Thursday, April 08, 1999
Bengals back away from Rams' McNeil
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Mike and Paul Brown met with Ryan McNeil's agent Wednesday in Atlanta, but the Bengals have now moved away from the Rams cornerback and are studying other options.
One of them could be making a serious run at re-signing their own cornerback, Corey Sawyer, who has been productive but never a regular starter.
“We put our deal out there and they said they wanted to wait to see what they could get later,” said Bengals General Manager Mike Brown. “So we're going to try and do something else for now.”
The Browns were in Atlanta for the owners' meeting.
Brown said the Bengals and McNeil each pared their proposals from last month, when McNeil was looking for $4 million a year and the Bengals offered $3 million, “but we were still far apart,” Mike Brown said.
Free agent Ashley Ambrose, who started for the Bengals at left corner last year, isn't in the club's ballpark as he continues to seek $4.5 million per year.
Kennard McGuire, Ambrose's agent, said Wednesday he won't talk to the Bengals about taking less money.
The Bengals had about $6 million under the salary cap before signing guard Brian DeMarco last week. That means they have room to do a deal with McNeil, but another contract would force them to revamp the numbers and possibly cut players.
DeMarco cost the Bengals about $1.2 million in this year's cap with a deal giving him $850,000 to sign, $875,000 in 1999, $950,000 in 2000 and $1.175 million in 2001.
The $1.2 million hit gives the Bengals about $1 million under the cap, counting the estimated $4 million to sign their draft picks.
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 Bengals back away from Rams' McNeil
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