Bengals won't offer J.P. Foschi a contract; will become an unrestricted free agent

In a move that I found a bit surprising, the Cincinnati Bengals won't tender J.P. Foschi a contract, which will make him an unrestricted free agent, writes Joe Reedy. Yes. I said surprising in that I thought Foschi was decent enough to have around for depth reasons -- and for the love of god, we needed depth last year. While not a down field threat, Foschi's blocking was better than marginal.

Foschi's 27 receptions, most by any Bengals tight end, ranked fifth on the team overall.

However, as Joe Reedy writes, "if the Bengals were going to tender Foschi, the minimum would have been $1.101 million." With that coin, and Foschi's availability so late into Training Camp, it makes you believe that, if necessary, the Bengals could find another like-talented tight end.

More importantly, it's unlikely other teams will compete for Foschi in the free agency market, allowing Cincinnati to retain Foschi at a much lower cost. They did that to DeDe Dorsey last season. If the Bengals offered Dorsey a tender, they'd be on the books for $1.01 million. Instead, Cincinnati didn't offer him a contract and waited until he cleared waivers, signing him back a day later to a contract near the minimum for his experience, likely saving the team half a million.

So it could very well could happen that the Bengals will sign Foschi as soon as they're able to help save a few bucks in the long run and at least keep the tight end spot stacked with enough depth to be competitive during training camp.