Bengals Banter: Blustery Monday Morning Edition
by Craig Conrad on Mar 15, 2010 8:31 AM EDT
19 comments
Good morning and happy Monday everyone, if there is such a thing! I hope everyone's work week starts off as well as can be expected on a cold, blustery Monday morning.
Yesterday ProFootballTalk.com listed the seven franchises that not only would currently fall below the $107 million floor that was in place for last season's salary cap, but in fact fall in with a player payroll that doesn't break the nine figure mark. Is anyone surprised that our Bengals made that list?
James Walker opines that WR Terrell Owens is unlikely to wind up wearing Orange and Black. Further down the page in his weekend mailbag, the question is posed to him about the Bengals' Tight End situation. He says that the Bengals remaining pat with their current stable of TE's would be a mistake, that they are in a position to win and to win now and should take advantage of that by solidifying any TE question marks.
Episode 3 of Real Football Talk with Cincy Jungle aired yesterday evening at 5:30. I discussed a multitude of subjects ranging from Antonio Bryant to Tank Johnson and Roy Williams, even touching on why I think the team's best interest may be to draft Mike Iupati in the first round of the draft next month. Head on over to the show page here to stream or download all three episodes. This upcoming Sunday I'll host CNati.com's own Scott Priestle to talk about any moves that have been made or moves that will be made by this weekend. The podcast is now also searchable via iTunes either by doing a search for "Real Football Talk" (my first two episodes are the #9 and #10 hits for that search) or by my name, Craig Conrad. Listen, enjoy, give feedback.
Joe Reedy (who was a guest on last week's show) gives his current Bengals Free Agency scorecard.
It's from a couple of days ago, but here's a good read by Scott Priestle at CNati.com about how Carson Palmer helped to bring Antonio Bryant to Cincinnati.
All in all it was a pretty quiet weekend for the Bengals, save the signing of Roy Williams. Most of the activity you'll read about happened mid to late last week, but don't let that stop you from reading, clicking and commenting.
Oh, and listening. Go and listen to the podcast.
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The TE situation
This is not a sexy conversation like the wide receiver one was. Well, now it looks like we have our receiving core, minus one, a solid TE. The question to me, however, is what do we expect Brat to do with our TE this year. If he wants a run blocking TE that can catch a pass once a game then we have our guys that we had last year. On the other hand, if he wants a guy who can catch the ball on third down and be counted on to help us move the chains, then I’m not sure we have that. We could go out and get a great receiving tight end (possibly already have one in Chase) but I’m not sure we know what Brat is looking for in one. Or, we do and we just don’t want to come to grips with it (we resigned Coats).
That pro football talk link...
actually notes that 12 teams are under the minimum, but only name 7. Kind of weird.
Also, still have the draft, that should raise that amount, plus Bobbie Williams and anyone else they may pick up.
the other 5 are probably closer
I agree that we will probalbly get close to the miminmum, but it should be no surprise that we are one of the 12 as MB was one of the leaders pushing to end the CBA.
Considering he was one of only two to vote against it when the extension was originally passed… it’s even LESS shocking.
For those who can't remember the uncapped FA rules, this link's for you.
Brown and his purse strings
Nothing new this off season, frugal is how the Bengals spend and will always spend with mike at the helm.
Need depth at WR? Sign a washed-out coke-head and hope he doesn’t snort the sideline on his way to another suspension.
Need a Kicker on the cheap? Cut the guy making millions who holds a career field-goal percentage of 85%. sign a lesser kicker with a career 68% field goal perceptual.
The Byrant move is simply to find a cheaper replacement for Chad next season or the season after.
The lack of real moves at TE, unless you count signing Coates, should not be shocking. Brown isn’t going to pay millions for a TE. There won’t be a second coming of Rodney Holman for quite a while in Cincinnati.
As the NFL stares down the barrel of money, greed, labor issues, a dead CBA, and a probable work stoppage in the near future, get ready for a new NFL, one that scales similar to MLB. There will be 4-10 NFL teams that have cash. 10 or so NFL teams that manage to be mediocre. And there will be 10 or so teams that are broke with rosters plucked from the garbage of other NFL teams and CFL castoffs. Where do you think the Bengals will be come 2013?
"wherever Brad St. Louis is and Shayne Graham is about to be." -R.F. Mehl
You forgot the most important off-season move so far: they re-signed Zimmer, and there is no way that was a frugal decision.
zimmer
brown spent the money on zimmer for several reasons:
1) zimmer made the most of what he was given on d. it would be more expensive to sign 3-6 star quality starters to pump up the defense to level zimmer had it playing last season. in short, zimmer is the cheaper solution to obtain results. bang for the buck.
2) meet your new head coach. if marvin should falter, become to expensive to resign, or the relationship strained with brown, here’s a cheaper head coach who knows the system.
3) good PR. letting a guy go after all the national stories concerning zimmer last season. would probably produce a national backlash in stories this year at least equal to half of the positive coverage from last season. saving face.
"wherever Brad St. Louis is and Shayne Graham is about to be." -R.F. Mehl
palewook you're killing me
Come on brother, it’s a new season, we had a home playoff game last year, we got Zimmer back when alot of us thought he would land a HC job somewhere else…we haven’t forgotten who our owner is man! Come, sit and have some of this 2010 Kool-aid with us, or get off of our cloud…
by Bengals NFL Champs on Mar 15, 2010 1:37 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
your cloud?
how long you been here?
"wherever Brad St. Louis is and Shayne Graham is about to be." -R.F. Mehl
In response to point 1, the TRULY frugal solution would have been to do NEITHER of those things and let the team fall back to mediocrity or worse. The fanbase has proven (to our credit or detriment, depending on who you ask) that Brown doesn’t NEED to supply a bang to get our buck. So to speak.
If overpaying for declining performance from overrated free-agents was part of a winning formula, Dan Snyder would have a fistful of rings by now.
Even if the Brown family had more money than God, writing that 10 mil check to Coles for putting on the uniform and then disappearing has to be like a Bruce Lee kick to the beans. You could even look at Carson’s deal. They’ve basically made him part owner of the team and how many playoff wins has he orchestrated?
There’s a long list of things that need to improve (for the love of pete please hire a GM) but in my opinion, spending bigger is toward the bottom.
by Bengals NFL Champs on Mar 15, 2010 3:09 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
you all are killing me
feel free to quote a line where i said spending more fixes problems. or a larger contract equals success. what i said, we signed 3 guys that nobody wanted and got a deal on them b/c of it. and one of the few guys we paid, is viewed as a cheaper future option over chad.
-Where do you think the Bengals will be come 2013?
"wherever Brad St. Louis is and Shayne Graham is about to be." -R.F. Mehl
2013? Are you serious? 2013?
Maybe this makes me less of a fan than you, but when they put me on the payroll is when I’ll devote myself to contemplating the personel strength and fiscal position of the organization in the year 2013. In the meantime, looking forward to that Hall of Fame game in August.
Who Dey, palewook!
by Bengals NFL Champs on Mar 15, 2010 3:48 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
All I was doing was contesting this quote: “frugal is how the Bengals spend and will always spend with mike at the helm.”
its always bang for the buck with brown
if he spends 5 million on one thing, its b/c another thing would have cost him 7 million. thats business 101. theres a reason the bengals are always on the low end of money spent among current nfl and will always will be.
what since mike spent 7 million on coles he’s not cheap? he didnt want to spend 8 million on tj.
he spent 8 million on bryant b/c he doesnt want to pay chad to keep chad. if bryant puts up numbers this year, chad’s option for next year wont be paid. if bryant fails, mike will look at the cheapest options of comparable wrs available at that time. if chad proves the cheaper, he’ll be here, dont count on it though.
the tank johnson deal, seen as a cheaper deal than bringing in an equal level replacement.
if you ever go to a bengals training camp, check out mike brown’s shoes. that will quickly let you know where, when, and how he spends money. mike wears el cheapo buddies.
"wherever Brad St. Louis is and Shayne Graham is about to be." -R.F. Mehl
tj has admitted
that he was offered almost the same contract he got in seattle to stay in cincy, but by that point he had resigned himself to moving on.
and you could say it about any team. the jets didn’t want to pay thomas jones 6 million so they signed LT for 3. The eagles didn’t want to pay dawkins so they signed sean jones. every team looks for the deal.
RIP Slim.
It’s always easy when you are spending someone else’s $$$.Just look at our government. If you don’t like the way Mike Brown runs the team then don’t buy his tickets. At this point it’s his team and he will run it the way he wants to. Last year was a winning season,but that didn’t guarantee sell outs. The economy ? Perception ? Reputation ? Waiting to see if winning is a periodical fad or something that can be expected on a consistent basis ?
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