Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase (1) and wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) grab their helmets for a drive in the second quarter of the NFL Week 3 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Washington Commanders at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024.

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Bengals Extend Chase and Higgins With Record Deals, but What About Their Defensive Woes?

Chase and Higgins get their extensions, but at what cost?

Following a lot of speculation, negotiations, and uncertainties, the Cincinnati Bengals have finally honored quarterback Joe Burrow’s desire to keep both his favorite targets on the team for the foreseeable future. Recent news from Cincinnati is that the Bengals have agreed to terms with not one, but both of their wide receivers while making them the highest-earning WR1 and WR2 in the process.

Bengal’s top wideout and Burrows’ teammate from their LSU days, Ja’Marr Chase has signed a record-breaking 4-year extension worth $161 million, out of which $112 million is guaranteed. This massive contract means he is now the highest-earning non-quarterback with an average yearly salary of $40.25 million, just edging out Brown’s defensive end Myles Garrett who signed a 4-year deal worth $160 million recently.

True to their word of making Chase the highest-earning non-quarterback, the Bengals have put all their eggs in the basket labeled ‘Offense’. With that said, we come to Tee Higgins, wide receiver 2 for the Bengals. Cincinnati got his extension done on the same day as Chase and he has signed his 4-year deal which is worth about $115 million. Higgins has 2 years of his deal as guaranteed, and he will be earning around $28.75 million a year.

NFL history: The Bengals have agreed to record deals making Ja’Marr Chase the highest-paid non-QB and Tee Higgins the highest-paid WR2 in the league, per sources. The deals were in place all weekend and Higgins announced the agreement.

🏈Ja’Marr Chase agreed to a 4-year, $161… pic.twitter.com/97wXgMFOHp
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 17, 2025

What Impact Will These Extensions Have on Cincinnati?

Keeping with the offense, these long-term extensions for both Chase and Higgins likely mean that Cincinnati will be a consistently high-scoring team. A healthy Burrow under center throwing balls to this pair of receivers and returning tight end Mike Giseki, means the offense should remain as a high-flying unit capable of putting up a lot of points more often than not.

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The flip side to this is with Higgins and Chase accounting for nearly $69 million a year between just the two of them, and with Burrow’s salary accounting for roughly $55 million per year, a lot of money has been locked into their top three offensive players. That has left very little room to grow a defense capable of winning a Championship.

Star defensive end Try Hendrickson is also in line for a new deal. The top quality edge rusher has 35 sacks over the past two seasons which is the most for any player in the league. With 17.5 sacks last season, he led the league and now wants a deal that will put him on par with the other big players at his position. Cincinnati has given him the green signal to seek a trade, although their priority will remain on signing an extension.

Bengals’ Defensive Woes

Apart from Hendrickson who had a monstrous season yet again in 2024, the Bengals’ overall performance on the defensive side of the ball was abysmal. They ranked near the bottom of most major defensive categories and had it not been for their high-powered offense, they may have finished with much less than their 9 wins last season.

Last season, Cincinnati averaged 348.8 yards per game on defense which put them in 25th place in the league. They also allowed 25.5 points per game, which was again 25th in the league. Their 223.47 passing yards per game ranked 21st in the league while their 124.82 rushing yards per game was 19th. As far as sacks are concerned, while Hendrickson was on cue for the season, Cincinnati as a team had just 36 sacks placing them once again in the the 25th spot. Moreover, they were atrocious in the red zone as well ranking 30th in the league allowing a red zone touchdown rate of 67.9%.

Overall, the Ohio-based franchise needs to find solutions on defense and while the draft could be one way of solving the problem, these massive wide receiver contracts may end up hurting them in the long run.

Cincinnati Bengals

Ja’Marr Chase

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Tee Higgins

Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!