Despite their best self-sabotaging efforts to squander precious 2026 salary cap space with egregiously front-loaded contracts, the Cincinnati Bengals can still make multiple additions in the next wave of free agency.
Some obvious names are just sitting there, waiting for Cincinnati to bounce. The Bengals have $21.7 million in cap space left. What are they waiting for, available players to sell them?
Taking the average market values from Spotrac, The Athletic, and PFF, we'll explore how the Bengals can best spend their remaining money on the open market.
CB Jack Jones - 1 year, $3.55 million
The seemingly annual employment of a squirrelly cornerback for your 2026 Cincinnati Bengals goes to Jack Jones! Those who precede him include Eli Apple, Cam Taylor-Britt, Marco Wilson, and more.
A talented enigma wrapped in a riddle, Jones has inside-outside versatility and a penchant for splash plays. His style of play is very boom-or-bust. That's something the Bengals can afford in a prospective boundary CB3/potential slot backup to Jalen Davis.
Jones is a relentless trash talker whose play has dropped off the last couple years amid hopeless, losing situations. He started strong in New England, and wore a chip on his shoulder once the Patriots released him and he landed in Las Vegas. That only got him so far. Jones is still only 28 years old, and he'd be a welcome addition to the Bengals' DB room for a one-year trial run.
If any unsigned free agent with the upside Jones has flashed could mess with a front-loaded/handsome, one-year/prove-it payday, it's Jack Jones. Mutual benefits for both parties here.
DT D.J. Reader - 1 year, $4.2 million
Why not bring D.J. Reader back to Cincinnati? The Bengals have lacked a run-stopping force on their interior d-line ever since Reader skipped town to Detroit in free agency after the 2023 campaign.
Although he didn't make much of an impression with the Lions, Reader played solid ball and is for sure the best nose tackle Cincinnati could hope to buy at this juncture. He'd be an indubitable upgrade over last year's only "splashy" free-agent acquisition, T.J. Slaton.
LB Shaq Thompson - 1 year, $2 million
If future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner ain't the play, Shaq Thompson could be had for a lesser price. Thompson was PFF's 30th-rated linebacker last season for Buffalo, which is more than incumbent Bengals starters Demetrius Knight Jr. (83rd out of 88) and Barrett Carter (85th) can say.
This is the perfect buy-low situation for Cincinnati. Thompson signed with the Bills last year for a minimum contract after toiling away in Carolina for his entire career before then. He evidently just wants to win — and would be a significant contributor to a Bengals return to the playoffs.
Plus, Thompson's snap count has really dropped off since 2023 when he fractured his fibula. He also missed most of the 2024 campaign with a torn Achilles. Hence his minimal market.
If the Bengals must proceed with Carter and Knight starting, Thompson would be an excellent mentor for them, and a stellar situational player. Now that he's far enough away from that Achilles setback, Thompson should have at least one strong year left in him as a pseudo-starter.
Sound kinda wishy-washy and only semi-promising? Welp, that's the reality of who Cincinnati is shopping for at this stage of free agency.
Bengals' total projected price tag for Jack Jones, D.J. Reader & Shaq Thompson: $9.75 million
That's $15.2 million in room to spare. Knock off $7-ish million for OverTheCap.com's effective cap space figures, and Cincinnati still has about $8 million available. This accounts for their incoming draft class, too.
So even though the Bengals tried to build in an excuse for themselves not to spend more on free agents, they still somehow have room to add a new starter and two fringe starters. Their 2027 cap space projects to be about $84.6 million, too.
Will Cincinnati make any of these moves, or perhaps some better ones!? You bet not! Guess we'll keep using hope as a strategy for the draft. Since that's worked out so well of late.