02-17-2022, 05:37 PM
(02-17-2022, 12:11 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Wrong. Spain currently counts zero dollars against our cap. If we pay $6 million for his replacement then that is $6 million off our available cap space.
I didn't expand more on my comment about free agents like Spain and Reiff because I thought people would understand the point I was making regarding extra cap. I guess not so let me spell it out so it is perfectly clear. If Spain comes back how much is he going to demand a year? 1.5 million? 2 million? How much would Conner Williams cost? 6 million? The additional money needed to get Williams over Spain isn't 6 million because you are already going to be spending some of that money to bring Spain back.
It's the same situation with people that keep saying we should bring back Riley Reiff. We paid Rieff 7.5 million last year. He would probably want a similar amount for another contract. We could either pay Reiff 7.5 million or we could pay Morgan Moses 7.5 million. You're not increasing the cap anymore signing Moses than you would be if you resigned Reiff. This in addition to cutting guys like Hopkins with his 7.1 million cap and Adeniji with his near 1 million cap and Prince with his near 1 million cap. Obviously you will be increasing the overall cap amount bringing in several new free agent linemen but its not near the jump some fans want to portray if you already have to spend millions to bring Spain and Reiff back and are cutting guys like Hopkins and Adeniji. Here is what it comes down to:
Potential 2022 O-line and their hit to the cap:
Spain 1.5 million + Hopkins 7.1 million + Adeniji 1 million + Reiff 7.5 million = 17.1 million
Alternative 2022 O-line and their hit to the cap:
Conner Williams 6.7 million + Ryan Jensen 10 million + James Daniels 10 million + Morgan Moses 7.5 million = 34.2 million
The difference in bringing in good quality free agents to replace the horrible line we had is 17.1 million. You cant even sign Terron Armstead by himself for 17 million and that's all it would cost to replace everyone but Jonah to improve the line. Its not some outrageous amount of money. It is 17 million added to the cap over what the Bengals would pay for a crappy O-line. Is improving the line worth adding 17 million to the cap? I think most would agree it is.
