Bengals should avoid reuniting with familiar face in order to get the most out of recent draft picks

The Cincinnati Bengals made a crucial decision three years ago to let Carl Lawson leave in free agency. Lawson signed a three-year deal featuring $30 million guaranteed with the New York Jets, while Cincinnati pivoted and offered $20 million guaranteed to Trey Hendrickson.

Three seasons and three Pro Bowl honors later, Hendrickson and the Bengals clearly made the right choice to partner up. Despite recent discontent from Hendrickson regarding his contract length , he's still signed with the Bengals for two more years while Lawson is now a free agent.

Cincinnati can now have both on the roster instead of just one, but if the Bengals want what's best for Myles Murphy and their other young edge defenders, they shouldn't bring back Lawson.

Bengals should prioritize development at edge

Hendrickson became the main replacement for Lawson, but the Bengals have done much more than giving him the bag. They drafted Joseph Ossai and Cam Sample in the same offseason to fill out the position group, and drafted two more edges over the past two years in Murphy and this year's sixth-round pick Cedric Johnson .

Add Sam Hubbard to the group, and it's looking pretty deep at the moment . The problem is the depth itself needs to be more productive.

As Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report notes, Lawson would be a bargain bin free agent signing for any team to make, and the Bengals didn't have another reliable sack artist outside of Hendrickson last season.

"A return to the Cincinnati Bengals—who originally drafted Lawson with a fourth-round pick in 2017—would be logical. The Bengals have one standout edge-rusher in Trey Hendrickson, but no one else on the roster had more than six sacks last season." - Bleacher Report's Kristopher Knox

Hendrickson has been carrying the Bengals' pass rush for the past few years, and the Bengals need to give him more help than he's had. But after investing so many draft picks at the position, it would do more harm than good to sign a 29-year old veteran who played just 101 snaps last year to play over all of them.

Murphy and Co. need reps in order to maximize their potential, and potential is especially high with Murphy. The former first-round pick showed promise towards the back-half of 2023 with a pass rush win rate of 22.8% against true pass sets in his final 10 games. That win rate was even higher than Will Anderson's in the same stretch of games.

The more reps Murphy gets alongside Hendrickson, the quicker the Bengals can find out if he's worth featuring when it matters. Hubbard isn't going anywhere this season, so that's three edges who should get significant playing time with Ossai, Sample, and potentially Johnson to supplement them all.

Where exactly does Lawson fit in there? If he's not coming back to be in the top three or four, it's not worth the reunion in the first place.

Lawson's time in New York clearly didn't go to plan, but the Bengals made their peace when he left for a more lucrative deal.

Now they need to see if their investments will pay off.

Related: Bengals coach compares free agent signing to a player Cincinnati has been trying to replace for years