Building Blocks or Busts? Bengals Midseason Progress Report Highlighting Rookies

Building Blocks or Busts? Bengals Midseason Progress Report Highlighting Rookies

The Cincinnati Bengals are relying largely on young players in 2025 and largely they’ve been disappointed by many of those young players who needed to take big steps this season. There are a few bright spots though. We’ll break down all of the Cincinnati Bengals young players in a mid-season progress report starting now. 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 Network, your team every day. I’m Jake Liscoco joined today by Mike Santaga, our resident film expert here on Lockdown Bengals to break down how the young players are doing in 2025. And despite a lot of doom and gloom around this team, there are a few bright spots and we’ll get to in today’s episode leading with Dylan Fairchild’s effort against the Chicago Bears. hopefully a breakout game for him and the steady progress of DJ Turner before we get to the rest of the young guys on this team really being asked to play big roles this season. Welcome back to the everydayers out there. Welcome back to everyone who makes lockdown Bengals part of their daily routine and their their first listen. We appreciate all of you out there who make us part of your daily life. And Mike, today as we dive into a mid-season status update for the Bengals young players, well, there’s there’s a lot of negative that we’re going to have to get to today. A lot of players on young contracts that are not contributing or on rookie contracts that are not contributing at a high enough level, but we’re going to start with some positives. We’re going to start with the the biggest positive for a rookie and that’s Dylan Fairchild who after he returned from injury has shown a couple of really nice games in run blocking and back-to-back weeks against the Jets and the Bears and an overall really strong performance against the Chicago Bears right before the Bengals buy. What was really impressive to you as you watch Dylan Fairchild’s tape? I know you have a cut up out there on Twitter you that if you’re listening you can go find it uh of of the the Dylan Fairchild week nine highlight reel, but what stood out to you as you were watching Fairchild? Yeah, I think he’s a guy that’s not fully there technically yet and yet he was pretty dominant in this game against the Bears. Um you look at how he did in pass protection. Now he’s going against an older Grady Jarrett, Andrew Billings, um other Chicago Bears defender, Gervon Dexter, who had been this year. Gervon Dexter as well. I think it’s a good matchup for Fairchild, too. Just Gervon Dexter’s really just got the strength, I feel like, and Fairchild’s got the strength to match that. He’s got the wrestling background, understands his leverage really well. That goes into what I mean here is while he’s not technically sound, I feel like there’s plays where a lot of guys would lose the rep and he’s able to recover. He’s he gets himself in weird body positions and he gets out of them. Uh he can miss a punch and still be fine. And what’s interesting and promising about that is the technical ability should come over time. He should be getting better technically as he moves forward in his career. and he’s already putting together some good performances against NFL caliber players in pass protection despite that it there’s a lot of guys you get bad technical skills and they’re not able to do this. I think this is where his understanding of leverage, his strength, his ability to root himself into the ground against bull rushes. There’s a really impressive one against Jonathan Allen’s not the last two weeks where Jonathan Allen goes for like the signature bear hug hump move and Fairchild anchors in against it. That’s pretty awesome. I thought he was better in the run game actually against the Jets. I feel like he got a lot more movement, but it’s that he got rolled up on. I think it was in the second half and he just wasn’t moving the same for whatever reason. It just was an injury for that week. It seems like because he was moving well again the Bears. But um back-to-back weeks for me before getting rolled up on in the Jets game, thought he was good to very good. And I thought this week he was good to very good again. Um and the Jets game obviously comes against a little bit of Quinnon Williams and then the rest is like Michael Clemens and those types. Uh but he’s doing it one-on-one, too. I feel like the center is sliding more to help the right guard and Fairchild and Orlando Brown are really on an island together. And the other part that’s going to stick out to me is how fast he process stunts and picks, just games, anything coming his way. Whether it’s the looper coming to him and knowing I have to kick this guy out or is he has the looper and he’s immediately getting to the right level with either Caris or Brown. He did it with both of them. Getting to the right level with them and like, “Okay, you could pass that to me so you can pick up my guy.” and just playing really good sound football in terms of being able to pick up his stunts. It seems like he’s smart. It seems like he’s working well communication wise with those two. I’ve been really impressed with a his recovery ability and ability to get himself out of jams, but b his intelligence and working these stunts and and moving guys in the run game, like you’re saying, being where he’s supposed to be, getting to the second level at times, the athleticism showing up for him. You you mentioned the technique isn’t really there. Have you seen signs of improvement from a technical aspect as the season has gone on? Because that’s the whole thing with Scott Peters, right? Is like he’s here to help guys work on technique and help them figure out how to maximize their physical tools. Have you seen evidence of any any technical improvement compared to this game? Yeah, it’s a little bit harder because, you know, he missed those weeks in the middle. But if you look back at how he was performing week two, week three, even week one, where I thought he was solid week one, um it he got himself into jams more often. And now you see him get into those jams still and still more than you’d like where he’s not in a good body position, but it’s less than it was before. So, I do think the technical ability is coming a little bit better. His feet have been good since he’s gotten to the NFL. I think um it seems like they’re better than in pass protection than it was for him at Georgia. It feels like he’s not leaning and out of control nearly as much in the run game. I feel like that’s helping him. And that was I think what you could look at as a real technical improvement is I think his run game has gotten better, which is surprising for a Bengals offensive lineman for to be getting better. The run game as time goes on, but I think he’s technically improved there where he’s not out of control. He’s not lunging. He’s not leaning over and if a guy moves out of the way. He’s just falling down or entirely running himself out of the play. He’s able to play in control and stay attached to guys. And against the Jets really he was caving guys. And he did it a couple of times against the Bears too, but I remember the Jets there were a couple of those that was just the combo and climb like he cave in one guy and then he just goes and mauls the linebacker too. And it’s been a while since the Bengals have had a guard I feel like that’s able to do this type of work. And for all of the the scrutiny over the Bengals early picks where maybe you know they go Gray Zable who was the next pick in the first round or Tate Ratage who was a very obvious pick to many observers in the second round and we’re going to talk about some of these young guys that they took instead of those players. At least the the consolation is is that Dylan Fairchild could be on the trajectory to be a solid plus starter at left guard for the Bengals for the foreseeable future. And he’s a relatively young player as he starts his NFL career as a rookie. He’s just 22 years old and so there’s plenty of runway there for a second contract if he continues this trajectory. We’ll need to see it of course against some some stronger opposition and well they they should have a chance of that. They they play the Steelers here in a couple of weeks after the buy and so should have a shot to see Dylan Fairchild against some some stronger competition for the rest of the season. And if you can see that consistency from him, then you can feel really good at least about that spot as far as young guys go on this team. I want to continue on the offensive line before we get to DJ Turner. Mike, we’ll get to Amarius Mims. We’ll get to Jaylen Rivers because the Bengals have a lot of these young guys playing in critical spots on the offensive line this year. As we continue the conversation about the the rookie contract players for the Cincinnati Bengals, the costc controlled players for the Cincinnati Bengals and how they’re showing so far in 2025. 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He’s not necessarily making massive impact blocks on a week- toeek basis, but there there seems to be at least a high steady floor for Mims. What do you think when you’re looking at Mims in year two from a development perspective, from a a consistency perspective, we’re seeing from him? Another young player like we mentioned, an inexperienced college player who of course played with Dylan Fairchild is just about a half year older than Dylan Fairchild with a year of NFL experience under his belt. Yeah, Mims to me I think since the Denver game I would classify as how he’s playing as pretty good. I think um you look at what I think is really improved for him as well is the run game. It’s weird with Scott Peters being this thought of as a strike technique type of pass game guru. It feels like the young guys have been getting better in the run game than anything. And for Mims last year he felt like a baby deer in the run. just didn’t know where to go. It felt like he didn’t know his assignments too well. And that was kind of true still early on this season. It feels like the last couple of weeks though, he’s kind of looked more like a guy that feels confident in what he’s doing, getting to his assignment fast. They’re able to use his good athleticism at that size as an advantage for them as well. He gets in the space, he makes blocks. I think the pass game he gets some help. Um, but also he’s gone against some really good players. TJ Watt, you look at Montes Sweat and these guys were mostly lining up over the right tackle and this gets a chip, but everybody would. Well, not everybody, but you know, non-lane Johnson right tackles, Pen Su right tackles, they’re all probably getting chips in that scenario. And you can only look at him and evaluate him based off of how he’s played with that chip. And I think he’s played pretty well in pass protection, too. I think there’s a lapse or two more than there is with Fairchild in pass protection. Just one, it’s probably a little bit of the quality of competition. He’s getting tougher opponents. I think from a technical standpoint, I’ve always liked his feet and pass protection. I think uh a weakness he had for a while was, you know, over setting and allowing an inside move, being a little bit too explosive in his stance, not keeping an inside half relationship with that rusher. I feel like he’s done a little bit better job of that to not give up an inside. Um, what I think could keep improving is it feels like he is still, it feels like he and Rivers, and we’ll talk about River soon, they don’t have the same level of communication that Fairchild and Brown have. At least they’re not, you know, having the same mind meld in terms of, okay, they both Fairchild and Brown, you watch them on a stunt and they’re just immediately when they recognize it stunt, they’re basically together at the same level just passing things off and it looks like another day in the office for them. It feels like it’s a little bit more hard for Fairchild, for Rivers and Mims to be passing those stunts off. And it also seems like Mims may have missed a call this week, I think, on that sack that Flaco took with the corner coming on a blitz. Um, it feels like he should have passed that off and worked back outside because he immediately does step outside then in in that scenario. You want to pass that off and pick this guy up. Brown does a Chase Brown does a good job picking up his rusher, but then there’s still a free guy off the end and Flaco thought he was safe because in that protection he still should have been safe. Um, but yeah, I think Mims overall it’s been a little bit of improvement from last year. I would say I think the pass game roughly similar even if it’s been better the past couple of weeks or you look at the season in totality, but I do think the run game is better. I think he looked lost last year in the run game and now he doesn’t look lost nearly as much. And we weren’t ever too concerned with him in the pass game. Like he was always okay in in pass blocking. There’s room for improvement, I think, in in his game in totality, but an improvement in the run game is obviously big for him and still young, still has time to continue to improve. And if we see steady improvement in the second half of the season, the consistency in the second half of the season, we can continue to be bullish on men’s future. Meanwhile, Jaylen Rivers’s fifth round pick for the Bengals in 2025, thrust into his starting lineup despite the presence of two veterans in Dalton Riser and Lucas Patrick, who both could have and had taken snaps at that position prior to Jaylen Rivers taking over that job. But then Jaylen Rivers took over that job and he hasn’t given it up at least in the last few weeks. And it’s been up and down for him. There have been moments where he’s been totally fine. But like I said, I think that it would be pretty fair to describe him as the weak link on this offensive line right now. What have you seen from Rivers as he’s trying to find his way in his rookie year? Yeah, he almost gets chicken and egg there because I think defenses also see him as the weak link. So when they get a chance to target their best pass rusher against somebody, they try to single it out against Rivers. And I think Rivers is a roller coaster every game. I think every game is a bit of a you’re gonna get some good plays. I can think of specifically, I mean that one play against the Jets where he cuts off the linebacker, gets his hips in the right hole and good movement ability, but then also in that same game, there’s plays he gets beat quickly. And I think it happens more frequently for him than anybody else on this offensive line, especially because he’s a guard and guards typically get more help than, you know, the center is going to give up less pressure than the guard is going to have less pressure than the tackle because really it’s about how much isolation you end up in. And I feel like the tackle you’re going to be isolated most of the time whereas the guard you’ve got some insulation on both sides and the center is obviously insulated on both sides as well and actually rarely faces head-up rushers anyway. So I think when you look at that it’s a little bit rough I think in pass protection at times where he is getting singled out. He is getting beat. He is getting beat by guys that aren’t elite e as well because you could look at that Packers game and say oh but Micah Parsons is who he’s facing. He was also losing to anybody else they put over there too at times. So you can’t also just handwave it away and just like it’s Micah Parsons and Micah Parsons is also picking him out out of everybody on the offensive line. He says like that’s the guy I want to go against. That’s their weak link. I want to get our best player against their worst. So I think he just has to become more consistent. You can see some of the talents there. I think he’s a bit of a mess technically where he gets in those weird body positions as well like Fairchild, but more often and he’s worse at getting out of them and maintain and like maintaining contact with rushers through those body positions. So, I think it’s a roller coaster. I don’t think it’s a disaster. Uh I think what the PFF grade probably says yes, it is a disaster. BFF grade says that he is the fourth worst pass protecting offensive guard in the NFL with at least worse 150 snaps or so. Yeah, could could be three players worse. Uh but I I think there’s good in there, too, though. Like it’s it’s not just as if he’s getting destroyed and then the only good plays is the ball came out in two seconds. I think there’s plays that you can see like, okay, I get the idea of Jaylen Rivers. I don’t I don’t think it looks like he could never play in the NFL like I’ve thought with like Michael Jordan or some of the other guys that have gone out there for the Bengals at the guard position uh when Billy Price was playing guard instead of center. It’s it’s it doesn’t look like that to me, but it doesn’t at this point I don’t think you could count on him to be a starting right guard for you next year either. He has to play a little better for that consideration for me. Yeah, hopefully we continue to see some improvement there or begin to see some consistent improvement there. Just for for what it’s worth from a PFF perspective since we haven’t watched these guys closely. Uh Will Hernandez, who we were talking about in the offseason, ninth worst PFF pass blocking grade on the season. Mai Beckton 13th worst in case you’re curious about how he’s doing. Patrick Mccari got paid pretty well by Jacksonville. He’s tied with Mai Beckton at 13th worst in the NFL in pass blocking grade. Tate Rattlage is down there at 18th worst. Uh he’s been graded really well as a pass block as a run blocker but not as a pass blocker. Alex Kappler, the former Bengal at 19th worst here according to the PFF grading. And like even Landon Dickerson way down there this year. So maybe just not a great year for for some guards in pass protection this year. You know, Joe Tuni, Peter Scarvsky, those guys way up on the list. Of course, Trey Smith way up on the list. But in terms of players that were available to the Bengals to to go after in in free agency, a lot of the guys that we talked about are not having substantially better seasons if you are to trust PFF pass protection grades. Anyway, I’m just looking down the list here to see if there’s anybody who we talked about in the offseason as an option who shows up better and like Kevin Zitler’s the best at a at a 63. like Kevin Zitler by far having his worst year in recent history and you know toward toward retirement age not too surprising there right but uh for for a guy in a bad situation in Tennessee that’s where Kevin Zitler would be certainly would be better than what they’ve had so far at that spot but on the defensive side of the ball where it’s mostly a disaster and there’s been a lot of of draft picks invested there and a lot of guys not playing up to to their draft status at least DJ Turner in his third here is making himself look like an early extension candidate. We’ll finish the show with DJ Turner and some of these defensive players coming up next. This episode of Blacktown Bengals is sponsored by FanDuel. The NBA is back. 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Now, obviously, we’re not going to get enough time to talk about, you know, Germaine Burton can’t get on the field, can’t do enough right things for the coaches to trust him. We’re not going to talk a ton about Chase Brown in this episode, even though he is on a rookie contract in his third year, also a potential early extension candidate. Andre Yosvage, a thirdyear player. We’ll see if we have time there or not, but uh those guys a little bit more established being in their third years and being largely what they have been. It’s been a bit of a down year for Yoshi, but those guys are pretty much what what we what we think they would be. Chase Brown, good player. Andre Yosvage is a fine wide receiver three, I think, in an offense with Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, but we would probably like him to play a little bit better. There’s no McKinley Jackson tape to talk about this year. So, there’s that. Josh Newton can barely get onto the field. So, we’re really talking about linebackers that have struggled. Shamar Stewart who’s struggled and has had his injury issues this year. Dax Hill who’s been a little bit up and down. Cam Taylor Britt who has been up and down. Miles Murphy who hasn’t broken out. But at least there’s DJ Turner, right? At least we have this one bright spot on the defense that we can talk about here in the by-week in DJ Turner. What What do you think the big step is for DJ Turner where we’ve seen some some progress from him over the last couple of years? What is it this year that has led to him looking like he’s taken a step? I feel like there’s been a linear growth path for him where his rookie year it was a roller coaster. Kind of like we talked about J like there’s there’s some good plays in there and then there’s a lot of this guy’s small and can’t win at the catch point and I don’t care how tight he is if he’s always going to get dunked on. Second year a little bit better. this year. I think the big improvement. I think this one is I think quantifiable, but also just with your eyes, it’s at the catch point, right? It’s it’s he’s ripping the ball out of DK Metaf’s hand for an interception. He’s got probably still maybe still the most passes broken up in the entire NFL, but it just feels like at the catch point, he plays bigger than he is. I know he got dunked on by that tight end. He was the only guy to recognize that was a a halfback pass, so he gets dinged with the touchdown given up. It’s like if somebody else recognized it, maybe they would have stopped the play if a bigger guy could have got back there if one of the safeties saw it, but uh or could get over the top of it or in a better position. But I think at the catch point is the big difference where he’s always been a guy that has the movement ability and he has the you think of three points with a corner and a wide receiver. the release point or press point for a corner. And I think he’s never gonna be a Richard Sherman there, but he does a good job of keeping his balance, maintaining his leverage and playing it correctly there at the break point. I think that’s where he’s always excelled is he doesn’t get lost at the break point. Guy makes a sharp cut and he’s right there with him. We talked, we’ve talked before about his ability to, yes, change direction and he has insane straight line speed, but his hips are really fluid and the deceleration is always really nice as well where you see him stop at the same speed as the wide receiver despite the wide receiver knowing I’m going to stop and DJ Turner not knowing that wide receiver is going to stop. So, he’s reacting to the wide receiver slowing down, able to slow down right there with him. I think that that’s always been there. Then you think of the catch point. And this is something that if you watch Turner’s career the last two years before this season, you think clear weak point. That’s the clear spot you get him. Despite him being tight, you could just throw the ball up in that scenario and he’s probably going to lose to most bigger wide receivers. This year, it just hasn’t been the case. He’s stepped up to every challenge. uh he was so tight on Roma Dunay on any of their man coverages it felt like that the ball just wasn’t going that way because well one the other guys on the team but also Caleb William saying he’s like well adun is not open in this on this play. I wish the Bengals were able to play more man coverage because I think that is where Turner might be at his best just to really show off that movement ability and ability at the catch point to stay tight with guys. But I think that’s the biggest difference is the ball production, the work at the catch point, his ability to track the ball, play it in the air, but also play it through the receivers’s hands when he doesn’t even know that the ball is in the air or on its way. Just seeing hands come out and punching through them or ripping through them and being able to create turnovers as well. Some of his tip passes have become turnovers for the defense. I think of a Gina Stone interception against the Packers that he was the one to get his hands on first. Uh I think the catch point if you’re gonna ask like what is different like is is this sustainable? I think the answer is yes. If he continues to play this good at the catch point I mean he’s playing really well at all three phases. There’s some consistency linear improvement that you mentioned that shows up statistically as well in terms of completion percentage allowed. He went from 58% as a rookie to 54% in his second year to 47% this year, like about four or five% a year. He’s getting better in that category. And toward the end of last year is when you started to see him piling up the the pass breakups. In week 10 and week 11, he had a combined four pass breakups in those games. only gave up 50% of targets into his area as completions where earlier in the year it was a little bit more of a struggle at times. Giving up three of four uh targets as catches in two games in week five and then in week nine before week 10 and 11 last year really turned it on um later in the season. So there there is this trend with DJ Turner over the last couple years as well where we’ve seen him kind of be a slow starter much like a lot of the other parts of this team. Uh, but in terms of his stats this year, leads the NFL according to PFF in pass breakups, leads the NFL in terms of forced incompletion percentage, which includes interceptions that you have forced the ball to now be incomplete, like somebody else didn’t tip it and you collected the interception. For example, Dax Hill is an interception this year, but actually PFF has charted him for zero uh forced incompletions. So would like to see a little bit of of improvement from Dax Hill in the back half in terms of creating more incompletions on his own as a virtue of his coverage by pass breakups or jumping jumping routes on his own. But 32% of targets into DJ Turner’s coverage have been incompletions that he has forced. That’s better than S Gardner. That’s better than Pat Certan who are second. And uh Pat Sertan’s fourth. Joey Porter actually tied with Sauce Gardner for second in the NFL in forced in completion percentage. The other thing that’s been impressive, like I said, this year is his his receptions allowed on targets into his coverage. Just 18 of the 38 passes attempted in his coverage have been completed. And for guys with 30 plus targets in the NFL, that’s second best. Ronaldo Green uh with San Francisco actually a little bit better by that particular category, but has a lot fewer forcing completions on his own. So, a lot of these balls that are going into DJ Turner’s coverage that are leading to being incomplete passes are because specifically DJ Turner has broken up the pass. If if you consider that that’s 20 catches thrown in DJ Turner’s direction that have not been completed and he’s got a pass break up or an interception on 12 of them. That means there’s only eight passes thrown in his direction that were, you know, out of bounds or uncatchable or somebody else got a hand on it. whatever the reason is that the pass wasn’t completed into him being the primary cover guy according to PFF. So really impressive statistically in addition to the eye test for DJ Turner. Meanwhile, we’ve talked a lot about the linebackers. We don’t need to get into them in a great deal of depth today. But Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter both continuing to show a lot of the same problems that we’ve seen from them all year in terms of processing, not playing physical football in terms of tackling issues, not getting correct depth or or understanding where they’re supposed to be in some of the zones. We talked about that in the last segment of our most recent episode, some of these spot drop zones where they just seem to have issues all over the place. Chris Jenkins not really taking a big step as a pass rusher. Is there anyone else from from this bucket of young players, whether it’s Cam Taylor Brit, Dax Hill, Miles Murphy, Jordan Battle, uh Chris Jenkins, that you really wanted to to put a spotlight on for something that you think we haven’t talked about enough this year? Jamar Stewart. H I mean I think I’m a bit it’s early, but I I’m a bit concerned about Shamar Stewart where I I I thought Miles Murphy had a chance to become something. And obviously at this point looks like he’s just going to be like a fine a fine rotational edge. Like a guy that won’t bust things for you, but he’s probably not busting things for the offense either. just going out there and being okay at what he’s doing. Stuart to me, he’s week one is carrying a lot of weight because he was a chaos creator in week one and it was one of those situations where you look at that and you’re like, “Oh, that’s why you draft him because year one he’s just going to be this ball of chaos and ruin things for off. He’s just a giant wrench that gets just thrown at the offense engine every single play.” He has not been that since. And like there’s hardly any positive plays to speak of. And there’s quite a bit of negative ones. It feels like he doesn’t read the blocks very well coming at him. And that led to the viral clip of Darno Wright just driving him 12 yards and dumping him on a fourth and one where you have to know there’s a very likely chance you were going to get down blocked by a monstrous right tackle. And it it just feels like if that week one wasn’t there, this would feel really bad. And it still feels bad in terms of this seems worse than Miles Murphy year one. It seems like there’s just more negative to it. It seems like this might the floor just might not be at all there. It feels rough. It feels really rough for Shamar Stewart at the moment, especially as a round one pick. He’s going to miss more time with an injury and I know there’s nothing you could do about that. And I don’t think he was very injured in college, so it’s not like you could even predict this, but you really wish he could get on the field more because he’s got to get up to speed and be able to play the run a little bit better than this. He’s got to be able to, you know, eventually be able to rush the passer. But I think that’s one thing haven’t talked a lot about because he’s missed a lot of time, but when he’s out there right now, not a lot of positive plays and there’s quite a few negative plays to look at. He’s played a lot in the last couple of weeks, too. 89 snaps in weeks nine and eight as he returned from that injury. They’ve, of course, got the injury to Trey Hendrickson. They’ve got injuries piling up in in that edge rusher rotation at this point. We’ll see how they come out of the by-week and and how they do in terms of in some of these guys getting a little bit healthier. Hopefully, the game slows down for him at some point. We see the light bulb come on. That’s kind of the hope for Shamar Stewart and for these linebackers, too, right? I think a lot of these issues that a lot of these guys are having on the defensive side of the ball is the game’s still moving fast for them, especially the rookies that are in these huge roles, but that they’re struggling up the middle of the defense. And a lot of that is because that’s where a lot of the young players are from Jordan Battle, the rookie linebackers, Chris Jenkins in his second year, and and they’re just not getting enough out of the edge, which features two first round picks there. And so it’s an unfortunate situation with a lot of those guys. But if DJ Turner continues his level of play that we’ve seen from him at least this year, we can talk about him as an extension candidate because like one of the questions we’ve often asked with this team in terms of not doing some of the deals they’ve done are like who are you going to pay? Who do you have to pay? And uh well now DJ Turner looks like a good idea for the Bengals to get in front of that one where they can get an early extension potentially done with him here after year three this off seasonason. That’s going to do it though for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Uh I know there are a lot of guys we didn’t get to, but wanted to highlight some of the guys that are playing well, some of the offensive line picks, and we’ve talked so much about so many of these guys on defense. Just didn’t want to belabor the point here as we’re getting back to a regular schedule here. The Bengals have a football game to play here pretty soon from the time you’re listening to this episode. You can go find Mike on Twitter at Bengals_ands. Find us writing over at benglesalk.com. And until next time, thanks for listening to this episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast. Who day and have a good one.

Cincinnati Bengals’ young core faces growing pains in 2025, but rookie Dylan Fairchild’s growth spurs optimism for the offensive line’s future. Fairchild’s blend of strength and intelligence signals a potential franchise building block. Is the Bengals’ faith in youth beginning to pay off, or are looming struggles ahead?

Jake Liscow and Mike Santagata evaluate the development of key Bengals prospects, including Amarius Mims’ steady progress at right tackle and Jalen Rivers’ fight for consistency amidst tough matchups. On defense, DJ Turner emerges as an extension candidate with elite ball production, while questions persist about Shemar Stewart’s impact and the future of the linebacker group.

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