Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - How Bengals' powerhouse offense can get EVEN BETTER in 2025

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

The Cincinnati Bengals had an elite offense in 2024, even if you want to nitpick, but it could get even better on the margins in 2025. Jake Liscow is joined by Joe Goodberry (Bengals On The Brain) to break down how Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and the Bengals offense can find ways to improve on an already excellent unit and take another step forward in 2025.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!Support 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.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.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.

The Cincinnati Bengals offense was elite in 2025, but it can get better. Let's talk about how. 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. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Jake Liskgo, host of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, joined today by Joe Goberry, who you can find over on Bengals on the Brain or on Twitter at Joe Goonberry where you'll find an option

to subscribe to premium content, including the inspiration for this episode, which is how an already really good offense headlined by really, really good players in Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow can get better. That's where we're going to start our conversation today. The Bengals on the Brain YouTube show over on the first off logistics YouTube channel, you can find all of his videos there. Joe used to be a co-host with me here on Lockdown Bengals as well. The long time, every dayers already know that. And if you're not in every day or yet, you can hit that subscribe button to become it every

day or make sure you don't miss an episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Shout out to all of you who already don't miss an episode. We love those good listening habits. And especially if you're making Lockdown Bengals your first listen. Today we're going to talk about how the Cincinnati Bengals offense, which was the strength of the team, was a powerhouse in the end of the time. NFL in 2024 can get better in 2025. And that starts, and this isn't meant to be controversial.

This is meant to be a positive episode with how Joe Burrow, who's coming off his best year, can actually be better. There is room for improvement in Joe Burroughs game. There's room for improvement for Jamar Chase. And then you get to some players that you're expecting some development from that aren't already superstars that you could get better seasons from, even if they were really good last year in various ways, shapes, and forms. But I thought that it was really interesting, Joe, when someone asked you, like,

how can Jamar Chase be better? You had a pretty interesting answer. Well, how could Joe Burrow be better? You had a really interesting answer. And so as we often do when we talk about the Cincinnati Bengals office, we're going to start with Joe Burrow and how Joe Burrow, who was already MVP candidate, one of the best quarterback seasons we've seen from a Cincinnati Bengal, if not the best quarterback season we've seen from a Cincinnati Bengal in 24.

How can he be better, Joe? How can Joe Burrow get better in 2024? Yeah, and this is always my favorite. Yeah, that's right, 2035. I still do that. But this is always my favorite part of the offseason when we start to go on to, all right, this is the roster. Here's what the challenge is.

How do we succeed, right? That's what every coach is doing. You may not fill every position. You may not have every hole filled or every weakness short up, every question answered. But when you do have answers and they're really good ones in this case, we're starting this with Joe Burrow. I think we as fans and if you're an evaluator or see yourself that way, you remember Burrow from weeks eight to week 17 every year. And he looks at his best.

He looks like if not the best quarterback in the league, easily an elite top three quarterback MVP worthy. We made the arguments last year. And how do you get better from that? And I think that's why I phrased it from week eight to week 17, because I think a lot of it is he looks different, especially the earlier in the season, you go. Those first couple weeks, you look at stats from the first two weeks throughout his career. Not great, but again, we've had reasons to believe he's been limited in camp and in pre-seasoned due to injuries, due to truncated pre-seasons of the COVID year. That's, I don't even want to say it, but it's going to come up again. this may be the first fully healthy, no distraction offseason of Joe Burroughs career.

And again, does that matter? Can the Bengals figure out how to get him to play at that MVP level that he does in the second half of the season? Can you get him there and start him there early in the season? And what is the difference is how I followed up the initial tweet when I was talking about this. What is the difference that makes Joe Burrow look a little bit worse in those early games? And I think a lot of it is one of his elite.

traits is his pocket presence, his pocket mobility, his ability to go off script, without being a super athlete, like some of these guys, like Lamar Jackson, like, you know, Josh Allen, he maximizes what he has from the pocket to breaking, going above two and a half seconds, holding the ball and finding a player open. But when you watch those early games over again, and I just did, I like to watch the previous season over again, and I'm at like week six now. But when you watch the early games, you see a lack of that. You see a lack of confidence in the pocket, a feel for the pocket, feel timing on some of his routes and some of his throws, a quick ability to adjust and get to that outlet and find and buy time and get to that

two and a half, three second, three and a half second holding the ball and finding somebody open. So I think that's the key. And if you could find a way to have bro comfortable, maybe it's something you change in the offseason. Maybe it's something you change in camp to get him comfortable in a muddy pocket, get him comfortable with timing and extending plays. And if you do, I think if the Bengals start off with an MVP level Joe Burrow in September, man, that could be the difference.

And we're talking about the margins, right? An already good offense, how do they get even better? How do we get this team and ensure they're in the playoffs? I think MVP Burrow in September would be a huge boost for them. It probably buys them another win or two last year, maybe the year before. And like you said, there have been reasons that open appendectomy, calf strain, COVID year coming off in ACL. This is the most rehab-free off-season so far that we've seen from Joe Burrow.

And again, I can hear people out there screaming about jinxes and everything that we always get. Yeah, we're knocking on wood, you know, but the, it's just a statement of fact, right? Like, that's all we're trying to do here. So far, Joe Burrow has not been in rehab in 2025. And so that's a difference from. his previous years. But to me, one of the things that it's going to be crucial in getting Joe Burrow off to a faster start is, can they figure out how to get him comfortable with the timing and expectations of his

offensive line and pass protection? Because where sometimes it's just a mobility issue because, you know, he can't move because of the calf, sometimes it's, well, actually, it's a, I don't know exactly how soon my left guard is going to get beat by Chris Jones. I don't know exactly when to expect. And the expectation of how his guys are getting beat. I think that is a comfortability that will come over time every season. But if you can have a better baseline understanding of where the pressure is likely to come

from on certain plays, I am sure he has a mental catalog in his head. This is how this guy is going to try to win when we're doing this kind of protection. and we need this much time for the route concept to develop. I am sure that is something that lives in Joe Burroughs' head as far as an encyclopedia of where pressure is likely to come from. And he builds that over time. You can see him be more comfortable with timing, and I think that's a big part of it as the season goes on.

So whether that's playing a little bit more in the preseason and having a little bit more in terms of those live reps, which is a Bengals plan as of now in 2025's preseason, or whether that's something they can do from a preparation perspective, something Joe Burrow can do, and he's potentially looking at two new starting guards this year, then that could be a significant factor because what makes Joe Burroughs so good, right? You talked about the extending plays of playmaking ability,

but the other part of it is processing and his ability to take in a huge amount of information, very, very quickly and make very good decisions based on that information. Even some of his interceptions last year, and I'm thinking specifically the one he threw to Marlon Humphrey on the Jamar Chase when Jamar gets pressed out of it. And everyone's like, why didn't he go to the backside? Like that's a product of good processing. Like his read always takes him to the slant on that side of the field

based on what Baltimore is doing on the play. And Marlon Humphrey presses Jamar Chase out of the play and makes a good break. and be Stramar to the spot, you usually count on Tramar Chase to win those, right? But even that pick, even some of his quote-un-un-quote mistakes come as a result of good processing. So if you can get that going, I think that goes hand in hand

with his understanding of his offensive line, his understanding of timing that seems to take a couple of weeks every year. If you can get those things going earlier in the season and then get that normal improvement that we see from Burrow over the course of a season, then I think you're talking about next level of Joe Burrow, right? I'll let you weigh in with your next thought there, Joe, as we will, as always, bleed into a second segment here talking about Joe Burrow coming up next. This episode of Locked-on Bengals is brought to you by Fandul, and NBA playoffs are in full swing, every night delivering highlight-worthy performances, major comebacks.

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And $200 in bonus bets could be coming your way if your first $5 bet hits. If you're new to Fandul, it's a perfect time to sign up. You can go to fandle.com and place your first $5 bet, and if it wins, you get those $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment Mold worth Fandul, official sports betting partner of the NBA. Joe, I want to let you respond to my long tirade as to a couple of ways. Joe Burrow can get better and how processing ties into all of this,

processing being his superpower. and then we'll move on to some of the rest of the pieces on this offense. You know what play I immediately thought of was week one versus the Patriots, and at the end they get those double out and ups, and he doesn't take that shot to Jamar Chase. Do you remember that? He ends up checking it down incomplete, very awkwardly. Like, he's not, his bottom half isn't even ready to throw when he goes to check it down

and it's not even in a correct position. Like that play early in the season, and maybe some of that is, Jamar missing so much time, team missing so much time, right? they weren't fully functioning as an offense in a lot of ways. There's a lot of new parts there, a lot of not quality reps in camp. If that can be, and it should be ironed out this year on the offensive side, you know, well, Tray's a hold another story, but it shouldn't affect you on the offense. That can get you to processing quicker, better.

But I agree with you. I think Burrell catalogs, all of his snaps and everything that happens, and he gets better with each rep. And he said, he's mentioned these things. And I think people just assume that means practice and getting your throws in. and Burroughs mentioned that before. But I think as the season goes, he gets so much better at everything that even when you see people bring up, oh, he gets sacked on 20% of his pressure.

Yeah, but if you break it down throughout the season, he consistently, this is something we've talked about since his work a year. LSU Burrow pocket presence. That starts to show up as a season goes. That number really dives. And he ends up being in the top five for evading pressures, especially last year. And you need that right away. And if he can be that right away, it's such a huge difference.

to the offense. We've seen how much better this offense looks when Burrow was playing at that level. Yeah. And Burrow, by the way, just on that note, from week 7 to 18, I just picked an arbitrary split, like getting out of the first part of the season. Joe Burrow was the most pressured quarterback in the NFL by an overall counting basis, 183 pressure dropbacks. Not the most pressured quarterback in the NFL by a percentage basis, but his pressure to sack number then in that time and I need to add a minimum drop back here. He was 11th in that period of time, right? In the same world of pressure to sack rate as Patrick Mahomes in that part of the season and maybe it was a bad year for Patrick Mahomes in terms of pressure to sacks. Bad offensive line

for Mahomes, I think more so than he's used to. So not in the world of the elites like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson in this period of time, elite at avoiding sacks, wind pressured, six and 11% respectively. And that's still an area of his game. Like, if heard nitpicking, that's an area of his game where he can improve, is finding ways to be more consistent in sack avoid and something that, like you said, does get better for him generally over the course of the year. He's also one of the best quarterbacks under pressure every year.

And so he's, it's something that's not supposed to be a stable statistic according to PFF. And that's where these stats are coming from, by the way, for all these pressure members. but Joe Burrow has been consistently a good quarterback under pressure, as consistently as you can be, as a quarterback under pressure. Number one in pretty much every category last year. He and Lamar Jackson, elite territory, which is, it's the biggest thing. When you look at passing numbers and passing data, Burroughs really good when he's pressured. He's the best quarterback in the league, if you want to say that when pressured.

He's still so much better when not pressured. And that is probably another part of what we'll talk about this. offensive how you get better. And now we want to talk about Chase from a player evaluation perspective. But if we could, because it leads in there, if the offensive line is marginally better or even just slightly better, and those pressure rate drops 2%. That's huge and how much better Burrell would look. He'd be the same exact guy, but his numbers would look slightly better.

Yeah. And that is what Scott Peters job is. That's what their job is, is they try to figure out right guard. That's what the job of very likely Dylan Fairchild is and left guard is to hit the ground running and to be a better pass protector because those clean pocket numbers for Joe Burrow, like you said, which are a very stable statistic and have been a very stable statistic throughout Joe Burroughs career, have been phenomenal. Let's try to talk about Jamar Chase here and see how many other offensive players we can get to.

But Jamar Chase is a player who is coming off a triple crown year. Jamar Chase is a player who is very productive, no matter where you put him on the football field, is excellent after the catch. Excellent. At the catch point has been a comfort target for Joe Burrow because of their connection that goes back to LSU, and he's largely delivered. And so we saw him take this big step in his slot usage last year going up 10% from 23% in the 2020 and 222 seasons to 33. percent of his snaps coming in the slot in 2024.

And his success in that spot very well cataloged. But Joe, you had some thoughts as to how Jemar Chase could approve as well, where we know he's great after the catch and forcing guys and mistackles and making guys angles wrong and being faster and stronger than defensive backs and being a dynamic playmaker. But what else is there for Jammar, who, again, coming off a fantastic. year, triple crown year, almost as good as you can be a wide receiver. But when you're talking about this level of player and you're looking to get more, what could Jamar Chase do that would elevate his game even further?

Yeah, and we had this conversation last year. Everyone did, right? How do we get more out of Chase? We know what kind of special player he is. You're almost arguing with NFL fans like, no, he truly is a top two receiver in this league. And when you looked at numbers last year, especially from fantasy perspective, number one, ride receivers were getting in the slot 30% or higher. And we were looking at Chase like, you know, if we could just get them a slot a little bit more,

his numbers could really explode. And they did. It was a success for this offense. One of the things that we, as frustration happens on the offensive side with Zach Taylor and other parts of the offense, one of the things they have done is get their best players to perform at their best by putting them in positions to succeed, surrounding them in the offense that makes them look their best, as we've seen. We've got MVP level play at quarterback.

We got Triple Crown play at the number one receiver. But where can Chase get better? And I think the one thing I didn't mention in the tweet when I was doing this was obviously no distractions this offseason. Should be able to roll right in there, have a full healthy offseason. Maybe some of that timing stuff won't be an issue early in the season because you have Jamar Chase there. He could have had bigger games early in the year. Instead, the Bengals had to go to Andre Osibash and Mike Keseki, especially I think of that Chiefs game. Not that they're going to let Jamar Chase get open.

But there was frustration in that game. If you remember, he got a penalty early in that one. It affected him. And yet he still put up that season. and he did pretty crazy. But on the field, what can Chase do better? If you remember him coming out of LSU, people were comparing him wrongly.

There were some people that were very wrong on what Jamar Chase could end up being. He's more Tyreek Hill than what the people were saying in terms of like Anquam Bolden. They thought he'd be some power forward, wide receiver type one that would just box guys out and be a strong man, which he is a little.

I still think Steve Smith is going to be the comparison for me forever. But please continue. No, and you're right. That's more accurate. than the Anquam Boldness stuff. Even when people said, well, maybe a faster Anquam Bolden. Well, it's not even close because of that.

And then, you know, one of the strengths of him coming out LSU, people said, he's great in contested situations. And he was a 50% catcher in contested situations based on PFF. I looked that up from the LSU days. But that's an area of his game. I think he can still get better. One of his strengths can also be one of his weaknesses here. And I think it's his late hands.

He lets the ball come over the shoulder. defenders are trying to guess when the ball's coming and then he plucks it at the very last second. That's awesome for him. He gets a lot of catches that way. But last year, there was only four of these, according to PFF. He caught one of four deep balls in contested situations. Overall, he's been about a 40% guy hovering around that number throughout his career in contested. I think he can be better. There are times he does not attack the ball at the highest point. He'd rather prefer maybe the back shoulder creating a minor separation rate at the catch point and using his light hands to get that, which is fine. Again, it's an elite attribute for him. But I do think there are opportunities

for him to go up and be strong and catch these balls and bailout burrow a couple times a year. And then again, we're talking about the margins, small number of times. Maybe it's once every two games, but there's times where I thought, man, Chase, you know, I feel like you can high point that. I feel like we've seen you do it. And that was probably the situation you should have done it. I think that's the key is that it's something that we've seen him do. It's something that I'm about to talk about the play that sticks out in my mind when I say we've seen him do it and it's just a matter of doing some of those things work consistently when you're talking about players that are already elite it's just a matter of like finding those high-end plays and being like okay can we get that 10% more

of the time and again on the margins take these players that are already really good and since they're really good try to get more out of them because those are the superstars of your team those are the engine for your team and if you can get more out of those players it can take your team further. We'll wrap up on Jabar Chase and then talk about some of the other players on this offense in Orlando Brown, a T. Higgins, a Marius Mims, a Chase Brown. A lot of players that we still want to talk about in some way, shape, or form. We'll do that to finish the show next. The play that comes to mind, Joe, is double coverage, Jumar Chase against the Chiefs. This AFC championship game, when was this? I don't even remember. Yeah, 2020 AFC championship.

And it's a fourth down play, third down play? And it's just a yolo ball to Jemar Chase double coverage, and Jemar just goes higher than both of the Chiefs ds. And it's just a high point. Randy Moss, I'm better than you. I can get the ball higher than you. I'm stronger than you. And we've seen Jemar Chase do that. We've seen him go up and make plays over other players.

And the fact that he's capable of it, it's just a matter of having the body awareness, which is just like that acuity. It's that processing for receivers is a way that I saw somebody articulated. Maybe it's Matt Waldman, who does a great job on wide receivers. Like the processing time for receivers goes hand in hand with body control. And it's like, where do I need to put my body and when do I need to put my body in that position in order to maximize my chance of coming down with the past? Maybe it wasn't Waldman.

If I'm misattributing credit there, give it to somebody else. But I thought this was a really cool idea. It's just a split-second decision-making, how do I attack the football? And we're talking about three or four plays a year in some key moments when Jamar could win at the catch point a little bit differently. We've seen him do it. Can we see those a few more times a year? I think the answer is yes.

I think there is more on the bone there. I think that getting off again to a faster start. I mean, imagine if Jamar doesn't have the distraction last year, what his numbers could look like. If he's full speed in a Patriots game, it gets a bad Patriots team, man. Right. Like, if they can just play that game,

the way they play against bad teams other times in the year, the Panthers game, for example, not that the strength arguably of the Patriots team last year was probably in the secondary and on the defensive side of the ball, if you could say there was a strength on that team. So maybe not as easy as a Panthers game, but we saw them do crazy things against bad teams,

teams. And we've seen them do that consistently, Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase throughout their careers. And so those numbers could have been even crazier. Yeah, I agree. And actually, as I think about that chief's play, did he go up and high point it with his hands? Or did he jump up and then catch it almost in his hip and his rib area? And I feel like I remember him catching it low. And that was one of the things I thought of was even when he high points and it looks like, you know, go attack it. He still lets it into his body. So that is a good play to probably, you know, put a poster of what exactly we're talking about here. on the positive and negative side of it. But again, we're talking about the margins of an extremely good player.

I'm watching the play now. Okay. And I'm waiting for the play to, yeah, so he does jump up and it comes into his chest. But nonetheless, it's a high point play in double cover. He's attacking the ball at his highest point. It's not a late hands play. It is like at his shoulder pad level. He just jumps really high on the play.

He does. But it ends up coming into his chest a little bit. A good example of what we're saying, right? And even though he caught that one, there are other times. And he's had drops in his past, right? Whether I'm just talking about preseason rookie year. He's had a couple of them that I'm sure he'd like to clean up. And this is not tearing down.

I hope people, if we got this way, we're not tearing down the two best players on the team here. These two are great and fantastic because they are also probably trying to work on these small little details. Yeah, hopefully people are taking it that way. We're talking about like I said, these are the players that are the engine for your team. and if you're going to go a long way with these players, a lot of success in the NFL is getting the most, the absolute most, and pushing that boundary every year to try to get more and more out of your stars.

And so a couple of very clear-cut cases here before we talk about, a couple of the more interesting younger players on this offense that can get better. T. Higgins and Orlando Brown, I think, could both go into the same bucket of, when they were on the field last year, they were healthy last year, they were awesome. and it's just a matter of getting those guys through a season healthy. T. Higgins we saw with a great contested catch year, his second best contested catch year that we've seen from him better than his career rate. We saw him better after the catch than we've seen him in his career,

forcing more mistackles, getting more yards after the catch, than we've seen not actually statistically, but from a driving through contact perspective and playing like the big body. bully that you are. Transitioned to a runner also, right? Because for a big guy, that can take some time. He was catching these curls and getting two extra yards out of it. Yeah.

And so with yards after catch in situations where you're not expecting them to have yards after catch, I think is what was impressive to me about T last year, playing more grown man bully ball. That was awesome. That was really fun to watch as well. But I don't, I mean, there are obviously little nuances where you can probably talk about T improving a little bit. his drop rate last year was awesome 2.7%. So that is certainly not an area where you're talking about it.

But I think when T. was on the field last year, he was great. Joe Burrow passed a rating targeting T. Higgins last year, only one interception on throws to T. Higgins last year. So it's really just can they get him on the field for the whole season or more of the season? Same for Orlando Brown. Changes his stance, changes his getoff last year. His pass sets actually look like pass sets from a footwork perspective. instead of just, I'm bigger than you, I'm stronger than you, and I can get to that spot. However, I'm going to get to that spot. Footwork really cleaned up for Orlando Brown last year, in my opinion, in a pretty impressive way. And again, it was just when he was hurt, you know, you credit all the credit in the world for toughen through that and doing the best he could playing on a broken leg, but it diminishes effectiveness. And I think he would admit that as well.

Maybe not. Maybe he's too competitive to admit that. But I think that Orlando Brown is a guy that if you can keep him healthy for the whole year. And that was his M.O. before he got to the Bengals and he's dealt with some injuries in Cincinnati. He was playing at an awesome level as a pass protector last year. And so those guys that just stay healthy. Different conversation, I think, for Chase Brown and Amarius Mims, who are the two key pieces, I think, on this Bengals offense, especially Mims, because Chase Brown was already good.

Chase Brown more of an improving on the margins type of player. but those are the two keys to me that you can talk about in terms of getting better, players you could expect improvement from. And maybe we're short-changing Andre Yosevaas here and Jermaine Burton here. Yeah, I haven't written down as well as potentials. But those are the guys that come to mind to me as like some tangible improvements that can help this offense take another step when they were already really good. And I think they go hand in hand because the way they get better also improves the

offense and takes us elite offense to another level. The Bengals were not a great running team last year. We were very happy with Chase Brown in a lot of ways. But efficiency-wise, and I think down-to-down efficiency, they weren't very good still. And they started the year off with Zach Moss, and they look terrible during that time trying to run the ball. So again, we'll talk about faster starts, getting Chase Brown the ball and getting a better run game early in the season will help.

And this is a team that wants to throw a ball. And if you're going to let them throw up 45 times in a game, they will do it. And they'll probably put up 30 points and have a good game. But there are times where you need to lean on the. run. There are times where defenses are going to make it hard for Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase, and you need to have an efficient run game. And I think Marius Mims, first things first, I think he can get a lot better in the run game. If you're looking at all his reps from last year, I think he was solid as a pass protector, especially for a rookie, and poor as a run blocker in a

lot of ways. And I think he was slow. He wasn't aware of where the defenders were at, where they're supposed to be, who his target was. I think he and Kappa did not mesh well together. One of the reasons why I was a big fan of Tate Ratledge potentially being the right guard of this team because I thought they worked so well together in Georgia. You could recreate that. We'll have to see who that right guard is. If they're having a battle at that right guard spot, how does that affect Mims? But I think in the run game, if Scott Peters can get this offensive line playing better, having them understanding their assignments a little bit better, being a better mesh with the passing offense, which are all things I thought were a flaw in Frank Pollock's marriage with this offense and his involvement with this offense in their line. If Peters gets better out of that, that should help Mims in a big way.

I think in pass protection, though, keep doing what he's doing. I thought he was extremely patient balance, showed that athleticism, showed that length and power, just understanding how he was getting beat, I think maybe sometimes opening up that inside a little bit too much. You're a big guy. You should force these guys inside you, force them through your chest. And I think this is something like I have made a clip and highlights of Willie Andrew. in the, within the last year, and it's something that he really evolved into doing was,

I'm going to get outside and get out, and get out in front of you and force these rushers back inside where I'm much bigger than you are. And I think once Mims is more comfortable with that size, because I think he can play at that size much more consistently, I think it's going to be big for him in past protection. So there's a lot of ways for him to improve. And if he does improve, huge for this offense. If he becomes a top 10 right tackle, and that's not a tough ask, I think, for your two guy. a former first round pick, I think that should be the expectation.

And if he does reach that, they're in great shape. And I think the run game overall, if it's blocked better, if it's designed better, if it fits the offense better, Chase Brown becomes better. Where can he specifically improve? I think contact balance when he's taking these hits. Sometimes he's just running full speed and takes these hits and his legs get taken out or his hips get taken out and he's going down. But also, I think his timing patience and maybe footwork to the hole.

You want to be slow to the hole, fast through the hole. And I think sometimes Brown is a little bit quick to get there. But some of that may be because of how poorly and poorly designed the run game was up front. Nobody really looked in sync fully consistently. And I think if that gets fixed in front, Chase Brown could be a much more efficient runner. Because I don't think he really lacks anything. I've loved so far through the offseason, seeing him work with the receivers. I think he's a very underrated receiver as it is.

but if he can add that to his game, he was already a great outlet for Burrow when he was extending plays, I think, at the Chargers game, how often Chase Brown stepped up and made plays on third down when Burroughs scrambling. But I think Chase Brown is on the verge of being a very, very good running back and probably less on him and more about the run game in front of him. Yeah, but Chase Brown is simply like on those unsexy inside zone, duo featured runs in this offense.

Can you get that extra court guard? And that's what we're talking about. We're talking about like on those plays where you're averaging three and a half, can you make it 3.75? That kind of thing. That kind of like patience, finding the right angle of attack, just eking out that little bit of juice on those plays where it's like, yeah, you're not expecting this to ever go for more than five or six unless something crazy happens. Then you catch them in a blitz or something. But can you get closer to that five number more often? That's what we're talking about with Chase Brown.

With the Marius fans, I agree with a lot of what you said there. What stood out to me when you're talking about Willie Anderson, always punished guys for going the way he didn't want them to go. Wanted to, I mean, he talked about it, like wanted to hurt them a little bit, not necessarily injure, right? Like, he's not trying to injure them, but he talked about this on an Instagram live. I remember listening to when I was at the gym a few months ago.

The way you get guys to stop attacking you in a way you don't want to be attacked, at least in his mind, was you really, punish that thing and and so he did that and then you know if a guy tried to go inside he also would be like hey bobby i need you to crush this guy yeah whenever somebody tries to go inside i need you to crush this guy we can use the bobby williams right now huh yeah right and i don't know if cody for lucas patrick can to be that guy for marius miz but the thing for mims like you said is like playing to his athletic traits playing like the behemoth who can crush you that he is and adding that finishing, that nastiness to his game.

And a lot of that in the run game, I think, is just speed of the game, understanding what they're trying to do. And so hopefully Scott Peters putting that stuff in with the various techniques that he's installing, helps Amarius Mims to develop in a big way in year two. I think expecting a year two leap from a Mario Sims with the level of traits he entered the NFL with, the inexperienced relative to his peers that he entered the NFL with, getting a ton of experience last season as a rookie, getting a technician teacher like Scott Peters in the building.

I think that's something that I'm excited to see for Marius Mims in year two. The other guys that kind of go into a, well, Jermaine Burton is kind of a bucket unto himself. If he can play anything like the player he was in college and keep his head on straight on the field, he can be an asset for the offense. Everything we said last year about what Jermaine Burton could do for the offense when he was drafted still applies. It's just a question of whether or not he is able to put those things together and be consistent for a season and earn those opportunities. Andrei Yosevaas is probably, mostly to me, a little thing's timing kind of stuff. For him, I think a lot of his drops were not being ready for the ball, not being ready for the timing,

but was good in clutch contested's catch situations, I think better than I remembered initially when I went back and I thought about this a little bit more. But I think on the margins for Yosevaas, it's those timing plays with the balls on him a little bit more quickly than he's expecting it to be. I think that led to a number of this game early, drops in some key spots, yeah, that if he cleans those things up, really useful and valuable wide receiver three. It's just building on that reliability a little bit

in some of those spots where the timing was just a little bit off last year. Can I add one with him also, the blocking at times? He's willing, and that's why I like him. I mean, he's a big body too at receiver, but there were some plays where I thought he, like, we need you to be faster, more aggressive, understand who you're blocking a little bit quicker. I think at the fourth down play as well,

It was like a swing screen to Jemar Chase out of the backfield, kind of an orbit motion. I can't remember exactly how he got there. But if you remember Cooper DeGine, I think Yoshi was supposed to get up and just screen off Cooper DeGine just a little bit and he wasn't able to do it. But there's been some other blocking instances. And we've also seen actually, now they think about it, Joe Burrow, go up to Yoshi after plays when they are scrambling and trying to find something open. And I don't know if Yoshi's going the wrong way, not doing the right depth, not having an

awareness of where the open zone is or most open area is. and Burrough go to talk to him afterwards. And I think that's just consistency because we've seen Yosevaosch be one of their best off-script receivers, especially in the Red Zone, rookie year, like all of his productivity in the red zone was off-script plays, being on the same page as Burrow, catching those touchdowns off-script as he's getting into Scramble Drill mode. So that's just a consistency thing. I think that's a lot of it for Yoshi, but you mentioned run blocking.

I think perimeter run-blocking, wide receiver run-blocking. This is something people are going to roll their eyes at. This is not something people think about when they think about wide receivers. but wide receiver run blocking could be better for everyone on this team is what I would say about the run blocking for receivers. And it's hard. There are very few good run blocking wide receivers in the NFL. But when you go watch like a Pooka Nakua or a Cooper Cup like that Rams offense that had those receivers that were good receivers but also blocked in the run game, you'll see what kind of difference those guys can make, especially when you're talking about digging out a linebacker or something in the box.

and that's something that offense is like the Bengals that are going 11 personnel often, ask those guys to do. It's a hard job, but if we're talking about areas where you could get a little bit of marginal improvement, that does come to mind. Can I add a small observation there? I think the teams that rotate receiver more get better blocking. And I think it's because you can get those guys in, whether it's, this is that guy's specialty. He's a special teams guy or they're more hungry for those reps.

So they play. It's hard, I think, when you pay your top two receivers to rotate and ask them to block too much. But I think if you can get Burton in there, Charlie Jones, Andreos, Vajas, where it may be, I think you can maybe get a few plays a game in. And again, we're talking about the margins. Yeah, and the challenge there is, of course, not tipping that you're running the ball. You know, you take T. Higgins and Jamar Chase off the field. They're probably loading the box on you a little bit. You know? It's a bit of a strategy thing there, too. But let's wrap up there on the offense. I think there's a whole different conversation on the defensive side

involved. We're not talking about the margins. We're talking about getting them to play cohesively. We're talking about getting guys who have been good in the past to be good again. We're talking about finding ways to this defense to get back to a solid place. That's our next episode here on lockdown Bengals. Until then, thanks for listening. Ho-Day and have a good one.