Why the Bengals' Contract with Boye Mafe Stands Out for the Wrong Reasons

The Cincinnati Bengals came into the offseason with a lot of holes on their defense. They needed to add to every level of the defense, but the front office has only made a few additions this offseason. At this point, free agency is practically picked through. The Bengals are running out of options, and they still have plenty of holes to fill.

The Bengals did make some solid additions. They added safety Bryan Cook to help bolster the defense from the back end. Cook is one of the better tacklers in football, which has been a big weakness for their defense for years.

They also added Jonathan Allen to bolster their interior defensive line. Allen is a solid option in the middle of the defensive line, but he's no longer in his prime. Regardless, he should help them on the field and in the locker room.

The addition of Boye Mafe on the edge was a big one. He's a very talented young edge rusher with very high potential, but there are some details in his contract that are concerning. Cincinnati could've kept a significant amount of flexibility with the Mafe deal, but they didn't.

Boye Mafe's Contract Has Huge Year 1 Cap Hit

Bengals defensive end Boye Mafe speaks to the media during a press conference at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Thursday, March 12, 2026. | Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Mafe signed a 3-year, $60 million deal with the Bengals. His 2026 cap hit was expected to be around $14 million (at the most) for 2026. The Bengals didn't prorate Mafe's roster bonus, which made his cap hit much higher than it needed to be this season ($17 million).

Mafe has the highest 2026 cap hit among defensive ends who signed multi-year deals this offseason, aside from Trey Hendrickson and Odafe Oweh, who haven't had their contract details become public. Jaelan Phillips has the second highest 2026 cap hit and it's less than $10 million.

The Bengals did the same thing with Cook that they did with Mafe. Cook's cap hit is $2.6 million more than it needed to be this season.

They still have plenty of needs and could've had more room to work with to address the holes on their roster. It's worth noting that they can still restructure Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase's contracts to clear more than $30 million in cap space.

Defensive Ends that got multi year deals and their 2026 Cap Hits

$17.0M - Boye Mafe
$9.9M - Jaelan Phillips
$9.4M - Kwity Paye
$7.5M - Joseph Ossai
$7.2M - Dre'Mont Jones
$6.5M - Bradley Chubb
$5.4M - Rashan Gary

We're still waiting for numbers on Trey Hendrickson and Odafe…
— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) March 15, 2026

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