I'm James Rupin, and this is the Locked-on Bengals podcast coming to you from Paul Brown Stadium on a Monday.

Great to be with you on Twitter.

At James Rappeen, at Lockdown Bengles.

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You can follow on Twitter, like I said, at locked on bengals and at james rippin

and at locked on bengals right now has a new cover photo and the cover photo is cool because

it's exactly what i'm looking at right now as i record today's podcast a lot to discuss today

i'll talk one-on-one with bengals wide receiver Alex Erickson. I'll ask him if he

has any advice for me. He got married a year ago. Since I'm newly engaged, I figured I'd ask him that

also. I'm going to talk to him about the new offense, going to talk to him about the wide receiver

room. We will talk football. Don't you worry. And Carlos Dunlap had the opportunity to talk

with him one on one. And that's where I want to start today's show is because Carlos Dunlap is a guy

that I think we all want to keep around. And there's a couple people that keep talking about Bill Pullian

and he said you've got to watch out for signing defensive ends on the wrong side of 30. I think Dunlap is a freakish athlete enough that even if he takes a step back,

let's say two years from now he takes a step back, declines a bit. He's still going to be good

enough and more than serviceable and worth another contract.

His agent Drew Rosenhaus was at training camp over the weekend, and you got to think that

the Bengals, and if I had to bet, excuse me, I would bet that they're able to get a deal done

with Gino Atkins and or Carlos Dunlap before the regular season starts. They're not going to go into

this season. It's my belief that they're not going to go into this season, 2018, and not have one of

those guys under contract long term. Because the beauty of getting one of them done, and I think they

would prefer to get Gino Atkinson.

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