Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Matt Eberflus "involved" with Bengals DC search, plus prioritizing the 2025 Offseason To-Do List

Episode Date: January 12, 2025

Matt Eberflus is reportedly involved with the Cincinnati Bengals' defensive coordinator search. Whether or not that means he's a candidate, the Bengals did complete interviews with Patrick Graham and DeMarcus Covington for the job, and Jake Liscow and James Rapien bring you the latest on the DC front. Then, the guys dive into the Bengals' 2025 offseason priorities that start with making sure their stars are happy and secured, then turns to the trenches where guards and defensive linemen highlight the to-do list.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!Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert—who’s ready to take your taxes off your plate, so you can focus on your day.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.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 TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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 have a lot to do this offseason. Let's try to prioritize that offseason to do list. 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 Locked on Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Lisko. He's your host, James Rapine, and we are Locked on Bengals here on the Lockdown podcast that we're covering.

your team every day. We're on YouTube. We're everywhere you get your podcast. And so if you're new to the show, you can subscribe to make sure you don't miss an episode as we'll have you covered as the Bengals continue their defensive coordinator search. And we get into some offseason priorities for the first time as playoff games are still going on for the first time in 2025. I mean, welcome back to the everydayers as well. We appreciate all of you who don't miss an episode of a lockdown Bengals and all of you who make us your first listen. That's a great habit to have here. We appreciate you all as well. Today's episode is sponsored by Fandul

where if you win your first $5 bet, you will get $200 in bonus bets. Check it out at fandul.com to get started. And James, before we dive into the honey-do list for the Cincinnati Bengals this offseason and the priorities

that they have to reshape certain areas of this team that are pretty obvious, we'll give a quick update on the defensive coordinator search since the last time you heard from us, the biggest change is that some of the Bengals interviews have been reportedly completed, and Matt Eberfluse has entered the chat change. He has, and the question is how much?

How serious is this? Is this interest on both sides? Is an interview so imminent that by the time people hear this, Matt Eberfluse has interviewed for the defensive coordinator job? We had some weather here in Cincinnati last week. Maybe that delayed the travel plans. I wouldn't have tried to fly in to CBG during different parts of last week. So who knows?

But Matt Eberfluse, former defensive coordinator of the colds, obviously most recently was the head coach of the Chicago Bears, was fired on November 29th. He fits the description and a lot of the qualities that I think the Bengals are looking for. From an experience standpoint, from a – having security. success turning over a defense and just asking around the league. He's certainly well respected for his ability to develop players. So there is a chance, I would say, that he would fit the description of what they're looking for. Yeah, credited in Indianapolis in particular the work he did that got him a head coaching job for player development,

for suiting his defense to his players, to his personnel, and for being sound, generally speaking. And if you are consistently fielding a sound defense that follows its rules and sometimes knows the offense's rules better than the offense does and can use those to their advantage. And that is certainly a sign of a good defense in today's NFL. That does sound like the kind of defensive coordinator that the Bengals could be looking for. We're talking about a floor razor potentially if everything goes according to play. Because you never know with these coaches. A floor raiser, certainly something they're looking for, someone who can develop talent, someone who can put guys in positions to maximize their talents. That sounds on paper like what Matt Eberfluse has done in previous stops.

He's also had good results, like you mentioned, taking the Colts defense from 30th, the year before he arrived to temp when he arrived. I think it was in scoring defense in that metric. Also going to be a top 11 defense right away in yardage allowed in his first year in Indy. the before-after splits that people pointed to an EPA per play for Robert Sala also exists for Iber Fluse with the Bears' defense as head coach. And while it was a terrible tenure

for Iber Fluse as a head coach in Chicago, it's easy to look around the league and find examples of guys who couldn't do it as head coaches but are still really good coordinators. And the most prominent example for Bengals fans to think about, well, there's two probably. I think the modern example, Steve Spagnol,

in Kansas City, a guy who did not have success as a head coach, but has figured it out as a defensive coordinator and has now seen as one of the best in the league. Another one is Dick LeBow, who, of course, didn't work out in Cincinnati, but was a great defensive coordinator for the Steelers. And Robert Sala, Dennis Allen,

Brandon Staley, like all these guys that a lot of people want, well, Matt Iberfluse fits that same mold. And so we'll see. I think it's interesting. I went back and pulled a quote, because I was curious. I was like, oh, well, they had that joint practice with the bears. Maybe, maybe Zach and Matt are tight.

And Zach was like, yeah, I don't really know them that well, but we've been communicating, and this was in August. We've been communicating since May and ironing out the plans and all of those things. But who knows? Like, maybe there's something there. And that's why the reporting on this, as of us recording right now is that the Bengal, Matt Iber Fluse is involved in the Bengals defensive coordinator search. I used in the mix when I wrote the story.

Like, I don't know what that means necessarily, but hopefully he gets an interview. That's what I would want is if you're intrigued by anyone, like anyone you're intrigued by, interview them. It can't hurt. It's more information. And you have to get this higher right if you're the Bengals. Yeah. Agreed, obviously. It's the first thing they have to do on that off-season to-do list because many of the topics that we're going to discuss to follow will have a lot to do with whoever is involved at D.C.

Speaking of whoever is involved, the Bengals did reportedly complete interviews with Patrick Graham and with DeMarcus Covington, a couple of former Patriots and other stops for Graham, defensive coordinators, Graham most recently, of course, in Las Vegas. And also getting a head coaching interview with the Jaguars, was it? Make sure I have that right. But Patrick Graham also getting some interest as a head coach in this cycle as well, which I found interesting because he's just reportedly done his interview for the Bengals. DC job as well. Yeah, I think Patrick Graham is an intriguing candidate, someone that,

at least in NFL circles, is thought of his, he, if they hire him, they're going to say, all right, well, he's going to be able to maximize Miles Murphy. His defensive line expertise is going to be able to really help him develop and grow. And he's going to get the most out of some of these young guys and embrace the facelift that this defense has undergone over the past couple of years and we'll continue to do this offseason and there will be plenty of new faces that line up for the 2025 Bengals that were not in stripes in 2024. So yeah, I think that one is a name to watch. And with Covington, he's a defensive line guy.

It was the Patriots defensive line coach for multiple years. I think three to four years was a first time defensive coordinator for the Patriots this past year. What I wonder, maybe you go with Patrick Graham as DC and Covington as defensive line coach. Like it's, that would not shock me if it went that route. I'm not saying it's going to go that route, but I look at Covington's profile. And who knows, maybe he just crushes it and ends up being the defensive coordinator. But I think he fits the, all right, well, you know Patrick Graham well, come be the defensive line coach, and we'll have Graham coach the defensive be defensive coordinator. So I could see that path and maybe that's what they're exploring.

Incidentally, there was no overlap between DeMarcus Covington and Patrick Graham and New England. Patrick Graham left in 2015. DeMarcus Covington arrived in 2017. And he's, and Graham has been around. Like, it's not like he's just a New England got like he's been with the Giants, been with the Dolphins, obviously been with the Raiders, been with the Raiders so unheld in such high regard that Antonio Pierce kept him on the staff last year. I do think that matters that he did that.

So regardless of the results and the Raiders were bad for a bunch of reasons. But the one thing I would wonder, what does Max Crosby think of him? What do some of these younger defensive players that have worked with him over the past couple of years in Las Vegas? What do they think of them? And the Bengals are probably gathering all that information right now. But I do think that he's a legitimate contender, I would say, for the defensive coordinator job. That's how I would describe it. Yeah, talking about the younger players, certainly one of the

keys now that has been stressed in the media, at least on Sunday when I woke up, James, I woke up to a big conversation about the hiring of Vable in New England and the necessity to be able to connect with these players coming out of college off of NIL deals where there's this difference in the players arriving to the league, making money for the first time versus players arriving in the league with money, even if they are fifth round. Pits because they were superstars of their universities before arriving in the NFL. Yeah, it is, that part of it is changing. And you're going to see these prospects come in. I mean, heck, the cars, the Georgia quarterback who stunk this year, to be honest,

was a big reason why Georgia didn't make it to the national championship game, which that's their expectation every year. He declares for the draft. Everyone tells him he's stupid. And then Miami offers him $4 million to go there and be the quarterback for the hurricane. So Carson Beck's like, yeah, I'll go live in Miami for $4 million. That's better than being a seventh round pick. Yeah, so it's wild. A bit of a different world. We'll have to see how that impacts the NFL draft as well.

But coming up next, James, let's talk about some of those offseason to-dos for the Bengals, some prioritization to get into for this team. We will shift the conversation to the exciting topic of this Bengals offseason next. Growing your small business in 2025 comes down to how well you can hire and better hire start with smarter insights. That's where LinkedIn comes in. With the strongest hiring data available, LinkedIn helps you identify the right candidates,

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A lot to do for the Cincinnati Bengals this offseason, James. And this comes a year after we called it the most important off season in Bengals history. And perhaps that was a captive of the moment kind of thing. But I don't think so. I don't think that was necessarily recency bias. And I'm sure there's some history buff out there. And maybe you're one of them, James, that can go back throughout the history of the Cincinnati Bengals

and find an offseason that was more important. But this was a team that had in its recent history, a Super Bowl run, an AFC championship run, right on the doorstep of a Super Bowl in a second straight year, lost their quarterback to an injury, and had clear veteran departures that they needed to replace last year. And clear needs for development last year. And what have we said about their results from that offseason last year

several times is that they've failed. failed their most important offseason in recent history. And what happens when you push the buck down the road because you didn't hit on your free agent moves and on your draft picks, not that they didn't hit on their draft picks, but in recent years, let's say the cumulative product has not led to the kind of development they need. You find yourself with a lot of needs again. And in this case, James, I think very clear needs for this team to address in the 2025

offseason. Yeah, the reason why last season was so important we saw it this year, right? We know Jamar and Joe and T, all of those things. Like they played well and Trey. And that's where it starts this year is for me, number one on the to-do list. Obviously, they have to get the coaching staff right. But honestly, do they have to get the defensive coordinator down before they get an extension done with Mar Chase? Do they have to?

Do they have to get the defensive coordinator down before they get an extension done with T. Higgins? or extend Trey Hendrickson, that's where my to-do list starts, outside of the coaching staff, of course, is get the big three. Obviously, Joe's done. So the big three that are available. And yeah, Jamar is under contract, Trey's under contract. Neither one of those guys is going to be happy without a deal, because they're the best at what they do in the NFL, arguably.

And for Trey Hendrickson, getting sacks specifically, you could argue that he's better at that than anyone else. That's strictly getting sacks. And obviously, Jamar Chase has been the best receiver in the league all year long. So that's where my to-do list starts is extend Jamar, make sure Tray's happy and maybe Hoppy, if you want some hops, a couple beers or something. It doesn't matter to celebrate.

I don't know if trade drinks or not. But you get my point. And then get tea done as well. And so those are the three guys. But before, even before, like I know. there's all these needs and oh well this and that and this and I'm focused inward and I'm like keep these guys keep this core together because we've seen how talented it can be and how good it can be I think that is the first step is ideally getting the extensions done for for for

Hendrickson for Chase and figuring it out with teeth and I think that it's very clear that given Joe Burrough's commentary and Joe Burroughs importance to this team and the fact that the entire offense is built around what Joe Burrow T. Higgins and Jemar Chase can do on the football field together, that step one is keep T. If you can't keep T, figure it out quickly and trade them. And they have to wait to franchise tag him to do that. And they can't franchise tag him immediately. They could resign him immediately, technically speaking. Yeah, I think the simplest way to put it with T, you cannot let him hit the open market.

That's it. It feels like that would be grossly misusing a resource, an asset, if you just are like, all right, well, we tried T. Have fun of the free agent market. And it's a weak, wide receiver, like, not even just in free agency, but drafts. Like, it's not as, it's not like last year. And so T is going to have more value, I would say,

which is also why you would argue to pay him, right? But regardless, you can't let that guy walk. And they're going to be paying the price of not getting any of this done last year. And this is one of the very frustrating things. But this is, I think, an instance of better late than never. I think that it does still behoove the team to pay the price. But they are paying a price because they didn't figure something out with T. And with Jammar and with T. Higgins last year.

And I know that people are discussing, you know, the NFL rules around when you're allowed to negotiate with Trey Hendrickson. And perhaps that was part of the issue, perhaps not. But now you've got an all pro in Trey Hendrickson who wants more money. And now you've got an all pro in Jemar Chase. Congratulations to those two for being honored by the AP as all pros. And for the second straight year, as you mentioned, maybe the best in the NFL at getting sacks. Brandon Thorne's true sack rate features Trey Hendrickson in first place.

And what Brandon Thorne does to come up with that is he watches the tape and breaks down every sack that defensive linemen have and categorizes it using his expertise in offensive line play and trench play as a clean-out sack, a coverage sack, a low-quality sack, a high-quality sack, or a rare high-quality sack,

and those are weighted by the quality of the tackle that you're playing against. And Trey Hendrickson is at the top of the list. list for the second straight year. Last year, Brandon noted that he was tied with T.J. Watt at the top of the list. This year, he edges out Miles Garrett for first place in true sack rate. So certainly, along with the all pro honors, those price tags have gone up. Initially, here's my thought. You tell me if I'm too high or too low. I'd offer Trey. So he's one year left. Oh, I need to look up the money on this year. But

I would say, Trey, let's extend for two more years, 50 million. You think he does that? I wonder what he thinks about his own value. I think that there's a reasonable offer. The highest paid, the top five highest paid edge rushers in the NFL start at 25 million. It goes all the way up to 34 million for Nick Bosa, which is currently standing out like a sore thumb among the edge market, like making hands more money than the next guy. 25 is what Miles Garrett is doing right now. And Miles Garrett is probably going to get a new deal too.

But I think that is reasonable. Trey is going into his age 31 season, and the Bengals will probably have some hesitancy there. But with 15.8 million, 16 million due to Trey in 2025, you can spread that out over three years with the signing bonus. I think that is reasonable, a reasonable starting point, at least for negotiations. Yeah, that's where I'm at.

I'm thinking about Jamar. But before we get to Jamar, because everyone just already, they've talked about that a lot. Tia would offer four for 100. How does that stack up on the wide receiver market? Did you look? We will tell you next on Lockdown Bengals. Today's show is brought to you by Fandall. The NFL playoffs are in full swing.

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You can. Yeah, you can look at those awards. Maybe think Joe Brod is going to win comeback player of the year. Maybe you think that Jamar Chase is going to surprise everyone and win offensive player of the year. It shouldn't be a surprise, and yet for some reason, it would be a surprise regardless. get in on the action today by visiting fandle.com to join today and get started with $200 and bonus bets.

That's fandle.com. Make this playoff season unforgettable with fandle, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. That number would be tied with DeVantz Smith at $25 million per year. That's a top 15 or so salary, top 12-ish for a wide receiver. I think it would take a little bit. bit more because there's some cap inflation going on and I think T and his camp, even though it's a new camp, would argue that he's worth a little bit more. So it might need to be $8 million more, four to $8 million more over the four years. But I think that that's a, again, a reasonable

starting point because when T's healthy, if he's healthy for a full season, he's probably a $29 million receiver. And I think on the open market, he's probably a $29 million receiver. But you have the opportunity to negotiate before he gets to market. And so that's one advantage you have if you're the Bengals. I think he would make. So here it would be my strategy. I think he'll make like $35 million per.

I think he'll get crazy money if he has to the market. Jefferson money. No doubt. Because I think the Patriots will be desperate. I think the chargers would be desperate. You know, like I think that there would be teams, maybe the Jaguars. Like there'll be teams that are just like, screw it. Let's just get this guy because he's the guy to get in available now.

But if you tag him at 26, close to 27 million, and you're like, all right, see, turn down four years 100, I think it would be hard to do. Assuming that half of it's guaranteed, right? Assuming that they actually do that. Now, if only the first year is guaranteed, that's much easier to turn down because you're making that on the tag anyway. But yeah, that's where I would start. Maybe it's four for 108, right? Maybe it is a couple million more. But that's the realm.

And then the Chase one, just make him the first $40 million a year receiver. Do four for 160. Be done. I think I looked at the math of it. And if they were, I don't remember what the numbers were anymore. I think it was around 38 based on the projected cap for 2025 to be the same percentage of the cap as Justin Jefferson. might have to beat by a little bit, but you go to like 38 and a half, 39. I mean, that's in the realm of 40 then. So that's 152. I'm getting notifications. I did the math a second ago, 38 times four. Like,

that was where I was at was 38. And then I'm like, you know what, don't nickel and dime. I'm just getting them to 40. So yeah, my head was at 38 and I didn't look at the cap percentages. Well, and they, I would be fine with that. And they have all of the structure of the detail of the deal that they've talked about it with Jamar's agent at Nazium last year. not very, very close. That should not take a terribly long time to get that done. Now, again, you are dealing with an all pro now, but it's not like that's changing dramatically. What they're paying Jamar, what's changing dramatically, what they're paying Jamar is that they waited a year, and you got salary cap inflation. And these deals are all indexed to the salary cap, which next year is currently projected by over the cap at $278 million, which is, I think, fairly significant.

I think $30 million or so dollar increase, $20 to $30 million increase over 2024, which leads to bigger salaries, even if they're the same percentage of the salary cap, which is one, I think, pretty fair way to look at the deals that teams do over time and compare year over year. Oh, yeah, it's a bigger number. of course, it's always going to be a bigger number, but you look at what it is as a percentage of the cap. And I think that's a better way to compare than just looking at the raw numbers. That being said, the Bengals are probably looking at in the realm of $70 to $90 million in salary cap space. And that assumes that there could be cap cuts coming for Sam Hubbard, for Sheldon Vankins, for Alex Kappa, for Jermann, for Jem, Pratt, for Gino Stone, for Zach Moss. Those are the obvious to different degrees cut candidates that save the Bengals a lot of money against

the cap, leave them with minimal debt money, and give the Bengals flexibility to overhaul units where there will be new coaches. And this is something that we mentioned last week, where there are new coaches coming in on the defensive side of the ball, the defensive line coach, the offensive line coach. There's opportunity to overhaul units as well. And obviously, there is a need to get the defensive line some improvements, some reinforcement, someone to go along with Trey Hendrickson as a guy that can affect the passer. And obviously there is a need on the into your offensive line at guard for the Cincinnati Bengals to improve in 2025. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. There's a lot of needs, and that's why they have to maximize this cap space,

be aggressive. Keep their good players. That's why I led with that is you want to keep those guys happy and keep them here because they're hard to replace. It's hard to get it right in free agency. It's hard to get it right in the draft, and they've gotten it right with those guys. So keep them. And the guard thing, outside of what they have in the building, guard is their biggest need for me. Their biggest. At some point, I'm going to write it. I've been thinking about it really since the season ended, like their biggest need. What is it?

The way they are, the way they play all of those things, and this is going to be something we ham. I mean, we're going to talk about this a lot. I really need them to upgrade guard. Whether that's taking one with the 17th pick, that can just be Kevin Zeitler. Fine. Do it. Like, I am not, I will leave, if you want to spend big money on it for the first time in franchise history, do it.

I will not be mad, but I need them to fix guard. To me, it is their biggest issue because of what it does to the franchise and what it does to Joe and the impact that it can have on a week-to-week basis with how they, how they play and then how they have to play at times. I need, I need the guard thing to get fixed. And then obviously after that, it's very clear what's second. And that's the pass rush. You need more.

And what's interesting here, Jake, is just like my feeling, yeah, you get a new defensive coordinator in here. We know this front office. This front office isn't going to say, all right, we're getting rid of three defensive tackles. Like they just drafted Chris Jenkins. They just drafted McKinley Jackson. They're going to believe in those guys.

They'll obviously get rid of Sheldon Rankins. BJ Hill's a free agent. So they'll bring some guys in. but whoever they bring in a defensive coordinator, they're expecting to get more out of Chris Jenkins, more out of McKinley Jackson. And so I don't think it's going to be a completely overhaul in the defensive tackle room.

Obviously, there will be new faces, though. There's a couple of things there. On the defensive tackle room in particular, you do need to replace BJ Hill's productivity and snaps. That is your leading snap guy on the defensive interior. So they can't entirely rely on Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jackson, especially based on what we saw. from them.

And there was a late season improvement for McKinley Jackson. You can't rely on those guys to be your only solution on the defensive interior. I would love to see them dip into the free agency class here. I would love to see them dip into this draft class here. It seems like a good defensive tackle draft class in comparison to last year based on my early impression of the draft class on the defensive interior. And there's some guys out there in free agency that we have liked that we've liked in the draft.

Milton Williams, chief among those. A lot of people are looking at the Cowboys defensive tackle as well, who OSA, whose last name I'm not going to try to pronounce on the fly without getting some practice in. And then there's Levi-Ozareke from the Detroit Lions as some potential free agent candidates. There's potential there depending on what the market looks like for those guys. And as far as Guard, I do agree with you that it needs to be a priority to get better. But part of my mentality on the offensive line is the entire thing needs to figure out how to run block as well.

And they have some guys that should be able to do it. And so whoever they bring into offensive coordinator, just going back to how the Texans finished off that game against the Chargers, or the Ravens finish off the game against the Steelers. Ravens is the best running team in football, a little bit of a difference there. You need to sometimes be able to run the ball to finish off games. Bengals have not been able to do that for a couple of years. And so whatever they do at Guard, it does become a little multifaceted. Obviously, I agree with you. The first priority is protecting Joe Burrow, the way they want to play offense is dropping back and passing the ball.

all out of shotgun, but you need to be able to do different things sometimes and punish light boxes when teams go to that approach against you. And so the- That's why guards their biggest need is because of that, I think. Like, not just, I wasn't just talking about the passing element of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The challenge to me there is the investment required versus the payoff that you get. And like the top free agent there is Trey Smith, right, from the Kansas City Chiefs. He'll help you in the running game, but his pass blocking numbers aren't all that impressive.

So while that might be the obvious big money target, when you look at just an overall free agency class, which doesn't look like a great class, by the way, it gets complicated to me because you have to find the guys that can suit your style, but can help you in the run game as well. For whatever vision, the new offensive line coach slash likely run game coordinator is going to bring to the Bengals in that department. Kevin Zitler. Come on home. And that's the other thing is like I'm not, I again,

don't know the texture of the draft class super well yet. But I mean either. Likely, I would rather they draft the best player in the first round than look for an immediate starter at guard. Because you can probably get that in the second third round this year. For sure. Oh, well, I'm just saying if it is guard,

I'm always player over a position. I know. I'm just clarifying that. Like, it might be a safety or a defensive lineman or even a wide receiver, which I know you were going to interject. I was going to say tight end. I was going to say tight end. Tight end. Could be.

Good, good tight end class again, I think. My initial impression there. Of course, plenty of time to get to the draft. And we will get there. But safety is going to be on the list as well. A second running back is going to be on the list. We did not get to all of the things on the list. But we certainly talked about the top.

of the Bengals priority list as we understand it today. And tight end, probably going to be on that list too, depending on what we find out about Eric Calls Recovery whenever we get an update there. It should be. And yeah, that's the beauty. If you're still here, maybe you're a new listener. We're every day.

Five times a week. We're going to have plenty of time to discuss the Bengals' off-season needs, that to-do list. It is lengthy. There's a lot of needs. And yet a team that has Jamar Chase, Joe Burrow, T. Higgins, and Tray. Hendrickson, Jake, I think that's a heck of a place to start, which is why that

to-do list starts there. Yeah, and we will get into some of these other topics like how the Bengals can approach the draft. We'll get into a draft primer. These are things that are coming in the coming weeks here on lockdown Bengals as well. I have sent out initial feelers to where some of our favorite draft guests are in their preparation for this year's draft class, James. They're not ready yet, but it might be after the Senior Bowl for some of them.

Me neither. But we will have to start thinking about it soon. I know it. I know it. Knock draft Monday soon. I know it. Another thing we'll be watching is what we can take away from some of these playoff teams because it's always interesting to look at the lessons you can learn there.

But that is going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening. Hootay and have a good one. Kevin come home. Jake, I'm talking about Zightler.