SI's Bengals Financial Breakdown

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Many of us have been contemplating how the Bengals will spend their money and how they can manipulate the roster to create extra money, SI does a pretty good job in laying it all out.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/financial-breakdown-an-in-depth-look-at-the-bengals-cap-space-cash-spend-and-ability-to-improve-roster/ar-AA1xfNou?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=59041293885544b8fb3d0185c9c2050d&ei=6

Quote:Trying to figure out how much money the Cincinnati Bengals will spend in 2025? You’re in the right place. We can all look at Over The Cap and see that the Bengals are projected to have $47.5 million in cap space with a salary cap of $278.4 million.

But that only tells part of the story. To really understand how the Bengals might spend in 2025, it helps to look back at how they’ve managed their finances over the past five years.

Since drafting Joe Burrow in 2020, the Bengals have ranked 21st in total cash spending—about 2% below the league average. Their spending has fluctuated, exceeding the league average in 2020 ($234.5 million vs. $218.8 million) and 2023 ($258.7 million vs. $245.9 million), which coincided with drafting and extending Burrow. However, they spent significantly less than average in 2021 and 2022 ($390 million combined vs. $440.7 million). In 2024, their spending aligned more closely with the average.

In 2020, their biggest cash expense was Burrow, followed by DJ Reader with a big signing bonus, Trae Waynes, A.J. Green, Joe Mixon, Geno Atkins, and William Jackson III. In 2023, big signing bonus payouts for Burrow and Orlando Brown Jr. drove spending.

In 2025, they're scheduled for $186.5 million in cash spend. This can decrease to as low as $142.85 million if the Bengals cut all of the speculated cap casualties (Hubbard, Rankins, Cappa, Pratt, Stone, Moss). Those cuts would leave the Bengals with $89.3 million in cap space as well, per OTC’s numbers.

Cap space should not restrict the Bengals in 2025 if they continue to modernize. But if they continue to do business the ol’ fashioned way without pushing cap hits into the future, we’ll hear the same stories about pie and cap space estimates that don’t seem to align with reality.

Unfortunately, most NFL cap coverage loses important details, getting lost in average annual salaries and basic cap numbers. Bengals fans have access to excellent cap literacy. We’ve broken it down on Locked On Bengals over the years, resident expert Andre Perotta frequently provides excellent breakdowns, and Joe Goodberry just did a great video focused on offseason priorities: contracts for Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Trey Hendrickson.

An important piece of the puzzle is cash spending, and to predict the future, tracking teams’ “cash over cap spending” is prescient. Over the last five years, the median NFL team spent about 10.7% more cash than the unadjusted salary cap per year. In that time period, the Bengals spent 8.6% more cash than the unadjusted salary cap.

Assuming the trend holds, if the Bengals 8.6% cash over cap in 2025, they’ll spend ~$300M in 2025. Depending on cap casualties, that leaves $113.5 million to $157.15 million in cash to spend, while Katie and Troy Blackburn navigate the corresponding $47.5 million to $89.3 million in cap space. The exact figures will depend on cuts, but we’ll track their spending throughout free agency to have an idea of how much they have left to spend.

What this cap and cash situation means, practically, is that the Bengals can structure contracts with Chase, Higgins, Hendrickson, or premier unrestricted free agents with big signing bonuses. Signing bonuses are the best way to spend cash and offset salary cap impact, because while they’re effectively paid out immediately, the cap hit is prorated over the life of the contract, up to 5 years.

For example, Orlando Brown’s $31.1 million signing bonus was prorated over the life of his 4-year contract, leaving an annual cap hit of $7.75M along with each year’s salary. He received $33.7 million in cash in 2023, but his cap hit was just $10.4 million.

If the Bengals took this approach with other big contracts, they could turn the roster over in a hurry. They’ve made strides in the way they do business, but if they don’t take steps to spend more competitively after disappointing results, it will be fair to question why they won’t put their money where their mouth is to build a real contender.