Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - CLOCK IS TICKING: DJ Turner, Chase Brown FUEL Bengals’ 2023 Draft Class EXTENSION PRESSURE

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals' deepest draft class of the Joe Burrow era was 2023, and those players are all extension eligible, but we get any of those extensions. They're not done yet. The Bengals better get on it. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast. He's Joe Goodberry. I'm Jake Liscoe and today we're talking about the Bengals'

Starting point is 00:00:37 2023 draft class going to be foundational to the 2026 season for this team. But a bunch of these guys are waiting for extensions that they haven't yet received. DJ Turner obviously headlines this group in terms of extension eligibles that we're expecting or hoping to see extensions for in this preseason. But we're getting to that part of the calendar, Joe, where if it doesn't happen soon, that generally aren't negotiating into the regular season. That's what we're going to start today. And have an episode brought to you by Fandall.

Starting point is 00:01:10 Join all the action of fandle.com to play daily diggers to make your free pick on who's hitting a home run this baseball season. Joe, let's start with DJ Turner. He is the guy that I think we had the highest expectations for in terms of a contract value in terms of priority for this team. And here we are in mid-August at this point. And we've kind of passed the time where we thought this might have gotten done. And there's still a chance that it happens with training camp still going on.

Starting point is 00:01:40 The preseason is still going on. But it's been so quiet for all these guys. And that includes DJ. And we've talked about a quiet training camp, right? And no drama and all that. And it seems like DJ Turner is, you know, accepting of that idea as well. The Bengals kind of like to keep things behind the scenes, closed doors, not talk about contract, discussions. So I assume something's happening. We just don't know. We've gotten nothing. Absolutely

Starting point is 00:02:07 zero. I'd like to know some progress. I'd like to even a little bit of fighting might even sound good right now, but at least know that they're negotiating and moving towards it. You know, as I was thinking of what we're going to do for this episode, the DJ Turner thing stood out right away. Like we're going in week two of the preseason. That leaves about two weeks before it gets done. Once regular season starts, we know the Bengals won't negotiate. We learned that from multiple negotiations in previous years. So the clock is ticking. But then I looked up and said, you know what, the entire 2023 class, basically besides Brad Robbins, is still on this roster, has a lot of impact this summer, is expected to have a big impact for the season. And there's

Starting point is 00:02:50 multiple guys here that could get extended or probably would like to have an extension. And if not, they're playing on contract years, which tends to be when you get the best out of it. of these guys at times. And I just thought, man, what an interesting class this is. And we're at the final year of it for probably most of these guys, if not all of them, especially if there's no extension for DJ Turner coming on the horizon. It's a class that took some time to find its way to making an impact. But that these guys are all still on the team speaks to the depth and why I called it the deepest draft class in the Joe Burrow era. I don't think it's particularly close. I think that they've had some

Starting point is 00:03:30 top heavy years where they found impact on day one, day two. That's very obvious. But then you get to this class and it took a while, right? Like it took until last year for a lot of these guys to really find their footing. Chase Brown being the main exception to that rule rule. And DJ Ivy even this year, getting all the way down to the seventh round has had a standout camp. But on the topic of DJ Turner, just to wrap that conversation up, we've seen a number of 30 plus million dollar contract extensions this

Starting point is 00:04:00 offseason. People have asked, like, does that $33 million per year extension for Devin Weatherspoon impact DJ Turner? And we're still waiting for Christian Gonzalez in New England to sign what will probably be a similar or 50,000 more dollars per year kind of deal because these guys like to be the biggest and baddest when they sign their contracts. And that doesn't include Denzel Ward and Trent McDuffie also getting new deals this offseason. $31 million a piece. Denzo Awards coming in $100,000 higher than Trump McDuffie, by the way, because like I said, these guys like to one up each other.

Starting point is 00:04:34 The other key contract this offseason, there was one more, wasn't there? Alante Taylor was an interesting benchmark at the time before some of these bigger deals got done at $19 million because DJ Turner is going to get more than Alante Taylor. I don't think he's going to get as much as these top of market guys. But with the ceiling of the market rising, does that mean DJ Turner's number goes from $25 million to $26 million? And I'm not sure that it necessarily has a direct impact because I think that these contracts are typically looking at a percentage of the salary cap a lot of the time. Like what is 10% for DJ Turner if he's going to get top five, top 10 cornerback money? Unless you're pushing at the top of the market, then you would be looking to join.

Starting point is 00:05:22 jump the latest guy. But is DJ Turner really trying to get more money than Devin Weathersman and Christian Gonzalez? I don't think it's quite there. Could that have raised his price point a million dollars? What do you think, Joe? You know, I think because they're in different buckets, we tend to forget this at times. And anyone that, like Andre Perot, a friend of the show, right, who pays attention to these things. He's usually on it and will say, this Bengals player is not with that class of players. So it really doesn't affect them. It seems like they kind of understand where they're at, even if sometimes players don't agree with the bucket they're in. So if DJ's not with the Devin Witherspoons and Christian Gonzalez's, then maybe it doesn't

Starting point is 00:06:00 affect them that much. But I could also see the Bengals setting a hard line of this is where we value you. Like, that's a direct quote we've heard of from them before. And they don't go beyond that. So that's why I would like to hear some news here. He's the crown jewel of this draft class, despite being their second rounder. The comments about Miles Murphy, their first round pick from the 2023 class of why they didn't pick up the fifth year option of them looking into the future and saying things are going to be a little bit tighter and they have to be a little bit smarter with their money and how they allocate resources. It kind of makes me wonder about DJ Turner and some of these other players that we're going to talk about here today because I think if you're

Starting point is 00:06:38 already counting those dollars there when most teams are picking up fifth year options like it's nothing, they don't worry about it, right? They either plan on extending that guy or it's such a number that they really don't have to worry about it. The fact that they bring it up for Murphy and then decline that fifth year option, makes me wonder how they see this class as a whole. And if it's worth it for them to say, well, we can get one guy in DJ Turner or we can potentially get two guys in Chase Brown Jordan Battle.

Starting point is 00:07:02 Can you send a small extension for DJ Ivy? Where is Miles Murphy at in this musical chairs? Is he going to get that extension? Is it going to be, is he looking for Joseph Osai money? Or is it more? Is he betting on himself? I think it's very interesting to look at each one of these players and figure out who's going to be here in 2027.

Starting point is 00:07:22 Yeah, and the salary cap hit for the fifth year option for Miles Murphy would have been about $14.5 million. And when you're looking ahead, based on a projection for next year's salary cap for the Bengals, that's a lot of their cash base. Right now they're looking at $35.5.5-ish million dollars next year. That'll go up when they roll over money from this year that they don't end up using, when they get the adjustments that will inevitably happen when the cap goes up a little bit more than we think it's going to go up right so maybe you call it 40 but if you take 15 million out of that that is a pretty significant chunk which is why you might not want to do that fifth year option for miles murphy

Starting point is 00:08:00 right now that is really until you renegotiate right you can renegotiate after the season if you do the fifth year option do the extension and then modify that cap number but you want to be pretty confident in that player when you pick up the fifth year option which i think is why there was some indecision there but when you when you think about it this way when you about how the Bengals feel about their cap situation right now, I wonder if anything gets done. Like maybe we're going to talk about all these guys today that are potential extension candidate. And maybe it's just those lower level ones, right? Like the DJ Ivy's of the world where they feel like he's taking great strides in camp and they feel like they can get him for a couple

Starting point is 00:08:37 more years, tack on a couple more years at $2 million piece, $3 million piece, whatever it's going to be. That's $3 million is probably a little bit high for DJ Ivy in his role. But you get the idea. It just sees these lower dollar contracts that aren't going to have as big of a cap impact. Because I do think, I've talked about this many times, they're feeling that cap pinch. And they probably need to continue to look at things like restructuring Joe Burrow again next year or even Jamar Chase in addition next year to try to extend this window. Because there is, I think, a recognition that they're in a window. Dexter Lawrence might want a new contract after this year if he plays really well.

Starting point is 00:09:12 Right. So those are factors that they've got to be considering as well. And while we're talking about the 2020 three draft class today, we got to talk about Dax Hill as well, who's also extension eligible. And while it doesn't necessarily sound like that is imminent either, maybe that comes out of nowhere here in the next couple of weeks and they make him an offer that he actually likes enough to take. And so a lot of different pieces here competing for resources with this team right now.

Starting point is 00:09:38 And you know what? While we move on to some of these other guys, I do want to end on DJ Turner. Last point here, there's nothing so far this summer. because I want to update all these players. Like if you're listening and you're wondering how are these guys doing, are they elevating themselves, what kind of position are they in? How can the Bengals use these guys better? Whatever.

Starting point is 00:09:54 Each guy is a different story. For DJ Turner, there's been nothing right now that would say he's not what they think he is and not what they view him as and how they use him as a number one, right? We keep seeing DJ I be covering T. Higgins. And that's because DJ is following Jemar Chase. So I assume they still view him that way. He's performing that way when they're watching tape of practice. he still looks like cornerback number one.

Starting point is 00:10:17 And wouldn't you say that this is the quietest camp we've heard of for Jamar Chase? Like when's the last time we talked about is Jamar Place play, Jamar Chase playing in training camp, like a Jamar Chase play in practice. I'm sure he's getting targets and stuff, but it was that deep one in the stadium, but it was against a slot zone coverage. I feel like it's been a week is what I was going to say. Yeah, like it's been a while. And so it sounds like by reports from people that are there and by the lack of noise

Starting point is 00:10:43 around Jamar Chase in this training camp, DJ has, picked up where he left off. And so that'll be exciting for this team this year. But it does put pressure, I think, on the team to figure out the extension. We're going to talk about the rest of this draft class, Joe, where they are in terms of training camp, potential extension stuff as we continue the conversation coming up next. What's going on, everybody? My name is Ross Jackson, host of the Lockdown at Saints podcast. And today's Lockdown episode is brought to you by our friends at Basque and Lather. I've been using Basque and Lather's all natural, 100% organic hair care products for my beard

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Starting point is 00:12:13 I just want to be clear that people understand first round, Miles Murphy, second round, Turner. Third round, Jordan Battle. Fourth round, Charlie Jones. Fifth round, Chase Brown. Sixth round, Andreosovash and Brad Robbins. Robbins is the only one who didn't make it. And seventh round DJ Ivy, that is pretty strong. That is a lot of depth. You would pretty much take, I would say rounds two through seven every single time. The only criticism would probably be, hey, Charlie Jones didn't end up doing anything for you on offense as a fourth round pick. There was guys like Pooka Nakula and others, not that, you know, you're always going to strike gold every single time you make a draft big.

Starting point is 00:12:47 But Charlie's been a solid punt return or three return touchdowns in his career, nothing to sneeze at. Miles Murphy is my focus here. He has made progress every single year. It's been slight. You have to really watch the film and digest it at the level I do to see it sometimes. But last year was a good jump that I think everyone could see and say, okay, this is a guy in the second half of the year that is starting to come on.

Starting point is 00:13:11 And now this camp this year, he's pretty much unquestioned starter. opposite of Boye-Mafay. Now, Shamar did get hurt, so maybe that would have developed differently, but it looks like to me, he is that opposite starter. I still want to see if they move him around more besides just left and right outside edge. We've gotten a couple snaps with him at 4-I when they reduced down into their bare front, which I think is fun. I always thought Miles Murphy might be a little bit better inside if they can give him those opportunities. But if he's a guy that has developed as a run defender, which I thought was a strength of his coming out of Clemson and something I think he lost a little bit in the first couple years.

Starting point is 00:13:48 He started to flash it last year. He had a nice run defense play in the preseason game against the Lions. If he can just be a C plus pass rusher, because I do think there is a ceiling on what he can do there. But a B plus run defender and a guy that can play all across your defensive line, well, I think that puts him in line for a big payday. Even if it's not with the Bengals, it's in the offseason. It's still a very young player for this team. I mean, it's still the trajectory of the Sam Hubbard like career, except with less sack productivity throughout his career, just eight and a half sack so far for Miles Murphy in his three years with the Bengals.

Starting point is 00:14:21 But that is what Sam Hubbard was good at. He was just on the field so much because the coaches trusted him so much to do the things and run defense where he was pretty good right away. And he didn't have to leave the field really in any scenario. And the hustle sacks were a big part of Sam Hubbard's game, playing across from Trey Hendrickson, flushed a lot of quarterback. into the waiting arms of Sam Hubbard. So if Murphy can continue that trajectory and have that level of trust from the coaches,

Starting point is 00:14:48 that level of veteran and saviveness in the run game that we came to appreciate with Sam Hubbard, especially as a run defender, then, yeah, that's a pretty good late first round pick. The thing that stands out to me about this draft class show that you didn't mention as you were going through the list is that this is one of the times the Bengals are drafting at the end of the draft. They've been drafting the 2022-2020-23 draft class are drafting at the end of the round and we've had these questions like can the bengals actually draft well at the end of a round and this is coming off a year where in 2022 there's only one of those players left still on the roster

Starting point is 00:15:23 and there wasn't really any thought for outside of Tyson anderson any of them really being on the team in 2026 so by comparison the next year we're thinking about all these guys as potentially being on the team for 2027 you could see the path for all of these players that are still on the team right now, being on the team next year, very different from how they drafted in the previous year where they're picking at the end of the round. You can even go to 2024 where they're picking in the middle of the round. And we'd love Amaria Smiths and the progress he's made. But Chris Jenkins is kind of on the roster bubble right now. Jermaine Burton no longer on the team. McKinley Jackson days seem to be numbered with this team. Eric, all, great pick in the fourth round for this team,

Starting point is 00:16:02 but the health issues that he had and were concerns for him coming out in the draft did rear their head and they lost a year. They're outside of that in this 2024 draft class, Cedric Johnson could make the team as your fifth pass rusher, especially with Ram Stewart dealing with an injury in this preseason. But by comparison, yeah, this entire 2023 class, I think, especially considering the drafting at the end of the round, that really does stand out as a way that the Bengals did end up succeeding this year.

Starting point is 00:16:31 And when you get to the mid-round picks, talking about Miles Murphy, I think everybody kind of knows what's on the line for him, right? with the fifth year option and the contract year, the expectations that come with being a very athletic first round pick. But Jordan Battle, could he be breaking out this year? Could he finally put it all together this year? This is another guy that the Bengals seem to be very high on in this training camp for perhaps the impact that Brian Cook has had and the rest of these veterans on defense

Starting point is 00:16:59 has had, have had on him. But he's also very much at this point in a bit of a veteran role in the secondary. Yeah, you're going into year four. It comes up so quick, right? Where you're the young guy and now you're a player that's been on this team and has started and played a lot of games. And Jordan Battle has been one of the most inconsistent players on the entire roster, but the high-end flashes are there, the tackles, the hits, forcing fumbles, recovering

Starting point is 00:17:26 fumbles, getting your hands on interceptions. Like, these are splash plays. This defense absolutely needs. He had that in week one against the lions on the first drive to really stop some bleeding. may have been happening early. He gets a tip ball and you know, you make the play. You capitalize. Battle can at least be that. Can he be that a little bit more consistently? Can he not have the mistackles against the bears that ultimately lose the game, right? Things like that that hang a dark cloud over his head. Maybe it is the Brian Cooks and the Dexter Lawrence. You're right. Maybe it is

Starting point is 00:17:56 the other veterans, the guys that have raised the standard on the defense to whittle away some of those rough plays that we have with Jordan Battle. But yeah, that could be a value extension. it. If you're looking at DJ Turner and saying just too expensive, fifth year option, just too expensive from Miles Murphy. Battle could be had, first of all, safety don't make a ton of money. And then the guys like this, if you're seeing an upswing and finally getting him to where you need him to be at a professional level, you get ahead early on that and get an extension done and get him for cheap. And he's at one of those guys like a Michael Johnson where you have him early or who did they extend Clint Bowling was real early extension, Andrew Whitworth, Carlos Dunlap.

Starting point is 00:18:35 I always felt like these guys were just hitting their stride. They were much better players. I don't want to compare battle to them. I'm just thinking of getting ahead of some of these extensions early can come back and benefit you. And Chase Brown's already passed that, right? Andre Osovash, probably not good enough and probably too many resources spent at wide receiver. DJ Abby, you could for cheap. But battle might be that sweet spot where an extension could happen and the Bengals feel good about it.

Starting point is 00:19:00 And he would also accept it. And he's one of the players this year that are. on the player performance escalators. So he is getting paid a little bit more already this year. If they did want to do an extension, they could even lower his cat number this year a little bit, not that there's necessarily a huge point in doing so, but along with Andre Yosevash and DJ Turner,

Starting point is 00:19:23 one of several and Chase Brown, one of several players for this team making $3.67 million this year instead of whatever their contract would have allotted for them. them. I don't think Jordan Battle is a player. This team is going to feel super comfortable extending early, Joe. I think this is a guy they probably will want to wait and see. But it is something that you could consider if you're really pleased with what he's done so far in training camp. If he's embracing a leadership role, if he's not making any mistakes in practice, if he's where he's supposed to be, when he's supposed to be there, then you have a pretty exciting

Starting point is 00:20:02 player on your hands with, as you mentioned, the playmaking ability that he's shown. But one of the players that I think is one of the best players from this entire class. And just because of the position, it gets complicated. Chase Brown is a very interesting conversation because he will be featured in this offense. And there will be questions about replacing the exact role he plays in this offense. If he is not retained by this team, it's just complicated because of some running back. Let's talk Chase Brown coming up next. Baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a homer today,

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Starting point is 00:21:31 Chase Brown is the second most valuable player out of this draft class, and he's a running back. And I think that gets very complicated very quickly, especially in the Bengals offense. When James and I were doing this show and he's talking about, well, if Jeremiah loves there at 10, the Bengals should pick him. And there's plenty of arguments in that direction. But what it kept coming back to for me that was always a stick in the mud was how important is that running back in this offense? We've seen how it looks when they are without their top

Starting point is 00:22:04 end running back. And it does look worse. So it matters to some degree, but with how much they drop back and pass, at least historically, maybe this is changing this year, maybe running back in this offense is becoming more valuable because of the focus on getting under center and running play action and things that we're seeing in this off season. But due to the nature of the running back position, how quickly it can just hit a cliff, hit a wall. It's really complicated talking about the future for Chase Brown, who from a short-term perspective, like going to be a focal point in this offense, right? Joe Burroughs talked about that, but from an extension point of view, gets a little murkier. You know, I think we're going to get to the 23-minute mark of this

Starting point is 00:22:45 episode, and I just had a take as you're talking. Chase Brown is the second most valuable player from this class. He's the best player from this class. And he's better than DJ Turner. He's better than Miles Murphy. He's better in Jordan Battle. He's better in Andre Osivash. I think he's a top 12-ish running back where we had this debate on Turner and ESPN had him at 15th. We said, yeah, he's between 10 and 15. But I feel strong in saying Chase Brown is top 12. And you could even say 10, 9, 8, you might even get him the 7. If he has the year that they keep saying or projecting about like getting him to be more explosive, you know, getting the run game going at a consistent level early. If you take his week five to week 18 numbers last year

Starting point is 00:23:30 and extrapolate that for a whole 17 game season, it's like 1,160 yards and 15 touchdowns. AP was able to do that now. Again, those things don't often work that way. I get that. But if it did, he'd be in line for a huge extension in free age. He can name his price. He'd be one of the top free agents available. And some team looking for an injection of life on their offense would be all about Chase Brown. And so I don't know if that's a take, though, Jake.

Starting point is 00:23:59 I don't know if people would agree that he's the best player, if they would say it's DJ Turner. But I would say I'd make that argument that it's Chase Brown. I would say only this in defensive DJ Turner. And I'm not sure whether or not I believe this entirely or if it's just like maybe this is something we should think about kind of point is it's harder to be a really good corner than it is to be a really good running back, I think. And so degree of difficulty is part of this. There's also way more corners in the NFL than there are starting running backs, right?

Starting point is 00:24:29 You always have two corners on the field. You always have one running back on the field. Generalizing. There are exceptions. I know. But there's always going to be multiple corners on the field. It almost always going to be one running back on the field. So due to there being more corners, being a top 15 corner might be harder than being a top 10 running back because there's at least twice as many and that doesn't even account for the nickel and the hybrid players that are impact players that are playing a lot of cornerbacks. So that that does come to mind for me quite a bit, but that doesn't take anything away from Chase Brown. Like he's very, very good at what he does. The other thing that comes to mind is that this position doesn't have as much longevity as

Starting point is 00:25:12 corners do where DJ Turner could very easily continue to be a top end corner in this league for the entirety of a second contract. It's exceedingly rare for running back to continue to produce at the level he produced on a rookie contract on the entirety of his second contract in the NFL. Now, I do think it's becoming a little bit more common, but only a little bit and only at the extreme top end. Like we're talking Sequan, Barclay, Derek Henry, Christian McCaffrey level players. And I do think that those guys are a tier above chase brow. And I would counter with the longevity for corner is not strong either. These are two of the positions that when you get to 28, 29, 30, you know, I'm very weary of it.

Starting point is 00:25:52 We know both of these positions. We did the PFF study. We're talking about how long it takes for linebacker to get acclimated to the NFL, same with defense, to tackle and guard. Those seem to be the lowest grading rookies. The highest and some of the highest are running back in corner. They typically can jump in and play pretty well at a very young age, relying on athleticism. And, you know, there's just less to the game when you're man coverage and less to the game when you're running the ball.

Starting point is 00:26:17 We've always seen rookie running back to be able to flourish early. So it makes sense that those positions can hit the ground running. Again, I don't want to make this a DJ Turner, Chase Brown debate because I think if they found a way to extend both, I'd be more than happy with that outcome. I would be saying you're like, good, you did what you had to do. Let's inside a debate in the comments. Go argue in the comments. DJ Turner, Chase Brown. Who's better?

Starting point is 00:26:38 Who's a better football player? I will say this just to wrap up the Chase Brown conversation and the expectations of him having the potential for a really big year this year. Of all the things that we've talked about with the under center offense and some of the stumbles they've had in the play action game in particular, by all accounts, the running game under center is something that has been good in training camp and has been very pleasing to the coaches. Now, there is that little voice in my head that's wondering, like, is this team still not going to be able to defend them? the run this year? Is this still going to be a glaring issue even with all the investments? And it's hard to tell and you can't practice this. But something I think that we'll be thinking about when we get to week one, week two, week three, some really good defenses early in the schedule

Starting point is 00:27:25 for the Bengals to contend with. But like, if James Brown's getting off the ground running the ball well against the Texans and Texans are particular, but in the Buccaneers in the first couple weeks of the season, and they're moving them all around the field too, right? Like one part of this is that the under center game, the under center run game is getting strong reviews in training camp. And we'll see how that translates to the regular season because that wouldn't surprise me if the defense still has some issues there in the end when we look back on things in a few months. But the other thing that I think well stand up a little bit is how much they're moving him and aligning him in different places. We've seen, I think probably more pony, which is two

Starting point is 00:28:03 running backs than we've seen in recent years from this team. We're seeing him lined up out wide. quite a bit running routes with receivers throughout training actual routes like that's always thing for running backs it's something that he's done a little bit I think because of the offense that he's in but if they can get more production for him that way too I mean this is a player that was a third highest on the team in targets last year and wouldn't be shocking I think if that were to recur in 2026 and then three guys to round out this class that are in roster battles or playing time battles you know that it's a little bit different but like charlie jones is trying to fend off of these other guys that have been added at wide receiver trying to prove that he's the most

Starting point is 00:28:43 reliable and explosive return man on the roster. I think we have to wait and see. We have to find out the coaches talk about Charlie being the reliable put return man and that threatened that he still has that. We have to see. We've got to see what Dante Myers does and Kishon Williams does in preseason. And if that's enough. And then Andre Osibosh trying to fend off these other guys that want this playing time

Starting point is 00:29:04 and probably are earning this playing time through practice reps. and preseason, although they talk about him as if he is wide receiver three completely still. So if you're one of these people in the comments, and I wouldn't with you, I've floated it out there. Maybe should trade Andre. You know, go with Kobe Young, go with Mitch Tinsley, go with Dante Myers. You could piece it together. You don't need this guy to be a $4 million year for a player, right? You could have Mike Keseki out there. You can go more 12 personnel. They will too. Yeah. I think that's part of it is we're expecting more 12 personnel this year.

Starting point is 00:29:37 Exactly. We just got done talking about Chase Brown and how big of a receiver he is. He's often the number three target in this offense. So do you I need a Yandre Yosibosh at wide receiver three? They really like him still and trust him. And that DJ I be coming into this season as someone who had to battle for his spot looks like cornerback for and potentially over Ticario Davis right now as the next boundary guy off the bench. At least he has been in practice. I expect that to continue because he's playing pretty well. Very interesting ending to this class. who holds those positions, who can fight off these guys and still be there week one. Who's going to be playing? I still expect Charlie Jones is on this roster, Jake. Yeah, I think that that one in particular is fascinating. The Charlie Jones question, because we've talked about keeping six defensive tackles. What if they keep seven wide receivers in that initial cutdown and then try to figure it out after waiver claims? You know, that would be an interesting path to go as well.

Starting point is 00:30:31 Right now they don't have a way to really sneak a bunch of these guys onto the roster. We'll see what they figure out. They're pretty good at it. The Bengals for all of the criticisms that might exist about the front office are pretty good about getting the players they want to keep on the roster or understanding what guys that they can get to their practice squad. Only every now and then has there been backfires in that regard. And that happens across the league. But DJ Ivy, just to wrap up there, a guy that since he arrived has exceeded expectations for the coaching staff because he was a late seventh round pick. Lightning Hurricane fans didn't even like them.

Starting point is 00:31:05 Yeah, and those guys often don't make the team, but immediately, I think, won over the favor of coaches in the way he approached the game, exceeded their expectations for him. And now he's going toe to toe with T. Higgins in training camp. And it's like in 11 on 11 and in 7 on 7, 7, 7 heavily favoring the offense. And DJ Ivy's even making plays there. He's getting beat from time to time. We're not expecting him to go be a good starting level corner, especially matched up with T. Higgins. That's a tough matchup for any corner in the NFL. But DJ Ivy holding his own against him in training camp.

Starting point is 00:31:37 That's got to count for something, in my opinion. And I think he is more than solidified himself as the first outside corner off the bench. So if we're stacking this class, what, DJ Turner, Chase Brown, you can debate those guys, Jordan Battle right behind them, right? Or is Miles Murphy right behind them? That's a debate, too. That's the other debate. So DJ Turner and Chase Brown in some order, Miles Murphy and Jordan Battle in some order, Andrei Yosevash. and then DJ Ivy and Charlie Jones.

Starting point is 00:32:04 Yeah, and probably Ivy over Jones now, and I probably would have a flip coming into the summer. Yeah, yeah. And all these guys, either first off the bench or starting roles in some capacity, if Charlie Jones is on this team, he will be the starting returner. Yeah. That's a pretty impressive draft class for the Bengals in 2023 that will be,

Starting point is 00:32:24 in addition to their stars and we spent a lot of time talking about, and the rookies and the newcomers that we spent a lot of time talking about. in the last few episodes and going into preseason game number one, these guys are the middle class for some of these guys. Some of these guys are bigger than that, but of the roster that will be so crucial to the team's success in 2026. You've got one more big practice for the Bengals on Tuesday before they're preparing to bring the bears into the practice fields

Starting point is 00:32:58 across from Paycourt Stadium on Thursday this week for that joint practice. And we'll have you covered all week here on Lockdown Bengals. Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, Bouda. And have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - CLOCK IS TICKING: DJ Turner, Chase Brown FUEL Bengals’ 2023 Draft Class EXTENSION PRESSURE

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