Which FA do you want if money did not matter?

[*ochocincos*]

(02-22-2024, 06:53 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Wouldn't find it shocking at all with how bad Carter has been and BJ Hill not being a true 3-tech. Madubuike is one and an elite one at that.

You keep a good player like BJ Hill even if it frees up money to cut him. BJ is on the last year of his contract anyways. You would only have 
both Madubuike and Hill in there at the same time on passing downs. On running downs you bring in a run stopping rookie in Sweat or one 
of the other early NT's in this Draft. BJ Hill is not a true 3-tech, he is more of a hybrid, he can stop the run and he can rush the passer but 
he is not elite at either.

It's not that I wouldn't like to see Madubuike as a Bengal, it's that I don't think it will happen given the $$ being put into the DL already and not likely moving Hill back to a rotational player.

According to PFR and PFF, BJ Hill had 14 QB Hits.
That's much higher than the 4 he had in 2021, when he had 5.5 sacks. That's 10 times coming in contact with the QB.
So while he didn't get as many sacks in 2023, he did have 19 instances of making contact with the QB.
So he's still getting to the QB, just not getting a ton of sacks.

On to the salary part...
Madubuike is evaluated at $20 mill APY according to Spotrac. Obviously, that might be somewhat lower, but I don't think it will be too much lower.
BJ Hill's base salary this year is $7.2 mill and a $10.8 mill cap hit.
That's a hefty price for a rotational player, even if it is his last year.
I just can't see the Bengals keeping Hill at that price point without making sure he gets 700+ snaps. They'll either have him as the primary 3T, cut him, or renegotiate his contract to get that cost lower such that it's more inline with a rotational player.

What I could see more likely is adding some cheap vet rotational guy (maybe $5 mill or less) and draft a guy (or two) to go with Hill and Carter.
Carter is a 3rd round pick and needed development given he was kind of in between DE and DT, so I'm willing to give him this year before I am fully ready to move on.

Heck, maybe with Murphy's improvement last year, could we see Hubbard swing inside some more like we used to see a few years ago, adding that interior pass rush?