Center JC Tretter

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(03-16-2022, 06:28 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Wrong, you said yourself if we cut him we lost the 5 million. So remove it from the equation, it is already paid.

I am saying sign him for 3 years guaranteeing him say 10 million. Why would he do it, he would do it because he is not guaranteed 4 million in 2022. Why would we do it, because we could convert it to 9 million in year 1 signing bonus, then pay him 4 million in 2023 and 4 million in 2024.

Cap hit goes from almost 11 million in 2022 to 3 million so save 8 million. In 2023 cap hit is 7 million, but only 1 million if we cut him. 7 million in 2024 but no dead cap if we cut him.

Is there another starting CB we could get for this price? No there is not. If he gets back to being healthy and playing well we keep him and have a good CB on a very reasonable deal. If not, we cut him and lose nothing since we were going to pay him 11 million in 2022.

Simply we are asking him to take a pay cut to be guaranteed most of his 2022 salary. I am not saying we should not cut him, but if they decide to not cut him, this would be my approach to him if I was the team GM.

Those numbers don't add up. You can't guarantee a guy $10m, pay him $3m in Year 1, and then only have $1m dead cap if you cut him in Year 2. That would be $4m in guaranteed money, not $10m. Where's the other $6m vanishing to? When you cut a guy, that $9m signing bonus still needs to be paid through a cap hit and you've only done 1/3rd of it. In your scenario, if you convert $9m of it into a signing bonus you'd have at least a $6m dead cap hit if you cut him after 2022 (and a minimum of ~$4m or so in 2021, he has to make the vet min which is ~$1m as a base salary, and then $3m as 1/3rd of the $9m signing bonus).

Not to mention we do lose something if it falls through. We lose the opportunity to sign a CB who is less of a gamble. That is a huge something. We're not the 2018 Bengals who are just gambling on maybe we find a good player cheap but if not so what no biggie. The 2022 Bengals are aiming for a Super Bowl. So the "if not" is actually then you have Jalen Davis as your starting CB on a team with SB aspirations. That is a huge loss. Now is not the time to be gambling on guys who haven't played productive football since 2019, that's what you do when you're not trying for a Lombardi.


Your plan: $9m cap hit this year, see if he is any good, if he's not take another $6m in cap hits in 2023 for him to not play for you.
Cutting him: $5m cap hit this year, sign someone else.