The Bengals have a plan in place to keep star receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
Duke Tobin, the team’s director of player personnel, expressed optimism that the Bengals can make Chase the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL and sign Higgins to a long-term deal. He also needs to take care of edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, who is due a raise after making 17.5 sacks each of the past two seasons.
“We want them signed,” Tobin said. “Is it easy? No. Are we up to it? We are up to it. We’ve done a lot of these things.”
The Bengals want to reward Chase, who is scheduled to play this season on the fifth-year option of $21.816 million, after he won the league’s receiving triple crown. Chase will top Justin Jefferson’s annual average of $35 million per year.
“He is going to end up being the No. 1 paid non-quarterback in the league,” Tobin said. “We’re there. Let’s get it done. The earlier we can do some of this stuff, the freer it gives us to build the rest of the team. We have other needs that we want to build, and so we want to get these kinds of things done early enough to where we can really focus on building out the rest of the football team, but they’re all priorities to us but the ones that aren’t signed, are the ones that are on the table first.”
Higgins, who played last season on the $21.8 million franchise tag, is scheduled to become a free agent next month. He is the top free agent in PFT’s top-100.
“Seems like three, four, five years I’ve been talking about Tee,” Tobin said. “I think you guys all know how I feel about Tee Higgins. I think Tee Higgins is a fantastic football player, and I want him on my football team. Whenever I’m in charge of a football team, I want Tee Higgins, so I’m going to do what I can to get Tee Higgins. Our preference with Tee Higgins is to do a long-term agreement. Always has been, and it continues to be, and we’ll work hard to get that done.
“We are fortunate. We’ve got a lot of really good football players, fantastic football players, and we’re fortunate to be in position to fit them all in. We’ve managed our cap well. We’ve got low debt money. We want a high payroll and low-debt money, so the people in Cincinnati playing for us can get all the money. That’s what we want. We’re in position to sign these guys, and it’s a good position to be in. It really is. We’re going to attack it. We don’t want to just re-sign these guys and have the same football team we had last year. We want to add to it as well. We want to re-sign these guys, reward them for their ability level, and add to the football team. So, it’s a tall task. We think we’re up to it.”
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