Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Jalen Davis is BACK: Why That's Great News for the Bengals

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals got a deal done with one of their own Jalen Davis returning to the Cincinnati Bengals in 2026. 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 and the number one sports podcast network in the land. And he's James Rapine. I'm Jake Glisco. We've had you covered here on lockdown Bengals since 2016. Your best one-stop shop for all the news, everything going on with your Cincinnati Bengals. And a whole lot of analysis, too, for your second show of the day. Or maybe this is your first show of the day, your shorter form show.

Starting point is 00:00:53 We're launching these 10-minute episodes here this week. Well, we're going to talk about an extension that a player himself broke on social media. and that is Jalen Davis, returning for the Cincinnati Bengals, signs an extension, announces it himself. And the question eventually becomes, will he be a starter for the Bengals after coming off the practice squad in 2025 and playing quite well in that spell? But good for JD getting that additional time with the Bengals

Starting point is 00:01:23 after coming off the practice squad in 25. Yeah, it's good for JD, good for the Bengals. It's good in a bunch of ways. First things first. He's the type of guy that it's cool to see them get an opportunity. And when he was elevated from the practice squad last year initially, it was like, oh, that's good. Jalen's getting some run.

Starting point is 00:01:43 And then he was productive. And he was out there and you noticed him. And he made plays. And he had the interception. And he had a couple of tackles for loss and had some past breakups. And just you noticed him. And we talked about in our other show with Cody about corner's tackle. He made some nice tackles despite being a smaller in stature.

Starting point is 00:02:07 And I think that that's that kind of shows the type of player he is. There are a lot of players that wouldn't be able to do the back and forth from the practice squad to potentially playing to filling in for Mike Hilton a few years ago when Hilton got hurt and the Bengals were contenders. Getting cut and being on the practice squad and bouncing back and forth. and he did that Jake and had this success. And I don't think he'll mind me telling it now. I'll at least tell part of it. One thing last year when the Bengals were really going through it. And this was before Jalen was playing.

Starting point is 00:02:44 They were going through it defensively. They were going through it from an adversity standpoint. Joe was hurt. They've lost some games. Things were kind of crumbling. It's probably around the Joe Flacco trade in that range, maybe a few weeks after the Flacco trade, and the defense was still struggling.

Starting point is 00:02:57 Zach Taylor mentioned Jalen Davis as a leader. He was on the practice squad that. He wasn't playing then. But that's how dialed in and locked in. And I think well respected Jalen Davis is in this locker room. And so to keep him, it may seem like just like a, that's not Dalton Riser or that. That's not this.

Starting point is 00:03:17 That's not that fine. But I do think it's important to keep guys like that around, especially when you have so many young guys in that locker room. Yeah, these are the kinds of deals that happen at this time of year. This is something that I've talked about a lot on the podcast, right? Like the medium plus price veteran free agent deals or free agent to be deals very rarely happen before the combine. This one getting done before the combine probably speaks to the kind of deal it is at the time of us reporting this. We don't know how big the deal is for Jalen Davis, how many years are attached to it or anything like that.

Starting point is 00:03:48 If it's happening right now, it's probably a short-term deal. It's probably pretty close to the league minimum. him, but it's an NFL contract for a guy who is on a practice squad. So that represents a lot more money. And Jalen Davis did, of course, finish the season on the roster. He played from week 12 on, essentially, for the Bengals and played really well in a lot of those games. And it's been around this team going back to 2020, which is crazy to think about that he's

Starting point is 00:04:16 been around for virtually the entire Zach Taylor era, the entire Joe Burrow era. He's just turned 30 years old, which, again, feels crazy because we haven't seen a whole lot of them, right? Like there have been years where he's spent a lot of time on the practice squad. It feels like he's younger than he is, but had some really good games for this team. Like I said, played really well against the Patriots in Week 12 against the Ravens and Week 13 against the Dolphins when he had the interception, played pretty well against Buffalo in Week 14 as well when he was put into the starting lineup and has been compared to Mike Hilton along the way, right? and drawing those comparisons, that's a pretty high-end goal talking about corners tackling. Like you said, like we talked about with Cody, not very many guys doing it at the level that Mike Hilton did it.

Starting point is 00:05:03 And so if you can get that Mike Hilton's style of player in Jalen Davis, the question becomes to me, James, is he your starting slot corner in 2026? Are you penciling him in on the depth chart now? Or is that still an area where you're looking? to add a player, whether it's free agency or the draft, if you're the Cincinnati Bengals. We'll discuss coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by Indeed, when there's workplace, chaos, deadline stacking up and you have to hire that person for that job you have sitting open.

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Starting point is 00:08:28 James is J.D., your starting slot corner in 2026. How comfortable would you be if that's a Bengals plan? I think that, well, I would be comfortable, one, two, one, period. Two, I think that this, it sort of needs to be their plan. Like, clearly, Josh Newton, they need him to take a step. I think finding another outside corner would be nice from a reserve standpoint. Obviously, losing Cam Taylor Britt. But you have a guy in Dax who you know can do it if needed when called upon.

Starting point is 00:09:06 I get it. He flourished in the boundary, but you know that he can kick in. Maybe you do end up with the Caleb Downs. like we talked about with Cody. We'll keep referencing that. Our full show on Wednesday was with Cody. It was really good stuff for Matchquarters.com. And that's it.

Starting point is 00:09:22 Like that's the dilemma if you're the Bengals is like, do you want to find another nickel? Maybe if you find a nickel that you also trust playing outside in a pinch. But like a nickel only like Jalen, like I think there's only so much room for those. And so you're probably not calling Mike Hilton, for example, and bringing him back into the mix or someone that's going to be a nickel only. Yeah, maybe if.

Starting point is 00:09:42 you get a versatile piece then you know there's a different answer there yeah and we talked about that with Caleb downs right like Caleb downs can do some of that for you and he can also play some deep safety for you and that that's that versatility if they end up in a position where they go sign a top dollar safety that they feel really good about there's a lot of safeties this year in free agency if there's one position where there's a lot of guys I think it's safety has every flavor and probably eight guys that that are pretty solid targets for the Bengals, depending on what they're looking for this guy to do.

Starting point is 00:10:17 And then maybe they do end up drafting Caleb Downs. Well, say they add a couple of guys on the defensive front, say they add a linebacker, they add a safety, they get to the draft, and maybe they draft one of these corners, Delane, McCoy. And you do that, then you kick Dax inside. That's a viable path forward, too, where you could have these really dominant corners potentially that can cover really well, they can play a lot of man.

Starting point is 00:10:40 And then like we talked about with Cody, the tackling, I think Dax is a pretty solid tackler. He's not like, I don't think he's Mike Hilton. He's not a linebacker playing in the slot. He's not one of these, you know, Kyle Hamilton types of guys in the slot. He's just not that big, but he's a good tackler, especially for his size. I think you can get by if that's your plan. So it does give the Bengals some paths forward and gives you the baseline level of Jayland

Starting point is 00:11:05 Davis that has shown that he can play well in the defense that Al Golden wants to run. again, like we talked about with Cody in the second half of the season, when Jaylon Davis got in there coincides with the change in direction schematically for the defense and the higher level of performance we saw after it was so dreadful to start the year. Yeah, and so let's say they do draft a quarter. Let's say they draft a corner 10th overall, right? Let's just say they do. What a perfect example to look at.

Starting point is 00:11:31 It's a guy like Jaylon Davis day to day. I talked with Bengals cornerbacks coach Chuck Burks, exchanged a few messages with him after the Davis deal, the news broke. And he was like, that guy never complains. Never. Never complains about anything. You know how easy it would be for Jalen Davis, who I know has a maybe toddler now. I think he might be like two, but has a baby and has all these responsibilities and, you know,

Starting point is 00:11:55 is doing like it would be easy to complain about something. Never complains. Like I complain to you. You complain to me. We complain. So I do think that that element is big because maybe his role does change. Maybe he doesn't start. Maybe he does get kicked down the pole again.

Starting point is 00:12:14 And yet, if that does happen, you know he's going to be disappointed, take it in stride, handle it the right way, and be an example. And I think that's an important part of this. And I do think that the other thing, and you could guess where I heard it from, based on what I just said, DJ Turner just had this whole transformation in year three. I think Jalen Davis was certainly someone that led by example and kind of showed what could happen if you take things in stride. And so it wouldn't be shocking at all if you hear DJ Turner down the line say, oh yeah, Jaylon's a good friend, someone that I've looked up to and has helped me get to this point, whatever that is. Hopefully it's an extension conversation when we get there.

Starting point is 00:12:58 A good deal for the Bengals, most likely. We haven't seen the terms. We don't know those specifics. but nice to see Jalen Davis return. Good for him to get that veteran contract. And like we've discussed here, the leadership quality, I think, matters. The depth piece matters if that's what he turns into.

Starting point is 00:13:16 It gives you options. It gives you a baseline there. We're not throwing a parade or anything. No shade to Jalen here. That's not my intent here. We're celebrating the signing. There's more work to do, obviously, is my point here, for this defense. But a nice little move for the Bengals in the middle of February

Starting point is 00:13:32 before the combine to bring Jalen Davis back. And that's going to do it for this little episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Make sure you check out the full episode with Cody Alexander on the defense. And until next time, thanks for listening, Ho-Day, and have a good.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Jalen Davis is BACK: Why That's Great News for the Bengals

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