Tee vs a NEW D

[Luvnit2]

(12-29-2024, 01:15 PM)samhain Wrote: I think the league and other organizations will make the decision for the Bengals.  Tee is going to have teams beating down the door to offer him huge, guaranteed money.  Any illusion that he wouldn't ended tonight, and was probably unrealistic to begin with.  Bad receiver draft, no challenger on the open market to his spot at the top of the FA heap.

Tee's a good guy, but he's not a martyr.  That expectation isn't even fair to him.  He needs to go and get paid to secure his future.  He's earned it.  

It would take some major sacrifice and crazy cap gymnastics to keep all three of our stars here.  Even if it happens, they're just holding serve.

No team can beat down his door if Bengals tag him while they attempt to sign him to a long-term deal or trade him.

We have too many average players making big bucks.
Hubbard - 11.6 million
Cappa - 10,250 million
Rankins - 12,5 million
Stone - 7.9 million
Moss - 4.9 million

We would create some dead cap, but ass a ton of cash and cap space. We have Sample and Johnson to replace Hubbard. We have Jenkins and Jackson to replace Rankins. We have Chase Brown to replace Moss. We have some young safeties to compete to replace Stone. We would need to add 2 guards via FA or the draft. If we cut all 5, it would create 32 million in cap space to go with the 59 million we have now.

We get a pass rushing DE for 10 million, guys like Clowney seem to always be available. if we focus on stud DE pass rushers, we become much better attempting to protect a lead.

90 million is a lot of cap space. Tee can get paid, and his contract could be structured to use less cap space in years 1 and 2. We know what we have in Tee Higgins, he will not be easily replaced with a plug and play WR2 either in draft or FA. 

I too have been all over the board. I hope we keep him. If not, I hope we tag and trade him prior to the 2025 draft. His value just went up after yesterday.