The Bengals Conundrum

The Cincinnati Bengals are in a conundrum. They went to the playoffs every year between 2011 and 2014, but never won a game. Their QB has been horrific in two games this year having 5 times as many turnovers as touchdowns (the team has no TD’s) and the team would barely have to swallow a financial pill if they were to get rid of him. Their coach has taken the team to those playoff games but has yet to win one. His contract expires on the first day of the new year. What should they do? I’d like to share my opinions about that with you.

Even though a lot of people have written about the way the Bengals played and why people such as Marvin Lewis and Andy Dalton should be looking for new jobs, I want to give my opinion. Why? Because I don’t think they should be looking. Let’s start with Dalton and then move onto Lewis.

Once again supply and demand laws dictate what the Bengals should do with Dalton because there are fewer serviceable quarterbacks in the NFL than there are teams. Therefore, whenever a serviceable QB has two or fewer years left on his contract, their current team rushes to get them to sign an extension. When a QB does hit the market, teams with loads of cap space overpay to sign said QB, once again due to supply and demand; which is why Mike Glennon got a 3 year, $45 million contract in March from the Bears.

While it may not seem this way at this point in the season, Andy Dalton is better than serviceable. His $13.1 million-dollar salary is moving toward the bottom of the NFL’s starting QB pay scale, as demonstrated by the Glennon deal, even though Dalton is much better. Further, he has made it to the playoffs four times in his career, something not many quarterbacks can say they have done.

If he rebounds during the rest of the season, his low salary (even though it will be around $17.5 million in the final year of his contract if he were to stay) makes him worth keeping since they don’t have a replacement and it will take a while to get back to the playoffs without him.

If the Bengals were to cut him between today and June 1, 2018 it would only occur $2.4 million in dead cap next year, a small number. If they cut him any time after June 1, 2018 there would be no dead money.

In terms of Lewis, I believe they should extend him for no more than two years because he has gotten to the playoffs multiple times with the Bengals and while they haven’t won a game, they are close and missing a piece. Is that piece Joe Mixon (who they should be using a lot more) or someone else, I don’t know. But, what I do know is that if they bring in a new coach and don’t promote from within, they could be stuck with having a new coach every year or two while having Dalton (if they don’t cut him) in his prime to go along with A.J. Green in his prime. While it is totally fair to believe that they should have fired him a few years ago (something I agree with), they should keep him for two years max because it will allow the organization to see how Dalton plays and if the team decides to draft a new QB, they can assess how Lewis uses the new rookie.

Regardless, both decisions need to revolve around Green. If they can’t throw him the ball when he is in his prime, they should get rid of him. If they don’t have a coach who is capable of getting him the ball, they should get a new coach because Green is one of the top 4 wide receivers. If they don’t have anyone to throw him the ball nor a game plan to get him the ball, well, then he will most likely want out, and we’ve seen how that’s gone in Ohio before, (hint: the NBA).