New 2025 NFL salary cap estimate paints a clearer picture of how much the Bengals may spend this offseason
There's a golden rule to remember about NFL teams: Cash matters way more than cap. The Cincinnati Bengals happen to operate in a way that make both matter on a yearly basis. Still, the annual salary cap is important and tells us a lot about what to expect when the money starts flying everywhere in March. […]
There's a golden rule to remember about NFL teams: Cash matters way more than cap. The Cincinnati Bengals happen to operate in a way that make both matter on a yearly basis.
Still, the annual salary cap is important and tells us a lot about what to expect when the money starts flying everywhere in March. A higher cap ceiling than expected can equal more flexibility for every team, and for the Bengals, more space is essentially clearance to spend more.
The salary cap isn't quite official yet, but according to ESPN's Dan Graziano, it's expected to land in the range of $277.5 million and $281.5 million.
This gives us a clear picture of how much the Bengals are going to spend and put into this year's cap sheet.
Bengals 2025 cash spending projection based on salary cap estimate
Cap space gets all the attention, but the Bengals almost always find themselves with around $10 million to spare after every offseason no matter the cap ceiling. OverTheCap.com projects the Bengals to have $53,139,740 in space following the NFL's memo about this year's cap. This doesn't factor in the likely roster cuts Cincinnati will make to clear up even more space. Releasing Sheldon Rankins, Sam Hubbard, Alex Cappa, Zack Moss along with trading away Germaine Pratt would give the Bengals $89,435,328 in space to work with for free agency and extending star players Ja'Marr Chase, Trey Hendrickson, and Tee Higgins.
It will not take nearly $90 million in cap space to fit those extensions, but it may take around that number in cash for this year alone. Again, that's what really matters here.
Calculating how much the Bengals may spend in a given year largely depends on the cap for that year, as pointed out by Locked On Bengals host Jake Liscow. Since 2020, the first year the club actively participated in the early portion of free agency, the Bengals' average yearly cash spend is approximately 8% more than the unadjusted league-wide cap.
If this year's unadjusted number is, let's say, $280 million, then a reasonable expectation based on recent history is for the Bengals to spend around $300 million on their roster in cash this year alone.
$300 million! And that won't even be anywhere near the most an NFL club spends this year. Not all of that cash gets factored into this year's salary cap as prorated signing bonuses help spread out cap hits through multiple years, but that's all a part of the accounting nature of the cap.
The Bengals are currently on the hook for about $211 million, including the salaries of Rankins, Hubbard, Cappa, and other likely cap casualties. Once those salaries are off the books, the Bengals will have well over $100 million to spend to reach their typical spending level based on the cap. That's money for Chase, Higgins, Hendrickson, and several free agents.
If the Bengals don't follow through with their intentions and pay their stars while supplementing the rest of the roster, it will be because they chose not to do so, not for a lack of cash.
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