Chris Baker cut, more vets to come?

[Bilbo Saggins]

I'm glad that the Bengals have decided to "fail gracefully" with the Baker signing and not continue to double down on a mistake. He hasn't been all that great since 2015 so it's not that much of a shocker that the young guys are doing better. It's also encouraging that the staff has entrusted them over the vet.

As far as MJ goes - he's no longer a 4-3 DE. If a team runs to the outside it's pretty much free yards with decent blocking. If he were the amazing run defender that people claim he is, the defense would not have been run on like it was last year. He's a backup 3 tech at this point, or could perhaps be a rotational 4 tech. I don't agree with the Mr. Nice Guy approach of "release the guy now so that he can latch onto a team", nor do I think that it's reasonable to pay him the rest of his non-guaranteed salary. A pay cut or pay cut + trade may be in the best interest of both parties.