(11-30-2018, 04:24 PM)Bambam Wrote: This is hilarious.  If mike cared about winning he would hire a gm.  There isn’t another franchise that would have gone on this long with the same gm without winning a playoff game.  He is cheap.  Look at how much cap space we have.  Mike is still stuck in the 70’s and until he learns that the league has changed we are doomed as a franchise.  I will believe the practice bubble when I see it.

(12-01-2018, 03:54 PM)I_C_DeadPeople Wrote: End of the day there are two issues with the cap management:

First, the Bengals manage their cap in a very conservative manner. Successful teams manage it in an aggressive fashion. That puts us probably $10-$15M BEHIND other teams each year. Other teams know the cap is going up every year so they can push money out in time which the Bengals never do. This also effects how we attempt to re-sign players. Lets use Zeitler - at the time perhaps 5 years at $10M per year seems high, but 3 years later good guards are now at $12-$14M so the latter part of the contract is favorable.

Second, they are inconsistent with the 'we sign our own' - they will let a good player go because they want too much but then then sign others to values far more than they should have. They are not clinical enough in this part of player management.

Now an additional issue is inconsistent coaching and hot/cold drafting - both could be fixed with more/better staff in these areas.

Each one of these in of itself is not the end of the world but combine them all and you have no chance to compete with the best teams.

(11-30-2018, 12:13 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Something else worth noting when I was just looking at contracts...
Andy Dalton is the 20th highest-paid QB on an average-per-year basis at $16 mill a year. He is also the lowest paid veteran long-term starter in the league. All other QBs lower are either on rookie deals, backup-level deals, or stopgap starter deal (Tyrod Taylor, $15.25 mill a year for 2 years, right after Dalton on a per-year basis).
Dalton also has the lowest percentage of his contract guaranteed out of all veteran starters at just 17.7%

I think this is important for two reasons:
1) It means there really isn't much of a hit if Dalton were to be released
2) Dalton isn't getting paid nearly as much as most other QB starters in the league, which allows the Bengals to put more money toward other positions. They are paying fair contracts to their star players in Atkins, Dunlap, and Green. The glaring individuals who are probably getting "overpaid" based on their performance are Kirkpatrick (13th highest paid CB) and Cordy Glenn (8th highest paid LT).

So I think outside of a couple bloated contracts in DK and Glenn, the Bengals really just need to get (better) production from (some of) their guys on rookie deals and cheaper veterans.