Possible 2021 Free agents

[*ochocincos*]

(11-17-2020, 04:40 PM)Whatever Wrote: Nothing is guaranteed.  However, Thuney, Brandon Scherff, Corey Linsley, Trent Williams, and Alejandro Villenueva are all huge upgrades on paper.

As far as who'd I'd lose, I'd let WJIII or Lawson walk for any of those guys in a heartbeat. I think we have to give seriously consideration to cutting Bell and Geno, too.

There is exactly one guy on this team that has the potential to take this team to a SB and that's Burrow.  To do that, he needs to be upright, healthy, and have weapons to throw to.  

Thuney - Definite upgrade, but will the Bengals fork over $14 mill per year to a guard?
Scherff - Same as Thuney
Linsley - While Linsley is a good C, I don't see the Bengals moving on from Hopkins.
Trent Williams - He's really good, but Jonah has been really good too. Do you want to bench/move the Bengals' best OL to bring in Trent? Or put Trent at RT?
Villanueva - Jonah has actually been slightly better than Villanueva. So do you put Villanueva at RT to replace Hart? Hart has been a better run blocker than Villanueva.
For Trent Williams and Villanueva, they are both 32 years old. I'm not sure the Bengals will invest big money into an OL who is beyond 30.

Let's instead be more realistic.
The two OT spots and the C spot are least likely to be replaced in the offseason because we've seen decent-or-better performance from those positions. The OG spots are the biggest weakness right now, but we've seen Spain come in and play adequately. Spain and/or XSF might be able to help solidify the OG spots by season's end.