Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - CAP MALPRACTICE | Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins contract structures needlessly limiting the Cincinnati Bengals salary cap

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

Now that we know the full structure and cap hits for Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins'  new extensions, it's clear that the Cincinnati Bengals needlessly inflated their 2025 cap hits. Jake Liscow and James Rapien break down the current cap situation, why these contract structures are indefensible, and what that means for the rest of the offseason as the Bengals still have obvious roster holes.  Join 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!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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.

It's great news that the Cincinnati Bengals got extensions done for T. Higgins and Jemar Chase. It's very concerning news when you look at how the Bengals structured those deals and what the salary cap implications are. Let's get into it. 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 Locked On Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liskow. He's your host, James Rupin, and we are Locked-on Bengals on the Locked-on Podcast Network,

your team every day on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast. If you're an everyday or already, welcome back to the show. We're glad to see you here. If you're not in every day or already, and you would like to become one, the best way to do that is hit that subscribe button, hit the bell on YouTube. You'll get notified when our episodes drop. We'll have you updated throughout this Bengals off season, and of course, all year round as the Bengals are trying to get back into contention

in 2025. And we're going to have to be critical today, James, of some salary cap details in an episode coincidentally brought to the people by Monarch Money where you can take control of your finances in a way the Bengals haven't with Monarch money. Use code locked on NFL at Monarch Money.com for 50% off your first year. And boy, would the Bengals love 50% off anything

the way they're managing this salary cap, James. Like I said at the top of the show, you are able to do your thing. I love this. You are allowed to celebrate T. Higgins and Jamar Chase being extended to be Cincinnati Bengals for the next four to five years in Jamar Chase's case. You are also allowed to look at those deals and look at the roster and look at what they did in this free agency and say, huh, those cap pits sure do look high. And getting these extensions done reports initially whether the Bengals saved cap space for Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. That turned out to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $350,000 of caps space in 2025.

And we'll get into the details here, James. But the long story short is these cap hits could have reduced the Bengals cap obligations in 2025 by over $11 million. And instead of that, they realize only $300,000 in cap savings. It is. And there are little tweaks. I'll let you do the, the, the, the, cap intricacies because I'm not sure anyone outside of salary cap expert himself, Andre Perada on X, has followed this closer than you this offseason when it comes to the

Bengal salary cap. This is one of the really frustrating things because when you talk about insert whatever free agent you wanted. And I mean, almost any free agent you wanted, that $11 million and probably any free agent you wanted, that $11 million, and probably any free agent you you. That could go towards it because that's not $11 million cash. That's cap. That gives you so much maneuverability, so much flexibility, so much more wiggle room to go get Callais Campbell and Zedarius Smith and insert whoever, right? I'm naming guys that are still available. Brain and Scherf, someone that Bengals fans want right now and rightfully so. That gives you the flexibility to go get the top safety in the market, Javon Holland, who I thought, honestly, I expected him to get more

than three for 45 with 30 million guaranteed. And that's basically what he signed for with the Giants. Like, you could have got a top tier safety or a top tier interior pass rusher like Milton Williams, or you look at the class now, that T and Jammar are done, having $11 million in cap space, even now, right? Let's just go after the fact. That can easily be, if you wanted to, a Brandon Scherf and a Calais Campbell, realistically. That could be Callais Campbell and Zadaria Smith if one of those two deals is a multi-year deal. But the point is, is you wanted to see them maximize what they had, maximize their salary

cap. And I don't really give a damn that it's not as good of a free agent class as it's been in the past. There are still players right now, as we record this on March 23rd, with the draft, essentially a month away, that could help the Bengals right now. That could help shore up some of their weaknesses right now. Veterans that could come in. And Dalton Reisner, another one.

Let's keep going, right? I mean, there's plenty of guys that we can name. Asante Samuel Jr. I'd feel pretty darn good about the Bengals cornerback room if suddenly Asante Samuel Jr. What was in that room as well? And I think that's what's annoying is one word. Frustrating is another word.

Maddening is another. And let's get to the deep. details here. The fact that they didn't do something that would have been really, really simple, and Jamar Chase's deal, T, Higgins' deal, it doesn't really save them anything to create more cap space this year that they didn't have to use every bit of anyway and would have given them more flexibility is wild and yet here we are. They didn't do it and it's because of essentially when cash is given to Jamar and T. It's not even that. It literally doesn't have to change when the cash is given at all. It doesn't have to.

have to change cash flow at all. And I'll get into that in a second and explain that. Over the cap currently estimates the Bengals have $24 million in cap space. That number could be, like I said, $11 million higher. That number is realistically speaking for the Bengals especially a little bit lower because they're not going to be as maneuverable with the cap in season. There are, as I've mentioned in the past, practice squad expenses, offseason bonuses that will need to be paid out, rookies that are not included in the over the cap number. So where the Bengals probably see themselves in terms of cap space right now is closer to $12 million. Yeah, because that is a good number.

That are not currently counted in over the cap, which is giving you the off-season top 51 accounting figure of about $24 million. Both of those numbers could be $11 million and change higher. The reason for that is because the Bengals gave, instead of signing bonuses, they gave roster bonuses to T. Higgins and Jamar Chase. And roster bonuses that are fully guaranteed at the time of signing are still proratable. in terms of the salary cap, like a signing bonus. So if you get a $20 million signing bonus and you pro-rate that over five years,

that means that $4 million of that cap expense goes into the next five years from an accounting perspective, but that $20 million still gets paid to the player in that year. So what the Bengals did instead is they gave T. Higgins a $20 million roster bonus, but they split it up. And they said, we're only going to pro-rate $15 million. of this. We're going to leave $5 million of this, not pro-rated. We're going to pay it out a little bit later in March, but they're still paying it in March. So T is still getting $20 million of roster

bonus this March, which might as well be a sign. Wasn't it five days? It's something like that. One of those five days after the league year, one of them's a little bit later. Regardless, it's all in March. It doesn't change the cash flow. T. Higgins is getting $20 million this month in signing bonus. Effectively. But because of Bengals, was opted to not pro rate 5 million of those dollars. His cap hit is about $3.75 million higher than it needs to be this year.

Not a huge issue potentially, but then you look at it with Jamar. One, it's one player. I mean, Dalton Reisner. Like somebody.

And Jamar did the same thing. They gave him $32 million in roster bonuses. And of those $32 million in roster bonuses, which he's getting either way from a cash perspective. They said, we're not going to pro-rate $10 million of that roster bonus. That's $8 million in salary cap space. $8 million in salary cap space.

So you combine that, that's where I get the $11 million plus in salary cap space that the Bengals could have had. And instead, for whatever reason, they just carved out bits of this roster bonus is still getting paid and decided to not pro-rate it. So that's $11 million of salary cap expenses that comes into 2025. Again, the cash doesn't change. But what this does instead is it gives the Bengals an opportunity, hypothetically, to point to the cap and say, hey, look, we're right up against that cap right now. We can't go forward to sign XYZ player.

And they've done this with other deals this summer or this spring too. It's not just these two guys. These are the biggest and most recent examples. and the most egregious examples, Jamar's cap hit going up is wild. Are you ready for some, just a tad bit of fresh, well, more frustration. Guess what Javon Holland's cap hit is this year?

Like $5 million. Yeah, I was actually shocked. That's a little higher than that. 9.9. Guess what Josh Sweat's cap hit is this year? I'm going to keep guessing $5 million. 7.3. So, like, for Jamar, that costs you Josh Sweat.

Like, just think of it that way. Just by doing that, like, you could have easily added a player of Josh Swet's caliber. Javan Holland. And I get it. They weren't swimming in those waters. But that's what's annoying here. And that's why we have to point it out. And that's why, yeah, it's great that you've re-sign T and Jamar.

And that's the right thing to do. But you have to maximize what you're given. And by the way, what we're saying isn't, oh, we'll go. all in and disrupt your future. It's literally just, hey, move this bonus around to maximize your 2025 cap space. And if you don't use it all, fine, but it gives you more flexibility so you can go after some of these guys. I think there's more meat on the bone here, more you have to say, more I have to say.

So we'll do that coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder, where did all my money go? Well, you got to make sure that you're managing your account. And between going out and online shopping, entertainment, it's easy to lose track. Believe me, the Amazon Prime guy certainly feels that way about my house. But that's where Monarch Money comes in. It's your personal CFO. It gives you full visibility and control over your finances. And Monarch Money isn't just a budgeting app. It's a financial command center. It allows you to track all of your accounts, all of your investments, spending all of it in one spot.

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There's no waiting around. So check it all out at fandul.com to get in on the college hoop action all tournament luck. Jake, I'm looking here, and I was like, all right, well, let's go biggest of fish. And let's go Milton Williams. He signed that four-year,

$104 million contract, $63 million guaranteed with the Patriots, $24 million signing bonus. He has a $14 million cap hit. I mean, it's just, this $11-plus million dollars could be used in so many different ways, and it could make them better right now.

It's not like they looked at free agency and we're like, yeah, we might as well do it now to create space later. Like it could have made their team better right now. It could have added the two starting guards that we've tried to hold their feet to the fire about, not just one but two. It could have given them the extra defensive tackle, the extra defensive end, maybe a linebacker, the safety, the corner. Like there are so many options, like Asante Samuel Jr. right now,

if you added him, I'd feel really darn good about it. and so that $11 million in cap space is it leads me to believe like when people call the Bengals cheap and say they don't want to spend, right? Well, if you're allocating or misallocating $11 million in cap space to two players when you could create that space and have that space to use and use more cash this year to make your team better, well then it's hard for me to argue that you're not cheap or that you're not trying to. to go a certain route. I do think they want to win. I also think that they want to win without maximizing their resources, and no one's asking you to completely burn the future. It's just simple stuff like this that is maddening,

and I think every day I should know about. Yeah, I think there's a few intricacies here to explain when you throw around the cheap word with the Bengals. That's something that I think a lot of people will bristle at, right? Sure. Including them. think about including that. Oh, for sure, them.

Especially when you think about the fact that they just paid T. Higgins and Jamar Chase all that money, which it's a lot of money. They did not go cheap on those deals. But in doing so, they've reduced the amount of money that they were going to spend in 2025 because now they're up against the cap a little bit, more than they need to be, certainly. And a lot of you might be wondering, well, why would they do that? Why would they take almost $12 million in additional cap expenses this year?

are they saving cap space in the future? I mean, if it's $12 million this year, that means they don't have to pay it in the future, right? That frees up cap in future years. Math doesn't really work out that way. When you take it as a lump sum in one year versus spreading it out over four or five years in Jamar Chase's case, four years for T,

you're taking $11.75 million more in cap expenses this year to save on average over the next four to five years, about $2.5 million in cap space. The cap is going up. So on a percentage basis, they spent an extra 4% of their cap this year to save less than 1% of their cap in the next four years. Like 0.8%, 0.9% of the cap in the next few years because the cap is going to keep going up. So that $2 million in savings next year is less than $2 million in savings this year because the cap is smaller this year. So really no matter how you cut this, I can't make sense of this.

other than coming to the conclusion, which is they want to spend more on the cap this year because, one, they have now multiple times referred to cap spending as payroll. Don't let them confuse you about that. Those are different things. Cap spending is not how much money they're spending in cash, and it never will be. And two, now they can say we're up against the cap. We can't afford to go sign XYZ player. We couldn't have afforded to go sign a player earlier in free agency,

because we waited to get these deals on it. We knew how we were going to structure them. We knew what we were going to do with those roster bonuses. That's the choice that Bengals can make. Doesn't affect the player at all. Just to reiterate that, doesn't affect the player at all. To the point that you have a fellow named Jake Rosenberg who worked in the Eagles front office for 12 years

until about a year ago saying that it is indefensible to purposely decide to not pro-rate money that you could decide to pro-rate, saying that reducing current capital Cap numbers through probation provides a team with free options. There's literally no downside. And this is a guy coming from the Eagles, so a very different approach to cap management than the Bengals.

But indefensible. Over the caps, Jason responded to that saying that his opinion is that they want the cap to look like an impediment to anyone else looking for them to do anything significant this year, pointing out that in a previous CBA, the Bengals would increase salaries by $1 to avoid minimum salary cap benefits when the NFL is based on cap-charged spending. They have a history of this, is what he's saying, of inflating their cap numbers. You can't argue it.

I mean, you just can't. I don't know about the past. But when it comes to this year with these contracts, with this situation, and it always leads me, we go down this path. Joe Burroughs no idiot. if we're talking about it on locked on bengals joe bro is very much aware of it and if he's dealing with poor guard play or there's not enough pass rush or trey hendrickson doesn't get handled like think about all the things the 11 million dollars i didn't even bring up the tray part because there's

no excuses you can't you can't go this route and then be like ah well we can't really fit tray's extra money that we need to keep him like it's it's one of those things you're where Joe's watching and it's like, oh, well, yeah, you got T and Jemar done, but it's the Duke line. And the more, the farther we get removed from the combine, the more I wonder if Duke and the powers that be that are negotiating these deals, which would be Katie Blackburn and Troy Blackburn are just, I don't want to say different pages, but their philosophies are a little different because they're paying for the, they're paying more for the same team right now. They aren't.

They have a nose tackle now, James. Yeah, sure. because they were dumb enough to go into a season without a nose tackle. You know, like, it's like, well, that's, when you're at zero, sure, it's better, but you lost multiple pieces. You need, you need to fill out your roster. And it just, it does not make any sense. And so plenty of, plenty of quality free agents available.

And even if they do go after the guys we want them to go. after they're still going to have to hit this draft. That's what's wild. The pressure's on now. This is a huge, huge month. And to put yourself in this position where you don't have as much flexibility,

we'll see. I mean, we're not asking them to put eight void years on things and do things like insane moves. Like they would view the Eagles and how they do things. Fine. We're not asking them to do that. But do these basic things that give you more flexibility.

Because unless you do, unless you add brain and turf, and add another pass rusher and add a veteran or two more, people are going to be like, well, what the hell are you thinking? And that's going to be impossible to debate because it's going to feel like they were a move or too short, just like they were last year at this time when we thought they should be doing more.

Let's talk about that in a little bit more depth here, James, and folding the Trey Hendrickson piece as well before we get to the news that Lucas Patrick has officially signed, the Bengals added a guard. We talked about that in our most recent, episode as well, but we'll touch on it again today here to finish up the show next. So there are a few things that I wanted to hit on before we get to Lucas Patrick. One of them is a Trey Hendrickson thing. You mentioned that a little bit.

If they do get a deal done with Trey, that will be a cap increase for Trey Hendrickson this year, certainly a cash increase for the Bengals to pay out to Trey Hendrickson this year. I do not want to hear them talking about they can't get Trey done because of the cap. That is absolutely not an excuse at this point. if they can't get Trey done, it's because they can't convince themselves to pay the number that Trey is comfortable with. And that will be a choice that they have made to not allocate resources to Trey Hendrickson based on whatever their rationale is.

It's not a cap excuse. Two, you're talking about all these other free agents and the other veterans that are still out there the Bengals can bring in. And quite frankly, James, at this point, I'm not convinced they're doing anything else in free agency. And when you think about that, the fact that they have about 70, players on the roster right now. I need to confirm that it is, in fact, 70.

But I'm pretty sure. I actually have it at 75. Oh, no, that includes draft picks. So 70 players on the roster right now. 76 after they add their six draft picks, that means that going into camp where you can maximize at 90 players, you're going to have 14 undrafted free agents, 20 total rookies, which is fine.

But how many of those guys are you expecting to make the team? I don't know if there's anything uniquely wrong with having 20 rookies in camp. Oh, no. A lot of teams have a lot of rookies in camp. But it's not fine to just do nothing else. That's not what I would say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's the issue.

Like the reason they lost last year, spoiler, is because players 10-ish through 53, and if you want to include practice squad through 69 weren't good enough. Like all these fringe moves, these fringe moves and these roster pieces, like all that needs to be better. You need to upgrade the floor of your entire roster behind these superstars you have and these stars that you have. And then you're still banking on your stars to be stars. And like that's the blueprint.

That was the offseason. Because I get it. Like we knew they probably weren't going to swim in the Josh sweatwaters. That's fine. We weren't. I wasn't asking them to do that necessarily. Not if you're bringing Trey back and you're going with T and Jammar and going that route. Like that's fine.

But the starting goal. card thing, dumb. Start prioritizing guard. It's important. Ask Joe if it's pressure in his face. Beyond dumb. Like that's malpractice stuff. That's beyond the pale what they're doing with guard right now. If there's nothing else coming to guard, that's atrocious. And let's just tie in

Lucas Patrick to it because it's their biggest need. Their biggest need right now is Guard. And Lucas Patrick, if he's, and we hit on in this on our last show, but if he's a Cordell-Volson replacement and they're thinking, oh, well, we can save a million plus dollars in cap, 1.4 million in cap space.

by going this route with a proven guy that can also play center. Fine. But if this guy is like the guy you're getting because the guard market moved, or you're waiting on Brandon Shurf or whatever. I mean, as we record this on Sunday, Tevin Jenkins's contract hasn't even been anywhere. Have you seen any details? No, but it should be available to.

You know why? Because it's a nothing contract. There's no way there's a lot of money in that contract with the Browns. And so fine. If you don't want Tevin Jenkins, will go after someone else. And that's why it cannot be nothing. Like if they don't do anything,

then they're really backing themselves into a corner where it's not just like, oh, well, they need to take a defensive end at 17 or they need to take this player at 17. They need to get, like, for the first time since the 2020 draft, like three guys right away, Joe, T, and Logan, where they come in right away and are starting. And that's just so hard to do.

Well, it's a lot easier when you're picking at the top of every round. I'll tell you that. And that too. And so to put yourself in that corner where you're talking about one of the best Bengals drafts ever in their history, arguably the best when you talk about Joe, it's, that's a really tough, tough pill to swallow. And they cannot put themselves in that situation. And if the draft was tomorrow, they would be in that situation, which means they better

add a few veterans. I would take one at this point. I hate it. That's where I think they're at. And it's just... Yeah, I think Asante Samuel Jr. is not even remotely, you know? Like, I don't even think they're looking at corner. And I don't know if that's like the move I would make or not, but like, you got to think about it at least.

It's one of multiple. I'd make. You got to think about it at least. And so it's this year's catman. It's this year's inactivity and free agency. Even though it was a down class, they're glaring needs on this roster right now. It's not getting these deals done last year, at least with Jamar Chase, costing you a ton of cap space over the next couple of years. And when you compare Jamar Chase's contract to Justin Jefferson's contract, the last few years of each of their deals look almost identical from a cap perspective. The first two years, Justin Jefferson's like $10 million cheaper a year because this contract's $5 million cheaper over five years.

That's that's your $20 million. So it's not getting the deals on earlier. Yeah. The way they structured the deals, the way they've structured all of their deals to have bigger than needed cap hits in your one of those contracts. And for minimal cap savings in the future, it's not like they're saving a bunch of cap space next year or in two years. They're saving themselves a couple million dollars here or there, which does as a add up, don't get me wrong. But we're talking about a three year window, right? That's what we've talked about.

Yep. Two, three year window here. You got these guys in their prime right now. And now you're not trying to get the extra couple pieces they need. And they could create more cap space. So this is something we haven't gotten to, forgot to talk about this. Hypothetically, they could talk about restructuring show at this point, which would be absolute nonsense to do.

Stupid. After they could have just prorated these roster bonuses for T and Jemar and said. It's why they're not. It's why they're not restructuring. Like, for sure not. There's no way. Yeah. Two, they do have some.

cuts left. Jermaine Pratt still on the roster. Zach Moss still on the roster. And I don't think we're expecting either of those guys to be on the roster. Maybe something's changed. But there's a lot of cap space they could save with those moves. And Zach Moss is an injury thing that they're waiting for. That's fine.

But like if they moved on from Jermaine Pratt and tried to upgrade the linebacker position, linebacker two spot, maybe that's a move they could consider making. And maybe they are considering it still with some of the veterans out there. But the way they've done things this offseason, it just doesn't feel like they're prioritizing much of anything in free agency, the remainder of free agency at this point. There would be a lot of one-year deals that are not cap-flexible the way they've hamstrung themselves from a cap-space perspective. And I don't want to take anything away from Lucas Patrick. I feel bad about that. This has been a very ripping the Bengals financial management episode. I don't want

to that to take away from Lucas Patrick too much. I think he's a fine player as a swing interior offensive lineman. Sure. It's a good signing in that perspective. But there's all these other glaring issues that just are so much more important to me. They have a lot of backups on the interior. Yeah. That's how you describe it.

And by the way, that's not, Lucas Patrick is going to play, it's going to start games for the Bengals this year. Let's look at last year. Like, you've got to be eight deep in the offensive line room. There's nothing against that. But if you're rolling out Lucas Patrick, I just mentioned raising the floor of the entire roster. If you're rolling out Lucas Patrick as your starter day one, and it's not because of injury, then that floor is pretty low. And that's where they're at in a lot of these spots.

Javon Hargrave, under $8 million cap hit this year. Just throwing out another defensive tackle, someone that I thought could have been a fit before free agency started, you know? Just you feeling that pressure, Al Golden? You feeling that pressure, Scott Peters? There's a lot on those guys' plates right now to get this roster with what they've done in free agency. to be in a place where it's improved in 2025, because that's still possible. It's still possible that they're better in 25

because of coaching changes, because of whatever they do in the draft, because of T.J. Slayton's edition, because maybe they're better at running back to and have something solid there with Samajapiaran, who should probably be running back three, or 2A or 2B or whatever. We'll get to that in another episode.

There's so many things. You're putting so much on your coaching staff to not repeat 2024. right now. That's where they're at right now. For sure. That is. There's just so

there's just so many questions. And I get it, the T and Jemar thing, it was huge. But outside of that and a swing interior, mostly career backup offensive linemen, like that, that's it.

That's the only thing. And again, there are big changes because they're done. But now's the time to upgrade your roster. And so, like, if you would have told me two weeks ago, yeah, they're focused on outside external free agents and they're going to get these deals done and then focus in on Jamar, T, and T, and T, and T, and T, and T, and T, and

they're going the other way because they wanted to see what it looked like with T and Jammar. Fine, but then maximize what you have so you can get these guys done now. Because they could upgrade their roster significantly with a few free agents that are still available. we'll see if they do it. I get why you feel the way you feel. I think that they've still come up short of the standard

that I had set for them coming into this offseason. So we'll see. We'll see if they make a push here and add some proven guys. I feel like their standard for themselves needs to be higher than our standard for them. You know what I mean? Well, they would say it is. That's probably true.

That's probably true. Now that's debatable. Probably conclude this episode of Lockdown Bengals there. There's obviously a lot more we could bite off here. But let's wrap up there. We'll see what the Bengals continue to do here, as there are still some veterans out there. I would say that they just needed to be more active two weeks ago.

Agreed. Can't build a time machine. That's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. With a little more cap and Monarch money. Until we create a time machine, thanks for listening to this episode. of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Ho-Day. And have a good one.