Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - TOP 10: Ranking the Best Cincinnati Bengals Single-Season Performances That DEFINED the Decade

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Locked-on Podcast Network celebrates its 10th anniversary today. So we're going to look back at 10 years of Bengals history to find the best single-season performances in today's episode of Locked-on Bengals. You are Locked-on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked-on Bengals podcast. He's Joe Goodberry. I'm Jake Liscoe. We've been covering the Bengals between the two of us for.

Starting point is 00:00:35 decades and we're here to talk to you about the last decade of bengals football in today's episode of the locked on bengals podcast like i said locked on is celebrating its 10th anniversary today june 16th is the 10th year anniversary and that means we're going to look back on 10 years of bengals football to find the best 10 single season performances to celebrate and commemorate 10 years of locked on podcasting and that means we're going back to 2016, which is unfortunate for us as we're talking about the Bengals here because there were a lot of great performances for the Cincinnati Bengals in that early Andy Dalton era specifically in 2015 that we're going to miss as we're reflecting today, Joe, but we're going to count down. We're going to start at 10, work our way to number one.

Starting point is 00:01:26 We're going to have differences along the way. So that will be fun to discuss and some honorable mentions. It just missed the list that we'll get to a little bit later in the episode. But, Joe, let's get started here with number 10. And I'm going to give you the honors because I've been talking for a minute and a half. And nobody wants to hear me talk for more than a minute and a half at a time, Joe. So who's your number 10 as we count down the top 10 bangle season performances of the last 10 years, which by the way, it means we can't double count any players. So there won't be multiple Joe Burrow or Jamar Chases in this list. We wanted to highlight. different players over the last 10 years too.

Starting point is 00:02:04 That's right. And we're going to highlight one of the best seasons in recent Bengals history with number 10 being the 2021 version of T. Higgins. And T. Higgins was in his second year there. And a lot of it is the playoffs and the playoff run. In total, he had 1,400 yards. He had two touchdowns in the, and that's regular season and postseason. He had two touchdowns in the Super Bowl, which, I mean, he could have been MVP. If that final drive goes differently, he's one of the, the final guys, I think he, Logan Wilson, we'll see how, you know, how that drive would have went. But Teagan's had a great performance that playoffs in that season, and that season should be remembered.

Starting point is 00:02:41 So for me, number 10 is T. Yeah, T was number nine for me, largely because of the Super Bowl performance. You go for 100 yards and two touchdowns in the Super Bowl. That's going to do a lot for you. And a season that was good besides that, too, against Kansas City in the conference championship game, he went for 103 yards against Baltimore Week 16. He had 12 catches for 194 yards and two touchdowns, which is one of the better Bengals single game receiving games in their history.

Starting point is 00:03:10 But they have so many of them that that one isn't, I mean, it might not even be top five. Jamar's got a couple. I'm sure AJ's got one or two. Chad's going to have one or two. And that doesn't even go back to like the Isaac Curtis Chris Collinsworth games that I would have to go look and see what their best single games. If the Baltimore Colts count for that, but we're getting off track.

Starting point is 00:03:29 A little bit off track. At number 10 is William Jackson back in 2017. And from the 16 to 18 timeframe, there's a bunch of honorable mentions for me there, but I'm just looking at my list. That's why I'm looking down. There's only one other player from the pre-Zat Taylor era that cracks my top 10, one other season. And so I was looking for some guys to shine the light on back then. And it didn't end great with William Jackson and Cincinnati. Maddie, I know that, but it sure did start great.

Starting point is 00:04:03 I mean, great. His first season playing, he missed his rookie season with an injury, but his first season playing, he only allowed 35% of passes targeting him in coverage to be completed, which is insane. He had a two-game stretch where he was targeted 12 times, gave up just two catches. He had 11 pass breakups as a rookie, had the interception against Aaron Rogers in week two that season to get to, which was, sorry, his only interception of the year to go along with those 11 past breakups.

Starting point is 00:04:33 But the feeling watching William Jackson in his first year was that the Bengals had a lockdown corner for the next seven-ish, eight years, whatever it would be. Didn't work out that way, but that season for William Jackson was a lot of fun. A 90.2 PFF rating that year, I mean, we only have a couple guys on this list. I've got one of Joe Burroughs seasons and then one of Gino Ecken seasons that surpasses that. That is, it was a crazy year for William Jackson. And we really thought he was going to be that dude at that point. It was a very exciting time if you were with us, the pre-Joe Burrow era.

Starting point is 00:05:07 So should I go on the number nine then for me? Yeah, what's your number nine? I've got my number nine. We've talked about my number nine. What's your number nine? Exactly. So number nine for me is the 2019 version of Carlos Dunlap. And Dunlap could have had a couple years on this.

Starting point is 00:05:20 His PFF grade in 2019 was an 89.7. He had 51 pressures. He had 10 sacks based on PFF. They count half sacks as full sacks. The guy was pretty dominant. That was his best year, I think, in a lot of ways. He did have an 89.8 grade from PFF in his third year, but he wasn't playing as many snaps.

Starting point is 00:05:39 It wasn't, you know, as impactful at that time. But he, a ton of bad at passes, force fumbles. He had two that year, force fumbles. He had 37 total tackles plus 15 assisted tackles. And I'm looking for his, pass his defense. It's down further. I think it was eight in 19. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:05:58 You got him also on the list. Is that why? I don't. He was an honorable mention for me, and he had two seasons that made the honorable mention. His 2016 was also pretty great. He had 13 PFF sacks. It was less official sacks, but PFF, like you said, counts that the half sacks is full sacks. 13 batted passes that year.

Starting point is 00:06:15 Absolute menace at the line of scrimmage, getting his hands into passing lane. So, yeah, he had two seasons on the honorable mention list for me. But part of it is just like, you do a good job here of highlighting it and recognizing it. Those seasons were so bad for the Bengals and so forgettable that it was tough to find players from that era of Bengals football to crack the top ten. And I don't want people to not remember how good Carlos Dunlap was. His name has come up when the Ring of Honor just happened. And I was kind of shocked to see him. I didn't know we'd get the new players yet for the Ring of Honor, but I was happy to see him because he was a pretty consistent player.

Starting point is 00:06:54 Never just the one Pro Bowl, I believe, never the high-end ultra-imphobic. impact guy, but very consistent would make a play when you needed one. Yeah, and help the Bengals win a lot of games. And so that was your nine, right? That was nine for me. All right. We'll knock out number eight here, and then we'll resume in a minute. So for me, number eight, I'm going to 2025.

Starting point is 00:07:14 My, I think, only 2025 season on the list here. And I went DJ Turner here for the season he had, the breakout season he had. I wasn't sure if you would make the list. But the feelings that we had about William Jackson, we now have about DJ Turner. It's a little bit later in his career when this full breakout has occurred. But maybe there's some recency bias here because of the way that he's being discussed heading into this season from the people that are in the locker room. We've talked to tracks the last couple of weeks.

Starting point is 00:07:45 We've heard various folks who are in the local coverage unit talking about DJ Turner's leadership kind of potential that he's shown. And that's been obvious when he's talked as well. So for me, the DJ Turner breakout season comes in at number eight, where it's something that looks like he's setting himself up to be one of the top five to seven paid corners in the NFL coming off of that season that he just had. He's an honorable mention for me as well. So was William Jackson. I didn't mention that when you said you had them. So they just missed the cut.

Starting point is 00:08:16 For me, we go back to another 2021 season because the last time the Bengals were really balanced on offense. And that's the 2021 Joe Mixon season. I mean, they there was. was a lot of games that year. If you remember, Burroughs coming back from injury, knee injury, right? Offense or defenses really weren't respecting the Bengals deep passing game. It was a lot of questions about Jamar. Can he catch after the preseason? Can Burrow complete deep passes after his rookie year where I think they completed 20 percent? So there was a lot of emphasis on the ground game. A lot of defense geared towards the ground game. Eventually, they made them pay for that. But

Starting point is 00:08:49 Mixing was very, very good in 2021. Made the Pro Bowl. But 292 carries, which seems like a lot now, because we're not hitting that number anymore. 1,200 yards, 13 touchdowns. He also threw a touchdown to T. Higgins in that Super Bowl game. He could have. If they were to lean on him, I feel like in that Super Bowl game in the second half, that could have went much differently. I think if I'm going to think of one year for Mixon,

Starting point is 00:09:10 I think 2021 is that year. Yeah, the couple of Mixon honorable mentions myself. 21 was one. 2018 was the other. And Mixon has put up some, or did put up, not has. He's no longer doing it, I guess, but did put up some great years for the Bengals. during his time with Cincinnati was very, very close to the list for me.

Starting point is 00:09:31 But what I actually had a hard time with was honestly finding the bright line between Mixon and Chase Brown's 2025. Chase Browns 2025 would also be right there with some of Mixon's best seasons in terms of the production and what he was able to do. It was just a team that couldn't win games. And so that was certainly part of it. The Super Bowl shout out for Mixon in 21, the touchdown pass. A good shout out.

Starting point is 00:09:54 The Bengals running game that day was not working, though. And maybe they could have found something in the second half, maybe not. But we're going to continue diving into the top 10 here. We've got to get through seven more. Seven to one, we've got to get through here. We'll continue the countdown coming up next. Support for today's episode comes from Square. And Square is a business platform that helps sellers become neighborhood favorites,

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Starting point is 00:11:29 That's SQA-R-E dot com slash go slash locked on NFL. Get started with a square and build a setup that works the way you do. Moving on to number seven now in our top 10 Bengals seasons of the last 10 years. You mentioned we didn't have a lot or you didn't have a lot of free Zach Taylor era. I do have a few coming up here. Three more in this list. And we're going to start with one. Now number seven for me is the 2016 Andrew Whitworth season.

Starting point is 00:12:02 I wanted Whitworth to be represented somewhere here. So I was happy that I used a formula to help guide me. So I was happy that this did come out this way. And just looking at 2016, 84 PFF grade book, pass blocking, a 93.7. That is the highest of his career. 15 pressures all season. That's a 98.4 efficiency. Did give up four sacks.

Starting point is 00:12:23 But man, 15 pressures. Can you imagine what that would look? like in this Bengals offense with Joe Burrow right now. Prime Andrew Whitworth. I mean, I guess he wasn't prime. That was the last year in Cincinnati. They thought they could move on without him. But at the same time, that was the year, man.

Starting point is 00:12:38 And that season, 2016 is funny because it's off the 2015, five straight playoffs. AJ Green gets hurt that year. Things kind of fall off in 2016. But Whit was still so good. And at one point, the beginning of the year, first half of the year, we didn't think they were going to crumble. And that would be it for this era of Benckxicon. those teams. And that's what ultimately happened. But at the halfway point, we really still thought

Starting point is 00:13:02 this team could do it and still get back to the playoffs. And Witt was having a tremendous season. Locks up with you on that one, Joe. Witt 2016, right there at number seven. And I was wrong. I had two more free Zach Taylor. And I didn't see this one when I was looking at my list. So I agree with you there. Everything you said is why Andrew Whitworth lands at number seven for me. So I'll go to number six. And DJ Reeder was incredible for this team in a number of seasons and picking which one. And there were a couple, I think, that fit right in here in number six. So whether it's 2022 or 2021, pick your season.

Starting point is 00:13:41 He had some injuries that he was dealing with, of course. But pick your season, DJ Reader was a force on the interior for the Bengals. I went with 2022. He had a little bit more pass rushing productivity that year. but the difference, the on-off splits for DJ Reeder in that era of Bengals football as an overall defense, but especially in run defense. And the fact that I still remember to this day, Joe, the Bengals signed him. He was our only tier one free agent that the Bengals signed, and he was a nose tackle.

Starting point is 00:14:10 But he was everything outside of the injuries that the Bengals could have hoped for him to be. He did bring that little bit of extra pass rushing that you would expect from a nose tackle, not on the Dexter Lawrence level, but certainly brought something to the table as a pass rusher for a guy that was absolutely dominant as a run defender. I had so much fun watching DJ Reader's run defense highlights when he was a Cincinnati Bengal. And so for me, he comes in a number six there. So his 22 seasons when I landed on as well, it's going to be an honorable mention on my list,

Starting point is 00:14:41 but I'm glad you brought him up. I'm glad he made yours because while we're reminiscing of the 10 years of the network, that was a big moment for us when the Bengals finally got. a top free agent and how excited we were at the time. As we were losing all hope, they come through with the DJ Reader signing. And what's your number six then? My number six is 2016, staying in the same year, AJ Green. And I know on the surface this is going to be a season that you look at and say,

Starting point is 00:15:09 what, you only had 66 catches, 964 yards, he only played 10 games. He was injured for the rest of the year. Like, why that season? If you remember, those first nine games because the guy hurt in the 10th game, I don't really even count. I think he caught one pass as a screen pass, and that was it. So it was basically nine games. He had 65 catches for like 960 yards.

Starting point is 00:15:28 That was his triple crown season. That was his first team all pro season. From an evaluation perspective, and that's where I tend to lean. You know, we bring up numbers and data and advance analytics and BFF grades all the time. Well, if you go back to 2016 and watch AJ Green, he's killing Daryl Revis. That's that game. That's that season. He is on another level.

Starting point is 00:15:48 That was going to be his year. I think that's year six, right, from 2011. Like, he's in his prime AJ Green. He was going to have 1,800 yards on base for 188 targets, 125 catches. Like, that would have been the one. And we were robbed of it with a shortened injury. But from an evaluation perspective, he was amazing that year. It's a great shout out for AJ Green.

Starting point is 00:16:10 He actually didn't get into my top 10 somehow because the most productive seasons when he was healthy were just right on the other side of our year cutoff. So you go to like his 2015 season, the 13th. 100 yards, 10 touchdowns. You go back to 2012 and 2013, 13, 15, 11, 14, 26, and 11. Like, those were the peak A.J. Green years are just before our 2016 cutoff. But it does feel right to have A.J. Green, because he's part of that era. It's just right before our arbitrary cutoff, not arbitrary. It's when locked on started.

Starting point is 00:16:40 But, you know, we're going back 10 years. And it just so happens that that's where the 10-year cutoff is. My next representative here from the 2016 season and number five is, Gino Atkins. And this is another iconic player for the Cincinnati Bengals that had to be on the list for me. He had to go somewhere. His best season in this time period that we had, 2016.

Starting point is 00:17:03 Is Gino up there for you somewhere? Gino is. He's going to be on the number four. So we don't want to talk about him just yet for mine. But yeah, Gino Atkins is not the 2016 season for me. It's going to be the 2017 when we get there. He had a couple of really good seasons down the stretch. I landed on 2016, but I have his name down for a couple of different years as well.

Starting point is 00:17:26 Gino was incredible. The production that he brought to bear from the defensive tackle position, Aaron Donald before Aaron Donald, not that he was the first of his kind or anything like that, but was such a foundational player that every time we saw somebody like that coming through the NFL draft, and still to this day, every time we see the Landon Robbins, of the world even this year, right?

Starting point is 00:17:51 Or more dominantly, the Aaron Donalds of the world. When you see those kinds of players come through the NFL draft, the undersized very quick, very powerful, we still go back to Gino-Ackins and we wonder why the Bengals haven't gone back to that well. What is it about the Cincinnati Bengals that, you know, you had Gino-Ackis, man, and now we finally get to see the Landon-Robinson experiment.

Starting point is 00:18:15 We'll see how that plays out. But Gino-Ackins, certainly a foundational player, when it comes to my reflection on the 10 years of Bengals football that we've just watched. And that was your number five, right? So my number five is the 2020 version of Jesse Bates. Jesse Bates was the second team all pro this year. And that was our first time. I mean, we knew he was good.

Starting point is 00:18:35 Remember, he came in and they basically replaced George Ilocke that camp and said, okay, Jesse Bates, you're a new guy. And he was good his rookie year. He was very good year, too. And then year three was like, oh, this could be a Pro Bowl foundation. player. The Bengals, we heard through the reports at that time, they wanted to extend them right after 20, 23. They were pushing, like, on social media, best safety in the league type stuff. He had three picks that year. Fifteen passes defense, which is crazy and a force fumble.

Starting point is 00:19:04 Like, the guy was everywhere, under nine combined tackles. I mean, Jesse Bates, that year was the year we were like, he's a dude. Not only is he good. He is a dude. It'd be nice to have a year of three, you know, defender pop up for a team like this right now. And at Jesse Bates, uh, style fashion would be excellent for 2026. Yeah, Jesse Bates was my four. So we've covered my four. Gino Ackins was your four. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:29 And you have a different season for Gino Ackin. So coming up next, Joe will tell you about what season and why he landed on a different season for me for Gino Ackins. And maybe that would have landed him at number four on my list if I had considered the other year. We'll finish up with the top three as well. the most exciting Bengals single season performances we've seen in the last 10 years coming up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by Indeed, and Indeed knows that workplace chaos can show up fast.

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Starting point is 00:22:45 That's his third highest of his career. He had a 93.9 in 2012. He had a 91.6 in 2015. So of the eligible years, the 90.7s his best, 70 total pressures, 10 total sacks. Again, PFF counting half sacks. The man was an absolute monster. This was sandwiched into his four-year stretch of pass rushing, just 70-plus pressures, almost average for four straight years.

Starting point is 00:23:11 10 sacks average for all four straight years. This guy, Gino Ekins, if you weren't around at the time, we keep talking about how good he was. but just watching the games, and I go back and watch old games all the time for fun and just put them on the TV, the announcers, and every time they're starting with Gino Echens. They're talking about Gino Ackins. They're like, Gino Ackins needs to make a play here on third down, and then he would. I think he's the best defender in Bengals history. He was that good.

Starting point is 00:23:37 So I needed to find a year where he was represented here, and I'm happy to say that we've got two, I guess, in this list. 2015, just because we couldn't talk about, I mean, 2015, Gino Ackins was. Geez, you see those numbers? Yeah, I mean, 85 pressures, according to PFF, 15 PFF sacks. So they're counting the half sacks there again. But that goes along with 40 defensive stops. That's, what, 55 plays where he is either moving the offense backwards or preventing them from having a successful play.

Starting point is 00:24:11 For defensive tackle, that's absolutely banana land. And that was Gino's best season. I think you go back to 2012 as well. very similar. If 2012 might have even been better than 2015. But Gino Ackins is a real treat to watch. All right, let's get to number three. I'm going to spoil it by saying that I've got three seasons here from the same year in my time.

Starting point is 00:24:34 I do too. And number three for me is Trey Hendricksons' 2024. Yep. The defensive player of the year runner out season where he led the league in Sacks, pray had a number of years that you could pick from here. Trey was a dominant pass rush. for the Cincinnati Bengals while he was around. Now, if you include 2015,

Starting point is 00:24:54 Gino Ackins, 2015 is certainly ahead of Trey's 2024. Just close. Well, for me, it's clearly ahead because defensive tackle, what he did in defensive tackle that year, and the additional run defense part of it for Gino that year where he's blown up a ton of run plays as well. But Trey would be a clear number four, I think, if we were doing that.

Starting point is 00:25:20 And Trey Hendrickson's 2024 was pretty darn special. And he had a lot of years like that. You could pick a number of years. But the second defensive player of the year voting year for me is what comes out at the top. And it's frustrating because the defense was so bad that year. But Trey was so good as an individual performer especially. Yeah, this is considered Trey's best year based on PFF. And I guess you could you could say it's best year on any standard because second.

Starting point is 00:25:50 second and defensive player of the year. First team all pro. I've only got two guys that are first team all pros. I've got a Jamar Chase here coming up. I've got a second team all pro out of Jesse Bates. The only other first teamer is Trey Hendrickson. And he had 83 pressures that year and 18 sacks based on PFF. Just mind-boggling pass rush numbers.

Starting point is 00:26:09 He's been a great pass rusher. Since 2022, he's been a 90-plus graded pass-rusher based on PFF. And Frey, he left. And it got weird. and everything was weird about it, but man, that's, I think we're going to look back, and that's a ring of honor guy that only spent, you know, five years in Cincinnati, but at the same time,

Starting point is 00:26:29 they've never had a better pass rusher, single pass rusher ever. And I know Gino is probably their best defense player of all time, in my opinion, but he was better in everything and more well-rounded. Just before saying on third down, this guy needs to make a play. I don't know who you'd pick from Bengals history other than Trey Hendrickson. Yeah, I mean, the impact that he made when he arrived as well. He had 14 official sacks, 20 PFF sacks. We're going back to back in 23 and 24, 17 and a half official sacks to go along with 19 tackles for a loss, which is a career,

Starting point is 00:27:00 career high for him in 2024. Trey Hendrickson's 2024 was great. And like you mentioned, there aren't a whole lot of AP all pros that we can put on this list. There also aren't a whole lot of MVP votes we can put on this list, but number one and number two, both have MVP votes to their credit for me. And I landed on Jamar's Triple Crowns, season of number two. And you could have gone with Jamar's rookie season. You could have gone with Jamar's 2025. Last year was also incredible for Jamar.

Starting point is 00:27:29 Jamar Chase is just an incredible player. His 2024 was so good when he won that Triple Crown that he had MVP votes as a wide receiver. So so did Saquan Barkley, who finished ahead of Joe Burrow that year. But one of the few times in league history where a wide receiver and a quarterback on the same team have had MVP votes, you win the triple crown, you're going to be near the top of the list.

Starting point is 00:27:52 It's a very rare achievement. Jamar Chase comes into number two only because Joe Burrow exists, and there are a couple of years you can pick from from Joe Burrow, too. But for me, Jamar is second. And I wouldn't be surprised if you have Burroughs second, but I'm curious to hear where you landed. I do have Joe Burrow number two. And the reason I do is because I guess I split the hairs just a little bit there

Starting point is 00:28:14 and saying, all right, well, no one had a better year than Jamar Chase. He won the Triple Crown. He was, he should have won offensive player of the year. I know Sequin had that big year. I think the Triple Crown is rarer. And I've made this argument before than a 2000-yard runner. We've had more 2,000-yard runners than we've had Triple Crown winners at receiver. And there's more receivers exploding around the league.

Starting point is 00:28:33 To be number one in the top three categories is crazy. And Jamar was so good. He's been so good. And I'm hoping he can continue that, obviously. To me, Burrow, because the team didn't make the playoffs, probably shoulders a little bit of that blame more than, Jamar Chase does, right? So for me, Burroughs' 2024 season comes in at number two, and Jamar's

Starting point is 00:28:53 2024 season comes in at number one. Now, if they would have won two more games, let's say, in that season, Joe probably gets MVP. Lamar was very deserving. Josh Allen was very deserving of that. Joe did get comeback player of the year for the second time that season. So there is something, they wanted to give him some award. He did get that. Still, though, it was hard to split it. And I just took it as more of quarterback gets kind of the team success and the failures,

Starting point is 00:29:19 and there was a little bit of a failure in 2024, not his fault, but you know what I'm saying? Joe just put so much on his shoulders that year. Yeah. And the amount, like, think of the Denver game in particular in 2024. The amount of plays Joe Burrow makes where it's like perfection. And he needed to be a little bit more perfect than he was for them to win those games.

Starting point is 00:29:40 But that's an impossible standard. The plays that Joe Burrow did make in 2024, Absolutely insane. The other year that was very close for me for Joe Burrow was 2021. You could have also said 2022. The Super Bowl run wasn't like awesome Joe Burrow playing the playoffs that year, but the way that he played during that season, leading the league in completion percentage in yards per attempt,

Starting point is 00:30:02 a very rare feat. Although Matt Stafford just do it too last year. You may have. That's why I won a VP. But Burroughs had a number of years. He's actually the only player. I looked at this before we started recording. player in Bengals history to receive MVP votes that I can find in multiple seasons. I couldn't

Starting point is 00:30:18 find old MVP voting ballots to find whether Boomer and Ken Anderson ever got MVP votes outside of the seasons that they clearly did. But Joe Burroughs obviously gotten MVP votes in multiple seasons, would expect him to get votes again if he can make it through a season healthy. Again, hopefully this year we're talking about Joe Burrow realizing the career goal of reaching MVP status. 24 is a season where like everybody knows what the Bengals are trying to do. They know how you're trying to attack them if you're the Bengals. They know you can't pass block. And Joe Burroughs making it happen despite the chaos around him,

Starting point is 00:30:58 despite what's happening on the defensive side of the ball. It was so difficult. The degree of difficulty was so high. And Burrow was so good despite that that for me, Burrow with the difficulty of the position and everything. And again, you're splitting hairs here. I think if you want to put Jamar number one and you did, Totally fair. Triple crown, very rare accomplishment and very difficult to do as well.

Starting point is 00:31:19 But I was just a little tiny bit more impressed with what Joe was able to do in 2024. So for me, Burroughs won. And a couple other honorable mentions I wanted to make sure we hit here. We've talked about a lot of them. Evan McPherson's 2021 was in the top 15. I think for me, he was instrumental in the Bengals playoff run that year. And I know it's a kicker, but very important to them that year. Tyler Boyd we've talked about.

Starting point is 00:31:44 2018. Before we started recording, 2018 was his season when he was kind of the league guy was very good. Logan Wilson's 2021 was an honorable mention for me. Again, the playoffs, a big part of this to some degree. But that's where you thought, man, Logan Wilson, going to be this guy for the Bengals for the next few years. Jermain Pratt's playoffs in 2021 can put him in the conversation as well, honestly, but didn't quite make it. And Kevin Zaitler's 2016 was really good too. It was.

Starting point is 00:32:09 And Kevin Zitler, that was his last year. with the Bengals, but was an awesome player for the Bengals as well, just on the other side, but it's 2016, and he was still really good. I have one that we didn't mention, because you mentioned Chase Brown earlier, saying 2025. 24 actually scored out a little bit higher for me, but it was very, very close for Chase Brown. And the other one is Andy Dalton 2016. He made the Pro Bowl that year and was good for the first half of the year. Things kind of fell apart in the second half, but, you know, if we want to give an Andy Dalton's

Starting point is 00:32:36 shout out, that would be the year. Yeah, I'm just looking to see if had any other names written down for any other years than I don't. So that's it. We have gone through 10 years of Bengals history to find the 10 best performances. Somehow a very disappointing 2024 landing the top three spots. And it just goes to show like I remember saying it a bunch of the time. But you have an MVP finalist, an offensive player of the year, worthy player, an MVP worthy player in Joe Burund, Jemar Chase,

Starting point is 00:33:04 and a defensive player of the year worthy player in Trey Henderson. And you don't even make the playoffs that year? Crazy. Crazy to think about. but two of those guys are still around and still in their primes in Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. They will still be driving that offense this year. We'll see them in minicamp over the next three days. I imagine mandatory minicamp will start to have coverage for you for mandatory minicamp Tuesday through Thursday this week right here on lockdown Bengals.

Starting point is 00:33:28 And until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast, Houda. And have a go.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - TOP 10: Ranking the Best Cincinnati Bengals Single-Season Performances That DEFINED the Decade

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