Green Bay Packers defensive end Rashan Gary tipped his hand with his recent promptly-deleted Instagram post saying goodbye to the only franchise he's been employed by during his seven-year NFL career. The deletion may have erased the evidence of the inevitable, but there's already a landing spot being floated for Gary's next step.
Per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, "The team that could prove most aggressive on the defensive free agent market is Cincinnati, which is exploring just about every position group. Edge rusher Rashan Gary is a name to watch here should the Packers move on. New Bengals defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery was with Gary in Green Bay."
Jerry Montgomery was with Gary during the greatest three-year stretch of his career. Gary amassed 24.5 sacks between the 2021-2023 seasons before Montgomery was part of the staff-cleaning push Jeff Hafley had in Green Bay upon his hiring in early 2024. Gary's performance declined in the years after Montgomery's exit, with 2025 being a particular low point, having not recorded a single sack over the last 10 games, effectively disappearing after a strong start to the season.
Though Gary had six pressures during the wild-card round loss to the Chicago Bears, the damage was already done. After his Instagram bait-and-switch, the damage between him and the organization may be irreparable.
Good thing there's such a logical soft-landing spot in the opposite conference, per Fowler.
Bengals May Pay Up For Rashan Gary This Offseason
A team that loses in the fashion the Packers just did in the postseason, to a division rival no less, isn't about to play games with Gary. There's no "will they or won't they" happening in America's Dairyland after that stunt. They won't. Gary seems to know it. And, now, the fan base does, too.
A team looking to reshuffle the deck with nearly $50 million in spending money this offseason is a different story, though. The Cincinnati Bengals will likely throw money everywhere they can in the coming weeks and months, and no position makes more sense to splurge on than edge rusher.
With Trey Hendrickson on the way out, the Bengals need someone who can come close to replicating his impact on Cincy's pass-rush. The Bengals' toothless attack could be revolutionized if Gary could come close to his peak. Perhaps Cincinnati has to hope that a reunion with Montgomery could help push the former Michigan Wolverines standout in that direction again.
Whether Gary can or not is unclear. The best thing you can probably do to return him to those heights would be to pair him with the position coach who got the most out of him. Only Cincinnati is capable of that.
We'll see if that means what we think that'll mean this week.