Bengals Salary Cap Space Update: How much can Cincinnati use before running into its own budget

The Cincinnati Bengals have plenty of cap space on the surface, but not according to their usual budget.

John Sheeran — Cincinnati Bengals News Writer
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Cincinnati Bengals Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin addresses the media during a press conference, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati.
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The salary cap space you think the Cincinnati Bengals have, and the salary cap space the front office itself thinks is available are two very different numbers.

Contracts for Jonathan Allen, Bryan Cook, Josh Johnson, and Boye Mafe have made a big dent in Cincinnati’s offseason cap space, but there is more room for the Bengals to use before the long offseason comes to a close in September.

So where are the Bengals at now in terms of cap space, what are they going to spend their remaining space on, and where will they likely end up? Lets’s answer all of those questions.

Bengals updated salary cap space

The Bengals currently have $21,744,376 in cap space. This is calculated by subtracting the sum of the top-51 cap hits on the roster plus non-active roster cap hits in the form of “dead money” from the team’s projected adjusted cap ceiling.

Just under of $22 million looks like plenty of cap space on the surface, because it is! It’s enough to make almost any singular move at this stage of the offseason. If Cincinnati wants more cap space, restructuring Joe Burrow’s contract would open up another $19.2 million for this year.

But this is not actually $21,744,376 to make more veteran additions to the club. A lot of this is going to Cincy’s 2026 NFL Draft class, and much of the rest is for transactions you don’t even think about.

How will the Bengals use their remaining cap space?

The Bengals’ eight draft picks are slated to account for $14,206,566 in salary cap dollars, but only $7,126,566 will count against the offseason cap due to the top-51 rule in which cap hits below the 51st largest are offset. Still, $7.1 million is equivalent to a mid-tier free agent signing, so it’s certainly notable.

Cincinnati is also accounting for $4,125,000 in terms of practice squad salaries for the upcoming season, and around $3 million in practice squad elevations and offseason workout payments.

Before you know it, around $14 million of the remaining $21.7 million in cap space has been accounted for in future spending, and we’re still not done yet. Veteran additions could still come into the picture on manageable contracts, and the Bengals will likely wait out possible targets to get the best price possible.

Don’t forget about potential extensions

The Bengals want to extend cornerbacks Dax Hill and DJ Turner II this offseason. Extending Hill, who’s current cap hit sits at the fifth-year option amount of $12,682,000, may end up lowering that figure, but Turner’s cap hit is a meager $4,044,007. Giving an influx of cash in both salary and signing bonus to the latter may bump that cap hit up by millions.

Running back Chase Brown and defensive end Myles Murphy are potential extension candidates as well, and their cap hits are right below Turner’s at $3,745,539 and $4,005,036, respectively.

Where will the Bengals end up in cap space?

The answer is almost always about $10 million by the time the season is over. Cincinnati habitually rolls over that approximate amount of space every single year, with some years being a bit lower, but any offseason spending projections leaving the club with significantly fewer than $10 million is not to be taken seriously.

The Bengals are not done using their cap space, but with the way they carefully account for inevitable spending months in advance, $21.7 million might as well be a third of what it actually is.

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