Lost in the beginning of March Madness yesterday was the news that Darqueze Dennard will stay with the Bengals. It looked like Dennard would not be returning to Cincinnati after the signing of slot corner B. W. Webb, things quickly heated up yesterday and Cincinnati was able to ink Dennard to a second contract.
There are no contract details to give at this time, Dennard did make a visit to the Kansas City Chiefs, but clearly did not get what he was looking for elsewhere in free agency. So, he decided to stay put.
This is a very important signing for the Bengals. It allows them to keep a player that they invested a first round pick in. It also allows them to keep a secondary together that was actually pretty good last season. While the defense as a whole may have been one of the worst in the NFL, Pro Football Focus ranked the defensive backfield top 10 in the NFL. One of the big reasons for that was Dennard’s play in the slot.
With Dennard back and the signing of B.W. Webb, the secondary now has some solid depth. This now forces Cincinnati’s decision makers to focus on their biggest weak spot on defense, which is the linebacker corp. This move truly points all arrows to the Bengals going linebacker in the first round of the draft. If the team can somehow land Devin White with the 11th overall pick, the Bengals defense would suddenly have enough pieces to no longer be a liability.
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