Assessing the Cap

[Luvnit2]

(03-29-2022, 03:51 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I knew we had a good bit of cap space to work with.  And I know that they can easily draft the contract so that the cap hit the first year (or years) is much smaller than the average salary.  But I am still surprised to see we have this much space left.

I use spotrac all the time. but I don't understand how they are calculating the salary cap hits for our draft picks.  Even though they have separate columns for "total" and "top 51" the numbers don't make sense.  From their projections of the salaries and signing bonuses it doesn't look like we need more than $3 million.

No real big players eligible for an extension either (Bell, Jonah).  We can still work out a long term deal with Bates if he wants to, but a new contract for Bates could actually give us more cap room (if we needed it).

I believe they can offer Burrow an extension after next season.  Maybe they will roll most of that over to use on Joe.

All I was expecting was a mid tier OT ($4-$6 million) and maybe another CB.  But I was thinking we only had about $10 million in cap space left.  I had not checked the exact numbers recently.

Due to signing bonuses, pick #31 will have the bonus portion distributed over 4 years, 2nd round pick amy have it over life of their contract as well so some of the pay would be spread out so it reduces their cap hit in 2022. Most teams structure 1st round picks this way. Picks after round 4 will have minimal impact on the cap replacing players already on the top 51. I have not looked recently, but I thought I saw only 5.3 million needed for our rookie pool.


There are teams with multiple picks in round 1 or a lot of picks that will need 10 to 18 million for their rookie pools according to Spotrac.

The great news for the Bengals is looking ahead to 2023 because we have not used a lot of cap gymnastics, we have close to 70 million in cap space. A lot of teams in 2023 are again up against the cap because they kicked the can down the road.

As for the earlier discussion, I think an easy way to see teams struggling with the cap is when you see their inability to sign their own or trade them. The Saints have no franchise QB (expensive) on their roster but still lost some of their best players the past few years, this year an all pro LT and an all pro safety off the top my head. KC traded all pro Hill and let Mathieu walk, cut a starting LB and let other receivers walk as well. The Packers traded all pro Adams. They don't do these moves if they can afford the players in the future.

Yes teams like the Saint play cap gymnastics, but eventually when something out of the norm happens *cap goes down in 2020 vs. up, then their model is screwed. It was over a 20 million swing in one year of less cap space than anticipated. Thus the cause of them getting under the cap as they have to do, but losing all pro players in the process.