Bengals beat out several teams for safety Nick Scott

The Cincinnati Bengals recently signed former Los Angeles Rams safety Nick Scott to a three-year deal to pair with Daxton Hill who will be starting for the first time next season at safety. These two will have giant shoes to fill left by Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell who left via free agency.

This pair of safeties almost didn’t come together, though. Aaron Wilson from KRPC 2 Houston reports that Cincinnati actually beat out several other teams for Scott’s services.

We knew that the Rams were trying to retain Scott ever since the safety visited the team last week. We didn’t know how many teams were in the mix, though. Scott’s nearly $12 million contract over three years is a far cry from what the Atlanta Falcons gave Bates (he now has the fourth-highest contract among safeties according to Over The Cap). In fact, Scott’s contract pays him just slightly more than Hill who is still on his rookie contract.

It leads you to wonder how lucrative Scott’s market was after he became a full-time starter just last season. He did quite a bit with that opportunity with two forced fumbles and two interceptions while racking up 86 tackles. It is hard to believe that one of these teams wasn’t willing to pay Scott more.

It may have been other teams offering him shorter contracts, or he may have decided that he didn’t enjoy being on a floundering team following winning a Super Bowl. No offense to the Rams, Tampa Bay Bucs or Denver Broncos, but none of those teams seem to be threatening at helping Scott return to another Super Bowl. Scott may have also seen how the Bengals defense and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo really got the most out of his versatile safeties the past few years. Maybe he can help Scott get to another level we haven’t seen from him yet. These are the opportunities that were waiting for Scott only in Cincinnati