Sad News: The longest-serving member of the bengals House resigns after pleading guilty to federal charges……

Cincinnati Bengals

Well, it looks like the Cincinnati Bengals were looking to sign a cornerback in free agency after all.

Kristian Fulton, formerly of the Tennessee Titans, just signed a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Chargers. He apparently hopes to prove himself in 2024 and cash in next year. This makes sense for a player who has missed 23 games in four seasons with the Chargers.

But before he signed his deal, a number of teams reportedly offered him deals: The Bengals, the Denver Broncos, and the Arizona Cardinals

Fulton, who was selected out of LSU in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, won a national championship with Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. The 25-year-old Fulton has good size and has a bright future in the NFL, but injuries have prevented him from reaching his ceiling thus far.

The cornerback started 37 games while with Tennessee and had 150 tackles, one sack, four interceptions, and 25 passes defended. Last year, he had an exceptional game against George Pickens and the Pittsburgh Steelers, holding the receiver to two catches for minus-one yards.

Now he goes to a Chargers roster where he’ll try to take a starting spot across from Asante Samuel J

The Cincinnati Bengals have addressed most of their major needs in free agency already. They brought in a tight end, defensive tackle, and right tackle, but the work isn’t done. The Bengals still need to add depth at several positions, but they especially need to add a nose tackle and add depth at cornerback.

When it comes to cornerback, the Bengals have Cam Taylor-Britt, DJ Turner, and Mike Hilton, which is a pretty good core group, but there isn’t a standout option for CB4 on the roster. Jalen Davis has been a good slot backup, Allan George is a practice squad corner, and DJ Ivey has shown some potential in camp but not enough to trust him to take over a starting spot should an injury occur.

There is Dax Hill, but we really don’t know how Lou Anarumo’s going to use his 2022 first-round pick.

The Bengals love corners in the first round, but another option could be by taking a dip back in the free agent pool and convince the recently-released Xavien Howard to come to Cincinnati (if Hilton hasn’t already done it).