02-13-2024, 07:40 PM
Alright, I am going to take a shot at a Roster Overview slash Free Agency & Draft Primer for the 2024 off-season.
This is gonna be a bear. I am going to start with an overall cap & roster analysis viwe from 30,000 feet thing. Then dial in on a position group by position group analysis. Will start with what I consider the higher priority groups (WR, DT/NT, OT, TE, CB) and then move on to medium (P, S, IOL, LB, RB) and low priority (QB, DE, PK, LS) groups.
I. Important Off-Season Dates
1. 2/20: Can designate franchise & transition tags.
2. 2/27-3/4. Scouting combine in Indy.
3. 3/5: Franchise/transition tag deadline.
4. 3/11-3/13: FA negotiating period starts.
5. 3/13, 4 pm: all teams must be cap compliant.
6. 3/14, 4 pm: Can sign FAs, trades consumated, designate June 1 cuts, deadline for QOs to RFAs.
7. 4/19: Deadline for RFA's to sign offers.
8. 4/25-27: NFL Draft
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EDIT: The cap came in higher than expected, the post has been edited to reflect the $255.4 mil cap instead of the $242.5 mil estimate I used earlier.
II. Estimated Bengals Current Cap Space: Part I: $83,731,303.
A. Estimate Room
1. Estimated 2024 Cap: $255,400,000
2. 2023 Rollover: $10,766,741
----------------
3. Bengals Cap 2024: $266,166,741
B. Estimated Costs (Total)
1. Dead Money: $1,775,689
2. Signed Starters (19): $154,255,691
3. Signed Reserves (+10=29): $13,398,174
4. Signed Bubble (+8=37): $13,005,884
--------------
5. Total Signed (37): $182,435,438
--------------------
6. Take 1 Current Space: $83,731,303
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/cap/
Now, astute readers will rightly point out that the $83 mil in cap space is not real. And I agree, it is less. It only accounts for 37 signed players, we need 53. It does not include some players we have signed (futures guys and guys whi never made the 63 last year). True. It does not account for draft picks, again true. And it does not account for the Practice Squad, which counts against the cap once the season starts. True.
For this exercise, I have chosen to assume all our signed guys who were on the 53 will be back. That won't be true. But for most, it will not move the cap math much/at all. If a larger salary guy is released, it won't happen until after FA starts or the draft is done, and the whole point of this is to guess at where we are now.
I did not count the Future's guys and Maxwell/Kirkland/Cochrane because I do not think they make the team. And if they do, they are displacing a higher salaried guy. The only guy with any dead money is Maxeell at $16,667. Signing them or cutting them does not negatively impact the cap. Further, they currently count as MIN salary guys, Practice Squad salaries are significantly lower. And will be counted off our available space shortly.
As will the Draft Picks. But the Draft is after FA. By the time the draft actually gets here, those guys are gonna be displacing signed guys on the roster,,not filling up empty spaces on a 53. The only pick that is likely to make significantly more than the guy he displaces is the Rd1 guy. Rd2 by a smidge, but Rd2-Rd7, in aggregate, likely save us money by displacing higher salaries players.
So, let's start to fill out the roster in a reasonable way and see what we have left, shall we? This is getting long, so I will break it up and make the follow up post in a bit.
This is gonna be a bear. I am going to start with an overall cap & roster analysis viwe from 30,000 feet thing. Then dial in on a position group by position group analysis. Will start with what I consider the higher priority groups (WR, DT/NT, OT, TE, CB) and then move on to medium (P, S, IOL, LB, RB) and low priority (QB, DE, PK, LS) groups.
I. Important Off-Season Dates
1. 2/20: Can designate franchise & transition tags.
2. 2/27-3/4. Scouting combine in Indy.
3. 3/5: Franchise/transition tag deadline.
4. 3/11-3/13: FA negotiating period starts.
5. 3/13, 4 pm: all teams must be cap compliant.
6. 3/14, 4 pm: Can sign FAs, trades consumated, designate June 1 cuts, deadline for QOs to RFAs.
7. 4/19: Deadline for RFA's to sign offers.
8. 4/25-27: NFL Draft
---------
EDIT: The cap came in higher than expected, the post has been edited to reflect the $255.4 mil cap instead of the $242.5 mil estimate I used earlier.
II. Estimated Bengals Current Cap Space: Part I: $83,731,303.
A. Estimate Room
1. Estimated 2024 Cap: $255,400,000
2. 2023 Rollover: $10,766,741
----------------
3. Bengals Cap 2024: $266,166,741
B. Estimated Costs (Total)
1. Dead Money: $1,775,689
2. Signed Starters (19): $154,255,691
3. Signed Reserves (+10=29): $13,398,174
4. Signed Bubble (+8=37): $13,005,884
--------------
5. Total Signed (37): $182,435,438
--------------------
6. Take 1 Current Space: $83,731,303
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/cap/
Now, astute readers will rightly point out that the $83 mil in cap space is not real. And I agree, it is less. It only accounts for 37 signed players, we need 53. It does not include some players we have signed (futures guys and guys whi never made the 63 last year). True. It does not account for draft picks, again true. And it does not account for the Practice Squad, which counts against the cap once the season starts. True.
For this exercise, I have chosen to assume all our signed guys who were on the 53 will be back. That won't be true. But for most, it will not move the cap math much/at all. If a larger salary guy is released, it won't happen until after FA starts or the draft is done, and the whole point of this is to guess at where we are now.
I did not count the Future's guys and Maxwell/Kirkland/Cochrane because I do not think they make the team. And if they do, they are displacing a higher salaried guy. The only guy with any dead money is Maxeell at $16,667. Signing them or cutting them does not negatively impact the cap. Further, they currently count as MIN salary guys, Practice Squad salaries are significantly lower. And will be counted off our available space shortly.
As will the Draft Picks. But the Draft is after FA. By the time the draft actually gets here, those guys are gonna be displacing signed guys on the roster,,not filling up empty spaces on a 53. The only pick that is likely to make significantly more than the guy he displaces is the Rd1 guy. Rd2 by a smidge, but Rd2-Rd7, in aggregate, likely save us money by displacing higher salaries players.
So, let's start to fill out the roster in a reasonable way and see what we have left, shall we? This is getting long, so I will break it up and make the follow up post in a bit.
