Why Bengals’ Development Matters MOST on Sunday vs. Cardinals

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4.7 • 853 Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Even though the Cincinnati Bengals aren't playing for playoff implications, late season development for young players like Myles Murphy, Shemar Stewart, Amarius Mims, and Dylan Fairchild are paramount. Jake Liscow and James Rapien break down what really matters for the Bengals as they host the Arizona Cardinals, including why the team needs to be careful about buying into their defensive "progress" late in the season, and discuss draft pick status as the season winds down.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Cincinnati Bengals finish their season with two games at home, and they're out of the playoff picture.
0:05.6	So why are those games still important?
0:07.9	Let's break that down starting with this week's game against the Cardinals.
0:15.0	You are Locked-on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast.
0:22.3	Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.
0:27.7	What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked-on Bengals podcast,
0:31.1	part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network.
0:36.6	He's James Rapine. I'm'm Jake Lisco. We've had you
0:38.6	covered here on lockdown Bengals as your daily source for all things Bengals going all the way back
0:44.2	to 2016. And as we wrap up this Christmas week with the Bengals getting ready to host the Arizona
0:50.4	Cardinals on Sunday first, hope you all had a nice Christmas if you celebrated. A nice little holiday week. If that's part of your life, we got some messages from some people in the Lockdown Bengals Insider Group wishing us, happy holidays, Merry Christmas as well. So returning that to everyone out there that makes Lockdown Bengals part of the routine. All the everydayers, all of you who make locked on Bengals here first list.
1:13.9	And we're going to be diving into what's important as the Bengals prepared to face the Cardinals
1:18.5	in a game that's relatively meaningless for both teams in terms of the win loss.
1:23.8	But even the win loss matters a little bit too, especially when you look at where the Bengals sit in draft positioning and how these games are affecting draft positioning.
1:32.4	I've been looking at it, James, personally, with an assumption that the Bengals will win their final two games and looking at everything around them and kind of evaluating, what will that do?
1:41.8	Will that knock them out of the top 10?
1:43.3	What else needs to happen? To keep them of the top 10 what else needs to happen
1:44.3	to keep them in the top 10 that'll be a point of conversation here at some point as well but
1:49.5	one of the things from an on-field perspective that's going to matter is some of these young players
1:54.6	that we're continuing to watch for more progress more development signs, continued signs of in many cases, this player
2:03.6	should be part of what they're building around in 2026 and beyond.
2:07.6	Yeah.
	...

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