The Bengals pursuit of Noah Fant could be sending the wrong message...

AtoZ Sports

John Sheeran discusses why the Cincinnati Bengals pursuit of Noah Fant is not good for public perception.

Transcript

00:00Should the Bengals be focused on signing a big-name free agent when they have their own

00:03players to take care of first? In this video, I'm going to explain why the Bengals are doing

00:07exactly what they should be doing.

00:12Hi again, Bengals fans. John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here. Despite training camp

00:17already starting for the Bengals, they do not seem to be done tweaking to the roster because

00:21on Thursday, they hosted free agent tight end Noah Phan for a visit. Now let's just cover our

00:25basis here because if the Bengals were able to sign Noah Phan, then they were able to sign him

00:29before he went on any other free agent visits that he had scheduled up because apparently that is the

00:33plan for him. He's going to visit the Bengals first and he's going to see what other teams have to

00:37offer as well. But the Bengals do have a good chance of persuading Phan to go ahead and sign with them

00:41before visiting any other team because they have a great quarterback in Joe Burrow, they have a great

00:44offensive ecosystem around him, and more importantly, they have a history of tight ends playing on one

00:50year deals or playing in contract years, balling out, and then hitting the open market a year later

00:54and cashing in. This happened with CJ Uzama, it happened with Hayden Hurst, and then it happened

00:58last year with Mike Gusecki, only the difference is Gusecki re-signed with the Bengals on a really

01:03good deal. And obviously the best way to make sure that he doesn't leave the building is to give him

01:06an offer that entices him enough to stay, and there's a good chance that that doesn't happen

01:10because this is the Bengals. So whether or not Phan does sign or he doesn't sign, that's not necessarily

01:15the point of this video. Because I don't know if you guys have been following the news lately,

01:19but the Bengals kind of have some contract issues in-house that still need to be sorted out.

01:24And it may not seem like on the surface that a free agent tight end has anything to do with

01:29Trey Hendrickson or Shamar Stewart, but to some people, it may. Like I was talking to my boss at

01:34ADC Sports, Charles Goldman, about Noah Phan coming to the Bengals potentially. And he basically asked

01:40me, I know it's not related at all, but does it send a bad message to the rest of the team that they

01:44have these major issues with Hendrickson and Stewart, and they still need to sort them out, but they're

01:49going after a big name free agent on the other side of the ball. And I thought about it, and I told

01:53him, not really, because they're not really related, right? Like the offense cares about the

01:57offense, the defense cares about the defense, and distractions in the locker room are really dependent

02:02upon what impacts you personally. Like us in the media, we love to run with drama, specifically

02:08with contracts. Like I've made so much content off of Shamar Stewart and Trey Hendrickson and their

02:14issues with the Bengals because it's just a yearly thing with this franchise at this point. But when it

02:18comes to the team and its players, they care about their jobs, right? They obviously want others

02:24around them to be locked in and to be focused, because the more that the teammates around them

02:28can do their jobs, the more that they can do their jobs as well. And I think the NFL is a very special

02:32league in the sense that the wheels just keep turning, right? It's a very harsh and cutthroat

02:37business, specifically with contracts, because they're not guaranteed like the MLB and the NBA. And the team

02:42would love for both Hendrickson and Stewart to be there, but ultimately, they're not right now, and they have

02:47to focus at the task at hand. And if the coaching staff and the personnel department see Noah Phan

02:51as a fit in this offense and an upgrade over one of the tight ends in that room already, then it makes

02:56sense to at least entertain that idea. Because whatever contract the Bengals signed Noah Phan to

03:00or at least offered to when he declines, it's not going to impact their finances in handling both

03:04Hendrickson and Stewart. There is, in fact, no free agent available right now that is even remotely

03:09going to impact their ability to sign either of those guys. So yes, the Bengals should obviously handle

03:14their business with Hendrickson and Stewart, and they should make them the top priority right now.

03:18But a complaint that I had about the Bengals earlier this year is that they focused all of

03:22their resources on signing Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins, and they basically left the rest of the

03:26free agency on the back burner. And that's how they ended up only signing like Lucas Patrick after the

03:30first day of free agency. And if they have opportunities to find upgrades on other parts of the

03:35roster like they do with Noah Phan, then they should definitely take advantage of that because that is what

03:39competent teams do. So if the Bengals have already signed Noah Phan, then congrats, the Bengals got

03:44better. If not, then I'm sure Noah Phan found a better opportunity for himself. But the Bengals

03:48are definitely not in the position where they can just sit on their hands until September 7th rolls

03:52around. And even if they have two glaring contract problems on their own team right now,

03:56the NFL doesn't stop for anyone. And it's good the Bengals know that.

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