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2023 Free Agency Thread


HoosierCat

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Bates is really the only high level player that was at risk to be lost.     Everyone accepted that reality a long time ago.

The rest of them gave us solid year or years and now you have to wait to see what and how its replaced.   I'm guessing there will be some of the $29m cap room spent to do so.

Overall I hope they get replacements for this year but also start ticking off some of the potential openings after this year.

 

 

 

 

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9 minutes ago, ArmyBengal said:

If anyone wants something to worry about, take a look at how many starters hit free agency next year.

Just to name a few...
Hendrickson
Reader
Boyd
Higgins
Awuzie
Williams

Sadly the list doubles that.

Draft smartly Bengals !!!

Well, supposedly all these guys are walking so they can sign Higgins, Burrow and eventually Chase so it’s pretty much a big fat fail for this year and next year if they can’t close Higgins up.

As for the rest of the list, Jonah is gone unless he transforms into Superman this season.

Hendrickson had a big 21, a not so big 22 (admittedly because holding him specifically is apparently legal in the NFL) and the Bengals have a lot of young DEs. Absent a monster 23 I could see him going.

Reader is so obviously missed whenever he is hurt that I think they have to try and keep him on board.

Boyd seemed to disappear for long stretches last season, half the time it was like he wasn’t here anyhow. Hard to see three big WR contracts.

We will have to see how Chido comes back from injury but something tells me this could be his last year in stripes too.

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17 minutes ago, HoosierCat said:

Well, supposedly all these guys are walking so they can sign Higgins, Burrow and eventually Chase so it’s pretty much a big fat fail for this year and next year if they can’t close Higgins up.

As for the rest of the list, Jonah is gone unless he transforms into Superman this season.

Hendrickson had a big 21, a not so big 22 (admittedly because holding him specifically is apparently legal in the NFL) and the Bengals have a lot of young DEs. Absent a monster 23 I could see him going.

Reader is so obviously missed whenever he is hurt that I think they have to try and keep him on board.

Boyd seemed to disappear for long stretches last season, half the time it was like he wasn’t here anyhow. Hard to see three big WR contracts.

We will have to see how Chido comes back from injury but something tells me this could be his last year in stripes too.

Depression sets in.

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13 minutes ago, HoosierCat said:

Is that finally confirmed? I saw that pop up earlier but haven’t seen any confirmation by the usual suspects (Dehner, Baby, Conway etc.)

I have no idea.   I just saw it.   I have not seen terms or anything as of yet.  Personally,  I would like to break the streak of 1 year deals for him and try to get 2 at least.    He's been hard to remove from the field and I'd just rather have that in their back pocket next year.    Still wouldn't mind drafting one of the tall corners either.

 

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12 minutes ago, HoosierCat said:

Also, Hurst got 3 years, $21.8 million. Again not crazy numbers. Hope they can close the deal on the big extensions they want to do.

Solid numbers for him given TE FA pool and draft class.   Wish they could have worked it out here, but I don't think the Bengals are down with 6/7m per year TEs at that level.   At least they haven't been two years in a row.

 

 

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I've yet to see anything on Apple tonight.  Hoping for Flowers if he's affordable as well.

I know they don't like older FA's and don't do large guaranteed contracts with FA's, but can't help to think they're planning on a lot of front-loaded extension money to hit this year and next.   Burrow can go from $15-16m to $45m+ alone.

They've got the 4th most cap space currently I believe.   I don't know what else the lack of spending so far could mean, IDK.

 

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2 minutes ago, ShulaSteakhouse said:

I've yet to see anything on Apple tonight.  Hoping for Flowers if he's affordable as well.

I know they don't like older FA's and don't do large guaranteed contracts with FA's, but can't help to think they're planning on a lot of front-loaded extension money to hit this year and next.   Burrow can go from $15-16m to $45m+ alone.

They've got the 4th most cap space currently I believe.   I don't know what else the lack of spending so far could mean, IDK.

 

Yeah, that’s my take too. There was a rumor that they were waiting for the new league year to start due to financial/guaranteed money escrow issues, so I guess we will find out soon enough if that was the case and something is coming down.

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I really saw Bell, Hurst, and Perine as team first guys who wanted to be here

I'm kinda shattered that they went elsewhere for money we could have very easily afforded.  Especially Perine.

I want to understand the "why" in each case.  The money wasn't high enough imo to be the real reason to move to non contending teams

 

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I really wanted to keep Bell and Perine. No way around that. I think those losses hurt, but money talks. This is clearly the case in each of these instances.

The draft and rookie wage scale makes it easier for teams to move on. I don’t really blame the team for how they have approached it.

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Uh,  did they sign Orlando Brown!   I went to bed looking for Eli Apple confirmation and wake up to that. 

NO FUCKING WAY!   Biggest shock of my Free Agent following life.   Its up on NFL.com.

4 years. 64m.   $16m a year average.   Huh?   We are paying less than the Cheifs per year than they did for Jawan Taylor?

I'm going to get the biggest pile of wings and just watch the shit out of NCAA today with the biggest smile on my face.

That's what Jessie Bates signed for.    This is just unfucking believable.

 

 

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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).

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