Is Jermaine Gresham Worth the Bengals' Money This Offseason?

Cincinnati Bengals tight end Jermaine Gresham is just one of the team's 17 free agents this offseason. In Cincinnati since 2010, Gresham has been the Bengals' starting tight end since the beginning of his NFL career.

His contributions in 2014 were even more necessary, with fellow tight end Tyler Eifert suffering an elbow injury in Week 1 from which he did not return and wide receiver Marvin Jones suffering a season-ending ankle injury in the preseason.

Still, none of this guarantees that the Bengals re-sign Gresham this offseason. 

Gresham is a better blocker than a receiver, though not by much. He ranked 37th out of 67 tight ends evaluated by Pro Football Focus for the 2014 season, with a positive grade in pass protection but little else. He was their second-best tight end in pass protection, in fact, allowing just one total pressure—a hurry—in his 100 pass-blocking snaps.

Year	Starts	Tgts.	Rec.	Rec.%	Yds.	TD	Fum.
2010	10	83	52	62.7%	471	4	2
2011	13	92	56	60.9%	596	6	1
2012	15	94	64	68.1%	737	5	2
2013	14	68	46	67.6%	458	4	3
2014	15	79	62	78.5%	460	5	3
Total	67	416	280	67.3%	2,722	24	11

However, even with a thin receiving corps in Cincinnati, his targets, receptions, yards and touchdowns were no better than they were in his previous four seasons. In 2014, he caught 62 of 79 targets for 460 yards and five touchdowns. He's never surpassed 737 yards in his career nor six touchdowns. He also had three fumbles in 2014 and 11 over his career.

Also, even more curiously, are the comments by the Cincinnati Enquirer's Paul Dehner Jr. at the close of the season. Dehner wrote: 

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There are many coaches within the building who want zero to do with Gresham at this point. Not all, but some. A mantra of this organization has for a long time been about acquiring players you can trust. I don't know that this team can trust Gresham anymore. His low tolerance for pain and a career peppered with games missed when he probably could have played through the pain while others, in fact, did play through their pain doesn't help. His inconsistency with fumbles, penalties, etc., only adds to the lack of trust.

He's a rare, physically gifted player and a nice complementary piece to the offense, but finding a player with maybe less physical skills but added reliability would probably be the preferred path at this point.

"

The injuries Dehner is referring to here are the toe which held Gresham out of Week 15 and his back, which kept him out of the Bengals' Wild Card Round playoff contest against the Indianapolis Colts. Clearly, according to his report, there are coaches on the staff who believed Gresham could have played through those injuries.

In contrast, offensive coordinator Hue Jackson seemed more open—though cautiously so—that Gresham could be back in 2015. In speaking to ESPN's Coley Harvey, Jackson said:

"

There's a place for [Gresham]. But again, he's free, so that's going to work itself out for him however it works itself out... Within what we asked him to do this year, he did some good things. There are some things he knows he needs to do to be better, and he will work at them to be better.

"

However, all it takes is a degree of internal reticence about Gresham's role and commitment to turn him from a high-priority free agent into a former Bengals tight end. 

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

The presumed healthy return of Eifert would reduce Gresham's role as a receiver. And with Gresham having the highest 2014 cap figure of the impending group of free agents at $4.832 million, per Spotrac.com, what he'd like from his next contract might not line up with what the Bengals are willing to spend.

No, the Bengals are not hard up for cash in 2015, with an estimated $34.6 million in cap space according to Spotrac.com, the sixth-most in the league. But the Bengals aren't a spend-happy team and won't bring back Gresham just to do it, or because they can afford it.

If it's a blocker they want—and one that doesn't have the injury or pain-tolerance issues that Dehner detailed above, they could go with another one of their impending free agents, Alex Smith, who cost the Bengals just $635,000 in 2014.

Smith only played 16 snaps last season—three as a receiver, nine as a run-blocker and four in pass protection—but he does have 56 starts in 119 games played, so he does not lack experience. He's much in the same vein as Gresham, in that he blocks mostly and is targeted rarely.

Peter Aiken/Getty Images

But with that more team-friendly price tag and no bad blood between himself and his coaches as Dehner alleges Gresham has engendered, it's not impossible to see Gresham move on and Smith get the new deal. Giving Gresham another $4 to 5 million per year to reward inconsistent performance just doesn't seem to line up with the way the Bengals approach free agency.

If Gresham was willing to make less per year—perhaps $2 to 3 million in total compensation—that could convince the Bengals to bring him back. But in a depleted tight end class, both in free agency and in the draft, Gresham could command even more than what he made in 2014, just because the market is so thin and demand at the position is very high.

It is also possible that particular Bengals sources are leaking the internal distrust of Gresham in order to drive down his value on the open market, allowing Cincinnati to sign him back at a discounted price by poisoning the well against him. We are, after all, heading into the misdirection and smoke-and-mirrors portion of the NFL offseason.

However, Gresham also has limited value in Cincinnati. Other teams may be more willing to expand his role, but with the Bengals it should only shrink in 2015 with Eifert and Jones returning from their respective injuries. The Bengals' return on their investment may not make re-signing Gresham worth it.

Even if they are trying to artificially lower his next contract, his ever-decreasing role might mean there's no agreeable middle ground between what Gresham wants to be paid, what the Bengals are willing to pay him and how much work he'll realistically get in 2015 and beyond.

If the Bengals cannot work out this balance in a way that favors both the team and Gresham, it's likely he'll play elsewhere in 2015. It appears that the Bengals are preparing themselves for life both with and without him moving forward.