Cincinnati Bengals Playoff Team Free Agency Targets: Tennessee Titans
By Kenn Korb
As we continue to look at Cincinnati Bengals free agency targets from playoff teams, a look at who could be worth a look from the Tennessee Titans.
The free agency period is still currently months away, but the time for evaluation has already begun. What better time than now for those teams sitting at home waiting for the Super Bowl, like the Cincinnati Bengals, to start planning for a better go of things next season?
The players on this year’s playoff teams have added more film that can be used for (or against) their cases for a quality contract with teams around the league; franchises everywhere are surely watching intently. This series is an exercise to determine a few of them who may be worth consideration by Cincinnati once free agency officially opens this spring.
We’ve already covered a player on each of the following teams: the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Carolina Panthers, Los Angeles Rams and Atlanta Falcons. Now, we look at one from the Tennessee Titans.
Josh Kline, OG
As I have often stated this year, the play of the offensive line in Cincinnati in 2017 season was a travesty — one we probably should’ve seen it coming.
The group had already allowed 46 sacks in 2016, and that was when the organization still had Andrew Whitworth and Kevin Zeitler. With those two leaving in free agency last spring, a bad group now built with a couple average holdovers, multiple overmatched youth, and retread former Bengals returning to the fold should’ve been given more credence as an issue which would be an immovable barrier to success.
Instead, notable moves at skill positions wrongfully took the spotlight of what little discussion was actually focused towards this team. When the games actually began however, that focus shifted to where it belonged; a woefully poor unit was eviscerated on a weekly basis, wasting whatever good efforts actually existed and immediately burying the team in the standings from the get-go.
To make any strides forward in 2018, this offensive line needs massive improvement; just hoping for better while making little to no investment in the unit again does nothing but continue allowing a deep-seated problem to fester.
This is where someone like Kline can help immensely. Tennessee’s guys up front took a step back between 2016 and 2017, but Kline still managed to have a relatively decent year. He was really good in pass protection (84.0 pass block PFF Edge grade), but poor as a run blocker (46.4 run block PFF grade); it combined for a middle-of-the-road 75.8 overall PFF grade in a season where he was on the field for over 1,000 snaps.
That may not sound exciting, but remember just how bad the other linemen in Cincinnati are. By the end of the season, the unit had allowed another 40 sacks. They spent most of the year around the bottom of any offensive line rankings; a slight uptick in play left them at No. 24 in Football Outsiders’ Offensive Line rankings. They had 11 players take snaps on the line during the season, with nine who picked up 200+ snaps; of them, just one (left guard Clint Boling) graded as average per Pro Football Focus’ grading metrics. Even worse: beyond Boling, only Kent Perkins (who had a 51.5 in a measly six offensive snaps) could manage to even reach a 50.0 PFF grade.
With Kline in the building, the team would at least have one position on the line (guard) set for the season. He wouldn’t solve the line as a whole, but even if his 2017 is what he’ll be for the life of his next contract, that is a massive improvement to an abysmal unit. He certainly won’t be cheap, but he won’t be a market-setter, either; a mid-tier guard contract could be what it takes to bring him into the fold.
Next: Kirk Cousins: 7 Landing spots after Alex Smith trade
Changes for a flailing unit must happen for this franchise to step back towards the playoffs, and going after Kline would be one which is smart and affordable. If this team is serious about growth and improvement — as opposed to their usual cheapskate status quo of the past 26 years — he should be part of the solution to their most dire problem.