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The Cincinnati Bengals are finding ways to get better this offseason, and that may require releasing some players on the team. That’s what they recently did, as they parted ways with defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins, and they cleared almost $10 million in cap space doing so.
Rankins finished his season with 18 tackles and one sack through seven games as he missed most of the season due to an illness. He signed a two-year deal with the Bengals last year and they hoped that he would be a big help to their pass rush, but things did not pan out that way.
Going into the offseason, the Bengals have ample cap space to make some moves, but more importantly, re-sign some of the players on their team.
The Bengals want to find themselves back competing for a championship after a disappointing season, and in order to do that, they’re going to need to improve their roster. Before they do that, giving new contracts to their current players, such as JaMarr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Trey Hendrickson should be their main priority.
Joe Burrow recently spoke about how the Bengals could make space available by re-adjusting his contract.
“You could convert some of the money to a signing bonus, which will lower the cap hit,” Burrow said. “You can push some of the money to the back end of the contract. That lowers the cap hit. And then when you get to the back end of the contract, you can restructure it and convert it to a signing bonus. You can also just take less money.”
There’s no doubt that Chase needs to be given an extension, especially for what he did last season. Before the year started, it seemed like he was willing to sit out until he got a new contract, but he ended up playing and having a stellar season. If Chase isn’t a part of the Bengals’ future, there’s no way that they can be as competitive as they want.
Higgins is another player that the Bengals need to prioritize, and it looks more than likely they will franchise tag him for the second straight season. Higgins had a solid season for the Bengals last season, and he’s looking to get paid the way he deserves. If the Bengals can bring those two back, and get back Hendrickson on defense, all they’ll need to do is go on the field and execute better than they did last year.
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