Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - CONFIDENT: Joe Burrow’s Bold Leadership Raises the Bar as Bengals Minicamp Ends Early

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals are ending their mandatory minicamp early, but Joe Burrow is setting sky high expectations for the 2020-16. Let's discuss everything we heard from Burrow and Zach Taylor as a Bengals wrap-up minicamp. 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. good, Barry. I'm Jake. Let's go. We are the host of lockdown Bengals, and we bring you the daily coverage you're looking for about your Cincinnati Bengals. Even as we're entering the slow part of the

Starting point is 00:00:46 season, we are designed to be your one-stop shop for all things Bengals. And we're going to cover all the news, all the analysis that you could ever want in this one place. Today we're going to discuss minicamp ending early. And something that isn't entirely a surprise to me, Joe, but I I'm surprised that they didn't get out there in practice on Wednesday. If they had canceled Thursday, that would have almost been expected to me based on Zach Taylor's track record. But they get out of there early, and Joe Burrow and Zach Taylor met with the media. And honestly, there were a lot of takeaways from those press conferences. And that's where we will start today's show.

Starting point is 00:01:25 Joe Burrow setting a high bar talking about leadership, talking about the work he's doing. And we're going to start there. in today's episode brought to you by Odu. Great organizations win because operations matter, and that's why you should get Odo. Try for free today at Odu.com slash locked on. That's ODOO.O.com slash locked on. And one thing Joe Burrow talked about Joe Gooberi is the operations

Starting point is 00:01:51 is one of the things that's improved for the Bengals this year. He's talked a lot about the great offseason, was a quote that came up numerous times today, talked about the changing leadership style in a quote, mean leadership approach that he's trying out. He said it may or may not stick, but it's something that he's trying now

Starting point is 00:02:11 and guys are responding well to. And he also talked a little bit about in the parts that are going to be most interesting to us as football nerds, the Bengals approach to trying to find ways to punish defenses as they've now shown that they can punish you when they try to take away the stuff over the top.

Starting point is 00:02:28 They've gotten really good at attacking underneath. and now Burrough sees a pendulum swinging back the other way where teams are trying to take away some of the underneath stuff that the Bengals have been so proficient at. I thought that was one of the more interesting tidbits as Burrow talked about football a little bit in this 25-minute meeting with media on Wednesday. Yeah, I think the big takeaway from both Zach and Joe

Starting point is 00:02:49 was how much they talked about the chemistry, the locker room, the leadership aspects of different leaders. Zach mentioning how many guys are eligible to be a captain and, you know, almost hinting at previous years, they wondered who would step up and be a captain, but this year they're not worried about that at all. Joe Burrow talking about his own leadership and trying to take a different approach

Starting point is 00:03:11 and how the guys around him have helped with that too and how much he's hanging out with Dexter Lawrence, who's Zach praised like crazy, which is a whole conversation to me, honestly, because I kind of roll my eyes at that stuff because, of course, they'll talk up the new guy, and he had some things that the Giants fans were warning about when he left there.

Starting point is 00:03:27 But when you see that he's actually, hanging out with Joe a lot and they're calling things, talking about his mental ability and the guy being that good, he's going to be pretty smart, but he and Jonathan Allen are calling things out in practice when the offense lines up because they've seen it all and they've been in it. And it's how Zach said it's going to make them better on offense because these guys are calling out. You don't want to give them way, give things way right away. So I think the big thing, though, and that's why I touched a lot of ground there and points I want to

Starting point is 00:03:58 get to, but the big thing, definitely, the theme of the whole offseason at this point has been leadership and chemistry, almost hinting that it's been an issue in previous years. I think more than hinting, right? And they have gone so far as to say, we need someone to step up as leaders in the past. And this year, it seems like a totally different ballgame, especially on the defense side of the ball. I think it was James, but it might have been someone else, former podcast host of Lockdown Bengals with me. James Rapine was down there for the pressers today. Someone asked, I think it was James,

Starting point is 00:04:31 if the free agents were able to come in and immediately establish themselves as leaders, and Zach didn't hesitate. Not these guys. These guys, no problem hitting the ground running, they know what it takes, they know what it looks like, no problems being vocal.

Starting point is 00:04:45 And Burrow talked about his approach to leadership too, and maybe that's the leadership topic that we cover here first in a little bit. little bit of depth because Joe Burrow has typically been, and the Bengals have a lot of guys like such as locker today said, I don't talk a lot. The Bengals have had a lot of guys who lead by example. Jamar is kind of like this. He'll talk in the locker room a little bit, but T, same way. Chase Brown a little bit more fiery, Orlando Brown, maybe a little bit more vocal. But anytime you ask these guys about leadership approach, the theme has generally been from the leaders on the Bengals that

Starting point is 00:05:21 they're more lead by example type of guys. And Burrow, sounds like he's taking a more fiery approach, perhaps a page out of Tom Brady's book. That's what came to mind to me too. When he talked about it, talked about the meaner leadership style. What were your other thoughts when he was talking about the way he's changed his approach to soft season?

Starting point is 00:05:39 Yeah, and all of that is like, well, Sheldon Rankin's not a leader. Was Gino Stone? I'm thinking of these other free agents they brought in, right? And it's like, yeah, let these guys see how we do things in Cincinnati. And then, you know, because they're coming off 2021 and 2022, 2022, the standard has been set because of the way they performed. But is that always the case with new guys coming in?

Starting point is 00:06:00 Do they just understand it? Do they just get right to it? And maybe sometimes you think you have the leadership or the right chemistry in the building because you had success. And that may not be the case. You may got, I don't want to say lucky, but like you just may have had the right formula at that time for that team to reach the destination you did. And then you kind of have to figure it out again between 2023 and 2025.

Starting point is 00:06:22 And so to me, Burrough's saying he wants to be a little bit meaner, a little bit more direct. Sounds like he really wants to set the tone and the standard again of what they want to be, how they want to achieve it, how they practice, how they watch film, everything, right? Everything that we know he does at a high level, it's not enough just to do it. He wants to bring others along at his level, which I think is huge. And that is leadership because without that, and I think Joe talked about this. without it, they have seen that other guys didn't just follow along. And now the approach is to forcibly bring them along.

Starting point is 00:06:56 Yeah, and he was asked what it means to be a mean, quote, unquote, leader. And the answer doesn't sound particularly mean to me, but he was asked, what does mean leadership look like? And Burrow essentially said when there's something that's not up to standard, he's going to call it out right then and there, maybe a little bit louder than in the past. He said, maybe I keep doing it, maybe I don't. I'm trying it out, trying to bring some intensity. he also said that he was clearly stepping outside of his comfort zone to do it.

Starting point is 00:07:21 But that was another huge theme as Burrow was talking, the urgency, the intensity, the standard, comparing how he feels about the 2026 Bengals to how he felt about the 2019 LSU Tigers before that season when Burrow really burst onto the scene for us as primarily NFL watchers. I remember being skeptical about Burrow six, seven weeks into the season and needing to more and then he kept doing it and eventually won us all over, obviously, because he was great. But the way that he felt going into that 2019 season turned out to be prescient. And he knew what was coming or prescient or however you pronounce that word,

Starting point is 00:08:05 little nostridomacy is what I'm trying to get at here. He knew what was coming. And he had the confidence that I think the rest of the world didn't have. He said something to the effect of people aren't used to LSU scoring 40, 50, 60 points a game. game, but we're going to go do that. And then they went out and scored 48 points per game and set the world on fire. So if he's comparing how he felt about that team, that he was extremely confident in, Lloyd Cushingberry, his center at LSU, had quotes that I found preparing for this show, talking about how confident Joe was going into that season as well.

Starting point is 00:08:39 That level of confidence at this time in the offseason is not something that I think we've really heard from Joe Burrow as a Cincinnati bank. Yeah, it isn't. And honestly, from the Bengals in general, because even going back to 2021, we didn't know the expectation really wasn't there. We were just trying to see if this team can compete in year two with Burrow coming off an injury. And then 2020 was supposed to be the rebound, maybe a little hangover season, not really sure. Teams didn't really make it far when they lose a Super Bowl. So the expectations were there, but at the same time, we were skeptic that the team would bounce back.

Starting point is 00:09:12 I mean, more Bengals fans were a little battered and bruised as it is. So the expectations are already a little bit low. But yeah, this is the first time, really. And I think this would be more of a conversation for sure, because to talk the way they are, Joe's talking to MVP's. He's talking Super Bowls. He's saying, go back and look at 2019. I mean, that's a whole different vibe.

Starting point is 00:09:34 Entirely different level of confidence. And there's more, too, what Joe Burrow had to say. We're going to continue to discuss the takeaways from Joe Burroughs press conference on Wednesday. We're going to get to what Zach Taylor had to say as well. The leadership theme will come up, but there are some X's and O's that we want to discuss from Joe Burroughs, quotes in particular what Zach Taylor said.

Starting point is 00:09:55 Dan Pitcher's focus has been in the offseason program. That stood out to me as well. And why Zach chose to end minicamp early, all topics that we will discuss as we continue the conversation here on this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Guys, don't you want to have the same type of confidence and readiness and the sense in your own lives that the athletes have in the biggest moments of their sport, that's where Ruggiat comes in.

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Starting point is 00:12:02 You can't go only so far as to try to add to your team. It's about having everyone working toward the same goal. That's true in sports just like it is in business. The Bengals have put so much of a focus on leadership. Dexter Lawrence and Joe Burrow hanging out in the offseason. and learning lessons from each other. That's part of getting oriented toward the same goal.

Starting point is 00:12:23 It's not just reactionary. The organization had a vision. They're sticking to it. They're developing the camaraderie, and you're going to see the results if things go according to plan because everyone's working from the same playbook.

Starting point is 00:12:34 Great organizations win because operations matter, and that's why you should get O-D-D-D-D-O-D-com slash locked-on. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-O-com slash lockdown. Jake, I want to touch on more of Joe Burrough's confidence in the way he's speaking. And that's not just MVP's and, you know, talking about the championships and Super Bowl is the standard.

Starting point is 00:12:59 And that's all they think about. And even going as far as watching Knicks can't help but to think of their own team being in that same moment. I even said they expect to win every single game. And that could just be more of, you know, just what you say, you know, to get everyone geared up and have the same mindset. But I actually think, well, you've kind of touched on this before we started recording. But is this more of a belief that they really can do this, which I think there is some of that. But is it more of a way to get the troops to follow you, right? To rally them, to get everyone on the same page, to get the standard where it needs to be,

Starting point is 00:13:34 to almost speak it into existence that this is our expectation, guys. And if you're not meeting it, if you're also not of the championship mindset, then you're not fitting in here. And that is kind of when you said that before we recorded, I was like, yeah, that's actually a good way to do it through the media, right? Through the press conference of saying, like, this is what we expect. And hopefully the players follow along around him. I think that it's also what he believes. I think it's a little bit of both. I do. I do think that the way he's been talking, maybe it's all strategic. Maybe I'm naive to think

Starting point is 00:14:07 this, Joe. Maybe it is all just him trying to motivate his teammates and get them to buy in to the kind of leadership that he's trying to bring to Baird. Like I said, he said that his teammates have responded to it well. He said that his motivation to start being a meaner leader, by the way, came from conversations with teammates and what they wanted and how they wanted him to approach things. So I thought that was interesting too. But I do think there's belief to go along with setting the standard. And I think that there are a couple of things happening. Maybe it's some line of, if we're talking about it this way, we're going to approach it this way, we're going to have the results that we're looking for or manifestation as some of you might.

Starting point is 00:14:47 might say out there in the world, but it's been a consistent standard that Joe Burrow has set in the few times we've heard from him talking to the media this offseason. He was asked directly, like is the Super Bowl all that matters? Yes. The urgency level extremely high. And despite them ending minicamp early, which some people might construe to be, oh, they're not getting all the work in that they could be doing. We're going to talk about that in a few minutes or the end of the show. But I do believe, believe that everything we've heard from these guys, from the coaching to F to the players, the urgency level is in a different place. The confidence is in a different place than it's

Starting point is 00:15:26 been for the last couple of years. Joe Burrow, a number of times, and again, today, reiterating, we have everything we need. He was asked, what does it mean to have everything you need? Well, we went out and we attacked our holes. We don't really have holes anymore is how Joe Burrow feels about this team. And we had the same conversation yesterday talking about linebackers and slot corners, but the way Joe feels is they went out and went and did with the they had to do to acquire players this off season. He's said numerous times that he thinks this is the most talented team they've had. He talked about the roster battles looking different, not a question of those guys at the end of the roster, but a question of more established guys, are they going to

Starting point is 00:16:04 be able to make an impact? Are they going to be game day active? Are they going to make the team and the different level of competition because of a different level of talent on the team? So Burrow clearly feels very differently about this team, at least the way he's talking about, about it than he has for the last couple of years where he's been confident for sure. Like, I don't think the confidence has the always this, right? The specificity about his teammates in the front office and what they've done is a lot more direct and a lot more present in the way Burroughs talked about this off season. Yeah, and you're right.

Starting point is 00:16:35 On one hand, it could be trying to motivate the rest of the team to make sure they're at the same standard he is. But on the other, when you see like Chris Jenkins playing so much last year, right? And then now he's what? defensive tackle five? I mean, he could be DT6. He could be DT7. He's in between that range, which is not making the roster at that point.

Starting point is 00:16:55 And it's a guy they still believe in. I think they may have a chance to trade him way or whatever. We'll see what happens in the summer. I don't want to write them off just yet. But that's a clear sign of how much that defensive line, especially at the defensive tackle, it's gotten better. And if you want to look at the roster and say Joe says, you know, maybe slot corner isn't great or maybe the linebacker isn't great right now,

Starting point is 00:17:15 those are probably the two positions I would pick if I'm going to say, where do you want your weakest positions be on defense? You can't have everything. I'd say, you know, corner number three and linebacker. I think we can survive if the other positions are in good shape. And the other positions are in good shape or have been addressed drastically in the offseason. I said this when there was some talk about who, I think you got, you and James did an episode on this.

Starting point is 00:17:37 And I remember going on a run and listening to you guys. This is right after Dexo Orange trade. And I'm listening to the lockdown Bengals podcast. You guys were talking about the pressure. on the coaches because the front office, you know, got these players in here. And it's, you know, it's great to see that the front office made these moves and these all-in moves. It's a big conversation in Cincinnati this summer.

Starting point is 00:17:55 But I do think there's some pressure on the players now of, hey, you've gotten everything. Let's go. Like, you can't have every single piece. But we've gotten you everything that you could reasonably ask for. We've addressed the areas of need. We've addressed the issues on the defensive line with the pass rush at safety. So now it's your opportunity to go in there. And Burrow talked about that pressure.

Starting point is 00:18:15 He wants that pressure. He wants to feel it. He wants that because it means he's in position to achieve all the things he wants to achieve. Yeah, and he said he wants his teammates to want to feel that too. He wants to bring them along. He, I think, was asked about whether it's putting more pressure. He's putting pressure or definitely asked about the pressure. And he talked about wanting his teammates to also thrive in it because he loves it.

Starting point is 00:18:38 He said, I love it. So I hope they do too, effectively was what his quote was. Not a direct quote, but paraphrasing there. great point to bring that up joe i also want to talk about what he said about explosiveness what he said about the the the transitions of the bengal's offense over the years paul daner junior asked him directly about whether he thinks you need to go under center to be explosive in the nfl and joe burrow shared his thoughts around that as well i thought those were all very interesting points from burrow and taylor talked uh we've talked a lot about what taylor had to say about

Starting point is 00:19:12 leadership and those sorts of topics. But what Burroughs talking about ties into what Zach said. The focus has been for the offense. Zach also explained why he chose to end minicamp early. I've said a few times, so we will discuss Zach's reasoning there. So we will hit those topics as we continue this episode of lockdown Bengals coming up next.

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Starting point is 00:20:47 on Locked on Bengals. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. If you need to hire, this is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. Joe, there was some discussion from Joe Burrow and Zach Taylor about the points of emphasis for the offense this off season. A lot of discussion around explosive plays. And that was something that Zach Taylor said was a focus for Dan pitcher.

Starting point is 00:21:09 and it made a lot of sense to me. Zach Taylor said the offense's focus has been explosive plays in four-minute drill, under center if you need to be under center, running the ball to finish out games. And Joe Burrow was asked about, well, how do you be more explosive if you're not going to go under center? What's been the evolution of the offense? What's the next step for the offense? And those things really go hand in hand. They do.

Starting point is 00:21:29 And number one, I want to bring up because you kind of went over it quickly, that Zach said Dan pitcher has done this. Pitch has done all this in the off season. You've ever wondered what the offensive coordinator does? without calling plays, well, he coordinates the offense. So there is still a lot of things to do. And they're planning of what they want to get better at, what they want to run,

Starting point is 00:21:47 what they want to install is still coming from Dan Pitcher in the offseason. So an emphasis on the ground game, the four-minute offense, closing games out, chewing up clock. That was something they're really good at in 2021, 2021, 2022. You can think of numerous games where it's like, man, we need a drive here to end this, and they were able to do it.

Starting point is 00:22:04 And it's the penalty aided on the doorstep of the end zone drive, that they just milked, I think, Chiefs, right? Where they didn't give the both of them. Yeah, 2020 and 2021, there was one of each of those. Yeah, remember the Titans game, they got the call for leaping over the long snapper. Right, right. That's where I thought you were going with that. But yes, those are huge.

Starting point is 00:22:23 You have to have those. The offense's failures in those moments isn't probably talked about enough for the defensive failures we've had the last couple years. Like, offenses needed to come through in these situations. They haven't been able to. But yeah. I just want to just say one thing about it. because we have talked about that a little bit,

Starting point is 00:22:40 but it's always been on the backdrop of like, yeah, but they scored 43 points. Right. Why do they need to go score another touchdown? What do you mean? Anyway, we've done post game shows where we're trying to talk,

Starting point is 00:22:50 hey, the offense should have come through here. And it's like, it's hard to because the defense was so bad on, you know, for 95% of that game. But yes, how do you get more explosive?

Starting point is 00:22:59 If that's the other emphasis, right? We've heard it all. Burrough said this in the early spring, late winter, that they want to get more explosive. They have to focus on getting more explosive. So Zach Taylor brought it up today.

Starting point is 00:23:10 The question of getting under center, running more play actions, always a big topic in the offseason. Paul Danor Jr. brought it up directly to Burrow. Can you guys be explosive without having a major in under center offense? And you look around the league, and whether it's like the 49ers or the Vikings, anyone in a Shanahan-style offense that's under center play action, creating mismatches crossers, and they're hitting these guys over the middle or in the sidelines off a deep. crosser. You wonder, can the Bengals do this? If that's what explosive plays look like, C-Hawks, also I shouldn't mention them. They did it all year last year. If this is what offensive explosion looks like in 2026, it's a big part of the missing link to the Bengals game and can they do it without it? Can that? That's a big question. Joe Burrow talked about it and

Starting point is 00:24:00 said that you're going to get certain defenses when you're a gun team. Teams are going to inherently against us be more worried about the past because they take that away because that's what we're great at, and teams know what we like to do and what we're really good at. And so you know we're trying to find ways to be explosive in the run game and then find things off of that so that we can create a couple easy explosives. And they've put together a plan. They're excited to see how it works out and comes together. But Joe also said he's ready to drop back 65 times a game and make it work too.

Starting point is 00:24:32 That was a quote that he had. And he talked about being under center in 2021 and 2020. It worked out well. They were explosive in 2021. So teams stopped going heavy in the box, started giving them light box looks and started taking away the downfield explosive. When they got all those light boxes, they transitioned to being a gun team.

Starting point is 00:24:55 And the run game became RPO's and quick game. And the run game was icing on the cake. And that was effective for a couple years. And then around 2024, Burroughs said we got so good at picking people apart underneath and marching the ball down the field that we started getting more. those 2021 defenses. And so now we have to get back to making people pay for playing that way against us. And that'll unturn free that cycle again where we're explosive and then teams play us in a

Starting point is 00:25:19 certain way and will be equipped this time to be more explosive in the run game and take advantage of that. So a whole yo-yo, the pendulum of the NFL and the way defenses are defending Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and T. Higgins and the Bengals. And he's right. I mean, if you if you're an analyst or any, any, pick your favorite, football analyst. They talk about the cycle all the time and what part of the cycle are we in? Are you chasing the trends or are you setting the trends, right? The Bengals have done a good job.

Starting point is 00:25:47 For all the critique that the offense gets for what they are and what they aren't, they are very different from 2021 to 2022. Go back to week three versus the Jets 2022. They absolutely scrapped the entire under center playbook because it was not working. It was too separate from their passing game. They had like a run game under center or play action. or 100% passing out of shotgun. They said, you know what, throw it out, go straight gun the rest of the year, and they become one of the more efficient teams versus cover two that season and get all the way back to the AFC championship.

Starting point is 00:26:19 They have evolved this offense multiple times under Zach Taylor, out of necessity. I'd like them to be ahead of the curve a little bit, and maybe this is a sign of them being ahead of the curve, of being able to predict how teams are going to treat you and what they're going to do. It's sometimes why they come up and seems like they're having a slow start in a game. It's like, oh, we didn't really know what to get or what to expect. They'll say this after the game.

Starting point is 00:26:40 But the slow starts have gone away in a lot of these good performances where the offense is firing all day. And it's because they can see the trend happening and see how defenses are going to react to them. What they're going to do, which is also something bro brought up, is you can watch the film of the 49ers. They don't have Jamar and T. The defenses are going to treat them the same way. They can't run the same stuff as them because they're not going to get the same looks that those teams are going to get. And I think everything he's saying to me is music to me. my ears because it's things I have observed on tape and have very similar thoughts to Burrow.

Starting point is 00:27:12 Yeah, Burrow obviously understands what's going on. What makes the offense work for him, especially, and with the personnel they have, to your point, he said, you can watch tape throughout the season. There's a trend of how teams play us compared to how they play other teams, and it's generally different. You're going to get a lot of unscotted books if you're the Bengals. A lot of teams are going to do things that they haven't shown all year when it's Joe Burrow, Jamar, Jason, T. Higgins out there.

Starting point is 00:27:36 And that's something that I think as time passes, and Joe talked about finding the marginal improvements at this point in his career, right? He's been around for a while in the NFL at this point. You're not looking for those major sweeping improvements every year where he's making huge big changes. He's focusing on smaller things now. And part of that is he's seen just about everything at this point. And it's been that way for probably a year, two years now.

Starting point is 00:28:01 But you might get unscouted looks, but this team has so much continuity, so much. experience at this point, you should be both in terms of age and experience, that marriage, I think, for this offense should be right in its prime, right? This team, having been together, for the most part, for a couple of years now, some players for more time than that, Ted Carras, Orlando Brown, the receivers, Joe Burrow, Mike Keseki now, all these Andre Yoseva, Chase Brown, all these pieces, Tamage Piran, I keep coming up with new names, all these pieces that have been in this system for so long, you try to show him. And it's got to show him an unscgot of

Starting point is 00:28:36 look, they're going to be ready for it. They're going to have the tools to answer that. And so I think that's part of why the offense is exciting this year. They've gone through all these different iterations. They have many, many, many different tools in their toolkit to deal with the different looks they're getting. And I don't think that's why Zach Taylor's ending minicamp early. We'll close the show on that in just a minute.

Starting point is 00:28:56 But I did think the thought kind of just occurred to me that the marriage of experience and age and those things coming together this year should. prime you for a very potentially explosive year from this offense. Could be one of the better offenses we've seen, if not the best offense we've seen in the borough era. And Zach brought that up during his press conference, that his guys have some of the longest time in one particular system, same voice, same quarterback of any in the league. And he said, put it up.

Starting point is 00:29:28 I don't know the numbers, but like compare it to other teams. I bet we have the most experience together of any offense or any unit, I believe you said, considering a defense too, which makes a lot of sense that side turns over a little bit more. But yeah, and that goes into him, I think canceling practice a little bit early because he said, and my point was going to be that this isn't as young of a team as it was in 21 and 22, right? It's not they're a little bit older now. They brought an older free agents.

Starting point is 00:29:52 They traded for an older player. But he said he has to take care of his players and has to protect them a little bit, right? He has to manage their snaps. Guys can play really long now, he said. And that came up in the context. of him being asked about Dexter Lawrence performing into his 30s and like Cam Hayward's doing it and all these other guys. Jonathan Allen and Callais Campbell, all these guys doing it at a high level at that position in their 30s. But the point extends beyond Dexter. Yeah, it's not just the defense, right?

Starting point is 00:30:23 He's saying, I need to take care and manage practices and take care of these guys because number one, they got their installs in. So that was a big part of him saying we're done because we installed everything. How long does it really take to install for this offense that has been together for so. long like what at what page are you at page 120 on the playbook like i just giving you an arbitrary number it's got to be pretty deep at this point of everything and they should probably pick it up right away maybe you're still bringing along jack injuries and taj brooks or whoever uh in brian parker but like that's it everyone's ready to go locked in they've been in the system for multiple years at this point yeah that that was a big takeaway for me for why zach was ready to get get going let these guys out of

Starting point is 00:31:05 there. He also has done this over the years. I think last year they actually went through all of mandatory mini camp and I was surprised. Maybe it was the last two years, but when they actually do every single practice in mandatory minicamp in the Zach Taylor era, it's been more surprising than when they cancel. Again, I was surprised they canceled the last two practices. I thought they'd do two. But Zach said, essentially, they're diminishing returns at some point. We got a lot more on-field work than we normally do during phase two. Like you said, they got all their install in. They feel good about where they are. They feel good about the attendance that they had. They feel good about the way the players have approached this part of the offseason. And some of

Starting point is 00:31:42 this is also a reward, right? Like, we're going to get you out of here a couple days early. You can take a little bit more rest. We'll see you back here in late July. And then they'll get ramped up for the season. And it was also pointed out this is a bit of a trend around the NFL as well where you're seeing coaches using a little bit less time. Again, the Bengals used, and we talked about this a while ago, I don't remember what episode it was, the Bengals used less time than a lot of teams around the NFL

Starting point is 00:32:11 for the offseason program on the whole, for mandatory mini camp compared to what they're allowed to use. They use multiple days fewer than the maximum and some other teams used, but part of the reason for that, like I said, I think, is reward, and part of it is Zach feels like

Starting point is 00:32:27 they got enough work done. Probably some topics we did not get to today in these press conferences and in the final comments from the Bengals players in the locker room before training camp and things will pick back up here in a couple of months. So we'll make sure we're covering any of those. We're going to plan to talk to Mike Petralia, CLNS Media. We're going to have him back on as he was down there in the building. And we've got some guests that we're working on lining up for you here as things are a little bit quieter between now and training camp.

Starting point is 00:32:57 But we're doing everything we can to keep it interesting for you here on lockdown Bengals. But that's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening. Who did? And have a good.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - CONFIDENT: Joe Burrow’s Bold Leadership Raises the Bar as Bengals Minicamp Ends Early

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