If you could only pick one guy, who are you making sure to re-sign from the list?

Impending internal FAs:
- Bates (FS)
- Bell (SS)
- Pratt (LB)
- Hurst (TE)
- Apple (CB)
- Perine (RB)

There are others, but none really of which are considered big-money guys or starters.

If we only get to pick one, then it's Vonn Bell for me. I wish you would have made this multiple options, as in you can only pick four of the six.

Bell or Pratt, I'll go Bell. I think they get him at a reasonable 3 year deal. They can't afford to be really green at safety. I like Pratt, but I think he gets more elsewhere as they focus on Wilson.

Edit: No disrespect to Hurst but they'll prioritize other positions if he gets a deal like CJ did. Especially with the rookie class.

Got to be Bell for me. Bates is gone. Pratt likely gone but not the end of the world. We can NOT lose two starting safeties in one offseason though. Bell is more consistent and cheaper, bring him back.

Vonn Bell. Communication is important in the secondary losing one starter is gonna be rough enough.

Good question. I'm wavering between Hurst and one of the two safeties. But I honestly don't know. If you let B&B go, you'd better make sure you have solid outside corners, in which case Apple becomes more of a priority in light of Chido's injury. They're in a tough spot.

It should be Bates!

The best of the bunch and hardest to replace is Bates in my opinion. I think the Bengals drafted Bell's replacement with Dax Hill.

Hill is an in the box safety. We sign Bell and not sign Bates we have a huge hole to fill.

I may be the outlier here, but I went with Apple. Bates is gone. Pratt I believe will want too much. I really considered Hurst but rather they use that money on Tee if he doesn't want a team friendly deal. I get the Bell talk but honestly I'm not against 2 new safeties if we can get a true game changer. Perine is good but not great (prefer him over Mixon). But with Chido's injury I think Apple should be resigned as a priority and let's face it most team's may not want him and we may be able to bring him back cheap. At worst he'd be our 4th DB which is really good. I just wish he'd grow up and stop acting like a child with his petty bickering on Social media.

I think there's a realistic chance that, by the end of this free agency period, we only sign a single internal free agent, Vonn Bell.

Germaine Pratt is great, but there are two positions in the NFL that you really should avoid investing huge money in; Off Ball LB and RB.

The reasoning for this is relatively simple. How successful your RBs and LBs are has a LOT to do with how good your Oline and Dline are, respectively. You could spend money on a premium RB or a premium LB but if that takes money away from your Oline or Dline, odds are you'll come out worse for it than if you had taken the opposite approach.

That's not to say you should never sign Off Ball LBs or RBs. It's just, if you do, they better be Fred Warner (3 down back that actually changes how you are able to run your defense). Side note: It'll be interesting to see if Roquan Smith turns out to be that level of player for the Ravens.

Pratt was a really good player for us and improved our defense with his play, but the money he's looking to pull down likely shouldn't be from us.

Speaking of RB, I think Perine is a fine replacement level RB. If he is willing to sign for 2 million per year or so, but if he's going for starter money, I don't think we sign him. As a matter of fact, the above about LB/RB is kind of why I want us to just clean house at RB and draft a new player in the 2nd or 3rd round. If we cut Mixon, we can keep Perine, but I don't think both players should remain on this team, just from a cost efficiency standpoint.

Bates is gone, we know that.

Hurst played really well, but his PFF projection is insane (3 years, 28.5M, 9.5M AAV). Last year, I would have laughed at this price tag as I would have thought it impossible, but then CJ Uzomah got 24M over 3 years. Now I'll believe anything. NFL Free agency has gone off the rails.
If he wants to sign here for ~5M to 6M AAV, I'd do it, but ~10M is way too much for a good but not great TE.

And finally Apple, I bet we could probably sign him for another 1 year 3 to 4M contract and, if so, that would be a really good deal relative to how he's played but...God I wish he would just stop tweeting. I think the reason we keep getting him for such a discount is because 31 other teams ***** hate his guts because he won't shut the hell up. He and Aftab kind of took us, a lovable underdog team about to take down Goliath for the second straight year, and turned us into a strangely hate-able and "cocky" team....which kinda sucks.

But whatever, he'd be a good first CB off the bench behind CTB and Awuzie and will likely be cheap since he's so hated across the league, so maybe we should re-sign him haha.

(02-08-2023, 04:40 PM)Mer Wrote: I may be the outlier here, but I went with Apple. Bates is gone. Pratt I believe will want too much. I really considered Hurst but rather they use that money on Tee if he doesn't want a team friendly deal. I get the Bell talk but honestly I'm not against 2 new safeties if we can get a true game changer. Perine is good but not great (prefer him over Mixon). But with Chido's injury I think Apple should be resigned as a priority and let's face it most team's may not want him and we may be able to bring him back cheap. At worst he'd be our 4th DB which is really good. I just wish he'd grow up and stop acting like a child with his petty bickering on Social media.

Yeah Apple is an underrated choice.  If he would come back for a reasonable deal I'd be behind it.  Awuzie will be on an expiring deal and if he regains form he could be hard to retain.  Apple may become more than a luxury.  If we lose Flowers and Dax starts, we may play CTB more on TE's anyway.  I'm reconsidering my choice.  

Vonn Bell. /end thread

Bell.

(02-08-2023, 04:07 PM)ochocincos Wrote: If you could only pick one guy, who are you making sure to re-sign from the list?

Impending internal FAs:
- Bates (FS)
- Bell (SS)
- Pratt (LB)
- Hurst (TE)
- Apple (CB)
- Perine (RB)

There are others, but none really of which are considered big-money guys or starters.

So it can’t be Apple or Perine because I’m gonna guess neither will have a market. So if we want then they are back 100%.

I’d say Bell.


The other guys i think will get better offers elsewhere. Hurst may be back. We got him for 4M last off-season and that was a decent TE FA class last year. It’s a little worse this year so i could definitely see a team offering 7-8M. Don’t really see a team going up to 10M. Hurst woukd be my dark horse to be back but Bell is my most important internal FA because I’m just assuming Bates is gone

Bell.

Can move on from the rest.

Bell.

Bates will be waaay too expensive.

It's a shame because he is probably the most needed.

We just can't break that much money on him.

(02-08-2023, 08:20 PM)BengalsRocker Wrote: Bell.

Bates will be waaay too expensive.

It's a shame because he is probably the most needed.

We just can't break that much money on him.

Just for you know Bell will be looking at or above 10 million per year. I saw nothing last year that made me feel Dax Hill can replace Bates, he is closer to an in box safety like Bell. So, if we sign Bell for 10 million per year, we still need a Bates replacement.

• 3 yrs, $29,199,666
• Avg. Salary: $9,733,222
• NFL Rank: 217
• SS Rank: 4
•  This is from Spotrac
  

Bell, see all prior posts for my rationale.

(02-08-2023, 08:42 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Just for you know Bell will be looking at or above 10 million per year. I saw nothing last year that made me feel Dax Hill can replace Bates, he is closer to an in box safety like Bell. So, if we sign Bell for 10 million per year, we still need a Bates replacement.

• 3 yrs, $29,199,666
• Avg. Salary: $9,733,222
• NFL Rank: 217
• SS Rank: 4
•  This is from Spotrac
  

I think Bates gets top dollar.

I can't see the Bengals paying him that.

I want to keep him, but realistically Bell seems more in line.