The Cincinnati Bengals only managed 17 sacks of opposing quarterbacks in 2020. Carl Lawson accounted for 5.5 of those. Yet, Cincinnati did not use the franchise tag on its best pass rusher. He will now be a free agent. With the legal tampering period beginning at noon on Monday, the next several years of his football career will likely soon be decided.
Both the Bengals and Lawson have expressed interest in remaining together. Still, having him hit the open market is a gamble on the team’s part. One that better result in Lawson remaining in stripes.
The 25-year-old flashed a lot on a bad defense last year. He will have offers from other teams. However, no team needs him more than Cincinnati. Even though the Bengals have plenty to spend, if Lawson doesn’t return, it will likely be a money issue.
Without Lawson, there’s no quick fix to the Bengals’ pass rush
If the Bengals don’t pay to retain Lawson, it is hard to see them paying for any other impact pass rusher in free agency. Of course, there is always the draft, but pass rushers are among the toughest players to project. Without Lawson, a team that already has little pass rush will have none to speak of.
Even if Lawson stays, Cincinnati needs Sam Hubbard to rediscover the form that got him a total of 14.5 sacks in his first two seasons. If Lawson goes, Hubbard is basically the only guy on the roster who has shown ability to get after quarterbacks with regularity.
Building around and protecting Joe Burrow should absolutely be the focus of Cincinnati’s offseason. Even so, losing Lawson would be inexcusable neglect of the other side of the ball. The idea of creating an offensive juggernaut that scores 30 points per game is a nice thought, but the Bengals were a pedestrian 3-2 when scoring 30+ points last year.
As much as today’s NFL is about offense, being flat-out bad on defense excludes you from being a true contender. Retaining Lawson was the easy part of Cincinnati’s path to building at least a competent defense this offseason. That has now been complicated significantly and perhaps beyond repair.