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(03-17-2021 10:55 AM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  Our strategy thus far has been to pay Whole Foods Brand prices for Kroger Brand versions of our best free agents. Sigh.

Freaking criminal too considering they had cap room when many teams didn't due to the cap drop. I made a comment a couple days that even they couldn't screw this up; never doubt the Bengals to mess up something that's simple.

I hear from someone that knows Thuney that he wanted to come home but money wasn't close to what KC offered.

Yup. Issue with the Bengals isn't really even the spending right now. It's that they're spending too much for players that are worse than what they had. Katie Blackburn is just as much of a moron as her dad. And her husband seems hellbent on giving off the same appearance. I hate this family so damn much.

(03-17-2021 11:13 AM)RealDeal Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 10:55 AM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  Our strategy thus far has been to pay Whole Foods Brand prices for Kroger Brand versions of our best free agents. Sigh.

Freaking criminal too considering they had cap room when many teams didn't due to the cap drop. I made a comment a couple days that even they couldn't screw this up; never doubt the Bengals to mess up something that's simple.

I hear from someone that knows Thuney that he wanted to come home but money wasn't close to what KC offered.

I originally got caught up in the Thuney hype, but the Bengals were never going to pay a G what he got (5 years for $80M) and I can't fault that. I saw one "expert" estimate that it would be 3 years and $39M iirc. From what I'm seeing, prices have typically been higher than expected for the premiere guys and guys at high demand positions and I'd put both pass rusher and CB in that latter category. If you can't rush the passer and you can't cover their receivers you are going to get absolutely torn apart every week in today's NFL. Sure there's a lot of guys out there who could contribute at those positions, but very few available that you could relatively count on to be at least league average-ish as a starter. So with limited supply and huge demand, you often get some panic buying. As far as the Bengals go, they absolutely had to either retain Lawson or find a similar pass rushing replacement and the same goes for WJIII at CB. And having already cut Alexander, they flat out needed to add a slot CB too.

I don't know that the Bengals have gotten any "steals" so far (although I really think Hilton could end up being one at slot CB) but obviously, no top guys are interested in taking a discount to play for the Bengals these days. There's still a lot of guys out there and more to be cut as teams desperately try to create room (e.g. the Bengals haven't cut Geno yet and Bobby Hart will probably go too.) But the cap ain't getting higher and there will be some more bargains to be had in the second and even third wave. That's good news for a team with a lot of needs like the Bengals. I'm not doing any cartwheels over what we've got so far, but I'll hold off for quite a while still before giving a final verdict.

I mentioned above that I've got high hopes for the Hilton signing especially at that price. The Steelers front office was pretty public about wanting to keep him, but they just flat out don't have the money even after Big Ben's restructure. But it sounds like a lot of the players were also big fans of him. Here's one:

and here's some data:

(03-17-2021 11:48 AM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  Yup. Issue with the Bengals isn't really even the spending right now. It's that they're spending too much for players that are worse than what they had. Katie Blackburn is just as much of a moron as her dad. And her husband seems hellbent on giving off the same appearance. I hate this family so damn much.

They very well may be getting players worse than what they had, but not sure if they are spending too much or not. Sounds like it may be more "up front" money, but also "team friendly" deals where they aren't on the hook to pay the players if they don't pan out.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_...trade-2021

Quote:Hendrickson will get $4 million in salary and bonuses this year in addition to that, so he'll get $20 million in the first year, but there'll be no guarantee after that, so the Bengals will have the flexibility they like to have in their free-agent deals. Having not seen the Lawson details yet, I'm left to assume the Jets put second-year guarantees in and that's where the Bengals balked.

For Awuzie:

Quote:In typical Bengals style, the only guarantee is a $7.5 million signing bonus, and the first-year salary is $1.35 million with the ability to earn $400,000 in per-game roster bonuses. So if they wanted to move on after 2021, they'll have paid Awuzie between $8.85 million and $9.25 million for one year's work.

(03-17-2021 12:34 PM)Cat-Man Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 11:48 AM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  Yup. Issue with the Bengals isn't really even the spending right now. It's that they're spending too much for players that are worse than what they had. Katie Blackburn is just as much of a moron as her dad. And her husband seems hellbent on giving off the same appearance. I hate this family so damn much.

They very well may be getting players worse than what they had, but not sure if they are spending too much or not. Sounds like it may be more "up front" money, but also "team friendly" deals where they aren't on the hook to pay the players if they don't pan out.

Devil is definitely in the details with a lot of these contracts. There's risks at every position, but I really like flexibility at the DL position, especially at DE. We've seen some talented and quality players fall off pretty quickly in terms of production. MJ comes to mind and it seems like Dunlap and Geno are following suit.

sorta OT: AJ Green to the Cardinals on a one year deal. It's a shame he didn't have a storybook ending to his career here, but he's an all-time Bengal great and I hope he finds success in AZ.

I generally like the Bengals free agency strategy. I just don't trust them to competently identify the right guys. I think in theory how they handle contracts and what they look for has merit.

I don't disagree but identifying the right guys is precisely their problem

(03-17-2021 12:57 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  I generally like the Bengals free agency strategy. I just don't trust them to competently identify the right guys. I think in theory how they handle contracts and what they look for has merit.

I agree but don't forget they are the "Cincinnati" Bengals after all and that means they've got the Cincinnati curse. They tried to make a fairly big FA splash last year with Reader and Waynes and got a total of what - one half of one game from the two of them combined iirc? I don't think either of them had much of an injury history before joining us either iirc. Obviously, the Bengals' lengthy problems go beyond just bad luck, but they do get their full share of the Cinti sports curse.

(03-17-2021 12:57 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  I generally like the Bengals free agency strategy. I just don't trust them to competently identify the right guys. I think in theory how they handle contracts and what they look for has merit.

I generally agree. You build winners by drafting well and supplementing with contributors where needed in FA. Problem is the Bengals have a bunch of cap room and neither use it to re-sign their guys or spend big in FA. Avoiding the big ticket FA is probably the best bang for your buck.

(03-17-2021 01:11 PM)RealDeal Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 12:57 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  I generally like the Bengals free agency strategy. I just don't trust them to competently identify the right guys. I think in theory how they handle contracts and what they look for has merit.

I generally agree. You build winners by drafting well and supplementing with contributors where needed in FA. Problem is the Bengals have a bunch of cap room and neither use it to re-sign their guys or spend big in FA. Avoiding the big ticket FA is probably the best bang for your buck.

Eh, Bengals have shown they'll resign their own pretty frequently. You could probably argue they may have even been too generous (especially in length) with some deals. In terms of the current roster, the one guy getting close to testing the theory is Jesse Bates and I expect the Bengals to go strong to get a deal done with him before too long. We'll see.

I really don't know anything about this guy tweeting or even what he is specifically referring to, but a few folks seem impressed with his recent tweets and I'm so desperate for some good news (in light of the basketball situation) that I'll post it anyway:

Bengals snag another quality likely starterish type from another Central Division foe. This time it's Larry Ogunjobi from the Browns. Age 27 and a four-year veteran. Started all but 2 games for the Browns over the past 3 years so he seems durable. Sounds like he's pretty good at getting to the passer for an interior guy. The Athletic listed him as the #67 overall free agent as free agency opened. If there was any doubt, I've got to believe this seals the deal for cutting Geno and his $9.5M cap savings.

2021 DL shaping up to be Hendrickson, Ogunjobi, Reader and Hubbard. I'm pretty good with that as long as they stay healthy. But since this is the NFL, they probably won't so it wouldn't hurt to add a little more depth especially on the outside (they still have Wren, Tupou and McKenzie on the inside even with Geno getting cut loose.) Luckily the Draft is supposed to be pretty deep in DE types so I could see them adding one in the middle rounds and maybe another DL near the end.

I'm not sure how we afford him and what it would mean for the rest of the roster, OL in particular, but landing Golladay would be HUGE (The Athletic ranked him #4 overall FA at the start of free agency.):

Quote:Losers/Winners: Giants/Bengals
This is going to come down to which team is able to secure Kenny Golladay. The two teams are reportedly in pursuit of Golladay, who is arguably the best available receiver still on the market. Golladay would be the perfect complement for Giants receivers Darius Slayton and Sterling Shepard. He would also be an ideal target for Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. Golladay is a winner regardless of how this shakes out, and it appears he may be in the middle of a bidding war.

(03-17-2021 02:41 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  I really don't know anything about this guy tweeting or even what he is specifically referring to, but a few folks seem impressed with his recent tweets and I'm so desperate for some good news (in light of the basketball situation) that I'll post it anyway:

Okay, connecting the dots a little makes me think this was a reference to Golladay. Reportedly he actually reached out to the Bengals specifically because he wants to play with Joe Burrow. Sounds like the Bengals have submitted a one-year "prove-it" deal to his reps. Others are interested, but it sounds like maybe the Giants are the only other team seriously in pursuit, and Golladay is going to visit them soon. Giants pushing for a multi-year deal which is normally a strong selling point. But Golladay may see the smart play is showing he is healthy by putting up big numbers with Burrow and then get a new long deal next year somewhere when the cap will be much higher and teams can afford to pay up for a WR.

(03-18-2021 12:07 AM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(03-17-2021 02:41 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  I really don't know anything about this guy tweeting or even what he is specifically referring to, but a few folks seem impressed with his recent tweets and I'm so desperate for some good news (in light of the basketball situation) that I'll post it anyway:

Okay, connecting the dots a little makes me think this was a reference to Golladay. Reportedly he actually reached out to the Bengals specifically because he wants to play with Joe Burrow. Sounds like the Bengals have submitted a one-year "prove-it" deal to his reps. Others are interested, but it sounds like maybe the Giants are the only other team seriously in pursuit, and Golladay is going to visit them soon. Giants pushing for a multi-year deal which is normally a strong selling point. But Golladay may see the smart play is showing he is healthy by putting up big numbers with Burrow and then get a new long deal next year somewhere when the cap will be much higher and teams can afford to pay up for a WR.

Fwiwi, I saw a report somewhere that said Golladay approached the Bengals about a 1 year deal, not the other way around. Everything I'm reading it sounds like he's using the Bengals as leverage to get a better deal from the Giants.

(03-18-2021 09:52 AM)Cat-Man Wrote:  

(03-18-2021 12:07 AM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  Okay, connecting the dots a little makes me think this was a reference to Golladay. Reportedly he actually reached out to the Bengals specifically because he wants to play with Joe Burrow. Sounds like the Bengals have submitted a one-year "prove-it" deal to his reps. Others are interested, but it sounds like maybe the Giants are the only other team seriously in pursuit, and Golladay is going to visit them soon. Giants pushing for a multi-year deal which is normally a strong selling point. But Golladay may see the smart play is showing he is healthy by putting up big numbers with Burrow and then get a new long deal next year somewhere when the cap will be much higher and teams can afford to pay up for a WR.

Fwiwi, I saw a report somewhere that said Golladay approached the Bengals about a 1 year deal, not the other way around. Everything I'm reading it sounds like he's using the Bengals as leverage to get a better deal from the Giants.

I'm not sure who first suggested it be a 1 year deal, but it makes sense for the Bengals. There's only so much you can pay WRs and you'd think the Bengals would like to re-up Tee and probably Boyd (again since he's already signed a $43M deal in 2019) when the time comes (of course things can and do change.)

I think the bigger story is Golladay wanting to play with Burrow. They seem very much made for each other and Golladay brings the deep threat that isn't really the forte of Boyd nor Tee.

Yes he could be just using the Bengals, but there's only so much money out there and a lot of teams don't have paying for a WR as a big priority. Factor in this abnormally low cap and a strong WR draft and the fact that he's far from being the only quality WR still available (e.g. JuJu, Fuller, Hilton, etc.) his options are limited if it's about getting the money this year. So he can take a much less-than-expected long-term deal as his last big payday to catch passes from Daniel Jones if he wants. Or he can take a modest one-year prove-it deal from the Bengals and catch passes from Burrrow (with Boyd and Tee keeping the DBs honest.) and then get his last big deal next year when the Cap jumps up a bunch.

Objectively, the Bengals deal might make more sense. But it is the Bengals so my confidence level isn't high. We'll see.

Would much rather have spent the money on OL or made a trade for the Raiders C.

(03-18-2021 12:54 PM)dbernie41 Wrote:  Would much rather have spent the money on OL or made a trade for the Raiders C.

T Riley Reiff is visiting the Bengals according to multiple reports. It sounds like they are most focused on Reiff and Golladay right now.

I guess today will end with only departures:
- I kinda liked having Erickson as a 5th receiver/ special teams guy, but he signed with the Texans iirc
- I didn't hate Bullock as some seemed to, but he's pretty replaceable.

I also kinda had my eye on adding Kyle Rudolph on the cheap, but he went to the Giants (who also signed John Ross a day or two ago). The good news is it probably makes it a little harder for them to get Golladay.