Should Former Spartan LB Return to Bengals in 2025?

Former Michigan State Spartan and current Cincinnati Bengals linebacker, Joe Bachie, is set to hit free agency for the first time in his career. After playing the last four seasons as a member of the Bengals, has Bachie showed enough for the front office to extend him a contract offer to play in 2025?
Bachie has played 47 of his 51 career games as a Bengal, but unfortunately for him, his tenure has only seen a decline. In his first season with the franchise, he recorded a career high in total tackles (30), solo tackles (18) and assisted tackles (12). Since the 2021 season though, staying on the field has not been easy for the former Spartan.
After a respectable season in 2021, Bachie looked to improve in 2022 but did not. In fact, he finished his season playing in 10 games, earning 10 total tackles and 1.5 stuffs. He has only been able to post three tackles in each of the last two seasons.
Listed as a second string option behind Akeem Davis-Gaither, Bachie still has youth on his side. Whether or not the Bengals decide to bring Bachie back for another season or not, there should be franchises calling his agents phone purely based on his age.
Going into his sixth season having only made $1.275 million last season, NFL franchises should take this into consideration. Perhaps Bachie just needs a change of scenery to get back to his 2021 ways. Let's face it, if he does not figure it out soon, his phone will admittedly be less busy in trying to get a job.
The Bengals did just draft another linebacker in Shaka Heyward, who played in six games last season. In those contests, he averaged one tackle per game and accumulated six total on the season.
Bachie could get replaced by Heyward if the Bengals decide to save some money by paying league minimum to Heyward. However, Bachie could potentially hear from multiple times from several teams that struggled on defense in the 2024-2025 season.
Bachie played four seasons at Michigan State, where he played in 39 games and put together back-to-back campaigns with at least 100 tackles. He helped lead the Spartans to three straight bowl appearances.
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