Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said this week that signing wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase to a contract extension is a priority for the team and Chase has made it a priority as well.
Chase didn’t practice much during training camp last summer and his status for the season opener was up in the air as the two sides tried to reach an agreement. Chase wound up playing, but dissatisfaction over the way the Bengals structured their contract offer kept the two sides from sealing the deal.
During an interview with Laura Rutledge of ESPN at the Pro Bowl, Chase was asked what he’s looking for in a deal.
“I hope I get what’s fair at the end of the day – what my worth is at the end of the day,” Chase said. “Hopefully I don’t put too much pressure on anybody, I just want it to be fair.”
Chase was then asked how he defines fair and he laughed before giving his answer.
“Fair is what I deserve,” Chase said. “I can’t really say everything I want to say. It’s what I deserve, it’s what I’ve worked for, how hard I worked for. It’s a written story already. It should be fair change.”
Chase’s production calls for a contract that put him at the top of the wide receiver market, but the past disagreements over structure show that it’s not just about the overall numbers. That leaves the two sides with plenty to talk about as they head into the offseason.
The Chiefs’ AFC rivals are getting sick of seeing them win the Super Bowl.
Echoing comments from Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase said at the Pro Bowl Games that he doesn’t like Kansas City and wants to see Philadelphia running back Saquon Barkley running all over the Chiefs’ defense in Super Bowl LIX.
“Everyone knows I’m not a KC fan, so I’m hoping Saquon rushes for like 200 in this game,” Chase said on ESPN.
The Chiefs’ last postseason loss came three years ago, when Chase and the Bengals beat them in the AFC Championship Game. Chase thinks it’s time for someone else to join the Bengals in the exclusive group of teams that have beaten Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the playoffs.
When a team has good players, those players eventually need to be paid — or replaced with younger, cheaper players.
The Bengals, who have gone plenty of years over the decades without good players, now have plenty of good players. And their best player thinks it’s time to pay up.
Quarterback Joe Burrow, appearing on ESPN’s coverage of the non-Pro Bowl Pro Bowl Games, said this when asked about receiver Ja’Marr Chase’s contract negotiations, via Albert Breer of SI.com (thanks, Bert, for watching it so we didn’t have to): “I don’t know what more he could show and do to prove himself. We have several guys like that, who have stepped up for us, and deserve to be paid — deserve to be paid what they’re worth.”
Burrow is right. But it’s hard to get the lead Bengal to change his stripes. While the Collective Bargaining Agreement has specific minimum spending requirements, Brown has resisted paying market value to top players. The Bengals had no choice but to do it with Burrow. With other key players, they’re choosing cheapness.
They’ve dragged their feet with Chase, for example, getting a triple crown for less than $5 million in 2024. And in lieu of paying receiver Tee Higgins the kind of deal he would have gotten on the open market last March, they paid him $21.8 million under the franchise tag in 2024. If their history of never keeping a player for more than one season after applying the tag holds, Higgins will hit the open market and leave in March.
Then there’s defensive end Trey Hendrickson. He wanted a new deal after a 17.5-sack season. The Bengals refused. He played for $14.8 million in 2024 (less than half of the top of the market) and became a first-team All Pro. And now they can keep him for another season, at only $15.8 million.
Despite Burrow’s words, don’t expect things to change. Based on the Bengals’ history, Higgins will be gone, Hendrickson won’t get a raise, and Chase will have to fight to get what he’s worth.
Look at what the Bengals did with safety Jessie Bates III. In lieu of paying him, they applied the tag, drafted his replacement in Dax Hill (it didn’t work), and let Bates go the next year. And they were ready to cut running back Joe Mixon because they didn’t want to pay him, until the Texans swooped in, traded for him, and gave him a new contract.
If Burrow’s going to stay with the Bengals over the long haul, he’ll have to get used to it. Unless and until he’s willing to make it clear to the team that, if they don’t change their ways, he wants a change of venue.
The problem is that Burrow has five more years under contract. And if he ever decides he’s had enough, he’ll have to make a Carson Palmer-style power play and hope the Bengals will blink. Which they weren’t going to do with Palmer until the Raiders lost Jason Campbell to a broken collarbone two days before the 2011 trade deadline and the Raiders made the Bengals an offer they couldn’t refuse.
On one hand, Burrow is getting $55 million per year. On the other hand, he might have to watch more than a few quality teammates come and go as the Bengals struggle to put enough talent around him to get the Bengals the first Super Bowl win in franchise history.
Bengals wide receiver Jermaine Burton had a disappointing rookie season after Cincinnati drafted him in the third round last year, and he’s on notice that he’s going to have to shape up to make the roster in 2025.
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin was asked by the Cincinnati Enquirer what Burton has done to deserve a spot on the roster, and Tobin was blunt in his response.
“He’s done nothing, and he’s going to have to start doing something quickly,” Tobin said.
Burton caught just four passes as a rookie, and he was benched for the season finale after he was accused of assaulting a woman he dated. Tobin indicated that the Bengals drafted Burton despite some red flags.
“We knew we were taking a risk,” Tobin said. “We felt comfortable that we could help him through some of the challenges he’s had in the past, and we’re going to continue to try to help him. But this is professional football, and you have to take accountability, and you have to be accountable to your teammates, your coaches, and the team that you’re playing for, and he has to figure that out. He’s got to figure that out fast. He’s a very talented player, and we knew that there were risks in taking him. We knew there were rewards in taking him. We know what both of those are. We’re hoping for the rewards. We’re giving him the resources he needs to get to those rewards, but at the end of the day, you can’t want it more for somebody than they want it for themselves. And we’re hoping that Jermaine figures that out.”
If Burton doesn’t figure it out, he won’t be a Bengal much longer.
So it’s a “priority” for the Bengals to sign receiver Ja’Marr Chase to a new deal? Yeah, welcome to 2024.
Then again, the Bengals always seem to be behind the times, when it comes to taking a crowbar to Mike Brown’s piggy bank.
Extending Chase last year was also a priority. Chase made it one. And, as Chase sees it, they promised to get it done. The problem, as we understand it, was that the numbers compared favorably to the market as of 2024, but that the structure was subpar, to say the least.
The existence of an impasse was obvious. Chase barely practiced during camp. On the first day of the season, Chase wrestled with whether to play against the Patriots — right up until the time for declaring inactive players.
And the Bengals lost to New England that day. Flip that to a win and, all other things being equal, the Bengals would have made the playoffs.
Chase went on to play in all 17 games, leading the league in catches, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. For that performance, the Bengals paid Chase less than $5 million.
Now, it seems based on Bengals executive Duke Tobin’s comments from Wednesday that they plan to take a cookie cutter to the contracts currently at the top of the market, where Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson currently leads all receivers with a new-money average of $35 million.
It’s much more complicated than that. The market went up significantly last year, from the upper 20s to the mid-30s. It will, or at least should, go up again. Also, the salary cap will increase again this year. At a minimum, Chase should want a deal with a new-money average of $40 million per year.
And he’s justified in seeking much more than that.
On Thursday’s PFT Live, we went through some of the quarterbacks currently making more than $50 million per year. Would you rather have Chase or, for example, or Jalen Hurts? Chase or Tua Tagovailoa? Chase or Jared Goff? Chase or Trevor Lawrence? Chase or Justin Herbert? Chase or Dak Prescott?
On one level, it’s a complicated exercise. At another level, it’s simple. Chase should have been paid at the top of the market last year. Despite the lack of a second deal, he was dominant. Beyond negotiating a deal that anticipates the growth of the market, factors in the increase in the cap, and compensates Chase retroactively for the value the Bengals received after lowballing Chase (from a structural standpoint) last year, he’s justified in trying to blow the lid off the market. $40 million? How about $50 million?
The problem is that the Bengals can, and perhaps will, squat on Chase at $21.8 million for 2025, the franchise tag for 2026, and possibly a second tag for 2027. He could let it play out and hit the market in 2028. But that’s three seasons away. He’ll be 28. And he’ll bear the risk of a significant injury impacting his value.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement gives the Bengals the right to let it play out, one year at a time. Chase has rights, too. That fact should not be forgotten if/when he chooses to take full advantage of those rights — especially if the Bengals fully intend to do the same.
