All Bengals

NFL Finalizes 2026 Salary Cap, Bengals Primed With Space

Cincinnati has ample space to work with.
Russell Heltman|
Feb 9, 2022; Los Angeles, CA, USA; A Cincinnati Bengals logo is seen at the Grove. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 9, 2022; Los Angeles, CA, USA; A Cincinnati Bengals logo is seen at the Grove. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

In this story:

Cincinnati Bengals

CINCINNATI — The NFL salary cap is taking another big leap from 2025 to 2026. Figures released from the league show the cap rising to $301.2 million for each team, a $22 million increase from last season and nearly a $100 million increase from the 2022 number.

Football is America's most popular sport, and that is reflected in the league's growth. Outside of the 2020-2021 pandemic stretch, there's been a major financial rise consistently this century. Cincinnati has the top seven cap space to work with this offseason, as Joe Burrow's contract gets more and more valuable by the year compared to this growth.

They have plenty of resources to jolt a dormant defense over the past few seasons and maximize these ever-growing resources. Add in top 10 picks across six of the seven draft rounds this April, and things could change quickly.

Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin discussed taking big swings in free agency at this week's NFL Combine.

"You can’t have a team full of highly paid guys," Tobin said. "The cap doesn’t support that. You have to have guys on rookie contracts proving snaps and roles for you and developing in their careers.  You can’t have a bunch of 20-million-dollar players at every position. The math doesn’t work. When you give up a young player that’s a four-year player, and a chance at finding Geno Atkins in the fourth round, just give up that fourth-round pick, and nobody cares. If you name Geno Atkins, everyone would care. It would have affected us pretty heavily. We try to maintain as many opportunities to find good young players as we can. There are definite needs on our football team. Those are the areas we’ll try to fill in with more proven veterans."

Check out the full year-by-year growth below as we sit less than two weeks from the start of free agency:

Sign UP For Our DAILY Newsletter, accessing more free coverage of the Cincinnati Bengals, delivered to YOU directly.

For more on the Bengals, subscribe to our YouTube Channel and watch the video below as part of our in-depth coverage of the team. Prefer to listen? Check out Cincinnati Bengals Talk on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Podcasts.

Make sure you bookmark BengalsTalk.com for the latest Bengals news, exclusive interviews, insight, film breakdowns, and so much more!

Also, check out the podcast, Locked On Bengals, wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple: bit.ly/BengalsApple

Spotify: bit.ly/BengalsSpotify

YouTube: bit.ly/LOBengalsYouTube

-----

Follow us on X: @BengalsTalkSI

Like Our Facebook Page

Follow on TikTok

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Russ Heltman
RUSSELL HELTMAN

Russ Heltman is on the Bearcats and Bengals beat for On SI. He is the morning host and producer for 89.3 WMKV in Cincinnati, OH.  Russ can be found on Twitter: @RussHeltman11 or you can reach him by email at Heltmandm@yahoo.com.

Home/News