Who to tag?

[NATI BENGALS]

(01-25-2016, 05:24 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Nobody would be my choice.

Iloka is good, but I don't think he is franchise tag good. If the tag numbers jump from '15 to '16 like they did from '14 to '15, that would mean you're paying Iloka $10.8m or so. There's no way Iloka is a $10m+ Safety. Sign Nelson to the last contract of his career, slot Williams in at the other Safety spot, and then let someone else overpay Iloka.

Marvin Jones certainly isn't a $13.3m wide receiver. I wouldn't even like the 5yr/$40m deal the OP suggested. $8m/yr is just below what Brandon Marshall, Michael Crabtree, and Antonio Brown make. It would tie Marvin Jones for the 18th highest AAV contract for a WR in the NFL. Marvin Jones isn't the 18th best WR in the NFL, the dude has one career game of 100+ yards, this year was the first time he started more than 5 games in a season, and he has a history of foot/ankle injuries. There's a lot of good WRs coming out in every draft who can be a productive #2 WR behind AJ Green and with Eifert and Gio taking attention off them too, but for rookie contract money.

So my answer would be to tag nobody. Then take that money saved and go get a single big time difference maker like Alex Mack, Alshon Jeffery, Von Miller, or Janoris Jenkins. Would much rather have Jeffery for $11m/yr than Jones for $8m/yr.

We are a little over a year removed from Burkhead being our #2 WR in a playoff game. We have nobody proven behind AJ at all. Going into the year with one proven WR can be problematic. Ask the Ravens. They had a line of thought like you do last year. Why pay this middle of the pack guy (Torrey Smith) when we can just draft a guy early and plug him in. Well. That didn't work out too well.

All those guys you mentioned will most likely be tagged. You know we won't throw a mega contract at an outside free agent like one of them anyway. And going into the draft with a glaring weakness and forcing a pick can be bad.

We are good because we have been developing talent and retaining it. MLJ and Iloka are next in line in that group.

It scares me we really are looking at a roster with Alford and Kumerow as our 2 and 3 WR right now. We play the Steelers, Mitchell head hunts Eifert, now all they have to do is double AJ and we are in bad shape.

We need to give MLJ incentive to sign early so we can use the transition tag on Iloka. It will be a little lower than the franchise tag. The tag for safeties is the 3rd lowest behind kickers and TEs. So if we want to be thrifty that is the position to give it to.