Can someone explain to me what guys specifically we could’ve signed with Tee’s money

[Housh]

That would’ve made our defense top 5?


Iv been seeing the media say the dumbest shit ever in regards to us signing Tee and Chase.


If you are saying we would’ve been able to get a big fish you are talking about Milton Williams

So that’s 1 guy. Even if we had Milton Williams it’s not like he turns us top 5 by himself.


You could also say maybe with the 28M we could’ve gotten 2 mid tier guys. Like a Chase Young and a Jevon Holland.


Yeah our D would likely be better but 2 mid level guys ain’t taking our D into the top 5.







I guess I’m saying Iv seen ppl say we could’ve done so much more to help the defense with Tee’s money….

Ok give me the exact moves then. It’s everyone saying we messed up but not one media pundit has put together a plan with the 28M that would’ve taken our D to new heights. Mofos just wanna complain about us making a move right after they complained that we weren’t making moves.

[NUGDUKWE]

Honestly I'm in the boat of Tee was a player we couldn't let leave and he would have the biggest impact on our team.
But I do think we really need to 2 guards because that was another big issue but also I think we can make a significant impact on the defense if all our other needs can be pushed until later in the draft.

[Luvnit2]

The debate has been in the forum for months. I was on the side of use the Tee money and fix the trenches. I do agree the FA class is so bad and unpredictable it would be a huge risk. Last year our biggest FA signing (most money spend) was a dud in Rankins.

Williams for 21 million, maybe a great deal, but he only played in 50% of the defensive snaps on a very good DL so teams could not afford to double team him.

Chase Young, another possibility, but now if those 2, we are over budget already.

Fries another overpay at 21 million.

In the end, the decision was made. Bengals know they have 3 huge weapons for at least 4 more years, add a young RT and that is 4 huge weapons in the fold.

The key will be hitting on the mid level FA signings like Slayton, doiing better drafted NFL ready players right now and development of the existing roster and rookie by the coaching staff.

I did love Tobin's comment, we have our 2 WR's, other teams can go find their own. Peopl love to blast the FO for being cheap andthen switch gears when they are not cheap and sign Tee changing Bengals overpaid or he is bad investment.

Bengals have proven they are far from cheap signing Chase and Burrow to not one of best, but best contract for their positions in past few years. I hope our fans can try another attack line for the FO, saying they are cheap is lazy and wrong.

[George Cantstandya]

(03-18-2025, 06:18 PM)Housh Wrote: Iv been seeing the media say the dumbest shit ever

Shocking.  

[*ochocincos*]

(03-18-2025, 06:18 PM)Housh Wrote: That would’ve made our defense top 5?

Uhh....this defense was never getting to Top 5 regardless of who was signed.

But a guy I think most had pegged as a target was someone like Milton Williams.
A guy who could help boost the pass rush and cost about the same or less than Higgins.
MW signed a 4-year, $104 mill deal ($26 mill APY).

Higgins signed a 4-year, $115 mill deal ($28.75 mill APY)

At this point, Bengals will need to draft DL to boost that unit, especially pass rush.
If they didn't sign Higgins to a multi-year deal, they likely would have drafted a guy early to replace.

It's pretty safe to assume that any WR drafted will have SOME dropoff to offensive production compared to if Higgins was on the team.
It may be the same or similar situation if Bengals signed a vet pass rushing IDL like Milton Williams vs drafting a guy.

So the question is...
What will get the team more wins?
Higgins + Day 1/2 pass rushing DT
Milton Williams + Day 1/2 WR

You could also have taken the costs of BJ Hill+Ossai ($18 mill APY total) and it would have come out to a bit above what Chase Young signed for ($17 mill APY).

Then, the Bengals would have had a starting DL of Hendrickson, TJ Slaton, Milton Williams, Chase Young.
That would have arguably solidified the starting DL the next year, possibly longer.
DT would have been solidified for sure with Williams, Hill, Jenkins, and Jackson with a Day 3 draft pick to be DT5.
Bengals could have taken a DE, WR, and OG in the first 3 rounds to cover Higgins replacement, future heir to Hendrickson (if he walks), and RG starter.

[*michaelsean*]

I don’t know why anyone pays any attention to sports media. Whatever they said yesterday has no bearing on today. “Joke Bengals can’t sign their star receivers.” “Joke Bengals sign both receivers.” There is no accountability to their blathering. They just say what they think is a hot take.

[wanga]

And would’ve you trusted them to sell a known quantity in Tee, albeit injured too often, for this unknown quantity. Imagine using that money and spending it on 2 Rankin types. A decent guard in FA, 2 would be too much to hope for, Trey stays and hit in the draft on D (a huuuge unlikely event I know) and the offence hopefully gels quickly to start the season and the D improves to average levels.

[bonesaw]

Good Point OP.

[Housh]

(03-18-2025, 06:41 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Uhh....this defense was never getting to Top 5 regardless of who was signed.

But a guy I think most had pegged as a target was someone like Milton Williams.
A guy who could help boost the pass rush and cost about the same or less than Higgins.
MW signed a 4-year, $104 mill deal ($26 mill APY).

Higgins signed a 4-year, $115 mill deal ($28.75 mill APY)

At this point, Bengals will need to draft DL to boost that unit, especially pass rush.
If they didn't sign Higgins to a multi-year deal, they likely would have drafted a guy early to replace.

It's pretty safe to assume that any WR drafted will have SOME dropoff to offensive production compared to if Higgins was on the team.
It may be the same or similar situation if Bengals signed a vet pass rushing IDL like Milton Williams vs drafting a guy.

So the question is...
What will get the team more wins?
Higgins + Day 1/2 pass rushing DT
Milton Williams + Day 1/2 WR

You could also have taken the costs of BJ Hill+Ossai ($18 mill APY total) and it would have come out to a bit above what Chase Young signed for ($17 mill APY).

Then, the Bengals would have had a starting DL of Hendrickson, TJ Slaton, Milton Williams, Chase Young.
That would have arguably solidified the starting DL the next year, possibly longer.
DT would have been solidified for sure with Williams, Hill, Jenkins, and Jackson with a Day 3 draft pick to be DT5.
Bengals could have taken a DE, WR, and OG in the first 3 rounds to cover Higgins replacement, future heir to Hendrickson (if he walks), and RG starter.

Key point you said….

It’s not like the defense was gonna magically be top 5 no matter what we did.


As you said if we signed Young and Williams we likely aren’t signing BJ Hill, Ossai and Sample so we’d hVe a good d line on paper but it would have no flexibility.


I just don’t see why we would sacrifice what we know is a top offense to MAYBE get a defense that’s ranked 20 instead of 30.


There was no set of moves that would’ve made us a top 15 defense

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(03-18-2025, 06:18 PM)Housh Wrote: That would’ve made our defense top 5?


Yeah our D would likely be better but 2 mid level guys ain’t taking our D into the top 5.

You're framing it in an weirdly biased way there, Housh.

We weren't even a top-5 offense last year, so why would having a much improved defense require us to be a top-5 defense?


- - - - -

If you're asking a real question of who instead of just making a venting thread.... for roughly the same money, who we could have signed on defense that would improve our team more than losing Tee would hurt our offense for an overall net gain? My answer would be signing both Josh Sweat and Justin Reid. Arguably I could probably then sign another player on top of that since Josh Sweat would remove the need for overpaying Joseph Ossai $7m, which could nearly be the AAV of a James Daniel or Kevin Zeitler contract upgrade at G.

[*ochocincos*]

(03-18-2025, 06:53 PM)Housh Wrote: Key point you said….

It’s not like the defense was gonna magically be top 5 no matter what we did.


As you said if we signed Young and Williams we likely aren’t signing BJ Hill, Ossai and Sample so we’d hVe a good d line on paper but it would have no flexibility.


I just don’t see why we would sacrifice what we know is a top offense to MAYBE get a defense that’s ranked 20 instead of 30.


There was no set of moves that would’ve made us a top 15 defense

Because it would/should have become a more balanced offense and defense.

Top 5 offense and ~30th defense (keep Higgins, Hill, Ossai)
vs
Top 10 offense and ~15-20th defense (Williams and Young instead)

My personal opinion is the offense doesn't drop down to around middle of the pack with a draft pick replacing Higgins. It should still be pretty good.
But the defense could get potentially from bottom-feeder to at least decent/solid with Williams and Young.

There's risk there because it's all theory with the new guys compared to guys you know in Higgins, Hill, and Ossai.

[NUGDUKWE]

(03-18-2025, 06:34 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Bengals have proven they are far from cheap signing Chase and Burrow to not one of best, but best contract for their positions in past few years. I hope our fans can try another attack line for the FO, saying they are cheap is lazy and wrong.

They are cheap. It's not lazy and wrong to point this out. They took a step in the right direction but it took multiple years and potentially major string pulling by Chase (if reports are true) and hoops to jump thru (Tee changing agents). They do deserve credit for making those changes though. But we still need to make more moves and they are capable of making these moves but it's yet to be determined if they will make those moves. 

[Luvnit2]

(03-18-2025, 07:01 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Because it would/should have become a more balanced offense and defense.

Top 5 offense and ~30th defense (keep Higgins, Hill, Ossai)
vs
Top 10 offense and ~15-20th defense (Williams and Young instead)

My personal opinion is the offense doesn't drop down to around middle of the pack with a draft pick replacing Higgins. It should still be pretty good.
But the defense could get potentially from bottom-feeder to at least decent/solid with Williams and Young.

There's risk there because it's all theory with the new guys compared to guys you know in Higgins, Hill, and Ossai.

We will never be able to say if not signing Tee would have been great or failed. All we can do now is wait and see the results. But, the key also is using the resouces (lefover cap and draft) wisely to get us big and win the Lombardi.

[FormerlyBengalRugby]

There is no one who they could have signed that would have made them top five in defense.

But there were moves to be made that would have made the team better, long term, using the money earmarked for Tee.

Shoring up the o-line is the easy one. It keeps Joe healthy, improves the running game, and improves the defense by allowing the offense to stay on the field. I would also argue there was a safety to be had that would have been a major upgrade over Stone as well, and change would be left over.

It is not about Higgins versus the defense, it is about how the money could have been better used to improve the whole team.

[Bronxbengal]

People bitching and moaning about signing Tee unbelievable. GM wannabes

[THE PISTONS]

(03-18-2025, 07:32 PM)Bronxbengal Wrote: People bitching and moaning about signing Tee unbelievable.  GM wannabes

I think its just something very new. No team has ever had that much money invested in a qb and 2 wrs...by far.

We've seen the correlation of QBs on rookie deals getting to SBs. This is exact opposite.

Time will tell how it works out.

[NUGDUKWE]

(03-18-2025, 07:40 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: I think its just something very new. No team has ever had that much money invested in a qb and 2 wrs...by far.

We've seen the correlation of QBs on rookie deals getting to SBs. This is exact opposite.

Time will tell how it works out.

It's BRACKET TIME!

The top spending teams in the NFL and how much of their cap is going to their Top Four players in 2025.

Fill out your bracket with which foursome you'd rather have. pic.twitter.com/24OZKpvUU9

— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) March 17, 2025

 


While not exactly the 2wr like you said. But several teams have a similar cap% allocated to they're top 4 players. It does look like the Bengals have arguably the best 4 to allocate those funds to.

[Stewy]

(03-18-2025, 06:18 PM)Housh Wrote: That would’ve made our defense top 5?


Iv been seeing the media say the dumbest shit ever in regards to us signing Tee and Chase.


If you are saying we would’ve been able to get a big fish you are talking about Milton Williams

So that’s 1 guy. Even if we had Milton Williams it’s not like he turns us top 5 by himself.


You could also say maybe with the 28M we could’ve gotten 2 mid tier guys. Like a Chase Young and a Jevon Holland.


Yeah our D would likely be better but 2 mid level guys ain’t taking our D into the top 5.







I guess I’m saying Iv seen ppl say we could’ve done so much more to help the defense with Tee’s money….

Ok give me the exact moves then. It’s everyone saying we messed up but not one media pundit has put together a plan with the 28M that would’ve taken our D to new heights. Mofos just wanna complain about us making a move right after they complained that we weren’t making moves.

Your topic is fine but your failure is for giving two fuks what the national media says.

[Essex Johnson]

Well its done and the trio needs to win more and get back to playoffs  and SB , it not we were wrong to stick with all the $$ going to offense.

[kevinsea]

(03-18-2025, 08:12 PM)Stewy Wrote: Your topic is fine but your failure is for giving two fuks what the national media says.

Because we all know the media in this city and country is just chock full of responsible journalists