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The Cincinnati Bengals nabbed Joe Burrow with the top pick in last year's draft, and they certainly are happy about that, regardless of how their 2020 season ended up.
They finished 4-11-1 and played the last six games without Burrow after he suffered a torn ACL and MCL, and the combination of Brandon Allen and Ryan Finley was not nearly enough to even come close to the success of Burrow.
He was having a stellar rookie year and probably would have ended up in the conversation for Offensive Rookie of the Year talks with Justin Herbert and Justin Jefferson. Burrow threw for 2,688 yards with 13 touchdowns and five picks before suffering the injury.
The Bengals need to see in 2021 if head coach Zac Taylor truly is the man who should lead this franchise on the field in the coming years. Taylor has had one year to work with Burrow; how Year 2 develops should provide a lot more information which can give Cincinnati a much better understanding of what is and isn't possible.
This team is trending in the direction of youth, and with the offensive core of Burrow, Tyler Boyd, Tee Higgins, Joe Mixon, and 2019 first-round pick Jonah Williams, they are set for the next few years.
The Bengals will have between $30-$40 million in cap space and plenty to work with, but Zac Taylor and this Bengals regime are on a fast-track to make this team competitive.
Burrow will be back, Mixon should be healthy, and this offense has loads of talent, except for the offensive line which needs some major improvements, especially after the injury of Burrow.
While the cap space will be plenty to work with, this team is young and might benefit from cutting some veterans and freeing up additional space to make a run at some of the big-name free agents, and here's one player that might surprise some.
DL Geno Atkins
This hurts if you've been a lifelong Bengals fan, but this makes a lot of sense as far as the direction this team is headed. He's spent his entire 11-year tenure in Cincinnati, and it might be hard to see him go, but the time is now.
He has a cap hit of $14.7 million in 2021, which is the second-highest on the team. That's a lot, and even more when you consider the fact he played in just eight games in 2020 and had one tackle all season for the Bengals.
Atkins turns 33 years old in March, and with the overall youth of this Bengals team, he just doesn't fit, especially with the amount of money he is due in the upcoming season.
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*Deshaun Watson first NFL start and nearly gets beheaded by Geno Atkins*
Next play: pic.twitter.com/ifWv5Nfint
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) July 16, 2020
He can still play and is only a couple of years removed from four straight seasons of nine or more sacks, but with the spectacular play of Carl Lawson for the Bengals and the fact that he needs a new contract, Atkins might be hitting the open market after all.
Lawson was terrific in 2020, totaling 5.5 sacks as he proved to be a formidable force on that Bengals defensive line. While their cap situation isn't awful, freeing up some extra money to make a reasonable offer at Lawson is necessary.
They have a lot of work to do and absolutely need to find a way to upgrade the offensive line next season. Burrow was sacked 32 times in just 10 games, and he was brought down four or more times in four of those games, which is not a good thing for any quarterback.
The offense has playmakers, but it's useless if Burrow never has time to throw the ball and gets thrown to the ground before he can make a play. Boyd, Mixon, and Higgins can make big plays if Burrow can get the ball to them, and the offensive line needs a major overhaul if the Bengals want any chance to compete within the next couple of seasons.
Of course, the Bengals have the fifth overall pick in the draft and would love Penei Sewell, the prized offensive lineman of the class, but he might not fall that far. Either way, an offensive lineman makes too much sense in the first round, and that's only the beginning of a drastic roster change in 2021.
The defense isn't terrible, and cornerback Trae Wayans was a big signing who played rather well and moving on from Atkins and some of the older players would allow the Bengals more flexibility in the offseason.
It might be tough for Bengals fans to see Atkins play somewhere else next season, but the age of this team makes this move an easy decision, and the money could be used for many other areas to improve this roster and keep Burrow upright next year and going forward.
