{"id":835926,"date":"2026-03-27T01:15:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T01:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/835926\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T01:15:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T01:15:24","slug":"former-bengals-star-might-cause-them-problems-in-nfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/835926\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Bengals star might cause them problems in NFL free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 26, 2026, 7:00 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Not too long ago, it looked like the <a href=\"\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> reuniting with DJ Reader in free agency would make a ton of sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Things change fast in the NFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Now, Reader might just reunite with Trey Hendrickson on the Baltimore Ravens. NFL Network\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rapsheet\/status\/2037268307137437806\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ian Rapoport<\/a> reported on the visit for Reader on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">No deal as of this writing, but it\u2019s the first major publicized move for Reader in free agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Back before NFL free agency started, Reader seemed like a guy who could come back and provide some of that veteran leadership <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/cincinnati-bengals\/327\" data-autotag=\"6d3e484d-5133-4c06-a871-967f8646390b\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Bengals<\/a> coaches have openly talked about needing to add for the defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:4|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">That, paired with nice cap savings if the Bengals cut run-stuffer TJ Slaton, seemed to make the idea a real possibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">And who knows? Maybe things change and it still happens at a later date. But Slaton doesn\u2019t look like a cut candidate right now and the arrival of Jonathan Allen (more of a pass-rusher on the interior) brings that much-needed leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Joe Burrow, meanwhile, might need to line up against both Hendrickson and Reader on the same team twice per season in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 26, 2026, 7:00 p.m. ET Not too long ago, it looked like the Cincinnati Bengals reuniting with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[95878,228,227,256,2296,7,6,13078,95905,95882,95913,97415,96121,95896,95888,95897,95883,100320,95911,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-835926","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-tagcincinnati-bengals","19":"tag-tagd-j-reader","20":"tag-tagjoe-burrow","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagoverall-negative","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-tagtedarrell-slaton","26":"tag-tagtrey-hendrickson","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116298496303304856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835926","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=835926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}