05-18-2024, 01:46 PM
(05-17-2024, 07:06 PM)J24 Wrote: It's been reported that the Bengals have had zero interest in trading Tee!
Well that makes no sense unless we are planning on extending him, too bad Tee and his agent want more than the Bengals are evidently
willing to pay. I would of been exploring all options regarding trades leading up to and during the Draft as it is best in everyone's interests
including Tee's.
(05-17-2024, 10:48 PM)CJD Wrote: It would bother me less if I understood what they were doing. You mention that they are making a run at the Super Bowl this year, so keeping him is in the team's best interest, but if they were seriously treating this season like Super Bowl or bust season, why do we still have 23 million dollars in cap space? Why didn't we spend that money to make this year a Super Bowl or Bust year? Their actions are inconsistent.
Not to mention, the Bengals don't have any major, big ticket free agents coming due in 2025 other than Tee Higgins because of how bad the 2021 draft class was outside of Chase and McPherson.
Who are the players we risk losing if we signed Higgins to a 3 year deal today?
The biggest names that are free agents in 2025 are:
BJ Hill, who is turning 30 in 2025 and they've already effectively replaced with Jenkins
Mike Hilton, who is turning 31 in 2025 and they've already effectively replaced with Dax
Trent Brown, who is turning 32 in 2025 and they've already effectively replaced with Mims
Gesicki, who is turning 30 in 2025 and they've already effectively replaced with All and McLaughlin
And Ted Karras, who is turning 32 in 2025. He does not have an official replacement yet, but I think our 7th round pick Lee is going to get a good hard look (many consider him the steal of our draft class, as he was projected early day 3 by some), and maybe they give Karras a 1 or 2 year extension at a reasonable price.
They obviously will want to re-sign McPherson as well, but that's not going to be a huge cap hit regardless.
And they will want to re-sign Chase eventually, but it sounds like he is going to wait until Jefferson and Lamb get extensions at the very least.
2026 has Hendrickson, Rankins, Hubbard, Cappa, Chase, Stone, Pratt, and Moss due up, but that's 2 years away. That's 2 cap increases, 2 free agent classes and 2 draft classes away, so I don't see why we'd need to handicap the 2024 Bengals by planning for the 2026 free agent class.
I just don't understand why we're saving so much money if "we can't afford" to extend basically anyone haha.
Good points, Karras is the one guy who stands out to me as the guy we need to keep as Lee is a damn good pass protector but
needs to really work on his run blocking. He will take a little time. A good Center is hard to find as us Bengals fans know all too well.
Like you said in your next post. Most top FA's now a days don't hit Free Agency, they are extended or traded like I expect with Justin
Jefferson within the next year or so. We might be looking at extending Ja'Marr before the season starts and that could be what is
going on or he could be waiting to see what JJ gets as you say.
