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[Geno_Can_Dunk]

(01-20-2021, 07:44 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: You know, you're right.  Good catch.  I distinctly remember seeing a 42.x figure not too long ago.

Here is what I think is the explanation for that. Remember right after the season concluded we signed a bunch of our practice squad guys to futures contracts? When you were seeing the 42 figure (as was I) it wasn't including our practice squad guys, only our regulars under contract for 2021. Way less than 51 players. Then they added those contracts and it dropped our cap space. 

At least i'm pretty sure that's what happened. I base this on overthecap.com rather than spotrac, although the two sources almost always have the exact same numbers (presumably using the same source of data). I just want to plug overthecap.com because while it gives the same info I find it way more user friendly and intuitive. 

For example, go here: https://overthecap.com/calculator/cincinnati-bengals/

Scroll down and start cutting guys who don't have a snowball's chance of making the team, like Donnie Lewis, Keandre Jones, etc, and you'll see our cap space climb north again. Of course those guys will be replaced by draft picks and/or whomever does make the team, but point being "cap space" turns out to be fluid. 

You can also see what happens when we make Geno a June 1 cut - we save more like 12M this year. Sure it's at the cost of 2022's cap, but hey, the future is now.