Bengals ink Utecht.

March 22, 2008 · Paul Raymond · Jump to comments

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Former Indianapolis Colt’s TE Ben Utecht will be joining the Cincinnati Bengals. His contract calls for him to make $9 million over 3 seasons. The Colts did have a chance to keep the undrafted free agent but decided to let him walk. The Colts tagged him with the low-level tender which gave them the right to match any offers made by another team. Interesting enough the Colts never even responded to the Bengals offered. They just quietly let the deadline come and go like it was never there.

This is a good signing for the Bengals as it gives them their best receiving tight end in years. This should help open things up even more for the big guns at the wide-outs. Not quite sure yet if he’ll start, but at he’ll at least get equal playing time to current TE Reggie Kelly who also makes about the same amount of money. “He is really excited to join the team and make contributions to help make the Bengals a Super Bowl contender,” Utecht’s agent, Chris Murray, told Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com.

For the Colts look for Bryan Fletcher to take over as Dallas Clark’s backup. Fletcher was drafted in 2002 by the Chicago Bears, but never received any playing time till the 2005 season with the Colts. Since then he’s had 18 catches a season with a total of 5 touchdowns. The team should be fine with him taking over as a backup as he can clearly catch the ball.