09-08-2023, 08:32 PM
(09-08-2023, 07:02 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Now as an exercise take a look at today's roster according to salary cap...
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/cap/
...as of right now at least they currently combine for a ~$24m cap hit in 2023.
You might say "but the salary cap is going to raise by $20m next year!" but then you have to remember that is already getting eaten up by guys who will have larger cap hits next year. Orlando Brown's cap hit is going to raise by $6m, Trey Hendrickson's will rise by $5m, Nick Scott will rise by $2m, and Wilson/Karras/Pratt will rise by about a combined $7m. The $20m rise is already gone and you haven't added anyone and there's more guys making more to go.
So now you need to look at the current roster and figure out where that extra $50m is going to come from. Jonah, Mixon, and BJ Hill seem like the easier answers but that only saves you about $23.5m or so once you replace them with roughly league minimum players and you still need to shed $26.5m more while being weaker at a couple positions.
It's doable, sure, but it's not very doable. The roster will take a huge hit in talent across the board in order to make it happen. It won't be anywhere near as complete of a roster if you sink that much into your QB and two WRs.
The math was never favorable for keeping Tee if you wanted to keep the rest of your roster
Spotrac has the Bengals at an estimated 93m in cap space going into 2024. Once you factor in Joe's 5th year option of 29m and with Chase already being accounted for..that still leaves 54m.
