Cincy Jungle
Last year wasn’t great, but it started on an upward trend. Is that enough?
It seemed like the Cincinnati Bengals made the right move when they brought in Geno Stone as a free agent safety. Not only was he coming off a seven-interception season, but Lou Anarumo and Zac Taylor stole him away from the Baltimore Ravens.
Now Anarumo is gone and there are new faces all over the defense.
Everywhere except for the secondary, that is.
So Stone is back, much to the chagrin of some fans.
Stone signed a two-year, $14 million contract with the Bengals heading into the 2024 season, and earned $7,738,762 (total cash) last year. He restructured his contract following the disappointing season and now heads into the new season with a one-year, $4.9 million contract, which includes $1.5 million guaranteed.
Stone was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the seventh round of the 2020 draft. After a somewhat rocky start that included multiple waivers and a brief period of time with the Texans, he returned to Baltimore in 2021 and gradually carved out a role on defense.
By 2023, Stone had a breakout season, as mentioned above, with seven interceptions, 68 tackles, and nine passes broken up.
The Bengals grabbed Stone as a free agent in March of 2024, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Stone struggled throughout the majority of the season. He did pick off three passes over the last five games, but two of those three games were against poor offenses, and the other was against the Cowboys, who always seem to get in their own way (even more than the Bengals).
The front office and Taylor obviously feel that he improved enough over the final quarter of the season that he was worth keeping around (that and being $3 million cheaper). Now comes Al Golden, the Bengals’ new defensive coordinator, who most recently coached the Notre Dame defense to the National Championship. They’re hoping Golden gets every ounce of good defense he can out of Stone in the one year he’s under contract.
The better he plays for the Bengals, the better off their defense will be, obviously, but it will also be better for Stone, who’s probably looking to prove 2023 with the Ravens wasn’t a fluke. If he can do that, he could be looking at one more lucrative deal before age forces him to hang up his cleats or take a back seat on a depth chart.
The safety position has been a mess since Jessie Bates left Cincinnati for Atlanta, where he continues to play at an All-Pro level for the Falcons. The Bengals, in the meantime, have gone from Bates to Dax Hill (now a corner), Nick Scott (now on a one-year deal with the...
