Letter To Mike and The Fam

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Illustration by Forbes; Photos by Gary Landers/AP, Jamie Squire/Getty Images, David Eulitt/Getty Images, mfto/Getty Images

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Deciphering the NFL salary cap is boring, labororious and hurts my brain. The slight inconvenience is, we can’t make sense of a roster without understanding the fundamentals of the cap and how teams try to game it.

Some teams try harder than others. For our purposes here, we’re lucky the Bengals aren’t among them. Capology is not for amateurs.

Currently, the Men have $51.7 million in cap room, according to overthecap.com. Sam Hubbard just retired, the team cut loose G Alex Cappa and D-lineman Sheldon Rankins. Zack Moss and Germaine Pratt could be next. The cap number flits like a moth near fire. We’ll stick with the $51.7 mil figure and assume we’re in the ballpark.

Per overthecap, Joe Burrow will count $46 mil against the cap, Tee Higgins $26 mil. Any deal with Ja’Marr Chase will add about $39 mil more. Trey Hendrickson just benefited from the 3-year, $106.5 mil extension pass-rusher deluxe Maxx Crosby signed with the Raiders. We’ll suggest Hendrickson will cost $30 mil against the cap.

Are we still awake, kids?

The salary cap is $279.2 million. Simple math says the Big Four will count $141 meel-yun dollars. That leaves the Bengals $138 million to fill out the rest of their roster.

Which brings us — whew — to the letter to Mike Brown and his Family.