Why Locking Up Drew Sample Mattered to the Cincinnati Bengals – Grading the Move and Next Steps

CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Bengals have locked up another of their free agents from head coach Zac Taylor’s first draft class with the re-signing of tight end Drew Sample.

It’s a three-year, $10.5 million deal for Sample, indicating how much the team values his physicality as a run blocker and production as a receiver.

Cincinnati Bengals Re-Sign TE Drew Sample

It’s a huge raise from the one-year, $1.1 million free agent contract Sample signed with the team last year after missing almost all of 2022 with a knee injury.

The re-signing makes Sample the only tight end the team has under contract for 2024, although expectations are that Cincinnati will re-sign Tanner Hudson as well.

Pro Football Focus graded Sample as the eighth-best blocking tight end in the league last season (minimum 200 run-blocking snaps).

With free agent signing Irv Smith Jr. a bust, Sample also had his second-best season as a receiver, catching 22 passes for 163 yards and a career-high two touchdowns.

Pen to paper 📝

We have re-signed TE Drew Sample to a three-year contract extension pic.twitter.com/suoy7xiCtw

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) March 11, 2024

The Bengals selected Sample in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

After suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 2 of the 2022 season, Sample re-signed with the Bengals in 2023 for one year at $1.1 million.

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The Bengals have played more 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end) than any team in the league since Taylor arrived, which is why the team targeted Sample so early in the 2019 Draft, taking him with the No. 52 pick.

Sample played 497 offensive snaps (46%) last season, which was right in line with the 459 (42%) he played during the Super Bowl run in 2021, splitting time with C.J. Uzomah.

Grade: B

The move makes sense for a Cincinnati team that didn’t have a tight end under contract for the upcoming season, especially after seeing where the new contract landed for tight end Hunter Henry in New England (three years, $27 million).

Pairing Sample with Hudson will give the Bengals a solid base going into their next step, which will be to either target another veteran in free agency or attack the position in the draft.

KEEP READING: Why the Bengals Brought Back Trayveon Williams: Grading the Move, and What’s Next?

Sample obviously isn’t a splash signing, but he fits everything Taylor has built in terms of culture and filling the locker room with intelligent players who love football.

And Joe Burrow trusts Sample, which goes a long way in adding to the tight end’s value.

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