Monday at 12:00 marks the official start of NFL free agency (signings may be made public on Wednesday), and the Bengals have never been in this position before.
a $255 million salary cap, a record. a record $275 million deal with Joe Burrow, the quarterback. a franchise tag of over $22 million for wide receiver Tee Higgins. Right tackle Jonah Williams, nose tackle DJ Reader, and cornerback Chidobe Awuzie are three of their own free agents that are ranked in the top 23 by ESPN.
And Ja’Marr Chase, a wide receiver who has appeared in three Pro Bowls, is qualified for a contract extension.
However, all you have to do to get a feel of what could happen next week and how the Bengals will handle it is look back to the first week of free agency last year and the unexpected acquisition of Pro Bowl left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.
As the market changes in the first few hours, their quick-thinking front office has the ability to change course and refocus their priorities, so be prepared for the unexpected.
One of the NFL’s biggest draws, both to fans and free agents, is Burrow. In addition, Zac Taylor, the team’s head coach, has a reputation for caring for his players and leading a squad that always appears to have young players. (See Burrow’s 19-6 record in the months of December, January, and November.)
After the first week of free agency, they don’t close up shop; instead, they want to look at the cap in the lengthy run up to Opening Day. They have budgeted $10.5 million for the rookie pool and $4 million for the practice squad, among other things, even though the draft isn’t until the final week of April and the practice squad isn’t constituted until the week before the opener.
The greatest change of the previous season didn’t happen until the day before the season began, when Burrow boarded the charter to Cleveland after agreeing to the largest contract in NFL history. Chase was definitely taking notes in first class.
The Bengals enjoy making big deals—they have frequently spent up to or over the salary cap in the 24 seasons at Paycor Stadium—but they also want to structure them in a way that protects their future with large upfront payments.
It has to be seen if they perform as well as they have during the first four free agency days of the Burrow Epoch, during which they have acquired a top starter from a different team on each of those days.
(Technically, they signed Reader of the Texans to be the Burrow Bengals even though they knew a month before to drafting Burrow that Reader would be the highest-paid nose tackle in the league.)
When the cap reached $255 million, the Bengals were not shocked. They had already estimated the cost at roughly $250 million, and director of player personnel Duke Tobin said last week at the NFL scouting combine that money would need to be spent.
I won’t go into our roster-building tactics, but I will tell you that, in all honesty, there is always room for growth if there is additional funding,” Tobin stated. There’s also greater room for expansion for the other thirty-one teams, so it might offer some flexibility. Ideally, it doesn’t really suit the club if you’re talking about the same folks who are just paid more. However, I believe it is advantageous for us if we can use those funds to perhaps augment what we would have otherwise done.
