Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown stands by at practice during the second day of preseason training camp in downtown Cincinnati on Thursday, July 24, 2025. Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Bengals Mismanage Salary Cap Resources Entering Another Prime Joe Burrow Season

Originally posted on Cincinnati Bengals on SI
By Russell Heltman | Last updated Mar 17, 2026 10:37 AM ET

The Bengals did it again this offseason, handicapping the talent ceiling of their team by structuring contracts in ways they don't have to just to ensure they will be as salary-cap-compliant as possible in future years.

Limiting the team Joe Burrow can have now, to be as polished as possible, financially down the line. The franchise has changed in a few ways with Burrow, but they still refuse to maximize their immediate cap assets to juice up the current rosters as much as possible.

Joe Goodberry broke it down further on X, noting the Bengals' three main signees in free agency (Boye Mafe, Bryan Cook, and Jonathan allen) all took the three highest spots leaguewide when it comes to contract APY value/Year 1 cap hit ratio.

Jonathan Allen can be entered in and let's see where he comes in... pic.twitter.com/E9qcYRerh6
— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) March 17, 2026

Cap Compliancy Above All

Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Cincinnati is playing low-level checkers while the rest of the league plays chess.

Goodberry broke down how in a long post on X.

"Around the league, the average Year 1 cap hit for free agent contracts was 50.5% of their new APY," Goodbery explained. "The Bengals did it at an 80.9% rate. Let's say they were still on the conservative side, but not at the extreme like they currently are. Let's say they were at the 55% mark. They would have saved $12.17M on this year's cap. Sure, that $12M would still need to be accounted for in future years, but that's just $6M per year, and the Bengals have a projected $100M in cap space in 2027.

"That extra $12M in cap space could have netted two more quality starters on defense. $12M is 4% of the current cap. $6M next year is just 1.8% of next year's projected cap. The final years' $6M would then be 1.7% of that year's projected cap. 4% now vs 3.5% in future years. And that's the final tweet on how the Bengals structure contracts and how it limits them."

According to Over The Cap, the Bengals have the 18th-most cap space in the NFL at $22.1 million, a number that could be much higher right now if the Bengals aggressively structured these deals.

Burrow is 29 going on 30 this coming season. There isn't an endless amount of time to keep contending with him, especially as the injuries stack up. Instilling 78%-plus Year-1 Cap/APY structures for these players costs Cincinnati the chance to sign at least one, if not two, more contributing players this offseason.

The average NFL team went with a 51% Year-1 Cap/APY ratio this offseason; Cincinnati's three signings averaged out to over 80%.

Check out more from Goodberry below:

Around the league, the average year 1 cap hit for free agent contracts was 50.5% of their new APY.

The Bengals did it at an 80.9% rate.

Let's say they were still on the conservative side but not at the extreme like they currently are. Let's say they were at the 55% mark.

They…
— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) March 17, 2026