Ask Jim Owczarski

[BengalChris]

(11-13-2016, 12:09 AM)jowczarski Wrote: He knows Zeitler is a free agent and, likely, gone – the Bengals won’t pay a guard $9-10 million annually

On this subject. Why won't the Bengals pay Zeitler the money?.


Look - they may. Once they get to that point in the offseason they may determine, well, that’s the market and Zeitler deserves it. But if you’re Zeitler and see DeCastro making $10 million – it’s not wrong to say you want around $9. So if the Bengals don’t offer that, you’ll want to get to 4 p.m. and see what the market bears. Then, of course, anything can happen.

But that opens a couple possibilities. What if Whit says I’ll move inside for $7 for the next two years? What if Whit and the team agree to keep him, and pay him to stay outside but they feel Fisher a better fit inside? Unanswerable questions until that time. So the team has some leverage, as does the player.

I also say that because if you’re talking about $9 million annually, when you look at the way the team spends that kind of money, they do it on the marquee positions. Currently four players make that annually – the left tackle, the quarterback, the wide receiver and the All-Pro pass rushing d-tackle.

What if they decide to pay Kirkpatrick? That’s also the time of year the team would decide on whether or not to extend Jeremy Hill and Vontaze Burfict. Both are free agents after 2017. Not saying they’d run out of cap room – they never will – but they do budget.

And if you’re talking $9 million annually for four years – that creeps into the period when you need to think about extending (or not) Atkins and Dunlap and Ogbuehi – who could be your franchise left tackle at that point. Who knows what the market would like for all of those players should they get there at Pro Bowl levels.

So while I believe the team will give Zeitler an offer, I don’t think if he can get $9-10 on the open market they’ll go that high. But say Kirkpatrick doesn’t extend or re-sign, say Whit gets a huge deal elsewhere, say Hill says no, I’ll gamble on myself…well, then that could change things. At that point in the year, so much can happen.

The way Ogbuehi played this year I really don't see us doing anything but re-signing Whit. So that's going to be $7-9M. We could also draft a LT to be our 4th tackle next year. Ogbuehi is anything but a sure thing and Paul Alexander's opinion doesn't carry much weight any more.

The Bengals historically do not value OGs enough to drop high dollar contracts on them. And we can't forget that Bodine is heading into the last year of his rookie deal and it is very possible that the front office could extend Bodine and let Zeitler walk. It would be a kick in the nuts for the fans, but that never stopped Mike Brown before.

We have a lot of free agents this off season: Kirkpatrick (should re-sign), Whitworth (should re-sign), Peko (goodbye), Zeitler (I believe he walks), Hunt (goodbye), Burkhead (should re-sign), Peerman (goodbye), Winston (goodbye), Gilberry (goodbye), Thompson (goodbye), Chykie Brown (goodbye), Bullock (re-sign or bring in a RFA kicker), TJ Johnson (cheap).

We could cut Maualuga and I don't think there's any dead money in his final year. That would free up some money.

It's going to be an interesting off season and draft.