Building the Cincinnati Bengals' dream offseason
Yesterday we looked at the Bears and their dream offseason, today we will look at the Bengals. So let's do the background work. The Bengals currently sit with $35,729,599 available in cap space per Spotrac. They can gain more with restructures, player cuts and things of that nature, but for the sake of simplicity that […]
Yesterday we looked at the Bears and their dream offseason, today we will look at the Bengals. So let's do the background work. The Bengals currently sit with $35,729,599 available in cap space per Spotrac. They can gain more with restructures, player cuts and things of that nature, but for the sake of simplicity that is the number that we will use for today.
DJ Reader and backup Josh Tupou are both on the last years of their current contracts and are slated to hit the open market. Luckily the draft presents some intriguing options for the Bengals to choose from this year. Cornerback is a big need for the Bengals, as well as both of their starting safeties, are slated to hit the open market. There is also an easy out in Joe Mixon's contract this off-season, the 2023-2024 Bengals could look like a very different football team.
Without further ado let's get into this off-season re-tool. The Bengals and their All-pro safety seem nowhere near close to agreement on a contract extension. However, to me Jessie Bates is one of the top safeties in football, so we will resign him. PFF predicts. Spotrac predicts $14 million will get the deal done, so that is what we will use. With Jessie Bates resigned that leaves the Bengals with $21 million in open cap to work with.
Linebacker Germaine Pratt put together his best season as a pro this year, and has become one of the better coverage linebackers in the league. He is slated to hit the open market and should be retained. PFF predicts his value is just north of $8 million per year, and Spotrac predicts it is just north of $10 million per year. We will say they resign Pratt to a deal that is equivalent to $10 million per year.
With $11 million left, the Bengals haven't dipped their toes in any outside water yet, it has been spent on mainly resigning their own. Let's change that. The Bengals have their outside receivers set in Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. With Tyler Boyd's contract expiring after this season, they might be in the market for a new slot. The Bengals love their power slot type of receiver, so let's give them one that is bigger and faster than Tyler Boyd. Let's sign DJ Chark to the Bengals. Chark would bring the 4.3 speed needed to stretch the field vertically as well as bringing the size the Bengals love in the slot as he is listed as 6'2.
There are contract restructures, player cuts and things of that nature the Bengals can do to create more cap room, but we won't be addressing that area here as it can get overcomplicated quite easily. We re-signed most of their core players and made one free-agent addition, luckily the NFL Draft presents a lot of options for the Bengals needs this year. For nose tackle, guys like Siaki Ika, Keeanu Benton, and Mazi Smith, stand out. For tall corners, guys like Julius Brents, Emmanuel Forbes, and Isaiah Bolden stand out. There is RB and OL depth in every draft and this year presents an especially exciting player at returner. Keep an eye on Eric Garror, a smaller corner out of Louisiana. He had 3 returns for touchdowns in his collegiate career, 2 coming this year.
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