00:00I like doing this when we can back up from a situation a little bit and look at what is
00:05the biggest thing, right?
00:07For them, it was, we're all criticizing the linebackers.
00:10Every single turn, no matter what they did, everything that we're probably going to talk about today,
00:12Dexter Lawrence, all the free agency stuff, you know, then the draft comes, Cassius Howell.
00:19When no linebacker came, it was, okay, what's happening here?
00:23And what is the path to success? Is this going to bury their season?
00:27And so I kind of took a wider league view and just went and looked at the teams they're clearly
00:33trying to emulate.
00:35Seattle, the Rams, Houston.
00:38I mean, these teams build the D-line, have waves, the Eagles, right?
00:43As you should, the last two champions.
00:45Who were the Seattle Seahawks linebackers?
00:48Who were the Los Angeles Rams linebackers?
00:51Who were the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles linebackers when they started that season?
00:57They were guys with less credentials that you've never heard of.
01:01Guys with 42 career snaps who are undrafted free agents.
01:05That's Seattle, literally.
01:07Nate Landman, the big Nate Landman guy with the Rams, Omar Space.
01:10Is it Landman, a show that I haven't watched?
01:13That's as close as you get to knowing who the Rams linebackers were on a top 10 defense last year
01:19with waves in front of them.
01:20The Eagles brought Zach Bond from New Orleans.
01:22He never even played more than 300 snaps in his career.
01:24Next thing you know, he's all pro.
01:26N'Kobe Dean had 200-plus snaps defensively in his entire career entering his third year.
01:32And then he ends up being part of that awesome Eagles defense.
01:35Everybody's like, got to have the Eagles defense.
01:37Put dudes in front of them, and they can—you don't sign and spend and use high capital necessarily on linebackers.
01:46You develop linebackers by putting great players in front of them.
01:51And then, you know, you look up and you've produced one.
01:54And I think that's a big part of what I saw when I went a little bit further about it.
01:59When we went into free agency, everything was needed.
02:04It wasn't just camera two here.
02:06It was that camera, that camera, that camera.
02:08We needed Rodney.
02:09We needed Paul.
02:09We needed a desk.
02:10They needed everything to fix their defense.
02:13And I said the one thing that I'd be okay with punting on in free agency and spending big on
02:19was linebacker.
02:20Yeah.
02:21If I had to pick one thing, it was that.
02:24I would prefer Mafe over Devin Lloyd.
02:26Because why?
02:27Because what you're saying.
02:28You need juice on the pass rush.
02:29They haven't had it.
02:30They went and got it.
02:32I can't complain.
02:33This doesn't mean I'm satisfied with linebacker or comfortable.
02:37But of Geno Stone playing safety, the linebackers they have in the defensive front, no more Geno Stone, improved defensive
02:45front.
02:45I get the priority list being what it was.
02:47Yeah, exactly.
02:48And you can find ways to do it.
02:49I talked to Rand Carthon, who's awesome, by the way.
02:53And he's on CBS now.
02:54But, I mean, he drafted Fred Warner.
02:56He's built teams in San Francisco.
02:58And he was the GM in Tennessee for a couple of years.
03:01Did he say Demetrius Knight's the next Warner?
03:03He did not say that.
03:04His point was everybody wants a Fred Warner.
03:07But the way you build it is the way the Bengals.
03:10He was going through how he would sit down every year as the GM and go through his team needs
03:15list.
03:15He was like, every year I would write down, Rams need a backer.
03:18And then every year they wouldn't take one.
03:19The next thing I know, there they are playing at the end with Omar Spates and these other guys that
03:25you've never heard of before.
03:27Bozeman, Christian Bozeman.
03:28Like, guys that you've never heard of.
03:30And you just look at that and you say, yeah, you want to get there?
03:34Yeah, if you have an access to Fred Warner, cool.
03:37If you can make that happen.
03:38But so often now, what we're seeing happening, these teams that are in the Final Four, that are playing in
03:44January, deep into January,
03:46they're constructed the way the Bengals have kind of constructed that.
03:50That said, still a massive risk to run back these two young guys and hope that they do take the
03:56next level around them.
03:57That's obviously the big bet.
03:58And they feel like they've seen progress there.
04:00But we may be looking back at this in mid-October and be like, man, maybe they got that wrong.
04:06But the Bengals certainly don't seem to think so.
04:09How much does the caliber of free agents the Bengals added to those other positions change this conversation?
04:13Because just adding to safety and defensive line wouldn't be enough.
04:16But when you do Brian Cook and Dexter Lawrence, I think it changes the conversation pretty drastically.
04:20Well, you know, put stars and then don't ask anybody else to be stars.
04:25Last year, they were asking Knight and Carter to be stars.
04:28They were asking Chris Jenkins and B.J. Hill and T.J. Slayton to be game changers.
04:34They're not.
04:35They're rotational players.
04:37And if you put stars in front of them, now you love your rotational players.
04:40And you love them in the mix.
04:42You love a combination of Slayton and Lawrence.
04:45You like having Allen and Hill and then Jenkins behind him.
04:48And maybe he can be a young guy that comes into something.
04:51They just had to have players that were real and stabilized.
04:55And what I like, what I've liked, James, in being down there in the building lately, and you're talking to
05:00the same people I am,
05:01the recognition of sort of the alpha leadership that you're hearing about Brian Cook and Dexter Lawrence specifically, it's been
05:09notable.
05:09Everybody's talking about it.
05:11Like, man, those guys have come in and they were clearly told, you need to be a leader.
05:16And we heard this from Zach Taylor, from Al Golden, from Duke Tobin, way back in February.
05:21We need leaders.
05:23We need somebody who can come in and hold accountable, everybody in the room, and be the guy who says,
05:29I'm the guy, and everybody look up to them.
05:31And they have really owned that in the immediate days.
05:33Dexter specifically, I think you're seeing that from, as he's been here, you know, every moment since he's been signed.
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