Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Sam Hubbard retires a Cincinnati Bengal | Legacy, cap impact, what's next?

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

Sam Hubbard's retirement from the NFL may have been expected, but has financial and football implications for the Cincinnati Bengals. Jake Liscow and James Rapien reflect on Hubbard's legacy after an overachieving 7-year career, discuss the role he filled for the Bengals, and reset the salary cap picture after the cut. We break down the latest on the state of negotiations between the Bengals and their stars. and blitz through standout performances from the NFL Combine.  Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!ChewyChewy has everything you need to keep your pet happy and healthy. And right now you can save $20 on your first order and get free shipping by Clicking this link: https://prf.hn/click/camref:1011l3Huc8/creativeref:1011l164602FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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.

After a seven-year career with the Cincinnati Bengals, Sam Hubbard is retiring. Let's break it down. You are Locked-on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked-on Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liskow. He's your host, James Rupin, and we are locked on Bengals here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. your team every day on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast.

And if you're not in every day or already, you can join that awesome club of Bengals fans that doesn't miss an episode of Lockdown Bengals by hitting that subscribe button and keeping up to date as we get you through the offseason here, which will be very exciting next week, James. Free agency going on, the negotiating window opening up, waiting for deals for some Bengals stars.

But before we get there, another significant domino falls for the Bengals as they prepare for free agency in Sam Hubbard's retirement. This is a move that our subtext subscribers, the Lockdown Bengals Insiders, have known was possible for a few days now. The group of you that subscribes at join subtext.com slash lockdown Bengals. Heard this from a little birdie a couple of days ago, James. And what a fantastic career is where I would start that conversation for.

for Sam Hubbard before we get to the rest of it for a third round pick, overachieve for most of his career and goes out as a Bengal, a shorter career than you would have hoped. And I think a premature ending to his career, just seven years. But what a great career was for a third round pick returning to his hometown to play for the team he grew up rooting for. Yeah, I think we're going to talk a lot about draft prospects between now and the draft in late April.

That's what you want. that's what you're trying to find. You're trying to find the Sam Hubbard's of the world that are going to come in, be able to contribute early in a bunch of different ways, develop, and start on a Super Bowl team, start on back-to-back teams that won the division, and went to back-to-back AFC championship games. And obviously, he was a captain,

and just did so much for the team before they were good and while they were good. And you mentioned the premature part of the, the Sam Hubbard ending. And what's crazy to me is if you would have told me when, and I was at Arrowhead when they lost the Chiefs in the AFC championship game at the conclusion of the 2022 season, just a few plays away from making it to back-to-back Super Bowls,

if you would have said this is it for Sam, he was coming off of his best year. Obviously, he had the Hubbard Yard dash against Baltimore a few weeks prior. They go to Buffalo and they kick the crap out of the bills. they come up just a tad short in Kansas City. But it was like, man, Sam Hubbard is playing at a really, really high level. And that to me, we're going to celebrate. It's going to be a bunch of awesome stuff that we're going to say here.

And everyone is saying it. And the Bengals had an awesome press release and put out a video. And NFL did as well. And Sam Hubbard had a great statement on his social media channels. And I think it's a great story. But when you look at it, it's like, man, he is. His best season was just two years ago. He was coming off of his best season two years ago.

And the injury bug just bit him in a way that really hurt how effective he could be, whether it was the ankle injury in 2023. And he put off getting surgery, has that tightrobed surgery, and that certainly limited him. Then he had the hamstring injury in camp last July, early August, whatever it was. and that could have been a season-ending surgery that he had, but he tried to play through it, and then obviously he had the knee injury where he catches the touchdown.

And how cool is that? They've had that play in. He's been wanting to run that play. He makes an elite catch, and that's his final NFL play ever. I'm not sure there are many, if any, maybe one. I don't know who, though.

Defense of ends, probably zero, actually, the more I think about it. When's the last time a defensive end, their final NFL play was catching a touchdown pass. Their final play. I'm not sure there are many. So that was pretty insane to think about. And Hubbard made a great catch on that one.

I'm sure someone will have done the research by the time this episode is out and will have found out if he's the only defensive player to conclude his career with a touchdown on his final play. And I'm including all defensive players, not just defensive linemen in that because not a ton of defensive players catch touchdown passes in their career. and certainly not a ton of defensive linemen. So a storybook ending for Sam, Sam certainly finishing his career on that touchdown pass.

And the second time this week, James, we're going to sit on this podcast and lament injuries for a player after 2022. The effectiveness diminishing a little bit in 2023, then in 2024 once again playing through an injury. Because he started 23 well, if my memory serves. and was playing pretty well at the beginning of that season and then had another injury and then did not finish the season

as well as you would have hoped and tried to come back from that injury after Burrow got hurt and everything and tried to be there for the team and was always that guy that did everything he could for the team even when I was critical of Sam Hubbard and I was known as a Sam Hubbard hater

not more than a couple of years ago It was never for his effort. It was never for the leadership that he brought to the team, what he brought the team off the field, the attitude that he brought to the team and that was routinely praised by coaching staffs from Marvin Lewis all the way through to his time with Zach Taylor, the final Marvin Lewis player on the Cincinnati Bengals

is now no longer with the Bengals. It was just for the past rush stuff. He was never a great past rusher. It does finish his career with 38 and a half sacks, which is a very respectable number for a third round pick, but was the kind of run defender that, like DJ Reeder, helped the Bengals change the math in the box a little bit and help them keep extra defensive backs on the field

when they wanted to keep Mike Hilton on the field and have DJ Reader and Sam Hubbard out there, contributed to some of the better run defending units. And this is a bit of time ago now that we've seen in recent years for the Bengals along with DJ reader having two elite run defenders on the defensive line. So while we were expecting Sam Hubbard's departure from the team in one way, shape, or form this off season just because of the numbers involved, it does leave schematic

gaps now that they have to fill one way or the other as they're looking to rebuild the defensive line because the things that Sam was good at are things that I think you need the way the NFL is going right now, especially in the AFC North. Yeah, I think, and we'll get to, you. You said numbers, so just to tease it, we'll get to the cap and what happens and all the things that are impacted by this and where the Bengals are at. But when you have a guy like Sam that makes these kind of plays and is such a stout runoff, I mean, elite. I mean, he's such a, he had the trust of Lou. I remember a couple of years ago, I asked Lou, and I would have still kicked him inside.

I was like, hey, would you want to kick him inside? Like, no, I trust him on the edge. and that trust, there's obviously something that was discussed over the past couple of years. But one other play I want to make sure I mention and highlight, because obviously you have the Hubbard Yard dash. But the year prior, to keep Pat Mahomes in the pocket, to not keep contained there, to make Mahomes drift back, drift back, drift back, and not go left, not go right at arrowhead, and ultimately fumble the ball before bringing him down, four.

forcing the chiefs to kick a field goal in the AFC championship game. Like that's such a, a huge moment for Sam and for this defense, because then they go to overtime. Obviously, they won the game. They get to Super Bowl 56. And in that one almost, I don't want to say just goes unnoticed because I've seen some people notice it. But that's a huge play that got them to Super Bowl 56.

So you want to talk about clutch play, two of the biggest plays of the Joe Burrow era of from a postseason standpoint. Sam Hubbard was a huge part of where the root cause of. So just two huge, huge moments. And by the way, he played in seven playoff games, Bengals five and two in those games.

He logged 4,940 defensive snaps, just on defense in the regular season. So well over 5,000 when you include the postseason. Considering the stakes, I think maybe the best game of his career was that conference championship in 2021 one against Kansas City. I had two sacks in that game as well, had a number of plays in run defense,

that crucial play on Pat Mahomes. And the whole game was about containing Mahomes. And Sam Hubbard was a huge reason that Bengals were able to put together in that stretch where they were getting good situational defense in the playoffs. These games were they were able to contain quarterbacks who were so good when they were able to break contain. And obviously, it didn't go that way for Sam late in his career. If you're thinking about those moments, fine.

But he was part of some awesome contained game plans for this defense in the playoffs. And I think that conference championship, Kansas City, 2021, again, considering the stakes, considering when the plays came, was probably a game that should be more memorable for Sam Hubbard. But I did allude to some numbers, James. We can talk about the financial impact here of the Sam Hubbard. retirement and the T. Higgins franchise tag where the Bengal salary cap situation is at this point and how that's going to change potentially in the next couple of weeks. We will get into that discussion coming up next. You've probably heard of Chewy. They really do have everything you need

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the various impacts on the team in general. And these are holes that the Bengals were going to have to fill either way. This is just probably worth pointing out. Sam Hubbard retiring and was either going to be released or was going to retire most likely. Real quick. Technically, he was released. Okay. I wasn't sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, so technically it was so funny. See, this is why you come to Lockdown Bengals, right? especially this time of year. All of the, like, because I get all the national notifications on X. Most of them, all is relative, but a lot of the insiders, I get the notifications just in case. And they're like, the Bengals have released Sam Hubbard. The Bengals have released Sam Hubbard.

The Bengals have released Sam Hubbard. And then he announced his retirement. And they did that obviously just for a procedurally to make it easier and cleaner. But it was funny to see them do that. And then it's like, oh, Sam Hubbard has announced his retirement. And it's like, no, actually, this is all part of the retirement. But yeah, the Bengals did release him technically right before he retired. Yeah.

Either way, we've talked about this for a while now, wasn't expecting to see Sam back with the number that he had. And so there was a hole there anyway. And Alex Caput was released. There was a hole at Right Guard anyway. And so these were players that the Bengals had a plan to replace anyway because of the level of play they got in recent years. But from a release perspective, it frees up about $9.5 million of cap space, which comes with about a $2 million, actually exactly a $2 million dead cap hit, which means for the Bengals, they're dead cap hits now, which were so low before all these releases are up to $6.6 million for 2025, which is still extremely low compared to the rest of the NFL in case you think that's a high number now. And when accounting for rookies and the practice squad and some additional cap expenses like offseason workouts that will need to be paid out and practice squad elevations, I've got the Bengals at about $42 million in cap space now. And that includes T. Higgins' $26 million franchise tag number.

That also includes obviously Jamar Chase's $21 million in change fifth year option number. and both of those numbers could go down from, say, five, if you're very conservative, to $15 million against the cap. So I would say the Bengals realistically, if they get those deals done, would be somewhere around $60 million, $55, $60 million in cap space. But as it stands today, that franchise tag is a stick in the mud. It is $26 million in change. And that is the cash and that is the cap.

And those numbers are equal until they get an extent. extension done. And the same is true for Jamar Chase of that $21 million number. Both of those could go down substantially if the Bengals do get those deals done in short order. Otherwise, those will be the cap charges that they carry into free agency. And I will be somewhat critical of that because I do think that that does put more restrictions on them when it comes to other free agents than it needs to. I would also add as one last caveat here, James, that that $42 million number could go down a little bit with a potential Trey Hendrickson extension.

I would not expect an extension for Trey Hendrickson to lower his cap number, given their history with Trey and what happened the last end, given the one-year deal. And just thinking about the structure that I would expect to see there, wouldn't expect to see the number necessarily go down for Trey, although it could. And other team certainly would use that measure or might consider using that measure, but about $42 million now, and if they get those two long-term deals on, I would say, up to $60 million,

is the cap situation with just south of $100 million in cash to spend when accounting for the T. Higgins franchise tag and the Jamar Chase fifth year option already, which means any cash increases for those guys are not $40 million. It's offset by what's already accounted for with what's on the books for them for 2025. All right. That was Jake's long-witted answer of saying they have plenty. Yep. I'm done seeing tweets saying that they don't do it, can't do it, can't see it,

can't blah, blah, blah, nope, nope, nope, nope, take this episode, take this episode, whether it's YouTube, whether it's wherever you get your podcast, give the national analyst the timestamp and send it to them and say, hey, they can do it, will they? That's another decision. That's another discussion. But can they? Yes, they can. They have the room.

They have their resources. Boom. So do that for me. because I am, oh my goodness, I mean, there are so many people that keep asking can. And the can question is dumb. It's also dumb because we know at least Pratt, probably Moss. I mean, there's probably at least 10 more million there. Plus, you have the T deal, which we outlined on our last show throughout what, why, when the deadline is, why the deadline is in all of those things.

But getting the artificial deadline, but getting that done before. free agency is huge. Why you mentioned, I don't, I don't think it's realistic to expect them. Not that they shouldn't get T and Jemar both done before free agency. I just, I'm not sure that's going to happen. But at least T, he's the bigger cap hit. I think it should be easy. Both should be pretty easy in my mind, but you never know.

I mean, you offer T 27, he says 31, and then you offer 28, and then he says, sorry, well, 30, and then you get there. You figure out the guarantees and you move on. but I don't think that from a a structure standpoint, like if you want to create extra space by giving T a little bit more of a signing bonus,

I'm not sure, and by the way, I am sure T's not going to mind getting a little extra cash. Mar's not going to mind getting a little extra a bigger payday. And by the way, if you need to do that with Trey,

then do it with Trey. Because the 2026 Bengals cap and 27 cap and 20, it's why, open. It's not like there's any possibility of them being in danger, so to speak. Now, what are they doing free agency? We'll see. But plenty, plenty of resources, to be clear, resources, cap, cash, et cetera, to get these guys done and then add to the team as well. And part of that is because of the way they were able to move on from Sam Hubbard and move on from Rankins and can

still move on from some of these other guys. Kappa is someone they moved on from. And so hopefully we start to see the, not, oh, can they? Well, yes, they can. We start to see the doing part. And they start to get some of this stuff done. Yeah, more evidence that the last years of contracts are fake in the NFL. They are all effectively team options. All of the players of Bengals have released so far going into the last year of their deal, which means there is a minimal dead cap hit and maximum salary cap savings, maximum cash savings, often the last year of deals, have big cash outlays. And very rarely do players see those when there's any sort of fall off because teams don't want to pay when they start to see that decline. And it is worth noting here, James, when you're talking about some of these deals and the negotiations ongoing between Jamar in the team and T.

and the team and T. Hendrickson and the team, Ari Mairov, was on the Check, the Mike podcast on Wednesday and was telling Steve, and Sam that the Bengals are far off with Jemar Chase and with T. Higgins and with T. Higgins and with T. Hendricksson right now. And you've heard that report from Diana Rusini earlier this week. We've talked about that a little bit as well. Let's talk a little bit more about what that means and how that could impact the Bengals. Before we get to a few Combine standouts here, just because we haven't really talked about any of the players that put out some impressive workouts of the Combine and how that could impact the Bengals to finish up the show coming up next.

All right, Jake. Let's get into some combine stuff. We're going to talk about free agency a ton. We don't need to harp on the negotiating points. Hopefully they can get it done. I think that they can. The far apart stuff is what it's agent speak. It's going to happen. I'd be really, really far apart too if I wanted a couple million dollars. A couple million dollars is a big difference. And that's what it is, according to Byron's reporting, just to be clear, he said it's he said, he said, Marr's asking for 40, the Bengals are at 36 to 37. Early in negotiations there, those numbers will get closer over time. T wants 30. According to Myrov, the Bengals aren't quite there.

And these are roughly in line with what you would expect. You've heard that $40 million for Jamar a few times, according to Marov. The one that was a little bit higher than I thought, Trey Hendrickson, 32 to 33, not sure where the team is on that one. But what I would say in general for all of these, I'll spoil it. They're in the 20s, guaranteed. For all of these, you're talking about a difference of a couple of million dollars and a gap that we'll see if they can bridge.

And hopefully it's sooner than later. The only one of these that is even mildly concerning to me at this point is the T. Higgins gap, depending on how big it is exactly, because that's one that you want done sooner than later. That's the one where there's like significant to me time pressure. Also, they could save cat money for Jamar if they needed to, but the T. Higgins one, you would really like to get off that $26 million franchise tag when free agency comes around. And that's why we talked about it. So when you hear this stuff, I don't think that you should take it as negative necessarily as some sort of sign of doom coming as just, to me, negotiations. Now, if they don't get these things done, the way Duke Tobin has talked about it and the way they've outlined their plan for this offseason, that would be one of the biggest failures they've had in an offseason.

in my opinion, just because of the way they've talked about it, the way they've set up their plan, the limited options in free agency, and why we're about to talk about some combine players instead. But that's my opinion on where it's at now. I don't know if you have anything else there, James, before we get to these combine guys. But I just want to- Yeah, we're going to have four minutes on the combine guys. I think they're at like 26 to 28 for T. They're probably at like 26 to 27 for T. To me, I would expect Trey to be at like 28 plus some incentives. I would expect Jamar to be at like 38 and a half.

Jamar probably really, really wants to have that four number. And so maybe they find a way to get it to four, but they have him structure it in an even more team-friendly way by doing whatever they feel is the best from a structure standpoint. Because I could understand that, being the first NFL player ever to get 40 million per. it just that isn't a quarterback.

And then, and then Trey, they have all of the negotiating power with Trey. I mean, what is he going to do? Demand another trade. So that's the one that I think could be the loudest. His agent's the one who agreed to that stupid one-year deal. That was a really dumb decision by him and his agent. And so now they're in a tough spot. But if the Bengals offer you, like I would offer you, like I would offer.

him like 28 million with some incentives and maybe he gets those incentives maybe it doesn't maybe it's 15 sacks something like that 15 and a half sacks and so you'd love to pay him a little bit more if he gets to that number again right and so maybe you give him some incentives to get to 30 give him 28 with some incentives that I could realistically get him to 30 that that seems about right so hopefully they can get there on all three that doesn't seem like a Grand Canyon apart is all. And I think when you see some of this where it's like they're far apart, it's like, yeah, it's all relative.

Anyways. I just noted the impression that it's one of those things where they're like a magnitude off, where they're offering 20 and the player wants 30 kind of thing. You know what I mean? Like it seems like it's a bridgeable gap. And like I said, if they don't bridge the gap, I think it will be one of, if not the biggest

offseason failure in recent history for the Bengals. And so we'll have to see how it plays out and we will absolutely kill them. if they flood this thing. Yeah, you've got to keep your guys. Part of it is because this draft sucks. I'm just kidding. Let's talk about the draft.

It doesn't suck. But the point is you look at free agency in the draft, and I don't see a bunch of T. Higginses that are growing on trees, right? I'm not sure who's going to be Trey Hendrickson. Everyone's talking about this defensive line class, and I think they're good defensive wins and defensive tackles. I'm not sure exactly who is going to be. the guy. And so it's, that part of it is going to be tough to decipher. And I could certainly

see a scenario where we're at 17. The Bengals are on the clock. 17th pick is that. And it's like, oh, well, that's the guy that's going to make the, the huge impact on defense right now. It's tough. All right. Let's get to, let's get to our combine standouts, though, because it is realistic to find that. But it's hard to find that. And we know what these guys bring. He stood out to you the most in Indianapolis. I was just going to say certain guys tested their way most likely out of the Bengals range. And Armand Membo, the offensive line for Missouri, certainly one of those who looks like he's going in the top 10 to top 12 range at this point because he's got great tape and then tested like an elite athlete. Will Campbell, another guy tested like an elite athlete and any slim hopes, I think, of him getting to the Bengals in 17 if you're looking for one of those guys to be the tackle to guard.

hard convert to add some real juice and indifference making to the Bengals interior offensive line. I think both of those are probably pipe dreams at this point. Bengals' favorite, just talking about first round targets. I think for a lot of fans at this point, James Pierce had himself a really good time with athletic testing, but some very concerning, and I would call this a mixed bag for Pierce, some concerning reports about character, and we'll have to see what shakes out there and how teams feel about him because the tape is there.

The testing was there. The on-field drills looked really good for him, too. The only other concern, obviously, is wait for James Pierce and whether that fits with what the Bengals need, especially considering what I just talked about with Sam Hubbard's retirement and how good he was against the run at the beginning of the show. Jahad Campbell, another one that was awesome in terms of testing at the combine, Nick and Manwari, guys that have really solidified their standing or in. I'm worried his case boosted their standing in terms of the first round and I think boosted their draft stock a little bit. There's tons of other guys we can get to too, too, but those are some of the

guys at the very top that stood out to me the most in terms of testing. Yeah, I think the thing that's interesting about the defensive line at 17 is it's like, it seems like some of these guys and who knows how legit the character concerns are, but the Bengals, the guys in the Bengals range, they're going to have to deep dive on them and make sure that. that there isn't any serious stuff there. What do you think of Derek Harmon? I had mixed feelings about the way that he moved at the combine. I think that he doesn't look as smooth as some of the other defensive interior players to me,

but he tested reasonably well. Sorry, he completed the drills in a reasonably fast fashion, just like was a little bit choppy at times. So we'll see there. I think that the back end of the first round where he currently is projected is probably about right. But if the Bengals were to pick him at 17, given what we know now, it wouldn't be the craziest idea in the world.

There's just a few concerns there. Yeah, I think that one's interesting. You mentioned Jahad Campbell, Freak. Like, if he's there at 17, please have a plan for him. And there's a chance that he could be that guy, especially in a draft like this, where I do think that there's going to be questions about a lot of the guys. When you say plan for him, are you saying like, you want him to be Micah Parsons? Is that, is that the whole?

Because I don't think that's, to me, that's not who he is. But I could be wrong. No, plan for him as in how to maximize him because they don't have, there's no one at Paycor Stadium when everybody's on, everybody on the roster's in the building that is Jihad Campbell from an athlete standpoint. And so how do you maximize that? That's what I mean. They did not have to maximize Dax. They were lost. And so that's it.

Now, do you just put him at lineback? and that's it. Well, sure, but I would want to use him as a pass rusher and use him to bolster your pass rush. It doesn't mean that he has to line up a defensive end. But who knows? Maybe they view

him differently. I think Colston Loveland helped him. Colston Loveland is in the mix at 17. I'm just going to say it and shout it and make it very, very clear. Measured 6.5.5, 248, 10 inch hands, nearly 33-inch arms. I mean, and he moves great.

So there's really no reason to think that he can't pick up the blocking side of things and be a good enough blocker and also be the elite mover. Tyler Warren, I don't really think that he did anything to hurt his draft stock. Both of these guys just measured. But I think those guys both worth mentioning. Let's see here, you hit on a lot of the top guys. I'm scrolling down here to make sure I don't miss any. Jack Sawyer, short arms. He's got those Jake, let's go arms.

So it's not, you're going to say you have long arms. I'm waiting for it. I don't. I'm just proportionate. I'm like a box on that test, you know? So we'll see there how much that impacts him, but I do think that that impacted him. And then where was,

I'm going down the list of names here. There was a guy that I wanted to make sure I mentioned. Well, Tate Ratlidge and Quinshon Judkins, two guys that I think stood out. Judkins is, I think, probably going in the second round, and I think a lot of people feel like Tate Ratlidge is going to go either second or early third round, both guys, impressing at the combine. And I do think we'll be relatively high on the Bengals board could be day two targets.

Ratledge is particularly fascinating to me. Is this just like a post-combine hype thing for him? Or is this a let's go back to the tape? Let's consider how that injury impacted him at Georgia. Clearly he's healthy now. The Georgia lineman, the center. Wilson, is that his name? Jared Wilson, also testing like a freak.

Yeah, the center from Georgia, 99.7. on the RAS scale. Also wanted to shout out Ty League Williams. If the Bengals could somehow get their hands on Ty Leake Williams in the second round, I think that would be a phenomenal draft pick. I don't know that he'll be available to them there,

but I thought he moved amazingly well for a guy that's as stout against a run as he is on tape and weighs over 330 pounds. He didn't test, but going through the position drills, I thought he was awesome. And a bunch of running backs tested well. This running back class. I know you mentioned Junkins, but up and down, a bunch of running backs,

a bunch of linebackers in this class, very athletic. And I think that that is particularly interesting. And the last one, I guess I'll mention is Malachi Stark, who didn't test great but had great GPS data. So despite the testing number is not being good, his GPS data for all of those tests was really good. And so a fascinating case there for GPS versus overall drill, time for Malachi

Stark's. I was bummed. There was a lot of guys that didn't test for like little nagging things. Like Jack Sawyer just didn't test. I don't think he's dealing with anything. Kenneth Grant dealing with a minor injury. You want to see him test. That's the guy you want to see

because if he's going to be in consideration at 17, you want to see that athleticism for his size pop. So that's one. To keep an eye on, we'll obviously monitor the pro days as well. But I did note it. Like there's a lot of guys I felt like that didn't.

They're going to wait until the pro day. And I think that's going to be more and more common. And this is going to be about the interviews, obviously the medicals, and then the measurements, which is why I mentioned the tight ends. Because I do think that that for Colston, Loveland, especially, was such a huge hurdle. Because he moves so well, he's got to be 6.3, 2, 235. And it's like, actually, now, will he measure again at his. pro day in way in. Who knows? But regardless, I do think that he checked that box.

There was that weird note where the same scouting service doing these measurements measured a bunch of players with one inch shorter arms than they had at the senior bowl, which is not something that anyone has been able to explain yet. And so we'll see if these guys measure at the pro day. We'll see what NFL teams do with that. Bo Campbell, the chief among these and just like missing thresholds for teams because of the difference in measurements. Well, come to 17 well. We'll see if those measurements change of pro days and how NFL teams assess that for those little differences.

But a lot of players we didn't get to wanted to spend some time on a few of them at least because we will not have a chance to talk about the combine anytime soon. Got to get to free agency here. And then we'll circle back and we'll get back to the draft in a few weeks. But that's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast as we get to free agency soon. Until then, thanks for listening. Hoode and have a good one.