Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals XX
[0] The Cincinnati Bengals have a ton of cap space to play with this offseason, but where do we think they see their cap situation?
[1] Let's weigh in on some comments from Duke Tobin and talk about what the cap reality is for the Cincinnati Bengals in this 2025 offseason.
[2] What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked On Bengals podcast.
[3] I'm your host, Jake Lisko.
[4] He's your host, James Rapine, and we are Locked On Bengals on the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.
[5] We're on YouTube.
[6] We're everywhere you get your podcasts.
[7] If you're new to the show, you can hit that subscribe button, and you'll be kept up to date on all things Bengals throughout this offseason and into the future.
[8] And we're excited today to talk about...
[9] The Bengals cap situation, as we've talked a lot about a lot of the extensions the Bengals have to do.
[10] We went into some of Duke Tobin's comments from Mobile, Alabama at the Senior Bowl last week, but there's still some meat on that bone that we haven't gotten into yet.
[11] And started to get to it yesterday, James.
[12] I ranted about this risk aversion paradox that the Bengals have that ends up costing them more resources than it has to on yesterday's show.
[13] We're going to revisit that topic today as well.
[14] This episode brought to the people by PrizeFix.
[15] You can go to PrizeFix .com and use promo code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 instantly with your first $5 play.
[16] And before we dive into this Duke Tobin quote where I would like to start the show, James, I'd like to thank the people who've been sticking with us for the last six -plus years.
[17] This is my sixth year of Locked On.
[18] podcasting.
[19] My start at Locked On coincides exactly with Zach Taylor's introductory press conference on February 4th, all those years ago.
[20] And so appreciate everybody who's been along for the ride with me and appreciate Locked On for giving me this opportunity to do this for all these years.
[21] Happy anniversary.
[22] Six years.
[23] How about that?
[24] Happy anniversary.
[25] It's flying by.
[26] I remember when Zach Taylor was introduced and it's funny that that Your date lines up with that because it's really easy to remember.
[27] It was kind of planned to do our first episode when they introduced Zach because we were just kind of waiting for it, remember?
[28] Waiting for the Super Bowl, waiting for the Bengals to make it official and all those things, but sorry to interrupt.
[29] No, no, no. It's much more memorable than my first Blackdown episode, which was after Trevor Simeon carved them up.
[30] I would much rather it be post -Zach Taylor gets hired than Trevor Simeon carving them up.
[31] at pay at paul brown stadium at the time can you imagine that i can't imagine that and yet that happened so happy anniversary my man thank you it doesn't sound like a fun time to start covering the bengals uh good lord although the first year for us was pretty bad too and then i was like it's about to get good joe get the heck out of here yeah that's right that's right Joe Goodberry, by the way, not Burrow.
[32] I said Burrow's coming back, so am I. There's only room for one Joe on the Locked On Bengals podcast, although Joe Goodberry does still come by from time to time.
[33] We got to figure out, well, we'll get your return anniversary coming up here pretty soon as well in the next couple of months, and we'll get to talk about that one.
[34] It's the funniest thing ever.
[35] It's probably the thing I dislike the most, but it's your anniversary, so I'm not going to talk about it.
[36] Go ahead.
[37] Oh, that's the anniversary of which we started doing the podcast together is how I got it.
[38] That's a good way.
[39] That's how they should do it.
[40] Yeah, that's what they should do.
[41] Yeah.
[42] So onto the topic at hand, we've got some.
[43] Some cap math to talk about today.
[44] We'll get to that in a bit.
[45] We'll get into some of the details.
[46] I went through the exercise again last night of putting together potential extensions for Trey Hendrickson, for Jamar Chase, and re -signing T. Higgins.
[47] Put them into the over -the -cap calculator to look at what the three -year outlook looks like, even with those guys extended.
[48] But before we get there and get into those nitty -gritty details, I want to start with a quote that we haven't talked about from Duke Tobin's conversation with Kelsey Conway in Mobile, Alabama at the Senior Bowl last week.
[49] And this kind of slid under the radar a little bit.
[50] There's been some discussion about it on social media, but it stood out to me immediately when I read it.
[51] We just haven't talked about it yet.
[52] This is a quote.
[53] We ended up with, I think, the third highest payroll in the league, said Duke Tobin, because we kept those guys together.
[54] That's the focus of what we're going to talk about here.
[55] But he continued, and I thought this was interesting context.
[56] I think the expectation was that keeping those guys together, being the Super Bowl core, would net and it didn't maybe i needed to influx maybe i needed to change more of that going in but we ran it back with a lot of guys and it didn't come together it snowballed on us a little bit the thing that we're going to have to evaluate going into next year is who's going to play up to that and who isn't and we're going to have to make changes there there's going to have to be an influx of young players we're going to have to reevaluate where the money is being spent and how much is being spent at each position so there's a few things there but The thing that got me to start this conversation, James, is this reference to being the third highest payroll in the league.
[57] I saw this and it wasn't the first time I had heard somebody from the Bengals front office refer to the third highest payroll in the league in 2024.
[58] And that got me really confused because the first time I saw it, I was like, by what measure were you the third highest payroll in the league?
[59] And then Joe Goodberry pointed it out.
[60] It was the third highest salary cap spend in the league.
[61] but they were not the highest cash spend team by a third highest cash spend team by a large margin.
[62] This speaks to the way they're managing the payroll, managing their spend, managing the cap.
[63] And I don't think this is a misunderstanding of how the cap and cash dynamics work.
[64] I think that it's at best misleading.
[65] I guess you would hope they're misunderstanding it almost, but it's either misleading or they don't understand how exactly payroll works.
[66] to characterize your salary cap spend as payroll.
[67] Those are two very different things.
[68] For sure.
[69] And here we go again.
[70] It's one of those things where, let's say they extend Trey Hendrickson, just to give people an idea of something we're talking about.
[71] If they extend him, his cap number this year probably goes down.
[72] And Jamar Chase, same thing.
[73] He's going to hit him for a $22 million cap hit right now for 2025.
[74] And so that doesn't mean that his pay goes down.
[75] His pay will go up a ton if he signs an extension.
[76] And so that's what's difficult here.
[77] And that's why I think the fan base is so leery, questions things, because you can get all the fans are smarter than ever.
[78] And they pay more attention than ever.
[79] And they look at these things closer than ever.
[80] And there's so many resources now.
[81] By the way, they don't need to come to Locked on Bengals for them to look up the salary cap and cash spend and all of those things.
[82] They can look that stuff up on their own.
[83] And so that's where this quote, and this is all, you deserve the credit here.
[84] You read it to me a second time when we were going over just the Duke Tobin files from Mobile.
[85] And I'm like, what?
[86] Like, we're well aware that that's not where they were at.
[87] If they still view it this way, which clearly they do as of last week, and internally this is how they discuss it, that would give me the most pause when it comes to then keeping Trey, Tee, Jamar, and also adding to this team the way they need to add to this team in free agency this offseason and beyond.
[88] Because in this...
[89] Modern day, if you view it that way and you're not willing to take the necessary steps to maximize your cap dollars in cap space, excuse me, by throwing dollars in certain places, restructuring, doing all of the things that most of these teams, certainly the Chiefs and the Eagles, we can use those two teams because they're in the Super Bowl, do regularly.
[90] That would be my major concern because there are a lot of people, even though all of those resources are out there.
[91] I mean, how many times have you gotten this?
[92] There's no way they can pay T after paying Jamar and Trey.
[93] There's just no way they can pay all three of those guys with a $50 million quarterback.
[94] So many people do that, and it's like, well, actually, there's like 50 ,000 different ways they can make that work and still be competitive.
[95] And if they view it the way they're saying they view it, well, then those 50 ,000 ways come back to earth a bit, and it does seem very...
[96] much tougher to pull off, and I don't think it will be.
[97] And it's not just those guys.
[98] It's making the team better in this window with Joe Burrow that I think everybody is concerned about at this point.
[99] Yeah, it's not that they can't do anything, and this is always kind of the semantics debate, right?
[100] It's never that they can't, it's that they don't.
[101] It's that...
[102] They don't manage their cap in such a way that they're interested in spreading cap hits out into the future.
[103] It's this risk aversion to future dead cap hits, which are not the worst thing in the world.
[104] It's nice to avoid them, but you can overcome them, especially if you use the other cap mechanisms that are available to you.
[105] For reference, by the way, James, the Philadelphia Eagles were 19th in cap spend in 2024.
[106] The Kansas City Chiefs were 21st in cap spend in...
[107] 2024.
[108] The Philadelphia Eagles were third in cash spend in 2024.
[109] The Kansas City Chiefs were ninth in cash spend in 2024.
[110] The Cincinnati Bengals were 19th in cash spend.
[111] That's how much money they actually spent.
[112] That doesn't equal cap dollars in 2024.
[113] We'll continue this conversation, this risk aversion approach to cap management the Bengals take, how it costs them, how these contracts can fit in to the Bengals' future in that cap picture coming up next.
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[135] It's one of those things, Jake, that they do where they'll go get, and I'll use an example here, like they go get Orlando Brown Jr., which is something we all would have done every single time.
[136] I mentioned Orlando Brown Jr. on yesterday's show and how that kind of came about.
[137] But from a financial standpoint, they get Orlando Brown Jr. done, giving him a huge signing bonus up front.
[138] So that's an example of the cash versus cap.
[139] So he had a $31 million signing bonus.
[140] Boom.
[141] That's a lot of cash sent Orlando's way.
[142] At the same time, I think there's a lot of people that view it and say, oh, well, they didn't pay Jesse, but they got Orlando.
[143] That's fine if you want to view it that way.
[144] But it isn't this either or.
[145] My goal for this offseason is to make sure people understand that it doesn't have to be either or.
[146] It doesn't have to be either the defense adds pieces or they keep T. Higgins.
[147] It doesn't need to be that.
[148] And for so many, it feels that way because the defense stunk for a large part of last year.
[149] But it doesn't mean they have to take a huge piece of their offense away.
[150] And, for example, with the Orlando Brown Jr., yeah, adding a stud left tackle, a Pro Bowl left tackle is a no -brainer.
[151] That doesn't mean you need to give away the guy that would have been your all -pro safety that hadn't reached his full potential yet but was really darn close to doing so.
[152] You get my point.
[153] I think that's the hard part about the Duke Tobin comments because if they really view it as we were third in the league in spending last year, like, no, you weren't.
[154] And you're not maximizing what you're getting.
[155] You're being really inefficient with how you're using those cap dollars.
[156] And that's the name of the game is maximizing what you can do because everyone has the same salary cap.
[157] So how can you do the most with it?
[158] That's the key.
[159] And it's one of those things that requires you to have an owner willing to spend money to do it.
[160] And so when you see people talking about the Bengals are cheap, they're an average spending team.
[161] in the nfl we spent a lot of time i think a couple weeks ago talking about the bangles cash spend i think it was on this podcast if not i tweeted about it or wrote about it i think we talked about it too and the bangles over the last five years are a roughly average maybe just a touch below average in cash spent on average over the last five years and the the example you make of this not being an either or thing is If they make all of their expected cuts this offseason, right, and they don't keep anybody that were on the fence, we're not sure they're going to cut or keep.
[162] They're sitting at $89 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap, which is based on a team salary cap of $278 million.
[163] $89 million in cap space, right?
[164] I went in to the Over the Cap calculator, put in a $28 million per year deal for T. Higgins.
[165] A $35 million per year deal for Jamar Chase, which would be $38 million.
[166] That was a mistake on my part.
[167] It doesn't actually change the cap number significantly in any year to go up $3 million a year.
[168] But if you want to nitpick at numbers, fine.
[169] And I put in Trey Hendrickson for a two -year extension for $26 .5 million.
[170] Guess what the Bengals cap space was in 2025 after putting all those deals in?
[171] What?
[172] $87 .5 million.
[173] It went down $2 million.
[174] after doing all of those deals.
[175] Because if you extend Jamar Chase in a certain way, you can lower his cap hit from 21 million to $8 million.
[176] I didn't even try to lower Trey's cap hit for this year.
[177] I let it go up because the signing bonus comes into this year and I didn't lower his salary for this year.
[178] So I let his salary go up this year because it got to the point actually, James, where for maybe the first time that I've been looking at the Bengals cap outlook.
[179] It didn't make sense to push as much money as possible into the future.
[180] Because if you still have $87 million in cap to spend this year, you will start to have issues balancing this year's spend versus future spend.
[181] So this is where maybe they put more of that Jamar Chase cap hit in 2025.
[182] And it's not necessarily the worst thing in the world.
[183] This is why I haven't brought up the idea of restructuring Joe Burrow's contract to push that money into the future yet, because I think that will be more necessary.
[184] next year and the year after that than this year, where I don't think it's necessary.
[185] Joe Burrow's cap, it goes up to $46 million, but it goes up even more after that.
[186] And there will be opportunities to free up cap space in the future there with higher salary numbers.
[187] So there's some cap math going on here.
[188] The biggest impact on the cap in doing those deals is that it reduces your flexibility in future years, but it still leaves you with $100 million in cap space.
[189] to get 25 players onto the roster in 2026 leaves you with about 128 million dollars for 37 players in 2027 so that's your three -year outlook and that's a lot of money to be locked up in a few of your star players don't get me wrong but you're also going to have a bunch of rookie deals you're going to add six plus rookie deals this year probably seven plus rookie deals next year probably seven plus rookie deals the following year assuming they don't acquire any additional picks yeah and that that will inevitably be some college free agents that stick, some vet minimum guys that stick.
[190] So it's not like it's impossible to manage any of this stuff if they extend these guys.
[191] The focus will have to continue to be on the draft, but even with that, they'll be able to sign some big free agents this offseason that can make an impact.
[192] And looking beyond that, don't even talk to me about it.
[193] That's way too far into the future.
[194] You're talking about one, two -year windows in the NFL.
[195] right now before you have to reset rosters.
[196] And I think that's the way I'd be thinking about it because I'm trying to win my first Super Bowl if I'm the Cincinnati Bengals.
[197] Yeah.
[198] Yeah, absolutely.
[199] And this offseason, preserving it and their flexibility is why they structured Rankins the way they did where he's easily cut.
[200] Geno Stone, easily cut if you want to.
[201] Like these guys, the way they did that, they were basically one -year prove -it deals that they can get out of very easy.
[202] Zach Moss, same way.
[203] And so, okay, you saw what happens there when you go to this middle -tier, journeyman -style Sheldon Rankins.
[204] And you've also seen what happens when you get the guy going into his second contract, DJ Reader.
[205] It's a big difference.
[206] And it might cost you more, but that might be worth it.
[207] Your third team in three years, Sheldon Rankins.
[208] ascending player who's in his prime, DJ Reader, might be worth the difference to go after those type of guys.
[209] And they're going to be hard to get.
[210] But cap space, whether or not they get there has nothing to do with the cap space.
[211] They can keep their big five together, which is how I'll coin it.
[212] Joe Burrow, Orlando Brown Jr., obviously under contract.
[213] Jamar Chase, Trey Hendrickson, and Tee Higgins.
[214] You can do that.
[215] You just did it.
[216] with $87 million in cap space to spare.
[217] And that is a lot of money that you could throw at these other guys.
[218] And it doesn't have to be the high -end guys necessarily, but it can be the right fits that are going into their second contracts, that have something to prove.
[219] I'm not saying go crazy spend -wise.
[220] And I think that's how they say, oh, we're not going to go crazy.
[221] I'm not saying go crazy.
[222] Go find the right guys.
[223] But you know you have the right guys in T. Higgins, Trey Hendrickson.
[224] And Jamar Chase as well.
[225] So that's the balance here is can they push their logic, Jake?
[226] I think that's a big question.
[227] Yeah.
[228] And where do they apply where they want to do those extensions?
[229] Because we talked about yesterday and we're about to get back into it again.
[230] This risk aversion they have for certain second contracts costs them in other ways.
[231] It saves them potentially some future cap flexibility, and then they spend years trying to replace players with money, with draft picks, and it costs them wins on the field as well.
[232] We'll continue the conversation with that topic to finish the show coming up next.
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[251] As we talk about risk aversion and the way the Bengals have avoided committing future cap dollars because they're worried about getting burned and how that's inadvertently costed them money, draft picks, et cetera.
[252] I do want to acknowledge really quick that we've talked a lot in the last couple of days, James, about keeping T Higgins, Jamar Chase and Trey Hendrickson on the team together with Joe Burrow and Orlando Brown Jr. And I would throw Chase Brown into the mix as being a potential core piece for the next two years as well.
[253] Rookie contract, of course, not a big financial obligation there.
[254] But keeping that group together, we haven't talked about the alternatives yet.
[255] And I know that there are a lot of people that have seen conversation around trading Trey Hendrickson or drafting a receiver at 17 and letting T. Higgins walk and using that money elsewhere.
[256] And we understand that those alternatives exist.
[257] We haven't dug into them yet.
[258] We well dig into them in the future because there are other paths the Bengals could take that could make them.
[259] Contenders, just as well as keeping those guys together, could make them contenders in future years.
[260] Either way, the path involves spending a lot of money and or draft picks on those positions to restock either with those guys or with other guys.
[261] And then you're talking about trusting the Bengals to get it right.
[262] Either way, really.
[263] But if you're not keeping guys you know, then I do think that's a variable.
[264] We will talk about that in the future.
[265] Today, to wrap up this show, James, I want to circle back to this idea of not paying guys when they have the opportunity to pay these guys.
[266] And you can think about the two big receiver contracts that we're talking about with this team right now.
[267] Tee Higgins, a couple of years ago, you said yesterday it would have cost them 22, I would even say 20 to $22 million per year to get the extension done as soon as Tee was extension eligible.
[268] Obviously, inflation in the cap and wide receiver market and Tee Higgins' performance have driven that number up, plus Joe Burrow comments, right?
[269] Jamar Chase, if they had gotten the deal done last year, probably would have been Justin Jefferson kind of contract.
[270] This year is probably indexing to the salary cap is probably $38 million instead of $35 million.
[271] So Justin, those two deals on an average annual per year basis by waiting an extra two years in the case of T. Higgins, one year in the case of Jamar Chase, you're costing yourself $11 million per year, $9 to $11 million per year.
[272] That's crazy.
[273] And you already paid T -22.
[274] Like, he just made 22.
[275] It's not like you got a fifth -year rookie contract T. You had to pay him, and that was a direct cap hit.
[276] That was the direct one where there was no massaging out and putting some cash in this year and that year.
[277] Yeah, those are the painful decisions.
[278] And that's why when you look at the Eagles, especially, Throw the Chiefs in there, I would say, but the Eagles especially.
[279] Because I just think the Eagles roster is so darn good.
[280] I mean, outside of the quarterback where I think there's a clear advantage for Mahomes over Hurts.
[281] Not that Hurts isn't good, but I think the Eagles are just stacked.
[282] You feel great about everything that they've done.
[283] Whether it's tight end, the weapons, the offensive line, the defensive line's loaded.
[284] And it's because they get ahead of it.
[285] And getting ahead of it with guys that you know are good.
[286] Like, was there any doubt three years ago?
[287] Three.
[288] So now this is pre being able to pay T that T is someone you would want around long -term.
[289] Like why wouldn't you is does his work is better every year.
[290] Okay.
[291] So he gets nicked up here and there.
[292] What player doesn't definitely someone you can build around.
[293] And the same obviously goes for Jamar chase.
[294] We knew what Jamar was before this year.
[295] We, we knew what he was one year in.
[296] And so you, you, if you were eligible to pay him, then you pay him then, obviously that's not the case.
[297] It has to be after three years, but that's, that's something that they have to get more comfortable with.
[298] There's a reason why everyone, everyone expected them to get Joe Burrow done.
[299] And it literally took until the 11th and a half hour.
[300] Like it was, it was the Thursday before the start of the regular season.
[301] The clock is striking midnight and you find the, the common ground to get it done.
[302] That should have been done months prior.
[303] And so that's an example too of Joe, regardless if it was Joe trying to make sure that it was easy on the franchise or vice versa, you just, you want to get this stuff done early because it gives you a much better picture of where things are.
[304] If they did all three of these deals today, wouldn't it be easier to figure out free agency instead of having these deals linger?
[305] and i'd be pretty surprised at this point if all three are done by free agency i don't think that that's going to happen and is it an issue of not having enough manpower to deal with negotiations from multiple agents is it an issue where how though i mean i don't know i'm trying to figure out why it takes so long and it does take time but then you look at free agency and these deals obviously come together very quickly in you know 24 to 48 hours in free agency so obviously the capacity to get deals on quickly exists or one minute one minute alex kappa one minute yeah i mean i'm acknowledging the tampering happens i guess but uh oh no i'm just saying no it came together in one minute if it only takes one minute for alex kappa you can't get tea done in a week for whatever reason when they have time it's like it's like the procrastinating student right when you have time They take time.
[306] And sometimes it is a collaboration between the team and the agent that cause it to take time.
[307] It's not always just the team dragging their feet, just to be clear about that.
[308] This isn't only the front office saying, you know what, we're going to take a month off here and we'll revisit it.
[309] To me, that doesn't matter with Jamar.
[310] It's so irrelevant.
[311] With Trey, same thing.
[312] You could look at any free agent board.
[313] There's not going to be another Trey Hendrickson available.
[314] I don't know.
[315] It's tough.
[316] It's not like Chase Young is going to be Chase Hendrickson.
[317] I would love to get some more insight on that sometime and find some answers about why negotiations do take so long.
[318] I think there's some avenues we have to investigate that.
[319] I'll maybe ask some questions and try to find out.
[320] if there's a satisfactory answer to why some of these negotiations take so long.
[321] Look at Jake going to call Katie.
[322] Look at Jake going to just call Katie.
[323] Hey, Katie, what's taking so long?
[324] Yep.
[325] Katie Blackburn is the source.
[326] We've been outed.
[327] I don't have Katie Blackburn's number for anyone.
[328] Dude, what are you doing?
[329] Just go with it.
[330] You're calling Troy.
[331] Okay.
[332] Troy.
[333] I don't want to get in trouble somehow.
[334] I don't know how you're going to get in trouble.
[335] I don't know.
[336] People misconstruing.
[337] Who we're talking to.
[338] Anyway, it doesn't matter.
[339] Mike is calling me right now.
[340] Oh, great.
[341] Speaking of the devil.
[342] You're better at the sarcasm voice than me, I think.
[343] That's what's happening here.
[344] That's what we're learning on my sixth anniversary with the Lockdown Podcast Network.
[345] Happy anniversary.
[346] Hopefully we have to do an emergency pod later today because they signed one of these dudes.
[347] How about that?
[348] That would be shocking.
[349] I don't think it's happening until a couple weeks from now.
[350] Oh, I agree.
[351] I mean, I, but.
[352] Stranger things have happened.
[353] Stranger things.
[354] The Eagles, you mentioned, great job of getting ahead of extending guys, saving money and doing so.
[355] Great job of talent acquisition, exploring all avenues for talent acquisition.
[356] Great job of maneuvering in the draft.
[357] Great job of managing the cap.
[358] That is the standard, I think, in the NFL for front offices.
[359] And if Howie Roseman and the Eagles pull it off this year, they will have won Super Bowls with Nick Foles against Tom Brady and Jalen Hurts against Pat Mahomes.
[360] And talk about a legacy there, building these rosters without necessarily having the stud quarterback and then taking down some Goliath quarterbacks in the process if he does get that done.
[361] And one of many reasons that we talk about the Eagles a lot, not that.
[362] The Bengals operate anything like the Eagles in so many ways.
[363] We talked about the cash spend difference.
[364] We talked about the willingness to restructure contracts and something the Eagles do, the Bengals don't do.
[365] Even if you don't want to go full Eagles, which the Bengals probably never will, you can take some ideas from one of the best front offices, if not the best front office in football, and learn from it and apply it to your team.
[366] to make yourself better.
[367] And that's what we're talking about when we're talking about the risk aversion and waiting until the last minute.
[368] And then, you know, quibbling over Jesse Bates not having a Pro Bowl.
[369] And so he's not that good, right?
[370] Like that's the argument they're making.
[371] Just acknowledge how good some of your players are sometimes.
[372] Get some of these deals done.
[373] You're probably better off for it than trying to win every single negotiation.
[374] For sure.
[375] I like it.
[376] Don't go full Eagles.
[377] Maybe you should go full Eagles.
[378] I mean, should, yeah, but can they?
[379] I mean, can and will.
[380] But to your point, there are things you can pull.
[381] And I think there's something to be said about the draft as well.
[382] There are a lot of people that view their six picks and are like, oh, they need more picks.
[383] No, they need the right guys.
[384] You don't need 52 picks in a draft.
[385] You need to get the right guys.
[386] Is it hard?
[387] Absolutely.
[388] But I would much rather come out of this draft with four players that are quality.
[389] Four.
[390] than 10 where you're questioning seven of them.
[391] You know, so quality over quantity all day.
[392] And we'll see.
[393] We'll see if they can get it done.
[394] There's a lot that needs to happen, Jake.
[395] The difference there is one player, three players in 10 picks versus four players in six picks.
[396] There is an argument for quantity, and I get it.
[397] It's good to take more stabs in the draft, but that is an entirely different conversation for another day.
[398] Bottom line is they have to get it right no matter how many picks they have.
[399] Obviously, this episode has alluded to a number of topics that we will get to in the future, including alternatives to the extensions for those free agents and different paths in the draft, all of those topics and whatever news we have that comes up between now and then.
[400] But that's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast.
[401] Hootay, and have a good one.
[402] Six picks for a six -year anniversary, Jake.
[403] How about that?