Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Time for the Bengals to Start Fast | Plus, Dalton Risner's early fit, and how Jabrill Peppers could help at safety

Starting point is 00:00:00 We've been talking about how the Cincinnati Bengals need to start this year for quite some time. And the start of the year is here. Time to go fast. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Jake Liscoe.

Starting point is 00:00:31 He's James Rapine and we are your host of this illustrious podcast. We've been doing this together since what, 2021, 2020. We've been doing this podcast, one of the two of us since 2016, bringing you everything you need to know about your Cincinnati Bengals. And if you're looking for that one-stop shop, you're in the right place. Every day there's already know it. If you make us your first listen, you already know it. We appreciate all of you who make us part of your routine.

Starting point is 00:00:59 Today we're going to be looking at that fast start narrative. Perhaps one last time, perhaps not. Perhaps not. I assume this will come up throughout the week. We're going to revisit it here. We've been talking about it all offseason. Dalton Reis are now in the building. You've had a chance to talk to him, James. We're going to talk about what his role will be, whether he'll be active in week one.

Starting point is 00:01:23 And safety last? I thought it was supposed to be safety first, but there's a chance for the Bengals to make their last move of this offseason at that safety position. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time, Download the GameTime after an account and use code Locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. James Bengals played their starters in the preseason with Zach Taylor. Time to go fast, right? Time to go fast.

Starting point is 00:01:48 Time to get your dad joke game up. Like Jake, man, that was elite. That got me. I wasn't ready for that one. So yeah, it's time to go fast. They better get off to a hot start. And I said it a few weeks ago, like, you better be Cleveland. Don't really care.

Starting point is 00:02:07 I don't care who's starting. I don't care if they're talking about Joe Flacco or Sodor Sanders or Dylan Gabriel or at the time, Kenny Pickett. And it's going to be Joe Flacco. And it's going to be Dylan, Samson, and Jerome Ford in the backfield. And it's going to be Miles Garrett. And it's going to be Denzel Ward. And it's going to be some good pieces, especially on defense. I don't care.

Starting point is 00:02:25 It's time to start fast. And so we will see if the preseason. helped or hurt or did nothing because if Joe goes out there and plays well against the defense that has been a thorn in their side well then that preseason has helped if he doesn't if this offense doesn't well then what was the point of playing these guys in the preseason so i do think that that's a uh a takeaway that i'm going to have on sunday whether they win lose draw whatever if the offense doesn't play well then i am going to put the bed the Oh, well, Joe Burrow better play in the preseason every year because that was supposed to be the difference this year.

Starting point is 00:03:07 He's healthy, which means they better start fast and they better put up a ton of points in Cleveland. Yeah, when we're talking about starting fast, I do think that right now the expectation is on the offensive side of the ball, right? Like, do we have any expectation, really, for the defense at this point that we think they're going to shock us? I mean, they do. We've heard them talk repeatedly. in the last couple weeks about how they're not showing anything and how they're betting on themselves and how they think they're going to shock the world

Starting point is 00:03:37 and they're way better than anyone's giving them credit for. They're aware of the narratives out there. And if they play with a chip on their shoulder and that helps motivate them, great. But I think the expectations are on the offensive side of the ball, right? We're talking about the continuity or chemistry, I think will probably be the better C word for the offensive line and how those guys have come along together.

Starting point is 00:03:58 And that includes whoever starting at right, guard I think right now as of when we're recording this episode it feels like it's going to be Lucas Patrick and we'll get into that conversation in a little bit more depth than a minute but whoever that is we're talking about the chemistry of the offensive line and we're talking about Joe because it's been largely a Joe Burrow-driven issue with some of these slow starts that they've had obviously the inability to finish games on both sides of the ball last year started to show its head early. So that could be something that we're talking about when we're talking about fast

Starting point is 00:04:35 starts too, is the ability to finish games. I remember last year we were talking about fast starts on a weekly basis. Like can they get out to a fast start in this game? And then it became, well, yeah, but they also need to finish the game. You need to protect that fourth quarter two-score lead against the Baltimore Ravens, that multiple fourth quarter two-score leads. So they had against the Baltimore Ravens last year. But absolutely, it starts with the week one win. Within that context, though, we're looking for Joe Burrow to be sharp and playing on time. When you know Joe Burrow is playing well, it's when you look at a number of plays throughout that game, and you're like, man, that ball came out at exactly the time it needed to come out.

Starting point is 00:05:18 Like, he's feeling that rush perfectly. He knows exactly when the ball needs to be out. It's out. It's on time. It's in the right place. That's when you know Joe Burroughs going well. And I think that that more than anything is for me what the fast start narrative has boiled down to as week one approaches. Yeah, I was looking at Joe's stats from week one as you were talking there. And it was the only game last year outside of the finale in Pittsburgh and the loss to Philadelphia. So you think about that. T. Higgins gets hurt in Pittsburgh. They win.

Starting point is 00:05:52 The defense is a big reason why. It's one of the lone times where the defense really stepped up. the Philadelphia win or loss really got away from them. It was a close game and gets away from them in the second half and they get routed. And then week one against the crappy Patriots, only three games where he averaged under six yards per attempt. He completed 72% of his passes, but didn't have a touchdown. Obviously, he had the Mike Gassicki touchdown that wasn't. It was sack three times.

Starting point is 00:06:16 And it was just an ugly overall game. They only ran 51 offensive plays. And so he, that's where the expectation. expectations are, it is, well, you arguably have the best quarterback on the planet. He wanted preseason snaps so he could be ready to go. He's definitely, like without a doubt, I've watched every training camp of his career. And I think I've been at every training camp practice, I want to say, besides maybe one. Maybe there's one here or there that I missed. But the point is, this has been the best training camp of his career. And so if there was ever a time where they were going to go to

Starting point is 00:06:54 Cleveland, beat a team in the Browns that has zero expectations, whether it's nationally or locally in Cleveland. It's not like they're thinking they're going to shock the world locally. You got to go up there in the offense, the thing that is supposed to carry you needs to carry you early on while the defense finds its footing. And they haven't been in that position in recent years. There's been a bunch of reasons for it. Joe coming off of injury, Jamar Chase's contract situation, other injuries, T. Higgins didn't

Starting point is 00:07:22 play last year in week one. that gets kind of overlooked. He got hurt that Thursday in practice and missed a couple of games. If he plays, I think they beat the Patriots and they probably beat the Chiefs. Maybe we're not even having this conversation if that happens. As weird as that is and as crazy as that is in a different universe, but guess what? It didn't happen. So now all systems need to be going in the direction of going to Cleveland and winning,

Starting point is 00:07:45 especially because it's a winnable game in your division. And there aren't many of those. And by winnable, I mean a game that we expect them to, win even if they don't play their best. I think that's reasonable to say on the road, which is tough to do. If you don't play your best against Baltimore, probably losing that game. You don't play your best in Cleveland. You should still win it. So expectations win. Joe and the offense play pretty darn well. One of the biggest road favorites in week one are the Cincinnati Bengals. I'm just scrolling through to make sure I'm not missing anything. I think only the Denver

Starting point is 00:08:19 Broncos playing at New York at the Jets are bigger week one road favorites according to Fandle six and a half points for Denver five and a half points for Cincinnati which is actually tied with Arizona at New Orleans. There's an interesting one in the NFC but you make a great point there about Dee Higgins James that I wanted to circle back to because and the athletic football show pointed this out I think it was Derek Classen he was talking to Robert Mays. Joe Goonbury clip this if you're if you're looking for the clip if you don't want to watch the whole thing but The athletic football generally do a good job. And honestly, I was thinking about doing a whole segment on this today, James.

Starting point is 00:08:57 But the stat is essentially when T. Higgins, from R. Chase and Joe Burrow are on the field together in that Cincinnati offense. In 2025, they led the league in EPA per play, which is expected points added per play. If you've never heard that before, it's a way of measuring efficiency of an offense, which pretty much says, does this play make you more or less likely to score points if you're expected to score three, three points when you're on the 30 yard line and then you throw a touchdown pass on that play, that's worth three points in expected points added. So that's just an example of that kind of thing. Very basic example.

Starting point is 00:09:32 So Bengals led the league in EPA per play when those three were on the field, beating out Baltimore last year and led the league in success rate when those three were on the field. The entire offense, not just passing offense. That was an interesting distinction that they made. Best offense in the NFL is what that tells you. when Joe Burrow, T. Higgins, and Jemar Chase are on the field together. That's part of the fast start, too. And getting those guys out of the gate healthy,

Starting point is 00:09:57 that hopefully makes a difference. And that's why I like that you brought it up as it pertains to the beginning of last season. James, as we continue here, let's get into Dalton Reisner's early role with the Cincinnati Bengals, not that you've had a chance to talk with him. We've heard from Dalton Reisner in Bengals Stripes. We'll continue the conversation there coming up next. NFL season is back, which means game time is back. And let's just say you decide last second.

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Starting point is 00:12:43 That's fandul.com to place your first. $5. All right, Jake. Let's get to Dalton Reisner, and you're right. It's official with him, the Bengals, inking him to a one-year deal. He talked in the locker room on Thursday in front of probably double-digit cameras. We were waiting on him as he walked in.

Starting point is 00:13:02 He'll wear number 66 for those wondering. He's sticking with the number that he's had throughout his time in the NFL. But this is obviously an exciting signing. It's someone that you described it as raises the floor of the offense. line the last time we talked about Dalton and there's no doubt about that the thing that i think is going to be interesting as we get into this week both zach taylor both dalton riser are more than open to him being active for sunday's game against the browns are they open to him starting is that door open at all zach taylor said he will play guard didn't specify which side it's going to be

Starting point is 00:13:41 the right side for sure jaylon rivers moved over to the left side during the lone practice that we saw with the backups. But it's going to be interesting to see how long it takes for him to start. I wouldn't expect him to start this week, but it wouldn't shock me if he's starting in the near future. There are so many things that I want to get to there, including Jaylen Rivers. Before we do that, just want to remind people, and I'm only going to remind you a few more times. You have that listener survey going on right now. You can check it out in the show notes or at locked on podcast.com slash survey. You're going to just answer a few questions about what you like about your favorite Lockdown podcast, hopefully us, what you don't like, hopefully not us,

Starting point is 00:14:20 and answer questions about our advertising again, Lockdown Podcasts.com slash survey. You're going to have a chance to win one of ten, $100 Amazon gift cards if you go bill that out. So a few things I wanted to get to there. One, so interesting that Jaylen Rivers moved as soon as Dalton Reisner arrives in the building. Lucas Patrick has experienced playing across all three interior positions. Jaylen Rivers played on the left side in college. And that's one of the things that I really like about adding Riser. Rivers was fine at right guard,

Starting point is 00:14:53 but he got two full games of NFL preseason experience and multiple weeks of practice on the right side there and got his feet wet in playing on the right side of the offensive line, which he didn't do at Miami, at least as far as I know, he didn't do that in his college career. So the fact that he now is back on his left side where ostensibly he should be more comfortable because he spent a lot of time playing there,

Starting point is 00:15:15 getting to work on both sides. I like that for his development, for one. But two, I mean, man, that's interesting. Like you get Riser and he's played both sides too. And immediately you're like, we're going to start working on the left side, Jalen. You're, I guess, not in the conversation

Starting point is 00:15:34 to start anyway at right guard, which I don't think anyone thought he was. But, man, I just find that to be a really interesting move. Well, I think what it is is they knew he needed to be the backup right guard at minimum until Reisner gets in the building. Right. And now it's like, all right, well, now we can have you take some reps on the left side and you can get comfortable because they've basically been get used to the right side,

Starting point is 00:16:01 get used to the right side, get used to the right side. But he obviously is versatile. And so now work on that because I think in an ideal world, when you look at this Bengals offensive line, long term. And I love Matt Lee, but I think he might be on the outside looking in of the game day eight, because what you could do is have a starting lineup of the four that we already know, right? Orlando Brown Jr., Amarius Mims, Ted Karras, and then Dylan Fairchild. And then if Reisner is your starter at right guard, Lucas Patrick can back up both interior spots and center.

Starting point is 00:16:38 you can have Cody Ford be your swing tackle if you want. Maybe that's someone else that you go with at the tackle position long term. But I think initially that'll be the case. And then that other spot doesn't have to be a center only. Could be. Maybe you do that. But it doesn't have to be. And it can be at Jalen Rivers.

Starting point is 00:17:00 It can be someone like that. And I do think that that could be where you go. It just gives you a little bit more flexibility. The dream for me still involves Matt Lee being part of that eight, just because I still think he does something that the rest of the players on this roster don't do. But I understand what you're saying is the center only part of this. The other part of the dream for me is that someone surpasses Cody Ford as the first tackle off the bench at someone being, I guess, just Jalen Rivers. That's the only other backup offensive linemen on this team that you would expect to play tackle. I know Dalton Reisner played tackle way back when when we wanted the Cincinnati Bengals to draft.

Starting point is 00:17:36 him in the second round. I got a name for you. Go ahead. Javon Foster. Off the practice squad. I just mean long term. Like 41 career starts at Missouri. Fourth round pick was a top 30 visit.

Starting point is 00:17:51 Kind of an under the radar addition to the Bengals practice squad last week. He was in Almarius Mim's draft class. Last year's draft. Jacksonville has some coaching turnover. They move on from them. The Bengals pluck them. If there is a development of, swing time. And I'm not even saying it would be this year, but I think that that could be

Starting point is 00:18:10 an option, a name worth note. How interesting, by the way, we've totally pivoted here, talking about the practice squad guys. Javon Foster moved that I don't think we've talked about. No, we haven't. Replacing Cochran. Devin Cochran. Devon Cochran on the practice squad. Cochran, a guy that I had on my 53-man projection. Me too, yeah. And I talked myself into Andrew Coker. They, they do end up with nine offensive linemen now with two tackles on the practice squad and andrew cocker and javon foster jackson kirkland who will probably be playing guard seth mclaughlin at center i am a little bit surprised that they opted to replace cochran who they've had around longer and have had around in nfl regular season games maybe it was just an injury maybe he just

Starting point is 00:19:01 wasn't going to be able to play enough, but that is a fascinating move. Good call bringing that up. The game day, active eight on the offensive line will be very interesting if Dalton Reisner is ready to go for week one. I wonder if they just give them a week to continue to acclimate while they figure it out, but which, because Cody Ford is going to be active, right? Even if out of these names, Reisner Lee Rivers, I like those guys better, at least for their potential. The coaching staff trusts Cody Ford a lot.

Starting point is 00:19:39 And I think he's going to be up. So which other two guys it is? Because Cody Ford is also versatile. Now you have a bunch of versatility there potentially with your backups besides Nat Lee, which is why you're bringing up that he might not be in that game day activate. A very interesting decision under the radar for the. the Bengals in week one. Yeah, it is.

Starting point is 00:20:01 And I, look, I love Matt Lee. I'm not saying that's going to happen. I just, I think Lucas Patrick is an ideal backup at multiple spots, and I do value him. And I also think he's probably going to start this week. How long? We'll see. That's up to him. But the Bengals, they've added Noah Fant, that Adulton Risenor, is a safety next?

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Starting point is 00:22:47 You can use code locked on NFL at Monarchmoney.com in your browser. You'll get half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year at Monarchmoney.com with code locked on NFL. All right, Jake. Let's get to a little pepper. A little pepper. It will be nice if the Bengals defense had a little pepper. And Gibral Pepper is released by the Patriots on Friday.

Starting point is 00:23:14 We've talked about Justin Simmons. We've talked about multiple different safeties and bringing in a veteran safety really throughout the offseason. I mean, for six months now, seven months we've talked about safety. Gibral peppers, you're interested? You're not interested? Spoiler alert, I would be very, very interested in hopefully they view him the way they viewed Noah Fant, which is this, oh, guy that's proven and can fall into your lap, let's go after him. I would be in on Gibral Pappers. Yeah, I think I would too. It's really weird, though. I will say that. His whole situation a little bit weird. We were trying to figure out why he got released. Patriot's fans on half he got released, but he apparently didn't win the starting job in New England and was out there playing. their third preseason game when all the players that were making that roster were not playing.

Starting point is 00:24:06 He's owed $3.1 million, almost $3.2 million from, sorry, $2.5 million from the Patriots in 2025 is guaranteed for his salary. So any team that acquires him, there's probably an offset there where the Patriots still have to pay him $2.5 million this year should make him much cheaper for any team interested in his services to acquire. At least that's what over the cap, says about his contract situation. He got a, what was the signing bonus he got from the Patriots? Can't find it now.

Starting point is 00:24:42 But he got a signing bonus. It was, I think, $10 million signing bonus that he got from the Patriots, maybe a little bit less than that $9 million signing bonus. So he's been paid recently. Should be cheap for a team that wants to pick him up on a one-year flyer. I just. $6 million signing bonus, according to Spoutreck. The math isn't mathing for me.

Starting point is 00:25:04 Three for 24. Two deals. That's what happened here. He had multiple deals from the Patriots. All right. There you go. Six million dollar signing bonus. Had guaranteed salary this year.

Starting point is 00:25:15 I was combining two deals. And that's how I came up with a $9 million number. Regardless, he's been paid recently. Shouldn't be too expensive to pick up. Very low risk option. It should be a low risk option, I think, for a team like the Cincinnati Bengals that they wanted to see what's going on with your bill preppers. What's weird is that he lost.

Starting point is 00:25:32 the job in New England. Coaching staff change over there. Maybe that's all it is. The previous staff liked him, new staff doesn't fit their scheme as well. But a little bit weird that he lost the job. Weird situation last year where he's on the commissioner's list for eight weeks when he was dealing with some legal charges, a DV charge that was immediately dismissed when it got to court and a drug possession charge, and then was immediately reenlisted from the commissioner's list, had an injury late last year, too. So we only played, what, six games last year, I think?

Starting point is 00:26:06 Yep. So some weirdness around Gibral peppers, but when we've seen him on the field, at least last year, he still looked like an NFL player playing a lot of deep free safety last year in the last couple of years. After early in his career, he was more of a box guy.

Starting point is 00:26:22 Both. Seems like something that fits, right? And former college, teammates with Jordan Kovacs, the Bengals' safety's coach now and Michigan. The Bengals, they've had those Michigan ties. I can already see the Jeff Hobson story for Bengals.com about Michigan ties and it's Kovacs and it's Chris Jenkins and it's DJ Turner and Daxil talking about how they watched Gibrio Peppers when they were being recruited or whatever. Like you could totally see the path there to that happening. And I hope it does. I really do.

Starting point is 00:26:53 Now, that's given the info that we have. We can only operate with what we know. And so, yeah, is there unknown? Sure. But it's not like this guy has gotten into a bunch of trouble throughout his career. And so those charges get dismissed. He was on the exempt list, all those things. Well, that seems to be out.

Starting point is 00:27:14 It's not like there's hatred's reporting now on that being why he was gone, why he was out. They obviously had a complete regime change. Mike Vrable is trying to get his guys in. And that does matter, especially when you're a coach like Mike Vrable, bringing in your guys, your culture, all of those things. And so maybe it was just, it wasn't a great fit. They were also trying to move on from the, uh, the other safety that, that is making more.

Starting point is 00:27:40 What's his name? We sent a deal last year. Kyle Dugger. Kyle Dugger. So clearly they want some change in that room. You can keep your Dugger for now, Patriots. Give me a little peppers. And, uh, yeah, the, the funny thing would be, because the Patriots,

Starting point is 00:27:57 named Eric Gregory, who was released by the Bengals to make room for Dalton Reisner, if it's basically an Eric Gregory for Gibral Pepper swap, which obviously, like a lot of people would do, I certainly would do. And if the Bengals did show interest in Gibral peppers, that's what it could end up being because they signed Gregory in the same transaction in the same day that they released Gibral. Yeah. It has been described.

Starting point is 00:28:22 I would love that irony. I think we would all trade a fringe defense. to tackle. No matter what you think of Eric Gregory's upside, the Bengals liked him as an undrafted free agent. He was their highest paid undrafted free agent that kept him on the 53 to try to keep him on the roster. Patriots have a very early waiver

Starting point is 00:28:39 priority and they prioritized Gregory. They also obviously had a high opinion of him. But with Peppers, it sounds like from what I've seen coming out of those that cover New England, they don't like the scheme fit. And it's interesting because Peppers is been playing so much deep safety

Starting point is 00:28:55 and in recent years, but he's being described as more of a box physicality guy similar to how you think about Kyle Dugger as box safeties. Yep. And I think it's just interesting that he's suddenly being described as, maybe not suddenly, that he's being described as not a fit for playing a lot of deep safety when that's been mostly what he's been doing in the last couple of years,

Starting point is 00:29:22 and maybe they just like their other guys more for that. But that's what the common line has been for Patriots writers. The Patriots beat is that they see Peppers as more of a box safety, and they want safeties that are more deep cover safeties. And that's why they went in that direction. I would take either if you're the Bengals. I'm happy with either safety. If you're good at either of those jobs, I'm happy with that.

Starting point is 00:29:49 And I think a lot of Bengals fans are like, oh, well, we need free states. It's like, yeah, sure, the Jesse Bates scars, but it's not like you have peak Von Bell in there. It's not like you have one of the, they're both question marks. It's not like one is settled and you just need the other one. Those days are long gone now. And it doesn't mean that Jordan Battle and Gino Stone can't play. Maybe they will. But Debril Peppers has been better than both.

Starting point is 00:30:15 Even when Gino was at his best, look at what his contract was when he at the free agent market versus what Gibral Peppers is made. that NFL is telling you their value, even if one's released now. So, and I know that's a very high-level way to look at it, and it's not that simple. And you can find examples to disprove that and all this. But my point is, like Peppers is established, and if he still got some game left, and he did, speaking of week one, he made plays week one against the Bengals last year, they're going to have a conversation about it.

Starting point is 00:30:43 Whether or not they bring him in, who knows, there are going to be some that completely dismissed this, Jake. Well, I would say, and why I mentioned Noah Fant Dalton Reisner, dismiss that your own risk here because if on the Bengals, this just fell into your lap and you can address another weakness with a proven guy that could come in and no, he's not going to start day one. It's game week. But he could come in and he can help you pretty soon. And that's what you need on the backend. And there's not necessarily a huge financial cost. That's why I really belabored that point. We went on a little bit longer on the finances that I intended to because we were confused

Starting point is 00:31:15 about the signing bonus and James had to correct me. But the point I was trying to make is he shouldn't cost a lot. And so to your point, like, I've written off Noah Fan. I wrote off Dalton Risenor after it came and went. I was like, oh, they're doing it. Oh, they're not doing it. Oh, they did it. You know? So I think that's a good point that at this point, we shouldn't be saying they won't make these moves to seem obvious to us because they have made some of these kinds of moves at this time of year recently. And we have a couple of recent examples, even this year, like you said. So it'll be interesting to see if Peppers is the next one on that list with all that cap space they seem to still have, especially with that void year for Trey Hendrickson.

Starting point is 00:31:54 We're still waiting for those contract details so we can really dig in there. You know how I'd like to dig into my contract details. You know what I want. And I know you do. I want you to have to watch Pepper's film, Gibral Pepper's film this week. That's what I want. I'm waiting. Game week, Gibral Peppers.

Starting point is 00:32:13 Pepper it up. I'm not watching it before he signs this time. People yelled at me. It's not a jinx anymore, though. Just saying. We'll see if that happens. If it does happen, obviously we'll have you covered here on Locktime Bengals as soon as we can.

Starting point is 00:32:28 Until then, it's game week. Get ready. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Ho da. And have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Time for the Bengals to Start Fast | Plus, Dalton Risner's early fit, and how Jabrill Peppers could help at safety

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