Andy Dalton is officially off the books and that saved the Bengals $17.7M against the cap in 2020. So what does that do to the total outlook of where the Bengals stand? According to Overthecap.com the Bengals now have ~$24M available in cap space now. They will need ~$11.8M to sign their draft picks according to Spotrac.com. This leaves the Bengals with rougly $14M in cap space in 2021.
In true fashion the Bengals will do two things: 1) roll over cap space into 2021 which would account for ~$10M, 2) use that money to re-sign Mixon/Green/Jackson III and make it a back-end cap friendly deal. What the Bengals could do is take that $14M and find some veteran free agents to bring in but that would be very un-Bengal like. First, there will not be anyone on the market that is going to command that much money per year. You could sign multiple guys but it looks like the Bengals seem to be pretty set at most positions. Second, you could try and take Thuney off the hands of the Pats so they can make cap space for Andy Dalton. I give that a .01% chance.
2021 is even more interesting, the Bengals will have $88M to work with. It sounds like a lot but they are going to have to make some tough decisions on Mixon, Green and Jackson III. They will also get to make some easy decisions on John Ross, Billy Price and Shawn Williams. Right now the highest paid player in 2021 will be Trae Waynes with $16M. That is crazy to think when the team has players like Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap and Tyler Boyd.
I think what we are seeing is a total chance to re-shape this roster. We can get younger, retain good young talent and shake some misfires all within the next year. This sounds like a properly run organization does it not? Weird.