Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - UPSIDE ADDITION: Blake Freeland JOINS Bengals Practice Squad; Josh Johnson, Tanner Hudson RETURN

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals filled out their practice squad and added one of Joe Goberry's favorite draft prospects in the process. Blake Freeland brings some upside and tackling some developmental prospects to the practice squad. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. He's Joe Gooberry.

Starting point is 00:00:34 I'm Jake Liscoe. Today we're going to get into Zach Taylor setting the stage for a week of practices before week one practices. Bengals have two weeks leading into week one against Tampa Bay, of course. And Jamar Chase T. Higgins, not out there on Tuesday. We'll get you the update on what's going on with those guys, what Zach Taylor had to say there. But we're going to get started today with the rest of the players that fill out the Bengals practice squad, Tanner Hudson and Josh Johnson among them, those guys, exciting to see back on the practice squad, but not the most exciting, at least for Joe Goodberry.

Starting point is 00:01:08 We're going to start with Blake Freeland in an episode brought to you by Fandall. Fandall knows the college football is back and is packed with reasons to get excited. And this season, Fandall is giving you more ways to get in on every matchup. You can join all the action at fandle.com. And Joe, I really set this up. This is a player that I have never seen the hype on the way you have. But Blake Freeland brings a significant athleticism toolkit to the tackle position. and a guy that you've liked going all the way back to his draft class coming out of

Starting point is 00:01:37 at BYU. Yeah, he was a player that I, we were at the time looking for offensive line help, offensive tackle help. You know, we did that for probably 10 or 12 years. I feel like as Bengals fans and analysts, but he was a player that stood out to me as a high-end athlete that I really liked on tape at BYU. He scored really well from PFF.

Starting point is 00:01:57 So that highlighted him for me back then. A really good run blocker. He and his left guard. I went back and watched a bunch of clips and stuff. I saved from 2023, and he and his left guard were really devastating combo blockers together. And then we're talking about a six foot eight guy with good length and reach that moves very, very well, very patient in pass protection. And I like those traits.

Starting point is 00:02:20 What he needs to do and what he always needed to do was get a lot stronger and add some heft. He's about 305 pounds at 6.8. That is pretty thin, right? He barely fills out the pads in Jersey. And I think that's been an issue for him. But if you go back to 2023, he played a game against the Bengals where he started at right tackle. And he had his highest scoring PFF game of his career so far. He played 700 snaps that year for the Colts until they got healthy again and got their starters back.

Starting point is 00:02:48 But he gave up one pressure in 45 pass blocking snaps. I plan to go over all those again and show people. But he was a player that I thought could be a offensive tackle number three or develop maybe into a low end starter. I'm not saying I thought he was going to be great, but I thought a third round, fourth round, which is where he ended up being drafted, was a fine spot to take him in 2023 as most of your starters. The vast majority of offensive tackle starters are first round picks in the NFL, right? So as we talk about all of these guys today that are now in the running for the swing tackle spot,

Starting point is 00:03:20 if you're thinking future starter, even as hyped as I am about Blake Freeland, I'm going to squash it there and say, hey, we're talking about swing tackle. I mean, this is the practice squad player at this point behind. Miles Hinton, who is a waiver claim for the Bengals. And I'm sure they're happy to have Blake Freeland on the practice squad because of the athletic toolkit that he brings to bear. But the weight was always a glaring issue to me. And it was one of the things that when you look at his profile coming out of school,

Starting point is 00:03:45 68302 is slight at tackle. You want to be, if you're that tall, probably at least 330, 325, 320, like pretty significantly under the normal weight you would expect for a player that's that tall, at that point. position. But he does have the athleticism. And it hasn't necessarily translated into great NFL results, at least when you look at PFF. And I know PFF isn't the BL end all, as I think you are about to argue, Joe. But in this preseason, for example, he gave up seven pressures, I think, and around 100 pass blocking snaps. So pretty rough rate of allowing some sort of pressure as a player.

Starting point is 00:04:23 And that's similar to what he did in the one season that he got a lot of starts for the Colts back in at 2023. He had 426 pass blocking reps that year gave up 45 pressures. That's a pressure on more than 10% of his pass blocking reps. So not ideal, especially for the way the Bengals want to live on 172 true pass sets. He had 27, sorry, 31 pressures allowed that year. So 31 pressures on 172 true pass blocking sets, which mean no play action, no quick game. You're, actually past setting, the ball is going to be out in two and a half to three seconds, and there's no deception. It's not exactly a mark that you want to see.

Starting point is 00:05:07 That's actually quite bad. And so that hasn't been there for him in the NFL, but Joe, when you turn on the tape, do you still see that outside for him? Yeah, so I started to watch some preseason tape, you know, once we got the word that he was being added to the practice squad because, yeah, 102 pass blocking snaps, seven pressures, isn't a great rate. I think it ended up being 64th in terms of past block efficiency out of the 100 and something tackles that appeared in preseason.

Starting point is 00:05:34 So, you know, on the below average side, if you want to get a feel for what all those numbers mean, hasn't been great. There's no doubt about that. And the PFF numbers aren't good. And we are people that will reference PFF numbers all season long. So, you know, I'm not going to hide from that. I think what I'm coming to here in the conclusion I would love to share with people is that I was not high in Javon Foster at all.

Starting point is 00:05:56 I still remain pretty low on him, even if I believe he's probably the swing tackle for week one at this point. And then Miles Hinton, it was an older prospect that I would also like to correct something if I can for a second. I said he didn't have much right tackle experience. The last year at Michigan that I watched, he didn't play right tackle. But at Stanford, he was exclusively a right tackle. So he does have that experience. I want to correct that real fast. But that was a 25-year-old rookie as well, a guy that has the height, has the athleticism.

Starting point is 00:06:26 but never really put it together and put in excellent film and a consistent rate. And it kind of makes you wonder why those guys don't succeed sometimes as five-star prospects, right? So if I were to take these three and add Jalen Rivers to it too and say, hey, out of these four prospects, they need to find a swing tackle out of it. And yeah, I would like to have these guys in June and say one of them will emerge by the end of the season, or by the time the season starts. Instead, we have them now. And the Bengals have to figure it.

Starting point is 00:06:54 and Zach was even asked this question at his press conference. He said, I'll let them battle it out all year long until we figure it out. Like, this can go all year. There's no timetable on this. So I like that they've got enough prospects here that have the size, the length, the athleticism, each guy missing one thing or one part of that. And let's see who comes out of it. If you wanted to ask me, even though he's on the practice squad,

Starting point is 00:07:18 that puts him at the bottom of the totem pole, I think Blake Freeland is the best prospect out of all four of these guys. As we evaluate the NFL tape, it'll be interesting. Javon Foster has gotten good results, even though it doesn't look aesthetically necessarily like you would expect it to look. Miles Hinton looks aesthetically great. Like that looks like a guy that has a feat that can play tackle in the NFL. We'll see if he can develop.

Starting point is 00:07:43 Blake Freeland obviously has the athletic toolkit to do it and has the smoothness as an athlete to do it, even though the results haven't been there for him over time. And Jalen Rivers might not have a shot at tackle anymore. more. But true. How different do you feel if these are the guys that you have for developmental tackle four and you have like a Fred Johnson type on the roster? You feel great. I mean, having these three guys to develop Javon Foster, Miles Hinton, Blake Freeland, and even Jaylon Rivers in the mix is a fifth down pick. These are guys that were all drafted, all have something going for them. And I like

Starting point is 00:08:17 the idea of having players like that with tools in the bag to work with Scott Peters in this offensive line room and this offensive coaching staff because they seem to be able to develop these guys a little bit now. At least that's what one year of evidence has told us. We'll see what year two looks like. But if they can develop these guys, Jacob Bayer, another example, different position. But you have three guys that tackle specifically with the tools to develop into valuable backups or potentially a swing tackle in the future. And maybe there's going to be a competition here for a little while. But you do like that aspect of this. I think more than anything else because these guys are all kind of lottery tickets, but putting lottery tickets into a system

Starting point is 00:08:55 with Scott Peters and his staff working with these guys has potentially the ability to yield some nice results. Especially if you're talking about lottery tickets that have athleticism, have size, have length, have pedigree. We're talking third round or fourth round or third for Freeland, right? Foster was a fourth, fifth for River, six for Hinton. I'd like to give that to Scott Peters and say, hey, work your magic. You've got, you know, nine months. Hopefully, I think that's going to be our biggest fear going into the season as we kind of project and go into this game one. Like, Mims and Brown need to stay healthy. The Bengals cannot absorb an injury to those guys, probably not even for a few drives.

Starting point is 00:09:32 Like, we need them to be 99% snap count guys until we figure this out. And they may never figure it out. But, you know, we'll dive back into that when that happens. If an injury happens, hopefully it never does. And we don't worry about it. That's what the practice squad is for. Those guys can develop and can continue. to develop. We want to dive into the other practice squad players, the people they brought in

Starting point is 00:09:54 and fleshed out the 16-man practice squad coming up next. There are certain flavors that instantly feel like summer. And for a lot of people, those classic red, white, and blue freezer pops are the right flavors at the top of the list. The sweet cherry, lime, blue raspberry. It's one of those nostalgic summer flavors that everybody recognizes. Now, five-hour energy is bringing that flavor combination into a new firework freeze five-hour energy shot blending sweet cherries dusty lime electric blue raspberry into one refreshing shot inspired by these iconic summer freezer pops and jake i always need a five-hour energy or a boost of energy around this time every day but we've got a boost of blake freeland in my mouth and i'm feeling the energy you can ignite your taste buds

Starting point is 00:10:43 with the flavor of summer get a firework freeze five-hour energy shot today for more information visit five hour energy.com. The rest of the practice squad has been filled out a couple guys that we expected. Josh Johnson at quarterback. That means Bengals are keeping four with Sean Clifford as well on the practice squad. Zach talking about just having that much experience at the position and not really wanting to lose these guys. I kind of agree with it.

Starting point is 00:11:10 It's a take. I think that they are having four guys and us. Well, I am. I don't want to speak for you, but having four of them and keeping them kind of weird. But I like the experience that they've gathered at that position. I have thoughts about this, though. Okay. And the thoughts are that you probably don't want to roll with only Sean Clifford as your third quarterback.

Starting point is 00:11:29 Like if something were to happen where they need a third quarterback, they're probably looking elsewhere beyond Sean Clifford, I would think. And so Josh Johnson gives you that until someone else signs Josh Johnson. So you can't keep only Josh Johnson because then if you lose him, then you got nobody in your system. but you probably don't want to only keep Sean Clifford. You want a little bit of experience, a little bit of insurance, because at any point, any of these guys on the practice squad can be signed to another 53-man roster,

Starting point is 00:11:57 if they were to accept that job, which they probably would. It's a pretty significant raise. So it kind of is, in my mind, a dual insurance policy having both of those guys. And maybe you could argue just keep Johnson. And if you lose them, then you go get somebody to bring them in for that emergency spot. But I think they like what Clifford showed in the, next to no practice time he had. And he went out and performed reasonably well in the preseason. I think they'd like to have him around as a developmental player.

Starting point is 00:12:25 I'm Clifford. Was it the broadcast that was talking about how much work he was putting in with the backups and what they want, you know, like explaining the offense and the system and what the quarterback is looking for? Like it's, I'm getting vibes of future quarterback coach, Sean Clifford type thing. That's a guy you want to have on your roster, on your practice squad to help flesh everything out and get more eyes, ears and, and, opinions on your offense as you're trying to transition to more under center stuff. I just, that was my first thought when keeping Clifford and then adding Johnson is, you know, you're getting a little, you're doubling up there on the experience. But then Tanner Hudson, as we expected and suspected, he's back on the practice squad. I wouldn't be shocked if he's called up fairly soon as they figure out the swing tackle stuff.

Starting point is 00:13:05 We've talked about Blake Freeland. And then at corner, yesterday we said they probably should bring it a boundary guy with Braylin Lux being the only corner on the practice squad. they signed Triqueasy Bridges, who was a seventh round pick in the 2025 draft out of Oregon, a six foot two running a four, four, five corner. And he on PFF numbers, had a pretty impressive preseason with the Dallas Cowboys, originally drafted by the Chargers, was cut last year at cut down. Cut down again strikes for Bridges leaving the Cowboys.

Starting point is 00:13:39 But he allowed two of nine targets to be caught for, I think, negative two yards, preseason Jake. That sounds pretty good for a guy that has the length and speed that the Bengals are probably looking for at the boundary spy a little bit of Sicario Davis in there. It's actually, I think, four of nine for 34 yards minus two yards after catch. I'm just looking at this now. Okay, I looked at it wrong. So, so four of nine catches for 34 yards total, 8.5 yards for catch minus two yards and 92 passer rating allowed. He had a penalty as well in preseason week number one. So the PFF numbers for him are mixed. He had a nice, preseason week two but there's two missed tackles mixed in there which you never want to see he had

Starting point is 00:14:19 six tackles in preseason week three but gave up uh you know a couple of catches that week as well his coverage grade was pretty poor so this is a player that is a traits player is the way that i see it a trades developmental player chuck berks is another really good positional coach that the bengals have a lot of trust in him to develop at that position and so you have a developmental player here and we'll see if the Bengals can get anything out of him as depthed outside corner. A player that seems to have underachieved his tools. And speaking, by the way, of 25-year-old rookies, along with Demetrius Saitre Cuizi Bridges, was one of those as well,

Starting point is 00:14:57 a 25-year-old rookie last year who at Florida, where he finished his collegiate career, he spent some time at Oregon before transferring to Florida to finish his last year in college. He was actually seen as a pretty significant piece in 2024 for that Florida defense before he went to the NFL. we'll see if he can capture any of that and if the Bengals can develop him or not. He joins officially today that the final practice squad spot that we told you about yesterday

Starting point is 00:15:24 in Garmin, what's his last name, Garmin Randolph was the edge. That is such a name. I'm thinking the names today, try Creasy Bridges and Garmin Randolph. Yeah, but nice to see Tanner Hudson and Josh Johnson back. We're my overall thoughts on the practice squad. Overall, I think this is a pretty good practice squad. It's too bad they couldn't get one of the top two receivers they cut back. Noah Thomas was always going to be a target.

Starting point is 00:15:50 I still haven't seen as 440 Eastern Time on Tuesday where Charlie Jones has landed. I haven't seen his name come up anywhere. McKinley Jackson. Mitch Tensley goes to Houston. Yeah, haven't seen McKinley Jackson land anywhere, but not surprising that he's not back either, given what we've heard about him potentially being in the doghouse last year. And Howard Cross is on the practice squad there for them.

Starting point is 00:16:13 Jamal Haynes and the CFL tearing it up, aren't we? Yeah, that seems likely if he doesn't land somewhere. I haven't seen him land anywhere either. I haven't looked for him specifically. I did look for Charlie Jones today. Did you see Jacob Selliers? Remember he was on the practice squad and the preseason for the Bengals a few years ago? Played for the Lions, right?

Starting point is 00:16:33 Yeah, played against the Lions this year. Running back too for the Lions. He won the job. Yeah. Think about that. Yeah. I mean, that probably points to some sort of process issue for the Bengals of running back where Kendall Milton is once again on the practice squad.

Starting point is 00:16:51 It does happen. It's probably something that if you're in the Bengals runoff, you want to look at though, right? And see like, okay, what do we miss here? Is there something we missed here?

Starting point is 00:16:59 Is there something that went wrong in our process of evaluation that led to us keeping guys we kept? Because Stalinger wasn't bad for the Bengals in the preseason last year at all. And he went to the UFO. I thought he had a good year. I believe because I remember watching a couple of UFLs. games. And I was like, there he is. Look at them running. There you go. So the Bengals practice squad filled out. And now we don't have to talk about these fringe roster battles so much.

Starting point is 00:17:21 We can transition a little bit here. We're going to start talking about the Tampa Bay game next week, I think. Maybe a little bit this week, because we'll take a look at who made their roster and what's going on with their injury situation and catch up a little bit there. But we're going to have all of next week to talk about the Tampa matchup and the Tampa game that is coming. And so we will get to that next week. I know we've had a some requests is why I bring that up. Some people are ready to talk about week one, but we still have a few episodes this week and we have four episodes next week before that, five episodes next week before that game. We'll have the crossover to do, of course,

Starting point is 00:17:54 as I believe those are starting back up next week. And so we'll have plenty of time to talk about that matchup. I do want to talk about what Zach Taylor had to say about Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, as they are both dealing with, I think, relatively minor injuries, very different injuries for both of them that they're dealing with. Nothing to be concerned about. I want to talk about that. In addition to what Zach had to say about a couple of significant Bengals tight end pieces here.

Starting point is 00:18:21 And one of those thoughts seems to read the minds of Joe Goodberry and myself. Maybe Zach's listening a little bit to Lockdown Bengals. We'll get to those topics here to finish up coming up next. We're brought to you today by Fandul and college football's back. So it's time to put your knowledge to the test with college football pickum from Fandul. week you can make 10 free against the spread picks. 10 of them, free. Finish one of the week's top pick totals.

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Starting point is 00:19:12 Maybe you're just an Ohio State fan. You want to watch Chris Henry do his thing for the Ohio State, Buckeyes, Jeremiah Smith, an incredible wide receiver room, as usual in Ohio State. You can get into all the action on Fandall. Download the Fandul app and play college football pick them for free. Only on Fandul. Visit Fandle.com to get started. Before we get to the exciting take from Zach Taylor about Jack Andrews and Eric all, a couple notes on T. Higgins and Jemar Chase.

Starting point is 00:19:38 They'll both be limited this week. neither of them practiced on Tuesday, which means we got to see Dante Myers continuing to work with the ones, by the way, in addition to Andre Yosevash. And those guys also working in on Pumpt Return with Kishan Williams. It sounds like Dante Myers will continue to work there. Andre Yosevash was also getting work there on Tuesday.

Starting point is 00:19:57 So that's probably the rough rotation there, Kishan first, Dante, second, and Andre Yosevash, kind of your emergency guy. But wouldn't surprise to some others get involved there as well between now and week one. but the notes on T and Jemar are heel contusion for T. Higgins, and Jammar's still working back from the hyper extension during the last week of training camp. Didn't sound like either a series.

Starting point is 00:20:20 Zach said that he expects both of them to be good to go by the end of the week. And we'll get our official practice report starting next Tuesday. We'll have a better idea of what's going on with those guys then. But Zach didn't sound concerned, at least for now. Meanwhile, for Shamar Stewart, it sounds like it's going to be more week to week on him. And as he's going to continue to work on the rehab field. And Zach's going to see where they're out at the end of the week, I think. And the IR is probably still in play for Samar Stewart, depending on how the next week or so goes.

Starting point is 00:20:49 One more injury note. This was from Mike Petrelia said that Brian Parker had a brace on his knee. So Jake, you went back and watched that film to see what happened on the second to last play versus the Eagles. Look like a defender diving in as he's making the tackle. may have tweaked something on Parker's knee. But Parker was out there, even though he's on IR, you know, you can observe practice, can be in meetings and things like that. So we didn't get an update on how long it'll be, but the fact that he's standing and has protective equipment, I thought was a good sign. I don't know if you took it the same way, Jake. It was confirmation

Starting point is 00:21:23 that it was a knee. I wasn't sure if it was a knee or an ankle, but his leg wasn't really on the ground, so I'm not surprised it was the knee. He didn't have a whole lot of weight on that leg. Hopefully it's just like a strain or sprain. I guess it's technically a sprain if a ligament is involved. Hopefully it's nothing too severe for him. The fact that he's out there to brace, ideally a good sign, not a whole lot of information there. Meanwhile, we got a lot of information about Eric Hall, big voter confidence. Paul Daner Jr. couldn't even finish his question. He was going to give Zach two options like no holds barred for Eric all week one or we're going to ease him back in week one. Zach didn't let him get the option too. He's like the first one.

Starting point is 00:22:01 holds barred on Eric all he's going to be full go maniac mode week one unleash Eric all wanted to run through somebody's face as I know and we know that he's talked about is his preference and we also got a really fun endorsement for Zach injuries and that was something that I think stood out to both of us because it lined up with what we saw from him in the preseason it lined up with what we thought he would be as a prospect and I think the foundation is really there for entries is kind of what Zach's scouting report that he offered in the press conference suggested to me and talked up his contributions in the run game drill. Yeah, that's right. He said that Jack,

Starting point is 00:22:41 they drafted him because of his receiving abilities, right? His passing game experience, but he made the team because of his blocking this preseason. And we said the same, whether we're watching the film or doing the lockdown Bengals podcast here, that was our conclusion as well. Like the fact that that injuries showed this much blocking and this much versatility right away, you never know what these guys. And Zach alluded to this as well. When you get tight ends in the year, you don't, you're not sure because the passing game in college football is so spread out, so wide open. You're never sure if that guy can actually block. But we saw injuries do it in a big way. And that's how he made the team this summer. And that's great. That's great for his upside.

Starting point is 00:23:23 Zach also finished with that saying, we will see the downfield passing stuff. Like they're not worried. that we'll get to that from from jack entries we like we never really got it right we got a bunch of checkdown stuff uh leaks and boot action naked but we never got to see him run some routes and get open down the field xx there's one downfield target i think and it was like tight covered sideline ball got one hand on it right could have been it got picked off did it get picked didn't he get a hand on it was i think he did but i think he got picked off would have been a would have been a spectacular catch how do you been able to pull it in yeah but zack said not worried about it.

Starting point is 00:23:58 It's great that he can block now. We can use him and develop that and the rest of it will come. Because you think, I mean, look at what's happening in Philly with what's the guy's name, the tight end they drafted, who's having a tough time? Yeah, the straight up receiver. Yep. Sowers. Eli Sowers.

Starting point is 00:24:17 Usually it's the opposite where like they can't block so you can't put him on the field because they can't block. But if he can block and he showed quite well in both blocking context, more is a run blocker than a past blocker. they didn't ask him to do a ton of pass blocking, but all of his blocking. One nice one in the first quarter in the Eagles game on play action. Yeah, he did some, just not as much. Like the split was heavily skewed toward run blocking,

Starting point is 00:24:38 as it typically would be for a tight end, but not for Drew Sample is, I guess, what I'm drawing attention to here, like Drew Sample's pass walking, run blocking split is much more even, I think, than many tight ends around the league, like definitely out there to block. Endries, though, that he can do it. And that's what he showed, again,

Starting point is 00:24:55 I keep going back to that Ohio. state tape because there's so many future NFL players on it look good in that game against sunny styles against arvel reese who's getting ray lewis comparisons for the way he moves for the new york giants and he was able to block those guys pretty well in that game and blocked pretty well in the preseason as well and like zach i don't really have concerns about the past catching ability eventually coming along especially when he's playing with and gets more vests with joe burrow in the future still bullish on jack andrews for a future tight end two developmental piece there that can help you in the NFL and be kind of more versatile.

Starting point is 00:25:29 And that's the direction they're going with Eric and Jack Andrews. If those are your two tight ends next year at the top of that room, if they do move on from Drew Sample, if they do move on for Mike Keseki, those two guys leading your tight end room could be valuable and versatile pieces where maybe you're going to want to add some upside there because I think the upside is a little bit caps for both of them, but really solid players at the tight end position.

Starting point is 00:25:50 Those guys cost like $8, $9 million a year these days, $10 million a year these days for solid blocking tight ends. You can do a little bit for you as a pass catcher. Speaking of the Giants, by the way, and Arvel Reese, Charlie Jones did between the time I said, I didn't know where Charlie Jones landed until now. Charlie Jones reportedly lands on the Giants practice squad with his former offensive coordinator, Brian Callahan coaching the quarterback in New York. You know, until you said that with the Callahan connection, I was not even thinking.

Starting point is 00:26:20 I'm like, okay. Yeah. Harbaal also knows Charlie Jones. He's seen him. Pup return for a year against the Ravens. He scored a touchdown. So, yeah, they may be very familiar with that. And that's someone, again, you could bring up from the practice squad to elevate for

Starting point is 00:26:33 return job if that's what they need him for. But good for Charlie. I'm excited. I want to finish today then with rekindling the excitement for Eric All because when we saw in the spring that he was back, he looked explosive. It was such a boost. So if you miss the offseason discussion and, you're joining in now because you're ready for the season to start. We see the views going up

Starting point is 00:26:55 on the podcast. So we assume you guys are jumping back in, excited for the season. There was a lot of excitement, but nervousness about Eric Al being back, because if he's back and is what he looked like before and the way Zach has talked about him being a battering ram, right, to run through people's faces, that is huge. And that's a asset for this offense. And a lot of what they want to do in 12 personnel and getting under center and running play action, the explosiveness you get from him that you do not get from Drew Sample, you don't get it from Jack Entries right now, right, as a rookie. These are going to be traits.

Starting point is 00:27:31 These are going to be traits that help Eric all get on the field and help him be an asset and a big one for this Bengals offense. So I just wanted to rekindle that a little bit and say, you know, I'm really excited to see that in week one. It feels like one of the biggest wholesale changes we've seen in the Zach Taylor era in Cincinnati he was the way the offense wanted to feature Ericol as a blocker when they had him as a rookie. And now, not as a rookie, with some experience, right? He missed some time too.

Starting point is 00:27:59 He was around the team last year. And his second training camp under his belt. Now we're talking about a year two-ish leap, because it's not year two for him. But we're talking about a potential year-two leap of him taking a step and having a better handle on everything that the offense is trying to do in his role in it. I also hope that this paves away for some 13 personnel stuff, and I'm not talking early in the season, but put Jack Andrews on the field too.

Starting point is 00:28:24 If he develops the way we think he can develop this year by week 10, week 11 after the buy, well after the buy, I guess they have an early buy this year, but get Eric Hall and Jack Andrews out there on the field together with whatever other tight end you want. I guess probably Drew Sample and Jamar Chase out wide in that situation, probably not as much utility to put them out there with Mike Gaseki,

Starting point is 00:28:46 because of Mike Kaseki skill set. You'd rather have T or Jamar than Mike Keseki out there. But even the 12 personnel with injuries and all is something to think about in December that maybe they get to eventually if Andrews does develop the way we think he can here is a tantalizing future that puts more versatility. As we've discussed from the time they drafted Jack Endries to present, that could be the future for the Bengals of tight act. My last thought then, as you were saying that,

Starting point is 00:29:14 and you know, the praise from Zach today, the outlook for Zach really boosts the stock for for jack injuries right now i was thinking of brian parker injuries linden robinson those late day three picks that we all liked how would you rank them right now like where would you say for the for the season or for the long-term outlook we don't have to do this right now i just those are my thoughts that maybe each day is shuffling it a little bit parker going on i are andry's getting the vote of confidence from zach and i'm just like yeah we still feel pretty good about these uh three guys long-term outlook there's still potentially two future starters there that we feel good about in one rotational piece at the least

Starting point is 00:29:49 in a designated pass freshman landa robinson you said i didn't have to answer it but i did go answer in the comments about what you think about the long-term future for those three players of bengal six and seventh round picks in the twenty twenty six NFL draft but until next time that's going to do it for this episode of the locked on bengals podcast thanks for listening hooday and have a go

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - UPSIDE ADDITION: Blake Freeland JOINS Bengals Practice Squad; Josh Johnson, Tanner Hudson RETURN

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