04-10-2023, 02:01 PM
(04-10-2023, 01:11 PM)depthchart Wrote: .
It may not be that people are giving up on having Tee now or next season.
It may be that some people are questioning whether or not the Bengals will actually go the route of signing and keeping all three. (Burrow/Higgins/Chase)
I Love having all three players but I kick around the Pros and Cons of paying all three players what they will command in the Marketplace.
I do lean towards keeping them together as long as we can but the Chiefs just went the trade away Tyreek Hill route after signing Mahommes long term. The Chiefs are a well run Organization and this could be a signal that keeping all three (Burrow/Higgins/Chase) may not be a slam dunk.
There may be some hard realities and trade offs to keeping all three that may prevent it from happening longer term.
Of course the Bengals Front Office will keep alive the idea of keeping all three to keep these players in a positive state of mind.
Will the Bengals pass on trading one of them away at some point and actually keep them together longer term is still an open question in some peoples' minds until the Bengals commit to doing it.
I agree that this is not a right now decision.
Keeping Burrow & Chase long term is literally one of thexeasiest decisions in the history of football. Literally a no-brainer on both.
The only question is Higgins. If he is staying, then yes, we are keeping all three. It is not Higgins OR Chase.
Again, these extensions are gonna kick in over time. Yes, the signing bonuses will get spread out over time and hit this year. And for Chase/Burrow the 5th year option is a big bump.
But remember, we have enough space, right now, to absorb the signing bonuses for Burrow (projected $7.5 per) and Higgins into our cap space, this year.
2023: Burrow & Higgins signing bonus.
2024: Burrow 5th year bump, Higgins/Wilson new deals kick in, Chase signing bonus.
2025: Burow extension kicks in, Chase 5th bump.
2026: Chase extension kicks in.
We won't actually be paying all 3 on their new deals until 2026. 4 seasons from now. The cap will likely be pushing $265 mil, or more ($300?) by then. And we have a lot of high salaried guys who will come off the books in that span. Mixon, Jonah, and Collins for sure (this year or next). That's $30 mil or so right there. Boyd & BJ Hill are $10 mil each. That's another $20. If we are paying rookie scale replacements, we are saving $45 mil right there. Add in $10-$15 in cap growrh per, and we have it covered.
Yes, we need to spend wisely & draft well. Yes, there may be tough decisions coming on some guys (Wilson, Boyd, Reader, Awuzie, BJ Hill, Hendrickson, Hubbard, Hilton). Some will leave. But all those guys (except for Wilson) are already well paid. Their next deal (their 3rd) is likely LESS valuable than the one they are on now. Or at least not a big raise.
