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15 million to spend in FA.....What???


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36 minutes ago, LostInDaJungle said:

Sigh.... And just a few threads down the wailing and gnashing of people thinking we were going to overpay guys.

That still leaves the Bengals with $30M in cap room, and about $20M has to be spent. So that makes no sense at all.

It makes sense when you consider the lower the pay roll the higher the net revenue for the Brown family business aka the Cincinnati Bengals. The Brown family is unlikely most of the other 31 NFL franchise owners in that they weren't some titans of industry that bought a franchise to entertain themselves, the Bengals are their sole source of income and they didn't come from wealth so they are very thrifty when it comes to spending. 

Hobson put this at the bottom of his latest article and it's interesting when you consider the comments guys like Whit, Green, and Dalton have made about the FO being more aggressive in FA.

Quote

 

WHIT’S WORTH: Here’s another first in about forever. The Bengals head to a combine without their starting left tackle under contract for the first time in more than a decade. But it’s believed that they are going to meet with the agent for Pro Bowl left tackle Andrew Whitworth during the combine.

Pat Dye Jr. has done numerous big deals with the Bengals down through the years (Geno Atkins and Robert Geathers to name a few) and Cincy is hoping to add another one to get Whitworth in the fold. The Bengals figure to have about $15 million to spend that’s going to be focused on bringing back their own guys with Whitworth, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, right guard Kevin Zeitler, and running back Rex Burkhead heading the list.

 

http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/How-fine-is-nine-Bengals-alive-and-kicking-with-Simmons-at-helm/f9b88411-55bb-4c61-a69e-f281a1cd8a6d

Being that the Bengals have over $45 million available and could free up $10 million more by cutting Adam Jones and Rey Maualuga, two guys that are either liabilities on the field or off the field it would seem that the $15 million figure is very conservative and tells you all you need to know about how aggressive the FO will be in the FA market this offseason. 

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12 minutes ago, kennethmw said:

Can you wait until After Free Agency to whine?  You folks are the biggest negative nellys I've ever seen.

Does Hobson work for the Bengals? Does he have direct access to Mike Brown? Why would Hobson say $15 million when it's easy to see they have over $40 available and could free up almost over half of that $15 million by cutting a guy who arrested, wished death on police officer, and spit on a nurse.? But they refuse to even do that. They have said they are going to let their former first round pick and best offensive line prospect go via FA because they don't want to pay him or value his services enough to keep him. 

Please tell what about the above gives you so much confidence that this team that finished 6-9-1 last year is going to be better without Zeitler, Whit, or Dre? Because all of these guys are going to get big money offers elsewhere and probably sign them. 

In your eyes Marvin Lewis is a coaching genius that just needs one more year to finally get over that playoff win hump and Mike Brown deserves the benefit of the doubt from a fanbase that hasn't had a playoff win over a quarter of a century. Just because I live in reality and not some fantasy land where Marvin is a HOF coach and the Bengals are annual SB contenders doesn't mean I'm a negative nelly(btw, the only other person I've heard use this phrase was my 93 year old grandmother). 

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36 minutes ago, PatternMaster said:

Does Hobson work for the Bengals? Does he have direct access to Mike Brown? Why would Hobson say $15 million when it's easy to see they have over $40 available and could free up almost over half of that $15 million by cutting a guy who arrested, wished death on police officer, and spit on a nurse.? But they refuse to even do that. They have said they are going to let their former first round pick and best offensive line prospect go via FA because they don't want to pay him or value his services enough to keep him. 

Please tell what about the above gives you so much confidence that this team that finished 6-9-1 last year is going to be better without Zeitler, Whit, or Dre? Because all of these guys are going to get big money offers elsewhere and probably sign them. 

In your eyes Marvin Lewis is a coaching genius that just needs one more year to finally get over that playoff win hump and Mike Brown deserves the benefit of the doubt from a fanbase that hasn't had a playoff win over a quarter of a century. Just because I live in reality and not some fantasy land where Marvin is a HOF coach and the Bengals are annual SB contenders doesn't mean I'm a negative nelly(btw, the only other person I've heard use this phrase was my 93 year old grandmother). 

It's 100% on the local media who continuously cover for MB and ML. The $15 million figure makes no sense even if you allocate $5 million for injuries during the season and calculate liberally with rollover money. If that number turns out to be true, will the Cincinnati Enquirer call the team out for it? Its simple. For a team that currently has an OL in shambles, does it make sense to give up EITHER of the only good ones you have? Those two players should be the priority over any other FA if you're serious about competing next year. And I'm sorry, but I will not give this team the benefit of the doubt when it comes to finding replacements on the OL. I don't want to hear about Westerman, Hopkins, Johnson, etc. This is the same team that started Nate Livings over Evan Mathis. 

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Lol Baghdad Hobson is like clockwork with this shit.  Same story every year with free agency.  Copy and paste with a new date.  Clearly they have enough cap space to bring back at least two of the three between Whit, Zeitler, & Dre.  Instead we are told they only can bring back one since $15 million probably isn't enough to sign two of them.  Nevermind that Pacman & Maualuga could be cut easily to free up roughly another $10 million.  The o-line was mediocre or worse last year and they might lose their top two players, but the team apparently considers rollover dollars and an injury pad more important.  

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I am usually nonplussed over the annual Geoffian explanations. But this time, I am going to go along with the screaming masses. I am not cap-knowledgeable enough to understand what savings Adam and/or Rey might equal, but I would certainly appreciate someone with the Bengals or media even broaching the subject. That hasn't happened. 

I fully agree that the loss of The Big Three would be catastrophic compared to losing an aging CB (with or without the morality questions) and a one-dimensional LB. 

The solutions seem easy. If they are not going to do it, I would at least appreciate an honest answer from them or the press as to why. Not fluff, not deflection, the straight skinny. Not too much to ask.

 

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Okay, so I used a salary calculator and made the following moves...

Cut Adam Jones + Maualuga - $10.5M relief

Sign Whit - $10M

Sign Dre - $11M

Sign LaFell/other FA WR2 - $5M

Sign Peerman - $2M

Sign Winston + Gilberry - Average of $1M each

Sign CB2/3 in FA - $4M

Sign MLB in FA - $4M

Even after signing all of these players, I'm still left with $18.437M in cap space. Our rookie pool is projected to be around $9.1M to sign all of our draft picks. BUT, it won't use that much cap space due the fact that they will be eating up roster spots that already exist. Let's be super aggressive with the number and say that it does end up taking $8M of cap space to sign our draft picks. We still have $10M(!!!!) to fill out the rest of the roster and extend Burfict. There are a handful of spots to fill, but some of those rotational pieces and backups that we let walk in FA with be replaced with rookies.

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There has to be some amount of give and take in a salary capped league like the NFL. You HAVE to go cheap at some positions or else you won't be able to field an entire team. I wish we could have superstar salaries at every position, but we just can't. The Bengals are in desperate need of hitting on a couple of young superstars that we can have starting on rookie contracts that actually improve the team.

Andrew Billings is the perfect example. If he could perform well enough to take Peko's place going forward, he is under contract for under $1M per year cap hit until he became a UFA in 2020. We need Billings + another hit or two from our young players in their rookie deals. We need above average to great players out of some of these guys too, not just capable starters or rotational players.

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17 minutes ago, SocalBengalEd said:

We have nothing vested in the oline.   Boling is the only one making peanuts.   

Well they don't have much of a choice but to bring back at least 1 of Whitworth or Zeitler, likely Whit. I'd like to see them bring in a vet C as a stop-gap to Bodine's replacement, but who knows what the odds are of that actually happening. I don't think the team is giving up on Oogieboogie or Fisher yet either, they're going to be playing in some capacity this coming year.

Look at who is on the market right now, what should we do? I'm honestly not sure. O-line looks....interesting(?) as far as UFAs go this year. There aren't a lot of high quality players to choose from, most of these guys that weren't retained by their original teams seem to have some red flags. I'm usually bitching that the Bengals refuse to spend in free agency, but I'm just not sure if there's a lot worth going after as far as the line goes. There are a few top guys and then it falls off into a ton of question marks and old vets. I definitely wouldn't be opposed to seeing the Bengals bring in some competition via free agency though. Even if I wouldn't agree with the exact player(s) they'd sign, I'd love to see them at least look like they give a fuck in free agency for once.

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I will defend the Bengals in one area here. They actually have a pretty solid track record of re-signing their own "in prime" free agents. The only players that really stand out for me in recent history are Eric Steinbach and Johnathan Joseph. You can say Sanu and/or Marvin Jones but they got stupid contracts to be #2 or #3 WRs on their new teams. Good on them but money well not-spent in my opinion.

On the same note the Bengals are notorious for rewarding beyond their expiry date legacy veterans with new contracts (i.e. Willie Anderson) and/or keeping them rostered when they should have been cut (i.e. John Thornton, Brian Simmons). That needs to change.

I don't have an issue with the general philosophy of not being big players in free agency and blowing huge coin to tie your can to name guys who seldom pay dividends. Build through the draft, keep your own "in prime" key players and fill spots were needed with outside guys.

The wrinkle this year for the Bengals is that their recent drafting has been very, very poor. Unfortunately, it's left them more holes than can possibly be filled through the draft and/or by basically retaining some of your own. It's going to be very difficult to address all the problem areas. The reality is that Bengal Geoff can go fuck himself and his annual Hobsoning of the Numbers is an embarrassment. The truth is the Bengals can make some moves with the current roster which will create additional cap room and then they need to prioritize their needs.

I am not a fan of Dre Kirkpatrick at all, but if they let him leave for an $8-$10 million contract elsewhere and keep a 33 year old bag-of-dicks named Adam Jones instead...they are fucking idiots. The in-house priorities need to be Zeitler and Kirkpatrick. They are in their prime and are guys that should be retained. Again, I've been clear I wouldn't pay Kirkpatrick big money and if that's what it takes, let him walk. After those two, poor drafting has necessitated re-signing Whitworth too. I like Whit but it would have been nice to move on and spend that money elsewhere. Can't do it though or Opie is a dead man.

As many on here have stated...cut Jones (why the fuck has this not happened already) and Maualuga and pick up an extra $10 million. Re-sign Kirkpatrick, Whitworth, Zeitler, Burkhead, LaFell and Gilberry. Add some depth through FA with the rest of the money and get back to drafting well. We need players that will have impact this season in this draft. No inured players or projects in 2017.  

 

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16 minutes ago, omgdrdoom said:

Well they don't have much of a choice but to bring back at least 1 of Whitworth or Zeitler, likely Whit. I'd like to see them bring in a vet C as a stop-gap to Bodine's replacement, but who knows what the odds are of that actually happening. I don't think the team is giving up on Oogieboogie or Fisher yet either, they're going to be playing in some capacity this coming year.

Look at who is on the market right now, what should we do? I'm honestly not sure. O-line looks....interesting(?) as far as UFAs go this year. There aren't a lot of high quality players to choose from, most of these guys that weren't retained by their original teams seem to have some red flags. I'm usually bitching that the Bengals refuse to spend in free agency, but I'm just not sure if there's a lot worth going after as far as the line goes. There are a few top guys and then it falls off into a ton of question marks and old vets. I definitely wouldn't be opposed to seeing the Bengals bring in some competition via free agency though. Even if I wouldn't agree with the exact player(s) they'd sign, I'd love to see them at least look like they give a fuck in free agency for once.

If Whit hits the open market and gets offered big money from a team like the Broncos that have a HC that used to coach here and a team that won the Super Bowl two seasons ago, do you think he will sign if the Bengals matched the money they offered?

 

 

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