Pratt ranked in the top 10 in the NFL last season with 143 total tackles and was a team captain but Logan Wilson, who missed six games, was the only other Bengal to top 100 tackles. According to PFF.com, Pratt led the team with 19 missed tackles and his defensive grade of 60.6 ranked 19th among all players on the roster.
The Bengals will save $5.6 million in cash and 2025 cap space by cutting Pratt. A third-round draft pick in 2019 who was entering the last year of his second contract, Pratt was set to make $5.25 million in base salary this year, and he had a cap hit of almost $8.2 million.
Cincinnati takes on $2.3 million in dead money.
Pratt had requested a trade early this offseason and had not been participating in the team’s offseason workouts.
It’s unclear why the organization waited until now to release Pratt, but the Bengals begin mandatory minicamp Tuesday, and players that do not participate can be fined.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin had acknowledged Pratt’s desires for a move when he spoke at the NFL Combine in February.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Tobin said then. “He requested a trade. We’ve looked into that a little bit, and we are where we are. But I don’t have anything to announce on that right now.”
Cincinnati ended up using two of its six draft picks on linebackers this April, selecting Demetrius Knight Jr. in the second round and Barrett Carter in the fourth.
Pratt’s production dropped off the past two years, but he had played a crucial role in the team’s Super Bowl run in 2021 and earned a contract extension after a second straight AFC Championship appearance in 2022, despite controversy over how he chewed out Joseph Ossai coming off the field from a loss at Kansas City.
Ossai had a game-changing penalty to set up the winning field goal for the Chiefs, and Pratt was caught on camera yelling at the young defensive lineman as they headed into the locker room.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The now-29-year-old linebacker later apologized publicly and he was voted as a team captain in 2024.
Pratt made 88 starts in 96 appearances for Cincinnati and recorded one of the biggest plays in franchise history when he grabbed an interception to clinch the Bengals’ first playoff win in 31 years at the end of the 2021 season.
The six-year veteran is speculated as a possible target to join former Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo’s linebacker corps in Indianapolis.
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