Can We Pay Everybody Within The Cap?

[BoomerFan]

(12-26-2021, 09:54 PM)Whatever Wrote: Our "big" UFA's this off-season will be...

Spain
Reiff
Uzi
Ogunjobi
Bates
Apple
BJ Hill

In '23, we're looking at...

Hopkins
Waynes
Bell
Pratt

Incoming take where pull numbers out of thin air and might be entirely wrong:

Even with what sounds like a big cap we'll have to make some choices. I think the Bengals will pay Spain adequately despite our history with being cheap on Guards. Ideally Spain also gives a discount to the Bengals as they gave him a chance and it helps the team overall not to get too greedy (on this note, I think we will not be able to re-sign Bates). 

I like Reiff but with age and injuries I wonder if we try either a different FA or drafting an RT in the first three rounds. Earlier this year we were planning on moving Carman to RT eventually but so far he's been bad (though it is just his rookie year). 

I won't be surprised if we only keep one of Ogunjobi and BJ Hill at DT. I'd love for us to get both back but Ogunjobi's price could more than double. The team won't pay him more than, say, $11 million a year and he could probably do better on the open market. So maybe we go with BJ Hill, who will get a pay bump but still cost less than Ogunjobi did this year. Then we'd call up Mike Daniels or Renell Wren from the practice squad and see if they have progressed or else draft a DT in the mid rounds. 

We keep Uzo and he shouldn't cost too much more than we are currently paying him. A pay bump of 2 million a year would be fair. He has been clutch for us and that doesn't always show up in the statistics. I don't think we extend Hopkins in advance but he may get a contract that is about the same as his current one when the time comes if we don't have a better option.

We will however extend Vonn Bell in advance with a slight pay bump. Some will suggest this is to pressure Jessie Bates but like I said above I think we don't keep Bates. The gap is too far and Bates will get well paid by some team. Whether he will be worth that money remains to be seen. There are a lot of paths to success and you have to pick what position you are spending money on. 

I'd like to see us cut Trae Waynes. I don't think the Bengals will. Instead he'll play out his final year and then we'll either re-sign him for cheap or let him go. Eli Apple on the other hand is gonna be a Bengal for years. Other teams still won't trust him to produce for them like he has for us and he'll be affordable. 

I assume Pratt won't get extended in advance but will get a new contract when the time comes at around $5 million a year. 

It is worth noting that the $60 million is gonna go faster than people think (yeah I know I sound like Hobson now right?). You have draft picks to pay, injury signings to save for, low level re-signings that add up (Tupou, Johnson, Huber, etc.) and we try to save $10 million to rollover most years (will eventually help with Burrow's contract). All that said, I think we'll spend $25 million on 3-5 new FAs of note (of note means the player costs at least $3 million a year). Even if we draft a corner in either a first or second round I'd be looking for us to continue to look for FAs there. You hope you never need one but a better backup QB might be worth spending some money on. And then you bring in an offensive line piece to replace Reiff and a free safety to replace Bates.