03-17-2017, 03:41 PM
(03-17-2017, 11:29 AM)grampahol Wrote: As to the notion that they don't want to pay anyone unless it's 'team friendly' I have no problem with this.
Just a show of hands, how many people when shopping for a house, car or anything really demand that they pay only top dollar? How many of you walk up to the salesman and say, 'Enough with giving me a bargain. I want to overpay for everything I buy! '
Personally I've never seen this happen and I suspect none of you have nor will you any time soon.
Some people seem to look at a teams budget like their own personal piggy bank and they're shopping for chewing gum where prices are all set in stone. Player salaries vary greatly from player to player depending on experience, health, talent, incentives and so on. We really don't have access to every line of every contract every player signs. They go into every season never knowing if any player at any position will play 1 snap or every snap. Just because player x has played 7 seasons and has never had a serious injury doesn't mean there's a guarantee that he won't break his leg on the first play of the season. We don't know if they're going to have an injury free season or if 3/4 of the team is going to be on injured reserve after the first game.
So by hanging on as much money as possible within certain parameters it makes perfect sense. Overpaying for question marks doesn't make sense.
/rant
I suspect that even NE is eventually run up against the injury bug so bad they're going to finish in last place. In fact I hope they do it in spades and it goes on for several years.
Comparing NFL free agency with buying a house isn't apples to apples.
The Bengals operate a business with revenue sharing where they get exactly 1/32 of the pie.
Also when buying a house...there isn't a salary cap for all houses sold.
The salary cap has risen from $120 million in 2012 to $167 million in 2017. The salary cap is a percentage of revenue so the Bengals are GUARANTEED a profit.
