Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase are fun, dazzle in Cincinnati Bengals MNF win in Dallas

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

The best part about watching the Cincinnati Bengals in a frustrating season is, now that they're out of the playoff picture in 99% of scenarios, enjoying Ja'Marr Chase and Joe Burrow doing awesome thi...ngs on the football field. Jake Liscow and James Rapien break down the fun that was watching the Bengals catch a break in Dallas on MNF with Burrow and Chase putting together another awesome performance, then dive into the resurfaced topic of Tee Higgins' future with the team.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-bengals Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Omaha SteaksFrom legendary steaks to mouthwatering desserts and more, save 50% off site-wide for a limited time at OmahaSteaks.com. Plus, our listeners get an extra $30 off with Promo Code NFL.IceShakerCreated by and used by the Gronkowski brothers, IceShakers has sold over 1 million bottles. They have changed the game with workout bottles, and this is the gift you’ve been looking for… go to IceShaker.com and use the code LOCKEDONNFL at checkout to save 25% on your order.Hillsdale CollegeAll of Hillsdale’s courses are self-paced so that you can start whenever, and tune in wherever. Plus, you can go deeper with readings, quizzes, discussions - or just enjoy the lectures. Go right now to hillsdale.edu/lockedon to enroll. There’s no cost, and it’s easy to get started.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.Bilt RewardsStart earning points on rent you’re already paying by going to joinbilt.com/LOCKEDONNFL. 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.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals catch a break on Monday night football, and Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow get one more chance to make magic for a game-winning touchdown. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. One of our Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked-on Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liskow. He is your host, James Rupin. We're the Lockdown Bengals podcast on the Lockdown Podcast on the Lockdown Podcast.
Starting point is 00:00:35 We're covering your team every day. We're on YouTube. We're everywhere you get your podcast, and the everydayers already know it. Those of you that make us your first listen already know it. But if you're new to the show and you're looking for a place to stay up to date, as we're apparently going to be talking about T. Higgins' future unexpectedly tonight, for example, and other breaking news like that as it happens, in addition to game recaps, pregame shows, all the analysis you could ever want and more
Starting point is 00:00:59 while you're in the right place and you can subscribe to the Lockdown Bengals podcast wherever you watch or listen to your podcast and you won't miss an episode. James, let's get started with what happened in this game. To me, the thing about watching the Bengals at this point in the season, unexpectedly playing meaningless, relatively speaking, football in December with Joe Burrow healthy and playing well, is that Joe Burrow, healthy and playing well, is still a heck of a lot of fun to watch. Yeah, yeah, heck of a lot of fun to watch.
Starting point is 00:01:27 He was great again tonight. 33 of 44, 369, three touchdowns, had the one interception that I know. he was mad at himself about but overall what more can you ask for from joe i mean he's playing at such a high level moving well in the pocket navigating throwing while getting hit and accurately just seeing the field at a high level the ability to extend a play and give his receiver andja yoseva just an extra second half second uh to get open and into a window or obviously jemar chase who had 14 catches for a buck 77 and two touchdowns. Just video game numbers from these two guys.
Starting point is 00:02:09 And when you, regardless of their record, if Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase are on the field, the Bengals are entertaining. The Bengals are a team that not only Bengals fans want to watch, but NFL fans want to watch because they're fun. They're entertaining. And they certainly delivered on that. Joe said he wanted to be entertaining on Monday night football.
Starting point is 00:02:32 He was. and they found a way to get a win, 27-20. I think a lot of that, obviously, it has to do with Joe and Jamar. You mentioned the luck that was involved. But I will give them credit. This, to me, is their first, and I know they're two and seven in one-score games technically this year, but this was their first one-score game win that I count,
Starting point is 00:02:57 because that Cleveland game, they were up by multiple scores and gave up a garbage time touchdown. This was tied with two minutes to go. And they took advantage of a lucky break and were able to score the game winner with 101 left. The kinds of lucky breaks they haven't had this year. Instead, they've had mishandled snaps and holds and missed kicks, and they've had pass-in-perance penalties.
Starting point is 00:03:20 Wait. And tonight, they have a pump block that after its block doesn't even travel to the yard to game for the first down, which is the most hilarious part about all of it, to me. The punt didn't even travel far enough for, if it had been a completed pass to Mumma Zhang Mehta, who recovered the fumbled or muff kick, I guess, technically it was, after the block, it wouldn't have been a first down, but because of the rules on block kicks and then touch kicks after a punt and all these things, it's a Bengals first down. So yeah,
Starting point is 00:03:49 you get a lucky break there, and maybe they shouldn't win if they don't get that lucky break, but in a year where, as Joe Burrough said after the game, they haven't really gotten a lot of breaks like that. It was nice for him and for the team to get one. And then they take advantage of it immediately and go score a game-winning touchdown and put Dallas in a very difficult situation with Cooper Rush a quarterback who wasn't playing well tonight, despite all the heming and hauling over Cooper Rush last week. He's not that good of quarterback. From you. Yeah, from me. It was a joke mostly. Like, it's tongue-and-cheek. People get it. And he had the one nice throw early in the game when Mike Hilton came.
Starting point is 00:04:28 can't stay with C.D. Lamb on the corner around in the end zone. But he's missing a lot of throws late in the game. Anyway, point is where we started this is what was fun tonight was Joe and Jamar and Chase Brown, too. I'll put in the conversation. But Jamar Chase with 14 catches gets back to the top of the NFL interceptions in this game. He leads Brock Bowers, who is second in his rookie year with 87 catches. Jamar is now at 93. He is at top the leaderboard, obviously in yards as well, where he only trailed Justin Jefferson going into this game, and he's well ahead of Justin Jefferson after this game. And he adds on to his touchdown lead.
Starting point is 00:05:08 We're going into this game, he already had a four touchdown lead over Amunraa St. Brown and Terry McLaurin at 13 to 9, and he adds two touchdowns to that tally to get to six. So in his quest for the Triple Crown, which is one of the cooler stories that we can follow for the rest of the year, in addition to how Joe Burroughs playing, and the storyline that is now emerging around Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and T. Higgins talking about their future together with the Bengals as a trio that we'll get a little bit later in the show, Jemar Chase with a big game, big effort to get back on top of those triple crown standings. And I'm in favor, James. Give Jamar Chase 20 targets a game going for it. It is fun. And that is what matters to me the
Starting point is 00:05:47 rest of the year. Yeah, it's a lot of fun in the way they were getting him involved. I mean, in a lot of different ways and he had so much space. And that was the thing that was unique tonight, I thought, is a lot of times he's on the boundary, just wide open, catch and run out of bounds. Or there's a guy in his way and he makes a guy miss. And then there's three more cowboys there and he was able to avoid big hits. Like, yeah, if you're giving him that kind of volume,
Starting point is 00:06:18 and there could have been one or two more catches in there for sure. Yep. But he's at 1,319 yards on the year, 93 receptions, 15 touchdowns. He's two away from tying Carl Pickens for the Bengals' all-time lead with 17 receiving touchdowns in a year. I'll say this. I told Jamar, when would I have talked to him? It would have been Thursday? No, Friday. So it would have been Friday. And I said, you're seven touchdowns away from 20. I was like, get to 20. Because if we're doing this, if we're having this fun, I might as well partake, right? And everyone's talking about the triple crown. How many receivers, and I haven't looked this up, but I should have, get 20 touchdowns in a season. Like, that's
Starting point is 00:07:08 really, really hard to do. And it's going to be hard for him to do. He's got to score five over the next four games. But he has, he has eight touchdowns in the past four games. He had three against Baltimore had one against the Chargers, one against the Steelers, and then two on Monday night football against the Cowboys. So he's just been, he's been, or seven, he's had seven and four games. Anyways, bad math. Point is, he's had a lot. So if you get five and four games, it's certainly doable with the volume they're giving him.
Starting point is 00:07:38 The way Joe's throwing the ball, it's got a shot. And it's a lot of fun. So not only is, is the win, awesome. Joe and Jamar, awesome. But then to your point, the other Chase, Chase Brown. I do have an answer for you on the number of receivers in NFL history to go to 20 or more touchdowns in a season. Yeah, go. That is Randy Moss with 23 and 07.
Starting point is 00:08:02 Yep. And Jerry Rice, top 20. There you go. In his career. At least once. It's a 20. That's a more exclusive club than the Triple Crown Club. Is it?
Starting point is 00:08:12 It's a 20 touchdowns. Yes. I don't know how many times is a Triple Crown. happen. Do you know that off the top? He would be the third guy since 92. I think there's been five total in NFL history. He would join Steve Smith and Cooper Cup since 92. But I think there's been a couple more to where he'd be the fifth guy to do it in league history.
Starting point is 00:08:30 So it's still exclusive, but 20 touchdowns is Randy, Rice, and it could be Jamar. And that's... Randy Moss in 07 with 23. Jerry Rice in 87 with 22. And unfortunately, it's not 20. We could have kept up the every 20 years trend here, but, uh, well, he could do it in 27 as well, but get it, but get it this year. Get it this year too. And I hope he does that these are, I, I think that one thing I would say to Bengals fans is it's okay to enjoy a win like this. It's okay to enjoy a, oh my God, Joe and Jamar are awesome. Like we, we know the situation. They know the situation. It doesn't mean they're not going to want to go down swinging. And, We can talk about draft and coaches and all that stuff, and we're going to. But tonight was fun, and it was fun to watch those guys.
Starting point is 00:09:24 Fun primarily because of those offensive weapons we're talking about. Let's get to Chase Brown coming up in just a minute, some other thoughts on the game, and we will, I promise, get to Joe Burroughs comments about T. Higgins. We'll give some preliminary thoughts there. This is going to be something now that we're talking about for the rest of the season. Joe Burrow either applying pressure to the Bengals' front. office with his platform talking about T. Higgins' future or know something we don't. We'll get to that a little bit later in the show. We're going to wrap up the game and
Starting point is 00:09:54 takeaways from the Bengals Monday Night Football Win in Dallas coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Ice Shaker. Ice Shaker.com. What am I holding in my hand? Oh, if you're looking on YouTube, you can see it, this beautiful Bengals Ice Shaker. And it doesn't matter if you work out. It doesn't matter if you are drinking. some kind of powdery, whether it's pre-workout, whether it's any kind of protein shake, whether it's anything like that. Maybe it's electrolytes in the morning. Ice shaker is the bottle for you.
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Starting point is 00:12:21 Run your game. All right, Jake. Let's get to Chase Brown really quick. Six receptions, 65 yards, and a touchdown. Also had 58 yards rushing, averaged over four yards of carry, averaged, let's see here, 10.8 yards per reception. The 19-yard touchdown, by the way, was just bursty. nice explosiveness. The hands are working, Jake.
Starting point is 00:12:48 I like everything I'm saying from Chase Brown right now. Yeah, Joe Burrow talked about him after the game, too, was really pleased with the way we've seen him develop over the course of the year. Using him as a receiver, they targeted him on a go ball, essentially against Duran Bland against a pretty good corner. It didn't end up in a completion, but that tells you about where Joe Burroughs confidence is in Chase Brown as a receiver, essentially targeting him on an end zone go route,
Starting point is 00:13:10 deep ball, one of his two deep balls in this game, against a pretty good corner in Duran Blan. So a huge development from him this year where one of the things I've talked about this year, something that they're going into this year, maybe early this year, something that they might have been missing with the departure of Joe Mixin was the running back production in the receiving game. They got a little bit from Zach Moss this year. It was similar from a numbers perspective on a per catch basis to what Joe Mixen provided for the Bengals offense. but Chase Brown certainly provides a different element there.
Starting point is 00:13:43 That explosiveness that they wanted from their running game, from their running back, is really showing up with Chase Brown at this point. And that showed up in the run game too. He was running into brick walls for a lot of this game, but he also busted off some nice, you know, 8 to 10-yard runs in this game. His long-in-the-game was just a 10-yard run. So he didn't really take the top off of the defense as a runner. But he did piece together a number of big enough runs
Starting point is 00:14:09 that the run game was a useful part. of the offense tonight. It wasn't just Chase Brown running into brick walls for two yards for every single play. And when you talk about the night that Jamar Chase had in the season that Jamar Chase has had, and we talk about weapons in this offense, currently pretty tight for number two on receptions on the Cincinnati Bengals between T. Higgins and Chase Brown. Chase Brown second on the team in targets tonight. He had eight targets second to Jamar Chase is 18. No one else went over five Andre Yosevash and T. Higgins with five. I have each. So a very heavy volume day for Chase Brown and for Jamar Chase,
Starting point is 00:14:48 but Chase Brown ends up with 20 catches and carries combined for well over 100 yards of offense. So this is a nice piece that has continued to get better throughout the course of the season. A player that you can point to and say he has developed. I thought Andre Yosevash was also good in this game, by the way, just to shout. him out really quick as a wide receiver three. This is two weeks in a row where he's still playing like Andre Yosevash and is Andre Yosevash we know, but he's piecing together these impactful but not necessarily high volume games in the last couple of weeks.
Starting point is 00:15:29 And doing that on a consistent basis could really solidify his position as the third wide receiver on this team. But it's nice to see Chase Brown in particular stepping up into a feature back role, especially because you're seeing the past protection come along as well. And he's truly taking that leap into showing that he can be a three down back for you in the future if that's what they want him to be. Yep, no doubt. And he's really been as consistent. And this includes T because of tonight as in as steady over the past month as anyone on the team.
Starting point is 00:16:04 Now, T's been awesome until tonight, I would say. But really like what I'm seeing from Chase Brown. And the fact that he can be that extension and kind of safety net at times for Joe Burrow. Earlier in the pot, I was talking about how bro going off platform and being hit and still making accurate throws. One of the throws early where he flips at the Chase Brown on the Bengals' first touchdown drive, I mean, that's a huge play. And Chase in space, he's so fast and able to get up field quickly. and it's really fun to see him operate and just kind of evolve, like you said. And look, he was a really experienced runner coming out of Illinois.
Starting point is 00:16:47 And I think that he had to adjust to life in the NFL, adjust to the game. I know the veterans were impressed with him in training camp and certainly going into training camp during the offseason program. And I think he's evolved week by week just with all the reps he's gotten in the league. And now you look at him and he's like, yeah, he's one of the better young backs in the NFL. I think that's completely fair to say. And I think it's impressive that he's doing it behind this offensive line, which, to their credit, they did get some movement on some of those runs today.
Starting point is 00:17:16 It wasn't all negative stuff, especially in the run game. There were some plays where they actually got some movement in this game, and they were able to use some of the Cowboys' tendencies against them, I think. The pass protection, though, made me nervous. And early in the game, the way it started was like, man, do we really got to put Joe Burrow behind this line? And it was open season on Burrow in this game, James. I mean, the face massive wasn't called the late hit from Micah Parsons, where nobody goes over and cleans Micah Parsons up as a theme that we've talked about throughout this season.
Starting point is 00:17:45 Yeah. Go ahead. You're ready to jump in. Yeah. I tweeted that clip. I know people are frustrated. I know people have tagged some Bengals offensive linemen. It's one thing for the flag to not get thrown on that, on the Micah Parsons hit.
Starting point is 00:18:05 The penalty or the lack of a penalty on the, the, face mask, all eyes are on Joe. Like how, how does that not get flagged? And how is no one, he hurts his knee on that play, by the way. Because of the face mask. Yeah, of course, because of the face mask. It doesn't get penalized. And then after that, Micah Parsons takes that shot on him, how is no one running into
Starting point is 00:18:28 Micah there? How was no one getting mad or annoyed that every defensive player? And it's going to happen this week. better believe Jeffrey Simmons and Tavondry Sweed and those Titans defensive line, they're going to say, oh, well, we're going to lean on nine. We're going to make nine feel us. I hate it. I hate it, Jake.
Starting point is 00:18:47 It is my biggest pet peeve and literally of this team. Worse than it bothers me more than Gino Stone taking a poor angle, even though I thought he played okay tonight. It bothers me more than no one being able to get to the opposing quarterback. Like, this is such a basic thing. Don't let people lean on Joe Burrow more than they're allowed to within the rules. And if they try to bend them a little bit, don't let them or let them know that you're going to lean on them back. And it just doesn't feel like anyone thinks that right now.
Starting point is 00:19:22 No, it's very frustrating to watch that kind of reaction or lack thereof. We've talked about it feels like for at least 10 weeks now. Yeah, it's been a while. Like maybe not the very start of the season. It might not have been something that we noticed. right away, but it's definitely as a season's gone on. It's a difficult spot to be. I understand not wanting to get a penalty and having that mentality and all those things, but you also aren't protecting him well enough. And he's managing muddy pockets as we've talked about on this show
Starting point is 00:19:56 quite a bit at a very, very high level this year. Putting together some very fun football to watch. So at least we have that. We will have that going forward. We'll also have this T. Higgins conversation coming up in just a minute. Thanks to Joe Burroughs comments after the game. We'll dive into that to finish up the show coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandul. Fandul is America's number one sports book. Fandul has the Bengals as road favorites for a second straight week.
Starting point is 00:20:23 By the way, a lot of people think, oh, well, the Bengals, they shouldn't be five and a half point favorites against the Cowboys. Well, they not only won, but they covered. Yeah, they did. And it is something that, who knows, maybe a little bit of a little bit of, to do it again in Tennessee where they opened as five point favorites. I'm sure that line might have switched a little bit, changed up. That's why you got to get to Fandual.com right now because whether it's money lines,
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Starting point is 00:21:16 Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandle, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. As we dive into this T. Higgins conversation, we haven't mentioned the defense even once. So just a very quick thought there. Shout out Trey Hendrickson for finishing the game with that sack and putting the defense in a winning position, the Bengals making plays. after afforded the botched block punt opportunity to win a game at the end of the game.
Starting point is 00:21:42 Nice to see them finish on both sides of the ball. And a couple other quick notes that we'll dive into more throughout this week. Miles Murphy with 34 snaps to Sam Hubbard's 21 this week. Joseph Osai getting quite a bit of work inside, including a clean sack against Tyler Smith. Some interesting notes there. Jordan Battle once again playing a lion's share of the snaps, 52 snaps for him on defense. And some interesting rotations. as Mumajong Meta does get into the game late in the game with three snaps,
Starting point is 00:22:10 DJ Ivy with seven snaps, Marco Wilson playing outside corner in some critical situations, had a key pass break up in this game. So just a quick note there that is to say I would like to give the Bengals a little bit of credit for getting a look at some guys, whether that's evaluation mode or whether that's just because they think those players are giving them the best chance to win or have the best matchups with various players in a game plan specific situation. they get some evaluation because they put those guys in-game situations on tape. And I think that that is a benefit.
Starting point is 00:22:43 That being said, James, let's dive into what Joe Burrow had to say about T. Higgins and kind of stealing the thunder of the game, which was a fun game. And there's a lot of fun things to talk about, especially when you focus on Jamar Chase there, but maybe more fun depending on how you read Joe Burroughs comments. Yeah, I think that, the fact that Joe, one, went there and was willing to be as open as he was. And I'm pulling up the exact quote here from Joe Burrow.
Starting point is 00:23:15 He said he's confident that they're going to be able to find a way to get T. Higgins back and do what it takes. And let's see here. Here it is. All right. Those discussions are ongoing. I'm confident we're going to be able to do what it takes to bring T back that I'm going to do what it takes to get him back. And so is he. We've had those talks.
Starting point is 00:23:34 Those are going to be off-season discussions, but I think we are excited about that opportunity. Why is Joe so confident, given what's happened, quote, we'll see. It's interesting. I think the door is open. Joe wouldn't say that if he didn't think it was possible. And so now that door is open, things that we've dismissed and rightfully dismissed, and everyone has dismissed, the possibility that T returned, well, if Joe, the most important person in the franchise wants T-back, that carries weight.
Starting point is 00:24:09 And weight from Mike Brown to Katie Blackburn to Troy Blackburn, it carries a lot of weight. So we'll see. I'm not willing to say, all right, it's a done deal. No. But I do think that that's going to carry some weight, especially because the Bengals have the opportunity to tag T, negotiate with him, and potentially get a deal done. Jamar Chase was asked about this after the game, too. Jamar Chase also taking the podium.
Starting point is 00:24:32 and Jamar's comments were effectively, he was asked, do you think you could get all three of you back long term? He was asked about one season, then the follow-up was, could it be a long-term? And Jamar Chase said, absolutely it's possible. We just have to play chess. And I think you read these comments in different ways. First, let's talk about the Joe Burrow comments.
Starting point is 00:24:50 And the most likely way to read this is that this is Joe Burrow taking his platform after a win to talk about how T. Higgins impacts defenses and how defensive coordinators react when Jamar Chase and T. Higgins are on the field together, even though T didn't have a great game with a drop and not executing in the red zone on a third and two fade, didn't have the most productive game. Burrow made sure to point out that even when T doesn't produce, it really tilts the way defensive coordinators can call a game in coverage and leads to things like Jamar Chase having 14 catches on 18 targets for 177 yards and two touchdowns on a game where Mike Zimmer knows,
Starting point is 00:25:30 that that's a priority, but didn't do a good enough job of dedicating resources to stop Jamar Chase. And part of that is because if you do that, then you got to pay the T. Higgins price. And so the most likely way to read it is that it's in putting pressure on the front office and saying, look, this is something that I still prioritize at a high level. And now I'm saying this somewhat subtly, but not necessarily too subtly in my press conference after a game in prime time. people are going to notice that, right? There's no other football happening today. There's no other news to distract people.
Starting point is 00:26:04 Joe Burrow talking about T. Higgins, one of the top free agents in this upcoming free agency class on a day where there's nothing else going on in the NFL is going to capture attention. So that's one way to read it. The other way, which is perhaps more optimistic, is that he knows something that we don't. And I don't think that this is very likely,
Starting point is 00:26:24 especially judging from T. Higgins' reaction in the locker room when he was asked about it and not really wanting to get into the conversation too much. But regardless, I don't think that this is nothing. It might not result in T. Higgins returning for a long-term deal with the Cincinnati Bengals when all is said and done. But this is Joe Burrow, I think, making his preference very clear. And he's the most important person in the franchise, including ownership, including anyone you want to name.
Starting point is 00:26:54 So if he says it, it does matter. Now, how much? How realistic is it? How willing is T willing to do what it takes on his end? How willing is Jamar willing to do? Because it will take some compromise. And it might be as simple as Joe restructures next year to make it easier. And that's it.
Starting point is 00:27:16 We know the Bengals have enough cap space. They already have the $22 million planned for Jamar. So if they extended him, like we can get into the weeds here. It's not a cap space thing. I always dismiss the idea that it's a cash thing. Will the front office think that it's the wise thing to do to extend T. Higgins and Jemar Chase? That's a question. That one's interesting.
Starting point is 00:27:40 Does Joe know that they're at least going to tag T a second time because of the way the wider Ciro market went? Who knows? Who knows? But that door that appeared to be shut and locked and it really felt that. that way, right? Like shut, locked, maybe dead bolted, and then a second lock, and then a third lock. It feels like it's at least cracked now. And that door being the path to Tehiggins signing with the Bengals long term. It's at least cracked. And so now, like, you've removed several of the
Starting point is 00:28:15 locks and you have a key somewhere and you just don't remember exactly where it is and you have to find it still, you know, to really go with a lock analogy. Yeah. And so what's going to be interesting is how Joe follows it up two weeks from now, three weeks from now. Because whether the door's a little open or just unlocked, he has a chance to kick it in by saying, yeah, I want T back. He's going to be back. And we're going to make sure he's back. Like, he can do that. And by the way, he does have the power. I don't think he's ever wielded this. And that's why this offseason is so interesting. There's a lot of conversation here. But Joe can definitely wield the sort of power
Starting point is 00:28:58 that is, hey, I'm the most important player on this team. One of the most important players in the league, you are going to keep T because I want T. Now, is that the wise move? Is that not? Will they do it? I don't know, but he does have that, and I don't think he's ever
Starting point is 00:29:14 done that with anybody. And maybe he doesn't here with T, especially because he's probably looking around, like, who the hell else are you going to pay? And I'm sure we'll talk more about it this week, but it is quite interesting. that he chose the time he did, like you said, prime time to share his thoughts on T Higgins' future. And the other interesting part of it, Jake, is that he said, we've had these conversations.
Starting point is 00:29:38 T played out. But Joe knew what he was saying. And so I think that that's interesting, too. Now, who's the we? Is the we him and T? I assume that's what he was talking about. Is the we him in the front office? It certainly sounds like Joe is willing to have the conversations with any and everybody to try to keep T.
Starting point is 00:29:56 Yeah, very interesting stuff from Joe Barrow. The last thing that I'll throw in on the Jamar Chase chess comment, he's saying you have to play chess to keep all three of those guys. I think this is referring to the front office. I don't think it's referring necessarily to the players. It might be referring to the players. It's a little bit cryptic, but this could be referring to the front office saying, hey, push money into the future, guys. Do what every other team does in the NFL and use guarantees and use, you know, the rolling option structure, use the structures that push cap money into the restructure guys
Starting point is 00:30:31 that you can restructure to free up cap money to move things around. Because it doesn't really bite you that much for a while anyway. Eventually it makes you make hard decisions. Just see the Eagles who seem to overcome this year after year with good drafting to replace guys that they know are on their way out. But I did think Jamar's comments were interesting about having to play chess because this recognizes that the front office needs to, one, evolve their guarantee structure, I think, for both Jamar and a hypothetical T deal.
Starting point is 00:31:00 And it could be hinting at needing to be a little bit more creative and aggressive in the way they manage a salary count. Not that I think Jamar is getting in the weeds there. But talking about playing chess means that he's, I think, aware that with the amount of money we're talking about for those guys, there may be some changes of doing business necessary for a team that hasn't changed the way they do business in a very long time. the funny part about it is we've spent what 10 minutes on it there's more odds are odds are we lead tomorrow's show with it yeah and because i have a bunch more thought and i'm like can't do it that's a whole other pod which is why
Starting point is 00:31:41 you should hit that subscribe button and follow wherever you get your podcasts it's a great way to end this show i'm just thinking about how everyone's probably real upset right now that we're not talking about how the Bengals aren't tanking and this is a meaningless win. And there's definitely fans out there thinking that for those of you that are curious, we'll also cover tomorrow for at least like 20 seconds where the Bengals will be picking in the NFL draft if the season were to end today. Because some people asked for a weekly update on where the Bengals will be picking if the season ended today.
Starting point is 00:32:12 And I think that's a good idea. So we'll give you that weekly update. It might only be for 30 seconds, but we'll give you that update tomorrow as well. Until then, the Bengals win. they moved to 5 and 8. Thanks for listening to the Locktime Bengals podcast, Hoodey, and have a good one.

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