The Cincinnati Bengals don’t exaggerate with claims they like to do right by players.
It has long sounded like they’ll do right by Andy Dalton when they end up moving him. And it sounds like they handled the recent Dre Kirkpatrick release in the best possible manner too.
Just ask Kirkpatrick himself.
The veteran corner told Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com about his conversation with Zac Taylor:
“At the end of the day, they showed me a lot of respect. They called me. They could have called my agent. He was very generous about it…I was just happy to get the phone call from them instead of hearing about it from TV or something. That was a sign of respect. I was able to do what I wanted to do with it. I appreciate everything they’ve done for me. Marvin (Lewis). Mr. (Mike) Brown and his family. As far as giving me the opportunity.”
Kirkpatrick even went on to mention he feels like the Bengals gave him a good reason as to why they didn’t release him sooner. One could argue the Bengals waited too long and he ended up missing big opportunities in free agency but he understands the team had to get new pieces in place first.
Given world happenings and the state of the NFL as the draft nears, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for Kirkpatrick to find a new home.
If nothing else, it’s nice to hear the Bengals organization handled a predictable move in a respectable manner despite the hurdles in place when it comes to doing normal business right now.
