Cincinnati Bengals should get a second chance at Shaq Barrett

The 2019 offseason for the Cincinnati Bengals was a failure due to rescinding a deal to make  Shaq Barrett an edge rusher. The Bengals medical staff found a shoulder injury that allowed them to back out of a deal that was already made. The problem is there was no shoulder injury according to Barrett.

This is what Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic wrote about what Barrett said about the situation:

"“They said I had something with my shoulder or something that — I don’t have anything with my shoulder. That’s when they pulled off, which had me pretty upset because I was putting all my eggs into that basket.I thought Cincinnati would have been the right move for me and they offered me a two-year contract and my agent was sure he could get me up a little bit more than what they offered so it would have been the most money I’d ever made with the most security. And that’s all I wanted was security and stability for my family.It was a gut shot once they pulled the contract offer, but I didn’t hear from anybody else about anything from the teams I visited about any shoulder injury because I never had a shoulder injury.”"

Did Buccaneers LB Shaq Barrett have a shoulder injury?

After the Bengals pulled the offer off the table, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed Barrett to a one-year deal worth $4 million. Their medical staff didn’t see a shoulder issue and he had 19.5 sacks that season.

In 2020 he signed the franchise tag worth 15.8 million dollars. Barrett picked up almost 20  million dollars in the last two seasons and the Bengals offer they failed in two seasons ago would have only cost them 14 million dollars in two seasons.

Was this a failure on the medical staff or is this just a terrible judgment on the front office? Either way, this should not ever happen again.

The Bengals have a second shot at Shaq Barrett

Barrett will become a free agent this season and the Bengals should make a deal and keep it. Barrett is now 28 years old. With eight seasons in the league, he has 41.5 sacks, and the majority of those sacks were in the last two seasons.

Barrett is still in his prime and will be worth every penny to sign him to a three-year deal. Depending on the defense the Bengals will use, Barrett would work best in a 3-4 defense as an outside linebacker.

LaVonte David from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is also going to test out free agency. They would have to pull some major spending to pull off both players. Barrett and David would be great additions but to pull it off they need to cut defensive tackle Geno Atkins and a few others to make it work.