Zac Taylor vs Marvin Lewis

[Shake n Blake]

(12-24-2021, 01:23 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Marvin rebuilt the roster with mostly mid tier free agents.  Zac got a lot more top players.

Here is a comparison between the per-year salaries of the top free agents Marvin signed to rebuild the roster and the guys Zac got.  (The salaries of Marvin's signings have been adjusted to today's dollars based on the increase of the salary cap from &75 million in 2003 to $182 today) 

Thornton ($9.1) + Hardy ($8.5) + James ($8.7) + Kelly ($4.0) + Clemmons ($2.8) + Herring ($5.5) + O'Neal ($4.1) + Nate Webster ($5.4) = $48.1

Hendrickson ($15.0) + Trae Waynes ($14.0) + Reader ($13.3M) + Riley Reiff ($7.5M) + Awuzie ($7.3M) + Ogunjobi ($6.2 M) + Bell ($6.0) + Hilton ($6.0) = $75.3

You can see that they are not even in the same ballpark. Zac at over 50% more than what Marvin got.

You're still not getting the point of the thread. I'm not comparing the two in anything other than the fact that people gave credit to Marv for rebuilding the roster, so should Zac get the same credit?

That's literally it.

But since that doesn't seem to be stopping anyone, I guess I'll address your point anyway. You're not accounting for how much we had available to spend.

In 2003, we were spending $10 million alone on Palmer and Kitna ($24.3 million adjusted for cap inflation). We were paying Chad $5.42 million ($13.2 million), Dillon $5.2 million (12.65 million), Simmons $2.96 million ($7.2 million), P-Dub $2.44 million ($5.94 million), etc.

In 2021, 7 of our 8 highest salary averages are guys we landed in free agency.

Basically, Marv's versions of Hendrickson, Waynes and Reader were already on the roster in the form of Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson and Corey Dillon. We didn't have as much money to even spend in free agency.

Now can we get back to the point of this thread?

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/salaries/breakdown/2003/cincinnati-bengals/