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The Cincinnati Bengals seemed to have a rather mixed reception to free agency this year.
For some, making additions to the defense is enough to warrant a positive reaction. But for others, the list of moves and handling of the Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins contract extensions resembled paying more in cap space for the same team as last year.
Surprisingly, ESPN's Ben Solak currently ranks Cincinnati's performance in free agency as the sixth-best showing in the entire NFL:
"The Bengals did well to pepper a thin defensive depth chart with good dice rolls -- Oren Burks, T.J. Slaton, the return of Hill -- but I was surprised they wanted Joseph Ossai back that badly. He had a 7.6% pressure rate last season -- 72nd in the league among all defensive linemen -- despite rushing opposite Trey Hendrickson, who was drawing disproportionate attention. It's a cheap one-year deal, so I can't get too upset about it."
There's an interesting discussion to be had about whether re-signing Chase and Higgins should even count as part of the free-agency class grade. Plus, the moves were no-brainers.
That's not to discredit the team's work, though. But removing those contracts and looking at the free-agency showing otherwise finds some serious flaws. For example, the Bengals have yet to address the serious need at guard on the offensive line -- and they're not historically known for valuing guards in the first round (unless they have two first-round picks that year and draft Kevin Zeitler, only to never re-sign him...but that's another conversation).
Overall, the Bengals still seem to be crossing their fingers that bringing back mostly the same team as last year will produce very different results with just a few coaching changes along the offensive line and entire defense.
That could certainly work out great, but most probably wouldn't have guessed free agency to date was enough to earn the Bengals a near-top-five spot in the NFL.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals slapped with surprising NFL free agency class grade
Continue reading...
For some, making additions to the defense is enough to warrant a positive reaction. But for others, the list of moves and handling of the Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins contract extensions resembled paying more in cap space for the same team as last year.
Surprisingly, ESPN's Ben Solak currently ranks Cincinnati's performance in free agency as the sixth-best showing in the entire NFL:
"The Bengals did well to pepper a thin defensive depth chart with good dice rolls -- Oren Burks, T.J. Slaton, the return of Hill -- but I was surprised they wanted Joseph Ossai back that badly. He had a 7.6% pressure rate last season -- 72nd in the league among all defensive linemen -- despite rushing opposite Trey Hendrickson, who was drawing disproportionate attention. It's a cheap one-year deal, so I can't get too upset about it."
There's an interesting discussion to be had about whether re-signing Chase and Higgins should even count as part of the free-agency class grade. Plus, the moves were no-brainers.
That's not to discredit the team's work, though. But removing those contracts and looking at the free-agency showing otherwise finds some serious flaws. For example, the Bengals have yet to address the serious need at guard on the offensive line -- and they're not historically known for valuing guards in the first round (unless they have two first-round picks that year and draft Kevin Zeitler, only to never re-sign him...but that's another conversation).
Overall, the Bengals still seem to be crossing their fingers that bringing back mostly the same team as last year will produce very different results with just a few coaching changes along the offensive line and entire defense.
That could certainly work out great, but most probably wouldn't have guessed free agency to date was enough to earn the Bengals a near-top-five spot in the NFL.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals slapped with surprising NFL free agency class grade
Continue reading...
