Bengals offered Andre Smith (sixth-round pick) less than what Darrius Heyward-Bey (seventh-round pick) received

“The Bengals are remaining firm in trying to sign Smith for less. "

And this is EXACTLY why this ****ing franchise will NEVER shake the “laughingstock” tag. Meanwhile, teams like Arizona and Seattle go to the Super Bowl and Mike Brown sits around continuing to torpedo this team, keeping us in a perpetual loop of 8-8. Or worse.

The 11-5 season is the exception that proves the rule.

(3) 1st-round salaries are ridiculous anyway.

Well I had to go for “right amount” because there was no other option. I would have offered a twinkie and a pat on the back. But then I never wanted them to draft him the first place. I’ll hope I was wrong of course, but so far its not good…

But seriously, look at the raw numbers. If this “insulting” (whatever) offer were signed he’d have a cap value of somewhere around 6.6 million a year. Compare that to the rest of the OL numbers for 2008. Looking at just those with a cap hit greater than 6.3M last year, and filling in their official positions per Yahoo sports for this year, we have the following people:

Joe Thomas, Eric Steinbach, Walter Jones, Orlando Pace, Jordan Gross, Stacy Andrews, Chad Clifton, Jeff Faine, Max Starks, Mike Gandy, Levi Brown, Bryant McKinnie, Marvel Smith, Steve Hutchinson, Michael Roos, Derrick Dockery, Ryan Diem

Of those people, the highest paid RT on the list was Levi Brown of the Cardinals at $6.7M. Then Marvel Smith of the Steelers at $6.6M. Finally you have Ryan Diem of the Colts playing tail end charlie for our list at $6.3M.

As you can see, what they offered is right at the amount for the highest paid right tackles in the league.

Somebody speculated a long time ago that they were moving him to right tackle more as a cost-cutting move than anything else. I’m not sure about the “more than anything else” but I’d be willing to bet real money now that it WAS a factor in the decision to move him. No matter how much of a “natural lefty” Levi may be, putting Andre on the right side allows them to give him a lower offer than they would have the slightest chance of getting away with for the other side. By comparison look at the insane numbers for Joe Thomas.

And remember Jake Long from last year? Notice him missing? That’s because of the way the Fins structured his contract with no salary and huge bonuses to push the cap hit into the future. That may come back to bite them in the future, but for now it kept his cap numbers down. His real numbers though are right at 7.2 million once you prorate his signing bonus. But both are LT not RT. And that’s the kicker. I’m pretty sure the Bengals are refusing to offer more than the #1 overall pick last year got for a “more important” position. Prorate out what DHB got and it’s right at 7.5 million per year.

Logical. Makes lots of sense. Pisses off both Andre and Alvin I’m sure, but it’s a defensible position. I wonder if this is Mike’s way of providing ammo to the CBA negotiators and he actually doesn’t want to sign Andre after all. That would actually make me feel rather happy. I already said I never wanted him and I still don’t. Let AC have the spot and leave the A&A team swinging in the wind.

He shouldnt have recieved as much as he did. The raiders ruined it for us.

I think we’ll be pretty solid with Collins anyways. You guys forget about Smith for this year. If he plays, he better be good, and if he doesn’t, I don’t think it’ll hurt us that much since Collins looks solid.

The system is out of control for the top-ten picks. And, in reality, Mike Brown is probably making a defensive offer — saying that he’s paying roughly for a right tackle, which is a lower value than left tackle in terms of average salary.

However, here’s the thing that won’t change. DHB did receive that much money. And Keels wants more. Brown going against the grain, while some may appreciate that, isn’t negotiation when they’re fully aware that Keels won’t go for anything at or below DHB’s salary.

So either Keels has to concede, or Brown has to, at least, offer something more than what DHB received.

Now, what’s not known is the amount the Bengals offered in guaranteed money. What if Mike Brown offered over $24 million, however, with a total value of around $33 million? Would that concession find a middle ground?

Rookie contracts are out of hand as it is. For once, I actually don’t blame them for doing this, especially when you have a player who appeared to not take pre-draft preparation as serious as you would expect someone vying for an NFL Roster spot to take it. Yes it is embarrassing to have an unsigned rookie.

On the other hand, when compared to this year’s draft and not last year’s, you have to pay him more than Heyward-Bey. Right or wrong, this precedent has already been set.

Of course, I didn’t like this pick and really think Anthony Collins is going to be a very good NFL tackle, so I really don’t care as much as I should.

But even if that is so, (which it won’t be, because the Bengals have their tackles flipped reversed), we still need to get Andre into camp because after cutting Willie last year, Levi this year, and not resigning Stacey…the OT position is a little short on depth!

I agree the rookie contracts are asinine, but they are what they are and you’ve got to pay the $ per the slots to sign your guy. And the Bengals aren’t doing that, so they’ve only got themselves to blame for Andre not being in camp.

After having won the stare-down with Chad 8 5, and not trading him…maybe Mike Brown is a little over inflated and thinks he can any negotiation that he sets his sights on…even low-balling the #6 pick compared to the slotted contracts already established?

Plenty of people complain about the rookie pay scale, but I will applaud Mike Brown for being proactive about it. What do the Bengals lose by not signing Andre Smith? He’s an unknown quantity at this point, so he should be paid as such. By holding out, he only costs himself more money, and the team already has Anthony Collins, who has already produced very well at this level, and will be just fine at right tackle (which you can’t empirically say about Andre). At this point he’s probably cost himself the starting spot until at least week 8, if not the entire season, so that’s even less reason that MIkey boy should pony up. Why pay for a season you’re not going to get?