At the bye week, Let's take a look at every position group on the
Cincinnati Bengals and give out some grades. How are they doing so far?
Let's get into it. You are Locked On Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals
podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast network, your team, every day
Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. I'm
your host, Jake Lisco. He's your host, James Rapine. We are
the Lockdown Bengals Podcast. Today we're going to look at a team that had
very high expectations going into this season still does to be honest, and they
fallen short of those expectations before the bye week. And now, as we
knew before the season, things appear to get harder with their schedule. But
we're gonna go position by position and look at where those grades come in,
and for me, that's going to be based on expectation. We'll get into
that. This episode of Lockdown Bengals brought to you by Fandel Sportsbook, the
official sportsbook of Locked On. Right now, new customers can bet five dollars
and get two hundred dollars in bonus bets guaranteed at Fandel dot com slash locked
on. We appreciate everybody who's new to the show. If you're new to
the show and this is the first episode you've ever listened to on Lockdown Bengals
because it's after the bye week and you're ready to go for the rest of
the season, make sure you look back into the recent history. When we
talked with Luanna Roumo and Brian Callahan during the bye week, got their perspective
on what's going on with the offense, what's going on with the defense,
talked about some individual players, talked about some scheme with both of them.
Some really cool insight from both of the Bengals lieutenants to Zach Taylor on the
defense and offensive side of the football, and Louanna Romo and Brian Callahan.
So you don't want to miss those. If you did miss him, take
time go back and listen to him. I thought they were both really great
and insightful. But today, James, it's time to give out some grades.
It's kind of that cheesy mid season evaluation even though it's not really mid
season, but it's a good way to think about what our expectations were for
this Bengals team. Versus where they are so far, And it starts with
the quarterback, who were high MVP level expectations for Joe Burrow. Fair to
say, he's not at that level right now, and there are reasons for
that, right he missed all of training camp again and he's been dealing with
this calf injury. Yeah, I think it's stinks. It stinks that we
entered this season and pre July twenty seventh and we were talking about MVP and
I thought he was dialed in in the best shape of his career, and
I test wise that pass the test. I saw a practice in a half
where he was just balling, and we've seen flashes of that, especially in
Arizona at the beginning of Seattle, but it hasn't been to that level.
So no one deserves, needs, desires, whatever you want to say.
Probably craved the buy more than Joe Burrow mentally and physically, and so I
think he benefits from it as much as anyone. And so that said,
if we're giving him a grade, I think the fair grade is incomplete.
But the fact that he was able to battle through and play when no one
thought he was playing against the Rams, like the Wednesday before that Monday night
game, no one thought he was suiting up. Thursday it was the same,
and it slowly trended in the right direction. You had the Mike Brown
cart rde at practice where people are saying he is shut down and like it's
been a wild six weeks. It has and in really three months when you
go back to the original calf injury. But the fact that he hasn't played
or hasn't not played and has been on the field, he deserves some credit
for that, a lot of credit for that. And so his play hasn't
been that MVP level and that's where expectations are when he's healthy. That's where
this coaching staff puts him and then puts on him the responsibilities he has on
this offense. So it's weird because he's a big reason why the offense has
struggled and not been what we expected. And at the same time, I
think he deserves credit for being out there even though he's one of those reasons
why. So this is a tricky grade. I think he's certainly not only
passing, but maybe slightly above average despite you know everything, and so I
would say C plus, but that doesn't take into account A ton of the
injury stuff. Like if you just looked at the numbers, I would say,
like it's probably C minus, and then with the injury, I'm bumping
it up to a C plus and it's probably even higher than that considering what
he had to play through. In the fact that we didn't see any of
Jake Browning in the first six games of the season, or at least any
significant snaps for Jake Browning early on, I think he certainly deserves some credit
for the injury. Like you said, I'm gonna be a little bit less
generous. I know that he's been dealing with a lot, and so I
don't think that's generous. I don't think there's a player in the league that
has gone through more than than Joe Burrow has gone through. And that's not
just because it's locked on Bengals. I think it's that's a fact. Yeah,
that's fine. I think that just for me, it just is more
of how he's played, and he hasn't played well. He's had flashes of
playing well, and he does, like like you said, like you've made
abundantly clear he's gone through a significant amount of pain to just stay on the
field and be there with his guys. But the level of play for Joe
Burrow compared to what we expect for Joe Burrow is like D plus C minus
Like you said, the C minus for the numbers or whatever, but just
like the way he's playing, just missing throws, not on the same page
with his guys, which isn't always his fault. The way the offense has
struggled as a pass versus offense that relies on Joe burrow ability. Some of
that is on coaching, as we've discussed and we talked with Bran Callahan about.
But for like an average quarterback, if you're just saying, like where's
Joe Burrow compared to other NFL quarterbacks, it's near the bottom statistically and a
lot of meaningful numbers right now. He can't figure out the deep ball right
now and it needs to be a lot better. So C minus D plus
like that's still where I am. I think that outside of you know,
the grade itself, which is harsh if you say D plus, he does
deserve a lot of, you know, moral victory credit for what he's been
through, and I think that he'll bounce back. It's just for what he's
done so far from you know, interceptions that haven't come at good times,
to erratic accuracy, to processing that that hasn't been great. They've been limited
on offense. A lot of that is a quarterback. I think that will
be much better the rest of the way. I think that he will bounce
back. I think you will see more of the Cincinnati Bengals offense that we're
used to seeing. But it's not just Burrow. It is part of the
thing, right, It's it's Burrow's not playing well and and maybe that's a
reason that it should be a little bit higher. And maybe that's the reason
that your grade might be more accurate than mine. Is Tee Higgins is not
having the year that he's He's having maybe his worst year in the NFL so
far. Earth Smith Junior in the tight end position has not been productive.
So it's not just Burrow. But I do think that C plus feels to
me. It feels generous to you. You know, if you're accounting for
all the injury stuff, I think that's fine. I'm just not accounting for
it. I guess when I give the grade up that's a pff jake.
Well, it's just there where it's it's like report cards used to have comments
on him, like you should. I'm giving him the comment of like I
understand, but let's be better kind of thing. Sure, it's to me,
they would be like one in five with Jake Browning and so as bad
as he's been at times, Burrow, yeah he deserves like there's there's letter
grades built in like instantly, it's like, all right, well, it's
still average because he lifts everybody up, but he lifts everybody up like I
promise you the defense would have been worse with Browning at quarterback. I promise
you. T would have been worse. Jamar would have been worse. It's
just and that's not even Jake's fault. It's just, you know, it's
not me going after the Jakes of the world. It's just what it is
when you see nine out there versus not. It's just part of it.
And that's why him playing on that Monday night game is still wild to me,
and I think kind of gets overshadowed. So I do get it.
He does have to be better. I'll tell you that. He may say
that I'm being generous with his play. I think that's part of why it's
been so frustrating is because he can't and hasn't been able to physically do what
he normally does. But we can both agree that they need him to play
a level in the final eleven games of the season as many of those as
possible. Like, if we revisit this in eleven weeks, we need to
be saying, oh, well, since the bye Burrow is at a B
plus minimum, hopefully A minus are better. And so that's that's going to
be the interesting part as well as we move forward, because if it is
in that A range, we're talking about a team that's going to be a
contender. Again. Yeah, if it's not, then who knows. That's
exactly what happened last year once they hit their stride, he was playing at
a top level as well as we've seen him play. The other thing is,
if you're comparing Burrow this year to previous year Burrow, it's really really
hard to get an a right because average Burrough the last two years has been
a level quarterbacking for the rest of the league well short of that expectations.
So I'd say compared to where we were preseason at three and three with the
offense one of the bottom units in the league, that's part of it.
Let's continue on the offensive side of the ball coming up next today's show.
It's brought to you by eBay Motors. Our partners at eBay Motors have teamed
up with Lockdown Fantasy Football host Vinnie Eyer to bring you some of the best
fantasy picks each week all season long. Whether you're prepping for a daily draft
or scouting the waiver wire, Vinnie is going to give you players that are
guaranteed to fit your roster. Let's see who Vinnys picked up first on this
week's eBay's Guaranteed Fit Fantasy Picks of the Week, and Falcons star receiver Drake
London is showing why they invested such a high pick in him just a few
years ago. Heating Up had his first one hundred yard game of the season
in Week six against the Commanders, fifteen receptions in Week six and seven combined,
and starting to find his stripe. He's a perfect target in DFS lineups,
or maybe you need him to hold things down during bye weeks in your
season long leagues. Well they play the Titans, Vikings, Cardinals before a
Week eleven by He's certainly someone that you can fire up in your lineups and
Vinnie I are from Locked On Fantasy football is going to help you win a
fantasy championship and eBay Motors knows a championship team is about each player being a
perfect fit. The same with your vehicle. With over one hundred and twenty
two million parts for your number one rider I, you can make sure your
ride stays running smoothly. From break kits, led headlights, roof rack,
bumpers, whatever your baby needs, eBay Motors has it and with eBay Guaranteed
Fit, it's guaranteed to fit your ride the first time, every time,
or your money back plus. At these prices, you're burning rubber, not
cash. Kick your feed up. Go to Ebaymotors dot com and check out
everything that they have for your vehicle. Winner is here or it's about to
be. That means you've got to keep your ride dependable, running smoothly.
eBay Motors is going to do that and you're not going to have to leave
your home. You can get those parts delivered right to you. Keep your
rider eye alive at Ebaymotors dot com. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US
customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. James before when we're talking about
Joe Burrow. I mentioned that it's not just Burrow, and there are some
extenuating circumstances as to why the Bengals offensive numbers are what they are. We've
talked about this a lot. There are a lot of things that need to
be correct, and we talked about this, so Brian Callahan, I think
the next unit we can talk about is wide receiver. And this one's hard
because you know, you take the averages right, like Chase gets an A
for me, Tyler Boy's probably like a CNUS. He's not been quite as
productive as you would expect from Tyler Boyd, but the flashes are there.
He had a touchdown that that would have bumped it up. There was a
race, and Nte Higgins is probably like d Right. He's had one game.
He's been hurt, which doesn't help things, but not clearly what you
would expect to Higgins to be. You take the average of that, where
are you on wide receiver like B minus with Jamar Chase carrying a heavy part
of that low Jamar has been the best player on offense by far, so
if you're doing a unit, he deserves a lot of credit for this offense.
Overall, Yeah, it's it's rough, and obviously Jamar has been dominant
at times, but the offense is just so inconsistent that you look at it.
I think a C might be generous for these pass catchers because where we
are wide receivers. If we're just looking at wide receivers for comparative to what
we expected, best trio in the league, right, Charlie Jones flashes some
gets hurt Yo Savasha's flashed. Love that, So you got something out of
your rookie receivers. I think you would have taken that to start the year
outside of the injury, which you can't help the fact that the guy had
a broken thumb and needed surgery. But Jamar has been dominant. He is
off to the worst start of his career. Now. The reason it's not
an F is because of the rib injury. I think that's certainly impacted him
the other day. I hope he gets healthy. I hope he dominates over
the final eleven and finishes with twelve hundred plus yards. But who would have
thought that t Higgins would have fourteen catches over the first six games for one
hundred and forty nine yards. And I know he missed a game. So
in five games, okay, that's less than three receptions a game, with
just eight of them in one game. Yeah, yeah, in the two
touchdowns against the Ravens too. I mean it's it's been Outside of that game,
it's been really really rough for Tea Boyd. It's everything looks good except
the yards. And that's the part. Thirty receptions on forty one targets you
would take. I think that that's about right. You know, you have
five receptions a game. The problem is two hundred and four yards six point
eight a reception. We're not talking about rushing yards six point I mean that's
closer to rushing yards. And that's not just him. That's a product of
what the offense has been. Jamar is averaging eleven yards a catch. That's
where Boyd should be. Jamar needs to be at fourteen yards a catch,
and that goes in line with the deep ball stuff, the downfield stuff,
and so it's an offensive thing overall. But right now, the guy that
leads them in yards per catch, it's Tanner Hudson with twelve. That's unbelievable
and I know he's not a receiver. But we can segue into a tight
end in a second, it's just it's crazy. So I would actually put
it C minus D plus because it's just it's really ugly right now, and
I think it could change, and a lot of it is tied to burrow
in Jamar is what's really helping. I would say C minus. Let's go,
it's like a seventy eight percent something like that. If you're talking about
like a math test or seventy eight percent or so, seventy eight percent is
the C plus in the grading scale. I think it's ten percent per grade,
right so nine when I was coming up, man A b ended at
I think eighty forty five. Yeah, yeah, eighty four eighty five.
So that's I'm using the old grading scale. I don't know about this new
school new school grader scale. Seventy eight was not good. I was very
mad if I ever got a seventy eight. And so that's that's where I'm
at with these receivers. They changed it on me going into high school.
When I was in junior high, it was still the seven percent or whatever
it was per grade, it was ninety three to one hundred was an A,
and then they changed it in high school. And now I hear that,
it's like even bigger some places, like the grade rangers for an A
can be like fifteen percent. Anyway, we're not grade eighty and eighty five
is an A. Oh my god, it might even be a bigger range
than that I've heard about. You better be right, otherwise the teachers that
listen this are going to crush you. I'm not saying in Cincinnati. I'm
saying up here, I don't know what I don't know what's going on since
So if I had to go back to school, we go. We go
to Canada, maybe shot that Vancouver Island. Yeah, that's right, taking
the ferry, going to college. Let's talk. Let's talk about the tight
ends. This has been probably the least productive unit on the offense compared to
the rest of the NFL. Yeah, they're not at the level they were
last year, which wasn't wildly productive to be fair in the first place.
But er Smith Junior hasn't gotten going. Did miss some time with a hamstring
injury. Thought he would at least be as productive as Hayden Hurst. It's
not like that was asking a ton. Hayden Hurst, like we talked about,
has had some clutch plays to this point in twenty twenty three, twenty
twenty two. But earth Smith in this tight end group, you know,
the best of them has probably been Drew Sample's attributions as a blocker. And
when that's what you're talking about is the highlight of the unit, which you
mentioned, Tanner Hudson seems to need Tanner Hudson, yep, oh man,
you're scraping. You're looking for something. Yeah, it's been This isn't it,
and it's not to me it is and it's not a player thing because
I actually Ersmith Junior has taking a ton of heat. I think there's a
spot for him. I think it fits. I don't think he's had a
ton of opportunities. Now why it could be partially on him, But I
think Mitch Willcox and Drew Sample have done their job, Tanner Hudson has done
his. And I still haven't totally waved the white flag on Earthsmith Junior being
productive this year, Like I still see the vision. You just need the
production to start. Now, you need something because we just went over the
receivers. It's Jamar Chase and nothing. And while t Higgins should figure it
out and Tyler Boyd should average more than six yards of catch. You can't
just bank on that. I want to see something from the tight ends as
well, and so it's it needs to happen, and it needs to happen
soon. And so maybe it's a D minus if you don't want to go
failing. But it's just it's been a struggle from a production standpoint. And
that doesn't mean there aren't good players in that room that have done what they've
been asked, but you need more out of that position group as a whole.
I think the reason that for me wouldn't be an f is that they
have like for example, actually has been quite good as a blocker. There
is some value there, but it's not the value that we're looking for.
You need more than one guy who's blocking well well with Tea hurt in Burrow
strugg Like it would be nice if a tight end was like, hey,
I can be a target for you, a reliable guy over the middle,
and we just we have not seen that. For whatever reason we have not
seen. It's a position that they haven't invested in. They've wanted to in
the draft, it didn't work out, and it's a position that we talked
about quite a lot this offseason, and that's what it is. Yeah,
let's do some some a little more rapid fire. Will have to speed it
up a bit, but we are going to get to the rest of the
grades. Spending a lot of time on the offense. Why because they've struggled.
We'll get to the rest of the team and finish up the offense coming
up next. This episode of Lockdown Bengals is sponsored by FanDuel, America's number
one sports book, and if you're looking to get into the action, there's
no better place to check out than FanDuel where new customers right now, you'll
get a two hundred dollars bonus bet allowance guaranteed when you place a five dollar
bet, two hundred dollars in bonus bets whether you win or lose that five
dollar bet. And maybe you're looking at the Bengals odds to make the playoffs.
Maybe you don't believe this team will rebound. Maybe you do believe there's
no way they're going to be like this for the rest of the season.
They've dug themselves an early hole, but we've seen them do it before,
and you see that you get favorable odds for the Bengals to make the playoffs
this year. You can make that wager very easily with banduel and if it's
not that, they're a ton of betting options as you can check out,
including spreads, players, props, over unders, and more so. Visit
fandel dot com, slash locked on and kick off the NFL season with Fandle,
the official partner of the NFL. Today's show also brought to you by
street Side Brewery. Beer is all they make, family owned and operated since
twenty sixteen. We love all of our local sponsors and street Side is no
different. They are known for their New England IPAs and with the weather turning
a bit, it's getting a little cooler. There's nothing more comforting to me
than a nice ipa. It'll warm you up. And it's not just IPAs.
They have fruited sours, laggers, plenty of different beers. In fact,
twenty four different taps, from food pints to four ouncers. They have
something for you. They're located in Columbia, Tusclumner Lunkin Airport and you can
ask about street Side and different bottle shops, bars and restaurants all across Cincinnati,
Dayton and Columbus. If you're coming to town in a few weeks for
Bengals Bills. Guess what you should get to street Side. It's a short
drive from downtown maybe or ubering because you stand at a hotel. Check out
street Side. They're also going to have pregame tailgates each in every home game,
before each and every home game, so check them out. And as
I always say, it's not the East side or the west side, the
best side is street Side. Got a couple more position groups here on offense.
To finish up, we haven't talked about the defense at all, as
this tradition on Lockdown Bengals an offense driven podcast for an offense driven team,
although maybe this year is defense driven. We'll talk about that in just a
second. But let's wrap up on offense. Let's finish up the skill positions
here with running back, where it's another position we talked about a lot and
Mixon I thought started the year really well. I think in weeks five,
let's see five and six, right, those are, yeah, they've played
six hams some weeks five and six. The finishing power that we saw from
Joe Mixon and the first four games we didn't see as much. I don't
think you played poorly at any point. I think he's been pretty good this
year, but the running game has really lacked explosion, which is something we
talked about. The running games. Efficiency in the passing game, Sorry,
the running backs. Efficiency in the passing game is significantly worse this year than
last year in terms of it being a good answer for the Bengals last year.
That's not all on the players, of course, but what are we
thinking here? Like see again, like there's nothing that's blowing your socks off
at the running back position for the Bengals. Yeah, I think mixing certainly
helps this grade. I think Trayveon's been solid and what they've asked him to
do, and it's an incomplete after that, we haven't seen Chase Brown enough
to give him a grade. I don't feel comfortable doing that. Chris Evans
is waiting on his first carry since Cleveland, I believe, unless I'm not
looking at this properly, it's crazy. So one thing, Joe Mixon averaging
six the half yards per past reception that close to Tyler Boyd six point eight,
which puts Boyd's number in perspective to me more than anything. But you're
right, not as efficient in the passing game. I agree with you.
I think Mixon hasn't been able to run as hard as powerful the past couple
of weeks, and I just think he's going to wear down if they don't
find someone else in this backfield. Hopefully it's Chase Brown, or maybe they
look outside the organization, maybe it's Trevion Williams or Chris Sevenths. I don't
care who it is. You just need someone to touch the ball, not
name Joe Mixon in this backfield and be productive. I don't expect them to
be explosive over the final eleven games. I would say C minus or so.
It's just it's a flawed running back room and so like their best case
would have been Mixin just being amazing. And I thought he was really good
to start the year, tapering off a little bit that can get fixed with
the offensive line. Let's transition to the offensive line. I think that's part
of it too, is run blocking. Why they've left something to be desired
pass blocking wise, I think they've been pretty good overall. They were tested
early with a lot of tough matchups. They'll get tested again with the forty
nine ers. Of course, I think this offensive line has been all right,
I would probably say, especially considering Burrow hasn't been able to move in
some of these games. B minus is probably where I'm at B where the
pass blocking is going to continue to get better. Kappa has certainly been much
better. The past couple of weeks been awesome, and I think Orlando Brown
Junior and company they're going to continue to play better and better. So I
would give them a BB minus. I think of its C for the offensive
line, which again maybe is harsh, but I just think that you look
at some of the great offensive lines, some of the good offensive lines,
and then the Bengals offensive line, and they're not quite there. They're missing
some juice, they're missing some athleticism, they're missing a little bit of consistency.
There are some flaws really across the board. Besides Alice, Kappa in
his last two games has been much better, Like you said, playing the
best couple of games of the season. If they continue to trend in the
right direction, I could see bumping this up. But I haven't seen much
that would suggest to me that they're above average. Maybe compared to recent Bengals
offensive lines, they're certainly a little bit better, but some room to improve
for that offensive line, for sure, and I think they're capable of doing
it. We'll see if they can. Let's go from one trench position to
the other and switch to the defense. What do you think of this defensive
front and what they've done. Obviously, they've been better the past couple of
weeks, been able to heat up opposing quarterbacks. Trey hendrickson Ballin. We
know about the core four. We talked with Lou about that. Make sure
you check out that interview. I think they're pretty good. They're not perfect,
but I think there are solid b The tackling I think goes hand in
hand with the defensive front as much as anything. In the tackling issues,
they've been better in recent weeks, so I'd give them a solid BE so
far. For me, I'm actually a little bit higher on the defensive line,
but that's because I'm weighing the starter so heavily because they've played so much.
I'm like, maybe B plus A minus Trey Henderson has been great.
DJ Reader hasn't been like DJ Reader in every single game this year, but
we've seen it in the last couple of weeks. I have a lot of
optimism that he's rounded into form. Sam Hubbard is again playing at a high
level. BJ Hill has been splashy here and there. You know, it's
another year where you want BJ to be a little bit more consistent early,
but he seems to be finding his stride a little bit as well. So
the starters have been great and where it will come down a little bit for
me as a backup interior, they've not gotten good play out of that position
when DJ and BJ come off the field. Cam's Hample, though talked about
him coming into the season. He has been pretty good and recently had a
great game playing at you know, three tech the interior pass rusher. But
also he's just a solid player, so he helps. But the backups and
the depth there is something that we're going to continue to scrutinize where you're not
talking about backups and depth so much at least so far, and hopefully continues
that way. Knock On Wood is linebacker where Jermaine Pratt, Logan Wilson.
There have been some tackling issues for this entire defense, you could say,
but I personally feel pretty good about the way those guys are playing, regardless
of what you might see if you look at the PFF grades, which are
relatively low on those guys, I'm at a solid B plus. Again for
the linebackers, I think they've been pretty good. Yeah, I agree.
I think they've been good, and the tackling part probably is the thing that
stands out. I just think they're part of that, and so i'd probably
say be but still really really good. Let's go to the cornerbacks, where
they may have a couple of young studs, young stars Cam Taylor Brett,
DJ Turner the second both playing really really well. I think Cam Taylor Britt
has two interceptions the past couple of games. Juan Drego just doesn't give up
receptions at all, so no one's going to catch it when he's in coverage,
and Mike Hilton his normal solid self. I think he's been better over
the past couple of weeks. Obviously, Chittabayo Wuzia in and out with coming
back from that ACL snap count and now dealing with a back issue. I
think the corners have been really good and so I would give them a minus
probably, Like I'm pretty confident in them, especially if Cheeto gets healthier.
So yeah, I'm pretty bullish on what they've done. Yeah. I like
what they've done too. I'm probably not there. I think I'm going to
be that. They've had some issues where they've gotten beat and the ball hasn't
been accurate. They've been bailed out by some bad quarterback play at times.
But I would say this is trending in the right direction. I really think
that Cam Taylor Britt's confidence has grown and the team's confidence in him has grown
this year. He's seen some of the most matchups against opposing team's number ones
this year, and of course that matchup with DK Metcalf in Week six was
under the microscope in a big way. Love what we've seen from DJ Turner
so far. I think Cheetoh when he's been on the field, when he's
been healthy, has been fine for the most part. Needs to get healthy
again to be so you feel good about the depth because they have been rotating
him with DJ Turner and then the other one being Mike Hilton had honestly a
rocky start to the year. Was very good in Week six. I was
very impressed with that interception. The tackling started to come into form a little
bit. But there were tackling issues for Mike Hilton where some of that wasn't
his fault. There's like a block in the back that wasn't called that led
to a big play where he's crashed down on a screen, So that's part
of it too. But again bullish all these guys going forward, just don't
think they've been quite at that level so far. Happy to disagree there.
Let's finish up with safety where it's tough because there's two guys and I'm at
an A minus for Dax. I've been very impressed with dax Or having some
flaws that bring it off with a solid A, and then Nick Scott is
probably or like other safety position which also includes some Jordan battles, probably like
a C minus where it just could be a little bit better. There's flashes
and it's just really inconsistent. Yeah, Dak's Spider Man just came out,
so I mean he's the Spider Man in the defense. I feel like they
move him all over and he makes hits and plays. He's been a good
tackler and I'm excited to watch him grow because I think he could be really
Like I was high on him just in general, like when they picked him,
and now I wonder if I was low like I should have been higher,
like on his ceiling and not where it could be because I've been impressed
with him. Nick Scott is working through it. I think he's adjusted into
his role in Luanna Rumo's defense Jordan battle as well. I think they'll figure
it out. Overall, it's probably a B minus C plus C range something
like that. Probably see to be minus and and Dax helps elevate that.
Overall, though, I think you're pretty excited to see what you've seen from
Dax, even if Nick Scott hasn't been what people had hoped. And uh,
last but not least special teams Evan mc Evan McPherson, A Coladamitas,
A Brad Robbins D D Yeah, I think D. I'm maybe maybe D
plus because he's been a really good holder. I just know. I think
I think I think you've wanted more from him what you know you wanted more
from him, and hopefully he figures it out because I really like him and
I think he's talented, and it's just about consistency. I think for Brad
right now, he's shown flashes, but it's been inconsistent. I think I'm
got to B for for one, having McPherson. He missed. He missed
two of those fifty plus yard field goals three for five. See, that'd
be five four for five at least. I want him to be perfect.
I want his fifty yard field Yeah. His like average, his career average
for fifty plus yard field goals is he was five for five last year.
He was twelve or fourteen his rookie year, and this yeraries three for five.
Small would like it to be four for five together. Name all right,
you're really mad about that missing Cleveland. No, it's the La miss
you know, it gets real dramatic. He won them the game against the
Rams. He was the best player on the field. He also missed one,
just saying, unbelievable. Your card grades suck. You want an A.
The f F has blinders on certain grades. You are awful with kicker
grades. It's okay, all right. He has been much better. Hasn't
missed a kick from forty to forty nine, which was where he uh worries
about tonight for his entire career. So he's getting better credit credit there like
that. They're taking more three plus our field goals this year, though they
should well, especially if the offense is struggled. They're not going for it
kind of too. Yeah, we didn't get coaching grades in. We talked
to the coaches recently. The biggest thing for me is some of the fourth
down decisions. Well, we'll see if that improves or not. I think
that they're very like gained the game with that and like how things are going
in the game in addition to the analytics. But just and just their struggles.
Yeah, just their struggle. I mean, if Burro's feeling it's really
tough with the six games, we probably should add a disclaimer. I expect
this team to feel much much different moving forward. Doesn't mean they will beat
San fran but I expected to feel different in Santa Clara when we're there.
Yeah, I feel like I'm bullish on pretty much all these guys. So
we just talked about we just talked through all these units, like, well,
so far this but I feel like this and it's been mostly bullish And
there's some spots we'll maybe talk about where they could be better, or maybe
they bring in some guys at the trade deadline, maybe they don't, but
certainly something that we can talk about here this week that's gonna do it for
this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. The Bengals back in the building on
Monday. Until then, thanks for listening, who Day and have a good one.