Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Trey Hendrickson's contract looms | Cincinnati Bengals face major DL questions heading into training camp

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Contract negotiations with Trey Hendrickson and rookie Shamar Stewart hang in the balance, potential distractions looming before Bengals training camp next week. Jake Liscow and James Rapien dissect the potential fallout from holdouts, interior line concerns, and the critical development of young players like McKinnley Jackson and Kris Jenkins Jr. Plus, TJ Slayton's expectations, and looking for growth in the rest of the defensive end ensemble.Can the Bengals overcome these challenges to field a formidable defensive front? Tune in for expert analysis on the make-or-break factors shaping Cincinnati's defensive line for the upcoming NFL season.Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get $150 in BONUS BETS when your first $5 BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's the week before training camp and the most questions that we have about this Cincinnati Bengals roster might be on the defensive line. Let's dive into it. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Well on, 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. He's James Rapine, and we are your host of Los Angeles.

a lockdown Bengals covering your Cincinnati Bengals here on this podcast since 2016. We're on YouTube. We're everywhere you get your podcast. So if you're not already in every day or, and shout out to you. If you are, you can hit that subscribe button to make sure you don't miss an episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast.

This training camp is gearing up about a week away here, James, a week before training camp. And, well, as I mentioned, we still don't know what's going on with contracts for Trey Hendrickson. Samar Stewart still hasn't signed his deal. And beyond contract stuff, there's still a ton of questions on the defensive line.

So in our training camp preview series, we go to the defensive line in today's episodes, starting with those contracts. Thanks to everybody out there that makes a lockdown Bengals their first listen as well. And today's episode is brought to you by GameTime where you can download the app, create an account, and save $20 on tickets

with promo code locked on NFL. James, let's start with Trey Hendrickson, the biggest question in a way, but also the most known quantity, at least at the defensive end position on this defensive line for the Cincinnati Bengals. And one of the biggest dominoes that hopefully needs to fall in the near future to get a better idea of what's going to happen with this unit. It's the biggest question of camp. Is the NFL sack leader, the third best player on the team? And that's exactly what he is.

Will he be in camp? Will he not? Will they get something done? Will they not? Are they going to make him try to? a play on this deal. He's already said he wouldn't do that. I don't think he has any intention as of now in the middle of July of doing that. But there's almost two months before that first game on September 7th. And so can, not can. We know the Bengals can. We know Trey can. Will both

sides find a way where to get Trey not only in camp, but around the team. Because I truly don't think he's going to show up without a deal. I don't think this is going to be a hold in. I don't think he's going to be the good soldier like Jamar was last year going to meetings and walking out the practice and all of those things. I think it's different. And part of why he showed up when he did in May during the offseason program to talk with us for 20 plus minutes, I think that was Trey making his thoughts known. Since then, have we heard from Trey Hendrickson? We have not. You haven't seen national reports make it clear that all. well, Trey feels this way or anything like that.

There's really been none of that. There's been speculation on whether or not they're talking, and if they're talking and by some reporting on that, that the sides have come together a little bit to discuss a new deal. But no real movement from my vantage point with training camp next week. Is that the deadline in the Bengals minds or in Trey's mind? Or is it farther along? Because whenever that deadline actually is,

For example, Jamar last year, I think the deadline for the Bengals was week one. And they were negotiating up until really that weekend before that first game. And then Jamar had a decision to make when things fell through and he didn't get extended. What will Tray do if it gets to that point? I hope it doesn't. I hope he's at camp next week. I hope we're not talking about number 91, not showing up for training camp because it will be a big story. It's one of the best pass rushers in the league.

And yet I do think it's the biggest question facing this team right now. with training camp just over a week away. I think undoubtedly the biggest question, and that's how we start with this position group after quarterback, and Joe Burrow drives the team. That's how we started with Joe Burrow. The logical next step will be somewhere on the offense in other years, because the offense right now still is driving the team,

whether that's questions on the offensive line, whether that's the abundance of skill players that they have and the continuity they have at the skill position. But because of what's happening with, contracts for Trey Hendrickson and Chimar Stewart, but Trey Hendrickson, certainly more notable of the two, because there's many more ways that could go. That's why we go there next. And when you Google, and I did this just out of curiosity,

Trey Hendrickson contract update, there's nothing, nothing new. And certainly nothing tangible. There was some stuff like a week ago where there was some reports that happened that, you know, there's not a whole lot happening on SportsCenter. It was discussed a week ago. I think that's why it came up. And then there's Albert Breer on Monday writing that it's unpredictable. There's a lot of ground to cover.

Trey Hendrickson isn't going to give the Bengals any breaks here. That's essentially what Albert Breer wrote on Monday. So there's not a whole lot of movement there, like you said. And we heard directly from Trey in May. and I know that you've got your finger on the pulse for this as well individually, James, and have been able to share information with our lockdown Bengals Insiders, but there's been no movement. So the question really is, will there be movement before training camp

or will we be talking about a distraction for the first few weeks of training camp, few days of training camp, all of training camp? We'll love for this to not be a distraction that we have to talk about. And that goes for Samar Stewart as well. But where Trey Hendrickson doesn't have the same need for reps that Shemar Stewart has in terms of his participation in training camp, he does have the importance of being ready for that week one game. Much like Jamar Chase last year. Nobody questions Jamar Chase's ability to be ready in the long term last year. But by his own admission and for anyone watching, he wasn't.

fully Jamar Chase in week one. He was still really good. But what his presence during training camp made a difference for that week one game? Impossible to say. Don't want to be asking those same questions of Trey Hendrickson in a game against a Browns team that's going to have a serious question at quarterback,

no matter who's playing quarterback in that week one game. Well, these guys aren't robots. And I think that's it. I think Jemar physically was ready to go. I don't think he physically needed a bunch of reps. but mentally it's really tough to be like, okay, well, we were in the, the trenches when it comes to this negotiation and it didn't get done. And now I'm going to go out there and put my body on the line. And that's a huge factor. And I would be surprised in borderline stunned if Trey showed up for

camp and reported on time without a contract or without significant progress that would lead him to believe that coming to camp is going to facilitate a new deal. And so if that doesn't happen, when do we see Trey, to your point? And you want to get him in. There's going to be all this talk about a fast start, Jake, a ton of talk about the fast start and how they need to start fast and all those, no doubt. We're going to talk about it a ton. Everyone's going to say it. They should start 2-0 at Cleveland, then home for Jacksonville against the first year head coach and a team in Jacksonville that has talent, but it should take a few weeks for them to get up and running and moving in the right direction.

Well, if you have Trey, the odds of that happening are much, much higher if Trey is mentally ready and physically ready. And there is a point, and I don't know when that is, but when you're going to lose the chance to keep him mentally ready to go or give him time to be mentally ready to go for that September 7th game. I'm not saying it's this week or next week or any time in August for that matter, but maybe it is. Maybe it's that last week of August. But there is a point.

And I think every player is different. And we saw it with Jamar last year. That's kind of the blueprint. This is a guy in trade, despite his age, 30, everyone talks about he's going to be 31 later this year. Fine. From a sack production standpoint is in his prime right now. And there's no reason to believe he can't go out there and play at a really high level again. The Bengals need him.

If they want to be true contenders, they need him on the field to do that and to be the tray. that we saw last year in the year before and during the Super Bowl run because he was huge that season. And it's going to be interesting to see if the Bengals blink a little bit or if they continue to hold the position that they've held because obviously they're not close on a deal. We've been getting questions. Like, are the Bengals really going to roll over all that cap space? And the answer has been, well, they'll probably spend some of it on Trey. But, I mean, that's where we are with it at this point. We'll wrap up the conversation on Trey Hendrickson and get into some of the rest of the questions on this defensive line, including Mr. Mark Stewart going to get that deal done.

We're going to have to deal with that drama as well. We're going to have to deal with drama. Coming up next. Today's show has been brought to you or is brought to you by game time. We've all been there. Logging on early and waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale just to lose your spot on a show or to go to a show that you've been dying to see. We've been there. We've done that.

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You can use game time right now and get $20 off by downloading the GameTime app, creating an account and using code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-FL-L-N-FL-L-L-L-T-O-L-N-F, download the GameTime app. today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Some closing thoughts on the Trey Hendrickson situation for me. First off, neglected to mention comes in at sixth in the ESPN survey of executives and

such around the NFL in the edge rusher rankings behind Nick Bosa, Max Crosby, Micah Parsons, T.J. Watt, Miles Garrett, notably ahead of Aidan Hutchinson, Will Anderson, Daniel Hunter, Jared Verst, comes in at 10th. Daniel Hunter, the interesting one there, because he, of course, signed that one year fully guaranteed extension with the Texans this offseason. But in terms of contract comparables for Trey Hendrickson, at least as the NFL season there, Trey 6th in these rankings, his highest ranking was third among those surveyed, and his lowest ranking was unranked. So a lot of division among those surveyed here.

But behind some of his competitors in the contract market, in the eyes of the folks surveyed by ESPN, and that includes executive coaches and scouts. So just an interesting data point to throw into the mix there as far as how the NFL sees Trey across the league. What's indisputable is the 17 and a half sacks in two straight years and that leading the NFL in that time. And his massively outsized portion of the Bengals pass rush productivity,

49% of the Bengals sacks in the last year from Troy Hendrickson. He was the only guy. He was the only guy that was going to consistently matter in that defensive, or offensive coordinators and offensive players were going to have to think about. And that's where it's at is any time you thought about the Bengals defense, it was, all right, well, we got to stop 91. And then after that, there was no one else to talk about. It wasn't 55.

It wasn't Sheldon Rankins, who it's laughable now, but was brought into help that pass rush. And that's the scary part is there are a lot of unknowns that we're about to get to, Shamar Stewart being one of them, that the Bengals need to hit on. Like a lot of these guys need to take steps forward or start at a competent NFL level now. when it comes to Shamar Stewart and for tray if if tray isn't there tray isn't that awesome pass rusher because of whatever reason and takes a step back or is it on the team which i think is unrealistic at this point or is it happy and is playing mentally impaired almost like like um jemar did last year like whatever it is you need tray to be locked in for this defense to

be as good as it can be. And the way to do that, I think, is by locking him in to a contract. At the same time, I get why the Bengals haven't jumped at 35 plus million per year. He is not a free agent. They do have his rights. He is under team control. And so this is a negotiation. And I just hope that they can find common ground with that negotiation. Because I do think that there's this gray area that both sides can land on and maybe not be ecstatic about it, but Trey's happy enough about it, and the Bengals are happy enough about it to where he can be ready to go week one

and be a big part of a defense that really needs him. The last bit of this in terms of the mental preparedness or the mental state is you listen to T.J. Hushman's ought to talk about his conclusion with the Cincinnati Bengals recently. And he voiced a concern that I think a lot of people have, And a lot of people have it. Confidence in the NFL or confidence in the Bengals front office seems to be at a five-year Nadir here. It's back to pre- or like Joe Burrow getting injured levels, pre-super Bowl run levels in terms of confidence in the Bengals front office.

And the survey that Paul Daniel Jr. runs every year over at the athletic. But the animosity and resentment that builds between the players in the front office, even if the deal gets done, it doesn't go away. entirely. It's like, man, why did you have to pull my teeth for four months just to go back to pulling teeth, which we've talked about, a ton this summer, this offseason? Why is it just got to be so difficult all the time? And I'm not saying that that's necessarily a differentiator, but this has been going on for generations of Bengals teams at this point. And it's just really tiresome to see it continue. There's no reason to believe it's going to change at this point, but it's shooting yourself at the foot, at least to some degree, to continue to conduct negotiations this

way, where you're generating this resentment between your best players. And players that have been with you have been part of important teams, have been important parts of those teams. I don't see the upside the way the Bengals do to that approach. But again, there's no reason they've given us to think that it's going to change anytime soon. And I think a lot of people would say that about the Shamar Stewart situation. And much like Trey, I see both sides of it. Shamar sees the precedent that the Bengals have said over the past few years and isn't jumping or loving the idea of breaking that precedent and being the first person to set

it of, hey, I'll agree to this thing where you can take away my guaranteed money. It doesn't void the contract or anything like that, but if he was suspended for a certain amount of games or anything like that, like I get Shamar's side. I also get the Bengals who should have done this a while ago. I think that's the element of it. They don't do guaranteed money a ton until part of why they haven't needed this is because of that. And when you look at it, it's probably something they should have done.

And now it's coming back to bite them a little bit because it hasn't been done. and Shamar's camp clearly isn't happy. They're very loud about not being happy. And the big question for me, Jake, we talked about Trey showing up or not. Does Shamar Stewart show up for training camp? He was at all of the offseason stuff outside of that last day of minicamp,

but does he show up? That's a big question. If there's no contract in place, I really do wonder if he reports for training camp. And there hasn't been progress. Last we heard, there were discussions again at some point, apparently, but the discussions did not lead to either side yielding any ground, judging from reports available to us. And Shamar Stewart's presence for training camp immediately is probably significantly more important than Trey Hendrickson being there. Ideally, both are there. Ideally, both are there, and Trey Hendrickson is teaching Shemar Stewart's.

some of the moves that have been successful for him because from an athletic skill set perspective and a size perspective and a strength perspective, the way Trey wins as a pass rusher is something that Samar Seward could pick up on and start to employ in his own game and add to his toolkit or add to his approach to the game to adopt Trey's mentality and approach as a pass russer in certain situations. There's some overlap there where if you could impart Tray's experience, to Samar Stewart, you could have suddenly a really, really good and promising

young player. This is the guy that the Bengals obviously just use a premium pick on. They need him to be good and ideally they need him to be good sooner than later, especially with the flux and questions along the rest of this defensive line. But without that answer, man, is it important

to get him there for as many reps as possible. But not under contract and with the way this dispute has gone so far, including him departing on that final day of minicap. Your guess is as good as mine, James, as to whether we should expect to see Sam Mar Stewart on day one in training camp. Yeah, that to me is huge.

It's huge because the mental side of things matters a ton for rookies. And I don't mean mental like, where's your head at? I mean like on the field knowing, all right, this is what I need to do. So he can play fast. So he can be that athlete that the Bengals loved coming out of the draft. So he can be this monster. And that's what they're hoping he ends up becoming on the opposite side of Trey Hendrickson. And the only way to get there is to make sure you know where to be.

That's like step one. And so not only if he's not at camp, is he missing all of the on-field stuff? But the meetings, it's going to be different than it was in OTAs. Like this is, it's a much, I think it's more important. It's obviously more intense. And so I think it would be for both sides to find a way to get it done. And if not, we're talking about a holdout for Bengals' first round pick for the first time since the CBA changed in what, 2011. And going back, I mean, it's going to give Andre Smith and Achilles Smith vibes.

And I'm not sure many remember the Achilles Smith holdout or some of these other holdouts that happened when they missed significant chunks of camp. but that's not something you want in 2025, and that's a reality that could happen. We'll see if it does. Plenty more to discuss when it comes to this Bengals defensive line, including probably one or two more things on their first round pick. We'll do that coming up next. I don't know that there's anything to say about Schmarster

that we haven't said at this point. Getting him to show up is critically important. He should be incentivized to show up. The Bengals should be incentivized to get him to show up, but instead the way that negotiation is played out, the football seems entirely secondary, which I understand. That's like the business versus football dichotomy of the NFL. But at some point, from a football perspective, it just becomes wildly frustrating.

Whether it's the front office, which it seems like more fans are inclined to put more blame on the front office than Shemar Stewart, or whether you think Shemar Stewart's being totally unreasonable here, no matter who, whose fault you think it is, and I'm not here to tell you whose fault it is, because I think there's amply shared blame here for both sides. From a football perspective, simply getting Sharmar Stewart as many reps as possible is undisputably something that should be the Bengals top priority here when it comes to their first round pick. I think when it comes to their second round pick, that's an entirely separate conversation

that we'll get into when we talk about the rest of the defense later this week. But beyond Shemar Stewart and Trey Hendrickson, perhaps the next biggest question is how How good is that interior defensive line going to be? How much of a difference is T.J. Slayton going to make? And you bring back B.J. Hill, who, when he's healthy, is as steady as any defensive tackle in the NFL. He's a solid player. You know what you're getting there. But what kind of steps will we see from McKinley Jackson and Chris Jenkins Jr. Will there be one of these undrafted free agents, Eric Gregory or Howard Cross, challenging for a roster spot in training camp, forcing their way into the conversation?

That doesn't even get to the topic of defensive. Ben Depth in Joseph Osai and Miles Murphy and Canstample and Cedric Johnson. But to me, it's the next question outside of who's rushing the pass from the end is probably how much of a difference does T.J. Slayton make for you in the presence of a real nose tackle. Can he be a good nose tackle outside of just being a guy and nose tackle? Can you be that run stopper that they're paying him to be that they expect him to be and make a big difference to their run defense. That's a big question for the only unrestricted free agent they signed

that I think you can expect to play significant snaps on defense this year. Yeah, they need him to be that run stopper and to unlock all of these guys. And BJ Hill, does he start camp healthy? He was dealing with that foot ankle, like whatever it was, that lower body injury. I don't know the exact issue, but missed a lot of the offseason program. It felt like it was something that was going to take a while. Hopefully he's ready to go.

But the key to unlocking the interior, it has to be T.J. Slayton. And basically what you're banking on is Jerry Montgomery and the Bengals front office being right that Slayton is going to help get more out of Chris Jenkins and McKinley Jackson, putting those guys into the role that they need to be, putting BJ Hill in the role that he's he's been in for most of his time with the Bengals, you hope. But it just, it feels so thin because you're talking about two guys that I think are question marks, even if you're optimistic about them and Chris Jenkins and McKinley

Jackson. It's hinging on BJ Hill being at least as good as he's been over the past few years. And T.J. Slayton being the magic piece that allows it to come together. And it's not like there's a first rounder, second rounder, third rounder in this year's class that you can bank on. At end, you have the mix. You have the former third round pick in Osai. You have the former first rounder in Miles Murphy. You have a current first rounder in Shamar Stewart.

On the interior, it is banking on those four. And you mentioned the undrafted guys, and that's great. And I get it. Experience without Golden and all those things. It's really tough for me to say, all right, well, one of these undrafted guys is not only going to make the team, which would be great. if one does and pushes for a roster spot, but it's going to make an impact. That's a tough road.

Not impossible, but it's tough to bank on in July. You can't bank on it. It's impossible to bank on. You're never banking on an undrafted. Who's the last undraftier free? That's what they're doing. Undraft of Feetheed and Zt5.

They're just not going to keep, I mean, they're banking on having four defensive tackles right now. That's what they can put in the bank. And that's risky too. Who's the last undrafted free agent that there was really significant confidence and make it like is there anybody since vontes perfect who at this point in the year as training camp starting you're like oh yeah that undrafted for free agent

man he's way better you know there's no i don't even think you said that about vontas at this stage you know when he got into games and preseason games and started to make plays you're like oh was i don't remember the timing i just know there's a lot of hype around vontas and the preseason well he was a big name he should have been drafted but he had all the stuff yeah so so it was different in that because people knew he had talent but then he got on the field and it was like all those combine numbers it didn't matter yeah and so yeah that's that is the last one so go back to when joe burrow was a sophomore in high school and that that's the last time that that was the case basically so it's been a while so big questions about the development of last year second and third

round pick you mentioned there's not a guy from this year's draft but there's second year steps expected for McKinley Jackson and Chris Jenkins Jr. Those are wild cards that, based on last season, you're not expecting either guy to be game-changing kind of players, but you do get significant jumps from year one to year two at defensive tackle. And are those guys that can take that step? McKinley Jackson certainly showed the signs as the season went on of the lights coming on. And Chris Jenkins Jr. was drafted in the second.

second round. Rightfully so, I think like around where his consensus rank was because he did have a skill set worthy of being drafted early last year. So what can they get out of those guys? Big question. But man, like BJ Hill in a boot during the offseason program, whether he's good to go or not with the depth that we're highlighting here is a scary prospect to think about. And how much of a difference can T.J. Slayton make? this is not like the BJ or the DJ Reader signing several years ago

where DJ Reader was coming in as a bona fide stud at no tackle. I'm not saying T.J. Slateen is a bad player by any means but they're different kinds of players. This is a different kind of signing. There's a reason that DJ got the money he got and T.J. Slaten got the money he got.

But they need T.J. Slayton to make a DJ Reader kind of impact in the run game. And I don't know if that's to expect of Slayton just because I think DJ Reeder was a special player to be able to do that. Then getting beyond all of those questions, the contract questions for the ends, that who's going to play and who's going to play well on the interior, if anyone, for this Cincinnati Bengals defensive line?

It's, well, what about the rest of the ends? What about Joseph Osai? What about Miles Murphy? Needing, needing so badly to take a step and to be a, a productive player on a down-to-down basis and not just flash because we saw those flashes. He didn't have the production in the stats sheet, but the flashes are still there, the tools are still there, putting that together. How much of an impact or Camp Sample and Cedric Johnson making for this team?

Out of that mix, they need more than they've gotten in recent years outside of Tray Hendrickson from the defensive line. No doubt. No doubt. And that's at least at end, you can say. there's there's a chance it's just everything really hinges on slayton taking you know it's it's it's much tougher for me to see the path and you know if if they for example i'd feel the same way it'd be similar if it was the other way let's say the bengals picked walter nolan at 17 and he had fell there

well then it's like oh wait we have walter nolan we'll see how he develops but at end you're banking on murphy and o'sai and those are question marks even if they were taking it with first and third round picks. And obviously we talked to plenty on track. It's, and so they, obviously, Walter Nolan wasn't available. They didn't add a defensive tackle. And so now, I think part of it's going to be Cam Sample and in what his role is. How much does he kick inside some? Does he help in that department enough? And I do wonder, I had, there's a couple people in the building. I really believe in Cedric Johnson. And yet at the same time, even if you believe, in him, you don't want him pushing for snaps because you want these guys, whether it's Miles

Murphy, Osai, obviously, or Shamar Stewart to really be pushing in battling for that starting job. I think Osai is probably the favorite as of now. Doesn't mean it's going to happen. I think in an ideal world, one of those other guys would push and win that job because they're under contract beyond the season. Regardless, though, they need way more production from their defensive line. They need multiple young guys to step up. and six months from now we can't say it put it this way six months from now if we're saying man

they just really haven't hit in the trenches specifically in the defensive line room then that's a huge issue because they have so many draft picks that they've invested there and that they're banking on taking a step forward this season and at that point it's a reflection on the front office to some degree right because you've got the separate coaching stuff in there now you've shaken up your coaching staff to bring in

a group of coaches that you think are going to be able get more out of your investment. And if you can't get anything out of your investment with multiple coaching staffs, at some point, that goes back to the front office. And I think a lot of fans are already there. But when you're talking about keeping six defensive ends, you're going to need some versatility from those guys. And that assumes that Chamar Stewart and Trey Hendrickson are part of the team, of course.

But you're talking about keeping potentially six defensive ends if Sedric Johnson is number six and four defensive tackles. Which means you're going to need guys that are able to kick inside. I'm passing down some particular. You talked about Canstample in that role of Joseph's side, potentially you could get some run in that as well. But what a lot of pressure on this group to just be better. The Bengals have not been great in this department.

Really, during the Joe Burrow era, they've had times where they were able to get more pressures and not able to finish those pressures with sacks, but pressures are still disruptions and can still lead to wasted plays for offenses, and they're not there right now. Even if Trey's only got, even if Trey is, again, 49% of your sacks, he was the only player in the NFL according to that ESPN ranking article that eclips 30% of the team's pressure.

So if they can get that to be more spread out and have someone contributing, in addition to Trey Henderson and the pressure department, that makes a big difference for your defense as well. And there are just so many questions here going to be one of the areas that we're watching closely, throughout training camp in the preseason, and just a critical area of development for this team heading into 2025 training camp. No doubt. No doubt.

They need multiple guys to be, to have career years. And part of that may be because their career year or their career has been short. It doesn't matter. They need multiple guys where we're talking about. them a few months from now being building blocks and pieces of the present and future. We'll see if they get there. At least half. Like let's get a 50% hit right here.

Yeah. Jenkins are McKinley Jackson, one of Miles Murphy or Shamar Stewart right away. O size on a one-year deal. I think we kind of know what he is. Maybe he takes a step forward, certainly possible. But I'm not expecting him to be a pro bowler this year either.

Yeah, I think that would be a lofty expectation. Yeah. It'd be great. to have that champagne problem where all these guys just suddenly it clicks and now you have to figure out how to split up snaps because you've got to go with the hot hand whoever you know we're talking about a fantasy world at that point that's right we'll continue the training camp preview series throughout this week we've got many more questions for this team to answer whether it's trenches whether it's skill players whether it's the secondary and the rest of the defense we'll continue to hit those topics as we work our way through all of the questions we have for the Cincinnati Bengals in training camp in 2025 this week. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast,

whodey and have a good one.