5 Key Players Bengals May Have To Get Rid Of This Off Season

[THE PISTONS]

Reader and Hendrickson? That's laughable.

[Essex Johnson]

They will pay Joe but to think they won;t have to cut or not resign players or impacting FAs in the bigger picture is just wrong. All you have to do is look around the league.. big QB contracts do result in teams having to make other choices, the hope is that Joe produces to the level of his contract regardless of the limitations it places on the organization and Bengals drafts and decision making are able to balance out.

[*Go Cards*]

Sorry not buying it

[BengalsRocker]

Media sure is on a roll of doom & gloom busting this team up isn't it?

[samhain]

With the exception of Mixon, I'd bet that all of those players will play out their current deals.

Joe's deal will create a cap crunch, but the real one comes next year. I think they'll do all they can to keep everyone not named Bates, Pratt, Apple and Mixon. Maybe Hurst if he asks for something crazy.

[*bfine32*]

Not sure how many in here realize what "key" means. It doesn't mean getting rid of the ones you want. It means being like KC and parting ways with Tyreke Hill

Trading Trey Hendrickson saves us over $10 Mil next year

It's why we drafted Ossai.

[Nicomo Cosca]

(02-06-2023, 10:20 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Not sure how many in here realize what "key" means. It doesn't mean getting rid of the ones you want. It means being like KC and parting ways with Tyreke Hill

Trading Trey Hendrickson saves us over $10 Mil next year

It's why we drafted Ossai.

Eh, you draft Ossai because you can never have too many pass rushers (much like CB’s). 3 good ones seems like the bare minimum of what a team should have.

Philly having 4 double digit sack guys was the main reason they were the team I was most worried about facing in the playoffs.

[*bfine32*]

(02-06-2023, 10:31 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: Eh, you draft Ossai because you can never have too many pass rushers (much like CB’s). 3 good ones seems like the bare minimum of what a team should have.

Philly having 4 double digit sack guys was the main reason they were the team I was most worried about facing in the playoffs.

You can easily have too many of any position. It comes down to how much are you willing to pay for good ones.

Folks suggesting we part ways with players we "don't like" does very little. 

Trading Trey gets us a draft pick and frees up $22 Mil in Cap over the next 2 years. That'll come in handy when we sign JB long term.

Tradin Tee gets us a couple of picks

Reader gets us a pick or 2 and $11 MIL in cap 

We gotta get used to being a good team. Cuts of folks we like must happen 

[Nicomo Cosca]

(02-06-2023, 10:44 PM)bfine32 Wrote: You can easily have too many of any position. It comes down to how much are you willing to pay for good ones.

Folks suggesting we part ways with players we "don't like" does very little. 

Trading Trey gets us a draft pick and frees up $22 Mil in Cap over the next 2 years. That'll come in handy when we sign JB long term.

Tradin Tee gets us a couple of picks

Reader gets us a pick or 2 and $11 MIL in cap 

We gotta get used to being a good team. Cuts of folks we like must happen 

The Bengals currently have the 5th most cap space. We don’t need to start making difficult decisions quite yet.

[THE PISTONS]

(02-06-2023, 10:44 PM)bfine32 Wrote: You can easily have too many of any position. It comes down to how much are you willing to pay for good ones.

Folks suggesting we part ways with players we "don't like" does very little. 

Trading Trey gets us a draft pick and frees up $22 Mil in Cap over the next 2 years. That'll come in handy when we sign JB long term.

Tradin Tee gets us a couple of picks

Reader gets us a pick or 2 and $11 MIL in cap 

We gotta get used to being a good team. Cuts of folks we like must happen 

Get rid of Reader and our defense will decline...a lot.

[THE PISTONS]

The more I think about it, it's going to be hard to have an elite roster when Burrow, Chase, and Tee get paid.

I just don't think we can invest 50-60 million in Tee and Chase. Sucks too.

[Ell Prez]

(02-06-2023, 03:50 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: Sometimes it feels like the NFL intentionally wrote the cap rules to be confusing and nonsensical 

Kinda like the IRS and tax laws

[*SHRacerX*]

(02-06-2023, 02:22 PM)casear2727 Wrote: WKRC is either looking for views or not very bright.

Bengals are paying Burrow without question.  Even as the highest paid player the structure of the deal can be very team friendly.

As long as LC is on IR he cant be cut, Trey is a bargain, and Reader is the best run stuffer in the NFL.

The truth is the Bengals do not have to cut anyone to pay Joe.  To pay Tee, Wilson and others decisions will have to be made.

I'm guessing the former.  Click bait, if you will, seems to be the only real goal of most articles.  Nothing factual and just a bunch of drama.  The Bengals don't have to have a fire sale to make their books work out.  Not even close.  There are cornerstone players and those five listed had two of them, IMHO:  Hendrickson and Reader.  Yes, there may need to be tough decisions to make with guys like Boyd, Mixon, Collins and others, but the cornerstone players will remain and the team will be a Championship caliber team so long as Burrow is here.  

[CincyWestside]

(02-07-2023, 01:23 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: The more I think about it, it's going to be hard to have an elite roster when Burrow, Chase, and Tee get paid.

I just don't think we can invest 50-60 million in Tee and Chase. Sucks too.

I think it is all doable. Give them their bags now, but sign them to longer term deals. 10 years for Burrow and 6 to 7 for both Chase and Higgins. You get Burrow for $50M a year and Higgins and Chase for $45-50M combined. 

The way the cap numbers keep rising, they will be on team-friendly deals in just a few years. Look at what KC did with Mahomes. I thought they would never be able to pay anybody else after he signed that long term deal. But with the rising cap from year to year, his contract is looking more and more team-friendly every season.

Heck, between 2022 and 2023, they raised the cap like $17M. That could just be Tee's extension and the rise next year would account for Chase.

[*PhilHos*]

(02-06-2023, 02:12 PM)kevin Wrote: Per WKRC Sports Story :

The main thing Bengals have to do this off season is resign Joe Burrow so he is not a Free Agent at end of next season.  The sooner, the better, because all other Bengals player moves revolve around this.

So the 5 players that WKRC says look to be salary cap hits are JOE MIXON, TYLER BOYD,  LA'EL COLLINS, DJ READER, TREY HENDRICKSON.   WKRC isn't saying gone after next season, they are saying gone before this June.  

WKRC also says there is a remote chance Mike Brown doesn't pay and keep Joe Burrow, to keep other players.  However keeping Joe Burrow is what the team wants and a big reason they sold the name right to stadium for extra revenue, and no longer Paul Brown Stadium. Plus Joe Burrow is the main reason for record breaking advanced season tickets being sold by Bengals.

Joe Burrow will go from his out of college contract to being one of the highest paid players in the NFL, right up there with Mahomes and Watson. So as WKRC says it, players have to go to make room for this huge contract.

Whoever wrote that story CLEARLY does not know much about the Bengals. First off,  it's pretty obvious to those of us that follow the Bengals that Mike Brown is NOT the decision maker anymore. And even if he was, Mike Brown WILL pay Joe Burrow whatever it takes to keep him; I mean he gave Carson Palmer what was, at the time, the biggest contract for a QB (or at least, one of the biggest). 

That said, i can see Mixon and Boyd getting the axe, but NO WAY do they cut La'el (unless there's someone who is at least as good as him and Adeniji is NOT), Reader and Hendrickson. 

In conclusion, the author of the piece OP referenced needs to be cut from their job.

[BigPapaKain]

I'm not sure which is sadder; that this bullshit was written or that it was published.

[*ochocincos*]

(02-06-2023, 02:26 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: I could definitely see us cutting Collins and Mixon, as they are not living up to their contracts and could be replaced and upgrade the team.

If they cut Boyd, Hendrickson or Reader, they'd be idiots. All 3 are outperforming their contracts by a wide margin and we're lucky to have them.

Also, the idea that we wouldn't pay Burrow to keep other players is nonsense. Brown isn't that stupid.

You could argue Boyd isn't quite.

He's 30th highest WR in terms of AAV.
He's the 25th highest WR based full contract.

Boyd was 43rd in receiving yards this past year.
39th the year before.

The reality is Boyd was given his contract at the time to be a good WR2.
He'd likely be a good WR2 on most teams, but in an offense with Chase and Higgins, his production is more limited.

Boyd the past two seasons:
2021 - 828 yards
2022 - 762 yards

Boyd is set to count $10.285 mill this year, only $1.4 mill dead cap if team moves on.
Cap savings of nearly $8.9 mill.

Can a (much) cheaper veteran or a draft pick put up production like that in the Bengals offense and allow the Bengals to repurpose that saved money elsewhere?
I would argue they could. It's also possible the replacement player does not though. That's the gamble you take when you decide to replace a player.

[kevin]

Now I will add, that if I had my way this entire team would be back next season. I wouldn't mess with a team that has went to back to back AFC Championships.

However the NFL is set up with these salary caps. This article says once Burrow is resigned, the Bengals have tough choices on the salary cap.

I like all 5 players and everybody on the team, so I want the entire team back, but that probably isn't possible. Not with so many young players now reaching Pay Raise Time, and the NFL Salary Cap.

The main thing is to sign Burrow, you can't have him as a free agent next March. So when they get Burrow signed, let's not call the Bengals cheap over some Fan Favorites they may have to trade. It's the NFL Salary Cap, and it is, what it is. Once they sign Burrow, they will have to get under The Cap. I wish they could all stay, but probably not possible.

I do think Bengals will sign Burrow long term, and field a good team in 2023. The Front Office and Head Coach have been pretty good building this team up. The Bengals will still be a Power going forward.

[CJD]

(02-07-2023, 03:03 PM)ochocincos Wrote: You could argue Boyd isn't quite.

He's 30th highest WR in terms of AAV.
He's the 25th highest WR based full contract.

Boyd was 43rd in receiving yards this past year.
39th the year before.

The reality is Boyd was given his contract at the time to be a good WR2.
He'd likely be a good WR2 on most teams, but in an offense with Chase and Higgins, his production is more limited.

Boyd the past two seasons:
2021 - 828 yards
2022 - 762 yards

Boyd is set to count $10.285 mill this year, only $1.4 mill dead cap if team moves on.
Cap savings of nearly $8.9 mill.

Can a (much) cheaper veteran or a draft pick put up production like that in the Bengals offense and allow the Bengals to repurpose that saved money elsewhere?
I would argue they could. It's also possible the replacement player does not though. That's the gamble you take when you decide to replace a player.

I think the most limited resource on this offense is targets and we saw that with Boyd. With Chase already absorbing more than a third of the WR targets there will inevitably be less than a player's "fair portion" of targets to go around. 

Boyd only had 82 targets (a consequence of being the 3rd or 4th option on many plays) but he led all Bengals Wide Receivers with a catch percentage of 70.7%, he was second among Bengals Wide Receivers in first downs per reception of 0.707 and first downs per target at 0.5 behind only Irwin and his 15 receptions (small sample size). And he wasn't that far behind Higgins in yards per reception with 13.1 to Higgins 13.9 (both higher than Chase's 12.0). 

It would be unfair, I feel, to penalize Boyd because he happens to have two of the best receivers in the NFL ahead of him. He still performs his job magnificently and I don't think you'd be able to improve the slot receiver role with ~$10M AAV in free agency. 

With that said, I do concede that on strictly a yards and touchdowns basis, Boyd may be the least "overperforming" of the contracts mentioned in the original post.

[*ochocincos*]

(02-07-2023, 03:48 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: I think the most limited resource on this offense is targets and we saw that with Boyd. With Chase already absorbing more than a third of the WR targets there will inevitably be less than a player's "fair portion" of targets to go around. 

Boyd only had 82 targets (a consequence of being the 3rd or 4th option on many plays) but he led all Bengals Wide Receivers with a catch percentage of 70.7%, he was second among Bengals Wide Receivers in first downs per reception of 0.707 and first downs per target at 0.5 behind only Irwin and his 15 receptions (small sample size). And he wasn't that far behind Higgins in yards per reception with 13.1 to Higgins 13.9 (both higher than Chase's 12.0). 

It would be unfair, I feel, to penalize Boyd because he happens to have two of the best receivers in the NFL ahead of him. He still performs his job magnificently and I don't think you'd be able to improve the slot receiver role with ~$10M AAV in free agency. 

With that said, I do concede that on strictly a yards and touchdowns basis, Boyd may be the least "overperforming" of the contracts mentioned in the original post.

Yea I should have clarified that it's not that I think he's not as good as his contract says he should be, it's that he's underutilized in the offense for as much as he gets paid.
It's hard to justify paying someone like the #2 option in the passing game but actually be #3 in the pecking order.