Bryan Cook Contract Details Give Bengals Flexibility to Add More Free Agents

CINCINNATI — Details regarding the Bengals' contract agreement with Bryan Cook surfaced on Monday evening. Over The Cap reported he earned a three-year, $40.25 million deal with $14 million guaranteed

He is only taking up 2.6% of the salary cap in 2026, prompting some more spending from the Bengals moving forward. Cook's cap hits jump to 4.7% and 4.6% in the next two seasons.

Salary Cap Impact

Oct 27, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs safety Bryan Cook (6) tackles Washington Commanders running back Jeremy McNichols (26) during the third quarter of the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Cincinnati is allocating him more cash to start things out. NFL salary cap expert Andre Perrota broke it down on X.

"I projected $20 million in Year-One Cash with a $15M signing bonus," Perrota posted on the site. "Cook actually got $18M Year-One Cash with a $14M signing bonus. Bengals go heavy cash over cap in year-1 (2.23 Cash: Cap ratio)."

Perrota laid out his year-by-year structure below, with much bigger dents in the 2027 and 2028 seasons.

2026: Cash Spend: $18,000,000 Cap Hit: $8,066,666

2027: Cash Spend: $10,650,000 Cap Hit: $15,316,666

2028: Cash Spend: $11,600,000 Cap Hit: $16,266,668

Cook's addition comes at a low cost to the cap this season and potentially has a great impact on the field.

Cook is now the 13th highest paid player at the position in teams of AAV, and the richest safety in Cincinnati history as the team tries to recover from missing the most tackles in the NFL over the past three seasons.

Cook is a stop machine, missing only 11 tackles over the past two seasons. This past campaign, he ranked seventh among safeties with 400-plus snaps played in missed tackle rate.

Cincinnati still has a ton of money it can spend this week. Over The Cap slots them with $40.1 million in space as of this writing, eighth-most in the NFL. Check out our grade on the Cook signing here.

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