The Cincinnati Bengals regular season begins September 10 in Cleveland, but while the season is right around the corner, there are still free agents that haven’t been signed this offseason.
Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report chose one unsigned free agent for every team in the NFL that he thinks would be a good idea to help the teams improve.
Their choice for the Bengals was DT Akiem Hicks and here’s some of what they had to say about it:
They could get more insurance on the interior of the defensive line by signing Akiem Hicks. The 33-year-old can no longer be an every-down defender, but he filled in nicely as a rotational player last season with a 61.9 PFF grade, a sack and four quarterback hits for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
At the very least, Hicks would bring some veteran leadership to a unit that’s going to count on contributions from second-year player Zach Carter and third-year player Jay Tufele.
Ballentine might be right about the veteran leadership that Hicks could bring to a team, but he also hasn’t been able to play a full season since 2018 and his stats have been gradually declining for years.
The Bengals seem to be set with how the defensive line stacks up now going into the season, especially with how the group was able to play last season.
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