INbengalfan Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 Hurst also going to carolina. Definitely grabbing a TE early now in the draft and another one later if we don't sign anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE DUKE Posted March 15, 2023 Author Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, INbengalfan said: Hurst also going to carolina. Definitely grabbing a TE early now in the draft and another one later if we don't sign anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theJ Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, INbengalfan said: I'm beginning to think they want to use dax in the Bell role. He was more of a box safety for TTUN I remember seeing a stat yesterday about where Bell/Bates lined up primarily. They were much more interchangeable than i think you're thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparky151 Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 I'm sure they will try selling it as a master strategy to gain comp picks or something like that but losing Bell and Hurst is a pretty bad job by the team. Perine and Bates got top pay and it's not surprising the team didn't match them. Extending Pratt on a cheap deal is good business but overall the team has laid an egg in free agency thus far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE DUKE Posted March 15, 2023 Author Share Posted March 15, 2023 16 minutes ago, theJ said: I remember seeing a stat yesterday about where Bell/Bates lined up primarily. They were much more interchangeable than i think you're thinking. I knew they were used pretty interchangeably, which is why I think they want to get more athletic at safety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE DUKE Posted March 15, 2023 Author Share Posted March 15, 2023 Losing Bell is a loss only if the plan is to replace him with Anderson or a rookie from this draft. Losing Hurst is a nothing burger. 27 yards a game and 2 TD's the entire season. Not a particularly good blocker either. He's replacement level. Perine had value last year, but it's a buyers market at RB right now, not worried a bit about that. I love the Pratt resigning at $7 mil per, it provides continuity and it's time for him to be one of the leaders of the defense, step into that role left by Bell. Plenty of leaders now on defense: Pratt, Wilson, Hendrickson, Hubbard, Reader 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmittyBacall Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 21 minutes ago, THE DUKE said: Losing Bell is a loss only if the plan is to replace him with Anderson or a rookie from this draft. Losing Hurst is a nothing burger. 27 yards a game and 2 TD's the entire season. Not a particularly good blocker either. He's replacement level. Perine had value last year, but it's a buyers market at RB right now, not worried a bit about that. I love the Pratt resigning at $7 mil per, it provides continuity and it's time for him to be one of the leaders of the defense, step into that role left by Bell. Plenty of leaders now on defense: Pratt, Wilson, Hendrickson, Hubbard, Reader Completely agree. Not to mention Pratt is still an ascending player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmittyBacall Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 31 minutes ago, sparky151 said: I'm sure they will try selling it as a master strategy to gain comp picks or something like that but losing Bell and Hurst is a pretty bad job by the team. Perine and Bates got top pay and it's not surprising the team didn't match them. Extending Pratt on a cheap deal is good business but overall the team has laid an egg in free agency thus far. We’re two days into free agency… relax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE DUKE Posted March 15, 2023 Author Share Posted March 15, 2023 We're about to guarantee Burrow 9 figures, i'm not shocked we aren't throwing around guaranteed money left and right in free agency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
INbengalfan Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, theJ said: I remember seeing a stat yesterday about where Bell/Bates lined up primarily. They were much more interchangeable than i think you're thinking. No, I've seen that too. Just saying that we might not be looking for a SS type only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparky151 Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, SmittyBacall said: We’re two days into free agency… relax. We went into free agency with the 5th most cap space in the league and haven't improved any position yet. We're currently weaker than last year at several positions. Over half of the top 100 free agents are off the market already. It's possible to have a good free agency period but we're off to a pretty bad start. I think the general expectation was we'd lose Bates and Pratt and re-sign our other contributors. Then we'd look for some upgrades in the draft and extend Burrow and maybe Higgins. So far that plan is off track as Dehner has noted. 1 hour ago, THE DUKE said: We're about to guarantee Burrow 9 figures, i'm not shocked we aren't throwing around guaranteed money left and right in free agency. That's pretty irrelevant. The team is going to spend the money one way or another. If they give Burrow a 100 mil signing bonus, it would increase his 2023 cap number by 20 mil but they can and should easily finesse that. They seem to be using Burrow as a human shield to explain the failures to date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beck Bristow Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, SmittyBacall said: Completely agree. Not to mention Pratt is still an ascending player. And who knows if we'll be able to re-sign Wilson. There's no guarantee there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theJ Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 15 minutes ago, sparky151 said: We went into free agency with the 5th most cap space in the league and haven't improved any position yet. We're currently weaker than last year at several positions. Over half of the top 100 free agents are off the market already. It's possible to have a good free agency period but we're off to a pretty bad start. Not to nick pick, but with the all the restructures the day or two before FA started, they actually started somewhere in the bottom half in cap space. They were 5th before all that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theJ Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 17 minutes ago, sparky151 said: That's pretty irrelevant. The team is going to spend the money one way or another. If they give Burrow a 100 mil signing bonus, it would increase his 2023 cap number by 20 mil but they can and should easily finesse that. They seem to be using Burrow as a human shield to explain the failures to date. You'd think their success in FA the last few years would buy a little grace from you. lol. Everyone knew this how it would start. But FA isn't a 2 day race. It's a several week long marathon. All the "good" contracts will be signed from here on out. Most of the regrettable ones were signed the last two days. We just don't know which ones are the regrettable ones yet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparky151 Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 20 minutes ago, theJ said: Not to nick pick, but with the all the restructures the day or two before FA started, they actually started somewhere in the bottom half in cap space. They were 5th before all that. Bengals have an extremely favorable cap situation. They haven't restructured anyone because they don't need to do so. They haven't yet made any cap cuts though Mixon and Collins can't be assured of making the team. They have and had plenty of room to re-sign Bell, Pratt, Hurst, Apple, Flowers, Taylor, Williams, Sample, etc while extending Higgins and Burrow. They weren't going to be in the market for a 15 mil+ player but they didn't need to be. So far they are getting worse and scrambling to repair things. Maybe they thought lots of players would take less to play with Burrow or something like that but if so that was foolish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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