Loser: Bengals lose two key starters
Heading into free agency, the Cincinnati Bengals had plenty of cap space with which to look at bringing in some outside talent while keeping their own free agents from running away.
Two of the most important players they needed to keep have moved on, however, leaving this team in quite a lurch.
All-Pro starting left tackle Andrew Whitworth left to sign with the Los Angeles Rams. He’ll be a tremendous addition to that team, and Cincinnati doesn’t have anyone close to that caliber who can take his place.
Kevin Zeitler, one of the biggest prizes in free agency, bolted to join the Cleveland Browns, who were happy to pay him some huge money to jump ship.
At least one player was obviously distressed by these departures, and we’re pretty sure he’s not alone.
🤐
— Giovani Bernard (@G_Bernard25) March 9, 2017
Cincinnati is a team that is coming off one of its worst campaigns in some time, going 6-9-1.
It failed to retain its own free agents last year and the offense suffered badly as a result. Now it’s going to be even harder to put up a fight without these two key starters, both of whom might have been convinced to stay if only the Bengals weren’t awful about paying their own players.