Bengals made the right call with their restricted free agents

by Josh Kirkendall on Mar 5, 2010 10:00 AM EST in Contracts

It was generally expected that the Bengals would tender more of their restricted free agents, even though only three names surfaced in the weeks leading up Thursday's deadline.

Player	Position	Tender	Compensation
Brandon Johnson	LB	$1.759 million	Second Round
Rashad Jeanty	LB	$1.176 million	None
Frostee Rucker	DE	$1.176 million	Third Round
Abdul Hodge	LB	$1.176 million	Third Round
Evan Mathis	G	$1.226 million	Third Round
David Jones	CB	$1.101 million	Fifth Round

The only surprise on this list for me is David Jones. I didn't think it was as necessary to tender a guy that's, at best, going to compete as the team's nickelback. But competition amongst players is always a good thing and a tender for Jones isn't bad either. Just surprising.

All five players that were classified as an Exclusive-Rights free agent were tendered deals worth $470,000 each for one season. Those players are Dennis Roland, Nate Livings, Kyle Cook, Jordan Palmer and Kyries Hebert.

Not tendering tight end J.P. Foschi and defensive tackle Shaun Smith could be a logical and smart tactic to sign them later as unrestricted free agents. Neither player would garner enough interest from the other 31 NFL teams to force a tender and the difference between a restricted free agent tender and an unrestricted contract could be, at least, half a million. Furthermore, Smith and Foschi are players at positions in serious need for depth. If I were to make a guess, both players will sign back relatively soon.

Best news of all? Daniel Coats. Gone!

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