Whitworth-Bengals lowballed

[3wt]

(12-04-2018, 04:12 PM)BengalChris Wrote: No, I'm pretty sure total money being offered by other teams was quite a bit more than the total money offered by Mike Brown. And, clearly Whit had more than one year left in him.

Apparently this was not the Bengals' view.  The sense I have after what I've read is that money being offered was comparable in the amount (though it sounds like it was heavily tied to incentives), but that they clearly doubted his ability to play at his pro bowl level for more than one year. 

And I think they believed, because of Paul Alexander, that Og and Fish (emphasis on Og) were going to pan out - that we really should not need to pay Whit at that level for more than one year.   Alexander grossly overestimated in his assessment of Og.

Combine that with other successful teams like the Patriots and the Steelers who always seem to know when to cut a player and I would imagine they felt they could not realistically afford to tie up their cap with that kind of commitment.  They based their decision based on what better teams are able to assess.

But they do not have the talent in their front office to correctly assess how long a player is going to be worth the money.

And they failed to assess the value of the man's character and the impact that had on the team.   Whit was gold, and I don't think he would have played beyond his ability to perform at a top level.  He would have terminated his own contract.

Huge, Huge failure at the front office level.   And if they had not messed around the year before they would have save money and been able to get him signed.

They squatted on him.   And it says SO much that they were the ONLY team that did not present a competitive offer.