The Cincinnati Bengals brought back an integral piece of their defense in safety Vonn Bell after he spent a season with the Carolina Panthers.
On a podcast Thursday, Bell explained one of the reasons he decided to come back to the Bengals. The Panthers essentially rented him for a year and will be paying the majority of his salary in 2024.
Joe Burrow was the first to recruit Vonn Bell to come back to the Cincinnati Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is known to play an essential part in the organization’s free agency recruiting and the return of safety Vonn Bell was no different.
Bell explained that Burrow was one of the first guys to get in contact with him and recruit him during the 2024 free agency process.
Bell spent three years with the Bengals before signing with the Carolina Panthers in 2023. All three of those years he was on the team with Burrow. Bell was an anchor on the backend of the defense who intimidated opposing teams with his hard-hitting abilities.
The three years he spent with the Bengals were arguably the most productive seasons of his career. He had his top-two season tackle totals with the Bengals as well as his top two forced-fumble totals in a season.
The Cincinnati Bengals secondary suffered without Vonn Bell and Joe Burrow knew that
With the departure of Vonn Bell and fellow safety Jessie Bates, the Bengals’ defense was arguably the weakest part of their team in 2023.
While they won’t be able to get Bates back, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin explained that he has hope in the young players who went through some growing pains in 2023 in an article from the Dayton Daily News.
“We like both of those young players,” Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said. “They’re both pretty versatile, which is a positive when you’re playing in the backfield. Dax is really versatile. Finding the best role for him to maximize his skill set would be something we’re working on this offseason.
“And how best to utilize him to show off his range and his size and his speed and his toughness and all the things that he has. Same thing with Jordan. What’s the best role for him and how does he fit within the defense, and who’s the communicator? All those things are things we go through in the offseason and that coach Lou (Anarumo) will try to fit together the best that we can. But both those players are young, talented and shown that they belong in this league.”
A young secondary that lacked talent caused the Bengals to be 31st in the league in total defense and 28th in passing defense.
One notable poor defensive effort came when the Pittsburgh Steelers, who hadn’t put up more than 400 yards since the 2020-2021 season, put up 421 total yards on the Bengals. The Steelers have since moved on from the quarterback that accomplished that feat.
Cincinnati Bengals fans are happy Joe Burrow recruited Vonn Bell back to the team
Outside of being an anchor on the backend of the defense, Vonn Bell became a fan favorite in Cincinnati after one particular play.
Opposing Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster danced on the Bengals’ logo before the game, upsetting the team and many fans. In that same game, Bell blew up Smith-Schuster as he was running across midfield, forcing a fumble and etching himself as a Bengals fan favorite.
That along with consistent, solid play had many fans happy that Bell was coming back to Cincinnati. They weren’t happy when they lost him in 2023. Bell was also an integral part of the play that sent the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 2021.
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