We are a very young team. We’ve also made the most out of our late round/undrafted players as well as cast offs like Eli Apple who has stepped in as a serviceable starter. We’ll have to resign Jessie Bates and a couple others this off-season like Uzomah, but after we cut Wayne’s we’ll have like another 12 mil to play with.
They have a lot of cap space, but they always have a lot of cap space. Their owner is notoriously cheap. They'll also be drafting 31 or 32 this year. I'll still need to wait and see.
This is true, at least in the past. 2020 off-season showed that they’re more willing to spend money though. Attempted to get a solid signing with Trae Waynes and signed him to a big deal but he’s been hurt for 90% of the last 2 years. Also signed Chidobe Awuzie who has been one of the top 5 CBs in the league this year according to PFF. This past season we opened the pocket book for Trey Hendrickson and Mike Hilton. Both huge signings for us, with Hendrickson making his first Pro Bowl. We signed Hendrickson over keeping our home grown talent in Carl Lawson. Wish Carl nothing but the best, but he got hurt before the season started and Hendrickson has continued being a beast instead of the one hit wonder some folks expected. Also cost us less overall than Lawson would have with a year longer deal.
Apparently Mike Brown isn’t in charge of the GM stuff these days and it’s mostly his daughter and her team. Based on the moves the last few years and the shrewd decisions to move on from long time Bengals, I’d say it’s true. In the past we would’ve signed Lawson to a big deal instead of moving on. This FO is not acting like the same ol Bengals