The Bengals foolishly painted themselves into a corner with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins

[Arkansas Bengal]

Story by Robert Zeglinski, For The Win

 

Let's make no mistake, dearest readers.

 

With apologies to Boomer Esiason, Carson Palmer, and Marvin Lewis, this is the Golden Era of the Cincinnati Bengals. Point blank. That's what happens when you have generational talents like Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase and difference-making superstars like Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson. It will be a massive disappointment if this nucleus doesn't capture at least one Lombardi Trophy before the guys start hanging their cleats and shoulder pads up. People would write navel-gazing treatises and talk about this professional football failure in bars and at house parties for years to come otherwise.

 

These Bengals are, indeed, that good at their best.

 

That's what makes how they've handled paying their franchise players so gosh darn confounding. It's like owner Mike Brown and his cronies don't even really want to win (which is probably half true). That, or they're not used to acting like a big boy NFL organization (which is likely totally true).

 

Monday saw the Bengals franchise tag Higgins for the second consecutive season. While Higgins understandably wasn't happy, this wasn't a really surprising move. Even with an imminent significant salary cap increase upwards of $20 million this offseason, it's not like Cincinnati is rife with cash to hand out multiple mega deals to their core offensive players in Higgins, his running mate in Chase, and Burrow. That's a normal and good problem to have for any team in a sports league with a spending cap: you're not sure how to delegate your cash when it's time to start handing out blank checks. It's the delicate balancing act of keeping a championship window open that every great team inevitably runs into.

 

The issue is that the Bengals have already given Burrow one of the NFL's biggest quarterback contracts. And while they try to sort out all these shenanigans with Higgins, they've yet to properly compensate Chase, a consensus top-two receiver in the game. In effect, the Bengals are trying to keep Higgins as a potential insurance policy in the drastic endgame scenario where they possibly lose Chase by not giving him the money and term he deserves while alienating Higgins' sensibilities at the same time. Even worse, instead of meeting Chase in the middle last summer, the Bengals are negotiating a monster contract with him right after he became only the sixth player in NFL history to win the receiving triple crown (the regular-season leader in catches, yards, and touchdowns).

C'mon, man. At some point, if you're the Bengals, you gotta get off the sidelines and make a move.

 

So, it should be no surprise to learn that Chase is now playing a measure of patient hardball with the Bengals, as reported by The Athletic's Dianna Russinni. Chase has no reason to take the Bengals' first offer. He's proven himself to be in a class all to his own. No wonder the two sides are "far apart."

 

It's on the Bengals for waiting and expecting him to be kind and take any sort of hometown discount. He owes them nothing and is operating as such:

 

 

This is what the Bengals get for needlessly screwing around and twiddling their fingers without a plan.

 

While Chase would've gotten a huge contract no matter what, they could've had him for a fraction of what he is worth now. Instead, they waited and let him dunk on helpless cornerbacks every single week in a career season. Now, he's going to break their bank. They could've at least entered in good-faith negotiations with Higgins instead of simply slapping one of the most player-unfriendly roster tools in American sports on him again without much of a second thought. Instead, he once again helped buoy their offense while they forced him to watch the negotiations he's earned happen with his teammates. Imagine how he feels. They could've listened to Joe Burrow, the one guy they've already committed to for the foreseeable future, when he repeatedly advocated for keeping Chase and Higgins happy and with him on the same team in Cincinnati whenever he had a microphone in front of his face.

 

Instead, the Bengals procrastinated like a lazy college student working on a term paper at 3 a.m. the night before. The "best" thing that will happen to the Bengals now is them backing up a Brink's Truck for Chase while hoping Higgins isn't disillusioned with organizational leadership. That speaks volumes, and the court of public opinion will understandably take them behind the woodshed for it.

 

The Bengals painted themselves into the most predictable corner ever:

 

https://x.com/FirstTake/status/1887538143160578500?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1887538143160578500|twgr^64b64fce2e1fd8302c5ca01ac5a9978e8137437a|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.msn.com%2Fen-us%2Fsports%2Fnfl%2Fthe-bengals-foolishly-painted-themselves-into-a-corner-with-ja-marr-chase-and-tee-higgins%2Far-AA1AaQZ7%3Focid%3Dhpmsncvid%3D0679a5785e1945fe8e4d850e8b6a2082ei%3D184

 

Let's make another thing here very clear.

 

The Bengals did this to themselves in the midst of what should be a celebratory time for a once-forgotten NFL franchise. They tanked their own goodwill for no good reason. They wholeheartedly deserve every piece of whatever happens next with Chase and Higgins. For their fans' sake, you just have to hope the Bengals won't regret it.

 

I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/the-bengals-foolishly-painted-themselves-into-a-corner-with-ja-marr-chase-and-tee-higgins/ar-AA1AaQZ7?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=0679a5785e1945fe8e4d850e8b6a2082&ei=184

[alleycat]

Another reading is that they could see the tea leaves, knew that they were going to cut the dead weight we all wanted them to, Hubbard retiring, etc, and have to play that out before they can commit the actual dollars and sign the actual deals. IMO they made grave mistakes last year, and they were firing offenses for Duke Tobin (not signing Chase/Tee while they could, depending on rookies and non-star free agents to solidify the D, etc.), but they mostly cleaned house and don't have any excuses to not go all in now. The time is now, the Window is wide open, they just have to put the pieces together to jump through it. 

[Inigo Montoya]

Painting oneself into a corner means leaving no way out.  I don’t really see that happening here.  Chase is definitely getting a new deal at some point.  Higgins will get a new deal or be traded (most likely).  They certainly could and probably should have signed one or both last year.  It’s only costing them more money being penny wise and pound foolish.  

[|BlackJesus|]

As the best WR in the NFL, Chase would be worth tagging 3 times even. So he's not going anywhere (next 4 years are controlled).

 

The team knows half the season ticket holders will cancel renewal if they got rid of him. 

 

As for Tee, that's up in the air, but they need to get it done. 

[T-Dub]

Meanwhile it's an excuse to sit on their hands in free agency.  Can't do anything until this happens, and it's not happening soon. 

 

Their hands are tied folks, can't blame them.  Very much an NFL-qualified front office. Please blame someone else, please.

[sparky151]

Tee said publicly last year that he would have taken the deal Michael Pittman got, 3 years for 70 mil total. The Bengals wouldn't offer that so they tagged him for 21.8 and now 26.2. Just dumb. 

 

 

[I_C_Deadpeople]

24 minutes ago, sparky151 said:

Tee said publicly last year that he would have taken the deal Michael Pittman got, 3 years for 70 mil total. The Bengals wouldn't offer that so they tagged him for 21.8 and now 26.2. Just dumb. 

 

 

It is like the team operates in constant fear . Fear they will run out of cap space, fear that they will sign someone long term and they don’t work out, fear the cap won’t go up, fear of guarantees. 

[LostInDaJungle]

4 minutes ago, I_C_Deadpeople said:

It is like the team operates in constant fear . Fear they will run out of cap space, fear that they will sign someone long term and they don’t work out, fear the cap won’t go up, fear of guarantees. 

I know Madden 2025 isn't real life....

But I am now in Franchise year 3. Every player is playing their best football. I resigned Tee. Resigned Kappa. Hill... I resigned everybody. Cam Taylor Britt was the Defensive player of the year... I resigned him. Kept Hubbard and a few other guys who were still rated highly for game purposes... Traded away Dax Hill.

In year 2, I resigned Zac Moss even thought I had just drafted a star RB... Why? He was a $6M insurance policy and I still had $45M in cap space.

In year 3, $25M still left over and I managed to keep the band together. Jermaine Burton is now 97 rated and might force the first tough decision I've had to make.

What is my point??

The Bengals are in such a GREAT cap space situation that it's not even funny. The contracts we signed for some of our Super Bowl stars start falling off the books, and we're contractually obligated to no one except Joe Burrow... Which is a great place to be in. It is malpractice for Chase and Higgins to even be considering being elsewhere. We already lost last season to it...

I have been saying it all off-season... Not only can the Bengals resign Chase and Higgins easily - they still have their pick of the FA crop afterwards if they so choose. It was dumb of them to not do the deals last year. Now they're in the "Find out" portion of the program. Let's face it... If this is their plan for sustained success, it's not working. Katie Blackburn, if fired, would not ever be hired by another NFL team. She is unqualified.

[claptonrocks]

6 hours ago, alleycat said:

Another reading is that they could see the tea leaves, knew that they were going to cut the dead weight we all wanted them to, Hubbard retiring, etc, and have to play that out before they can commit the actual dollars and sign the actual deals. IMO they made grave mistakes last year, and they were firing offenses for Duke Tobin (not signing Chase/Tee while they could, depending on rookies and non-star free agents to solidify the D, etc.), but they mostly cleaned house and don't have any excuses to not go all in now. The time is now, the Window is wide open, they just have to put the pieces together to jump through it. 

That was fiery.....

🧨.....

[-GoBengals-]

 

ya knows whose opinion i do not care about?

 

that guys

[Le Tigre]

The power of the pen can be mystifying. 😄

[LostInDaJungle]

Current state of the 2026 cap:

[claptonrocks]

3 hours ago, Le Tigre said:

The power of the pen can be mystifying. 😄

William Penn quote???

[sparky151]

18 hours ago, I_C_Deadpeople said:

It is like the team operates in constant fear . Fear they will run out of cap space, fear that they will sign someone long term and they don’t work out, fear the cap won’t go up, fear of guarantees. 

 

I think it's more not very well hidden resentment. They didn't plan to keep Tee past 2024, they wanted to replace him with Burton. Remember all the draft night high fiving? Then he screws up their plan by being a dumbass while Tee goes to work and has a good season. Now they look like idiots if they let Tee walk but don't want to pay him fair value, even with a hometown discount.

 

Likewise with Chase. The comparison between him and Jefferson is obvious. JJ got his deal done and the Bengals could just copy it. But JJ got 110 mil in guarantees and that doesn't let Duke and Katie sleep at night. So they drag their feet while the market goes up. 

 

Hendrickson has outplayed his contract. That's a concept that Duke only pays lip service to. It would be easy enough to give Trey a 4/120 extension with some fluff years at the end. He'd see 2 or 3 years of the deal (including the 2025 season he's already under contract for), would get some more security. Bengals aren't going to cut Hendrickson before this season so give him the fluff deal with a 15 mil signing bonus and guarantee his 16.8 mil salary for 2025. Then bill it as 32 mil in guaranteed money. He currently has no guaranteed money left on his old contract. 

 

It's honestly not that hard to do arithmetic. If the team were slightly more forward looking, they could even reduce the front year cap hits on those 3 contracts to lower levels than they currently count. That would increase the Bengals cap space, ie optionality for 2025. And if they don't spend it, they can roll it to 2026. 

 

Our front office would prefer to frontload contracts so it looks like they are maximizing the cap while minimizing future financial commitments. That's very inefficient if your goal is to field the best team possible. But it makes sense if that's not your actual goal.

 

[LostInDaJungle]

4 minutes ago, sparky151 said:

They didn't plan to keep Tee past 2024

Just to lighten the mood...

(Madden again) Knowing Burton to be a real life knucklehead, I immediately signed Tee. Didn't think twice.

Well, in the video game, Burton is just numbers.He went for 1K+ and 14 TD's from the slot his first year, and combined with the focus training, he's now a superstar on his own. Year 3 and he's a 97 rated X Factor.

 

While Tee is a nice 85+ (star) slot receiver, he's also cock blocking me from bringing in any rookie WR's to develop - And I'm starting to resent signing Tee.  I love those sure hands, but my 5th rounder has a 97 speed rating.