We’re getting closer and closer to NFL free agency, and the Cincinnati Bengals have 16 players with expiring contracts. Who will re-sign with the team, and who will leave when the 2026 league year begins? We’ll go through all impending free agents before the madness begins.
Dalton Risner wasn’t the only veteran addition the Bengals made during the final weeks leading up to the 2025 regular season. Another member of the Denver Broncos‘ 2019 NFL Draft class joined the team at the start of training camp, and is set to hit the market again in a few weeks.
Noah Fant
Position: Tight end
Age for 2027 Season: 29
Incoming NFL Year: 8th
Previous AAV: $2,750,000
2026 Snap %: 34.1%
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Noah Fant was signed by Cincinnati on July 31, a few days into training camp, after he was surprisingly released by the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. Fant visited the Bengals first and landed on the club to not only try and win, but cash out like previous tight ends who caught passes from Joe Burrow.
Nearly a full camp allowed Fant to be well integrated into the offense for Week 1, and he caught Burrow’s first touchdown pass of the season in Cincinnati’s season-opening victory over the Cleveland Browns. He caught at least three passes for at least 26 yards in each of the first three weeks, and was even more productive during the heart of Joe Flacco’s short stint as the starter. He averaged 30.8 yards per contest and scored twice with Flacco under center.
Fant finished the year with 34 receptions for 288 yards and three touchdowns. His 8.5 yards per reception was the lowest of his career, as were his total yardage. He also had a career-high three fumbles lost, and all three were returned for touchdowns. That stat alone put a major damper on an already middling season for the former first-round pick.
Contract History and Projection
Fant inked a one-year, $2.75 million deal last year with the Bengals. His first veteran contract was a two-year, $21 million deal with Seattle after the Broncos sent him away as part of the Russell Wilson trade. He only saw one year and earned $11.91 million of that deal as he was cut last July.
Spotrac.com’s calculated market value for Fant is a one-year, $3,220,417 contract, which would rank 34th among TEs in the league. An Average Annual Value (AAV) of $3.2 million would be a jump relative to the salary cap increasing.
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Prediction
Fant was a low-risk, high-reward signing made deep into the offseason. He never became a consistent starter like Risner eventually turned out to be, but that also wasn’t the expectation for him with Mike Gesicki and Drew Sample already in the fold. Fant played well in the weeks Gesicki was out, but those three fumble-sixes really stick out like a sore thumb.
The good news for Cincinnati is Fant didn’t have a year that ballooned his market, so re-signing him shouldn’t be very difficult at all. It just seems like both sides will probably go in a different direction as Fant didn’t make himself too valuable to prioritize keeping, and he can probably find more playing time elsewhere.
I predict a similar offer to the one he signed last July will find Fant’s inbox, but he will survey his options and find a higher AAV with the chance to start, and leave an odd season in the past.
Bengals Free Agent Profiles
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This story was originally published by A to Z Sports on Feb 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.