Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Cincinnati Bengals trending in the right direction after strong joint practice against Indianapolis Colts wraps up training camp

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

The Cincinnati Bengals' offense had a much better day in Tuesday's joint practice against the Indianapolis Colts, highlighted by strong performances by Mike Gesicki and Tee Higgins. Plus, the defense held the Colts to what one writer said "might be their worst offensive practice of training camp so far," highlighted by a Logan Wilson interception and Dax Hill's growing comfort at outside corner. The guys break down all the takeaways from the final practice of training camp. For your next listen, check out the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. Get daily insight to the best Fantasy draft strategies so you can win your league this season. Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.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!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply.FanDuelNow through September 22nd, ALL FanDuel customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get a THREE WEEK free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON 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 have wrapped up training camp with a joint practice against the Indianapolis Colts. Let's break down everything that went down in that joint practice session. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liscoe. He's your host, James Rapine. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network here on.

lockdown Bengals covering your team every day on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast. Welcome back to all the everydayers and thanks to all of you who make us your first list. And we've got a full breakdown for you of the Cincinnati Bengals training camp practice against the Indianapolis Colts where it looked like the offense was ready to bounce back early. Then things got a little bit inconsistent. We'll break all that down, including some defensive notes later in the show as well. Today's episode is sponsored by GameTime where you can save $20 on your first purchase. of tickets right now with promo code

locked on NFL in the game time app. Terms apply in James. Of course we start with Joe Burrow as there is some hand wringing over him using a glove between drills between throwing the ball

and it was a heavy, heavy 11 on 11 day, the last action for the Cincinnati Bengals starters in training camp as Zach Taylor said, at least most of them won't be playing in the game and that certainly includes Joe Burrow. So we start there.

how did Joe Burrow perform against the Colts today? Yeah, I think Joe was much better today than he was on Monday. And let's start there is you wanted to see him move the ball. You wanted to see this offense have some success. And I think they started out really strong. The second play, I believe it was the second play from scrimmage in seven on seven. And they started with seven on seven. He finds Mike Kosicki for a touchdown.

And Mike Kosicki had probably six or seven catches today. So Joe Burrow clearly listens to the. the pod, realized that we hadn't mentioned Mike Gisicki in a while outside of yesterday saying we hadn't heard from him. You like how I made this about Joe and not Mike. And it was like, all right, I'm going to get Mike involved and got Mike involved early on. So good stuff there. And clearly the rapport is there for Burrow in Gassiki. And maybe he just didn't need to go to it at times. But Burrow throwing the ball accurate, throwing the ball away from the defense, not putting the ball in danger.

And whether it was Mike Gisicki, I think he completed one past Andre Yosevash over the middle of the field. T. Higgins had some really nice plays with T. Higgins and team drills, both sideline catches. I know the Bengals tweeted or posted one-on-one of their social media accounts, where T. Higgins just climbs a ladder to make the play. It's so a beautiful ball by Joe Burrow and in a spot where only Tee can get it. And that's what I noticed from Joe today.

the accuracy was there. You didn't see any of the downfield stuff. That's the one thing I was hoping to see. And they really didn't try a lot of downfield stuff. And there could be a few reasons for that, whether it's the Colts pass rush, whether it's the fact that it's the last day of training camp. I asked one notable, important receiver

that might have already been mentioned or not, and I'm not going to name any names, but you can guess. And he was like, yeah, they were playing off. So that's why we didn't push the ball downfield. And maybe it is that simple. But Joe Burrell was accurate today, what you want to see. And even though the glove thing was weird and it's something that we're going to watch, he certainly looked pretty darn good for most of practice,

even if the offense was up and down. Yeah, I don't think the glove thing means a whole lot, but it is weird to use that word again. It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. It's been explained as a way to keep his hand from drying out too much to help him maintain grip on the ball in dryer, windy conditions. It was a windy day out there. Could be as simple as that. Don't need to spend a whole lot more time there. There was at least one ball that I would consider pushing the ball,

quote unquote, downfield. It was a 20, 25-yard ball to T. Higgins on the right side line. That was a catch in that early 11-on-11 work as well when, from what I could see, the Bengals offense was dominant in that period, in that first period to start the practice. Joe Burrow was getting really anything he wanted. And it wasn't necessarily downfield because, as you mentioned, the anonymous wide receiver quote, they're playing off. A lot of these checkdowns Joe Burroughs throwing are one, some of them were designed. Like they send the running back in motion. The ball immediately goes to the flat.

And there's nobody over there. And the running back is running for like 10 yards before there's contact. And others are true checkdowns where he goes through his progressions. And then he realizes, oh, there is nobody in the flat. And Chase Brown can run for 15 yards after I dump. this off. And so while there were some underneath plays like that, some checkdowns like that, some, some, you know, shorter throws within the 10-yard window or so, some of that is just Joe Burrow doing what he does where he throws a ball where the defense dictates and where it's still

efficient to do so. And if they're that far off your checkdowns, where your checkdown is going to pick up a first down for you, well, you might as well take that opportunity and take what the defense is giving you there. So I say, you. all of that to say don't read too much into this idea that he wasn't pushing the ball down field today and extrapolating that to mean anything too significant because we really don't know that it means anything more than that's where the defense said the ball should go and i didn't see a bunch of receivers running deep like that that's the other element is like it could be just game plan based it could be what they were hoping to do and it's the last day of training camp like we

made it right and so why push t or push these guys deep downfield if you don't need to and you want to work on other stuff anyway. So there's a lot to it. But certainly I thought Joe Burrow in the offense in general was just better than it was on Monday. Part of it was Monday was a short session and they were bad in the session, right? Tuesday, really long session. A lot of good stuff, a lot of bad stuff or some bad stuff in more of a mixed bag. But even in the bad, there was good that emerged from it, whether it's Mike Gaseki in the red zone where he was rolled down, but he was really close to a touchdown.

He was on like the half yard line. And they probably score in a real game there. They probably get that one into the end zone with a quarterback sneak or a handoff or something like that. Or maybe he's rolled in the end zone and not down and finds a way to score. It's not like they're tackling either. So that's the other element here that you want to take into consideration. Yeah, so the overall takeaway for Burrow is that it was a better day, but that inconsistency did remain.

You mentioned the Red Zone. They started really well when they were starting in their own end. They're throwing into open field quite a bit. Hard to really say too much about the running game if you're wondering about the running game because, again, they're not tackling, which always makes it really hard to really decipher too much. But in that period, the Bengals are getting kind of whatever they want in the passing game. They get down to the Red Zone. and you can kind of tell the running plays weren't going great

because they're getting whistled dead really close to the line of scrimmage and throwing the ball is just not going well for Joe Burrow either. And a big part of this is probably the pass rush. The Colts, if you're looking at their defense and looking for some advantage they might have over the Cincinnati Bengals on offense, it would be their pass rush. Like Gus Bradley-style defense is not a stylistic matchup that is a good matchup for the Cincinnati Bengals offense.

and that secondary leaves something to be desired and is a little bit banged up for the Colts. But once they got into those tight quarters in the red zone, and you can speak to the two-minute drives at the end of practice as well, things were not going so well for Joe Burrow, including one where it was a very uncharacteristic, just kind of float the ball up interception that was one that I saw and thought was actually one of the backup quarterbacks

just from the demeanor of the quarterback in the pocket and the way the ball came out. Yeah, I'm not sure why. why he threw it, to be honest. It's so interesting because it wasn't like it was a fourth down. You had to get rid of it. He did. I don't want to say he got hit in the chest, but he got close to hit in the chest.

And it was under pressure there. Like I feel like if he got hit, someone would have reacted. Right. I mean, Logan Woods did go down early in practice. Speaking of quarterbacks getting hit, but continue. No, yeah. I mean, that's it. Obviously, honestly, there would be.

be a riot if that happened during a joint practice with Burrow, just to give you an idea. Or there should be, you know, if you're the Spangles offensive front. But it didn't really step into the throw at all. I think he probably said, oh, I'm sacked and just lofted it up. And it might have been that simple in his mind. I'm not sure. I didn't really read too much into that interception. You mentioned the red zone.

There was another play where he was targeting. I want to say it was Andreosovash, but I might be getting the number wrong. in my head and it was a near interception for 32 of the Colts. I remember that number, but he dropped it in the back of the end zone. But yeah, mixed bag overall, but a step in the right direction and certainly having T. Higgins helps. But Mike Gisicki, with his best day of camp, I would say by far. Yeah, we can get to some of those skill guys because Mike Gaseki had a good day, talked about T. Higgins and a strong performance there, Charlie Jones in his second practice back, putting

together some highlights, but they did have some issues with the Colts pass for us. So we'll make sure we get to those notes as well, including offensive line rotations as Trent Brown was back at practice again on Tuesday. We'll get to those notes coming up next. Today's show is brought to by Fandle. Fandle is where you need to go right now because you've heard us talk a lot about Fandul. It's America's number one sportsbook for a reason.

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T. Higgins generally looked fantastic when I saw him. Looked like he was having another strong day of practice. This is consistent with T. Higgins throughout this training camp throughout the preseason. He's had a very good set of practices. Looks like he's in line for a strong season, but just yesterday we were asking where Mike Gassicki is, and when the last time he talked about him was, and he gave us something to talk about.

You mentioned he had a number of catches today, including a nice one-handed catch, and Charlie Jones with a really nice catch from, I think it was Rocky Lombardi, but he also did work in with multiple units. What did you see from those guys today? Yeah, Charlie Jones, really active. I think you mentioned it.

I had multiple catches from Joe Burrow. Also a really nice downfield throw from Rocky Lombardi that gets to Charlie Jones and he makes a play there. And every time I see him make plays now, this week, it's like 10 days ago, 11 days ago, you're getting carted off. And now he's out there making plays. So it's good to see. We'll see if he gets out there maybe for a punt return or two on Thursday night

or maybe they just shelving for the start of the regular season. but he's come along, you know, and I think this idea, and I was just having this conversation in this room right before we started, right before I jumped on the stream with you, this idea that Andre Yosovash is just hands down the number three receiver is false. I think he's very much in the mix and is going to get a ton of reps, but Trent Nerwin is right there, and I think Charlie Jones has had a great three-plus weeks. The start of camp was a little shaky, but a great three-plus weeks, really since you got here. Maybe you're the good luck charm for Charlie Jones. Since then, outside of the blip on the

radar with the knee issue that didn't end up being nearly as serious as it looked, he looks great. And he seems to have earned Burroughs trust. And I think about what he is as a route runner and how he is. And it's like, yeah, there's a way to get him on the field. And maybe that's getting him on the field after Jamar's back. And it eats into some of those slot snaps. But I do think that he's worthy of that and continues to make plays. And you see it now because he's doing it with multiple quarterbacks. And that's really good to see. You notice how I hinted at in the first segment, a bunch of skill guys just for us to actually

talk about them in the second segment? I love it. Skill guy central. You kept talking about the skill guys. I'm like, James, we're going to get to the skill guys. It's just the art of the keys. I do want to comment about the wide receiver three thing because to me, and you can correct me here, it does still seem like Andre Yoseva.

is going to lead that group in snaps by until something changes a pretty large margin, not to say that Charlie Jones won't get on the field, but to me, based on where we're seeing these guys practice, appears that Yosevaush is working with the ones, and Charlie Jones is working with multiple units. And you're not necessarily seeing Yosevash work with the twos or the threes. That had been the case when I was there and kind of speaks to my interpretation of how that depth chart looks. Trent Nourwin.

That was more of a Trent Nirwin, not an Andre Yoseboshe or Charlie Jones. I think Irwin's going to leave that room. Of those three, as of today. You think Irwin is currently the primary wide receiver three ahead of Yosebash? Yeah. Once Jemar gets back, I think it'll be Irwin. So starting week one, assuming Jemar is on the field,

I think it'll be Jemar, T, and Irwin. Yeah, unfortunately. we won't have much of a chance to see how that rotation looks because throughout camp, we've seen Trent and Irwin in the Jamar Chase role. When Jamar Chase returns, which is going to happen at some point, I don't know that I need to knock on one, but I did. It's going to happen at some point. Where does Erwin go? Does he remain a backup outside or do they start working him with those starters in the slot? Because the role for Yosevash, as we discussed, has been starting slot receiver.

And we've seen, of course, multiple guys get into that spot and we've seen them line up in different places and all these things. But because of how they were using those guys, that's what really led me to the conclusion that Yosevash is going to be the slot guy, at least predominantly,

with some rotations certainly happening because they like the receiver death. And we do need to talk about Remain Burton, too. I don't want to let him be the entirely forgotten man. We haven't talked about him yet in his participation in this practice today just to update folks on where he's at. But that's my read on the wide receiver three situation. And it's too bad we won't get any fully open practices to see how those rotations work

when Jemar Chase returns to those practices. Yeah. And so there's a little guesswork there, right? I just think they'll all be in there. And Irwin just has the trust and the belief in all of those things. But maybe not, right? Maybe it works itself out. And the ideal scenario, I think, is it's almost a place.

the platoon and then Jermaine Burton forces your hand because he's so darn good. But we didn't see that today. I don't recall him having, and he's working with the backups. So you're talking Logan Woodside and Rocky Lombardi. He was in the mix. He was near Charlie Jones when Charlie had the nice catch from Rocky Lombardi. But I don't remember Burton having a catch in team drills. Might be wrong on that because there are times that I'm reviewing the first team stuff

and reacting to that and taking notes. but I don't recall that. So just worth noting. And times you're watching the defense, of course, which we are going to discuss. I promise that is coming up in just a few minutes here. We do need to wrap up on the offense. So I wanted to make sure that we got that update out there for Jermaine Burton, who probably will play in preseason game number three.

Zach Taylor saying that the starters will not play. I wouldn't necessarily run him out there a ton, but he's still working on kick returns. So we'll probably continue to get some of that work in this preseason game. But you do want to get him to the season help. because the guy is still going to be on the 53-man roster. He's still going to be a game day active. He still might be relied upon for you in the regular season,

and you don't want to expose him more than you have to in this last preseason game with two weeks between then and the regular season starting. Last notes on offense come in the trenches where it was a load management day, I guess you could say for Trent Brown, who was rotating in and out with the number one offensive line in one-on-one drills early in practice. They had Jackson Kirkland working at right tackle beside right-beside right guard Alex Kappa in both one-on-one and two-on-two kind of stunt handoff kind of work. That was very interesting to me. Trent Brown then, of course, returned for a lot of the 11-on-11 work, but then Cody Ford was in and right-tackle for some of that

11-on-11 work as well. And the Bengals did at times have issues. with Quiddipay, with DeForest Buckner, from what I saw. There were a couple of sacks of Borough noted in 11-on-11 periods. And so it was interesting to see who they were working at right tackle when Trent Brown wasn't in there. And it was interesting that I'm curious to know who gave up the sacks, I guess, and how much that is, you know, one of the starters or one of the backups or where those came from and all those things.

Yeah, that's the one crappy part. And I'm not complaining because this is the joint practice. But the joint practice rules, basically. I haven't been to a joint practice where they didn't limit what you could film. And it's nice to have that and look back on as much as anything. Just to be able to see. Because normally I'm focused on Burrow and then the skill guy, right? And I'm moving.

But I can see the trenches a little bit. And you can kind of see who wins and who doesn't. Trump Brown was certainly limited. And I think they're on the week one plan with him. sure. And that's not surprising considering how important he is with Amaraj Mems out. It was a strong day for the defense. Despite those sacks, despite the somewhat rocky finish, Mike Petralia noted that he had Joe Burrow charted 21 of 26 and 11 on 11s with those three sacks and that red zone pick. If that stat line is accurate, that's a pretty solid day for Joe Burrow,

considering what we've seen from him lately. But the defense, on the other hand, according to Jake Arthur, who hosts Lockdown Colts, had Anthony Richardson absolutely locked down, especially early in this joint practice, and Daxhill continues to shine. We'll discuss that defense continuing its strong camp to finish the show next. Today's show is brought to you by Game Time. Game Time is here for you, and they have a new feature called GamePicks that makes getting tickets for your favorite live events even easier than before. They filter out all the fluff to show you incredible deals on great seats, so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets.

And game time is going to make your life easier, whether it's the awesome panoramic views from your seat. So maybe you want to go see Thomas Wrett nine days from now at Great American Ballpark on August 29th. Well, you've got to get the game time because they're going to give you all in pricing views from your seat. And you'll be able to get the exact view that you're looking. for the exact tickets that you're looking for with game time. And game time covers your purchase. It's covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms apply. Again, creating an account and redeem code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-FL-N-FL-F for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Let's cover this defense, James. they have continued a strong showing of late, which includes how the second stringers played against Caleb Williams in that Bears game.

That continued against the Colts in this joint practice. And Jake Arthur, who was in town covering the joint practice for locked on Colts, noted that the start of practice for Anthony Richardson was 3 of 11 with a pick. The defense got to talk its talk. They walked their walk. And while the Colts did bounce back a little bit later in practice and found some success as things. went on later, multiple Colts media folks called it a weird day for the offense, inconsistent,

and at one point was noted perhaps the worst practice for the offense throughout the entire preseason. This Bengals defense, and this is good. This makes you feel a little bit better about Monday when the Bengals defense was dominant or last Tuesday when the Bengals defense was just dominant. Or it gives you some perspective when the Bengals' backups were pretty darn good outside of you know, Daxil, DJ Turner, the backups against the Bears shutting down Caleb Williams and company for three straight drives.

Maybe this defense is good. And they've, uh, they had a really good outing today. And the thing that I think is unique about this group compared to the past years is how many different looks they can give. Zach Moss referenced that yesterday. Multiple guys referenced that today. And maybe that's it is you add the veterans on the, back in, whether it's Gino Stone, Von Bell, some key pieces like a Sheldon Rankins in the

middle of that defensive front and in some athleticism at corner and you feel pretty darn good about where they're at. I will say this. I'm pretty pleased with how this defense has looked even before today about just how they're slowly going up and up and up. You go back a few weeks ago, Jacob, what were you talking about? Yeah, the defense, they didn't dominate the beginning of camp like we were used to seeing. And we were talking about the offense, like, oh, well, maybe the offense is just slightly ahead and we're not used to that. Well, the defense appears to have caught up, and they've caught up at the right time because they're playing really well. And you've got Trey Hendrickson back at practice, which helps. You've got B.J. Hill and

Sheldon Rankin's out there, which helps. And notably, Dax Hill has made huge strides throughout this preseason to the point where he looks to be very comfortable playing corner at this point. Not that everything's perfect, but for a guy who's learning the position and getting ready to play outside corner in the NFL for the first time, the word settling in, settled in, comfortable. These are common descriptors of how Dax is playing. We're going to finish the show with a long discussion about Dax, but quickly before we get there, want to make sure we mention Miles Murphy in case you missed it, did leave practice. Trainers were looking at his knee. He left on a cart. He wasn't in the back of the cart.

So if you would like to read into the fact that Miles Murphy was sitting in the front seat with his knee bent as a passenger, you can read into that. He was limping in the locker room. After practice, James, you noted for our Lockdown Bengals Insiders, you can check that out if you want text updates from us in a direct line to text us back at join subtext.com slash lockdown Bengals. Just wanted to get the Miles Murphy update out there before we focus on backs here and that cornerback two battle to finish the show. Yeah, hopefully it's not serious. the last thing they can do with it. Yeah, there's another one for Miles, but another defensive end. Like a guy, losing Cam was enough, right?

And Sam Hubbard coming back and he suited up for a second straight day but didn't partake in any of the team drills. Like, it would be nice. It would be really nice to get Miles to dodge this bullet and not be serious. So hopefully it's not. Like you said, I saw him in the locker room walking. no brace, no crutches, hopefully a good sign, walked off under his own power to the sideline, they looked at his knee and then he got carted off. And I do think it is interesting that he wasn't on

the flatbed portion, like you mentioned. He had those knees bent and was sitting in the passenger seat. So hopefully this is more of a scare than it is something serious and he can be ready to go for the opener. We've just seen Charlie Jones bang knees with somebody and be fine a few days later. We do not know the extent of the injury for Miles Murphy. We are holding out hope if he is going to miss a period of time that requires maybe a short IR stent, which is less roster gymnastics than it used to be. We can explain that another time. I don't think they have the guy on the roster right now.

They would have to go externally because they have five guys that I think are going to make the team on the edge. But with Camp Samples injury and Jeff Gunter retiring, there's no sixth guy that I think is pushing for a roster spot. So they did need another body there. I think they're going off the team, waiver claims, whatever it is, to address that. And maybe they do that anyway. But let's finish up with the better news of the day, which Dax Hill continues to make plays. I know that the Colts weren't at 100% at wide receiver. Josh Downs didn't sound like he practiced for the Colts.

But Dax noted to be in coverage for a number of incompletions today. And like I said, the disclosures. descriptors for Dax Hill at Corner are things like comfortable. And for a guy without athleticism, if he started to feel comfortable at Corner and is making continued improvement, sky's the limit, right? I mean, we noted this when they drafted him and some out there didn't agree with the idea, and that's fine. Maybe they're going to be right.

But Dax has the athleticism to play outside corner, and he has good size to play outside corner. So if everything else is coming together, that's a very exciting development for the Bengals. first round draft pick in 2022. It is. By the way, I think I misspoke in the pot earlier about Burton real quick. I think he had a touchdown in seven on seven. Okay. So just mentioning that because I'm sure I already got crashed in its way later in the pot.

But to your point about Bax, yeah, I mean, if you, and so I had this conversation, full disclosure, me and Dax get along pretty well. I try to get along with everybody in the locker room. And I had a conversation with him in the locker room. during OTAs at some point I can't remember exactly when so May June and I'm like dude look at it like this like if you're

good at corner you're gonna get paid more you're more valuable whether it's here or anywhere else and like just attack it that way like and there's more to it but just the way he's embraced it from day one and just taking it in stride

I think that's why you're seeing him emerge now because when he was getting beat early in camp and going into that first preseason game, everyone had called it, like competition over. Remember that? Like, it was pretty wild to think about because it wasn't really that long ago, a couple weeks ago, but competition over. And when he had some of those hard days in camp when he's given up plays, he could have been like, man, bleep this place, bleep this coaching staff, I should be playing safety, and he could

have felt sorry for himself. And I think a lot of, I'm serious, a lot of NFL players were up. A lot of former first round picks were up. And he kept fighting, playing hard. And guess what? I think he's comfortable there. He talked to him a couple hours ago. He said he's really comfortable.

And now he's starting to think about what the offense is trying to do, not just what his man is trying to do. He feels like the technique is coming more natural to him. And it's been a month of camp, under a month of camp. So developing like crazy, learning a ton. And while I was talking with him at his locker, this goes to show the type of practice Dax had. Bengals,

cornerbacks coach, Charles Berks, comes up, shakes Dax's hand and just walks by. It doesn't say much, just nods his head, shakes his hand, knew he was in a conversation. So read into that what you want, but I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah, this isn't meant to take anything away from D.J. Turner, of course, but rather we're celebrating the success that Dax has found and the apparent development. And obviously, we'll see how it translates to the games. He needs to do it when they're. the games count if he does indeed win the job as he seems to be on the trajectory to do.

But you're right. I mean, you go back to several weeks ago, a couple months ago, even when we're talking about it, it was, yeah, I think this is going to be a competition. This is going to take some time. But it was hard to feel anything besides you favor DJ Turner. He's playing corner. He was the starting corner last year. And that's where things started.

I think they're still looking for an opportunity. As Zach Taylor mentioned earlier this week, to get these guys on the field, We're seeing DJ Turner working in the slot. We're seeing sub packages where Mike Hilton is coming off the field in certain third downs. And we'll see how that translates to the regular season as well. I think that's a very interesting dance. The defense can play with sub packages and having a little bit more depth at corner right now. If DJ Turner is going to potentially be depth or Dax Hill is going to be depth to go along with Josh Newton,

who has outplayed his day three corner status, that is an area of the team that, hopefully we're still feeling good about in a while because the trajectory of that unit throughout camp after they had so many issues with explosive plays last year with the overhaul of the safety room adding veterans back there feels like that secondary is really trending

in the right direction and of course we'll see if these guys play in the game coming up on Thursday. We'll see how all of that translates. Real quick, I wouldn't play them. I won't play either of them. And at this point I'm not playing Joseph

aside either if Miles Murphy is banged up. Like get the guys that you know you're going to be relying on that are going to be game day actives. Treat it like the last preseason game has always been treated and just get those guys through that game healthy into that two week period where you're preparing for week one. And that would be my priority. You just had this really great intense 11 on 11 heavy day with the Colts. So I'm with you there, James.

Until tomorrow, when we will discuss whatever there is to discuss about, the Cincinnati Bengals, if that is previewing the final preseason game, if that is discussing an extension, if that happens or doesn't happen? I don't know anything. I'm just saying, we're going to talk about it if it does happen. Let's go said it's done.

It's done. And if you need a second listen, check out Locked On Fantasy Football, of course. As always, thanks for making us your first listen here on Lockdown Bengals. Until next time, thanks for listening. Ho-Day. And have a good one.