HoosierCat

Yeah, we all like it. Which is why it doesn't make any sense. Let's say you are Orlando Brown's agent. Brown had a $130m offer on the table from Kansas City last year. You told him not to take it, he could get way more in March. How do you turn around now and tell him to take a $60m offer from Cincy? You just cost him $70m! If Brown signs this deal, how are the next two words out of his mouth not "you're fired," and how are you not a laughingstock who will never get another client again? (And yes, maybe you told him to take the deal and he was just pissed at the Chiefs and declined, but even so, who is he going to blame now? You, of course. Stopping him from making dumb financial decisions is your job after all. You are still hosed if he takes this deal.) So how did it even come to this? Curious, I decided to google "Orlando Brown Jr agent" and hoo boy is there a story here. Y'all remember Moobs' rookie holdout? His babyfaced noob agent rolling up to PBS in a limo like he was King Shit? Him getting eviscerated by Katie? Ah, good times. Well, as ABBA once sang, "mama mia, here we go again." As it turns out, Brown hired a new agent last June, Michael Portner. Now, did he hire Portner for his depth of experience and track record of success at representing top-tier athletes? Ha ha ha no. In fact, Porter has never negotiated an NFL contract before! In fact it appears he has never negotiated any pro deal in any league! STOP LAUGHING!!!! No, he got hired because of the feels, man. He and Brown had a "deep connection" blah blah blah. It's all in the glorious press release linked above, which straight up declares that his total lack of experience is a plus! SERIOUSLY STOP LAUGHING!!! It's Moobs all over again. This guy is meat under Katie's knives. I imagine that they came in looking for a one-year deal, something structured like the one Reiff got a couple years ago, just for more money, so they could try FA again next year. But Katie dropped $34 million in year 1 money on the table and basically trapped them. Tough to take a 1 year deal for, say, $17-18m after that. Anyhow, just a thought, but it's the only way I can make sense of such a steal of a deal.

Apparently he isn’t signed yet, they are just “working towards” a deal atm. So may not happen. I don’t think I will be upset either way.

I wouldn’t object.

Well, the contract details are out, which is a good sign. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/orlando-brown-jr-25182/ Looks like it’s basically a 3-year, $50m-ish deal. Year four he would have a $22 million cap hit versus $8 million dead money, so if they want him beyond year three that will get redone.

Some Scott highlights: https://youtu.be/N5egUplFm-E (Embedding appears to be borked atm so watch the copy/pasted tweets and vids lest we overtax the hamsters running the servers again.)

From what I can tell, Scott is a downgrade from Bell, though how much of the difference is due to system/how they were used I can’t say. But they needed to sign a vet and they did, and I still have hope for Tycen Anderson turning into something. Important thing imo is that it continues to free up the draft. No need to reach for guys in a desperate attempt to fill holes.

The way Brown has been talking and his TV appearances don’t give me the impression of someone trying to leverage this into a bigger deal. What I’m more fearful of is either Mikey getting cold feet, or the Bengals trying to do some funky financial gymnastics in the contract that get vetoed by the league office.

I know. When it falls apart you can all blame me.

So…do we actually have pen meeting paper on this yet? I’m sure it’s just the long decades making me paranoid, but, uh, could we make this official, Bengals?

Cool I guess. Don’t know anything about him other than his pff numbers, which kind of suck, but I suppose we needed a guy to replace that guy from Houston whose name I’ve already forgotten.

Mixon’s sister and her boyfriend indicted in the shooting. No charges for Joe. https://www.wlwt.com/article/joe-mixon-shooting-shalonda-mixon-lamonte-brewer-anderson/43338927#

Trent Taylor back on a 1-year deal per Rapoport.

I suspect you were on the right track with the “hug” comment. It would be totally unsurprising if the accident and the death of his teammate messed with his head. In fact it would be disturbing if it didn’t. If I am his agent, I am getting the kid into therapy yesterday.

Trayvon Williams official: https://www.bengals.com/news/bengals-roster-moves-trayveon-williams-re-signed-2023-free-agency 1 year deal. No details but he was on a 1 year deal for vet minimum ($965k, no guarantees) last season so I assume this is the same, just now $1.08m (vet minimum for a 4-year player).

Well, that's resolved. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35871548/jalen-carter-pleads-no-contest-charges-reckless-driving-racing

Yeah, I would guess corner tops the list in the draft room, too. Thing is that 28 seems to be kind a CB void. Then ones worth the pick will almost certainly be gone and the ones left are mid- to upper-second round value. I think trading down to somewhere in the top 12 or so of round 2 is a much more real possibility now.

S Nick Scott in town. https://bengalswire.usatoday.com/2023/03/16/bengals-host-free-agent-nick-scott/

Worth revisiting this Sheeran piece from 2020: https://www.cincyjungle.com/2020/5/7/21248162/bengals-jonah-williams-right-tackle-fred-johnson-left-tackle

ESPN+ insta-grade:

By all reports Jonah should be good to go by this fall. Collins is a much bigger question. Conventional wisdom is that he won’t be ready to start the season and might not make it back on the field at all. If they were going to cut either of them LC is probably the one. Would free up $6 million against the cap. OTOH we saw what happened late last year when injuries killed the line. If LC can return by, say, December, he’d be valuable insurance against that happening again.

Insert Mandolorian “this is the way” gif here.

Collins isn’t going anywhere so I think we are going with him/Jonah/Adenji this year. They may draft a prospect but now probably not until the third earliest imo.

Apparently the Bengals were only offering Hurst and Bell short-term deals, 1-2 years. Other teams were offering longer deals with more money. Championships are great but I of you are an older player and this might be you last payday (and a bigger one than you might have expected because of your production in 2022 that might never come again) you take the money.

We have screamed at them for years to stop mortgaging the present in fear of the future and go all in. This is what all in looks like. So strap in, here we go!

Well, they got the bigger SB part right at least! I remain stunned at how…reasonable the deal is. The bonus and guarantees are departures for the Cincy FO but league-wide this is pretty par for the course. Is this how fans of normal teams feel? It’s weird…