We’re about 10 weeks into 2020, and the world is without sports for the time being. But, somehow, not even the Coronavirus Disease can stop the new NFL league year from kicking off this week. That means free agency will officially begin this Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. EST, and with the legal tampering period set to begin later today, things are already well in motion.
For the Cincinnati Bengals, free agency doesn’t normally begin for them until after the first wave of signings concludes—most of those are agreed upon in principle before the league year starts anyways. That isn’t expected to change for them this year, but a more active presence during the second wave isn’t out of the question; it’s actually the expectation based off what everyone’s been saying for the past several weeks.
This doesn’t mean one of Byron Jones, Joe Thuney or Cory Littleton will become the next member of the Bengals. As for players such as Logan Ryan, Kendall Fuller or, Nick Kwiatkoski, their price tags seem to be within Cincinnati’s budget.
Before anything happens with signing players from other teams, A.J. Green is expected to be designated with the franchise tag and to help cover the cost of doing that, Andy Dalton is expected to be traded. If the release of Cordy Glenn wasn’t the domino that kickstarts their offseason, these two transactions are.
Green isn’t the only internal free agent expected to be back, but players like Darqueze Dennard, Tyler Eifert, Andrew Billings, and Nick Vigil should receive interest from other teams and the odds of all four returning are low. Will the Bengals re-sign any of them, or is this rebuild even more extreme than we thought?
To catch all the latest news, updates and analysis regarding the Bengals’ efforts in free agency, keep it locked into this stream!