Looking ahead to 2018 - Nate Solder?

[*ochocincos*]

According to spotrac, here are the expected left tackles to hit FA in 2018 (warning: it isn't pretty):
Nate Solder - New England
Greg Robinson - Detroit
Chris Clark - Houston
Donald Stephenson - Denver
Chris Hairston - LAC
Sam Young - Miami
Bradley Sowell - Chicago

As you can tell, not really any good options besides Solder.

Knowing that 2018 is a contract year for Geno and Dunlap, and 2019 is a contract year for Green and Boling, what are your thoughts of going out to get the top LT in FA vs drafting one? Solder is proven commodity and would command top dollar, but he would probably be worth it if the Bengals wanted to try and win with the core they have. One thing though is that signing someone like Solder would likely require cutting (at least) one of Dalton, MJ, and/or Adam Jones to free up some extra $$.

[PikesPeakUC]

We would have to throw massive money at Solder, and you wonder if it would be worth it at that point. Those gigantic contracts end up looking really bad really quick.

[*ochocincos*]

(09-22-2017, 09:54 PM)PikesPeakUC Wrote: We would have to throw massive money at Solder, and you wonder if it would be worth it at that point. Those gigantic contracts end up looking really bad really quick.

Given the state of the Bengals OL, it's worth the risk IMO. The Bengals could get an OT in the draft, but that's been a gamble lately too. If the goal is to try and win sooner than later, the Bengals would probably be better off paying for a known commodity than throwing a rookie into action at LT or, even worse, rolling with Ogbuehi again at that spot.

If it's me, I'd pursue Solder hard and still draft OT in the first round that I believed could become a franchise LT but also a plug-and-play RT.
This is assuming Ogbuehi and Fisher continue their poor performance through the rest of the year.