The Cincinnati Bengals camp up short in a free-agency bidding war for former Cleveland Browns linebacker Joe Schobert, per a new report.
According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Bengals were “aggressively” trying to get the former Browns linebacker.
Instead, the Bengals weren’t willing to match the five-year deal worth $53.75 million the Jacksonville Jaguars gave Schobert.
Schobert is a coverage specialist and this was a major weakness the Bengals set out to correct this offseason.
But the Bengals picked a bad time to come up short, as other top linebackers like Cory Littleton are already off the market. A miss here could mean the Bengals resort to a lesser-known name and have to enter the draft prioritizing the need more than they’d prefer.
It was unlikely the Bengals wanted to shoot into the $20 million range in terms of guaranteed dollars, something the Jaguars exploited in this particular bidding war.
