Tag: Bengals cap space

Bengals’ cap space outlook for 2021 seems great

Cincinnati Bengals cap space looks promising for 2021.

The Cincinnati Bengals make for a more interesting cap case study than usual this offseason because the front office went out and spent so much in free agency.

Add that to paying up on the No. 1 pick and potential extensions for stars and this isn’t your usual Bengals cap space update.

Now is a good time to start turning eyes to 2021 too given the activity so far. At Over The Cap, Jason Fitzgerald provided a quick look at projected cap health for 2021 and came up with roughly $75 million in free space for the Bengals by next offseason.

That’s one of the top projected numbers in the league for next offseason — and so it goes for a team fortunate enough to build around a rookie passer’s contract for the next few years.

Granted, this projected $75 million will come down some if the Bengals end up agreeing to extensions with one of A.J. Green or Joe Mixon — if not both. Besides extensions, impending free agents include John Ross, William Jackson and Carl Lawson, to name a few.

But when the Bengals aren’t taking care of their own next offseason, there should still be plenty of cap wiggle room to make some more noise in free agency.

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Bengals cap space projections after possible NFL salary cap bump

The Bengals should have this much free space after another salary cap bump.

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:

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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