01-17-2018, 06:47 PM
(01-17-2018, 05:54 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: Over the last 5 years, they have only signed 4 free agents to contracts that average 3m or more, and two of those were former Bengals.
Since the Bryant disaster, they've basically put a ceiling of 5m in place haven't deviated from that for the last 7 years.
So, for now it seems like a waste of time to talk about 8m, 7m or even 6m, because they haven't been in that ballpark since 2010.
As you imply, the Bengals have effectively eliminated a certain portion of the Free Agent market from consideration.
Free Agents have NFL experience that offers a track record of their performance that can be examined. More information on them than College prospects have going in.
It is up to each team to recognize the cost/benefit of getting a certain Free Agent on the roster.
Tom Coughlin in Jacksonville hit big on higher dollar Free Agents because he had the freedom to at least consider them and had his own personal talent evaluating expertise that enabled him to judge properly who to get & why.
The Fear of having a Free Agent fail is likely correlated to how confident the person picking them is in their own ability to judge talent. An NFL guy like Coughlin fearlessly pulls the trigger to get Free agents.
The Bengals have possibly become gun shy due to past failures. Creating a "Policy" of avoiding vast portions of the Free Agent market based on dollar amounts etc.
They may never go to the level the Jags just did but they do need to consider broadening the Free Agent Pool of players they consider.
They are allowing other teams a potential competitive advantage in this area and actually lost to Coughlin's Jaguars this year. That loss may not be solely due to Free Agency differences between the two teams but the difference in effective Free Agents brought in by both teams is glaring.
