Skill players surrounding Andy

[Shake n Blake]

(07-23-2017, 08:51 PM)OrangeLacroix Wrote: If CAP space is the most important  asset, and the Bengals always have a ton of it, yet they never acquire any top FAs, how does that work?   I will wait for you to explain how cap space helps the bengals in Free Agency. 

The Pats last took a skill player in the 1st round in 20006  -  Maroney

Steelers - one in the last decade - 2008   Mendenhall 

Ravens - 1 skill player 1st round pick in the last 12 years - Perriman

Broncos - 0 1st round skill players taken in the last 7 years. 

Falcons - 1 in the last decade - Julio

Seattle has not spent a 1st rounder on a skill player since Jeremy Stevens in 2002 - Lol

In the last 8 years  - the bengals have spent 4 1st rounders on skill -  AJ, Ross, Gresh and Eifert. 

Lol

When did I say that cap space helps the Bengals in free agency?   I'm saying that they focus on filling needs via the draft, whereas some of these teams fill these skill position needs via trades and free agency. For example, using a team you listed:

The Patriots: They haven't even had a 1st round pick in 4 of those 11 years. Although they haven't taken a skill position offensive player via the draft, they have picked them up in other ways. Just in the time frame you used:

Traded for Randy Moss
*Traded for (and later signed back) LeGarrette Blount
Traded for Wes Welker
*Traded for Brandin Cooks (spent a 1st rounder here)
*Traded for Chad Johnson
*Traded for Tim Wright
*Traded for Martellus Bennett
*Traded for Dwayne Allen
Signed Deion Branch (the 2nd time around)
*Signed Brandon Lloyd 
*Signed Brandon LaFell
*Signed Danny Amendola
*Signed Dion Lewis
*Signed Scott Chandler
*Signed Chris Hogan as a restricted FA from Buffalo
*Claimed Michael Floyd off waivers
*Signed Mike Gillislee
*Signed Rex Burkhead
*Signed Andrew Hawkins
--------------------------------------------
All of these guys ranged from productive role players to studs elsewhere. The ones with an asterisk are all moves they've made since Dalton was drafted. Now compare that list to the list of skill position players the Bengals have signed (or traded for) since Dalton was drafted that were somewhat productive elsewhere:

Signed Benny Green-Ellis
Signed Dane Sanzenbacher 
Signed Greg Little
Signed Brandon Tate
Signed Brandon LaFell
Signed Alex Smith

Signings (during Dalton era)
Bengals: 6
Patriots: 10

Trades (again...during Dalton era)
Bengals: 0
Patriots: 6

Also, you can see there's a difference in the quality of the players signed/traded for. 

This is the best I can do to spell it out for you. The Bengals use the draft for pretty much everything...including skill position offense (and sometimes let those players walk...only to draft yet another player to fill the void), while teams like New England take much more advantage of Free Agency and Trades while using their picks to trade around or draft defense and lines. 

Hard to argue against New England's (or Seattle's, etc) method, but we aren't taking skill position guys "cuz Dalton sucks"...we draft skill position players because we don't do trades or free agency much. We also tend to let some players walk when they get expensive. Understand now?   :andy: