Agent’s Take: How Bengals could have preserved their antiquated contract structure with Ja’Marr Chase’s deal

Pro Bowl quarterback Joe Burrow got his wish for the Cincinnati Bengals offense. His wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, who was designated as a franchise player for a second straight year, signed long-term deals. Higgins’ second franchise tag cost $26,179,200.

Chase, who was scheduled to make a fully guaranteed $21.816 million in 2025 on his fifth-year option, became the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback with a four-year, $161 million contract extension, averaging $40.25 million per year. The maximum value of Chase’s extension is $162 million thanks to a $250,000 annual incentive in the new contract years (2026-2029) for each Super Bowl win with 65% or more offensive playtime in the game as well as 65% or more offensive playtime during the same regular season. 

Higgins is now the league’s highest-paid No. 2 receiver at $28.75 million per year. He received a four-year, $115 million deal worth up to $121.8 million through incentives.

The Bengals made an exception for Chase and Higgins by giving both traditional salary guarantees that have only been reserved for Burrow on a veteran contract. Chase has $109.8 million guaranteed for injury with $73.9 million of this money fully guaranteed at signing. An additional $2.2 million can become fully guaranteed to make the total guarantee $112 million.

Chase’s deal has a $22 million roster bonus due the day after signing. In lieu of a signing bonus, the Bengals have started giving unsecured roster bonuses due on the day of or day after signing. The roster bonus is prorated just like signing bonus. Chase also has a separate unsecured $10 million March 25 roster bonus, which isn’t prorated.

A major benefit is recoupment of a roster bonus can only occur in the year the money is earned. In Chase’s case, he would have to breach his contract in 2025 to forfeit money. Recoupment of signing bonus with a breach or default can occur as long as there is signing bonus proration still in the deal. A Chase signing bonus would be subject to recapture though 2029 given he signed a four-year contract extension.

Chase’s deal has two option bonuses. An option bonus is prorated over the life of a contract (up to a maximum of five years), including the option years, beginning in the league year when the option is exercised. 

Chase’s option bonus in 2026 to pick up a dummy/voiding 2030 contract year is $15 million. Chase’s fully guaranteed $32.73 million 2026 base salary gets reduced to $17.73 million in the process. 

The option bonus in 2027 for a dummy/voiding 2031 contract year is $5 million. Chase’s $28.9 million 2027 base salary is guaranteed for injury at signing and becomes fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2026 league year. After this option is exercised Chase’s 2027 base salary becomes $23.9 million rather than $28.9 million.

Higgins has $30 million fully guaranteed at signing. He got a $15 million roster bonus due one day after signing. There’s also a $5 million March 25 roster bonus that isn’t prorated. Both of these roster bonuses are being considered as part of the full guarantee. The signing bonus/option bonus structure was not used like in Chase’s contract. Higgins’ $10 million fifth day of the 2026 league year roster bonus is also fully guaranteed at signing, which is prorated like signing bonus. 

Curiously, Higgins’ $13.8 million 2025 base salary isn’t guaranteed. For all practical purposes, it is because of the two roster bonuses. An additional $10.9 million, Higgins’ 2026 base salary, goes from unsecured to completely secured on the fifth day of the 2026 league year to make the total amount that can be guaranteed $40.9 million. He also has an unsecured $5 million fifth day of the 2027 league year roster bonus. There aren’t any dummy/voiding years in Higgins’ contract.

Both deals contain large per-game roster bonuses. Chase has $1 million ($58,823.53 for each game active with a 17-game regular season) in every year of his contract. Higgins’ are $2 million ($117,647.06 for each game active) annually. With per-game roster bonuses, the amount is only payable each time a player is on the game day active roster.

The cash flow in each contract leaves a lot to be desired. Both are a little backloaded. For example, Chase has $44.816 million in 2029, the final year of his extension. He is getting 72.16% of his new money through his third new contract year. 

Higgins is slightly better with $29.8 million in 2028 so he has 74.08% of his money through his third contract year, which is 2027. In a neutral deal, that is neither frontloaded nor backloaded, 75% of the money in a straight four-year deal would be made through the third contract year. It’s 75% of the new money earned through the third new contract year with a four-year extension.

Obviously, the amount of money is much different, which really shouldn’t matter, but the cash-flow percentages don’t measure up to previous Bengals four-year deals. The following chart illustrates the difference with former Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd, who signed a four-year, $43 million extension, averaging $10.75 million per year, in 2019. Linebacker Logan Wilson’s four-year, $36 million extension from 2023, averaging $9 million per year, is also included for comparison purposes.

Allowing Cincinnati to preserve its antiquated contract structure under the right circumstances would have been preferable to accepting Chase’s actual deal with $73.9 million fully guaranteed at signing and $112 million that can become fully guaranteed. The same basic concept would apply to Higgins but to a lesser degree since he and Chase both have the same agent. The idea would be to forgo the security that the other highly paid wide receivers and Burrow have in their contracts in exchange for phenomenal cash flow.

Typically, the only guaranteed money in Cincinnati veteran contracts is a signing bonus and/or a roster bonus payable within a few days of signing. The bigger deals contain an unsecured third or fifth day of the league year roster bonus in the second and third years. The roster bonuses are supposed to be substitutes for additional contract guarantees. The overall guarantees in Cincinnati contracts are less than comparable deals on other teams. 

Prior to Chase and Higgins signing, the only exception made had been with Burrow. The five-year extension, averaging $55 million per year, Burrow signed in September 2023 right before the start of the regular season has $219.01 million of salary guarantees. Out of the $219.01 million, $146.51 million was fully guaranteed at signing. 

In addition to strong contract guarantees, Burrow got an extremely player-friendly structure from the Bengals. He has an unheard of 66.89% of his new money over his first three new contract years, which run through 2027. Burrow’s first three new contract years average $61,320,327 per year. To put Burrow’s percentage in perspective, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts, who signed five-year extensions for $52.5 million and $51 million per year with the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles in 2023, are at 60.98% and 60% after their respective first three new contract years. 

The Bengals wouldn’t be asked to go into unchartered territory for Chase. Previous four-year deals or four-year extensions Cincinnati has done would be used against them. 

Getting Orlando Brown Jr.-type cash flow would be the goal. Brown signed a four-year, $64.092 million contract, averaging $16.023 million per year, in 2023 as an unrestricted free agent. His $31.1 million roster bonus the day of his contract’s execution is still the most upfront money ever given to an offensive lineman.

Brown has 52.62% of his money in the first year and 66.07% through the second year, which is ridiculous. He has 77.81% of his cash through the third year.

Cincinnati might balk at providing such outrageous cash flow again. The fallback position would be landing somewhere between Brown’s and Wilson’s cash-flow percentages for the first two new years. 

Shattering the record in upfront money for a non-quarterback would be a necessity. San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa’s $50 million signing bonus is the current benchmark. A substantial fifth day of the league year roster bonus in 2027 would also be required.

The massive per-game roster bonuses in Chase’s contract would be a deal breaker. Burrow doesn’t have any per-game roster bonuses in his contract despite missing the last six games of his rookie season in 2021 because of a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee. Chase has missed the same amount of games in his entire four-year NFL career. 

Cincinnati has been structuring contracts with option bonuses recently. It really wouldn’t make a lot of sense to go this route if the signing bonus and option bonus contract model wasn’t used. A single option bonus like in Wilson’s deal would be sufficient. The option bonus in the second year (2026) would also have to be pretty significant so the additional proration would help act as a deterrent against getting released early.

The breakdown of Chase’s unsecured contract would be as follows: 

• Length: 4-year extension
• Average yearly salary: $40.25 million
• New money total: $161 million ($182.816 million over 5 years)
• Overall contract guarantees: $60 million
• Fully guaranteed at signing: $60 million 
• Existing year (2025): $39.5 million (24.53%)
• First new year (2026): $78.5 million (48.76%)
• First two new years (2027): $102.5 million (64.29%)
• First three new years (2028): $129 million (80.12%)

The $60 million 2025 roster bonus would be prorated at $12 million annually through 2029. There would be $61.316 million of total cash in the first year since Chase’s 2025 base salary would be $1.316 million. 

Hitting certain cash benchmarks throughout the deal would be important. The first one would be $100 million in the first two contract years running through 2026. Having $39 million in 2026 would accomplish this. There would be $100.316 million in the first two years. The other benchmarks would be $125 million and $150 million in cash, respectively, after the third and fourth contract years.

Out of the $39 million in 2026, $35 million would be an option bonus prorated at $8.75 million from 2026 through 2029. The window to exercise the option for Chase’s 2029 contract year worth $32 million would be the first 10 days of the 2026 league year as in his actual contract. 

Chase would be vulnerable to being released until the option was exercised since his 2026 base salary isn’t guaranteed. If for some strange reason Chase was released prior to the option year being picked up, he would have $39.5 million of new money without playing any of the new contract years. He would need to sign a four-year deal worth $122.5 million in 2026, averaging $30.625 million per year, to break even with the extension.

After the option is exercised, 2028 would be first year where the dead money, a salary cap charge for a player who is no longer on a team’s roster, is less than Chase’s cap number. Since Chase would be making $25 million in 2027, his cap number would be $45.75 million because of $12 million in roster bonus proration and $8.75 million in option bonus proration. There would be a $62.25 million cap charge associated with releasing Chase for a $16.5 million difference in his cap number and the dead money. 

Chase’s aggressive cash flow wouldn’t be unprecedented for a four-year contract extension that set a positional market. The top cash-flow percentages for a non-quarterback in recent years came from the four-year, $69 million extension, averaging $17.25 million per year, Tre’Davious White signed with the Buffalo Bills in 2020 to briefly become the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback. 

T.J. Watt’s four-year, $112.011 million extension from the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2021 that made him the NFL’s highest-paid edge rusher as well as non-quarterback at $28,002,750 per year is also noteworthy. The Steelers had refused to have traditional salary guarantees in veteran contracts until giving Watt $80 million fully guaranteed at signing, which was a record for non-quarterbacks at the time.

The cash-flow percentages for Watt, White and the unsecured Chase deal are in the chart below.

The Bengals would be the party with more of a sense of urgency to get a deal done sooner rather than later. Patience would have been Chase’s friend because of Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin going on the record at the NFL Scouting Combine in late February about Chase becoming the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback. If it meant an agreement wouldn’t be reached until right before the start of regular season as in Burrow’s case, then so be it. 

By the time the regular season starts, Chase probably won’t be at the top of the NFL non-quarterback salary hierarchy. Edge rushers Micah Parsons and Watt are in contract years with the Dallas Cowboys and the Steelers.

Cincinnati’s feet could have been held to fire with established team precedents for four-year deals until there were the right circumstances. The cash-flow difference in Chase’s actual contract and the proposed unsecured deal is quite dramatic. The cumulative new money after each year is below.

That’s the price that would have to be paid for the Bengals to be able to remain in the dark ages for the foreseeable future when it comes to structuring contracts for veteran players. Without Chase and Higgins getting traditional contract guarantees, the extension that’s reportedly being discussed for 2024 NFL sack leader Trey Hendrickson wouldn’t have any chance of security like in the wide receivers’ contracts.