03-08-2022, 03:34 AM
(03-08-2022, 02:34 AM)Bengalholic Wrote: The guaranteed money is most likely what's killing any potential deal ay this point. If you look at Budda Baker (who has same agent as Jessie)...56% oh his contract is guaranteed.
Adams and Simmons also both have over 50% of their deals guaranteed. I think it's safe to assume Jesse is seeking the same type of guaranteed money as those 3 guys...or at least very close to to it.
By comparison, when it comes to the guaranteed portions of the Bengals current biggest deals: Boyd 40%, Reader 37%, Waynes 36%, Hendrickson 27% and Mixon 21%.
It's shocking to me that the guaranteed portions are so low for those contracts. The Bengals have historically chosen to honor contracts unless the player is severely underperforming. From the outside looking in I've personally wondered why they don't offer a whole lot higher of a percentage of guaranteed money in their contracts based upon this tendency. If your tolerance is that high for holding onto players through thick and thin, there seems to be a lot less comparative risk compared to teams that tend to cut/restructure guys more often.
Now we reach the next phase. Does Jessie Bates start giving off AJ Green vibes about not wanting to play on the tag? Or pretending not to realize that it's logical for the Bengals to utilize all available tools in order to win games and assemble the best roster that they can with cap constraints? I really like Jessie Bates and find him to be exciting to watch, so I'm hoping that they work out a satisfactory deal. But...if he starts giving off those vibes, it'd probably be best to trade him JMHO. This defense is already expensive and by design gives up a lot of yards. Without JB3 they might have to make it more of a vanilla cover 3, but they can't afford to hamstring their cap situation for years to come or deal with malcontents on the roster if we're being shrewd.
And with that, a brief history of the old "tag and trade" routine:
https://lionswire.usatoday.com/lists/history-of-the-tag-and-trade-outcomes-for-franchise-players-and-teams/
