Why the Bengals Couldn’t Get a Deal Done With Tee Higgins, and Where Negotiations Stand With Ja’Marr Chase

CINCINNATI – Mock turtle soup has been a part of the Cincinnati Bengals‘ pre-camp luncheon ever since the team started staging it decades ago.

But salary cap pie quickly is becoming an equally predictable tradition.

Bengals owner and president Mike Brown offered a heaping slice Monday while discussing the team’s inability to reach a long-term agreement with wide receiver Tee Higgins, as well as the current state of negotiations with receiver Ja’Marr Chase.

After Failing To Extend Tee Higgins, Bengals Turn Focus to Ja’Marr Chase

“We are saddled with the cap,” Brown said. “The pie is not going to grow. When you reach a point with your quarterback that you have to pay him a big contract, that takes a disproportionate piece out of the pie, which means you have less left to pay the others. Sometimes that impacts whether you can get the others signed. You can’t just pay people willy-nilly.”

The Bengals used the franchise tag on Higgins on the first day they were allowed to do so on Feb. 26, prompting the receiver to request a trade. In June, Higgins signed the franchise tag and said he would be in attendance for the start of camp.

The team still had a month to work out an extension with the 2020 second-round pick, but the two sides never got close before last Monday’s deadline to finalize a long-term deal.

SEE MORE: NFL Wide Receiver Rankings 2024

“We really like Tee Higgins,” Brown added. “We would wish to sign him, but it has to be at a certain level to fit within the cap or it can’t be done.”

Higgins will make a guaranteed $21.8 million this year on the franchise tag. That makes him the 16th highest-paid receiver in terms of average annual value (AAV). Higgins and his agent, David Mulugheta, were looking for a higher AAV and a multi-year deal.

“I don’t want to say why, it just didn’t come together,” director of player personnel Duke Tobin said of the Higgins extension. “I don’t fault anybody on that. It’s gotta work for us, and it has to work for them, and sometimes that collides with each other, and sometimes it misses. We accept that, and he accepts that.”

Chase also is eligible for an extension. And while there is no official deadline to get one done, the start of the regular season usually marks the end of the negotiation window until the following offseason.

The No. 5 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Chase is under contract for two more seasons with the Bengals, who exercised his fifth-year option — worth a guaranteed $21.8 million — in 2025.

Chase’s extension is expected to rival, if not surpass, the market-resetting deal Justin Jefferson signed with the Minnesota Vikings earlier this offseason.

Jefferson’s four-year, $140 million contract came with $110 million guaranteed.

Chase said at the end of last season that guaranteed money is what he’s going to be looking for most when it comes to his next contract, but the Bengals rarely offer that kind of upfront cash.

#Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase talks contract, Elves, a future without Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins and hints at the real reason he's playing Sunday: https://t.co/1O4JFyizG7 pic.twitter.com/C1qtoqjwA7

— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) January 4, 2024

They did it for Burrow, with $219 million of his five-year, $275 million deal guaranteed, and Chase is going to ask them to do it for him.

Brown said he would like to get the deal done as soon as possible, but Chase appears willing to play 2024 on his current contract and add more stats and bargaining power to his argument.

“We’re going to try hard,” Brown said while responding to a question about whether Burrow’s deal leaves enough room for the team to sign Chase.

“If you were listing our guys, one-two, you just did it, and (Chase) knows that,” Brown said. “We know it, but it has to get done. We have both this year and next year where we have rights to Ja’Marr, so maybe it’ll take longer than we wish.”

In addition to Jefferson, several other receivers landed huge contracts this offseason. Detroit paid Amon-Ra St. Brown with a four-year, $120 million deal in April. In May, the Miami Dolphins agreed to a three-year, $84.8 million contract with Jaylen Waddle, their WR2.

Also this offseason, Philadelphia inked DeVonta Smith for three years and $75 million, and Houston locked up Nico Collins for $72.8 million over three seasons.

“We’re aware what other players have, and we’re also aware of what we feel is right in what we can do with our team and what makes sense for us going forward,” Tobin said. “We talk about that, and we talk to Chase’s people about that, and we’ll see if something can get done. We hope it can.”

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Asked about the pros and cons of signing a receiver to that kind of contract, Tobin said the position is irrelevant.

“I don’t view people as receivers; I view them as individuals,” he said. “And I think there’s a lot of pros to having a Ja’Marr Chase. I don’t call him, ‘Receiver.’ I call him, ‘Ja’Marr Chase.’ And Ja’Marr Chase is a rare football player.

“So if it was just wide receiver, I wouldn’t spend a nickel on it,” he added. “But it’s Ja’Marr Chase, and so we’ll see what we can get done. We’ve got to kind of marry that up with what makes sense financially to still keep the rest of the team going as best we can.”