Rumors and speculation tends to be the driving force during free agency; the secretive nature of negotiations turns into the byproduct of imagination. And sometimes speculative analysis could be misunderstood as rumor or even fact.

This is speculative.

Steve Wyche on NFL Network's morning show NFL AM, chatting with Mark Kriegel Wednesday morning, speculated that one landing spot for cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha could be the Cincinnati Bengals.

Really? Again, speculation.

Citing Asomugha as the type of project Mike Zimmer excels with, Wyche uses the example of Adam Jones and Terence Newman as free agents that faced a down slope run at the back-end of their respective careers, becoming significantly productive with Cincinnati.

Let's not get carried away either. Along with this being total conjecture, Asomugha has faced his share of struggles.

Asomugha was graded by Pro Football Focus as the league's No. 34 cornerback out of those who took 75 percent of the team's snaps (101st of cornerbacks who took 25 percent of the team's snaps), with an overall score of -7.9. As a comparison, the lowest cornerback grade of a Bengals player was Nate Clements, who received a -1.9 but played quite a bit at safety.

Last year opposing quarterbacks scored a passer rating of 120.6 against Asomugha, allowing a 66.7 percent completion rate against targets he covered with a 15.9 yard/reception average.

That being said, as long as Adam Jones and Terence Newman are in the wind, Cincinnati needs cornerback help.