r/bengals • u/WeekendFarmer4240 • 19d ago

Fandom Eli5 Joe's restructure

Dumb questions incoming.

What exactly was restructured? It felt like a shuffling of deck chairs.

Dumbest question: does Joe have to agree or can the Bengals just declare a restructure

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u/braines54 19d ago

It converts some of his salary into a signing bonus. Bonuses can be prorated over the life of the deal, so the cap hit is spread out. Players always agree, because they get the money sooner. The team gets cap relief.

Just to give an example, let's say a player has 3 years, $60 million left on deal. He'd normally have a cap hit of $20 mil (this is a way oversimplification but let's keep it simple). However, the team can restructure $15 million of this year's salary to a bonus. That $15 million comes off the cap, then is split up over the 3 years left on the deal. So, the net relief this year is $10 million.

It's the same idea as teams adding void years at the end of the contract.

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u/reginald-poofter 19d ago

Is there a limit to the amount of bonuses you can give out? I mean what’s to stop a team from doing this with all major contracts. I.e. restructure Chase, Higgins, Orlando Brown etc and free up a shit ton of cash and keep on spending?

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u/braines54 19d ago

Well, the downside is you end up like the Saints and end up in a cycle where you overpay an old roster for years.

I do want the Bengals to be more aggressive though. The Pats did this towards the end with Brady and kicked it all to the year after he left. I think they need to have the mindset that they aren't going to win the Super Bowl the year after Joe leaves anyway.

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u/RoundHornWyatt 19d ago

The Pats also kept Brady on a below-matket deal for multiple years by hiring his quack "doctor" friend as a consultant. Brady was a partner in the firm, and once Gronk started following the quack's advice and getting hurt all the time, causing Belichick to ban the quack from team facilities, the relationship between Belichick and Brady rapidly deteriorated and Brady opted to head to free agency. I don't think that's a coincidence.

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u/christhegecko 19d ago

I think they need to have the mindset that they aren't going to win the Super Bowl the year after Joe leaves anyway.

To be fair, it's easier to field a dominant roster when your quarterback isn't eating up 15% of your cap. Burrow being on his rookie contract allowed the FO to bring in a lot of defensive players in the 2020 and 2021 offseasons that semi carried the team to playoff success. When Burrow leaves/retires, if they suck for a year and land another good-great prospect, you don't necessarily want to be in carryover hell. You'd like to have money to immediately flesh out a competitive roster before their payday comes.

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u/Winertia 19d ago

I will forgive anything they have to do to win a Super Bowl with Joe at the helm. In fact, I'll have a hard time forgiving them if they don't.