Welcome to the nineteenth part of a thirty-two-part series: Reading the NFL Offseason Tea Leaves. Fantasy football tasseography is deeply rooted in predicting future fantasy fortunes. Some of the team tea cups we'll be looking into may be larger than others. The smallest of cups may have the most alluring blends of offensive weaponry, or be set to bloom after a long steep. This series will aid in your approach to Redraft and Dynasty leagues by bringing you up to date on:

• Free Agency
  • Re-signings, additions, who signed elsewhere, and what it means for fantasy.
• NFL Draft
  • What can we decipher about the direction a team is headed in based on their draft selections?
• Coaching Changes
  • Who's in, who's out, and how do the coaching philosophies translate to fantasy production?
• Fantasy Fortunes
  • What does this all mean for your fantasy football drafts?

Like tasseography, the arrangement of these four topics will vary as we digest each team's offseasons and see how the offensive pieces settle. Each article will interpret what this NFL team has told us about their future plans based on what they've done since their 2025 season ended.

Reading the Cincinnati Bengals' 2026 Offseason

A Quiet Offseason

With a few key additions to their defense, including trading for DT Dexter Lawrence, the Cincinnati Bengals will continue to push for a Super Bowl in 2026. Not much changed on the Bengals' offense aside from adding WR Colbie Young and TE Jack Endries in the draft and RB Jamal Haynes as a UDFA.

Chase Brown's Contract Year

With the Bengals running it back, little should change in the offensive ecosystem. At the end of the 2026 season, Chase Brown's rookie contract will be up, and the Bengals will have to decide on the future of their backfield.

If he comes back on a team-friendly deal around $8M per year, it's likely a done deal. If he wants closer to what Travis Etienne just signed, in that $12-14M range, the Bengals will have a tough decision to make. Brown is coming off his first 1,000-yard rushing season, where he also hauled in 69 passes for 400+ yards.

The TE Room

Mike Gesicki and one of Erick All or Endries will be the two primary TEs for Cincinnati in 2026. Gesicki is signed through 2027, while All sat out all of 2025 recovering from a grade 3 ACL tear. While this is a high-octane offense, they don't funnel enough volume to the TEs to make them fantasy relevant.

Fantasy Fortunes

Joe Burrow, Brown,  Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins will likely see all of the fantasy production again in 2026. That should be good for a QB1, RB1, WR1 and WR2, and a TE3-4 for fantasy. Burrow is a locked-and-loaded QB1 for the next several years.

If Brown goes down, it'll likely be a mix of veteran RB Samaje Perine, second-year RB Tahj Brooks and UDFA Haynes splitting the backfield duties. Maybe they bring in a higher profile veteran in a "break glass in case of emergency" sort of way.

Chase and Higgins will dominate the target share in 2026. Whatever targets are left for the remaining WRs may make them relevant in weekly best ball leagues. Endries is an interesting prospect given TE All is recovering from his second ACL tear, but is better left on waivers unless you're in the deepest of dynasty leagues. Gesicki is a replacement-level TE.

Cam White is a Senior Analyst & Host at Optimus Fantasy. You can find more of his work on our YouTube channel, and make sure to follow him on Bluesky.