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Jeremy Fowler
The Cincinnati Bengals hope to achieve an ambitious and expensive low season.
The team will try to ensure a trio of stars that need new agreements, wide receptors J’Mar Chase and Tee Higgins and the Defensive Wing Trey Hendrickson, in the long term, sources told ESPN.
If Cincinnati can achieve this, it is still uncertain, but the messaging of the team behind the scene is that it will certainly try.
That begins with Higgins, who is ready to achieve free agency on March 12. A equipment source says they believe that the Bengals will use the franchise label in Higgins if a long -term agreement is not reached in the label deadline of March 4 “to have time to make a deal.
Sports Illustrated reported on Monday that Cincinnati planned to put the label non -exclusive in Higgins. This would give the team and the player until July 15 to negotiate a long -term agreement, and if an agreement is not reached, Higgins would play with a salary of $ 26.17 million by 2025. Higgins played under a franchise label of $ 21.8 million in 2024, and a second label, in this case, triggers a 20% increase in the previous payment.
Chase, which comes from a triple crown season for most receptor yards (1,708), TouchDowns (17) and receptions (127), will seek to be the best widely paid wide receiver in the NFL, possibly by a wide margin. And Hendrickson has consecutive years of 17.5 captures, leading the league in 2024, at a time when Elite Pass corridors are earning more than $ 30 million per year. The fast -growing passes market could also cause a commercial movement around the league, especially if the Cleveland Browns entertain the wishes of Myles Garrett to play for a new team.
Field Marshal Joe Burrow has expressed this low season by wanting the Bengals to spend to keep their three teammates of the stars. In an extended interview with the “Pardon My Take” podcast that was launched last Wednesday, Burrow was asked to describe how its extent of the contract of five years and $ 275 million signed in 2023 could be altered and help to give flexibility to THE SALARY CAP BEANGLES.
“You could turn part of the money into a signature bonus, which will reduce the coup of the lid,” said Burrow. “It can take part of the money at the end of the contract. That reduces the cover of the lid. And then, when it reaches the end of the contract, it can restructure it and turn it into a signature bonus. It can also only take less money.”
Later in the interview, Burrow said that most players simply turn money into a signature bonus, a method that said he was willing to follow.
Ben Baby from ESPN contributed to this report.
