Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Cincinnati Bengals' Preseason Plan Set | Who's IN and Who's OUT?

Starting point is 00:00:01 The stage is set as the Bengals have had their final practice ahead of preseason game number one against the Eagles. The plan for Joe Burrow, the latest injury updates, and more right now on Locked on Bengals. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hi again, everyone, and welcome in to the Locked on Bengals podcast. He's Jake Liscoe. I'm James Rupin. Thank you so much for making us your first.

Starting point is 00:00:36 listen and we are excited to be here and jake well you made it home so really good news there jake is home today's episode is brought to you by fandle right now new customers can get 150 in bonus bets when your first five dollar bet wins and just a reminder make sure that you hit that subscribe button on youtube and follow wherever you get your podcast so you can take locked on bengals with you wherever you go including philadelphia where the bengal set to fly to Philadelphia and play preseason game number one on Thursday night. We will be with you after that game. Of course, in the meantime, Jake, the Bengals are going to be short-handed and multiple

Starting point is 00:01:16 starters aren't going to play. We'll get to that coming up. But before we do, Joe Burrow set to play, Zach Taylor kind of laid the groundwork on how much starters are going to play. And we don't know exactly how much that is even after Zach talked. But I do think it feels like more than a series. like we're going to see number nine for a little bit. Well, it was a few series, right?

Starting point is 00:01:39 That's what Zach said, which doesn't necessarily mean anything in particular. Everyone remembers a few weeks at some point and trying to figure out what a few weeks meant for certain injury updates. But he said several. Yeah, that's the word he used in the past too. Yeah, which doesn't necessarily tell you the upper bound, but tells you more than one, at least sounds like the plan and probably. more coming in week two.

Starting point is 00:02:06 That's what Zach Taylor said, targeting week two for more playing time. So maybe into the second quarter, maybe a half. Maybe you're going back to like the way things used to be done in the preseason where you get a quarter and then you get a half. But there's only three games. There used to be four. So the schedule is a little bit different. But we'll see the starters on most sides of the ball, the starters that are available

Starting point is 00:02:29 anyway for sounds like a bit of the first quarter. We don't know yet what the plan is for the evening. Eagles as Nick Siriani declined to get into whether or not he's going to play his starters. There are some new starters for Philly, so you can see a partial approach to playing starters for Philadelphia. We'll see we don't know that answer yet. Maybe we'll know tomorrow when we talk about what we're going to be looking for in preseason game number one.

Starting point is 00:02:55 And we also know who isn't going to be playing for the Bengals, James. Yeah, right. There's multiple guys, right? And I think starting on defense, which is where Zach started is fair. Dax Hill, not playing. And that's not a shock. I think that they're going to manage him. Cam Taylor Britt, not playing.

Starting point is 00:03:16 Multiple guys that I would call starters that I think are going to start on this team that aren't playing. And the theme, I think, of this is as important as it is to get these guys' reps. They are not going to push them. Dax is coming off to ACL. Obviously, they're going to manage him, and it does sound like the doors open for him to play this preseason. Not that he has to, but that the doors open.

Starting point is 00:03:41 And Cam Taylor Britt, I think that they're playing it on the, the strong, the major cautious side of things. And that's kind of the theme. Mike Gisicki as well, guys like that that are battling stuff, but they might not be battling anything too significant. Why push them when it's the first week of August? Yeah. I agree with that approach.

Starting point is 00:04:04 The guys that should play in the preseason are guys that are as healthy as can be. I think the one exception to this rule is Amarius Mims. Sounds like the plan is for him to play, despite him dealing with whatever he's dealing with, with that right hand. So a different situation there than potential soft tissue injuries for guys like Cam Taylor Britt and Mike Kiske, who Zach did say if it was a regular season game, he'd be questionable but optimistic. B.J. Hill, obviously, easing back. Cedric Johnson, I think in a boot right now.

Starting point is 00:04:34 Don't expect to see him. Marco Wilson's still working his way back. Matt Lee, we haven't seen him do any team drills for the Bengals yet in practices. So why would he play in a game? All these make a lot of sense. Same goes for Noah Fant, who sounds like the plan is for him to really ramp up after this preseason game. Zach's saying that they had to kind of get through this first preseason game with Fant, give him a little bit of time to catch up.

Starting point is 00:04:56 And then if Mike Keseki is still working back at that point, That's a lot of extra reps for a fan as he's picking things up with the Bengals. A couple of other guys as well, B.J. Hill, obviously we knew Trey Hendrickson wasn't playing. But B.J. Hill, not going to play either. And I just, I think that this is the theme. I mean, I put up a Zach quote. He said, we'll be really protective of Mike. And it also coincides with Noah getting in the mix there. And I looked at the schedule. They have it 11 days between their Thursday night game and their Monday night game. I knew they were prime time, Jake, because when the schedule came,

Starting point is 00:05:29 came out, we were like, oh, primetime preseason, which, spoiler, we might not necessarily love, even though Jake has three hours on us. So it's not bad for him over there. But it's still not fun. It's not ideal. And so it was that reminder. And so if you're Cam Taylor, Brad, or you're Mike Gisicki or you're Matt Lee, any of these guys we've discussed, you get through Thursday, and then you have 11 days until the next game.

Starting point is 00:05:56 And that's the game when most of these starters, most of these guys are going to be playing anyway. especially the starters, that's fine. Play then, which is really interesting because you take that approach with everyone but Amarius Mims. Isn't that weird? Like Amarius the other day said he was going to play. Zach making it clear, yeah, the plaintiff's for him to play. I really think that the playing through pain thing is like a topic for the Bengals now.

Starting point is 00:06:22 And like a very real thing for Amarius to try to work through here. And that might be why he's playing because, one, you need to protect Joel. Burrow, of course. But two, it's not like he needs to play. It would be nice, but he doesn't need to play if he's less than 100%. But clearly they want him to be able to play through the pain and get used to what that's like. I think that's definitely part of it, getting him to realize that 90% of Mario Smith's is better than whatever they have next and that he can play when he's feeling a little bit of that pain, right? But I think another part of it is, like you said, Joe's playing. And if Joe's going to be out there and the rest of the

Starting point is 00:06:55 offensive line is going to be out there, well, Mario Spins is going to be out there. I think, I think that is a significant part of it, right? I also think that the reps are still valuable for Amarii. It's just a second year player definitely has room for improvement after year one, which is promising, but getting him reps, live reps, isn't a bad thing in any way to perform. Does he need it? Strictly speaking, like you said, probably not. They do have a lot of time between game one and game two. There's going to be more action for these guys in game two. And, you know, that's kind of a good thing for ESPN, that Monday night football game. you're actually going to get potentially some actual football-ish.

Starting point is 00:07:31 I mean, as far as the preseason goes for a primetime game there on Monday night. But I think that it depends on what the injury is, right? And that's a difference. If it's like a hamstring thing or a groin thing or whatever, some sort of muscle in your leg for some of these guys that aren't playing or a ligament or a tendon in your leg. Versus whatever it is with a monies to say, not to diminish the injury.

Starting point is 00:07:54 You can have serious hand injuries that keep you out. Obviously, you need your hands to play offensive light. But soft tissue in the legs versus whatever it is in the hand, clearly Amarius and the team think it benefits him to play through whatever's going on there. Yep. And I think it's as long as it's not going to, and again, I don't think it would because they wouldn't risk it. As long as it's not going to cause any long term anything,

Starting point is 00:08:17 then all right. And they probably feel like they can protect it. And he can learn how to maneuver and operate with it. And if it's maybe it's super insignificant, and we're making a mountain out of a mole hill or a bigger hill out of a mall hill. But everything's big when it comes to protecting Joe Burrow. It is very, very important. And so we're going to monitor that.

Starting point is 00:08:38 Speaking of protecting Joe Burrow, could there be a new guard entering the battle? I wouldn't go that far, but there's a chance. We will get to that coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Yahoo Fantasy. Fantasy football is back. And I don't know about you, but if you've used Yahoo Fantasy like I have for years and years and years, you're getting the notifications about drafts upcoming or your commissioner renewing the league or all of those things. And Yahoo Fantasy is smooth, smooth, smooth like watching Jamar Chase run a route. And of course, I'm playing Yahoo Fantasy this year. And you should too, whether you're a first timer or a veteran

Starting point is 00:09:24 in making your millionth league. Yahoo Fantasy has so many different ways to play. And the best part of it is their mobile app makes it so easy. When I'm on the road, bang, I can set my line up, whether I'm going to be in Minnesota week three or Green Bay in October. It doesn't matter. It's going to be so easy for me to follow along. I love Yahoo!

Starting point is 00:09:46 Fantasy. You will, too, to celebrate 28 years of fantasy greatness. Yahoo Fantasy is dropping 28 big new features over 28 days. It started right now. It started on August 4th. It gives you more ways to play, more ways to draft, more ways to win. Stay tuned and get started by creating or joining a fantasy football league with Yahoo! Fantasy.com slash locked on NFL.

Starting point is 00:10:08 That's Yahoo! Fantasy.com slash locked on NFL. And let's make this fantasy season the best one yet. All right, Jake. Let's dive into what I think is interesting. It was my question, and I know multiple people on social media reacted to the answer. Jalen Davis or Jalen Davis, they better not put him at guard. Jalen Rivers, should they put him at guard?

Starting point is 00:10:34 Will they put him at guard? Two different questions. Zach Taylor at least sounded open to the idea of playing him at guard at some point. Didn't dismiss the idea. Obviously, he played a ton of guard at Miami in college. A lot of experience there. They've been using him at both tackle spots. You talked about it the other day.

Starting point is 00:10:53 There's been times where he's left a little bit to be desired at tackle. who knows maybe he's ready to go and I think this is why they didn't put him at guard at all is is they want him ready and comfortable in these spots and you give a rookie too much you might overwhelm them but at some point he may be playing guard here in the near future

Starting point is 00:11:14 at least Zach Taylor wasn't willing to dismiss that as of now I think since he did it in college you would expect that at some point he could do it in the NFL he played multiple positions in the same game in college at the same time, look at the Bengo step chart right now. If Jaylor Rivers, say he wins a starting job at guard, awesome. That means he's done something crazy in the next few weeks, to be honest, because he's only repping a tackle.

Starting point is 00:11:40 He's not in the mix right now. And he's repping with the second team at tackle. So if suddenly he's good enough to be a starting guard, then either something disastrous has happened or Jaylor Rivers has taken a huge step. Cody Ford, by the way, didn't practice on Tuesday. We'll see what his status is for preseason game one, Lucas Patrick working with the ones and right guard. But if Jaylor Rivers is your starting guard,

Starting point is 00:12:08 who's playing tackle in the event of an injury? There is no other swing tackle candidate on the team. Yeah, Cody Ford, clearly I think the team knows is better at guard. They're comfortable in a pinch with him at tackle, but we all watched what happened when Cody Ford, had to play tackle. We've all seen what can happen when you have to run Devin Cochran out there tackle. Jailin Rivers is the best upside player on the team right now if they need a swing tackle. And that's where it's tricky when you look at the depth on the offensive line, the right guard

Starting point is 00:12:43 battle, and how it's intertwined and how Jalen Rivers is kind of at the center of that conversation. Yeah, I totally get it. I do. I wonder how they feel about Devin Cochran. I mean, that's a battle there too. And whatever it is, they need to figure out if where rivers can help them the most. And I think on draft night, we looked at guard and said, it might work. I think there are definitely people in the league that would say, yeah, he projects to be a guard. If they feel like mentally, he's ready to go to take that on, I would give it a look. Just give it a look because you don't know. I think Lucas Patrick is going to start. I think Dylan Fairchild is definitely going to start. By the way, the plan is for him to play a couple of series with the starters, and then that's it.

Starting point is 00:13:31 I mean, they're treating him very starter treatment here. He's not going to play with Jake Browning in the backups. I'm fine with. I get it. You want these guys to get used to each other. It's fine. But, yeah, the Jalen Rivers element here, we'll see how they use them. And this may all just be smoke.

Starting point is 00:13:52 And they're not dismissing it because you don't want to dismiss anything ever because you never know if you need to needing to go to it. I'm sure Zach do. Hey, maybe not us specifically, but there's been some talk about Jalen Rivers at guard. I'm sure. And so why dismiss it now? That being said, I have seen nothing that would indicate, oh yeah, they're going to give him a real shot at earning even the first guard off the bench job. I just, I don't think he's remotely in the conversation as of today. It reminds me of like previous conversations around Daxhill where we've talked about the position versatility. Can he play safety?

Starting point is 00:14:28 Can he play corner? Can you play inside? Can he play outside? Or there have been offensive linemen in the past, too, where they're like, oh, yeah, we think he could do multiple things. But then their behavior tells us they're not really pushing that right now. I still think they need Jaylor Rivers to be more comfortable at tackle. That is where they're working him first, obviously.

Starting point is 00:14:48 Of course, if there's an injury at tackle when Jaylor Rivers is your starting guard, if that were to shake out, you could kick him out and put whoever the backup guard is. on the field at guard. You don't have to necessarily put Cody Ford out there and tackle, but if you're talking about playing time and development, if you're looking for Jaylor Rivers to be your swing tackle, if you want to develop him into even potentially a future starting tackle, if you think that's possible for him,

Starting point is 00:15:13 obviously time on task and tackle will be best served in pursuing those goals. Yep. It's a balance. In an ideal world, They would, he could just do back up all of them. He's not going to start, just be a backup that you're comfortable with putting him in multiple different spots. Hard for a rookie to get there that quick.

Starting point is 00:15:36 Hard for a fifth round rookie to get there that quick for a team that has Super Bowl aspirations. Like all those things, it comes back to that a little bit. So we'll see there. Will Hernandez taking a visit with the Arizona Cardinals. What was that? That was Monday night. Monday.

Starting point is 00:15:53 Oh, yeah, Monday. were you guys on the same flight now you're flying different ways yeah okay i ended up in seattle all the way gotcha yeah mm-hmm mm-hmm anyways it's uh there's plenty of other things we need to hit on from a a position battle how things could shake out what zach taylor had to say praise some guys there are some other comments that were interesting this is the last time we're going to hear from them obviously until that preseason that first preseason game on Thursday night. So we'll discuss that and other takeaways is the Bengals probably had their

Starting point is 00:16:29 lightest practice of camp, Jake, on Tuesday. So not many practice takeaways overall outside of who's in, who was out. But we'll wrap up the show coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandul. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you're all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, high-stakes soccer action. Fan Duel is the best way to make the game even more exciting. Maybe it's preseason.

Starting point is 00:16:56 Maybe you are in on the preseason and you think like, you know what, Mitch Tinsley, that Mitch Tinsley, aka Marvin Jones Jr., junior, Jr. is about to put on a show.

Starting point is 00:17:08 He's wearing number 82. He looks like Marvin Jones Jr. You might know Mitch Tinsley's name by the time Thursday night rolls around. And Fandul is the place to get in on all of the action from NFL futures, major league baseball, and more. And if you're new to Fandul,

Starting point is 00:17:22 will new customers get $5? I bet just, five dollars and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins again you can bet just five dollars and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins open the fandoah to app today or just visit fandle.com to get started all right jake let's uh let's dive into other other takeaways i'm trying to think of anything practice wise that we we might have missed obviously gisicki out matt lee out and he's not going to play in the game but not not even practicing on tuesday I hit on cam.

Starting point is 00:17:57 Did you mention Cody Ford? Were we rolling on Cody Ford? Okay. All right. I'm just making sure. Any other injury thoughts here? Not injury thoughts. Not injury thoughts.

Starting point is 00:18:08 Nope. All right. Position about injury thoughts. Yeah, I think it was interesting that Zach was asked about a number of players, essentially. And like kind of what he said about players across the roster from Jamar Stewart to Taj Brooks. The takeaway for me is we were pretty critical of this draft class, right?

Starting point is 00:18:32 We were not necessarily huge pre-draft fans of Shemar Stewart, who's come in and flashed a ton working against the twos. We'll see if he gets to work against Phillies, quote-unquote, ones, whoever they run out there first. I think getting them on the field against the highest level of competition you can make sense from here on out until the regular season, because that's what he's playing against other team starters. Demetri's Knight, absolutely going to start for this team.

Starting point is 00:19:01 We had questions about that pick in the second round. Maybe thought they could have gotten him around later. Dylan Fairchild, we've talked about that, being treated as a starter. Now whether or not that works out, I suspect Dylan Fairchild will have a bit of an up-and-down rookie season, as rookie offensive linemen often do, nothing against Dylan. But going to start. Barrett Carter,

Starting point is 00:19:22 going to have a significant role in the team wearing the green dot. That's something Zach talked about in his presser. Jaylor Rivers, we just spent a bunch of time talking about how he's in the mix for various offensive line roles. And Taj Brooks earned praise from Zach Taylor for every part of his game. And was drawing parallels or some of them was drawing parallels between Taj Brooks and Chase Brown in terms of some of the redundancy there. So it was a lot of talk about the rookies and the presser. also some other guys. Noah fan came up, certainly,

Starting point is 00:19:56 and how his role is going to work with the team. But I thought that one of the takeaways that was interesting to me was at this point, it feels like these rookies are all going to have pretty clear roles on the team in one way, shape, or form. And you don't often see that up and down a draft, especially just a couple weeks into training camp. Yeah, I agree.

Starting point is 00:20:18 I think it's going to be intriguing how they use Shamar Stewart. and they love that they can use them in a bunch of different ways. And Zach speaking on how rare it is to find a guy like that. And Al has said that multiple times. And so they clearly feel like, man, this guy, he's going to be a weapon. And yeah, the Demetrius night pick was a reach regardless, even if he would have went long before the third round. Fine.

Starting point is 00:20:44 But they felt like it's something they needed and that he fit that and that he can play edge. And they considered Barrett Carter in round two. Spoiler. I've hinted at that. And so they get him in round four because he's still there. They didn't necessarily plan on taking two linebackers, but they're not going to shy away from it because there was the best player available type situation in those two instances.

Starting point is 00:21:04 They needed a guard. They took the one that they thought was the best there in Dylan Fairchild. And we said that too. In a vacuum, like a lot of it makes sense. And I think you're seeing that as of now. Like in a vacuum, the picks in the vision. They do make sense, but we also spent time saying, man, should Jalen Rivers at fifth round rookie get a real shot at starting guard to protect Joe Burrow?

Starting point is 00:21:30 Right. And so there's the balance there. Regardless, though, when you look at these players individually, I get why they were in on Chamar Stewart. I get why they were in on on Demetrius Knight, the football player. I get why they were in on Dylan Fairchild, the football player. And you could go through all these guys. But you mentioned Tash Brooks.

Starting point is 00:21:47 He had a really nice, I know John. breach CBS Sports had the had a video and I'm sure others do as well really nice hands catching team today like hands away from his body along the sideline and was sort of contested and um i've been impressed by him i do think he's going to to make an impact at some point this season and that doesn't mean he's going to get a ton of carries week to week but if chase brown let's say is limited or is inactive for whatever reason I think he can handle some of that workload. On the other side, if Samadjapirang gets snicked up,

Starting point is 00:22:25 and this is what I'm excited about Prizes' watch. How does he handle the pass blocking element? And so that's kind of teasing our next show a little bit, what we're looking for on Thursday night. But yeah, Taj Brooks has been impressive. And Zach talked up how he's picked up the pass protection scheme and techniques that they want running backs to play with in past pros. That's a promising start for Taj Brooks.

Starting point is 00:22:44 Obviously, the games, it matters a lot more. The other thing that stood out to be, James, was a little bit of commentary on the quarterback back room, DJ Ivy, making the most of his opportunities here. What was your feel there as we obviously have seen some injuries for the Bengals of that position, but how do you think that roster battle is shaking out? Like, it looks like Josh Newton is almost certainly going to start, at least at this point. That's how it feels.

Starting point is 00:23:10 Obviously, things could change based on preseason games, but what do you think about how that? I don't know. I mean, I think the games could impact it, but I think he's ahead right now. I think they like where he is, but we're saying that, and maybe it's a little bit misleading, because we haven't seen a bunch of Dax, because we haven't seen a bunch of Cam Taylor Britt

Starting point is 00:23:28 as those guys are dealing with injuries. That's why I'm asking you to get to get. Yeah, like I think those guys are locks to start. Like Dax and Cammer starting, and that's probably why they're not. And so if Dax is playing in the slot, which he has repped a lot there,

Starting point is 00:23:46 then it's D.J. But I do think that there are also packages is where you put Dax outside, and then you bring Josh in, and you put him in the slot. But Josh, you're playing a ton of the boundary throughout. And then, and then that's what I was going to say.

Starting point is 00:23:57 And then there might be times where you feel comfortable with him on the boundary, and then you take D.J. out. Or you put Dax on a tight end. And then you have the other DJ in D.J. I mean, let me think about this. And I'm not looking at RAS scores. Like, he's as athletic as any of those dudes.

Starting point is 00:24:16 I mean, because he's long, tall. He might not have to have this. maybe he doesn't have this, but I can't remember. But like, just watching him, he's, he's athletic and he's got the frame and he's got the size. And he's, yeah, he's someone that I think is going to make the team too. And so you're really, there aren't many guys. And yeah, his relative athletic score isn't like those other guys. But he was fast and he jumped.

Starting point is 00:24:42 He just can't turn. He can't, his three code really hurt him. His bench really heard him. But great size, good length. Good speed, not great speed. I got to talk to DJ about his bench. I'm sure it's better. I'm sure it's better now than it was.

Starting point is 00:24:56 And the jumps are really good. Explosive player. His bench. Yeah. Oh, I can't wait to give him. I'm going to have to give him. He did 12 reps. I'm going to have to give him such a hard time.

Starting point is 00:25:09 I can't remember. I didn't remember his bench. Anyway, that's funny. But he just looks, he looks really. it looks really it looks like a really like that's your fifth corner it's like wow so yeah i i don't know i i think the starting element is interesting i think they really like newton and they like the attitude he brings i also think they understand where turner is and maybe turner's just going to be be on the outside looking in of the starting three but maybe not and that's this so reminder

Starting point is 00:25:44 this is the time a year ago where dj turner felt like he was miles ahead of Daxil for the starting job. Right. And then preseason game number one happened. So it is significant what we're about to see on Thursday. Yep. And what they end up keeping at corner is going to be interesting too

Starting point is 00:26:02 where Marco Wilson is still working his way back from injury, but they like him. They like Jalen Davis. Who do they think they value more if they feel like Dax and Josh Newton can both play in the slot? Do they feel like they need to keep Jayland Davis, who's playing a lot right now

Starting point is 00:26:18 because Josh Newton is playing outside and Dax has been hurt. So Jalen Davis is getting a lot of those slot reps with the ones right now. Marco Wilson obviously hasn't been able to practice either. So I do think the quarterback room is going to remain an interesting battle. How those guys play throughout the preseason will go a long way, as we saw last year, as you just alluded to in determining how that depth chart shakes out. Yep, yep, yep. I'm also excited to see how they manage over the next few weeks.

Starting point is 00:26:51 Gisicci and Fant basically Zach Taylor. I know we talked about Fann a little bit, but Zach Taylor mentioned how they'll basically be gloves off with Fant after this preseason game. Right. And so what does that look like in team drills? We'll see, but that's an exciting thing that we'll say. By the way, maybe that's Dax on Noah Fant.

Starting point is 00:27:10 And we're talking about that in position drills or in team drills rather. So plenty to look forward to. But we have a show tomorrow, which is going to be a preseason preview. Games are here, Jake, ready or not? And hopefully we are more ready tomorrow than we are today. Hopefully the Bengals are as well as they travel to Philadelphia. And well, we will be back with a preseason preview on Wednesday. Until then, Jake Liscoe, say the tagline.

Starting point is 00:27:38 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, Hoor Day, and have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Cincinnati Bengals' Preseason Plan Set | Who's IN and Who's OUT?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.