The Cincinnati Bengals, alongside the rest of the NFL, should have some extra spending money this offseason.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the NFL has informed teams the salary cap should bump to a range of $196.8 million and $201.2 million.
That’s up from $188.2 million, which means another staggering jump from a cap that back in 2015 was only in the $143 million range. Another $8-13 million jump just shows the continued growth of the league and means free agents and extensions just got more expensive across the board to compensate for the extra cashflow.
Here’s the report in question detailing the new developments:
The NFL informed clubs today that projections for the 2020 salary cap are in the range of $196.8 million to $201.2 million. This marks a 40% increase from five years ago in the 2015 season ($143.3 million).
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 10, 2019
Cincinnati currently has about $13.6 million in free space after total cap liabilities of $182.6 million.
Including this estimated bump to about $200 million leaguewide, the Bengals project to settle around $62.8 million in free space next year, a number just outside the top 10.
It’s nice for the Bengals to have some wiggle room given the state of the rebuild. If Zac Taylor remains with the team, the front office will want to keep letting him reimagine the roster to his desires.
The obvious big potential expenditure is A.J. Green, whether it’s an extension or tag. Darqueze Dennard, Tyler Eifert, Trey Hopkins and Nick Vigil are other notable potential free agents. And though it seems unlikely, keep in mind Andy Dalton is due for an extension. So is Joe Mixon.
This extra cap space could mean something exciting or produce little in the way of change depending on how the front office reacts to a season that, as of this writing, has featured just one win.
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