{"id":687870,"date":"2026-01-19T03:59:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T03:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/687870\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T03:59:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T03:59:43","slug":"will-bengals-cut-free-agent-addition-after-just-one-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/687870\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Bengals cut free-agent addition after just one season?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 16, 2026, 5:31 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

The Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> don\u2019t have many major cut candidates this offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a byproduct of the current roster makeup more than anything. Many of the guys with actual cap space worth saving via a cut, such as left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., simply won\u2019t be let go for a variety of reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one interesting exception worth a closer look than most: Defensive lineman T.J. Slaton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slaton came over on a two-year deal worth roughly $14 million last offseason. Cutting him this offseason would save the Bengals<\/a> roughly $6.4 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cincinnati defense was terrible for most of the year until the games stopped mattering. But the run defense was better with Slaton on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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But as The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr.<\/a> recently wrote, there\u2019s this really big thing to consider when talking about Slaton: \u201cThis won\u2019t be an easy decision, as the math aligns with traditional Bengals dead-money cap cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED:Duke Tobin’s anticipated Bengals address underwhelms<\/a><\/p>\n

Bingo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finding a good run-stuffing nose isn\u2019t the hardest thing to do. And a guy named DJ Reader will be out there on the market, if they\u2019re interested. Reader certainly brought the locker room leadership they\u2019ve lacked ever since he left.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps more importantly, the Bengals might want more pass-rush from the interior. If that\u2019s coming from extra edge players and rotational guys, they might look at that $6.4 million in savings and happily apply it elsewhere. Or, they could (perhaps rightfully) think that Slaton will be even better if the entire unit takes a leap in Year 2 of Al Golden.<\/p>\n

Tough call. And it’s a fence-sitting position, but either direction wouldn’t be a shocker. If the Bengals heavily address the interior early in the offseason, it would certainly imply Slaton could be on the way out.<\/p>\n

RELATED:Bengals players slated to become free agents<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 16, 2026, 5:31 a.m. ET The Cincinnati Bengals don\u2019t have many major cut candidates this offseason.\u00a0 That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2053],"tags":[95878,228,227,256,2296,7,6,13078,95905,95907,95882,95913,95895,97903,95897,95883,100320,95881],"class_list":["post-687870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-accessfree","tag-bengals","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflbengals","tag-sstsnbengals","tag-tagal-golden","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagorlando-brown-jr","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtedarrell-slaton","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115919766925650405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}