2025 Free Agency - Who do you want, how much would you spend?

[SunsetBengal]

(01-03-2025, 07:27 PM)ochocincos Wrote: What they have listed for Chase Young and Milton Williams, two guys who I think would be upgrades on DL, feels about right although maybe a bit too expensive.
They say Chase Young, at the time of writing, was Top 30 among EDGE in QB pressures and pressure rate, so he's a high end DE2. He'll average 6-10 sacks a year.

Young - $16 mill (6.4% of cap)
Williams - $17 mill (6.6% of cap)

What I would be more comfortable going with for them - $12-14 mill each.

I think BJ Hill will be able to be kept closer to $10 mill though, but he's older than Williams and may be more of a short term stopgap rather than a 3-year long-term coverage.

Sam Hubbard is set to make $11.6 mill, which I feel is definitely not worth the production we're likely to see from him as he turns 30 this summer.
I'd rather spend the extra few mill on someone younger and stronger in the pass rush in Chase Young.

With that said, I can see why some would want to maybe dip into the draft for DL instead, as DL is expensive to address in FA always.
The cheaper FA positions are TE, SAF, and IOL comparatively.

Seems like every year we lull ourselves into thinking that this player or that player might sign for "X" amount, and then we're all astonished at the opening of the contract signing values and wonder why the Bengals weren't in on the first wave of signings. BJ Hill has been a consistent, very durable player. I would have no issues with the team signing him to a 3 year deal for anything under $45M. The two DL we drafted look like they actually have a chance to live, let one of them displace BJ Hill naturally, the way it should go. I'd still like to see the Bengals draft another interior DL (I don't care if 3T or NT, and sign another IDL vet at a value deal)

Now DE is another story. Hubbard is looking like injuries are going to be the shorter end to his career and Myles Murphy still does not look convincing to me. THAT is where a heavy investment in an outside player could pay the biggest dividends in free agency on the defensive side of the ball. (to my thinking, anyway) I feel like they need to draft one and sign one at the DE position just to keep a strong rotation going.