Former Bengals TE C.J. Uzomah signed with the wrong team
While the Cincinnati Bengals have had an excellent free agency, fans are upset about C.J. Uzomah not re-signing and instead, following the money and joining the New York Jets. For what it’s worth, I don’t blame Uzomah for chasing a big payday while he could, and while Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report says the same thing, he wrote that the former Bengals tight end signed with the wrong team.
Uzomah signed a three-year deal worth $24 million to join the Jets but Ballentine doesn’t like the move. He wrote:
"Uzomah is going to go from an offense where he was working with Joe Burrow and flanked by a receiving core of Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd to New York where he’ll have Zach Wilson, Corey Davis and Elijah Moore."
This change will impact Uzomah more than it will the Bengals, as the team added Hayden Hurst on a one-year. It could easily be argued that Hurst is an upgrade over Uzomah, as he put together a better season in 2020 than any seasons Uzomah had during his career.
Did former Bengals TE C.J. Uzomah make a mistake picking the Jets?
Ballentine continues by mentioning that Jets quarterback Zach Wilson didn’t seem interested in throwing to his tight ends a season ago, but it’s worth noting that he didn’t have a talented tight end on the roster last year. Now he has both Uzomah and Tyler Conklin, which should change things there.
"Granted, there is room for the Jets offense to grow. However, Wilson wasn’t all that interested in targeting his tight ends last season. Ryan Griffin had just 42 targets while Tyler Kroft had 29. They were eighth and ninth on the team, respectively."
Again, look at those names and then look at the tight ends that New York added this offseason. Wilson is going to be more confident when targeting Uzomah and Conklin because both of those guys are seasoned vets at the tight end position.
While I’m sad that Uzomah didn’t return to Cincinnati, he followed the money and it’ll be interesting to see what he does as a member of the New York Jets.
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