Noah Fant’s contract details indicate Bengals are leaving the door open for him to play a larger role in Cincinnati’s offense
Cincinnati signed Fant to a one-year deal.
Noah Fant will practice with the Cincinnati Bengals for the first time this evening inside Paycor Stadium. The seventh-year tight end signed a one-year contract with Cincinnati on Thursday.
Per ESPN’s Field Yates, Fant’s one-year deal will pay him a base value of $2.75 million, and he can earn a total of $4.25 million this season.
What this means is Fant will earn $2.75 million this year just by being on the roster for all 17 games this upcoming season. The majority of cash is likely to be paid out through his P5 salary, or base salary, which is distributed through weekly game checks.
The maximum value of $4.25 million indicates incentives are included in Fant’s contract as well. Most incentives are based on playing time or hitting production thresholds such as yards or touchdowns.
In Fant’s case, per game roster bonuses (PGRB) could also help him take home the max value of the deal. The 27-year old played in 14 out of a possible 17 games last season for the Seattle Seahawks. If there are PGRBs in his deal, then only 82% of them are counted against this year’s salary cap, reflecting 14 out of 17 games played last year.
Mike Gesicki played on a similar contract last year. The Bengals signed him to a one-year, $2.5 million deal that also included incentives. Gesicki ended up earning $3 million for the season, and leveraged that performance to sign the three-year, $25.5 million deal he inked back in March.
Gesicki’s 2025 salary cap hit is $7,666,666, the largest out of any tight end on the roster. Drew Sample is second at $2.75 million, and Fant’s is almost certainly in third behind him if there are PGRBs included. This is a good reflection of Fant’s placement in the depth chart as well. Cincinnati will still likely have Gesicki and Sample as the “starters,” though the former is essentially a slot receiver and the latter is the true TE of the duo. Fant will fill a role similar to what Erick All Jr. earned last year before a torn ACL took him out of the equation until 2026. That means he’ll work alongside Sample with the chance of playing even more snaps in comparison.
If Fant ends up earning all $4.25 million, you can bet that ascension did in fact happen.
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