Building the Bengals 2025 Edition: 69/90

[sparky151]

Just now, MichaelWeston said:

 

So you want them to push money into the future with void years and be in the absolute mess the Browns are in?

 

Yes, I want the Bengals to push cap hits down the road like good teams do. The Browns are in a mess because they gave a 5 year fully guaranteed contract to a QB who turned out to be terrible. If he was playing at Burrow's level, the Browns wouldn't be in a mess. Similarly, the Eagles and Saints both have a lot of backloaded contracts but one team is better at player evaluation so they win the Super Bowl. Player evaluation and resource allocation aren't strengths for the Bengals so it's unlikely we'll win a Super Bowl, even with Burrow playing at a high level. Apparently the plan is to count on rookies for pass rush and to protect Burrow up the middle.

[MichaelWeston]

1 hour ago, sparky151 said:

 

Yes, I want the Bengals to push cap hits down the road like good teams do. The Browns are in a mess because they gave a 5 year fully guaranteed contract to a QB who turned out to be terrible. If he was playing at Burrow's level, the Browns wouldn't be in a mess. Similarly, the Eagles and Saints both have a lot of backloaded contracts but one team is better at player evaluation so they win the Super Bowl. Player evaluation and resource allocation aren't strengths for the Bengals so it's unlikely we'll win a Super Bowl, even with Burrow playing at a high level. Apparently the plan is to count on rookies for pass rush and to protect Burrow up the middle.

 

Pushing money into the next years only helps you briefly. It's not a good practice. 

[I_C_Deadpeople]

12 hours ago, MichaelWeston said:

 

So you want them to push money into the future with void years and be in the absolute mess the Browns are in?

There is a HUGE difference between backloading contrcats for the likes of Chase and JB then of doing that for the likes of Watson. The Browns are effectively moving 'dead money' (I am not dead yet as the Python Holy Grail skit goes) while the Bengals would be shifting 'live' monies

[I_C_Deadpeople]

10 hours ago, MichaelWeston said:

 

Pushing money into the next years only helps you briefly. It's not a good practice. 

Every elite team does it. KC just did it with Mahomes and Chris Jones. As mentioned a few posts above, it is clueless to not use the cap system to its best advantage. If you push money out 5 years from now the cap is likely over $350M shich is why teams are doing it. Maybe we dont do it becuse we dont trust many of our players are worth it? Maybe we fear a 'reckoning' some day but I have yet to see KC or the Eagles 'suffer' much from thier cap management.

 

Look, Mike and Katy are not dumb. Clearly. They are just clueless at smart business. They run the organization as if the revenue is NOT guaranteed each year while the other good teams see that it is and carry on under that premise. 

 

Regardless of how you manage the cap, at the end of the day, you have to find good players and pay them. The Browns farked up with a huge guaranteed signing. We were smart with a guge JB signing and SHOULD be just as smart with large contrcats for the other elite players. 

[sparky151]

13 hours ago, MichaelWeston said:

 

Pushing money into the next years only helps you briefly. It's not a good practice. 

 

It is a good practice. Because if a player turns out to not be worth his contract, you can exit it with less damage than if you frontloaded it. Every dollar spent shows up on the cap eventually. But having more options lets a team build a better roster. Roseman described backloading contracts as getting an interest free loan.

 

You'll notice the Eagles haven't been very active in outside free agency. They signed Barkley and Baun to big extensions and didn't make serious offers to Williams, Sweat, and Becton. They've done some cap cleanup by releasing Bradberry and Slay, now that Mitchell and DeJean have shown they can play. They are further under the cap than the Bengals for 2025 without any glaring weaknesses. They'll draft the best players they can get without having to find an immediate starter.  Next offseason they will give Jalen Carter a big contract. And so it goes. 

 

As someone put it, last year Tee and Ja'Marr bet on themselves and won the bet. The Bengals front office bet against them and lost. And it's corrosive to player morale when the ownership bets against you. Now the team will end up paying an extra 15 mil or so to extend Tee, Uno, and Hendrickson. That's how we end up with Ossai for 7 mil instead of Sweat for 19.

 

[|BlackJesus|]

[MichaelWeston]

53 man if we added no one...?

 

QB	Burrow 29	Browning 26					2
RB	Brown 27	Moss 26	Perine 27	Milton 26			4
WR	Chase 30	Jones 27					2
WR	Higgins 29	Burton 28					2
WR	Iosivas 27	Williams 27					2
TE	Gesicki 28	Sample 27	Grandy 26	Hudson 26	McClachlan 28	All 28	5
LT	Brown 27	Cochran 26					2
LG	Volson 26	Kirkland 26					2
C	Karras 26	Lee 28					2
RG	Ford 27	Steuber 26					2
RT	Mims 29						1
K	McPherson 28						1
P	Rehkow 27						1
LS	Adomitis 26						1
LE	Ossai 26	Sample 26					2
LT	Hill 28	Jackson 28					2
RT	Jenkins 28	Slaton 27					2
RE	Hendrickson 26	Murphy 27	Johnson 28				3
WLB	Pratt 26	Burks 27	Heyward 26				3
MLB	Wilson 28	Njongmeta 27					2
S	Battle 27	Anthony 28					2
S	Stone 26	Anderson 26					2
CB	Turner 27	Newton 28					2
CB	Taylor-Britt 26	Wilson 26					2
NB	Hill 27	Ivey 27					2
							53