Stealers don't want to sign Fitzpatrick....

[Sled21]

Seems it's not just the Bengals unwilling to pay huge amounts for a safety. The Stealers are balking at paying Minkah Fitzpatrick the 17 mil he wants as well.

[kalibengal]

(05-20-2022, 08:59 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Seems it's not just the Bengals unwilling to pay huge amounts for a safety. The Stealers are balking at paying Minkah Fitzpatrick the 17 mil he wants as well.

how much did Bengals offer Bates? 13M/yr for 3 yrs? 

[CJD]

(05-20-2022, 11:01 AM)kalibengal Wrote: how much did Bengals offer Bates? 13M/yr for 3 yrs? 

We don't know what the Bengals are offering or what Bates is asking. Historically, the Bengals have tried to undervalue free agents at positions they don't find to be premium.

Kevin Zeitler, Joe Thuney and Andrew Whitworth (or people close to them) all came out saying that the Bengals' offers to them were considerably lower than other teams' offers and that all three had some inclination to come to Cincinnati had they offered similar contracts to the market.

We also have a tendency to not offer as much guaranteed money as other teams. This may be due to Mike Brown not being as wealthy and liquid as other owners since he made his money exclusively through football (where as many other owners like the Browns' Jimmy Haslam made his fortune via a truck stop chain and a petroleum corporation) so he can't afford to put down the guaranteed money that other owners can (when you put guaranteed money on a contract, that money must go into escrow at the time of signing, not when it's due to the player). 

The Bengals, historically, do not give more than 50% of the contract as guaranteed money. I think they did it one time, with AJ Green.

My guess is that Jessie Bates is pursuing a contract at least similar to Marcus Williams' deal with the Ravens, which was 5 years, 70 million with 37 million of it guaranteed. 

And it wouldn't surprise me if the Bengals are angling for closer to what Tyrann Mathieu or Justin Reid got (3yr/28.3 M/18M guaranteed and 3/31.5/20.5, respectively).

If we're lucky, they'll land somewhere in between like John Johnson's contract with Cleveland (3/33.75/24), maybe with a little more AAV and a little less guaranteed, something like 3/39/15.

I don't think Bates will go for that kind of deal, but maybe we get lucky.

[Sled21]

They were talking about this on NFL radio, and the consensus was that teams just do not value the safety position that highly when it comes to large amounts of money. To be paid like Fitzpatrick and Bates want to be paid, they have to be great at coverage, be a ball hawk, willing and able to tackle running backs, etc., and do it on a consistent basis. Can't be good at just on area.

[BFritz21]

(05-20-2022, 12:04 PM)Sled21 Wrote: They were talking about this on NFL radio, and the consensus was that teams just do not value the safety position that highly when it comes to large amounts of money. To be paid like Fitzpatrick and Bates want to be paid, they have to be great at coverage, be a ball hawk, willing and able to tackle running backs, etc., and do it on a consistent basis. Can't be good at just on area.

That's good for us but I hope that Bates is paying attention and sees that he won't get more money on another team.

I still hope he signs with us but I want it to be fair, especially since he just had an average-to-below-average regular season.

I hope he takes note to past players and sees that going for the money can backfire and they end up making less total money because, even if they're offered more guaranteed, they get cut or whatever.