Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - What's next for Ja'Marr Chase hold-in? Is there an end in sight?

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Ja'Marr Chase isn't expected to practice for the Cincinnati Bengals when the pads come on, so the guys revisit expectations for when the hold-in may come to an end. Plus, Zac Taylor provided a plethora of injury updates before the pads come on for Tuesday's practice, including the return to practice - in a limited capacity - for rookie tight end Erick All. We catch you up on that and more!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.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.

Pads are about to come on for the Cincinnati Bengals at training camp, and we still haven't seen Jamar Chase. What's going on? Let's talk about it. 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. Today we dive into the continued absence from practice for Jamar Chase, who has been physically present, but a non-participant in Cincinnati Bengals practices so far. They're five practices in. Pads are coming on in their next practice on Tuesday, and we're not expecting to see Jamar Chase then either. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network here on Lockdown Bengals, covering your team every day on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast.

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You can find it all summer long at Fandul.com. And James Zach Taylor addressed the media before practice when we still didn't see Jemar Chase and kind of put his foot in his own mouth a little bit when he said all the healthy players were expected to play in practice with pads. and then later had to clarify that that probably wouldn't include Jamar Chase, but at this point you're getting chance at practice.

What's your take on what's going on with Jamar Chase? Well, he's clearly healthy. He's catching balls after practice, getting a little extra work in there, or getting some work in there, I should say. It's not extra if you're not practicing. But this is a hold it. And what is a hold in? Jamar Chase is saying, I want a new contract before I practice.

before I practice. He hasn't physically said that to us, but that's what his actions are saying. And that's it. It is that cut and dry. It's that simple. We haven't heard his agent spout off, by the way, to anyone. And it's been pretty much radio silence from Jamar's camp.

And we heard what the Bengals had to say during their media day, whether it was Mike Brown or Duke Tobin, etc. But it's going to be hard that they want to get something done. Mike Brown's saying they'd bend over backwards, all of those things. And I think tomorrow's like, okay, well, let's work on something. Let's get something done. The market's set. Why wait?

And so where I'm at, Jake, is the how long. Because clearly it's not just a week. I don't think it ends this week. Doesn't feel like it's going to end next week. Now we're starting to flirt the end of next week. Preseason game number one. Like it's going to happen quick. things are going to pick up quick.

And not that I expected Jamar to play in that game, but it doesn't feel like he's going to play in any of the preseason games. It doesn't feel like, and I don't know about you, but to me, I don't know when the end is if things continue to stay the way they are now. Do you agree or disagree with that? Are you that concerned? Because I could totally see this going into where at the end of July, it feels like it's going to go into mid to late August unless something changes.

Yeah, you could definitely see that happening. And the if something changes is likely a contract extension, which the Bengals have told us they don't feel is likely to occur before this season starts. But Jamar Chase's actions certainly tell you that he is open to that happening. And if that is the case, as we've discussed in the past, that answers a question of, well, maybe Jamar isn't ready to do the deal. And that's why the Bengals haven't gotten it done yet. Well, now it's pretty clear that or easy to infer, let's say, that Jamar Chase is ready to do the deal. And that puts the ball probably back in the Cincinnati Bengals court, I would imagine. Even if they're having conversations and they said they're having conversations or they've had a conversation with Jamar Chase's agent, clearly it's not done.

And maybe it's close. I think that the initial optimistic read on it that, you know, maybe it's close. and that's why Jamar's just waiting to sign on the dotted line before he participates in practice, that becomes less likely every day he doesn't practice. And every day we get the same kind of vague story about a plan from Zach Taylor. And there were some people initially that when we first question, is this a hold-in? And the answer at that point was yes. And it's still yes.

We're like, well, what about what Zach said when he said he's just trying to get some extra time for the new guys with Joe Burrow? Well, it's five days enough. is a few pad of practices enough. I think that any credibility that you might have initially given those comments from Zach Taylor's probably gone at this point. And we don't know exactly what's going on. We don't know what's happening behind closed doors, what Jamar's level of participation is in non-practice preparation work that the

Cincinnati Bengals are doing for the season. But it is hard to imagine anything changing dramatically unless a contract extension is done before it's signed. prepare for the regular season. And that's unfortunate. And fans are starting to feel that, I think, judging from the reaction at practice on Monday. Yes.

And so what's next? How does this play out? Well, it's pretty simple. They're playing a who blinks first game. And we know the Bengals history. Very rarely, if ever, do they blink in these situations? And so my question for Jamar would be the only question. And by the way, Jamar call me would be happy to talk to you.

I've told him 15 times since camp open that I would love to talk to him. And he just gives you the same little smirk and lapse. And we'll talk about stuff that certainly isn't contract related. If you're not willing to take this into the regular season, then it really doesn't matter. It doesn't impact the Bengals really at all. And that's where it gets interesting to me. And people are going to hear that and be like, oh, my God, James, you're crazy. Well, who's Jamar hurting right now?

You think Mike Brown is shaking because Jamar isn't practicing a ton? And they're going to just do whatever Jamar wants, which what I would guess, what I would assume, is a three-year deal that has the same percentage of guarantees that Justin Jefferson had, the same AAV that Justin Jefferson had, the $35 million, over three. And if I'm the Bengals, I get why they wouldn't do that, and they would want to do it over four and spread it out and all of those things. And so I think that's, again, that's pure speculation. I have no idea how negotiations have gone.

But if you're Jamar, what's the benefit of this? Or how can you actually make it feel like you're not there and make that, make an impact with that and hurt the team? And I don't mean hurt the guys in the locker room. I mean, hurt the organization. The only way to do that and to like have some kind of leverage is to be willing to go into week one like that. Is to be willing to go into week two like that. And that's where it gets interesting because I do wonder if Jamar would be willing to do that. But if he's not, well, then this is something that's going to be a non-story in a month or whenever he does come back.

And it would probably be around a month from now. But that's got to be the question. That's got to be, sorry, that's got to be the question his camp had to have answered before he started this. I think the issue is that he's in the fourth year of his rookie deal. It's not like a Chris Jones holdout where he's been paid a bunch of money. He's on a veteran contract. There are serious repercussions if you miss time in the rookie deal as far as getting those, you know,

depending on how much time it's missed. I don't think this could possibly go into the regular season for a player in Jamar Chase's situation. be wrong about that, but the quote-unquote leverage you're talking about, it's hard for me to imagine that existing for a player going into the fourth year of their rookie deal. It's just in the current CBA environment, that leverage doesn't really exist. You have to be really willing to go really hardline about it. And I think showing up for camp in the first place tells you that that is unlikely to be

the plan for Jamar. Well, he had to show up for camp, to your point, because he had to accrue that year. that year had to toll. And so if he didn't show up for camp and it was like a holdout, then it doesn't. And then that rookie deal doesn't continue and get that year of a crew that year. But he could show up in like week eight or week seven. It's one of those weeks.

I haven't gone that far down it. But like if the point is if he's not willing to do that, then what are we really doing here? Because it's just going to be making a lot about nothing and it might not get anything done anyways. Hopefully it is getting. stuff done behind the scenes. And they are pushing on both sides to get something done. That would be, again, the optimistic hope, I think, for our listeners. We have a lot of injury notes to get to as well, while we wait for a resolution on what's going on with Jamar Chase. There are no real answers there

outside of its contract related by all appearances. He continues to do a little bit of work after practice. He continues to interact with his teammates during practice. And Zach Taylor continues to say that he's on the same page with Jamar Chase. So you take that all for you. for whatever it's worth. And we'll get back to the rest of the team, including a lot of veterans that had an off day on Monday in preparation for pads coming on. And some of the bumps and bruises

that are accumulating for the Bengals coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandle. I love sports. I love them so much. I never want them to stop. And right now, there isn't much going on. Outside of, wait, the Olympics, outside of Major League Baseball,

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C.D. Lamb and Dallas have been talking Jerry Jones had, or someone in the Jones family, I thought it was Jerry. There was a long quote coming out of Dallas from ownership about their continued contract negotiations with some of their stars on Monday. And if that gets done as well, pressure continues to pile up for the Cincinnati Bengals and getting something done with Jemar Chase. Yeah, yeah, that's, man, could you imagine if a CD-LAM deal got done and it was just entrenching the Justin Jefferson money or a little more than Justin

Jefferson or Tyreek Hill gets added money to his deal? Who knows? But that is the other element here. And if they can do, and let's just say they could do the Justin Jefferson deal, four years. And if you're Jamar, would you really turn that down? Because there's a fourth year there. I think if on the Bengals, I would make Jamar do that and turn it down, even if he's saying three years. So he's not under contract for six. I would say four year extension on top of the two, we have you for the next six and basically give you the Jefferson deal and make him turn that down. And maybe that's what they're doing. Maybe they're making him ride it out right now. He wants three. They want four. Who knows? But if you can get a him for the Jefferson deal, given the receivers that are going to come up, it's going to feel fine in a few years. It just is.

I promise the wide receiver market isn't going to just stop. And this will be proof if a CD-LAM deal gets done or any of these other receivers get done. So we'll see. But there's a lot of reasons why it would be nice if the Bengals could lock up Jamar. And I get one of him for four years. And maybe that's the snag. I think that's an optimistic take, by the way.

I'm not sure that's the snag, three versus four. That would be the snag if James the GM will run in the show, but James the GM is not running the show. Yeah, I was going to comment that wouldn't it be nice if it were so simple as one year? Like if that's the case, wouldn't that be nice? That seems like a, I mean, a significant hurdle to clear, but nonetheless, something simple and easy to understand than perhaps what is going on. And we don't know the complexity of it, like you said, we're speculating a little bit there,

but there can only be increased pressure to get it done as time goes on one way or another. You're starting to hear it from fans, certainly, as well, a little bit with what's going on at camp practices where they want to see Jamar Chase practicing as well. So along with Jamar Chase, many veterans did not practice on Monday. And this was planned. Essentially the entire starting offensive line, all the veterans on that offensive line did not practice on Monday. Sam Hubbard, after walking to the cart, getting an MRI on his knee after Sunday's practice, came back okay. Sounds like they avoided anything serious with Sam Hubbard. Got lucky there and we'll take luck when it comes to early training camp injuries.

Sounds like Trey Hendrickson has been dealing with something. Again, Zach called it minor, but did not want to disclose. He said he wasn't required to disclose. So did not want to disclose any details there. But some bumps and bruises piling up a little bit for some of the vet. veterans on this team and a planned off day as Zach emphasized on Monday that the plan was to get to Tuesday with pads coming on and all healthy players expected to participate with the asterisk besides Jamar Chase's name when the pads are on on Tuesday. Yeah and that includes Joe Burrow and

the plan tentatively was two on one off two on one off and I think they realized all right first padded practice you have an off day let's give you a little time on Monday and he also sat out of the final team period was still involved but there was a lot of handoffs today a lot of run game not as much downfield from the offense at all and still was able to get some nice reps in there but this was clearly a light day for joe burrow and a light day for really the passing offense in general and i think that's why he is going to practice tomorrow they're clearly going to give him some periods off i also think joe last week was like all right i don't need a day off probably.

Like let's still get some reps in daily and be consistent with it. And it also coincides with the pads coming on. So Joe Burrow in pads on Tuesday. Let's go. And adding pads for Joe Burrow, probably much less interesting than adding pads for everyone else. But definitely interesting that he will be practicing. But for guys like the running backs, for the trench players,

adding the pads and adding some thumping, goes a long way in, in Zach Taylor's words, telling you whether the guys appear to be meeting expectations before pads come on or actually where you think they are. And that was a big point of emphasis. You'll hear that from coaches at this time of year, from analysts at this time of year across the NFL. When pads come on, things get a little bit more real and you can figure out a little bit more clearly where you're at in a lot of ways.

You know, Zach's saying that he's pleased with where the running backs are, but when the pads come on, the past protection element becomes a little bit more real. and a little bit more of an emphasis for the running backs, getting out into from the past protection responsibilities, into your checkdown responsibilities, timing things up with your offensive line in the running game, all of these things in that whole aspect of the game, i.e. everything except Joe Burrow throwing to receivers,

which is very interesting to Cincinnati Bengals fans, but only part, you know, 40% or so 30% of the Cincinnati Bengals football team when you think about defense and the other bits of the offense and special teams and all these things, all that stuff ramps up a lot more too. And so the management approach from the Cincinnati Bengals through the five unpadded practices to start training camp has seemed to be filled with rest for veterans,

rotating rest on different days for different guys and getting them ready to go when the pads are on. And hopefully that pays dividends. And hopefully, you know, no major injuries to this point, you know, knock on wood and that continues. Oh, my God. Only minor bumps and bruises so far as they are preparing to, stuff it up when the intensity ratches up with pads on.

You're just given everyone a reason to blame you if something does happen. And like you said, knock on wood, my God. Bring it on every year. I mean, I just don't believe in jinxes. Oh, yeah, here we go. Yeah, here we go. You know, it's unbelievable at this point. I just want a quiet camp and it's still not going to be a quiet camp.

It's been pretty quiet for those practicing. but those not practicing, it's certainly been pretty loud, right? Whether it's even if they're not the ones talking. So yeah, I think we're going to see, who I'm excited to see honestly, I want to see Amaris Mims. We're not going to see Trent Brown yet, but we will, we'll see him in the near future. I think next week, I'll just give a timeline on it. I think we'll see him next week.

He's fine. I said it on the last show. He's fine. He's getting there. And I think we'll see Trent Brown in pads as soon as next week. are out there on the practice field some. But, yeah, I think Amarius Mims in pads could be even more destructive than Amarius Mims without pads.

I'm excited to see him for sure. Obviously, you focusing on the trenches, the young guys as well in that defensive line are going to be a few guys. By the way, real quick, practice note that we're going to get into just because I mentioned young guys and I thought of your guy Matt Lee, Trey Hill. Took a few snaps at center today and a really high snap to Joe Burrow and shotgun. Just I would forget about it later, so I'm mentioning it now. That's a good shout.

And as far as I know, Trey Hill has been the second team center. So we'll see if Matt Lee can work up that depth chart. But today with a lot of the veterans out, it looked like Deontay Smith at left tackle. It looks like us Trey Hill at center. Cody Ford. Jackson, Carmen, at left tackle too. Okay. So rotation at left tackle.

As they try to figure out the backups in that offensive line room, something will continue to monitor as well, of course, with pads coming on. The other big one, since we recorded last James, was Eric All, his clearance to return to practice. Zach Taylor kind of tamped down the expectations for Eric All, so we will discuss coming up next what is expected for Eric All and some other practice observations from the last couple of days to finish up today's show. Today's show is brought to you by Game Time. Game Time is an authorized ticket marketplace for Major League Baseball. which means if you're hanging out at the banks, oh,

and the Reds are in town this week, by the way. Let's go to the Reds game. Well, if you had the GameTime app downloaded, you can take advantage of their zone deals, of their last minute deals, of all of the awesome things that come with having the GameTime app. You get views from your seat, and it makes buying Major League Baseball tickets that easy,

and it's not just MLB tickets. No, no, no. Maybe you're thinking going on the road to watch the Bengals this year, coming to Cincinnati to watch the Bengals Game Time is going to have the tickets for you. You have panoramic views from your seat, you know, exactly what you're getting, all in pricing. And every event that you're thinking about going to, any event that you're thinking about going to, whether it's a concert this summer, whether it's Major League Baseball, whether it is the big three, which is coming here, by the way, Ice Cube's Basketball League, Game Time is going to have it for you.

So download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-N-FL-L-N-FL-L-N-FL-L-N-FL F-E-L-L-L-N-FLINFLINT-LINCE. James, we've got two practices to catch up on, and Eric All participated in those practices, as he was cleared from the non-football injury list because his injury occurred in college wasn't eligible for the NFL-based PUP list, physically unable to perform list. And Zach Taylor said on Monday that it would be very much an easing back in for Eric all. But he will get to be involved with walkthroughs. He will get to be involved with individual work.

He will get to start catching up a little bit on the field. They will keep him away from contact, at least for a little bit of time, as they'll ease him into the more intense parts of practice. But that really highlights the glut of tight ends on this roster. Five guys that they know and like, and Zach Taylor made sure to call out Cam Grandi as an undrafted free agent tight end that he really likes as well. And, man, that gets complicated from a roster construction perspective.

These tight ends where Eric Al fourth round pick probably can write him in on Penn on the roster. They obviously have Mike Keseki and Drew Sample as the veterans on this team. Those guys are going to make the team. And then Tanemaglan, And Tanner Hudson gets very interesting where you try to make those decisions and figure out where those guys fall. But any early observations on Eric Hall while we talk about all these tight ends? Yeah.

He, one, he's not doing contact stuff. I didn't see him in any team stuff. So he's just doing individual right now. But I think you can know, like note right away, like, oh, he moves pretty well. And you just watch him and how he moves. and he's just smooth in and out of his routes. Now I haven't watched him a ton. Again, it's just individuals.

You've got to see him get out there against competition for it to stand out and how that works or how he fares in those situations we'll see. But yeah, I think you can kind of notice that he moves a little differently than some of the other tight ends in that room, even though most of those guys are good pass catchers and talented guys and talented route runners. So honestly, I think Eric All, his path is can he be the second best blocker in that room, which I think is pretty realistic when you think about Mike Gassicki, Tanner McLaughlin, and Tanner Hudson,

at least what we know them to be, that obviously Drew Sample is going to lead that blocking tight end element, and he's going to get a ton of snaps because of it. But if I'm Eric All, show you can block. Because if you show you can block, you're the second guy in that room that can do it. You're going to be active probably on game day if you show you're physically able to hold up not only as a blocker, but also do what you did in college through the air and in the passing game. So he's the one guy that has a chance to be kind of the complete tight end.

And it's really about his health more than anything. Take your time with him, Bengals. And that's the good news is they have the luxury of all these other guys ahead of it right now. I think that is what makes it kind of challenging from a do they keep five tight ends? can they somehow keep five tight ends? Can they convince themselves to keep five tight ends conversation? Because you've got this acclamation period for rookie tight ends in general. You've got a couple of day three tight ends.

Eric Hall could have been picked earlier had he not dealt with injuries and had he played a full year in his last year in college. And we didn't get to see that, unfortunately. And then Tanner McLaughlin, a sixth round pick, generally tight ends aren't ready to be major contributors in year one in the NFL. Some are. There are exceptions to that rule. But we don't really know yet what these guys are.

And the Cincinnati Bengals coaching staff doesn't really know yet either. They've seen Tanner McLaughlin now for five practices after he didn't participate in the offseason program as he was recovering from a core muscle injury himself. And they've seen Eric Hall now for two very limited practices as they ease him back in. So you have these two very unknown quantities in these rookies and three guys who have had varying degrees of success in the NFL. Tanner Hudson, the biggest question there, right? You can easily put him behind Drew Sample and Mike Kisicki on the depth chart, but a guy that last year in training camp stood out as the best receiving tight end on the roster. During the year last year was the best receiving tight end on the roster,

continues to make plays in training camp this year. And as Dan Horde and others, including us, have pointed out in the past, has a trust of the quarterbacks on this team, has been a very productive player. And so figuring out that room, figuring out what they have in the rookies over the course of this training camp will be very important as they make those roster decisions. And that's a tough call because you've got a lot of receiving tight ends on this team now that are kind of one-dimensional. And so to your point, talking about Eric, all, if he can be that all-round guy and he can

show that and he's healthy enough to show that before the season, that decision gets much easier. But until then, I do think it's very challenging and there are major questions to answer as they make those decisions. Yeah, I think in a perfect world, he vaults to the first tight end off the best. bench, essentially, whether it's Gisicki or sample, if either of those guys gets nicked up, and allows your offense to operate the way you're hoping the offense operates with whoever it is. Now, maybe that's McLaughlin a little bit, or maybe it's Tanner Hudson.

Heck, Hudson had, talk about practice observations, had a heck of a catch that I tweeted out on Sunday night, and he was able to make a nice catch on the sideline, falling, gets both feet down, might have gotten a third toe down. There's a really, really nice catch on the sideline. had a few nice catches on the sideline. He just kind of reminds everyone, hey, I know there's these other flashier tight ends or draft picks, but I'm a pretty solid pass catcher, and we've seen that so far throughout camp. Yeah, reliable target who isn't necessarily the flashiest or most athletic tight end in the world, but as a veteran at this point, he's got that experience in the

NFL. He's that savvy zone beating tight end receiving reliability threat, where that's an important thing to have somebody that you can trust in that role. And we'll see if one of those rookies can do enough for them to feel good about one of them being that guy off the bench. And perhaps they're just more tight ends playing this year for the Bengals. There's a clip of 13 personnel, meaning one running back, three tight ends, one three 13 personnel from the Bengals on Monday. We're seeing a lot more under center work continue throughout this training camp. We're seeing even a little bit of pistol, which you can. observe in the clip on Twitter.

It's actually the play where Sam Hubbard ends up leaving practice on Sunday night, Mike Keseki pulling across the formation on a play action play out of pistol to try to block Sam Hubbard. He bounces off of Sam and glad Sam's okay in that collision. Don't necessarily love the idea of Mike Keseki being the guy you're pulling across the formation in a past protected situation in play action for the reason that you see in the clip. But the point is you're seeing a lot of an interesting involvement from the tight end.

as they explore their personnel versatility there with a deeper, hopefully, tight-end room. And you're seeing more positional or more formational variety from the Cincinnati Bengals throughout training camp as well. And those are some pretty cool trends to monitor as they look to spice things up from play action to motion at the snap and all these things that are hallmarks of modern NFL offenses at this point. Yeah. Yeah.

I think the evolution continues and how they incorporate. the way, do they keep three running backs in their minds list sample as an age back and then keep four tight ends? Like, could they do that? You know what I think it comes down to? I think it comes down to Tanner McLaughlin really forcing their hand. And that's because he's similar to what they have. He's an older prospect. Can he show, hey, I'm ready to go right now? Because if so, it's really tough. And Tanner Hudson, by the way, didn't make the team to start last year. And so he can make it tough on them. I think that that's going to be something that will follow. The tight end battle is here, Jake.

Let's go. Another position battle that we'll be watching. He didn't make the team and we both know that he should have. And I think they realized pretty quickly that he should have. That was just a bad decision. There were people here that thought he should have to. Yeah. I'll say.

And for our audio listeners, here means I'm at the stadium. So people in the building. There were Cincinnati Bengals employees. There you go. Coaching staff. members perhaps, personnel members perhaps. I'm not even going that, I'm just saying people.

People who work for the Bengals. People. People who work for the Bengals? People. Some other position battles that we will continue to watch as the pads come on are the cornerback to battle as Daxill and D.J. Turner continue to go at it. Dax's catching a lot of flack for giving up a touchdown to Kendrick

Pryor in the back of the end zone. Also had a nice pass breakup going against Dee Higgins, DJ Turner also had a nice pass breakup going against D. Higgins. So those guys continue to battle. Trent Irwin. Like, yeah. It's a nature corner. Social media is hilarious.

It's like, ah, these boys are getting toasted. It's like, yeah, it's cornerback life with Joe Barrett quarterback. And you're only seeing some clips and, you know, no doubt. No doubt. I can't record everything. You're going to see, you're going to see all these battles come down to the preseason games. As we continue to discuss, pads coming on, preseason game just over a week away. at this point, a week and a half away, I guess, at this point.

And then we'll learn a lot more about these battles. So really start in the eyes of this coaching staff, as Zach Taylor said, on Monday, when the pads come up. So if you're talking battles, now is the time for those to start. That's the time for this podcast, however, to stop. That's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening, Ho-Day, and have a good one.