Bengals just got clearance to make big moves with Joe Burrow’s contract restructure now in the rearview mirror
The Cincinnati Bengals restructuring quarterback Joe Burrow’s contract was not done in vain. The club can now take care of its key players vying for extensions later this offseason.
The Cincinnati Bengals did not restructuring quarterback Joe Burrow’s contract in vain.
Cincinnati created $10 million in salary cap space after prorating half of Burrow’s 2026 base salary over the next five seasons. About $1 million of it was eaten immediately thanks to Cashius Howell signing his rookie contract. More of the newly-added space will be used before the regular season begins.
First thoughts point to external players. Free agents Bobby Wagner and Joey Bosa are still available and would make sense as late additions who could hit the ground running. Wagner specifically has become a popular name amongst Bengals fans as the club didn’t make any serious investment at the linebacker position.
A free agent signing or two may happen down the line, ala Noah Fant and Dalton Risner, but that’s not why I think Cincinnati pulled this lever. The call is more likely coming from inside Paycor Stadium.
Bengals set themselves up to extend key players
It was difficult to imagine the Bengals fitting in the rest of their offseason plans without the additional cap space they now have. Those plans revolve around a few names everyone in the building is already intimately familiar with.
DJ Turner II, Dax Hill, Myles Murphy, and Chase Brown. Perhaps in that order in terms of importance.
Turner is coming off a breakout season that had him contending for a Pro Bowl nod and atop the leaders in passes defensed. Hill is a former first-round pick who finally found his home on the other side of the formation from Turner. The former may be in line for a larger raise, but they’re both essential as starting cornerbacks. Cincinnati has had plans of extending both since early in the offseason.
Murphy is an interesting case. He’s a starting defensive end and looked quite promising in that role during the second half of the 2025 season. The issue is that’s the only stretch of games he’s looked worthy of extending. The Bengals declined to exercise his fifth-year option in April, setting him up to hit free agency next March. They also told him he remains in their future plans, so an extension is very much on the table.
Brown has leverage as a starter for the offense, but paying running backs is quite the polarizing subject. Cincinnati previously signed Joe Mixon to a multi-year deal worth $12 million a year when the salary cap was significantly smaller than it is today. Would the Bengals entertain that same price now that the RB market has recovered? It’s anyone’s guess right now.
Why added cap space matters
While all four aforementioned players are under contract for the 2026 season, extending any of their deals will likely result in their 2026 cap hits to increase. Larger cap hits will lead to decreased cap space.
If Cincy was still at about $7.1 million in space, which was the figure before Burrow’s restructure, fitting just one extension would be difficult for the Bengals to do.
This isn’t the case for most teams. Cincinnati is an exception as the front office compensates for not offering future guaranteed salaries with an influx of Year One cash that doesn’t always get prorated. This leads to larger-than-average cap hits in the current year.
Bengals current cap hits for extension-eligible players
These are the cap figures currently on the books for 2026.
- CB Dax Hill: $12,682,000
- CB DJ Turner II: $4,044,007
- DE Myles Murphy: $4,005,036
- RB Chase Brown: $3,745,539
$10 million in added space can go a long way, specifically for Turner and Murphy. They’re most likely to receive large increases in cap hits courtesy of the Bengals’ expected contract structure. Hill’s cap hit is already decently high, so extending him may not cost very much additional space, if any. Brown’s expected Average Annual Value (AAV) is expected to be the lowest among these four, so his rise in cap hit isn’t too worrisome.
What’s next
Negotiations will progress with these players as the lead up to training camp creeps closer. Cincinnati usually has a hard deadline at the start of the regular season for extensions, so things will heat up around then if deals aren’t yet finalized.
The Bengals wanted to take care of Burrow’s deal first, and now will attempt to take care of his teammates.