Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - UNDER CENTER: Bengals Still ADJUSTING—Rookies SHINE in Preseason Debut

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

Joe Burrow took two hits too many as the Cincinnati Bengals kicked off their preseason by repping the under center part of the playbook. But it wasn't all bad, as they found run game success, easy yards, and an explosive pass for Ja'Marr Chase. Jake Liscow and Joe Goodberry discuss Orlando Brown Jr's ugly rep that led to a Burrow hit, and impressive rookie showings from Cashius Howell, Colbie Young, Landon Robinson, Brian Parker, and Jack Endries. Photo Credit: Sam Greene Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! Where you'll get updates directly to your phone and be able to text the hosts, check it out at: https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengals Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM to play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season.   KALSHI For a limited time,Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get $10 when you trade $10. Square Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at https://square.com/go/lockedonnfl! #squarepod Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. 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.

Yeah, Joe Burrow got hit way too much for a preseason game, but I'm glad the Bengals got the under center work in because that looks like that's going to be a big part of their plans for 2026. 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, and can you believe it?

We're talking. about a football game. The Bengals have won their preseason debut. I almost don't remember the score. I do remember the score. It was 16 to 14 in favor of the Bengals as Lions head coach Dan Campbell was doing too much to try to win the game, going for two, taking timeouts, doing the onside kick. Challenges. I digress. Challenges, yeah, we're in the preseason, Dan. But that's Dan Campbell for you, man. He's biting kneecaps preseason or regular season. But we're going to start today with what the Bengals did on offense in this game, which was go under center a whole lot while Joe Burrow was out on the field. They honestly had very mixed results. The defensive starters, for the most part, played

one drive. Some of the guys stayed out there for the second drive. We'll talk about what we saw from the defense, of course, today as well. And it was a strong showing for Bengals rookies who played mostly after those first couple of drives. But we saw some great promise, I thought, from the Bengals rookies that were on the field on Thursday night. But Joe, the Bengals went under center to start the game for four straight plays. And then Joe Burrow took a sack. And then I think there were some groans. You never want to see Joe Burrow get hit in a preseason game.

It was a coverage sack, though. So while they could have protected it probably a half second better than they did, it was a stunt that gets all the way across the formation. Joe Burrow is holding on to the ball for three plus seconds before the pressure or as well. And so it looked like one of those things where that's the kind of play where I'm glad Joe Burrow gets a rep. And he can put that away in his mental bank and understand what exactly happened there because he looked hesitant coming off of the play action fake there. But it wasn't all bad. They had some success under center as well. Yeah, that's right. And if you're just joining us now because

football's here and they're playing a football game, this has been a point of emphasis all summer, all off season. We've talked about the under center offense, the play action offense, and trying to create explosives out of it. And they did. They've got a nice, deep, middle shot to the field with to Jamar Chase, very similar to last preseason. I actually did Charlie Goldsmith. They brought this up that they had a very similar play to start last year's preseason. But it was nice. The play fake, Chase Brown cuts off it real early to go and pick up the blitz. The protection is great up front. This is a nice, a big time throw if you go by PFF definitions, where it just goes over the middle linebacker, maybe a foot and a half from his hand and, uh, hits a nice

tight hole to Jamar Chase for a big gain over the middle. And I thought, here we go. This is going to start the drive. This is going to spark some things here. And that first drive got ended after that sack on second down where they stick right to it, right? They run the ball. Then they go play action again. It's basically we're under center, run play action, run play action. And then you get to a third and 15 after the sack. I can't wait to see the coverage on it and go watch the film because I would like to see what's happening. How many guys are even en route on that? I assume it's two guys and they're covered.

But then you get to third down. It's third and 15. They just do a quick screen to Samadj, P. Ryan, who picks up, you know, five or something. And they're like, yeah, that's it for the drive. So why you can't really, on one hand, I like that they really leaned into the play action and the undercentered part. But in a real game, you could see where they would say, okay, we can start a drive this way or set it up and then get out of it. Because on second down and seven plus, you're going play action. As a defense, I don't think you're running the ball there.

And if you do, I really don't care if you get four yards off it will take you on third downs. Second downs have to be the new third downs for the successful offenses where they're trying to convert, not just trying to create splash plays. That was something I actually found irritating today. I was back in regular season feelings of like, why are we being so conservative on second down? Let's try to convert this down a little bit more aggressively. Let's have a little bit more fun on first down. Let's roll some of these play action ideas out there on first down. But honestly, that game planning, game scripting, play calling element of preseason is so weird.

We'll see how it translates to the regular season. It's a feeling that we've had in the regular season before, which is why it was so familiar and why I called it a regular season feeling. Like you get into that second and sixth situation, like you said, after a four-yard run for Chase Brown on first time, which is great. We'll take four yards on first down, sure. But then, you know, I guess the play action attempt is a way

to try to be a little bit more aggressive on second down, but it's a balancing act. And that's, I think, the takeaway here is that there's some pluses, right? And it wasn't necessarily when Joe Burrow was on the field. We saw some really nice stuff with Joe Flacco, under center as well. They end up hitting Andre Yosevash on that little motion into the flat on a play action play from under center on that second drive and that kind of thing. It's not like that's not been in the Bengals offense ever before, but that's the easy button stuff that we're talking about

that we would like to see a little bit more because the play action is effective. It gets Andre Yosevash in a ton of space in the flat and he just has to turn up field and run until he's forced out of bounds and you get nine yards for free. And so when you see those sorts of plays in the offense combined with Joe Burrough's accuracy ball placement on that first throw of the game to Jemar Chase in the middle of the field. Those are the things that you like to see out of the play action game. But I do think that there will be a feeling out process that I think today is probably a big part of in terms of how that fits into the offense versus the preponderance of what we've seen for the last five years, which is Joe Burrow and the shotgun and spreading

things out way more often than not. Yeah, you explained that pretty well, actually. I do like that Yoshi play on a second and six, let's say, rather than a, what I assume is a two-man route with like a max protection where Burrell really doesn't have an escape outlet or a way to throw it away because you're in the pocket. Whereas the Yoshi play, you can boot a little bit on that. It gives you an easy, probably high low, one, two, and you should have an easy button throw. That's wide open. That was on first down. So I like that they're doing it on first down there. That's a first down play. You get into a second and one. You get seven yards on the next play. and on you go.

Yeah, perfect. That's how, like those are the plays I'm thinking of where the risk reward isn't worth it on a second down, deep dropback type play action. But whatever, we'll also have a lot more of these throughout the season. The big part of the first team offense that I'd like to get to here is that it ends on a third down with Orlando Brown getting absolutely beaten by a undrafted guy that should not be even holding anything close to Orlando Brown. Shouldn't even being able to be.

in the vicinity of Joe Burrow. And it's such a lazy and bad pass rep to me when I watched it, that I was like, come on. We've been trying to defend Orlando and saying he has more good moments and bad moments. We just remember the bad moments. That was worrying for me, Jake, real bad. Yeah, I don't know how you lose to an undrafted free agent like that, who honestly didn't really make any noise the rest of the game that I noticed,

which means the Cody Ford's and cokers and fosters of the world. And that was an interesting rotation that I think. we'll get to perhaps a little bit later in the episode because those tackles were rotating in an interesting fashion. But I didn't hear his name really for the rest of the game. There was one other player, the guy that got the sack, whose name is escaping me, but the guy who got the sack for the Lions on that stunt, which wasn't really a pass rush win. That was long developing, twists around the formation. Dalton Riser gets a little bit caught up on a blitzer, doesn't manage to stay with him very well.

not a past rush window. He did later have a win against the Bengals backup backup backup tackles. But yeah, I mean, we've seen throughout training camp a couple of moments with Orlando Brown. And we've been writing them off for the most part. And I'm still not panicking, let's say, but it's not what you want to see. And it was a limited sample size. And in that limited sample size, we saw him stumble a little bit on one rep and you manage this to recover enough to get in front.

of the pass rusher on that play, but if that's a high level starter in the AFC North, might not recover in a suitable way to protect Joe Burr on the play. And then just getting beat clean by this O'Neill guy, Rutgers, undrafted for free agents. I think I saw that he had like two and a half sacks last year, maybe in college period. And it was just a clean win for that guy. Like you can't have that clean loss moment. So something to clean up for sure. something to monitor early in the season,

the Bengals did give him an extension. And that is something that I think is on the mind of some folks watching that play happen in a preseason game. Yeah, because there's not much, there's no other answer. So when I see people like, oh, he's washed, he's done, I'm concerned. Yeah, we can be concerned. But if you're thinking go out and free agency, like Jonah Williams is the best tackle out there.

Is that an upgrade? Is that who you want to turn to? It's not even a thing. They're not even going to bench Orlando Brown Jr. What we may see is then give him a little bit more help. And that's okay. You can function that way. It's not crazy to think that the Bengals give their tackle some help once in a while.

We've asked for it at other times instead of leaving these guys on an island. And if Mims is that dude and takes that step, fine. You just give a little bit more help to Orlando Brown Jr. And you function that way. And I think that sometimes teams are a little bit late to react and fix those things. So I think they will at some point once they maybe get out of preseason. and get to the regular season. Jake, there are a lot of big plays that these depth players had.

We still need to talk about the first team defense. That was something we're waiting for all off season to look at. We'll get to all of that and more coming up next. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect just a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. And you have one out for accounting, another app for inventory, another app for sales, and they don't talk to each other. Well, that's where Odo comes in.

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organizations see results when they're working from the same playbook they won because operations matter and that's why you should get odoo and get your team working from the same playbook try for free today at odu.com slash lockdown that's odio.com slash locked up jake let's talk about this first team defense we didn't see them for long right we've got about three snaps with dexter lawrence and Jonathan Allen and DJ Turner. Turner involved in a past deflection sort of when I saw the replay. I actually thought it just went through the receiver's hands and bounce off the helmet. I saw people crediting him. If you saw that as well, I don't think DJ had anything to do with that. But the ball bounces in the air and Jordan Battle, who honestly, we talked about who could

potentially be the playmaker, who could be the guy that steps in. He's a bit of a roller coaster player, but he has had his hands on a lot of balls and has made splash plays. So of course, as it's in there, I'm thinking my eyes start darting around, like, who could be around? Jordan Battle jumps into the frame, intercepts the pass and ends that first drive. And I would say that's about as ideal of a start as you can have for this new look defense. I honestly came away from that first drive feeling like they got lucky. So I guess we're on different ends of the reaction spectrum here. Because the result was good.

They get the takeaway. That's great. They get the takeaway because the ball went through Isaac to Slah's hands and bounced off his face mask. and there's three Bengals defenders around him, and they're able to collect. So that's great. You made the play that was available to you, and you get credit for that, no doubt,

but you're also giving up yards to Luke Altmeyer and Jacob Saliers. And is it Jacob? Grangers. Guys that you shouldn't be giving up yards to you. Like, the Lions played nobody tonight. And you gave up, he started well. Kyle Dugger gets downhill to the flat,

tackles Tyler Conklin for no gain. Awesome play to start things for Kyle Dugger. Nice to see him out there making play. plays and a good reminder that the Bengals have quality, safety, depth if they need to bring a guy off the bench in Kyle Dugger. But then the next play, you give up a seven-yard run. The next play, you give up an eight-yard pass on a third and three. And then you get an off-size penalty that you give up a 23-yard catch on where it doesn't look like anybody's really close to contesting the pass. I think it was Cedric Wilson who caught it for the Lions.

And then you get the interception. So you get to the point of getting an interception in your own territory. but they did give up a little bit more than I would have liked to have seen. And this is nitpicking. So if you think I'm being too negative, fine. I'll take that on the chin. But this was the Bengals starting defense. I thought they should have dominated a backup offensive line,

a backup quarterback, backup skill players. And said they gave up quite a few yards on that first drive. They do eventually get the takeaway. So all is well that ends well. But I thought we might see a little bit more dominance from this Bengals defense. So as soon as that offside happens, happens. That's with Chris Jenkins in the game. Like the backup started to get rotated in on the defensive line almost immediately. Yeah. So yeah, that's, if that's their new strength of

their team, it started to get to the depth right away. And yeah, we've talked about maybe the depth on the defensive line should be a strength also. You got a lot of guys you can rotate in there. That's without BJ Hill. That's without Shamar Stewart. So your depth takes a little bit of a hit there, hoping both those guys get back soon. But yeah, I'm with you. A couple of those plays there. The one I thought Dexter Lawrence got moved down the field a little bit. too much. I think it was that seven-yard run, a little bit of a cutback lane there when your nose tackles getting double-teamed and getting washed down a little bit there. So not ideal, but at the same time, we've talked about this. Do we think this defense is going to be some stout

top 10 unit? No, that'd be nice, but also can they be explosive? Can they make plays? Can they make splash plays? Can they get more sacks? Can they be more disruptive? If you can get the ball back to Burrow in this offense more often and still be a less than ideal defense, I would take that trade off, right? So if I say they end up being 16th in the league, you're going to give up some drives and some plays that you probably shouldn't to some teams. You may have a Mike White game, right? We always hate that game, but it can happen. Can you make plays and can you get the ball back to Burrow? I'll take that. Yeah, that's part of it. And the second drive for the Lions was very successful for the Bengals defense. It did not feature some of those key starters. I think Boya and Mafei and Miles Murphy were

still out there because Boy amafé was involved in the tackle on the first play of that drive, which was a two-yard run in there with Chris Jenkins, who, by the way, Chris Jenkins, I know we mentioned the offside penalty. We're about to start talking about the rookies, but going to talk about Chris Jenkins before we get to the rookies because he had a very impressive night and made a lot of plays. But on that drive, they get the illegal downfield, which erases an eight-yard gain that would have, I think, been a conversion for the Lions on that play. And then they get off the field. Great.

They get off the field again. And then we get to see some of these guys coming off the bench, some of the rookies, some of the young guys really making place for the defense. The defense overall tonight was pretty good. They get off the field early when they had chances to get off the field. They give up some points after the end of the half was managed pretty poorly by the Bengals offense. But Cassius Howell made a strong first impression. Landon Robinson made a strong first impression.

Chris Jenkins had a single drive or he had two run stops in a sack and one one drive all by himself, which is the kind of progress you would like to see from Chris Jenkins, who played deep into this game. He played a lot, which tells you about the depth of that battle on the defensive interior. I don't think we've ever had a recap. And I know we've just been doing this podcast together, but we've talked a lot after the games. I don't think we've ever said, hey, Chris Jenkins, big game, right? We may have said nice play at times, but we've never said it like this. And so it's nice to see my first reaction was, yeah, show them off for the rest of the league. Let's trade him because as he's doing really well, so is Landon Robinson.

And I think that can go hand in hand on who I want to keep in terms of a battle. But yeah, keep him out there. Let them play well. If he's taking a step and that would be a positive if you end up keeping him. McKinley Jackson was the other side. I did not think took a step. So just real quick there, I thought he still played too high, too out of control, poor vision, and all the things that have plagued him for years now in Cincinnati.

But moving on, yeah, Cassius Howell, let's start there for the young guys and rookies. Instantly to me, I'm like, oh, yeah, that's Texas A&M Cashus Howl, which is what you want to see. You want these guys to look exactly how you evaluated them. Hard to get a hand on. He was kind of dancing with Lyman and toying with them a bit, cutting the corner really steep. At one point, I recorded one where he cut almost a 90-degree angle around the guy, got near the quarterback ball is already out. tip by, I think, DJ Ivy, or at least he was in on the defensive play there on a third down.

And I was out DJ Ivy as well, by the way. I think stakeed a real solid flame for that first corner off the bench job. But keep talking about Cassius Howl, but we're not going to talk about DJ Ivy. He's a veteran. So he's going on Cassius Howl. So later we get Cassius Howl where he dips inside of the left tackle and then the running back, I think accidentally picks him up because the running back's kind of looking inside and the linebackers coming to and he just ends up running into Howl.

But it was like, that's another example. of how it being extremely elusive for linemen to get their hands on. And then we end up getting a stunt on the play where Jenkins does get a sack and Howell kind of hesitates, spin move, beats the tackle to the inside, and he lands on top of the quarterback. I thought this should have got split. It didn't get split. Whatever, it goes to Chris Jenkins.

But besides that, we had a fumble recovery. I almost forgot fumble recovery for Cassius Howell. That's an impactful first day for the rookie first pick of the Bengals this year. It didn't look undersized to me either when he was taking on blocks in the run game like he plays with good power. The quick pass rush wins are great. But if he's going to be on the field with any regularity, even if he is going to be out there as a designated pass rush, so they're going to have to trust him a little bit in run situations. So I thought it was a very impressive game overall for how, just with all the wins that we saw from him and falling on that fumble, you're going to endear yourself to your coaches.

That's a hustle play. Getting on the bottom of the pile coming away with the football. It's not a force fumble. They were botched exchanges, botched snaps, and Bengals put a ball on the ground, put a ball to ground three times on one play. And then the very next drive, the lions put it on the ground in the same fashion.

They just can't handle the football when it was raining heavily. And how it does a good job of falling on it. A lot more guys that we need to get here, get to here, Joe, including Brian Parker, who had a nice debut. Jacob Bayer also, I thought, had a really solid showing as the backup center as Connor Liu didn't play tonight. Jack Andrews made some plays.

Landon Robinson, we need to circle back to you referenced him, but Landon Robinson was impressive in his debut as well. So we'll continue with the rest of these rookies that flashed and showed their promise in the Bengals free season debut coming up next. Baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a homer today, fan duel is giving you a free chance to call your shot with daily dingers. It's easy to play. Just make your free pick for who you think will hit a home run in their game.

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including at least half a sack. It looks like he was only credited officially for half a sack, but making plays out there, Joe. And for the final defensive tackle spot, it's really down to those two guys to me after this preseason game. I'm glad to get him a half a sack there because when I first looked at it during the game, it was a full sack. And I thought, man, Antoine Paul Rilin's getting cheated here.

I thought he got a half of that. I thought he at least had a piece. But yeah, Landon Robinson first, the first flash we got was him really beating the right guard. cleanly and then being held by the center and almost tackled. It should have, could have been a sack safety situation. It was called a hold. So that's great.

That's a big play for the defense. Honestly, a hold is a 10 yard play. I'll take that all day long. But he had a couple other nice wins or at least penetrating plays where he got close to the quarterback, a couple other pressures, and then did get that half sack where he split with Antoine Paul Riland. I want to say, though, because I think people are going to post a lot of these highlights and I did during the game as well.

There were some moments versus the run where I thought his size did show up a bit. And he got swallowed up a bit. There was one play, both of his, his jerseys up over his pads. His pads are sticking out at the shoulders. And he's like complaining to the ref that he got held. And I'm like, dude, he actually got swallowed on that play. I don't think that's getting held. I think he just kind of bear hugged you and moved you where he wanted to.

So that's something to pay attention to. He's going to have to, you know, use that technique and leverage and strength. even Gino Atkins early in his career wasn't the greatest run defender, but he eventually got to that point because he was so disruptive and so hard to block. I'm not saying Landon's going to become that, but if he is bad against the run early in his career, it would make a lot of sense. Yeah, it's going to show up, I think,

because of the size that he gives up. And if you see Dexter Lawrence get moved by a double team with the ones out there, I think that it's fair to see a little bit of movement given up by a guy that's 50, 60, 70 pounds lighter and at the back of your roster versus the very, very top of your defense and Dexter Lawrence. And so overall, I thought impressive game for Landon Robinson also was in on a run stop. Swayzy Bozeman gets a big shout out very, very clearly linebacker four, maybe even pushing for linebacker three, the way he played tonight. If that's the way he's been throughout the preseason throughout training camp, shooting a gap, getting into the backfield.

be a run blitz to combine with Landon Robinson for tackle for loss. But if if he's not in the backfield, Swayzie Bozeman on that play, then Landon Robinson might just be out of place and way, way past the play because he shoots a gap himself, but isn't guaranteed to make that play if Swayzy Bozeman doesn't flush the running back into the vice tackle when it ends up being between him and Landon Robinson. So shout out to Swayzy Bozeman as well. On the topic of starters real quick here before we switched to the offense side of the ball and the rookies. I thought that Miles Murphy was fairly active in this game and was bothering and winning his bothering the tackle he played against him, winning those matchups.

And the last thing that I wanted to mention before we switch over to the offenses, you might be kind of shaking off these performances. It's the Lions backups. Who cares? Cassius Howell was facing a pretty established left tackle in the league. And the Lions left tackle in this game for a lot of the game, Larry Boreham, who has started a lot of games in the NFL, 2,500 snaps in five years in the NFL, a bunch of starts to his credit. So while he's not a top end starter or anything like that, and is, I believe, a backup for Detroit, that's a guy that has a lot of skins on the wall in the NFL and is probably a better player or held in higher esteem than Cody Ford around the league.

And Cody Ford is going to be the Bengals first tackle off the bench the way things are looking. So not like that's nothing. That is a player that has a lot of NFL experience. But speaking of offensive lineman, Joe, I thought it was a promising start for Brian Parker, who played a lot of left guard for the Bengals in this game and finished the game at Center. He played about three and a half quarters in total. So he was inserted pretty quickly once the offense had their two drives. He inserted at left guard, played the majority of the game there. And then I think it was two drives depending on what you want to count the last drive at center.

And yeah, there was a stretch where I was extremely impressed with Parker. with his balance, even his strength. He knocked guys down pretty routinely. I think it was three in a course of two drives where I was like, oh, you knocked three guys down. And later he ended up getting a linebacker, throwing him down. So I can't wait to watch the tape on him again. There were a couple plays where I thought he gave up a little bit of inside pressure,

kind of playing it like a tackle wood where I can run this guy around the arc. You really can't do that at guard because the quarterback has to step up. So you've got to stay a little more square with these guys, have a little more anchor. I think that will come. he was a player in college that seemed to rebound whenever he made a mistake and learn from it. I'm assuming he's going to be really good.

Like I said this during the game and I've said this when he was drafted. I think he's a future starting guard in the league. And just off one preseason game, I'm like, yes, still looks like it. For the most part, I was pretty impressed with the second team offensive line in general in this game and given that they're going against Detroit's backups and backup backup backups. And maybe we shouldn't be like super impressed with the second team in general. I thought was mostly pretty good. Jaylen Rivers did have an issue at one point,

one really bad loss. I think Josh Johnson was already in the game at that point. It an intentional grounding penalty on that play. And so that wasn't so good. I think that was part of what led to the field goal for Detroit at the end of the half, if I recall correctly. So it wasn't all great for the backup offensive line, but for the most part,

I thought they looked very, very serviceable. And for a guy that we're not necessarily expecting to make the team, Jacob Bayer, I thought, like I mentioned, had a pretty good nice. outside of the one snap that he rolled back and wasn't able to get a grip on that led to a fumble for Kendall Milton, right? Kendall Milton picked that went up off the ground on that plane. Is it, uh, it's weapons time now part of this conversation for rookies, isn't it?

Yeah, uh, super impressed tonight with Jack Hendries. I thought pretty impressed with Colby Young, pretty impressed with Dante Myers and, uh, nobody. looks great at running back. So that's my overall thoughts. Why don't want to me go through those player by player? Yeah, that's funny. I didn't I actually forgot all about running back until you said that. I was hoping for a big game for Todd Brooks, at least a lot of leaning on him. We didn't get any of it. You're right. That that bad third or fourth, fifth running back, wherever it is. That backup spot is just, I don't know if the guy's on the roster yet. Hopefully it is Taj Brooks and they don't have to make a move there. But Dante Myers, I thought,

moved at a pace that was different than everyone else. Because he, I didn't see him get rotated in with the ones and twos. It wasn't until really the threes were out there. And then he played and I was like, whoa, he's not a third guy. Like this is not what they look like. They move a little slower and a little bit stiffer than this. Dante Myers looked very quick to me and aggressive. I did have one ball that was almost fumbled, dropped.

He got hit as he came in on the slant. And I challenge. Yeah, that was the challenge play. And he caught punts too. And I thought he looked very comfortable doing it. Like that looks like a guy who knows how to return punts. So made it a very interesting final wide receiver battle in my mind because he looks like he belongs.

And Charlie Jones did have a deep ball that I thought could have been a long score. Josh Johnson kind of under through it. And then I thought Charlie may have bobbled or dropped the ball on the sideline, but the cameraman was kind of late to get over there. So I couldn't tell. Charlie had a clean win for that ball that was underthrown. Let the lion's corner back into the play. Charlie Jones have tried the high point and tried to come back to it a little bit. Sure,

but that's not really what you're looking to do there. You're looking to catch it on the run, drop it in the bucket and take it into the house of your Charlie Jones there. So it's understandable. But Charlie's ever been like a super physical receiver at the catch point either. He's more of a guy that likes to run under the ball. The caveat, I guess for me for Dante Myers is pretty much all slants, which is great. And he did move well. He looks he moves like an NFL receiver. You're right about that. And I don't. year of jet sweep though, right? There was also the carry. You're right. There is slants, four targets, at least two of them are slants. You look good on the slants, but there's not a whole

lot there, right? That's a relatively easy play for him, but he did look good doing it, would like to see more there. Returning kicks is going to be big. And as far as the returners go, the biggest return of the night was Gishon Williams, who's also in that conversation, who I thought looked great as a returner for this team. Right. And that play in particular, yeah, that was a blocking on that play. I think Orrin Berks was involved with the double team and I looked at the replay and now cannot remember who

exactly was on the other side. It might have been, do you know? No. It might have been Dejohn Anthony, but I don't exactly remember who was in on the other block. But it was beautifully blocked. You're right. Big return though. And that is something that

coaches are going to look at and give him credit for. And then that's going to be part of the conversation. Because Because I do think Keishon Williams, based on what he did last year for this team as well, has to be in that conversation if you're only keeping one of those receivers to be a return. Yeah, no doubt. So the three leading receivers today, 29 yards for Myers, 28 for Colby Young, two for 28, couple of nice grabs. The one, he got a lot of separation on that comeback route. I'd love to see that route. I can't wait to watch it on phone. We didn't get a replay. Then the out route, nice grab, kind of had to double clutch it. He had a double clutch again on the sideline that he couldn't come down with us when the rain was starting. so I kind of give him a pass.

I want to, you know, we've seen him make those catches. And then Jack Endries was the next guy with 25 yards, three catches, 25 just as a move tight end, two catches as a move tight end. That's exactly what Eric all does. He looked good doing it. And then the big one that he did have was just, you know, coming across the middle off of play action. It's a little late to get to him, but he makes three guys miss on that play.

He looked a little slower than what I remembered him. But Joe Burrow, after the game in his press conference said, he just needs to see these things and he'll start moving. moving faster and faster compared him to Tanner Hudson in that way. That as soon as he sees that he's good. So it sounds like Jack Endries just needs the reps. Good first game for him. And injuries also had several nice blocking reps.

But what was interesting is that when the ones were out there and they needed the second tight end, it was still Cam Grandy. Now, Cam Grandy also did play late in this game. Jack Andrews finished the game essentially, played the entire game, didn't see a whole lot of Josh Caddus, University of Kentucky tight end, although he did have a catch. But Andrews also scored the only touchdown of the game. Joe Burroughs said Andrews had one nice play, which was one where he made a bunch of guys missed.

I thought the touchdown was nice. I mean, it wasn't super difficult, but he outruns some guys, make sure that he finishes a play. It's a little return motion for the Bengals. It's a shotgun play action play in the low red zone with that return motion for the tight end. And he just beats the defender and gets. to leverage and is able to get into the end zone. Not a whole lot.

A lot of guys can make that play, but nice to see him execute there and be on time with Joe Flacco out there. Hey, it's the only touchdown of the game. So I was pretty excited for that one. That was the most exciting moment for me, the entire game. I don't think Drew Sample can make that play. I don't think he can turn and change direction and get up to speed fast enough, right? So you need some athleticism to be able to do this.

I said a lot of guys. Not a lot. There's a lot of guys, but there's some that could not. Not every day. Andre Yosovash also had two catches. What was interesting to me about the wide receiver rotation is Andre was out there with the second wave of wide receivers, which was Andre Yosevash, Mitch Tinsley,

who didn't have a target. He does not appear in the box score, I don't think. Solid motion a couple times. That's it. Yeah. So it was Yoshe. It was Tinsley. It was Colby Young,

where the second set of receivers. And then Dante Myers got him with Colby. young and I don't remember the third receiver is was when they got to the threes. Maybe it was Noah Thomas. Because he had a nice grab on that sideline that he was way out of bounds, but really nice grab. Yeah. And Joe Burrow also credited in for that one.

Are there any rookies were missing? Takario Davis didn't play in this game. Kotor Lou we mentioned didn't play in this game. We didn't see Jalen Davis in this game. Justier Taylor drew the start instead. Didn't really see a whole lot from just here Taylor. I think he was involved with one of the. catches they gave up, but not sure exactly what happened there. So don't want to put it on him.

He was just near the play. What else were you missing, Joe? Anything you want to hit before we get out of here? Yeah, Antoine Paul Ryle and half sack, nice play. And then Braylon Lux with a nice run blitz and tackle trip up. And Miles Murphy, why he said that, he should have had a tackle for a loss, kind of missed the tackle. Ended being a two-yard game. Was a nice play to get back there, though, and make the running back change direction. Yeah, we mentioned DJ Ivy with the past breakup, Jordan battle credited with the pass breakup in addition to the interception i don't remember that one but uh also our guy t j slayton with a batted pass he did so did howard cross so and cross was in there early so that was interesting he was in there early but he's also in there quite late so that is a guy that

out golden obviously liked had him and dotter dame kept him around last year he was the guy that won that roster battle last year and and was with the team last year so i don't think he's like really competing the way that the we talked about chris jenkins and landon robinson competing for that spot but he had probably not entirely out of it either he had one really nice cross chop move to the outside killed the right garden and kind of got tripped up by the tackle and right uh whoever was passion on pass rushing on the right side kind of the move shouldn't have worked together right that's why he ends up getting tripped up because you shouldn't be trying to bull rush while the guy's trying to go to the outside but i was like whoa really nice play by howard cross

I don't think we saw too many mistackles tonight either. So we'll take that. Not by guys we care about either. Yeah, we'll take that for preseason game one. The kicking operations all looks pretty smooth. We have one touchback from Ryan Rico, three punts that were inside the 20. So we'll take that. Would have loved to have seen Evan McPherson attempt the 60 plus yarder.

Same. That for whatever reason we didn't get to see. But I also, the broadcast told us that Evan McPherson has the most 50 plus yard preempt. preseason field goal attempts of active kickers or something like that. So as much as we want to see more of Evan McPherson kicking long field goals in the preseason, so I think he's done quite a bit of it. But we'll wrap up there for this episode of the lockdown Bengals podcast. The next time you'll hear from us will be Sunday,

unless something so crazy happens Saturday when I believe the Bengals have a practice that we feel compelled to cover it. We're probably going to be back with you here on Sunday. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockhears. on bengals podcast today and have a good one