Feb. 28, 2026, 2:01 p.m. ET
The Cincinnati Bengals appear to have an obvious layup they can’t miss in free agency this offseason.
But Duke Tobin’s comments about Dalton Risner at the NFL combine turned some heads and earned some negative reactions in the process.
The good news? For now, at least, there’s no reason to panic about the situation.
Appearing on “The Growler,” The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. said that he thinks the Bengals and Risner are simply going through a normal negotiating process.
“It’s going to go up to the wire,” Dehner said. “If it crosses into the open of free agency, maybe then you start to get a little more nervous in terms of getting Risner back. But I do think it seems to be in a decent place.”
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Risner is an obvious must-have re-signing for the Bengals. He joined up late in the process before last season and, when healthy, stabilized the best line of the Joe Burrow era to date.
But as Dehner and standard free-agent negotiations tell onlookers, it takes two.
For all outsiders know, the Bengals are offering a very good deal. Risner might not be in a rush to sign. He’s 31 and looking at his likely last chance at a multi-year deal. Testing the open market, just in case, might be on the table pretty much no matter what the Bengals do.
Still, the knee-jerk reaction for fans is to wonder why this sort of thing needs to run up to a deadline like this. And given the performance of the front office in Cincinnati in the past, it’s a pretty reasonable one.
For better or worse, though, all Bengals fans can do is wait and see how it plays out.