It wasn't so long ago the Bengals had the best young cornerback tandem in football: Johnathan Joseph and Leon Hall. Now the team's secondary is a bit of a mess.
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Joseph left for Houston and played the best ball of his career. Hall is coming off a torn Achilles' tendon. The Bengals picked Nate Clements off the scrap heap last year to middling results, and now they've added former Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman on a one-year deal, according to NFL Network's Jason La Canfora.
It's hard to kill the Bengals for signing Newman until we see the numbers. But we doubt he'll make much of an impact. Newman has struggled to stay healthy and effective the last few years in Dallas. The Cowboys made a massive mistake paying Newman huge dollars last year instead of cutting him and using the money to sign Nnamdi Asomugha. (We doubt Asomugha would have struggled in Rob Ryan's system.)
The move continues Mike Brown's obsession with former first-round picks. The team has signed (or re-signed) Derrick Harvey, Jamaal Anderson, Adam Jones, Reggie Nelson and Jason Allen in this free agency period alone.
Those last three names will join Newman in a secondary full of big names that have a lot of question marks.
