Quentin Spain wants to come back to Cincinnati

[jfkbengals]

Most everything I am about to say has been touched on in some way in this thread already, but maybe not stated this way.

Spain has been the LEAST of our worries on the line (except when he got hurt!), has played very well for us, and should return. Hands down he has been our best lineman. I'm still not sold on Jonah, but Spain has at least allowed him to not be a weak link, so keep those two together and target the rest of the line.

Hopkins can get the job done, so he should stay. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try and upgrade at the position and make Hopkins the backup.

Reif has played very well for us, but he is a stop gap who was only available to us because he can't stay healthy. Keep him around for depth and as a mentor to whatever young RT we sign or draft.

RG needs to be figured out. Carman struggled there as a rookie, but he played well at LG when he stepped in for Spain (his only issues at LG were the false starts when he entered the lineup). I would think Carman should be backing up Spain and ignore him at RG.

Getting back to Spain, the conversation at hand, we keep him here. Remember John Thornton? Another guy who came here after a successful career in TN to help stabilize a line as the sun set on his career and the remainder of it got built up. That is what Spain is doing for us now and we should do it the same way. Keep bringing in better talent so Spain goes from the strength of the line to the weakest link, at which point he can be a mentor and depth in the twilight of his career.