2026 Offseason Preview: Cincinnati
The Cincinnati Bengals aren't switching things up following a lost 2025
statbutler.com will be releasing offseason previews for all 32 teams in the lead up to free agency. Feel free to share any of the text/visuals below with attribution. All underlying contract data was collected by overthecap.com.
Recent Team History
Cincinnati missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season after back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances. The defense regressed to the level that we saw when the Bengals won just 12 games from 2018 to 2020.
2025 Season
For Cincinnati, 2025 was defined by some of the same issues we’ve seen derail this franchise in the last several years: a serious injury to star QB Joe Burrow, poor pass protection, and inadequate defense. Burrow kicked the season off with a pair of wins, but then landed on IR. Jake Browning was unable to successfully take the reigns and the Bengals traded the Browns to bring in Joe Flacco until Burrow could return.
Running It Back
The Bengals are, for the most part, not making any major changes heading into 2026. They’ll be a rare non-playoff team that retains their head coach, GM, coordinators, and starting quarterback.
Returning Players
Note that all restructures below are assumed to be max restructures. This means that the team will use void years to prorate cash across up to five seasons, minimizing amount that will hit the current year’s salary cap.
For players who are not vested veterans, I’ve replaced information about the player’s active contract with a description of the team control remaining until the player can become an unrestricted free agent.
The Bengals trio of Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins delivered a solid performances when available, but they didn’t have much help. Among the four returning starters on the offensive line with at least 8 starts, none were graded better than the 34th percentile by PFF. I have Orlando Brown Jr. as a cut right now, but he’s on the borderline. It’ll be difficult to find a trustworthy tackle at less than the $14m he’s owed in 2026.
I see the Bengals as having a solid set of corners in Dax Hill and D.J. Turner, while the “spine” of the defense (inside defensive line, linebackers, and safety) is where they have the most room for improvement. In a lot of ways, you have to build those rooms out brick by brick. This unit may remain below average looking to next season.
Expiring Contracts
In terms of pending free agents, the big name is Trey Hendrickson, who will be coming off an injury shortened 2025 following a failed negotiation for a long-term deal. One of his peers in that position group, Joseph Ossai, should be able to catch on with a plus rotational deal at the least. Cincinnati should be searching for another edge to add to the rotation with Myles Murphy & Shemar Stewart going forward. Dalton Risner is a veteran that makes sense to bring back to fill out the offensive line.
Projected Tags & Cuts
I’m not including ERFA eligible players here (expiring contracts with less than 3 accrued seasons), as they can either sign a league minimum contract or the team can allow them to leave.
The only pre-free agency moves I have Cincinnati making are releasing Orlando Brown and T.J. Slaton as cap casualties. Franchise tagging Trey Hendrickson (which I believe would cost $34.8m) was probably a more serious consideration before he missed time this past season. It’s likely a little rich for a tag & trade as well, so I expect him to either work something out with the team on a traditional extension or hit unrestricted free agency. Elsewhere, Myles Murphy has a 5th year option that can be picked up for an estimated $14m for 2027. I expect the club to exercise that.
The Salary Cap
In the image below, each blue bordered rectangle is equivalent to the cap hit of a single player. Within that rectangle, there are more rectangles that break down the player’s cap hit. Areas colored green can be pushed entirely into a future cap years via max restructure. Areas with vertical bars are “locked in” and the team cannot open them up by releasing the player. They represent either fully guaranteed cash that hasn’t been earned yet or remaining proration from cash earned in previous league years.
Cincinnati, as is the case for them most years, does not need to give any serious consideration to the salary cap. As it stands now, the Bengals have more than $50m in 2026 cap space that isn’t accounted for.
On top of the cap space they have currently, the Bengals can nearly double it by only restructuring the guaranteed portion of cash due to their core players in 2026 (Burrow, Chase, Higgins, Hill). In terms of current cash outlay, I have Cincinnati sitting at $233m (22nd). They’ll have plenty of room to build up their roster if they so choose.
Draft Capital
Looking to the draft, Cincinnati will make their first pick at 10. Their 5th round pick from the Joe Flacco trade has been downgraded to a 6th and they have an extra 7th. This is the 12th biggest draft capital stockpile per my trade based pick value chart.