Bengals Make Debut in NFL's Hotly Debated Social Justice Scene
A Bengals free agent has a new home in the NFL and some things to say.
Former Cincinnati Bengals safety Geno Stone has landed with the Buffalo Bills in NFL free agency. And in doing so, he rankled more than a few Bengals fans by saying that he's “back into a winning culture” during his first media session after signing. Maybe Stone didn’t mean anything by it, or it came out weird.
He’s praising Joe Burrow in the same clip, too. It’s probably athlete-speak stuff for stressing how happy he is to land with a new team. Alas, this is one of those cases where the messenger very much matters.
The Bengals added Stone in 2024, hoping he’d ascend into a starter as the years-later Jessie Bates replacement. Instead, Stone was the poster boy for a defense lacking in fundamentals like tackling during a coordinator transition, finishing last season with an 81st ranking out of 98 safeties at PFF. To his credit, gross issues in front of them across the unit didn't help.
There was never a chance Stone was coming back to the Bengals, who quickly added Bryan Cook as their biggest free-agency signing of the market this year. Stone has since clarified his comments: This had nothing to do with the Bengals. I got nothing but respect for them guys in that organization.