03-06-2024, 05:35 PM
(03-06-2024, 11:17 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: yea, that might be the safest path forward. I just feel bad for Hayden. He was a good player for us in his 1 year. The deal that the Panthers gave him was unreasonable for us to match, just like the Jets and Uzomah 2 years ago.
One of the reasons I respect the Bengals front office is because they treat free agency differently than most teams. Most teams enter free agency with a glaring need and they will overpay for someone just to say they filled a hole, only to cut them a year or two later after its obvious that they overpaid for the player.
No reasonable person believed that Hayden Hurst was worth 7 million per year and no reasonable person believed Uzomah was worth 8 million per year. And in their collective 3 years away from the Bengals, they put up 47 receptions for 474 yards and 4 touchdowns over 36 games.
The Bengals go into free agency with an understanding of what each player is worth, and they refuse to pay more than what they believe that player's value is. That means they are more likely to play through the end of the contract and both sides are happy with the contract.
There's a reason the Bengals' cap management is considered one of the best in the entire league. The worst contract they've given out in the last 14 years was Trae Waynes, and even then it wasn't due to a lack of talent, he just kept getting injured and by the time he was healthy, he had already been replaced. Not many teams can say the same.
I don't remember exactly where I was going with this, but my point is I trust the Bengals front office if they choose to re-sign one of these two guys because they actually know what their value is, whereas other teams just throw money at players just to say they filled a hole on the roster.
Great post CJD, reps. I agree, I feel bad for Hayden as well, we just cannot risk hurting the team if he has major concussion problems.
He was depressed before he came here as well and the Bengals really helped him out in this aspect though, so there is that.
I agree that I like the way the Bengals do things now, this has not always been the case. I do wish we went out and made a trade once in
awhile to improve the team, but overall the FO and the coaches have handled Free Agency pretty well since Zac and Lou have got here.
We have to remember that Marv left Zac and Lou a team that had about the worst trenches in the NFL at the time.
