It’s officially Black Friday, also known as the busiest shopping day of the year when people from all over the country flock to the stores — and to the internet — to search for deals and address needs, or wants.
The shopping spirit got us thinking about the Cincinnati Bengals, and some major areas of need for the team. So with that in mind, here’s a look at three positions that the Bengals may need to shop for over the offseason.
Edge rusher
Generating pressure on opposing quarterbacks has been a major issue for the Bengals this season. As a team, they have the fourth-fewest amount of total sacks in the league with 19. The only teams with fewer sacks are the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and Miami Dolphins.
Trey Hendrickson has been having a stellar season in the sack department, as he’s leading the league with 11.5. But outside of him, the team simply hasn’t done a good enough job of putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. After having at least six sacks in each of the past three season, Sam Hubbard has just two sacks this season, perhaps due in part to the lingering hamstring injury he’s been dealing with.
No one else on the team has more than a single sack this season. If that’s not a sign that the Bengals need to go shopping for an edge rusher over the offseason, I don’t know what is.
Kicker
The Bengals just signed kicker Evan McPherson to a fresh contract extension in August, but they still might need to scour the market for a new kicker given McPherson’s struggles this season. In Week 11 against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football, McPherson missed not one, but two, go-head field goal attempts in the fourth quarter that could have potentially helped Cincinnati secure a victory.
Unfortunately, unreliability has become a trend for McPherson this year. On the season as a whole, McPherson has converted only 71.4 percent of his field goal attempts (15 of 21), which represents a career low and is the third-lowest percentage in the entire league among kickers with at least 10 field goal attempts.
He’s especially struggled with longer kicks, as he’s converted just 50 percent (6 of 12) of his attempts from 40 yards and beyond. Perhaps McPherson will be able to turn things around over the final stretch of the season, but if not, the Bengals truly might need to go kicker shopping.
Cornerback
Like last year, the secondary has been a problem area for Cincinnati again this season. And while the team could technically use an upgrade at both spots in the secondary, we’ll focus on cornerback.
Cam Taylor-Britt has been benched twice so far this season, and he’s currently the 87th-ranked corner in the league, per Pro Football Focus. He just doesn’t look like a serviceable No. 1 cornerback moving forward after this season. Dax Hill looked pretty good after making the move from safety to corner over the offseason, but he’s sidelined for the rest of the year with a torn ACL. He has potential at the position, as does DJ Turner II, but the Bengals should look to add a proven lockdown corner after the season.
