The Cincinnati Bengals are actually showing some signs of life in the front office when it comes to salary cap creativity.
It took a pretty penny to keep backup quarterback Joe Flacco, as his $6 million contract is worth up to $9 million in incentives. However, the one-year deal isn't as harsh on the 2026 salary cap as initially assumed.
Credit where it's due, the Bengals actually had the wherewithal to make Flacco's contract less cost prohibitive at the expense of a potential (*GASP!*) $2.66 million in future dead money!
Void years in Joe Flacco contract give Bengals more room to add free-agent talent
Salary cap nerd and Bengals diehard Andre Perrotta is really plugged in on this stuff, and highlighted how Flacco's two void years free up cap space for this year.
The Bengals used two void years on Joe Flacco's 1-yr/$6M deal, per source.
— Andre Perrotta (@andreperrotta13) March 30, 2026
2026 Cap Hit = $3,333,333
2026 Cash Spend = $6,000,000
2027 Cap Hit (i.e. dead money if not otherwise extended/re-signed) = $2,666,667
The sarcastic stunned reaction at Cincinnati's willingness to put even mere pocket change dead money at risk is in reference to the prideful Bengals dot com report about how the team doesn't cost itself dead money. Geoff Hobson's piece highlighted the peak pride the Bengals take in staying cap healthy and not eating dead money, citing the combined, highly winning records of teams who achieve that status.
In my recent appearance on the Bengals Pulse show via the Wincinnati Podcast Network, I spoke about how tone-deaf that anecdote was. Remember the team that beat the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI? Yeah, the Los Angeles Rams ate a zillion dollars of dead money to move off Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford. Worked out pretty well for them.
The Philadelphia Eagles did something similar going from Carson Wentz to Jalen Hurts. Two Super Bowls trips, one win since. The Denver Broncos ate a record amount of dead money to part with Russell Wilson. Playoffs the very next year; three points away from the last Super Bowl with their backup QB in the lineup.
So hey, maybe this Flacco contract is a sign that the Bengals are, in the ever-so-slightest sense, moving in a more modern direction when it comes to salary cap manipulation.
Cincinnati's typical "salary cap manipulation" entails sabotaging themselves. They spend lots of cash under the guise of going all in, front-load contracts way more than they should, and cannot maximize their annual ceiling as a result.
What Flacco's revealed deal structure really underscores is that the Bengals have about $2.6 million more in 2026 cap space to go toward signing another free agent.
Not holding my breath that the other shoe will drop any day soon. Cincinnati will likely wait until after the draft to make any meaningful moves. It'd be nice to scoop up, say, D.J. Reader before he joins Trey Hendrickson with the rival Ravens. Another option is adding Bobby Wagner to a linebacker room that could desperately use his veteran savvy, leadership, and baseline level of play he provides, even as he approaches turning 36 years old in June.
OverTheCap.com has the Bengals at about $13.4 million in effective cap space remaining. That's plenty of dough to scoop up three starting-caliber players, or Wagner and another vet.
Just imagine if the organization was willing to pull the Joe Burrow contract restructure lever to open up $19.2 million with the snap of a finger. Cue the futuristic "society if..." meme with flying cars et cetera.
But oh no! Then the Bengals would only have about $77 million in cap room to work with in 2027! And it's not like they could just restructure Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to get to $109+ million, with still a projected $129.8 million at their disposal in 2028. It's really not as if that option is available to them. That's la-la land.
Oh wait. No it's not. Those are the precise numbers. So yay, congrats Bengals, on the smallest of wins on this Joe Flacco void years thing. Guess we'll take baby steps over zero steps.