{"id":800492,"date":"2026-03-08T14:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/800492\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T14:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:09:14","slug":"bengals-linked-to-colts-free-agent-nick-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/800492\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals ‘linked’ to Colts free agent Nick Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 8, 2026, 9:13 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

With free agency almost here, ESPN NFL insider\u00a0Jeremy Fowler<\/a>\u00a0shared everything he is hearing, which included identifying\u00a0a possible landing spot for Indianapolis Colts<\/a> free agent safety Nick Cross.<\/p>\n

As Fowler was discussing the Bengals<\/a>, he mentioned that Cincinnati has been “linked” to Cross.<\/p>\n

Over the last two seasons, Cross has developed into a steady presence in the\u00a0Colts<\/a>‘ secondary. While he can be moved around, the bulk of his snaps came closer to the line of scrimmage in the strong safety role, where he provided a stout presence in the run game from that position.<\/p>\n

Cross finished the 2025 season logging 16 quarterback pressures and the fourth-highest run-stop rate among safeties,\u00a0according to PFF<\/a>.\u00a0ESPN’s Aaron Schatz<\/a>\u00a0wrote recently that Cross performed well in coverage by his DVOA metric.<\/p>\n

However, safety may not be a position where we see the Colts<\/a> devote a heavy amount of resources. It was just last offseason when the team signed Cam Bynum to a big deal. GM Chris Ballard has already stated that\u00a0addressing the front seven<\/a>\u00a0will be a priority this offseason.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

ESPN’s Stephen Holder<\/a> also named Cross as the Colts’ most likely free agent to sign elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Spotrac<\/a> is projecting that Cross lands a four-year deal in free agency worth $24.26 million.<\/p>\n

If without Cross, the starting role next to Bynum will be up for grabs. Hunter Wohler could be an internal candidate to take over that starting job, but competition should still be added.<\/p>\n

Given the experience Cross already has under his belt, along with still being only 24 years old, he could have a decent-sized market in free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 8, 2026, 9:13 a.m. ET With free agency almost here, ESPN NFL insider\u00a0Jeremy Fowler\u00a0shared everything he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95878,7,6,49915,95900,95882,95938,95913,95892,95903,95896,95888,95895,95937,95906,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-800492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sstssportsnflcolts","12":"tag-sstsncolts","13":"tag-tagamerican-football","14":"tag-tagcamryn-bynum","15":"tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","16":"tag-tagespn-inc","17":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","18":"tag-tagnational-sports","19":"tag-tagnfl","20":"tag-tagnfl-hub","21":"tag-tagnick-cross","22":"tag-tagoverall-positive","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116193956099226282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800492","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=800492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}