Ranking the Cincinnati Bengals' Cap Casualty Candidates for 2025

Jay Morrison | Jan 16, 2025

Dec 22, 2024; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bengals safety Geno Stone (22) reacts after intercepting a pass against the Cleveland Browns in the second half at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images / Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

CINCINNATI – Last week we looked at the Cincinnati Bengals’ pending free agents and assessed each of their chances of re-signing with the team.

This week we’ll take a look at the players under contract with the team in 2025 who could be cap casualties to free up more space to possibly allocate to players such as Tee Higgins, Ja’Marr Chase and Trey Hendrickson.

The Bengals currently are $47.6 million under the salary cap, according to OverTheCap.com. The 2025 salary cap is projected to be in the $275-$280 million range.

That $47.6 million that the team is sitting on is the 11th most in the league.

The Bengals could climb well inside the Top 10 simply by cutting ties with one or two players with rising cap hits and declining production.

For more on the franchise’s approach – both in the past and the slowly evolving present – check out this in-depth breakdown from Jake Liscow.

Here are seven players the Bengals could move on from to clear another $40+ million in cap space.

Players are ranked in order of 2025 cap hit.

DE Sam Hubbard

Age (opening day): 30

Current contract: Four years, $40 million

2025 cap hit: $11.5 million

Dead cap: $2 million

Of all the players on the list, Hubbard is the most likely to be both a cap casualty AND a member of the 2025 Bengals.

Given his leadership and everything he has meant to the organization, including being one of Zac Taylor’s trusted bridge players during the roster overhaul following his arrival and making one of the most iconic plays in franchise history, there would appear to be a middle ground in the form of pay cut, similar to what the Bengals and former running back Joe Mixon agreed upon prior to the 2023 season.

His $11.5 million cap hit in 2025 is the fifth highest on the team.

Cutting Hubbard outright would save $9.5 million. But figuring out a fair price to keep him in the building, and his hometown, so he can continue to mentor what is expected to be an even younger defensive line while making a final chase for a Super Bowl would make sense.

The Bengals have all the leverage, which begs the question: “Will they offer a fair price to stay, or will they use Hubbard’s friendship with Joe Burrow and hometown ties to lowball him with an offer so insulting that Hubbard calls it a career?”

How the new defensive coordinator feels about Hubbard and his value in a rotational role will go a long way in determining the Moeller product’s future as well.

Chance of playing on original contract: 0 percent

Chance of getting cut: 33 percent

DT Sheldon Rankins

Age: 31

Current contract: Two years, $24.5 million

2025 cap hit: $10.6 million

Dead cap: $2 million

He’s not only the most likely of what is expected to be several cuts, Rankins should be the first one let go.

He’s due a $1.5 million roster bonus March 16, so the transaction will be pre-date that.

Rankins will go down as one of the worst free agent signings in franchise history, both for what he failed to deliver and for the fact that the Bengals could have kept a known asset and tremendous leader in DJ Reader for the same price.

Rankins logged just four pressures and one sack in seven games before coming down with an illness in early December that mysteriously – Rankins and his agent declined to go into specifics – sidelined him for the rest of the season.

His 2025 cap number would be the sixth highest on the team, and Rankins – who also missed three games with a hamstring injury earlier in the season – will walk away from Cincinnati having earned $14 million for almost no production.

Chance of getting cut: 99.9 percent

G Alex Cappa

Age: 30

Current contract: Four years, $35 million

2025 cap hit: $10.3 million

Dead cap: $2.3 million

Cappa has been the anti-Rankins in terms of dependability, starting all 50 games since signing with the Bengals prior to the 2022 season as part of the franchise’s plan to overhaul an offensive line that cost them Super Bowl LVI.

But while Cappa has fought to play through injuries and remain on the field, his performance has declined to the point where he was Pro Football Focus’ lowest-ranked guard in 2024.

Look for the Bengals to save $8 million in cap space and revisit their 2022 approach that brought Cappa and Ted Karras to Cincinnati, by finding mid-priced interior linemen with proven track records they can plug into the starting spots at left guard and right guard.

Even if the Bengals had not moved on from offensive line coach Frank Pollack, cutting Cappa, who has the seventh largest cap hit in 2025, likely would have happened.

A new offensive line coach with no pre-existing relationship with Cappa is not going to argue to keep his waning play in the mix.

Chance of getting cut: 85 percent

LB Germaine Pratt

Age: 29

Current contract: Three years, $20.3 million

2025 cap hit: $8.2 million

Dead cap: $2.3 million

The way the Bengals structured Pratt’s deal after the 2022 season always made this a possibility.

Pratt’s play in 2024 makes it close to a certainty.

Missed tackles and poor angles were an epidemic for the 2024 Bengals defense, and Pratt was Patient 0.

Per SportRadar, Pratt’s 18 missed tackles were tied for the third most in the league – and second among linebackers.

Missed tackles are a volume stat, and Pratt’s missed tackle percentage of 11.2 was not nearly as bad. That ranked 27th in the league among players with at least 68 tackles (four per team game played), and third among Cincinnati defenders behind safety Geno Stone (15.6) and cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt (11.5).

But Pratt turns 29 in May, and the Bengals always viewed the third year of his deal as a wait-and-see season. And they likely saw all they needed to in 2024.

Chance of getting cut: 75 percent

S Geno Stone

Age: 26

Current contract: Two years, $14 million

2025 cap hit: $8 million

Dead cap: $1.5 million

The continual grasping at straws to replace Jessie Bates III continued with the signing of Stone, who had an abysmal start to his Cincinnati tenure before a late-season resurgence that coincided with the team’s five-game winning streak to end the year.

Stone’s inability to tackle didn’t come as a huge surprise because it’s never been a strength of his, but the Bengals though that would be offset by his ball-hawk ability that led to seven interceptions with the Baltimore Ravens in 2023.

After snaring just one interception through the first 12 games, Stone had three in the final five.

Stone has the 10th highest cap hit on the team, but if the Bengals are going to replace him with a veteran safety they will be paying about the same among.

He won’t turn 26 until April, and the new defensive coordinator could devise a scheme better suited to Stone’s strengths.

 Chance of getting cut: 50 percent

.@joeyb with the block for Zack Moss 👀

📺: #WASvsCIN on ABC pic.twitter.com/7zgnk9MI4w

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 24, 2024

RB Zack Moss

Age: 27

Current contract: Two years, $8 million

2025 cap hit: $4.8 million

Dead cap: $1.5 million

The Bengals added Moss with the idea of platooning him with Chase Brown, but Moss’ unfortunate neck injury and Brown’s explosion into the upper tier of running backs makes the veteran a cap casualty.

Though Moss’ 2025 number is $4.8 million, that is the 12th highest on the team, and that’s not where you want a backup to be slotted.

The Bengals will look to add depth behind Brown in the draft – and after among undrafted guys – and possibly a bargain hunt in free agency.

Chance of getting cut: 66 percent

K Evan McPherson

Age: 26

Current contract: Three years, $14 million

2025 cap hit: $4.6 million

Dead money: $2.1 million (post-June 1 designation)

The only player on this list with more than one year remaining on his current deal, McPherson just signed his extension in August.

But he suffered the worst season of his career, going 16 of 22 (72.7 percent) on field goal attempts, which was well below his average of 83.9 percent through his first three seasons.

A groin injury ended McPherson’s season early, and replacement Cade York tied McPherson's franchise record with a 59-yard field goal. But York also had a couple of big misses that almost certainly rule out him competing for the job in 2025 whether the Bengals stick with McPherson or not.

Even with the 13th highest cap hit on the team, McPherson isn’t likely to be a cap casualty, but the frustrations and waning confidence from the coaching staff keep the chances from being 0.

Chance of getting cut: 3 percent