Legal tampering period

[CJD]

(03-13-2023, 03:43 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Go look at their cap distribution.

Yes, they have Mahomes at $49.3 mill this year cap space.
Jones at $28.3 mill.
Thuney at $22.1 mill.
Kelce at $14.8 mill.

But other than Justin Reid ($12.7 mill) and MVS ($11 mill), they got no one else above their kicker ($5.1 mill).
They are able to do what they do because they don't have a plethora of mid-to-high-priced vets.
They're getting by with a bunch of guys on rookie contracts:
- CEH
- Trent McDuffie
- George Karlaftis
- L'Jarius Sneed
- Nick Bolton
- Creed Humphrey
- Trey Smith

I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting, but they are able to do what they do because many of their rookie contract guys are key contributors. The Bengals have had to rely heavily on veteran guys to have their run.
If they can draft better and/or force their rookies into action even if they don't do great initially (e.g. if they put Dax Hill right into FS instead of tagging Bates), they could probably look to do the same.

Fair enough. I agree that we need to lean on our rookie classes a bit more. Drafting a guy in the first round and him not starting a single game in the first of his 4 to 5 year rookie scale contract is very painful. Building for the future is important, but the future is now for the Bengals at the moment. They have the cap space and the luxury of the core of their offense still on rookie contracts. I would have really liked to see us go all in on the next 2 years and then re-calibrate in 2025/26, if needed. Or maybe by that time the "huge contracts" that we could have handed out this off season to upgrade the Oline seem more reasonable by comparison due to inflation of the cap each year.