Former Minnesota offensive tackle Todd Steussie, who agreed to terms Thursday with Carolina, is the latest free agent the Bengals wanted but failed to sign.

        “We tried so hard to get him,” said Jim Lippincott, the Bengals' director of pro/college personnel. “Carolina offered him one of those convoluted deals. The money we had in the first two years was even.”

        Steussie, 30, who would have solved the Bengals' problem at left tackle, signed for $28 million over six years with $4.75 million to sign. The deal is exactly the kind of long-term contract the Bengals won't agree to with an older player.

        Steussie is at least the fifth free agent and second consecutive left tackle who has turned down an offer from the Bengals to sign elsewhere. Former Green Bay lineman Ross Verba, who had a bigger offer from Cincinnati, signed with Cleveland.

        Since free agency started four weeks ago, the Bengals have scheduled 24 visits from free agents. Three canceled. Two — offensive linemen Jerry Wunsch and Scott Gragg — are coming to town Monday and Tuesday. Two players signed with the Bengals, but 17 have not.

        Why the problems signing free agents? The reasons vary. Some say the Bengals are fighting a reputation as needless spendthrifts and are not entirely committed to winning. Others say the organization will have to overpay to sign free agents. The Bengals say they've tried but won't sacrifice future fiscal soundness to bring in players who fail as often as they succeed.

        “They're paying for generations of cheapness,” said one prominent player agent, who asked not to be identified by name. “Jacksonville, Carolina and Cleveland overpaid when they were new and nobody wanted to come there, and the (Houston) Texans will do the same thing.

        “If the Bengals pay equal or less than other teams, they're not going to get the player.”

Player	Pos.	Team	Visited	Result
1. Gus Frerotte	QB	Denver	March 3	Re-signed with Broncos
2. Elvis Grbac	QB	KC	March 4	Signed with Ravens for less money than Bengals offered
3. Ted Washington	DT	Buffalo	March 5	Insulted by low Bengals offer
4. Leon Searcy	OT	Jac	March 6	Signed with Ravens
5. Tony Williams	DT	Minnesota	March 6	Signed with Bengals
6. Jon Kitna	QB	Seattle	March 7	Signed with Bengals
7. Dana Stubblefield	DT	Wash	March 7	Has not accepted Bengals' offer
8. Brad Johnson	QB	Wash	canceled	Signed with Buccaneers
9. Evan Pilgrim	C	Atlanta	March 7	Bengals re-signed center Rich Braham
10. Jeff Mitchell	C	Baltimore	March 8	Signed with Panthers
11. Kenny Holmes	DE	Tennessee	March 8	Signed with Giants for money comparable to Bengals' offer
12. James McKnight	WR	Dallas	March 9	Signed with Dolphins despite having played for offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski
13. Simeon Rice	DE	Arizona	March 9	Signed with Buccaneers
14. Kevin Henry	DE	Pittsburgh	March 9	Unsigned
15. Ross Verba	OL	Green Bay	March 12	Signed with Browns despite Bengals' sincere interest and offer
16. Casey Weigmann	C	Chicago	canceled	Bengals re-signed Braham
17. Ronde Barber	CB	Tampa Bay	March 13	Buccaneers want him back
18. DeRon Jenkins	CB	San Diego	March 13	Purged by Chargers
19. Jason Ferguson	DT	Jets	canceled	Re-signed in New York
20. Levon Kirkland	LB	Pittsburgh	March 15	Not even his relationship with coach Dick LeBeau could make up for low Bengals offer
21. Walt Harris	CB	Chicago	March 19	Bears gladly letting him go
22. Todd Steussie	OT	Minnesota	March 19	Signed with Panthers; like Verba, another player Bengals badly wanted
23. Jerry Wunsch	OT	Tampa Bay	April 2	Bengals missed best OTs in free agency; he's clearly second-tier
24. Scott Gragg	OT	San Fran	April 3	See Wunsch

        Besides their offers to Steussie and Verba, the Bengals also extended contract proposals to quarterbacks Gus Frerotte and Elvis Grbac, wide receiver James McKnight, linebacker Levon Kirkland and defensive linemen Dana Stubblefield and Ted Washington.

        Frerotte re-signed with Denver. Grbac took less money than the Bengals offered to sign in Baltimore. McKnight took a deal with his hometown Dolphins.

        Kirkland, Washington and Stubblefield (the former Taylor High School standout) are still unsigned, but

        Kirkland and Washington found the Bengals' offers insultingly low.

        “It's fashionable to shoot arrows at us right now,” Lippincott said Thursday. “No matter what we do, we get criticized. Bringing guys in and not having them sign beats the alternative. When you have visits, you get the fans' and media's hopes up. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't.”

        Even if free agency ended today — teams can sign free agents through July 15 — the Bengals would consider it a relative success. They signed a starting defensive tackle, Tony Williams, and if Jon Kitna beats out Akili Smith at quarterback, the team will have signed a second starter.

        Cincinnati still has its eye on Stubblefield and Washington, and cornerbacks Walt Harris, Ronde Barber and DeRon Jenkins, all of whom visited.

        “Free agency is not over, but it's not the panacea,” Lippincott said. “The draft is. You build a team with the draft and develop players while you have them.”

        Bengals president Mike Brown has said the organization has been slower to pull the trigger on signings because it is keeping a reserve fund to re-sign free agent running back Corey Dillon.

        Dillon, who turned down an eight-year, $60 million offer from the Bengals in December, has yet to receive any offers from other teams. Brown said he will match anything but an outrageous offer.

        At the same time, the Bengals have not been as creative as other organizations in pursuing free agents. Several teams will cut veteran players to make room for desirable free agents. Cincinnati saved about $1.5 million under the cap by cutting veteran cornerback Tom Carter.

        The Bengals were $14.8 million under the cap — the most in the NFL — at the start of free agency and still are almost $11 million under.

        The team also has the league's worst record in the past 10 seasons and is 11-37 in the past three seasons.

        And old images can die hard. Another agent, who had a major free agent on the market, said Thursday the Bengals did make some competitive offers in the past month but are still dogged by a losing reputation.

        “It goes a little deeper than money,” the agent said. “There is still a question whether they are totally committed to making better football decisions.”

        One area for which the Bengals are infamous is their scouting department, the league's smallest with two scouts. A possible solution, the agent said, would have been to make a couple of blockbuster signings and show they are serious about winning by expanding their scouting department.

        “People would notice,” said the agent, who asked not to be identified by name.

        But the Bengals have made progress this year in free agency.

        “Things are not going to change over night,” said Cincinnati-based agent Richard L. Katz, who represents Bengals veterans John Jackson and Vaughn Booker. “There still is the perception this is a losing team. They are improving a lot of little things. They might not have been able to get Williams, Kitna or Steussie to visit seven or eight years ago.

        “They're taking some small steps. If they can sign a couple of guys a year who have won, then they start changing the attitude.”

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