Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Cincinnati Bengals get the short end of the stick with Week 18 schedule, still need a lot of help to sneak into playoffs

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

The Cincinnati Bengals still need to beat the Steelers on the road, but even if they do they'll need the Miami Dolphins to lose a game, and now will need the Kansas City Chiefs' backups to beat the Denver Broncos on the road in Week 18 to make the playoffs. Jake Liscow and James Rapien break down the playoff odds in today's episode, and highlight how the Bengals are making history when they play their 5th road primetime game of 2024. Plus, we break down more smoke around Tee Higgins' future in Cincinnati. 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-bengals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.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.

The Cincinnati Bengals wildcard hopes are still technically alive. Let's talk about those scenarios and why the schedule makers didn't really do the Bengals any favors in week 18. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Well, on Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast. I'm Jake Liscoe. He's James Rapine. We are your host and we are locked on. Bengals here on the lockdown podcast network,

covering your team every day. We're on YouTube. We're everywhere you get your podcast. So if you're new to the show, you're looking to stay up to date with Cincinnati Bengals. This week and into the off season as they will have some very important decisions to make, of course, coming up.

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we'll welcome back. We appreciate all of you so very much. Happy New Year to all those every day. There's all of you who make us your first listen. We will have a show for you on the crossover this week. We will have a game preview for you. You probably will not hear from us again until then, depending on what happens. But that's just a scheduling note during the holiday season here

and wishing you all a happy new year. Hope you're enjoying your holiday season. James, we're going to dive into today the updated playoff picture after we know the results of all of the relevant games to the Bengals' playoff aspirations that occurred on Sunday and talk a little bit about the schedule that has been decided for Week 18. I'm not a fan.

I'll air some grievances. So let's start with that playoff picture. The Bengals, according to the New York Times, before they play that game against the Steelers, 5% is what the New York Times is giving them. if they beat the Steelers, that number inches up, what is it, 8%. If they beat the Steelers, they still need a lot of help. They do.

They do. And they got some help on Sunday. So that's good. I think that one of the biggest hurdles was that. The Colts, will they lose? Well, the Giants don't like number one overall picks. The Giants handled business. Thank you Malik Navors for looking like Jamar Chase in Blue.

Wondell Robinson doing a nice T.J. Hushman Zada impression. the Giants win. So that was a huge help. But to your point, they still need two results that doesn't include Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers to go their way. First of which, well, they're both at the same time on Sunday. So the chiefs need to find a way to beat the Broncos with some backups. They are going to play a lot of backups as we expected and anticipated. And then the Bengals desperately need Aaron Rogers to just wake up and play like it's 2012 or Tyrod Taylor to maybe and who knows maybe he plays a quarterback give them

kind of return the favor pay it forward from when Andy Dalton let Tyrod Taylor into the postseason they need Tyrod to do the same thing this week if he ends up getting the start for the Jets and I don't know if that's being discussed but I think it probably should be why tried out 42 year old Aaron Rogers in a meaningless game if you're the Jets regardless if you're a Bengals fan today you're wearing Bengals gear, of course, but you're also rooting for the Jets and you're rooting for the Chiefs. You need those two teams to rise up and play well on Sunday. Yeah, looking at the New York Times simulator that you can essentially tell it, okay, this is what happens.

Now what are the Bengals chances? It's giving the Jets roughly a 45% chance to beat the dolphins. And that's the more likely outcome than New York Times simulator expects. It's giving the Chiefs about an 82% chance. Sorry, an 18% chance, the other way. It's giving the Brock was an 82% chance. The Chiefs an 18% chance to win that game with their backups in Denver in week 18. And like you said, James, those games occurring on Saturday,

Saturday in the late window at that. So the Bengals will not know. They will not have any information going into that late window game on Saturday. The other games on Sunday, I might have said Saturday. Confusing myself today. Confusing me. What day? Sunday or the games are waiting for.

The Bengals will not have any of that information when they play their game. All the AFC North games, all AFC North Saturday. So they still need some help from either the Chiefs back. Well, not either. Both the Chiefs backups and whatever version of the Jets plays whatever version of the Dolphins is out there because the Dorian Thompson-Robinson Browns were just pathetic against the two less Miami Dolphins. Embarrassing.

DTR, I think, yeah, just embarrassing. Never had a shot. Never had a shot. So you're banking on, like Tyrod Taylor and Aaron Rogers, that's a real quarterback, at least. Doesn't mean that they're playing well right now. Obviously, the Jets stink and their defense stinks and just not going well.

But there is a chance, but it only matters if you handle business on Saturday night. And we'll get into the primetime element of it. But just a couple of things, a couple of notes of what it would mean for the Bengals to win on Saturday night, regardless of what happened Sunday. They would get to three and three in the division. There's been a lot of talk and rightfully so about AFC North, the Bengals and the AFC North games, all of those things. They would have been swept by the Ravens, but you sweep the Browns and split with the Steelers if you're able to win on Saturday night. You get the 9 and 8 on the season, which would be the fourth straight year with a winning record. Again, I get it.

People are making a face now when I point this out. I get it. This year has not gone the way anyone I expected it to, but it would be the fourth straight season with a winning record. And it would only be the second time the Bengals have done that in franchise history. The only other time was 2011 through 2015 when they went to the playoffs, five straight years. years. And outside of that, they haven't done it. So a couple of things on the line, outside of the Joe Burrow MVP case, outside of the Jamar Chase Triple Crown, and then obviously outside of the playoff hunt, which we're all eyeing, because I think we would all love to see

in about 11 days or so depending on when they schedule it, Bengals, Bills, Borrow, Allen. That would be a fun one in the first round of the postseason. that's a big a big theme across football shows right now is nobody really wants to watch these other teams in the wild card hunt you're right the bills will kick the crap out of all these other teams and maybe the bengals too but at least the bengals will make it fun i mean look at the look at the non bengals fan perspective if you look at the bengals games this year if you had no stakes in any of these games this year they've played a lot of really fun games we have stakes in them you have stakes in them. Maybe not as fun for you. But the national audience that is looking for interesting games in the first round of the playoffs is not interested in seeing the Miami Dolphins limp in to Buffalo and try to figure. Or the Denver Broncos, maybe that one's a little bit more compelling, but the Bengals just beat the Broncos. And what should have been fairly convincing fashion, but obviously took over time and there was a lot of

dramatics in that game. The football world wants to see the Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow play the Buffalo Bills in that playoff game. So that is an element that I find fascinating. I find interesting. The will of the collective football audience doesn't matter. That has no impact on the game. But it is an interesting element nonetheless,

where you're going to have teams rooting for this. long shot scenario that we're talking about here where they need the chief backups to win they need the dolphins to lose and and they need to sneak in but that's an interesting element i would say this here james yeah for sure and if you're the bills fans out there you're certainly rooting for anything but having to deal with joe burrow and jimar chase like it's not like the bills can't beat the bengals i'm not saying that and that's not the logic but it's just do you want to have to deal with that I wouldn't. I would much rather be like,

oh, well, Bo Nixon, Cortland Sutton, Marvin Mims, who apparently is unguardable when the Bengals are on the field. But you get the point. And Denver could be like sneaking into the playoffs off of two straight losses

and then beating the Chiefs backups. Like not a very inspiring finish to the season. They could get in with three straight losses. They could. If the Dolphins and Mangles lose, they're in. Yeah, yeah. Think about that.

Like, yeah. So it's wild. But these crazy playoff scenarios have gone the Bengals way in the past. I've mentioned it a few times in 2012. The Bengals found a way to get into the postseason. Who knows? Maybe it happens now. It would be fun if it did.

But, and you were the first to point this out, Jake. The primetime element here, there's some stats that we have to break down because the Bengals are playing Saturday, in Pittsburgh. We will do that coming up next. Did Rocket Money help you find any subscriptions you forgot about or that you were paying for twice? That happens to all of us. We all have these subscriptions now and that's where Rocket Money comes in. Rocket Money is a personal financial finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. It brings

everything together in one place, whether it's subscriptions, spending habits, even the goals you want to hit in 2025, Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved over $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year. It's a lot of money that you can save when you're using Rocket Money's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com slash locked on today. That's RocketMoney.com slash locked on. RocketMoney.com slash locked on. The schedule makers and decision makers in the NFL that were putting together this week 18 TVD schedule over the weekend did the Bengals. Essentially no favors when they decided where to put this game.

You might be thinking, well, the Ravens play before the Bengals have to play the Steelers at Ravens Browns game. When the Ravens beat the Browns, won't the Steelers wrestle starters? No. The Steelers still have to play for seeding, regardless. of what happens in that game. And even if they didn't, Mike Tomlin talking about this right before we started recording this episode, James, it's not something he's thought about yet.

It doesn't seem like a very Tomlin thing to do. I would not count on the Steelers giving the Bengals any help just because they play after the Ravens in that game. They're going to want to play the Texans, right? Yeah. I would rather, if I'm the Steelers, I would rather play the Bengals twice if I had to. to play the Texans.

And because it's the Texans. They're the worst playoff team in the AFC. Besides maybe the seventh wild card. No. The dolphins? The dolphins. They're the worst. I don't buy that.

Okay. Joe Mixons, their number one weapon. Have you watched him recently? Have you watched that Houston offense? CJ Stroud looks like, I mean, he's the worst playoff quarterback right now. It's not even remotely close. Now, you can say, oh, well, no weapons. Fine.

Two, I think two is better. I think Bo Nix is better. So, I mean, Bo Nix just threw deep touchdowns to Marvin Mims and C.J. Stroud can't really move the ball. Regardless, I would love to play the Texans if I'm the Steelers. And if I'm the Steelers, I think that Houston is a game that I could go win.

I don't necessarily, not as confident going to Baltimore. So regardless, if it's Baltimore or Houston, we can both agree that Houston's the lesser of the two. And we're talking about, Essentially, in that game, that playoff game we're talking about, where Pittsburgh could, if they end up with the wrong seed, end up having to go to Baltimore, playing essentially a primetime-esque environment playoff game on the road in the AFC North. And this ties into the other features of this schedule that really don't do the Bengals any favors. One is they won't have information on those Saturday games or on those Sunday games because they play on Saturday. which isn't necessarily a disadvantage.

They're still going to be playing to control what they can control and try to get the winning record and accomplish all the goals they can accomplish for their season. And they have to win regardless, right? So it doesn't really matter, but they won't have that information. There's that. There's also a couple of just crazy things that come up from a historical scheduling perspective.

When you consider this will be the Bengals, this is going to be their sixth primetime game this year. they did get flexed out of one. They got flexed into another. This is the second one that they've been moved into after the initial schedule was set. And when the initial schedule was set, I remember looking at their primetime schedule

and thinking one year, they're going to have more primetime games at home than on the road. Won't be this year. Maybe it'll be next year. Who knows? Maybe it'll be next year because this year, the Bengals set history, make history by being the first team

and Jay Morrison found out that this is the first time it's ever happened. So credit to Jay to play five road primetime games in one season and just one at home. Yeah. If I'm Zach Taylor and the Bengals are meeting today, it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, like they're practicing all week because it's technically the short week with Saturday. That's my message. Remember a couple of years ago and it's like better send those refunds?

and you could tell that the Bengals had rallied around that. I would definitely be like, oh, we'll see, the NFL wants to make it as hard on you as possible. They want to make it as hard on you as possible. You have to go on the road again in the division. Oh, my goodness. There's no way that Bengals, like I would totally rally around that, I mean, five times in the same season on the road, under the lights. This is a divisional game, which is that much.

harder. And in all of those things, I would, I would try to use that a little bit as a message. And it's wild because you look at the Fandoods and the Bengals are favored. But the deck, when you look at primetime road, AFC North, like, it's really hard to win those. And the fact that the Bengals have had to go on the road and play now five primetime games on the road, like you said, never happened of the six they've played this year. That's a heck of a thing. I mean, six of 17 games in primetime, five of six on the road. Now, one of them got flexed out of it, that Browns game, and fine, the Thursday night home game. But sheesh, just a lot of road primetime games, Jake.

So, yeah, stack deck against the Bengals. Even if the Bengals were good this year, they're probably flexing that Thursday night game out of primetime because it's the Browns. Yeah, because the Browns. No doubt. The Browns aren't. And they had an opportunity to put the Chargers and Broncos in that spot instead. And that was a good decision of. objectively for the business decision makers in the NFL.

No doubt. But you're right. You combine that with this AFC North Road primetime thing. We talked about it a lot when we talked about the short weeks, Thursday night football road games that the Bengals have had to play. They've played two straight road Thursday night games against Baltimore in November in 2020, in 2024.

But they've also played four straight AFC North primetime games on the road. This will be five. The last time they played a home AFC North primetime game was in 2020. Cleveland has had three home primetime games in the AFC North since 2020.

Baltimore has had four, two of them against the Bengals, three of them against the Bengals, sorry, including 2022 Sunday night. Pittsburgh has had two. This will be three since the Bengals last had their last home prime time, AFC North game all the way back in 2020.

It's just crazy lopsided. In that time, going back to 2019, Paul Dinder Jr. looked at this. The Bengals have had one home primetime game since 2019 since Zach Taylor took over. Cleveland has had six. Baltimore's had five, Cleveland after this week we'll have had four. That is wildly lopsided. and the home teams have won 13 out of 15 of those games. So where is that lopsided in terms of a record perspective?

And is that lopsided against the Cincinnati Bengals favor who have played all of these road games in this time and just one home game? It's just wild to put it into perspective that way. Yeah, I get it. I will say this because it is wild and I'm not dismissing it. I think the Bengals are pretty comfortable on the road. I think that they they don't shy away from it.

Joe doesn't flinch on the road. The noise doesn't really bother them. They have good discipline there. And so that's why we've seen, I mean, they've won five road games this year. I don't mean to immediately rain on your parade, James of Bengals are 0 and 6 since 2019

in Road AFC North primetime games. Sure. and context matters with them too. For sure. You know, I mean, that's part of it. Like, one of those games is a Thursday night game in Joe Burroughs second game ever, where they were clearly the worst team in 2020, compared to the Browns and Burroughs carrying them and keeping them in that game.

Like, again, I'm not saying it's going to be easy. But did you think that the Bengals had a shot against the Ravens last year when Joe Burrow hurt his wrist? Yeah, you left the game when they had the lead. in Baltimore on Thursday night. They gave Baltimore everything they could handle on Thursday night this year in Baltimore. The Steelers team is beatable. We've seen that over the past couple of weeks.

So it's not going to be easy, but looking at it, yeah, I mean, when you're four and eight and you have a chance now to keep your playoff hopes alive in the final week of the season, the path is never going to be easy. And so going to Pittsburgh prime time and winning, there's the challenge.

And that's the carrot. There's the nugget. The little extra dose of motivation. Oh, man, road prime time. No one can do it in the AFC North. Okay. Well, we'll go show them that you can. I think that's where I would be.

Yeah, not a bad place to be. I'm just complaining about it as someone who is externally invested in it because it's... Oh, I just mean the message. Oh, yeah. No, I just mean the message internally. I got you. I agree with you. saying separately, I'm complaining because it's ridiculous from the outside looking in,

and the Bengals are owed some scheduling favors in 2025, is how my perspective feels about. All 1 p.m. Sunday games there. There's my agenda. Different agenda for you than fans and the team. Let's finish up the conversation on the playoffs situation. And T. Higgins had some interesting comments as well. we can cover to finish up the show coming up next. Tea time, tea time, tea time. Anything else before we do get to Tee Higgins and is Buck 31 and three Tuddies at Paycor? The last note regarding playoff implications, regarding anything to do with the Bengals

rest of season hopes are after winning four straight gains of Cincinnati Bengals, if the season were to end today, would now be picking 16th in the NFL draft. our weekly update on the Cincinnati Bengals draft positioning if the season were to end today. They will likely be picking if they don't make the playoffs in that fringe just missed the playoffs draft range. Will T. Higgins be a Bengal by the time the draft rolls around? Impacts that 16th pick if that's where they pick. And people won't want to hear that, but it certainly would be in play. And so, yeah, I think it's an easy transition.

keep tea i would keep tea the bengal should keep tea uh and uh joe burrow certainly thinks that and t higgins showed why the other night uh in it is interesting that the dialogue around him now because he's he's shown it on the biggest stage i mean everyone was watching that game bengals broncos tea makes some outstanding catches obviously the game winning touchdown as well what uh what do you think of all the dialogue around it around T and the possibility of him stay. Well, the reason it comes up today is, one, the game T had, like you said, two, Joe Burroughs repeated comments over the last two weeks or the repeated attention

to those comments in the last few weeks, but also Adi Kinkabwala, who has been covering the AFC North for quite a long time and was around for the game with the Bengals and the Browns on December 22nd, talk to T. Higgins that day or around that game. I don't know if it was before the game after the game. I don't know when exactly this was, but she tweeted on December 28th that T told her last week that being paid as a wide receiver won is not necessarily his top motivator. He said he's playing with if not the best, one of the best quarterbacks. He's playing if not with the best, one of the best wide receivers that opens things up for me.

and in this offense, everyone has a chance to be spotlighted. Shares an agent with Jemar Chase. Chase told Adi Kinkabwala and whatever crew she was with that Higgins is a most unselfish person. We obviously have seen the agent change. This is just another piece in the Trail of Breadcrumbs

that suggests that T. Higgins is giving the Cincinnati Bengals every opportunity to get this thing done and to find a way. And you combine that. with Joe Burrough's words and very clear intent and the risk that the organization runs in pissing off Joe Burrow. And there's a reason this keeps coming up

is because it's so tied into the biggest stories we're watching with the Bengals, and it'll be a bigger story once the season is over. That's why we're putting it here. We're focusing on the remaining game this season and we'll continue to do so this week. But the Adi Kink of Walla tweet and conversation with T. Higgins,

I think is interesting enough to discuss. today. Yeah, it's that lines up with the T that I know. I've known quite some time that he wants to be here. I gave him, I've said this on the pot. I gave him numbers last year. Like, hey, this is what I would offer you. Would you take that? It was after the, they were eliminated. I think that one game left. And he's like, oh yeah, he did. And he with a big smile. And I'm not going to say the numbers. But like, just get it done. Who else? Who else are you paying. Do you want to draft a receiver in the first round? Do you want that to be a possibility? Because it has to be absolutely discussed if T. Higgins is on another team on April 1st.

We will be spending a lot of time on the wide receiver position. Or since you know what T is, since you know that T. Higgins is averaging the most yards per game of his career, and I believe that's the case after that buck 31, and has a career high in touchdowns despite playing in 11 games. It's one of those things where it's like, all right, well, yeah, you want T around. It makes, to me, the production, the value, what he means to this offense, what this offense is, obviously you have all the things with Joe and everything like that. T clearly wants to be in Cincinnati and took big steps to make that happen.

Joe would not put pressure on the organization unless he thought, to me, unless he thought it was very clear-cut why they should bring tea back. It's not like he did that with Jesse, and he loved Jesse, and of course he wanted Jesse back. It's not like he just does this. And so I think I expect them to get it. Like the off-season expectations list is high, right? There's a lot of things, regardless of what happens over the next week.

I expect them to get tea done. And I think that's a fair thing to do. They might not think so. Guess what? Doesn't matter. I expect them to do it because otherwise we need to expect them to find a suitable T. Higgins replacement in which one is easier? To pay T. Higgins or to find his replacement.

I think we know the answer to that one. It's a lesson that they should have learned many times over at this point when they've let some of their great players walk. Jesse Bates being the biggest, most recent example. And the thing that you brought up there about Burroughs' conversation or tone or the words he's chosen around T versus the way he approached when asked about Jesse Bates is perhaps a lesson learned for him after seeing what happened with Jesse Bates' departure and then him taking a different approach with T. Higgins or maybe he's just privy to information that we don't have. Maybe it's a combination of both of those things. But T, you mentioned the highest yards

per game total of his career, if that is indeed the case. Currently makes ninth in the NFL. yards per game, which might be pretty easy to miss, considering the amount of games he's missed, but ahead of Ammona and Ross St. Brown, ahead of Brian Thomas, ahead of Jerry Judy, ahead of, you know, Brock Bowers and some of these tight ends, George Kittle. He's at 78 yards per game. Right behind Cuddle. Sorry. He's at 78 yards per game, which is 0.1, one tenth of a yard ahead of what he did in 2021.

So yeah, I mean, it's, and the touchdowns are up. And so you combine those things. And with a big game, with a big game Saturday, he could get to 1,000 yards. He's at 8.58, and he's going to play Saturday. And so with all the injury discussions, Jake, I do think it's worth noting. He's been healthy for every playoff run, right? And he's played in at least after Saturday, we'll have played in at least 12 games every season. It's not like we're talking about a lot of eight game stretches or things like.

He's played at least 12 in all five of his NFL seasons. There's clearly some nagging injuries, and that's unfun for the player. I'm sure it comes up in negotiations. It's not very fun there. It's not very fun to watch. It's always annoying in terms of, man, that sucks for tea. That must be so annoying for him to deal with. The injuries that he's dealt with and some of the nagging stuff that seems to come

up for him. But he's been so productive for this team when he's on the field. He changes the offense so much when he's on the field. And that game against Denver was such a great example of it because there's the Patrick Sertan on the other side. And it just doesn't matter when you have T. Higgins baptizing Riley Moss opposite Jamar Chase. It just doesn't matter. The other interesting note here from a statistical perspective, Jamar Chase averaging one touchdown per game right now. and if he scores a touchdown in week 17, we'll be in rarefied air there in terms of scoring a touchdown or more per game.

Obviously, still has an outside chance to go crazy and get to 20 if he scores four touchdowns in week 18. But T. Higgins also at 10 touchdowns in 11 games, very near to one touchdown per game. And those guys were the only guys this year close in the NFL. Mike Evans at 11 and 13. That might be the next closest to T's 10 and 11. but as I'm looking at this list,

nobody is scoring after T's three touchdown game at the prolific rate that Jamar Chase and T. Higgins are with the Joe Burrow, quarterback offense. I mean, there's so many reasons for those guys to want to stay together, and it's just on the Bengals at that point to make sure that happens because, like you said, I don't know who else are paying.

That'll be a big topic for us this off season. No doubt it will. And that's why it's one of the many reasons why you do it. And people are going to talk about the defense. Well, if you want them to focus on the defense, they can't open up a huge hole on their offense. It's one of those things, man. And yeah, by the way, it's not just T. You talk with Jamar.

You say, all right, Jamar, we know you're the best receiver in the NFL. Can we work this out? Right? Can we work this out to where we keep all of them together and we structure it a certain way? The average per year really doesn't matter as much as the structure to make it as digestible as possible. And so Joe, Jamar, T, the Bengals run office, they should all be on board, regardless of what happened Saturday and Sunday to making that happen. Build around this trio Bengals, that's something that we're going to hammer over the next few months, regardless of the outcome of Saturday and Sunday. And it's not hindsight or-

Retrospective to say this, but the Bengals waiting until this offseason to do it is making their lives needlessly harked. They could have gotten ahead of these things and saved a ton of money, but this is where you have to be a little bit more proactive, and that's why we've had these criticisms of these front office decisions over the years. Yeah. I mean, they're paying $22 million this year. I think they could have got him for $22 million in average annual value last year early in the office. season. I think they could have. Now, maybe not. Maybe you'd say, oh, with that agent they couldn't have, but, you know, if they do the guarantees, maybe they could, you know, that's the thing.

A 4-48 with 50 guaranteed. I mean, they already paid them 22 million guaranteed this year. So, you know what I mean? Like, you probably get there with 4-4-88 early last off-season before the market at receiver change. Just saying. That's just part of the frustration that we've talked about over the years, but they still have the, really everything in front of them in that regard. and control their own destiny to use some football aphorisms there with the future for T. Higgins from our chase and Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. The next time you hear from us will likely be the crossover with Lockdown Steelers as we get prepared for this week 18 contest.

Until then, happy New Year. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Who day? And have a good one.