HoosierCat Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 http://www.bengals.com/press/news.asp?iCur...=0&news_id=2680Lewis dons cap cap12/31/2004 - 12-31-04, 6 p.m. BY GEOFF HOBSON Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis became salary capologist Marvin Lewis briefly after Friday’s practice, offering a peak into the offseason that begins next week with the Bengals surviving being $1 million over the 2004 salary cap. Lewis, who meets daily with the club’s capologist, executive vice president Katie Blackburn, and other front office staff, said he’s not upset about the club not having free agents like Rudi Johnson locked up yet and expressed optimism that the Bengals will be able to settle their large financial questions before next season while also showing some adroitness crunching numbers himself. Lewis hasn’t forgotten about the Eagles, but he’s never far away from wearing his salary cap cap. “Don’t underestimate Katie Blackburn’s ability to make numbers work and fit them into an overall plan for the next few years,” Lewis said. Lewis said the Bengals find themselves about $1 million over the NFL’s $80 million cap, which comes off next year’s cap. With the ’05 cap scheduled to go up about $5 million and the Bengals lack of “dead ,” money compared to last year’s estimated $10 million, Lewis is hopeful about deals for Johnson and wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh. “We don’t have near the dead money we had this year,” said Lewis of players who were billed to the team’s cap count but were no longer on the roster, such as Oliver Gibson, Artrell Hawkins, and Corey Dillon. “We probably only have about half a million (in dead money in ’05). That’s why we cut them (or traded them) before June 1 Katie likes to chew up every space possible for that year, and then move on.” He said the club had already taken into account the spillage into the ’05 cap that comes from quarterback Carson Palmer’s escalators and a reserve list of 18 players long. If it sounds like Lewis is shifting out of his X and O mode and into is $$ mode, he is. Blackburn, along with Troy Blackburn, the club’s director of business development, and president Mike Brown, keep Lewis informed of every twist and turn of the cap. He meets with Katie Blackburn at least once every day on the cap when free agency begins in March, and they have made sure his computer is equipped with software to access every player contract in the NFL. “I read through the contracts and see if there is something I can use once I get involved,” said Lewis, who takes an active role in the recruiting process. At the moment, the numbers aren’t quite as big but they could end up being important. By shelving players on injured reserve last week and this week and signing inexperienced players to replace them, the Bengals are using the vacant spots on the 53-man roster to for young players they like from around the league at relatively low cost. The players have to be legitimately injured so they can’t play for six weeks in order to go in IR. For instance, in the past two weeks they have put on season-ending injured reserve center Rich Braham, running back Chris Perry, and defensive tackle Langston Moore instead of just making them inactive for games.But they filled their spots on the 53-man active roster with young players on multi-year deals, like rookie running back Quincy Wilson off the Falcons practice squad, rookie receiver Matt Cherry from the Jacksonville practice squad, and first-year tackle Pete Lougheed from their own practice squad. One game check for a minimum salaried guy of $230,000 comes out to about $13,000, but it guarantees you’ve got them for next year.“It also rewards your own guys,” Lewis said. All indications are that the seven players on the Bengals practice squad are going to stay and sign deals for next season, or else they probably would have signed them to the 53 instead of looking elsewhere.Lewis is extremely attentive to the practice squad. He points to four key current Ravens who spent parts of two seasons on the practice squad during is days in Baltimore: Center Mike Flynn, nose tackle Kelly Gregg, defensive end Marques Douglas, and fullback Alan Ricard. Lewis says the squad is one of the ways to cycle through younger, more inexpensive talent in the effort to get a grip on the salary cap. The front office also likes the expertise Lewis brings to the cap from working with other teams.If I read Mervin's comments right, that would put total cap space at something like $14-15 million. Of course, they still have the rookie pool to account for and a variety of replacements to find for guys who probably won't be back, like Tony Williams. But if they make some of the cuts we've talked about here (Hardy, Reggie Kelly, etc.) and redo Willie, they ought to be able to balloon that up to close to $20 million in space. That ought to be enough to keep both TJ and Rudi as long as their demands aren't insane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsfan2 Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 It's good to see that in print. Also kind of puts to sleep the notion that he's out of the loop as far as money and player selection are concerned. With a healthy O line, I think we've got a legitimate 30 to 40 point offense.*I always wonder at the timing of a release like this on the heels of the " out of the loop " allegations. But then I'm just naturally suspicious and cynical. Now if we can just do something about the 30 to 40 point defense ............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierCat Posted January 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 I always wonder at the timing of a release like this on the heels of the " out of the loop " allegations. But then I'm just naturally suspicious and cynical. I'm sure there was no connection (Actually, I'm kinda surprised the headline wasn't "Trumpy Is A %^&*ing Idiot")It is good to get some straight talk on the cap situation for once, tho. There's still lots of factors, esp. guys who are coming off for good (like Williams and his $3 million) as well as lots of nickle and dime increases that will add up (Chad's hit goes up 400k vs this year, kwash's 75k, St. Louis' 5k, etc.). But I think it's very thoughtful for Marvin to take time out of his busy New Year's Eve to provide us with several weeks' worth of fodder for message board discussions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrishcovga Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 Yeah, the way Marvin talks about it, it appears they're not worried at all about resigning Rudi and T.J. * This is going to be a very interesting offseason for our Cincinnati Bengals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjakq27 Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 Yeah, the way Marvin talks about it, it appears they're not worried at all about resigning Rudi and T.J. * This is going to be a very interesting offseason for our Cincinnati Bengals. I think some of the "can't resign 'em" talk is just bluff and BS for the agents to digest or negotiation posturing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bengalboomer7 Posted January 1, 2005 Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 Let's hope this is true, then Marvin can sign who he wants, draft who he wants, and we could pick up any free agents we want. I kept wondering seeing all the crap hobson said about us only have 5 or so mill Maybe now we can get some impact FA's(only if they fit the "system" of course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierCat Posted January 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2005 I think some of the "can't resign 'em" talk is just bluff and BS for the agents to digest or negotiation posturing. That has been Mikey's standard M.O., ain't it? Free agent X comes into town, a fair market deal is say, $3 million a year, and Mikey comes in at $950k to start. Can't offer him 3 up front, he'll come back and want 6! .Marvin's approach seems a bit different. He offers the 3 up front and if they get a better offer elsewhere, so be it. Certainly, in the bengals.com article, he doesn't stress any poverty; in fast, he expresses optimism the deals can be done.I took a quick look out at the salary numbers at bengalsjungle.com (I can't vouch for their accuracy but they're something to work with) and it looks like in the mix of guys coming off because 2004 was the last year of their contract, vs. raises for guys still under contract, the Bengals net out about $2-3 million ahead. So based on what Marvin says in the piece plus that, the team ought to have something like $16-17 million in space to play with. Now, out of that you have to figure $3 million or so is reserved for the rookie pool, and if we keep Rudi and TJ that's going to cost $6-8 million, so call it 10 bills gone right there. Then we have guys like Tony Williams, Carl Powell, Richie Braham, and Kenny Watson to either resign or replace. And you probably want to keep a little space on hand so injuries don't kill you in the next cap year (as was demonstrated this year).Still, even if that ends up eating all the cap space there's still dead weight we could trim (Hardy, R. Kelly) and Big Willie we could redo...we ought to be able to go after at least one top-tier FA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjakq27 Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 Joisey, has there been any discussion about the cap number for next year from the league? There could be an additional 2-5 million depending on what that number is too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierCat Posted January 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 Joisey, has there been any discussion about the cap number for next year from the league? There could be an additional 2-5 million depending on what that number is too. I'm including that in my (what I beg you to remember are half-a$$ed, I-know-nothing) calculations. Marvin mentions it in the article, that thing are looking to go from this year's $80 million to about $85 million. Where it goes from there, there's some controversy about. The new TV deals could put the cap at anywhere between $90 million and $100 million by 2006, but most bets are it'll be about $90 million.If there's a bigger hop than $5 bills this year, obviously that adds in there. But $5 million seems the guesstimate now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsfan2 Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 Either way, we look to be in pretty good shape this year. Figure in the dead money we drop this year ( finally ) and the cuts .... that you just know are going to come as well and it gives Lewis and Co. a lot of room to work with. Which leads me to believe that not signing Rudi and TJ at this point is not a ploy on Lewis' part. I think if they were a part of his plan for next year, that they would have been wrapped up by now. That's been his m.o. in the past. If they get signed at all, it'll be late ...... but I'm not holding my breath. Too bad..... Would have been a great, young foundation to build on for years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bengalboomer7 Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 not so fast redsfan, Marvin is just making sure they overpay so he can have as much money as he can to play with(I hope anyway) Hopefully his patience will pay off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsfan2 Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 not so fast redsfan, Marvin is just making sure they overpay so he can have as much money as he can to play with(I hope anyway) Hopefully his patience will pay off No doubt .... you're probably right. However. coach Lewis has developed a pattern since taking over. For instance, Lo Neal .... clubhouse favorite ...... great fullback .... wanted to stay here .... Lewis says how important it is for the club to have a fullback of his calibre and on and on and does everything but sign him. Repeatedly told the newspapers and Hobs how important it would be to have Spikes here and does everything but match his offer and sign him. Fast forward to this year. Lewis is singing the praises of TJ and Rudi both ....... feels that it's not going to be a problem and isn't concerned .... and you got it ... hasn't signed either of them. Compare that to last year when he walked out on a Monday morning and announced that they had just locked up CJ for 5 years. Got the deal done and signed without ever a word to the paper or anyone. Sometimes ..... a LOT of times, what Lewis isn't saying is more important than what he is saying. He's really great at sleight of hand ...... getting your attention focused on one thing while he's busily doing another. Like I said ... you're probably right ..... but it is interesting and fun to watch how he does things. Guess that's why he gets to coach the team, and we just get to watch huh ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bengalboomer7 Posted January 2, 2005 Report Share Posted January 2, 2005 We both can agree he's good, I was wondering why they hadn't replied to my resume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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