You are Locked-on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Locked-on

podcast network, your team every day.

What are Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast.

I'm Jake.

Let's go along with James

Rupin coming to you daily as we always do. If you're new to the podcast, make sure you

subscribe. Make sure you follow James at James Rupin on Twitter, me at Jake underscore NFL, and the

podcast at Lockdown Bengals. Today we'll talk to Jeff Hobson coming up in just a little bit,

but we need to start the show by talking about the franchise tag news,

or perhaps better said James, the lack thereof.

The Bengals do not use a franchise tag on either of the candidates that we thought they might use it on,

especially Carl Lawson. Both Carl Lawson and William Jack. franchise tag on either of the candidates that we thought they might use it on, especially

Carl Lawson. Both Carl Lawson and William Jackson now appear to be primed to head into

unrestrictive free agency unless the Bengals get a deal done. But honestly, at this point, I know

they're going to work on it and all the reports say they're still trying to bring Lawson back.

I have a hard time seeing either of those guys come back before the new league year.

I went on a Cleveland radio station this morning instead of the Bengals don't franchise tag Carl Lawson and he hits the market.

He will not be back in Cincinnati.

And I can confidently say that. So the Bengals have between now and March 15th when the legal tampering period

begins to knock Lawson socks off. And I don't know if they should knock his socks off. And that was the

whole point of the franchise tag is to keep them around, kind of show them, hey, you're not going anywhere

this year, and they didn't do that. And maybe it's part of a grander plan that we can't see now,

...