00:00Miles Murphy, well, he is in a contract year. It's official, and it's official because Jeremy
00:06Fowler was the first to report it, and I've confirmed it. The Bengals declining
00:11Miles Murphy's fifth-year option. $14.475 million for the 2027 season. I felt like they would pick
00:18it up. I thought that was going to be the case. That's not the case, and we're going to dive
00:23into
00:23exactly why. This breaking news brought to you by our guy Christian Husky. Make sure you check him
00:28out. See simpseykline.com slash seehusky for all of your real estate needs. Let's dive in here because
00:34I got to be honest. The fifth-year option deadline was tomorrow. It was Friday. I just expected that
00:41they would pick it up. A year ago today, on April 30th, 2025, they picked up Dax Hill's fifth-year
00:47option, and they kept him around, and they usually pick up the fifth-year options of their productive
00:52first-round picks. Miles Murphy came on last season. He was productive and produced down the stretch.
00:57Duke Tobin praised Miles Murphy earlier this week. You'll hear that clip in a second.
01:03This clearly is a financial decision because Miles Murphy's 24 years old. He is an ascending
01:08player. He's someone that was productive down the stretch for the Bengals last year,
01:11had a career-high five and a half sacks, but they declined the option before I tried to figure out
01:19exactly what their line of thinking is. Here's what Duke Tobin had to say when asked about Miles Murphy on
01:23Monday and then a follow-up about the fifth-year option decision.
01:27Really came on. You know, he got a chance to really stay on the field and play, and that's when
01:32players
01:33that are young like him grow. And I think he doubled his playtime last year from the previous year,
01:40and really great to see him come on. And he's a 24-year-old guy that's just starting to scratch
01:47the surface. And I was pleased with his progression last year and how he took ownership of the starting
01:54role and how he grew throughout the season. And by the end of the year, he was the problem for
01:59teams.
01:59And he's a guy that we believe in. He's going to be a big part of what Al and his
02:05staff does.
02:06You all made a decision on his fifth-year option with that deadline coming up?
02:09Yeah, that's coming up this week. And now that the draft's over, we'll look and see what kind of
02:14costs we can layer in next year and what we can and can't do there. It'll be a financial decision
02:21primarily one way or the other. But he is a guy that we're counting on not only this year. We'd
02:26like
02:26a long-term relationship with him. But I don't know whether that comes together. Again, we've got
02:31really, we're at the top of the league in spending right now. And so we're going to have to make
02:36it work.
02:36And we'll see what we do with that. But that'll be a decision we make as we dive into this
02:45week,
02:45looking at next year. And we've got some cap ramifications there, too, with what we've done.
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