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Cincinnati Bengals Zero-Snap Spotlight: Tony McRae

By Kenn Korb

Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images /
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Continuing to analyze the Cincinnati Bengals roster with the Zero-Snap Spotlight series, looking at cornerback Tony McRae.

The Zero-Snap Spotlight series continues in the offseason, a deep look the Cincinnati Bengals roster and examining the role of players that might not be well-known. Every player put in the spotlight has yet to register a single snap in their NFL career, despite being around for varying amounts of time.

So far, we’ve taken a deep dive into the following players: Andrew Billings, Marcus Hardison, David Dean, Ryan Brown, Tra Carson, Alonzo Russell, Jake Kumerow, Chris Brown, and Jeff Driskel.

To continue this series, I look at cornerback Tony McRae.

When you look at rosters and try to determine roster cuts, the first players to go usually are those with little experience and are trapped below tons of depth at their position. That is McRae in a nutshell.

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The Bengals’ cornerback position may not have somebody on the level of Patrick Peterson or Chris Harris, but they undoubtedly have at least as much invested in their talent group there as any NFL team. They just paid big to keep Dre Kirkpatrick around. They continue to stick by Adam Jones despite his issues. They have recently invested first-round selections on Darqueze Dennard and William Jackson III. Josh Shaw was a later pick, but became an integral piece of their rotation last season.

Assuming these guys are all sticking on for this season, that’s six spots already accounted for, and there is still more talent to delve through. Bene Benwikere started his career well with Carolina, but quickly fell off. He still has the talent and past performance to warrant consideration for a back-end roster spot, though. Brandon Wilson isn’t specifically a cornerback, but he could conceivably see work there as well as at running back and in the return game. KeiVarae Russell is another young guy, but has an additional professional year on McRae. This all makes it tough to see a path for McRae barring a slew of injuries.

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The fact that he is on the roster gives him some semblance of a chance in itself, however, and already spending time with the team since last year is a glimmer of hope. To come into a group which could field seven players drafted in the fifth round or higher (four of which were in the first round) as an undrafted free agent is a mountainous challenge, but it isn’t insurmountable.

His cheap price tag would be a nice bonus for one thing. Cincinnati has been notoriously cheap for decades, so finding a way to keep his low price over someone who may earn more (Benwikere and Russell have more years in the league, so are automatically more expensive than an undrafted guy on a minimum contract).

He did a quality coverage job in four years at North Carolina A&T, picking up nine interceptions and 27 pass knockdowns over four years there. His stats don’t tell the whole story, either. Because of a strong sophomore year in coverage, he became targeted far less as a junior, which suppressed his numbers and likely made it tougher to make a compelling case for being drafted.

He also was impactful as a kick returner in college. He picked up four touchdowns on returns across the final three seasons in college, and as a senior averaged over 28 yards per attempt.

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These strengths don’t make him anything more than a long-shot, but that’s better than no shot at all. His odds are lower than just about anybody still on the roster at this point, but he’s still got an opportunity to make his mark. If he doesn’t, well, there’s always the practice squad again.

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