Cap Room

The expected per-team salary cap for 2008 stands at $116 million. Currently, the Bengals are at $92 million, even after the Andrews franchise tag if I'm understanding things correctly. That leaves around $20-22 million to spend, assuming that the Bengals stick to their usual plan of leaving some extra cash in case of injuries and what not (came in very handy last year). Who would you go after?

Here's some other teams of interest:

Baltimore Ravens: $109.8 million
Cleveland Browns: $99.4 million
Indianapolis Colts: $125.8 million
NE Patriots: $112.9 million
Pittsburgh Steelers: $99.3 million

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008capfigures.htm

All the good free agents have pretty much been franchised so far and the ones that havent are all corner backs. Id start with trying to resign Williams.

I don't know, the Bengals have long needed that pass catching TE, and the latest I've heard is that Alge Crumpler is still available. He's gone to 4 (!) Pro-Bowls, and could probably be had at a reasonable price (3 yr/$14 mill?). Of course all this assuming he shows he's healthy again.

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Originally Posted by Screwball

I don't know, the Bengals have long needed that pass catching TE, and the latest I've heard is that Alge Crumpler is still available. He's gone to 4 (!) Pro-Bowls, and could probably be had at a reasonable price (3 yr/$14 mill?). Of course all this assuming he shows he's healthy again.

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Honestly, I'd pass on Crumpler, we don't need any more injury issues. Bad knees in football hardly ever end well. I would rather draft a receiving TE if one is available after adressing the defense. Crumpler was and still can be a good player, but I don't see the need in taking a chance on him being healthy when you can spend less to take a risk on a TE in the draft. There are more glaring needs on the team and we don't need to sink a whole lot more into the offense.

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Originally Posted by acredsfan

Honestly, I'd pass on Crumpler, we don't need any more injury issues. Bad knees in football hardly ever end well. I would rather draft a receiving TE if one is available after adressing the defense. Crumpler was and still can be a good player, but I don't see the need in taking a chance on him being healthy when you can spend less to take a risk on a TE in the draft. There are more glaring needs on the team and we don't need to sink a whole lot more into the offense.

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Health is the glaring issue here, I agree. However, if the Bengals coaches can realistically expect him to stay healthy, then he has a MUCH better chance of contributing to the offense, particularly on 3rd downs as well as the red zone (two areas where the Bengals' offense has struggled the last couple of years) than a 2nd day draft pick. AC was the #1 option on passing downs (defenses keyed in on him) for Atlanta, and had the wildly inaccurate Michael Vick tossing him the rock. Yet he was still able to put up solid numbers year in and year out. If a more enticing player on defense is made available then sure, go ahead and offer him a contract before a TE. But as it stands now, Crumpler seems like the best bet to improve this team for 2008 than any other FA or 2nd day draft pick I can think of.

Also, I need to seriously edit the available cap space the Bengals have to work with this season. I forgot to factor in the draft pick money they'll have to set aside as well, bringing down the available money by an estimated $4.75 million. There's also money that needs to be set aside for player incentives, dead money (players released in 2007), college free agents, offseason workouts ($120 a day per player not already receiving workout bonuses), and practice squad players. By my own (very) rough estimation, I'd say that currently the Benglas have around $14 million to spend on FA. Lastly, the Stacy Andrews franchise tag may not already be figured into the numbers like I thought, which would significantly reduce the amount the Bengals have to work with (probably to around $5 million total). I'll try and post when I find out the answer.