Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - The Bengals Could Have a FUTURE STAR in Amarius Mims

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals have played their final football game for the next seven, eight months or so. So we should probably take a look at the last film we have of the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2025 season, including another standout performance from Amaria Smith. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Fans, and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. as part of the lockdown podcast network.

Starting point is 00:00:35 Now, the number one sports podcast network. I'm Jake Liscoe, joined today by Mike Santagana. And today we dive into our final Bengals film breakdown of the season. We won't have new Bengals tape to look at until the preseason in August. And those are preseason games. It's really waiting for the regular season. And given that probably in just a couple months here, we're going to be really pining to watch football again.

Starting point is 00:01:05 We're not going to miss this opportunity. I know it wasn't a very fun outcome of that football game for the Bengals against the Browns, but we're not going to miss this opportunity for our last film review of the season. Every day, there's no, we've done this every week this season, but you can find Mike's film breakdowns over at bengalstalk.com and a bunch of great clips from him on Twitter as well at bengals underscore sands, where you can find some of the plays we're probably going to be talking about in this episode that you can follow along with.

Starting point is 00:01:30 And today we're going to dive into a lot of the young players in their final performance of the season, a little bit of scheme stuff and how the Bengals attack the Browns on offense because I thought they did some stuff differently again. And that's kind of fun, you know, emptying the holster one last time as the season comes to the end. And we're going to get to these defensive youngsters as well that need to be part of this future in some way, shape, or form or maybe will be part of the future. It's a better way to say that. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandul before Tipoff. Check out the Fanduil app and see what's dropping during NBA happy hour every Friday from 6 to 7.30 p.m. Eastern. And Mike, let's start with one of the biggest positives down the stretch here for the Bengals.

Starting point is 00:02:10 And that's Amarius Mims, who since the buy has been awesome, is well on his way to being one of the best right tackles in the NFL, really finished the season that way. And while there was a lot of focus on Miles Garrett in this matchup with the Cleveland Browns, and rightfully so, Amarious Mims on an island for a vast majority of this game. and has consistently shown the pass protection chops that you're looking for in a Joe Burrow offense. And then in addition to that, that continued growth in the run game. Yeah. Like I've mentioned, I think, every week, the past few weeks, the run game growth is tremendous.

Starting point is 00:02:49 There were plays in this game that it's always fun to see him get a pancake or a knockdown or whatever because it really doesn't look like he almost to be like. Looks like he's saying sorry. I don't know. It looks kind of like he makes it look so easy that it almost looks like, I didn't mean to actually like knock you over. But obviously he did. And that's part of the game.

Starting point is 00:03:11 But there's a play he does on Mason Graham with a knockdown. He knocks down Grant Delpit and pass protection on a play. And that one he helps him up after too and kind of like gentle giant after. But he's knocking dudes around during the play. And then the best play he made. in my opinion, is a jet sweep, which they've run a few times to that right side. And every time they do that, they ask Mims to get to the playside linebacker. And they can only do that because he's extremely athletic for his size.

Starting point is 00:03:40 And not only does he get to the playside linebacker, I believe it was Mohamed Diabate for the Browns. He drives him 15, 20 yards down field and dumps him on his head. It's just we didn't see this stuff from Marius Mims his rookie year. We didn't really see it in the first few weeks. It's just been a kind of mid to late season development. Ever since Joe Flacco took over, I feel like he's gotten more confident. Then you insert Reisner next to him, who's a better player than Jalen Rivers, and a vet that's able to communicate better with him.

Starting point is 00:04:11 He's not making those mental mistakes as much. He's playing fast, he's playing aggressive, and he's using his size, length, and athleticism and power to really damage defenses. The saying is there's very few guys in the NFL that are going to take, in a one-on-one situation, take their defense. defender and run him five yards downfield. You're really just trying to get positional at advantages. But Mims kind of right now looks like one of those guys that maybe,

Starting point is 00:04:39 maybe some of these one-on-one situations he could take a guy five yards downfield. I don't know, but you see that size, the athleticism. In fact, they stayed healthy, which is incredible for him based off of what the college reports were. I was really impressed, and it's the run game. I know the past game was good, and this is a team that he struggled past protecting against in week one. Isaiah McGuire got him quite a few times.

Starting point is 00:05:01 Miles Garrett doesn't really line up over there all too often. But McGuire got him and Wright was, you know, face it off against him. It looks easy. Everything looks easy for him right now. And that's a really good thing. In the last three weeks, Amir Swims has given up in past protection, just one pressure in each of those weeks on 43, 28, and 36 pass protection snaps. In the two weeks before that, it was only two.

Starting point is 00:05:26 and that's on 37 and 42 pass protection snaps. The week before that against Baltimore, it was just one pressure on 51 snaps in Joe Burroughs return. And so that is a finish of six games for Marius, where he gave up just eight pressures in six games. That's a pretty good run of things for Marius Mims. It's also, as you noted, in college, he only played 803 total snaps at Georgia.

Starting point is 00:05:50 And he eclipsed that even as a rookie in 2024, 834 snaps last year, all the way up to 150 this year missing only a handful of stats in a couple of games here or there where he had to leave and then re-entered the game. Nice to see him take that step as well. What have you seen from Amarious Mims insofar as technical improvement goes? Because that is something that we thought would be an opportunity with Scott Peters and his technical emphasis and reputation.

Starting point is 00:06:19 Have you seen technical improvement from Amaris as well? Yeah, I think specifically in the run game, we talk about playing faster. It's knowing his landmarks, I think, is a technical, knowing where to put his first and second step. So he puts himself in a position to succeed, knowing what angle to take to get to the linebackers, because he's not missing that block in space against these athletic linebackers. I think this is stuff you might not think about as technical, just like the angles, the steps. People when they think technical, and when you think of Scott Peters, I think, you think of hand. You think of the hand usage and the strike system.

Starting point is 00:06:51 But part of this is also getting to the right spot at the right time and putting yourself in position to make a play, getting your helmet in the right spot, getting your hands in the right spot for the fit and then driving, moving your feet. But I think what really has changed is just his mental capacity in the run game and the past game. And then I think really it's his run game footwork for me. I think that's really changed where he's taking, he's making the right steps to get himself on the right angles to get to his assignment and he knows his assignment, getting their

Starting point is 00:07:21 fast. I think that's the biggest improvement. People love PFF grades. So I'm just going to read a PFF grade here. Amari's the 13th highest ranked. Sorry, it's actually higher than that. If we remove someone with 11 snaps, the 12th highest ranked tackle overall in the entire NFL, an overall PFF grade from weeks 12 to 18, which are the games in which borough was playing. I think those are all the Burrow games. No, one of those is still the game when, borough was in practice and didn't play against New England. Sorry, I keep getting that mixed up. But six games, right?

Starting point is 00:07:59 Or is that seven games? Seven games? Really getting got by math. There's seven games where he's a 12th best tackle in the entire NFL on either side with a 78 run blocking grade and a 78 pass blocking grade. It's a pretty clean split. You take that, you take that growth for sure when you look only at the 20, 25 draft class he finished the season.

Starting point is 00:08:20 sorry, the 2024 draft class. He finished the season's strongest by a pretty solid margin. And the continued improvement was evident all throughout the last six, seven games of the season, where every week was a little bit better, a little bit more consistent, a few more of those splash plays in the run game. What's a future for Marius, man? Sky's the limit. Is that your thought process for Marius?

Starting point is 00:08:45 Now he's going to be 23 years old for most of next year, 23 going into next year. what do you think the future holds for marie spence i do think skies's a limit when we see the size the athleticism it's hard to put a ceiling on it he makes everything look easy right now if he could transition from just you know not just winning but just dominating the same way a penise sull and darnall right do i don't know if he's athletic as sull but you know and i don't know if he's as powerful as right but when i think of those it's hard to put a limit on his ceiling with his combination. And he's still young, this youth size, athleticism, and there's still room to grow technically. I think he could still finish a little stronger on some of these run plays.

Starting point is 00:09:30 I think in pass protection, he still could end up latched on to defenders a little longer towards the late phases of a pass. He wins initially almost every time, but can he sustain that when the defender is getting to his secondary or, you know, tertiary counter move to keep trying to get through there. And, you know, that's like some of Lane Johnson just snatch up and just walk in there with his hands. Can he just change a little bit? So you're asking to go from good to great.

Starting point is 00:09:59 I think it's possible. I don't see anything that's limiting him. The size, the athleticism, and the age are all telling me he's got room in there that he can keep growing. Exciting to have that blue chip kind of prospect and upside on this Bengals offensive line for what feels like the first time in a very long time. time. We'll stay on the topic of the offense here coming up next as they got it to some pretty interesting offensive wrinkles schematically that I just want to hit on even though I know it's

Starting point is 00:10:27 a meaningless game and all those things. We'll make sure we close a book on Dylan Fairchild's season as well, the other significant youngster on this Bengals offense coming up next. Locked-on Bengals is brought to you today by Ultimate QB Football Legend. If you would like to be a pro-QB, if you would like to be Joe Burrow, now you can step in. to the cleats of a number one draft pick quarterback and make it your job to lead your team to greatness in Ultimate Football Legend, Ultimate QB Football Legend. This is the number one QB career mode game

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Starting point is 00:12:19 doctor appointments, go to Zocdoc.com slash locked on NFL to find and instantly book a doctor you love today. That's Zocdoc.com slash locked on NFL, Zocdoch.com slash locked on NFL. Thanks to Zock doc doc for sponsoring this message. Mike, let's say on the topic of this offense here for just a couple more minutes and then we'll get to Demetrius Knight, Barrett Carter, Shamar Stewart, the feature of this defense that could not once again get a fourth quarter stop. And generally besides that did what they should have done against Shadur Sanders and that terrible Browns offense. Still a bit of a sour note to end on.

Starting point is 00:12:56 But Dylan Fairchild, not as much of a sour note this season. He has, I think, all season exceeded expectations. Taking a bigger picture of you on Fairchild, where are you in terms of expectations for season two for Fairchild? Are you in a similar place to where we were with Amardis Mims after year one where we are pretty pleased with his rookie season and think that he can continue to take a leap and develop in year two? Yeah, I think so. I think I actually think Fairchild's rookie season was better than Mim's rookie season. But at the same time, is the ceiling as high? I don't know about that

Starting point is 00:13:33 because of the other stuff that Mibbs had going for him with size, ethicism, and age. So I'm pretty excited. I don't know what the ceiling there is. I want to see what the year one to year two growth is. I want to see growth, I think, would be the main thing. I want to see a move from. I want to see from, I think he was like a solid starting level guard this year. I want to see him move into that like plus starter, that area that, you know, might not be a pro bowler, but is somebody. The Clint Bowling tier of the world to invoke a former Bengal. The Clint Bowling. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:05 I mean, he's, he's not that far off from a Clint bowling type of game already. So I want to see him just move into like, you know, just a little bit better. It's a little above that. I want to see him win more early, kind of like the opposite of Mims, or Mims almost always wins early. I feel like there are a lot of times where Fairchild kind of loses early, but he doesn't lose bad enough that the reps over. He turns it into a win.

Starting point is 00:14:28 I want to see him just win more reps early on with his technical ability, with his hands by staying square, by taking a good set. And then in the run game, transition some of that athleticism and power into moving defenders and consistently getting to the second level, making the right plays, not whiffing. I don't think he did a ton of that this year, but he was a rookie. I do think overall, solid starter this year.

Starting point is 00:14:53 And that is something that is exceeding expectations for a third round pick to me at guard. Yeah. When you have building blocks on rookie contracts at offensive line, boy, does it feel different than anything that we have seen in the Zach Taylor-Joe Burrow era. And that's a nice place to be.

Starting point is 00:15:11 All things considered, given the way that I know fans feel right now, now after Zach Taylor's presser on Monday. We're actually recording this shortly after that presser. And that's fresh in my mind a little bit as well as we're talking about the future of this team. But Amarious Vimson, Dylan Fairchild, I think a couple of real bright spots for this offensive line going forward.

Starting point is 00:15:30 You know, we'll see what happens with Dalton Reisner. We'll see what the future holds for Orlando Brown and Ted Carris, both of whom should be back with the team next year. But there are long-term answers needed for at least two of those spots. And we'll see if they see Dalton Reisner as a long-term fix or not. he's made his desire very clear to come back to Cincinnati and we'll see what the business holds on that side of things. But nice to have a couple pieces to build around on that offensive line.

Starting point is 00:15:54 From a schematic perspective, Mike, a couple of things stood out, different for you than me necessarily. But early in the game, my thoughts were if they're going to be hitting naked boots and under center runs and jet sweeps for successful plays against the Brown's defense, the Browns are just cooked in this game. and then they weren't able to continue to do that. They eventually started doing normal offense things because of a couple of weird turnovers.

Starting point is 00:16:19 What did you like schematically in this game from the Bengals? I think I even sent you a message in the middle of the game like, hey, they're doing some Jamar Chase T. Higgins stack stuff, and they don't do a whole lot of that. What else stood out to you? I mean, the run game stood out. You're talking statistically 64% success rate this week against the Browns? This was the test.

Starting point is 00:16:41 This was the test. This was the test that you looked at and went, okay, they did it against the dolphins. I can't remember who everybody they've played, but they did it against these defenses that you don't think of as having very much of a run defense. I don't know too many guys in the dolphins run defense like Zach Seeler and Kenneth Grant, the rookie. So Jordan Brooks, I guess. But here you're doing it against a really good defense, one of the best defenses

Starting point is 00:17:06 in the entire NFL. Now it's week 18. How locked in are they? That's a question, but you only can play who's in front? running you and they ran the ball extremely well. So the schematic differences I was looking at specifically in this is the thing I've been talking about for a couple weeks. The wide zone, they're still doing that like wide zone, mid zone, and they're kind of staying square while they're going, kind of not asking these guys to be supreme athletes to run on a line and just be faster and more athletic

Starting point is 00:17:29 from the guy across from them. They're asking, stay square. We're going to be a unit. We're going to work as a unit down the line. It helped them handle some post-snap movement. It helps them that they don't need the best athletes. It helps them that you stay square and square is strong. So I think that is one thing. They also ran quite a few trap plays, I feel like in this game. They were trapping the defensive tackle, and they even ran a long trap for a defensive end throughout the game.

Starting point is 00:17:54 That's interesting because they're running all this stuff really well. And then power was another was there again. So it's interesting that at its worst, the Bengals run game in the Joe Barero is like inside zone duo. We're hoping we get four yards so that we can just stay on schedule. And here, these are runs that can pop. And some of them did. And it's

Starting point is 00:18:16 interesting. It's interesting to see the schematic wrinkles in the run game that they've added more to this run game as it's gone on as it's been good since Joe Flacco took over at quarterback. I was really impressed with not only the different concepts they ran in the run game,

Starting point is 00:18:32 but also the execution of those concepts. Because they tried a whole bunch of concepts in Minnesota. And it was one of the worst run games we have seen because you can't just throw it all out there like you've never repped some of these plays and you can't have too many tells. I think they do a good job right now and hopefully this

Starting point is 00:18:47 continues into next year of not only running these run plays but having stuff in the tool belt that's a counter off of this that you can't cheat every tight end motion because we know that's going to be two back power towards the side they're motioning and now we just throw that play in the trash because we don't have a counter for it.

Starting point is 00:19:04 They've got their counters. You talk about the boots. They run trap protection where they pool the guard and they ask him to pass protect. Not that often, but just enough. And there's no motion tells, at least that I can tell right now, in this either. They're able to do it from under center and from the shotgun. So I was pretty impressed.

Starting point is 00:19:21 They also tried some same side zone. That didn't go too well. I'm okay cutting that. But the other stuff, like it was working well. Like nothing's more beautiful in a perfectly executed trap play. I think we get that defensive tackle up field. He's looking around like, oh, crap. And you hit him.

Starting point is 00:19:35 That's great. And it works well for, if you think of this being a passing office. These guys want to get off the ball. they want to shoot up field, get after Joe Burrow. What better way to punish that than to trap them? Especially when Miles Garrett is chasing that record. It was a good game plan from that point of view and understanding what the Brown's goals were in this game.

Starting point is 00:19:53 But we do need to get to the other side of the ball, Mike, where, again, it's not like the linebackers play bad. They've played pretty well against another terrible offense this week. But the big questions are what they do about this defense going into an offseason where, quite frankly, all eyes are on the defense. There's a high degree of continuity expected on the offensive side of the ball, especially if you listen to Zach Taylor's presser on Monday, but a lot of work to do on defense.

Starting point is 00:20:18 We'll cover the rest of these young defensive players and what's next for this defense coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by Fandul. Fan Duel knows that Fridays hit different, and with basketball season, Friday is going to be even better with Fandul. Every Friday night before, the games tip off,

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Starting point is 00:21:49 But these are the guys expected with the premium draft picks used on them in the 2025 draft to be foundational pieces going forward. So taking into summation this game and what we've seen down the stretch from these rookies, what are your primary takeaways for who they are now, what growth they showed, and whether. we think there is a future for them to be starting linebackers, whether they can follow the Logan Wilson, Jermaine Pratt trajectory, because they weren't great when they were playing in their first years either, but they didn't have as much asked of them as these two rookies did being on the field together so much. Is there is a reason for hope or should we be thinking like, man, and this is where I'm at, like they better go find a capable veteran to do at least one of these roles and add some stability to that room.

Starting point is 00:22:42 I'm where you are with the capable veteran. I think the one place I'm with the rookies is they went from kind of unplayable bad, even though they were not going to get taken off the field, to just not great. It's not like it made some big improvement that they're awesome. But going from, there is something noteworthy about going from unplayable, terrible to just like, okay, that looks like a rookie, but this isn't the, you know, I'm not putting these two as definitively the worst linebacker duo in the league this week. I think this week in the last few

Starting point is 00:23:19 weeks, they've actually been solid. And this week in particular continued some growth, I think, from Barrett Carter in coverage, where he doesn't look as lost. He's still, you know, he's a little stiff. He's not the greatest athlete. I think a straight line he's okay. But he's dropping correctly. He's, you know, on play action. Either he's not moving and staying there, or if the game or if the defense is asking him to robot, he's actually doing that. He did it. He had a robot in this game that looked pretty good. And that is when you come up on the play action and then turn around, find the crossing route, match it, and run up field. There's, you know, probably multiple reasons you haven't seen a ton of play action overrout the last few weeks. And some of them are,

Starting point is 00:24:03 you know, these offenses. But there's also they just played Shadur Sanders and Jacoby Brissette, who's fine, and Quinn Ure's. So there's that. There's that, but there's also, these guys are playing better when it's called.

Starting point is 00:24:17 It's not a guaranteed 10 yards of separation, easy, easy throw for the quarterback. Not that these aren't open ever, and not that I feel confident that if they played against the New England Patriots this week, that if the Patriots ran play action with an overrought to Hunter Henry, that I would not think like, oh, that's, I would probably think that's definitely going

Starting point is 00:24:40 for 15 yards. But it looks better. It looks better against the quality of competition they're facing. Can that move into, you know, transitioning to working against higher quality of competition? I don't know. But for the tests they were given, they've been passing. And I think it's noteworthy that Carter looks more like the game slowed down just a tiny bit for him.

Starting point is 00:25:02 there's a really nice play where he opens up in Tampa 2 as the pull runner. He opens up to his left because that's the offensive strength. That's what he's told to do. But he's watching Shador at the same time. And he flips his hips, turns, and opens to the right. And it would have been an interception. But Gino Stone makes a diving pass break up right in front of him so that he can't pick it off. But that would have been really nice to have.

Starting point is 00:25:23 We're looking at the process and not the exact result that another, his teammate, knocked the ball down. So I'm really impressed with that part. that he was able to move from being kind of unplayable batting coverage to being, okay, there's some stuff here in coverage. It's similar with Demetrius Knight. I really like that he was physical in this game. I think the thing you would most point to is the one play where he knocks the tight end

Starting point is 00:25:46 into the running back and knocks him over and makes a run stop that way. But I think overall he's kind of playing fast. He's still making some mistakes here and there, but he's playing fast. He's playing aggressive. He's playing physical. If you're going to make mistakes, don't do it being slow. and confused and getting in your own teammates way or anything. Be confident, be fast, be physical, be aggressive.

Starting point is 00:26:10 I think it's not like every play he's making his mistake, but I'm saying just he's playing better. He's playing more physical. He's playing more aggressive. That's what you'd like to see. I am still on your side, though. Sign a veteran linebacker, just like somebody that you know is a quality starter. And to me, these two could maybe be your four three package

Starting point is 00:26:29 and they fight over who gets to be the second nickel, and that'll probably depend on the draft too. And they're going to have sub-packages to rotate these guys. This is a defense and out-goldens scheme that uses three linebackers pretty consistently. It's why we saw so much of Oren Burke's late in this season, especially after the Logan Wilson trade. They found ways in packages where they wanted different linebackers on the field to do different jobs. And I expect that to continue, which is why you need a better third linebacker.

Starting point is 00:26:55 And if you're going to get a third linebacker anyway, you might as well upgrade the top end of the room while you're going to do. at it. Yeah, exactly. And you'd feel a lot better about this linebacker room. If you had a guy, like a Devin Lloyd or somebody that you're just like, okay, yeah, that guy's a good linebacker, and then we can try to figure out the rest. Yeah, I don't think that Devin Lloyd is necessarily in their plans, but let's see what they do here. Let's see what kind of swing they take. I think that the Leo Chanel discussion that's out there is like probably more of the neighborhood where I think they're going to talk about it is only January 5th as we're recording

Starting point is 00:27:29 this. What was Shamar Stewart? Sorry, what was that? So we're allowed to be hopeful. Well, are we? I guess it's a new year. I can allow some hope. Just not in this house. The topic of Shamar Stewart is where I wanted to go before we get to just like a couple of overall thoughts on

Starting point is 00:27:48 the direction of the scheme and the future of the scheme, how the corners can play into what Al Golden will want to do going forward. Shamar Stewart finishes a season with 103 snaps in the last few weeks of the season, obviously dealt with a lot of injuries this year. What are your overall takeaways from Shamar's rookie season and the future for a guy who just turned 22 in November, obviously still quite young? We've seen the development. We've seen the lightball moment for Miles Murphy this year.

Starting point is 00:28:16 We would like to see that lightball moment for Shamar Stewart next year. If you're handicapping it based on what you saw from him this year, do you think that that is a realistic thing to hope for, speaking of hope, or what do you think the next steps are for Shemar. Certainly could hope for it. I think right now, Shemar to me is still, in his best games, are just a ball of chaos, where it's not particularly what you were asking him to do or like what you might expect him to do on a play, but he's kind of just throwing a wrench at an engine. And it does kill the engine sometimes, where he just gets some penetration. There are plays where he does what he's asked. And I'm thinking of the stunt that got, said,

Starting point is 00:28:59 Johnson a sack. That was doing exactly what was asked of him. And really nothing more. He just does a perfect job of what he's asked to do. Free up Cedric Johnson. Okay, I'll get my teammate a sack. And he did that. He could have maybe transitioned into a pass rush and gotten there, got a half sack himself, but he did exactly what his job was. And then there's other plays where he's on the backside and there's a cut block coming at him. And instead of like hands down, push down that cut block and keep moving, he goes what if i try to leap over this and make a tackle at the same time it's just that didn't work but it's interesting to watch and then there's other players buying a bion dockins a dude over a cup block yeah it there's there's some insane attempts from what he's doing out there but but i think he is

Starting point is 00:29:45 right now at his best it's just a big ball of cask how much can you hone that in there's a screen those are almost never this almost never happens with defense event he is the reason that didn't work. He gets to the backfield so fast, unblocked. A lot of defensive ends would go, I'm unblocked, stop, retrace the screen, let's get to the running back, and stop this play. And Stewart is just so fast, so physical, and so aggressive, he's going to hit the quarterback, I'm free, going to hit the quarterback, and just go sprinting right at him. And it's, look, it sounds great in theory. And you go, yeah, and you just throw that right over the 280 pound defensive lineman's head right to the running back. There's a little bit of panic when a grizzly bear.

Starting point is 00:30:25 is charging you. You don't remember everything that you've been taught. So he ends up hitting Shador's arm, making it so that it's kind of like an incomplete pass. I thought that was a good play. It's just that all his good plays are just these ball of chaos type of plays where it is just, he is the entropic force that the offense doesn't really want to deal with. It's not that he's doing his job perfectly. It's not, because that's kind of what Murphy has transitioned to do is that he does a really good job in the run game, just doing his job, correct? Setting a hard edge, making the play, shedding the block and making the tackle. In the past game, you know, crush the pocket, crush the pocket, maybe win with a counter off of that.

Starting point is 00:31:04 Shamar, it's just we don't 100% know what he's going to do on any play. But if you can make that chaos into a play that's beneficial for the defense, it kind of throws a wrench into the offense, it's good. So what I'd want is for more, I want him to hone that chaos in a little bit, but to still be physical, fast, and aggressive, kind of like I was talking with Demetrius Knight, be physical, be fast, be aggressive because it's hard to deal with. Yeah. Doing a lot of work from between the tackles in the last couple of weeks as well.

Starting point is 00:31:33 This week, in fact, had more snaps on the inside than the outside, 18 snaps in the A or B gap and 15 snaps over the tackle or outside the tackle. That's an interesting role for him because you can just unleash that get off and that power upfield and create those lanes for Sondrick Johnson as a looper on that stunt. get a quick clean stunt win that way. That's something that you got in your toolkit. The versatility is something that you got in your toolkit there. And we'll see what the future holds for Shamar Stewart. We'll see how things continue to evolve. We're going to have to get into the next steps for this defensive scheme for Al

Starting point is 00:32:07 Gold and Mike another time. That's going to be it for this episode. We covered all the young guys that I think are critical to this team's future that there's still some questions about. I think Dax Hill, DJ Turner. are part of the conversation as well when it comes to the future of this Al Golden scheme. Obviously, need to get better at safety as well. Need to get better at defensive tackle.

Starting point is 00:32:29 Need to find another pass rusher because this team finished with fewer sacks, I think, overall than last year's team, despite having six sacks in week 18 against the Brown. So still obviously need a lot of improvement, a lot of answers on the defensive side of the ball. And I think the team understands that. that's the subtext that I'm reading from the way they're talking right now, but we'll hear from Duke Tobin on Friday, and we'll see what he answers if he's asked about any of those things, as that part of the offseason will be new for the Cincinnati Bengals,

Starting point is 00:33:05 a new media availability for Duke Tobin that we can look forward to this week. Again, you can find Mike Santagana on Twitter at Bengals underscore Sands, find his writing at Bengalshoc.com, and we're going to dive into some draft work here in the relative near, future, some free agent work in the nearer future as we get into the Bengals off season. And Mike is always a part of that process for us here on lockdown Bengals as well. Until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Locktime Bengals podcast. Ho day and have a good one.

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