Trae Waynes is hyped to still be Mackensie Alexander’s teammate

It’s a rare thing for two free agents of the same position on the same team to each join the same new team. But that’s exactly the case for Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander.

Waynes was the second free agent signing the Cincinnati Bengals made last week; a move that was announced after Darqueze Dennard reportedly agreed to join the Jacksonville Jaguars. A boundary corner by trade, Waynes isn’t suited to replace Dennard, but Alexander is, and that’s why the Bengals plucked him from the Minnesota Vikings along with Waynes a couple days later.

In an interview with 700 WLW’s Lance McAlister shortly after the news broke, Waynes expressed his excitement to keep the tandem with Alexander going in the Queen City.

“I was excited when I heard the news, right after I called him and we talked for a little bit,” Waynes said. “He’s really excited to come, I’m excited to come. I’m glad it worked out because we have great chemistry [from] when we played for the Vikings and I’m just glad we can translate that here.”

You can listen to the full interview here:

Waynes later took his excitement to Instagram, using a picture all of us are very much familiar with now.

A drawback to building a unit primarily through free agency is that there could be cohesion issues early on. The Bengals essentially going from Dre Kirkpatrick and Darqueze Dennard to Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander erases those concerns. With four years of experience together in Minnesota’s secondary, Waynes and Alexander should help nullify any potential chemistry issues the backend of the defense may run into.

Considering miscommunication was such an issue last year, adding Alexander to the mix with Waynes may pay off more than we think.