Congratulation Bates

[*ochocincos*]

(01-08-2021, 04:44 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Rather than keep both Price and Finney until Hopkins is back....

Price: $3.7m 2021 cap hit, $2.1m cap savings if cut
Finney: $3.5m 2021 cap hit, $3.5m cap savings if cut
Hopkins: $6.6m 2021 cap hit, $4.3m cap savings if cut

Why pay 2 bad players and 1 medicore-at-best player $13.8m to play 1 position when you can instead save $9.9m by cutting them and then just pay that (plus a small amount more) to 1 REALLY good player to play that position?

Top-5 C money is only $11-12m/yr, so that $9.9m cap savings almost covers the entire cost of a Top-5 C contract.

Cut all three, throw $12m/yr at Corey Linsley, and be much much better off for only $2.1m more.


Fitzpatrick and Mathieu have the benefit of both being on playoff teams and both on Top-10 defenses. It helps, even though it probably shouldn't for this award.

There's some discrepancy about whether Price would save any cap if cut. OverTheCap says his whole $3.7 mill contract is treated as dead cap if cut.
https://overthecap.com/player/billy-price/6906/

As for Finney, we don't know he's bad. He just never got a chance to play as a Bengal yet. But he's been a consistently good pass blocker when he was in SEA. 

I don't see any way the Bengals would consider removing all of Hopkins, Price, and Finney. They'd have to draft another C to back up Linsley or move someone like Michael Jordan to be his backup.

I'd be happy if the Bengals went after Linsley, but 1) we don't even know if he's going to make it to FA (GB could extend or franchise him), 2) I can't imagine Bengals are high on his destination list, and 3) Bengals haven't traditionally paid $10+ mill for any IOL.

My expectation: Bengals keep Hopkins and either Price or Finney through this year as they look to solidify the other OL spots.