Free agency rankings slap Bengals with a deserving below-average mark

The Cincinnati Bengals like to go only so far to maximize their roster in any given season. They deliberately front-load contracts far more than other teams, and fill some, but not all, of their most obvious needs.

Then, us fans stand by all anxious-like. We watch them reach on prospect after prospect, and typically draft a "succession plan" player in the first round.

So if the Bengals don't fill any other needs in free agency, they'll be counting on key contributions from rookies. That's backfired often in the last three years of playoff-free football. Some new free agency rankings are right to call Cincinnati's brass out for its relative lack of urgency.

Bengals rank 19th out of 32 teams in ESPN's NFL free agency rankings

ESPN's Ben Solak wrote up a lengthy piece that ranked every team's efforts to improve their rosters via the open market. The Bengals checked in at 19th, but to kick things off, let's go with the positive aspect of Solak's Cincinnati blurb on new defensive end Boye Mafe:

"I loved: Getting Mafe. The top of the edge market got much bigger money than I expected across the board. The Bengals took the smallest risk with Mafe's three-year, $60 million deal. As always with Cincinnati's contracts, all of Mafe's guarantees are in Year 1 of his deal, which means the team can cut bait easily if he underperforms. But Mafe has the size and toughness to win against the run, and his pressure numbers as a rotational player in Seattle detail an eight-plus-sack player on full-time snaps."

The mindset shouldn't be to cut bait with a player if he underperforms. Rather ,the Bengals should leverage the fact that the salary cap keeps exploding in perpetuity, and structure their contracts accordingly. Why they don't do this will never make a lick of sense. I don't care what financial rationale is provided. You're signalling to the fan base that you do not care about winning a Super Bowl.

Don't know why I keep getting frustrated at the same old routine from Cincinnati's leadership. Oh, maybe it's because, if they're going to spend big and front-load contracts, it might be worth doing so at the literal worst position on the roster. That's where Solak's main criticism comes in hot:

"I didn't love: Leaving linebacker untouched. I understand that the Bengals are bullish on their duo of 2025 draft picks at linebacker. But Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter were victimized by opposing offenses on a weekly basis last season, and banking on two second-year leaps (including one for a Day 3 pick) is an enormous gamble at the position. Adding another rookie, even highly drafted, doesn't solve the experience issue. The Bengals need a veteran in this room."

Couldn't have said it better myself. Oh wait. I've been saying this better, and at more length, for months on end. How Bobby Wagner isn't in a Bengals uniform yet is baffling to me.

My 3,000-word mock offseason advocated for the signings of Demario Davis and Leo Chenal in free agency to upgrade over Knight and Carter. Oh, and using the 10th overall pick on Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles.

Here's a better snapshot — and all of these moves were easily affordable, by the way. At least they got Mafe and ex-Chiefs safety Bryan Cook on the books, and re-signed Dalton Riser and Jalen Davis.

Ignore the draft picks after Styles. Those are dated and don't really reflect the needs of the roster as it stands.

At this point, Styles is unlikely to make it to the 10th overall pick, but I'd trade up for him if I were Duke Tobin. Swap out new Cincinnati defensive tackle Jonathan Allen for John Franklin-Myers in my imagined scenario below, and tell me that's not way better than whatever the Bengals are about to trot out on the field in 2026 as things stand right now.

This hypothetical offseason scenario isn't some pipe dream. I mean, it is in the sense that the Bengals' mindset would never lead them down a path like this. It isn't in the sense that, if Cincinnati did business like the vast majority of the other 31 NFL teams, they'd have ranked as an elite performer in free agency.

Instead, here we are again. Hope itself is our biggest hope. Pray we strike gold in the draft, or a belated signing for a veteran linebacker comes together. Who knows what takes these people so long to take action? I sure don't.

If you say you're "all-in", yet refuse to restructure Joe Burrow's contract to free up $19+ million in cap space and can't outclass more than half the league in free agency rankings, you're probably not "all-in." Just saying.