Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - What it means that Ja'Marr Chase is "day-to-day", Brad Robbins has an injury, and the defense dominates Tuesday's Cincinnati Bengals training camp practice

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

Ja'Marr Chase was physically absent from training camp practice for the first time on Tuesday, and Zac Taylor described the situation as "day-to-day" instead of "part of the plan" he's often referred to throughout the preseason. The guys break down what it could mean, and provide updates on Brad Robbins' and Jake Browning's injuries that  could cause them to miss some time, how the defense dominated another practice on Tuesday, and whether they should make a move to bolster their interior defensive line rotation. For your next listen, check out the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. Get daily insight to the best Fantasy draft strategies so you can win your league this season. Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON and add a big win to your summer bucket list!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.

We've got a lot to catch up on today as Jamar Chase missed his first practice entirely on Tuesday. There's some injury notes and it was another good day for the defense at Cincinnati Bengals training camp. 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. I'm your host, Jake Liskow. he's your host, James Rapine. Thanks so much for making us your first listen here on the lockdown podcast.

We're covering your team every day. We're on YouTube, where you get your podcasts, everydayers know that already. But if you're new and you're looking to stay up to date, what's going on with the Bengals as the preseason is well underway at this point. You are in the right place and can hit that subscribe button to make sure you don't miss an episode. We're going to start with Jamar Chase today. We'll get to some other notes going on in Cincinnati Bengals News. including today's practice.

In today's episode brought to you by Fandul, who's hooking up all customers with a boost or bonus daily all summer. You can check it out today at Fandul.com to get started. And James, let's start with Jemar Chase. We have seen him not practice every day of Cincinnati Bengals Camp so far. Today, he was not out there. And you could almost dismiss it until Zach Taylor addressed it after practice, I thought and described it as a day-to-day situation and not as cut and dry as all we're traveling

tomorrow and, you know, he's just not out here today. It was more than that. Yeah, I think that's the weird thing, the unique thing. The reason why we're leading the show with this is because we don't know why he wasn't out there. And so him not being out there at all is unique to practice 15 days in, 16 days in, whatever it is now. And I have lost count. We've officially reached that point of training camp. But we've seen Jamar, and he has been engaged, and he has been working with the receivers during individual drills

and standing alongside Joe Burrow at times or the other receivers, T. Higgins. And so what is it? Is it contract? Is it not? Is there something else going on? But why would Jamar suddenly not be there? We can get into the penalties or what the strategy could be with that. But first, let's hear what Zach said, because you're right.

What Zach said is certainly a part of it. Tomorrow day to day. We'll take it one day at a time. I don't have any comment beyond that. BJ Hill had a baby. He'll be back tonight. And Jake Browning has a rib issue, and he'll miss some time with that. Troy Walter, Scott punts.

We don't have meetings tonight. So appreciate it. Troy Walters thing at the end was a way to lighten the mood, I think, at the end of practice there. And obviously, the no meetings was big, too, with the travel day tomorrow. Yeah, the players were pleased with that. They get a little bit of time back. So there's a few updates there. BJ Hill, everything fine.

He wasn't there today either. But the day-to-day description of what's going on with tomorrow, Chase, very different from Zach Taylor than what had previously been discussed as a plan. And everything's going according to plan. you know, we're talking consistently. We're on the same page. We have a plan. That was not what we heard from Zach Taylor today.

There's a change in verbiage there, something described as day-to-day, which you could take to mean any number of different things. And Zach did not elaborate, obviously. That was kind of it. You saw in the clip. He was ready to get out of there, get back to the locker room, just a very quick stop with you guys on the way off the practice field. And that leaves things open to speculation,

and that's pretty much all we can do at this point with the scant clues we have. And so the day-to-day thing, the fact that I haven't seen Jamar, I know there were some that, and people wrote it, I know it's public, so they didn't see his car in the lot. Like, you tie all those things together, and it's just weird. It's weird that it went from clear communication, feel great about the plan to we'll take it day to day with him. It's just, it's just weird. And it doesn't feel right. And usually when it doesn't feel right, something's off. I will say this because I think there will be some that say, oh, well, a deal could be getting done or it could be imminent.

It doesn't feel like anything is close. The vibe I'm getting. Like I don't think they're at the goal line first and goal at the one. Maybe I'm dead wrong. Maybe by the time this episode goes up, things change. But just vibes wise, I don't think that's the case. It could be any number of things though, right? it could be outside shot that they're working on a deal and it's close and so he wasn't out there today

but if his car wasn't there unusual right could be that something came up in his personal life and Zach didn't want to spill the tea as a kid's day and tell tell people what was going on with Jamar Chase away from the team away from football could be who knows but it's just weird and so we have to acknowledge that it was weird and we'll see what happens if he goes to Chicago with the team. That sort of question coming up in the next couple of days, and we'll find out pretty quick. Do you think he should? Like, I, that one is kind of unique to me, like the Chicago trip. Like, I hadn't really thought about it. Like, it wouldn't bother me if he's not there because I know he's not playing. I know he's not practicing. Like, what's

the point? Like, it would be, it would have to be an excuse thing. That's all. And that's what we don't know about. We don't know if this is an excuse, planned absence. It's just day to day. That's all we know. So like if he's missing in an unexcused fashion, then you're right. Then he's subject to certain fines that the team could reimburse and whatever, you know, after they get a potential extension done. That's something that exists in the world of holdouts in the current NFL CBA, but we don't really know. So if it's excused, sure, you know, no big deal. But he has been involved. It was nice to see, for example, the clip of him on the sideline was Zach Taylor after Jermaine Burton's touchdown where Taylor told Chase, oh, we've created a monster.

That was a nice moment. Shows those guys are still at least a couple days ago in a good place. And I don't think there's anything between Zach and Jamar. Like that would be surprising. But that would be the only thing. It's an excuse thing at this point. And if it's not excused, the team can find Jamar $40,000 per day missed. Just for those wondering, if it is excused, or even if,

it's not and they don't want to find them, they can go that route too. And so, who knows? And you're right. It could be something as simple as a personal thing. Hopefully it means they're on the one-yard line. I just think that that is highly, highly unlikely based on vibes. Come on. Can we get to the one-yard line at least? Like, let's just get through the red zone. Let's get between the 20, between the 20 stuff is out of the way. Let's just finish the thing off, you know? We have to get to some injuries and stuff, and there's practice takeaways and stuff. But you mentioned this yesterday when we weren't recording. Talk about it when we are recording because I think people feel your frustration right now.

Just get the deal done? Like, what are we doing? Why are we messing around? They didn't pay Jesse Bates so they could pay T. Higgins. They didn't pay T. Higgins. They're obviously going to pay Mark Chase. Just page Mark Chase. Get them back at practice.

Yeah, that's the frustration. What are we doing? No, I get it. I do. And I, four years, get it done. Everyone's happy. Highest paid receiver in league history.

At some point. At some point, you got to put the football ahead of whatever else is going on and get the key to your offense along with Joe Burrow locked up. You're right, we have some injury notes to get to before we get to the rest of what went on in practice. That starts potentially with Brad Robbins leaving the field before practice started and backup quarterback Jake Browning dealing with a rib issue that's going to cause

him to miss some time. We'll get to those notes and more coming up next. Today's show is brought to by Fandall. Fandall is where you need to go right now to get in on all of the action. I just came out of the Bengals locker room a little bit ago and I was like T. When I was in there, I was like, T you look great, man. He's like, I appreciate it. I'm like, man, T. Higgins, well, he's set for a huge, huge year. And you can get his receiving yards prop with Fandall right now. You think he's going to go for a thousand? Well, the receiving yards pop for T. Higgins is, I just looked at it. It was like 875. So yeah, I think I would go over with that. And that's just one of many, many odds there, Joe Burrow odds right now. As far as passing leaders go, he's plus 1,500, the lead, the NFL in

passing yards. Guys like, not just Patrick Mahones, by the way, C.J. Stroud, Jared Gough, back press got Tua ahead of Joe Burrow in this economy. All you have to do is get in on the action with Fandall. Fandall has bonuses all summer long for you as well. So head over to fandle.com and start making the most out of your summer with a daily boost or bonus. Again, that is fandle.com, official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball. Brad Robbins had to leave practice before it really began today. He described it in the locker room.

as a hit flexor issue, and that opens the door wide open for Ryan Rico, who may be uncontested this week and get plenty of opportunities to punt. Meanwhile, we also got an update on the absence from practice of Jake Browning, who was out on the field. He was spotted on the practice field, but Zach Taylor said he would miss some time with the rib issue, which pushes Logan Woodside's playing time up for potentially the rest of the preseason. We'll see how long that goes on, but some interesting notes there where we were expecting to see Browning get another. extended look, I think, a couple times this preseason. Now, that in Jeopardy and the punter battle kind of goes up into the air a little bit here with Brad Robbins' absence.

Yeah, that's huge. It's huge. As far as Jake Browning, I was going to say as far as Brad Robbins, but I want to talk more in depth about him. It was wild that he's going to miss some time. Like, that sucks. You don't want him to miss time. And that impacts the entire team and And quarterbacks wise and all of those things. So, you know, hopefully it doesn't take too long. He's not out too too long. Maybe it's just a week. Maybe he can be around for that Colts game or otherwise, Rocky.

You about to go out there and chase a preseason Lombardi against the Colts next week. And you're probably suiting up on Saturday against the Bears for a drive to maybe a quarter. That said, I mean, at least, right? Maybe it's three quarters of Woodside and a quarter of Rocky. Could be. Anyways, we have plenty of time to discuss that. the more important battle because it directly impacts a team. Brad Robbins, I thought, was the favorite coming into today's practice.

And so this injury, it hurts. And the severity is still unknown. It's a hip. So can he play through it? I think that'll be a question. Can he be effective through it? The bigger question. And in how long does it potentially sideline them?

I think those are all things that the Bengals still don't really know yet. What I do know is that Brad, and I actually wasn't in there for it, I was already out of the locker room, but Brad's attacking this the right way and seems to have, seems to have the right mindset, much like we talked about on yesterday's show with the Marius Mims. He's already past the what was me stage, and Mims had a couple days. Brad had like 90 minutes and then he was being asked about it. But I have communicated with him a little bit, and I do think he's going to be all right. So what does that mean? You're right. I think Ryan Rico has a shot here to switch gears a little bit,

to switch those fandal odds that I'm obviously making on my own when it comes to the Bengals punter battle. And we'll see. He held for Evan McPherson at the end of practice. And I think that's a huge part of this as well. When you watch Saturday, everyone's going to pay attention to the punts, right? but the holding is, it's 50-50. And so he's got to be elite at holding right now.

Evan McPherson, O for one. It's a 58-yarder, so I don't really want to hold it against Ryan. Really tough kick. But O for one on holds by Ryan Rico this preseason. Yeah, that's the thing with holding is unless we hear directly from the kicker or the holder or the special teams coordinator, it's really hard to know if the hold was the issue to the naked eye to even the educated eye watching on TV. You don't have a great view of it most of the time unless you're showing a replay on an. bad hold that you sometimes see. So the holding thing is very hard, I think, for outsiders to

evaluate, but it could be an issue. We don't know. He will have an ample opportunity to show that he can be consistent, though. And I think that is the big thing for him over the course of the rest of the preseason. I think those guys were relatively even, though I think I agree with you that I believe the Bengals would have Robbins with the edge. After the first preseason game, he had that really bad punt to open things up. He answered with a couple of nice puns, a couple bigger puns. his net yards per attempt were actually better than Rico's net yards per attempt, even though Rico did kick overall a higher average on his punts. There was a lower punt that led to an 11 or 10-yard return.

He had the touchback on a 59-yard punt, and obviously when you give it those 20 yards, your net's going to go down. So he'll have an opportunity to show that he can be more consistent over the course of an entire game, get into a bit of a rhythm, perhaps. And, you know, it gives him a chance. The other thing is, is if Robbins just isn't ready for the season,

then at least you have another guy who you can get a long look at here for the rest of the preseason. And he did say Brad Robbins did in the locker room that is too soon to know if it'll keep him out for a while or just a week or what the extent of the injury will be. But hip flexor is certainly important for people whose people whose job it is to kick footballs and a big part of the mechanism used to swing your legs. So hopefully not too severe. Hopefully gets healthy soon. But in the interim, big opportunity for Ryan Rico. Yep. And it is RICO, by the way, which is wild. Wild. Shout out to the BYU. PR guide and Ben Baby pulled it up and we listened to it about 12 times. Like, really? It's RICO. Yeah, it's Ryan Rico.

Which is way easier to say than Ray Cow or whatever the heck we were doing. I thought it was one of your long-lost relatives, Jake. But it's not the case. The Cal part. It's a bad dad joke. No, it's a great joke because the W is silent in my name as well. So we're a, we're a lot. like that way. There you go. See? Look at you saving me, even though it really was a bad joke. I will say this because I do think that a lot, probably a lot of our listeners, certainly a lot of the fan base is like, and I've seen comments, but it's like, well, anyone but Brad Robbins, and I, from the jump, haven't viewed it that way. I thought, if anything, he knows exactly what's expected of him. He's had a whole offseason to work on it. And it was just one game, but it looked pretty good.

Now that first punt didn't, but after that, what happened? Huge punt, had the longest punt of the day, had one inside the 20. And so I think the Bengals got worse today, and that's what you don't want. Of course, Ryan Rico may be able to take advantage of it. Great.

But I think competition is the thing. Like, Dax Hill's getting better because he knows D.J. Turner is pushing for that starting job. DJ Turner is getting better because Dax Hill came out and did what, played really well. So I wish that they'd be able to, able to compete and it sucks that Brad's going to miss some time. And I would say it if it was the other way too. If Ryan Rico missed time, I would want him to be in and push Brad. Yeah, because they've got to

find the best player there, obviously. More important is finding the best player to play opposite Cam Taylor Britt in the good transition there. You're talking about Dax Hill battling with DJ Turner. Sounds like it was Dax Hill today once again with the number one defense on a day that in Cam Taylor Brits' words, the defense whooped their ass. And he had to ask the cameras if he was allowed to that word. Hopefully I'm allowed to say that word, but a big word, a big, a big day for the defense. A big word. Yeah, big word and a big day for the defense out there. And that's two in a row where the defenses come out on top. Joe Burrow appeared to be frustrated today. What were your takeaways? Yeah, very frustrated. Very frustrated. Outside of the big play on offense today was a Zach

Moss Ron, I tweeted it out. And it's probably a touchdown. I think he gets by Gino. Maybe he doesn't. I think he in a one-on-one situation like that you probably take Zach Gino probably doesn't like me saying that and will probably tackle me next time he sees me but other than that it was all defense I mean we're talking uh Joe Burrow throwing late to Andre Yosevash allowing Josh Newton to get back in it on a slant to Andre Yosevash I already said that and and Newton hit the ball up and Joe Bachi intercepted it to A throw into double coverage where DJ Turner suffered a busted lip. That's all it was.

I thought he was dealing with some kind of ankle issue, but I talked to him after he's fine. But a double coverage where he's targeting Kendrick Prior, but DJ Turner's all over him and Gino's over the top. And so Prior tried and made a heck of an attempt, but there was really no chance. I think the mixture of not having tea out there today and obviously the Jamar thing, I think it's starting to take its toll a little bit. because I really didn't see many open receivers, and that's part of it. And I'll say this, Joe Bro getting his ass kicked in practice is not a Joe Bro you want to be around. He was very frustrated. And there was an individual period in between team periods where, and for those that haven't been to camp, the special teams takes off and a bunch of guys are on special teams.

And then the quarterbacks go to a separate field and they're going through their throws and in different throws. Joe Brod didn't participate in that. And I think that was because of frustration, not because of load management, to be very clear. He was on one knee for part of it, clearly just frustrated. And I get it because the offense, like I said, the big play today was a run.

And I'm not sure there were any passes. There were success yesterday, even though the defense won. Today, I don't think there were any passes of 15 plus yards completed, period. It felt like the Browns game from last year in the opener. It's out felt for most of the day.

Yeah. Some of that pass rush, some of that corners, some of that receivers, like it's all sorts of things that seem to be going a bit awry for the offense today. It's good. It's good. The defense.

It's great. It is nice to see the defense having some wins, and it's been a back and forth camp, and they'll obviously have their opportunity to go up against a fun, exciting, young offense in the Chicago Bears on Thursday and Caleb Williams up there. But shout out Josh Newton.

Two more pass breakups today, including the one you just described that led to an interception on Andre Yosevash there. And Josh Newton continues to impress these coaches, continues to get time rotating in with the ones in different alignments, both outside and in the slot. It's going to be interesting to see how they use him this year. It seems like they're trying to find a role for him.

And I wonder how he will play into the, rest of what's going on with these dbs. We'll wrap up the show with a couple of other thoughts on defensive line interior depth and another jersey leak. The Bengals just can't seem to stay ahead when they have jersey surprises. And there was another one of those instances on Monday. We'll discuss those topics coming up next. Today's show is brought to by BetterHelp. When your schedule is packed with kids' activities, big work projects, and more, it's easy. to let your priority slip. Even when we know what makes us happy,

it's hard to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. It is officially busy season. Football season is busy season. And while that is a blessing, that also means that you're juggling about 50,000 things

if you work in this building, say, as I record from Paycor Stadium, whether you're Zach Taylor all the way down to the equipment guys, Better help can help you make time for what's important. And if you've ever started or thought about starting therapy, you can give better help a try. And the thing I love about better help is how flexible it is. It's entirely online.

It's convenient and it's really easy to get started. All you do is fill out a brief questionnaire and you could get matched with a licensed therapist. And you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash locked on today to get 10% off your first month. that's BetterHelpHelp.com slash locked on. James, before we get to the discussion about interior defensive line depth that we're going to talk about in relation to Tierra Tart's released by the Miami Dolphins, and the Madden Orange Pants League, was there anything else you wanted to make sure we hit in terms of practice takeaways today as far as maybe number two rotations on the offensive line, Deontes Smith back at practice was one note.

Yeah, look at you. Remembering my DMs to you. Deonti Smith had left tackle today. I saw a little Jackson Kirkland at left guard. And I'm going to say it again because I've tried to hit it home and hammered home. You want to feel like you have an edge at the water cooler. Talk up Jackson Kirkland because I think the Bengals really high on him. They like that he was able to come in and play tackle in yesterday's practice.

We'll see. I'm not saying he's secured a roster spot or anything like that, but I do think that he's on his way to doing so. Matt Lee again. playing with the second team. I introduced myself. Hadn't talked to Matt Lee, but introduced myself today.

And yeah, I'm excited to get to know him over the course. Lockroom of 90 guys. You don't get to say hi to all of them all the time. Just throw that out there for those that are like, are you serious? You've talked about Matt Lee multiple times on the pie. You haven't talked to them.

Sometimes you don't get to. But yeah, I think we're going to be seeing plenty of him throughout this preseason as they continue to navigate that. And then Cody Ford, who I think is, is going to start at right tackle on Saturday, if I had to guess right now and start at right tackle

on Thursday in the joint practice, was at RT again today. He's going to start at right tackle in the joint practice, Cody Ford, instead of... Oh, no, no, it would be Trent. Sorry, I forgot that Trent would be in the joint practice. Yeah, so he'll be with the second team again. Yeah, I forgot.

By the way, I think Trent looks pretty good. He hasn't been perfect. He's gotten beat some, but I think he looks pretty darn good for not doing anything and by not doing anything, not participating in practice for the first couple of weeks. Frank Pollock agreed with that when he was talking about his first practice back,

sounded like he was pretty pleased with Trent's first practice out there. I will say that today there was one clip I saw where it looked like he was working on communication with Alex Kappa after the play. The end over him dropped out and Kappa tried to pass off the interior rusher, it looked like to Trent Brown. Trent Brown did not pick it up. was a sack, I believe, that you posted? Did you post that play?

I think you did. Zach Carter was involved as well on that particular play. So some communication things that when you haven't had that time working side by side with Kappa for the entire duration of camp so far, they'll have to work that out. And good to get those things done in practice, obviously. That's why they practice. But that is something that he will have to catch up on. And why practice reps are important, even for veterans like Trent Brown.

All right. Next up, let's talk orange pants. The Stripe, the Jungle, release by the Cincinnati Bengals announced. And in response to someone finding the orange pants as an alternate jersey in Madden, the Cincinnati Bengals posted in a well-done acknowledgment of things, the orange pants on a hanger. And I thought that was a good way to reveal things. Scramble drill.

That's what it felt like. I don't know if it's true. It's all hilarious to do it. that way. You're right. Why does everything have to leak? Not everything, like the white helmets that kept in, but we kind of like knew it was coming, but we knew, but it wasn't like leaked badly the way that the jerseys were leaked on the hanger and then the pants and Madden. Yeah, the Madden thing is like, how do you handle that? Like if you handle that, it's got to be one of two ways. Either EA needs to let the NFL know that the Bengals

need to announce it by this date or the NFL doesn't tell EA about the uniform change or addition until it's announced and then they do and then they can add it as a patch which is really easy in this day and age it's not like mad no three where like you have to put it in months ahead of time for it to work mad no three was a great game by the way half of our listeners probably don't even remember that game i wonder if i wonder what percentage for our listeners were born in 2003 probably most, but not all. Most. Still most. Yeah, not all. If you weren't

to live for Maddeno3, let us know in the comments. Anything else on the orange pants? Stripe the jungle against the browns. I think they look good. I think it's so funny that they wear them against the Browns because the Browns threw shade on social media. Oh, did they? I didn't see that.

They did, yeah. They said something about we're just checking out our orange pants, and it was Miles Garrett-Sackingboro from week one last year. but I think the orange pants, I don't know, I like the Bengals uniforms. I think they're going to look really good with the black jerseys and orange helmets. Yep. I'm pleased that they've added orange pants to the repertoire. I think there's some cool combinations they can do with it, and we've been waiting for that addition for quite some time.

So kudos to the Bengals. Well, you wear orange pants the day they wear orange pants. I don't own orange pants. So probably not. It seems expensive. What are you more likely to wear? Orange pants or a backless suit? Orange pants.

Yeah, backless suit for me. Last note for today, Tio Tart released by the Miami Dolphins. The Bengals have an apparent need for interior defensive line depth. It looks like J.T.Fellé was back at practice on Monday. James, can you comment on the availability of J.T.Fellé as he was working back from what appeared to be an ankle injury?

Yeah, I believe he's back in the mix a bit. I've got to be honest with you. I haven't paid too much attention to 97, but I do believe he's back in the mix. Just getting some of that interior defensive line depth for practice and getting through the preseason will be important, but it was noted by the athletic football show and in pretty stark fashion that the Bengals,

according to at least Derek Classen, the new co-host of the athletic football show with Robert May, is Bengals have a chance to have the worst run defense in the NFL. And I don't know how much I fully buy into that. I think Sam Hubbard should help with things here, but losing Camp Sample doesn't help there. Losing DJ Reader obviously doesn't. help there. The performance of these defensive interior guys in preseason game one doesn't

really give you the confidence you're looking for there against a Buccaneers interior offensive line that is battling for starting jobs. And then beyond that, McKinley Jackson is now hurt and is going to miss some time. They have, of course, added Carlos Davis. They've got Travis Bell working and showing some flashes. But Territinow, a free agent. We talked about this a little bit in DMs again today, James. I personally would like them to aim a little bit higher and try to find a trade that makes sense. I know that's really hard to do.

If you have a chart of free agent, much cheaper, most likely than the alternatives, but it didn't work out last time. So honestly, I would be a little bit surprised if it worked out this time around. Sure. And that's smart money, right? Anytime a free agent comes up, if you say, ah, they're not going to sign them. You're going to be right most of the time. But, and I put it this way to our lockdown.

Bengals Insiders, which, uh, Jake, go ahead and hit the plug. Join subtext.com slash locked on Bengals to get some text updates from us straight to your phone. You can obviously text back with us as well. Many fun perks. Are you getting daily training camp updates right now? You're going to get observations in games and other stuff like that and the opportunity for some Q&As from time to time. And something as simple as me saying, yeah, I think they're talking about Sierra Tart.

Now, the conversation might have only. lasted 30 seconds because the dinner probably didn't go as well as they had hoped when they brought them in for a free agent visit in March. At the same time, would it be nice to have a guy that you think can be a dude and not have to, I mean, what is it right now? It's Travis Bell. Like, that's their nose tackle. And so that's a tough spot to be in. So we'll see. They may wait. They could also wait, see if they could do it. trade figured out that way, see how McKinley Jackson progresses, and then go after him. I don't think there's going to be guys, your team's beaten down his door right now.

He's been on three teams in eight months. So it would not completely floor me, though, if they did, knowing the state of that nose tackle room. And just knowing it'd be nice to have a big body in there that's proven and run defense to help take some pressure off of these young guys. Yeah, that's the thing is they're so behind the eight ball there that that's why it wouldn't necessarily be. be a huge shock, but I'm not convinced that it moves a needle enough either to make that move. It would be cheap, so like the risk is low. They need the body. It could just be for the preseason.

But personally, I would like to see them address that depth on the defensive interior a little bit more aggressively. I know they drafted to you guys there. This also makes it unlikely that they would take a big swing there. But I mean, we've talked about this. I think every year since they've done it, if they can find the BJ Hill style trade, Do the BJ Hill style trade, right? Like, it's not easy. I get that, but Jackson and Carmen ruined it.

He ruined it. He ruined it. Yeah, he didn't help things. I mean, he's not even getting it with the twos now. That's the point of bringing up the offensive line earlier is that Deontes Smith just got back from injury. He's working a left tackle with the twos today. Cody Ford's working a right tackle with the twos today.

Like he is in the doghouse, Jackson Carp. Did you hear that? Holding, 79 offense. Again? Again. Again. Jake, again. We will see if the Bengals make any moves to bolster their defensive interior.

We'll get another look at them, of course, this week. And if things go poorly again, maybe that pushes them to action. Maybe they get a bounce back from some of those guys on the interior. Maybe they're not as worried about it as we are. 79 offense started driving to Chicago a day early. That's a five-yard penalty. At least he's showing some initiative. Thanks for making Locked-on Bengals your first listen today.

for your second list, you can check out the Lockdown Fantasy Football Podcast, where there will be fewer jokes about Jackson Carmen. Until next time, that's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Hoodey and have a good one.