02-28-2017, 11:52 PM
(02-28-2017, 10:43 PM)jowczarski Wrote: A lot to unpack here.
The Pistons, who did the quick math down to about $28 is on the right path. Add likely RFA tender T.J. Johnson ($1.9M), the practice squad ($1.3M) and the widely recognized injury protection pool (roughly $5M) you're looking in the area of about $16-20 the club is looking to spend this offseason. Fungible. Just like last year when we wrote the club was looking to spend about $15. They went over that.
The argument here, to me at least, is disagreements over the Bengals methodology. That is fair.
Should they cut guys like Hall, Peko and Maualuga, Jones, etc. and incur dead money? All reasonable questions to ask and be mad about. They will argue that if they don't some players see the life of the deal, they won't be able to get them agree to them in the first place (thus creating more cap issues with having to pay out more up front).
They do not use roll over money for current-year free agents. Never have. Should they? It could be argued they should. That's their view point.
Should they roll the dice on injuries and shallow out the injury protection pool? Maybe. It could be argued they should. Again, they choose to go that route.
As for the draft pool...total estimate. It's not determined until AFTER the draft. Any projection you see is based off the club standing pat and keeping all 11 picks. The pool changes with trades, etc.
It's not worth latching on to the Brown and Bell decisions in Pittsburgh, in my opinion. They've been cutting and restructuring guys for years in order to do this. They've generally had a cap mess. If the Bengals had those guys, I believe they would pay them. People get mad at M. Jones and maybe Zeitler leaving, but know who hasn't gotten away after their first deals? Geno Atkins. A.J. Green. Andy Dalton. An in-his-prime Whitworth. They've made sure to get those guys done, at near top of positional market value.
That's where "sign your own" comes into play. They can't keep everyone. No one does. It's easy to list who went away. But honestly, the rollover two years ago was entirely used on A.J. Green. Would you have preferred him hitting the UFA market? Marvin Jones received the same total dollars and years Detroit offered him. He chose to leave. Not much the club can do there. They made a decision on an aging Nelson. Objectively, I make the same call and it was the right one. Same with Sanu. Last year they used the roll over on Bernard, Hewitt and Williams. Now, if you want to argue that they should have planned for Jones' potential departure in the 2015 draft, that's valid and right.
Nailed it.
I'm the furthest thing from a Brown apologist but the Bengals, for the most part, have done what they had to do when they had to do it in terms of locking down key guys. I am of the belief that off-season roster management is one of this organization's greatest strengths. Has that resulted in wins when it mattered most? Nope, but that lays squarely on the shoulders of the coaching staff. The powers that be in the department of talent retention and acquisition over the last six years have done their jobs.
