Dalton Risner 'All About Ball' As Bengals Offseason Workouts Ramp Up

Dalton Risner has dialed into a nice offseason routine entering his eighth NFL season this fall. The veteran found a home in the Queen City after signing a new deal ahead of free agency and knows exactly how to get his body ready for the 17-plus game grind coming up.

He broke down a fasting diet strategy he employs during the offseason with reporters earlier this week.

"It's something I started last offseason. I did it again this offseason," Risner began. "I get done with the seasons anywhere from 320 to 330 pounds. And your fat kind of goes up throughout the year as you're grinding through the season and having to put certain calories in your body to maintain a certain weight. But when you get to the offseason, and you get to take a load off your body, and you're not out there every Sunday, and you're not practicing every day and putting full pads on. I feel like you have a great opportunity to kind of reset your body. Mentally, it's most important for me. It's been physically challenging, and last season, I want to say I did a 10-day water-only fast. I did a five-day water-only fast before I showed up here.

"This offseason, I got picked up earlier, and I wanted to maintain a weight and be good for OTAs. Last year, I wasn't picked up till August, right? So last May and June, I had time to do those things. As I said, it was something I played around with last year to burn a lot of body fat and get down, and then I think I ended the season at 330, and I felt like it was a really successful year. So, something I tried to mimic, I think I got down to 300, so I lost 35 pounds this offseason. I'm already back up to 315, so it's just kind of a thing that I've found in Year 8 in my career that's benefited me, and it's been pretty fun. So the most I did this year was a three-day water fast, but it's been great."

Growing Comfort

Oct 12, 2025; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Cincinnati Bengals guard Dalton Risner (66) during the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Risner, 30, still has plenty of great football left as he tries to fully solidify the right guard position with even better play this season after a career-best 69.4 Pro Football Focus grade in 2025.

He's fully comfortable now after getting thrown into the fire during Week 1 last season, mere days after his arrival to the team.

"It's great because, man, I know these guys, right?" Risner noted the difference in 2026 versus 2025. "I'm not trying to maintain and establish relationships as soon as I get here and figure out where the cafeteria is and what does my wife do on game day and where we're gonna live? I mean, I'm situated. I know that I've been here. I've been here for a year. I'm comfortable.

"So now it's all focused on just the ball. And whenever I show back up for Phase 2 and for Phase 3, and for mandatory mini camp, going into camp this season, it's all about ball, man, and that's what you want it to be about, because we're playing this game at the highest level, and we have expectations at the highest level, so we got to set a standard at the highest level. So I'm stoked about it. Stoked to be a Bengal. Feels great not showing up August 27 and going to the dog pound six days later."

Check out the full comments from Risner below via CLNS Media's Mike Petraglia:

Dalton Risner talks about taking a load off this off-season and running his 5K in the Flying Pig pic.twitter.com/5CQQ8dmIGn
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) May 5, 2026

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