If We Go Into the Season with Uzomah and Sample...

[Essex Johnson]

(03-18-2021, 05:12 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: If we go into the season we Uzomah and Sample I'm going to lose my shit.

Fwiw, I'm starting to  believe we will but I'm just bitching about it ahead of time so I don't accussed of looking for things to complain about, or using hindsight or anything else.  And if it matters, I've been beating this drum ever since the middle of last year.

Uzomah is in his last year deal.  He carries very little in dead space if he were to be cut.  The guy has accomplished virtually nothing in his 6 year career (under 200 yards a seaon, under 1.2 TD's a seaon).  And if all that isn't enough to realize we might want to move, he's coming off a torn achilies.

Then you have Drew Sample.  Look, I've made my opinion well know on this guy (bum).  He has offers nothing in the pass game.  He's nowhere near starter level, and he's a middle of the road backup at best.

Would anyone disagree that these two being your top two TE's would mean you have an absolute bottom of the barrell TE group?  Does anyone dispute that?  These two guys are among the worst duo's you can find at the position.

So one would think, with Uzomah being so easy cut, with us having cap space, and with the position being so below average that we would look to upgrade it, right?  I mean, seriously, why would you not?

Well let's take a look at some of the Tight Ends that are already off the board this early in free agency (as far as I know we didn't pursue a single one of them)...

-Hunter Henry
-Jonnu Smith
-Kyle Rudolph
-Gerald Everett
-Jared Cook

Alright, so maybe you think a player or two is too expensive.  Maybe one is too old.  Maybe you just think a couple of they are overrated.  That's all fair, but I think as this list grows it's going to be harder and harder to ignore the opportunity missed.

If we pass on all these guys, if we pass on trying to trade for Evan Engram, if we pass on trying to trade for Ertz, if we don't at least make a play at Gronk, and if we pass on Kyle Pitts, then what the hell are we doing?

There's a lot of things I complain about when it comes to the Bengals.  Something like this would be near the top.  You can't just completely ignore a position of need when there's this many different options (expensive, middle tier, cheap, trade, draft).  There's a lot of different ways we could get better here.  Keeping Uzomah and Sample is about the laziest of laziest moves.

I'll wrap it up here.  I know that for whatever reason, people are perfectly fine with Uzomah and Sample but I'll never understand why.  Uzomah gets cuts on 31/32 teams in this league.  So I hope the Bengals surprise me here and make a run at someone giving us a legitimate option at TE.  

Please, Bengals....  Please, please, please upgrade your Tight End!

I dont think you can totally judge out TEs, Sample in 3rd year, look what Corwy Davis did after dismal start to career, have to give more time for Samole   I also felt Uzomah had been under utilized overall and was hoppy to see increased targets first two games which if had continued through the year he bern in top 7 TEs in stats. With that said I fully expect a TE drafted and will be disappointed if they dont..