Cincy Jungle
Big news!
The Cincinnati Bengals are set to host one of the top available NFL free agents.
According to Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz, the Bengals will host tight end Noah Fant for a visit on Thursday. Fant was recently a cap casualty with the Seattle Seahawks.
A first-round NFL Draft pick in 2019 by way of the Denver Broncos, Fant has appeared in 95 career games (83 starts), catching 300 passes for 3,305 yards (11.0 avg) and 15 touchdowns.
Last year in Seattle, Fant hauled in 48 passes for 500 yards and one score in 14 games (nine starts) while earning a 66.0 Pro Football Focus grade.
The 6-foot-4, 249-pound Fant is also a decent run blocker, logging 128 snaps there last season and 1,443 for his career. That’s an area current starter Mike Gesicki doesn’t really give you anything in, while Drew Sample isn’t as good of a pass catcher as Fant.
After Gesicki and Sample, the Bengals are down to Tanner Hudson, Cam Grandy, Tanner McLachlan, and Kole Taylor. Fant easily clears all of them and could actually push Gesicki for targets while taking away blocking snaps from Sample.
Ironically, this visit would not be happening if the Bengals had a healthy Erick All, another Iowa Hawkeyes product. However, All is set to miss the entire 2025 season due to complications from knee surgery when he was in college.
If a signing were to happen, it would be a great pickup, given that we’re now into training camp. There simply aren’t many free agents as good as Fant out there, and it appears the Bengals see the potential value in signing him, even if it is at a position with plenty of depth.
It’s a move that makes sense, but Fant is likely to be a hot commodity, so it will be key for the Bengals to get something done this week before other visits can happen.
According to Over The Cap, the Bengals have $31,194,024 in available cap space, so plenty of room to get something done.
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