Bengals salary cap breakdown: wide receiver

When it comes to the Cincinnati Bengals, no single position has more money committed to it than wide receiver.

According to Spotrac, the Bengals have committed $26,634,715 to this position for the 2017 season. That leads the team among all positions and accounts for 17.22 percent of the team’s cap hit in 2017.

It’s no surprise that this position is where the Bengals are spending the most money. With A.J. Green making $13.5 million in this year, he alone is accounting for 7.79 percent of the team’s cap space. That still seems relatively small when you consider Green is easily one of the game’s best wide receivers, yet he’s the sixth-highest paid receiver in 2017 when it comes to base salary. Only quarterback Andy Dalton has a bigger cap hit on the Bengals roster at $15.7 million, which is actually a small amount for a franchise quarterback.

But Green isn’t the only receiver accounting for big dollars this year. Veteran receiver Brandon LaFell signed a two-year deal this offseason worth $9 million. If released, LaFell would have a dead cap hit of $3.3 million. That drops to $0 if released in 2018.

The Bengals spent the No. 9 overall pick in this year’s draft on Washington receiver John Ross, who immediately becomes the team’s third-highest paid receiver. However, his dead cap hit of $17,115,863 if released this year is the highest of any Bengal. Even Dre Kirkpatrick and his new five-year, $52.5 million deal includes just $12 million in dead cap if he’s released this year.

After the aforementioned three receivers, no other Bengals receiver accounts for even $1 million in cap space in 2017. Tyler Boyd will make $967,947 in the second year of his rookie deal. Fourth-round rookie Josh Malone will make $614,810 and have a dead cap hit of $599,241 if he doesn’t make the final roster.

Here is a breakdown of all the Bengals’ contracts at receiver, courtesy of Over The Cap: