WhoDeyRevolution

What I'd Do With The Uncapped Year

As you've undoubtedly heard by now, it's all but certain that the 2010 NFL season will go on without a salary cap.  No salary cap also means no salary floor.  If this happens long-term, it'd be Goodnight Irene for the Bengals' chances at a championship as long as Mike Brown ran the team.  However, I'm of the belief that we don't have to worry about this.  For all their posturing, the NFLPA knows that the salary cap system in place is good for both parties.  After the 2010 season, whenever football is played again, it will be under a salary cap.

Thus, I'm operating under the assumption that 2011 and beyond will be under very similar cap rules as those that have been in place.  A quick, very basic refresher.  A player's salary counts only towards their cap number for the year it is paid, and can vary wildly by year.  It can go from $10M one year to only $300k the next, depending on the structure of the contract.  Thus, a player can have very, very different figures against the cap from year to year.  Obviously, no player would allow their pay to be jerked around so violently every season.  This is stemmed by two types of bonuses, signing and roster (they can be but are not always guaranteed).  Signing bonuses are prorated over the life of the contract.  For example, a 5 year contract with a $20M signing bonus means that $4M counts towards a player's cap figure every year of the deal.  If a player is released at any point of those 5 years, the remaining bonus proration counts against the cap immediately.  Roster bonuses, for the purpose of this article, function very similar to base salaries, at least in the way they are counted against the salary cap.

I follow the league as a whole daily, and I've yet to see any conclusive opinion on how exactly contracts signed in 2010 will count towards future salary caps.  Will they be prorated as per usual?  Will they work under a different set of rules?  Nobody knows for sure, and nobody will until the next CBA is hammered out, which will be in March 2011 at the earliest.

This Just In: Leon, JJ & Zimmer Are Very Good

Football Outsiders devotes a lengthy piece to breaking down our stud corners and how Zimmer also creates defenses that put them (and the rest of the defense) in position to succeed.  Here's the link.  Basically, the Bengals defend the top 2 receivers on the opposing team as well as anyone in the NFL.

The problem?  We are dead last at defending any receiver beyond the first 2 if one exists (think those dump off crossing patterns where the Vikings gained lots of yards).  And that means we caught a break that Percy Harvin wasn't in the game and we still lost by 20.  Hmmmm.

Key passages from the article.  This:

I counted five specific targets to Hall, and six to Joseph. The five to Hall netted Favre four completions for 30 yards and an interception, and the six to Joseph saw Favre go one-for-six for seven yards. Both corners are excellent on deep outs, good at adjusting to route reads, and Hall specifically is good at taking his man out of the play on angular routes. Favre would hit his receivers on underneath stuff when Hall and Joseph were playing off, but they are both sure tacklers as well, which compounds the problems for enemy quarterbacks.

And this:

(talking about Vikings formations) The Bengals know how to adjust to this stuff in ways the current Seahawks staff couldn't even comprehend...when your cornerbacks cover with man-on-man ability and understand how to eliminate areas of the field with zone concepts (the deep safety adjusting to the ball), that's a dangerous combination. It's a credit to Zimmer that when you watch this team, you realize that it's not just about Joseph and Hall running around in half-baked schemes -- these are talented players put in positions to succeed by good coaches.

The Bengals would do well to find a way to keep two of these three people at least for a few more years.  Sadly, top corners get huge money.  Both Hall and Joseph probably fall in the top 10 list of all CBs and contracts start at around $8.5 million per year for those elite guys.

Zimmer, well, let's just say he'll get some attention too.