Bengals Free Agency: PFF predicts Ryan Jensen will sign with Cincinnati

Bengals free agency should be a lot of fun this year, as the team is clearly way ahead of their rebuild, making it all the way to the Super Bowl in the 2021 season. Yes, they lost the big game, but no one expected them to even make it that far in the first place, so how do we not consider that a win?

This time last year, all of the talk was surrounding the offensive line and how the team had to make it better in order to protect Joe Burrow. At the time, Burrow was coming off knee surgery that he had to get as a result of his offensive line, so it makes sense that it’d be a hot-button topic of conversation.

While Burrow and the Bengals got to the Super Bowl even with a bad offensive line, we saw it catch up to them in the game. Burrow was sacked seven times and there were several players where the poor kid didn’t even stand a chance.

The organization cannot go into the 2022 season without having a better o-line in front of Burrow. Fortunately, the team has money to spend to get themselves a better offensive line, and Arjun Menon of Pro Football Focus has Ryan Jensen, arguably the best free-agent center, signing with Cincinnati.

"Jensen will be the most sought-after center on the market this free agency period. He has experience playing in multiple schemes (Ravens, Bucs) and has been durable, playing over 1,000 snaps in each of the last five seasons. He’s always graded out better as a run-blocker than a pass-blocker in his career, posting three straight campaigns with a 73.0-plus run-blocking grade.The Bengals need to allocate cap space to the offensive line, and Jensen would be a great start. He’d be an upgrade over Trey Hopkins (51.4 PFF grade in 2021) and would give Joe Burrow a trusted veteran to take snaps from. We’ve seen this type of move have a positive impact on Justin Herbert (with Corey Linsley) and Kyler Murray (with Rodney Hudson)."

Bengals Free Agency: Ryan Jensen would be a perfect fit

Menon has the Bengals and Jensen agreeing to terms on a three-year deal worth $39 million with $24.5 million in guaranteed money. This would be a good deal, as Jensen turns 31 years old in May and three years means the Bengals would have him through his age 33 season.

Bengals fans are probably somewhat familiar with Jensen, as he spent the first four years of his career with the Ravens before signing with the Buccaneers in 2018. Playing with Tom Brady is enough to get you on teams’ radars and Jensen has certainly done that.

If Cincinnati was able to sign Jensen, he’d slide in at center for sure. Trey Hopkins very well could be a cap casualty and the need to upgrade at center is there even if Hopkins is retained. Jensen gives the Bengals the best free-agent option at the position and would set them up to succeed for the next three years at the very least.

How would you feel about the Bengals signing Ryan Jensen?