It’s hard for to do free agency better than the 2021 Cincinnati Bengals. Trey Hendrickson, Chidobe Awuzie, and Mike Hilton have become franchise cornerstones, while Eli Apple, Larry Ogunjobi, and Riley Reiff provided additional value surpluses on one-year deals.
To spend over $50 million in year one cash and use $35 million in year one cap space on external talent and get an overwhelming positive return on investment is nothing short of remarkable.
It’s a standard that is hard to achieve in one year. It may as well be impossible to do it two years in a row, but the Bengals will try.