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Dre Kirkpatrick was an obvious domino to fall after the Cincinnati Bengals got aggressive in free agency by committing more than $100 million in the coming years to big names.
Tuesday, word broke the Bengals released Kirkpatrick.
Call it a necessity. According to Spotrac, the Bengals only had about $12 million in space before the move and deals for D.J. Reader, Josh Bynes and LeShaun Sims still weren’t on the estimated books.
Kirkpatrick was a cap hit of roughly $11 million in 2020, good for a top-five mark on the team at 5.32 percent of the total cap. He was also slated to be a slightly bigger cap hit in 2021, the final year of his deal.
The release frees up about $8 million for the Bengals in 2020, helping them check in around the $21 million mark before the other estimated deals go final. That’s including dead money, cash for the draft class, etc.
With obvious releases like Cordy Glenn and Kirkpatrick off the books, all attention now turns to one player on this front — Andy Dalton, the second-highest 2020 cap hit.
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