Worst Contracts on each team

[CJD]

Bleacher Report listed the worst contract on each team here.

To no one's surprise, Trae Waynes was listed as our worst contract.

Quote:The Contract: Three years, $42 million, expires in 2023

This isn't an indictment of Trae Waynes' play or the Cincinnati Bengals' decision-making. The veteran cornerback just hasn't been able to stay healthy over the course of his contract.

The Bengals signed Waynes in 2020, but a torn pectoral kept him from taking a single snap last year. He played only five games this season, as a hamstring injury sidelined him for another lengthy stretch.

During his limited action, Waynes hasn't contributed much. He had no interceptions and only one pass defended during the regular season.

Meanwhile, the Bengals have found answers in their secondary with other free-agent acquisitions. Chidobe Awuzie is Pro Football Focus' third-highest-graded cornerback, while Mike Hilton has provided strong value for his contract.

I decided to go look at the Bengals contracts currently on the books and I can say, it's incredible how few bad contracts this team has right now:
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/contracts/

Their top contracts are Hendrickson, Reader, Mixon, Boyd, Waynes, Hubbard, Burrow, Chase, Hilton, Awuzie, Hopkins and Bell all above 6 million per year. With the exception of Waynes, I feel like every single one of these contracts are good ones. Every other contract is under 5 million per year so you can't really fault any of those contracts regardless of the players' impact (and I personally don't see any egregious contracts there either).

If I turn to the Bengals Salary Cap tab, we are only carrying 3.5 million dollars in dead cap, accounting for only 1.63% of the overall cap. And that dead cap comes almost entirely from XSF, who would come in 2nd place for worst contract before his release, in my opinion.

And that dead cap drops to just 333k in 2023 from XSF and that is currently the only dead cap on the team. I expect Waynes to be added to that list soon, but not until the off season. His dead cap would be only 5 million.

I know our front office gets a ton of crap for being cheap, but I do think they are really good at managing the cap and preventing bad contracts and dead cap from cut players. Thought I'd just point this out. Our future is bright with no constraints on our cap and tons of space to make our team even better!

[WeezyBengal]

Someone said that Awuzie and maybe Hendrickson was it? had options in their contract to where they could walk after this year...is that true?

[*Go Cards*]

Waynes has definitely not paid dividends in Cincinnati.

But the Bengals hit everywhere else in FA which helped counter this error.

[WeezyBengal]

(01-20-2022, 11:03 AM)Go Cards Wrote: Waynes has definitely not paid dividends in Cincinnati.

But the Bengals hit everywhere else in FA which helped counter this error.

Everyone hates on Waynes, but it's not his fault or the Bengals fault that he's been injured over the past few years. I'm sure he's just as frustrated as all of us. These things just happen sometimes. 

[TecmoBengals]

(01-20-2022, 11:05 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Everyone hates on Waynes, but it's not his fault or the Bengals fault that he's been injured over the past few years. I'm sure he's just as frustrated as all of us. These things just happen sometimes. 

There is likely truth in your post, but I think the perception from fans is the dude got paid and then became soft by not playing through the injuries. Maybe I'm wrong in how I'm summarizing the posts I see about Waynes and people legitimately understand he has injuries but are mad about it?

Either way, the Waynes signing didn't work out for the Bengals but fortunately it doesn't appear to be too detrimental to the team's season.

I'm okay if the Bengals miss on the occasional free agent signing as long as they remain active during the free agency period. Don't let a Waynes-scenario sway them from not signing free agents.

[samhain]

(01-20-2022, 11:05 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Everyone hates on Waynes, but it's not his fault or the Bengals fault that he's been injured over the past few years. I'm sure he's just as frustrated as all of us. These things just happen sometimes. 

This.

There's not much he can do to keep from having the kinds of injuries he's dealt with.  Sometimes luck just isn't on your side.  

I was really hoping he could come back and help out at the end of the year.  Idk if his conditioning isn't there or if the staff is being loyal to the guys that have gotten it done in his absence.  It's strange to see a player getting paid like that standing on the sideline while dudes like Flowers and Hargreaves get snaps.

[Nicomo Cosca]

Waynes would still be our worst contract even if he wasn’t always hurt. They grossly overpaid him to begin with.

[Soonerpeace]

The 2022 draft and free agency and salary cap management is crucial. They are going to have to keep some space for when Tee, Joe, and others renew. But they also need to address the OL and frankly almost equally important is the depth. Depth more important with 17 games than ever.

[CJD]

(01-20-2022, 11:00 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Someone said that Awuzie and maybe Hendrickson was it? had options in their contract to where they could walk after this year...is that true?

So, I'm not sure if it was mentioned officially at any given time. What I suspect is that maybe people saw the note on the Spotrac pages for their contracts.

Trey Hendrickson's Spotrac Page
Chidobe Awuzie's Spotrac Page

You can see it says "Potential Out: 2022 1 YR" and it lists the dead cap if the contract were to be terminated.


I am pretty sure that line item's only purpose is to point out when would be a good time to cut a player. For example, Trey Hendrickson's dead cap if he were cut in 2021 is $19,800,000. Awuzie's is $8,850,000.

If you cut either of them after the 2021 season, the dead cap drops to only $7,500,000 and $3,000,000, respectively.

So I think Spotrac is noting when that dead cap number drops by a certain percentage such that cutting a player is considered "worth it."

Another example of this is actually Trae Waynes' contract.

Trae Waynes' Spotrac Page

You can see that if they cut Waynes in 2020, his dead cap would be $20,000,000.
If they cut Waynes in 2021, his dead cap would see be $20,800,000.

However, if you cut him after 2021, his dead cap is only $5,000,000.

I don't think any of those "outs" mean that the player can just leave their contract. I think they're just notes for when would be a "wise" time to cut the player if they underperform.

I may be wrong, but that's how I interpret those out notes. I don't think Awuzie or Hendrickson can opt out of their contracts, Castellanos style.

Other examples are Reader's contract and Mixon's Contract
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/dj-reader-19120/
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/joe-mixon-21789/

They each list outs after 2021, but it's where their dead cap drops from 21M to 8M and 16M to 8M, respectively.

So I don't think we have to worry about Awuzie leaving the team after 1 year or anything like that. We'll find out in the off season though, I guess XD. I've looked everywhere for an article that mentions that as a possibility and haven't seen anything. If it were a possibility, I would expect someone to comment on it after the year he's had.

[magikod]

(01-20-2022, 11:27 AM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Waynes would still be our worst contract even if he wasn’t always hurt. They grossly overpaid him to begin with.

Yeah I know. He isn't worth that kind of money even when healthy.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(01-20-2022, 11:00 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Someone said that Awuzie and maybe Hendrickson was it? had options in their contract to where they could walk after this year...is that true?

(01-20-2022, 11:31 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: So, I'm not sure if it was mentioned officially at any given time. What I suspect is that maybe people saw the note on the Spotrac pages for their contracts.

Trey Hendrickson's Spotrac Page
Chidobe Awuzie's Spotrac Page

You can see it says "Potential Out: 2022 1 YR" and it lists the dead cap if the contract were to be terminated.


I am pretty sure that line item's only purpose is to point out when would be a good time to cut a player. For example, Trey Hendrickson's dead cap if he were cut in 2021 is $19,800,000. Awuzie's is $8,850,000.

If you cut either of them after the 2021 season, the dead cap drops to only $7,500,000 and $3,000,000, respectively.

So I think Spotrac is noting when that dead cap number drops by a certain percentage such that cutting a player is considered "worth it."

Another example of this is actually Trae Waynes' contract.

Trae Waynes' Spotrac Page

You can see that if they cut Waynes in 2020, his dead cap would be $20,000,000.
If they cut Waynes in 2021, his dead cap would see be $20,800,000.

However, if you cut him after 2021, his dead cap is only $5,000,000.

I don't think any of those "outs" mean that the player can just leave their contract. I think they're just notes for when would be a "wise" time to cut the player if they underperform.

I may be wrong, but that's how I interpret those out notes. I don't think Awuzie or Hendrickson can opt out of their contracts, Castellanos style.

Other examples are Reader's contract and Mixon's Contract
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/dj-reader-19120/
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/joe-mixon-21789/

They each list outs after 2021, but it's where their dead cap drops from 21M to 8M and 16M to 8M, respectively.

So I don't think we have to worry about Awuzie leaving the team after 1 year or anything like that. We'll find out in the off season though, I guess XD. I've looked everywhere for an article that mentions that as a possibility and haven't seen anything. If it were a possibility, I would expect someone to comment on it after the year he's had.

It's a TEAM option, not a player option.

[Au165]

(01-20-2022, 10:45 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: Bleacher Report listed the worst contract on each team here.

To no one's surprise, Trae Waynes was listed as our worst contract.


I decided to go look at the Bengals contracts currently on the books and I can say, it's incredible how few bad contracts this team has right now:
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/contracts/

Their top contracts are Hendrickson, Reader, Mixon, Boyd, Waynes, Hubbard, Burrow, Chase, Hilton, Awuzie, Hopkins and Bell all above 6 million per year. With the exception of Waynes, I feel like every single one of these contracts are good ones. Every other contract is under 5 million per year so you can't really fault any of those contracts regardless of the players' impact (and I personally don't see any egregious contracts there either).

If I turn to the Bengals Salary Cap tab, we are only carrying 3.5 million dollars in dead cap, accounting for only 1.63% of the overall cap. And that dead cap comes almost entirely from XSF, who would come in 2nd place for worst contract before his release, in my opinion.

And that dead cap drops to just 333k in 2023 from XSF and that is currently the only dead cap on the team. I expect Waynes to be added to that list soon, but not until the off season. His dead cap would be only 5 million.

I know our front office gets a ton of crap for being cheap, but I do think they are really good at managing the cap and preventing bad contracts and dead cap from cut players. Thought I'd just point this out. Our future is bright with no constraints on our cap and tons of space to make our team even better!

They have XSF cap wrong, there isn't anyway for it to carry a hit next year outside of around 300k because that's all that was guaranteed. OTC reflects it the way that actually makes sense, no clue why Spotract turned the whole thing into a dead cap hit when it would be more than the entire guarantee in his contract..

[CJD]

(01-20-2022, 11:37 AM)magikod Wrote: Yeah I know. He isn't worth that kind of money even when healthy.

To be fair, we signed him before our team was good in any way, so I think we had to "overpay" for free agents during that 2020 off season. You saw it with the Reader contract too, as we made him the highest paid NT in the NFL at the time.

When you have a bad team, sometimes you have to overpay to entice the free agents to take a chance on the team. If Waynes had performed to a respectable degree, about equivalent to his performance at the end of his Minnesota career, I don't think we'd be too upset about his contract. He may not be "worth it" but he'd still be a good contributor to the team and an upgrade over what we had.

[CJD]

(01-20-2022, 11:43 AM)Au165 Wrote: They have XSF cap wrong, there isn't anyway for it to carry a hit next year outside of around 300k because that's all that was guaranteed. OTC reflects it the way that actually makes sense, no clue why Spotract turned the whole thing into a dead cap hit when it would be more than the entire guarantee in his contract..

That's a good point. Maybe they consider the current cap (for the 2021 season) as the 2022 cap and the cap for the 2022 season to be "2023" because that's the year that cap season ends.

It's confusing and you're right that his dead cap falls off for the upcoming off season, not the offseason after this one.

That is a definite oversight by Spotrac.

[XenoMorph]

(01-20-2022, 10:45 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: Bleacher Report listed the worst contract on each team here.

To no one's surprise, Trae Waynes was listed as our worst contract.


I decided to go look at the Bengals contracts currently on the books and I can say, it's incredible how few bad contracts this team has right now:
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/contracts/

Their top contracts are Hendrickson, Reader, Mixon, Boyd, Waynes, Hubbard, Burrow, Chase, Hilton, Awuzie, Hopkins and Bell all above 6 million per year. With the exception of Waynes, I feel like every single one of these contracts are good ones. Every other contract is under 5 million per year so you can't really fault any of those contracts regardless of the players' impact (and I personally don't see any egregious contracts there either).

If I turn to the Bengals Salary Cap tab, we are only carrying 3.5 million dollars in dead cap, accounting for only 1.63% of the overall cap. And that dead cap comes almost entirely from XSF, who would come in 2nd place for worst contract before his release, in my opinion.

And that dead cap drops to just 333k in 2023 from XSF and that is currently the only dead cap on the team. I expect Waynes to be added to that list soon, but not until the off season. His dead cap would be only 5 million.

I know our front office gets a ton of crap for being cheap, but I do think they are really good at managing the cap and preventing bad contracts and dead cap from cut players. Thought I'd just point this out. Our future is bright with no constraints on our cap and tons of space to make our team even better!

funny how they have good contracts but everyone always wants to overpay for things...

[muskiesfan]

This is an unpopular opinion, but I say keep Waynes in 2022. If nothing else, at least until free agency starts or they extend Apple. Here are my thoughts.

With rollover, the Bengals are looking at $58m in cap space for 2022. Free agents that would be nice to bring back in no particular order are; Larry Ojunobi, CJ Uzomah, Jessie Bates, Clark Harris, Eli Apple, Quinton Spain, and BJ Hill. There are other players that we will probably bring back on cheap contracts as well. I'm hoping the team will try to extend the guys they want to keep before free agency begins. It takes two to tango, so that will depend on if the players also want to stay or test free agency. If Apple, Hargreaves, and Flowers all leave, keeping Waynes makes sense. Health is the big factor but having your top 3 CBs as Waynes, Awuzie, and Hilton is better than having to fill Waynes' spot as well.

I do not expect that the Bengals will be able to keep everyone I listed. Hill will be cheaper than Ogunjobi, but keeping both would be incredible. They also need to upgrade the OLine, but there is also the draft. A veteran C, RG, or RT would open things up there. If they have trouble keeping who they want and signing free agent pieces they want, then cut Waynes to make room. If they fail to bring back any of their free agent corners, that would create another need in the draft. So I would keep Waynes unless they can lock up 2 of Apple and Flowers/Hargreaves.

So there is my long winded thoughts on why keeping Waynes may be a good move instead of letting him go. Without him the cap space goes up to almost $70m, but I would want to make sure that his replacement is already signed before cutting bait.

[magikod]

(01-20-2022, 11:45 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: To be fair, we signed him before our team was good in any way, so I think we had to "overpay" for free agents during that 2020 off season. You saw it with the Reader contract too, as we made him the highest paid NT in the NFL at the time.

When you have a bad team, sometimes you have to overpay to entice the free agents to take a chance on the team. If Waynes had performed to a respectable degree, about equivalent to his performance at the end of his Minnesota career, I don't think we'd be too upset about his contract. He may not be "worth it" but he'd still be a good contributor to the team and an upgrade over what we had.

True, but at least with Reader he is playing well. Waynes is just collecting his paycheck and not doing much. Reminds me of AJ Green during his final year here.

[Rubekahn29]

(01-20-2022, 11:17 AM)TecmoBengals Wrote: . Don't let a Waynes-scenario sway them from not signing free agents.

I’m hoping because of the success of Hendrickson, Reader, Bell, Awuzie, Ohinjobi, Hilton, and heck, even Apple, they will continue this approach. I do think they need to switch it up though, and do heavy FA on Offense (mostly line) and draft defense early.

[TecmoBengals]

(01-20-2022, 03:28 PM)Rubekahn29 Wrote: I’m hoping because of the success of Hendrickson, Reader, Bell, Awuzie, Ohinjobi, Hilton, and heck, even Apple, they will continue this approach. I do think they need to switch it up though, and do heavy FA on Offense (mostly line) and draft defense early.

I think they'll continue the signings because the guys you mentioned are significant contributors to this year's success. Surely, the home playoff game made the Browns some money and Zac can highlight how FA facilitated the playoff opportunity.

I've not looked at the '22 FA group, but hopefully there are talented players and the Bengals can land OL or any position to improve the chances of winning back-to-back Super Bowls. 

I'm interested in the Joe Burrow factors continues to matter and he helps lands quality FAs.

[Rubekahn29]

(01-20-2022, 03:32 PM)TecmoBengals Wrote: I think they'll continue the signings because the guys you mentioned are significant contributors to this year's success. Surely, the home playoff game made the Browns some money and Zac can highlight how FA facilitated the playoff opportunity.

I've not looked at the '22 FA group, but hopefully there are talented players and the Bengals can land OL or any position to improve the chances of winning back-to-back Super Bowls. 

I'm interested in the Joe Burrow factors continues to matter and he helps lands quality FAs.

I think if we resign Spain, and fix the Center and right side of the line we will continue to ascend. I know we drafted some pieces but we can leave it up to development. We really need some proven veterans on our line. I’m not sure who will be available, but I’m sure there will be a couple worth shooting for.