Joe Burrow didn’t restructure his contract because the Bengals asked nicely. He restructured it because he’s spent two seasons watching a historically porous defense drain games his offense had no business losing — and at some point, a franchise quarterback either waits for the organization to fix it or tells them he’ll help fund the project himself. Burrow chose the latter, restructuring his contract to free up roughly $10m in cap space for Cincinnati to make another splash this offseason.
The Bengals have already acquired arguably the best defensive nose tackle in the league, Dexter Lawrence, sending the tenth overall pick in the 2026 draft to the Giants to secure his services. Boye Mafe arrived to address the pass-rush void left by Trey Hendrickson‘s departure, Jonathan Allen came in for interior muscle, and Bryan Cook deepened the secondary. Suddenly, despite three straight playoff misses, online betting sites make Cincy contenders once again.
The latest NFL futures at Bovada currently make the Bengals +2000 fringe contenders for Super Bowl glory next term. Those odds don’t position them amongst the favorites, but they have been slashed dramatically from the +3300 they were before the offseason began. Now, with an additional $10M in the war chest, could one of these free agent additions see the odds cut even further?
Three Free Agents the Cincinnati Bengals Should Target Following Joe Burrow’s Restructuring
Bobby Wagner
Is there a more sensible low-cost veteran upgrade available to the Bengals right now than Bobby Wagner? He posted 162 tackles last season at the ripe old age of 35, proving that he shows absolutely zero signs of slowing down. Over the last 14 years, he’s been an eleven-time All-Pro, a ten-time Pro Bowler, and a Super Bowl champion. How he would love to claim a second ring with Cincy next season should the opportunity arrive.
The 2025 numbers with Washington don’t read like a man coasting toward retirement. Wagner posted 4.5 sacks and two interceptions while earning a career-high 92.4 PFF pass-rush grade — generating 20 pressures on just 77 pass-rush snaps. His 9.5 tackles per game ranked sixth across the entire league. The instincts remain elite; the processing speed that made him the measuring stick for his position hasn’t left him.
Why he’s still available as he approaches his 36th birthday comes down to two things: Washington used the NFL Draft to select Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles — someone the Bengals were rumored to be interested in before trading away their pick for Sexy Dexy. Could they now move for the player that Styles will replace in the Commanders’ starting lineup, in the form of Wagner? At a likely price of $6-7 million on another short-term deal, the fit is sensible. Likelihood hinges on whether the Bengals prioritize internal extensions first.
Joey Bosa
Selected third overall in 2016. Defensive Rookie of the Year. Five Pro Bowls. He set an NFL record by recording 19 sacks across his first 20 career games, then spent nine seasons in Los Angeles, finishing as the franchise’s second all-time leading sacker — without ever winning a Super Bowl and without ever quite escaping the durability questions that have complicated every contract conversation of his career.
Buffalo gave him a one-year prove-it deal 12 months ago after the Chargers parted ways with him. He delivered: 15 games, 29 tackles, five sacks, and a league-leading five forced fumbles. He proved that a healthy Bosa is still a problem. Buffalo ran deep into the playoffs, and he was part of why, but it wasn’t enough to secure an extension to remain with the Bills.
Could their loss now be the Bengals’ gain? Deploy him as a rotational complement to Mafe alongside young pieces like Shemar Stewart and Myles Murphy, and the fit is real. But the financials are somewhat thornier; if his ask remains in the $12-14 million range that Buffalo reportedly paid, it may outpace the remaining Bengals’ cap flexibility.
Von Miller
Three-time first-team All-Pro. Eight Pro Bowls. Super Bowl 50 MVP with Denver. A second ring with the Rams in Super Bowl LVI — against the Bengals, no less. At 138.5 career sacks, he’s one of the most prolific pass rushers in NFL history. The NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2010s. Hall of Fame isn’t a question for Von Miller — it’s a formality, but he does turn 37 midway through the 2026 season.
At 37, with 138.5 career sacks and two Super Bowl rings, does Von Miller still have enough left to change how opposing offensive coordinators game-plan against the Bengals? Washington thought so: he appeared in all 17 regular-season games in 2025 and produced nine sacks — his highest single-season total since 2018 — while working roughly 37 percent of defensive snaps. Even with him being towards the end of his career, he can still be an effective situational disruptor at a relatively low cost, and that is usually something that appeals to the notoriously stringent front office at Paycor.
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*Photo Credit: Cara Owsley – USA TODAY Sports*
