Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Multiple Bengals Set to Get BIG Raises in 2026 + Dan Pitcher's Future

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

When Cordell Volson got a player performance escalator raise in 2025, the Bengals reworked his contract to save a little money. They're set to have four players qualify for PPE raises this year as 2023 draftees have carved out big roles on their rookie contracts. Jake Liscow and James Rapien break down how the Bengals should approach raises for DJ Turner, Chase Brown, Jordan Battle, and Andrei Iosivas this off season.Plus, Tampa Bay went with Zac Robinson for offensive coordinator. That ends the Bengals' OC drama for now - at least unless Dan Pitcher's name emerges for another offensive coordinator job.Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans.Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubJoin 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!TurboTaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. DripDropRight now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order. Go to http://dripdrop.com and use promo code lockedonnfl.Ultimate QBUltimate QB is totally free to play, has no ads, and works 100% offline — perfect for when you want to sneak in a quick game or two on the go. Just head over to http://ULTIMATE-QB.COM.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is officially in Playoff Mode. Every game day during the NFL playoffs, FanDuel is giving customers even more ways to get in on the action. Visit Fanduel.com to get started.   PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.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.RobinhoodTrade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin.Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firmIndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.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.

The Cincinnati Bengals have four players from their 2023 rookie class due a raise due to player performance escalators. And that might ring a bell. Cordell Bolson, the last one to do it. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. the number one sports podcast network in the land.

He's James Rapine. I'm Jake Lisco. We've been covering your Cincinnati Bengals here on Lockdown Bengals since 2016, between the two of us, your best consistent one-stop shop for all things Bengals online. And today we discuss player performance escalators. And the Bengals have four players getting a raise based on how much they've played. And that'll be coming to your salary cap soon. coming to the Bengals salary cap soon in 2026. And we'll discuss the implications of these raises.

And the last time the Bengals had one in Cordell-Voson, they took some action. They did not want to quite pay the full price of that player performance escalator. So that is our lead discussion today before we get into what happened in Tampa Bay, where it does not appear that either Zach Taylor-connected coach will get the job Tampa going in a different direction there. back, by the way, to all the everydayers out there, everyone who makes Lockdown Bengals their first list.

If you're interested in an ad-free version of Lockdown Bengals and access to a members-only Discord channel where you can talk smack with other AFC North fans and talk to James and us every now and then in the Discord channel and other Lockdown Bengals listeners, check it out at Lockdownbengles.supercast.com for all the details on how you can join the Everydayer Club. James, let's dive in. We've got four player performance escalators to talk about. What is a player performance escalator?

We can discuss that as well. And essentially it means that a bunch of players, the Bengals drafted after the first round back in 2020, played a lot for the Bengals in the last few years. Yeah, that's the first thing. And that's why you mentioned Cordell Voulson is, you know, the playing time element matters a ton. I also think when we're having this conversation,

and it's been weird, it's like the second half of the 2025 season, And it's like, oh, well, the 2023 draft is good. Look, we did so good in the 2023 draft. And I think part of that is going to come to fruition now. When you discuss it and you look at it and you see these guys. And DJ Turner, that's not a shock. Is that a shock to you?

It's not a shock to me that that man deserves to get paid. Chase Brown, that's not a shock. But I think the other two are. And that's what's interesting because when you look at the, the Bengals long-term plan, I certainly hope that DJ Turner is a part of it. Chase Brown from a skill level deserves to be a part of it, whether or not the position and the money on offense and all of those things work out, whatever. But to me, it wasn't shocking to see those two guys.

And when you think about it in the grand scheme, Cordell Volson got him because he was starting a bunch of games and playing, well, so is Chase Brown the past couple of years. So is DJ Turner this year, especially, makes a lot of sense that those guys would get performance escalators and hit some of these different categories, whether it's playing time or otherwise, but mostly playing time, that would get them in this category. And I'm hiding the other two because I think the other two are going to be at least a little surprising and lead to more discussion. Yeah, so let's discuss what exactly a player performance escalator is. As you alluded to, for the Bengals, all of these are strictly because of playing time. A player performance escalator

is earned if a player participates in a certain percentage of a team's offices or deep, office. or defensive snaps in two of his first three seasons or averages that percentage of snaps over their entire first three seasons. For second round picks, you're looking for a 60% threshold for third and seventh round picks. You're looking for a 35% threshold. So if you find a player in the third to seventh round who starts for you, he's probably going to qualify for a level one escalator. If you find a player in the second round who starts for you, he's probably going to qualify

for the level one escalator. The level one escalator raises the base salary for a player in their fourth year of their contract to the original round RFA tender. So whatever the RFA tender is, a restrictive free agent tender is that year that gives you the protection of the original round if a player goes in size with another team. That's a level one escalator. The level two escalator is earned if a player participates in at least 55% of a team's offense is. offensive or defensive snaps in all of his first three seasons. The Bengals have nobody in this category because DJ Turner only played about 45% of his snaps in 2024. That's the same as that original round RFA tender plus an additional $250,000.

Level three, you get if you're selected to a Pro Bowl on the original ballot, not as an alternate. One reason DJ Turner probably really wanted to be elected to the Pro Bowl this year, because then that number goes all the way up to a second round RFA tender, which is a big jump from a original round. That's a big jump in selling. It might even be $3 million or so. So for DJ Turner and Jordan Battle, both of those guys playing a lot of football, obviously starting full-time for the most part in 2025,

starting in different capacities prior to both of those guys hit this threshold easily. And there's one of the other guys, Jordan Battle, Chase Brown, starting for the Bengals the last couple of years hits that number because of how much he's played the last two years. Yeah, it's again, not surprising with these two guys and they feel like potential building blocks. And so it's like, all right, well, that makes a lot of sense. And by the way, that's what you want? The Bengals, they have what, the 41st pick this year, 41st, 42nd.

It'll be somewhere in there. Right? Am I wrong on that? I don't think it's actually determined. It is determined. It bumps up. So they'll pick ahead of the whoever's picking eighth. Yeah.

Arizona is 41st. Yeah. So they go up one and then they go up one again and then they drop back down. It's every round date they cycle when there's tiebreakers. Yeah. So 41st-ish pick. You hope that this guy is hitting his performance escalators. This is something that Jackson Carman never got a chance to remote.

completely sniff because he didn't, well, he took too many escalators and he wasn't staying in enough shape. You get the point shake. And so that's, this is a good position to be in. And I think that's where we start. And it goes, it's obvious with the first two. And probably wasn't as obvious for Cordell Volson. And obviously he took a pay cut at the start of last year going into that season.

And who knows, maybe he'll be back again. Obviously, his rookie deal is up at the beginning of March when the new league. year begins. But it is the hope. The hope is always can these guys get to their performance escalators. You want that. And so it would be a good thing to have a bunch of these guys every year up for it. And obviously the Bengals have four this year. Yeah, it means that your picks outside of the first round are contributing to your team. Ideally, you have players on this list. This can be seen as a good thing. Now, I do think it creates some interesting conversations when you get to the non-DJ Turner, non-Chace Brown names on this list for the Bengals,

but it is worth pointing out that the Bengals are tied for the second most in the NFL players qualifying for player performance escalators in 2026. Behind only the Rams who had, and I've talked about this somewhere recently, the Rams had an incredible draft class. Part of why they reloaded the way they reloaded was because of how well they've drafted. I think we talked about it on the squad show this week. Their 2023 draft class included obviously Pooka. Nakua in the fifth round, but also Byron Young, who's been a pro-buller, Kobe Turner, who has played

a ton for them in all three of his season, Steve, Steve Avila, who's turned into a good starter for them on the offensive line. And even their seventh round pick, Ethan Evans qualifies for the escalator. So a lot of escalators there for the Rams, but getting four for the Bengals puts them in a spot where, you know, you take that because you compare to 2024. And right now the Bengals have zero players on track to get a player. performance escalator from the 2020 4 draft. They just haven't played it.

Second round on, by the way. Are you sure check and make sure Jermaine Burton isn't going to check again? Oh, boy. He's not. Shock. Shockes no one, right? Like, these guys, he's not.

He's not there. I looked. I double checked. But generally, if you're getting players qualifying here, generally, like we're saying, this is a good thing. Now, where it happens with some players that, you know, they're starting out of necessity like Cordell-Molson. This can lead to some interesting conversations. And we'll open the door and reveal, because there's one name we still haven't mentioned.

I spoiled one of the two you hit at the beginning, James. But the other two guys for the Bengals that qualify here based on playing time and some of the conversations that could or perhaps should ensue around those guys coming up next. It's tax season. And tax season doesn't have to be something that takes over your life. This year, TurboTaxes make it so easy, easier than ever to hand things off and move on with your day. With TurboTax full service, you can have your taxes done by you or for you by a local trusted

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I spoiled one. I'm sorry. You tried to keep this a secret. Go ahead and spoil it again. I spoil Jordan Battle. Yep, which is fine. I don't think that's a shock to a lot of people after we just played a lot. he's played a lot.

Yeah. Who do you guys think the other one is? I bet you you you can guess. Well, we'll string out the spoiler in just a few more seconds so people can pause and think about this

and see if they can come up with the answer. You can probably guess if you think hard enough about it. Okay, that's enough for fascinating, James. Who's a fourth guy? Andre Yosevash is the fourth guy

and said to make that 3.6 millie. Andre, let me get a dollar, brother. Let me get a dollar and it. And we'll be good. Look, I get it. He's played a ton. And it goes under the radar and he's a sixth round pick. And he was a really good sixth round pick.

Say what you want about him and the drops and all those things. He's played a ton. And he's made a bunch of big plays. And so well deserved, I think. I mean, if you would have told us when he was drafted that he would do what he's done, I don't think either of us would have believed you. Now, going into 2025, did you have a little higher expectations? Was it weird?

with tea coming back in the germane Burton situation and all of those things maybe but overall this shouldn't surprise me as much as it did and yet it did and it does bring into the conversation now cap space and in cap space allotted

to these guys you're talking about $3.6 million in cap space going toward Andre Yosevash this year going towards Jordan Battle this year we've talked some but i'll make it very clear it's a very deep safety class both free agent wise yeah and in the draft is it worth 20 starting safeties between free agency and the draft up and that might be like

a slight embellishment but there's a lot of guys out there that can start at safety this year let's say it's 15 right it's like all right well is 3.6 million is that worth it or i'm not saying it's to cut jordan and same conversation that you have have with Andre, but it's, it's a, it's definitely worth having that discussion because both are in contract years. Do you view them as long-term pieces? If not, if the answer is no, well, then yeah, you certainly need to have that discussion because it's a lot of money to spend on two guys that either one for Jordan Battle, either you're building around him or you're not to a certain extent. And two, with Andre, is he the, the wide receiver three you need or not? And if he's not,

what else is out there? So I think it's a real conversation that Bengals are going to have to have given the performance escalators. It's not like Andre's making a million bucks this year. So you have to have that conversation. What they ended up doing with Cordell-Voson, just so everyone knows why we're talking about this

for these guys that aren't like clear-cut. There's no way you're renegotiating with DJ Turner unless you're giving him extension, which we would like to see this off-season. Unless you're giving Chase Brown an extension, it's probably going to be his number this year. Cordell Bolson, what they did when he qualified for this similar level escalator is they took the contract. They reduced the base salary all the way down to $1.5 million.

So it was probably about $3 million. I don't remember what exactly Cordell's escalator was, didn't look that up before we started recording. But they converted some of that to a bonus. So he still did get paid quite a bit of the escalator. But they took a large chunk of that. They reduced it overall for one. And then they took a chunk of it and they put it into per game roster bonuses for Cordell. He had $600,000 in per game roster bonuses.

Obviously, he didn't earn any of that in 2025 because he was hurt. So that is the approach they took for Cordell. So instead of it being north of $3 million for the cap and cash, he only ended up earning $2 million last year. So they reduced the cash spend quite a bit. they reduced the cap spend a little bit. They could take a similar approach for Andre or for Jordan, but I honestly, James would be surprised to see them do either.

I think they like both of these guys. I think they love the way Andre Yosevaas goes about his business, the way he prepares, the way he carries himself as a professional. I think they love the progression from Jordan Battle. And Duke Tobin called Jordan Battle out by name as a guy who, in his mind, had turned the corner when he had his after the season press conference. and whether that was just a guy that he's paying lip service to or whether there's something real there from Duke Tobin and the Bengals, we'll find out another guy that could be a potential extension candidate this offseason.

So that's kind of what's in play for these guys. I don't know that I expect the Bengals to go that route. They might try to make some of it into incentive-based stuff, try to save a little bit of cap space here there. They might try to get some extensions done with these guys. I'd be a little bit more surprised to see them take this action. and the way they did with Cordell for any of these four guys this year. Yeah, like you said, not happening, just complete non-starter with Chase Brown. DJ Turner, you want an extension, Don.

Even if you wait, not happening, obvious reasons. I think the Andre one is interesting. And not because it's too much money. And I think the Bengals are going to be like, look, we need to reward these guys because they've been big pieces of what we've done, which is fine. It makes sense. But it's interesting because do you think Andre is going to be back in 27?

Like I'm sure he's looking at it like I don't get a ton of targets. I think I could do more. I have a bigger role. All the Dan pitcher stuff. We're about to talk about Dan pitcher. I guarantee you it's very similar. In the sense, it's like, all right, well, I want to be at this level. How do I get to this level?

Does it work in Cincinnati? Should it be here? Is it? I'm sure Andre has those discussions. I know I would if I was him and T was back. And there's no clear cut way to get to really even full on wide receiver three with Mike Gassicki as well in the building. And that doesn't mean that Andre doesn't fit. But you get my point.

So I do wonder about that. And for Jordan, I like the splash place. If he can cut out all the boneheadedness for lack of a better term, it's a good safety. doesn't mean he needs to be your one, but he certainly is a starting safety in the league. And so if you've gotten him to this point, do you want to move on? Like Andre's developed a ton.

Do you want to move on now when you might get the, his best NFL season might be this year? And you could say that about both of those guys. That's the risk that you play when you look at the money and all of those things. But would it surprise me if they had a real discussion about either of those guys's future, when you look at the safety market,

when you look at Andre being your wide receiver four sometimes and in the final year of his deal, it wouldn't surprise me. And so that's, I agree with you, like I'm not expecting it, but will there be discussions about those guys? I think there should be.

And ultimately, they probably come back. Especially, yeah, they probably have the team, I think, but especially with the world in which they draft got, right? Like they make an addition. Because we're going to talk about the potential to improve a wide receiver three this year. No doubt.

And even if you think a smike Kaseki is a wide receiver three, fine. It could be better with your actual wide receiver three. Yes. Yes. So if that's the direction they go, then that's something that potentially in the summer they could look at. If they go get a couple of safeties, if they sign a guy in free agency and they draft a guy in the first or second round, maybe that's something that they look at at at that point. Or maybe there's an extension done.

Who knows? The NFL is going toward three safeties. We'll see if the Bengals joined that group or not. Ted Wynn just wrote a great article about this for the athletic. And the increasing importance of that nickel defender and all these safeties, the Jalen Petrie's and Derwin James and that archetype of player, Nickyman Worried, these guys that are safety slash slot defenders that are becoming in vogue and taking away the advantage of a guy like Mike Gaseki that used to exist, where those mismatch tight ends are less of a mismatch now because of the evolution of the slot defender that the tight end can't also block and be relied on in your running game. So if the Bengals decide to join that trend in the NFL,

maybe Jordan Battle and two safeties can be part of your future as well. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with all these guys, but I thought an interesting tidbit from a salary cap perspective, from a future perspective, from a looking back perspective. And if you go look forward, Bengals have a couple guys in the 2025 draft that are on pace right now, Demetrius Knight, Dylan Fairchild, and Barrett-Carter, all on pace right now to be potential future player performance escalator earners in a few years down the road here. So we'll see how those guys trend over the next few years. Coming up next, Tampa Bay makes a decision at offensive coordinator.

For now, no more drama around the Bengals in the offensive coordinator spot. We'll finish the show with that news coming up next. brought to you today by Game Time, who knows that there's nothing like being at the game, being at whatever the event is, the crowd noise, the energy cheering alongside other fans. Watching at home is great. I love it. I get it. But being in the stadium just hits different.

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grab your profit boost pack every NFL playoff game day, including championship Sunday. Got some news from Tampa Bay in their offensive coordinator search. The everydayers know we've been talking about this and monitoring this all week. We appreciate you if you make

Lockdown Bengals part of your routine. Again, you can check out the Everydayer Club if you're looking for an ad-free version of this podcast at Lockdownbengles. dot supercast.com. James Tampa goes with a guy that is not part of the Zach Taylor coaching tree, but a guy named Zach. Zach Robinson gets a job in Tampa, which means Dan Pitcher for now appears to be returning

to Cincinnati. Still a bunch of head coaching jobs out there that haven't been filled that could be interested in Dan Pitcher. And as far as we know, Brian Callahan has no suitors at the moment. But again, with all these head coaching jobs that are unfilled out there, this will continue to evolve a lot of offensive coordinators changing teams or looking for teams this year. Yeah, that's what's tough. And what I think is interesting about this now, like you know pitchers back for now.

How many times is he going to get permission to be an offensive coordinator elsewhere? Is it Arizona? Would Philly kick the tires on him? And Philly seems to have missed out on really a lot of their top candidates, if not all of them. is the AFC in play? Would Tennessee? Is that one? Could Arizona be one?

I think that that part of it is interesting. And if you're the Bengals, like the AFC North is completely out for me, if I'm the Bengals. I wouldn't let him, you better interview him to be head coach because that's the only thing you're getting. And so after that,

how do you go about it? And are you still lenient enough to allow him to go interview at least with NFC teams because Brian Callahan still out there because as of now it doesn't feel like there's anything imminent with him he interviewed with the Chargers Mike McDaniel got that job he interviewed with the Buccaneers and was scheduled on Thursday to have an in-person interview and they they get it done with Zach Robinson late Wednesday night going into Thursday morning and so they don't have to interview Callahan a second time there so I think there's a lot of things

still up in the air. I think the Bengals are prioritizing the continuity. They want to keep Dan pitcher. So how long is this leash? Who does he get permission to interview with if those teams are interested? That's the real question right now that we

really don't have the answer to. Yeah, I wonder if this comes back up. What do you think? Like, what's your general feel? Because I think in general, as we've been talking about this over the last few weeks, you've been surprised that more teams haven't reached out to Dan pitcher throughout the process. And sorry if that's something you didn't want me to, I feel like that's okay to say.

But what do you think? Do you think it comes back up for him with all the remaining unfilled head coaching jobs? I think now that it's out there that he's willing to entertain offensive coordinator, play caller, why wouldn't you? Like if the bills hire whoever as their head coach, why wouldn't you be like, all right, well, let's just see if it's a fit, right? Especially if it's a defensive-minded head coach, which would be kind of interesting if the bills did that again.

Now, the Bengals can block it. And I think that's where this comes down to. And you're right, though, how many are interested? Maybe that's why Dan considered the Tampa job again. Maybe that's why he's so stunned at the Browns process. And by the way, maybe the Browns just come back around. I don't want to dismiss that. It's their whole process has been weird when it comes.

to this coaching cycle that will be surprising but i guess yeah never say never with them oh i'm not saying it's going to happen or i've heard anything it's just they seem so awkward with everything and and yeah i think they end up going with the 30 year old um out of jacksonville so what uh you didn't ski so we'll see you don't see in in demand too around the league a little bit so they might be competing there he was smart to set up that that bill's interview because the browns that second interview's Friday and I think the Browns are going to be under some pressure under the gun. Well, they don't want to leave Jim Schwartz and they're trying to balance all that too. And I wonder how much that impacted Dan Pitcher as well in that scenario because you don't want

to go into a power struggle with a veteran coat. Anyways, there's a lot there. The Bengals can keep Dan Pitcher right now. Like it can be done. He's not getting head coach interview requests as of now on Thursday afternoon. So it can be done. do they opt that way or do they say, ah, you can still, we know you're not the happiest,

you can still do that. The good news is is Brian Callahan still out there, which alleviates it some, because if you're telling me there's a new Bengals offensive coordinator, and it's not Dan Pitcher, and it's not Brian Callahan in 2026, it's someone else,

I'm going to be a bit nervous because that someone else is probably going to be either inexperienced or someone that we, we do not have confidence in. We don't know what to expect. Yeah. And we've talked about that this week. The Every Days have heard it.

If you've missed shows, we've talked about the alternatives in shows this week. I'll say this. I was following this coaching search obviously very closely because of its Bengals implications, but John Ledyard, who covers the Steelers and the Buccaneers, both themes in quite a bit of depth. And, you know, former draft guy that you might remember from the draft network and all these things. He wrote up a list of his tiers. of candidates for the Bucks OC job. And I was talking to him a little bit about it this week

because of the Bengals implications. And their question, just to provide the external perspective on Dan pitcher because I think this is interesting, there are questions about what pitcher's offense really looks like and what his ideal scheme would be. And I think this is part of what happened with Callahan too. And perhaps has scared some teams off of like,

okay, well, what does Zach Taylor's offensive assistants actually look like when they get, outside of the Joe Borough ecosystem. How much of what they do is just that like they've built something around Joe Burrow who's really good. That question remains out there both in terms of the quality and the ability to problem solve and make adjustments. And also like what actually is the scheme, especially for a guy like Dan Pitcher who came up under Marvin Lewis, stayed in Cincinnati with Zach Taylor.

There isn't necessarily a clear picture, especially on the outside. I'm sure they're getting into that in these interviews and stuff like that. But I think it's interesting to just point out that perspective. Like he's described as one of the biggest wild carts by John Lendert in his write-up about, you know, how he saw the different candidates for this OC job in Tampa just because so little is known from the outside about what exactly Dan Pitcher would do, given his druthers, given a neutral situation, not a Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase D. Higgins situation in terms of structuring an offense. And that's a great thing for the Bengals. The Bengals will get worse. if Dan Pitcher leaves.

Now, it might not be much worse if Brian Callahan comes in and that's it. But man, oh man, they better think their good graces that Brian is still out there too. I just, it's, um, when you consider that this whole thing kind of like is working with Zach and that's the OC job in Cincinnati, I think that's another thing to keep in mind when you're thinking about like who that other guy would be given that it doesn't look like, you know, the dro Brady, Mike McDaniel. change of play collar kind of thing is on the table for them. Sure.

No doubt. And look, I get it. I just know there's a reason Zach kept Dan around. I mean, everybody's gone. Think about everybody was gone. Anyone that had anything. Most of those guys were gone. Carlos Dunlap was kicking and screaming and taking photos of whiteboards and eating potato chips.

Darren Simmons, sure. All right. But one of the best special. Like it's just so, there's a very small group that's left. And there's a reason. And that's fine. If Dan stays around, now here's the other thing. You want him happy.

And that's tough in Hungary. And hopefully that's what it makes him is like, because you're either, I've been in this position. It's very different, obviously, coach versus. But I've been told in multiple different jobs. And most people probably have like, oh, will know. Like, all you want this role, well, no. And so you either use it and you get pissed off about it and use it as fuel or you go the other way. The good news is, is most of these coaches,

most of these players, they respond the right way. And they're, they're kind of crazy. And that's why they're at the facilities for 16 hours a day, half, you know, eight months a year. Yeah. It attracts that kind of personality for sure. Yeah. That's probably we're up for this episode of the locked on Bengals podcast. We went a little bit more motivational tactics than I thought we would. But next week, exciting week, James. We've got the Senior Bowl,

the Senior Bowl. I looked at the roster for the first time. I don't know if you've looked at the roster yet. Absolutely stacked at edge rusher and safety. Wow. Which is exciting for where the Bengals potentially could use some help this offseason. We're going to rekindle

conversations about what kind of edge rusher the Bengals should or would be interested in. Will they finally draft a Nick Benito archetype edge rusher, a designated pass rusher type of guy who maybe he is a liability against the run, but boy, does he get after the passer. Yeah, like it.

They need some juice. And there are a number of those guys in this year's draft class. Those guys will be represented down in Mobile, Alabama, at the Senior Bowl, will also potentially see Ruben Bain, David Bailey going to be down there. We talked about some of those guys yesterday. So Senior Bowl next week, exciting week to kick off draft season a little bit.

You get all the mock drafts that are all Senior Bowl players right at to the senior bowl looking forward to seeing all those as well so that's coming up next week here on lockdown bengals we'll always have you cover for news as well and until then thanks for listening ho day and have a good one