Duke Tobin sounds unsure about a decision the Cincinnati Bengals have to make within the next few days

The Cincinnati Bengals have until the end of the week to decide on defensive end Myles Murphy’s fifth-year option. Director of player personnel Duke Tobin is leaving the door open on the matter, but the clock is ticking fast.

The Cincinnati Bengals have until Saturday, May 2 to exercise the fifth-year option of defensive end Myles Murphy’s contract. Giving the green light would mean Murphy will be under contract through the 2027 season at a guaranteed salary of $14.475 million.

Will the Bengals pull the lever? Director of player personnel Duke Tobin left it up for debate during his first-ever post-NFL Draft press conference Monday afternoon.

“That’s coming up this week,” Tobin said. “And now that the draft’s over, we’ll look and see what kind of costs we can layer in next year and what we can and can’t do there. It’ll be a financial decision, primarily, one way or the other, but he is a guy that we’re counting on, not only this year, we’d like a long term relationship with him, but I don’t know whether that comes together.

“Again. We’re at the top of the league in spending right now,” Tobin continued. “And so we’re going to have to make it work and we’ll see what we do with that. But that’ll be a decision we make as we dive into this week, looking at next year, and we’ve got some cap ramifications there too with what we’ve done.”

Why the Bengals should exercise Myles Murphy’s fifth-year option

Murphy was Cincinnati’s first-round pick from the 2023 draft. He was a rotational player during the first two years of his career, and finally became a starter in 2025. He amassed 41 pressures and 5.5 sacks as a third-year player, with most of that production occurring in the back-half of the season.

Still just 24 years old, Murphy is ascending at the right time for both himself and the Bengals. Had he not put together that production in the final two months of last year, there would significant questions as to whether or not the fifth-year option would be a smart move.

There should be more confidence in Murphy being worth the nearly $15 million next season. Tobin saying the decision will be primarily a “financial decision” speaks to Murphy’s progression has been noticed, but his overall answer indicates it will be a tough choice to make.

What Duke Tobin is concerned about

Cincinnati is, for what feels like the first time ever, really low on salary cap space exiting the draft. There’s $7,497,125 before signing the rookie draft class, and $5,105,699 will remain afterwards thanks to the offseason top-51 rule in which only the most expensive 51 cap hits are counted against the cap before the regular season.