Your Scariest NFL Horror Show: Bryan Cook's Bengals Move!
The Bengals made most projections look bad with some surprises in Bryan Cook's free-agent contract.
When the Cincinnati Bengals made a splash in free agency with the signing of safety Bryan Cook to address a major need, a nice bonus was how the contract structure helped the team. In short, reports had Cook’s contract with the Bengals at cap hits like this: 2026: $8 million 2027: $15. 3 million 2028: $16.
2 million One problem: The Bengals did a very Bengals thing with the contract structure. Rather than get creative like plenty of other teams, the Bengals come in higher in cap hit than expected. And the result?
Cap hits that look like this, per Over the Cap : 2026: $10. 6 million 2027: $14. 3 million 2028: $15.
2 million The Bengals pride themselves on spending money smartly, which to the brass in Cincinnati, includes keeping dead cap hits low, retaining maximum flexibility in future years and making sure players get paid what their contracts say. Which all sounds great, except the priorities mean less cap space to improve the team right now. And when there’s a supposed all-in sense of urgency around Joe Burrow right now, the team not changing this specific behavior (or increasing how often they do it, even) is just a little tougher to believe.