The matter of the Cincinnati Bengals extending star wideout Ja’Marr Chase is a matter of “when” and not “if” already.
But the topic of that “when” is pretty tricky.
Ideally, the Bengals might prefer to do it as soon as possible before the number on a big extension jumps again.
When asked about the timing of a Chase extension, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer recently wrote the following:
Jake, I think it’ll happen close to the opener. I actually don’t think the money is too complicated—Cincinnati should just give him a little more than Justin Jefferson got in Minnesota (especially with an extra year left on his rookie contract to manage the damage).
Bengals fans will like his overall summary: “But in the end, Chase isn’t going anywhere.”
That much is true, of course. What’s interesting is when an extension might happen. Chase has been very open about wanting to wait for Jefferson and others to reset the market.
Now that Jefferson has, it doesn’t necessarily speed up Chase’s deal considering he and the team still have the fifth-year option for 2025. And while he might want to wait so the market keeps jumping, the team itself likely wants to sort out the Tee Higgins situation first, too.
