Seemingly out of nowhere, the Cincinnati Bengals have released their former starting safety George Iloka.
After standing as an unchallenged starter for the Cincinnati Bengals since 2013, George Iloka is now, all of a sudden, no longer a Bengal. On Sunday, Aug. 19, the team announced that Iloka had been released.
There are two main reasons being given, each of which makes sense by themselves and easily come together to form enough onus for making the still-surprising move: his contract and his play.
In regards to Iloka’s contract, this makes plenty of sense — especially considering the history of this franchise’s “frugality” under owner Mike Brown. If you somehow don’t know, Brown has led the charge throughout his tenure as the lead decision-maker for the Bengals in being as depressingly cheap as possible. He’s been a major proponent of loyalty clauses (preventing players from publicly criticizing the franchise), has undermined the potential signing of players by trying to slyly renege on bonuses and guarantees and even tried to fine players who are no longer on the team.
Unlike those ridiculous moves though, this one is the sort we would see any team make. Iloka had three seasons left on a five-year, $30 million contract. This year, he was set to earn $6.2 million, but cutting him now saves the team about $5.6 million in cap space now, plus the space he was going to take up during the next couple seasons had he remained on the roster.
However, the part of the matter concerning Iloka’s play may not have been as obvious. But if we look back, we can see the machinations related to this coming for awhile. While Iloka put up a career-high 80 tackles last year, he rarely made the sort of big plays the team direly needed.
He was never a big-play guy anyway, but for the second time in three seasons, he only managed to force one turnover and couldn’t knock down more than five passes. Iloka may not necessarily be on a steep decline, but his play has usually been much closer to average than anyone may like to admit. He can play a decent role, but his limitations as a player keep him from making the game-changing plays the team desperately needs in the secondary.
In the wake of this move, Cincinnati probably has their answer at the position in tow with 2018 second-round draft pick Jessie Bates. Bates was taking snaps away from Iloka in the preseason already before the longtime starter was cut, so the plan clearly is to have Bates step right into Iloka’s old role. The money saved by cutting Iloka could now help with signing some key players to extensions. Carlos Dunlap, Geno Atkins, Tyler Eifert and Darqueze Dennard (among others) could all be in line for sizable extensions depending how things turn out for them this season.
For Iloka, he’ll need to find a new team, but that isn’t a guarantee. The safety position has seen a surprising lack of focus and money in free agency this offseason, with even high-level players barely scraping by with their contract offers. While he has taken a step back in terms of his production though, he can still play a decent role for a team. With multiple preseason games left, injuries are likely to hit at least one team out there, forcing them to consider outside options.