Although several deals — most notably the one in Minnesota — transformed the receiver market this year, no more tectonic shifts remain for the Bengals to observe. The market’s next seismic move figures to come out of Cincinnati. Will the sides hammer out a deal now or end up waiting until 2025?
Ja’Marr Chase has practiced in a limited capacity in each of the past two days, doing so after previously yo-yoing between a hold-in and participating. While this bodes well for Chase’s availability in Week 1, this situation is not yet settled. The fourth-year wideout is not viewed as a lock to be on the field against the Patriots.
Not known as a team that gives in on these matters, the Bengals may be forced to deviate from their usual contract practices to lock down Chase. The team does not offer non-quarterbacks guarantees beyond Year 1 of extensions, making the Bengals among the few NFL teams who still proceed this way. Jefferson, however, reset the market by securing $110M guaranteed ($88.7M at signing) and the Cowboys soon gave CeeDee Lamb $100M guaranteed ($67M at signing). The market is effectively set for Chase, who is a year younger than both players.
Chase is angling to top Jefferson’s $35M-per-year accord and while the guarantee structure figures to present more complications for the Bengals than reaching that AAV will, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport notes the team has submitted a “significant, significant” offer to the All-Pro talent. The organization had recently intensified its effort to extend Chase and this process is going down to the wire.
It is not known if the parties will shut down negotiations after the regular season begins, but recent Bengals negotiations have proceeded this way. Tee Higgins and the team stopped talking after a below-market offer annoyed the team’s WR2, with the most lucrative receiver contract in Bengals history — A.J. Green‘s four-year, $60M deal — was agreed to on Sept. 11, 2015. That resolution occurred two days before the regular season that year.
No Bengals player is currently tied to a contract that included upfront guarantees between $146.5M (Joe Burrow‘s) and $31.1M (Orlando Brown Jr.‘s signing bonus). Chase will need to land well north of Brown’s number to sign and he has used this practice pattern to effectively ramp up negotiations with the Bengals. With no other receiver dominoes to fall, Chase slow-playing matters — something the Bengals viewed him as doing earlier this offseason, as the Jefferson-Vikings negotiations finished up — is no longer necessary. Six wideouts are now tied to deals worth more than $30M per year, compared to one in 2023. At 24, Chase can pair his accomplishments (three Pro Bowls, one second-team All-Pro nod) with youth to push the Bengals to the brink.
Some among the Bengals have bristled about the notion the franchise needs to adjust its guarantee structure to accommodate Chase, but contract structure has been an issue during these talks. Mike Brown had pointed to a 2025 agreement being more likely, when addressing the matter early in training camp, but called Chase the team’s second-highest priority behind Burrow. With the club not expected to give Higgins a long-term deal — in large part because of Chase’s upcoming payday, be it this year or next — the runway is clear for the former No. 5 overall pick to sign. All that remains is an old-school organization offering a market-value extension.
Chase topping Jefferson’s number would make for four receivers setting a position AAV record this year. Amon-Ra St. Brown, A.J. Brown and Jefferson have done so. St. Brown, Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith have been paid among 2021 first-round wideouts. It would look strange — despite every team in the rookie-scale contract era waiting until Year 5 to extend a Round 1 WR, before this offseason changed the game — if Chase was left on his rookie deal for a fourth season. That is close to happening, as the LSU alum continues to angle for the top WR payday.
