The Cincinnati Bengals used free agency before the NFL draft to fill a barrage of roster holes well enough to go best-player-available with their eight highly-graded picks.
But now, the Bengals could always loop back to that open market and add some more players if they want. As Over The Cap’s Nick Korte pointed out, after the draft, teams can sign unrestricted free agents without it impacting the compensatory pick formula.
While the Bengals haven’t prioritized compensatory picks as much in recent years, they are scheduled to have an extra fifth and sixth next offseason.
Free agents who could interest the Bengals? Besides Ezekiel Elliott seemingly wanting to come to town, these are some names of note with a Bengals theme in mind:
- Yannick Ngakoue
- Matt Ioannidis
- Marcus Peters
- Frank Clark
The players left aren’t must-sign immediately or anything, but the Bengals could now be more open to the idea with comp picks out of the equation.
