Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Bengals TRADE TARGETS: Derwin James, Alvin Kamara Could Be Game-Changers

Episode Date: October 15, 2026

The Cincinnati Bengals already made one big trade this year, and another could boost their championship aspirations. Should they trade for Derwin James or Khalil Mack to patch defensive gaps before the deadline? Jake Liscow and Joe Goodberry spotlight high-impact trade targets from teams like the Chargers, Bucs, and Saints, breaking down how players such as Budda Baker, Alvin Kamara, and Yaya Diaby could reshape the Bengals’ playoff outlook.Plus, we're re-evaluating our preseason expectations as Jake and Joe still think the run game will bounce back, and Zac Taylor's track record promises midseason adjustments.Photo Credits: Troy Taormina-Imagn ImagesSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Gameday Men's HealthBook your complimentary test and consult at https://join.gamedaymenshealth.com/reasons_to_choose_gameday-1201?utm_source=lockedon&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=NFL&utm_network=lockedon&utm_adgroup=corp&ghl_tag=national,corpOdooGreat organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.Butcher BoxIf you're looking for an easier way to get great meals on the table, give ButcherBox a try. Go to https://ButcherBox.com/LOCKEDONNFL to get $20 off your first box, plus your choice of free ribeye, new york strip, or filet mignon in every box for a year — with free shipping always.AppleYou can earn up to 3% unlimited Daily Cash back on every purchase you make with Apple Card using Apple Pay. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank, USA. Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at apple-card-dot-com.https://learn.applecard.apple/unlimited-daily-cash?cid=apy-318-2000008800000-400000000000039&itscg=2030032&itsct=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnagencyid=c1a&mttnsiteid=133087&mttnpid=LockedOn%20%28Audio%29&mttnsubad=srvs-crd-P3004756-C3004897&mttnsubplmnt=&mttncc=USPrizePicksVisit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL and use code LOCKEDONNFL and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup!KALSHIToday's episode is brought to you by Kalshi. For a limited time, Download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next. GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelGet three hundred fifty dollars in Bonus Bets — GUARANTEED — when you bet five dollars every day for seven days. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMFANDUEL 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.

Trades in the NFL are rare. There's no way about that. It's not like the trade deadline in any other sport, but there are players out there on teams with terrible records that could help the Bengals in 2026. 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. The Buy Week is coming to a close. That doesn't mean we won't have more. week content for you here on lockdown bengals today we're looking at trade candidates you've got a couple of questions from the everydayer club you can check that out at lockdown bengals at supercast.com that we're going to frame our episode around today the first of those is around trade targets

the second of those is through five games how have expectations change if at all for the cincinnati bengals this season he's joe goodberry i'm jake liscoe we are your host of the lockdown bengals podcast and like i said today we're starting with some trade candidates from that are in despair, in the dumps, in the losing part of the standings. And an episode brought to you by Fandall where you can make this your most rewarding season ever with the Fandul rewards club. Every week, check the Fandul app to see what's waiting for you. And Joe, this question came from Everydayer Club member Mitch to us via subtext.

One of the perks of the Everydayer Club is you get to text us directly. And Mitch asked us a question about, trade targets. And essentially the question boils down to this. If we could guarantee the Bengals would make a trade for one player, from one of the NFL's currently one or zero win teams, who would you hope that

player would be? What do you think is the actual chance of that happening? And obviously a lot of these players, the reasons that teams don't trade their good players a lot of the time. So you're looking at, you know, your expiring contracts, veterans, players that you think maybe have fallen out of

favor like the Marvel in Harrison trade, for example. But a lot of the bad teams in the NFL right now don't necessarily have a lot of players fitting those criteria. And a lot of the bad teams don't know they're bad, to be frank, right? Like these teams, the Chargers did not expect to be where they're at, right? So the trade deadline isn't until November 10th. We have four weeks or so, depending on how you want to look at it.

But week nine, going into week 10 is when teams really start to realize, and that's why they kick the trade deadline back from what it used to be week eight, is because it gets. gives those teams that are failing a chance to say, okay, we're in a situation. We're not happy with it. Let's trade off some of these assets and get some draft picks and try and reboot this thing as best as we can. We do get a lot of questions about players that are on rookie deals or maybe even in the second year of their deals, guys like Ali Gordon or Marion Hampton, which we will

talk about a little bit, two running backs. I don't think those are the type of guys that get traded on the trade deadline. I know we just saw Marvin Harrison get traded. seems like a unique situation there. And I believe most of these will happen if they were to happen in three weeks or so. So we're talking about it now because it's the bi-a-week and because I see this as a Super Bowl window season. I hope the Bengals do as well. I assume they do.

And if they win enough games, those teams also want to make sure they win games, right? The Bengals go three and one over the next four weeks and they're sitting there in a prime spot to get a player and add a player in your Super Bowl hopes and make that stronger. Yeah, I can see them pulling the trigger on something like that. They have for Khalil Herbert and for Joe Flacko in recent years. But those were spurned by spurred, spurred or spurned? Spurred. Thank you.

Spurred by injuries, right? The injury happened at running back and was Zach Moss. Injury happened with Joe Burrow and Jake Browning couldn't do it. And they went out and made those moves. Yeah, I think that is the most likely way the Bengals end up with the trade. We've had people asking about trades for weeks already, actually, which is surprising. And obviously there was a lot of discussion around Marvin Harrison Jr. In certain parts of media that cover the Bengals, James Rapine, of course, was a proponent

for that trade. And I'm sure he's out there talking about other receiver targets for the Bengals even now because, look, James has a brand and we can't knock him for it. He is interested in making the team better. And I'm sure he has plenty of ideas for trade targets. But for this question, we're focusing on these teams that are losing right now. We're excluding the Houston Texans from this. They would technically qualify for this.

But I don't think the Houston Texans are ready to sell. They just traded for Marvin Harrison Jr., right? Like they expect to stumble their way into the playoffs and win a bunch of games. Whether or not that's misguided after an 0 and 4 start, we'll see what happens in Houston. But they're not trading any of their quality pieces. So that means we're looking at Arizona, New Orleans, Tampa, Washington, Tennessee, the Chargers, Miami. And those are the teams that we're talking about here that are terrible teams. Now, there are probably some other teams that will end up in the seller category in a few weeks,

teams like the Jets, teams like the Colts could end up in this category. Certainly the Browns, despite their quote unquote winning record that they currently have, I don't think anyone's expecting the Browns even in Cleveland to really be true contenders. this season and that's a front office that has shown that they're willing to maximize their assets. So out of all these teams, Joe, who stands out to you the most? Who is the like, if the Bengals made this move, this is the best move they can make if we could guarantee they were going to trade for one of these players from these teams. Yeah, the teams that stand out are the chargers to me because they have a lot of assets and pieces. They were in more of a win now mode. So when you

go look over their roster, you can see quite a few players that you'd have interest in. And I think, namely safety Derwin James and edge rusher, Khalil Mack. And they have some other pieces too that I would be interested in. But I think like a Derwin James is that Roquan Smith level trade. And yeah, he's a little bit older, but he is an impact borderline superstar player. But injuries have really been the only thing that have derailed him.

And then maybe sometimes injuries around him on the chargers that have sunk their roster as well. But when you focus on Derwin himself, he is a great strong safety type that can come. come in, cover the slot, play in the box a lot, tackles near the line of scrimmage a ton. He's just a high impact, high splash play player that I'd be interested in pretty much whatever the cost was. Like, what do I think it would be? Is it a third round pick type scenario?

I'm in. I don't think that's too much. I think he's the type of guy that they could potentially be missing on that back half. And it gives you an immediate plug-in play player that shouldn't have major issues learning any defense in the NFL, a very talented player, and something like you said, that the Bengals are really missing. If we're talking about where can you find the biggest impact with a realistically attainable player on the trade market, not that Darwin is necessarily going to get shaft, but he certainly is one of the ones that comes to mind. I think another safety in the same conversation,

just while we're on the topic, not to jump to another team too quickly because we might come back to the Chargers here is Buda Baker who reportedly might actually be getting shocked. And if you believe that Buda Baker is still the player that he was when he became when he gained the reputation rather as one of the NFL's best

safeties, that's again a player that could help in a lot of the same ways Durham James can in terms of some of the versatility playing in the box, being a run player, all these things that Buda Baker does as a high level. Yeah, no doubt. I would welcome Buda Baker as well. If you look at you, PFF grades and things like that,

he has slipped a little bit, but largely the Cardinals have slipped a lot, right? And it's hard to say, I remember looking at the roster last year and this year and thinking, how is this team going to win three games? And if they won week one, maybe they're better than I thought. And then, no, they've lost every game since then. And I've come back to, you know, they're probably winning three or four games this entire year. And that's the team you want to target. And those are the players you want to target guys that are older or on expiring contracts or

the team is just looking to hit that reset button. So yeah, Buda Baker, Durwin James. Does it have to be a safety? No, it doesn't. We got a bunch of other players and other positions from other teams that we want to target and talk about because I've got a surprise player coming up later. Maybe spurned, spurned? Two words and one.

Spurred from an injury at tight end. We'll talk about that coming up next. James Yarko here from Lockdown Bucks. And look, we all have that person in our lives that's impossible to shop for. Maybe it's your girlfriend or wife. Maybe it's a sibling. or maybe you're the person that's impossible to shop for, but Fabletics is here to help you solve that dilemma.

My wife fell in love with yoga pants that I got her from Fabletics, and she has not turned back. Now we're upgrading my closet as well with some of the incredible items for men like this soft touch, quarter zip sweater that I am wearing, not to mention their jeans might be my new favorite thing. You sign up as a new VIP, you get 70 to 80% off your order, and it's unlocked as soon as you sign up. Trust me, you can knock a lot of your holiday shopping out all in one place,

they have everything from athletic wear to nice casual wear like these sweaters. You'll want to keep checking all throughout Black Friday and the holidays for even more limited time deals. Shot now at Fabletics.com slash locked on NFL to get 70 to 80% off everything when you sign up as a new VIP. You take a quick style quiz. Be sure to select locked on NFL when prompted to unlock this offer. The best styles sell out fast.

So don't wait. Again, that's fabletics.com slash locked on NFL for 70 to 80% off everything as a new VIP. Welcome to your most rewarding NFL season ever, only on Fan duel. How rewarding are we talking? More rewarding than the Bengals giving up a mid-round pick for Derwin James at the trade deadline, given that last piece to go make a Super Bowl run. Other teams will be doing it. The Rams would do it. That's rewarding your fan base for the last few years, I think, to go all in completely. This season, fan duel is making the excitement go beyond what happens on the field with the all-new fan duel, Rewards Club featuring exclusive offers, surprises, and more.

Every week, all you have to do is check the Fandual app to see what's waiting for you. And I like rewards. Do you just say rewards? I am in. Reward us, Bengals, with making a move. Make this your most rewarding season ever with Fanduel. Visit Fandual.com to get started today. Jake, I'm not going to make up any more words and try and use words that I clearly don't understand

because I failed 10th grade English. I don't know if you know that. Now I make a living using words. There's a player and a team that I am highly interested in, not just the Chargers, not just the Cardinals. I think the commanders could be one of them. I think the commanders got quite a few players that we wanted in free agency, number one. Not that those guys are easily tradable because you just paid them, right?

Like from a team that's going to give up picks, you get a really good deal on a guy that just signed because usually that signing bonus is going to stay with that team. you don't have to worry about it. Cat pits are small. And I start looking at it, Leigh O'Schnol. Can we get him back finally? I get him back, like as if he was a member of the roster.

But I got one guy who was a draft crush. And after the injury to Tanner Hudson, I started to look around at tight ends a little bit. And I saw Ben Sinnett is now number three tight end for the Chargers. He's still playing. But he's playing. He's just a blocker. They don't throw him the ball. I think he has two targets all year, one catch.

But he's played 140 snaps. I think it was when I looked on PFF. And he's just a blocker and a solid blocker. He always was coming out. I still think there's more receiving upside there. And when I started to look through and kind of do some biweek self-scouting, how bad the Bengals tight ends are grading and blocking Drew Sample, Eric All. It kind of made me think, like maybe it's not just the receiving weapon of Hudson,

which I think Senate could do that based on what he was when he was a prospect. But getting that blocking aspect could be a big boost to this offense. I think you got Ben Sinan at home in Jack Andrews, Joe. What about that? I mean, there's always that tradeoff. I guess in this scenario, but if Andrews isn't ready, Senate is a guy who could step in and do some of these things. But the only hesitation, I guess,

the primary hesitation that comes to mind for me about giving up capital for a player like that is that, is Ben Senate really going to displace Drew Sample in this offense? No. Is you really going to displace? Eric Cole. Maybe eventually.

We'll see. I think that there's still quite a bit of hope for Eric Hall to turn things around. this season and be a little bit more consistent and get a little bit more out of him as a receiver. I'm still very curious to see what injuries does as well. We obviously really liked him as a prospect as well. Do you remember off the top of your head, Ben Senate versus Jack Andrews as tight end prospects? So Senate did score higher on our process.

Very similar players, to be honest with you. They were kind of B level athletes with really good route running, really good hands and effort blockers. And those are the type of guys I like. And I think they both had decent data as yak players, so providing a little bit of yards after the catch. Yeah. So which direction do you want to go from here?

We could talk about the many running backs. And I know Bengals fans are interested in trading for running backs. Or there's one team to me that if they continue to stay down for the next few weeks, looks like a potential gold mine in terms of players that you could be interested in trading for. But let's go running backs next because there's quite a few that could be on these teams, that are on these teams that could be potential trade targets. I know some Bengals fans have talked about Ollie Golden from, Ollie Gordon from the Dolphins.

I think that would be a bit of a surprising trade to see, given that he's on his rookie deal, but some veterans out there, Tony Pollard on the Titans, Alvin Camara on the Saints, Tyler Algier, on the Cardinals, all potential running back targets who could really bolster

in a significant way the depth for the Bengals. And then the challenge would be figuring out what the pecking order is to split snaps because then you'd have three running backs that you'd want to get on the field at different times. Yeah, and let me throw in Sean Tucker also. for the Bucks at RV number three. And he's their kick returner now as well. They restructured

his deal right for the season because he was on a restricted salary, which they gave, they gave him the second round tender, which was crazy at the time. So they redid that deal. But I think they could move him as well. That's a size speed type guy that can also be a return man. Maybe that can help you a little bit there if they don't want to use Dante Myers full time and kick return. And I think Elvin Kamara's done some returning. Chase Brown has too. So any of these running backs, maybe you could get a two for one upgrade there. But I'd be interested in Kamara big time. I think that's a guy that can block, that can catch,

still makes people miss. He may not have the same type of speed he had before, but we're talking about a rotation and just boosting this running back room in a big way. And Tony Pollard, actually, he fits from a so does Kamara, actually. I've talked about this a lot from a scheme point. The Saints look a lot like the Bengals offense and shotgun a ton. The Titans are in shotgun pretty much every single play. And Tony Pollard's been one of the better shotgun run.

in the league over the last few years, I would take somebody like that and just rotate it and just mix it together. Running back spent a position we were concerned with all offseason, especially when we're talking depth and upside if one guy goes down. This would eliminate that and make it probably a position of strength. The only way this happens, in my opinion, is if there's an injury to one of Chase Brown or Samajai Piron. And I think it's probably the Chase Brown injury that would push them to look to a veteran of this quality. We saw the last time they lost their running back. It was a Khalil Herbert trade. It wasn't a name that you were really thinking about to a significant degree, not a player that was playing a ton in their

respective offenses, not a player, certainly with the star power that Alvin Kamara has carried in his career. The other player that I think some Bengals fans have been thinking about, and I don't fault them for it, is Bucky Irving from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And the Bucks are a team that has a lot of good players. We talked about this as a potential really difficult matchup in week one, then Baker Mayfield played poorly and then got hurt. And so they're in a place where they're not winning a whole lot of games. But I still don't think that Bucky Irving is a likely trade candidate for the Bucks. He does have one more year on that rookie contract, I believe. And so why would they move on from the player that's potentially part of their rebuild if they have that next year and can be

a part of their team next year? And I don't necessarily see him as a likely trade candidate. He is a player who's bounced back in a significant way this year among the league leaders in forcing miss tackles and kind of looks more like his rookie year this year than his down year last year. So if he is available, there's potentially some interest there, but I just don't buy the most expensive one though, if you are going to trade, right? Like I see that being a second or third round pick. And for a running back, that feels like a lot. It does seem like a higher price than I would think he would get on the trade market.

I think, I guess it's hard. to say what the NFL thinks of him right now. Running back is still a weird position. I think you have to be really good at running back to fetch a premium asset, like one of the top running backs in the league. But the bucks in general have a bunch of players that if they're available, you should be kicking the tires. Yeah, yeah, Diabi, I believe is on the last year of his rookie deal.

The bucks probably are interested in an extension there, but that I think would represent an upgrade for the Bengals at starting edge across from Boye-Mafé right now. and either safety, if either safety is available, Tykees Smith or Antoine Winfield, Jr. I'd be all over Antoine Winfield. Yeah. Antoine Winfield Jr. is more of like that box player, if that's what you're looking for, right? The more versatile piece, that slot defender that we've talked about and that's going to be a priority.

So that would be kind of the two birds, one stone idea with Winfield. But Tykew Smith's also a good player. So it's two players there at safety that can make you better. Anyone else you want to mention here, Joe? No, I was going to finish with if, if you could pick one player, then, who would it be for me? It's Derwin James. We started with that, but you never got to answer.

If it was one player, are you going with a safety, a running back, a pass rusher? What are you thinking? We haven't mentioned Khalil Mack. I think that would be a pretty high aim, like shooting for the stars kind of move. Should be pretty cheap. Should be cheap in terms of the draft pick compensation required because he's on an expiring. deal. He's an older player. He's not the past rush where he once was, but still a

very good player on the edge. That one's really interesting to me. It's hard to disagree with Darwin James, to be honest. There's no linebacker on this list is what I'm noticing. None of these teams have very interesting linebacker trade candidates,

because that's where I wanted to go, but we don't really have a great answer there. That's when you just play Doug or more at linebacker and nickel and dime and just fix it that way. Well, if you're going to say Derwin James, I'll pick a runner up. And then for me, I would say, yeah, yeah, Diavi, because you could extend him and make him part of your D line of the future. And I think that would be one of the more expensive options on the list, but especially when you factor in the extension required there.

But pairing him with Dexter Lawrence and with Boye-Mafé gives you three really good players on the defensive line to build around. Yeah, no doubt about it. I like all your suggestions there. Again, I'm going to throw in Alvin Kamara just because of. what he's been in his career. And I would love to add that and just, I mean, the hype around that would be huge, right? They've got a real guy.

This offense is stacked like fans would be all over that. We've got another question from Ben on the everyday or club. More of a after five games, what do we think that I think is an interesting conversation here to finish off the show. We'll talk about that coming up next. Big thank you to our friends at Amazon for this limited break. the holidays have a way of showing up faster than you expect.

One minute, you're settling into football season just five weeks ago. The next minute, we're already thinking about setting up decorations for the holidays, maybe you've got to do some holiday shopping, hosting, all the things that come with the condensed holiday season that we have coming up this winter. And Amazon makes it easy to get ahead and start with low prices on everything from gifts to holiday decor and everything you need for hosting. And if you have kids, nieces, nephews, or anyone in your family who plays sports, you already know sports gear makes a great holiday gift.

Getting that baseball back, getting that basketball, that can make a kid's face light up and your kids face light up. Football's gloves, training equipment. There's always something they want, something they need. Amazon makes it easy to start checking those gifts off early. And they've got anything. Your little athlete needs to light up this holiday season. However, you get the holiday season started, Amazon makes it easier to find something.

for everyone you want to deliver a little bit of joy to get a head start on holiday gifting with Amazon's low prices shop now at Amazon.com slash holiday. Joe, we got another question from the Everyday Club, and this one comes from Ben S. Based on the first five games of the season, Joe, have your expectations increased, decreased, or are they exactly the same as they were in the preseason? Yeah, that is the question, right, because it's by week and the Bengals are three and two. people feel worse about the three and two than I think would be ideal. It's how they lost.

It's how they've won, even, I would say. I had them at four and one at this point. I thought they would lose to the Texans and beat the Jaguars. They beat the Texans. I was feeling really good at 2 and 0. Like, okay, this is this defense. I mean, that was a story after that game, holding the six points. They couldn't run the ball.

Remember, they're running production for the Texans, both running backs averaging about 0.8 yards per carry. Things felt really good. And then you lose on final drives with your offense control in the ball at the end versus the Steelers, who you always hate to lose to. And then the Jaguars, who honestly are a, they might be the best team in the AFC in total. And we'll see. They're probably going to be gunning for that number one seed this year.

And we'll feel less worse about it as the season goes on. People start to wake up more and more to how good the Jags are. And then you beat the dolphins. But you allow them to get into the game and make it a little bit closer. and you never were able to put the hammer down to finish it. I think people felt that, right? So do I feel like this isn't going the way I thought? Not really.

These losses are going to happen, right? Item four and one, they're three and two. I still look at the landscape of that schedule coming up. It's still the easiest schedule going forward. I think it was 17th in terms of how hard it was, how difficult it was for the first five weeks, and then now it's 32nd to go. I still think if you were to bet on,

I think it's 10 and a half I saw someone sent me the other day of over under. I'm taking the over. I still think 12 is very within reason, especially for how the Bengals in their history have played post by week or middle of the season or the rest of the season, I'm still high. Honestly, you can make an argument that expectations should be higher right now, even though they did lose these games in frustrating ways, because the offense is better than it has been through five weeks in the Joe Borough era. And in the Joe Burrow era, two out of his three seasons, have finished with a championship game or better, the one that they missed the playoffs. Nobody wanted to play them if they made the playoffs.

You remember those narratives. And they didn't make the playoffs because their defense dug them too big of a hole early in the season in 2024. They couldn't finish games. They lost all these one-score games. And there are some shades of 2024 that could temper some of that excitement. And you can look no further than the Jacksonville and Pittsburgh games for that. And to some extent, the game the Bengals played against Miami very similar to those games. Miami's just too bad to capitalize on it. And so in those senses, then that's where some of the lower expectations might come from. But I do still think that Zach Taylor's teams have every year gotten better as the season goes on in terms of the way they performed.

I still have confidence. And maybe this is the last year. I have confidence in Joe Burroughs' ability to go down the field and win games in the fourth quarter and take care of the football. because he's largely done that in his career. The last couple of years of Bengals' offense, inability to finish games notwithstanding. Burrow generally hasn't been part of the reason for that, the way he has been with the Christian Benford pick six

or a couple of the games against Baltimore in 2024 or the games that they've lost this year. I just don't expect that to continue. I think Joe Burroughs too good of a player. I think the pieces around him and the continuity on offense should start to show up. And I think that the run game will bounce back. And when you consider all those things, I don't remember who it was.

This is a new person in my social media sphere, so I'm going to go make sure I know exactly who this was. Sean Newkirk, who is an analytics guy that I started to follow this year, keeps track of all the different analytics sites that offer different things. The Bengals will play the number one, number three, number six, number 10 and number 18 run defenses so far this year. Can I add something? They play PFF's number one, two, three, and four graded run defenses. And part of that is that the Bengals have played badly in those games. That's contributing to this. But part of this is also that those teams are just good run defenses.

The Jaguars have done it. The Miami Dolphins have done it. And I wonder which one's 18. I'm not exactly sure. Miami is 18, despite having played the Chiefs and the 49ers pretty tough. It's the box. It's the Steelers. It's the Texans.

It's the Jigs. Yeah. And the Bengals didn't run the ball poorly until that Jaguars. game. And we just this week have talked about how last year they were so much better running under center. I don't see any reason that that can't come back when they're not playing some of these top run defenses. Do you have to figure it out when you're playing the Jaguars, when you're playing the Texans, you do have to figure those things out. You do need to run the ball better than they did against the Jaguars. That's part of the reason they lost that game. But I think that's going to come back.

I have a lot of confidence in Joe Burrow to continue to get better as the season goes. And then it comes down to the defense and what do you believe about this defense? I think we believe that it is better than last year's unit, which started awful, finish, strong against really poor competition. And with some of that poor competition coming up on the Bengal schedule, Joe, I have a feeling that in probably five, six weeks, there's a good chance that people are feeling better about this Bengals defense when they get some of these weaker matchups. I still think this is going to be a top 16 defense in terms of like EPA success, right, things like that, right? The newer data we're trying to use to represent rather than just yards or points because that can be

very weird and muddy. I still think they're going to end up there because of the schedule. It will help them. The true test, and you brought it up when you're like, they're going to need to figure out how to run the ball against those jags because you're going to play them. You're going to play these good teams, probably when you get to the playoffs, it's a top 16 defense. It's probably a top 16 run defense. Very rarely are you going to see one major hole in these in these teams in the playoffs, especially if you get to the divisional and championship and Super Bowl round, which where that's where we want to be. So they have to figure that out. It's probably not a great test to play against some of these bottom feeder teams that they

will play against because it makes things look good. It makes things look easy. And then you try to use those things again next year and they don't work in the first four weeks. And I think we saw a little bit of that carrying over from 2025 season. Mainly probably and might be some of it be Chase Brown in the running as well. If you remember last year through five weeks, 2.7 yards per carry. It was bad. I don't know if people remember this, but he had two fumbles in those first five weeks. He did not have anything after contact. He wasn't his longest run last year, 13 yards through the first five weeks. He was dynamic after that. They were good. The run game was

Joe Flacco turned Chase Brown into an explosive putting back. I'll tell you what. Well, he did average like 5.7 in those weeks with Joe Flacco at quarterback versus 4.6, I believe it was with Joe Burrow when he came back. But a lot of that, I think is that Pittsburgh game where the run game went crazy. He was great. And the Bengals did play some poor run defenses last year. No doubt about it. But at the same time, I do think it should be better and we'll get better. And if it does get better, again, we've talked about this for a while. If the offense is this good already, and that's where the poor run game, if the run game even marginally gets better, they're in good shape.

If the defense cleans a few things up and maybe that's communication, maybe they get a little more aggressive like they did last year in the second half. with Al Golden. That could be the difference between this team being a 12-win, one playoff game team versus a maybe they get to 13 wins and win two playoff games and make a run. So, you know, that's what we're monitoring. But I think that sets the, like, what our expectations are. We expect this team to be in the playoffs and potentially going far. DVOA is a sad that we haven't talked about a whole lot on this podcast, Joe, over the years.

And so we're not going to get into it in too much depth here. The idea of DVOA is that it tries to contest. actualize every yard gained, adjust it for the quality of competition, and give you one number that tells you the overall strength of a team. And you might not imagine where the Bengals rank in DVOA right now, unless this is a stat that you track closely. They're actually fifth in DVOA in the entire NFL right now. And through five weeks at three and two, that's a pretty good place to be. The years that the Bengals have been good, I think in 2022, they ranked pretty highly, but in 2021, they didn't even rank that highly in the stat.

They overachieved according to DVOA. But DVOA has shown to be a fairly predictive stat over the years, despite it not having a very catchy name. It is something that will tell you who the overall good teams are and does a good job of contextualizing every yard gained. So it's something to keep an eye on this season. One quick thing before we jump out of here. Their DVOA running on offense is the same as the Chiefs right now

because of who the Bengals have played versus who the Chiefs have played. The Chiefs have played the worst run defenses in the league. The best one they played is Miami. Yeah, interesting stuff there. We talked about Miami doing a good job against a potent Chiefs rushing offense. And Kenneth Walker's, that do, but that run blocking in Kansas City is going to need to continue to stabilize. Meanwhile, we'll have to figure out how to block guys at the second level in Cincinnati. But that's a problem for next week because the by week has concluded.

We'll get through a few more episodes before we start to talk about the Bengals week seven opponent, Baltimore, next week. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast. Hootay and have a good.