After several years in the dog house, the Cincinnati Bengals are finally entering the 2024 offseason in a position of strength. The relative weak display that the team put on gave them the 18th overall pick in the draft (higher than the team has been in three years) and they also have over $40 million available against the salary cap next season. With a fairly dominant roster, Cincinnati has the opportunity this offseason to truly establish themselves as a Super Bowl favorite next season.
Bengals Plan to Go After Star Safety in Free Agency
During the 2022 NFL Season, Cincinnati exhibited arguably the most dominant pair of safeties in the NFL with pro bowl free safety Jessie Bates III and aggressive strong safety Vonn Bell. Unfortunately for Cincinnati, both of their star outfielders left during the 2023 free agency window and replacement Nick Scott ended up being a dramatic liability in the secondary last season. 2022 first round pick Dax Hill ended up being an adequate replacement but the team may still want to improve their deep play protection heading into next season.
After the Philadelphia Eagles announced on Friday morning that they were releasing All-Pro safety Kevin Byard, Cincinnati finds themselves in prime position to swoop in on the proven commodity. Byard has been named a first team All-Pro twice during his NFL Career as recent as 2021 and was brought into Philadelphia to shore up an aging secondary.
Although Byard has a tremendous NFL career behind him, it should be a major point of concern for any team looking to sign him that Philadelphia cut him loose. The move mostly stems from the team’s need to clear cap space as the decision will alleviate approximately $13 million against the cap. That being said, the Eagles traded promising safety Terrell Edmunds and two draft picks in return for Byard so the franchise’s to cut him loose is baffling.
While it could simply be a sign that Philadelphia is struggling heavily with their salary cap issues, it could also indicate that Byard has lost a step. The 30-year old safety has seen his Pro Football Focus score decrease steadily over each of the past two seasons from 90.4 in 2021 (his last All-Pro season), 79.5 in 2022 and 72.8 in 2023. It should be factored in that the quality of the overall defenses he played with also decreased across that span but an 18 point drop is substantial.
Cincinnati should also consider that their play at the safety position improved dramatically last season as the season went on. Hill managed to improve as the season went along and Scott was ultimately benched for impressive rookie safety Jordan Battle in week 11. Battle would finish the season tremendously with a PFF score of 82.5 (8th in the NFL). While adding an elite player like Byard would be a tremendous boost to depth, the best thing that Cincinnati could do was maximize the playing time of their two young safeties to accelerate their development.
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