T-Dub Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 2 hours ago, Bunghole said: I still wonder if there's any mileage on the "I'd rather retire than play in Cincinnati" type shit from when Elvis Grbac (ELVIS GRBAC!!! LOL) said it. How much has Cincinnati's reputation across the league in terms of FA's has changed? We're notoriously (by reputation) cheap, have shitty weather, a now older stadium with no bonafides to prop it up (like Lambeau), no practice bubble and we lack many of the amenities of bigger market teams. Plus we have the worst playoff record in NFL history. Does any of this still matter to players today? Or is it that we simply do not pursue FA's, and if we do, we lowball them contract-wise? I think it's one of those situations where the perception is the reality, no matter what we do. We consistently offer market value for young guys that perform, and better yet most guys play out their contracts even when they may not deserve to because MB is loyal to a fault. I'm sure there are the handful of players who are realistically looking to "build their personal brand" in a larger market, and the other group that don't want to deal with the fact that there are no domes in the AFCN (a message someone should relay to our OC). The biggest obstacle the Bengals face in free agency, by far, is public perception. We're stuck in a sort of negative feedback loop where any mistake is magnified and making the postseason consistently is overshadowed by losing there every time. This is at worst an average team but in most people's minds we're lumped in with the Browns, Jags or Rams. We've had more recent success than teams like Dallas or SF but you'd never know it if you're outside the Cincinnati sports bubble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Tigre Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 Lol @ "old stadium with no amenities". Take a tour through the locker room, weight room, and basically a below surface practice space. By comparison, I have also toured JerryWorld's locker room, weight room, etc.--not a hell of a lot of difference. FA's don't come here because they are not invited. Simple as that. Franchise philosophy in recent years has been not to go after them...not because of "old" stadiums, or crap weather. KC has a 45-year old stadium, and worse weather than we would ever see here. But FA's go there--and it isn't for fucking BBQ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omgdrdoom Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 9 hours ago, Le Tigre said: Lol @ "old stadium with no amenities". Take a tour through the locker room, weight room, and basically a below surface practice space. By comparison, I have also toured JerryWorld's locker room, weight room, etc.--not a hell of a lot of difference. FA's don't come here because they are not invited. Simple as that. Franchise philosophy in recent years has been not to go after them...not because of "old" stadiums, or crap weather. KC has a 45-year old stadium, and worse weather than we would ever see here. But FA's go there--and it isn't for fucking BBQ. This is about right IMO. Free agents will go where the money is 90% of the time. Sure you have some exceptions here and there, but it's all about the $$$ in most cases and it's a reason the worst teams in the league are able to sign top tier players every offseason. Sometimes those teams may have to pay a slight premium to lure certain free agents, but for the most part these guys just want the most guaranteed money possible. Mike Brown isn't going to pay what those outside free agents get paid. He knows it, the rest of the organization know it, the player's agents know it, the players know it. If you aren't a home grown draft pick, good luck signing here (if you're a high quality player) unless you're coming on some sort of discount. The "big name" players aren't coming in to visit because Mikey isn't giving out the invitations. This isn't an argument for whether that's a good strategy or not, it's just the way it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredtoast Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 3 hours ago, omgdrdoom said: This is about right IMO. Free agents will go where the money is 90% of the time. Sure you have some exceptions here and there, but it's all about the $$$ in most cases and it's a reason the worst teams in the league are able to sign top tier players every offseason. Sometimes those teams may have to pay a slight premium to lure certain free agents, but for the most part these guys just want the most guaranteed money possible. Mike Brown isn't going to pay what those outside free agents get paid. He knows it, the rest of the organization know it, the player's agents know it, the players know it. If you aren't a home grown draft pick, good luck signing here (if you're a high quality player) unless you're coming on some sort of discount. The "big name" players aren't coming in to visit because Mikey isn't giving out the invitations. This isn't an argument for whether that's a good strategy or not, it's just the way it is. 13 hours ago, Le Tigre said: Lol @ "old stadium with no amenities". Take a tour through the locker room, weight room, and basically a below surface practice space. By comparison, I have also toured JerryWorld's locker room, weight room, etc.--not a hell of a lot of difference. FA's don't come here because they are not invited. Simple as that. Franchise philosophy in recent years has been not to go after them...not because of "old" stadiums, or crap weather. KC has a 45-year old stadium, and worse weather than we would ever see here. But FA's go there--and it isn't for fucking BBQ. 3 hours ago, omgdrdoom said: This. Shitty teams sign top players every year. It is about the money and we just don't offer big money to free agents from other teams. If things were as bad here as some of you claim we would never be able to re-sign our own top players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|westside bengal| Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 17 minutes ago, fredtoast said: If things were as bad here as some of you claim we would never be able to re-sign our own top players. They must have been thinking about Whitworth and Zeitler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|westside bengal| Posted August 1, 2017 Report Share Posted August 1, 2017 Everyone here is correct about FA contracts and wanting guaranteed money upfront. Since the last CBA deal there has been a lot more talk from the vets for completely guaranteed contracts. The owners likely are dead set against it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|kennethmw| Posted August 3, 2017 Report Share Posted August 3, 2017 On 8/1/2017 at 11:28 AM, westside bengal said: They must have been thinking about Whitworth and Zeitler. No one with the brains God gave a turtle would have done those deals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omgdrdoom Posted August 3, 2017 Report Share Posted August 3, 2017 10 hours ago, kennethmw said: No one with the brains God gave a turtle would have done those deals. Whit is an All-Pro caliber LT and will have the 10th highest cap hit in 2017, 8th highest in 2018, and 9th highest in 2019 with an easy out for them to cut him after this season or the next. His positional rankings by cap hit could go down further with new deals being signed from guys coming off rookie deals. Whether we should have kept him around at this point is irrelevant so that's not my argument, but overall his deal is pretty team friendly for anyone that needs a good vet LT. The head scratcher to me was that he went to the West Coast Browns instead of a team closer to contending. I don't think a great LT puts the Rams over the top at this point so I'm not sure why they spent the money there instead of trying to draft and develop their own guy. $12M is pretty crazy for a RG though, but that's what happens when you're the Browns and have money to spend. Same thing happened the year before too, everyone freaked out when we lost Marvin Jones and Sanu but MLJ got slightly more than we wanted to pay (Whit) and Sanu was just overpaid by someone else (Zeitler). I'm still a bit bummed that MLJ and Whit aren't on our roster, but right now I don't miss Z or Sanu for the price they would have cost to stay here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccartman2 Posted August 15, 2017 Report Share Posted August 15, 2017 Got to believe mike will give him a front office job if he is done coaching. Certainly not sure why this fell into a free agency thread though. Clearly the organization believes its best to build through the draft. And honestly how many big time free agents pan out to be a difference maker in terms of going to and winning a super bowl? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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