The Bengals currently have about 17 million in cap space. Thats 10th in the league. They've done this without really restructing many, if at any, contracts or by really cutting any salary.

That's a decent amount of cap space but many speculate we can open up around an aditional 10 million by cutting Joe Mixon, putting the Bengals at around 27 million in cap space. This would put us in the top 3-5 in the league.

We need about 8 million in cap for the rookie class, so that would put us at about 9 million without cutting Mixon or 19 million if we were to cut Mixon.

The options that I can come up with on how to use the remaining cap are these:

1. Roll the remaining cap over for future years.
2. Use the cap as a signing bonus for a players contract extension (Tee)?
3. Sign an aditional FA to help this year.

So, what do you all think is the plan for the remaining cap space?

(04-14-2023, 02:16 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: The Bengals currently have about 17 million in cap space. Thats 10th in the league. They've done this without really restructing many, if at any, contracts or by really cutting any salary.

That's a decent amount of cap space but many speculate we can open up around an aditional 10 million by cutting Joe Mixon, putting the Bengals at around 27 million in cap space. This would put us in the top 3-5 in the league.

We need about 8 million in cap for the rookie class, so that would put us at about 9 million without cutting Mixon or 19 million if we were to cut Mixon.

The options that I can come up with on how to use the remaining cap are these:

1. Roll the remaining cap over for future years.
2. Use the cap as a signing bonus for a players contract extension (Tee)?
3. Sign an aditional FA to help this year.

So, what do you all think is the plan for the remaining cap space?

I think they're keeping some room in case they need/want to add anyone after FA, and the majority of the remainder will go toward extensions to Burrow, Wilson, and supposedly Higgins.

Pretty sure they're going to wait till at least after the draft to see if any great RBs fall to them and even then rookies are all untested in the league. There's not much behind Joe other than Williams..

Give it to me. I’ll make great use of it!

(04-14-2023, 02:28 PM)ochocincos Wrote: I think they're keeping some room in case they need/want to add anyone after FA, and the majority of the remainder will go toward extensions to Burrow, Wilson, and supposedly Higgins.

This, hope we also designate Mixon as a June 1st cut after the Draft and find a trade partner for Jonah also to free up more dough.

There are ways to get all this done and not hurt the trenches. I still want us to extend the Gravedigger too man. This guy single handedly 
shut down the run game of opposing Offenses last year in huge games. I don't know if we make it to the Super Bowl or the AFCC without
him in all those close games.

We don’t need $8 mil in cap space for our rookies considering where we draft.

We will likely see a couple more vet signings but those are likely to be depth pieces that won’t cost a ton.

Extensions and/or rollover to use on extensions next year is likely where most of the cap goes. If we aren’t able to get any big extensions out of the way this year the rollover also gives flexibility at the trade deadline if we have any injuries and need to try to pick up a vet on a decent sized contract.

I don’t really see a lot of FA’s left available that would be worth paying big money to instead of using it for Burrow/Tee/Wilson/etc so I’m fine if we have extra cap space this year to help the future. We won’t have extra cap space one extensions start rolling in.

(04-14-2023, 02:44 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: This, hope we also designate Mixon as a June 1st cut after the Draft and find a trade partner for Jonah also to free up more dough.

There are ways to get all this done and not hurt the trenches. I still want us to extend the Gravedigger too man. This guy single handedly 
shut down the run game of opposing Offenses last year in huge games. I don't know if we make it to the Super Bowl or the AFCC without
him in all those close games.

Who is Gravedigger? Is that Reader?
I had never heard that nickname before.

If that's who you mean, I can understand that sentiment, but usually when you have a pricy QB, WR(s), and DEs on the books, you can't afford to drop big $$ on a DT who only gives you no more than a few sacks a season. Reader's age also will come into play, as he'll be 30 years old after this season. Bengals don't typically sign 30+ year old veterans, especially pricy ones.

While I like Reader, I think we may need to prepare for a young buck to replace him after this season.

(04-14-2023, 03:18 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Who is Gravedigger? Is that Reader?
I had never heard that nickname before.

If that's who you mean, I can understand that sentiment, but usually when you have a pricy QB, WR(s), and DEs on the books, you can't afford to drop big $$ on a DT who only gives you no more than a few sacks a season. Reader's age also will come into play, as he'll be 30 years old after this season. Bengals don't typically sign 30+ year old veterans, especially pricy ones.

While I like Reader, I think we may need to prepare for a young buck to replace him after this season.

But you have to think he also sees that.

While he could go for one last shot at a payday for another team, you have to wonder what team will offer him more? Even if we offer him less overall or annually, it might be more guaranteed, which, at his age, he'd be smarter to take.

(04-14-2023, 03:34 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: But you have to think he also sees that.

While he could go for one last shot at a payday for another team, you have to wonder what team will offer him more? Even if we offer him less overall or annually, it might be more guaranteed, which, at his age, he'd be smarter to take.

Maybe, but the Bengals aren't one of the teams that give high guaranteed money.
I could only see him choosing to stay with the Bengals over a better offer elsewhere if he's really doing it to get a ring.

They shouldn't stop at Higgins and Wilson. If they can't reach deals with them then hopefully Reader, Hilton, can be considered as extension candidates.

So I'm going with using it on extensions.

(04-14-2023, 03:41 PM)jj22 Wrote: They shouldn't stop at Higgins and Wilson. If they can't reach deals with them then hopefully Reader, Hilton, can be considered as extension candidates.

So I'm going with using it on extensions.

That's a good point.
I can't remember exactly which player(s) it was in some recent years past, but I remember thinking/hearing they were saving all this cap to put toward extension of that player, and a deal never got worked out. So it was cap that they could have used to improve the team that year that ultimately just got pushed into the next year.
You definitely don't want that to happen in your arguable Super Bowl window.

(04-14-2023, 03:40 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Maybe, but the Bengals aren't one of the teams that give high guaranteed money.
I could only see him choosing to stay with the Bengals over a better offer elsewhere if he's really doing it to get a ring.

Good point but I don't really see another team giving him too much guaranteed either so, like you said, it comes down to wanting the ring.

You also have to think about stability because, at 31, no team is going to invest too much into him, so while he may not be offered a lot guaranteed or even overall, he has to know that he at least has some stability here and that we value him.

(04-14-2023, 03:49 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: Good point but I don't really see another team giving him too much guaranteed either so, like you said, it comes down to wanting the ring.

You also have to think about stability because, at 31, no team is going to invest too much into him, so while he may not be offered a lot guaranteed or even overall, he has to know that he at least has some stability here and that we value him.

It could also be his last contract though.

If it's your last potential multi-million dollar contract, wouldn't you try to take the highest offer possible if you weren't willing to sacrifice too much cheaper just to get a ring?

I need clarification on who is eligible for pulling money forward. Can rookie contracts (Higins, Wilson, ect..) be extended with money being added this year or so they have to be literal extensions with no increase in this year?

I believe they can extend vets like Reader and increase this year's number and hopefully that helps offset hits the next few years. Adding a year or two to him specifically will help keep stability and not force them to take a NT early proactively.

Rolling over more for extensions is fine as well. Ideally, we get someone to take Wlliams even for a late pick for the room if it means extending some defensive vets. Same goes for cutting Mixon, adding at least one rookie and landing a bargain vet. If a DL doesn't come up as BPA through the top half of they draft they may wait out a vet that signs as a ring chaser. I think you could get a guy asking for 7M take half that to showcase on a contender, maybe the best value regarding current street FA.

(04-14-2023, 03:41 PM)jj22 Wrote: They shouldn't stop at Higgins and Wilson. If they can't reach deals with them then hopefully Reader, Hilton, can be considered as extension candidates.

So I'm going with using it on extensions.

Need Reader to show he can stay healthy this season before any more money is thrown at him. He's missed 18 games in his 3 seasons as a Bengal. He is an impact player when he's on the field, but he needs to be on the field. In 2022, he played 38.32% of the team's defensive snaps, just .1% more than Zach Carter. In 2020 he played 24.43% of the team's defensive snaps, the same as Kahlid Kareem. Any extension will be paying for Reader exclusively in his 30s.

As for Hilton, if it was right after the Buffalo game I would probably agree. He got absolutely ABUSED in pass coverage against the Chiefs. It was ugly, made uglier for him being the face of the "Burrowhead" smack. 8 catches on 9 targets for 133 yards. The Chiefs are going to continue to be the team the Bengals need to beat if they want to get to another SB, so can't be having guys the Chiefs can abuse out there. Any extension will also be paying Hilton exclusive in his 30s.

(04-14-2023, 03:59 PM)phil413 Wrote: Rolling over more for extensions is fine as well.

As Ocho said earlier, rolling over is fine normally but if you're hoping to win a SB rolling over is not a good thing because that's money that could have helped you try to win a SB this year going unused. Winning a SB is hard enough without handicapping yourself further by not adding all the talent you can with your cap space so you can roll it over.

(04-14-2023, 04:27 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Need Reader to show he can stay healthy this season before any more money is thrown at him. He's missed 18 games in his 3 seasons as a Bengal. He is an impact player when he's on the field, but he needs to be on the field. In 2022, he played 38.32% of the team's defensive snaps, just .1% more than Zach Carter. In 2020 he played 24.43% of the team's defensive snaps, the same as Kahlid Kareem. Any extension will be paying for Reader exclusively in his 30s.

As for Hilton, if it was right after the Buffalo game I would probably agree. He got absolutely ABUSED in pass coverage against the Chiefs. It was ugly, made uglier for him being the face of the "Burrowhead" smack. 8 catches on 9 targets for 133 yards. The Chiefs are going to continue to be the team the Bengals need to beat if they want to get to another SB, so can't be having guys the Chiefs can abuse out there. Any extension will also be paying Hilton exclusive in his 30s.


As Ocho said earlier, rolling over is fine normally but if you're hoping to win a SB rolling over is not a good thing because that's money that could have helped you try to win a SB this year going unused. Winning a SB is hard enough without handicapping yourself further by not adding all the talent you can with your cap space so you can roll it over.

This is where I am at. I am all for spending up to the cap this year to maximize this teams current chances to win a SB. 

Signing Drew Sample.

(04-14-2023, 03:18 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Who is Gravedigger? Is that Reader?
I had never heard that nickname before.

If that's who you mean, I can understand that sentiment, but usually when you have a pricy QB, WR(s), and DEs on the books, you can't afford to drop big $$ on a DT who only gives you no more than a few sacks a season. Reader's age also will come into play, as he'll be 30 years old after this season. Bengals don't typically sign 30+ year old veterans, especially pricy ones.

While I like Reader, I think we may need to prepare for a young buck to replace him after this season.

Yes, that is DJ's nickname, surprised you haven't heard it before Ocho...

You are probably right, sucks though, don't want to lose DJ or Hilton. These guys have been essential in our postseason runs.

(04-14-2023, 03:55 PM)ochocincos Wrote: It could also be his last contract though.

If it's your last potential multi-million dollar contract, wouldn't you try to take the highest offer possible if you weren't willing to sacrifice too much cheaper just to get a ring?

True but, like I said, if it's not much difference in overall, he has to know he probably has the chance to earn the most here since we already know who he is and he'll have stability here.

(04-14-2023, 02:16 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: The Bengals currently have about 17 million in cap space. Thats 10th in the league. They've done this without really restructing many, if at any, contracts or by really cutting any salary.

That's a decent amount of cap space but many speculate we can open up around an aditional 10 million by cutting Joe Mixon, putting the Bengals at around 27 million in cap space. This would put us in the top 3-5 in the league.

We need about 8 million in cap for the rookie class, so that would put us at about 9 million without cutting Mixon or 19 million if we were to cut Mixon.

The options that I can come up with on how to use the remaining cap are these:

1. Roll the remaining cap over for future years.
2. Use the cap as a signing bonus for a players contract extension (Tee)?
3. Sign an aditional FA to help this year.

So, what do you all think is the plan for the remaining cap space?

We’ll see but I’m hearing that a Jonah deal is done. So depending if we absorb any that should free up more.