Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Dylan Fairchild headlines most intriguing 2025 Cincinnati Bengals roster battle

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Like most years, the Cincinnati Bengals will have interesting roster battles in training camp in 2025, and 3rd round pick Dylan Fairchild may be the X-Factor contestant for a starting job at left guard. Jake Liscow and James Rapien dive into the most interesting roster battles the team will work through in 2025 before discussing the precedented history of a third straight Thursday Night divisional game and the special teams questions heading into this season.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!FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when 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.Skylight CalendarRight now, Skylight is offering our listeners $30 off their 15 inch Calendars by going to Skylightcal.com/NFL. LinkedInPost your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.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.

Dylan Fairchild may be the biggest Cincinnati Bengals X Factor when we talk roster battles for 2025. Let's break it down. 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 on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Jake Liscoe. He's James Rapine.

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Today we dive into a classic vintage locked-on Bengals mailbag, starting with roster battles and why Dylan Fairchild may be the most interesting man to watch in terms of new additions in roster battles this year. We'll get to the history of road primetime games and whether the Bengals trip to Baltimore this year is historic. And finally, some questions about specialist games have been bubbling through. at least part of the fan base, we'll finish the show with some specialist talk here in late May. We start, James, with the biggest Bengals roster battles of 2025.

Jackson Ford 943 asked what the biggest roster battles on each side of the ball are for the Bengals in 2025. Oh, boy. Well, it starts, it certainly starts at guard. And it starts at guard because some of these other positions, that are unsettled, you can rotate. And the guy that's competing for the starting job may not start, but could make an impact. This guard spot or spots, they're wide open.

And Dylan Fairchild feels like, it feels like the third rounder has an inside track. The same time he is a third rounder. The same time we talked about Cordell Volson. And we still don't have the details on that, but he's going to be on this team. And so there are proven vets like Volson and Ford. there are there's a really probably the best proven or most proven of all of them is Lucas Patrick

and then you have the rookies and how does it all fit together will they give Jalen Rivers a real shot at guard do they just view them as a swing tackle this year I think those are all big questions but all of those questions lead to all right well who's going to win those two starting jobs and you think about the Bengals obviously the defense needs to be better spent a lot of time on the defense and we'll continue to. But on offense, for them to truly be an elite offense, and they were elite at times last year, but they were really inconsistent.

They couldn't finish games, struggled in short yardage. The guard position is a big part of that. They need to be better there. So we'll see if whoever ends up winning that battle is a significant upgrade, not just a slight upgrade. You need significant upgrades at those guard spots from what you got a year ago. What are the odds they have a significant upgrade coming at both guard spots right now? I mean, Dylan Beartreld, if he exceeds expectations, is a bit of an upgrade.

If he exceeds expectations. Because you're asking a third round rookie who needs a development and needs some technical prowess to be installed into his game, that's what Scott Peters is in Cincinnati to do. There's a world where he's a good left guard for you this year. and I am certainly of the belief that he can be in the future and that the match between him and Scott Peters from a development perspective is a good fit. Something we talked with Brandon Thorne about

when we did a deep dive on the offensive line a couple of weeks ago now, and Brandon Thorne was really excited about that fit as well, largely because of who the offensive line coach is in Cincinnati. But you're talking about proven veterans? Using that word proven, throwing that around, James, Cordell Bolson, Cody Ford, Lucas Patrick, established veterans is maybe a word that I would use. Guys where I think you know who they are.

They've been in the league for a long time. They've proven who they are. So in that sense, they're proven. But when I hear the word proven, I'm typically thinking of guys who are like, yeah, I've proven that I belong in the league. I've proven that I can be a starter. Well, they've all proven they can be in the league. Yeah, I was getting there. They've all proven they can be on an NFL roster.

But how much they've proven as established veterans is as a low bar in this sense. Well, when you're looking at starters, when you're talking about starting jobs, yes. Like Cody Ford and Cordell Wilson competing to start. I think in a top eight, I think they're going to be active for a lot of teams. And so that's what I mean by that. Like you know what they are. Lucas Patrick, you know what he is. And Cordell, I'm there on him.

And maybe it's unfair. maybe it's premature. I think some people at Paycor Stadium would tell you that. I think most of Bengals fans would say, no, we know who he is and would say the other way. So that's why it's the biggest position battle, and it's the one we're going to be looking at the most. And it's the one that when we talk about preseason,

it's like, all right, well, how long do you leave these guys out there? You want to rotate. You want to see these other guys who starts with Joe. How does that impact things? Like there's, that's what sucks when you're rolling with guys, that you kind of know what they are and you're hoping that the rookies just run away with the job. Like that's what you're hoping here.

Like when Jackson Carmen was drafted in 2021, there was no one in the building that was like, yeah, man, we really hope Xavier Suafilo beats out Jackson Carmen. Right. No one wanted that. No one wanted that to happen. So you want Dylan Fairchild to take this run away with it, not have it anywhere remotely close from a competition standpoint.

And then maybe by mid-year, year you are talking about a significant upgrade. I do think it's unrealistic to think that that's going to happen early on in his rookie year. And it's probably unrealistic at any point this year. But that's a whole other conversation. It's also not the only position battle, but it's a big one. And it just, there's so many bodies. But then it's like, all right, well, the, what's the ceiling for these guys? Fairchild is a hit. Even if Jalen Rivers is a hit for their rookie campaign. And I think that's what kind of stinks is you're like that's that's not you know a first rounder or second rounder we're talking about a third rounder and a fifth rounder and there probably is a ceiling to

what they can do especially as rookies and there's a chance that they become above average players quickly in their career there's always that chance but expecting that I think is it's a little bit unfair typically rookies come into the league on the offensive line and it takes them a little bit of time to figure out how to play in the NFL there is a different speed of the game There's obviously a different level of athleticism. Nothing I'm saying here that people that watch football for more than five minutes don't know. Anybody this watched a college football game in an NFL game recognize that there are big differences in the game in terms of the way it's played in terms of the level of player at those levels, right? And so expecting these guys to come in and just immediately where both players need a little bit of technical refinement to expect both of them to come in and be better than guys that have been in the NIs.

NFL for whatever their flaws are right away, it's typically expecting a lot. Not saying it can't happen, but it is generally pretty hard to do. And that's why, to me, Dylan Fairchild is such an X factor for this team right now. If he can come in and hold his own as a pass blocker, which he has that great PFF pass blocking data, but many, and I talked to Brandon Thorne about this, would agree that he needs to develop a little bit from a technical perspective and pass protection. He has the tools to do it. And so how well Scott Peters can get Dylan Fairchild ready will go a long way in determining how good he is early in the season especially as a left guard and pass protection.

But he brings a power element and an athleticism element that can add something to this team in the trenches. It's something they need. Don't have such high hopes for right guard personally. Just because those guys are also established, you shouldn't really be expecting big leaps from the veterans of Lucas Patrick and Cody Ford. and it remains to be seen whether Jalen Rivers even gets a shot at this thing. So that's why I'm so focused on Dylan Fairchild on the offensive side of the ball. There's questions for depth positions elsewhere. But when we're talking starters, Dylan Fairchild definitely under the magnifying scope glass,

magnifying glass for me. Given Cody Ford and Lucas Patrick, let's just say it's one of them at right guard, you think they're going to be better than Kappa last year? I mean, it's not a terribly high bar. the way Alex Gapha played last year, but I wouldn't expect significant improvement. I don't think you're taking a terribly noticeable step in the right direction there.

Yeah, that concerns me too. I do think there are a couple other competitions that you should just mention, you mentioned should hit on a few more really quickly, and then we'll get to more questions. We'll do that coming up next. Today show was brought to you by Fandall. Did you see game one of the Eastern Conference Finals?

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where right now you place your first $5 bet. When that bet wins, boom. you get $200 in bonus bets, $200 that you can use on same game parley's, live bets, live same game parley, prop bets, and so much more. Again, head to fandall.com, place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with Fandle, official sports betting partner of the NBA. You have a few more competitions you'd like to talk about, James,

and then we have to get to the most important defensive side. We haven't talked about the defensive side of the ball yet. that's the other part of the question that we haven't answered yet. So are there other minor competitions you want to talk about on offense before we shift to the other side of the ball? Well, yeah, defense is certainly the big one. Offensively, I just want to know if Joe Burrow can hold off Jake Browning. Jake got those first team reps when Joe was at the Met Gala. And so that's a big part of it.

No, in all seriousness, the running back on, Logan Woodside Arrasier. What are you doing? That's what's ridiculous. What are you doing? Let's move on. Would you trade Jake Bratting for a fifth round pick right now? Five, four, three, two. Fifth?

I think they could do better. Wow. Wow. Okay. I wouldn't just because then what do you do a quarterback? Anyways, running back is really interesting to me because I do think when does Taj Brooks, when is he ready? Is it the optimistic side?

Like Dylan Fairchild, like you go that route? because if so he could be R.B2 this year. Is Zach Moss? Does he get back to full health? Because if so, I do think he could be RB2. And yet Samadji Pirine is the stability, right? But at the same time, he has the ability to play special teams and be your third back really, really easily. So you're in position to go a bunch of different ways.

Maybe Zach Moss isn't even healthy. It doesn't work out. And so you need Piron right away. then Taj Brooks is your third back and maybe moves into the second back at some point. Either way, I do think that that Chase Brown backup option is unique because I think it could change throughout the year. And ultimately, you hope that Taj Brooks takes that job and grabs it because he's that good at some point this year.

I think Taj Brooks could very, very easy to see him winning RB2 at some point this year and becoming RB2 at some point this year. It's very easy to imagine that. Maybe it doesn't happen. Maybe he's not the player that we think he's going to be. Maybe the fit isn't what we think it's going to be, but it seems like a great fit. And it's another one of those late round running back swings that we like. But we've seen late round running backs that we liked not work out in Cincinnati as well,

as much as we're happy to see what transpired with Chase Brown in his development. We've also seen that not work in some other examples, Chris Evans, most notably, among those. But wide receiver depth also, I think, fascinating. We've talked about this quite a bit lately. You've got Chase Higgins, Yosevosh, very, very clear, Dermaine Burton, big wild card, big question mark in that room. And then Charlie Jones, Kendrick Pryor, Isaiah Williams. I think the other guys that are going to be interesting to try to fill out that room.

I mean, the place where we've talked about potentially adding depth, but those competitions, I think will be interesting as well. Isaiah Williams. Yeah, you're big Isaiah Williams guy. Big Isaiah, well, you may look up and be like, man, he's their, he's their best slot receiver from a slot stamp, like, obviously, Jamar. But outside of that, like, could be. Now, Mike Gisicki plays in there, some, Andre does a little bit of everything, but straight slot, I do think he's got the formula. Now, it's up to Charlie.

Charlie needs to take that step and show that 439 speed, stay on the field, all of those things. And so we'll, we'll see. It is an intriguing back end of the roster. Trent and Erwin isn't walking through that door, Jake. Let's get to the defensive side of the ball here and try to identify the most interesting roster battle on defense. Because I think you can find something at every level, right? Shamar Stewart, if and when he shows when, when he shows up to practice and starts participating. Did you say if?

Don't do it. I took it back. When he shows up to practice, does he compete for starting stats right away? Where is Miles Murphy in that conversation? Assuming Trey Hendrickson is on the team, of course. And then the four guys we saw when we talked about, or not Trey, Shamar Stewart is standing in at running back. You got Cedric Johnson in with that group.

And so I think that the defensive end position, very interesting. I think we know who the top four defensive tackles are, but B.J. Hill's health will be something we need to monitor. Will they add that fifth guy after they did not add Montrevious Adams? But Corner, also very interesting. What stands out to you the most on the defensive side of the ball when you're thinking about the biggest roster battle, the most interesting roster battle on defense this year?

It's, man, there's so many levels to it, but I do think, I do think from a, almost from a snap perspective, how interesting the defensive end part of it is. Because you look at what happened last year, what took place, Miles Murphy doesn't get the snaps that everyone thought, especially by mid-year, that he should be getting just to see Joseph Osai comes on late. Then you have this first rounder in Samar Stewart, and there's going to be a lot of people that have made up their minds about him one way or another.

How does that play out? Oh, by the way, Trey may have to prove it. Maybe in a prove it year where he's got to produce at a really, really high level, or does he protect himself? start pulling himself out of the game because he's going to only play uncertain doubt. Like there's so many things that that could impact snaps and snap counts and all of those things. So that the defensive line in general, but certainly defensive end, because I also think I talk to a few people that that believe in Cedric Johnson and think that Cedric Johnson can matter. And so can he kick inside a little bit.

I think there are some that believe that that can be how he can help things. And some of these guys can do that. Obviously, Cam Sample is in the mix as well and healthy. So there's just, there's just a lot of stuff. And unlike the proven, I say that in quotes, guys in the offensive line room,

we don't know what most of these guys are obviously outside of Trey. And so figuring out, and maybe Cam, you probably know what Cam Sample is at this point of his career, but Miles, Osai, it's Stewart, how that all plays out.

And not just who starts, but who plays and gets, significant snaps that can hopefully, at least Al Golden's saying hopefully right now, make an impact. Yeah, I think that this is a year where we could easily see them keep six defensive ends, especially if they're thinking of Joseph Osai and Cam Sample kicking inside, especially with the defensive tackle room, only having four guys that are for sure making the roster right now. And if they're going to go four defensive ends, six defense, sorry, four defensive tackle, six defensive ends could make sense. We'll see what happens at defensive tackle. They're

obviously kicking the tires there a little bit with Montravius Adams earlier in the week. We'll see if Howard Cross or Eric Gregory can be big difference makers and show that they deserve to make the roster. But I think I'm with you. It's a big focus for me on how the pecking order shakes out at defensive end and who gets those shots in true past rush situations because, well, and even, I mean, I think you have situational starting roles too, right? Like who's your base down guy?

who's your pass-down guy. Those are two different roles. And maybe Trey Hendrickson is your clear pass-rush guy at right end. And he's going to be out there on base downs as well from time to time. Maybe not all of them. But it was Sam Hubbard, unquestioned for a very, very long time at Cincinnati. Now, without Sam Hubbard, Sam Howard, Sam Marsewer, Joseph O'Sai, Miles Murphy, being the primary competitors in my mind,

that will be a very interesting one to watch and how those guys carve out roles on that other side. assuming Trey Hendrickson is on the right side. Yeah, it will. And that alone, like, you think the Bengals would be more willing to be like, hey, Trey, let's move a little bit more? Or you think he's going to be like,

like, is that contract dependent? Like, there's so many things there, because you could argue that it would be better for him to move a little bit, depending on the matchup. So. Depending on what he's comfortable with, too. And I don't know.

I've never asked Trey that. I should have. He talked for 30. minutes last week and we didn't say hey tray you willing to play on the left side somehow that wasn't the most interesting question for trey hendrickson at the time not not really sure how that didn't make the list but it you try let's talk football imagine let's finish up james with a discussion on the bengal's third straight trip to balks war and how that is unprecedented or precedented in nflb history and a little bit of specialist talk to finish up today's locked on bengals coming

not next. The mailbag rolls on Jake. And did you see, speaking of Bengals in prime time, did you see Isaiah likely on with Kay Adams? He said, I didn't think you would have, but he said, I don't even know what their stadium is called, like tried to take a shot at the Bengals there because, oh, a bank sponsors the Ravens. M&T sponsors the, the stupidest thing ever. Like, it's easy to call it the bank, yeah, because M&T Bank sponsored it. All right. Anyways. kind of silly. But certainly something, I saw it right before we started during the show. Next question, and this is from KJG Gaddaul 2007, to your knowledge, has the league ever made a team play on prime time short week on the road at divisional rival?

I had a divisional rival's place for straight years. Just seems like the Bengals are getting the short end of the stick here. They're getting the short end of the stick. but this is not unprecedented and one clarification from the question to reality this is four straight years on the road in prime time

but only three straight years on the road in prime time on a short week three straight Thursday night football games and turns out this has happened before shout out to Jay Morris and this piece over at Cincinnati Bengals Talk.com there are actually three teams two teams that the Bengals join

three teams now in NFL history asked to play a division opponent on the road on a Thursday in three consecutive seasons, according to Jay Morris' research. The Bears, the 49ers and the Bengals, the Bears playing in Green Bay on Thursday night football from 2015 to 2017, and the San Francisco 49ers playing in Seattle on Thursday nights from 2022 to 2024 to 2024. And total opposite of the Bengals experience for the 49ers, where they have won in Seattle on all three of those occasions, maybe a bit more of a disparity between the team.

between the 49ers and the Seahawks, although last year maybe that's a little bit closer with all the stuff that San Francisco dealt with last year, but there are other teams that this has happened to. There are also other teams that have had multi-year road divisional primetime games for longer streaks than four years. You can find all of those details in Jay's piece

over at bangleshoc.com, but still noteworthy, right, that it's three straight years. It's very annoying. Joe Burroughs certainly took notice of it. He talked about it said it would be great to have one of those in Cincinnati. Zach Taylor also took notice of it. But technically, not unprecedented,

even though I do agree that the Bengals are certainly getting the short end of the stick. Yeah, not unprecedented. It does seem weird. The Thursday part of it, the Baltimore, the physicality part of it, just knowing what those games are going to be like. Obviously, yeah, Joe's injury a couple of years. years ago, you think back the Sunday night game you're referring to, which led off the road games in Baltimore.

That was a really physical game. And I ended 1917. Joe Burrow ran for a touchdown to give them the lead late and then Justin Tucker kicked the field. Like they've been good games outside of the Joe injury. So I think that's why the NFL wanted it. And it's a really cool environment. Go there and get it.

Like go go there and get the win now. I think that and that's the good news. Now's the time if you're Joe where you can be like, yeah, it's stupid. It should be played here. Once you're in it, though, like he's going to love the idea of going there and shutting them up. Now, is it going to be hard? Absolutely. But you saw it last year.

And then you saw it two years ago as well. They go on the road. He throws the touchdown. They have the lead when he leaves the game. Like, Joe loves those type of moments. So short end of the stick, yes. Does Joe and some of these other guys, I'm not going to go through the roster, do they thrive in those situations at times?

Also, yes. Zach Taylor made sure to point out their record in road primetime games, but it's also a crazy disparity. And Joe Goodberry had the tweet, breaking down the disparity. If you include the 430 slot as a quote unquote prime, you know, featured slot, the Bengals' home road disparity for those featured games, either in the late window or in prime time, is just staggering in the Joe Burrow era, where Joe Burrow is selling out road stadiums constantly. And a league that given sells out most games, but certainly brings a crowd, brings ratings when he goes on the road. And it's just unclear why, for two straight years, especially after last year, this imbalance continues.

Let's finish with one last question here, James, from Jerry at 1-2 Buckle My Shoe on Twitter. Are we unreporting on a possible McPherson competition in training camp this year? He feels Jerry does that McPherson is an X-factor that has to be near the top of the list after his performance last season. An illusion in the question as well to Cade York, who turns out is not currently on the Cincinnati Bengals roster. I think Cade is in Dallas right now. you know why go on no because his girlfriend is a cheerleader for the cowboys or at least why so that that's that's why he would be in Dallas that's right I don't stay there in Dallas Kade until you get that NFL call no I don't think the Bengals plan on bringing

kade york back even though they were undefeated with him special you know it's a special unique stat I think that that that ended up being the case after that Denver game especially But nevertheless, no, I think you saw what the plan was after the drafts. And this had nothing to do. Really, it didn't feel like the Bengals doubted Evan as much as the outside did, including us during the season. And then we talked to Darren Simmons at the NFL Combine. And he was like basically saying, well, there's a lot of stuff going on around Evan last year. It was louder than it needed to be.

What does that mean? And I'm paraphrasing. I don't know if he used that exact phrase. But what it means is that the long snapping needs to be better, which is why they bring in William Wagner, the guy who worked the hardest out of anyone that was on the field during rookie minicamp. He was really putting in the time of all the rookies. So you want to talk about competitions and training camp competitions?

A big one is Calatomitis versus William Wagner. The Bengals, they need to settle down that spot because they believe that's a pretty big factor. into why Evan struggled the way he did and why he was so inconsistent last year. Not the only factor. They're not making excuses for him. They know he needs to be better. But when you go back and you look and you watch the snaps and then you have a rookie holder who overall did a pretty good job.

But there was a lot of chaos around Evan. And I think they're trying to calm that down. So it's up to William Wagner or Cal Adamitis to help do that. I will say that not all of the kicking. issues were snap related or hold related. Some of them were. It wasn't like that was a perfect operation and Calatomitus has had an issue that I talked about going back to his rookie year, I think, where there's the occasional playable but not ideal snap, you know, snap placement, not great. I don't pretend to be a long-snapping expert, but you can tell when a guy has to

reach outside of his frame to catch the ball and put a snap down when it's over his head or it bounces back to him. Not that that's a frequent problem for Atomitis, but there are occasional obvious bad snaps. And that doesn't even get into the stuff that the experts are actually looking for, where they're trying to calculate the rotations on the ball. So it hits the holder's hands in the same way. So it's the same number of spins to get the laces out on those place kicking moments. You know what I mean? So obviously competition there. Willie Wagner from Michigan, the long snapper, college free agent signing with the Cincinnati Bengals. So we haven't talked about the time, but was said to be the top long snapper available this year coming out. And so he will be competing. with Cal Adam Midas, while Ryan Rico and Evan McPherson both are unchallenged, at least for now, at their respective kicking jobs. I'll say that outside of long snapper, James, I'm more much more interested in the returning battles. I think that they're going to be returning battles as well on this team right now. Jermaine Burton, Charlie Jones, Isaiah Williams, some names that stand out. Chase Brown may be too valuable, too important to the offense at this point to put back there.

And so Or Taj Brooks, excuse me. And it's Taj Brooks, the type of the type of returner that they would be looking for where they've had success with the speed guys versus the more compact power running backs, which is what Todd's Brooks would represent.

So I think that will be interesting. But on the topic of Evan McPherson, just to put a bow on that, I do think it's a big year for Evan because the consistency hasn't been there in one way or another for a couple of years now. He's one of the top pay kickers in the NFL.

And at some point, you know, when you have a drafted kicker, you got to get what you're paying for. You need those clutch kicks. You need those clutch moments. And you need that return to form for Evan McPherson where he was really important in those Bengals playoff runs. For sure. No doubt about it. Standards high. It's why we were critical of him during the season.

I think the Bengals went and assessed it, specifically Darren Simmons went and assessed it, watched things closely and thinks they need to be better at the long time. long snapper spot and that Evan's going to be able to fix his issue. So we'll see. We'll see if he's better. It's going to matter though. It is. These games, we've seen it. Whether the Bengals defense takes three steps and the offensive line takes three steps. They're going to come down to a few plays and kicking is going to matter in multiple games. Just from a momentum standpoint, it matters a ton to get points when you're putting Evan on the field. So they need to make sure they do that. Yeah, got to be able to be confident that,

Like you said, you're going to get those points when you send the kicker out there. After starting his career, 14 for 16 on 50 plus yard field goals in the regular season in the last couple of years, just 10 for 19 in that range where he clearly has the power. But in the last couple of years, consistency from that spot, which is hard to maintain and is not consistent. Volatile stat when you talk about 50 plus yard kicks has Wayne for McPherson in recent years. But like you said, the expectation is pretty high because he was so clutch and so pivotal in those players. playoff runs in 2021 and 2022 when he was making, you know, 83 to 85% of his field goals. So last year, 73% and an injury, very noticeable, very obvious step back for Evan McPherson that the Bengals will be looking for him to recover from as they try to correct the operation

around him. We'll continue our coverage with the Bengals offseason program next week here on lockdown Bengals. We also have some other great topics to dive into. We still have to get to where the Bengals are better or worse overall. and try to assess the year-over-year roster differences in a year where the AFC North in general did not make a ton of moves when it comes to external free agents,

especially, that move the needle. So a little bit of a comparison to the rest of the AFC North may be in order as well as Bengals certainly need to play better in the division. That remains a bit of a theme, I think. And Germain, which one am I talking about? We'll talk about Germain at some point.

Are there multiple germains? Yes. All right. I'm forgetting one in the moment, apparently. All right. Yeah. What's going on with both of those guys? Fair question.

We'll see if we get some answers on those questions as well. Until next week, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Good day. And have a good one.