It should go without saying, but the Cincinnati Bengals would love to have tight end Hayden Hurst back this offseason.
Hurst had a mini-breakout of sorts for the Bengals after timid usage by two other teams over his first handful of years in the NFL.
But Hurst found a home in the Cincinnati offense as a replacement for C.J. Uzomah and offensive coordinator Brian Callahan says he’s one of the guys the team would love to have back.
“I thought Hayden really stepped up and provided us a ton of value,” Callahan said, according to CLNS Media’s Mike Petraglia. “I didn’t expect him to be probably as good as he was for us, just because his tape was limited. We knew he had the capability of being a highly-productive player. But we weren’t sure what it would look like for us. He came in and did a fantastic job being able to create explosive plays. He was really tough and physical in the run game, which is what we weren’t sure we were going to get in that regard. I thought he really developed as a blocker.”
While the Bengals want Hurst back, much will hinge on what the market decides. There’s a deep crop of free agents headed to the market and an even deeper class of draft prospects.
The Bengals would, however, like to get more dynamic, deep-threat production from tight end. That could mean adding a rookie no matter what happens to Hurst, especially as they need to start thinking about the fact Tyler Boyd only has one year left on his current deal and the offense needs more reliable third options.
Funnily enough, Hurst’s contract was something the Bengals mentioned as the type of free agents they will look at this offseason, too.
