Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - MODERNIZATION! How Burrow’s Restructure CREATES New Paths for Moves & Extensions

Starting point is 00:00:00 Stop me if you've heard this before. The Cincinnati Bengals have done something this offseason that they've never done before. It's a restructure for Joe Burrow. Finally. 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. He's Joe Goodberry.

Starting point is 00:00:30 I'm Jake Liscoe. We are Locked-on Bengals, bringing you daily coverage right here on the Lockdown on Bengals coverage. We've been covering the Bengals for decades between the two of us collectively, which makes this the best one-stop shop for all the Bengals information you could ever want on the internet. And today we're going to get into the Joe Burrow restructure what it means in many different ways because some people don't know what a restructure is and what it actually indicates the Bengals plans may or may not be. It doesn't mean that a Bobby Wagner, a Bobby O'Caricay are about to sign contracts with the Cincinnati Bengals will,

Starting point is 00:01:05 answer that question at some point in this episode of lockdown bengals we've also got an open oTA practice to talk about we'll get to a little bit later on in the show but joe for the first time in bengals history excluding the very small restructure that occurred when they downsized joe mixon's contract for the first time the bengals have executed a simple restructure they restructure part of joe burrow's salary to create 10 million dollars in salary cap space this year they could have gone all the way up to almost $20 million, but they go about halfway there, creating some breathing room so they can effectively operate normally. Prior to the restructure, the Bengals had the third-leased cap space in the NFL

Starting point is 00:01:48 at right around $7 million. They also sign cash just how to a contract today. We'll get to that note at some point today as well. But the big story is this unprecedented offseason continues with a restructure of Joe Burroughs contract. New things again. You know, it's like ever since the Joe Burrow era started, it's what we always wanted from that is one of the exciting parts of, you know, you draft Joe Burrow because hopefully you can help push this organization forward.

Starting point is 00:02:17 And I don't know if we want to give them credit for every single move. But if you go back to 2020 and beyond, they started being different in a lot of ways from the past Bengals, from the old Bengals, from your dad's Bengals, where they wouldn't go out in the free agency and spend a lot of money. They wouldn't guarantee money into multiple years of deals. they wouldn't go after the biggest free agents. They wouldn't make trades and trade away their first round pick,

Starting point is 00:02:39 and they wouldn't restructure contracts. And these are all things modern teams are doing. That puts the Bengals with them. Finally, we should celebrate this. This is a big moment for the people that have been asking for the Bengals to modernize. So, you know, we're excited. This is something we've pointed to for a long time that, hey, when this happens, it's a sign that they are trying to play ball

Starting point is 00:03:00 and they're trying to pack the roster, maybe a little bit more. Sure, they could have created 19. million. Instead, they're going to create $10 million in cap space. That'll put them around $17 million. That gives you a lot of room to make a few moves. Maybe it's extensions and we'll get to all that. But, you know, there were a lot of questions right after because I think people casually know what a restructure is, Jake, because we never really had to pay attention too closely to what it is around the league. Why don't you tell the people and describe it in that I know you're the one for this role here. Describe what a restructure is. Well, I've given this description before.

Starting point is 00:03:35 Lockdown Bengals, and if your eyes glaze over, I can't blame you one bit. This is a simple accounting mechanism in the NFL. I explained this to a friend earlier today, and they didn't really get it. And maybe you will, maybe you won't. I'm going to do my best here. So in the NFL, we separate cash and cap, obviously. A lot of you know that. If you've been everydayers listening to this show, you've heard us talk about that plenty over the years. And Joe Burroughs cash flow this year will not change at all. He is converting $10 million, or it's actually $12.5 million of his salary, about half of his salary this year that he was owed into a bonus that will likely be paid out in game checks as if it were salary, which makes us, strictly speaking, an accounting move.

Starting point is 00:04:19 It doesn't change the cash flow for Joe Burrow whatsoever. And the Bengals, as far as we know, have unilateral rights to restructure some of their big contracts, Joe Burrow included, which means they don't need Joe Burroughs permission. They can just do it. Same, I think, is true for Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, although that is not like a 100% thing. I think that's just like a 99% sure thing in my mind. But what is it exactly that happens when you take half of that salary and convert it to a signing bonus? Well, it spreads the cap hit out over up to five years. And the Bengals have that much space to prorate that deal out.

Starting point is 00:04:55 You can prorate bonus money in the NFL up to five years maximum, which is why you see in Joe Burroughs, contract structure option bonuses that kick in over the course of the contract and then pro rate when those option bonuses are paid out or are due. They might be paid technically as game checks still, but they're considered bonuses that then pro rate over up to five years into the future. So when you take $12.5 million over five years, you're getting about $2.5 million per year over those five years. That means $2.5 million stays in this year, which is why it's only a $10 million.

Starting point is 00:05:32 savings this year, even though it's a $12.5 million restructure, and the cap hits for the next four years go up by about $2.5 million. And I say about because we don't know if this was an exactly $12.5 million restructure, it was just reported that it was going to save the Bengals $10 million in cap space this year. So if you're going to take anything away from this rant about what exactly the restructure is, the short of it is the Bengals cost themselves $2.5 million in salary cap space only. no cash flow changes, no cash changes in the future, but $2.5 million of salary cap expense in the next four years to save $10 million in salary cap expense this year, which takes them

Starting point is 00:06:14 from about $7 million in cap space, third lease in the NFL right into the middle of the pack at about $17 million in cap space. And that tradeoff is something we've talked about for a long time of why it's worth it and why so many teams do this. You save $10 million this year, which is if the cap is $300 million, talking about 3% of the cap, right? So you do that and you say 2.5 million in each of the next four years, the cap could be 400 million by the time you get to that final year. And 2.5 million then to be nothing. It's a fraction. It's a crumb on your cap at that point. So it's worth it to save the money now and waste a little bit more in the future. If his cap, it goes up 2.5

Starting point is 00:06:57 million each year in the future. It's not a big deal. He's worth it. He's your franchise quarterback. every franchise quarterback around the league has had their contract restructured at this point. It is basically, every team's doing it. So it should be expected. It's only because it's the Bengals, did we pause and think maybe they wouldn't? But now that they have, it opens up the possibilities for the rest of this offseason. And I'll say this. I don't think they were going to restructure Joe Burroughs contract this offseason until they traded for Dexter Lawrence got a little bit tighter to the cap because their cash.

Starting point is 00:07:31 And I talked about this right after the. the trade went down. The cash expense for Dexter Lawrence this year is about the same as the cash expense would have been for the 10th overall pick. But the cap hit is going to be bigger because you don't get to get that rookie deal proration over the four years of the deal. You just get Dexter Lawrence's contract. And I think there were some small changes to it that the Bengals made when they acquired him. But they don't get that rookie contract benefit of spreading those expenses out over four years. And so where it was the same cash expense, the cap hit did go up. for the Bengals for Dexter Lawrence.

Starting point is 00:08:04 And as I looked at it, it did not look to me as if the Bengals were, strictly speaking, going to be cap compliant when the regular season rolled around. I thought they would have to do something, whether it was a cut, whether it was a restructure between the time they traded for Dexter Lawrence, got through the draft, so we knew exactly what their draft pick, salary cap allocations would be in the regular season. And the fact that they took the approach of restructuring instead of cutting, and they could still cut players, they will cut players, obviously, before the cut down to 53 for the regular season, that can save a little bit of space as well.

Starting point is 00:08:37 But I like the direction, even if it is only a partial restructure, just to dabble in the waters, dip the toe in, see that the water's fine, understand that this is something that you can and need to do to survive in the modern NFL cap environment. And it's a nice first step to see them take that comes out of nowhere. On a day that there's plenty of other Bengals activity going on, we get the borough restructure as well. Yeah, that's right. I mean, we have to figure out when we want to schedule our show and when we want to record. And we're like, oh, OTAs, we're going to have some news and notes.

Starting point is 00:09:09 Let's see how practices go. Let's see, you know, if there's any updates on players, injuries, anything like that. Does anyone stand out in the clips posted from the media pool? And no, right after Bang. Bengals restructured Joe Burrow, which honestly, if I thought it was going to happen closer to when extension season happens, and maybe that's different now, maybe because they have more people doing these jobs. there's assistant GMs. It sounds like more people are in on these contract talks other than just the Blackburn.

Starting point is 00:09:34 So if that's the case, you know, and there's more planning, more management go into the future years. Maybe that's how they work a little bit quicker. And maybe we don't have to wait until, what, July 30th or August 10th for an extension for the DJ Turner's and all that. The reason you bring up extensions and tie that to the Joe Burrow contract restructure is that maybe some of the space goes towards potential extensions that will likely come with small. increases in cap hits for certain players if those extensions are reached. So what does the cap space mean for the Bengals and what can they do with that extra cap space? Is a move coming?

Starting point is 00:10:12 We'll discuss coming up next. There's workplace chaos. This happens. It's part of life. Deadline stack up. inbox is overflow. There's one position you have to fill still sitting open. The Bengals might have more people to do this than you do.

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Starting point is 00:11:10 Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on Lockdown Bengals. That's indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. If you need to hire, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Jake, about 17 million in cap space now for the Bengals. I wonder what you think that real number is. I took a guess.

Starting point is 00:11:34 That'll be, you're going to say about 13. I know you normally keep a running table of what the Bengals will actually spend. I like to keep a little bit of a buffer there. I'll let you explain when you get back to it if you have that number. But a lot of questions right away. What does this mean? Does this mean that Bobby Wagner is coming?

Starting point is 00:11:49 I saw someone mentioned, a fan mentioned me, Joey Bosa, because these guys are going to cost and have costs the last few years in the $6, $7, $8 million range. Could you get a veteran outside guy? Do they want to circle back around when the NOAA fans and the Dalton Reisner's are still available in July or beginning of August,

Starting point is 00:12:07 I could see that. To me, my first inclination when I see this happen is that the extensions for some of these guys are probably out right around the corner. And the first one to me is DJ Turner, just the way Zach was talking about them when we opened OTAs and the vibes from that whole situation, DJ being there. I think when you're there, that's a good sign. And I think the Bengals like that when the players show up and say, you know, I want to be a part of this.

Starting point is 00:12:32 team. We're still working on that extension. I let my agent handle that and I'm just going to be a player. All the vibes there seem and the number change as well. You brought that up when we had drags on. But all the vibes there are that that deal is on the cusp. And I wonder, it's really going to depend on how they structure that. That'll be something we talk about when it happens and if it happens. Do they really front load the contract and this just gives them that space to do it? Or is it more of we can get DJ Turner and Chase Brown? We can get DJ Turner and Dax Hill. We can get DJ Turner and the Miles Murphy deal happens. I think there's a lot of ways you could do this.

Starting point is 00:13:06 And then plus probably dip into a veteran free agent, maybe at linebacker. I think it'll depend on which two extensions you're talking about. If you're talking about extending DJ Turner and Miles Murphy, that's a different conversation than extending DJ Turner and one of the other guys on rookie deals, Chase Brown, where those would both feature increases in Cap hits for sure, where if they were to do Miles Murphy or Dax Hill by comparison along with D.J. Turner, you might actually see those cap hits for those guys go down a million or two, knowing the conservative Bengals contract structures that we're talking about here.

Starting point is 00:13:42 And so where DJ Turner or Andre Yosevash or Chase Brown or Jordan Battle, all these guys that are still on the fourth year of their rookie deals, would see their cap hits almost certainly. I think in every one of those cases would increase this year if they were to do extensions with those players. not necessarily the case for Dax and for miles. So this might push them in that direction if they wanted to get two extensions done this offseason.

Starting point is 00:14:07 It doesn't necessarily mean they can't get more than two extensions done. I've got them at about $7.3 million in real in-season cap space and what that accounts for that the current numbers you see that are around $17 million do not account for our practice squad cap hits, which are around $4 million, some additional cap expenses such as practice squad elevations, which could be up to $3 million over the course of a season.

Starting point is 00:14:33 And the Bengals will also float some. I don't account for that directly, but you can probably assume the Bengals are going to float the last couple of seasons, anywhere between $2 to $5 million. So if they were to chew into that cap space a little bit, they'd be getting really close to the area where they're not going to want to spend any more money,

Starting point is 00:14:51 which is why when you talk about the external additions, I remain so skeptical, Joe, because the way they've gone about this really suggests that this is a move they made because they felt like they had to. This is a move that they made, and they only did half of it, right? Like if they fully restructured Joe Burrow, maybe I'm singing a different tune here, but they only restructure about half, a little bit more than half of what they could have to create cap space this season. And the only reason you need cap space this season is because you're expecting cap hits to arrive this season, which will be some of those extensions that we're talking about for some of those players on fourth year deals,

Starting point is 00:15:29 those guys that I just listed off, or potentially for the external free agents. But given where the priorities are and where DJ Turner's contract may land, I'm still not inclined to think that this points to them being ready to make a move for an external player imminently. They could still restructure more here if they need to. They still have cuts that they can make if they feel like they need more cap space or need to allocate funds a little bit differently. But to me, this is more of them getting back to standard operating procedure and a level where they're comfortable operating, then it's setting up for an external addition to occur. And maybe that's me being a little cynical and a little jaded and a little too. That's how the Bengals do things.

Starting point is 00:16:10 And they're surprising us all the time right now. And so I'm obviously open to that idea, but it seems like given the way that they've talked about the salary caps since acquiring Dexter Lawrence, this is really a move to. make them feel comfortable with the context in which they're working from a cap perspective. And they needed that money to feel like they could be comfortable to go forward. Yeah, they don't like to get too close to the cap limit, right? They never have. And Steve Residivis just talked about this. Like, they don't get this close.

Starting point is 00:16:40 No, they don't. Sorry. Yeah. And so when people say, and I've seen the comments from other beat, like this helps them absorb the hit from Dexter Lawrence. To be clear, that Dexter's already under the cap. they're, you know, all that is accounted for. They don't have to.

Starting point is 00:16:55 But how they normally operate, yes, they may want that buffer. They want to feel better about it. I think they did have to. I think that if they did not make a cut or a restructure by the time they get to the regular season, yeah, they would have had to do a cut. They're compliant in the offseason because there's different rules in the offseason. You only have to account for 51 players instead of 53. You don't have to account for the practice squad.

Starting point is 00:17:17 I think once they got to the regular season, they were going to be really tight to the cap. maybe not quite compliant. They might have needed to have made a cut. And as soon as they elevated a couple of guys from the practice squad to the regular roster for a few in-season games, they're definitely not going to be compliant, I think, at that point. So something needed to happen here. And I do think that it is because they added the Dexter Lawrence cap hit this year,

Starting point is 00:17:39 which is $15 million instead of the expected much lower cap hit that was going to be in place for a rookie. Well, that's where I was going to go. So it didn't have to happen because they could have cut T.J. sleep. So, like, one of my also thoughts was, okay, this might keep T.J. Slayton on the roster as well. You know, they may have said, let's stay with the strong defensive tackle room

Starting point is 00:17:58 and saw it that way because you're right. Another shoe would have had to have dropped somewhere. And I think past Bengals would have said, oh, that's an easy cut or can we get them and take a pay cut, whatever it is? Because when people bring up Bobby Wagner or Judevian Clowny, the one-year deal is tough to absorb. It's hard to spread that cap pit out and then in a Bengals way. They don't typically do it.

Starting point is 00:18:17 We've seen them do it a little bit with Riley Brief. It was like one year added on, I believe. Joe Flacco. They just said. Enjoy Flacco. Right. So they it's in that they've done it before. It's in their past, but they don't do it often. They don't do it the same way other teams do. Still, I wouldn't think they would turn a $7 million cap it down to 2.53 like the Eagles would or $4 million. The Bengals would probably make it five, five and a half and then have, you know, $2 million next year or something like that, 1.5. So my point is they'd probably like to keep that buffer as well for the Dalton Reisner that is still there. And you see in camp and you're like, yeah, Lucas Patrick, he just can't stay healthy. Or, you know, instead of leaning on Dylan Fairchild, maybe we go get one more veteran guy or Noah Fank gets cut right before camp or during camp. I think it goes right around the start of it.

Starting point is 00:19:03 And you're like, you know what, 2.75 million, whatever it was for Fan, I think it was pretty low. That's reasonable. We can absorb that. That's fine. We can make our tight end room much better at that point. I think that would be the more likely move if they make one. Yeah, I think you're talking about one to $2 million contracts.

Starting point is 00:19:20 and that's what they have space for. You get much higher than that. The Judevian Clowny, if he's going to get, say, $8 million even, which isn't a whole lot for a player that is, I think, giving you what Judevian Clowney gives you. I don't think the Bengals really have space for that. One-year deals unless they do something else. They are actually constrained by the cap.

Starting point is 00:19:40 Some of that is their own doing. Some of that is the structures that they gave out to external free agents. I'm not going to hammer that too much today because I am glad. And honestly, like, proud of them. is kind of how I'm feeling about it, that they did pull this trigger. They knew they had the lever. They were thinking about it all off-season. They knew they had this in their back pocket if they needed to after acquiring Dexter Lawrence.

Starting point is 00:20:02 And it was just a matter of how much did they think they need to create. And that's why I was surprised, as well as you, that is happening now, because they might have had a clearer picture on how much space they might actually need when they knew what was coming later. But maybe they do feel really good about some of these extensions that we've talked about coming to fruition soon. and that's why the timing is today. A few notes from OTAs that we want to get to, as well as Cassius Howell signing his contract on Tuesday

Starting point is 00:20:30 as the Bengals had their second open OTA practice of June. We'll finish the show with those notes coming up next. Joe, before we hop into Jaseer Taylor Day at Bengals' OTA practice on Tuesday, I just wanted to make sure we didn't miss any ground that you wanted to make sure recovered on the topic of Joe Borough restructure, whether you think that means anything is imminent over the next couple of weeks as far as maybe one of those extensions does hit before late July. Do you think that you would handicap that today? I think it maybe increases the DJ Turner likelihood maybe a little bit. I would if you, you know, I really haven't been

Starting point is 00:21:13 asked what's the likelihood of any of these guys being extended. I would say Turner feels like 75% mark. Like it's, I think it's going to get done. I think they want to get it done. I think he wants to have it done as well. I think the contract could be a little bit more expensive than some people realize. I think Turner is probably well thought of throughout the league. There were some that thought he could be a fringe first round pick coming out. So I bet other GMs out there have a high opinion of him, seeing him play the way he did last year when it shocked too many.

Starting point is 00:21:40 So I don't, if that, when that contract hits, it would be a lot. 26, or do you think he's getting up towards the 30 mark where we're seeing the top corner side? Yeah, I was going to say 25, 26, 27. and, you know, that would be a comfortable spot for the Bengals and also make them a pretty well-paid corner. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see if we see that extension come down imminently. It would be exciting.

Starting point is 00:22:03 I would love to see them get that done with DJ Turner and lock up one of their young players that they drafted and developed because it's been a while since we've seen them give out a solid second contract to a player that they drafted and developed on the defensive side of the ball. I'm not forgetting someone, am I? No, you're not. And that's not being wrong. They're all veterans and rookie contracts right now.

Starting point is 00:22:26 Like other team veteran acquisitions. External free agents. Yeah. No drafts and developed second contract veterans on the defense that I can think. It's been like that a long time. That's how they built the Super Bowl roster as well. It was external free agents and rookie contracts. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:22:41 We'll see if they get DJ Turner done. They did get Cassius Howell deal done. Cassius Howell's deal done. One of the last, if not the last second round pick, Do you know if there are any other second round picks still unsigned, Joe? You know, I stopped paying attention, really. A couple weeks ago when I saw someone sign that was a round howl, and I was like, okay, now it's howells on deck at this point.

Starting point is 00:23:00 There's no other chips to fall. There's some third round picks I know that are still unsigned. There's some fourth round picks that I know are still unsigned, and I wonder if that's to do with, especially the third round guys, the guarantees. I would imagine Cassius Howell's contract is fully guaranteed. He was picked before last year's latest pick that had a fully guaranteed contract. So that by precedent typically means that you're going to get a fully guaranteed deal for Cash's Howl.

Starting point is 00:23:25 And we can dive into some OTA notes here, Joe, to wrap up. As I said, it was just here at Taylor Day. He was running with the ones. He had a pass break up on a pass from Joe Burrow intended for Keisham Williams. I at least believe it was thrown by Joe Burrow. And it was noted that he had had a few nice plays out there today. Also, once in coverage on a pass that was completed to Mike Gaseki with Brian Cook on the other side of that coverage, a high-low matchup there with a high-low bracket, I should say, there with Brian Cook in the middle of the field on that particular rep of seven-on-sevenths.

Starting point is 00:23:57 Jaseer Taylor really stood out to me, Joe, and he was getting the work with the ones today. That appears to be your competition at Slot Corner. Jazeer Taylor, Jalen Davis, who was present, not present today, T. Higgins, along with Joe Flacco and Eric All, according to a friend of the show, Mike Petralia. but Kyle Dugger was out there today and so we got to see him a little bit. What else stood out to you as you were pouring through the notes we got from OTAs on Tuesday? Yeah, Kyle Dugger being there was one of the big ones.

Starting point is 00:24:27 We had a subtext, a few subtext responders saying, subscribers saying, you know, have we seen Kyle Dugger? Has he spoken yet? Have we seen any clips of them out there? And then the first clip was on the Jazeer Taylor pass breakup. I saw the safety's all standing next to each other, the corners all standing next to each other, the linebackers, which I'll talk about in a second.

Starting point is 00:24:46 Yeah, I was like 29. There he is. And then Petraggli also had a locker room interview with Kyle Dugger. So he is alive and he's there at the facilities. And that's a good thing because I do think he can help the team. But one note that I had of looking at the linebackers all lined up as they're waiting to go in the game, it was the run of the mill what you expect looking at the depth chair. The guy that wasn't there, the two guys that weren't there.

Starting point is 00:25:08 One was Antoine Paul Riland, who's been listed as a linebacker. It said that he has taken some linebacker reps, but he's not with them. He's over with the D-Linman doing defensive line bag drills. And so is Cassius Howell, who signed his rookie deal today. And watching the D-Lyman go through their drills and a lot of these videos from different beat reporters, so I've kind of merged them all together at this point. So I don't want to give someone credit and leave someone out. But watching them go through, everyone's in down in a three-point stance.

Starting point is 00:25:36 Everyone's got their hand in the dirt. So when I say three-point stance, obviously, if you're on your two feet, that's a two-point stance. And if you've got a hand down, that's a three-point stance. Cashenthal throughout his college career was a two-point stance. He's a stand-up edge rusher. And I'm waiting for his turn to come up because I want to see. Everyone's in a three-point stance here. And then he gets in there, gets down to a three-point and runs the arc and does what he has to do.

Starting point is 00:25:56 And I go, okay, interesting. And that Dan Hort has some clips today. And he's going through another time and he's in a two-point stance. Also with him and then getting into a three-point stance and a two-point stance and a two-point stance was Antoine Powell Riland, who also was a two-point stance guy at Virginia Tech as an edge rusher. A guy that I was high on because he had a super high pass rush win rate and great production coming out of college. Went in, no, he was undrafted, went to the Eagles when he was released last year.

Starting point is 00:26:22 The Bengals picked him up on waivers. So I really haven't had a chance to really talk about him too much. And then when he was kind of sandwiched that lineback on the depth chart, people just kind of assumed he's going to get, you know, that label. And we'll never see him again. But if he's with the Edrushers, I'm pretty excited by him in preseason. Paul Ryle was a six-round pick. 209th overall. Great.

Starting point is 00:26:42 So he was drafted, didn't stick with the Eagles, as you noted, has been with the Bengals since then, and has been a guy that I know there's a at least somewhat sizable minority in the fan base. I would like to see him get a shot, probably the people that follow your work closely for the draft. But those guys being similar archetypally, body types, similar stylistically, I think you are going to see them in versatile applications this year.

Starting point is 00:27:10 but you think about the Bengals defense, even in the last few years when Trey Hendrickson was out there, Trey Hendrickson's in a two-point stance pretty frequently. Yeah. And you see some of that from the guys that have been playing edge for the Bengals as well. So it's not like some huge change if you see Cassius Howell out there playing edge and in a two-point stance. That's something that we have seen from guys that have been on this team for the last few years.

Starting point is 00:27:31 It's just that Cassius Howell was doing that full time in college. And so the three-point stance is a little bit more foreign to him. and he is going to have to rep that a little bit more. I think if he's going to be asked to do it with any amount of regularity in the NFL. And Jaseer Taylor, I went back and watched the episode on Bengals on the Brain when they signed him.

Starting point is 00:27:53 Because I wanted to see, I wasn't too familiar. I remember him as a prospect, but in our grading sheet didn't come out really well. He's played five years in the league. I think he's at 1,200-something of those being in the slot. So if you're wondering where he is running with the ones, he's running in the slot replacing Jalen Davis today.

Starting point is 00:28:09 I think he's got one interception in his career, 13 pass breakups based on PFF. He's giving up more touchdowns than he has interceptions, of course. When I watched and went back and watched my episode, the film review, poor ball skills. So to see him deflect some passes today, that's nice to see. I think if he's already rotating in, he's a really good special teamer, if he's already rotating in and challenging for that slot job, that kind of sets an alarm for me a little bit for this defense. I didn't feel great about Janele Davis, but at the same time, if he was just a good fit, fine.

Starting point is 00:28:42 He's been in the program for so long. Maybe that's just your guy and he can outperform what he normally looks like. But at the same time, if I were to say, if that's a real competition between those two, I would like to bring someone else in there or give my guy, Braylon Lux's shot because I think he's got the most potential out of all of him. Yeah, we'll see if Braylon Lux does get that shot as we get into a more full version of practice where there's more rotation, more contact, that'll be in training camp. I think when we'll start to get that idea, typically, unless something's going way off

Starting point is 00:29:13 the rails, the Bengals stick with their primary plan throughout this portion of the offseason program before competition really takes off. And obviously, games make a huge difference as well. The preseason games, if guys perform that are in tight competitions, that's going to change the way the coaching staff rotates them, and they'll be rewarded for playing well in games. And right now, the discourse that you just laid out around the slot corner position for the Bengals Joe is what we've been talking about on this podcast since free agency, really. The couple spots that they didn't address, slot corner and linebacker remain spots that we will be watching very closely to make sure that they have enough in terms of talent level at that position to fly. But if Jazeer Taylor is going to make the team as a special teamer, and if he wins that job, then Jalen Davis roster spots surely in jeopardy at that point.

Starting point is 00:30:02 think they can keep two guys who are special team or slot guys, or maybe they can, and that's the way they justify it. But a roster battle that is worth watching because it's one of the last three spots on the roster, at least as of today, in my mind, like, that's one of the biggest, most competitive roster battles on the team right now because there's such a lack of clarity at the top of the depth chart there. And we're going to need to see someone emerge, or it's going to be a potential little weak spot on this defense. And that's going to happen. defenses aren't perfect around the league. This is generally a position where you can find some answers,

Starting point is 00:30:38 though. So whether it's Takario Davis for certain matchups, Kyle Dugger for certain matchups, it was nice to see him out there today, working with the ones and the twos, which kind of suggests that he is going to have some run with the ones. Once he's caught up and in this defense on a regular basis, it'll be interesting to see how all of those bits of the roster battle play out

Starting point is 00:30:57 on the defensive side of the ball. Some more thoughts for you from today's, OTAs and the locker room session after OTAs were several players talked with various members of Bengals media. And make sure you're staying tuned to lockdown Bengals this week. And we'll keep you posted on social media as well for our programming schedule. We are at that time of year where occasionally we will not be five episodes per week. That may or may not be the case this week. It might only be for this week.

Starting point is 00:31:26 But we will keep you updated as soon as Joe and I make that determination. Just wanted to give you the heads up here for those of you listening. the 31 and a half minute mark today. But that's going to do it for this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast, part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. And until next time, thanks for listening, Ho-Day. And have a good one.

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