03-06-2021, 04:22 PM
I think we have a decent chance of keeping either Lawson or WJIII (Although I kind of hope we don't keep both because that will really cut into our ability to fix the Oline).
The reason we aren't re-signing a lot of our own players recently is because, quite frankly, we haven't drafted well enough to justify big contract extensions.
WJIII and Lawson are coming due this year because it's the 5th and 4th year, respectively, that they have been in the league (WJIII was a first round pick, so he got an additional year on his rookie contract due to the 5th year option). They were drafted in the 2016 and 2017 drafts, respectively.
Looking at the drafts prior to that, you see a TON of busts.
In 2015, our first three picks were Cedric Ogbuehi, Jake Fisher, Tyler Kroft, with Dawson, Shaw, Hardison, Uzomah, Smith and Alford making up the rest of that draft. Uzomah we re-signed (for a pretty rich contract, to be honest), but no one else in that draft class was worth re-signing in the slightest.
In 2014, Dennard, Hill, Clarke, Bodine, McCarron, Flowers, Wright, Westbrooks. Again, very few people worth re-signing here. Dennard was a decent slot corner, but nothing more. The rest are role players or back ups at best, with the majority of them out of the league.
In 2013, Eifert, Bernard, Shawn Williams, Porter, Hawkinson, Burkhead, Hamilton, Fragel and TJ Johnson. We re-signed Eifert to a few contracts, but he kept getting injured. We re-signed Bernard and Williams, with Williams being a free agent this year and we'll likely let him go because we replaced him with a superior outside free agent in Bell.
In 2012, Kirkpatrick, Zeitler, Still, Sanu, Thompson, Charles, Prater, Marvin Jones, Iloka and Herron. We re-signed Kirk and Iloka, but were outbid for Sanu and Jones, both of whom got really good contracts on the open market. I think that was just a case of bad timing, as Jones had a career year right before hitting free agency in 2015. And Sanu...I mean the Falcons overpaid like crazy for Sanu. Then there's Zeitler, who the Bengals foolishly did not re-sign. We have definitely been missing him ever since he left. So that was a major error by the front office (one that I hope they rectify by prioritizing the guard position in free agency this season, but we'll see).
Past that, we're looking at draft classes that are beginning to retire and the notable players from these draft classes like Dalton and Green have obviously been extended multiple times.
Looking at players from 2016 and 2017, we already extended Boyd, Nick Vigil was not worth re-signing, Billings was replaced by a better outside free agent, Westerman retired, Core was not worth keeping, Fejedelem probably should have been re-signed but as a special teams only player was replaceable, John Ross was a bust, Mixon was re-signed, Willis was not worth keeping, Lawson is up for re-signing now, Malone, Glasgow, Dielman and Evans were not worth re-signing, Elliot was taken by the Eagles who have since re-signed him to a very nice deal (I still have no idea why we let him go to keep Randy...), Wilson will likely be re-signed (at least I hope...) and Schreck has been bouncing around the team since being drafted.
We could extend the next set of players up for new contracts in Bates and Hubbard, who were drafted in 2018 (they're the only ones at the moment that deserve extensions, as that draft consisted of Price, Jefferson, Walton, Harris, Brown, Woodside and Taylor, with Phillips and Tate having a chance to secure their future in 2021), but I think the priority should probably be this free agency period for the time being. They have all of training camp to re-sign Bates and Hubbard.
Remember, Atkins and Dunlap were extended on August 28th, 2018. Joe Mixon was extended on September 2nd, 2020. Gio was extended on September 3rd, 2019. Boyd was extended on July 23rd, 2019.
So they do the vast majority of their in house extensions after the free agency window and draft are over, which I think is smart.
I understand why they didn't re-sign Lawson last off season, because he had dealt with injuries in 2019 and 2018 that limited him to 12 and 7 games, respectively. So re-signing him would have been risky. He made us pay by being healthy and pretty dominant in 2020. But I think the Bengals were fine there.
As for WJIII, I get a feeling Will saw how shallow the CB pool was slated to be in 2020 and decided to play in a contract year. I'm positive the Bengals approached him about an extension, but it's very likely he just wanted to test the market. We'll have to see what happens.
Overall, I think the Bengals have done a good job of extending their own, even when they do sign outside free agents. I think they do it too much, honestly, often paying for past production and loyalty rather than expected future production. I think the Dunlap extension, in hindsight, was a bit rich for what he produced (he gave us an 8 sack season, a 9 sack season and a 1 sack half season before demanding a trade at the price tag of 13M in 2018 and 10M in 2019, with 6M dead cap in 2020 and 2M dead space in 2021.) and the franchise tag on AJ Green was, in my opinion, WAY too rich. Not even in hindsight. In real time, that was a terrible decision. And I already mentioned the Uzomah contract which also seemed like an overpay at the time of signing.
We'll see how this free agency period and training camp session goes. I'd like us to retain Lawson and Bates and I wouldn't mind if we kept WJIII and Hubbard as well, as long as it doesn't interfere with our ability to bid high on a good to great OT and a good to great OG (one good and one great, if possible) in free agency this year.
The reason we aren't re-signing a lot of our own players recently is because, quite frankly, we haven't drafted well enough to justify big contract extensions.
WJIII and Lawson are coming due this year because it's the 5th and 4th year, respectively, that they have been in the league (WJIII was a first round pick, so he got an additional year on his rookie contract due to the 5th year option). They were drafted in the 2016 and 2017 drafts, respectively.
Looking at the drafts prior to that, you see a TON of busts.
In 2015, our first three picks were Cedric Ogbuehi, Jake Fisher, Tyler Kroft, with Dawson, Shaw, Hardison, Uzomah, Smith and Alford making up the rest of that draft. Uzomah we re-signed (for a pretty rich contract, to be honest), but no one else in that draft class was worth re-signing in the slightest.
In 2014, Dennard, Hill, Clarke, Bodine, McCarron, Flowers, Wright, Westbrooks. Again, very few people worth re-signing here. Dennard was a decent slot corner, but nothing more. The rest are role players or back ups at best, with the majority of them out of the league.
In 2013, Eifert, Bernard, Shawn Williams, Porter, Hawkinson, Burkhead, Hamilton, Fragel and TJ Johnson. We re-signed Eifert to a few contracts, but he kept getting injured. We re-signed Bernard and Williams, with Williams being a free agent this year and we'll likely let him go because we replaced him with a superior outside free agent in Bell.
In 2012, Kirkpatrick, Zeitler, Still, Sanu, Thompson, Charles, Prater, Marvin Jones, Iloka and Herron. We re-signed Kirk and Iloka, but were outbid for Sanu and Jones, both of whom got really good contracts on the open market. I think that was just a case of bad timing, as Jones had a career year right before hitting free agency in 2015. And Sanu...I mean the Falcons overpaid like crazy for Sanu. Then there's Zeitler, who the Bengals foolishly did not re-sign. We have definitely been missing him ever since he left. So that was a major error by the front office (one that I hope they rectify by prioritizing the guard position in free agency this season, but we'll see).
Past that, we're looking at draft classes that are beginning to retire and the notable players from these draft classes like Dalton and Green have obviously been extended multiple times.
Looking at players from 2016 and 2017, we already extended Boyd, Nick Vigil was not worth re-signing, Billings was replaced by a better outside free agent, Westerman retired, Core was not worth keeping, Fejedelem probably should have been re-signed but as a special teams only player was replaceable, John Ross was a bust, Mixon was re-signed, Willis was not worth keeping, Lawson is up for re-signing now, Malone, Glasgow, Dielman and Evans were not worth re-signing, Elliot was taken by the Eagles who have since re-signed him to a very nice deal (I still have no idea why we let him go to keep Randy...), Wilson will likely be re-signed (at least I hope...) and Schreck has been bouncing around the team since being drafted.
We could extend the next set of players up for new contracts in Bates and Hubbard, who were drafted in 2018 (they're the only ones at the moment that deserve extensions, as that draft consisted of Price, Jefferson, Walton, Harris, Brown, Woodside and Taylor, with Phillips and Tate having a chance to secure their future in 2021), but I think the priority should probably be this free agency period for the time being. They have all of training camp to re-sign Bates and Hubbard.
Remember, Atkins and Dunlap were extended on August 28th, 2018. Joe Mixon was extended on September 2nd, 2020. Gio was extended on September 3rd, 2019. Boyd was extended on July 23rd, 2019.
So they do the vast majority of their in house extensions after the free agency window and draft are over, which I think is smart.
I understand why they didn't re-sign Lawson last off season, because he had dealt with injuries in 2019 and 2018 that limited him to 12 and 7 games, respectively. So re-signing him would have been risky. He made us pay by being healthy and pretty dominant in 2020. But I think the Bengals were fine there.
As for WJIII, I get a feeling Will saw how shallow the CB pool was slated to be in 2020 and decided to play in a contract year. I'm positive the Bengals approached him about an extension, but it's very likely he just wanted to test the market. We'll have to see what happens.
Overall, I think the Bengals have done a good job of extending their own, even when they do sign outside free agents. I think they do it too much, honestly, often paying for past production and loyalty rather than expected future production. I think the Dunlap extension, in hindsight, was a bit rich for what he produced (he gave us an 8 sack season, a 9 sack season and a 1 sack half season before demanding a trade at the price tag of 13M in 2018 and 10M in 2019, with 6M dead cap in 2020 and 2M dead space in 2021.) and the franchise tag on AJ Green was, in my opinion, WAY too rich. Not even in hindsight. In real time, that was a terrible decision. And I already mentioned the Uzomah contract which also seemed like an overpay at the time of signing.
We'll see how this free agency period and training camp session goes. I'd like us to retain Lawson and Bates and I wouldn't mind if we kept WJIII and Hubbard as well, as long as it doesn't interfere with our ability to bid high on a good to great OT and a good to great OG (one good and one great, if possible) in free agency this year.
![[Image: oN5QAdY.png]](https://i.imgur.com/oN5QAdY.png)
