00:00First, the Bengals add Brian Cook.
00:02Now they add a pass rusher.
00:04Boye Mafé is a Cincinnati Bengal agreeing to a three-year,
00:08$60 million contract with the Bengals.
00:11And boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, oh boy.
00:14It's been a busy hour or so for the Cincinnati Bengals
00:18as they get their pass rusher that they desperately needed.
00:21And let's be honest, ladies and gentlemen, they needed pass rush.
00:24There's no doubt about it.
00:25And Boye Mafé is really intriguing.
00:27You're talking about an athletic guy.
00:30Guy that can get pressure, can get hurries, can get after the quarterback.
00:35And you saw that he had 40 hurries this past season for the Seattle Seahawks.
00:41And he's one of these athletic 6'4", 260 type of edge players
00:46that could give you some juice, could bring you some juice.
00:49And look, I like the signing.
00:50I like the signing a lot.
00:51He just turned 27 in November.
00:53He's someone, if you look at our free agent sheet that Joe, Jake, Mike, and I do,
00:59he's a two and a half, tier two and a half.
01:01So it's one through five tier.
01:04For example, Brian Cook, he was a tier two free agent.
01:08There weren't many.
01:09There was one clear cut tier one free agent, and that was Tyler Linderbaum.
01:14And so you got to understand where that is.
01:17That ranks historically.
01:18That's how we look at that.
01:19And so for the Bengals to add on day one, a tier two free agent, a tier two and a
01:23half
01:24free agent, well, this is pretty darn good for the Cincinnati Bengals.
01:29And so, yeah, I just, I think that this, it's a great deal.
01:35It's a big deal.
01:36And I think that the Bengals, I'm just looking here because as things go, it's evolving every
01:45second.
01:46Okay.
01:46So Adafe Owe, by the way, signs four years, a hundred million.
01:50The Bengals get Boye Mafe three years, 60 million.
01:53So there you go.
01:53So two big pass rushers out the door here in free agency.
01:58Obviously we saw what Jalen Phillips signed for $120 million with the Carolina Panthers.
02:04So you get a guy, just to give you an idea, I put Owe as a 1.5 tier, but
02:11Jake had him
02:12as a 2.5.
02:13Joe had him as a two.
02:14Boye Mafe is a two and a half across the board.
02:17And so the juice, is it worth the squeeze?
02:19You go 20 million over the next three versus 25 million over the next four.
02:24And we'll see guarantees in all of those things.
02:26But like, they basically got Brian Cook and Boye Mafe instead of Owe or instead of Phillips.
02:35And so I like this for the Bengals.
02:36You're getting my instant reaction here as I'm processing this.
02:40Our video just went up in our instant reaction to Brian Cook.
02:43But I look at it and you're talking about a swing on a young, productive pass rusher that
02:48might not have the sack production that you're looking for over the past couple of years.
02:53But the stats are there.
02:56And that's it.
02:58It's like the flashes are there.
03:00So you're going to look and everyone's going to be like, oh, well, he had two sacks.
03:03Fine.
03:03The year prior, had six sacks.
03:05The year prior, had nine sacks.
03:07And so 20 sacks in four years with the Seahawks.
03:11The sacks were down this past year.
03:13The quarterback hits were down this past year.
03:15But the hurries were right there.
03:17But you just you think about it.
03:19It's like, all right, well, two years ago, you had nine sacks, nine tackles for loss,
03:2316 quarterback hits.
03:25Like, that's what you're looking for.
03:26Six passes defense by that by that time.
03:29So you can get that out of him.
03:31He's capable of doing that.
03:32He did that at 25 years old.
03:34He's still just 27.
03:35We'll be 28 November.
03:37Like I mentioned, this is the type of move that the Bengals needed to make.
03:41They needed to go after a premium safety to stabilize that spot.
03:47Then they needed to go after pass rush to bring some stability.
03:51Boye Mafé certainly is capable of doing that.
03:55And now suddenly you have these two guys, two Super Bowl champions, right?
04:01Mafé obviously just won the Super Bowl, was a second round pick of four years ago.
04:06And then you have a guy in Cook, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Chiefs.
04:10You had two guys.
04:10You're going to hear that.
04:11Watch.
04:11You're going to hear that a lot.
04:13The other thing I'll point out, Mafé has played in 32 out of a possible 34 regular season
04:19games over the past two seasons.
04:21Cook, 34 out of 34.
04:23Both of these guys have been durable.
04:26They appear to be ascending players, players that have been productive on winning teams that
04:31should be able to be that force multiplier that Al Gold mentioned, should be able to be those
04:36type of players that bring you that identity on defense.
04:44And if you're Mafé, this is the beauty of Mafé.
04:47You're one of the many fish in Seattle.
04:49Well, now you come here and you get to have that expanded role.
04:53You get to be that potential sack leader on defense.
04:57You get to come in and really bolster a room that needs you and needs your presence and
05:04is looking to you to step up and be one of the stars.
05:07And I think that that is such an enticing element of this.
05:11I keep looking down, ladies and gentlemen, because you just don't know.
05:14And I knew that people were getting a little antsy the first few hours of free agency.
05:19But the reality is, is the Bengals were always planning this.
05:22They were always going to address the back end.
05:24They were always.
05:24That's why I mentioned Cook.
05:26Mafé is someone we've talked about a lot.
05:28And I did think like I pushed for Odafe Owe, but I always knew that there was a chance
05:33they would go a tier lower than that.
05:34And they would go after, you know, the Arnold Abicadis or the Boye Mafés of the world.
05:39And Mafé, you look at Boye Mafé.
05:42Let me pull up his relative athletic score while I'm thinking about it.
05:48And this is all in real time.
05:50But he had a 9.91 relative athletic score.
05:53And what does that mean?
05:54Well, his height and weight low for a defensive end, but his 40 yard dash, his vertical, his
05:59broad jump, his explosion is up there.
06:03And he ran a four, five, 40 yard dash.
06:06It's just crazy.
06:071.56, 10 yard split in the 98th percentile.
06:11It's a really, really good athlete and someone that you're hoping, hoping can give you some
06:20regular, consistent pass rush.
06:21That's what the Bengals need.
06:23And they're hoping and banking on Mafé to be that stabilizing presence.
06:27It doesn't mean that they can't add more.
06:29It doesn't mean they don't need to add more.
06:30But now you look at it at that edge room and you have Mafé, who's going to bring some
06:34juice, Shamar Stewart, Miles Murphy.
06:37You have to keep adding.
06:38But this was a necessary addition and one that I certainly like.
06:42We're not grading now.
06:43We're just instant reacting.
06:45But Brian Cook, Boye Mafé, four hours into the negotiating window, the legal tampering
06:52period.
06:52I would take that.
06:54I would take that.
06:55I think you would take that as well.
06:57By the way, we're planning on going live tonight at 10 o'clock Eastern time right here on Cincinnati
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07:16We're going to have all the updates there as well.
07:18And we're just getting started.
07:19I knew it was coming.
07:20I knew there was a storm coming.
07:22I think this was very simple.
07:23The Bengals were in on John Franklin Myers.
07:25John Franklin Myers, that deal, when he took that deal with the Titans, they were like,
07:29all right, well, let's pull the trigger on the Cook deal and the Boye Mafé deal.
07:32Let's get these deals done.
07:33Bing, bang, boom.
07:34They do.
07:35They commit three years for each guy, $42.25 million for Cook and $60 million for Boye
07:45Mafé, just over $100 million in committed contracts to these two guys that the Bengals
07:50are hoping can be stabilizers and faces of their defense over the next three seasons.
07:57We'll talk to you soon.
07:58Anytime there's news and worst case, if there's no other news, we will go live tonight here
08:03on Cincinnati Bengals Talk.
08:04Until then, for Andrew Fox Miller, I'm James Rapine.
08:07Thank you so much for watching and listening to Cincinnati Bengals Talk.
08:15We'll see you soon.
08:17We'll see you soon.
08:18Bye.
08:18Bye.
08:19Bye.
08:23Bye.
08:25Bye.
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