Bengals Add Christian Recording Artist at TE

On Friday, the Bengals signed Colts tight end/Christian recording artist Ben Utecht to an offer sheet as a restricted free agent, meaning the Colts have 7 days to match the Bengals offer. The terms of the contract with the Bengals were not released, but it is rumored to be a 3 year/$9 million deal.

Unless Utecht gets pulled over this week while driving his Sunday School class to volunteer for the homeless after drinking too much “sparkling cider” at church group, it looks like he will be a Bengal on Friday. The Colts just invested $40 million in their starting TE and second overall leading receiver, Dallas Clark, and offered Utecht only a 1-year, $927,000 offer. If they had offered $1.4 million, the Bengals would have had to give up a 2^nd round pick in compensation, something that could have likely left Utecht in Peyton-Land.

So, what does this all mean?

First, and perhaps most importantly, the Bengals won’t be wasting an early-round pick on a “pass-catching” TE, something that Marvin Lewis was recently threatening. The focus will now be 100% on defense in the early rounds, unless, God forbid, Mikey Brown & Family decide to take Boise State OT Ryan Clady. Utecht - Bengals fans are looking at you to use your relationship with the Lord to help nix this possibility.

Second, this move should presumably open up the middle of the field for Carson.  We saw in 2007 team after team able to play a deep Cover 2 since defenses were solely concerned with Chad and TJ. It can be debated if this was primarily due to Carson poorly checking down to second or third options and forcing the ball, or the lack of options out of the backfield or at TE after drops and poorly run routes. While this is certainly be a topic for a future post, the short answer is more likely combination of the two.

Regardless, Carson did throw the ball to his top two receiving options much more than other comparable teams. In 2007, 63% of Carson’s passing yards were caught by his top two receivers, compared to 51% by the Colts (Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark), 55% by the Patriots (Wes Welker and Randy Moss), 53% by the Giants (Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer) and 44% by the Packers (Donald Driver and Greg Jenkins). Hopefully, with Utecht in the mix, Carsoncan regain confidence in his TE options and learn to check down when needed to the open receiver.

However, it will be interesting to see how Marvin and Bratkowski use Utecht. Reggie Kelly remains a very serviceable tight end/H-back whose blocking and versatility is instrumental in the Bengals No Huddle formations.  If he remains in that role, then Utecht’s entry into a game would seem to be a fairly obvious signal to the defense of the Bengals’ intentions.

If Utecht is to have a significant impact, Bratkowski will have to engineer a system where Utecht is able to take pressure off Chad and TJ and operate freely underneath. He does not have the speed of Dallas Clark or the pure athleticism of a Tony Gonzalez or Antonio Gates. But what he hopefully will be able to give the Bengals is another serious option for Carson and a Day 1 of the NFL Draft of all defense.