Contract details for Dalton Risner reveal how much salary cap space Bengals will have to play with in free agency
Dalton Risner can earn up to $5 million on his new deal.
The Cincinnati Bengals are going to pay Dalton Risner more money in 2026 than he’s made in any single year since his rookie season in 2019.
Risner’s one-year contract has a base value of $3.25 million, including a base salary of $1.65 million, a $1 million signing bonus, $500,000 in per game roster bonuses, and another $100,000 in workout bonuses.
$3.25 million is more valuable than any veteran contract Risner has signed in his eight-year career, but he can earn an additional $1.75 million in the form of incentives. He can finish the 2026 season with a total of $5 million in earnings, more than any year-end sum of his career.
The good news for the Bengals is the included incentives don’t count against the salary cap until they’re earned, which means Cincinnati’s cap space will reap the benefits entering free agency.
Bengals salary cap space update after Dalton Risner’s new contract
The Bengals have $47,709,471 in available cap space following Risner’s new deal, per OverTheCap.com. This is calculated from the top-51 cap hits on the offseason roster in addition to the $11,248,222 in dead money Cincy is already carrying this year.
Cap space does not equate to how much cash the Bengals can spend. Cincinnati is currently committed to spending $225,051,973 according to OTC. The team typically spends a little bit more cash compared to the unadjusted salary cap for that year, and the cap has been officially set at $301.2 million for the 2026 league year. That puts the Bengals in the ballpark of $70 million left to spend in cash according to their history.
As far as using cap space, Cincinnati traditionally saves around $15-20 million before the NFL Draft arrives, so the $47,709,471 figure can really be looked at like it’s $30 million. That’s enough to sign multiple quality free agents despite how the Bengals structure contracts with relatively larger year-one cap hits.
Risner is expected to be the largest signing Cincinnati will make before the tampering window opens at the start of next week, so the club has a good feel for its finances before the really significant deals start rolling in.
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