Yesterday, 11:31 AM
(Yesterday, 10:31 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Bengals FO continues to build a winning roster with Fant addition. Nice job FO. Now one OG vet please and get Trey extended to cap a great off season by the FO.
Since All went down, I have been harping on the need for a TE who can block & catch. Who does not give the play away by their presence on the field. Sample/Grandy are virtually non-existent route runners, and Gesicki/Hudson are de facto slot receivers. Can barely play in-line.
But the FA TE market was slim pickings, and most of the draftable TEs were gone before we picked (Warren, Loveland) or Gesicki types or we had other more pressing needs (OG, pass rush).
Fant isn't a stud, but he is at least a credible 2-way, in-line TE. I think he should help our offense in ways beyond his own blocking & catching. Now the D will have a harder time knowing what is coming.
This off-season, I thought our highest priority was getting deals for Chase, Tee, & Trey done. After that:
Starters: OG (x2), pass rush (DT & DE), S, TE1,
Depth: RB2 & OT3
OG: Fairchild & Patrick + brought Ford back.
Pass rush: drafted Stewart, brought Ossai & C. Sample back, brought BJ Hill back brought in Bryan.
S: nothing. We revamped LB instead.
Run defense: Slaton. And maybe Knight.
TE: Fant + Gesicki & Hudson & Grandy re-signed.
RB2: Perine & Brooks
OT3: Brought Ford back, drafted Rivers.
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Aside from S, each need has been addressed. Now, I thought our cap management (Tee & Chase, Burrow restructure) could have been better. And Trey's deal isn't done yet. And I can certainly quibble with some of the draft choices and the quality of some of the additions. And note that a lot of the moves were bringing back our own FA's........
But it is undeniable we have touched almost all the bases. And there were A LOT of bases to touch. It was almost gonna be impossible to touch them all.
Assuming a Trey deal gets done, I don't see any way the off-season isn't in the B range. We got better. Even more so if you compare to start of FA instead of last year. And Golden and Peters will help, too.
Gimmee one more smart vet signing (G or S) and it is surely B+/A-.
What this means for the TE room, IDK. We kept 5 last year. Gesicki is surely safe. And Fant. Fant is a better receiver than blocker, so this being bad news for Hudson seems the simplest conclusion. McLachlan was at the bottom of the totem pole last year, he barely played, so you can make a case for him getting bumped. Grandy is probably the least likely to get claimed by another team, and Taylor can possibly fill his role backing up Sample has the blocker. But if we need cap space, it is probably Sample, and he graded out the worst (by a wide margin) of the 4 who played last year.
