The Difference Between The Falcons And Bengals

[*ochocincos*]

Something else that needs to be brought up for why the Falcons have such a good team...they have nailed their draft overall.
Here are their starters that are still on rookie contracts:
Desmond Trufant, CB (Rd 1 2013) - went on IR
Robert Alford, CB (Rd 2 2013)
Jake Matthews, LT (Rd 1 2014)
Devonta Freeman, RB (Rd 4 2014)
Vic Beasley, LB (Rd 1 2015)
Jalen Collins, CB (Rd 2 2015)
Tevin Coleman, RB (Rd 3 2015)
Grady Jarrett, DT (Rd 5 2015)
Keanu Neal, S (Rd 1 2016)
Deion Jones, LB (Rd 2 2016)
Austin Hooper, TE (Rd 3 2016)
De'Vondre Campbell, LB (Rd 4 2016)
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12

Meanwhile, here are the Bengals starters that were drafted since 2013...
Tyler Eifert
Giovani Bernard
Shawn Williams
Jeremy Hill
Russell Bodine
Cedric Ogbuehi/Jake Fisher (counting as 1 since they split time at the same spot)
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6

The Falcons have hit on more draft picks and have started them sooner, whereas the Bengals have either whiffed on many picks and/or not given their younger players a chance to start. By the Falcons having their young players start, it has allowed them to have a reduced payroll. They then filled the gaps in the roster with impactful FAs. Yes, it means at some point, they won't have enough money to retain all these good players once they are off their rookie deals, but that's football. Teams have to make "runs" while they have a loaded roster on cheap contracts. The Bengals have not gotten enough out of their recently drafted players to save money on impactful FAs and take that next step.