Help Me Understand...

[leonardfan40]

(03-14-2016, 06:20 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: I hope eventually people are gong to stop pointing at the Bengals' stupidity and pretend that's just how FA works and it was FA's fault, not the Bengals fault that it happened.

FA didn't tell the Bengals to sign a WR who already had a degenerative knee problem coming off an injury plagued 600 yard season and not have their medical staff do a thorough examination of the guy.

FA didn't tell the Bengals to sign a mediocre #2 31-year-old who was on the decline to a 4 year deal.

Not to mention, the way people keep mentioning those two deals like they put the Bengals back a generation in salary cap space with how tragic they were.
-Laveranues Coles ended up costing the Bengals $7.5m in cap space for the 1 year he played with them. The contract was very backloaded. His base salary in his first year was $1.9m, in the fourth year it was $8.4m.
-Antonio Bryant's was even less painful. On a contract that averaged $7m/yr, when they cut him they only took a cap hit of $5.8m for just the one year. His was also quite backloaded with a $1.55m base salary in the first year and a $6.75m base salary in the 4th year.

They really honestly weren't big losses. Think about it this way. The Bengals took a $7.1m cap hit for Rey Maualuga in 2015 and they're taking a $7.5m cap hit for Dre Kirkpatrick in 2016. Both of those guys suck too. That doesn't mean the Bengals shouldn't ever sign their own or pay their drafted players.



/rant

I used those two as examples because they were the only higher priced bengals FA WR's that I could think of. If I missed any other WR's that fit those criteria feel free to use them as an argument against me. And it's not just the bengals, here's a whole article about recent FA/trade acquisitions.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page/firstandgoal151211/parade-busts-free-agent-wr-te-moves-nfl

So yeah it kinda is how FA works. Sure you could spend big and get a fair return, but it's probably more likely you spend big and get less than what you paid for. And this is a weak WR FA class to begin with, you really think the bengals should go throwing the crazy contracts that have been given out this offseason on a weak WR class that has already been picked over?

And Kirk is only making that money on a one year 5th year option. I hope eventually people stop pointing to his salary in this one year prove it deal as a reason to show the bengals are mismanaging the roster. overpaying him this one year has many benefits that you chose to ignore like keeping a starter for another year, While not sinking a long term contract into a guy that hasn't quite earned it and at the same time not giving up on him. They are also not allowing a young player hitting his prime to go to a market filled with teams with insane amounts of cap space allowing them to lure him away with a long term contract that would probably be close to what he's making per year this year. Also Kirk doesn't suck, he's not a pro bowler but he has played well for us at times and could earn more than his currently salary if he takes the next step this year, he has not reached his ceiling yet.

And sure I think maualuga is overpaid for what he brings to the field, but the bengals clearly value him and his play style differently than we do. As fans have no idea what he brings to the locker room and field as a leader, and thumpers are definitely undervalued by fans because they don't get the flashy stats.