The offseason is finally here for the Cincinnati Bengals. The stripes shocked the world by making it to the Super Bowl, only to come up short of their first-ever championship.
With the offseason in full swing, what are the easiest roster decisions for the team to make?
When putting this list together, I kept a few things in mind, such as — Who should the team cut? Who should they re-sign? Who does the team absolutely have to sign in free agency? Who do they have to target in the draft? Answering those questions helped me put this list together.
Let’s take a look at the easiest decisions for the Bengals in their most important offseason in the last three decades.
8. Cut Trey Hopkins
Trey Hopkins cannot be the starting center of the Bengals when the 2022 season gets underway. He proved why that can’t be the case during the 2021 season. Hopkins was a nice story, having gone undrafted out of Texas and working his way into the starting center role in Cincinnati but he wasn’t the same player after his injury.
With that in mind, the easiest thing for the stripes to do here is cut Hopkins. They’d save $6 million in doing so and that’s money that can be used to potentially bring in another top-notch option at center (maybe Ryan Jensen?).
It was cool watching Hopkins ascend to the starting center role but it’s time to cut bait and move on here. This is an easy decision for Cincy.