Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Expectations vs. Reality: How Do Bengals View Their BIGGEST Offseason Needs?

Starting point is 00:00:00 We have high expectations for the Cincinnati Bengals to try to fix their team in the 2026 off season, but we're not exactly sure if they see it the same way. And in this episode, that's what we're going to break 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? That's part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day, now the number one sports podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Network in the land. He's James Rapine. I'm Jake Liscoe. We are your host of the Lockdown Bengals podcast covering your team every day since 2016. And that makes us your best and most consistent one-stop shot for all things Bengals this off season. Welcome back to all the everydayers out there.

Starting point is 00:00:56 And if you haven't missed an episode this week, you've heard us go through the defensive priorities, the offensive priorities. And today we bring it all together to wrap up that conversation by piecing together the priority list on both sides of the ball and figuring out where exactly we think the Bengals might see it differently than we do, i.e., where do expectations for this team this offseason, i.e. the standard potentially diverge from the reality, as we've seen how this team conducts itself as a team builder over many, many years. And we have an idea of at least where we fear

Starting point is 00:01:33 some of those gaps might be. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. If you download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on, you'll get $20 off your first purchase of tickets. And James, to set the groundwork here before we talk about expectations and reality and where we think they might see it differently

Starting point is 00:01:51 than we see it and how we think they might allocate resources versus what we want them to do in terms of resource allocation, let's just reset it here for the people that aren't everydayers and encourage you to go listen to the previous two episodes, if you miss them for full context here. Let's run through our overall prioritization here, where we started with defense because the only position that's really competing with any of these defensive priorities

Starting point is 00:02:15 is probably right guard. So let's run through and reset where we set these priorities before we discuss where we think the Bengals might diverge. Yeah, and we differed a little on defense, but not really, because we both want the game-changing defensive tackle, and that would be a priority. It's just really, really hard to find, and that was your sort of tiebreaker.

Starting point is 00:02:35 So I had defensive tackle one. You added it a little farther down, but with the idea that if you can get the game changer, then go do it and make that your top priority. Defense end, we both agree, is at the top. So guess what? Pass rush, pass rush, pass rush. And then for defense, for me,

Starting point is 00:02:53 it was playmaking safety. You have linebacker in there. And you're right, the right guard one. Like if you're telling me, Jalen Rivers is your starting right. guard and it's nothing against jalen but he'd be the proven or the the unproven option here well then that vaults to add or near the top because we know what this team looks like with a functional joe burrow and a healthy joe borough without him and that is still the the secret ingredient to being able to compete in in playoff games and potentially for championships so that that would be

Starting point is 00:03:27 close to the top of the list for me for sure yeah we've seen them overcome holes on the offensive line in the past to get to the playoffs to win in the playoffs but not when you enter the season necessarily with that kind of potential hole that is the one position on offense that gets into the conversation right slot corner is another one on defense that you didn't mention like yeah starting right guard is probably ahead of starting slot corner yes you need that for the way you want to operate your offense more than you need a starting slot court. If you can't go get a real dude at defensive tackle,

Starting point is 00:04:05 I would rather you have a quality right guard than go get just some, you know, average Joe kind of not average Joe, but like, you know, NFL Joe at defensive tackle. You know what I mean. So I think like linebacker safety defensive end pretty dire in that, in that, in that stratosphere. But yeah, I mean, if this gets to free agency and there's still no starting right guard.

Starting point is 00:04:32 If we get through day two of free agency and there's still no starting right guard, then that starts to feel extremely alarming because are you pigeonholing yourself into suddenly drafting a guard at 10? No, I mean, I can't imagine the Bengals are going that route. They're pigeonholing themselves into some other position that they're desperately going to want to draft at 10

Starting point is 00:04:52 and in the second round and in the third round and out of a big school because that's where they seem to want to play in recent years on day one and day. two of the draft. But where is right guard for you, James? Does it, does it fit in? Like, if we just say, like, right now there's no right guard on the team, is it, does

Starting point is 00:05:10 it jump defensive end? Does it jump all the defensive priorities? Yeah, actually it does. The more I think about it, because I just think, like, let's just say they added two star defensive ends and a defensive tackle and they just don't address guard. You're comfortable with Jalen Rivers and Cody. forward competing for that guard spot but just say it out loud it doesn't feel great and and I know the answer is no okay no do you trust them to to nail another mid-rounder like

Starting point is 00:05:44 Dylan Fairchild this time at right guard no no no no no we don't and so yeah it actually would like the more I think about it like if we're sitting here April 15th like ah I don't know I don't know what's going on. The app would suck. So yes, it would be number one, I think, the more I think about it. Yeah, it's interesting, right? Because from a big picture football point of view, like, it probably shouldn't be. It probably shouldn't be ahead of like going and get, like, you're talking about Trey Hendrickson

Starting point is 00:06:16 versus Dalton Reisner, right? Like that caliber of player potentially. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We're probably not in reality. We're probably not in reality, but let's just say that these are two Bengals, free agents, right? We think Trey Hendrickson's got. But in that hypothetical world,

Starting point is 00:06:33 where it's like you can get a Trey Hendrickson level edge, which I don't think they can this offseason. Or, and maybe this isn't fair because Trey is just better at his position than Dalton Risenor's at his. Or Dalton Risner right guard, a cromulent, competent right guard, versus no right guard or no defense event. I think that makes it, you know, a little trickier. but the reality is that they're not going to get a player, very likely of Trey's caliber this off season. And the answer should be both, right? Oh, of course.

Starting point is 00:07:06 Yeah, but that's, you know. In that, well, and that's it, though. And you would factor Trace money in it, and that would be a whole thing. The point is, is you've got to prioritize guard enough, wherever it is. Yeah, enough to make sure that you have a good enough guard. And like, that's it.

Starting point is 00:07:21 And historically, this is what's scary. They haven't prioritized guard. And Zach Taylor, I was like, do you, I even asked him, hey, do you guys, how much do you prioritize guard? And he could tell where I was going and he started praising Dalton Reisner. I think Duke's open ended up keeping the offensive line intact. So I do think, and not just based on those comments, that the organization wants to keep Dalton Reisner. But until they do it, part of me is just going to be like, I don't know. I don't know, just because I've been here before.

Starting point is 00:07:54 And I've sat in this chair. it might not have been this exact chair, but certainly on this podcast. And we talked about Kevin Zitler in a reunion during 2021 before that season with Joe Burrow recovering from a torn ACL. Like the time was now. And it didn't happen. And it never got serious even if Zitler was open to returning. So like that's just one example, not just letting your big free agents go or whiffing in the draft. There are other times when they could have spent mid money on a solid guard and they opted not to.

Starting point is 00:08:25 And so you hope that's not the case here with Dalton Reisner, who probably won't cost as much as Kevin Zaitler did. I think what the thought exercise illustrates is that there's a bare minimum. Like there's prioritization, sure, but there are minimums that the Bengals must accomplish this offseason. And that's what the need severity discussion was about yesterday, where I said they can't line up at right guard right now. They don't have a starting right guard. They can't line up at slot corner right now.

Starting point is 00:08:55 They don't have a starting slot corner on the team. They don't have a backup quarterback on the team. They can barely line up at defensive end right now. They cannot line up at safety right now. Like when you're in that level of severity of your need, where you can barely line up or you can't line up or you have a pressing need. And I think they have a pressing need at linebacker as well where I think I talked about this two days ago. They can't line up.

Starting point is 00:09:18 They did line up all year with a couple of rookies out there. And it didn't go very well. when you have that level of need at these positions, they must be addressed in some order. And then it's the caliber of player with which you address these needs that comes into question. How good can you get for a pass rusher? How much can you improve from Geno Stone? Those are the questions that I think the prioritization exercise tries to reveal when you understand that, yeah, they need to do something. It's just what will that something be and to what degree will that something exist?

Starting point is 00:09:58 And that's what the full exercise entails. But do the Bengals see it the same way? How do we think the Bengals see this offseason? Given the resources they've spent recently and given their history of we like our own guys or that sort of thing or how they offer contracts when they have two players at the same position, we'll continue the conversation and get into what we think the Bengals point of view is coming up next. Hey, it's Matt Derry from the Lockdown Lions podcast. The people I love depend on me. If I'm gone, the financial responsibilities don't disappear. I didn't want my family figuring things out

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Starting point is 00:11:33 I love the NBA. I love going to NBA games. I'm going to use game time now that football season is wrapped up to go to NBA games. By the way, Jake, I haven't looked during the combine. I'm hoping the Pacers are in town. Usually they're not, which is always a bummer when I'm in downtown to Indianapolis. But the point is, I love the NBA. and if you do two or if you want to go to whatever live event this offseason,

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Starting point is 00:12:24 use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. That's LOCK-E-D-O-N, locked-on for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today and use promo code locked on. Good news for you, James. The Indiana Pacers appear to be at home during the NFL combine. Game time, here we go. Yeah, they play on February 24th against Philadelphia

Starting point is 00:12:50 and February 26th against Charleston. at home March 1st against Memphis at home. And the combine this year runs from February 23rd to March 2nd. So there you go. The 24th. I think that's the one. Pennsylvania. That's the one.

Starting point is 00:13:03 Yep. Back to the topic at hand here. We're discussing. You want to go? You want to fly in? Come on. You want to fly? You want to do it?

Starting point is 00:13:10 I'll get your ticket with game time. TVD. I'll let you know. The topic at hand today, James, is where we think the Bengals might essentially disappoint us. We've laid out where our priorities are, and inevitably, they will see things differently than we do. They do just about every year. I think you'd have to go way back since they had a free agency. I mean, even going back to when they signed Troy Hendrickson, and it turned out they were right about that one, and we were wrong. I don't remember if you were doing the show at

Starting point is 00:13:46 that point? Oh, I was. No, I wouldn't say wrong. I was open to it, but I was still, Like everybody was skeptical of Trey because he had only done it for one year. And that's going to come with the territory, for sure. And the Bengals got that right. And sometimes they will get things right that we will get rough. That is the nature of trying to analyze the NFL in a world where if everyone, if someone was right, even 80% of the time, that would be the highest paid player, or highest paid individual in the industry, whether they're on the team side and they would be on the team side at that point.

Starting point is 00:14:17 Dang. Or on the media side. Like 94%. So trench ban We've heard Duke Tobin talking about where he wants to allocate his resources Talking a lot about the pass rush Right

Starting point is 00:14:33 Talking about the defense getting better We've heard the coaching staff Talk about how the linebackers got better after the buy How they developed over the course of the season Where do you think The biggest gap is Between what we expect them to do What we want them to do

Starting point is 00:14:50 what our standard is for the Bengals to go make moves to improve the team and what the Bengals think they need to do this off season. Man, I think, well, perfect example would have been last year, right? Like, we're going to watch Milton Williams in the Super Bowl. And that's a guy that we know they weren't in on. Is there any reason for them not to be in on Milton Williams? Like, they needed a defensive tackle. They certainly needed a guy that could brush the passer on the end on.

Starting point is 00:15:20 interior they should have been in on Milton Williams like that's it now did the money get crazy and all of those things sure but it's paying off now for the the patriots and so i i think that that's it first like the thing that i i hate about them is there should not be a free agent that they haven't evaluated and discussed the pros and cons of and we know for a fact that was the case with orlando brown junior because they just thought out we're never going to be able to for it to Orlando what are you talking about like all those conversations should be at so that that's really high level like gap wise like we have all those all of those talks whether or not they're realistic or not whether or not it makes sense to sign tyler linderbaum

Starting point is 00:16:05 i would have that conversation because he's a really good player and if i'm the bengals i want as many good players as i can put on my football team and so that's it and i mentioned him because he's an unlikely target it doesn't necessarily make sense right in a lot of ways including what they need on on defense. I think that the biggest gap will be what we would be willing to do to address the pass rush versus what they will do and what they think they should do to address the pass rush ahead of the draft. And in that, that's scary to me because if you think about the trenches, the way Duke Tobin claims he thinks about the trenches, then it's on ownership to

Starting point is 00:16:48 let him cook and go get the trench help that he wants to get and that's where I wish they would peel back the curtain and they never will. Who's on the table? Who's not? You better believe Duke Tomin would want Milton Williams if you could go get him, right? And so this offseason, I wouldn't, everybody should be on the table trench wise from a from a pass rush standpoint because they need that much help. Well, it's interesting is how that lines up with the class, of course, and we'll talk about the free agency class once we get closer to as of today.

Starting point is 00:17:21 The top guys, and PFF actually just put out their top free agent list. I'm looking at it right now. On the 26th. Trey Henderson, guess what? Two years in a row, the Bengals had the number one free agent according to PFF, T. Higgins last year,

Starting point is 00:17:33 Trey Hendrickson this year. Trey Henderson will be playing very likely for another team in 2026, whether or not the Bengals can recoup any resources via a tag-in-trade, which is, again, like an expert, for me that we'll see whether or not they're up to the task for we'll find out in the coming months adafi oa is the next guy and and jalen phillips is in the conversation he's had his

Starting point is 00:17:58 injury issues had the medical retirement uh in college that he came back from of course boy mafe in in the top 25 or so joey bosa like are any of these guys guys we think they'll be interested in maybe boy mafay like are the price tags going to scare them off are they actually going to be willing to go out there and say you know what we were spending a lot of money on tray we'll go spend a lot of money on an ed rusher they better like my god they better like there's no way you can say no way to owe way like maybe it doesn't work maybe don't get him but odafe should be at the top of their list is there any debate there like if you're letting tray go That should be the guy, right?

Starting point is 00:18:46 I mean, who else? I just wonder how they see it, you know? Like, this is one of those things where it's the Bengals, right? So you think about how the Bengals sink. And this applies to linebacker, too. They spent two first round picks on defense events. Yeah. They know they need pass rush.

Starting point is 00:19:01 They know it. They spent two picks on linebackers that started for them last year. They know they need to be better at linebacker, but they just spent resources on it. Are they going to do it again? I'm kind of, look, I'm skeptical about this team in a lot of ways this year, James. I've said, I'll believe it when I see it many times. This goes right into the restructure conversations for Joe Burroughs contract to free up cap space

Starting point is 00:19:25 and show that you're actually going to push the envelope and spend a little bit of cash this year. These are the questions I'm asking today here on January 27th. I have a question for you. Okay. And it's a question that I hope, I hope. Duke Tobin, Katie Blackburn, and Troy Blackburn, and it's mostly Katie and Troy, Troy, Mike to a lesser degree. I think Mike's on board.

Starting point is 00:19:46 I think I could convince Mike Brown to sign Adafay O.A. I do. But I have a question. Obviously, it's going to be about O.A. And we can get to that coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandul. If you look at the big game, man, oh man.

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Starting point is 00:20:45 bets if you win with Fandul. Make it count because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on Fandul. Visit fandul.com to get started. All right, Jake, let's get to my question here. Because Adafay OA, he's going to cost so much money, right? And this applies to Melton Williams. This applies to whoever you want to. If the Bengals sign OA and it doesn't work, it doesn't work, is anyone that matters, because there's always somebody but is anyone that matters going to say, man, oh man, you shouldn't have spent money on that 27-year-old former first round pick that just had seven and a half sacks

Starting point is 00:21:25 and played in all 17 games. It was really, really disrupted for the charges. Is anybody going to say that? I don't think so. But what do you think? I mean, anyone that matters, yeah, that's the good caveat. I'm sure there will be people that think like, oh, they shouldn't go after OA, they should go after Boy Maffei

Starting point is 00:21:42 or they should go get Joey Bosa and get, you know, there will be people that have those opinions. It's always better than Bosa. Always better than Bosa. Like objectively regards. Like I couldn't imagine anyone thinks other. Bosa is a better pass rusher when he is healthy. That is a big if.

Starting point is 00:22:02 I mean, it's an if for everybody in the NFL, but Bosa. I don't think Bosa was good was good this year based on what some of the Buffalo people have said. But the PFF grade looks good. He was a good pass rusher. Then he started dealing with Andrew. but he's a pass rusher. And by the way, the same thing applies to him.

Starting point is 00:22:21 If they go get Joey Bosa, I'm not going to say, just to be clear, I'm not going to be like, oh, you shouldn't have done that. The point is, we need you to swing.

Starting point is 00:22:28 We need you to step up to the plate. And I'm not going to blame you for striking out if you try. I don't blame them for Gino Stone from a, oh, well, they signed a safety. Kind of blame the process a little bit. I wonder how short-sighted it was.

Starting point is 00:22:41 Cam Kerr was out there as well. I don't think it was as simple as, oh, well, just signed Gino Stone, and that's it. Like, it almost felt too simple going into that free agency, if you remember.

Starting point is 00:22:51 But at least they did it. Yeah. At least they did it. Like, they didn't know that he was going to lunge his shoulder and press the Y button at the wrong time too often. You know, like I think they just assumed,

Starting point is 00:23:05 yeah, he'll tackle a little better and he'll be a solid player. And you just, just wasn't. And so, just got a swing is my point. Like, that's the bareman.

Starting point is 00:23:15 You can't be like, it could go wrong. Well, yeah. Welcome. That's life. It could go wrong. And Joe said that too. When I asked him about free agents earlier this month, he was like, you know, sometimes

Starting point is 00:23:25 you have misses, but you got to keep signing and trying to get better. To their credit, the last time they had a serious free agent miss, Tray Wains, right? Like that, I guess Sheltermanmankins, but Trey Wains. Yeah. Sheltermanacons for sure. There's a lot going on there. But that's not that many, really. Like swing.

Starting point is 00:23:44 like Nick Scott was a low end signing. That doesn't really care. Yeah, no, I'm talking big money stuff. Like they were on the hook for Trey Wains for two years and he barely played. And that was a guy that at the time, we're like, ah, you're spending too much money on Trey Wains. And I don't think O-A would be like that. That's why I bring it up.

Starting point is 00:24:00 O-A is not in that world where it's like, that is a clear overpay. Like, what are you guys doing? And I'm trying to think of like where I would think that. Like if they paid top of market money to. Niko B. I can't even come. like Kalaevon Chase on. That would be the one

Starting point is 00:24:15 as a pass rusher. Yeah. Yeah. Like chase on is fine. But if you go over pay for him because of some sacks or like whatever it is, whatever the reason is that that becomes problematic. But just for comparison sake,

Starting point is 00:24:32 since I'm looking at this, I went back and I looked at Trey Hendrickson's, some Trey Hendrickson numbers before the Bengals signed him. In year four of his NFL career, his last year with the Saints. I looked at his last month. win rate. And I looked at as true pass at win rate and I looked at his run stop rate.

Starting point is 00:24:49 Terry Hendrickson at age 26 and his fourth year in the NFL last year with the Saints had a pass rush win rate of 12 percent, a true pass set, pass rush win rate according to PFF, all of these numbers of 20 percent and a runstop rate of 4.6 percent. But off A. OA, last year was it 16 percent overall, which is better than Trey overall. And on true pass test was at 19.2 percent, which is just a little bit worse. about 1% worse than Trey, who was at 20.2%. I don't know the run stop rate in front of me here, but in terms of pass rush productivity,

Starting point is 00:25:21 OA was ahead of Trey. I think probably this is measuring, it's waiting towards sacks and hits. And OA had 11 sacks according to PFF charting. I also looked at Jalen Phillips, Jalen Phillips in the same general territory here. And also the same age of Stray. He's just had five years in the NFL, and he missed two years.

Starting point is 00:25:45 He missed a whole bunch of games in his fourth year and a whole bunch of games, half the season or so in his third year. Trey Hendrickson only played in six games in his second year. So he also had one year that he dealt with some injuries. But just wanted to throw those things out there if you're looking at some of the past rushing data that we have and comparing it to Trey Hendrickson before he arrived at Cincinnati and took a significant step. He was much better in Cincinnati than he was with the Saints when he started to assess. Well, and that's why there were questions after they signed him and paid him and let Carl Lawson walk.

Starting point is 00:26:18 And it was like, all right, well, can Tray be that guy? And he quickly answered it. But there were questions. The Bengals bet on him. And I think that's part of the situation with him. They're like, man, we took a risk with you. And yeah, it worked. But don't instantly ask for more right away.

Starting point is 00:26:36 And, you know, whatever. But like, I think from early on in the process, it's been a grind. and find the next guy that's going to do that to you. That's going to just overperform. I'm not going to blame you if you take that risk on Jalen Phillips. Like you can literally tell me and say, oh, Bosa, he's the best when healthy, we'll take the injury risk. We need him every January. Like, fine.

Starting point is 00:27:00 Like, if that's what you want to do, do it. Mafa. If you want to do that, well, do Mofi and Bosa. You know, if it's Phillips instead of O.A, fine. If it's O-A instead of Phillips, fine. The point is there's options and you can't get scared away. And if you do your job and you're willing to take a swing, then you should be able to get it right. But weigh the odds for me.

Starting point is 00:27:26 Like, do we think they will? This whole conversation starts with, do we think that they do see this as the way that we see this? Is this a place where they diverge from where we think they should be? I think they have to. You know why? You know why I think they have to? Because 9 is watching very, very closely. And this is a, so I had a question for them a few minutes ago. And now I'll let him know. Do you see the clip of Joe Burrow playing piano? Yeah, I did.

Starting point is 00:27:55 Okay. Well, he's a football player. And he's going to play football. And he's not going to retire anytime soon. But that football playing, it doesn't have to necessarily happen in Cincinnati. And so you better show him that you're willing to add to the defense because all of the things, I bet you Joe agrees on a lot of what we say when it comes to team building and being willing to go in and push your chips in a bit and do those things. Like he watches all that stuff. Like watches what they do to be clear. And I bet you he agrees on a lot of it. And I think that there are a lot of guys in that locker room, even the leaders that would admit.

Starting point is 00:28:32 And this is more of an educated statement just to be clear that the Bengals need to be more aggressive in general. in the Joe Borough era. They just need to be more aggressive. And that includes obviously adding in free agency. Especially the guys that really pay attention to the cap and those sorts of things that really pay attention to cash spend. The things that don't just impact their day-to-day, right? Like the big picture stuff that we look at.

Starting point is 00:28:56 And you better believe that Joe is a wet-like. Joe for sure. Yes. And he's made very clear that he understands the various cap mechanisms out there, at least at a level that is higher than most players. I don't think most players really do. Pay attention to it that closely,

Starting point is 00:29:12 but Joe, I agree with you. He does. I think they're going to be roughly in line with our expectations of safety. I think they'll go sign a starting safety. I think they'll sign a starting guard. I think they'll sign a starting slot corner. That might be Jaylon Davis.

Starting point is 00:29:27 That might be Jalen Davis. And they might draft a guy. A defensive tackle, linebacker, two of the biggest areas of concern for me. Backout quarterback, another one that's a bit of an area of concern for me, but linebacker, defensive tackle or two, where I wonder how they see it. I wonder how much they really believe in those linebackers that they talked up and how much better they played after the buy.

Starting point is 00:29:53 And they played a little better. They did, but like, and linebackers take year two leaves, but are you really trusting that when that was such an Achilles heel? And are you really trusting your defensive? tackle room and not trying to get like that's where we are i wonder where they are given the resources they spent the money they spent on on bj hill are they going to keep t j slayton around with his old defensive line coach that brought him in specifically they're expecting you know chris jenkins to continue to get better in his third year like how much do they really

Starting point is 00:30:26 spend a defensive tackle yeah do they really think they need to go get a linebacker Are they going to go get a $3 million guy instead of paying for Leo Chanel kind of thing? You know, like those are my questions and some of my biggest concerns at those couple spots, James. Yeah, I totally get it. And I think it's twofold. One, I think that they're probably like, we need to be better than Orrin Berks. I don't think they necessarily trusted him. I do think they were better.

Starting point is 00:30:53 But when you're at zero and then you get to 20, let's say, and it's out of 100, yeah, you're better than zero. but you were the worst in the league. And I do, Barrett Carter wore the green dot for a reason, man. Like, they believe in him. And I, Demetrius Knight's the second round pick. So history would tell us that they plan, they have a big plan for those guys.

Starting point is 00:31:18 Mm-hmm. So I agree with you. I think that that's the one area where like, if you're penciling in, oh, they're going to sign this veteran to come in and shore up the line. backer room. I don't know if I see it.

Starting point is 00:31:35 And I think that might be last on the list. And I'm, I'm okay with that to a degree if we're talking about this sandbox where you're looking at OA and Maffei and Bosa and Phillips. And they're probably making faces hearing those names right now. But if you told me you get

Starting point is 00:31:57 Bosa and Maffey, but you don't get whatever at linebacker. It's like, oh, well, could the pass rush with Stewart and with whatever you get in the draft and what, like, I'm willing to sacrifice that or a defensive tackle that has some pass rush juice in one of those edges I mentioned. Like, okay, you could convince me that that's fine. But is it a risk it is? And I think that's what they're going to have to determine. Do they want a bunch of middle of the pack?

Starting point is 00:32:32 Or are they going to go to that next level at pass rusher, which would eat into however they view linebacker, knowing them? And they may just be comfortable with their second and fourth round picks. I would hope, and we'll see if they see it this way. I would hope that they looked at the way they used Demetrius night this year, and they said, you know what, we should get a guy that is more suited to the role that we had predicted for Demetrius night, and it didn't work. We can't put them on the line of scrimmage anymore.

Starting point is 00:33:01 We can't be asking them to take on poolers and tight ends. And it just didn't do a good enough job of that. Maybe we can go get a guy that's the same age and Leo Chanel, same age, younger, actually, and get better there. Sure. That's kind of my hope. That's maybe my cope at linebackers, if they look at their role specifically,

Starting point is 00:33:22 maybe they have a different plan for Demetrius night after seeing him play for a full year. And they're like, you know what, he's better at these things. And we shouldn't ask him to do these other things anymore. He's a pretty good blitz or maybe we can ask him to do some blitzing or something. But maybe we shouldn't ask him to take on the big bodies in the run game. Or maybe they just expect him to be better because that is something we've seen the Bengals do before. I also, we, I think, alluded to this.

Starting point is 00:33:47 That's what's tough. I know. We alluded to the, well, yeah, and second round picks definitely have more. They've been a little bit tighter on the leash for third round picks, Zach Carter, Jermaine Burton, McKinley Jackson, second round pick, a bit of a different story. The other thing that I really hope they don't do that I think we alluded to earlier this week

Starting point is 00:34:06 is do the thing where they offer DJ Turner and Daxhill the same contract and let one of them pick it, one of them take it, and whichever one takes it first gets it. I don't want to see them play that game again. That would be where we would be way off to. That would be the other example of us being so far removed. because I think everyone knows that listens how I feel about Dax in general. DJ blew up.

Starting point is 00:34:31 Get those deals done because can you imagine if DJ plays another year like he did last year, but for a full year, what he's going to want? He's going to get good money. He's going to be a free agent. Because right now you can say, oh, well, you did it for half year.

Starting point is 00:34:44 Like, let's take a team friendly deal. We're going to keep your guy Dax as well. Like you can kind of tandem it and pay him well, but not pay him like top of mark. If he does it again, it is top of market. Like top of the top of the top of the top. And what the Bengals would say is, yeah, you don't think DJ knows that too.

Starting point is 00:35:00 And it's like, yeah, he's got a second round contract. Right. He wants to get paid. So get him paid. But do it reasonably. So you can thrive a year from now. And it feels like it's a good deal. And that's how you get corners mocked to the Bengals at 10 with Caleb Downs on the board

Starting point is 00:35:17 and infuriate the entire fan base. Shout out. Shout out DJ. Speaking of DJs, talking about a lot of DJs here. DJ Reader, by the way, just throwing it out there, number 20 on PFF's top free agents list for 2026.

Starting point is 00:35:32 Never should have let him go. Let's wrap up there, James, on this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast. Trenchman is back. We've got the senior ball to talk about this week. What a show. We're watching all sorts of coaching news around the NFL, the bills,

Starting point is 00:35:49 going with Joe Brady for head coach. We'll see what happens up in Cleveland. The AFC North might be set by the next time you hear from us. Maybe we'll talk about the AFC North head coaching picture in the near future as well. Until then, that's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Thanks for listening. Ho-Day. And have a good one.

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