The Cincinnati Bengals earned some criticism Monday with the news the front office re-signed right tackle Bobby Hart.
It wasn’t so much the news of Hart coming back as it was the dollar figures checking in at $21 million over three years.
On a per-year basis, that means Hart ranks among the top-10 right tackles in annual salary at Over the Cap. He’ll also sit eighth in per-year salary on the Bengals roster outright, ranking behind only players like A.J. Green, Geno Atkins and Andy Dalton.
Of course, some of this will be incentives so the $21 million will get divvied up in an interesting fashion once we know more. It might even be a situation where the Bengals don’t owe any guaranteed money if they want to part ways with Hart in the future.
Still, Bengals fans saw Hart’s performance a season ago and are justifiably flustered that the big opening day of free agency move was giving a former seventh-round pick who struggled a big number like $21 million — after he only earned $1.015 million last season.
Hart is young and circumstances weren’t great a year ago, but fans understandably want to see results before these sorts of numbers.
