Orlando Brown Jr. is no longer in a contract year. Given a four-year deal in 2023, the former Super Bowl left tackle starter will now see his Bengals accord stretched for an additional season.
Cincinnati gave the veteran LT a two-year extension Thursday, according to a team announcement. This stands to lower Brown’s $21.99MM 2026 cap number. Brown was tied to a four-year, $64.1MM contract, but he is now signed through the 2028 season. Brown said (via ESPN.com’s Ben Baby) he negotiated the deal himself.
“The Blackburn family and the Brown family made this a smooth negotiation,” Brown said. “The deal creates a sense of stability for myself and the organization. I didn’t necessarily feel the need to reset the market. We have great players in this locker room. It’s rare for a player to say, but making it team-friendly … The way that I see it, it puts me and my family and the organization in a good spot.”
This mindset appears to differ from how Brown landed in Cincinnati. The Chiefs franchise-tagged their Super Bowl LVII left tackle in 2022 and offered him a top-market contract, but Kansas City’s six-year proposal — which matched the Trent Williams 49ers term length — did not meet Brown’s guarantee ask. Players have increasingly turned to shorter-term contracts as the cap keeps rising, and Brown rejected Kansas City’s proposal. After playing the 2022 season on the tag, he wound up in Cincinnati via free agency.
The Bengals have been unable to approach their early-2020s heights during Brown’s time in the Queen City, with Joe Burrow injury trouble and a defensive regression defining a tough three-year stretch for the franchise. During that span, however, Brown has started 45 games. The second-generation NFL tackle has not played at a Pro Bowl level — where he was in Baltimore and Kansas City — and Pro Football Focus has yet to rank him as a top-40 tackle during a Bengals season. But ESPN’s run block win rate metric did slot the veteran eighth overall among tackles last season.
PFF ranked Brown 66th and 60th among qualified options at tackle in 2024 and ’25, respectively, and Brown missed six games due to injury during his second Bengals season. A Pro Bowler at right tackle in Baltimore and left tackle in Kansas City, Brown is heading into an age-30 season. Brown supplanted Jonah Williams in 2023, sliding the former first-rounder to the right side (where he stayed upon signing with the Cardinals). This contract places Brown on track to become the longest-tenured Bengals LT since Andrew Whitworth, though the guarantees will be important to see on that front.
Cincinnati has been proactive with extensions for linemen in recent years, twice giving center Ted Karras new deals and shrewdly extending Trey Hendrickson (one year, $21MM) in 2023. The latter pact became a point of contention, and Hendrickson has since defected to the Ravens after a yearslong negotiating saga to close out his Bengals tenure.
Although the Bengals’ O-line has taken criticism in recent years — as Burrow has failed to stay healthy — the team looks set to run back its 2025 front five after re-signing right guard Dalton Risner. The veteran guard has consistently struggled to command even midlevel deals in free agency, and this year was no exception. Risner’s one-year Bengals deal carries a $3.25MM base value, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets. Via a $1.75MM playtime incentive, Risner’s accord can max out at $5MM.
Solid move for a solid organization. Quietly building a SB team and something big is coming.
I don’t know who you are, but you must not know a lot about this “solid” organization. Instead of signing more free agents or making trades, they decide to sign a mediocre left tackle. Pathetic!!!
It’s a good thing Brown “didn’t necessarily feel the need to reset the market” since that was never in the cards.