Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - REAL FOOTBALL RETURNS: Star Power, Roster Battles, and Rookies To Watch In Preseason DEBUT

Starting point is 00:00:00 We finally made it to the Bengals' first preseason game of 2026, and we're excited to see guys like Dexter Lawrence, Boye, Mafet, and all the Bengals rookies in their first preseason action. 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. He's Joe Goodberry. I'm Jake Liscoe.

Starting point is 00:00:35 we're your host of lockdown Bengals. And finally, we get to talk about a football game. Training camp is exciting. We get to talk about some real football things happening, some scrimmage like action, some drills that we get to see one-on-ones and all that good stuff that you see in training camp. But nothing is quite like the real thing. And finally, Joe, we get to preview a football game. We're excited to watch it on Thursday night and then break it down for you after the game on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:01:02 but today we're going to preview that game and talk about what we're looking for, what the most interesting roster battles will be. We'll get to see a lot of the second team that we haven't seen a whole lot of yet. We'll get our first look at Bengals' rookies, but the Bengals are playing their starters. And so that's where we're going to start today in an episode brought to you by Kalshi. For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code lockdown. You'll get $10 when you trade $10.

Starting point is 00:01:26 And Joe, let's start with those starters. We'll get our first look at Dexter Lawrence. and Boyamafe and presumably Jonathan Allen. We don't know exactly if there will be some veterans that are arrested that have been around the league longer like Allen. But was Zach Taylor saying Dexter Lawrence is going to play? Wouldn't you also just play Jonathan Allen then? Brian Cook won't be playing on defense BJ. He'll won't be playing on defense decks.

Starting point is 00:01:51 He'll won't be playing on defenses. They're dealing with various injuries and coming back from injuries. But we'll get our first look at a lot of guys in Bengals uniforms for the first time on Thursday. at Paycor. Yeah, I wonder if that's more exciting. I wonder if people see this as, man, I can't wait to see Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan. I don't have Brian Cook when we get him, when he's back and ready. Let's, you know, preseason, we don't need to see him right now, but eventually. Or is it more exciting to see the returning stars that we've grown to love, right? Joe Burroughs, the Jamar Chase, the T. Higgins, and see him put on the uniform again and the

Starting point is 00:02:27 striped helmet again. And I, that was one thing that I always enjoyed, when the starters did play in preseason, we went through kind of a long stretch where we never saw these guys until week one. But seeing them again, on the field again, and something about being in the stadium with the lights on and the vibes that all brings. And you're like, man, I cannot wait.

Starting point is 00:02:47 That's, I'm at this point where it's preseason. Love to watch these guys. I absolutely love preseason Jake. I want to see these guys, the new guys, the old guys. I love the battles. I love everything that comes with it. Players competing for their careers. like all of that is really exciting.

Starting point is 00:03:02 But also as as that excitement builds for preseason one, it almost gets flooded and overtaken by week one is right around the corner. And it's right there. And I start getting really giddy about that. Yeah, they really cram preseason games in now where it used to be over the course of a month. Now it's over the course of like two weeks because they play Thursday. And then their last game is not quite three weeks later. It's the week of the 23rd because they go what Thursday, Saturday, Friday,

Starting point is 00:03:30 It's like that. It's like 18 days. Yeah. So they really crammed the games in there. And we don't get a whole lot when just talking about the starters. Like we'll see the starters and that's great. But what are we going to see from the starters is going to be a question? Are the Bengals going to go out there and really focus on the stuff that they focused on putting in early in training camp that honestly has throughout training camp, as far as we have seen, looked a little bit disjointed.

Starting point is 00:03:55 Like it needs the reps. And we're talking about the under center part of the playbook, especially the underscern. center passing part of the playbook, the under center play action. I don't know that we saw a single clip throughout training camp of a straight dropback under center. That doesn't mean that they haven't put it in. They obviously ran some of that with Joe Flacco last year. They had what one rep with Joe Burrow doing it last year in a game.

Starting point is 00:04:17 So maybe we'll see some of that in the regular season this year. But I don't know that that would be a focus in a in a preseason game. But it wouldn't surprise either of us, I think, if they go out there and they really try to rep some of the under center play action. and 12 personnel stuff that has been a point of emphasis for them to put in as they have been installing and working on things that weren't as much a big part of the offense in Joe Burroughs previous years in Cincinnati. I'm actually hoping they do, you know, because this is, their point is, hey, it doesn't look great right now. It doesn't look good, but trust us.

Starting point is 00:04:51 We're going to grind it out and figure it out. And it's going to be a section of this playbook we can lean on. Well, all right, let's see it. Let's see that it's getting better. or I don't know if it's terrible. Maybe we'll talk about it, continue to be like, hey, man, this under center stuff, you know, clock's ticking. You got three more weeks after this.

Starting point is 00:05:06 You got to get it right. But either way, I do expect to see it and hope to see it at the same time. Eric all won't be playing. And we've said that, you know, maybe he's a big part of actually running this 12 personnel offense. So if you don't have him, you know, is it going to be Cam Grandy mixed in or do we see Jack Andrews get mixed in there? I can't wait to watch both of those players, by the way.

Starting point is 00:05:26 We'll save that for the later segment when we really dive into some of these. backups, but just the 12 personnel and undercenter stuff. How much do they lean on it? How effective is it? I'd love to, like if you could say, okay, one thing we want from this offense from the first preseason game, give me a 12 personnel under center explosive play to Jamar Chase with Teagans. I don't care who it goes to really.

Starting point is 00:05:46 Give me a tight end streaking down the middle of the field. Whatever it comes from it, give me the proof of concept that this can work and create explosives for the Spengel's offense that the all offseason was a talk of we have to get these back and it seems like they're playing to get them back is to go under center more. Well, let's see the motion at the snap stuff that has supposedly been a big part of the offense during training camp as well. Let's see some explosive play generated on something they haven't done before. Like let's hit a 15-yard crosser, you know, that we've seen a little bit in training camp, but we haven't really seen from the Bengals very consistently in games.

Starting point is 00:06:24 Let's use motion to create matchups that we like and generate some separation. for these receivers because, and this was a conversation with one of our subscribers on subtext that I told you about before we started recording, Joe, like there's this point about separation for people watching Colby Young that want to, you know, dump a bucket of cold water on the Colby Young hype. And look, it's understandable. He's a rookie. He needs to go out there and prove it on the field.

Starting point is 00:06:47 But he's not really getting much separation. He's running a very vertical route tree for the most part from what we've seen in training camp, when he's winning contested catches running go balls, which is great. It's awesome. It's great to have that skill set, but we haven't seen Kobe Young on an inbreaker where he gets a lot of separation or, you know, leaving a cornerback, you know, in his dust or whatever you want to say on a double move, whatever it is. There was a stutter go, right? Wasn't that him? There's a stutter and then outside route. So a bench route. But we haven't seen a ton of separation consistently from Young.

Starting point is 00:07:21 So part of my response to that is that the Bengals offense generally doesn't create a bunch of separation. you go look at next gen stats separation numbers from last year. Tiggins was at the bottom of the entire NFL, and we think T's a pretty good route runner, especially for his size. Andre Yosovash is like 21st lowest separation at target in the NFL. And hypothetically, Andre Yosevash, the athlete, should be able to generate separation.

Starting point is 00:07:45 And I think that part of this is the Bengals offense because Jamar Chase is obviously going to generate separation because of how good he is. But compared to his other peers at the top of the NFL, he's not as high as you would think. Jamar Chase might be in terms of average separation when he's targeted. And so part of that is the offense. So can the offense in this under center stuff,

Starting point is 00:08:04 that motion stuff they've been working on, can they generate more separation as a function of what they're doing schematically, which is something that we've been asking this offense to do for years. Yeah. And then on the defensive side, like, are they ready to show everyone that they're a straight up three, four defense?

Starting point is 00:08:18 That's something they would like to hide. I assume they're going to run what they run and what they've done all season or off season and throughout the summer. And they're going to be a three, four defense. And we're going to get to see what that looks like with Dexter Lawrence in the center of that, hopefully with Jonathan Allen and T.J. Slate and like put all your stars in their places. We don't have B.J. Hill right now. But let's see what that looks like for Boy A. Mafay. We've seen throughout camp, it gets him against tight ends. It gets him unblocked at times.

Starting point is 00:08:42 And he's made real good decisions and has won those situations, which he should. I'm excited to see Boy A Mafay and see if he can be that Trey Hendrickson that they kind of alluded to like, hey, this is the same type of signing guys. You know, this guy has a lot of. a lot more to his game. He can be that number one edge rusher for us. He's going to be unless Cassius Howl is an amazing rookie. But yeah, I want to see that. I'd love to see hopefully because we don't have a lot of clips of it from camp.

Starting point is 00:09:08 Him going one on one with the offensive tackles for the Lions is Penny Sue will going to play. Right. Can we see these guys? I know you're shaking red. The Lions aren't playing anyone, guys. They're pretty injured. But we'll take what we can get. So you better beat these backup players.

Starting point is 00:09:22 That's the other part of this is you're going to be going against a lot of backups. Who makes the play on defense? Jake, I leave it in the comments. If you're watching and you're on YouTube, who makes the play on defense? Because somebody is going to against these backups, right? They have to. If they don't sound the alarms, someone's going to make it.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Who's it going to be? I want to see Dexter Lawrence go out there against the lion's backups. Come on and be just as dominant as we've seen him in training camp and continue to be a game record in this first preseason game. Very excited to see what he looks like against opposition where he can hit the quarterback back and go crazy. No holds barred, right? For all these guys on the defensive front, they should be beating up on the Lions backups. And there's one more thing when it comes to the starters, Joe. You talked about who's going to make a play. One more thing that I want to get

Starting point is 00:10:09 to as far as the linebackers and Jordan battle and tackling and all those things before we get to the newcomers and some of the depth battles that are really the stuff that makes up the preseason coming up next. Matt Derry here from the lockdown. Lions podcast. You know, life insurance is one of those things you don't really think about until you have a reason to. For me, it really hit home when my father passed away over 20 years ago. You started thinking less about yourself and more about the people who depend on you, making sure they're taking care of no matter what. That's why I like ethos. They make getting life insurance simple. It's 100% online, no doctor visits, no needles, none of that. You can get

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Starting point is 00:11:16 Rates may vary. We're also brought to you today by Kalshi. Before the season even kicks off everyone's making predictions. Are the Bengals going to win 11 games? Are they going to win 10 games? Who's going to win the Super Bowl? There are a bunch of questions. And you can predict all of them on Cali,

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Starting point is 00:11:54 changes, you can buy in and out of your position. Trade the draft pick, the game, and more on Kalshi. You can download the Kalshi app and use code. Locked on, you'll get $10 when you trade $10. Cali. K-A-L-S-H-I-C-E-E-E-T-E-E-E-T-plus only. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply event contract, trading involves risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. Cali products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calshy.com slash regulatory. Jake, you mentioned you want something else out of these linebackers and Jordan Battle and something on the defense.

Starting point is 00:12:34 Hit me with it. What is it? Well, it's just the one thing that we've talked about this week. You talk about who's going to make a play. That's part of it for the linebackers for sure. But the other part here is can we get through this game, especially when it comes to the starters, without missing a tackle? without a blown assignment, like looking to do kind of the baseline things, but that's one thing that I kind of still need to see to believe,

Starting point is 00:12:56 and that shouldn't be a huge challenge. I know the Lions have an interesting offense and all these things, bigger challenge next week against Ben Johnson, who's out there talking about wanting the Bears to break Peyton Manning's points per game record. He wants to go set NFL records, Ben Johnson does for points per game with the Chicago Bears this year. So maybe a bit of a bigger challenge with Ben Johnson's innovation next week

Starting point is 00:13:16 with Chicago, but can we get through the game clean, operation clean, pre-sapple linements, good communication, but bigger than that, I think we're all waiting to see if the tackling issues is going to be solved this year. Yeah, no doubt about it, right? That's like setting the floor, the baseline for the defense is not having big coverage bus, but also tackling is a big part of that. And if this defense is going to, we keep saying like raise the ceiling in terms of getting to be a top 16 defense, but you do that a lot of times by not having the big mistakes and tackling is a big part of that. We'll see if it carryovers from preseason to regular season, but at the very least, I'd rather see them not miss the tackles.

Starting point is 00:13:57 Yeah, even if it doesn't carry over, you'd rather see them make the tackles and miss the tackles, right? Like they miss the tackles again, then that's all we're talking about for two weeks. Yeah, that's why preseason is fun because it could really shape the conversation for three weeks until we get to, well, now regular season starts and we can, you know, forget some of the things that happens. memory wiped this entire thing when it happens. But yeah, I, for the first time and in a long time, I don't, we've never had a backup quarterback like Joe Flacco, maybe the John Kittna era, Carson Palmer, you know, transition

Starting point is 00:14:28 between the two of them would qualify as something like this, but Flacco is even better in John Kitna. But what that does for preseason and the advantages you get because you see as soon as his backup quarterbacks get in, they are so much worse. So as soon as back off offensive linemen, teams don't have depth on the Oliners. So that's something I really want to see with Brian Parker. We're not going to get Connor Lou. The Jalen Rivers take another step.

Starting point is 00:14:50 You have Cody Ford. Who wins that other tackle position? If there's even a battle for it between Foster and Coker, but just thinking of flacko, no Teddy Bridgewater for the Lions. If you haven't been paying attention, he retired or left the team or whatever happened there. They signed Josh Dobbs.

Starting point is 00:15:05 I don't expect him to play right away. So it might just be Luke Altemeyer, the rookie out of Illinois for the Lions, which probably all game. So advantage Bengals there and brings me to the conversation I think we all want to have is wide receiver spot and how they rotate in. I want to bring this up when we're talking offense with first team because Dante Myers, Colby Young, these guys have been getting mixed in with the starters on a few snaps. Is that going to happen on Thursday night? Will we see them with Joe Burrow?

Starting point is 00:15:33 That would be awesome for those guys. But let's see when Mitch Tinsley gets in and Dante Myers and Kobe Young and Charlie Jones, who seems to still be the leader for the return man job. When do they get mixed in? How early do they get mixed in? And then let's really put the microscope. I'm going to be watching those guys really dialed in on them. Yeah, what the receiver rotation looks like will be fascinating if we start to see this rotation taking shape like I'm imagining it has in training camp.

Starting point is 00:16:00 And what we've seen is this when they go to 12 personnel, you're seeing Mitch Tinsley on the field more with Jemar Chase typically, but not necessarily with T. Higgins out there. Maybe this is just a thing they're doing in training. camp, but if they go out there against the lions on their first or second drive, if they play two drives, and they're doing a lot of this 12 personnel stuff, and Mitch Tinsley's part of that, then I will be reinforced in my belief that they have specific roles in mind for Andre Yosevash and Mitch Tensley.

Starting point is 00:16:29 And maybe even Kobe Young for certain packages and certain plays. And so if that's the idea, I want to see if that wide receiver three kind of rotation does translate in a game and not just in practice. And if you see Dante Myers getting reps with the ones, that would be a pretty significant step because it's not like, you know, the falloff is so significant now with Joe Flacco out there where you're not going to get a good evaluation on these guys with the twos.

Starting point is 00:16:56 And that's such a big difference. If Joe Flacco, and I don't know how many drives he'll get, he might just get a drive himself before they go to Josh Johnson and Sean Clifford and try to protect the guys that they're going to be relying on in the regular season because you don't need to see a whole lot from Joe Flacco. But if you get one drive from Flacco, who knows how to take him, care of himself too. I think that's something else that we've seen.

Starting point is 00:17:15 He'll throw it away right away. His veteran savvy, like he's not out there trying to get hit in the preseason, especially. He's not trying to get hit in the regular season. So if he just needs to get rid of the ball, I think he does know how to take care of himself. But it gives us an opportunity to see a little bit more in terms of how this offense is functioning, how some of these receivers are playing with the second team.

Starting point is 00:17:35 And Dante Myers is certainly one of the big ones that there is going to be a real competition for that sixth wide receiver spot, this is where we'll see that take off in preseason game number one. The Dante Myers conversation situation to me can spark a lot of chaos. Like if he's actually good, because he was a good CFL player. And I just wondered if he, if the speed would translate, if he'd be able to get deep and be as agile, we've seen him catching deep passes, right? So like, okay, he must be. And then the other part was the mental game going from CFL to the NFL game, especially the Bengals, the way they run a lot of options. routes. You need to be able to adjust based on coverages. I read an article that Dante Myers,

Starting point is 00:18:16 his receiver coach with Rough Riders and the CFL did weekly exams for everyone written exams. So you had to really mentally know what you were doing. So like kind of no shock that he's making splash plays and getting rotated in. And Jamar Chase shouted him out on the K Adams show. Like that you didn't need to do that and to say this guy is getting a few reps and making plays in those few reps with the ones and how impressed he is with Myers. I think the last chip would just be if he makes a play as a return man. Like that's when the chaos happens, right? So I'm talking about like at that point,

Starting point is 00:18:49 whoa, what do we do at receiver? Is it that strong where you're going to keep an extra guy? Now could you get Dante Myers onto the practice squad? Pretty good chance of that unless he's that impressive in the preseason. We have seen the Bengals, of course, lose wide receivers to the waiver process in the past. It doesn't happen very often, though. Most of the time these guys do get through waivers.

Starting point is 00:19:08 but they've got, if Dante Myers is going to go out there and be a reliable return man who can threaten a little bit as well, that would make them very deep at the return spot because they trust Charlie Jones as long as they can say healthy. Kishon Williams honestly was very impressive in that role for this team as a midseason edition last year. And if you had Dante Myers to that mix, making plays on the offensive side of the ball as well, that does get to be a very interesting competition. And there are some other guys that were excited to see how they play. Jack Hendry's is a big one. And I want to dive into what we're hoping to see from Jack Hendry. Some of these other rookies here as we wrap up the show with the rookies on both sides of the ball, really. Cassius Howl, if he plays, obviously going to be somebody that's going to be very fun to watch.

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Starting point is 00:22:24 This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. There's a lot of hype for the Bengals seventh round, Joe. in this NFL draft and their sixth round, quite frankly. And we'll talk about Brian Parker's opportunity here with the second team. And some of the names that are very much going to be under the microscope when they're on the field are Jack Hendries and Landon Robinson. Because when the Bengals drafted Jack Andrews in the seventh round, a guy that probably should have been picked much earlier on day three, at least according to everything that we track and what he looked like on film.

Starting point is 00:23:00 and some of the reps we've seen from him, this is the opportunity for him to stake a claim to a roster spot. And he needs to go out there and make some plays. Sounds like there have been some mistakes for him in camp. He had a fumble that ended a drive. He fell down on a target from Joe Flacco. We haven't seen him get in with the ones at all.

Starting point is 00:23:22 We've seen Cam Grandi in that role. So sounds like Cam Grandi in that backup role to Drew Sample could be a head. of Jack Andrews right now. And I know that people are sick of Tanner Hudson. Some people are sick of Tanner Hudson anyway. But the Bengals continue to trust him at a high level. The Bengals quarterback's continue to trust him at a high level and he continues to make

Starting point is 00:23:42 plays when he's out there on the field. And so if there's only one spot open for a tight end and that might be generous, Jack Andrews will need to make the most of his opportunity because we've seen him make some plays in camp. We've seen him make some good blocks. Haven't necessarily seen him make those. catches as a receiver, but if he is going to be the backup to Eric all, well, we need to see him be really good in that role on Thursday. And that looks like how they're using him. So

Starting point is 00:24:11 we've got a lot of questions like, how is Jack injuries doing? Have you seen anything? Or Landon Robinson, like this is a good chance to say. Like, we have seen entries in a move tight end role doing a lot of the same things Eric was doing as a blocker. We did see a very nice pass protection rep against Isaiah Foskey. I thought he held up really well to allow a deep pass from Josh Johnson and being intercepted from Ticario Davis, but not from pressure from Jack Andrews. We also saw him as a move blocker, get up and get to a linebacker on a decent run. We saw him block the edge on the backside of a play against Cash's Powell did a great job keeping his head in front. I read on Paul Daneer Jr.'s article that he's been working with

Starting point is 00:24:47 James Casey finishing with more power, bringing more pop to his blocks. And blocking is a big part of his game that's going to have to blossom and it's going to be a big part of the evaluation in preseason because we know he can be a receiver. So when he makes mistakes as a receiver in terms of falling down or fumbling, doesn't look good for him. But I expect, you know, he will look good. When he gets those reps, when we do see it in preseason, this is the part that I usually say trust the tape, trust the evaluation, trust the pre-draft process. These guys tend to emerge and look better than the other guys. I'm hoping that's the case because I do believe he's a prospect worth developing.

Starting point is 00:25:23 Excited to see Jack Andrews, but not just Jack injuries. There are a bunch of rookies that we're going to need to see. We talked a little bit about Colby Young earlier and seeing where he gets mixed into the wide receiver battle will be interesting, but he should get quite a bit of playing time. I would think throughout the first half of this game with different quarterback. So seeing how he looks out there against live competition and guys on the Detroit side, that's the thing

Starting point is 00:25:44 about playing your starters, and this isn't necessarily Colby Young against backups is those guys are going to be doing everything they can, going all that. going maybe a little bit more than all out to get onto the Detroit Lions roster, make an impression. And that's why sometimes you don't like playing starters against backup, something that will be in the back of my mind as well. But a bunch of other rookies, Joe,

Starting point is 00:26:05 and backups and death battles that we're going to be interested in. And Brian Parker is going to be one of them. Do they work him on both sides of the offensive line will be a question? I assume what we've seen from him throughout camp is only working at guard. we'll probably see him resuming that as well. But Brian Parker, a sixth round pick, who we think has potential and quite a bit of potential, we'll get our first exposure there as well.

Starting point is 00:26:33 Yeah, I'm big fan of Brian Parker. As much as we've talked about injuries, I am equally, if not bigger, fan of what Parker can become. I think, you know, if I were to make stake a claim or say something, and if you haven't watched any pre-draft stuff or right after the draft, I think Parker is going to be a starting guard for this team. So I, to me, what I focused on him every time we've gotten clips of the second and third teams,

Starting point is 00:26:55 I don't think I've seen him get really beat yet. It's not like last year where Jalen Rivers, we were having a conversation of, oh, this guy's getting beat and pretty routinely. We can't play him at tackle. He's got to be a guard, and then he did not have a good rookie season at guard. And actually, I've seen him get beat this year. I'm excited to see if Jalen Rivers is taking a step. Let's see him in games as well.

Starting point is 00:27:14 But watching those two together may give us a cleaner picture of where they are in the pecking order at guard as well. The Bengals may say, oh, Rivers is year two. He's got to be the guy. What if after three preseason games, Brian Parker is steady and Rivers is still a bit of a roller coaster. I think there's some room there for Parker to elevate in this lineup. And I would be, I almost expect it, to be honest with you. Maybe the most exciting name as far as newcomers, newcomer rookies anyway, it's Cassius Howl. And getting to him a little bit later than I think either of us expected to here in the show in the grand scheme of things. But Cassius Hal has been one of the most exciting guys to

Starting point is 00:27:49 watch throughout this training camp routinely beating up on backup level tackles. And if that's what the lions are going to throw out there, I'm real excited to see Cassius Howell as a pass rusher in this game. And the only reason we probably didn't bring him up earlier is because we don't know if he's going to play. Zach was noncommittal about it. But then Cassius Howell said in the locker room that he expects to play. So we'll find out because we've had players say that before and Zach hold them out.

Starting point is 00:28:14 So Cassius may, he may learn this week that it's Zach's decision. Yeah, and Ticario Davis also in that bucket of guys who is in the day-to-day management, not sure if they're going to play or not, but obviously the defensive rookies, Cassius Howl and Ticario Davis, the earliest picks, Bobo Davis, as they're calling him, are some of the earlier ones that we're going to be watching. In addition to Landon Robinson,

Starting point is 00:28:38 and we're trying to figure out if he is actually in a battle to make this team. Is he beating out McKinley Jackson right now, as we've kind of inferred from the pecking order and where we've seen him getting reps versus McKinley Jackson getting reps on the defensive line. Can he make it a battle with Chris Jenkins? Can he beat out Chris Jenkins for what could be the last spot on the defensive interior? He'll need to make some plays in this game, I think, to really make a claim and make a statement that he is deserving of that roster spot.

Starting point is 00:29:11 Yeah, and we said all offseason that we expect Robinson to look really good against backups, right. It was really only his size that knocked him down because he has power strength, good lateral quickness and explosiveness, good hands and hand usage. I expect he's going to look good. So that would be really fun and maybe hopefully shape the conversation we have going into our 53 man outlook. But then the last one for me, Taj Brooks, we've barely seen anything from anyone after Todd Brooks. A couple Gary Brightwell and Kendall Milton carries here or there. But I'm really, you know, if P. Ryan plays more than five snaps. If Chase Brown plays more than six snaps, what does the first drive go for?

Starting point is 00:29:49 If it goes, it's an 11-poly drive and they split that pretty evenly. Like, that's it for those guys. You're immediately going to running back three. And I would love to see Tage Brooks in year two get the bulk of the snaps and carries because I really want to see what he is. And if he's developed, if he looks quicker and as a better receiver pass protection, that'd be awesome to see in preseason. Not that you get too many blitzes, you know, tends to be pretty vanilla. But still, I want to see it from Tage Brooks. That's one of the underrated guys from last year that we've kind of overlooked a little bit. Yeah, and a guy that needs to take a step for this team this year, he is going to be the third

Starting point is 00:30:24 running back. There's not really anyone challenging him. And so he did catch a touchdown pass from Joe Flacco in the Bengals' latest practice and when they went inside with all the, the weather. Weather could be an impact in this game as well. Bring your umbrella. It sounds like there is some rain expected on Thursday night in Cincinnati. The last one for me, Joe, is going be that slot corner discussion. Now, Jalen Davis, I'd be a little bit surprised at this point if he plays, but there are a bunch of corners vying, I think, for one roster spot right now because I think Daxhill, DJ Turner, Jalen Davis, Takario Davis, and DJ Ivy are five of your six corners on the

Starting point is 00:31:06 roster. I think, you know what? Taylor has a leg up for the sixth spot, but Jaseer Taylor, Josh Newton, Braylon, Lucks, those guys, I think, competing for one spot. That's all I was going to say is it's Braylin Lux music. It's time, Jake, preseason. That's why I love it. And special teams obviously going to be significant for those guys.

Starting point is 00:31:25 If there are special teams gaffs or special team standout plays, that's probably the extent to which we'll discuss special teams. There's no discussion about log snapper, holder, punter, any of that stuff that's all in place. That's something that Evan McPherson talked about. He doesn't have to think about the kicking battery this year at all. good news. The one other thing I guess that I would mention here is, is depth linebacker. Do we see anything from these undrafted guys? The Swayzey Bozeman clearly still ahead of them.

Starting point is 00:31:54 How many linebackers are they going to keep? Well, they keep a fifth linebacker this year. Are those guys doing enough? Are they a big enough part of the special teams plan and what they need in terms of depth of that position that that is the direction they go? Are there any surprises? That's always interesting to see too, because sometimes you see guys earlier than you'd expect. leaving earlier than you'd expect. And that will inform some of our early thoughts about the way this 53-man roster is coming together. And after we digest the game, we'll react to the game, of course.

Starting point is 00:32:25 That'll be the first thing you hear after the game here on lockdown Bengals. We might dive into some film a little bit as well. But how does this inform how we think the 53-man roster is coming together for this team? That will be coming your way in the near future here on lockdown Bengals. Until then, the next time you'll hear from us will be after a football game is played. And that's pretty exciting. It's pretty exciting.

Starting point is 00:32:48 Excited to watch some football. Excited to talk about some football with everybody here on Lockdown Bengals. Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Who did? And have a good one.

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