This offseason the Bengals overhauled their secondary in a big way. Part of that chance was bringing in two Minnesota Vikings cornerbacks in Trae Waynes and McKensie Alexander. When news broke that Waynes has not yet had his physical which is a contingency upon getting his $15M signing bonus. Waynes agent is telling to avoid anything that can possibly get him injured and quite frankly I do not blame him.
If something were to happen either with Waynes passing the physical or somehow getting injured this will leave the Bengals in a very tough position. Something not to count out is if the NFL season is cancelled before Waynes reports to duty…..and then becomes a FA in 2021. All of this is speculation of course but in 2020 anything could happen.
Waynes is slotted to be the boundary guy opposite of WJ3. The obvious thought would be to bring back either Dre Kirkpatrick (barf) or Darqueze Dennard (better at slot). Darius Phillips could also step up and be that opposite corner but that is certainly a risk after Phillips finished strong (4 INTs) in 2019 but is still unproven. The Bengals would also take a hit at depth and still need to find a corner on the open market.
The Bengals could also dip into the aging corners that are still available. Some top candidates would be Trumaine Johnson, Morris Claiborn or Logan Ryan. Options aren’t great so bringing back Dennard or Kirkpatrick might be the safest bet to integrate more seamlessly into the defense.
It is likely all going to work out but the Bengals don’t always have the best luck and like I said….2020 is a cluster. Here is to hoping Waynes shows up injury free and ready to ball out. He needs to blow some of that bad stigma off of him in 2020 and there is not better way to do it than returning to shutdown corner status and leading this defense to a much needed improvement.