Zac Carter

[Whatever]

(5 hours ago)ochocincos Wrote: If Bengals are looking out of it this year by the trade deadline, I think that makes sense.
But I can't imagine anyone feeling good to keep Carter over Rankins if the Bengals actually might hope to push for a playoff spot this year.
Rankins at least has proven himself in the past whereas Carter has not.

Carter may have more success as a 3-4 DE.

If you move on from Rankins already though, you're also now having to fill 2 open spots next offseason instead of one.
If Jenkins pans out going into next offseason, you just need one pass rushing 3T who could maybe start immediately and the other a backup.
They may want to keep Rankins to help provide insurance though at 3T to allow for a drafted guy more time to grow without being thrust into a huge amount of snaps as a rookie.
Rankins is very expensive though for the quality of his play (thus far).

My thinking is, cutting both Rankins and Hubbard next year saves you $20 mil against the cap.  That's enough for a big ticket DL at either DE or NT, depending on need based on the play of Jackson and Murphy the rest of the year.  You can find rotation/depth guys later in the draft or on the cheap in FA. By trading Rankins now, we save another $2 mil, plus get an extra pick.