<\/p>\n
The Cincinnati Bengals need all the cap space they can get this offseason.<\/p>\n
Good news, then: The NFL salary cap will take a massive jump in 2026, arguably higher than most would’ve expected.<\/p>\n
According to NFL Network\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The bump in salary cap could provide some interesting wiggle room for the Bengals.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s accounting for roughly $9.6 million in rollover cash from last year, too.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s contract. They will probably throw about $10 million in rollover cash to the next year\u2019s cap, too, as usual.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The NFL salary cap is jumping up again and it impacts the Bengals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,2631,1557,18,1554,810],"class_list":["post-42729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-bengals","tag-cap-space","tag-logan-wilson","tag-nfl","tag-tom-pelissero","tag-trey-hendrickson"],"yoast_head":"\n