland Browns. That's not where you want to be. That's not where you want to be. The last couple of Super Bowl winners also teach us about the importance of having

full rosters, James. And that's where I wonder how much the needle moves for the Bengals. So as the last couple of years, even when they lost in the Super Bowl in 2021, there's generally consensus lately that the NFC has put together these teams that are more complete teams. The Eagles last, and we'll talk about this in a minute, the Eagles last year, the Seahawks this year, you can go back in recent years. Like when Tampa won the Super Bowl, they really built that thing like crazy around Tom Brady. And Jason White did a bunch of things in terms of managing the cap that he'd never

done to go all in with Tom Brady. I'm not saying that's where the Bengals are. Joe Burroughs younger. It's not a last-her-rah kind of thing. But when you have Burrow, there is one specific advantage you have that all these other teams don't. And you need to build the team in a way that that advantage actually can materialize in a way that lets you win the game. It's not just Joe Burrow.

But in Joe Burrow, the Bengals do have a thing that these other teams right now, for the most part don't have. And so how far do they go with this really spend idea from Ian Rappapur? I want to get your answer to that question. And if the needle has moved for you at all after hearing this from Rappapur in terms of what you think they will do, and then we'll dive into the lessons from the last couple of Super Bowl champions here as it pertains to the Bengals coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by TurboTax. Tax season doesn't just have to, well, be stressful. And it certainly doesn't have to take over your life.

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All in. Visit turbotax.com slash local. turbotext.com slash local to book your appointment today. James, how much does Ian Rapopor's reporting change how you think the Bengals will operate the soft season, if it'll? It doesn't. It doesn't change it. If anything, it gives you like a bit of hope that they see it.

The problem is, you're right. You don't know, just because they see what we see doesn't mean they think that the answer is the same as is what we think. Yeah. And so how how deep does it go? How many, what, what do they think the remedy is versus what we think the remedy is? And we're not going to find out. We'll go to the combine and hear from Duke and Zach and we'll talk to the different coordinators and we'll get little morsels. But we're really not going to find out until a month from now, March 9th, legal tampering period begins what this team is really going to do and everybody's going to be watching everyone that's listening and watching we're obviously going to be covering it fans are going to be

watching but joe burrow is going to be watching and i would i would make sure if you're the bengal's front office that you don't go into a season feeling like oh well we can't judge this coach because of this, because of this issue, this talent efficiency here or there. How do you get to the roster to that level? Because clearly they felt like they couldn't truly judge Al Golden, Zach Taylor, to an extent, especially after Joe went down and had to trade for Joe Flacko, had to pivot a little bit. You bench Logan Wilson. Like clearly there were issues talent-wise.

Fix those. And so hopefully they feel the same way and they're super aggressive. And we're talking about some big fish and medium-fills. fish and small fish that fit really well and a lot of fish in that paycourt stadium boat by the end of the end of what so if it's ninth on the legal tampering period i'll give them to the end of the week the 13th of march i have a bunch of deals done by that really the first day that free agents can officially sign you're generous it's it's really like after the tampering period after the negotiating window sure well yeah like we yeah we want yeah so

the night that's when they're that's when the real guy signed is yeah yeah yeah no doubt no doubt i mentioned small fish there too though and you can find oh yeah sure yeah sure um the other thing is you got a draft better the the one thing that i'll believe it when i see it kind of thing with the bengals is like using trades and using the waiver wire more aggressively developing players in a way because the way josh tried to put this roster together we talked about it yesterday so i'm not going to belabor it today, but waiver claims, trades, free agents, draft picks, like, absolutely reloaded this roster in one year. And now it's one of the better rosters in the NFL where we're talking about, you know, Ernest Jones and, you know, Leonard Williams, obviously, drafting Byron

Murphy, drafting Devin Witherspoon, drafting Kenneth Walker, all these guys that came together to make this team happen. And obviously, the bold trade. to a quarterback where they go Sam Darnold and move on from a quarterback who was like we talked about yesterday, a lot of people scoffed at that move. And it's not like Darnold was great, but he got them there, right? And he had great moments in that playoff run and certainly in this season.

And they also traded, of course, for Rashid Shaheed in the season. So like using every single mechanism available to them to build all three phases, they could do everything, the Seattle team. But what stands out to me the most when you look at the last couple of years of Super Bowl champions from the NFC, James is, man, the talent level on defense for both of these teams, the level of investment in the trenches for both of these teams, the level of investment in the run game for both of these teams, because Sam Darnold and Jalen Hertz are in the same tier of quarterback.

They are behind Joe Burrow very clearly. Somebody tweeted at me after the game, can they win with, Joe Burrow or do you need of Mike McDonald and a John Schneider and like, yeah, those things aren't mutually exclusive. Of course Joe Burrow can win a Super Bowl. Yeah. But you can also build a team around him that's really good and actually have a quality roster around him. And they were nowhere close to that in the last couple of years. And so the obvious trend here, the last couple of years, really hard to do. But Roseman and Schneider pushing the envelope and team building, doing a great job of talent acquisition,

the coaching staff on the defensive side in Philly and the entire coaching staff in Seattle doing a great job of getting the most out of those players, putting them in position to do their best and win games. But the level of talent and depth and creativity and pushing the envelope from these NFC teams and putting together these stacked defenses around flawed quarterbacks and winning

is something that really. stands out the last couple of years yeah yeah no no doubt and that's you look at it and that defensive tackle element it's why i don't i'm not overly critical on the rankins part of it because having a disruptive interior defensive tackle and i'm critical of letting dj reader walk chris jones erin donald the eagles have multiple obviously you look at this the seattle team and they have multiple, including Murphy, someone that they drafted last year right before Mims went. And it's just,

it's a really hard position to find. And that's why Milton Williams last year, you should have been in on that sweepstakes. You just should have. Not that you would have gotten them. I'm not saying that. And I think New England really had to break the bank to get him. But it does matter.

And that can give your defense such a huge boost. I don't know exactly what they're going to do, how they're going to do it. I don't know if that's going to be available to them in this year's draft or in free agency, but you have to be able to be more disruptive on the defensive front. You just have to because when that happens, a lot of other things can fall into place, including Drake May, just throwing it right to you.

And he did that with 197, potentially a chance to cut it to one score. He just lobs it up there because he was seeing ghost. He was seeing those Sam Darnold ghosts because they were hitting him so often and so disruptive in the trenches. May was terrible the entire playoff run. I'm sure that I said that elsewhere and on here before.

And he was the worst and the Super Bowl was his work. Like it was even worse. Yeah. And he faced some tough defenses finally. I mean, we saw him play like this against a Bengals. Like he figured it out against the Bengals. But the way he started that game was like, man, this guy is who we're talking about for MVP.

The interception he threw to lose a game in 197 that you just alluded to. So similar to. the interception he threw to Gino Stone against the Bengals early in that game. And I mean, I think Drake May has a bright future. I think he's a good player, has some growing to do

against good defenses in particular. The Bengals have to build a full roster here is the bottom line. So win games when Joe isn't at his best, to win games if Joe needs to miss time, and to go toe to toe to with these defenses because if the Bengals were playing, if you drop say the,

maybe the 2022 Bengals have a pretty good shot in this game against the Seahawks. Yeah. But the 2021 Bengals against the Seahawks, this game probably goes pretty rough. I mean, I think Burrow plays better than May. Don't get me wrong, because we saw it and he did, but only a little bit.

Like Burrow wasn't great in that Super Bowl either. He's skipping passes as Jamar Chase. And like he made some plays. And they were obviously in a position. to win the game, the Bengals defense made more plays, but the Seattle front against the Bengals' offensive line in that game, it's going to get ugly too. And it was ugly for the Bengals in that playoff run,

obviously because Drake May broke Joe Burroughs sack record in the playoffs in the Super Bowl to finally eclipse Joe Burrow in one category. But the difference, and I said I would get to this earlier, so I want to make sure I hit this point, is Joe Burrow is one of a handful of quarterbacks in the NFL. that process is fast enough to have efficient answers to that kind of pressure that we didn't see Drake may have the answers to last night when he's taking so many unnecessary hits.

And Burrow does take some unnecessary hits at times when he tries to extend plays. But Burrow has that superpower to process and get the ball out so quickly in a way that's really hard to appreciate because he makes it look so easy and get those six to eight-yard gains when other teams are throwing it away, taking sacks or taking three yard gains. Those little bits of efficiency because Joe Burrow can process and play the hard way and have answers is what separates him from, I think every quarterback in the league besides Mahomes, there are other guys that make plays like Lamar Jackson can be a playmaker. Josh Allen can be a playmaker.

But in terms of processing and finding answers when everything breaks down, there's not very many guys that do that. And so when you have that, you have this opportunity to then do what these other teams have done and build a good roster around him because the last couple of years are a reminder that this is still the ultimate team sport. Yeah.

But you have a huge advantage when you have Joe Burrow, if you can build the ultimate team around that quarterback, then you can be the juggernaut that Seattle was this year. For sure. I mean, again, they don't need that exact same level. Same thing with the Philly. They don't need the exact same level that Philly had because Burroughs better than Hurts. Burroughs better than Donald than Dalton too.

And that's the advantage. That's why we say spend now, forget about this long window and all of these things like now is the window. And the window is Joe's career as long as you support him and go all in on winning year in and year out, all in, not half in, not a quarter of the way in, not three quarters of the way in. And that's it. And if you do that, even if you have a speed bump, Gino Stone, or Rankin's or whatever, you're still going to be competitive and be right there. And that's all you can ask for is being right there in January with a chance to get to February.

That's it. Because if you get there, we've seen it. It's hard to get there. Just to that point. And if you get there and you have nine, even so, even though. the 21 version. We didn't think they had a chance to go in and keep winning and do all those things. Like in December, I don't think any of us thought, oh, yeah, they're going to go on a deep plow front of January. And they did. And they faced really good fronts. And they stood up and they made plays and they did just enough.

Just got to get there. Got to have enough talent. Get nine there and see how the cards fall. Huge part of it, huge part of it, drafting well, too. I mean, Nikki Menwey in the second round, Derek Hall in the second round a few years ago. He's making huge plays in this game. Getting the most out of your first round picks, Evan Witherspoon and Byron Murphy from the last couple of years, finding mid-round values in Kobe Bryant, Street free agent signings,

Josh Joby, making a ton of plays in this game. I mean, your second rounder this year has to be a huge hit. You're drafting earlier than ever in the second round in a long time. Yeah. You know, it's got to, that's a borderline round one guy.

You might get a guy. You have a first round grade on at 41. So that's it's it that that part is a good point. And the reason I bring it up is because of even worry. Like there's going to be a guy that's falling. It happens like this every year. I'm like, how is that guy still there that would target that guy? No, we got we got to pick Jackson Carmen, James.

You can't do it. God. The, the last few first round picks for the Seahawks. It's just an incredible heaters. Charles Cross, J.S.N. Devin Wethersman, those two in the same draft, Biverman, Murphy, and then Gray is able. those are the last five first round picks

and they had two in 2020-three obviously but man what a heater I mean in their second round picks too I mean we're talking about boy Maffa as a Bengals target this off season Derek Hall making plays in the Super Bowl Nickyman Worry obviously up there as well

pretty pretty good run of things Kenneth Walker second round pick in 2022 pretty good run of things in Seattle the Bengals have a long way to go to catch up to that standard and it's really everything like we said. Seattle uses every single avenue available to them. We'll see how many of those Duke Tobin explores this offseason, how well they can develop talent, how well they can

identify talent, obviously has been an issue for this Bengals team that needs to add talent this offseason. That's going to do it for this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening. Hootay and have a good one.