No free-agency delay: Time for Bengals to give fans something

The Bengals have the green light for a normal free-agency schedule.

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The NFL made it official Sunday night — no delay to free agency despite the current happenings around the world.

That means the Cincinnati Bengals will spring into action Sunday night and into Monday-Wednesday with their cap space officially set and the CBA standoff out of the way, meaning potential extension talks for A.J. Green and Joe Mixon.

And this is a critical stretch for the Bengals. They have until about noon Monday to apply the franchise tag to Green. They’ve also made it sound like this free-agent period could be more active than usual.

Additionally, even the team’s website has dished on how the team plans to spend its money in free agency.

The legal-tampering window opens at noon Monday. Free agency opens at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Call it a chance for the Bengals to send a message to fans. Those fans don’t need a recap of last season but they should understand the team didn’t reset like teams normally do around a new head coach. Zac Taylor wasn’t given a green light to overhaul the roster.

Is he going to this time now that things have fallen into place? Taylor isn’t scrambling to merely put together a coaching staff right now — they’re ready and have been.

The clock is now officially ticking — the next 48 hours or so could end up being pretty critical for the Bengals.

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