04-16-2023, 05:56 PM
(04-14-2023, 02:16 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: The Bengals currently have about 17 million in cap space. Thats 10th in the league. They've done this without really restructing many, if at any, contracts or by really cutting any salary.
That's a decent amount of cap space but many speculate we can open up around an aditional 10 million by cutting Joe Mixon, putting the Bengals at around 27 million in cap space. This would put us in the top 3-5 in the league.
We need about 8 million in cap for the rookie class, so that would put us at about 9 million without cutting Mixon or 19 million if we were to cut Mixon.
The options that I can come up with on how to use the remaining cap are these:
1. Roll the remaining cap over for future years.
2. Use the cap as a signing bonus for a players contract extension (Tee)?
3. Sign an aditional FA to help this year.
So, what do you all think is the plan for the remaining cap space?
You got 2 of 3. I don't think there will be much rollover. Duke said we are spending to the cap.
Well, first off, as others have said, your initial calculation is off on the rookie class. It won't use up $8 million, under $2 mil, total, max. Why? You cannot just add up the salaries of the picks (assuming they all make the roster) & subtract out the cap space. We have 67/68 guys currently signed, only a dozen on camp deals. That leaves 55/56, well above the 51 we use for the cap. Any rookie that makes the team is dispacing an already signed guy. So, the way to figure it is:
Salary of rookie making team minus salary of guy dispaced from roster = amount to subtract from cap. Plus any dead cap of displaced player.
And note, this number could easily be NEGATIVE for everyone except the first rounder (unless they take the spot of Jonah, Colllins, or Mixon). Say we take a TE in Rd 2 (Musgrave, LaPorta) and they take Asiasi's roster spot. Musgrave, Smith, Sample is the TE room. Rd 2 pick makes $1,110,684. Asiasi makes $1,138,00. No dead cap. Our 2nd round pick making the roster just GAINED us cap space ($27,000). It did not cost us $1.1 mil. If a 5th-7th round guy makes the roster, you are almost assuredly gaining space. 2nd-4th is iffy. Depends on the displaced guy & their dead cap.
I get so tired of having to explain this to people. In all the cap space/draft threads. I don't get why so many don't get it. I will keep chipping away, though.
But with what we have left:
1) Some for signing bonuses for extensions (Burrow + maybe Wilson & Higgins). This will likely be around $7-$8 mil for Joe and $5 mil for Tee. Less for Wilson.
2) Whatever we have left over will go to signing FAs to bolster the team with whatever does not get addressed in the draft. Remember displacement applies here too. As do dead cap hits. If the FA signing is a minimal (Sidney Jones, Ford, etc) it likely barely moves the needle on the cap at all.
3) Depending on how things shake out with the draft, extensions, other FA moves, and Jonah, Mixon, and Collins, we could have enough $$ to make a couple sulignificsnt FA moves, be it soon or during camp cutdowns.
