Roughly $4 billion

[Whatever]

(Yesterday, 02:26 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: Who gives a **** how it sounds comparatively? The NFL has a salary cap. Other, wealthier owners can't outspend the less wealthy like the Dodgers do the Reds. The Bengals have more than enough money to be as competitive as ANY NFL franchise. They just have to decide if they're willing to manipulate the cap the way other teams do and be creative to field a championship roster. They don't lack the funds, they lack the want.

I don't get why anyone is bothering to debate this because there is no question that the Bengals can do whatever they choose to do, money not being a limiting factor. 

But the wealthy owners CAN outspend the poorer ones.  That's the thing you don't get.

Contracts for top talent are now more about guaranteed money than average annual value.  How many times do you hear with the Bengals that contract issues revolve around guaranteed money?  All money guaranteed within a contract has to be put into escrow per the current CBA.  Teams can use strategies to alleviate the salary cap hit, like for example, they can use void years to push out a portion of the signing bonus hit.  However, you still have to come up with that cash up front for the signing bonus, and the wealthier teams will always have more liquid cash on hand to dish out for insane bonuses that the Bengals struggle to match.  The Bengals' issue is not having cap space.  It's the fact that strategies like void years allow teams with more liquid cash to offer larger guaranteed money numbers and stay within the cap.