{"id":144155,"date":"2025-06-20T05:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T05:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/144155\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T05:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T05:47:09","slug":"bengals-justin-simmons-suggested-as-a-free-agent-fit-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/144155\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals, Justin Simmons suggested as a free-agent fit again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> have often been linked to free agent Justin Simmons this offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For outsiders, the fit makes sense because the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/cincinnati-bengals\/327\" data-autotag=\"6d3e484d-5133-4c06-a871-967f8646390b\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bengals<\/a> didn\u2019t do much at the position and seem to be ready to roll with Jordan Battle and Geno Stone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the big thing? <a href=\"https:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/bengals\/2025\/04\/09\/joe-burrow-bengals-desired-free-agent-landing-spot-all-pro\/83001387007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Simmons himself has said he\u2019d like to play with Joe Burrow on the Bengals<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bleacher Report\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25205107-every-nfl-teams-do-list-rest-2025-offseason\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kristopher Knox<\/a> is the latest to make the connection while examining the offseason for each team:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Bengals should also look to add more pieces to their defense, specifically in the back seven. Cincinnati did nothing to improve its cornerback room, could use safety depth after parting with Vonn Bell and recently released defensive captain Germaine Pratt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RELATED:<a href=\"https:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/bengals\/2025\/06\/13\/bengals-shemar-stewart-nuclear-option-2026-nfl-draft\/84182771007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Bengals, Shemar Stewart nuclear option includes 2026 NFL draft route<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Simmons spent most of his career in Denver and earned All-Pro honors before going to Atlanta last year and struggling a bit. Now 31, he\u2019s a nice option for teams in need.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At this point, signing Simmons would be about finding better depth and an emergency option if Stone or Battle struggle. But the team really likes Tycen Anderson for special teams and Daijahn Anthony showed flashes. In a pinch, they also have former first-rounder Dax Hill with experience at safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not to say the Bengals shouldn\u2019t do it, of course. But after not legitimately addressing the starters when they could, don\u2019t be surprised if the Bengals don\u2019t mess with the depth either.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0RELATED:<a href=\"https:\/\/bengalswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/bengals\/2025\/06\/13\/cincinnati-bengals-minicamp-standout-players-practices\/84177554007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Bengals standouts after mandatory minicamp includes surprises<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cincinnati Bengals have often been linked to free agent Justin Simmons this offseason.\u00a0 For outsiders, the fit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[247,265,6861,6265,2378,6264,228,1574,227,256,2296,9656,9629,7,2934,6486,10802,2977,1573,1577,1071,6485,1066,6559,248,267,246,88,6,4779,245,264,10803,5521,9,266,9659,9657,9630,6944,10791],"class_list":{"0":"post-144155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-anderson","11":"tag-anthony","12":"tag-battle","13":"tag-bell","14":"tag-bengals","15":"tag-burrow","16":"tag-cincinnati","17":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","18":"tag-cincinnatibengals","19":"tag-daijahn","20":"tag-daijahn-anthony","21":"tag-football","22":"tag-geno","23":"tag-geno-stone","24":"tag-germaine","25":"tag-germaine-pratt","26":"tag-joe","27":"tag-joe-burrow","28":"tag-jordan","29":"tag-jordan-battle","30":"tag-justin","31":"tag-justin-simmons","32":"tag-national","33":"tag-national-sports","34":"tag-neutral","35":"tag-news","36":"tag-nfl","37":"tag-oh","38":"tag-overall","39":"tag-overall-neutral","40":"tag-pratt","41":"tag-simmons","42":"tag-sports","43":"tag-sports-news","44":"tag-stone","45":"tag-tycen","46":"tag-tycen-anderson","47":"tag-vonn","48":"tag-vonn-bell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}