Free Agency expectations?

[oncemoreuntothejimbreech]

(03-16-2020, 11:23 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Everyone wants to be a critic, yet no one wants to present a solution?  C'mon guys, put your brains where your mouths are.  Do like I did, pull out a calculator and a pencil and do some work.  

Tell me who you would cut, and who you would propose replacing that player with that is not only better, but will cost the same or less.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/cap/

That should be the Bengals cap hits per player for 2020. Right now the Bengals have roughly $36M to spend in free agency because you forgot about their rollover. And that also includes the money to sign the rookies. So we aren’t subtracting the rookie pool from that $36M because the $36M to spend is after accounting for the rookies contracts.

So adding Conklin at $14M still leaves us with $22M. Also, if the Bengals sign someone that means another player’s contract will fall off. Let’s say it’s a minimum salary player. So we have $22.6M left.

There is no way I’m carrying Dalton’s $17M into the season. Even if I have to cut him instead of trade him. That gives us $39.6M. I’m already got more than when I started and I’ve added a starting RT.

That still leaves them more cap space than they currently have for tenders, to re-sign guys like Billings, and once the regular season starts they will need room for the practice squad and either two or four roster spots, and the infamous injury cushion (which we don’t need because we carry over every year since the carry over has been available.)

Edited to add: Amari Cooper re-signed with Cowboys for $100M/5 yrs. If the Bengals signed him @ $110M/5 yrs instead of franchising Green that would leave the Bengals sitting at roughly $35.6M after cutting Dalton instead of $39.6M. They could have gotten younger at WR and better at RT and still have roughly the same cap space as they do now.