If I'm Bengals, Maybe No Free Agents NOW.

[*ochocincos*]

(03-17-2020, 08:14 AM)kevin Wrote: The Paul Brown way was to build through the draft.  Get them young and into your system ways. That was how he built The Cleveland Browns Championship Years. That was pretty much how Bengals went to 2 Super Bowls as he was the owner.

Now you have Wall Street and Main Street taking a huge Depression like hit during the start of this World virus thing that everybody from The President to Medical says will indeed get worse before it gets better.  

I could see The Bengals not spending a dime in Free Agency Now, At This Time.  Holding on to their money for any losses they may have coming.  We assume there will be a season, but who knows.  The Bengals do have the Top Picks in every round coming in April.

I'll add the LB and OT we got around free agency time from Buffalo Bills sure was a waste of money a couple years ago.  

All things considered, maybe it's best to go back to Paul Brown ways and just try to keep your own players that you can keep at a fair price, and draft in top college talent.  With the near future uncertain in all business including the NFL, maybe Cool Hand Luke is right and nothing is a real cool hand.  Maybe not a good time for Bengals to do much in Free Agency and the Franchise and Future will be Financially more sound going into new decade for the money they don't throw around March of 2020.  In business it is known as sandbagging.  Hold on to their money now for any losses they may be hit with in this World Crises, and when things recover The Bengals are one of few teams ready to get back to business as normal, because they didn't chase mega buck players March of 2020.

I'll add that if there is a season, many may not have the money to buy tickets.  Small businesses are in great peril.  In hard economic times, the first thing you do is sell the boat and cancel your NFL tickets.  Fans in the Stands may be a real problem.  Raising ticket prices would be very unwise.  Maybe cut spending, and that starts with mega buck free agents who may not fit your teams system anyway. Again, the Bengals broke the bank on the LB and OT from Buffalo and the result was the 2 worst seasons in Bengals History.

Build through the draft worked for Paul Brown for a couple reasons:
1) He actually knew what he was doing and could identify and coach up talent
2) Free Agency wasn't a thing while he was alive. There was no worry of drafting a good player and seeing them leave for another team. If that happened, it's because your franchise chose to part ways with that player.\

Today's NFL teams cannot function like the old days. You have to pay some top players if you want to compete for a championship.