Cincinnati Bengals Key Move at Guard and What it Means for Free Agency

Cincinnati Bengals On SI

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00:00I don't see Will Hernandez walking through that door. Dalton Reisner. I just, to me,

00:06it's not going to happen. And part of why it's not going to happen is what they did

00:09this week, according to Bengals.com, their official transactions. And I've tried to

00:15get the official details. Nothing has been published in places that I could get that.

00:23And those are official documents behind the scenes, or you try to get some details and

00:27insight on him. But Cordell Volson, they restructured his deal and the Bengals posted it on their

00:33website. What does it mean? Well, it means Cordell Volson took a pay cut. It means that they probably

00:37went to him and said, all right, Cordell, we like you. You're obviously competing for a starting job,

00:41even though I certainly think that Dylan Fairchild is the favorite at left guard. You're competing for

00:46a starting job, but we're not going to pay you $3.6 million. That $3.6 to $3.8 million cap,

00:53it. We got to lower that thing. And the reason Cordell was set to make that much

00:58is because he has played so much, has been on the field for so many snaps. He's gotten these

01:04performance-based escalators, and they're just based on snaps, by the way. It's not like they

01:08use actual play. It's just how often you're out there on the field. And so you can renegotiate that.

01:15And so the Bengals did that. What the exact numbers are, we don't have at this moment. Maybe by the time

01:19you see this video or hear this, we have those numbers. When we do, we will certainly post them

01:24at banglestalk.com. But the point remains, you do this because you think that Cordell Volson is going

01:30to be part of your team this year. To keep him around, to give him that security, that belief

01:36that he's not going to be cut, that he's not going to be replaced on the roster. It doesn't mean he's

01:42going to start or anything like that. But he probably knew, hey, if I'm making $3-plus million

01:47as a backup, I'm probably getting cut. And then I'm probably moving in August or September.

01:53I don't blame him one bit, especially because there are multiple people in the building that

01:58I've talked to already about Scott Peters. They're really excited about Scott Peters. They think that

02:02he's going to help them a lot. And so you have the new offensive line coach, you're Cordell Volson.

02:07It's a contract year anyway. You need to reprove yourself. What better way to do it than stay

02:11where you are, stay where you're comfortable, and try to win a starting job. He beat out Jackson

02:19Carman when he was a rookie for a starting job. And it's much different now with Dylan Fairchild.

02:24But that doesn't mean that Cordell can't win this job. It doesn't mean that he should look at it and

02:28say, after all the snaps I've played, even if last year was underwhelming. Because last year,

02:32I thought that was the year Cordell was really going to make the leap if he was going to. And he didn't.

02:36And so now we'll see. From a Bengals perspective, I think a lot of people are going to be annoyed

02:43because it's like, oh, well, why would you keep Cordell Volson? I actually like keeping Cordell

02:47Volson. I'm fine with it. I wouldn't let that get in the way of signing a veteran, but we know the

02:53Bengals. And just the vibes around Pacor, I think they're comfortable with where they're at

02:59on the interior of their offensive front, where you have a Cordell Volson, where you bring back a

03:05Cody Ford. Obviously, they drafted Dylan Fairchild, who I've mentioned multiple times. You go get

03:09Jalen Rivers in the fifth round, who has potentially some guard flex. We'll see how much of a look they

03:16give him there. And then you sign Lucas Patrick. Those are all guys that you could say, all right,

03:20well, they're going to make the roster. That doesn't include a Matt Lee. That doesn't include

03:24a Seth McLaughlin, who a lot of people are high on as an undrafted free agent out of Ohio State.

03:28Obviously, you have Ted Karras and Orlando Brown Jr. and Amarius Mims.

03:31The point is, the Bengals feel pretty good about their offensive line depth. If you're holding

03:36your breath for a Brennan Sheriff signing, don't. Do yourself a favor and don't, because I just don't

03:41think it's happening. At least not right now, with the way the Bengals offensive line room looks and

03:46how they feel about it. They renegotiated with Cordell to keep him in Cincinnati. I fully expect

03:51him to be on the roster this season.

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