After taking a look at where the Cincinnati Bengals land in respect to the draft capital that they have compared to their AFC North rivals, now we're going to look at the ever-changing salary cap situation and how each team ranks in spending power as we barrel towards free agency.
Unfortunately, for Bengals fans, this is another category in which the home team suddenly comes up short.
But things could be worse. The Bengals could be in Cleveland's dog house.
Browns lead in draft capital, but lack cap space
While the Cleveland Browns hold the strongest draft hand among their division rivals, they are in salary-cap Hades.
Currently, the Browns are in the worst salary cap situation among the AFC North teams and fourth-worst in the NFL. They are the only AFC North team still in the red.
Our colleague Lior Lampert over at Dog Pound Daily points out that Cleveland can save $49 million fairly easily. However, the Browns have yet to make that move.
Even if they can clear $49 million, that would leave them with $24 million for free-agent spending, but they would still be well shy of the Bengals and Steelers.
That is, unless they can get some more money off the books by releasing or trading potential cap casualty candidate Denzel Ward.
Bengals fans would love to see the Browns sans Ward. So would Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase.
Baltimore Ravens flocking through tight cap situation
The Baltimore Ravens have the third most money to spend in the AFC North with $18.5 million in cap space. However, they project to have only $8 million in effective cap space after spending on their rookie class.
It already looks like Baltimore is ready to let center Tyler Linderbaum walk out the door. He should expect to fetch a four-year contract worth $70.8 million on the open market, according to Spotrac.
While the Ravens have some money to spend, they fall well short of their division rivals, the Bengals and Steelers.
Baltimore could save a lot of money by releasing some of its big-name players.
Roquan Smith’s departure would save them $20 million but would incur a $12.7 million dead-money hit.
Marlon Humphrey’s release or trade would save the Ravens $19.2 million while suffering a $7 million dead cap charge.
Unlike with Denzel Ward, Cincinnati fans, and Ja’marr Chase would be extremely disappointed to see Marlon Humphrey not with the Ravens next season.
Cincinnati Bengals positioned to spend big in free agency
The Cincinnati Bengals are in a better position to outspend their divisional foes than to outdraft them. And that is what we should expect of them.
The Bengals must be big spenders as they look to overhaul their defense, which has been among the worst over the past couple of seasons, into at least a mediocre one.
Cincinnati is $47.4 million under, ranking eighth in the NFL entering free agency. Over the Cap puts their effective cap space at $40 million, after accounting for draft picks from the upcoming class.
At least the Bengals won’t have to count on spending any of that cap space on a starting QB like the team at the top of this list.
However, it is unfortunate that they didn’t create even more space by doing the simple task of restructuring their QB’s contract.
Pittsburgh Steelers take late cap space lead
We can expect the Pittsburgh Steelers to be heavily active in free agency. They have $50 million to play with as they enter next week.
They just hit the 50-mark after releasing tight end Jonnu Smith, in a move that saves them $7 million.
However, the Steelers will have to spend a portion of that on the quarterback room.
New head coach Mike McCarthy and the organization are willing to wait again for Aaron Rodgers to decide whether he wants to continue playing football.
Over the Cap puts his market value at $10.5 million for one year. That would be a decrease from his $13.6 million contract a year ago.
Or Pittsburgh could take another, younger, and more expensive route and spend big on a free-agent quarterback like Kyler Murray or Malik Willis.
They could also check in on Tua Tagovailoa, who will cost much less as he will still be getting paid by the Dolphins, plus whatever he lands in free agency from his new team.
There are still moves each of the AFC North teams can make to free up cap space. We here can only hope whatever moves the Bengals make get them one step closer to their goal of making it back to the playoffs, and beyond.