Duke Tobin’s uncertainty with Myles Murphy gets confirmed, and the Cincinnati Bengals are adding on another challenge to their offseason
The Cincinnati Bengals are not exercising defensive end Myles Murphy’s fifth-year option. Cincinnati’s first-round pick from the 2023 NFL Draft is now set to become a free agent in 2027.
The Cincinnati Bengals are not picking up the fifth-year option of defensive end Myles Murphy’s rookie contract.
Murphy’s fifth-year option would have paid pay him a guaranteed salary of $14.475 million during the 2027 season, locking him in for the next two seasons. Instead, Murphy is now slated to become a free agent after this season.
Myles Murphy key Stats & Facts
Murphy is a 6-5, 275 pound defensive end for the Cincinnati Bengals
- Cincinnati drafted Murphy with the No. 28 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Clemson.
- Murphy has played in 47 games for the Bengals in three years, making 10 official starts
- Murphy has amassed 92 total tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, and four passes defensed for Cincy
Why the Bengals are not exercising Myles Murphy’s fifth-year option
Exercising Murphy’s fifth-year option would not impact his salary cap figure for the upcoming 2026 season. That will stay at $4,005,036, which ranks 18th on the current 88-man roster. The $14.475 million would have gone on on the books in 2027.
This has been determined too large of a price for the front office, otherwise it would’ve been an easy lever to pull.
Director of player personnel Duke Tobin said earlier this week Murphy’s option was primarily a financial decision.
“We’re at the top of the league in spending right now,” Tobin said Monday. “And so we’re going to have to make it work and we’ll see what we do with that. But that’ll be a decision we make as we dive into this week, looking at next year, and we’ve got some cap ramifications there too with what we’ve done.”
The Bengals entered this week with $37,538,143 in effective cap space for 2027, which accounts for the team rostering 53 players even if there aren’t 53 players under contract yet for that year. Murphy’s option would have made a sizable dent into that space.
This was clearly what Tobin was concerning himself with, and now it’s been confirmed.
Murphy’s future in Cincinnati is far from over
Just because Murphy’s fifth-year option isn’t being picked up doesn’t mean the Bengals don’t want him on the team beyond this year.
Per The Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway, the club is hopeful to work out a long-term deal with Murphy before he enters free agency next March.
Murphy was Cincinnati’s first-round pick from the 2023 draft. He started his career as a rotational player behind the likes of Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard during his first two years with the Bengals. Once Hubbard retired last offseason, the former Clemson Tiger was thrusted into the starting lineup.
Cincinnati’s defense starting finding its footing during the second half of the 2025 season, which coincides with Murphy’s sudden progression. He amassed 41 pressures and 5.5 sacks in 17 games played, and most of that production came in the back-half of the year. Joe Burrow even took note while it was unfolding.
“I think Myles Murphy has really shown a lot the last couple weeks,” Burrow said last December. “I don’t know anything about the scheme or what his responsibility was on each play. I just see him making plays and impacting the game in a lot of different ways.”
Without that second-half leap Murphy took, there may not have be a desire to extend him. Seeing it unfold is what has them thinking about keeping him longer than 2027.
“Myles really came on,” Tobin said. “He got a chance to really stay on the field and play, and that’s when players that are young like him grow. I think he doubled his playtime last year from the previous year, and really great to see him come on. He’s a 24-year old guy that’s just starting to scratch the surface. And I was pleased with his progression last year and how we took ownership of the starting role, and how we grew throughout the season. And by the end of the year, he was the problem for teams, and he’s a guy that we we believe in. He’s gonna be a big part of what Al [Golden] and his staff does.”
Another deal to strike
The main problem the Bengals are giving themselves is having another long-term contract to work out this offseason.
Murphy is joining the likes of DJ Turner II, Dax Hill, and Chase Brown as young starters looking for extensions. Turner and Brown were apart of the same 2023 draft class as Murphy. Hill was drafted in 2022, and is set to play on his fifth-year option as the team’s first-round pick from that year.
Contract negotiations usually take a while in Cincinnati. Having four starters looking for deals over the next four months could get tricky, and there’s a high probability one of them doesn’t get the extension he desires.
Murphy turned 24 years old in January and is the youngest between him, Turner, Hill, and Brown. The Bengals will be looking to make all of them satisfied before Week 1 arrives in September.
