Congrats Bengals fans

[CrashDavisSports]

I do see your point, but in a world where you may need 3-4 F/A - having each guy take less isn't always going to work out. If they are going to take less, they are also going to want to see you make sacrifices as well. Brady did that for years in NE - and it worked out pretty well. There has to be a medium ground - and just from what little we've seen of Burrow - I think he understand that. I think he will make some concessions to ensure that the team is built the way it needs to be in order to win.

I am not saying he wouldn't, but I wouldn't blame him if he didn't, as it is a QB driven league. He will save the team some money on FA's, and you will never be able to have a perfect team, so some areas will just have to be a little weaker. As long as Burrow is behind center, he makes WR's look good also, he takes pressure off RB's, and the defense doesn't feel like they have to be perfect to win a game. The Bengals are also going to have $65 million in cap space this offseason. Bates, Ogunjobi and FA oline will eat up a good portion of that cap. Next year we will be looking at freeing up money for Logan Wilson, Tee Higgins and Jonah Williams.

There will come a time we will have to let very good players walk because our superstar QB will chew up a large portion of cap space.

If management could talk Burrow into a 10 year extension around $300 million, we would be on easy street. That kind of team friendly deal would insure this team has money to keep good players around Burrow through the rest of his career.

 

[cincygrad]

I think everyone has caught on to the idea that one way to win is to have a superstar quarterback on their first contract..... You have a big budget to pad out the roster and a high tolerance for some misses on picks or free agents. Obviously the problem with this situation is that there are a handful of these guys every decade, so it's not exactly something that is easy to replicate.

The flip side of this concept is how you have to build a team and have some luck when you have the franchise QB with the big contract..... In that case, I think you need to get a bit lucky on some of the other premium positions in the draft. Can you find a transformative pass-rushing edge and have him on a rookie deal? Or a big-time tackle? At some point you can't pay all the premium positions and leave yourself with any depth. Hard to pull this off when you're drafting late in the first round because of your franchise qb. You need to find a team that's stupid enough to trade draft capital for a player that is no longer useful to your roster.

 

[alf8478]

I think everyone has caught on to the idea that one way to win is to have a superstar quarterback on their first contract..... You have a big budget to pad out the roster and a high tolerance for some misses on picks or free agents. Obviously the problem with this situation is that there are a handful of these guys every decade, so it's not exactly something that is easy to replicate.

The flip side of this concept is how you have to build a team and have some luck when you have the franchise QB with the big contract..... In that case, I think you need to get a bit lucky on some of the other premium positions in the draft. Can you find a transformative pass-rushing edge and have him on a rookie deal? Or a big-time tackle? At some point you can't pay all the premium positions and leave yourself with any depth. Hard to pull this off when you're drafting late in the first round because of your franchise qb. You need to find a team that's stupid enough to trade draft capital for a player that is no longer useful to your roster.

Where the Bengals are lucking out in this is that they have their QB, star WR on rookie deals for the next 3 and 4 years respectively and 2 more years for Higgins so the offense is set for now.

 

[Cincyfan78]

Where the Bengals are lucking out in this is that they have their QB, star WR on rookie deals for the next 3 and 4 years respectively and 2 more years for Higgins so the offense is set for now.

And Mixon relatively cheap through 2024.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

I think everyone has caught on to the idea that one way to win is to have a superstar quarterback on their first contract..... You have a big budget to pad out the roster and a high tolerance for some misses on picks or free agents. Obviously the problem with this situation is that there are a handful of these guys every decade, so it's not exactly something that is easy to replicate.

The flip side of this concept is how you have to build a team and have some luck when you have the franchise QB with the big contract..... In that case, I think you need to get a bit lucky on some of the other premium positions in the draft. Can you find a transformative pass-rushing edge and have him on a rookie deal? Or a big-time tackle? At some point you can't pay all the premium positions and leave yourself with any depth. Hard to pull this off when you're drafting late in the first round because of your franchise qb. You need to find a team that's stupid enough to trade draft capital for a player that is no longer useful to your roster.

This is when you identify players that are superstars, but you have a TON of depth at the position and they will be making a ton in free agency and you will not have the room to keep him and other contributors. You can afford to trade that superstar for draft capital because you have a good player right behind him, and you are adding top flight draft picks on cheaper contracts back to a loaded roster and build up.

Kinda like what small markets have to do in baseball. Problem is baseball, the talent pool is so watered down, you better get that shit right 100% of the time if you are a small market trading superstar talent.

 

[cincygrad]

This is when you identify players that are superstars, but you have a TON of depth at the position and they will be making a ton in free agency and you will not have the room to keep him and other contributors. You can afford to trade that superstar for draft capital because you have a good player right behind him, and you are adding top flight draft picks on cheaper contracts back to a loaded roster and build up.

Kinda like what small markets have to do in baseball. Problem is baseball, the talent pool is so watered down, you better get that shit right 100% of the time if you are a small market trading superstar talent.

I think one of the problems of our old approach was that we would reward mediocre players that weren't superstars. I actually used to support this quite a bit..... But you look at someone like Carlos Dunlap. We were right to give him a deal in 2013 when his rookie year deal was going to expire the next season. And the deal was a bargain - Particularly when he put up double digit sacks in 2015. But in 2018 you give him a 40 million dollar deal even though he only put up double-digit sack numbers once in his career. It's one of those deals that 'feels good' because you're rewarding a loyal player, but turns out awful because you could have spent that money elsewhere. The deal got even worse when he stopped trying.

 

[Old Lion]

Good luck Bengals. It seems like only yesterday you guys beat the Lions and were still not sure you had a decent team because it was just the Lions. I reassured you that your team was better then you were giving them credit for and now look.

It can happen.

 

[DanBengalfan]

when your team has good leadership like Joe Burrow at QB, you don't have to grossly overpay free agents to come play for you. that's part of the reason we're in the playoffs, we were able to sign at least some players to strengthen areas of need and not fully rely on the draft and getting lucky with college free agents.

protect Joe with some upgrades to the OL depth in the offseason, and things will work out.