03-04-2016, 08:03 PM
(03-04-2016, 04:17 PM)jowczarski Wrote: The biggest frustration isn't necessarily the cap number NOW. It's the refusal to add additional cap space by cutting the right players. The biggest criticism of the Bengals is they are very loyal to certain players and have never shown the foresight to look at the current, under-contract guys and see where they could upgrade.
That’s true – when based on the entirety of the league. The way the team looks at it is this – they’re selling all these guys on hey, sign here for less money up front in roster bonuses, or to spread your signing bonus over 3-5 years – because you’ll be here in 5 years to collect all of it. Go to Team B for “45 million” but they’ll cut you after a year or two and you’ll only collect $10 of it and have to pay back some money. So, that’s what you’re selling. But if you just go ahead and cut Leon Hall or Domata Peko or whoever at the end of the day, the players will say ‘eff you, you don’t keep your word, you cut guys anyway.’ It’s either/or. And the Bengals would rather keep Hall and Peko around for that last year to prove their point, to validate their tough negotiating tactic, vs. having to get into the game of false money up front.
This loyalty approach is so frustrating. Players and situations change. For example, Leon is no longer the player he was when he signed that contract. Rather than cut or restructure his contract to better use that $ for the sake of the team, we're stuck with a faded player and can't allocate that money to make improvements. So it hurts us in 2 ways, really.
I like how the Bengals have been drafting and I like that they retain (most of) their own, but this "loyalty in exchange for low money up front" seems like it really keeps us from replacing bad players with better ones via free agency. For a team that has been stuck in a playoff rut for so long, you'd think they'd consider altering their approach - if only for a year.
Of course, we all know how stubborn Mike Brown is.
The training, nutrition, medicine, fitness, playbooks and rules evolve. The athlete does not.
