Marcus Hardison contract breakdown with Bengals

With the 135th overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the Bengals selected Arizona defensive lineman Marcus Hardison.

This week, Cincinnati signed the 6'3", 300-pound Hardison. He was among two other rookies who signed their first NFL deals on Monday. Hardison fills a need for the Bengals at the defensive tackle rotation. He comes via a compensatory selection resulting from the Bengals losing Michael Collins to Tampa Bay last year.

Here's a breakdown of Hardison's contract:

YEARS: Four
TOTAL: $2,625,692
SIGNING BONUS: $345,692
GUARANTEED: $345,692

(NUMBERS FROM SPOTRAC)

As mentioned earlier, the value of Hardison's deal isn't too different from the rest of the Bengals draft class after Round 2. Once you hit Round 3, the total value of contracts slowly dips from $3 million to $2.3 million between picks No. 65 and No. 256.

Hardison is getting $2.6 million over the course of his four-year deal, making him the sixth-highest paid defensive tackle on the Bengals roster in 2015. That will probably change before the regular season opens as Hardison battles Devon Still, Brandon Thompson and Pat Sims for roster spots.

Unless there are injuries to starters, those four likely won't all be on the opening-day roster. Hardison may be a fourth-round pick, but that in no way guarantees him a job as a rookie. Still, he'd need a pretty underwhelming training camp and preseason to warrant getting cut this year.