Zac Taylor on Bengals' free agent moves: "A better team on paper doesn’t mean jack"

Zac Taylor on the Bengals' free agent moves: "A better team on paper doesn’t mean jack right now"

Zac Taylor was smiling ear-to-ear on Wednesday before his first Zoom news conference with the media. The second-year head coach has plenty of reasons to be happy these days.

The Bengals signed eight free agents, including five players that are expected to start on defense. Combine that with the fact that Cincinnati has the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and Taylor has plenty of reasons to smile.

“When the season ended the plan that we had in place to attack the offseason to make our team better everyone was on board with,” Taylor said. “We added a lot of quality players who are excited to be Bengals and we're excited to have them. It's just great energy talking to those guys once the process was over. They've all got some unique connections to each other and some guys on our team, which is really exciting."

The Bengals committed over $129 million to the eight players they signed. Defensive tackle D.J. Reader, cornerback Trae Waynes and safety Vonn Bell were the headliners. They also signed linebacker Josh Bynes, cornerback Mackensie Alexander and cornerback LeShaun Sims to 1-year deals.

On offense, Cincinnati added guard Xavier Su’a Filo, who played for Dallas last season and wide receiver Mike Thomas, who worked with Taylor in Los Angeles.

We got a lot of guys that I think their best ball is ahead of them. They maybe have four years in the league,” Taylor said. “We got a lot of good energy with the guys who we are bringing in and guys who are still around in the building.”

The Bengals know it’s going to be an uphill battle in 2020, despite the offseason additions. They want to have a quick turnaround, but it isn’t going to be easy.

“I do feel like we are a better team, but a better team on paper doesn’t mean jack right now,” Taylor said. “We have to go to work, and make sure that just because we feel like we added some good players in free agency and the draft, we can’t feel like our work is done.

“We just finished a 2-14 season. To think that things are gonna be easy for us, we’d be sadly mistaken. We all understand that, and we are willing to put in the work.”

The organization hopes that an active free agency is just the start of something special in Cincinnati.