01-12-2024, 09:01 PM
(01-12-2024, 06:20 PM)ochocincos Wrote: While the Bengals are projected to have roughly $60-70 mill cap, they have the following guys they either need to re-sign or replace with another:
- DJ reader
- Tee Higgins
- Tyler Boyd
- Jonah Williams
- Chidobe Awuzie
- Max Scharping
- Irv Smith
- Tanner Hudson
- Drew Sample
- Mitchell Wilcox
- Trenton Irwin
- Trayveon Williams
- Josh Tupou
- ADG
- Markus Bailey
- Joe Bachie
- Cal Adomitis
- Cody Ford
- Jake Browning/AJ McCarron
That's 19 spots the Bengals have to re-sign/replace, and each player costs ~$1 mill at minimum.
So let's be optimistic and say 5-10 of those guys re-sign so cut your cap down by $10 mill at minimum.
Let's also cut out another $5-10 mill for draft picks to fill more spots.
That cap has now dwindled down to $40-50 mill and you still gotta worry about some pretty big spots to fill.
It could be more like $30 mill depending on how expensive some of those backup-types cost higher than $1 mill.
We have $55 million or so in functional cap space. Some of the existing spots are taken up by guys who will be cut (Maxwell, Harper, Bell, etc) with either 0 or finctionally 0 dead cap. The 9 future's guys can all be cut w/out any dead cap & din't coint vs the cap yet.
For the moment, let's just count signed guys who started last year: Burrow, Mixon, Chase, O. Brown, Volson, Karras, Cappa; Hendrickson, BJ Hill, Hubbard, Wilson, Pratt, CTB, Hilton, Battle, D. Hill; McPherson, Robbins.
That is 18. If Robbins gets replaced, it will be a FA/late pick with equivalent salary, so forget that for now. 18. They make $152,855,681.
Reserves that are signed or AND likely safe: C. Brown, Iosivas, C. Jones; C. Sample, Murphy, Ossai, Carter, Turner, J. Davis, Ivey (IR), Anderson (IR). That is 11. 29 total. Tgey make $14,798,184. Plus the starters makes $167,653,865.
The cap is estimated to be $242,500,000. Plus our rollover of $10,766,741 is $253,266,741. Minus our dead cap of $1,775,689 for $251,491,052. That $251+ minus the$167+ leaves us $83,837,187 with 29 guys signed.
The following guys are currently signed and eating cap space: Scott ($2.3 mil savings if cut), Carman ($1.6 savings if cut), Evans, D. Smith, T. Hill; Tufele, Harper, Maxwell, Cochran. That is 9 more for 38. Not sure on Cochran's but I can only be off by a couple $100k. $13,800,884 for those 9 (many of whom may get replaced). Now we are at $70,036,303 in space with 38 guys signed.
I'd like to think the following guys can be had for league min: Browning (ERFA), Adomitis (ERFA), T. Williams, Irwin (RFA), D. Sample, Ford, Scharping; Tupou, Bailey, Bachie. That's 10 for 48. I don't see anyone clamoring to sign them. At min, they make $10,760,000. That is $59,276,303 with 48 signed.
The first rounder is a hit of $2,695,995. Space is now at $56,585,308 with 49 guys signed.
There is your $55+ mil in space. Plug in $20 mil for Tee & $15 mil for Reader and you have $21,585,308 at top 51. If the cap hits are say, $17.5 and $12.5 instead, you got $26,585,308.
ADG & Hudson might pull a bit more but would be close to min in my view for 53. We still have 8 more picks that would be displacing a guy already capped. That is a cap wash, probably a gain if Scott or Carman get bumped. Figure ADG/Hudson costca min + 1 mil and we are looking at $19.6 to $24.6 in cap space, after signing Tee & Reader to big deals. Every other signing will be displacement. I'd hope we can get 2 (if not 3) starter caliber guys, or one stud plus a borderline starter/high quality backup.
