The Bengals made a loud bet on their defense this offseason, but not everyone is sold on one of the biggest names they brought in.
Cincinnati spent big on Bryan Cook, handing the safety a $40.25 million deal as part of an aggressive offseason push that also included a monster trade for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and additions like Boye Mafe and Jonathan Allen. The front office clearly decided it was time to stop waiting around and start attacking the problem.
Still, the Cook signing has already drawn skepticism. Daniel Mader of Sporting News put Cook on his “All-Overpaid Team” for the 2026 season, naming him the safety on that list and questioning whether the price matches the production.
“The Bengals saw something they liked in Bryan Cook in this past free-agent cycle, signing him to a $40.25 million deal,” Mader wrote. “Cook's pedigree from four years with the Chiefs may be strong, but he also hasn't done much to justify becoming one of the NFL's higher-paid safeties.
“Most of the highest-paid safeties in the league, like Antoine Winfield Jr., Kyle Hamilton and Jessie Bates III, are well-regarded because they're true difference-makers in a secondary, whether due to versatility or a knack for big plays. Cook isn't quite making as much as those names, but he is making a lot for a player with three interceptions, 15 passes defended and one sack over four NFL seasons.”
That’s the case against the deal. The case for it is simpler: Cincinnati needed help, and badly.
Cook comes over after four seasons with the Chiefs, where he built a reputation as a reliable tackler who can also pop up with a splash play here and there. The Bengals’ defense has been one of the league’s weakest units for the last few seasons, and tackling has been a glaring issue. A player with Cook’s profile fits that need.
Joe Burrow has already made it clear he likes what the Bengals did, and he has praised Cook multiple times this offseason.
"I'm really excited about the moves we made this offseason," Burrow said in May. "We need to get better, so it was exciting to see the initiative from everybody in the organization to realize that we're in this exciting stage.
We're in our primes playing great football. Finding guys like Dexter and Bryan Cook ... to, you know, really solidify that defense so the young guys can also kind of rise up.
We're really going to try to achieve what we want to achieve."
If Cook helps lift Cincinnati’s defense into something more dependable, the overpaid label won’t stick for long.
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