Billl

He’s a unique talent for sure. I’m just not convinced he’s a great CB or a great WR, though. Similar to Jabrill Peppers, I don’t think he would be thought of as a premium player if he only played one position in college.

Obligatory

If you had the #1 overall pick but couldn’t trade it, who would you take?

They led in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl with the same core of players and have played the Chiefs tougher in the postseason than any other team. The options are to play to their existing, massive strengths and try to hit on some draft picks around them or tear things down around Burrow and try to completely reinvent the roster. No serious franchise would go with the latter. Three years ago, the Chiefs traded Tyreek because he wanted $30 million AAV. Today, that contract sounds like a massive bargain. The same will be true for Chase and Higgins. The Bengals’ issues have been 100% caused by poor drafting the last few seasons. No amount of middle class free agent signings will change that.

Buffalo just paid $31 million to not have Diggs play for them, and they made the AFCCG. If they can survive that, Cincinnati can survive paying $80 million for Chase and Higgins. Every roster problem in this league can be solved by drafting well. The Bengals have 3 superstars, 4 if you count Higgins. They are one great draft away from being serious contenders for the foreseeable future.

So what would have been a better use of their cap space? Rousseau and Bernard got a combined $32 million a year. Add in Ogunjobi and Hoecht, and you’re at nearly $50 million. Palmer and Shakir bring you essentially even with what Cincy just spend for Chase and Higgins. Who would you rather have? Chase and Higgins or Palmer, Shakir Hoecht, Ogunjobi, Rousseau, and Bernard? I’m probably going with Chase and Higgins and taking my chances trying to fill in gaps with draft picks and veteran minimum level FAs.

These are easily affordable contracts, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they sign Hendrickson as well. I’ve said this repeatedly, but paying big contracts to superstars isn’t how you get into salary cap trouble. You get into trouble by overpaying JAGs. The Bengals have decided to pay their stars and try to fill in the gaps with draft picks and veteran minimum level fill-ins. That means they can’t afford the Josh Palmer and Michael Hoecht type of deals. It may or may not work, but it’s not a terrible strategy.

I’m not sure he means Cooper wants to retire. It sound like he’s saying he’s washed.

You’re WAY underrating Omenihu. He’s a very solid player and will be a big loss for the Chiefs if he leaves.

Will Phillips sign up for that, though? Not sure how appealing the idea of going through training camp and all that just to play for 6 weeks is going to be to a 32 year old who has been spending the offseason touring retirement properties on beaches. Combine the two “Eatin’ ain’t cheatin’”.

He’s my great uncle (for real). Well he was, anyway.

The future seventh round pick is just perfect. It’s like they haggled back and forth. Dallas offered a fifth for Elam and a sixth. Buffalo countered with needing that seventh. That was too rich for Dallas’s blood, so they settled for a future seventh. The art of the deal, folks.

It seems highly unlikely that anyone is technically tampering. It’s a violation to discuss specific players, but I don’t think there’s any rule that says you can’t say “we’re budgeting $X to fill our LT position”.

It's not an exact comparison for the reasons you stated, but I was responding to the idea that these are just what small deals look like under the modern salary cap era. That's not the case when these three middle class type contracts total one star contract. The question becomes whether you want three middle class players or one star WR and a couple of rookies rotating at DL and DT. Beane has almost always opted for the latter.

Bosa ($13) Ogunjobi ($8m), and Palmer ($12m) comes to $33m. DK Metcalf also got $33m.

It seems possible. Von had 6 sacks in 13 games. Bosa had 5 in 14. Can’t imagine he’d cost more than half of what Joey’s getting.

I don’t think this was a move made to shore up the run D. He’s in OP to pass rush.

Roster slots are flexible. You don’t let a preference to keep 5 WRs on a roster versus 6 dictate your early round draft strategy. That’s even worse than basing major FA decisions on the comp formula.

Cisco is a dirty player. He deserves to play for a poverty franchise.

Yeah, I mean there’s a reason he’s going to be on his 6th team in 8 seasons. Buffalo likely got the best year of his career out of him. That’s a win.

IMO, he’s a little bit like Shakir in that he’s most effective when he’s not a volume guy. By that, I mean that he can win when the matchup and formation are favorable and be a really efficient player. When you start trying to get him more targets, the returns diminish very quickly. It actually seems like a perfect fit for the “everybody eats” philosophy. If the defense shows one look, it’s Shakir’s target. If they show another, it goes to Palmer. Still, that’s a hefty chunk of change for that role.

This is nothing like that. She made allegations against him, and the police declined to press charges within 24 hours. Worthy had visibly been assaulted, and the officers asked him if he wanted to pursue charges against her and declined. Maintaining that Worthy did anything wrong after all evidence supports the opposite is a bad look, particularly from the fan base of the team that hung Araiza out to dry after he was the victim of false allegations.

Trade compensation is as much about the contract as it is the picks. There’s a case to be made that teams should never trade picks for players. All your picks are buying you is the right to pay a specific player at the top of the market. That’s de minimus value.

I don’t mind drafting a player who is a bit older in the third round or later. Don’t love it in round 2 and would hate it in round 1. It really limits their upside, IMO.

Not sure I really follow the logic here. Absolute worst case scenario, they keep Caliendo at LG where he played in the postseason. He wasn’t good, but he was serviceable. Kingsley played very well against the Broncos in the only game he played LG, so he’s likely going to win the spot. That leaves only LT to fill. Trading Thuney didn’t impact that at all other than to free up $16 million of cap room and give the team an extra 4th round pick. There’s no reason to believe Hollywood won’t be back. He didn’t do anything to increase his market value, and it seems reasonable that he’d rather stay where he’s spent a year learning the offense if he wants to showcase himself for a bigger contract a year from now. Bolton’s very likely going to sign an extension. He’s the QB of Spagnuolo’s defense, went to school locally, and doesn’t play a position that commands huge money. Reid leaving pretty much removed any doubt about which defensive player they were going to pay. It’s typically not difficult to follow Veach and Andy’s thought process in terms of roster building. They tend to draft a replacement a year in advance of a veteran hitting free agency. If that player hits, the veteran probably isn’t getting a new contract.