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John Sheeran recaps a slow week for the Cincinnati Bengals in NFL free agency, where Bengals fans find themselves very confused, as week one of free agency winds down.
*The Bengals' Current Free Agency Approach Is VERY Confusing...*
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0:00
Bengals free agency has died down tremendously fast and I can't quite grasp why that's the case
0:05
But when looking back at some comments made at the scouting combine, something becomes incredibly clear to me. In this video, I'll explain what that is
0:14
Hi again, Bengals fans. John Sheeran of A2Z Sports Cincinnati here and I'll be honest with you guys
0:20
I am just as confused as a lot of you are. Now to be perfectly fair, this is the Bengals
0:25
I recognize they have a reputation. A lot of people who are still fans of the team hold on to this reputation
0:31
and always like to bring it up for weeks specifically like this
0:35
But I still land on confused as my main emotion here because something is definitely missing
0:41
A few days ago, I posted a video recapping all the moves the Bengals had made in free agency
0:45
They signed Samajay Pirine, TJ Slayton, Oren Burgs. They brought back Joseph Asai, BJ Hill
0:52
And since then, they've done pretty much nothing. Marco Wilson, Cam Sample being brought back on cheap one-year deals, perfectly fine
1:00
They can't be your only moves since Monday of legal negotiating. Full transparency, I'm recording this video on Thursday at 5.30 in the afternoon
1:08
because I gave them a lot of time to do something, anything that was relatively expected
1:15
Nothing's happened. And I recognize that there is still time for some things to still happen but where I at right now is that even if something again relatively expected does happen it doesn feel like enough has happened at all this week
1:29
which, again, boggles my Bengals altered mind. Because there's obviously a difference between
1:34
going all in and the Bengals going all in, right? Everything is relative. The Bengals are never
1:39
going to put cash over cap and guarantee future years and put themselves in potential situations
1:45
where they have to deal with oodles of dead cap in future years. That's not going to happen
1:49
But relative to the past five years, this is by far the most bleak and dreary-looking free agency class
1:55
the Bengals have compiled. And the last we heard about it changing at all
1:59
was interest in guard Tevin Jenkins, and that's been two days in the making
2:03
and there's been radio silence ever since. The Bengals could sign Jenkins between
2:07
when I'm done recording this video and when it's posted, and that'll be that, right
2:11
Even if they do, even if that is the one last move that they make in free agency, and the roster gets to 70 players
2:17
and they move on to the draft, does anybody feel like this team
2:21
is remotely good enough or to the level that it should be entering the second week of free agency
2:26
Because I sure don't feel that way. There were opportunities to bring in veteran help for the pass rush
2:31
whether that was a defensive tackle or on the edge. A lot of those good options are pretty much gone by now
2:35
You look at linebacker. Oren Burks was a decent addition, but if you're planning on replacing
2:39
Jermaine Pratt with a veteran those options are pretty much gone by now You had the cap space and based off of how they spend cash you had plenty of cash left over to make one or two more impactful moves and those moves probably don exist anymore
2:51
And again, I'm trying to stay within the constraints of what the Bengals consider to be an aggressive free agency week
2:56
They've been so much more aggressive in years past compared to this. This is not even remotely close to what expectations were
3:03
And the worst part is the expectations were set by Duke Tobin himself
3:07
And that's what confuses me the most, because two weeks ago, he went on record to the world
3:11
that he doesn't want to spend more on the same team as the 2024 squad
3:16
But right now, that is looking like it's going to be the case. The only notable improvement on the roster right now
3:21
is nose tackle with TJ Slayton just because they didn't have a nose tackle last year
3:26
Everything else has barely, barely moved the needle. When Tobin made those comments at the Combine
3:31
I thought one of two things was true. Either A, he was speaking from a place of confidence
3:35
that he had assurances that certain moves are going to be made and that the roster was going to be in a much different spot than it is right now
3:41
Or B, he was pleading to the front office to make sure that these moves could happen
3:45
and that they would have the financial capability to do them. And at this point, it's looking like he was pleading more than anything
3:51
Now, I don't think it's over based off of how much cap space they have, based off the fact that they were looking at a guard and there are still options at that position
3:58
But again, even if they do sign a guard and replace Alex Capa and then draft a rookie to compete with Cody Ford and Cordell Wilson and they have the offense fixed this defense is scary and not in a good way You looking at no new additions to this pass rush every new addition is going to be unproven through the draft and that
4:14
is always risky you're probably relying on a rookie linebacker to replace pratt or you're
4:18
bringing pratt back after he couldn't move at all last year i didn't expect much change in the
4:22
secondary but unless they draft to safety early that's putting a lot of faith in geno stone
4:26
obviously taking a leap there are a lot of bets happening right now on development of who they have
4:30
in the building and not all of them are going to hit. And mind you, they only have six draft picks
4:34
right now. They need to hit on at least half of them immediately for all these problems to be
4:39
fixed. It really is tough, guys. I think in any of the last five years, you could have convinced
4:43
yourself the Bengals made some strides with the roster after the first week of free agency. I think
4:48
this is the first time since Zach Taylor's first year in 2019 when all they did was sign BW Webb
4:53
they re-signed Bobby Hart, they signed Kerry Wynn. They basically did nothing and they ended up
4:57
finishing 2-14 that year. If you want to hold on to any sort of hope, it's that the offseason still
5:01
has six months to go, right? There are still extensions that could be coming down the pipe
5:05
with Jamar Chase, Tee Higgins. It's looking more and more likely that Trey Hendrickson is going to
5:09
be in town for at least another year because it's not looking like they're going to be able to trade him for the price that they want. I think if they had done one of those things before during this
5:17
week, things would be looking at least a little bit better. But there remains to be so much work
5:22
that this team has to do, and eventually time will run out. Like they have been for the entirety
5:27
of the Joe Burrow era, the Bengals are on the clock, and they need to start looking at it
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