11-15-2023, 10:34 PM
(11-15-2023, 09:07 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Absolutely. We have two top-22 paid DEs and two top-22 paid DTs, plus a first round pick and two third round picks used on DL the last 3 years. They have spent both capital and draft capital.
The only place you can say they skimped on defense is Nick Scott over Vonn Bell, because they still gave Scott a decent-ish amount of money anyway despite being a vastly inferior player. It was always 100% worth the extra $3.5m/yr to keep Bell, though I would venture that the $10m more in guaranteed at signing money was the sticking point more than the $3.5m/yr.
Yeah, I agree that the problem with signing Vonn Bell was the guaranteed money. By most accounts, the overall amount of the contract was less than what many were projecting. I saw where some were projecting he would get 10.1 million annually, and Spotrac projected 9.7 million per season, whereas the overall contract was 22.5 million over 3 years. I imagine the sticking point for the Bengals was the 13 million guaranteed.
