03-16-2021, 10:05 AM
(03-16-2021, 09:56 AM)Au165 Wrote: They aren't going to pay 23-24 million per year to Williams. Even beyond that, the same issue we saw with Lawson would come up again and that is upfront money, i.e. signing bonus. If you look at how we structured Hendrickson's deal it shows a team who may be cash strapped (not cap that is different) and looked to push paying large sums of money off. Signing bonuses get paid out in one lump sum, whereas salaries get paid out weekly. By doing Hendrickson's deal the way they did they can essentially wait until they can generate more revenue in the season to pay out the cash to him versus paying Lawson the larger signing bonus right now.
People need to understand something, there is cap poor in the NFL and cash poor. If you are cap poor you can essentially buy it with cash via signing bonuses and restructuring. If you are a team who is cash poor you are simply screwed and at a competitive disadvantage. Few people talk about the cash issues because the valuations of teams are so high but teams like ours don't have the massive liquid cash reserves to pay some of these massive signing bonuses other teams pay. It makes sense coming out of a pandemic year with lower revenue than expected that we are trying to take approaches to conserve cash. When people talk about the Bates extension they just focus on his cap numbers but there will most likely be a very large cash expenditure there that they must account for as well.
I'd look for more moves with structures similar to Hendrickson which use larger salaries in year one to act as pseudo guaranteed money since you aren't cutting anyone in their first year.
I understand that Trent Williams wants that type of money but he is 32 years old and probably why he is the only top 10 player unsigned, because he is not going to get that at his age.
The Bengals FO needs do what other teams do. You and I understand this...pay up front (signing bonus), spread it out. They know this, they just do not implement it. The Bengals do have this money, guaranteed, they just want to keep it in the bank and earn interest.
