Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - How far does the Cincinnati Bengals coaching overhaul need to go after a disaster underperformance to 4-8?

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's obvious that some coaching staff changes are needed for the Cincinnati Bengals. To what extent are those coaching staff changes needed? And does it stop there? 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. One of the Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liscoe.

Starting point is 00:00:33 He's your host, James Rupin, together. we are the Lockdown Bengals podcast on the Lockdown Podcast Network covering your team every day on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast. And today as we dive into the coaching staff changes that are necessary for this team to take steps back to the right direction with Joe Burrow at quarterback in this Joe Burrow era. We want to welcome back the everydayers. We want to welcome in those of you who make us your first listen and welcome the new listeners who can subscribe to the show wherever they get their podcast. or on YouTube to make sure they don't miss an episode. And we'll have a lot to talk about the rest of the way here as a potential tumultuous offseason is coming up.

Starting point is 00:01:15 Last year, we talked about the offseason James as one of significant importance to the future of this franchise. They failed that test. They had a lot of holes to fill. They did not fill them adequately. And now at 4 and 8, they're facing down another offseason that will be vitally important to get the organization back on the right track. in a year where Joe Burrow is playing quarterback,

Starting point is 00:01:38 like the elite quarterback we know he is, at the top of the NFL in most statistical categories, and most quarterback ranking categories, and most grading categories you can think about. Despite his efforts, this team is very blatantly, obviously, not good enough. And at that point, we look to the coaching staff, and probably beyond, if we're taking a whole piece, picture approach, but we're starting with the coaching staff because it's obvious, as we said

Starting point is 00:02:09 yesterday, that major changes are needed for this team to get back on track. Yeah, let's start here. I don't want to hear, and I'm not saying there are a lot of people that are going to say this, but you hinted at the front office just now. The front office definitely deserves his blame. But with the Bengals, you better believe Luana Ruma was on board with Geno Stone. Louana Ruma was on board with Nick Scott a year ago. Luan Ruma was certainly on board with the Jordan Battle Pick and some of these other guys

Starting point is 00:02:34 that they've picked. The point is, is the coaching staff has a hand in the grocery picking. They are in the room. They are in the free agent discussions when the Bengals are identifying targets. And by the way, it's not just Lou, Zach, Frank Pollock, the offensive staff, everybody. My point is, as everyone deserves blame here, they do, because they're a flawed football team. As good as they've been on offense, it's really a. a few guys. It's not like their offense is just this unstoppable force because they're this well-oiled, well-run,

Starting point is 00:03:13 unstoppable, just juggernaut where all 11 guys are awesome. We know that's not the case. Or 12 will include Zach Taylor in that since he's the one calling the plays. We know that that's not the case. And yet, you have guys that can do the heavy lifting. That can get you to 30 plus points per game and nearly 29 points per game in their eight losses this year.

Starting point is 00:03:37 So yeah, I think about that. I think about the, if we're talking Thanksgiving just past, but if we're doing a blame pie, and I think there's a lot of slices. And that's the unfortunate part to me, Jake, is I wish, I really wish I could just point to Frank Pollock or Lou Anirumo or Charles Birx or the front office, the GM, or this guy.

Starting point is 00:04:04 or that you can't. There's so much to go out, like there's so many tentacles and so much blame, and everyone's getting at least a little slice, that it's really tough to point at one thing or one guy or one coach or one player. I wish it was just Geno Stone because that's an easy fix, I think. You just need a safety. Or if it was just, ah, you shouldn't have paid Germain Pratt who tackles, what miss tackles?

Starting point is 00:04:32 But it's not. there are so many issues and that's what sucks is when you look at it at least from my December 2nd as we record this view it's really tough to look at it and say all right well this is the solution because there's so many different things going on I don't know if you feel that way but it's it's really like I'm looking at the top of Everest and I haven't even started the trek and that's that's pretty intimidating yeah it's a multitude of issues and a lack of cornerstone players to build around. You've got Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase,

Starting point is 00:05:06 but then other homegrown players that turned out to be either at the top of their position or very near it are on their way out, and T. Higgins and Jesse Bates in recent history. And the choice of which players to keep or the efforts to make those contract decisions around guaranteed money, that goes to the front office, right? But the results we've seen on the field this year don't need to be, what we've seen. The record in one score games has totally regressed, right, from being slightly above 500 in one score games in the last few years to one and seven this year.

Starting point is 00:05:43 All the stats we talked about yesterday and the offense scoring all these points. But as you point out, it's not like the offense is this juggernaut that looks super clean and perfect all the time. This is Joe Burrow doing Herculane superhuman effort kind of things. This is studs on the outside, making stud plays on the outside. And everyone else is just a roller coaster at best. The run game was actually pretty good against the Steelers, right? Like there were some really nice run lanes opened up by this offensive line, some of the changes they made in the personnel.

Starting point is 00:06:17 Maybe that helped there, right? Maybe they actually found the right lever to pool for their offensive line configuration and moving Cody Ford to left guard. Maybe they shouldn't have taken that long. Maybe they had to wait that long because Orlando Brown is. clearly still dealing with the injury, right? But there's a roller coaster outside of your guys that are at the top of their position.

Starting point is 00:06:38 And so when collectively, yes, we can recognize that there are talent deficiency issues, but collectively you're getting consistently a sum that is less than your parts, that's where you turn your attention to the coaching staff, right? And we talked today about these obvious examples on the defensive side of the ball. or over the last couple of seasons,

Starting point is 00:07:02 obvious issues in the offensive structure where the run game isn't married well to the past game or they can't or won't use the play action game or screen game or they're in all these dropback situations all the time that puts a ton of pressure on the offensive line in Joe Burrow and they're the outside receivers, right, to just win one on once. And that's like the structure of the offense.

Starting point is 00:07:23 And beyond that, as we started to allude to yesterday, James, you can get to development issues. across the board. And those are more nebulous and more difficult to quantify because you know, you don't know exactly what's happening behind the scenes. You don't know for all of these guys. Some of them are just bad picks. Some of them are players that had promising profiles and then haven't developed in Cincinnati.

Starting point is 00:07:45 You take all of that into account. And then we get to that question of like, well, is there any part of this coaching staff that at this point has earned the, the right based on the last couple of years to return based on the direction things are going. Yeah, I think that's where I'm at. I know a lot of people are focused on Lou or the defensive coaching staff and they just focus there. And I think it's bigger than that or potentially at least should be bigger than that and there's a bigger conversation before you get to Lou. And funny enough jake this is a conversation we had on this podcast after the 2020 season after joe got

Starting point is 00:08:32 hurt it's like all right well do you do this or do you take it another step and the bengals didn't but you know what they did is they nailed free agency in the draft and in and by nailing it it's you get you get a guy a franchise changer and jemar chase that that completely changes the vibe and your your quarterback is upright and all of those things so there's There's a lot there, and I think we should have that discussion. I have some thoughts on that. Obviously, we're talking about Zach and Zach Taylor's future. We'll get there coming up next.

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Starting point is 00:09:58 and use code locked on NFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup prize picks run your game a lot to get into with this coaching staff discussion probably some nuance required but as you're hinting at James there's this big broad question that probably comes first

Starting point is 00:10:16 yeah for sure and it's should you keep Zach Taylor And that's where it should start is what when you discuss Lou or Frank or any of these guys. All right, well, let's start with Zach Taylor. And there's plenty of graphics going around his record in one score games you mentioned on our postgame show. His record against AFC North themes. Those things coming back after a few years of them being kind of hidden during 21 and 22 because of the runs they went on. And look, there's nuance to that.

Starting point is 00:10:51 You could say Burrow Hurd or Burrow this or pre-Burrow, fine. But I think it's even simpler than that. When asking the Zach Taylor question, if you're really having a question about Lou or Frank or any of these guys, because you can make, you can defend any of these coaches. I can defend Lou very easily if you wanted to make that case. Defend Frank very easily. I could defend Marion Hobby. You could defend Zach, obviously. So could go there.

Starting point is 00:11:20 All right, you could put all the blame on the front office. Like, there's a bunch of ways to do it. But if you're looking at the coaching staff, I think it's pretty simple. All right, if you retool around Zach, is he a top five head coach in the NFL? Let's say you nail the defensive coordinator replacement and you nail the offensive line coach

Starting point is 00:11:40 or you nail the entire defensive reboot that some have pitched and said. I don't think he's a top five coach in the NFL. Is he top 10 head coach in the NFL? I think that's a reach. Is he the best coach in the AFC North? No. Second best coach in the AFC North?

Starting point is 00:12:02 Probably not. Third? Well, that guy's probably Kevin Stefansky who has two coach of the year awards and a dumpster fire in Cleveland. Maybe not. Maybe you make the case that he's third. But still, you don't feel great about that.

Starting point is 00:12:14 And so I think that's the discussion that I would have if I was in the Bengals front office. that doesn't mean I'm not calling for Zach's job, but I think that's where the discussion starts before you get to, oh, if Lou should be fired today, and that's what a lot of people said on Sunday after the game. Before I get there, I fund the Bengals front office, I start with Zach, and I have that conversation,

Starting point is 00:12:37 regardless of his contract, they have plenty of money, and I dismiss that anytime people bring up money. They could pay Zach and also have another head coach in place. Not saying they will, but you need to have that. conversation. And I think that's where I start anytime the coaches have been brought up. And that's why honestly, and you know this, Jake, I've been reluctant to publicly discuss this because that's where it starts. It doesn't start with an offensive line coach or some assistant. It starts with the head coach. And it goes from there. And I think that's where if I'm the Bengals front office,

Starting point is 00:13:08 if you're having these discussions, that's where you should start. Yeah. And if you're interested in the other perspective and not getting into necessarily what I believe or don't believe, in this particular instance of me making this devil's advocate claim, you could say, well, the offense is still performing at a really high level. We talked earlier in this very show about how, yeah, they're getting results from the offense, where the offense is not entirely, but a lot of Joe Burrow going Superman,

Starting point is 00:13:36 a lot of Joe Burrow and Jemar Chase and T. Higgins going Superman. And we still have some of the structural issues that we've had with this offense that we've talked about in the past, with the run game marriage to the past game. and all these other issues that we've talked about this year where it doesn't feel like they're necessarily getting a ton of structure at times. But sometimes they do, and plenty of time they do. And a lot of the issues, you can actually boil down to protection

Starting point is 00:14:00 instead of necessarily the structure of the offense. But then how much is the structure of the offense put on the protection in the first place? But despite all of those questions and ways that you can pick apart the offense and say, well, is it in spite of Zach or because of Zach and his offense and his offensive approach, they're getting results. You can also say, well, and this was always the thing with Marvin Lewis, right,

Starting point is 00:14:27 is given the structure of the Bengals, given what their front office is, given the way they operate, given the way that we don't hear from Duke Tobin throughout the year, and Zach Taylor is thus forced to play intermediary in the media and is potentially in the middle of upper management the players doing some middle management kind of stuff as a head coach in Cincinnati.

Starting point is 00:14:50 That's part of the job description of the head coach in Cincinnati is taking on more front office duties. We saw that with Marvin Lewis too. Then you get this question, same question we have with Marvin Lewis. What coach do they bring into that job that can do all of those things in addition to whatever's required of a head coach? And the answer probably exists. I'm not saying this is like an impossible question.

Starting point is 00:15:17 That's not why I bring it up. But it's a question that the Bengals are thinking about when they're thinking about do we want to pay two head coaches this year to do that job? And do we feel like there's still enough shared vision between the front office and Duke Tobin staff and ownership? I'm including ownership when I say front office.

Starting point is 00:15:36 Like Brown, Blackburn family, Duke Tobin staff, Zach Taylor, vision. Like is that still aligned like it was when we heard them talk about how aligned they were? were with those things when Zach was hired, right? And those are the questions that the front office has to be thinking about. I think it's really hard for me to think that the front office in the coaching staff is as aligned when you have picks like Dax Hill, right? And we've done a ton this offseason on Dax Hill.

Starting point is 00:16:06 But that's just an example, right? If you have these free agent whiffs where it's like, well, Gino Stone, you knew he was going to play deep safety. Like, that's why you brought him in. The front office doesn't keep Jesse. Well, Lou wanted Jesse. That's the argument for Lou, right? Lou clearly wanted to keep Jesse Bates.

Starting point is 00:16:25 I think Lou would have kept Jesse Bates over a, say, Logan Wilson or Jermaine Pratt. Maybe I'm wrong. I haven't asked Lou that directly. I'm not sure he would give me that answer, but I'm sure he would have rather had Jesse Bates. And that's the point is it's like, all right, well, can you see, can they align completely? because if they had been in alignment from the jump, maybe Daxhill just plays a corner from the get-go. Maybe they don't think Nick Scott can be that deep safety,

Starting point is 00:16:54 or maybe they go a different route with some of these draft picks. There's so many things. But I think the other element to the Zack conversation before we get more to Lou is, and you mentioned the offense as part of the defense of Zach. And I totally agree, but he's the head coach. Yeah, it's not the O.C. that's exactly it.

Starting point is 00:17:16 He's the head coach. And so it's like, oh, yeah, well, Zach's offense. Oh, great. He's the head coach. And I know you're not saying this, but, like, that's what's frustrating is it's like, okay, well, if Lou is sucking, well, then Zach fix it. That's part of your job. And that's where it starts. Like, it's not, oh, well, Lou is the head defensive coach and Zach is the head offensive coach.

Starting point is 00:17:43 that's not how it works. It feels that way, doesn't it? It does feel that way, and I promise you that's not how the paychecks work either. So when it comes to that, in a number of years and all of those things that certainly matter, that's why I start with Zach is I'm not splitting the team. It starts and it ends with the head coach,

Starting point is 00:18:09 the awareness, the lack thereof, the accountability, all of those things. That's where it starts and ends. That's part of Zach's job. It just is. And I like Zach. And if you could tell, I'm like, because it irks me to have this conversation,

Starting point is 00:18:23 but they shouldn't be four and eight. The defense shouldn't stink. And that starts with Zach, not Lou. That's it. It does start with Zach. I think we forget that. By the way, if the Bengals' offense stunk 10 years ago, and in 14, heck, it did by the end of the year.

Starting point is 00:18:41 But that starts. with Marvin. It doesn't start with the O.C., which was Hugh Jackson at the time. It does start with Marvin, even though he's a defensive-minded coach, because he's the head coach. It's no different. With defensive coaches, with Marvin, like it was Marvin that was making go-no-go decisions on fourth down, for example. So where offensive coaches, like, they're kind of excused for defensive decisions like that, if it was a defensive head coach instead, who has a final say on, what are we doing from a gay man? perspective, that's still, like, those decisions are more obvious on offense, which is one way to

Starting point is 00:19:19 think about, like, the disparity of head coaching responsibility for the entire team. If it's a defensive coach, some of those decisions are more obvious because they come on the offensive side of the ball, whereas Zach is, I assume, much more hands-off as some of those critical defensive decision-making points, but he's still the head coach, right? And that's why you have to put the entire team's accountability up to the head coach. Yep. Yeah, totally agree. Totally agree. We'll continue to have the conversation. We'll dive into what Louan Arumo, his future and some of these other coaches as well coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandall. Fandall is America's number one sports book for a reason.

Starting point is 00:20:02 And right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. So, well, there's a ton of NFL games between now and Monday night football. against the Cowboys. The Bengals are favored, by the way. Opened up six-point favorites, Jake, let's go. What? Yeah, they're favored in Dallas. So maybe you think that they're going to handle business. Maybe not. Well, place five bucks on any NBA game, any college football game, any, dare I say it, NFL game, and then you get $150 in bonus bets that you can use on anything. The Fandul Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place from stats live play by play and so much more on the same screen that you'll make those

Starting point is 00:20:48 bets all you have to do is visit fandle.com to join today again that's fandle dot com you'll get started with 150 dollars in bonus bets if you win your first five dollar bet at fandle dot com i've got one last shout out to john sharing for this step but but uh oh boy on on you know the whole head coaching conversation the i'm scared yeah i'm scared about this one not because it's john just because if you 20 minutes in are bringing up a stat, this can't be good. I wanted to bring it up earlier, but we never found a segue. And then we have that little moment to reset and think about it for a second. But on September 23, John tweeted this.

Starting point is 00:21:29 And he brought it back yesterday after the game. No QB coaching staff pairing, so Joe Burrow and the Zach Taylor staff, has ever won their first Super Bowl after the first five years together. Yep. We are beyond that point now. And not to say that Joe Burrow can't be the exception, he's been the exception to so many things, you know,

Starting point is 00:21:53 so many Cincinnati Bengals things in particular. And so is Zach. If Joe is the exception, then so is Zach. And that pairing has been the exception to many Cincinnati Bengals' ways of being. But this one, sure, they could be the exception again.

Starting point is 00:22:13 it gets increasingly hard to see that path. Yeah, I was aware of that stat. And it's been in the back of my mind throughout this season. And, you know, this is, this was one of those years. There's a reason we talked about the things we did this offseason. And every day is know it. If you're new, that's fine. But it was such a crucial year.

Starting point is 00:22:37 And they just whipped in free agency. Everything that could go wrong essentially went wrong. And that doesn't mean everybody was a whiff. Like I still like the Mike Gisiki signing, and he is exactly what you hoped he would be when you need him to be that. But most of these, Gino Stone, rough, Sheldon Rankin's illness. Hope you feel better, by the way. It's a very serious illness I think he's dealing with. But those are whiffs.

Starting point is 00:23:02 And they weren't in position to do that. They don't have the depth to do that. And that's why I start with Zach. And then you go to Lou and Marion Hobby and all of that. But that's a good one because it points out kind of what I was going back to. If you don't think Zach is a, let's just say top 10 NFL head coach. And I would say he's probably fourth in the division, in a division with really good head coaches. Like Mike Tomlin's an elite head coach.

Starting point is 00:23:29 John Harbaugh is an elite head coach. I think Kevin Savancy is a good head coach. But if Zach Taylor's an average head coach, do you retool around average? Like is that the plan? Is that the plan that gets you to a Super Bowl? I think that's the real conversation that needs to be had. And obviously, if the answer is that's not the plan and you go away from Zach, then you're going away from Lou as well.

Starting point is 00:23:54 But I think a lot of people certainly think that they should move on from Lou and Arumo. And you look at other organizations' decisions around head coaching changes. It sometimes is hard. like sometimes it's a coach that you think is a good coach and sometimes you just need a change sometimes you just need a reset sometimes you need a different voice and it could be as simple as that

Starting point is 00:24:18 it could be not the Zach is a bad coach maybe Zach is actually a great coach and maybe due to events in and outside of his control over the last few years that that necessitates a change but but you wanted to talk about Lanhamra so maybe And I think we should.

Starting point is 00:24:38 And so maybe the decision making eventually is that we think Zach is actually good coach. And that's what the front office decides. But they look at the results on the defensive side of the ball and they're like, there's no way we can excuse this this year. This is the worst defense we've seen since we fired a defensive coordinator midseason in Terrell Austin. And if that didn't exist, like I said yesterday, you'd have to go a whole lot further back to find a defense that has played the way this defense played in crucial spots. and is clearly lacking at every level of the defense.

Starting point is 00:25:11 Yeah. At that point, you have to make a change there. And then you think about, like, well, we've brought this example up a few times, and it's not a perfect example because Nick Siriani also fired his offensive coordinator, but like is that kind of like, is it a half measure? If you totally retool the defensive staff and start over on the defensive staff with new culture requirements and new, you know, figuring out the relationship between Zach and that new DC. Like that seems daunting too to me, but say that's the direction they choose to go.

Starting point is 00:25:47 What are the thoughts there, James? Do you trust that Philly is going to out-coach whoever they play in the NFC playoffs? Which is, you know, think about Detroit. My answer is absolutely no. Like I don't like them. I think they lose most of those head coaching battles. I was surprised they kept Nick around. And yeah, they're really talented.

Starting point is 00:26:17 They're Uber talented. Think about it. AJ Brown there a long time. Sequin Barclay, Jalen Hertz, their offensive front. Like all of these things, they have so much more talent than the Bengals on paper. And heck, I said that going into that game, I think, how talented they were. I didn't even get to the defense where they just stole two first-round cornerbacks

Starting point is 00:26:37 and Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeGine and both guys producing. So it's one of those things where it's like, all right, you need a little luck and they had luck in the draft. You also need the talent to outweigh the coaching element. And I think that's where the Bengals were at times. And so I would get retooling. We've also seen Lou have success when he has the right talent. And so, again, that's why I go back to the bigger picture, because, and this gets into the front office a little bit, but if you're going to let guys like Jesse Bates leave because of guaranteed money, that means that it's going to be really, really hard to always have the edge talent-wise.

Starting point is 00:27:21 You better have an edge coaching-wise and like a significant one. And so you're talking about top five head coach, top five staff. You feel good about it. Well, it doesn't feel like the Bengals have either of those. And so maybe you get the defensive coordinator right, but we're probably having the same conversation about the head coach going up against another head coach. And then you get to the very difficult topic of can this Bengals ownership group actually put together that staff? In reality.

Starting point is 00:27:57 But in reality, right? Because of course they can't. Of course they could decide to suddenly be an NFL front office that pays head coaches actual top of market money. Like, of course they could decide we're going to pay Ben Johnson $10 million or whatever his asking prices. I don't remember what it was. They could. But that's why it's a difficult question. What level of confidence is there that they're not going back.

Starting point is 00:28:25 to shop for the next big. And that's what they tried to do is Zach Taylor, right? They tried to go find a guy that could grow into being a top head coach in the NFL. They went to a QB's coach, right, who had some interim OC experience, had some ties to the city. I don't think that the ties of the city were necessarily a factor, but maybe attracted him to Cincinnati to some degree. But had the experience with McVeigh, and they're like, okay, well, maybe we can get. that next thing. The Matt Lafleurs or the

Starting point is 00:28:59 Shannan tree that's gone out and has been somewhat successful elsewhere, depending on which coach you're talking about. But they're looking for that tree descendant to grow into a head coach. And at this point, you know what Zach Taylor is, I think, in Cincinnati anyway. Maybe his head coaching career continues at some point elsewhere. And he has another shot at things. And maybe it goes differently in a different organization. And I'm not

Starting point is 00:29:23 comparing him to Andy Reed, but when I think about like the need for a voice change or, you know, a change of scenery even for a coach. And again, not comparing him to Andy Reid, but I think about, again, Philly, when they fired Andy Reid after they, you know, came up short in the playoffs over and over. A little bit different, right? Like, not a direct comparison, but it's just highlighting this, this occasional need to move on from a good head coach, even if you think Zach is a good head coach. And I think the, you could do the opposite end of the spectrum, too, is like, oh, well,

Starting point is 00:29:52 Kansas City didn't get scared away for me and. D-Reed because of that. Yeah. And they realized, oh, well, he's still a really good coach. He was just in a situation, kind of worth in. And, well, it paid off, didn't it? And that's a different conversation. And again, I, there's still five games left.

Starting point is 00:30:14 There's more here. I think we're going to get more. There's going to be more coach talk this week, Jake. I don't think we even really got to the, to all of it. This is mostly the Zach episode. But I think we needed to have it because I think it should be a real conversation. Will it be? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:30:35 And it's important to have it now. Yes. Yes. Because we should have said this probably at the top of the show. So for anyone who got to the end, the reason it's important to have it now is because of that dead cap bounce. This team, historically, they're all but eliminated, right? maybe they went out from here. It's still like a 5% chance they make the playoffs,

Starting point is 00:30:58 even if they went out from here. And then what happens to everything that got to this point? Yep. They finished with a 9 and 8 record, say. But that's why it's important to have the conversation. Maybe the way they do it changes our thoughts on this, and we'll obviously talk about it the rest of the season, but there's a reason to have the conversation now

Starting point is 00:31:18 when we've had all of these make or break games and we've seen the way they've gone. Sure. Yeah. By the way, if Zach, who, if he was going to step in, I feel like it would have been two weeks, three weeks, four weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, right, two weeks ago. But steps in this week, and we're recording this before his Monday press conference, and it's like, oh, I'm helping with the defense. And the defense is better. Well, then things change.

Starting point is 00:31:43 There's ebbs and flows. That sounds very unrealistic, Jake. That's why I was comfortable. So things can change. But this idea that, oh, if they go three and two down the, stretch and they beat Dallas and Tennessee and the Browns. Yeah. Whopty-do.

Starting point is 00:32:00 Or if the Steelers have nothing to prove in that final game and they play their backups, well, the Bengals can't stop Justin Fields anyway with the game on the line, so I'm not sure that's going to matter. Now, Will I, Jay. So I don't know if they even play Justin Fields. They might go third string to preserve Fields health as well. Let's wrap. Let's wrap up there.

Starting point is 00:32:19 It's not Duck anymore, by the way, but. I don't even know who it is. Duk Hodges to play the Bengals because that's how irrelevant that game is for them. Anyways, yeah, let's wrap up there. Got plenty more to discuss this week as we try to find the things that are important to the Bengals for the rest of the season. And keep in mind what's going on with this coaching staff, how the coaching staff responds, how the players respond.

Starting point is 00:32:44 These are things that matter the rest of the way as well. Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode. Kyle Allen. Kyle Allen, that's his name. I did see him on the side of the side. of the broadcast. Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, Hootay, and have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - How far does the Cincinnati Bengals coaching overhaul need to go after a disaster underperformance to 4-8?

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