Ex-Bengals safety Geno Stone emerging as a cut candidate shouldn’t surprise anyone

The Cincinnati Bengals had one of the worst defenses in the NFL last year, thanks in part to safety Geno Stone. Even as unfair as it may be, Stone, along with the two starting rookie linebackers, took the brunt of the fans’ ire. 

The front office mercifully moved on from Stone, the worst tackler in the NFL, and signed an excellent tackler at safety, Bryan Cook, in free agency.

Meanwhile, Stone signed a one-year, $1.4 million contract with the Buffalo Bills. Now, Bills fans appear to be seeing what Cincinnati fans have known for two seasons. Perhaps Stone is not the answer at safety. 

Geno Stone already on Bills’ chopping block

NFL.com’s Kevin Patra recently released his list of cut candidates and trade targets. For the Bills, the analyst nominated Stone as a player who could find himself on the waiver wire on Sunday. 

On Stone’s preseason performance in Buffalo, Patra notes, “Stone has struggled during camp and was outplayed in Saturday’s preseason game by Damar Hamlin, who gets my nod in the safety room.”

Congrats Buffalo. Welcome to the Geno Stone experience. 

Here is where fan reactions would normally go, but everything coming out of Buffalo when discussing Stone is full of expletives and vulgarities. Just know that Bills fans are ready to send Stone through a table, but not in a positive, fun, Bills Mafia way. 

The Bengals led the league in missed tackles last year with 170. The next closest team was the Washington Commanders with 131. For his part, Stone led the league in total missed tackles and was sixth-worst in missed tackle percentage. 

At least the Bills had the presence of mind to make it a competition rather than just gifting a player a spot for no reason. Now they may save themselves a lot of time and missed tackles by hoping Stone is something he was rather than what he is. 

A team will talk themselves into Stone

If the Bills release Stone, it will not cost them very much. It would save Buffalo $1 million in cap space while incurring only a $187,500 dead money penalty. 

It was worth it for the Bills to take a shot on Stone. But in the end, like in Cincinnati, the juice, no matter how little effort it took, may not be worth the squeeze. 

If the Bills part ways with the veteran safety, he will likely catch on with another team fairly quickly. Teams will judge him on his time with the Baltimore Ravens, when they were a top-10 defense. 

It will be easy for organizations to dismiss Stone’s time with the Bengals, blaming the situation and claiming his shortcomings stemmed from Cincinnati’s defensive dysfunction rather than his disappointing on-field play. 

Furthermore, it will not be cap-prohibitive to pick up his million-dollar contract.

Also, other organizations will call him a ball-hawking safety thanks to his six non-consequential interceptions over the past two seasons. 

Cincinnati won’t be calling

Deep inside, Bengals fans would love for Stone to stick with Buffalo. Then Cincinnati’s offense could run right at him in the playoffs, knowing that their free-agent safety is likely to miss a few tackles. 

If the Bills release Stone, at least we know he won't end up back in the Queen City. He burned that bridge on his way out with his comments and his on-field performance. 

So, excuse fans in Cincinnati if they aren't surprised that Stone may already be on his way out of Buffalo. We tried to warn you. 

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