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As is usually the case, Cincinnati will be carrying over a significant amount of cap space from the previous season.
According to the latest cap figures from the NFLPA, the Bengals will carry over $6.5 million from the 2016 calendar year into 2017.
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Every NFL team elected to carry over unused salary cap space from 2016. The smallest carryover amount is $113,693 by the Chargers, and the largest is $50,123,866 by the Browns. Without the Browns and 49ers included, the league average is $6,196,622.84, which is just slightly less than what the Bengals have to rollover to next season.
According to the latest projections from Spotrac, Cincinnati will have around $47 million in cap space this year, and they’ll need every bit of it. The Bengals have several key free agents set to hit the market, including Andrew Whitworth, Dre Kirkpatrick and Kevin Zeitler.
All three of those guys stand to make $10 million (or more) in 2017, so that right there could account for most of Cincinnati’s cap space. Even re-signing just two of the three will take up a lot of space, depending on how much of the contracts are frontloaded.
The Bengals would be wise to frontload a lot of money into this year for a guy like Kirkpatrick, which would lessen his cap hit in future seasons.
And that’s not even accounting for the players who need to be extended this offseason before their impending free agency in 2018. Vontaze Burfict, Tyler Eifert, Jeremy Hill, and Russell Bodine are all slated to hit free agency next year, and depending on who from that group the Bengals want to re-sign, that too could account for a portion of this year’s cap space.
Here’s a list of the Bengals’ 2017 free agents:
Bengals 2017 free agents
| Player | Pos. | 2016 Team | Type | Current APY | Guarantees | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos. | 2016 Team | Type | Current APY | Guarantees | Status |
| Andrew Whitworth | LT | Bengals | UFA | $9,000,000 | $2,000,000 | |
| Domata Peko | 4-3 DT | Bengals | UFA | $4,500,000 | $4,400,000 | |
| Brandon LaFell | WR | Bengals | UFA | $2,500,000 | $1,000,000 | |
| Dre Kirkpatrick | CB | Bengals | UFA | $2,155,749 | $7,840,065 | |
| Karlos Dansby | 4-3 OLB | Bengals | UFA | $2,000,000 | $700,000 | |
| Kevin Zeitler | RG | Bengals | UFA | $1,886,050 | $6,125,446 | |
| Eric Winston | RT | Bengals | UFA | $1,090,000 | $80,000 | |
| Cedric Peerman | RB | Bengals | UFA | $1,065,000 | $250,000 | |
| Margus Hunt | 4-3 DE | Bengals | UFA | $917,775 | $1,049,892 | |
| Wallace Gilberry | 4-3 DE | Bengals | UFA | $885,000 | $0 | |
| Brandon Thompson | 4-3 DT | Bengals | UFA | $840,000 | $50,000 | |
| Chykie Brown | CB | Bengals | UFA | $760,000 | $0 | |
| Randy Bullock | K | Bengals | UFA | $675,000 | $0 | Re-Signed |
| T.J. Johnson | C | Bengals | RFA | $600,000 | $0 | |
| Rex Burkhead | RB | Bengals | UFA | $565,550 | $102,200 |
And, here are the Bengals’ 2018 free agents who the team could get a head start on re-signing this offseason:
Bengals 2018 free agents
| PLAYER | POS. | AGE | 2017 AAV | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLAYER | POS. | AGE | 2017 AAV | STATUS |
| A.J. McCarron | QB | 26 | $600,413 | RFA |
| Rey Maualuga | ILB | 29 | $5,000,000 | UFA |
| Kevin Huber | P | 31 | $2,800,000 | UFA |
| Jeremy Hill | RB | 24 | $938,401 | UFA |
| Clark Harris | LS | 32 | $990,000 | UFA |
| Marquis Flowers | OLB | 24 | $574,670 | UFA |
| Tyler Eifert | TE | 26 | $2,064,000 | UFA |
| Will Clarke | DE | 25 | $705,095 | UFA |
| Vontaze Burfict | OLB | 26 | $4,751,000 | UFA |
| Russell Bodine | C | 24 | $669,114 | UFA |
| Kevin Minter | LB | 26 | UFA | |
| Andre Smith | OT/OG | 30 | UFA |