The Cincinnati Bengals need all the cap space they can get this offseason.
Good news, then: The NFL salary cap will take a massive jump in 2026, arguably higher than most would’ve expected.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the 2026 NFL salary cap could jump to as much as $305.7 million, up from the $279.2 million of this past season.
That’s a nice chunk of change for a Bengals team that needs to ponder re-signing free agents like Trey Hendrickson and has seemingly signaled it wants to be very active in overall free agency.
Bengals cap space outlook
The bump in salary cap could provide some interesting wiggle room for the Bengals.
Over at Spotrac, for example, the projected salary cap was roughly $303.45 million, putting the Bengals at $54.6 million in free cap space, a top-seven mark in the NFL.
That’s accounting for roughly $9.6 million in rollover cash from last year, too.
Given their current set of draft picks, the Bengals will pay out roughly $8.4 million to their draft picks this year and have a dead-money charge of $4 million on Logan Wilson’s contract. They will probably throw about $10 million in rollover cash to the next year’s cap, too, as usual.
The general cap bump will spur a bump in overall contract numbers, most likely. But it could, in theory, give the Bengals a little extra room to add another mid-tier free agent, or push an offer over the top, should the front office want to get bold and spend.
