CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Cincinnati Bengals offensive guard Dalton Risner and defensive end Joseph Ossai each bet on himself in 2025. The bets paid off, and now they’re each set up to cash in.
Risner waited until late August to sign with a team in free agency, joined the Bengals on a one-year deal and is now playing the best football of his career.
“I’ve really found a home here,” Risner said. “I’ve really enjoyed this season. I think it’ll be a good March for me (when free agency begins). Personally, I’d love if the Bengals didn’t let me get to March. That’s not my choice. The ball is in their court. I’d love to stay and be a Bengal.”
Ossai returned to the Bengals last spring on a one-year prove-it deal and also went on to have a career year in 2025.
Ossai will be a free agent again at the end of the year, and he said that “of course” he’d love to return to Cincinnati.
“We’ll see,” Ossai said. “There are a lot of moving pieces. I’ll let the people who are paid to make those decisions make those decisions. I wasn’t even deep into free agency last year, but I do know what to expect. I love every one of these guys. I love this defense. It’s a no brainer to come back. But it’s a business. I’ll let the business people do the business stuff. We’ll see.”
Risner, 30 years old, debuted in 2019 and has played for three different teams. He stuck full-time as a starter early in his career in Denver. But then over the last two seasons in Minnesota, he had to compete for a starting job and didn’t start every game.
This year, Risner was replaced by rookie Jalen Rivers in Week 3 as the Bengals evaluated a young player. Risner returned to the lineup full-time in Week 11, and he has been rock solid over the last six games.
“It’s been one of the better runs of my career,” Risner said. “I’ve played really good football. Without a doubt, it’s one of the best runs in my career. It’s a testament to the guys I play next to and the organization that I’m a part of.”
The free agency process also hasn’t been straightforward for Risner, who signed with the Vikings in September of 2023, re-signed with the Vikings in late May of 2024 and then signed with the Bengals in August of 2025.
Typically, free agents sign in March. As Risner said, March will probably be a good month for him this year with the chance to sign a notable contract.
“He has set himself up,” Ted Karras said. “He has kind of had a similar career path (as myself), trying to find your way to be the guy. Hopefully, this has proven he can be the guy. Whatever happens in March or before that, I’ll always be rooting for him.”
The Bengals should have mutual interest in bringing Risner back.
“He has done an excellent job filling in there at right guard and giving us really good leadership in the room in conjunction with some other veterans we have,” Zac Taylor said. “His play on the field, next to Amarius (Mims), has been good.”
Orlando Brown Jr. also offered a strong positive assessment of Risner’s season.
“He works his tail off,” Brown said. “He plays hard. He helps teammates up. He somewhat sets the tone in terms of our finish. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. He’s a starter in this league.”
Re-signing Risner would give the Bengals a rare chance to actually have some continuity on their offensive line.
They needed two new starting guards entering 2025. They added a new starting offensive tackle entering 2024 and 2023. They needed to add four starters entering 2022.
If Risner returns, he’d slot in going forward with Mims, Karras, Dylan Fairchild and Brown as the Bengals’ starting offensive line for 2026.
“I think I’ve had a really good season, and I want to be a Cincinnati Bengal,” Risner said. “I want to play next to Ted Karras and Amarius Mims. I want to play for Scott Peters and Zac Taylor and Dan Pitcher. But that’s not always just my choice.”
He continued, “God is good no matter what. I’m going on my 93rd start. I’m overwhelmed with how good and blessed God has been to me, some small-town kid from Colorado. I don’t need anything more. I’d love to play for five more years and be a Bengal. What I’ve had so far is a danged blessing.”
Ossai, 25 years old, ranked 22nd in the entire NFL in pressure rate this season and was also one of 40 players in the league with five-plus sacks. While he has missed the last two games with an ankle injury, he was playing as well as anyone on the Bengals’ defense during the second half of the season before he got hurt.
“I haven’t looked at anything statistically,” Ossai said. “I like to do what I can and then let the people who focus on that — my agent and the front offices — figure that out. I’m sure I’ll get all that from them as soon as it’s all over. I haven’t looked at anything. I felt good playing. I felt dominant. I was hitting my stride and doing the things I wanted to do.”
While Trey Hendrickson’s season-ending injury made it more difficult for the Bengals to generate a pass rush, the silver lining of that injury was that it allowed Ossai to be able to rush against the left tackle in passing situations and on third down. He said that he prefers that side and can do more moves on that side — a right wrist injury that he suffered as a rookie impacts his ability to do some of that when he rushes from the other side against the right tackle. Ossai’s injury history is something to consider when evaluating his free agent market.
Ossai hit free agency last spring and signed a one-year deal reportedly for $7 million. He made the most of his prove-it deal.
“First and foremost, Ossai loves football,” defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery said last month. “Let that be known. He loves football. He practices with his hair on fire all the time. It’s almost to a fault where he can get tired and I have to get him out of there to keep him fresh. He loves football. That’s what you want. He’ll do whatever we ask him to do.”
Ossai is one of 12 players left on the Bengals’ active roster who has been a part of a playoff game with the Bengals. He was the young guy on the 2022 Bengals, and now he’s one of the few veterans in the locker room who has been on that stage.
Ossai believes that the rebuilt Bengals’ defense isn’t far away from being ready for the postseason.
“For such a young defense,” Ossai said, “This was good: You go through that (the struggles of the 2025 season), you make it out of that and you play the way we’re playing right now, nothing can come in later and shake you and make you waver. It was definitely character building. We have all the tools. We’ve shown that when we’re firing on all cylinders, we can play with anyone and take the ball away from the best offenses. We’ve got to keep going and put it all together.”
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