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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Chris Roling

Instant analysis after Bengals lose Vonn Bell to Panthers in free agency

The Cincinnati Bengals, at least momentarily, have a big problem on their hands at safety after Vonn Bell agreed to a deal with the Carolina Panthers in free agency.

Of the two starting safeties set to hit free agency, it was generally agreed upon that Bell would return and Jessie Bates would likely reset the market while signing with a rebuilding team.

Turns out Bell signed with a re-building team.

It really, really hurts for the Bengals to lose Bell given his understanding of Lou Anarumo’s scheme and the fact he would have started next to first-round product Dax Hill next year, had he re-signed.

As of now, these are the safeties on the roster:

  • Dax Hill
  • Michael Thomas
  • Tycen Anderson
  • Brandon Wilson

Now, Cincinnati has to entrust Hill to play what is really his rookie season in the Bates role while a newcomer learns it, too.

Bell was incredibly valuable on the field, totaling 114, 97 and 77 total tackles in his three seasons with the team starting in 2020. He picked off five passes and forced eight fumbles over that span, too:

Even so, it’s impossible to blame Bell — the Bengals just spent some of the allotted cash on bringing back linebacker Germaine Pratt.

The Panthers just did something the Bengals are very familiar with:

The Bengals will almost undoubtedly bring on another veteran safety via free agency at some point to help ease some of these concerns.

In the meantime, Bengals fans can merely salute one of the biggest keys to the Zac Taylor rebuild (remember the culture-shocking hit on JuJu?) as Bell moves on to influence another franchise trying to head in the right direction.

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