CINCINNATI — The Bengals have plenty of needs to address this offseason, including the right guard position.

Veteran Dalton Risner is set to hit free agency. He brought stability to the right side of the offensive line with Amarius Mims lining up at tackle.

Risner played 767 snaps at right and left guard in 2025. He earned a career-best 69.4 Pro Football Focus grade. His stellar play has Mims pushing for the veteran both publicly and privately.

“I feel like he’s one of the best right guards in the NFL,” Mims said in our 1-on-1 conversation. “He’s helped my game tremendously. As you can see, once we step down beside each other, each week you can see us getting better and better beside each other. I fully stand behind him. I fully support him. I want him back. I want him to be my right guard next year. I won’t rest until he is my right guard next year.”

Get It Done?

Is it realistic for the Bengals to get a deal done with Risner before free agency?

Sometimes those talks can be tough, but we’ve seen multiple examples of veterans staying with the current team in recent much.

First, it was Malcolm Roach in November. Now it’s veteran defensive tackle Teair Tart. He agreed to a three-year extension with the Chargers on Monday.

Could Risner be the next veteran to sign a long-term extension before free agency?

In an ideal world, yes. And it certainly helps that he wants to return.

“This is where I want to be. Unfortunately, I feel like there’s a business aspect to it,” Risner said earlier this month. “I want to play for this organization. I want to be a Cincinnati Bengal. I want to block for Joe Burrow. I want to block for Chase Brown. I want to block for Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase. I mean, I could go on and on and on of the list of guys in this locker room of why I want to be here, the fit, how I play, how I think I can help this team win, the continuity that I had with this offensive line and how we continue to build all year. Yeah, this is exactly where I want to be. I said earlier this week, and I said it last week, is I feel like it’s got to be a mutual thing where we come together and do it.”

The time is now for the Bengals to engage with Risner’s agent Drew Rosenhaus to get a long-term extension in place. Rosenhaus has represented plenty of previous Bengals stars, including Chad Johnson and Mike Hilton. He currently represents Jalen Rivers and Matt Lee.

Malcolm Roach agreed to a 3-yr extension with DEN in Nov. in lieu of waiting to test the FA market in March.

And now Teair Tart does the same agreeing to a 3-yr extension with LAC.

Bengals should really be focused on extending RG Dalton Risner ahead of FA. https://t.co/3zzM3nZQCA

— Andre Perrotta (@andreperrotta13) January 26, 2026