Cincinnati Bengals REJECT Bold Moves, CLING to Trey Hendrickson at Trade Deadline

Cincinnati Bengals REJECT Bold Moves, CLING to Trey Hendrickson at Trade Deadline

The Cincinnati Bengals just didn’t do enough as the NFL trade deadline has come and gone. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Locked On 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, your team every day. He’s James Rapin. I’m Jakeco and we are your hosts of Locked On Bengals. Been covering your Cincinnati Bengals here on this podcast since 2016 through the ups and downs. And we’re currently in a down. It’s another down episode. James, I’m sick of saying this at the beginning of episodes, but the times are thin. It is not thick. But we’ve had you covered here daily on this podcast for quite a while now, making it your best one-stop shop consistently for all the news, analysis, everything going on with the Cincinnati Bengals. Today, we’re covering the trade deadline that came and went with the Bengals making minimal moves in 2025’s trade deadline. And the everydayers knew this episode was coming. Welcome back to everyone who makes lockdown bagels part of their everyday routine. and all of you who make Lockdown Bengals your first listen. We appreciate all of you very much for those great listening habits. Today’s episode is sponsored by FanDuel, where new customers can bet $5 and if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. And James, if you had bet that the Bengals were going to trade one player, a player who started the year as a captain who ended up getting benched, get a seventh round pick back and that would be it. I probably would have bought it. you probably would not have gotten great odds honestly because of this team’s history. That doesn’t make it any less disappointing. That doesn’t make it any less substandard for what this team had to do. And just like we talked about yesterday, James, they had to be really honest with themselves and where they are. And it doesn’t feel like they got there. Well, it doesn’t feel like they got there for for a few different reasons. And that’s what’s tough is like you could have sold me on the idea of trading Logan and and Cam for example or trading Logan and Joseph Osai because he’s in a contract year and we could go over all the guys that we went over yesterday of course. I get why trading Trey sounds scary and tough but you’re three and six and so it it’s it’s one of two options Jake. It’s because you definitely have have the time to take the long view. You’re not preparing for a game. You’re not thinking about that this week. The Bengals were blessed with a buy. And so you get the buy and if you’re a front office, you can kind of take a breath, look at things, and say, “All right, are we going to pay Trey this off season? Are we going to franchise tag Trey this offseason? Are we going to sign Trey Hendricks into a long-term deal this offseason?” Does it feel like that? Does it feel like that’s coming? Because I don’t think so. I don’t think Trey Hendrickson is expecting that. He talked yesterday and I I tweeted out uh the uh the full video of that. I know he talked to reporters today. I didn’t go to the to practice today and most of the team didn’t show up to practice today. So, I don’t feel bad about doing that. that that’s the one where it’s it’s really tough because you look at the big moves that happened and this was a very active trade deadline and you wonder what the offers were for Trey Hendrickson because I got to be honest Jake if if if it was a two maybe just a two but if it was a two and anything I would have seriously considered it because I’ll go back to this because I know the Bengals don’t plan on paying Trey Hendrickson long term not because Duke Tobin called me or Mike around called me, but because their actions have told us that. So, unless they plan on paying him long term, why would they at 31 and he’s going to be 31 next month, then why keep him at three and six knowing that your season is one loss away probably from being completely over, even mathematically, um certainly two losses away from that. And it’s just unrealistic when you look at the back half of that schedule of them really going on a true run with or without Trey Hendrickson. They should have moved them assuming those offers were there for a day two pick, round two pick and then some. And I do think those offers were there, Jake. And that’s what’s really frustrating. Yeah. I mean, you saw the trades that happened today. Quinn Williams gets a future first and a current second. S Gardner gets two firsts and a former second round pick, I think AD Mitchell was for the Indianapolis Colts. He’s obviously had a tumultuous start to his NFL career, so it’s not like that’s a huge asset. a bit of a throwin, but he is an asset nonetheless that has talent that has shown upside. And so there were huge trades today for big stars that have been paid recently. The difference is they’re younger and that’s probably the biggest difference. Trey’s on an expiring deal. So if you acquire Trey Hendricks and you have to deal with the contract that that will come with that. Yeah, probably if if you want to keep him. And if you don’t want to keep him, then the price is going to be lower. you don’t just like typically see big returns for for players like that. And and that’s what’s weird about the NFL too, right? Like Logan Wilson gets a seventh round pick. And we we’ll talk about the details there, the financial ramifications and why it was just a seventh round pick. When you see, you know, mid-tier receivers getting traded for multiple picks, including early day three picks, a fourth and something. It’s just there’s differences in age, differences in contract situation, differences in value. Logan Wilson was benched and so like that’s part of it too. Mhm. The thing that I go back to though is like you said if there’s a second round pick that’s offered and maybe they didn’t get that offer. We don’t know. Maybe we’ll find out what offers were out there in the in the I’d be stunned. I’d be stunned if they didn’t get offered a second. But go ahead. You’re right. We’re not in the room. You’re right. Then you really have to have an idea of what your plan is. And this was the whole point yesterday. This is the whole reason that we’re talking about, yeah, they should probably trade Trey Hendrickson. They should probably trade anyone who isn’t part of the solution in the future because we don’t think the Bengals see Trey Hendrickson as part of the solution in the future. If they come out of this and they say, “Ah, you know what? Maybe we need to reconsider our stance on paying Trey Hendrickson long term.” And there’s no reason to think that the Bengals would do that now that Trey is going to be entering a season in which he will already be 31 years old. then maybe it’s different. But I can’t convince myself that that is the Bengals position. Do the Bengals think that they can just franchise tag Trey again and get one more year with Trey? Is that their plan? Is that why they didn’t make the move? You want to deal with that soap opera again all offseason? The effect that that has on the locker room, the effect that that has in in everyone talking about the Cincinnati Bengals and this distraction. You can’t tell me that’s not a distraction. I don’t believe you. I don’t I don’t buy that either. And so if that’s what it is, yeah, we know it’s been a distraction. Like I love that Trey talked yesterday, but do you think it’s a coincidence that Trey talked yesterday and we asked him to, but he just was in the locker room when we haven’t seen Trey in a while, right? And and shout out to him, you know, and he answered the questions the right way. Guess what? I think he probably deep down if you gave him truth sermon he didn’t say this at at any point to me but I’m just being clear think he wanted to get traded because it would be a chance to get paid and he’s been yanked around and pulled around and all those things like that’s tough that that’s that that’s a it’s it’s tough and what makes it harder is you’re not a contender. you might not have much to play for in the back half. And if you don’t have much to play for in the back half, well, and this is where my mind goes is I want to be bad enough to have a top 10 pick. This franchise hasn’t had a top 10 pick in a while. And it sucks that we’re here and I didn’t want to be here, but guess what? They’re three and six. They’ve scored 80 points the past two weeks and somehow Joe Flacco has led them to the number one offense in the league over the past month or close to it. And guess what? They’re one and three. That sucks. It sucks that they’re in this position, but they are. And so I’m thinking, “Oh man, don’t pick sixth overall, seventh overall. Don’t want to pick 16th. Don’t want to pick 18th.” I want the choice of the man, these are the five guys. Four of them are going to be on the board and boy oh boy are you going to be in great spot. And and I couldn’t name me. I’m not into draft prep at all right now. And I don’t think you are. You might know more than me at this point, but I I I don’t do any draft this early. But the earlier you pick, the better. Maybe you don’t get sniped with Walter Nolan, right? Everyone’s talking about, “Oh, Walter Nolan, look at him.” Maybe that doesn’t happen. Maybe you get your guy. And so that’s in the back of my mind as well. If Trey Hendrickson’s out there, maybe he does win you a few games, but you’re not really in playoff contention, but you’re not in tanking contention. And that’s a hell of a place to be right in the middle. just continuing to play in purgatory like we’re back here with with Joe Burrow and I know he’s hurt heard Jamar Chase and Tiggins on your team. I I mean it’s maybe technically speaking too early to talk about tanking and and this team’s ability to tank, but I don’t think they really need to try. We’re seeing the defense continue to get worse on pace to be a historically bad defense, a historically worse defense in Super Bowl era, maybe longer in in many categories. And I know the offensive context and the rule changes in the NFL are part of this. But I imagine DVOA is era adjusted. That will continue to look bad as the Bengals defense right now is the second worst defense in the DVOA era. And they’ve just played two bad offenses statistically speaking in the last two weeks and it continues to get worse. We’ll continue the conversation about the Bengals lack of activity at the trade deadline. Cam Taylor Britt still a Cincinnati Bengal as well as we’ve alluded to. Logan Wilson, the one Bengal actually traded. So we’ll dive into the other bits and pieces of this trade deadline pertinent to the Cincinnati Bengals coming up next. Today’s show is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is America’s number one sports book. And with the NBA in full swing, well, FanDuel is here. There’s no better place to get in on all the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. And maybe you’ll miss the start of the game, which the Bengals have scored like an NBA team recently. 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We talked about how many players yesterday we didn’t even talk about a couple of the offensive linemen on on short-term deals like Daltton Risner you could make an argument for. Lucas Patrick, you could have made an argument for there. There are other guys that we didn’t talk Noah Fant. I think we did mention him, but there there are pieces on the offensive side of the ball, too. The reason that we spent so much time on the defensive side of the ball is because that’s the side that needs to blow up, right? But not only do they only trade Logan Wilson for a seventh round pick, which gets them some salary cap relief this year and next year. It’s a salary dump. This is the the same return that the Bengals gave up for Khalil Herbert last year. Yeah. and and that’s a guy that started this year for you as a piece that you’re building your defense around as a captain on this team that Al Golden knew well obviously didn’t go that way for for Logan Wilson who’s talking to on podcasts about you know he thought he was going to retire in Cincinnati obviously didn’t go that way things change quickly in the NFL but not only do they not sell in a significant way that returns assets of of particular value maybe that seventh round pick helps them move around late in day three maybe they get up into the sixth Okay, sure. But that’s what we’re talking about instead of anything that signifies a plan for for what this team is going to do to escape this cycle they’re in on the defensive side of the ball. I get it. I get it. I I think it’s twofold. One, I wasn’t expecting much in return and so not shocked at all by the return. Me neither. I I think so. That’s one. Two, the big regret here is if I was the front office, and I’ve had some specul like people have been like, “Oh, well, the front office making them play these young guys.” I don’t think that’s the case. I I think the coaching staff has certainly made a decision to pivot and and go young and it’s an interesting decision. If I was the front office, I would have said, “No, you’re not benching Logan.” I would have done it the other way. Hey, how about you hold on for a few more weeks and let us try to get a bit more for Logan and go that route where it’s the the other way where he’s still your captain. He’s still your main guy. He’s still wearing the green dot. He’s still And maybe you get a bit more. But once he was benched, you look at that contract, you look that he’s 29, you look at the injury last year and everything that goes with it. This was it. Pick swap, seventh rounder, whatever. You just need someone to take that salary and you can get into the salary details in a second. They saved cap space this year and next year or there’s also a dead cap hit with both uh both years anyway, but it lessens and that’s why you do this deal. It’s really not because of the seventh round pick. It’s because of the contract. You’re paying Dallas uh and giving them uh Logan Wilson essentially. You’re paying them Logan Wilson to get that contract off your books. And that’s that’s really what this is. And I’ve seen a lot of people say, “I can’t believe we only got a seventh round for Logan.” But the contract part of it, that’s what it is. Dallas is buying that contract, so they didn’t have to give up much to get Logan Wilson in town. The other facet here that I think leads to it being a seventh round pick is the Bengals do get a full pick. They add a pick. It’s not a pick swap trade. It’s not like they get a fifth and give up a seventh or something like that. It is a full pick. And even though it’s a seventh round pick, teams see that differently. They of course adjust pick swaps to be like, “Oh yeah, this is roughly worth a six round pick if we do this pick swap.” But they get a full pick. That does change it a little bit as well, but like you said, it’s a salary dump move for a player the Bengals no longer saw in their plans this year or in the future. That’s going to be more time for Orin Burks. That’s going to mean more time for guys down the depth chart if there are injuries at the position. And it’s going to mean that Barrett Carter and Demetrius continue to go through their trial by fire. And boy, have they been burned and and hopefully they can start to to avoid some of those flames in the second half of the season. But from a financial perspective, the Bengals do t do save $2.68 million in cap and cash in 2025. They save $2.55 million in cap space in 2026. Andre Para on Twitter, Andre Prada 13, has a full breakdown of everything going on with the financials. That’s the basics that that you care about. What this eventually probably translates to is $5 million or so in cap savings in 2026 because they’re not going to spend that $2.68 million this year, are they? I mean, maybe. I I don’t think so. They probably just roll it over. leads to $5 million available to the Bengals next year in a contract that they were gonna get out of either way the way this season has gone. Yeah. And so instead of basically instead of keeping Logan around, this is really it and this is how to explain it where people will probably understand the best because I get it on the surface you’re like, “What in the world?” Instead of keeping Logan around through the rest of the year and then cutting him and eating a six plus million dollar c dead cap hit for the 2026 season, the Bengals traded him today. They get an asset, even if it’s a lowly asset in a seventh round pick. They save a little cap space this year and next year. All of it’s probably going to go toward 2026. That could help with an extension for Dax Hill, an extension for DJ Turner. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe an extension for Trey Hendrickson or Trey Hendrickson’s franchise tag. You just you never know as you shake your head. But like that’s that’s what we’re talking about here. And and that’s what’s also wild about this is is like when you talk big picture and big plan, they better understand that they’re going to have to do like full 2020 and 2021 like heavy reset where you get asset like quality asset quality players in here and that’s finding free agent hits, finding draft. like you’re going to have to do it all to fix this defense. And they may say, “Oh, well, some of these young guys are going to be hits.” Well, right now they’re not. And so, you better we better see that post by some of these young guys start to come on a bit. And the difference is this time you have a 2026 salary cap hit for Joe Burrow at $48 million. For T. Higgins at 27, let’s round up. $27 million for Jamar Chase at $26 million for Orlando Brown who we’ll see what happens there at $22 million for BJ Hill another we’ll see what happens there at $12 million Mike Gaseki at $7.5 million TJ Sllayton at 8.5 million the uh the point that I’m making here is that they have a lot more significant money on the books allocations that they have to deal with as they try to reset this defense. Well, that’s why they I really would have shopped BJ Hill hard today. And and like more so than Cam Taylor Britt, rookie deal, who cares? More so than like Jordan Battle, you know, guys like that. Like rookie deals fine. Even OSI expiring deal fine. But like getting BJ Hill, like if you could do that, like if you could get another seven for BJ Hill, as weird as that sounds, just to get that money gone, give Chris Jenkins more snaps. see what McKinley gives you. I’m fine with that. And clearly that that is not where they’re at. Maybe they didn’t get any offers. I I doubt that. I I think you could have gotten a seven for BJ. I do because it’s hard to find any defensive tackle up this time of year where where guys are going to be able to play starter level snaps for you. I’ve got a would you rather for you and it’s going to be it won’t be very fun. Sometimes I thought it was going to be fun. I Okay, sometimes would you rathers aren’t the most fun thing in the world. We’ll we’ll finish up with with closing thoughts on this trade deadline that came with. The Bengals weren’t buyers either, which we discussed a little bit. Some of the prices that were paid for the the teams that did find themselves in the buyer role were quite steep and it’s hard to blame them for for not being involved in the deals that did happen today. Not really too upset about that. I just think they came up short overall. But we’ll get to the would you rather to wrap up on the trade deadline as it pertains to the Bengals future plans. 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That’s joinbuilt.com/lockton NFL. Jin nb i lt.joinbuilt.com/lockton NFL. Make sure to use the link so we know you sent we sent you at joinbuilt.com NFL. So, as I was thinking about the Bengals not making significant moves at the trade deadline, my thoughts were essentially, okay, so they traded one player for a seventh round pick. It was a salary dump. There were a bunch of big deals that went on. We know that the Bengals had interest on at least a couple of players and they kept those guys around for this season in a season which as you said they’re three and six. We’ll see if they have something to play for down the stretch. Maybe the plan is to just let those guys walk. I I don’t know that you can can play in the comp compensatory waters typically if you’re a historically bad unit. You don’t have the luxury of letting players walk in free agency to try to recoup compensatory picks because you don’t have the developing or already paid talent that makes those players expendable. So, you probably have to sign players to offset. Anyway, going too far down that road road. But the would you rather was I was thinking like is it worse to just let everybody walk or go through another off season of drama with Trey Hendrickson on the franchise tag? Oh, would you rather James Renee Cincinnati Bengals let Trey Hendrickson walk or go through another off season into August with Trey Hendrickson on the franchise tag? [Laughter] Oh boy. Yeah, you’re right. This one sucks. This is not fun. I It’s It’s not fun because it shouldn’t be neither one should be an option. It should be either tag and trade or or sign long term. And they should have known that ahead of today when they made the decision to keep him. But I mean, I would try to try to No doubt. I’m just I’m just explaining if someone just joined us and heard would you rather obviously the answer the truth should be in the middle. It’s not. I get it. [Music] I see I would rather I would still rather the tag and the drama because I’m not my personal I I I’m not of the belief to let talent walk out the door. The Bengals are pretty good at ignoring the drama. And you could still get something back even if it goes into August. You could get something back, let’s say next year if he’s still a good player. Here’s the problem with that. And and this is why it’s it’s it’s painful and why I if it were me, that’s what I would do. But for the Bengals, it might be better to let him walk. This is the same team that during free agency was so focused on getting Jamar and T done that they didn’t do anything else. That they were sitting on their hands like I am right now. If you’re watching on YouTube, I just put my hands sitting on their hands like, “Oh, we got to get Jamar done. We got to get tea done.” That they have all the time in the world to get those guys done. And so if you have Trey sitting there eating up all this cap space, how much are they actually going to do to get this defense where it needs to go? And I get it. It’s not a great free agent class. It’s not projected to be. I don’t care. There are still players to be had and there’s still moves to be made and there’s certainly a hell of a lot of guys that can help this defense. There are in any free agent class in the history of the NFL. There will be guys that can help this defense. And so that would be my fear there. And it almost from a Bengals standpoint makes me want to say let Trey walk. Not because I don’t believe in Trey, but because at this point, you can’t let Trey impact the long-term vision if you’re not willing to sign him or trade him for assets. And clearly, they weren’t willing to trade him for assets that we’re aware of that realistic value. And history tells us that they’re not going to pay him a long-term deal this off season. So, figure out a plan, man. I know. I know. That’s where we’re at, right? I’m not I’m not talking to you. talking to them. This they put together a really good plan to build around a rookie quarterback contract and they’ve done it a few times when they’ve had quarterbacks on rookie contracts the last three times. They’ve went to playoffs. They’ve had promise. They’ve had fan bases excited. Andy Daltton went to the playoffs five straight years. The Bengals are about to miss it for the third straight year with Joe Burrow on the team. And I know Joe’s been hurt for for two of those years, but this defense wouldn’t be significantly better if Joe Burrow were playing quarterback. Might be a little bit better. Wouldn’t be significantly better. So, we’re at a point where I don’t know that faith in the front office could get any lower, that the ownership approval ratings around Cincinnati could get any lower. I I think they’ve dug themselves into a significant hole from the messages we’ve gotten. For example, from from our insiders, locked on Bengals insiders at joint subtext.com/lockdown Bengals where you’ve been kept in the loop all day. Like, hey, really appreciate what you guys do, but I’m out or see you next year at best or I I’m not going to support this team anytime soon again. Like, that’s where people are right now. Please still support us regardless. Just throwing that out there. uh you know, you might not need to be locked in on the Bengals, but be locked on Bengals. We would appreciate that. But like that’s where people are is why I bring that up. Like yeah, this is nearing another low point and that’s with Joe Burrow, T. Higgins, and Jamar Chase on the team and this offensive engine that clearly works as Joe Flacco has demonstrated so clearly in the last few weeks. Yeah, it’s uh it’s wild. One, I’m going to tell a joke to lighten the mood a little bit. Maybe Duke Tobin, Mike Brown, and the Blackburn should get together and put a 45day 45 point plan together. 45 days, 45 points. Boom. Back in business. I don’t know if you get that reference. Some will, some won’t. It’s okay. It’s all right. Some will. I’m going to leave it there. I’m going to let it linger. Make it awkward. Look, this is supposed to be a championship level football team. Zack Taylor on Monday said they have a championship level defense. You, me, and everybody listening and watching know that isn’t true. People in the building know that isn’t true. Alen said, “Oh, well, yeah, I believe in the personnel.” Look, the coaches have to say that. I I I was ranting. So, I’ll reveal this. I don’t hide my opinion, right? So, like when they drafted Demetrius Knight, I was like, “What the hell are you guys doing on here?” I said that. What are you guys doing on here? I can’t believe it. Tate Ratlage was right there. Why? Let coaches know that, too. I said it behind the scenes, too. It’s not like I I say it here and then I’m like oh man well I couldn’t believe they did that and it has nothing to do with Demetrius but I was like what are you guys doing in to to a coach and coach was like look once they get in the building we’re coaching them. We can’t worry about who who does what or how they get here or all those things. We’re coaching them and and so I don’t expect Zack Taylor to crap all over his locker room and crap all over the defense and say they’re not good enough. I don’t expect Al Golden to say that. But guess what? We can say that because they aren’t good enough. The whole league knows they’re not good enough. And and so how do they figure out the plan? Put together a plan. And this is the same front office that did this in 2020 in 2021. And boy oh boy were there a lot of hits then. How do you do that to a lesser? I don’t know if you’re going to have that kind of hit rate in free agency on def defensive players because it was wild. But you have to do that, but you also have to hit on some in the draft and and because of all those contracts that you mentioned, they need to have a plan. It doesn’t feel like they do. It feels like that they handled the trade situation by the seat of their pants throughout the off season. Oh, well, yeah, we we’ll give you permission to seek a trade. Oh, yeah. Well, we’ll do just assuming just assuming that a deal would get done and it didn’t because Trey was dug in and now I think everyone’s pretty much worse for where versus where they could have been had they had a plan and either extended him or moved him before free agency and then you use those assets in the draft and you have that free agency money to use elsewhere on a maybe a real defensive tackle that’s going to help you and bolster your pass rush and that’s not a shot at TJ Sllayton, more of a shot at them bringing back BJ Hill like all things that happen when you have a plan. I’m not sure how many of us put together our free agent plans, Jake, and and said, “All right, we got to bring back BJ Hill, right? Like you, it’s when you fly by the seat of your pants.” A few years ago, Germaine Pratt, I don’t think anyone had us bringing, you know, in their free agent plan had, oh, the Bengals should bring back Germaine Pratt. And they do that. They pay Logan Wilson. all these guys they’ve gotten it wrong with that they’ve kept from the the the Super Bowl run and and it’s really hurt them and the guys they should have kept or should have extended Trey Hendrickson are still left kind of lingering and and being a distraction. Duke Tobin said in the offseason that maybe they held on to the try to keep the band together too long. Yeah, that continues into the year, continues to bite them, and they’re going to continue with this coaching staff as as we kind of expected. I mean, there’s a clear argument, I think, to to have moved and tried something on the coaching staff, but yeah, when you when you step back and think about it, I think the message is essentially that Zach has hitched to these guys and this is the that they got. I don’t even know what it takes for me to get to a place where I say, “Yeah, you should keep this coaching staff together after this season.” It would have to be a heck of a back half of this season. This defense would have to rebound in a significant significant way because Zack Taylor is not an offensive coordinator. We’ll have more on the coaches, I think, and and the future thereof throughout this week. We’re going to say the words dead cat bounce again. Much rap. I hate it. I hate that phrase. Like I hate it. You’re not wrong. Still hate it. Also, did you see you see Joe Bro as the Joker? Can we end on a good note? Did you see Joe Bro as the Joker? I uh Is that a good note? I thought he pulled it off. Well, I was like, “Oh, all right. I mean, he did well with the costume. Yeah, that’s all it is. What? It’s Halloween, man. Don’t read into it. Come on. I’ve I’ve got thoughts about the Joker as a costume. Wow. But that’s okay. Wow. You’re saying he’s going to create chaos and be a villain and blow his way out of town. Wow. That is not what I’m saying. Wow. Jake, that’s going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. We will circle back to the coaching staff. It is the bye-week. We still have to get back to to some first half of the season tape, some Bears tape, what’s working on offense, what’s going on with these young players on both sides of the ball. I know that a lot of it is going to be the same, but we continue to dive through the film and and look for the things that are there because when there are going to be signs, if there are going to be signs of something happening that suggests promise for the future, we will find it as we dive through the film. So, that will be coming over the course of the by-week as well. A whole lot of by-week conversations for you. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast and have a good

The Cincinnati Bengals had a disappointing trade deadline. They held onto Trey Hendrickson, Cam Taylor-Britt and other pieces. The ONLY move they made was trading Logan Wilson to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a 2026 seventh round pick.

James Rapien and Jake Liscow react to the Bengals’ quiet NFL trade deadline, discussing missed opportunities, salary dumps, and future team rebuilding.

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