(07-10-2015, 08:19 AM)djs7685 Wrote: Mediocre year? He was injured. He looked great when he was out there in all but 1 or 2 games.

(07-10-2015, 10:59 AM)Who Dey Time Wrote: IMO, AJ will be tagged.  There are just too many other deals that need to be addressed.  For example, below are the 13 players whom I think are solid contributors that become free agents after this season:

Leon Hall
A.J. Green
Andrew Whitworth
Andre Smith
Reggie Nelson
Wallace Gilberry
Adam Jones 
Vincent Rey
Mohamed Sanu
Brandon Thompson
Emmanuel Lamur
Marvin Jones
George Iloka

Of the 13, Smith and Rey are the two that will most likely not be re-signed by the Bengals.  Of the 11 remaining, there are 6 deals that, IMO, have to be made.  Those six are:

Whitworth (2)
AJ Green (1)
Marvin Jones (6)
Iloka (3)
Either Hall or Adam Jones (4)
Either Gilberry or Thompson (5)

The number in parenthesis is what I believe to be the difficulty of getting that extension done.  AJ's being the most difficult, Marvin Jones the easiest.  Given this, the Bengals should focus the time between now and the start of the season to lock up MJones, one of the DT's and maybe Iloka if possible.

The three remaining (Nelson, Sanu, Lamur) would be nice to have but certainly not crushing losses if it were to go that way.

Long story short, I think there will be similar AJ threads at this time next season.

(07-10-2015, 04:30 PM)J24 Wrote: Green, Iloka, and Whit will all be signed before the season starts.

(07-15-2015, 04:23 PM)djs7685 Wrote: Well, Dez Bryant just agreed to 5 years, $70 million with $45 mil in guarantees.

Let's see how this impacts A.J.'s value. Whether A.J. claims these other deals will affect his or not, in reality we all know his peer's contracts will be looked at when he's signing long term.

(07-15-2015, 02:26 PM)3wt Wrote: Hope you're right.

Green sounds like he's got his priorities straight - and I don't deny that he does.  But I don't believe he's not going to want competitive compensation.  He has a lot of reasons not to sign before he's a free agent including jumping to a higher market value, the ability to justify it with bigger numbers this year now that he's healthy and the flexibility of choosing where he goes (better QB, playoff winner, more money being offered - or a combination).  So I don't think he may be as altruistic as he sounds.

The Bengals need so sign a lot of guys, and it would be tempting to franchise him to get that done.  But I think we lose him if we do as he will be so expensive when he can no longer be franchised that we will not be able to afford him.

There is also the argument (like with the REDS) that tying up that kind of money in one player (in addition to Dalton) is fiscal suicide, and it would be better to get rid of that kind of contract and keep your team viable.

My feeling is that we should sign him now.  Give him what he wants now and structure the contract to allow us to sign the players we know we want to keep.  It will be cheaper in the long run, we keep our only true blue chipper (until Geno pans back out) - and Dalton's contract will be diminishing as AJ's increases.

The rest of the contracts should sort themselves out.  Jones is the most dicey one I think we're going to be looking at if he doesn't get injured.  Whit will be reasonable as long as they don't totally low ball him.  And they should be able to get Iloka signed as well.