{"id":850587,"date":"2026-04-03T03:25:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/850587\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T03:25:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:25:21","slug":"kyle-dugger-to-bengals-per-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/850587\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Dugger to Bengals, per report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cincyjungle.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> are on the free agency board again at safety, this time signing Kyle Dugger to a one-year contract. Fox Sports reporter Jordan Schultz broke the news on Thursday that Dugger was joining the Bengals to help revamp the safety position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Dugger, a 6-1, 216-pound DB out of Lenoir\u2013Rhyne, was a second-round selection of the New England Patriots in the 2020 NFL Draft. He would play in 81 games (69 starts) over the next six seasons before being traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers midway through the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In total last season, Dugger racked up 59 tackles, five pass deflections, two interceptions, two tackles for loss, two interceptions \u2014 one being a pick-six off of Bengals QB Joe Flacco \u2014 and one safety caused. He earned a 49.6 PFF grade for the season after recording a 44.3 grade in 2024, a 61.7 grade in 2023, and a career-best 78.4 grade in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With this signing, the Bengals have now added Dugger and former Kansas City Chiefs standout Bryan Cook to the safety room, while Jordan Battle is also present but entering the final year of his rookie contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">This also could mean that Ohio State standout Caleb Downs won\u2019t be selected if he\u2019s still on the board at pick No. 10, though there\u2019s a very real chance he\u2019s selected before then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cincinnati Bengals are on the free agency board again at safety, this time signing Kyle Dugger to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2424,1561,6977,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-850587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-free-agency","9":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-news","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-roster","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116338643632081235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850587","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=850587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}