It’s true.

The Cincinnati Bengals finally present an attractive option for quality free agents from bad to mediocre teams who want to upgrade their careers and compete for a Super Bowl ring.

During this offseason the Bengals won’t have to reach out to free agents. I promise once the playoffs hit in January that free agents watched the Bengals and burned up their agents’ cell phones saying, “Get me to Cincinnati!”

The Bengals have all the pieces in place — except one — to achieve long term success. Players from all over the league see it and so do their agents.

It feels strange to think of the Bengals being a popular free agent destination, but the team has done it's best to show the league that they want to win, so here we are. The team has made great strides in utilizing the free agent market as a way of improving the talent level of the roster, but that cannot be relied upon to continually build a competitive team. (teams run out of cap, eventually) They must also do their best to retain the drafted and developed talent already on the roster, as well as continue to improve in talent evaluation when it comes to fundamental players on each side of the line.

During the Marvin Lewis era the Bengals primarily built through the draft which got the team to the playoffs seven times. This approach Marvin took brought the Bengals from the basement to respectability. When he was head coach very few free agents were brought to Cincinnati and the ones who came were either washed up former stars like Dexter Jackson and Sam Adams or one hit wonders like Roy Williams, Deltha O’Neal, and Tory James.

The Front Office wasn’t wrong then because predominantly building through the draft made the Bengals more competitive but it took a fresh look - and building through free agency first — to go deep in the playoffs and come very close to winning the Super Bowl (1) with a horrendous offensive line (2) against a loaded opponent.

Mike Brown and Duke Tobin learned to take a new “free agency first” approach and it transformed the defense. Now we’ll see this strategy transform the offense.

(02-19-2022, 12:00 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: It feels strange to think of the Bengals being a popular free agent destination, but the team has done it's best to show the league that they want to win, so here we are.  The team has made great strides in utilizing the free agent market as a way of improving the talent level of the roster, but that cannot be relied upon to continually build a competitive team. (teams run out of cap, eventually)  They must also do their best to retain the drafted and developed talent already on the roster, as well as continue to improve in talent evaluation when it comes to fundamental players on each side of the line.

So crazy how the Bengals became an attractive place for free agents overnight and am so doggone excited about the possibilities this may bring. 
 
Should be a very interesting off season for us fans with some nice Christmas presents sprinkled in hopefully. 

(02-19-2022, 12:09 AM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: During the Marvin Lewis era the Bengals primarily built through the draft which got the team to the playoffs seven times. This approach Marvin took brought the Bengals from the basement to respectability. When he was head coach very few free agents were brought to Cincinnati and the ones who came were either washed up former stars like Dexter Jackson and Sam Adams or one hit wonders like Roy Williams, Deltha O’Neal, and Tory James.  

The Front Office wasn’t wrong then because predominantly building through the draft made the Bengals more competitive but it took a fresh look - and building through free agency first — to go deep in the playoffs and come very close to winning the Super Bowl (1) with a horrendous offensive line (2) against a loaded opponent.

Mike Brown and Duke Tobin learned to take a new “free agency first” approach and it transformed the defense.  Now we’ll see this strategy transform the offense.

Believe this to be the case as well. 

Yet will be nervous until it happens, albeit nervously excited.