A recent article in Bleacher Report got my panties in a bunch. It was titled “Grading Bengals’ Undrafted FA Haul“. I don’t have an issue with their two sentence analysis on the UFA’s but it’s all of the other uneducated slights that the record needs to be correct on. So let me get to it.
“The front office didn’t do much beyond that (signing DJ Reader) point.” Are you kidding me? Signing Vonn Bell was freaking huge!! Josh Bynes was a stable addition to address a major position need and give a guy to start who was buried as second on the depth chart. Want to talk more about the secondary? How about a total blow up and revamp!!!!!
Cutting Dre was addition by subtraction and he and Dennard are both unsigned up to this point. Mackensie Alexander was the Dennard upgrade and Trae Waynes was the guy who could cover and make a tackle over Kirkpatrick. So we did not address the DL, LB, CB and S in one of the worst defenses in the league in 2019? Child Please!
Sure we didn’t do much for the offense with picking up some backup guards but we spent a lot in FA. I am always most critical of the Bengals offseason lack of action but this year they truly did not disappoint. Child Please again!
“Geno Atkins could be a salary-cap casualty in the next year or two.” Geno is not going anywhere, he will be a Bengal for life and I truly believe that the organization will find creative ways to lower his cap hit and still compensate Atkins at a reasonable rate. Atkins and Reader will be monsters together and Atkins has not shown signs of slowing up. Last season he did not get the stats but he was pretty lonely in the middle. Who replaces Atkins? Are we magically replacing a Hall of Famer? Nope. Child Please.
“The Bengals are much deeper at tight end than defensive tackle….” Ummmmm what? I like Uzomah but he is not a true pass-catching starter. Sample did not get to prove himself as a rookie and we are hoping for a bigger 2020 role. Behind them it’s Cethan Carter and Mason Schreck; two guys that are hanging on every season until we find better. DT….well let’s ignore our HOFer and a slam dunk DT entering into his prime. Ryan Glasgow is a decent backup and Freedom Akinmoladun could get some reps with the loss of Billings. There is certainly less room in the DT room, TE is a real crap shoot sadly.