{"id":824873,"date":"2026-03-21T09:36:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824873\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T09:36:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:36:44","slug":"bengals-purposely-ignored-lb-and-cbfor-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824873\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals purposely ignored LB and CB\u2026for now"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 20, 2026, 9:14 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

At this point, it should go without saying, but the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> made a list of needs before NFL free agency and shoved linebacker and cornerback to the bottom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bengals<\/a> prioritized defensive line and safety instead, dramatically upgrading over Geno Stone with Bryan Cook. They took a Trey Hendrickson-like gamble on Boye Mafe\u2019s upside on the edge and Jonathan Allen\u2019s pass-rushing acumen in the middle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As previously reported, the Bengals were never after Leo Chenal<\/a>, not really, despite the obvious fit. Same for someone like Anfernee Jennings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In fact, Kelsey Conway<\/a> of the Cincinnati Enquirer recently confirmed that the Mafe deal \u201cimpacted the interest in Leo Chenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translated loosely: The Bengals had needs and budget in mind and stuck to the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

Same deal at cornerback. The need for a starting slot corner is dramatic<\/a> and the overall depth, even on the boundaries, is extremely suspect.<\/p>\n

The Bengals know this, but didn\u2019t want to commit to major cash deals at corner with DJ Turner and Dax Hill likely needing costly extensions this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which, by the way, significantly boosts the likelihood the Bengals go cornerback in Round 1<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no major new information going around as Wave 2 of free agency technically gets started, the fallout continues: And all signs point to linebacker and cornerback now being the focus when those markets come down.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 20, 2026, 9:14 a.m. ET At this point, it should go without saying, but the Cincinnati Bengals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[95878,228,227,256,2296,7,6,13078,95905,95882,97649,107118,104162,95913,95909,97484,95896,95888,95897,95883,95911,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-824873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflbengals","16":"tag-sstsnbengals","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-taganfernee-jennings","19":"tag-tagboye-mafe","20":"tag-tagbryan-cook","21":"tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","22":"tag-tagdj-turner-ii","23":"tag-taggeno-stone","24":"tag-tagnational-sports","25":"tag-tagnfl","26":"tag-tagoverall-negative","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagtrey-hendrickson","29":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116266493315641462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824873","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=824873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}