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Open Thread: Should Bengals Use The Franchise Tag?

ST. LOUIS, MO - DECEMBER 18: Mike Nugent #2 of the Cincinnati Bengals kicks a field goal against the St. Louis Rams at the Edward Jones Dome on December 18, 2011 in St. Louis, Missouri.  The Bengals beat the Rams 20-13.  (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Dilip Vishwanat - Getty Images

5 months ago: ST. LOUIS, MO - DECEMBER 18: Mike Nugent #2 of the Cincinnati Bengals kicks a field goal against the St. Louis Rams at the Edward Jones Dome on December 18, 2011 in St. Louis, Missouri. The Bengals beat the Rams 20-13. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Before free agency opens on March 13, the Bengals can use the franchise tag on a player starting on Feb. 20. Some free agents are Reggie Nelson, Mike Nugent, Pat Sims and there are others that they should re-sign as well.

Do you think any player on the team's roster that is set to become a free agent is worth the franchise tag? If so, who should they use it on?

Go.

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Comments

Nugent only player comes close to being top 5 in NFL at his position…

Nelson if he cant get ha deal done

We don’t pay for safeties…

That is why we dont go the the playoffs often, we dont keep paying our players and they leave

so we always end up having to fix the same problem again over and over again

Who was the last Safety we should've re-signed?
Madieu Williams

left for the Vikings for more money

+1

i was about to say that, but then again i wasn’t too mad when he left because he seemed to be hurt a lot when he was here.

yeah

same as J Joe, but both went on to pro bowls so, you never know what you have till it’s gone

I'm sorry but I laughed when you said Madeiu Williams

He wasn’t even close being worth what the Vikes gave him. I just don’t think Mikey values the position as much as he does other defensive positions.

Not only was he not worth that money,

The Vikings asked him to renegotiate his contract twice. Even the Vikings found out quick that he wasn’t worth it. He was there for three seasons and the Vikes asked him to renegotiate twice haha.

wasn't the question: "Who was the last Safety we should've re-signed? "
He said we don't pay safeties

Then the other gent said we don’t our own players, which I took as “We don’t pay our Safeties to stick around, that’s why we don’t go to the playoffs.” Well, I can’t remember the last time we had a great Safety worth re-signing. I’m sorry but Madieu Williams doesn’t fit the mold for me. He was a walking injury. I can still see his head bouncing off the ground when LT stiff-armed the shit out of him on his way to a four TD day.

ok i gotcha, i thought you was asking in general, but yea i would have paid what the vikes did

but then again, the DC at time was Frazier, who probably scouted Williams in the first place. So there was probably that connect that made them over spend.

But either way, Nelson is worth the money. He is far better Williams while he was here. Our defense is built around having a heavy hitters at the LB and Safty spot.

i wouldn't have paid what the vikes did***
I couldn't have said it any better myself my friend.

I agree with your assessment of Frazier as the DC. That was the logical connection there. But yeah, like we both said, he wasn’t worth THAT much. I thought the magic number for Safeties this season was around 8mill which I thought was too high. Now that I found out that number is incorrect and it is around 6, I think that’s right on the dot. Slap it on him.

for sure $6 million is probably what he will get as a base anyways

lol i mean if we are willing to give crocker around $4million a year, I think Nelson is easily worth the $6 million

Lol easily

Williams and Kaesviharn were nice safeties… And Williams was also last high pick we spent on safety.

he was a mid 20's pick?
I think he was a second rounder
Justin Smith, we hardly knew ye

lol thats an awesome pick

he has them cookie monster eyes for some QB…..

See, I would say Mike Nugent, but

he really didn’t kick that well down the stretch when winds started picking up a little bit in the colder months. I think the Bengals are going to bring in some competition for him. This is a tough one.

He was my fantasy kicker from week 1

And I have to give him props, I get docked on missed Fg and I was very pleased with his production in fantasy and real life. Only because of our history with Skank Graham would I be on the edge of my seat when we ha a kicking opportunity and even then I felt better cause the Nudge was kicking, I think Nelson would be the player to franchise considering he’s the only FA that we must sign back, all the others would def hurt to lose but I think Nelson is gonnna keep getting better and better under Zimm and it would be a shame to lose him just because we didn’t want make a long term deal this year.

Shank not skank hahaha
Lol skank

That’s hilarious. Yeah I think Nugent kicked extremely well considering he came back from ACL surgery. Definitely one of the top five kickers in the game. Not to mention, Darren Simmons is an awesome ST’s coach. We’ll see….

He was my kicker on all of my fantasy teams except a few

The other kicker I had was Dan Bailey

Nope, none of them

No, especially Nugent. Kickers lose it so suddenly he could be on the street by Oct 1.
None of those guys are going to get top 5 deals anywhere, they should be fairly easy to re-sign if they want to return.

That was kind of what I was getting to earlier

I think you can re-sign Nugent for less money and I think Nelson will listen to the Bengals first. Sims can’t be an every down DT. I think that’s what e thinks by saying, “I want to test the market.”

That's why I'd either franchise Sims or Nelson.
So you're going to pay Pat Sims top 5 DT money?

I don’t know about all that brother.

Probably not, I'd offer a 2 year $8 million dollar deal.
Haha I just responded to your post below.

I would be absolutely fine with that.

Look below for what I suggested

In order to keep Sims, a lot of the money would have to be gaurenteed.

None.

The franchise tag has burned this team the last couple of times they’ve used it on Stacy Andrews and Shayne Graham. No thanks.

I wouldn't object to tagging Nelson

Franchise tag amounts have dropped pretty dramatically since last year.

http://eye-on-football.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22475988/34834810

$6 million for a safety. That’s high for Nelson but it’s not like we’re talking about $10-15 million here. And the Bengals have $60 freaking million in cap space.

+1

Chump change in comparison to our over all spending money. If he won’t sign and we can’t find better than use it on Nelson and only him. Safety is a hard spot to fill with quality.

lol $6 million is high for nelson?

i think thats around the price we would pay him as a base salary.

If they are concerned

About Nelson going with coyle they might want to tag him since it’s pretty cheap for a safety and then they can work out a longer term deal

It's a one year contract in a year where we have 60 million to spend.

It gives them time to sign him long-term and keeps him the hell away from Miami.

We should not use the Franchise tag

Because we should wrap up long-term contracts with Nelson and Nugent before Free Agency.

The other thing to consider is for the first time in a generation

The Bengals could be a desirable place for FA’s to land.
For one, all NFL teams will soon have to spend nearly to the cap so MB will have to keep his wallet open.

Second the team looks to be rising with lots of good young talent.. Same applies to coaches too(expect Marvin).

Bengals have enough cap space to attract anyone they wish.
As much as I like these three FA’s and as much as I want all of them back, we would be silly to sign any to top 5 deals while there are guys with more impact lurking in FA.

agreed

but no one better at safety or kicker better than Nelson or Nugent imo

They bengals have always let safeties walk vs. sign them...

…so they likely won’t franchise Nelson (although i probably would if i was them)

Nugent is a local boy and we gave him a shot after the other NFL teams were done w/him – so we can probably get him to stay if we try.

So i don’t see either of them getting tagged.

But....

The Bengals have always done a lot of things that the Bengals aren’t doing anymore, to my pleasant surprise. I think we sign him.

One guy who the Sims situation reminds me of is...

Shuan Smith. A few years back, Shaun Smith was a beast in the Bengals d-line rotation, similar to what Sims is now. We didn’t franchise him, and the Chiefs ended up signing him for 2 years $8 million.

Great comparison
So sign him to a two year deal worth 8 mill.

Don’t pay him top five DT money and franchise him for one season.

I'm hoping this is what they do, I'm pretty sure at the time, Mikey lowballed Shaun Smith and offered less than 2 years $ 8 mill; I'd make $5 or 6 mill gaurenteed and have the rest in incentives.
Yeah.

Somebody would love to have a big bodied run stopper like Pat. Someone will pay him 5/6 mill guaranteed range. He needs to be back here. He’s by far the Bengals best run stopped and it was very noticeable when he went down.

stopper*
Of course if we can't re-sign Sims..

Then trade Crocker and Geathers for either McDonald or Shirley…

as said above

Nelson for 6 mil is not bad. Maybe a mil more than he’s worth but not bad. Can’t take a step back at saftey. Nelson put up good numbers and made some plays, sure he’s not top 5, but he is well worth the tag for us.

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