It took almost two years and took a moment of public frustration from almost everyone involved. Chase Chase is the highest paid QB in NFL history, with Higgins at $28.75 million, making it the highest paying WR2 in the NFL.
destruction: #bengals WRS Ja'marr Chase and Tee Higgins exclusively tell us that they agreed to sign a team.
Ja'marr guarantees $112 million for four years, $161 million.
Tee Gets: Four years, the first two $115 million… pic.twitter.com/zbdnedelgz
– Jordan Schultz (@schultz_report) March 17, 2025
Overall, the annual total between Chase and Higgins is the most paid wide receiver duo in the NFL, almost three times the first offensive line. Despite how high the numbers were for Chase and Higgins' salaries, the Bengalis had no choice but to pay them not only because of their own inactivity, but also because of the mass pressure given to them by the most important players.
Bengal, as is well known, is historically cheap. The multi-billion dollar franchise operates like moms and pop shops. Pop shops really don't offer big money deals. Cincy deserves blame for reaching this point. Aggressive franchises will give elite players trades before the bubble bursts, and reset the market before temporarily resetting the market before numbers get too high. A good example of this is Philadelphia Eagles Pay WRS AJ Brown and Devonta Smith well before the CAP bursts. Or even the Broncos signing CB Patrick Surtain II for $24 million a year before Cornerback Market put it out water this offseason.
The Bengalis sat idle with star receivers irritated, but more importantly, the price of caliber players increased. The larger the price, the more Bengal had to pay it to keep its highest priority happy: QB Joe Barrow. The public pressure of Burrow, which includes saying after the victory Dallas Cowboys He was convinced that “the team will do what it needs” to bring Higgins back, and that in the Super Bowl, he wanted the Bengali people to make a deal, especially Higgins, Chase, Edge Trey Hendrickson and Te Mike Gesicki. Now only one of them remains.
As all finances are in the conversation about Chase and Higgins' deals, the reason Bengal had to do this is based on one number. 34. That's the amount of victory the Bengals have when Joe Burrow, Jammer Chase and Tee Higgins all play together. Yes, they were all in orange and black, so they don't deal with the offensive line very well. Yes, their drafting outside these three was frankly very bad. And yes, the defense is still in the spot where there are zero shocking players on that side of the ball, despite having a big draft of Star Edge Trey Hendrickson on that side of the ball. But as long as Barrow, Chase and Higgins are on this team for the long term, the Bengali identity remains.
Cincinnati had to do this. They couldn't afford to let Higgins walk free agency as the Bengali are a better team to chase the field alongside Higgins. The way Cincinnati drafts to support the team, these three large contracts eat up the cap (and whatever happens in Hendrixon) are the biggest question from here, but the long and short ones of it are very easy:
The Bengals' identity lies in the three best players and they can't afford to ruin it.
