Analysts: Bengals must spend more
on free agents
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The verdict is in.
The Bengals must change their philosophy with impact free agents if they hope to get over the hump and into the playoffs next season. No less than the Super Bowl duo of Cris Collinsworth and Sam Wyche saw what happened last year when several impact defensive players took lesser deals elsewhere.
President and General Manager Mike Brown says the club's failure to add defensive help via free agency is fair game for criticism. ''There is something to that. We tried but didn't get anyone in here,'' Brown said. ''It would have helped us if we had. It might have meant winning another game or two.''
Brown left the door open for the club to re-think its conservative fiscal policy of not handing out significant signing bonuses, but it would be for only two players at most: ''It would have to depend on the situation, the player, what it would mean.''
The Bengals don't like giving a player a large, up-front bonus because it is pro-rated over the life of the deal, gobbling up future salary cap room for one of the lowest revenue producing NFL clubs. Indications are one change involves shutting down information to the media. The Bengals felt they were hurt because other clubs knew what they were doing.
Cornerbacks Ryan McNeil and Rod Woodson, and linebackers Seth Joyner, Wayne Simmons and Kevin Greene - turned down the Bengals last spring and summer for more up-front money, or a shorter contract, or the chance to join a winner.
''If the money is not significantly different, the player is going to go to the team that has won,'' Wyche said. ''That's why Cincinnati has to overpay, and Atlanta, and we had to when I was in Tampa Bay.'' McNeil told people last spring he wouldn't come to Cincinnati because of his NFL network that told him it was a bad place to play. But Brian Ransom, McNeil's agent, said the reason he turned down the Bengals' offer of three years, $6 million to take the Rams' $1.25 million for one year was simply because the money wasn't enough for that long of a term.
''If you finish the season with room under the salary cap (the Bengals had about $3 million to spare this year) and you don't go to the Super Bowl,'' Ransom said, ''it makes you wonder how serious the team is about winning.''
Boomer Esiason, who quarterback the Bengals' last Super Bowl team, believes the club has to appoint someone to sell the team and city to free agents.
''You look around here and there are a lot of holes that need to be filled,'' Esiason said. ''This is going to be a very important off-season if (the Bengals) want this team to come from mediocrity to playoff contender.
''What they do need if they really want to go after these free agents is somebody who can sell like a college recruiter,'' Esiason said. ''You need somebody who is young and a good salesman, who knows all the people in the league and the agents. You need someone to sell the team and the city and the good qualities to combat the propaganda about this team around the league. Someone who is a powerful voice against all the other voices.''
It sounds like Esiason is auditioning for the job. But only one guy can get free agents to Cincinnati.
''We're going to try,'' Brown said. ''But we're going against 29 other teams. And we would rather eat the ice cream after the meal instead of before. We want to do it evenly through the years instead of shoehorning money into the future. You get locked into a player, but only 50 percent of them end up helping you.''
The Bengals argue they may have one of the best records for picking up significant free agents each season since 1994. In '94, they got a starting center in Darrick Brilz, in '95 they got their third-down back and special teams captain in Eric Bieniemy, in '96 they got three-fourths of their starting secondary that included Pro Bowl cornerback Ashley Ambrose, and in '97 they got their quarterback of the near future in Esiason.
But they still haven't got the break-through free agent like when the Super Bowl champion Packers told the rest of the NFL they were serious when they signed defensive end Reggie White.
''Since free agency this team has not been successful,'' Collinsworth said. ''It's almost impossible to figure out in the draft which guys have intangibles and character and all that. But you know what a free agent has, but you have to outbid teams and that hasn't been this team's M.O.''
Brown won't give up player control