CINCINNATI -- From a player's standpoint, Malik Jackson, Olivier Vernon and Brock Osweiler were free agency's biggest winners.
Within the next five seasons, all three will be getting paid upwards of $72 million.
Jackson tops the list at $85.5 million between now and the end of the 2020 season. Vernon will get $85 million in that same stretch. By the end of the 2019 season, Osweiler will receive $72 million from the Houston Texans, making him this free-agency period's big splash quarterback signing.
That's a lot of money for one player. Guess how much the Cincinnati Bengals spent on nine?
According to contract details from ESPN's Roster Management System, the Bengals will take a $69,980,000 cap hit within the next five years on the nine free-agent deals they worked out this spring. By the end of the 2020 season, they will have paid nine players less than what the Texans are projected to pay Osweiler the next four years. Of course, Houston could one day restructure Osweiler's deal or cut him before he sees the full amount. The former Broncos backup will make at least $37 million of his massive contract in guarantees.
Though Osweiler, Vernon and Jackson are only three examples of players who received big pay days, their deals are being highlighted simply as stark comparisons to what the Bengals spent in free agency. Naturally, all four teams (the Bengals, Texans and Jackson's Jaguars and Vernon's Giants) have vastly different circumstances and needs, and have their own philosophies on paying players and identifying talent.
In the Bengals' case, though, these nine signings are an indication of how shrewd they can be. Though they were quite frugal compared to the Texans, Jaguars and Giants, it's impossible to call the Bengals cheap. They opened the wallet to re-sign Adam Jones and Vincent Rey, and were about to do it with Marvin Jones.
But when Jones rejected Cincinnati's comparable offer to sign a five-year, $40 million deal with the Lions, the Bengals had more money to move around for other signings. It helped that Brandon LaFell, Karlos Dansby and George Iloka signed fair, but maybe lower-than-expected deals.
LaFell and Dansby each agreed to one-year contracts. Combined, they hold a $4,437,500 cap value. When you consider LaFell had a career year two seasons ago and Dansby might be the best active defensive player to have never made a Pro Bowl, it's worth applauding Cincinnati's efforts to bring both veterans in at low prices. Clearly both badly wanted to play for a contender like Cincinnati. Dansby even went on record the day he was cut by Cleveland, saying he knew the Bengals were "licking their chops" to sign him.
As for Iloka, the safety has a $5.1 million cap hit for 2016, and will eat nearly $30 million of cap space before his contract ends. It's a deal that will make him the 19th-highest paid safety in the league for this season.
Cincinnati might be just about done with free agency. All that appears left is for Taylor Mays' signing to be made official.
