As we’ve touched on in the past, the Cincinnati Bengals were one of only two teams to put in an offer on free agent Shaq Barrett this past offseason.
Barrett ended up going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has 10.5 sacks, good for the NFL lead.
Now we know more about the free-agent pursuit by the Bengals.
Thanks to a superb in-depth piece from The Athletic’s Dan Pompei, we know the Bengals had an offer that would’ve beaten Tampa Bay’s — but the front office pulled it:
When free agency began, Shaq says the Bengals floated a two-year deal worth $14 million…
…Shaq’s first stop was Cincinnati, and he thought it was going to be his last stop. But the Bengals wanted to be sure a shoulder injury Shaq had sustained during the previous season was sufficiently healed before they proceeded. They took an MRI and didn’t like what they saw. They pulled the offer, and Shaq visited the Bucs.
Barrett is currently playing on a one-year deal worth $4 million for the Buccaneers.
While it’s clear the Bengals were willing to overpay on a free agent and knew pass-rush could be a problem area, it’s hard to not wince at the whole situation.
Pass rush has indeed been a massive problem — the Bengals have just nine sacks over eight games compared to Barrett’s 10.5. Making this look even stranger is this admission the pass rush needed help, but then doing nothing in the draft to address the problem.
