Whitney Risner, who had a courtship while she averaged 17 points per game for MidAmerica Nazarene her senior year, got to reveal the Bengals' biggest shot of the offseason so far when she announced on Instagram her husband is coming back for 2026.

"I thought that was pretty exciting," said right guard Dalton Risner Monday after signing a one-year deal. "As you get later in your career, I feel like you try to have some fun with this, because you never know when it's going to be the last year. I'm just super overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness to come back here. Especially with the ups and downs of last season."

Whitney Risner, as popular on social media as her husband is in the Bengals' locker room, knows best why he opted to come back and not go on the market next week.

"I think everybody knows the story of the past couple of offseasons and just signing a little bit later," she said Monday morning at Paycor Stadium before Dalton met the press.

It's his fourth straight one-year deal since leaving his rookie contract in Denver in 2023, and his first one he's signed before the draft.

"I think it means a lot to have a team really be for sure on him in April and not to have to go to the draft and not have to wait for free agents to know, hey, we want you," she said.

Whitney sensed his presence in the locker room during the season even though he didn't sign until the week before the opener.

"We've never seen guys cling on to him like they did this year, the love for him," Whitney said. "Dalton has such a big personality that sometimes in a roomful of guys that can be misconstrued. But he has a huge heart and loves everybody. My biggest thing for him after leaving Denver was to be loved for being Dalton. Coming in here, guys did that."

Value View

Spotrac.com reported the deal at $5 million, the biggest haul of his career. But the Risners aren't talking about that when it comes to value.

As Risner riffed at his news conference, they meant things like center Ted Karras calling his Bengals debut in the opener the greatest display of professionalism he had ever seen and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher praising him in a meeting for racing downfield and picking up fallen teammates after the play.

"I never had another coach do that," Risner said. "I truly feel like I've never been seen or valued like I have here, and I think that that started in the offensive line room, and that started with Ted Karras. Ted Karras is Cincinnati Bengals, through and through. It's crazy. I've never been a guy to look up to very many people. And I've truly always just said, 'Jesus is the only person I've ever truly looked up to.' But I look up to Ted in a lot of ways."

The deal could have been longer, but he wanted to be here because they saw the value. Not just Karras and Pitcher, but offensive line coach Scott Peters, his right tackle partner Amarius Mims and quarterback Joe Burrow.

(Risner had to laugh at what Mims said. "He lied. He said I was the best right guard in football. But that's OK.")

"This process was just so much different, because I've never felt this way about an organization. I've never truly just wanted to be back and not even test my market," Risner said. "At this point in my career where I'm going to be my best (is) with Scott Peters and Joe Burrow and Ted Karras and Amaris Mims, and I didn't really care about the logistics side of it."

For Openers

Karras isn't the only guy impressed with what Risner pulled off on Opening Day in Cleveland. Risner didn't get the playbook until Labor Day weekend, a few days before the season. And, when vet right guard Lucas Patrick got hurt on the game's 16th play, Risner's short week came off the bench for the last 36 plays in a 17-16 victory.

Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. said he was sold right then.

"The real test in terms of his character came when he lined up against the Cleveland Browns and had been here maybe less than a week, and he shows up and plays at a high level, Brown said. "He barely knew our names. High character, high value football player who loves the game and brings great energy to our room."

That's not the half of how Risner survived the opener. As agent Drew Rosenhaus sought a deal, he worked out in Parrish, Fla., at his home in what he calls a retirement community. He never stepped into a gym, preferring to carry his cleats to the lone patch of grass on the place, where he says the retirees took their dogs to relieve themselves.

"I'm asking myself the question. The NFL doesn't want me every year. Free agency doesn't go my way," Risner said. "Every year I find a way to start, and every year I can't get a team to take a shot."

And there was the day a man walked by the mailboxes in front of the patch of grass and said, "You're in a hell of a fantasy football league, aren't you?"

"It was funny, but also devastating, because I'm actually training in the NFL. An NFL football player," Risner said. "I don't blame them for thinking this, but it's so cool to think back to all that work, and it paid off. Because when I showed up here, I thought I was going to have three or four weeks before I was really going to be put in the fold.

"But I was mentally and physically ready because all the work that I did, and I never once gave up or skipped the day and said, hey, this isn't what I'm going to do."

There he was, suddenly in the game in the second quarter. It probably helped he wasn't around the previous nine months to hear how much they needed to win their first opener in four years. It was complicated by a road crowd, forcing him to look back for the silent count.

"I felt like I was on that little patch of grass avoiding dog poop eight days prior, and then I was at the Dawg Pound and looking at Myles Garrett across from me. So I said, 'Man, this is a pretty big switch, but this is what I've been born to do,'" Risner said. "I was shocked. I didn't think I was going to get in the game. I was an emergency guard, and I think I was a sixth offensive lineman when we got in the goal-line package. But those are the moments that I take pride in because not everyone could have been prepared for that moment.

"There was a whole playbook to be learned. Joe Burrow doesn't really care how long you've been somewhere. Joe Burrow is going to call it how he calls it. He's going to use audibles and different snap counts, and he's going to do things the way he does things. And he expected me to know it, and I'm glad I did."

On The Rebound

Risner went from redemption to rejection in a week. In the second game, he gave up the sack that led to Burrow's Turf Toe that knocked him out of the next nine games and helped get Risner benched in favor of rookie right guard Jalen Rivers. He stood up when it happened, and he did again Monday.

"I'll always remember. I'm never going to forget about it, but I flushed it for sure, and I've always been a guy that's going to be real. Let's just call for what it is, man," Risner said. "We live in a world where we all try to be perfect, and we all try to have it all put together all the time, and no one wants to admit their mistakes. I'd rather do the opposite. I'd rather just be exactly who I am, calling for what it is.

"It was a big deal, and it was really hard. And I just felt like in that moment, if my kid, my future kid, is watching me. I think about that all the time. My wife is watching me. I would rather them look at me and be a man and say, I can own my mistakes, I can move forward, and I can do my job the best I can, and accept it for what it is, rather than being some of the biggest excuses. I think excuses are the worst."

Risner was able to get back into the starting lineup a few weeks later in Green Bay when rookie left guard Dylan Fairchild went down. He took over there for two weeks, and when Rivers got hurt in Pittsburgh on Nov. 16, Risner started the last seven games on the right.

"I think that game against the Green Bay Packers," said Risner of the moment the season turned for him. "Those two starts at left guard. That's the position I've always played in my career other than these last two years. That kind of kick-started me and got me back to who Dalton Risner is."

Slants and Screens

It turns out that Burrow's FaceTime when he congratulated Risner came during a workout with Burrow pushing some sort of a sled.

"He said, 'This is our year,'" Risner recalled …

The Risners, who just bought a home in Kansas City, are planning to get a bigger place in Cincinnati than the one they had last year. "That was for about four months. With OTAs, this looks more like 10 months," Whitney said …

Whitney owns her own jewelry company (she wore a gold-plated cross necklace Monday, a piece she calls "Harper,") and says she's planning another Sweat in Style session in Cincinnati that combines a workout with a jewelry expo. She says more than 130 women attended last year …

The contract caught the couple in the middle of a road trip. The next stop is heading back to Florida to rescue their dog, "MoCo," named for Whitney's home of Missouri and Dalton's of Colorado …