Tuesday Trenches: Bengals setting themselves up to draft for need….. Again

One step forward, two steps back.

The Cincinnati Bengals like to do things their way. If you’re a fan, and you’ve been a fan for any length of time, you know this. They don’t operate the same way some other teams do. They don’t like giving out a ton of guaranteed money (though they did with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to keep them both in Cincinnati). They don’t have a large scouting department. They don’t like to trade their own players, even if they know they’ll lose said player in free agency and get nothing in return.

They have the best weapons money could literally buy surrounding their quarterback. They have two solid offensive tackles and a reliable yet aging center. They will hopefully extend Hendrickson, which gives them one A+ edge rusher. They have Logan Wilson, a solid linebacker, and they have a handful of young and talented but untested cornerbacks next to Cam Taylor-Britt, who took a step back in 2024.

And they have the quarterback. That’s the biggest part of the puzzle. But if there’s something the team should have learned from last year’s disaster, it’s the quarterback can’t do it alone.

Duke Tobin said he doesn’t want to pay more for the same team. Well, right now, he’s paying more for a worse team (Hendrickson not extended, Germaine Pratt wants a trade). He also has the same starting left guard who struggled in 2024 in Cordell Volson, and they have Cody Ford/Lucas Patrick/Jaxson Kirkland to play right guard. Are any of those guys an upgrade over Alex Cappa, who also struggled and was released?

No.

If they took the field today, the Bengals would be no better than they were last year. In fact, they’d be worse.

“But, Jason, the draft is coming.”

Yep, it is, and the Bengals will finish filling out their roster with rookies later in April. Maybe they’ll really nail it. Hopefully, they will. They’ll need to.

Wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t need to, though? Wouldn’t it be nice if they could go into a draft without a single glaring need? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Bengals spared no expense and built a championship team in free agency and then used the draft to select the best possible players available and fill in depth?

Yes, it would be.

The Bengals could sign Brandon Scherff, who is still available, and then they wouldn’t have to spend one of their earlier picks on a guard and could instead select a more talented player at a different position that happens to fall for them. They could sign a guy like Za’Darius Smith to pair with Hendrickson. You may say they already re-signed Joseph Ossai, but which team ever complained about having too many competent edge rushers?

They could sign a guy like Stephon Gilmore to help shore up the secondary. He wouldn’t be terribly expensive, and if CTB rebounds like I think he can, you have another talented corner in the secondary to rely on.

They could go after a guy like Calais Campbell to shore up the interior of the defensive line. He probably wants to win a Super Bowl and could add some juice from the defensive tackle position. If Kris Johnson and/or McKinnley Jackson take a step in their second year, then the only problem you have is a deep rotation to keep everyone fresh for a playoff push.

They could go into the draft with no holes on the roster, allowing them to truly grab the best player available at No. 17. It doesn’t matter if the position (within reason, they obviously won’t take a QB in the first round) has a lot of talented players already. A truly talented player will find their way to contribute.

The way it stands the Bengals are going to go into the draft with a shopping list of needs. It’s a wide list consisting of guard, defensive tackle, edge, linebacker, and defensive back, so the chances of the best player available at No. 17 being someone they need are pretty decent, but it usually doesn’t work like that.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to say, ‘Wow, it sure was good the Bengals signed so-and-so in free agency because what’s-his-face fell to them. They wouldn’t have been in position to take him had they not filled out the roster in free agency?’ Wouldn’t it be nice to know they did EVERYTHING they could at this point in the offseason to make sure 2025 would go their way? Wouldn’t it be nice to see them put it all on the line now in an effort to win it all, cap space be damned?

Their opportunity to do so is now. The longer they wait, the less talent exists in the free agency market. If they plan to use free agency after the draft, it’s very possible the guys who are unsigned today will be very much unavailable or entertaining other offers from teams in a similar position. The only time when they KNOW Scherff/Campbell/Smith/whoever are available to them is right now. Waiting until they KNOW they need more help is a risk.

So they’ll go into the draft, and they’ll do their best to balance needs with who is available. Maybe it will work out for them. Maybe it won’t.

Hopefully, their way gets them to where they want to go. If it doesn’t, maybe they’ll try to do it differently in the future.

Relative song lyrics:

That’s just the way it is
Some things’ll never change
That’s just the way it is
Ah, but don’t you believe them