Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Despite what you've heard, the Bengals have plenty of money! Setting the table for a "no excuses" offseason

Episode Date: February 16, 2025

The Cincinnati Bengals have no excuses to not get their major deals done this offseason. Despite what you've heard from national shows in the last few weeks, there aren't cash or cap constraints! Jake Liscow and James Rapien continue to push back on narratives about how "difficult" it will be for the Bengals to navigate this offseason and how their decisions can show a commitment to winning with Joe Burrow.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!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.   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.

Despite what you may have heard over the last week or two, the Bengals, in fact, have tons of cap room, plenty of cash. They can get everything they need to get done this off season. The real question is whether they will. Let's break it down. Straight cash, homie. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What on, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast.

I'm your host, Jake Liskow. I'm the host, James Rupin, and we are Lockdown Bengals here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. For those of you who are new to the show, we've been doing this podcast together for, what, five years now, James? We've launched a show on YouTube. For those of you that have only watched us on YouTube, we're also everywhere you get your podcast in that time.

And you can hit that subscribe button to make sure you don't miss an episode of Locktime Bengals. And, of course, every day who has out there who have heard me say that, just about every day we've done this podcast. Appreciate you. Welcome back. Today we're going to talk about a number of topics facing the Bengals front office this season, including, again, pushing back on what we continue to hear from various national shows, which is that all it's going to be tough for the Bengals, they're going to have to figure out that cap space that continues to perplex me, James, from the cash perspective, from the cap perspective. We have a couple of questions from the mailbag that you handle without me. Thank you for that. by the way, that continue to pertain to the Bengals front office. What can they do to show Joe Burrow that they are listening to the pressure that he's applied over the last few weeks and months?

And what can they do in terms of timing? When should you expect certain moves to happen? But I want to start, James, with this idea that we keep hearing. We keep hearing it. Nobody's hearing us pushing back on it, I guess, in the national media. Nobody's listening to Lockdown Bengals who continue. I'm saying, I'm specifying who those people are, who continue to say the Bengals have to figure out the Capspace. It's going to be really, really hard.

But I guess Duke Tobin is also saying it's going to be hard. So maybe they're just listening to Duke. Yeah, I don't get it. It's really annoying and it's maddening. And that's why Bengals fans come to Lockdown Bengals. I mean, this is the ultimate promo. If there's ever an off season for, all right, let's not watch. And I was, I got Sufman.

Friday. And we're recording this on Sunday afternoon. Got sushi Friday. Nice Valentine's Day sushi day. And it was great. And of course, NFL Live is on. And who are they talking about? The Bengals. And I couldn't hear what was said, but I could just feel you especially being like, man, they have plenty of cap and just screaming it because you have on social media. And I think that's something that we're going to remind people about. Every dayers may get a slightly bothered by it, but shout out to you for being it every day. Or if you do get bothered by it, I understand that we want to make sure that people understand where the expectations should be for the Bengals. And it isn't that, oh my goodness, they're looking through their pockets

and they can't find the cash. They're tapped. It's not true. It isn't that they can't find the cap space. There's plenty of cap space. There's plenty of ways they can maneuver this offseason and address the needs you're concerned about the most. and also keep the top free agent T. Higgins in town long term. And also pay Trey Hendrickson a sizable, give him a sizable raise as the NFL sack leader and pay the best receiver in football, Jamar Chase. Like they can do all of those things. And it's a matter of will they?

Not can, but will. And that's scary. I get that. But that is the reality. So if they don't do it, they're choosing not to do it. And it makes it that much harder, I think, to get this offseason right. It really does. Whether you take any of these paths, if you're not keeping those three guys, it just makes it harder.

Not impossible, but much harder to have a home run, grand slam type of offseason that they need to have. So we're talking about them potentially going to Santa Clara next year and playing in Super Bowl 60. And they've gotten it right before when they've made some of these decisions, which is probably the interesting thing or an interesting thing about it and something that they're probably thinking about from the front office perspective. Think back to William Jackson,

think back to Carl Lawson, some players that at the time we thought the Bengals would be served to keep, but the pivots from those players were significant upgrades at the time. You want to push back on one of those? Yeah, both of them. Okay.

Carl Lawson never had produced sackwise like Trey ever never had a year like Trey did when they signed him no I get it it was a one-off for Trey but definitely fair there had the injury issues and then William Jackson the third was the definition of a one hit wonder T higgins has been a stud year in and year out like I I get the logic but we're just talking about a different level of player oh yeah one reason or another like they're so I get what you're saying it's just there's levels to it and there was never there was never a free agent world where william jackson the third was a top five free agent in his class t higgins is one tray would be possibly two if he was a free agent just to give you an idea of where these guys would line up if they were both hitting free agent yeah i wasn't saying that to say that it's like exactly the same thing i'm bringing that up as examples

where we thought the bengal should do something collectively the collectively not saying you specifically We weren't doing the podcast together at the time. But they were. Yeah, we were. Oh, yeah. I even said five years ago at the beginning of the... For both of them. And I actually think we'd have to go back and listen.

We weren't on YouTube then. I think we were out on William Jackson. I think we understood that. The Carl Lawson one was a tough one because you see the talent. Carl's a freak. But the injuries were the injuries. So that was a tough one, I would say, to predict. Well, I remember that one.

Yeah, no, okay, this is coming back to me now. Because I remember that Carl Lawson signed elsewhere that day. Like, was it the first day? Right before they signed Tre. And we were waiting to, we were like, oh, well, we got to do a, they lost Carl Lawson show. And then they signed Trey Hendrickson. And at the time, there was skepticism about Trey Hendrickson. And the Bengals got that one right.

But anyway, the point I was trying to make before we went down this tangent was that they have at times zagged when we thought they should zig. And they have at times gotten it right. But there have also been time, so they've gotten it clearly wrong. And we've talked about those. examples a ton in recent weeks. And Jesse Bates, certainly chief among those, but there are others that we've discussed and that you could go back and find as well. They have so much money, though. And this is what gets me when I hear this stuff, like, oh, it's going to be tough. Oh, do they

have the cash? They have at least $120 million in cash to spend. And if you're looking for me to prove how I came up with that number, find it on social media. I did a two. two-hour long stream with Joe Goe Berry actually last week where we talked about some of this as well. But I can go into the math another day if people really need to hear it again on the podcast. It's just looking at their historical spending trends. They historically spend 8% of cash over the cap, the unadjusted cap. And then we know how much cash they have allocated for 2025. That tells us how much cash they have to spend.

That's before accounting for a bunch of cuts that we think they're going to make. then they have to spend that money, of course, on players to replace the players that they're going to cut. But that is money they will have to spend. That number will be closer to $150 million, I think, in cash that they can spend this year. Straight cash, homie. You sure they can do that? I mean, are you sure they can do that? Because excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse.

And you know this is their business, right? And that they don't have other, I hate all of this, this nonsense that's out there. Like, yeah, we know it's their business. We've covered the team for a while now, Jake. It's our only revenue stream. So, of course, they're cash strapped. Don't mention that the league revenue sharing before accounting for a number of other revenues that NFL front offices or NFL owners are subject to that they get. Revenue sharing a couple years ago is over $400 million.

That has gone up. The cap is specifically related to how much revenue the NFL earns and then shares. So the revenue sharing alone is covering your player expenses. I know there are other expenses. I know that NFL teams are worried about profitability as well, especially when you're the Mike Brown family and descendants that are dealing with that being your only revenue stream. They've started adding other revenue streams as a football family

that we've talked about on this show. Point is they're going to have a ton of cash. Pay corn. Oh, okay. Pay checks soon, maybe? Who knows? Hey, offer up the paychecks. There better be plenty of paychecks rolling out for some T. T.

and Jemar. The only concern that I think will be reasonable is a structure concern for this team. And that continues to be a legitimate thing. They won't guarantee money past year one. That continues to be a real thing. Will they break that structure for Jammar Chase? Will they need to break it for T. Higgins? Will they need to break it for T. Higgins?

Will they need to break it for other free agents that they're interested in talking about on the external market because, again, spoiler, they have tons of cap space too. They can extend those three guys and also play in the free agent market quite a bit. And a lot of teams are going to have a lot of resources to do that, which could drive up prices. Not the point. The Bengals have tons of resources this off season. And anyone that's telling you otherwise just hasn't done the math. Yeah. And let's talk about the guaranteed part of it because I do think that people are going to say, well, that's the cash flow and you've got to put it into escrow. So we'll do that. We have plenty of other topics

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What is escrow anyway? Yeah, well, they have to put the guaranteed money into an account. basically to show that that's there, that it's accounted for. And this is where the cash element of it, I think, comes into play for some. They say, oh, well, the Bengals don't have the cash to do that for multiple deals and all those things. And I get it. With the way things changed, they clearly realized a few years ago that they needed to change some things. But they did do that.

They do have sponsorships all over. And I mean, all over. It is the opposite of the way it was 10 years ago. Not only does the stadium have a name, but Gates have a name. Not only does the practice field have a name, but the indoor facility, aka the bubble has a name. You drive to Kentucky, you see the bubble, and you can see, and I forget the logistics company.

Integrity logistics? I forget, I apologize. The point is, there's sponsors everywhere. It's like NASCAR. And maybe I'm being a little dramatic there with the sponsorships, but the point is there's a reason they did that. and I think that this is this isn't about their ability

to have the cash. Now obviously they're not going to guarantee everyone's year two and year three and year four. I get that. I don't even know how much more they would need to guarantee Trey outside of next year. Like if they gave him a two-year extension, say, let's say, I don't think they have to give him

both years guaranteed. I think it would just be 2026. Jamar is different. He's a different animal. T, you're probably two of the four years, if it's a four-year deal or guarantee it. Like, that's 26. Like, that's not scary. And so I think historically, they haven't done that outside of Joe Burrow, and they had to do it for Joe.

They have to do it for Jemar. And they're going to have to do it for T to a much lesser extent. T. T, to a much lesser extent. But I just, I don't think it's this huge, huge issue. And it's also a reason why I'm hesitant to be like, oh, well, trade, tray and go sign Milton Williams and the edge rusher you want to go sign. Not that they couldn't do that, but there are people that say do that. I don't know if they're going to want to swim in that Milton Williams guaranteed money pool because it's not going to be easy either.

And so I think paying the guys that you have, it's probably going to be the most efficient way, even guaranteed money. wise because you know you have to pay Jamar. And then looking at the other two, it doesn't seem that crazy. So, yeah, I think that that has mattered in the past, but they're going to have to break structure for Jamar anyway. We'll see if they do it for T and Trey. I don't think they have to for T and Trey. I think that T changing his agent, as long as they get good cash flow into that deal, big upfront money for T this year. What do you think? Like 40 million signing bonus? For T, I think 30, 35 million in year one cash flow between roster bonus, salary, signing bonus. For Trey, he's already getting paid next year.

So I'm thinking when I've done contracts for Trey, I've thought $15 million signing bonus and then the rest of that's in salary. It gives you a significant bump in cash flow this year if you're Trey Hendrickson, which Bengals did form a couple years ago too. And then gives him a couple more years on that deal. Is he going to push for guarantees now because that's what he's worried about at this stage in his career? I think he can try. I don't think he has much of a like to stand on

and asking for guaranteed for guaranteed, especially from this team, especially given that he's agreed to the Bengal structures before. So I don't think it will be necessary there. I do think that if any of these guys will demand it or command it,

I think more than demand it, it would be Jamar Chase. So the good news is there were guarantees past zero one in the deal that they negotiate. It was just a really weird. It was obviously what got in the way, too, is it wasn't up to par with the receiver market. And it was a cash flow issue for Jamar as well. It was like the timing of when certain things were arriving in the bank account,

when certain things were becoming guaranteed and those sorts of details. So again, I don't think that'll be an issue for them with Jamar Chase, the soft season. And to confirm it was integrity express logistics. IEL is the indoor Express logistics and it's Kettering health practice fields Yeah pay course stadium They have a CBTS gate

They have uh I mean they have still an altifiber thing oh it might be it might be Altifiber and CBTS like split but Yeah maybe it's an altafiber gate The point is It's all those things bring cash all of them They have the official wine of the Bengals

They have the obviously they partnered up with Skyline Come on, man. Telling me that three-way one, he doesn't go a long way. Three ways are like $8, bro. They were like five back in the day. That skyline sponsorship goes a long way. A large three-ways, like 11-something. Just one last definition here is I refrain for making jokes that will inevitably upset some part of our viewership.

Escrow is a legal arrangement in which a third party holds money or property for the buyer or seller until certain conditions are met. So in the NFL, there is a funding rule which requires that future guaranteed dollars are put into a third-party account for holding until they are released to the player whenever that guaranteed money is due to the player. And this has been a reason that has been speculated that the Bengals don't do big future guarantees because they do not have enough money to set aside into these escrow accounts for big money in future guaranteed years. It could be the case that they don't have the money to do that, the way the Eagles do that, the way the Browns do that with fully guaranteed contracts and stuff like that. I think that is true, but I don't think that it is an obstacle to doing simple guarantees in a two-year window. I think that the cash flow is evident that there's plenty of revenue for the Bengals to do that if they were so inclined.

I just don't think they're inclined. I think they're philosophically, generally risk-averse and opposed to guaranteeing future money. And that isn't a bad thing. It's a bad thing when it prevents you from signing to Mar Chase. Right? And so it can't get in the way of that. And as long as it doesn't, then it's, then that's okay.

It's a bad thing when it doesn't let you keep Jesse Bates. And that, or like the Joe Tuni waters, for example, a couple of years ago. The Joe Tuni waters, correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so those are the type of situations where it's annoying. But they would say, well, yeah, but we've also overcome that. We were able to get Orlando Brown Jr. We signed Joe.

I think they're confident they're going to sign Jamar. And I think it is more philosophical than it is from a straight. Oh my goodness, where are we going to get the cash from? The other element here I figure out bring up just from a relatable standpoint. Anyone that's bought a house usually put a little money in escrow initially. And that's it. It just sits there until you close. So it's similar.

It would just sit there. And then whenever those guarantees are due to the player, then guess what? It gets sent to the player. For most people, yeah, that's the escrow that they have encountered in their lives. That's the only one that I could think of that I think a lot of our listeners probably and viewers probably dealt with. The question is, is will the Bengals do enough? Will they spend enough of their money to field a competitive team? To show that they're listening, to Joe Burrow, for example, to show that they actually want to do this thing.

and that they're not prioritizing money over the team, prioritizing winning negotiations over the success of the team. Because if you're not going to do it now, as I said at the end of that episode with Elise Jesse last week, I don't know when you're going to do it. I really like, if this isn't the moment that causes you to be like, let's push it for a window here, I don't know when that will happen. So with that being said, let's talk about what the Bengals front office can do in the next few weeks and months to show Joe Burrow,

that they've heard him and that they understand his perspective and have felt that pressure. Coming from the fans, too. We'll get into that topic coming up next. I think that this window, Jake, because you're going to hear like Colin Cowherd last week said, oh, well, I think Joe Bro is going to demand a trade at some point. The sharks are starting to swim around, I guess, the Ohio River near Paycor Stadium. Those poor sharks. Yes, right.

And it's going to continue if the Bengals don't get this offseason right. And I don't think it's anything Joe has said privately that he hasn't said public. I think he's saying exactly what he's saying publicly. He says privately. And it's one of those things where if you, Joe was watching when you handle Jesse Bates the way you did. And then you go get Nick Scott and it doesn't work. And you draft Axel and then you don't know what to do with him. And then you go, it's fine. We're going to have Jordan Battle. We'll go get Vaughn. Heck, Joe was the one that helped get Von back. Because he was probably told, hey, come, we'll get Vaughn back. We'll be able to solve these secondary issues. Didn't help. Obviously, Gino Stone had his ups and downs. He's watching this. And I do think that the national narrative is one thing. And we push back on the cap space part of it. I do think if they,

Cry poor, not that that's exactly how it would be, but that's the narrative. Or they don't get these deals done. They flinch at paying the number one free agent, T. Higgins. He's literally the number one free agent. He's 6-4-2-20 coming off of a career high 10 touchdowns. Everyone talks about his injuries. He's going to get paid a ton. Joe knows that.

He's going to get paid a ton by somebody. Trey Hendrickson, Jamar Chase. They could have gotten it done last year with Jamar. Like Joe's watching. And so you better handle your business with those three. I'm not putting Mike Gisicki in the same realm. I know Joe did. I don't think he's in the same tier.

And obviously won't make the same until it might be easier to pay him. But if you don't keep those three guys, you better have a damn good reason. And then you better get it right after that and like right right away. And I think it's just so hard to do because those marks, are going to, they'll stay on Joe. That'll imprint on Joe. It's not like, oh, well, we let T walk, but we got Cooper Cup, right? Let's just say.

Joe is going to be like, that's ridiculously. That's such a downgrade. He's six years older and he's not nearly the same players T at this stage. And so tread lightly there because Joe's watching and I do think that whatever they do now will impact the future, either positively or negatively. I can get into that in a second. But I think that this is a huge two months. and how they operate and how they handle themselves with these negotiations with all three guys.

And there's really no excuse for not getting it done. Unless T is asking for $35 million and won't budge, or $38 million and won't budge. And we know that's not true. We know it. He would, he, by the way, he might get $35 million if he became a free agent because he's just far and away the best that the Patriots may say, screw it. Or one of these teams may just, and, well, that's why you've got to tag him on Tuesday when the window rolls around. But that's another topic. And again, to be clear, because we've talked about this a few times lately,

it wouldn't be the intent of tag and we're going to play you on the tag. The intent would be tag and we're going to get an extension done or we're going to have to trade you if we can't get an extension done. But Joe's been very clear about what they're looking for, what he's looking for from this team this off season. And with no excuses, I think that it's pretty much get it done. There's maybe a few trades that exist with T. Higgins and T. Hendrickson that are in the fantasy realm land that would be fine, that are so far into Madden that you can't really consider them to be realistic. That involve like trading T for an ascending wide receiver on a rookie contract who could be a clear wide receiver. or trading tray for a top-tier pass-rusher because there could be a lot of top-tier pass-rushes available.

And we'll get into that conversation probably more this week. If those are the moves, like there are some acceptable edge cases there, but they're so outlandish that like it's kind of silly. So given their financial status going into this off-season, I think very simply the way they can show Joe Burrow that they're taking this seriously with him and they're trying to win with him at quarterback, given what they have there is that asset, it does just start with getting those deals done. And then it's getting the rest of the offseason right.

It's not missing out on certain players because you've lowballed them and pissed them off so much if they don't want to negotiate with you anymore. It's getting the right players in the building, even if it's not playing at the top of the market. You mentioned Milton Williams earlier, James. There's some reservations I have even there. And I really like Milton Williams. I think that would be a good signing. But there's reservations I have about the top of this free agent market, which is generally rough this year.

And so it's going to be more about the sum of the parts than the individual players when we get to unrestrictive free agency and the external guys. But there's no excuses this offseason. If these things don't get done, it's not because they couldn't. It's because they chose not to. And unless they really nail it in terms of the alternative, there's going to be very little grace for this front office. Yeah, it's, they know these guys. They know what they can be. I'll throw one T trade out there.

If they traded T for D.K. Metcalf, would that be better? He wants to get paid too. That wouldn't be better. That would not be better. And Joe wouldn't like that more. And so there you go. There's one. If they signed Devante Adams, who's 33, would they, would you prefer that?

Like, it sounds good, but it's messing with the flow. Like, it just doesn't make sense. and what does make sense, especially in this free agent market, to your point, is paying what you know, and then adding the role players necessary. That might play big roles, but adding those guys from the big fish, big splash part of it, there's a reason these teams are salivating at T. Higgins and would love, if T. if T.T.mary was on the free agent market, of course they would love to pay him. Yeah, he's not. He's under contract.

Jamar would get 50 million per year if he was an unrestricted free agent. Unrestricted, he would get a ton, he would get crazy money. He would. And that's what's interesting about it is it's like, all right, well, two of these three guys are under contract. They want to be here. T wants to be here, switches the agent to be here, get it done. And that's where Joe's at. And so not only is Joe watching and the entire fan base watching, but Joe said something on part of my take that was interesting when he talked about the restructures and what it could mean and what it does

mean. And it's pay cut, salary bonus up front, convert money, push money back, and then convert it later to create all these things that he's talking about. And at the end, he's like, they're like, well, which one would you take? And it said, we'll see. I don't think Joe Burrow in 2025 is going to take a pay cut. But if you do the right things, show him that you're all in on winning. Are we sure in 2030, he's going to be like, man, I need to get every dime out of the best. And he's going to Bengals, like if he's fully confident that you're all in on winning, all in on spending, all in on Lombardies, you can build up the word that I love to use, equity with your star quarterback where he trusts you to field a winner, to pay your guys and your top guys,

and he'll be like, you know what, he'll do the Brady. It's like, ah, I'll take a little less. And that little less might mean a pay raise from what he's making now in 2030, but could be significantly less on the quarterback market. And that's what I think is interesting here, is you've got to play. It's not just the short game. It's the long game. And if you mess it up short term, it can really mess things up long term.

No one's going to blame you if you pay these guys and it doesn't work. If you add in free agency and you pay T, Jamar, and T, Jemar, and T, Joe's not going to be like, man, you guys are idiots because you did that if it doesn't work and they don't win. They'll win a Super Bowl or they don't make the playoffs again. and it goes haywire for whatever reason. No one's going to blame the front off. The narrative will shift. It really will, including Joe.

It puts pressure on Joe to deliver and pressure on these players to deliver and pressure on Zach Taylor to deliver. And that's where you should be at. If you're a front office, if your ownership, your goal should be to field the best team possible. They would say that is their goal. Okay, it's really hard to do that if you let Tray be disgruntled or T leave and free agents.

or insert whatever scenario where Jamar isn't practicing for all of camp. Like those things just can't happen this year. Get it done with all three. It leads into the last topic we were going to cover, which we'll kind of speed run here and we'll revisit. You can't have these things lingering. And Tom Cole asked in our mailbag last week about when some of these moves should happen. And I went back and looked, James.

And the Bengals do not make moves in February. Their transaction log for the last like 10 years in February is very thin and certainly does not feature significant deals. Almost all of the extensions they've gotten done are like right before free agency. Sometimes in the tampering window, sometimes just before that legal negotiation window. Do you have the feel? And we can summarize this. and talk about it more or another day, that anything is going to change with that this year? Do you think that in the remaining 11 days, 12 days of February,

depending on when people are listening to this, that this is a year that that'll be different? I hope so because from a T standpoint, T is the one I would get done before any of them. He's the one that's under the biggest clock. Which is tough also because the agent there, and T are probably incentivized to drag that out a little bit too. But if you're the Bengals, you're incentivized to go the other way. For sure. That's why he would be tagged at the moment 401 Tuesday.

I would tag him. Hey, T, we're keeping you here and we want to keep you here long term. We're doing this to tell the rest of the league that we're not even shopping you and you certainly aren't making free agency. We want to pay you right now. I would be so intentional about my messaging. and this goes into the communication. It's like, all right, let's get this done now.

4-100, does that not work? What are you at? You're at 4-4-125. How about 4-4-1-12? Let's split the difference and get this done. All right. You know, like I, by the way, I think 4-4-1-12 would be mighty, mighty tempting for T. Higgins. So that would be the one.

I don't think there will be an irush necessarily to get Jamar done because, not that they shouldn't, but I don't think that really impacts their, their free agent plans. It won't, regardless of the when, and it will lower his cap at this year. Trey, T, Trey is interesting. I'm sure Trey wants it done sooner. And in Trey's timeline. So in my timeline would probably be T, Trey, and then Jammar, as weird as that sounds.

Because priority-wise, Jamar is obviously the best of the group. But the other two guys, I think, are on kind of tighter timelines. And then Gaseki's price tag probably goes up if he hits free agency. I know he's not part of the group. I know his deal will be much smaller than those three, but his price tag probably goes up if he has free agency. I'm not as optimistic about him. I'm just not.

That's reasonable. I don't think that there's reason to necessarily be the way they've treated the tight end position. Despite what Joe has said there, despite what Gisaki's teammates have said. I think that is reasonable. But I don't know that I would expect anything in February, besides maybe a franchise tag, right? Like, we'll maybe hear some things of the combine.

We might hear some news, but I wouldn't necessarily expect any official transactions. Get tea done before the combine. And get them all done before the OTA start later this year. Like, let's not have contract disputes hanging over practices when players are getting back together preparing for 2025. That is, I think, the fundamental goal for especially for Jamar. These other ones obviously have to be done well before then,

given free agency for tea and what trade. Hendrickson has asked for. But we'll have more time to get into those topics into some of the alternatives to trade, some of the trade ideas out there that many people have expressed. And the combine coming up quickly as well, we'll continue to have you covered here on Lockdown Bengals as the NFL calendar rolls on. And until next time, thanks for listening, Ho-Day, and have a good one. Straight Cash, homing.