The Cincinnati Bengals doing a big-money contract extension with Ja’Marr Chase seems an obvious event for the franchise this offseason.
Fresh off the team’s botching of it before last season, to the point reports said Chase felt misled, the star wideout went and won a triple crown, only upping his value.
Now, one of the most notable sets of projections from Spotrac has gone live with a four-year, $145 million estimate on the Chase extension.
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Michael Ginnitti wrote the following:
127 catches, 1,708 yards, 17 touchdowns. There are certainly worse ways to launch yourself into a contract negotiation offseason, and Justin Jefferson’s $35M APY, $110M guaranteed could very much be in danger here. While drops remain a bit of a concern (9 in 2024), the former #5 overall pick has done more than enough to warrant a market resetting contract this spring.
Comments about drops aside, the projection is spot on, as Chase was always likely to shoot past Justin Jefferson and reset the bar for the entire position.
The Bengals will certainly have the cap space to get it done and project cleanly well into future years even after the fact, too.
Beyond that, with some tightrope walking, there really isn’t any reason to think the Bengals can’t get an extension done with Tee Higgins, too. That’s especially the case after Higgins changed agents and the Big 3 made their intentions to stick together clear.
