I would start with Whitworth and Zeitler. Those are the only two I see as must sign.

Lefell would be #2 behind Zietler. With the mess at WR position we saw what happened when AJ went down. We need a solid #2 because Boyd isn't there yet.

They have the money to pay Dre and they will. He will be in demand, though. You may be right if he gets top 5 $$. I think they franchise him if it goes there.

Dre is ok, but let some other team over pay for him.

Andrew Whitworth LT 35 CIN

Domata Peko DT 32 CIN

Brandon LaFell WR 30 CIN

Dre Kirkpatrick CB 27 CIN

Kevin Zeitler G 26 CIN

Eric Winston RT 33 CIN

Cedric Peerman RB 30 CIN

Margus Hunt DE 29 CIN

Wallace Gilberry DE 32 CIN

Brandon Thompson DT 27 CIN

Chykie Brown CB 30 CIN

Brandon Boykin CB 26 CIN

Randy Bullock K 27 CIN

Rex Burkhead RB 26 CIN

 

 

They will not sign all of them, so who leaves? To me Peko, Winston, Hunt, Gilberry, Breon, Boykin, Bullock will not be offered anything and may or may not sign somewhere else. If they don't they may end up Bengals again at some point.

 

I think Bengals sign Zeitler, Peerman, Burkhead.

 

I think they try to sign Whit, Lafell, Kirkpatrick but may not be successful.

 

Here is who I want them to resign:

Whitworth because he still is our best lineman.

 

Dre Kirkpatrick. While he may not be a shut down corner I do think he showed improvement as the year went on. I know people like to say the Bengals secondary is horrible but the Bengals secondary is going to finish in the top 10 in pass defense and top 10 in scoring defense.

 

Rex Burkhead. He will be hard to sign. Unless we get rid of Hill or Gio because he is going to want playing time. He is a little injury pronew though and so is Gio coming off his second ACL tear. So getting rid of Hill and keep Gio and Burkhead could be risky. However I want him back.

 

Zeitler if the price is not to expensive. The Bengals line sucked this year including Zeitler and they already are paying a lot of money to the other Guard in Boling. That would be hard to spend that much money on two guards, especially ones who aren't that great imo.

 

I would sign Hunt back because they could get him back for cheap and he is starting to contribute special teams Wise now.

 

As for LaFell I kind of feel as I did after the 2012 season when everyone wanted the Bengals to go sign top free agents wr. I really like the young Marvin Jones and Sanu and it worked out very well because that next season the Bengals had a top 10 passing offense by going with the young guys. I really like Boyd and Core. I would only sign LaFell back if the price is right and if they go end planning on giving the younger guys more chances. I think they bring more upside to the offense than Lafell.

 

As for the rest I let them walk. However knowing the Bengals both Peko and Peerman will be back.

Here is my take on Kirkpatrick. For every good play he makes he has 3 Artrell Hawkins type of bone head plays. I think he'd be better suited as a

nickle DB

Yep I have said that a few times on here. The only way they sign him is if they trade or cut Hill to show Rex he would be getting a lot of playing time if he came back.

 

Or maybe even try to trade Gio. With him coming off his seconf ACL tear, he tore it in college too. It may be smart to try to see if someone would want him and keep Rex.

I'm definitely a fan of letting Hill loose. If Rex proves to be reliable great, if he doesn't then there is no way he could be any worse than Hill was this year. Hill is never going to return to the form of his rookie year.

I'm definitely a fan of letting Hill loose. If Rex proves to be reliable great, if he doesn't then there is no way he could be any worse than Hill was this year. Hill is never going to return to the form of his rookie year.

 

Yes and no. We can't forget the offense we ran in 2014 when Hill took off was a lot different. Eifert was out all year, Green missed like 6 games. The number 2 wr in Jones was out all year, the number 4 wr in Wright had a season ending injury.

 

The Bengals were an under center down hill running team with a fullback that year when he took off. Last season the Bengals were great on offense but were in the gun more. Same with most of this year. Hill needs to be in a more power running offense, and the Bengals seem to like being in the gun more. Which that does make Rex and Gio more effective.

Yes and no. We can't forget the offense we ran in 2014 when Hill took off was a lot different. Eifert was out all year, Green missed like 6 games. The number 2 wr in Jones was out all year, the number 4 wr in Wright had a season ending injury.

 

The Bengals were an under center down hill running team with a fullback that year when he took off. Last season the Bengals were great on offense but were in the gun more. Same with most of this year. Hill needs to be in a more power running offense, and the Bengals seem to like being in the gun more. Which that does make Rex and Gio more effective.

I agree with how Hill is best utilized and that he certainly hasn't been in that system the past 2 years. But he still dances too much, is indecisive with his cuts, and doesn't hit the holes hard enough.

Franchise a CB that isn't in the top 25 in the league?

 

 

I think they will if need be. Don't know what I would do.

I think the Bengals have not give Rex a fair shake. He should have been playing a lot more.