NFL free agency begins Monday at noon (signings will be formally reported Wednesday), and the Bengals have never been here before.
A record salary cap of $255 million. Joe Burrow, quarterback, has signed a record $275 million contract. Tee Higgins has received a franchise tag worth roughly $22 million. Three of their own free agents are in ESPN’s top 23: cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, right tackle Jonah Williams, and nose tackle DJ Reader.
Ja’Marr Chase, a three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, is eligible for a contract extension.
But you only have to look back to last year’s first week of free agency and the abrupt surprise acquisition of Pro Bowl left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. to get a sense of what can happen next week and how the Bengals are going to approach it:
Expect the unexpected, and their agile front office has been able to pivot and adapt their priorities as the market evolves in the first few hours.
_Burrow is a popular choice among both free agents and fans in the NFL. Furthermore, his head coach, Zac Taylor, has acquired a reputation throughout the league for taking care of his players with a team that always appears to have fresh legs. (Look at Burrow’s 19-6 record in November, December, and January.)
_They do not close their doors after the first week of free agency and prefer to take a long-term perspective of the cap leading up to opening day. Even though the draft isn’t until the last week of April and the practice squad hasn’t been constituted until the week before the opener, they’ve already got the rookie pool of $10.5 million and the $4 million of the practice squad budgeted, among other items
Last year’s greatest move came the day before the season opener, when Burrow signed the NFL’s costliest deal ever and boarded a charter to Cleveland. Chase was almost certainly taking notes in first class.
_The Bengals like to make large deals (they’ve consistently spent to or above the salary cap throughout Paycor Stadium’s 24 seasons), but they also like to do so in a way that protects the future with upfront money.
It remains to be known whether they will come out as hot as they did in the first four free agency days of the Burrow Epoch, when they signed a great starter from another team on each of those days.
(Technically, they made the Texans’ Reader the highest-paid nose tackle in 2020, a month before drafting Burrow, but they knew when they signed Reader that they would be the Burrow Bengals.)
The Bengals were not surprised when the cap reached $255 million. They were already sketching it out at around $250 million, and last week at the NFL scouting combine, director of player personnel Duke Tobin admitted there is money to be spent.
“I won’t go into our roster development tactics, but I will tell you that if there is more money, there is more possibility to add people, and that is simply the fact,” Tobin said. “There is also more chance for the other 31 teams to add members, so that may provide some flexibility. Hopefully, if you’re talking about the same people getting paid more, it doesn’t fit with the club. But as long as we can use those monies to enhance what we would have done otherwise, I believe it is beneficial to us.”
“I won’t go into our roster development tactics, but I will tell you that if there is more money, there is more possibility to add people, and that is simply the fact,” Tobin said. “There is also more chance for the other 31 teams to add members, so that may provide some flexibility. Hopefully, if you’re talking about the same people getting paid more, it doesn’t fit with the club. But as long as we can use those monies to enhance what we would have done otherwise, I believe it is beneficial to us.”
That Friday, the Chiefs told Brown that they would not use the franchise tag on him for the second consecutive year. When they discussed long-term numbers over the weekend, Brown, who is about to turn 27, decided the deal was too long, and when Monday arrived, he became involved in negotiations with the Jets and Steelers.
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aron Rodgers, which would have been a fantastic opportunity for Orlando to block for a guy like that,” recalls Jammal Brown, the former Saints lineman. “As we talked about those clubs, Orlando mentioned what it was like to play the Bengals. How they always seemed new. He promised to play them in December, and they were like it was in week two. ‘They do it the right way.’
(A few days later, Orlando Brown, who arrived at his first news conference after blocking for two NFL MVPs, Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes, remarked, “You could say I’m spoiled with rising up in the football world with the teams I’ve been on and the men I’ve played with. But being able to play with a man like Nine is a tough opportunity to pass up, especially since we’re both the same age and at similar stages in our careers.”)
Jammal Brown contacted Radicevic late Tuesday, just as the Bengals were trying to assess their safety situation after both Jessie Bates III and Vonn Bell went to market.
When Radicevic answered the call on Wednesday morning, the Bengals had moved on. and the next thing everyone knew, Radicevic was in Bengals president Mike Brown’s office with club vice president Troy Blackburn and soon Taylor would be on the horn if he hadn’t been already since he talks with some form of the group every day.
