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

[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.