OK, so now what?



The Bengals went into free agency with a chasmic void at linebacker and promises of being aggressive in the market, and then they watched all of the top options sign elsewhere.



Well, to be fair, they did more than watch. They were in on the bidding for two of the most coveted linebackers available, Nick Kwiatkowski and Joe Schobert. But ultimately they folded in both cases, pulling out when the Raiders offered Kwiatkowski $21 million over three years and the Jaguars heaped $53 million over five years on Schobert.



The team made an impressive and unprecedented pivot after tapping out on Schobert, committing $95 million to defensive tackle D.J. Reader and cornerback Trae Waynes.



But while those moves may have scraped away a couple of corners of the “Hi, my name is Cheap” label on the team’s breast pocket and soothed some angst on Bengals Twitter, there isn’t a tarp big enough to cover the hole that still exists...