sparky151

Yes, someone will overpay Jonah. Call it the Andre Dillard rule. But the Bengals shouldn't be the team to make that mistake. We will be in position to draft a potentially better player who will certainly be cheaper. We can hedge some of the risk by using part of the savings on a solid veteran. There's a group of veteran tackles who teams don't see as their long term solution so they are in free agency every year or two. But some of them are decent players and outperform higher paid guys. We should add one of them as a swing tackle so we have some depth in addition to OBJ and a rookie.

That article isn't very useful. It should cover who will be free to sign with another team and which guys the Bengals will prioritize. Adomitis and Browning are ERFA and aren't going anywhere. The team has no RFAs for 2024. The others are UFAs pending use of a tag. The team may also cut some veterans. Bengals have exclusive negotiating rights to players with expiring contracts until the legal tampering period right before the start of the league year in early March.

Cheap as in 5 mil or less. Not a guy on a minimum benefit veteran contract like Ford. Jermaine Eluemonor will be a free agent and was paid 3 mil last year. PFF ranks him as the 35th best tackle in the NFL, ahead of Brown or Williams. Also rated better than both of them would be Morgan Moses who makes 5 mil per year but has another year on his contract. George Fant ranked higher than Williams and will be a free agent. He made 3 mil on his last free agent deal. Cam Fleming graded about the same as Jonah but only cost 2.5 mil. Yosh Nijman or Dan Skipper might also be options. There are plenty of experienced, solid 28+ yr old tackles available who don't offer upside but do have floors higher than a rookie will offer the first half of the season.

The Bengals would be foolish to extend Jonah and aren't going to pay 15+ mil to some other guy when the draft is strong at the position. We should sign a cheap vet to cover for the rookie since we can't count on Carman or Smith to do so.

Yeah, when a site disables comments, it's not a good sign.

OT is by far the biggest need since Jonah will want more pay than he's worth and probably to play the left side somewhere. That leaves the Bengals with 1 good tackle since our depth is poop at the position. It's a first round need. There is a good group of tackles in this draft class so we might be able to find a decent one in the second round but RT is a higher priority than other positions so it's the best match of need and talent. At WR, we should tag Tee and try to work out a deal. Jamarr will rightly want an extension this offseason but it can wait until summer time. We aren't going to pay Boyd as much as some other team will so he's most likely gone. Irwin is a useful contributor who might get a better offer elsewhere. The team would like to see Jones and Iosivas step up to replace Boyd but their rookie seasons were ok, but not distinguished. Maybe Joe lobbies the team to bring in Terrace Marshall to get the gang back together. He'll be a free agent and hasn't done much in Carolina, so he should be inexpensive. He could be a replacement if we lose Irwin.

No chance Mims is on the board for the Bengals 2nd round pick. He has good size and tools. His tape is limited but ok. He'll go in the first round to some team.

Guyton is in the conversation for pick 18.

Yeah, it looks like OSU is getting most players back. That helped Meatchicken enormously in 2023, maybe it will work for OSU in 2024.

Replacing Bell and Hurst with Scott and Smith because they were cheaper is an example. We have expensive lines because the drafted players and prior free agents weren't very good. Karras is an upgrade over Hopkins, Brown over the likes of Hart, and Cappa over Spain. The team no doubt wishes that Adeniji, Carman, Hill, Smith, etc turned out better but they didn't.

Yes, with the benefit of hindsight, going all-in for 2023 might have gotten us a wild card slot but we wouldn't be Super Bowl contenders. IMO we need a much better O-line coach as a first step. We have a veteran, highly paid O-line whose starters didn't miss a single game this year. And we still finished near the bottom of the league O-line rankings and 32nd in rushing yards. We could tag Tee and sign Chris Jones as the Reader replacement and it still might not matter.

Bengals are fundamentally conservative in their spending. They don't want to go all-in. They call that "mortgaging the future". So every offseason they are in good cap shape but don't maximize the spending. IMO this past season was the time to go all-in.

Saints have been kicking the can down the street for too long. They have a lot of guys who cost more to cut than keep, which is bad. They also have some really bad contracts and now their RT Ryan Ramczyk may be done playing due to a knee injury. They should have cleared their cap after Brees retired, the way Tampa took a lot of hits this season to get past the Brady era. Bengals have the cap space but not the inclination to fill some holes in free agency before the draft, especially if they wait another year for Ja'Mar's extension. If we tag Tee, let Jonah, Reader, ADG, Boyd, and Awuzie walk, and re-sign the other free agents, we would still have a good bit of space to work with. We could afford top tier talent if they hit the market. But we won't go shopping in that aisle.

No thanks on Latham. He looks like Evan Neal 2.0. My view is that whoever plays RT for the Bengals should also be able to play LT. So pass on the run blocking specialists, we're in a division with the Ravens who led the league in sacks plus TJ Watt and Myles Garrett who will be lined up vs our weaker pass blocking tackle. So Mims, Guyton, Paul, Morgan, Suamataia should be on our list but Latham or Fuaga shouldn't be.

I agree they probably aren't cutting Hilton but next season is the last on his current contract and the team hates giving out 3rd contracts to players. So they may draft Sainristil as Hilton's heir the same way they drafted Hill to be ready for the departure of Bates. As Burrow and Chase go from rookie deals to market contracts, the team will have to be thriftier elsewhere.

Kuithe is staying in school

It won't have changed. Comp picks are based mainly on contract averages, affected slightly by playing time and postseason honors. There's a cap on older players even if they sign a big contract (the Faneca rule). If Bates hadn't been canceled out by Brown, he may have qualified at the 3rd round level if he didn't already. Looks like they project a 5th for Bell and 7th for Perine to us. https://overthecap.com/compensatory-picks

Hilton is under contract for 2024 and unlikely to be cut IMO. I could see the team drafting his replacement though. I'd take Mikey Sainristil in round 4 if he lasts that long.

OvertheCap has a good record of predicting the comp picks. They did so last year for the 2024 comp picks. If I remember, Bates and Brown canceled out as did Smith and Perine. We got a 5th for Hurst and 6th for Bell in their projection.

Russell Wilson. Apparently they have mutual respect and Wilson will work cheap in 2024 since Denver is paying his main contract. Atlanta won't let Belichick pick the players though. Commanders are also interviewing Ravens OC Todd Moncken. Pretty sure the Bryce Young pick was made by the owner but he isn't going to fire himself. Supposedly it was because Young was more polished than Stroud after they each had dinner with Tepper. That doesn't look like a good move by the Titans but we'll see who they get.

Hill is a free safety, he just had some issues with his tackling this season. Though not as many as Nick Scott at strong safety. It seems clear that Battle will be starting at the strong side next season.

Dak Prescott is under contract for 2024. The problem for the Cowboys is they've pushed money from prior seasons down the road so Prescott's cap number is about 60 mil. That's at the same time that Cee Dee Lamb and Micah Parsons are ready to come off their rookie deals for market value deals. So apparently the plan is to sign Dak to an extension and push his money further down the road to make space for the other guys. They'll most likely let Tyron Smith walk. Maybe Biadasz too. Pollard won't be getting as much as he expects.

I'm surprised the rest of the practice squad hasn't been signed yet.

Front office contracts usually expire in May, after the draft. So if a team hires Brown as GM now, we'd be due a 2025 3rd round comp pick.

That draft order was where things stood before this past weekend's games. We'll be picking at 18 in the first round. Mims would be a good pick for the Bengals. We could also use an inexpensive veteran swing tackle for coverage since Carman and Smith haven't shown anything. Though maybe the Bengals think they have that guy in Ford. I'd like someone a bit better than Ford, such as George Fant, Cam Fleming, Jermaine Eluemenor, or Morgan Moses.