Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, Yourteam every Day. This is the Duke
Tobin episode. That's right. BengalsDirector of Player Personnel Duke Tobin talked about
a bunch of stuff including t Higgins, this offensive tackle class, the futures
of Dax Hill, Joe Mixon,and much much more. So let's get
(00:25):
into it. You are Locked OnBengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast,
part of the Locked On Podcast network, Your Team every Day. Hi Agen,
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everyone, and welcome in to theLocked On Bengals Podcast. I'm James
Erpine here in Indianapolis where Jake Lissgo. He's trying to make it back
home and it's one of those thingswhere he's traveling back and well I'm out
of town as well. The NFLCombine and today's show, by the way,
it's packed, is brought to youby fand Fandel is America's number one
(01:15):
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Fandle dot com slash locked on toget started and no, Jake, let's
go today. Like I mentioned,but there's plenty to dive into as I
(01:36):
bother everyone around me at the conventioncenter here in downtown Indianapolis where Duke Tobin
spoke, Zach Taylor spoke, andpart of this, as I was outlining
the show, there's only so muchyou can get to, and we're going
to hear from multiple Bengals coaches throughoutthe week, and there will be plenty
from Duke Tobin that if you wantJake's perspective, that we have time to
get to. And I posted bothof these form videos because Duke Tobin spent
(02:00):
twenty plus minutes with the local media, not at the podium with the local
media after his podium speech which orpodium session which you saw probably on NFL
network. I posted that. Iposted Zach Taylor as well, the local
scrub on my YouTube channel, CincinnatiBengals Talk in its entirety. I will
have clips of Duke Tobin today andthis is the Duke Tobin Show because we
(02:23):
don't hear from Duke as much aswe hear from Zach, and I think
we should prioritize that and obviously thestory is T Higgins, so real quick
before I get to that, justso you know, Duke Tobin said that
Joe Burrow's hit wrist is healing exactlyhow they expected. Everyone gave the thumbs
up when it comes to his healing, so that part that box is checked.
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There's not much more to say otherthan that he's not throwing yet.
He's not supposed to be throwing yet. So we'll see on Joe Burrow.
But things progressing the way they should. But T Higgins is obviously a big
topic. The Bengals tag t Higginsofficially on Monday, and Duke tob and
was asked a lot about his futureif they could facilitate potentially a tag in
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trade, which is something we've talkedabout on this podcast. I know a
lot of listeners have had questions aboutthat, and Duke Tobin was asked that
here's what Duke had to say aboutT Higgins, the decision to tag Tea
and then also the idea that theycould potentially tag him now and trade him
this offseason. We got the salarycap numbers and we knew kind of where
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we were heading with it, andas soon as we got the salary cap
numbers. There's no point in lingeringon this, and you know, we
made the decision. We just wentwith it, so it wasn't there wasn't
any more thought to it other thanthis is what we're going to do.
Why don't we just go ahead anddo it? How complicated? How complicated
is the process of actually pulling offa tag in trade? It's it's rare.
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You don't see it very often.Is it a complicated process? Well,
I don't know. I've never doneone. So you know, again,
we tagged him with the intent ofhim playing for us. He's a
good player. We want good players. He fits us perfectly, so we
tagged him for that reason. Youknow, I'm not the hypotheticals of what
could happen. You know, it'shard for me to comment on Is it
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that simple when you do make thedecision to apply the tag? Is do
you want him on the roster intwenty four or not? Is it that
black and white? You don't gointo it saying, oh, well we
could do the roster. Yeah,and we want him on the roster.
So there you go, they wanthim on the roster. Now, he
wasn't as outspoken as he was lastyear, get your own receiver. I
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do think though, that when youlook at the tag twenty one point eight
million dollars, when you look atwhat the tag could be next year,
if they wanted to go that routeand maybe tag and trade, then I
certainly think that that's on the tableto a degree. Well, the Bengals
listen to trade offers, I'm surethey will. I'm sure they will.
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I'm sure there are people out thereright now saying that the Bengal should call
the Chiefs. The chief should callthe Bengals and swap lagerius sneed for t
Higgins. Maybe that's more on theChief side with them considering a tag and
trade. But I think t Higginswill be on this roster in twenty twenty
four. I think the Bengals valuehim and in place a high value on
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him. At the same time,they clearly in my eyes, don't feel
like they're going to get a longterm deal done. And so what happens
next we'll see. Maybe they shockme and shock a lot of people and
tag him, but I don't expectthat to be the case. You're going
to hear from Duke specifically on thisoffensive tackle class, but you heard him
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mention the salary cap. And Ithink a lot of people when they saw
the salary cap last week, twohundred and fifty five point four million dollars,
they thought, all right, theBengals have more money to play with.
Was that the Bengals reaction? Dukewas asked about that. He was
also asked about the potential void atright tackle with Joonah Williams potentially signing elsewhere.
Salary cap number, now, howdoes that impact free agency? And
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I know last the last five yearsago, the whole thing was keep your
own. Is that kind of whereyou're leaning now or is it? Well,
yeah, I won't get into ourstrategies for roster building, you know,
but I will tell you that ifthere's more money, there's more opportunity
to add people. And that's justthe reality of it is about it.
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There's also more opportunity for the otherthirty one teams to add people to so
you know, it's it maybe providesa little flexibility hopefully, you know,
if you're if you're talking about thesame people just being paid more, it
doesn't really benefit the club. Butas long as as we can use those
dollars to maybe supplement what we wouldhave otherwise done. Then I think it
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is a benefit to us. Isthe priority keeping your own Again, I
won't I won't go into all ofour roster building plans as we go,
but we do like our players andthere's a number of them that we'd like
to have back. Yeah, obviotuallyhave an opening at right tackle. I
know they asked you about the tightends kind of being a revolving door with
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that position. You've had starters atdifferent starter every year in the last couple
of years. Are you guys hopingto be able to find more of the
long term answer at that position?Are you comfortable with strategy that you guys
have had over the last couple ofyears. Well, there's As the NFL
has evolved, the term long termisn't as long as it used to be
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considered. But yes, we wouldlike to have somebody man the right tackle
spot for a number of years.Yes that we'd like it to be a
young guy that can come in anddo that, or a veteran that might
have the opportunity to rebuild his careeror something. But yes, we would
like that to be manned on multiplefronts. But we're concerned with having it
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manned well enough to provide us achance to win next year. You know,
that's the number one thing. Andwhether that's a rookie on a four
year deal or a veteran on aone year deal, we're open to anything
there. I like that point thathe made at the end, because,
of course the Bengals would love tofind and you're gonna hear about this right
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tackle class. They would love tofind that franchise right tackle. At the
same time, they need to bein win now mode with Joe Burrow,
with Jamar Chase, with t Higginson the tag and so is it a
Germaine illuminaor who continues to take shotsat the Chiefs and grow in Bengals fandom
with what he's built of their notthree peeting? I think he tweeted on
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Tuesday, maybe that's the route theygo at right tackle, but they certainly
need to address it. I thinkthey will address it up next. Let's
continue the conversation with this offensive tackleclass and we'll hear from Duke on what
he thinks. Is it as goodas advertised, is it worse? Is
it not as deep? Is itdeeper than some think you'll hear from Duke
Tubn on that and much much morecoming up next. Today's show is brought
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right, let's dive into Duke Tobinand what he had to say about this
offensive tackle class. Because I lookat this offensive tackle class much like you
(11:15):
probably do, where it's like,man, there are a lot of horses,
and one of them probably will lookgood in stripes, and which one
depends on which one will be there? Is it Amarius Mems? Is it?
J? C. Latham? Isit? Fua? Is it?
You know? I could go onand on about these different guys. Those
are the two popular, most popularones, And I thought what Duke had
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to say about the offensive tackle classwas quite quite interesting. Here's Bengals Director
of player Personnel Duke Tobin on thisoffensive tackle draft class. Really good group
this year. A lot of guys, a lot of different you know,
guys coming from different programs. Guysthat played the left side the right side,
guys that have played both. Youknow, guys that are really good
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blockers, Guys that are really goodpass blockers. It's exciting to see.
It's probably one of the deeper offensivetackle groups I've seen at the at the
early parts of the draft, inthe early rounds, and that's good.
They'll be gobbled up. Doesn't meanany of them are going to last.
Maybe maybe they'll be the first sixpicks in the draft. I don't know,
but you know that there are alarge number of them, and it's
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good. Every draft has a littledifferent flow to it, and and this
one offers those guys earlier. Whenyou talk about all the tackles, particularly
if you have a guy that maybehas a small sample size as a starter,
right, is it is that anissue or is it? Look,
if I've seen the guy do itfor four games, he proved he can
do it for four games, heshould be able to. There's guys that
have done it for four years andguys that have done it for one and
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and and yeah, I mean youwant time on task is important. If
they haven't been playing, you wantto know why. And if you're satisfied
with the why you haven't been playing, maybe there was a great player in
front of you that is now starringin the NFL and now you get your
turn. Fine, I accept that. Why. Maybe I was hurt and
couldn't play. But if I'm playingbehind guys that are seventh round picks and
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finally play one year, I'm worriedabout that. Why? So I want
to know the why. The timeon task is important. You like that,
you like versatility, and guys andif they're not playing, the why
is always important interesting question there atthe end, because Amarius Mims is obviously
the guy that has seven starts atGeorgia and to me is someone I look
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at this weekend, you know,at the combine this week in general,
someone who can gain a ton ofground. I think he could work his
way into being a top ten pickpretty quickly. I think JC Latham could
go really quickly in the draft.And that's something that Duke mentioned. There
is a lot of guys can goin a hurry and you could see six
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offensive tackles off the board. Itwon't in the first six picks, like
he said, all of these clipsby the way, like I said on
Cincinnati Bengals Talk, but this doesfeel like the group that if the Bengals
are going to get an offensive tackleearly, and it might not be at
pick eighteen, maybe it's at pickforty nine, but get an offensive tackle
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that is going to be a longterm contributor doesn't mean it's a day one
starter. I'm not saying that becausethey might not get that, especially at
forty nine, might not get thatat eighteen, but you're certainly not going
to bank on that in round two, but if they can find a long
term answer at tackle, it willgo a long way. This feels like
the draft, much like the twentytwenty draft, where you look at it
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and you look at those first threepicks Burrow, Higgins, Wilson as just
foundation setters. It feels like thefree agency class this year needs to be
the same way where you look backat the twenty twenty one free agent class
and you're like, oh, MikeHilton, hit Obao Wuzie, twenty twenty
DJ Reader, Von Bell. Youlook and you're like, oh, well
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that's obvious, and so who isthat at right tackle? It has to
be someone. I don't think it'sJoanah Williams. It could be Michael and
Winhu, it could be Jermaine illuminorin free agency, I know people throughout
Trent Brown, so I'll throw hisname out there as well. But really,
after that, there aren't a tonof free agent tackles, and after
that you're looking at, okay,maybe stopgap type guys just to give you
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some depth and proven depth, butoffensive tackle is going to very much be
in play. And I think DukeTobin and this Bengals staff you heard it
right there. They know the strengthof this draft where it is, and
if it's strong in offensive tackle,you want to try to take advantage of
that. I think they wanted totake advantage of the tight end class last
year and it just didn't work.This is that, but it's at a
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much more important position, a muchmore premium position, a position that's harder
to find, and it's one thatif you find it well, it could
really set the tone for this nextcouple of seasons. And certainly this stretch
where you're paying Joe Burrow, you'repaying Jamar Chase, you're figuring out t
Higgins and paying some of these otherguys as well on the roster. Will
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they continue to pay Joe Mixon?Well, yeah, that was a topic
that came up from Duke Tobin.Find out what he said about Joe Mixon
plus Dax Hill and Dax Hill's futurein the secondary coming up next. Today's
(16:32):
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available to US customers. All right, let's get into Dax Hill and Joe
(17:23):
Mixon. And first we'll start withJoe Mixon and Duke was asked about Joe's
future, and I also asked aboutDaxil. That the clip includes both.
We know Joe Mixon do the rosterbonus on March seventeenth. That to me
is and everyone knows, this isthe line. If he's on the roster
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that day and he gets that bonus, he's going to be on the roster.
You're not paying him three million dollarsto not be on the roster.
So that's the day where the Bengalsby that day, they will have to
make a decision. What will theirdecision be? Duke Tobin a little more
tight lipped. Here is what hehad to say about Joe and then also
about the secondary. How do yougets to do that roster bonus sooner,
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whether the LEA there's that complicated decisionon him for twenty twenty four. On
Mixon's roster bonus, it doesn't complicateit. We put it in there for
a reason and then his agent wantedit in there for a reason. But
again, you know, from ourstrategy standpoint and what we intend to do,
I'm not going to get into thatwith any of our players, but
yeah, he does have an earlyroster bonus, which obviously invested in safety
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over the past couple of years inthe draft and had some turnover in that
room. Do you view Jordan andDax as the long term and short term
answers in that area. Yeah.We like both those young players, and
they're both pretty versatile, which youknow is a positive when you're playing in
the backfield. You know, Daxis really versatile, So finding the best
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role for him to maximize his skillset would be something that we know we're
working on. This offseason and howbest to utilize him to to show off
his range and his size and hisspeed and his toughness and all the things
that he has the same thing withJordan. What's the best role for him
and how does he fit within thedefense and who's the communicator and all those
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things are things that we go throughin the offseason and that coach Lewell will
try to fit together the best thatwe can. But both those players are
young, talented and have shown thatthey belong in this league. So there's
a lot there. And first thingsfirst, let's go back and rewind and
just wrap up the mixing part,and then we'll get to what he said
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about Dax Hill and Jordan Battle.What did he say about mixing really a
whole lot enough where he said allthe facts and that he wasn't going to
give us really any insight into theirplans future wise. The benefit I would
say for the Bengals is if theywanted to get some kind of proven running
back alongside Chase Brown, they cando that before the new league year starts,
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you know, during the legal tamperingperiod, and then move on from
mixing before that roster bonus. Butlong term veteran, someone that's been a
part of what they've done and invaluable. I don't think they should go that
route. I think they should havetheir mind made up one way or the
other, and if they think,all right, it's time to move on,
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well, then just do it.Because he needs to get the free
agency and he needs to find anew home anyways, and if you and
they probably know what they're going todo. So that's where I'm at on
mixing, make a call one wayor the other. The last thing you
want to do is hold on tohim until the sixteenth, and then it
makes it hard to And I getit, you want to secure the next
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guy if you want to go freeagency. But I think that they could
do that and know that they're doingthat and just get it over with and
also at the same time give Joea chance to catch on elsewhere. As
far as Daxel is concerned, itfeels like they are certainly open to moving
him and they're comfortable with him playinga bunch of different spots, and that
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to me indicates that they could goafter a veteran free agent safety. And
heck, Paul Dayner Junior asked straightup if they thought that Dax Hill could
just switch to corner. Could Daxmove to corner an option for you guys
on the table. Yeah, Iwouldn't go into all of the off season
plans, but the Dax can playcorner, Dax can play nickel, Dax
can play free safety, and Daxcan play strong safety. And just finding
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the best fit that'll be up toour defensive coaching staff and Zach to determine,
you know where, can this guyhelp us the most win football games?
He can do an awful lot andwe're happy to have him. Interesting.
Interesting there because he just named allfour spots. Well, the nickel
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corner spot Mike Hilton is there,so he could be the backup there,
Dax. Could he be the answerat outside corn as kind of your your
third outside corner. That's interesting,and maybe it's a hybrid of a bunch
of them. I think that's reallyhard to do, though, if you
want him to be a good safetyand a good free safety, I do
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think he needs reps there, sothey need to pick a lane with him,
at least to a certain degree.Otherwise he's just going to be decent
at everything and not a master ofany I think, right you know,
the jack of all trades, masterof none type thing, which could work
if everything on around it works,but it would be better if he was
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a master at something and you knewwhere to put him. And that's the
decision they have to make this week, and we should be able to hear
later this week from Jordan Kovac's thenew safety's coach. Scheduled to hear from
Bengals defensive coordinator Luanna Roumo as well. So if we do, then guess
what that means, Well, we'llpotentially get more answers, and we're certainly
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going to get more answers in freeagency if they are rumored to be in
on Genos Stone or rumored to beon some of these other veteran free agent
safeties that are out there, andit's it's a bummer because you think about
it, and if they had kepta Von Bell or certainly kept a Jesse
Bates, I think Baits would havebeen a perfect fit for Dax Hill and
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unlocked him completely. And maybe Genostonedoes that and then Jordan Battle can be
your third, your third safety,which they should be playing three safeties and
in a lot of different ways.I mean Dax Hill I think is a
good cover option for tight ends.I think he's certainly good manned, a
man in the nickel, and itgives you something that Mike Hilton doesn't in
(23:37):
that spot as well. So howcan they maximize him, how can they
maximize the second area. That's certainlya topic that's something the Bengals are looking
to do this offseason, and we'llsee. But I just think overall,
the Bengals view is pretty similar towhat we've said here on the pod,
(24:00):
which obviously they're prioritizing offensive and defensivetackle. Obviously t Higgins is they plan
on him being in the on theroster. They're open to adding a proven
deep safety. We'll see what tierit is in free agency. Is it
a Nick Scott replacement or are youtrying to go after one of these these
(24:21):
bigger name safeties that you know thathave bigger game as well what they do
at running back. I think it'sstill a little up in the air,
and I think part of that iswho knows if everyone in the building is
on the same page when it comesto that. But yeah, I think
that this team, they know howimportant this offseason is. And one thing
(24:42):
that Duke Tobin said at the podiumthat stood out to me right away.
He was asked what he was mostproud of or most pleased by and during
the twenty twenty three season, andhe didn't give an answer. It was
all about how they didn't win andthey didn't accomplish their goals, and how
(25:03):
disappointing the season was and how theyneed to get there. And I get
it. You could just say that, and it's easy to say. At
the same time, this team knowswhere it should be each and every year.
They got a taste of it intwenty one and twenty two, and
it feels like they want to getback there and they're focused on doing the
things over the next month two monthsnow with the draft just over two months
(25:25):
away, to get back there.So we're going to have you covered here
from Indianapolis. We'll have more clips. Jake Lisco is going to get back
home. I will hopefully not berecording from the Convention Center tomorrow. We'll
see you never know, maybe Iwill, but worst case, Jake Letsko
will get home. He will behome tomorrow and we will be able to
give you more from Indianapolis, whetherit's Zach Taylor, whether it's any of
(25:48):
the coaches, we will have youcovered right here on Locked On Bengals,
So make sure you subscribe on YouTube, follow wherever you get your podcasts,
and until next time, thank youso much for listening to the Lockdown Bangles
podcast. Mm hm