Bengals signing Kyle Dugger, Ja'Sir Taylor's impact on draft plans
The Bengals added to the secondary twice in free agency...but it's not going to hit the NFL draft plans the way fans might think.
The Cincinnati Bengals added two free agents after an uncomfortably long silence for fans, signing cornerback Ja'Sir Taylor and safety Kyle Dugger on Thursday. Both are smaller pickups in the fading waves of free agency and, as a whole, won’t dramatically shift how the Bengals approach their draft board before the big event soon. With Taylor, he’s quality depth as a nickel and can help on special teams.
He only played three percent of the snaps in New York last year and never saw 50 percent of the snaps during a season with the Chargers in Los Angeles over three years. Meaning, he’s got a hill to climb on a roster where the Bengals already really like Jalen Davis. Dugger is a tad more intriguing.
He was wasting away in New England last year, so he got moved to Pittsburgh and over nine games played 96 percent of their snaps…ranking 82nd out of 98 safeties at PFF. The Bengals were extremely unhappy last year when backup names like Daijahn Anthony weren’t ready for the moment when needed, so Dugger is a response to that. He’s a primary backup behind Bryan Cook and Jordan Battle now.
For those worried about how this impacts the Bengals possible taking Caleb Downs and No. 10…relax. Downs profiles as a guy who might be able to start in the slot.