Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Why Bengals’ Development Matters MOST on Sunday vs. Cardinals

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

Even though the Cincinnati Bengals aren't playing for playoff implications, late season development for young players like Myles Murphy, Shemar Stewart, Amarius Mims, and Dylan Fairchild are paramount.... Jake Liscow and James Rapien break down what really matters for the Bengals as they host the Arizona Cardinals, including why the team needs to be careful about buying into their defensive "progress" late in the season, and discuss draft pick status as the season winds down. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans.Click here to learn more and join your team’s community:** https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubJoin 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!CarGurusShop the way you want with the tools, data, and unbiased deal ratings that make it easy.  Buy or sell your next car today at http://CarGurus.com.FanDuelIf you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.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.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Cincinnati Bengals finish their season with two games at home and they're out of the playoff picture. So why are those games still important? Let's break that down starting with this week's game against the Cardinals. 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, part of the Locked on podcast network, now the number one sports podcast. podcast network. He's James Rapine. I'm Jake Liskow. We've had you covered here on
Starting point is 00:00:39 Lockdown Bengals as your daily source for all things Bengals going all the way back to 2016. And as we wrap up this Christmas week with the Bengals getting ready to host the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday first, hope you all had a nice Christmas if you celebrated. A nice little holiday week, if that's part of your life, we got some messages from some people in the Lockdown Bengals insider group wishing us happy holidays, Merry Christmas as well. So, turning that to everyone out there that makes locked on Bengals part of the routine. All the everydayers, all of you who make locked on Bengals here first list. And we're going to be diving into what's important as the Bengals prepared to face the Cardinals
Starting point is 00:01:18 in a game that's relatively meaningless for both teams in terms of the win loss. But even the win loss matters a little bit too, especially when you look at where the Bengals sit in draft positioning and how these games are affecting draft positioning. I've been looking at it, James, personally, with an assumption that the Bengals will win their final two games and looking at everything around them and kind of evaluating, what will that do? Will that knock them out of the top 10? What else needs to happen?
Starting point is 00:01:44 To keep them in the top 10, that'll be a point of conversation here at some point as well. But one of the things from an on-field perspective that's going to matter is some of these young players that were continuing to watch for more progress, more development, signs of, continued signs of in many cases, this player should be part of what they're building, around in 2026 and beyond. Yeah, it's huge. It's far more important than the results. Because if you tell me that winning three straight is going to impact the offseason in the
Starting point is 00:02:18 2026 Bengals, well, I'm going to show you a bunch of history where that doesn't matter. And Jamar Chase said it. And there are going to be people that say, oh, it matters and it's going to impact things. And it does not matter. It does not matter. Not one bit. Not one bit do I believe that the 2024. Bengals going 5-0 down the stretch impacted this season at all.
Starting point is 00:02:42 And if anything, with the Bengals, you could say, oh, well, they could trick themselves into thinking that they're closer than they are. And right now, Joe Burrow is four and two as a starter. It gets to six and two. They go into the off-season, and it's like, ah, right? You don't feel good about it. But what I do think you can do is feel good about specific performances, about, about players that may be ascending, about players that finish strong.
Starting point is 00:03:10 And I think Miles Murphy is really the guy here to look at. And it's like, man, the past six weeks, seven weeks, it feels great. It feels like not just the best that we've seen from Miles Murphy, but like it feels like he can be a piece moving forward. And so for him, can you finish strong? Can you get after Jacobi Brissette on Sunday? can you get a couple of sacks in front of the hometown crowd that that does show up and you better believe that's going to be a lot of diehards and and then those diehards are going to be like man
Starting point is 00:03:43 99s come on in year three and be excited about Miles Murphy going into year four so I think that's that's where this is is like developmental wise like who's developing uh in in in their development do those flashes show up? And Miles Murphy is the one where it's like, man, if he could just finish this year strong, what a 180 from where we viewed him eight weeks ago, 10 weeks ago. And honestly, DJ Turner are the same. People were dunking on DJ Turner, all training camp long, like just dunking on. Oh, he's given up.
Starting point is 00:04:19 Like now everyone thinks of the one practice where he had the five past breakups. But outside of that, everyone's like, I've seen way too much DJ Turner. on the other side of guys catching passes. And it's been a complete 180 now. He's clearly their number one corner. I'm not saying Miles Murphy will be their number one pass rusher next year. You don't want that. But maybe he can be a true piece in a real pass rusher for you.
Starting point is 00:04:42 It certainly feels like it. So that's my like high level thought process when it comes to this. Like the win loss doesn't matter. But what happens on the field can certainly matter for some of these young guys that are trying to establish themselves. And the win loss does matter. little bit. Like we said, like we're going to look at draft positioning here and what's going on around them. The chiefs don't look like they have a hope in the world, but they do play the Raiders
Starting point is 00:05:06 next week. And if there's one team that will tank your tank, it might be the Raiders this year. Miles Murphy is a prime example, like you said, of the players we're looking for that continued development for it. Can you continue to finish the season strong? Coming off one of his best games, if not unambiguously, his best game as a pro, especially in run defense, had a very Sam Hubbard-looking game, right? Wasn't necessarily winning a ton as a pass rusher, making a ton of plays in the run game, in the screen game, the hustles
Starting point is 00:05:35 there, those plays all showing up. And him more physical football is something that we've been talking about, and I think I've said that on this podcast numerous times, we've been talking about can Miles play more physical, can he play more aggressive football? And he's been
Starting point is 00:05:51 doing that. And it's, you know, it's not perfect. Nobody's saying it's perfect. He's not out there winning like Trey Hendrickson. But he's shown that he's absolutely a player that can be part of a successful NFL defense. The problem is the Bengals just have a lot of those kind of guys right now, and they're not a successful NFL defense. But between Miles and BJ Hill, who is back at practice on Friday, who's going to be on this team next year.
Starting point is 00:06:16 The Bengals gave him a multi-year deal last offseason, the cornerback development we've seen from DJ Turner over the course of this season, him emerging as a leader, Dax Hill, continuing to play, good corner have one rough game in the transition back to outside corner after he'd been playing in the slot he's been really good since then good enough that i went back and and found our mike potts interview from 2022 after the bengals drafted dax and and clipped that interview that was fun to revisit as i asked mike pott's at the time because there was a big conversation when the bengals drafted dachs so can he play corner because he was an overhang he played this this different
Starting point is 00:06:55 position in college and all these things obviously bounced around a lot. And again, I thought he could play outside corner when I watched his Michigan tape from a physical skill set perspective, and that looks like something he can do in the NFL. So the Bengals have all these building blocks on defense. They just need the really high-end playmakers
Starting point is 00:07:12 or the consistency guys. Then maybe you see them take a step. I actually, we're going to stay on the defense here. I got some stats for you, James. And then there are some players on offense from a development perspective. especially at Mario Smims, Dylan Fairchild, that we should talk about as well.
Starting point is 00:07:30 But I went back and looked at some stats that I've been tracking for this defense all season. When we've been saying stuff like, this is the worst defense in the last 25 years, the worst success rate in the last 25 years, all those sorts of stats that we've talked about before. Well, they've improved in some of those categories slightly. They're no longer the worst than any of them.
Starting point is 00:07:49 The one that is the worst for them, it's still yards per play. But in their last five games, since they're by week and week 10, six games. From week 10 to week 16, the Bengals defense is up to 22nd in success rate, 19th in EPA per play, 16th in third down conversions allowed, 12 in points per game allowed. They've given up a lot of offensive touchdowns. Like when the offense is on the field, they're just giving up 20 and a half defensive points per game.
Starting point is 00:08:18 Their sack rate is up to 12 in that time. And the thing that's been really exceptional for this defense in that time, James, is they're only giving up a touchdown in 50% of goal to go situations, which ranks third in the NFL in that time. So there has been some progress or results perspective when you look at this defense and when you talk about the way Miles Murphy has come on, Joseph Osai, who doesn't look like he's got a good chance to play against Arizona. He wasn't practicing on Friday either.
Starting point is 00:08:49 But some of these pieces kind of coming together, Al Golden, figuring some things out as a blitzer as a play caller. and you're seeing some potential signs of development and games that did include some meaningful games, right? Like we talked about the plays they made against the Patriots, the first Baltimore game and those things. And kind of discarding a little bit the dead cat bounce here at the end of the season against some bad teams.
Starting point is 00:09:12 There's been some signs of progress. I'm going to respond to that in my fear about the progress. And I'll say that in air quotes for those listening. that can't see progress. We'll do that. And we'll get to the offense, of course, because offense wins championships coming up next. Today's show is brought to by Fandall.
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Starting point is 00:10:20 53 and a half hammer i i say the over i think we're going to see a ton of scoring jake on Sunday. So we'll see. Regardless of how you feel, get in on all the fun at fandle.com. We're also brought to you today by game time. The Bengals finished the season with two home games. And if despite everything that's happened this year, you want to go watch Joe Burrow, T. Higgins, Jamar Chase, Amarius Mims, Miles Murphy, the emergence of some players on this defense and an offense that has been hitting, well, tickets are going to be real easy for you to deal with with the GameTime app. You get the advantage back.
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Starting point is 00:11:22 So the price you see is exactly what you pay. You can take the guesswork out of buying tickets for NFL games or any other sort of event with game time. Download the game time app, create an account and use code locked on NFL. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N, NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Again, create account and redeem code locked on NFL for $20 off with game time on the app today and get back to being their life. All right, Jake. So my fear is very, very simple. And the everyday area is certainly known.
Starting point is 00:11:54 if you've been a Bengals fan for a long time, you certainly know. I don't think they're close on defense. They should sign probably two defensive linemen, B.J. Hill aside, I don't care that he's under contract. And there's plenty of time to talk about it. But like two defensive linemen, they need a splash player there that can consistently get after the quarterback, at least one, which I know that's hard to find. I don't know how you would or why you would trust their linebackers without getting at least one guy that can start right away.
Starting point is 00:12:26 And Gino Stone, by the way, they should just bench Gino Stone. He shouldn't play and start on Sunday against the Cardinals. That's not going to be the case, but he's not going to be here. I think they plan on residing Tyson Anderson. Why not see if he could give you anything there? Maybe you think it's PJ Jules or Dejan Anthony. Fine. Any of those, I don't care.
Starting point is 00:12:47 Geno Stone better not be here next year. And so that to me, I don't want this. coaching staff, which everyone blames Duke and I think ownership deserves some blame. And I think the coaching staff deserves some blame as well. Like they went into last offseason like new coach will revamp it. We're going to get more out of these guys. And that was pretty much it. And like there's no way in how Zach Taylor should have endorsed Geno Stone coming back. There was none. And yet I'm pretty sure he was on board with that. Makes no sense. Makes, no sense that you don't add a bona fide linebacker if it's that valuable.
Starting point is 00:13:29 They didn't do that. And so they go into the draft, a weak linebacker draft, and feel like they need to force it. It is scary to me for them, because you're right. They'll look at those stats. And I do think that at least some people in the building are like, yeah, we aren't that far away. You just see some of these.
Starting point is 00:13:47 Yeah, we aren't that far away. We're a player here, player there. And it's like, those better be some damn good players. because I like like three or four guys that I'm pretty confident in next year, but there aren't many where I'm like, oh, well, that guy's definitely starting. Put it in Sharpie. And that's where I'm at when it comes to this defense.
Starting point is 00:14:08 And I'm sick of talking about it. It's become the offensive line. You know the past couple of years I've been sick of talking about the offensive line. And they've kind of solved that issue, knock on wood. I need this defense. They need to figure it out. And to me, the only way you figure it out is by adding proven town. Hard to do, like you said, free agency, and this is a conversation for a couple weeks for now.
Starting point is 00:14:31 Free agency just continues to get worse in terms of quality of players available, guys actually reaching free agency. There's like one or two every year. Go look at last year's list of top free agents. It's pretty ugly with the results that teams are getting from those guys. But I hear your fear. I echo your fear. It's something that we've talked about for the last two years
Starting point is 00:14:55 is this idea that these late season results are very meaningful. We've seen this team repeatedly. Josh sweat is good. I thought about that. Well, I thought about that the other day because that was the Trey Hendricksson. Like if you trade Trey, like, go get Josh sweat.
Starting point is 00:15:12 And like that would have worked for them. Or people would have talked about Milton Williams and Milton Williams has been fine, but not like, franchise changing defensive tackle for New England, for example. And he's been hurt, yeah. But yeah, sure. And that's part of the risk of free agency.
Starting point is 00:15:29 Of course you take it. But the point is that when we get the free agency, I just, I recently was looking at this in the last week or so. And like a lot of the guys just that got paid a lot of money. I mean, you got to overpay for for B minus C level players and free agency a lot of time. And the Bengals need that. Don't get me wrong. but like the idea of overpaying for them is challenging to stomach and so much of this goes back to the draft but as far as your fear again probably conversation for another day to dive into in depth like when i hear some of this stuff from zach taylor from algolan talking about the progress of this defense that is where that fear comes from right is like yes oh yeah these linebackers since a bye week like man they are not better enough you're betting on yourself so hard
Starting point is 00:16:19 to just go into the season with these linebackers next year. And we've seen them do it is a problem. Like we've seen them have these very rosy evaluations of their own guys. Not on the defensive side of the ball necessarily, although this year you could argue that. In the past, it's been offensive line stuff. It's continuing on the offensive line, actually, with Cody Ford, who is a player that I really want to see
Starting point is 00:16:41 replace and improved upon in 2026, because when we saw him out there, every time we've seen him out there this year, it's so, so looks like the same Cody Ford. even though he's done everything the way this coaching staff likes. And so being really honest with themselves about how they need to improve should be very obvious. Shouldn't require a radical degree of self-honesty. But it seems like what this team, it kind of does.
Starting point is 00:17:05 Yeah. And that's it's it is don't try to sell me. And if they maybe they beat the Cardinals 35 to 7 on Sunday. And the defense plays well. And Jacobi Brissette's playing well. And we covered it in the crossover. So I'm like, Trey McBride. I don't think they hold them to seven, but let's just say, okay.
Starting point is 00:17:24 All right. So, like, it still doesn't mean like everything I've said. I don't think anything can happen over the next two weeks where I don't feel like they need to add to all three levels and go that route. And yeah, you're not going to find, you might not find the next Trey Hendrickson in this year's crop of free agents. But you can, you can find quality, quality pieces. And I hope, like, if we're sitting here in April and we're talking about them adding one external defensive free agent, that's like a real guy that's going to start for them. Well, thanks. I hate it.
Starting point is 00:17:58 Like, it's, and so that's all now. Going, going into the draft with these repeated desperate needs that force their hand, like, can't do it. Can't do it. Can't do it. And we mentioned the offense. And I clumsily will go to the offense now. Amarius Mims. continues to play really, really well.
Starting point is 00:18:20 And even if you want to look at the PFF stuff, which I always take with a grain of salt, but has a lot of green in there. The past five weeks, you know, you're talking in the 70 range. His overall scores almost up to a 64 on the season. Trending in the right direction. We'd love to see him handle business this week
Starting point is 00:18:41 and continue that. Because if he does, now we're talking about their 2020 first round pick finding his footing in Daxhill, 2023 first round pick Miles Murphy ascending, and then your 2024 first round pick in Amarius Mims playing at a high level. It starts to come together some
Starting point is 00:19:00 with a lot of the draft criticism that they've taken. You look at it and it's like, oh, well, they are good players. You need to get to the good part faster, of course, which is a big thing that for Sharma Stewart, he's going to have to be really good next year. But this year, Amarius Mims has certainly fared much better. Then I think he is some expected. I think we've always had high expectations for Amarious Mims and he's starting to deliver.
Starting point is 00:19:29 Yeah, I think he's been really good lately. I agree. Samar Stewart, a name we definitely should have mentioned as far as things would matter. Good shout bringing that one up. Like how he plays in these last two games, getting some development for him. It is relatively small in the grand scheme, but just getting that continued development, definitely. definitely matters there. Dylan Fairchild, that'll be another one here.
Starting point is 00:19:49 As we wrap up with the offense and some of the things we'll be watching for there, and apparently the Pro Bowl was announced this week. I barely caught it. One Bengal in the initial list of Pro Bowlers will get to some Pro Bowl chatter, and I just want to quickly take a peek at the Tankathon stuff, the draft order as we wrap up this episode here coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by prize picks. Prize picks is daily fantasy the way it should be.
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Starting point is 00:21:30 Just excited to see this offensive line finish the season strong. Hopefully they should do that this week. Callias Campbell on the other side for the Arizona Cardinals, obviously is a menace that we would have liked to have seen playing for the Cincinnati Bengals for the last, I don't know, five years. years forever.
Starting point is 00:21:47 Zavin Collins is the other guy on this defensive line who will potentially create some problems for you. Baron Browning has been more of a problem for this team in my memory for some reason than I think he probably should be.
Starting point is 00:22:01 The Bengals avoid Walter Nolan this week. We could get an Akeem Davis Gaither revenge game for the Arizona Cardinals over there. But for Dylan Fairchild and Amarious Mims, those guys have been playing for their experience level in the NFL you're seeing the progress for those guys.
Starting point is 00:22:18 And the offensive line as a collective has people talking about like, yeah, just bring Dalton Riser back, bolster the depth, and we're good to go for 2026. And it feels like a pretty reasonable plan, like maybe getting a left tackle that may be able to challenge to start next year, or sorry, in 2027 is something that they could consider with their off-season plan if it aligns. But for the starters who have been remarkably healthy,
Starting point is 00:22:44 and knock on wood there. But they've had good offensive line health this year, which isn't necessarily something you can count on every year. Those guys have been good, and it's been fun to watch. Those guys really had the light bulb come on in the second half of the season, and whether that's Scott Peters or the players themselves or some combination, seeing that continue to finish the season this week,
Starting point is 00:23:06 especially next week, much tougher with Miles Garrett and the Cleveland Browns, is something that you've got to be looking forward to watching. because you know who Joe Burrow, T. Higgins, and Jemar Chase are. And Mike Keseki and Chase Bratt. Like, you know who all those guys are. So if the offensive line can finish the season strong as they have, that that's something that I think can affect your offseason plans a little bit with Dalton Riser in mind in particular for that one.
Starting point is 00:23:32 Man, you know, those are the type of signings, though. Like the Dalton Risenor signing, like how good does that feel now? And that's what you need. You need some of those, those level signings on defense. Obviously, you might not be able to hit the, the grand slam type of signing like Trey Hendrickson was or whoever. But Reisner has been such a huge part of this and playing well. And yeah, given that multi-year contract, he's been looking for for quite some time now.
Starting point is 00:24:02 I don't want to be talking about losing Dalton Reisner in free agency. So hopefully they can do that. And if they do, you're right. Like, you might use a draft pick, an early pick, an offensive lineman, but you feel good about where they're at. You'd have a Jalen Rivers behind. By the way, Matt Lee was activated this week. I think that's kind of interesting. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:25 That, you know, he's back around. We'll see, maybe they want to try to get him some reps in that finale against the Browns. Like, that's what I would assume would be the thought process there. Or they just want to get him some practice time before going to the offseat. either way. Interesting to see that. But, you know, this offensive line, I feel pretty good about it. And that's what sucks. That's the other reminder here. It sucks that they have this good of an offensive line. Joe Burrow is healthy now. And they're 5 and 10. You know, like it's just, it sucks. Last thing before we get into the tankathon stuff is, at least for me, I also am going to just enjoy watching Joe. Yeah. Last week in Miami, I went into that game. I'm like, all right, whatever the hell that was against the Ravens, it's not going to happen again. And so, yeah, let's watch Joe, Jamar T. By the way, Tiggins, one touchdowns, one touchdowns away from setting a new career high. He's only one of three bangles receivers to have back-to-back seasons of double-digit touchdowns. Joining AJ Green and Carl Pickens. Carl Pickens did at three straight years. But T. had 10 touchdowns last year, 10 this year. We'll see if he can get 11 on Sunday. Jamar Chase, by the way, hasn't had a touchdown since October 16th. Yeah. They need to get him a touchdown.
Starting point is 00:25:43 Just some notes that were in my head here. Crazy that there's only bit, you said that there's only been two Bengals have back to back seasons with 10 plus touchdowns in their history. Carl, for all of their decorated. Yeah, Chad didn't do it. That's crazy.
Starting point is 00:25:58 Like Jamar hasn't done it yet. Isaac Curtis. Jamar hasn't done it this year. He could. Five touchdowns on Sunday. He'll get it. He could. I could see him getting four Sunday.
Starting point is 00:26:10 You can see him going crazy. He hasn't really had that like 300-yard game this year that we've somehow gotten accustomed to seeing from him. He's just had seven 100-yard games, which is a Bengals record. So he's just been pretty darn steady. You want to hear a crazy tweet I got about Jamar Chase? Oh, boy. That isn't like, I get where the person is coming from.
Starting point is 00:26:33 I don't necessarily agree. But I get where they're coming from. It's like he's kind of like in the T.J. Hushman's on a roll. He's getting all of these. underneath targets and doing a lot of work after the catch. Like obviously he's had some downfield stuff, but just like comparing the way the Bengals are using him to T.J. Hushman Zada, which like I get where the guy's coming from and suggesting that
Starting point is 00:26:54 because his use has changed this year, especially without Joe. Sure. It's funny though, right? It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is because it's like T.J. Hushman Zada on crazy steroids, you know. but I get it. I do get it to a degree.
Starting point is 00:27:14 The T.J. Turner Snub was another thing that we wanted to get to there. Joe Burroughs saying in his presser, I thought that this was pretty, pretty on point from Joe. Like, yeah, sometimes, you know, the first year you should go. You don't go and you do it again the next year. Then the league catches up. The league offs in a little bit late. But fair to say that he played at a pretty high level for this year. was deserving of what was he third alternate like he's he's down on the list even for for the pro
Starting point is 00:27:46 ball yeah third alternate just not a big name you know and i and that does matter um played himself into a contract though talk about a guy that uh they should lock up i i would yeah dax and dj like you feel but good about those michigan michigan corners should michigan have a safety do they have a safety go get that guy I know Ohio State has a safety that's what everyone's going to say when I people coming into this season
Starting point is 00:28:14 we're very sick of the Bengals drafting Michigan players because of the Ohio State connection for a lot of Bengals fans and how it took a little bit of time for Turner and Dax and who knows what the future holds right you never know but one conversation point that we will get to not in today's
Starting point is 00:28:30 episode is the offseason decisions for some of these younger guys like can we get ahead of a contract for once and have it pay off and not do the Michael Johnson Carlos Dunlap. We're going to keep one game. The Jonathan Joseph Leon Hall, we're going to keep one game. I mean, I know that's pretty old history at this point. Let's look at the tankathon implications here.
Starting point is 00:28:54 James, the results for the Bengals yesterday, Christmas Day, Thursday, pretty good. Overall, Dallas winning helps. Minnesota winning helps. They cannot draft behind those teams now. Now the latest they can draft in the first round is going to be, what, 14? 14, yes. And if Tampa wins one game, then it goes to 13. If Baltimore wins one game, then it goes to 12.
Starting point is 00:29:25 Miami wins a couple of games. It's a little bit nicer than that. I kind of see 12 as a relatively likely landing spot. here because I kind of just expect them to win these last few games. Let's say bench guys against Cleveland. They feel like they've done enough. But like home finale, that is not in this team's DNA to bench their star players who people have paid to come see.
Starting point is 00:29:53 But with a couple of those losses, the Bengals still ninth for now, but like looks like 12th if I had to guess of where they land. Kansas City is executing their tank masterfully. First Jones jumping off sides on fourth and two. Miami would need to win, I think, two games for the Bengals to be picking if the Bengals win their games ahead of Miami. So that's the two teams directly behind Cincinnati. And then Atlanta is also six and nine.
Starting point is 00:30:26 Their pick is owned by the Rams, but Atlanta would also need to win, I think, a couple of games for the Benz. bangles to be picking ahead of them if the bengers win their games and that's the one that you know Atlanta is you know they are who they are and good on the Rams for getting that pick by the way but yeah it sucks that the chiefs might be picking ahead of the bengals that's the one that stands out to me as as sort of painful sort of painful because uh let's just say you really want Caleb downs right he could be a chief you know and I'm just throwing out there my love you're guy, you know, like name a guy.
Starting point is 00:31:07 Not my, yeah, not my guy. I don't have a guy. You don't have a guy yet? No, I don't know. It's December. Your, uh, your state has led me to believe otherwise about. No, I, I just, everyone is so like, you know me, man. Everyone is so, oh, it's got to be defense, it's got to be defense. It's got to be defense. And then the same people complain that they drafted Shamar Stewart. It's like, it doesn't just have to be defense. They need good players. And so, you know, the team drafts for need.
Starting point is 00:31:34 I know. Hate it. I hate it so much. Another conversation for another day. We'll have you covered here after the Bengals play, the Arizona Cardinals. Again, just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas. Have you celebrated yesterday? Hopefully you had a great day if you celebrated another Hanukkah or another holiday.
Starting point is 00:31:53 Hanukkah, the solstice, any of the other winter traditions out there. Hope you enjoyed those as well. That's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Until next time. Thanks for listening. Hoode. And have a good book.

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