The Cincinnati Bengals don’t sound like a team that wants to add to its wide receiver room over the course of the next few days despite a name like Odell Beckham Jr. becoming available.
As Adam Schefter pointed out, the Bengals are just one of nine teams that actually have enough cap space to take on Beckham’s contract if they claim him on waivers.
But Bengals head coach Zac Taylor had this to say when asked about possibly adding more wide receivers, per ESPN’s Ben Baby: “We’ve got really good depth there. I would have to imagine we’ve got as good a depth there as there is in the league.”
Translation: No chance.
Cincinnati’s standing in the waiver wire order probably means they wouldn’t realistically get a shot at Beckham anyway. Some bad teams with big needs at the spot and would-be contenders willing to roll the dice are likely to put claims in before the Bengals can.
And Beckham is a big gamble — he’s now forced his way out of two franchises in dramatic fashion and hasn’t played in more than seven games in each of the last two seasons.
So while it might seem like a fun idea, the Bengals have a better idea — Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd.
While teams always have ways to create salary-cap space, as of this morning, nine NFL teams had over $7.25M in cap space, the amount now needed to claim Odell Beckham, Jr. next week: Jaguars, Eagles, Broncos, Seahawks, Panthers, Chargers, Steelers, Washington, Bengals.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 5, 2021
